Snow White with the Red Hair or Akagami no Shirayukihime is an anime and manga series by Sorata Akizuki. It's about an herbalist named Shirayuki. She's got beautiful red hair that's apparently really special and unique. This is the main reason why Prince Raj of the Tanbarun Kingdom (where she lives) wants her.
She'll end up meeting this guy named Zen who's actually a prince. From what I've read, they'll fall in love and end up together.
I don't know just how believable their relationship will be though because I couldn't get through episode 1 of this anime.
I just couldn't finish it, which was unfortunate since it started out pretty well. The beginning was actually quite interesting, particularly with regards to whole herbs thing what with Shirayuki being an herbalist. I mean, usually the characters would be into cooking or things like that.
Anyway, then we got introduced to Prince Raj who seems to be acting like the evil queen in the Snow White fairytale. I wasn't the least bit impressed with his character as he seemed like a walking cliché, a cardboard cutout with no personality. I mean, what's up with him suddenly wanting the main character just because of her red hair?
All he knows about Shirayuki is that she's pretty and has red hair, and, just because of that, he wants her? He didn't even confirm if the guy who told him about this was telling the truth or not. How does he even know the hair will be to his liking? What if he doesn't actually like that shade of red? Or what if his definition of beautiful isn't the same as the informant's?
Basically, I found that part really quite lame especially when the informant went on about Shirayuki and her red hair. Already, she's being made out to be this special snowflake, which was infuriating and annoying, to say the least. We're only in episode 1, and, already, I'm seeing the main character favoritism. Ugh.
And then there's the part where the protagonist cuts her hair. I have several questions regarding that because it just doesn't make sense. For one thing, what is the point of cutting her hair? Seriously, she was already leaving Tanbarun Kingdom (obviously, she couldn't stay since she didn't want to be with Prince Raj), so why bother cutting her hair?
Another thing to point out is the fact that she was actually wearing a hood to hide her hair, so why bother cutting it? What difference does it make if her hair is long or short if she's hiding it by wearing a hood?
As it is, the whole cutting her hair thing just comes across as completely pointless especially since it didn't really solve anything.
If she really wanted to get rid of her hair, then why didn't she just cut it all? Why didn't she decide to go bald? I mean, she cut it and now it's short, but it's still red, so, basically, nothing much changed.
Her hair still looks all unique and special even if it's short. If she wasn't planning to go bald, then why bother cutting it? Why only go halfway? The hair thing really pissed me off. Ugh, either go bald or don't bother cutting your hair. Sheesh.
After that, I just couldn't take it anymore. The damage was done. I couldn't get through the rest of the episode.
It just wasn't believable anymore especially when you see Shirayuki with a hood on and you can still see her red hair and- ugh. No. Just no.
Maybe I'll try to watch Snow White with the Red Hair again later on. But, for now, this is it for me. So, what about you? What did you think about this anime series? Does it get better in the later episodes? Is the love story believable?
*Notes:
- First pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget
