Price of Smiles

Director- Toshimasa Suzuki


Cast- Various

Country of Origin- Japan

Distributor - Sentai Filmworks

Number of Discs - 2

Reviewed by - Scott MacDonald

Date- 02/03/2020

    The Price of Smiles, I feel could go 2 ways with me on future re-watches (And yes I feel this one deserves at least one rewatch after some time has passed). It will either prove to be a surface level affair, entertaining, and passable, or prove its depth, and worth to the genre it inhabits.  The series follows 2 warring factions, and 2 people involved in those factions. We have a 2 year old Princess Yuki who is entertained by Royal Handlers all day at the seat of her Kingdom, Soleil. They do not want to bring the darkness of the impending war to her, but it is indeed coming. Then there is s soldier, Stella from the Grandiga Empire.  She has already lost her parents, and lives in the darkness of the war. She smiles even in the most inopportune times.

    The show is basically a treatise on the ugliness of war. About those awful decisions that have to be made in the context of conflict.   It appears to have a true philosophical feeling to the conversations taken during the run time, and thus the show feels character and emotional driven then purely action driven though there is action and violence throughout. This is why I feel the show necessitates a rewatch after sometime. Like a Ghost in the Shell, I want to go back and see if the philosophy and emotions equal something more than just surface talk.

    The animation here is quite solid, nothing mind-blowing, but effective. It is all presented on the industry standard 1:78:1 1080p AVC encoded Blu-ray, everything looks solid, and without issue. The only audio track is Japanese, but it sounds crisp, clear, and without issue. Extras are the typical clean opening, and closing.