English Dub Review: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle “Sleeping Princess of the Demon Castle”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Demon King and his posse are dismayed when they learn that Princess Syalis is in the midst of writing a letter to Santa asking to return home, but they are quickly reassured by the princess that it’s only because she has a special pair of Christmas underpants that she wants to retrieve.

The Demon King agrees to escort her back to the human palace, where she immediately falls asleep and a succubus gets mistaken for the princess returned home. In the end, Syalis sets things right and chooses to return to the demon realm with her newfound captors/friends.

Our Take:

It’s the twelve and final episode of Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, and the show’s staff decided to go out with a bit of a bang. This episode really is fairly out of the ordinary, as Syalis manages to get the Demon King to let her return home to the human world and they get bogged down in complications that allow Syalis the chance to escape from her kidnappers — if she had wanted.

The whole thing starts out innocent enough, with Syalis being allowed to return to her room back home to get Christmas underwear for some reason. It’s definitely a dumb thing to do, but we all know the Demon King is rather clueless at this point, and a big pushover when it comes to his princess prisoner. Upon their return, the princess instantly falls asleep on her bed, and one begins to wonder if this was her plan to escape all along.

Queen Gooderest (what a name) comes along and the Demon King and the priest have to pull a fast one by switching out the sleeping Syalis with a succubus. The queen doesn’t seem to notice, and instead proclaims to the kingdom that Syalis has returned! It causes the demons back home to freak out, as they don’t want their favorite mischievous malcontent to abandon them now.

In the end, however, Syalis decides that it’s up to her to make things right, and she gives a little speech about how demons and humans can get along — before staging her own kidnapping in order to return back to the Demon Castle. I’m glad that she got to have the last word in this way, but it kind of undercut the message to have her be kidnaped again. I think it would’ve been much more satisfying to see the real Syalis telling her people about the demon realm and then going voluntarily in the eyes of the public.

I had some doubts about whether this series could pull of a proper finale, but Sleeping Princess of the Demon Castle did a pretty swell job all things considered. It wasn’t anything too deep or hilarious, but the episode had a few solid laughs and also did enough new things to keep it fresh while resetting everything back to the way it was at the beginning. Syalis may still be a ‘prisoner’ in the demon realm, but at least we know she’s happy. And still sleepy.