First Impressions / Princess Lover!

OP Sequence

OP: 「Princess Primp!」 by 橋本みゆき (Hashimoto Miyuki)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Summary:

After both of his parents died in a supposed accident, Arima Teppei is on his way to his grandfather’s place when he spots a girl in a horse-drawn carriage being pursued by a car full of thugs. He decides to help her and gives chase on his motorcycle, but the thugs get ahold of him and point a gun at him. Luckily for Teppei, the girl’s butler attacks and takes out one of the thugs. While the butler struggles with another thug, Teppei sees the carriage about to crash and jumps onto it to save the girl. The two of them get flung into the forest below, and the butler can do nothing but finish off the last of the thugs. Teppei wakes up relatively uninjured beside the girl, and she regains consciousness after he inadvertently gropes her breast. She introduces herself as Charlotte Hazellink, and even though she had noticed that he had been touching her breast earlier, she decides to trust him. The two then make their way back to the road where Charlotte is reunited with her butler, though she first gives Teppei a kiss on the cheek.

Afterward, Teppei heads to his wealthy grandfather Isshin’s place. Isshin confirms that Teppei’s parent’s deaths weren’t the result of an accident, but he tries to warn Teppei against revenge because it wouldn’t be the life that his parents wanted for him. When his grandfather finds out that Teppei is all dirty because he helped someone in trouble, he presents Teppei looking like that to all his party guests. What surprises Teppei is that his grandfather announces him as the successor to the Arima business conglomerate, and he’s further surprised when his grandfather makes him realize that the girl he saved was the princess of the Hazellink kingdom. After getting cleaned up, he protests against being the successor, but his grandfather points out that he can use this to figure out who was responsible for his parents’ death since his mother used to be the successor. Back at the party, Teppei is surrounded by people who want to get close to him until he’s helped out by Vincent van Hossen who’s with there with his young daughter Maria.

Teppei is eventually able to get away from it all and gets better acquainted with his grandfather’s maid, but what really gets his attention is the sight of another girl outside practicing with a sword. Grabbing his own set, Teppei decides to go get some exercise, and the girl ends up unexpectedly attacking him because she thinks he’s a suspicious-looking. Teppei is able to match her sword skills though, and they’re eventually broken up by Isshin and Vincent. As it turns out, the girl is Vincent’s other daughter Sylvia, and Isshin reveals that she’s Teppei’s fiancée.

ED Sequence

ED: 「S.S.D!」 by yozuca*
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

I really don’t have much to say about the OP and ED. Whereas the opening song is kind of catchy, the ending song just didn’t appeal to me at all. Neither of them are anything special though. In fact, based on just what the opening sequence showed and what I had read about the series prior to watching this episode, I was fully expecting an average based-on-an-adult-game harem series. And so I was very pleasantly surprised by what it actually turned out to be: a cute romance series with a good deal of action and a little bit of intrigue. I certainly didn’t expect to see an extended chase scene, guns, swords, and even a combat butler. Of course it’s entirely possible that the action will be nonexistent in the rest of the series, but it made the first episode a lot of fun.

That action plus the beginnings of a love triangle – even though I think it’s pretty clear who Teppei will end up with – plus a couple of strong & likable female characters along with a strong male lead plus Wakamoto Norio voicing Isshin (he had quite a few lines too) were what made this a treat to watch. It did take a little getting used to the animation style though; I initially didn’t think it looked that great but came to appreciate it more as the episode went on. And there was some apparent censoring where they tried to cover up any panty-shots, but it was so brief that I didn’t think it was a big deal. Regardless, the first episode did its job in getting me interested in the series, and I’ll definitely be watching at least a couple more episodes to see what direction it goes.

55 Comments

  9. Charlotte! Damn the censoring, it is like screaming out to folks to just buy the DVDs. -_- And yes, the animation style is way better than I expected for this sort of series too. Lovely indeed.

    “even though I think it’s pretty clear who Teppei will end up with”

    Wait, what? Charlotte? Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~

    Panther
    Reply

  11. Interesting adaptation here. I actually have screencaps of the CG’s from the game, and my favorite was Sylvia, and her swordplay scene here made me like her even more (it’s also a bonus she bears resemblance to and acts a bit like FSN’s Sabre).

    Sailor Enlil
    Reply

  21. indeed – quite the good animation for this kind of show
    just found the cgs of the game – (game itself still needs to be found on the known sources 😉 ) – wonder which one he will end up – a) princess with combat butler b) our saber-like fiancee c) that pigtailed-Women in the next episode d) the maid (GO FOR IT GO FOR IT) e) None of them, cause we need a 2nd season f) all of them – but only if you buy the dvd ;-9

    ending could be better, but hey – at least its not semi-criminal like Needless…

    indeed
    Reply

  24. animation style is one of the best out their for so many reasons i dont care to explain, shit, i dont care about the story, just watching because it’s pretty and the big boobs

    Willy
    Reply

  25. meh…sounds like another “incompetant indecisive male lead and his harem that love him for no reason” show.

    The girls aren’t even very original. My first thought seeing the girls in the screenies was: Hey I can spot Saber from F/SN, Moka from Rosario no Vampire, and Siesta from Zero no Tsukaima.

    Ninja Penguin
    Reply

  32. @ Ninja Penguin

    “incompetant indecisive male lead and his harem that love him for no reason” should actually be more like “male lead and his harem that love him for no reason” since he does seem rather normal and knows what he wants to do. Nothing from him seems indecisive and incompetent yet.

    Silver
    Reply

  33. I kind of hate the story in the beginning, it just don’t make much sense to me like for example:

    His father and mother live in an average style japanese house in an average neighborhood and his grandfather lives in a European style Mansion/Castle. That just don’t feel weird to me in some sort of ways, from a house to a castle. I could understand if his grandfather were like one of those big rich Japanese style home with fishing ponds and bamboo tree garden then yea. But moving from a Japanese style home to European style mansion just seem so odd to me. Then you got the princess in a horse carriage in the beginning and then next thing you know after the incidents the bulter comes with a rich mobile vehicle, so why didn’t she just ride in that in the first place, anyone would think a car is a lot safer then some wooden horse carriage.
    And what up with censor, lets be honest here we all know this show was created mainly for fan service anyway so why bother cernsoring.

    Don’t get me wrong I like the show but it just feel weird in certain places.

    Mike
    Reply

  35. Everything looks good to me~
    Sylvi and Charlotte both look very good~
    I’m very happy to see Ricotta’s first ever game turned into an anime series~
    i also personally think its rich enuf that teppei is ending with everyone of them~

    Blushing Sylvi gets my vote~! Cheeky Charlotte gets my vote too~! Argh ! i just like both of them for now~ lets bring in more on the maid and another character~!

    i’m definately following this as a fan of ricotta’s first game~

    jeffng9
    Reply

  40. I had a pretty low view on this anime at first (since it was based on an adult game), but watching the first episode quickly changed my mind. I’ll be watching this for now on.

    Black_Otaku
    Reply

  43. what a mind changer to shed its original stereotype that was locked into most people who read the preview

    I too liked the censor as it didn’t have too much fanservice to actually draw us into the plot. =0

    Palvati
    Reply

  44. for once i’m praying for the harem ending. i already like the sabre knockoff, and only way she gets a peace of the main character is a harem ending. love the show so far.

    slamdunkfan
    Reply

  45. disappointed in the art style, 1st time seeing an inferior style comparing to the game, I wonder whether the plot can actually be interesting enough to keep me watching, compare with Tayutama, I actually like Tayutama more due to the art style closely similar to the game version, this one is truly disappointing, maybe should waste my time playing the game instead. I think you should not waste your time blogging this and concentrate on Umineko despite the fact that the answer arc is not released and we don’t know how many years it take until Umineko will finally be animated, but still better than this poorly imitation of Princess Lover

    knd
    Reply

  46. Plot?… Well, look for me like this. Main char want to know the truth!. And how is behind the “Thugs” assault!!… And what role are these Girls , in the ED, playing in the future. (Btw, Why nowadays every ED need some “Eye Candy” Girls in Bikinis….)

    Germanguy
    Reply

  51. Watched the 1st episode and now I’m interested in this series.

    So far I really like both female leads. Charlotte isn’t a brain dead ditz or a raging tsundere, even though her character settings kind of paint her as either one. She’s a tease though, but a good natured one. I was VERY happy to see her NOT go berserk over Teppei touching her chest, that would’ve been way too stereotypical and I’m glad this series didn’t fall into that trap.

    Sylvia…well, she’s just hot. She’s basically a very “talented” Saber, which is a-okay with me. She seems the type to have alot of pride (read: ego) though it seems like she actually has the skills to back it up.

    Kurotetsu
    Reply

  53. Sooo there’s the Pink Princess type, the Saber-type, Schoolgirl, and Maido type.
    Sounds fairly standard. Wakamoto and the insane animation, however, made it quite awesome.

    Razor
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *