First Impressions / Princess Lover!

Summary:

With a holiday coming up, Charlotte asks Teppei out on a date and gets Sylvia’s permission since Sylvia is technically still Teppei’s fiancée. Sylvia acts like it doesn’t matter to her, but her father notices her acting strange later because she’s not talking about Teppei like she normally does. Her father just wants happiness for her and as long as she has that, he doesn’t mind if she forgets her home country or him or her mother. Sylvia later calls up Charlotte wanting to talk about Teppei, but after a long silence, all she can manage to do is to send her regards. The next day, Charlotte and Teppei spend their time together in Osaka, and she makes him treat her as a normal girl instead of a princess. After introducing Charlotte to takoyaki, the two talk about the cooks in their family, which in Teppei’s case was his mother. They then board the famous ferris wheel, and in continuing to talk about his mother, Teppei reveals that she died with his father. Charlotte feels that he shouldn’t talk about his mother in the past tense since she’s still in his heart, and as long as he’s alive, those feelings aren’t things of the past.

Because Charlotte starts feeling cold, the conversation turns to her dislike of winter, so Teppei tells her all the things that make winter in Japan nice. Charlotte thinks that if Teppei shows her what makes it enjoyable, then she’ll come to like it too, and the two pinky-swear on the promise. Afterward, Charlotte asks Teppei about marrying Sylvia, but he’s unsure, so Charlotte tells him about their childhood together and how Sylvia lost her mother to an accident. Sylvia had missed her mother greatly and had even tried writing to god to get her back, and hearing all this causes Teppei to reflect on how the rich don’t have it all either. After getting off the ferris wheel, Teppei figures out what he should do for the party he has to host. While he’s getting excited about it, Charlotte surprises him by hugging him from behind because she wants him to make another promise to her: not to forget her. When Teppei questions why she’s suddenly bringing this up though, she acts like it was nothing and tells him to forget it.

Preview

Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a fairly story-heavy episode, but all the dating, promises, and jealousy is the great stuff that love triangle romances are made of. Based on how Charlotte acted this week and how her intent was only to borrow Teppei from Sylvia, it sounded like she won’t be sticking around for long and fears that she’ll have to return home, perhaps to her own arranged marriage or something. That might also explain why, even though you’d think that she wouldn’t want to mention her rival in love during a date, she brought up the topic of marrying (her friend) Sylvia and why she talked about Sylvia’s past. It’s still relatively early, but I can already think of a lot of different scenarios where Teppei would have to “rescue” her to fulfill his winter promise or where the fulfillment of that promise will be her last great memory of him before having to leave.

Of course, there’s also Sylvia, so it’s probably not that clear cut. Speaking of which, I’m not quite sure where they’re going with the stuff about Sylvia’s mother and that somewhat touching flashback scene. It seemed like just another thing that she and Teppei can relate on, but that locket is likely important. On a somewhat different note, I had to do a double take when I saw the dark void under Charlotte’s nightie in the first half of the episode. I assume it’s bare butt fanservice that got censored and will be available on the DVDs, but given that, I hope whatever is next episode gets the same treatment.

35 Comments

  6. was a good episode, yea the censors are bothering, but if the series turns out good in the end, ill get to re watch it sooner once the dvd or blue ray start coming out…

    and yeah next week they better do black on those men haha.

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  15. Hmmm… We are reaching a point in a 12-13 episode series that is absolutely critical. Teppei’s parents or fully developing Sylvia. There do not appear to be enough episodes to do both well. Worst case scenario would be that both arcs get generic endings whereby Sylvia just flat out gives up, or the deaths were merely necessary to gain control of the Arima group with no other explanation given. If the story is meant to drive the rest of the series, then each episode has to count. Also, I am not sure why the damn party keeps getting set up so heavily. In the best case scenario,the girls will be fully developed, and the series could end with him choosing one of them? If not, the party is the end episode, and everyone vows to continue being friends.

    Harems Rule
    Reply

  16. yeah, me gustaria ver como va a reaccionar Sylvia ya que se vé que siente celos pero no los demuestra abiertamente, asi que dedusco que le afectó que su mejor amiga Charlotte tuvo un paseo con su “prometido”.

    espero ver el siguiente capitulo.

    saludos

    Jezreel
    Reply

  18. Kagebutsu: I know… If I am looking at those images correctly, we’ve got two dudes wearing fundoshi. I can’t think of any series where I would ever give up 20 minutes of my time to watch that.

    Harems Rule
    Reply

  26. Given how much source material is available, this series would be best served going a second season. They have just barely developed the background stories. So far, the writing has done a good job of expression the emotional motivations of each character.

    Charlotte was especially well done this episode. She went from a somewhat shallow character to one that understands grief, sadness and friendship. It almost appears she understands her time with Teppei is at an end. It also seems she will have to leave around the winter. Looks like Sylvia will be taking center stage next episode as she will confront her feelings for Teppei. Just a guess.

    This is really a well done harem anime. At least at this stage of the story.

    Irie
    Reply

  29. it seems that Sylvia is also a princess (of Fj-something country). I just caught the fact about a different country during their dinner talk…:S
    perhaps Seika and Yuu will both be princesses? or can Seika be considered a “hime” already as the daughter of some big company CEO?
    I gotta agree: this show is surprisingly well done or perhaps I just like the fact that the male protagonist isn’t some wimpy person.

    ciq666
    Reply

  33. So far I like how the series has turned out. One thing I wonder about:
    Perhaps the attacks against the rich started years ago, with Silvia’s mother being one of the first victims?

    Anyway, I hope for a Teppei/Silvia end. Teppei/Charlotte is just too predictable, and Teppei/Yuu is not much better (it’s a variation “rich guy falling for poor girl”). I just don’t see Teppei/Seika despite her crush on him (maybe it’s because I don’t like her). Besides, how often do you see the main guy falling for and marrying his chosen fiancée? It would be a nice surprise if the two end up together.

    shadowblack
    Reply

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