First Impressions / Princess Lover!

Summary:

Teppei is shocked to see how big his new house is, and he’s not used to having maids wait on him hand and foot. His main servant is Fujikura Yuu, and he confides in her his uncertainties about having a fiancée he doesn’t know very well. All he could tell from facing off against Sylvia was that she seemed sad. Yuu attends school with him the next day at the prestigious Shuuhou Academy, and everyone is interested in him because of the Arima name. In trying to escape from the attention, Teppei accidentally bumps into a girl and hits his head. The girl turns out to be Houjouin Seika from the society club, and after the two pick themselves up, she inspects Teppei and expects him to know who she is but doesn’t hold it against him when he doesn’t. Yuu then finds Teppei and brings him to see the ecstatic principal before taking him to his classroom.

During break time, Teppei is suffocated by classmates who want to get to know him because of his family, and all this commotion attracts Charlotte’s attention. Recognizing Teppei, she is so happy to see him again that she jumps on him, and the two take a tumble that ends with him on top of her. By chance, Sylvia comes by to see Teppei at this very moment, and she catches him and Charlotte in this compromising position. Sylvia runs out embarrassed, and Teppei is still in shock, but Charlotte isn’t bothered at all. Teppei eventually reveals to Charlotte that Sylvia is his fiancée, so Charlotte proposes going to reconcile with her. She thus drags Teppei to the building where all the fencers are practicing, and Teppei watches as Sylvia loses her foil in a fight. He observes that she’s probably lonely because there’s no one there who can make her go all out, so Charlotte proposes a match between him and Sylvia.

Preview

This episode turned out to be more what I originally thought that this series would be like, which is a nice way to say that there wasn’t any action and there instead more of the harem romance comedy stuff that you’d expect, such as having the male lead be discovered in a compromising position with another girl by his fiancée. I had no problems with that though and found this to be a fairly entertaining episode; I even laughed when it appeared that Teppei had a Newtype reaction to the feel of Charlotte’s breasts pressed against his back. Charlotte is actually turning out to be quite a fun character to watch because she’s much smarter than she seems and likes to play coy, but all of the main girls so far have proven to be interesting. Right now the story seems to be going towards a love triangle, but if they develop Yuu and Seika a little more, it could certainly get more complicated (of the two, I favor Yuu). Of course I still think Teppei will end up with Charlotte; the key is how they get there.

My main complaint about this episode was the inclusion of a totally unnecessary two-minute flashback to last episode. They could have just flashed images of Charlotte and Sylvia, and we would have understood that Teppei was thinking about them. There’s no need to waste all that time on it and make it feel like there was some poor planning involved. In any case, next episode looks promising because Teppei will probably fight Sylvia again, and Seika appears to be getting more involved in the relationship web with this dance that they’re having.

61 Comments

  4. This show is a sleeper. Retarded name for the show probably turned off a lot of people before they even watched this show. Thanks to omni for blogging and getting people who completely ignored this show to actually watch it.

    Jin
    Reply

  22. I don’t really care. I just hope they get to who killed Teppei’s parents. I want to get into that juicy part of the story.

    Was purple hair girl spying on Teppei for the social president reject?

    Cherubium
    Reply

  24. hm… censorship was pretty well done but i just wish they wouldn’t censor it… especially teppei was saying about thier panties color. besides there are panties why not flash them rather than hide them? its not like they are not wearing any panties below.

    jeffng9
    Reply

  32. @Jin: “This show is a sleeper.”
    Yeah – you can fall asleep while watching it ;]

    Nah, just joking. It has Norio Wakamoto in it, so obviously it’s a must-watch for me. But basing on the 1st ep and Omni’s review of ep2 it’s just another harem romance comedy #411421. Doesn’t change the fact I’ll probably watch it till the end.

    Zenzen
    Reply

  34. Yet another anime to watch this summer. I thought the flashback was unnecessary as well. Also, I’m very annoyed by these censored pantie shots. It’s like they’re saying “BUY THE DVD’S AND YOU GET TO SEE PANTIES!”

    Anyway,I’ll be very shock if he ends up with Sylvia, since it seems like the protagonists in most animes rarely hook up with their fiancée. Right now, I think he’ll hook up with Charlotte.

    Black_Otaku
    Reply

  37. This was not bad. Predicatable, but so far most of the characters are likeable. I’m torn between Sylvia and Charlotte. Charlotte appears to genuinely be interested in Teppei (as she seems disappointed to hear that he’s engaged). As for Sylvia, what can I say, I have a total weakness for tsundere. Ayame from Asu no Yoichi, anything by Rie Kugimiya, you get the gist. Looking forward to next week!

    No Room for A-holes
    Reply

  38. Good episode. I skipped through the flashback. I want Charlotte to win; You can tell she already likes him–she had a sad look on her face when Teppei said that Sylvia was his fiancee. It was a funny episode too. I thought the whole maid thing was win :D.

    yappa
    Reply

  41. I think we should have a contest to predict what happens in this anime, since its going to be easy to guess cause its going to be a regular Harem anime.

    but i call the Kiema saying “I see the ending.”

    Darma Shoten
    Reply

  42. Feel like this show is getting too good for it’s own good. I mean, you have two extremely great female lead at the moment. I’m just afraid that the art will go to crap after half the season or the storyline will just go to mush.

    Remy
    Reply

  49. @ Remy:

    I totally hear that. In terms of the story, right now aside from the harem angle, the story has the element of whether Teppei does in fact become the heir, and whether someone will take the bait that Issin has set, and the person responsible for Teppei’s parents’ death will be revealed. Given the length of the series, there likely isn’t enough space to develop everything, the possibility of the show degenerating into another formulaic collection of fanservice to cut costs is quite feasible.

    No Room for A-holes
    Reply

  51. The name of the show practically gives away the harem ending, and the storyline starting from ep 1 makes it so obvious who the main character will end up with (that princess pink hair girl charlotte or something similar). They do not have anything to backup the harem that comes with the show. Shuffle, clannad , even sekerei had that extra bit that tags along with the harem. I would be VERY shocked if the main character didn’t end up with charlotte when it’s all said and done. They might pull a shuffle! on us right at the last couple of episodes.

    KS
    Reply

  53. @Jin = its a pretty normal name for an eroge, which this series comes from. but yea, its turning into a pretty good above average show for those willing to even give it a chance instead of automatically jumping on the “eroge adaptation automatically suck, only suspense anime are true quality!” bandwagon. it does help though that for the anime retelling (the series doesn’t really follow the game that closely) they done a lot to make Teppei more interesting.

    @O_O = yes, yes, EVERYONE in EVERY anime forum on teh freaking internet noticed (and ranted and raved and counter-ranted and counter-raved) that a week ago already. thank you mr. late-to-the-party

    Anon
    Reply

  56. owh jeez, man’ ass dont censored but panties do?? wtf!!! that sure ruined the excitement of this anime, but i got their pc game HCG sets..lol btw, anyone play their game?? is the game oso got the same story about teppei’s parents died?? who’s the one killed his parents in the game anyway??

    A183RT0
    Reply

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