Petite Princess Yucie

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Elmina, Cocoloo, Yucie, Glenda, and Beth

I'm not a little girl!!

From Studio Gainax, based on their Princess Maker videogame series, comes this sweet and hilarious Shoujo story: A retired knight named Gunbard finds a baby girl in an abandoned battlefield and adopts her. As time passes, it becomes apparent that Yucie can't grow anymore… the reason being a mystery.

One day, a light from the royal castle calls upon her. Sneaking in the highest tower, Yucie finds the thing that spoke-The Eternal Tiara, an artifact so powerful it can grant any wish. The Queen arrives and warns Yucie that the Tiara can only be used by someone the jewel chooses, and that using it now could kill her.

Yucie enrolls in a 'princess school' regimented by Queen Ercell in order to make herself worthy of the Tiara so she can wish her curse away. Soon more characters appear. More girls with the same curse as her... and without as many qualms about getting the prize as her.

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Tropes within:

• Aerith and Bob: Yucie, Cocoloo, Elmina, Glenda, and Beth. I've said enough.
• Alpha Bitch: Glenda, at first.
• Art Shift: some episodes are much more cartoony and choppy than others.
• Artifact of Doom: the Eternal Tiara.
• Badass Princess: Glenda's magic is awesome, Elmina is physically stronger than average… and Beth has her ninja tricks.
  • Little Miss Badass
  • Badass Adorable
• Balloon Belly: Yucie in episode 1.
• Battle Butler: He doesn't battle, but Cube aids Yucie in any way he is able, calling into a cartain service to provide items needed for the situation. Later, more fight-savvy battle butlers appear.
• Bare Your Midriff: Cocoloo and Beth.
• Beach Episode: with a surprise at the end.
• Because Destiny Says So: the Eternal Tiara's dark secret…
• Big Brother Complex: Arc, towards Yucie.
• Bokukko: Beth, using the even more masculine form ore.
  • Cocoloo initially thought Beth was a boy.
• Bumbling Dad: Gunbard, but he can be serious when needed.
  • Also Glenda's dad, much to her embarrassment.
• Catch Phrase:
  • Cocoloo: I guess I don't have much presence.
  • Principal/Queen Ercell: Didn't I tell you?
  • Glenda: ...Princess of the Demon World with elegant beauty and fantastic magical powers.
  • Yucie: I'm an adult./I'm not a brat.
• Cats Are Mean: In one episode, Glenda, princess of the Demon Realm, has to fight Cait Sith, an evil cat attacking her realm and turning everyone there into cats.
  • Then again, if this Cait Sith is the same one as the one in the Final Fantasy series, it's actually a Japanese interpretation of a Celtic mythological character.
• Catgirl: Yucie wears a cat suit for a festival.
  • Also, the episode where Yucie is turned into a literal cat.
• Character Development: Present for all the girls as they grow closer, but especially Glenda and Beth.
• Character Focus: Some episodes give the spotlight to one of the girls.
• Cleavage Window: Glenda
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: The Crystal Flowers correspond to the five worlds, the five gems of the Tiara, and the attributes needed to possess them. Orange stands for the Human World and kindness, red is for the Demon World and friendship, pink is for Heaven and strength, green is for the Fairy World and trust, and blue is for the Spirit World and honesty. Yellow is for the Magic World and love.
• The Comically Serious: Elmina
• Corner of Woe: The ghost girl Cocoloo always feels ignored by her other, noisier classmates.
• Cute Demon Girl: Glenda
• Cute Ghost Girl: Cocoloo
• Cute Witch
• Dark Magical Girl: Glenda
• Dark Is Not Evil: Glenda's father the Demon King is a Bumbling Dad much to her ire.
• Dark-Skinned Redhead: Glenda. Well, Purplehead.
• A Day in the Limelight: The girls' butlers go on a mini-adventure to cure one of them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Elmina, eventually.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Beth. Elmina too, to some extent.
• Do-Anything Robot: Elmina's robot butler Barizan.
• Does Not Like Men: Glenda, after a certain episode.
  • More like she doesn't like frogs and people who use magic to change their appearance.
• Emotionless Girl: Elmina.
  • She does cry when she reads the letter from Rockwell's daughter.
• Everything's Better with Princesses
• Evolving Credits: Initially only Yucie appears in the ending sequence, later all five main girls appear together.
• Expy: Yucie, Ercell, and Maga Selent are based on the princesses of Princess Maker 3, 2, and 1, respectively.
• Eyes Always Shut: Gunbard.
• Fangs Are Evil/Cute Little Fang: Glenda sometimes has one.
• Fantastic Voyage: Cube, Chawoo, and Gaga shrink down to enter Balizan to cure him.
• Festival Episode: The girls go to the Harvest Festival.
• Fetch Quest: The Eternal Tiara's five later six pieces.
  • Also the Crystal Flowers.
• First Kiss: Yucie gets hers from Arc.
• Five Races: Humans, Demons (Stout), Angels (Fairy), Ghost (High-Men) and Fairies (Cute). The final episodes showed that there was a sixth world, the Magic World.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Heaven, obviously.
• Forehead of Doom: Yucie. This becomes a Running Gag.
• Gainax Ending: Inverted, thought the series IS made by Gainax.
• The Ghost: Cocoloo's dad. Also literally.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The Crystal Flowers. The open the way for the final test.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Gunbard never told Yucie that he put together the Eternal Tiara.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Gunbard for Ercell
• Hime Cut: Elmina and Glenda
• Hot Dad: Gunbard, personality-wise anyways.
  • How about Beth's dad? when he's not a tree, anyway…
• Hot Mom: Ercell
• Hyperspace Mallet: Cube's (Yucie's 'butler') hyperspace.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Elmina the Heaven's princess is very skilled with bladed weapons.
  • Yucie also suddenly appears to be very good at sword-fighting, even though she isn't even shown holding a sword before.
    • One earlier episode showed her and Glenda practicing.
• Indirect Kiss: Played with: Arc kisses Yucie when he just met her… on the forehead.
• Invisible to Normals: Cocoloo's butler is a ghost, and the cast can't see him until he wants them to, midway through the series.
  • Also the other ghosts as well. Although after obtaining the Crystal Flower from that world, they become visible. And apparently look no different from humans.
• Jumped At the Call
• Knight in Shining Armor: Arc acted as such for Yucie once.
• Kuudere: Elmina
• Light Is Not Good: Elmina's dad, the King of Heaven tends to be a Jerkass.
• Loners Are Freaks: Beth only seems like this.
• Love At First Sight: Glenda for Amphi. Lampshaded.
• Luminescent Blush: Occurs multiple times.
• MacGuffin: the Crystal Flowers.
• Magical Girl Queenliness Test: The trials for becoming the Platinum Princess.
• Magic Skirt: Even more amazing if you consider their shape.
• Meganekko: Cocoloo.
  • The other girls become this in their library uniforms.
• Missing Mom: Glenda's mom abandoned her father because of his goofiness. Also none of the other mother have been seen either.
• Modest Royalty: The students at the princess academy. Apparently it's a requirement.
• Mr. Exposition: Inverted in Queen Ercell. She thinks many things are of common knowledge, therefore she doesn't elaborate on them.

Queen Ercell: "What? Didn't I tell you?"

• Naked First Impression: Inverted: Arc was the one naked, Yucie realizes it… then blushes and recoils in embarrassment.
• Ninja: Beth fights much like one.
• Ninja Butterfly: Beth's stewardess, ironically.
• Non-Action Guy: Cube, again.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: And how?
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The first thing Glenda did when meeting Elmina was challenging her.
• Older Than They Look: The main cast is 17 but look 10.
• Our Monsters Are Different
  • Our Angels Are Different: They got robots as butlers, and they are usually perfectionists: Succeed or Fail. There is no 'try' for them.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Their king is a bumbling buffoon and isn't even close to menacing.
  • Our Dragons Are Different
  • Our Fairies Are Different
  • Our Spirits Are Different
• Parental Abandonment: Not as much abandonment as 'if you are not the best perfect, you aren't worthy of being called MY daughter' for Elmina.
• Pet the Dog: Beth doesn't seem to be an overly sympathetic character—until you find out how she lets her fairy assistant spend the night.
• Pimped-Out Dress: With all the queens, princesses, and noble ladies, these of course show up a lot.
• The Power of Friendship
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Yucie's princess fantasies involve her in a pink dress (including a pink Fairytale Wedding Dress). She actually wears one when she is crowned the Platinum Princess.
• Rags to Royalty: Yucie. She's actually the princess of the human world.
• The Rival: what was said about Glenda and Elmina, and to a lesser degree, Glenda and Yucie have a rival-like relationship.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Ercell is the principal of the academy.
• Running Gag: Arc calling Yucie 'forehead', Cocoloo not having much of a presence, Glenda's catch phrase, as well as others.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Elmina's library uniform evokes this once.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Diabolos
• Sentai: The girls act out this trope near the end. If one looks carefully, there is a color scheme of yellow, blue, red, pink, and green, just like some Super Sentai (and Power Rangers) series.
• Sequel Hook: The ending has all the lead girls inexplicably attend the Princess Academy once more, even though they all graduated already. Yucie also seems to be no different as a Platinum Princess. But it's especially clear that a sequel was planned when all the girls shout "see you again" in the last shot. This was in 2003 and there still is no sequel in sight.
• Shape Shifter: Cocoloo's butler Chawoo can do it… and pose as her.
  • Also Belbel can transform into
• Short Tank: Beth.
• Showgirl Skirt: Glenda in a fantasy sequence.
• Spoiler Opening: all five main princesses-to-be show up there.
• Squeaky Eyes: Yucie especially.
• Stripperiffic: Glenda's outfit in her homeworld.
  • Beth's tight tank top and short shorts have some of this as well.
• To Be a Master: The premise of the show is supposed to be a competition to find the girl who will become the next Platinum Princess.
• Transformation Sequence: Glenda does a magical-girl powering up sequence in some episodes.
  • The other girls have a simple one for when they use their gems to change outfits.
• The World Tree: appears in the Fairy World.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Beth and her 'servant' Belbel.
• True Companions: In the end, the girls care more for each other than for some stupid magic trinket.
• Verbal Tic: Beth's assistant Belbel uses the classic "desu" sentence end-er. In the English dub it's "yes".
  • The gate to the Princess Academy ends its sentences with the English word 'gate'.
  • Cats in the Demon World talk but frequently end sentences with the word 'nya' (meow), while the dog like kobolds use 'woof'.
• Well Done Daughter, Gal: Elmina wants to be this.
• Winged Humanoid: Elmina. She is Heaven's princess, thus looks like an angel.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Maga Selent, shown to be cold and villainous, is revealed in the last episode to be the lost princess of the Magic World who Refused the Call and watched her world suffer—when she finally became the Platinum Princess, her friends disappeared pointlessly as the destruction was too much to stop.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Not only do the girls have fans, said fans think the girls' pendants are well-made replicas.
• Zettai Ryouiki: The standard uniform for the Princess Academy is an A Grade, though some of the girls don't wear the standard, and given the characters, it hardly qualifies as Fan Service.