I decided to watch episode 1 of this on a whim the other day. Here is what I think of it.
The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King bears an ideology that is so nakedly reactionary that it feels like a sermon written by tradcaths. Beneath a bunch of typically generic fantasy slop of swords, monsters, and poorly written political intrigue lies a relentless message: being an independent woman is wrong, ambitious women will become unhappy, and a strong woman will ultimately fail and be conquered for her own good. That sounded like AI but I promise I'm just a shit writer.
The episode begins with the strong warrior princess in chains and captivity before a cliche flashback to how she got here.
Immediately losing a battle with her entire army vs "barbarians" (the neighbouring territory). Upon losing the leader determines she is hot and therefore he will take her as his wife.
She is treated nicely by this "barbarian" in captivity for the rest of the episode, but is ultimately set to become his wife. We're also treated to several flashbacks of her time at a dinner party at the kingdom where dozens of people both men and women alike told her she should just know her place as a woman and shouldn't risk her life fighting.
The episode is clearly a setup to her falling for the barbarian and learning "her place" over time. That essentially everyone around her was correct all along but they were mean about it.
1/10, strongest right wing ideology I've ever seen in an episode 1, the clear message being "girl boss bad" and "must learn her place at hands of a real man". Beats Shield Hero for me.
Hate this shit. I will not watch anything else to determine where it goes but I'm basically certain that she will slowly fall for this big manly barbarian and learn her place as a woman.
EDIT: Oh yeah this shit is on Crunchyroll too so millions of kids are probably being filled with this shit.
If you need to wash your brain out, Torture Princess actually subverts the captured warrior woman trope.
spoiler
Because even if Hime is the commander of the third legion of the kingdom, she's never portrayed as bad at being a warrior. It's that no amount of warrior woman training can prepare you for the deliciousness of late night curry.if that changes things
Ep 4 which i just watched has them VERY EXPLICITLY STATE that actually the guy didn't even beat her. He isn't even on her level, he only won because of better stamina and a materials advantage in equipment that let him break her weapon. It's pointed out word for word and the guy apologizes and it's stated he wouldn't necessarily win a round 2 even if he used his magical Protagonist PowerIdk i think as of ep 5 at the end of the day there are good bits to the show but whether that makes it worth watching depends on how you feel about the bar for "good anime" being in hell
At this point I'm mostly watching to see
spoiler
how they're gonna square the circle with helping back home. Like if she goes back alone and starts telling people the truth her gov is gonna kill her. So is she gonna need a show of force or what? Or was that all just a way of writing in some resistance on her part, that will get a abandoned? Pretty much waiting to see how the story handles all that.Also, I would like to note that at no point did I ever try to deny that it's the writer's barely disguised fetish. Just saying.