Egao no Daika 392b5f

Egao no Daika is the most slept on show of the Winter 2019 anime season. This doesn't mean it's a masterpiece or anything, but I think this show has unjustly fallen under the radar of most of the anime community. This means it either has gone completely unnoticed by a majority of the anime community, and the few people that did watch it sell it far too short. I definitely believe this show should be given a chance by many anime viewers and I'm going to tell you why.

Egao no Daika is set in the future on another planet, where the population of planet ... Earth has already ruined the environment and moved on to find another planet to inhabit. The story revolves around two girls, Princess Yuuki Soleil of the Soleil Kingdom and Stella of the Grandiga Empire. Yuuki and Stella, though they come from different backgrounds and answer to different governments, have more in common than just meets the eye. The story follows both of their perspectives throughout a war between the Kingdom of Soleil and the Grandiga Empire, which is one of the show's main plot points. I'm just going to leave the setting at that without spoiling much else, since it'll be better for you to watch for yourself.

What makes the show interesting is how the story unfolds very personally for each of the characters. Many times an episode may start with something that is out of context (and many times even out of chronological order), but the show drops enough clues for viewers to piece together the context, and doing so is often very rewarding in that it leads to organic character development for the cast. While the characters and the story writing aren't the best I've ever seen, they need to be given much more credit than what the ratings on MAL and what the anime community indicates.

The show's portrayal of war is also very intriguing since it shows off the ugliness of the front lines along with the challenges of making the big decisions in the safe (yet comparably stressful) command room. One of Egao no Daika's biggest strengths is opening up an intelligent discourse on the human condition. Especially when it comes to war, it often tries to digest thought-provoking topics when exploring the motivations of front line soldiers that are only pawns in the war, or when a leader needs to weigh their personal ideology against the greater good. The show often calls into question and really evaluates what the greater good should even entail. While Egao no Daika definitely doesn't have the philosophical clout that some other more well-known shows have, what it brings to the table isn't just ideological mumbo-jumbo that some people unfortunately misunderstood it as.

Overall, Egao no Daika is a character driven show that explores intricacies of the human condition using the setting of futuristic war. Futuristic war entails mechs and mecha fights, but you definitely don't need to be a hardcore mecha fan to enjoy the show. I think that at its core, Egao the Daika still tells a character driven narrative that touches over some philosophical questions. If you at all enjoy shows that have very human dialogue and characters or thought-provoking thematic elements, Egao no Daika should be right up your alley. The animation quality and some of the action sequences are already enough to carry the show as is, but the direction of the narrative and the thematic elements posed by the show definitely place it several tiers above your average seasonal rando show. As an anime original production with no source material, Egao no Daika deserves to be recognized for that.

P.S. If you've played Xenoblade Chronicles X, Egao no Daika's setting, characters, and thematic elements are all strikingly similar. Xenoblade Chronicles X is by the far the most slept on Xenoblade Chronicles game that falls under the radar of most of the Xenoblade community. Xenoblade Chronicles X is also my favorite Xenoblade, nay, favorite game of all time. Seeing the parallels between Egao no Daika and Xenoblade Chronicles X (both in their thematic elements and how they're getting largely ignored by their respective communities) is what gave birth to this particular review. I continue to defend Xenoblade Chronicles X from the haters that misunderstand it and didn't even play it, and I'll continue to advocate for Egao no Daika as one of the most underrated shows of the Winter 2019 anime season. Anything is possible with ion and will!

I will write a short temporary review to let some few of you know why it might be worth your time trying to watch this anime.

You all know the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover". That's Egao no Daika.
Give it at least the 3 episodes rules.

I don't think this series is worth watching for the art, nor for the animation, nor for the character design,nor for the mecha tag, no, what makes this anime stands out is the narrative. When you look at the poster, when you only watch the first episode, when you see this naive 12 years old princess as ... main character, when you hear her best friend saying to her "I will protect you" you have the feeling you've already seen it hundred times and you already know more or less the story. It looks like something written for 8 to 15years old kids ...

but ...

the narrative is more like one of a seinen, something written for young adults above 20 who already watched too many animes and know all the tropes.

So far (4th episode) this series is one of these UFOs in the anime world. You get one of the "heroine" who looks like she comes from one of those idol shows and they put her in a somewhat mature story where many shounen tropes are destroyed by the narrative. It is surely exaggerated to say this anime is what would come if "legends of the galactic heroes" and "Madoka Magica" had a baby but at least you can have a gist of the direction and influences, maybe.

To me, science fiction and is a genre that has been somewhat underappreciated in our generation. It feels like many shows are treated as ticking time bombs that starts off with promise but eventually degenerates into a dumpster fire. Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) is an anime project serving as a celebration of Tatsunoko Production’s 55th anniversary. To celebrate, I should say The Price of Smiles should try to stand out as a show of its own and not be a clone of other similar popular works. What do we really get?

First impressions are important and with no doubt, war themes makes an ... impact. It also gives off a political war feel with the conflicting nations, ideal clashes, and world building. We meet Yuuki Soleil, the 12 year old princess of the Kingdom of Soleli. Having lost her parents at such a young age, the show puts her character into the shoes of a leader. Red flags show early on when I see Yuuki as a naïve child and incapable of leading her kingdom. It doesn’t take long to realize how oblivious she is to the state of war. This is a sharp contrast to Stella Shining, a fighter of the Imperial Army serving for the Grandiga Empire. As a war orphan, she exhibits quiet strength although is also known for her untimely smiles. The show chronicles both characters’ roles on opposite sides of the war.

But did this show really capitalize on its sci-fi war story? To an extent, it definitely does as we we’ll quickly realize the reality of war. Smiles are shattered when Yuuki sees bodies hit the floor. Death is a harsh reality and it’s a hard truth to bear. Episode 2 is an easy example when Yuuki realizes the death of a close friend. And she finds out in the most gruesome way possible. Make no mistake. If there’s an episode that features extended focus on a character other than Yuuki or Stella, you should expect a death flag raised and set sail. That is to say, I do appreciate the show making time to gives some characters a chance to tell their story such as Joshua, Pierce, and Layla. The more important focus however falls under the main characters especially Stella and Yuuki.

From the very first moment I laid my eyes on Stella, I knew there was something unusual about her presence. The easiest way to say it is that she smiles a lot. In fact, she smiles under different circumstances that even includes on the front lines of war. During one particular episode, she shows an unstable side of herself after expressing a disturbing smile upon completing a mission. While a smile is often represented as an expression of joy and happiness, Stella’s smile instills an ominous feeling. It doesn’t also help that she is willing to kill children including Yuuki for her nation. Still, I do feel some sympathy for Stella after seeing her background story. Despite being an orphan, a family took her in and gave her love until they had a child of their own. From then on, her own world collapsed even more to the point where she abandoned her adoptive family. By the time we meet her in the present, she is considered “broken” as even stated by some of her comrades. However, the background storytelling about Yuuki is far less interesting, so much so that I don’t even feel it’s worth mentioning.

As a war driven show, there’s different elements that also includes politics. The Royal Order and Empire of Grandiga both adapts policies to maintain their existence. Even if needed to be, military dictatorship is used to maintain order. However, on the frontlines, there’s heavy emotions, bloodshed, and death. Stella’s squad undertakes the more direct frontline approach with their military expertise. Prominent includes Lily, Gale, Huey, Pierce, and Break. The show explores some character relationship dynamics, most noticeably between Lily and Stella. For Stella herself, she may also be capable of expressing genuine smiles. In other words, while she can be a cold blooded person on the battlefield, she is still human and capable of showing human emotions. On the other hand, the more I watched more of this show, I felt distanced from Yuuki.

I’ll be honest. Yuuki is by far the WORST part of the show.

She is not intelligent as a leader, naïve as a child, and incapable of being a realist in this war conflict. I cannot take Yuuki seriously at all with her overly dramatic screams and personality. To make matters worse, she often doesn’t learn anything and has to have her advisors do the work for her. Now given her age, some could argue that she is too young yet to be a leader. Well, I say otherwise. She could take the better initiative and even for her people. Instead, she gives the impression of a useless fool that others have to carry. Unlike Stella, her actions never speaks louder than her words and exposes the weakness of her character nearly every episode. By the time this show concluded, she became my very least favorite character. That being said though, Stella herself isn’t a very well written character either as she undergoes little development. Price of Smile seems to be more of an anime about showing rather than telling. The war speaks for itself and we can see the consequences of both sides. It’s not complicated to understand the story and to be honest, I don’t find it very well executed.

Created and produced by Tatsunoko Production, I could say this show is cool enough to be a science fiction war story. The mecha designs are distinctive enough to make an impact felt on the battleground. Meanwhile, characters on both sides are designed with military and political creativeness in mind. As one of the better executed part of the show, I would say the world building stands out for being able to craft these fictional worlds with complex systems and even technology. One of the key selling concept of the show is the smiles. The Price of Smiles, as they call it, is the title and we do get plentiful of that in different ways. On the other hand, I hate to bring this up again but Yuuki is really hard to take seriously when she shows emotions. It’s the typical scream of horror or anxiety you can picture from any war show.

The Price of Smiles. I don’t know if I should be smiling after completing this anime. It’s not too easy to recommend considering the length of its storytelling and lack of character development of the main leads. In truth, my feelings of this anime doesn’t change much from the first episode to the finale. It’s a mediocre mecha/sci-fi/war/drama story that did a lot of showing while failing to deliver a cast to .

Egao no Daika is an anime about this klutz loli princess who is ridiculously awkward and also 12, a dude who didn't make me question my sexuality but it's pretty clear he is questioning his with that fabulous hair, and a girl who wears glasses and has big boobs.

The series focuses on our trio (2 of the 3 to be precise) doing very important princess stuff like browsing tablets and making appearances on a public forum just to regret it 3 seconds later. Suddenly it's actually some type military mecha anime and I don't really know why, but apparently there are lots of political ... stuff going on and everything seems to go to shit because the country is ruled by 12 years-old loli UNTIL it actually turns the other way around since she is actually a born leader who can fix the world by making everyone smile.... Sounds smarter Death Note to me.

The story line is just hilarious and so are the characters. Random people criticize the loli princess for fucking shit up by saying something super neutral like "You didn't perhaps do the best job with this thing" and then this gender-knight quite literally goes "What the fuck did you just say to her majesty, you little shit? I will let you know..." etc. Basically goes full-rampage and declares he will murder everyone who says bad stuff about her lolisicions (like decisions but more loli) and then they fight with these huge mecha and start a war or something.... Amazing and epicasfuck. If this anime really wanted to make the whole planet smile then cross my name because it surely did its job for me.

The production is a bit weird. Occasionally it looks like the thing was solely made for ironic viewing and other times the mecha fights looks like it's actually trying to convince someone. As a whole, the animation is decent, same with overall art. Nothing really to complain there. Doesn't make the series better, but doesn't ruin it either. Tho best battle ship design from any anime ever. That type of stuff. The music is occasionally really wobby during action scenes which makes them less boring for sure and some of the half-comedic princess-like songs add to the entertainment value.

Kinda recommend this. Watch it for the lulz if you have a sense of humor or something. Works especially well as a parody of any political/military thriller show that took itself too seriously.

Is war really justified? Does human greed make up for the big mistakes humanity has done? Isn't there anything else we can do to avoid a major conflict? Many anime out there has touched the war topic trying to send a message to the viewer with its themes, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 comes to my mind as an example of what Egao no Daika might have been if things where handled better. And while Egao no Daika isn't bad, it still struggles with its theme that makes it look cheesy and minimized, yet, the message its still there.

Egao no Daika revolves around 2 different sides: ... Yuki Soleil's kingdom (which name I already forgot lol) and there's Stella's team, one of many squads of the army of Grandiga. The plot is pretty straight forward as it revolves about the kingdom of Grandiga who wants to get their hands on the new Chrars tech (or whatever that kind of mech is called) for themselves... I think. The reasons behind this are pretty vague as it is just there as a plot device, it isn't explored that much and it's there just for the sake to create a "war"

Yuki Soleil is a 12 year old girl who is a Princess which pretty much ignores war. Its was a matter of time until things didn't go her way, witnessing the crude reality of war after shit happened due to how oblivious she was. You can't really blame her as every single adult on this anime tried really hard to hide this reality from her, fooling her into thinking that everything is laughs and smiles and making dumb decisions that leads to her suffering. Yuki side of the story is pretty cheesy and childish, specially her idealistic world where there is no war, which is kinda impossible as we all know how human kind is after all.

On the other side, we have Stella's Squad, which takes the spotlight of this anime imo, as it has the strongest emotions and the best episodes of this anime. Stella is a blue haired girl that will smile no matter what as she was told that smiling would lead her anywhere. Kinda hard to do as war is her job and there's only suffering coming from it.

I really like that we have both sides of the stories on this "war", making you sympathize with each side in order to understand their point of view. It helps a lot on understanding what this anime tries to achieve and how the characters feels about it. That said, the message behind the story might be childish, yet, thing should be more this way.

Characters on this anime are far from perfect but they are good enough to carry this show, specially Stella's faction as it holds the best moments on this show, for example Stella's past which was really sad and most of her motivations to keep on living.

Animation is okay although it suffers a bit on latter episodes, but nothing that can make it unwatchable. It is good enough to tell a story visually. Ost on the other hand really caught me by surprise as it is really good and well placed among scenes that requires it.

Despite its looks, this anime is really entertaining and as long as you don't expect some stellar story telling you will have a good time with this anime. Definitely not as bad as it seems, still better than Domestic na Kanojo tho.

TLDR:
Story starts out slow and feels like a bunch of vanilla characters living in happy happy land.
Harshness of war is revealed, tragedies happen, pop-idol princess is forced to grow up, the story gets good.

While seemingly shallow at first, this anime gets really deep into the internal conflicts that arise within soldiers in a war-thorn situation. It asks questions such as what is "right"? and what is "wrong"? As the characters from both sides of the war are developed, you can't help but take a liking for characters of both sides. What once seemed like the enemy has been humanized by showing that the "bad guys" ... are also capable of being good people.

The anime makes good use of occasional comedy and slice of life moments to lift the tension of war and build the characters' relationship with each other.

One of my favorite things is how the anime delves in the backstory of the characters which reveals another dimension, making the characters fuller and relatable.

While some characters might come across as annoying or dull in the first 2-3 episodes, the anime does a good job on slowly building on them. The once annoying pop idol princess starts to take her role as a princess seriously and as her backstory is revealed, you can't help but want to cheer her on.

OP theme is awesome (majiko sings in it!)

Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) has to be one of my favorite anime of the winter 2019 season, not because it is a fantastic work with stunning visuals, a detail by detail plot and story, or flawless character creation and world building, but just because it's enjoyable, accurate to the subject, and there are clear developments that dont feel rushed along, as well, the name, The Price of Smiles, fits fantastically as the theme of the show.

The story told is about war, and it keeps the theme well, it doesn't sugar coat death, reason, or emotion, war is war and i felt that ... The Price of Smiles did a good job at telling it as such, people die, friends die, family will die, none of it gets skipped over, it shows that even the strongest people on the outside are harboring the same or greater pain than those around them who are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, our examples being the two main protagonists Stella and Princess Yuuki, respectively. The story progresses well and it shows war as it is, it's a horrible thing to witness and especially being thrust into it out of not even knowing there was a war, it will shake a person, that person being Princess Yuuki.

Overall i never noticed the art making any significant dips in quality, it was well animated and the backgrounds were also done well, it wasn't anything fantastically stunning save for a few moments to give a greater impact to the scene or action, an example being the Last Episode with the literal world spanning rainbow, there were nice touches throughout but nothing too worth note and very few small quality dips. I will say that the CGI and movement of the Mechs didn't look out of place or take away from the show at all and i was happy to see that.

The sound design and music also catch no complaints but also no rewards from me, the effects weren't overdone (I'm looking at you, Fate/Apocrypha), but they provided what was needed, the BGM flowed nicely with the scenes it was placed in and the Voice acting was good, but again, nothing fantastic or particularly negative either, there were a few scenes where you could feel the emotion put through by the VA's which added well to the scenes or the story being told during the episode, the OP and ED were fairly good as well although i will it i enjoyed the OP much more than the ED.

Where i did find most of my love for this show was in the characters, the ing cast was written well in my eyes, with most having a back story, their own goals and lives they want to live, and motivations, only a few felt like they were fluff characters though they did help progress the story and other characters growth and motivations (Huey, although i dont like him at all, did this job well). Through our 2 Main Protagonists of Stella and Princess Yuuki we get to see two almost polar opposite people, Yuuki, who wears her heart on her sleeve, and Stella, who faces everything with a Smile, no matter what she feels inside, through multiple character interactions and plot progressions, Yuuki develops into someone who is actually fit to lead her country, make the hard decisions, and learn just how much it costs to be able to afford Peace and Happiness, which is where the name of the show fits in perfectly as the theme, it takes Death, War, and atrocity to reach Peace, even if it is all hidden behind a curtain, it still happens, even if it's being shunned when it gets brought to light, there is more behind the scenes than anyone truely knows besides the ones that are on the ground doing what needs to be done, Stella being our experience of that, she acts near autonomously, always with the same fake smile, she doesn't act on emotions even though she does feel them, she keeps them down deep and bottles in anything she feels so she can act as a soldier.

Princess Yuuki, as much as i detest how she started as a character, develops very well, she learns, Although not quickly enough, that the perfect peace that she desires wont be achieved unless she learns how to make the hard decisions, "Even if it means everyone hates me," she keeps her motivation until the end, she wants as little people to need to die as possible, on both sides, she hates death, she's experienced far too much loss in her own life and does not want anyone else to have to experience it through violent means, this does get in the way of her making rational decisions when it comes time for her to lead, she acted on emotion too often which ended up with more lives lost than needed to be, however as time progresses she does learn The Price of Smiles and makes much better, more rational decisions to achieve her goal of ending the war as quickly as possible and with as few deaths as possible on both sides.

Stella Shining, was the perfect opposite to princess Yuuki, on the outside atleast, her character for the most part was developed when we meet her, she's The Smiling Soldier, anything that comes up she will face with a smile, even if it is fake and she's in agony mentally, however through the course of the anime she softens and takes down some of her own emotional walls, Stella, who tends to not act on emotion and thinks logically and weighs the consequences of her choices and her emotions, begins to act more on what she thinks is right and what should be done on the ground, instead of what her superiors are telling her to do, during the last few episodes this change takes place rapidly, delving into her backstory and her motivations and reasons to always be smiling, and during the last episode her shell finally cracks, the fake smile is replaced with a genuine feeling of happiness and the feeling that she's done what was right, even if it meant consequences to herself.

The Price of Smiles was a very enjoyable anime for me, one of the most that i enjoyed this entire Winter 2019 season, it wasn't for the reason of it being a perfect animation, or the story having no holes, or even the characters being flawless and interacting perfectly, it was just well done, everything meshed together well, the characters were placed where they belonged and interacted well with each other, and the plot progressed smoothly, it felt realistic, but kept its touch of fantasy.
All being said, in general the show was nothing to put on a pedestal, it was just very enjoyable and well produced and directed.

8/10, would hate Yuuki's decisions again.

So, I appreciate what this show is trying to do. War is bad. I get it. The idea of showing all the horrible things we would do to make those we care about happy, only to make them cry in the end is a good thought to explore. The problem here is the execution.

Let's start with the strength of this anime, which is it's willingness to not hold back. Things happen to characters that you wouldn't expect, and characters act in manners you wouldn't expect in most anime. Unfortunately that's about the only strength the story had. The world building is simplistic to the point ... of not being all that believable. I never felt an ounce of attachment to any of the characters, even the two MCs. And while showing story lines from both sides of the war is a good literary mechanic, cramming two story lines into twelve episodes is tough to do, especially when you have numerous action sequences to add in. This would explain the poor characterization and world building. Still there was enough in the story to make me want to continue, if the technical side of the anime was up to snuff.

Unfortunately, that's just not the case. The best animation would be the CG dominated mecha fights, and even those have their problems like over the top camera moves and over cutting the fights making them come across herky jerky and at times hard to follow. But like I said, that's the good animation. When not in combat, you can see every animation shortcut in the book, sometimes to jarring effect. Cars basically being smoothly moved across the screen without creating the sense of motion to them. Bland, low detail backgrounds that look like an after thought, and every character design seemed like a rehash of something I've already seen in another show. Camera pans of static characters. Many character movements you can see the separate stills instead of fluid motion.

Sound is perfectly fine. The OST is serviceable at best and certainly not memorable. However, the voice acting does it's job pretty well, and sound effects are executed well enough to never jar you out of the anime like some of the animation does.

All in all, this is a slightly below average anime to me. While I praise the narrative risks this story takes, lack luster setting and characters, plus below average production value keep me from wanting to continue on with this series. I might binge the rest at the end of the season when there's less to watch, but right now, no thanks.

Up front Egao no Daika is nothing special. If you look at the raw of it, it's fairly entertaining but nothing special.

The reason I love this anime though is the message behind it, the problems with war - how war is sometimes necessary but other times useless. This overall message presented throughout the show is really striking to me and is a topic that should be discussed more especially the realness it portrays with killing off some key characters. The name of this show translated truly reflects all of this...The Price of Smiles.

I do wish it would not have been as rushed and we could ... have seen more action as for a mech I really enjoyed the battle scenes.

The Price of Smiles focuses on two young women living on a distant planet with both their kingdoms at war. The first, Yuki, is the princess of the kingdom of Soleil and national symbol following the loss of her parents, who has an idealistic belief in wanting the best for everyone while oblivious to the true reality of war. The second, Stella Shining, is a soldier within the Grandiga Army attempting to find purpose in her life after having been raised as an orphan and has difficulty expressing her true emotions to others due to her rough upbringing.

To start things, I'll just say first impressions ... with this series can be a bit misassuming. The first episode has you believe this may be a light-hearted mecha series with the typical story setup it establishes with Yuki's character and I've read that this has led some folks to not watch the series beyond this point as a result. The Price of Smiles isn't afraid to explore how harsh the realities of war can be. While the series explores how both kingdoms have justification to fight in their war, it shows both sides committing morally questionable acts to accomplish their goals and the series isn't afraid to kill off major characters to emphasize this. It also shows that having the more capable mecha within the series can mean squat as Grandiga's greater numbers for their armies are occasionally shown to overwhelm Soleil in spite of their superior technology. Plus, idealism isn't always a good thing to have in a brutal conflict such as war, which Yuki is painfully shown to realize throughout this anime's 12-episode run.

As far as the storytelling for the series goes, it has its ups and downs. Yuki and Stella serve as the focus characters for each side of the war to explore how their kingdoms are faring. The series does a solid job showing off the justifications both sides have in their conflict and that the characters focused on in both factions are not irredeemable. Stella's character focus was largely solid in exploring her rough upbringing and shown to undergo gradual development as she comes to develop bonds with her brigade and finds purpose for herself. Yuki's character focus is more weaker as the series chooses to still have her stick to her idealist beliefs throughout the series in spite of the hardships of war she is confronted with and makes her feel quite out of place in the story that Price of Smiles is going for. The ending for the series also felt both a bit rushed and rather anti-climactic in how it addresses both a certain element of Stella's past and how the war gets ultimately resolved in spite of hints to this direction being alluded to. In addition, the series can get fairly heavy-handed in how it expresses its themes at points and this could potentially turn off viewers who hate this approach to storytelling.

In short, Price of Smiles offers a mostly solid, though somewhat flawed, series that takes some creative risks with bucking a number of the typical cliches of a mecha war series in exploring the realities of war and exploring how the focus characters withing both kingdoms cope with these realities. Personally, I felt Stella's developments with the series were better handled than Yuki's and I do realize this series is likely to not be everyone's cup of tea with the rather mediocre first episode and the heavy-handed approach to handling its themes. Still, I'd at least recommend sampling the first few episodes of the series to see if it's something you may have interest in watching the entirety of.

Ok. the setting was in some distant planet where mankind somehow developed the tech to terra form it some planet and from there they develop the technology to survive and thrive . But along the way, war ravages the entire planet between the Kingdom of Soleil and the Imperial Army of Grandiga, frankly when I watch this there were a couple of things that comes to my mind. First Star Wars, where we see Yuki being this Princess Leia and Joshua her Luke Sykwalker who suddenly has a death flag, 2nd Black Panter, the planet sit in a gold mine of a certain ... power source called "Chrarslapis" that the civilization relies upon as if it which has some similarities with Black Panter's home called "Wakanda" where it relies upon the element "vibranium" for their technology and Dunkirk where the plot were divide between two main character Yuki Soleile of the Kingdom of Soleile and Stella Shinning of the Imperial Army of Grandiga, everything else, there is also that usual mech battles that we see in every anime that has such genre. So basically this is just one houch pouch of various plots from different western movies and TV series. Everything around this was focus on one character who whom somehow has the talent for strategies and planning but lacks the resolve and a pacifist who happens to be a rock in a hard place and Yes that would be Yuki herself were we the audience finds her irritating cu'z basically she's a kid who does a gown ups job , while Stella was this smiling girl who hides his emotion behind the smile , but the thing about her was that she is one character whom we the audience wanna see have a death flag, but in the end we never get it cu'z in the end she gets to agree with the wimpy princess about her plants to disable the chrars and put an end to the war . But you know just seeing Yuki being a defeatist was just an annoyance as if she one character that even them Japs would wanna hate for having such attitude, Stella on the other hand was someone whom we'd wish should have been fighting for the good guys and how she ends up being adopted by Grandiga parent when during the explosion she was held by her mom Layla was a big plot hole since it adds to the complication that she was not related to Layla , but then studio Tatsunoko Production has to do a flip flop making her Layla's long lost daughter in the very last episode when Layla saves her from falling debris......Now , since this is an original anime, it's very obvious that studio Tatsunoko Production and Episode Directors Suzuki, Toshimasa and Awai, Shigeki have to make things up, since they have no manga source to back up such production, so their only recourse was to make something that was set in war where the rock in a hard place of peace is just too annoying so how do I see this junk:

Story- Poor 3: Frankly dumping everything on Yuki and Stella was just a result of poor planning. also all the death flags were on the Soliel side and not much on the Grandiga side.

Art-Decent 4: No Fanservice .

Sound- Fair 6: No Comment here.

Character Pathetic 1: Cu's seeing Yuki being this rock in a hard place of a pacifist was just too annoying , it basically tells us audience that she the reason why you don't let a kid do a man's job.

Enjoyment- fair 6: Despite of it , knowing how things will end was still worth it....jaz a bit.

Overall- Poor 3: When you get to the ending , you see how everything was rushed to the point of asking yourself "Jaz Like that?!" and you might wanna go to Japan and look for the crew who did this lousy anime to punch them in their faces.

Egao no Daika is pretty falsely d, and I mean that in a good way. From the key visual, the first episode, and the OP, I'd thought that this would be a series with a hopeful, albeit somber tone, telling the story of two girls from opposing nations learning to put aside their differences to end a war with the power of friendship and all that goodness.

What ensues is instead is a show with a consistently bleak and dismal outlook on war and it's consequences. There are no grand heroic actions, no hero in a super prototype to swoop in and mow down hordes of ... enemies in the name of plot convenience. This is a show about two girls on opposite sides of a war, going through their own separate journeys.

Egao no Daika (which I'll refer to as EnD from here on) is a show that somehow completely went under my radar when it aired in the Winter 2019 season. I try to keep an eye on every mecha anime that comes out, as it's such a rare genre to see nowadays, aside from your occasional new Gundam installment. EnD was the only new Mecha of it's season, yet somehow I completely missed it, and ended up picking it up out of curiosity during that weeklong break between the Spring and Summer 2019 seasons.

Now not only is there a lack of mecha anime coming out nowadays, most of it simply isn't all that great. I recently watched a few shows from this past decade, including Knights & Magic, Eureka Seven AO, Heavy Object, and Macross Delta, and the majority of them didn't give me any real reaction other than "yeah this might be kinda cool in Super Robot Wars." The first episode of EnD led me to believe that this would be another one of such animes.

I was wrong.

Our two main characters are Yuki and Stella, the former of which is the young princess of a kingdom, and the latter a regular soldier in the opposing empire. In the first episode we're introduced to Yuki, who is young, naive, and hopeful. As the series progresses, she becomes more hardened as she comes to grips with the reality of war. On the other side we have Stella, a soldier traumatized by her past, who unsettlingly wears a smile almost all the time.

Both characters aren’t exactly the most original archetypes, but the show does a good job of making the viewer empathize with them, and understand their hardships. It’s genuinely heartbreaking and disturbing to watch as Yuki’s hopeful outlooks on the conflict are shattered throughout the first few episodes. Stella’s outlook is reminiscent of Chirico’s in the first few episodes of VOTOMS. The two have stories mostly separate from one another, allowing for the viewer to witness two completely different and disconnected viewpoints of the same series of events. I will say however, that I found the episodes focusing on Stella much more compelling and interesting than the episodes focused on Yuki. There’s a large ensemble of side characters, but not many of them stand out too much. Gail and Lily were the most memorable side characters for Stella’s episodes, while Layla was the most interesting by far in Yuki’s.

Now let’s talk about the robots themselves. The mechs in this series are referred to as Theurgears, and they’re treated as just tools of war. Similar to VOTOMS or Gundam The 08th MS Team, the mechs are treated as just another weapon to be utilized on the battlefield. They’re uniform, mass produced, and basically used as a replacement for infantry on foot in large scale battles. EnD has often been compared to Code Geass due to it’s focus on political machinations, but you won’t see any of the overblown bombastic speeches or over the top ace custom machines that Geass is so well known for here. The CGI for the machines is decent, it’s not anything standout but it’s not terrible either.

All in all, EnD is a show I unexpectedly came to enjoy. Maybe having my expectations caused me to like it more than it deserves. To be honest, it’s not anything standout or new to the genre, but because of my own personal enjoyment of it, I’ve given it a higher rating. It probably could’ve helped for this show to have had a bit of a longer run, to give more screentime to the combat, and more characterization for the assorted side characters. While its no classic, I definitely enjoyed this much more than the majority of other mecha from this past decade that I’ve watched (the only exceptions being a few of Sunrise’s productions, Full Metal Panic IV, Suisei no Gargantia, and Rinne no Lagrange). This was one of the few animes I’ve watched recently to truly satisfy me with it’s ending, and leave me content to take a break from watching stuff for a while, rather than immediately picking up the next show.

This is a great anime about mechas & war in general. One of the best actually. The creators of this show for some reason tried to market it as a some kind of Macross-like drama, while it is anything but. For the same reason the low overall score - mecha fans can't find this anime(or dismiss it as being different genre), and teary shoujo-drama fans are dissapointed that this show doesn't have (or barely have) what they were looking for.

The story overall is interesting but it is not what makes this anime so great. It is the mecha fights & war story.

The mecha fighting in ... this anime is great for those reasons:
1) There is actual tactics being used & characters have to utilize their mecha functionality to win. No "love/friendship/loss" power spikes, no self-aware mechs, none of that. If you are outplayed, you die (or eject if lucky). No ammo = you die. Bad luck = you die. You break the line even for good reason - you, and possibly your squad die too.
2) There is no MC bias or something like that. Characters around main heroines die left and right, just as in real war. This makes this anime WAYYY more mature drama, than those teary ones where MC "saves the day & all his friends with the power of friendship". Here, no such powers. Only your mech and your piloting skills for everyone.
3) The sides are mostly evenly matched in the war, so we see losses & wins on both sides. Unlike for example Aldnoah: Zero , where MC's team almost always wins with no losses.It is interesting to see the war unfold.

Also, the characters are surprisingly mature & act rationally. There are some comedic reliefs - but even they are felt like a cracked dark joke by somebody who are due to charge enemy lines in 1 minute and have 99% chance of dying in that attack.

Do not want to spoil anything, but the ending is thought-provoking and while feels somewhat rushed leaves a very good overall memory.

Overall 10/10 - If you like mecha & also dislike the "power of friendship" and "MC always wins" tropes, this anime is a must watch.

The Price is a bit of a Mess that lost all Potential

Let's start with the good. The mecha combat scenes are (in 3D CG yes) really well done and they are quite nice scenes to watch as in they are well presented. This is for all the mecha combat scenes in the show making these scenes quite consistent (unlike the plot) throughout the show. While not all the characters are that good there are a few characters that are quite likeable making their story and struggle more relatable compared to other characters. While I don’t really like the plot the world background is quite good ... as it depicts, the struggle for the general population to survive and the human cost of war is shown really strongly. While that is essence is only backdrop it feeds into the story and the characters in different ways.

Right the bad stuff now. The world setting is slightly confusing as it was a little unclear who side people where on (a bit of surprise for the last few episodes) meaning while you might be routing for a side take a closer look just to make sure who's side they are on. Further to that the whole main plot is confusing as it jumps around quite a bit without explaining anything with too many turns and twists (example in spoiler section) to create any consistency (which can work is shows like ‘The Idolmaster’ but not this). Overall it makes the show a bit difficult to follow and loses its audience. The problem is due to the inconsistency it draws all the attention to it and it becomes the main focus instead rather than the show itself. On top of that as events are spread out far from each other with long dialog section (where the show gets philosophical but not very well (compared to the world building) it’s a bit boring.

In Summary then, while ‘The Price of Smiles’ is deeply inconsistent, very difficult to follow, very surprising (in a bad way) and a little boring, it does have some good points with a okay story, good world building and a nice main focus character. But the best bit it manages to make what would have been a bad show into a fairly okay show by having really good parts that are really good and shows potential but the bad parts that spoil the whole show. I would recommend it if you just wanted something to watch not follow. ‘It’s not bad, but it’s not good either’.

Surprisingly good. 7̶.̶5̶? Post-Finale Edit: The final few episodes of this anime and especially the last episode was really underwhelming. I give it a maybe a 6. It was honestly quite terrible really that ending.

There was so much potential, you couldn't really see how the outcome with how the battle is playing out, yeah it seemed pretty obvious which side was going to prevail but with how a lot of the events played out and the perspective of the other side it really made you wonder.

**This portion contains spoilers**
There were so many things rushed and we were teased with a Stella and Leila ... reunion this whole series and nothing came of it. I don't think they even knew that they were related by the end of the series.
**Spoilers end here**


It's just so, so disappointing. Ending was rushed and completely unsatisfying. What I would've liked to see was Stella and Leila reuniting and then the team hesitates and wonders if they are doing the right thing and maybe swaps sides or Stella betrays her team to fight with her mom. Something like that.

The rest of the review is before the final 3 episodes.
It keeps me debating whether I should rate it 8 on MAL. It depends on the ending but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up giving it a 9.

Honestly, this anime was a pain to watch. Not sure when the switch flipped but after watching episode 9, I realized that I can't wait for the next episode.

This is really an example of don't judge a show by it's first episode. The first episode wasn't bad, it was more like "ah, I'm not going to like this am I." But it gets better.

The princess is an annoying character but her character development has been handled really well.

The whole perspective from both sides really makes things interesting and keeps you guessing how everything will resolve.

Egao no Daika might appear as another generic Mecha anime, and it very well might be; however, there is something charming about it. While the mecha fights aren't anything spectacular, and the story isn't anything ground breaking, I still found great enjoyment from seeing how the story unfolds from the perspective of princess Yuki from the Kingdom of Soleil and Stella Shining from the Imperial Army of Grandiga. Both of these characters are of equal importance in this anime so the screen time is split between them allowing you to see how the war between both factions is impacting both sides.
I found both ... protagonists to be interesting and likable, most side characters are also pretty interesting and likable as well.
Visually speaking there really isn't anything special, although not a bad looking anime it really isn't the best either. The mecha fighting sequences are also normal, however not very memorable. Pretty basic stuff I would say.
As for sound design the opening theme for this anime is spectacular, I would be lying if I said that part of the fact that I also enjoyed this anime is because of it's opening.
Overall I would say that this anime is pretty good, if you're not into mecha anime you probably won't like this; but if you're like me and you're able to forgive it's short comings it's a really nice anime to watch on the side.

I watched it through to the end, which says a lot, but I have a few big complaints.

The characters were extermely stereotypical/trope-y, and the overall moral of the story is utterly cliched.

This is basically an eco-hardliner's propaganda piece dressed up as a beautiful story, similar to several of Miyazaki's films that have an anti-technology, anti-war, eco-friendly, romanticized "let's all live the simple life" utopia as if humans didn't fight devastating large-scale wars in pre-technology times.

Still, the fact that I made it through to the end without dropping it is an endorsement, so I recommend this series overall. I just don't like the overall message.

I think you really need to like military stuff to enjoy this series. The plot is interesting because of the characters but also because of how it shows how harsh war is. I can understand why people is giving it a 6/10 but I dont think its fair, for me its a 9/10, solid 8/10 for sure. Like others pointed out, I think its very short. Characters look very enteresting, I wished their history was more developed but maybe they needed more episodes to do it. Also maybe some colours/vehicle designs could've be more realistic to fit the war enviorment. I hope it gets a ... 2nd season.

In the end, The cost of smiles left me wanting to see more. It almost feels like there is an entire half missing to this story, yet the ride to the end was one I quite enjoyed.

I am not sure whether that story depicts more detailed mech battles and actually engages on the strategies the princess showed she could come up with at the start of the show, or maybe a more in-depth look at the psychology and morals of both cultures, their history and struggles, but if anything I have to commend the team behind this anime for managing to keep the story engaging ... despite lacking these building blocks of most mecha and war stories.

I could see this series being many people's gateway into gundam and macross, or even stuff like patlabor and galactic heroes.

I started watching because the first episode is interesting, but then after few episodes it become flat and bit annoying towards the end because I waited one week for it and the storyline is about the same as before. The only thing I love about this anime is the opening song! Nevertheless, it was okay. I don't think I wasted my time watching it, but I did wasted my emotion for waiting for better episode every week. I would recommend it if you're bored and wanting to kill time, as you can just fast forward when you binge watch. But, if you want to watch ... an awesome robot battle, this is not for you.