English Dub Season Review: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s a sunny day in the kingdom of Gooderest — until something terrible happens! Syalis, the princess of the kingdom, is kidnapped by the Demon King and taken to the demon realm. The kingdom is in an uproar, with humans vowing vengeance on the ferocious king of demons. A hero sets off to get her back, but runs into many obstacles along the way.

Meanwhile, at the Demon Castle, the princess makes herself right at home. She may be cooped up in the dungeon, but that doesn’t last long as all of the demons are pansies who let her walk all over them. As for Syalis herself, she only cares about getting a good night’s rest and starts amassing a large quantity of sleep aiding items. Though a prisoner at first, she quickly acclimates to the demon realm and in the end, decides she just might be better off there.

Our Take:

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is the kind of show that tells you exactly what it is in the title. It’s not subtle, it isn’t surprising, and there are hardly any twists or turns to speak of. Instead of a plot, this is a show that’s more like a series of gags that all revolve around the same topic: Princess Syalis’s quest to obtain the best sleep possible.

If you’re thinking that there’s bound to be more to it than that, you’re sorely mistaken. Sure, there are a few minor detours here and there, along with the bare minimum of political backstory that quickly lays out the troubled history of the relationship between demons and humans, but aside from all that, Sleepy Princess is almost 100% just gags about how the princess is a little gremlin who will stop at nothing to accomplish her selfish goals. How entertaining that will be depends on your personal taste, but for me, I found the show got stale pretty fast.

For most of the first half of the season, it’s like the show is telling the same basic joke over and over. Syalis sets her mind on some dangerous demon item, like an ancient book or a deadly weapon, and proceeds to obtain it by outwitting the dimwitted demon guards and then destroying the valuable demonic object by turning it into something that will aid her sleep. That’s basically 75% of the screen time, at least during the first six or so episodes.

In the latter half of the show, Sleepy Princess shakes things up a bit with episodes where the princess visits the human realm or gets kidnapped again by the Demon King’s political rival. There’s just enough new stuff to keep viewers from clicking away, but most of the jokes still revolve around Syalis being sleepy and everyone around her being a) dumb, b) a pushover, or c) both. There’s really no character development to speak of: the demons pretty much love the princess from the start and she’s a one note personality all the way through.

The dub is solid enough, however. Kira Buckland is definitely the standout here. Her performance as Princess Syalis has perfect amounts of sleepiness and sassiness, and really help elevate the character from a selfish jerk to someone with a bit of a heart. I’m less enthusiastic about the supporting cast, but they’re not bad. None of them sound quite demonic enough for me, although perhaps that just plays into the joke of Sleepy Princess being such a low-key series.

After watching twelve episodes of Syalis falling asleep again and again, I probably wouldn’t recommend the series to most people. Its characters are all pretty bland, there’s not really a storyline to speak of, and it’s just not quite funny enough to make up for those two flaws. Mostly it’s just a little boring. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle may star a princess who’s always falling asleep, but unfortunately I think most audience members might beat her to it.