Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE
白猫プロジェクトZERO CHRONICLE (Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle)
- Action
- Adventure
- Fantasy
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Apr 6, 2020 to Jun 22, 2020
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
In *Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE*, the world is split between two realms: the skyborne Kingdom of White, governed by Queen Iris, and the bleak Kingdom of Black, ruled by the King of Darkness. As sinister forces grow stronger and threaten the balance of everything, Iris—seen as a leading figure of the Light—takes on the responsibility of protecting her people and holding back the encroaching darkness.
Below, tragedy strikes when monsters destroy a young boy’s village, leaving him alone in the aftermath. He’s found by a knight in armor named Skeer, who offers solace and soon senses the boy’s ability to reshape the fate of the Kingdom of Black. Before dying, Skeer names him his successor, and the boy resolves to become the next Prince of Darkness, determined to set the world back on what he believes is the proper course.
As Iris and the Prince of Darkness confront the looming crisis from opposite sides, their paths draw closer together—along with a connection that may ultimately decide the world’s future.
Otaku Consensus
Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE lands as a case-study in how a grand fantasy adaptation can feel strangely weightless: its voice casting and compact 12-episode run are the clearest assets, and Masato Jinbou’s direction at least commits to the material’s solemn, tragedy-first tone. The verdict from critics and viewers is harsh but consistent: the anime’s light-versus-dark mythology, war politics, and prejudice themes are written too broadly to support the Shakespearean scale it reaches for, making it more fascinating as an earnest misfire than as a polished fantasy epic.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE if your sweet spot is straight-faced JRPG tragedy: swords, magic, royal symbolism, doomed alliances, and a war story that never winks at its own melodrama. It scratches a similar mobile-game-fantasy itch to Granblue Fantasy: The Animation or Tales of Zestiria the X, but with a bleaker, more binary moral architecture and a reputation as one of Spring 2020’s more watchable failures. The ideal viewer is not looking for layered political writing; they want a short, operatic fantasy artifact where archetypes are presented at full volume. At 12 episodes, it is also an easy commitment for fans who enjoy studying how adaptation, pacing, and familiar light/dark iconography can go wrong in entertaining ways.
Key Characters
- IIris
Iris functions as the anime’s pure Light-side emblem, making her a useful barometer for whether a viewer enjoys royal fantasy archetypes played completely straight.
- PPrince of Darkness
The Prince of Darkness is written less like a conversational protagonist and more like a mythic RPG avatar, which is central to both the show’s operatic appeal and its stiffness.
- SSkeer
Skeer is the armored mentor figure whose presence gives the Black Kingdom material its clearest sense of succession, duty, and old-fashioned fantasy gravity.
- KKing of Darkness
The King of Darkness stands out as a symbolic office as much as a character, reinforcing the series’ interest in inherited roles over psychological nuance.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
Project No.9 produced the series as a 12-episode Spring 2020 TV anime, airing from April 6 to June 22, 2020. Its short length makes the adaptation feel closer to a compressed RPG chapter than a sprawling fantasy campaign.
- 2
The show’s AniList tag profile is unusually severe for a game-based fantasy adaptation: Tragedy sits at 85% and War at 79%, ahead of Magic at 50% and Demons at only 20%. That tells viewers to expect courtly doom and factional conflict more than monster-of-the-week fantasy spectacle.
- 3
Its critical reputation is unusually unified around failure: reviews cited poor writing, generic light-versus-dark morality, underexplained prejudice themes, and a lack of originality. Several negative writeups still framed it as entertaining because of how completely it commits to its melodrama.
- 4
The production credits separate visual worldbuilding into several specialist roles, with Yousuke Okuda on character design, Daisuke Niitsuma on prop design, Yoshimi Mineda as art director, and Kayoko Tomono, Miho Norisue, and Shuuichi Ookubo on art design. That division reflects a fantasy production trying to distinguish characters, objects, and realm aesthetics even when the writing was widely criticized.
- 5
Despite being categorized on MAL under Action, Adventure, and Fantasy with no listed theme, the reception discussion focused heavily on politics, war, racism, and prejudice. That gap between database genre labeling and what reviewers argued the show was attempting is part of its critical identity.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The series was directed by Masato Jinbou, with Ryouji Tsunoda credited as supervisor and Yousuke Okuda handling character design for Project No.9.
- Fun fact 2
- Its two major database scores closely align: MAL lists it at 5.41/10 from 46,017 votes, while AniList places it at 52/100 with 417 favourites.
- Fun fact 3
- On MAL, the anime is far more visible than acclaimed: it sits at popularity rank #2245 but overall rank #13551, a sharp sign of viewers trying it without strongly endorsing it.
- Fun fact 4
- Comic Watch’s review gave the writing, plot, and character development all the same score: 5/10. That even spread matches the broader criticism that no single narrative component rises far above the others.
- Fun fact 5
- One hostile review still singled out the voice casting as a possible exception to the show’s problems, which is notable because most criticism centered on writing, originality, and thematic execution rather than performances.
Studios
- Project No.9
