English Dub Review: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle “The Princess and the Frightful Demon Nightmare”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Dawner the Hero continues his trek toward saving his princess. Meanwhile, back at the Demon Castle, Princess Syalis interrupts an important meeting to share about her haunted dreams, which involve Dawner himself.

Later on, Princess Syalis undergoes an awkward dental surgery and then gets improperly blamed when the Fire Venom Dragon is beaten in a fight against the Hero.

Our Take:

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle has toyed with playing with how it presents itself in the past, but this week’s episode might be one of the more unique outings yet in a show that is very good at sticking with its schtick. There’s not a single sleep-related quest to be found in The Princess and the Frightful Demon Nightmare, and that makes for a refreshing episode.

It starts out by revisiting Dawner the Hero, something I always appreciate due to how it gets us outside the walls of the Demon Castle, at least for a bit. This time around, Dawner plays a large role in the episode, but not always in the present or in reality. You see, the Princess gets woken up and goes to tell the Demon King’s council about this weird dream she had. It’s a fun segment that really emphasizes how little Syalis cares about her hero, declaring him to be a nonentity who is not at all memorable. She can’t even recall his name!

It’s pretty funny to see this brought up, and it even gives a small clue for those of us who want to read in to the Princesses backstory. She mentions that Dawner is a fiancee forced upon her by her parents — perhaps that might be one of the reasons why she isn’t eager to return to her homeland? Nah, it’s just that she’s a selfish little sleeper. But still!

Rounding out the episode are sequences showing off Syalis’ dental work, which involves a joke about how her one complex is because her tongue is too short, and an overly long plot in which the Fire Venom Dragon blames all the things that led to a recent loss to the Hero on Syalis, when in reality each one was committed by a different member of the Demon King’s council. These two storylines both break up the normal format, but neither one is especially funny, and the latter drags on waaaay too long for my liking.

Despite the episode pestering out by the end, I did enjoy the opening segment more so than usual. Sleepy Princess may have a few tricks left up its sleeves after all! Now if only the show will stay alert next week instead of drifting back to its standard monotony slumber.