Sleepy Princess of the Demon Castle Is a Sweet and Silly Anime with Video-Game Touches

Doga Kobo/Funimation

We can all use some light-hearted, feel-good anime in our lives, and this one definitely provides that comfort.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is a great show that your whole family will enjoy. This anime has an adorable approach to storytelling: instead of a classic dramatic anime, it acts more like a old-school, overly dramatic, comical video game. With only 12 episodes out so far (and 18 manga tankōbon volumes in print), this show is in its early stages and definitely worth the watch.

The story starts in the Unified Kingdom of the Human Nation of Goodereste, where it’s a quite peaceful day—until it is disrupted by an invasion from the demon realm. The leader of the demons, Twilight the Demon King, takes this opportunity to kidnap Goodereste’s princess, Aurora Say Lis Goodreste, also known as Princess Syalis, while she is sleeping.

In the wake of this tragedy, a hero known as the Dawner Hero steps forward to save the princess from the clutches of this evil demon king. In grave fear for her life, the kingdom is grateful; meanwhile, the princess finds herself incredibly bored. Not having much to do in her cell, she wants to sleep her days away but can’t because the sleeping conditions are horrid. For example, in episode 1 she mainly spends her time gaining a more suitable pillow and sheet by grabbing some of the castle demons to assist her, if not willingly then by force. Making her more terrifying then the demons themselves, she is definitely no pushover. When she has finally achieved her tasks, the demon army starts to complain to the king. Sick of the complaining, Twilight goes to confront her. However when he gets to her cell, she’s so sound asleep he doesn’t want to wake her. What a big old softy!

The video game aspect comes in when Princess Syalis has created a task she must complete and when she has completed it. For example, when she realizes her pillow isn’t comfortable enough for her to fall asleep. she goes to find the necessary materials in order to make a new one. Coming on the screen like an achievement you have to unlock at all cost, the task she decides to take on appears, a fun element when watching it. As she is contemplating killing the Teddy Demons that bring her food, she instead opts to cut off their fur to make stuffing for she pillow. She the proceeds to get a sheet from a curtain, a quill form a porcupine demon, and herbs from a storage room. When she has completed he task, the screen pops up with an unlocked achievement.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is a very light-hearted show filled with lots of humor and adventure without compromising the story line. While it does have some slight “adult” content in the form of innuendos, this show is definitely for the whole family and will probably have you littles rolling like mine were—I would recommend it for ages 10 and up.

All 12 episodes of this series are available on Funimation in both subtitled and dubbed formats.