First Impressions / Princess Lover!

Summary:

While Sylvia and the others return to the Arima mansion, Teppei and Charlotte are still in the Arima Hills building where multiple explosives have been planted. Charlotte isn’t worried because she’s with Teppei, and while the two are trying to figure out what to do, Josephine briefly calls Teppei via the intercom system to taunt him. Over at the mansion, Yuu explains that a number of the bombs are being taken care of by the Arima security forces, but that still leaves two which need to be disarmed. When Sylvia decides to volunteer to go back to take care of one of them, Seika insists on going as well. That leaves the final bomb for Teppei and Charlotte to disarm, but they run into all sorts of trouble along the way. They first come across two of Charlotte’s captors, and Teppei is able to knock them out while they’re thinking about Charlotte. They are then stopped in a passageway blocked by a shutter door, and when Teppei struggles to break through, it’s Charlotte who is ultimately successful using a chainsaw.

Meanwhile, on their way back to Arima Hills, Sylvia tells Seika that her feelings now are similar to those that she felt towards her mother. When her mother died, Sylvia couldn’t do anything about it, but there are things that she can do now. Seika connects this to Sylvia liking Teppei, and Seika admits to liking him as well. The two then arrive and head inside the building towards their assigned bomb. Upon finding it, they have to decide whether to cut the red or blue wire before the timer runs out, and Sylvia finally cuts the red one based on how it was her lucky color for today. Fortunately, it was the right choice. Teppei and Charlotte, on the other hand, have run into more trouble. They come across the leader of the trio who captured Charlotte, and he tries to shoot them. He hates Teppei because of his status, but Teppei manages to block the bullets with his wooden sword, and he knocks the guy out with a punch to the face. When they reach their assigned bomb with too little time to disarm it, Teppei throws it instead into a garbage chute, and that protects him from the ensuing explosion.

In the aftermath, Teppei and Charlotte meet up with Sylvia and Seika, and Sylvia immediately tells Charlotte about Hartmann’s death. Charlotte admits that she had tried to like Hartmann since he was her fiancé, and while she couldn’t in the past, she can now that she knows he tried to save Sylvia’s father and Teppei’s grandfather. A car then arrives to pick up Charlotte, and after she leaves, Sylvia explains that Charlotte did actually care for Hartmann. Unbeknownst to everyone, the driver of Charlotte’s car is actually Hartmann in disguise.

Preview

This episode suffered because it wasn’t as crazy amusing as last episode, or maybe the novelty’s just worn off. The whole bomb disarming thing felt unnecessarily prolonged, though I will say that Seika panicking was very cute and probably my favorite part of the episode. The big revelation of course is that Hartmann is indeed still alive. I should have known given how they moved his body last episode, but how the hell did no one there recognize him as the driver? He didn’t even really disguise his voice.

Anyway, on the relationship-level, this shouldn’t really change anything because Charlotte essentially had an emotional break from him upon learning that he’s dead. And assuming that Teppei now has to save her again, he and Charlotte will just get even closer, leaving Sylvia and Seika (and Yuu) on the sidelines. On the story-level, this worries me a little because it means that the plot is moving away from anything love-triangle related and more towards a standard hero-saves-the-girl-and-they-live-happily-ever-after type story, and I don’t know how interesting that’ll be. I’d love to see a good plot twist, and there are still three more episodes for something to happen, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

24 Comments

  8. Charlotte was amazing this episode in terms of how her seiyuu carried her off. Very cute indeed. And lol Seika provided the best humor this episode.

    Power ratings are Charlotte, Silvia, Yuu then Seika. I still do not like that twin-tail tsundere.

    And finally, Hartmann – “Just as keikaku.”

    Panther
    Reply

  11. I would have to disagree apart from yuu all the girls have said they love teppai and it is true that the scene is more focused on Charlotte but I have a feeling she may leave japan bk to where she came from this is based on previous episodes. Charolotte is jus spending a valueable high skl time with teppai and the i think it will end with him nt choosing any1 because he wants every1 to be happy. Jus a theory but i would prefer charolotte with teppai.

    Dragonite88
    Reply

  12. This show has hit the wall HARD, HARD as hell. Its funny here & there but otherwise boring & predictable doesn’t even begin to describe it. The plot can twist all it wants to, it can’t be saved, period. But that doesn’t mean the show can’t be entertaining; the cheapo gags & dumbass villians (& the BS grins) are taking care of that department 😛

    Megas
    Reply

  13. I have a feelings that the series might end pretty much like “Yoake mae yori ruri iro na” [aka. Crescent Love]. Haltman looks pretty much like the protagonist in that series too. But lets hope that they don’t do anything so cliche/predictable.

    Minase
    Reply

  16. This was one of those episodes were you need to hit the suspension of reality button. If you can ignore some of the contrived elements and the magical regerating sword, it was a fun episode. I thought Charlotte was dummy’d down a bit, removing what little depth she had. She was funny and the chainsaw scene was my personal favorite.

    I really don’t think this show ever really had a love triangle (or quad). It’s been a romantic comedy from the beginning and seems to be consistant with the light novels. The drama is going to come from Sylvia realizing how much she cares for Teppei and making some sort of serious effort. This will give us an open harem ending and possibly a prelude to another season.

    Irie
    Reply

  18. I’d like to see the wooden sword that can deflect bullets. At any rate I’m all for TeppeixCharlotte but I think it wont happen. Most likely being down to earth he gonna end with Yuu or noone.

    Splash
    Reply

  21. We don’t need another season of this shit, please. One serving of BS is enough for a sub-harem game-anime of ‘capture the Charl’. BTW, Yuu will follow Teppei no matter what…that’s what maids do. That’s why I love them. The sheer devotion aspect of maids is just moe as hell.

    Megas
    Reply

  22. I guess that pretty much sums up the entire Princess Lover plot. With only 3 episodes left, it’s hard to think there will be any plot twists. Most likely Teppei will end up saving the day and probably his harem continues like those harem animes with open ending… Maybe not so but yeah…

    tandem
    Reply

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