Princess Lover

With a title name like Princess Lover, I’m sure most of us would come to conclude it is an anime based from an adult game of the same name and that means lots of ecchi harem fanservice with many of girls in the series having breasts size of F-cup or beyond. Spot on. Do I need further elaboration about this genre? This time, the so called harem girls in this series aren’t your ordinary citizens but of royalties, nobles and daughters of highly influenced organizations. Even if they are high class girls, a girl is still a girl and it doesn’t matter when it comes to ecchi fanservice to satisfy lovers of this kind of genre. Me? Let me just say my excuse is of the comedy factor. Yeah right. Who is going to believe that?

 

As in most animes of this genre, we must have the main male protagonist who is to be surrounded by a bevy of beauties. That guy would be Teppei Kobayashi and as seen in episode 1, he is living a poor but happy life with his parents. Nothing extraordinary and just a normal guy that even every day girls would pass by. With the recent reports of kidnappings on the rise, his parents question him what would he do if he was in such a situation and though he was reluctant to answer at first because it is none of their business, he eventually says he’ll deal with it somehow. Oh yeah. That’s very convincing and comforting to know. However this would be the last time Teppei would see his parents. It has been 2 months down the road that his parents are killed. Teppei prays at their grave and is thinking of going to his uncle’s place, Isshin Arima. That’s when he spots a horse-drawn carriage (really) being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty gangsters in a jeep. Who’s faster? Horse or jeep? Teppei’s sense of justice kicks in as he goes to save the damsel in distress, Charlotte Hazelrink. Her butler, Alfred has his hands full because there is no one else to steer the carriage. Teppei does some serious butt kicking and with the help of Alfred (how did he put the carriage to auto pilot?). Don’t mess with this old guy. He can whip those young punks’ asses. Till the carriage falls off the cliff, taking him along with Charlotte. Now Alfred is real mad that his beloved princess is assumed a goner so the baddies may have just seen true hell. When Teppei regains consciousness he gets acquainted with Charlotte and finds out that she’s the princess of the fictionous Hazelrink kingdom. I’m sure all this development is too fast to digest. Soon they get back up and Charlotte leaves with Alfred (that guy still waiting?). She pecks him before going off.

 

Teppei arrives late at Isshin’s place and it seems the latter is having a party and has Teppei enter as he is without freshening himself up because saving someone is something one shouldn’t hide from. Isshin makes a stunning announcement to his guests that Teppei is to be his successor of his powerful and influential Arima Group of companies. Later as Teppei talks to Isshin, we learn he voluntarily becomes his grandson to seek revenge against his parents’ murderers (I guess this means changing his surname to Arima too). Isshin mention that announcing him as his successor was just a ploy to draw out the enemy. Isshin’s only daughter, who is Teppei’s mother, is the real successor. He doesn’t mind Teppei seeking revenge but in order to do so, he must seek his allies first. Back at the party, you can see lots of people trying to suck up to him in typical hopes of getting on his good books. Teppei also meets a representative of another fictionous country, Vincent Van Hossen of the Filmish kingdom and his youngest daughter Maria. Later Teppei spots from outside his window a girl fencing alone. He gets excited and rushes down to spar with her but she attacks him first. Their friendly sparring is interrupted when Isshin, Vincent and Maria make their appearance. It seems fencer girl is Vincent’s eldest daughter, Sylvia, and another surprise for Teppei is in store. She is his fiancee. Welcome to life in the rich and luxurious, boy.

 

In episode 2, Isshin escorts Teppei to his new home. Supposedly to be one of Isshin’s unused mansions. Isn’t that too big to be called a home? Ah, rich people. Teppei, better start getting used to it all. Yeah, he has his own maids too. Isshin puts Yuu Fujikura the head maid and in charge of taking care of Teppei. That night Teppei asks Yuu for her opinions about fiancee and all. He also mentions that when he sparred with Sylvia, he felt a kind of sadness in her. Morning comes and with his new life, that means attending a new school. Would you believe it the school is so big that you may mistaken it for a city? Shuuhou Academy, the biggest private school in Japan that houses the children of the richest, most influential and even aristocrats. They have a school for that? And there are lots of students there too. Who says Japan is a poor country? Being from the Arima family, his arrival attracts the attention of other students since that name carries lots of weight (not to mention the group invested lots of money in this school). Teppei can’t take the heat so he runs away and gets himself lost in the process. He bumps into Social Club president Seika Houjouin (on an unrelated note, she’s the only main girl who doesn’t have boobs the size of F-cup) and her fawning underlings Ayano Kaneko and Erika Takesono. Seika may seem obnoxious but she’s part of the Social Club and that means you have to mind your manners and etiquette, something that Teppei is alien to. They take their leave and soon after Yuu finds and brings him to the principal’s office for all that formality stuff. Who wouldn’t be grateful if your grandpa has put in lots of funds into the school, right?

 

Soon Teppei is introduced in his class and as expected, all his classmates try to get to know him more. Herald Haruhiko Nezu, self proclaimed Teppei’s best friend and the other guy in the series so as not to make Teppei the only young guy hogging the spotlight. More surprise in store for Teppei. He finds out Charlotte is in the same school with him and she is thrilled to know the same. Being the airhead she is, her joy has Teppei somehow falling on top of her. Then Sylvia comes in. You can guess what happens next. Okay, she didn’t slap him for being infidel. She just runs away while Charlotte continues to be an airhead, suggesting they can do it right here, right now. Um… Ayano who is also Teppei’s classmate, reports this to Seika and it seems Seika isn’t happy. It’s like she has some grudge against the Arima family. Teppei is having tea with Charlotte and talking about the misunderstood situation that Sylvia saw. This prompts Charlotte to drag him over to Sylvia’s fencing club to make up with her since she believes he wants to get along with her. Teppei watches Sylvia spar and notices she isn’t the same when they first duelled and thinks there is nobody who is at her level that she can go all out against. Thus the reason why he thinks she’s lonely. Probably Charlotte gets some kicks out of this because she calls out to Sylvia, tells her Teppei wants to fight her so that she won’t be lonely and other bunch of words she puts in his mouth. This prompts Sylvia to tell Teppei to get his ass over and fight her. Oh boy.

 

Because Teppei isn’t used to those fencing equipment, in episode 3, Sylvia suggests for him to spar with her in his dojo style. Yuu hands him a sword. In one swift move, the match is over. It may seem like a draw but Teppei points out it is his lost claiming she was faster. With that, you could say that they’re on good terms. Seika, who is watching this, isn’t pleased and thinks Teppei should’ve lost by getting lots of holes in his body. Teppei gets recommendation by Charlotte and Sylvia to join the Social Club where elite people gather. By the way, the club room is an entire building by itself. No wonder the school is so damn huge if every club has its own building. Oh, and Nezu’s a member too. As expected, Seika isn’t happy that this Teppei guy is here under the references of ghost members Charlotte and Sylvia who rarely show up. Seika continues to mock Teppei about his ‘barbaric’ attitude and wants him to change his etiquette first before joining this club. She throws him a challenge that there’s a party hosted by the Social Club next week and if he can be that gracious and all, she’ll consider letting him join. Over the next few days, Teppei gets training on how to drink tea, dance and walk properly from Sylvia, Charlotte and Yuu respectively. Teppei learns Yuu comes from an orphanage and is very grateful to Isshin who took her in under his wing. She wishes him to do his best. But progress wise, he isn’t making any headway and it’s been a tiring affair. This prompts Yuu to suggest that he should refine the etiquette and elegance he learned from his dojo rather than learning new techniques. With that, they’re all fired up to practice again. The day of the party is here and Teppei is a very changed man. A perfect gentleman. Something that Seika isn’t pleased to find out. She was hoping that he flopped? But nope. Why, she might be even starting to fall for him! Just keep denying those feelings of the heart, dear. At the end, Seika admits he did well but falls short of admitting him as a member. In order to pass her final test, she wants him to organize a party in a week’s time. That’s what being in a Social Club means, right?

 

While Teppei contemplates what kind of party he should organize in episode 4, he learns from Seika’s pals of her busy schedule of being a model and designer of a highly popular brand. She has an interview on her school life after her product exhibition and to her dismay she has no choice but to assign Nezu to the task. Seeing that Seika is still hostile towards him, Teppei goes to see Isshin about more information about the Houjouin family. On the day of the interview, Nezu falls sick and completely breaks down like a robot so in short notice, Teppei decides to replace him, much to Seika’s dismay. The interview starts after Seika struts her stuff on the walkway. I guess Teppei isn’t that close to her so he nearly spews his honest thoughts about Seika which you can say isn’t favourable. So underneath the table there’s lots of feet stepping moments each time Teppei goes out of line. Ouch, ouch, ouch. She’s wearing high heels, you know. Eventually Teppei too has some good words for her, making her blush. After the interview, the duo have dinner together so Teppei takes this chance to ask why she hates his family so much. From what he learned from Isshin, when he was a young man, he was a workaholic so much so he neglected his wife. She was lonely and started to have an affair with Seika’s grandpa. When Isshin found out, he was furious and threw out not only her but the Houjouin too, a personal image department under the Arima Group’s financial centre, now an advertising company. Due to that conflict, both the relationship of both sides drifted apart and Seika’s brands are being banned from Arima Group’s store display. To add salt to injuries, Isshin once publicly announced the lost in dignity if that ever happens. That’s why Seika is out for revenge. She intends to reveal his cruelty. Teppei hands her a letter and it seems he has been appointed as advisor of the group. He explains that Isshin regretted what he did but it happened so long ago that it made it harder to apologize. He felt bad for being hated by her without knowing the reasons. With this, he hopes they could bury the hatchet of their predecessors and start anew. In other words, he is allowing her brands back into his store. Seika accepts but she reminds him this isn’t an excuse to let him off the hook for the party he’s supposed to organize. Well, at least the hostility is gone.

 

In episode 5, Nezu is grateful to Teppei for covering him so he intends to help out with his party. He’s suggesting something shady? Isn’t that illegal? But in this episode, Charlotte requests permission from Sylvia to borrow Teppei out for a date. Well, it’s right to ask since he is her fiancee. Not like she is particular about it anyway. Alfred is very concerned and doesn’t trust Teppei, that’s why Charlotte even has Sylvia in cohorts to fool the old butler that she’s going out with her. We also learn that currently the Filmish kingdom is in a delicate situation, the reason why the Van Hossens are staying in Japan. On Charlotte and Teppei’s day out, she takes him on a flight to Osaka. He thought it was going to be somewhere nearby. Well, Osaka is pretty close if you consider Japan as a small country. So the usual outing of having fun together and by evening, Charlotte decides to ride the Ferris wheel. She learns his parents’ demise but comforts him by saying that his parents are still alive in his heart. She continues her story of how she and Sylvia are close childhood friends due to their country’s close relationship. That time, Sylvia’s mom died in an accident and Vincent was devastated. Little Sylvia wrote a letter to God to return her mom in exchange to be a good girl. Vincent, touched by her words, gave her a locket bearing her mom’s portrait. Back in reality, Teppei got an idea that rich people too have their own set of problems and that it isn’t always a bed of roses. At the end, Teppei gets an idea of the kind of party he wants to host and thanks Charlotte. Suddenly she hugs him from behind and wants him to promise never ever forget her in his heart.

 

That party seems to be a stay at the hotspring inn. What the? So in episode 6, the usual gang, including a pair of minor nameless male characters who look more like otaku geeks, take a train ride there. You can’t have this kind of show without the hotspring fanservice so I guess that’s why they had to put it in this episode. The guys are discussing on taking a peep at the girls! Teppei is confident he won’t get busted even if they find out because he firmly believes he is the Lucky Pervert. Say what? Something like, he’ll accidentally waltz into the girls’ area and since it is an accident, the girls will forgive him instead of hammering him. Plus, he’s the main guy of the harem series. Seems too good to be true. Of course the typical bathing fanservice scene so much so the specky male minor character can’t take it anymore and rushes into the other side. He gets beaten up so it’s down to 3. I’m not sure what Teppei’s plan is but the remaining guys are crawling to take a peek from the other side. Then a cliche joke that the chubby male minor character time is up so he falls through a trap door. What the hell is a trap door doing in the middle of the path?! Nezu also fell into one and that leaves Teppei to carry out the ‘mission’ all by himself. If there’s a trap door, then I guess you shouldn’t hurt your brain thinking why there’s a button in the middle of the path in which Teppei stepped on. It sends him flying like a shooting star, crashing into the girls’ area. The guys are rounded up and are being reprimanded by the girls. It won’t be wise to keep the boys locked up forever since everyone is here so the gang play games and do stuff together. Bed time, the girls are talking about how wonderful Teppei is, bringing them all together. It seems Seika will make her official announcement of Teppei’s entry into the Social Club next week. They went on to talk about him falling in love with a girl. It could be one of them or someone else. So they make a Hotspring Pact that they should harbour no grudge if Teppei chooses someone he likes.

 

Alfred still doesn’t trust Teppei so in episode 7 he even breaks into school to get that pest away from Charlotte. Though the duo manage to get away from the pestering old butler, Charlotte sprained her ankle so Teppei feels bad about dragging her like this and takes her to the infirmary. Suddenly it starts raining rose petals. And there is a crazy guy skydiving down from the blimp! People, don’t try this stunt anyhow. After safely parachuting down into Shuuhou Academy’s grounds, this guy Hartmann Bezelheim, a famous entrepreneur from the Hazelrink kingdom and his family’s company has large business and investments with the Arima Group, is here to see his fiancee Charlotte. You can tell the airhead girl doesn’t like him and just obliges. Even Sylvia is caught by surprise as she didn’t know best friend Charlotte had a fiancee. Charlotte is reluctant to talk about it so Teppei changes the topic and invites her for dinner at Arima Hills. Next day, Sylvia confronts Charlotte. No, not about Hartmann. Last night she heard Vincent talking on the phone and he sounded tense. She heard that there is a secret nuclear missile silo developing between the borders of Hazelrink and Filmish. Charlotte doesn’t know anything about it so Sylvia suspects a third country is trying to cause tension between both nations. Seika is caught eavesdropping so based on her information, she says that something may be happening at Arima Hills tonight. That night, Hartmann has a meeting with Isshin and Vincent at Arima Hills about the nuclear conspiracy that may cause public unrest. Charlotte receives an SMS from Teppei to meet her at the suite but something tells it is a setup because Teppei is seen practicing with his sword in the garden with Yuu. Charlotte eagerly arrives at the suite but doesn’t see Teppei anywhere. As she waits, a blackout of the entire building occurs. Teppei receives a threatening SMS from an unknown source that in addition to taking his parents’ life, they also have taken his loved one hostage.

 

Arima Hills plunge into darkness in episode 8 and a group of militia storms the building taking out the security and holding up the staff. The mastermind behind the coup is no other than Hartmann’s personal assistant, Josephine. Charlotte is taken hostage by a bitter mercenary whom I shall refer to as Scarface, and his bungling pair of subordinates. They sound more like clowns. Isshin manages to establish communication to Yuu about their situation before being cut off. So Yuu and the rest of her maids show us that they’re just more than maids. They’re bloody good computer hackers as well! Can put most techies to shame. So the battle to gain control over Arima Hills’ network begins. Yuu manages to seize control for a short time and discover crucial information (like Charlotte’s presence) before the militia’s hacker wrestled back their control. Teppei and Sylvia head over to the building. While Charlotte is being tied up, Scarface explains to her why they’re doing this. To him, he was born in the slums and grew up in a very poor hellish environment. He saw Arima Hills as heaven and their contrasting lifestyle made him hate it even more and wants to destroy it. But plans to broadcast Arima Hills undersiege hits a snag. With the intervention of Seika, all news channels report the incident as just a blackout, keeping the situation under control. Teppei and Sylvia charge into the building but the tightly guarded areas made it impossible for them to advance. They retreat and to their relief find the special forces group, Arima SP, have arrived. Teppei and Sylvia along with Seika infiltrate the building through the rooftop via helicopter. Seika uses a group of idols putting up a performance near Arima Hills as further distraction. During that time, Hartmann struggles with Josephine to allow the duo to escape but was shot and killed. Josephine reveals her goal to embarrass them all. She then orders a retreat so the militia pulls out. Sylvia finds Isshin and Vincent okay as Teppei rushes to find Charlotte and eventually finds her. But their reunion is short-lived because Charlotte informs him that before Scarface left, he told her there were several bombs planted in the building. And Yuu’s attempt to regain control has triggered its timer and the entire building to blackout once more.

 

Isshin and the rest are being flown back to their mansion in episode 9 while Teppei and Charlotte try to find and diffuse the bombs. Why is Charlotte so happy and carefree? Well, she thinks everything will be alright since Teppei will think up of something. Doesn’t this sound familiar? There is a way to purge the virus and that is to reformat the entire data of Arima Group. Isshin tells Yuu to go ahead since that isn’t important. Besides, he is confident that every loyal staff working in Arima Group has data in their head so it won’t be a problem retrieving them but it’ll take time. Two of the bombs have been found and diffused by the Arima SP but due to their locations, they can’t make it in time to the next one. Is the building that big? So Sylvia decides to go back there and diffuse it along with Seika who feels she shouldn’t hog all the limelight. Once they find the bomb, it was just a matter of cutting which wire: blue or red. I’m not sure what Sylvia’s thinking was but she told Seika to hold the bomb while she thinks. Time is running, dear. Before the final seconds, she cuts the red one and her reason was that it was her lucky colour. So it was just a blind guess?!

 

Teppei and Charlotte encounter obstacles in their way like the bungling duo militiamen who got lost (easily defeated because they started fantasizing about Charlotte) and a thick steel shutter (can cut through with a chainsaw?). The duo then come face to face with Scarface who is waiting for them. He expresses his disgust for the Arima Group successor and is going to shoot him. Seriously, can Teppei outrun his bullets? This show says he can as he deflects them with his wooden sword and lands a painful punch in Scarface’s face. They find the bomb but no time left. He throws it down the trash chute and it goes boom. Thankfully it is made of thick steel to withstand earthquake so the building still stands. Why didn’t they just throw it all down the chute in the first place? Isshin thanks everyone for their hard work while Teppei and the girls reunite. Sylvia tells it straight to Charlotte’s face that Hartmann died while protecting Isshin and Vincent. That’s when Charlotte starts getting emotional. She admitted that when she first got to know Hartmann as her fiancee, she didn’t really like him and pretended to do so since he is to be her future husband. And with his death, she has finally come to like him. I wanted to say she was shedding crocodile tears and was happy he died but I guess she really means it. While gloom hangs over the gang, Charlotte’s chauffeur arrives to pick her up home. However unknown to everyone, the chauffeur seems to closely resemble Hartmann. Could it be?

 

Yes it is. Hartmann is very well alive in episode 10 and all this was just a ploy. He picks up Josephine halfway down the road and Charlotte continues to be their hostage and being put to sleep. The gang soon learns about their mistake when Isshin arrives and says Charlotte’s escort will be shortly soon and the only person he contacted was Alfred. So this episode has Teppei very gloomy because he can’t do a thing to save Charlotte after Vincent told him this is something he can’t handle since it has become an international issue. Lots of flashback with his time spent with Charlotte which causes him to realize her importance. Bla bla bla. Do we really need this? Charlotte is on a train across Russia back to her Hazelrink kingdom. Hartmann explains his intention to crush and destroy Teppei and lead Isshin to despair. Even so, he notes that shaming him won’t be enough. He leaves Charlotte in the care of the bungling duo militiamen. You know, Charlotte can be a spoilt child even as a hostage, demanding this and that. But you know those guys they aren’t that bad as they try to appease her. She’s having so much fun as a hostage. Back to Teppei, since he is indecisive, Seika and Sylvia ticks him off for not being the man they once knew. Where was that great man who resolved the half century hatred brought the feuding families back together? Where was that great man who crossed swords with her? Seika kisses him, Sylvia slaps him. So I guess it is Yuu’s turn now, eh? Either way, Sylvia is going back to her country because she wants to rescue Charlotte, with or without Teppei. So what will Yuu do? She puts his face on her lap and comforts him. I guess it’s enough motivation for him to go save Charlotte. Meanwhile the militiamen allow Charlotte to take a bath. But Josephine isn’t happy because she truly loves Hartmann but knows deep down in his heart he likes Charlotte. So she confronts Charlotte and imposes some tits pinching bullying but Charlotte says she will neither run nor hide. And it is revealed that it is part of their plan to leak information of their whereabouts because Hartmann wants Teppei to take the bait.

 

Isshin gives Teppei a sword and a million Yen for his journey in episode 11 and wants him to stick true to his beliefs. Seika sees Teppei off at the airport and shows her tsundere side after all by hugging him after all those harsh words. Teppei arrives with Yuu in Filmish. Sylvia has become the head of the calvary in the shortest time possible after a head on battle with the ex-calvary chief. Vincent throws a party to welcome them and that night Teppei talks with Sylvia, how she looks a lot like her mom and such. They had another spar and Teppei obviously lost. Sylvia asserts she likes strong men and won’t accept a man who lost to her twice. What does that mean? Heck what it means because now it’s Sylvia’s turn to kiss him. Assault on the train beings next morning when it arrives in the kingdom. I find it odd that Sylvia’s entire calvary are female, riding horses and even have old fashioned cannon. Charlotte is thrilled to see Teppei riding his motorbike chasing the train. Only thing is, it isn’t Teppei, but Alfred. How disappointing. It’s amazing how a determined old guy could take out a bunch of fully equipped militia. Speaking of which, that was just a distraction so that Teppei could infiltrate the train by jumping down a bridge?! Don’t ever try this. Not even James Bond. Teppei slows the train down so he could allow Sylvia and her calvary to board. Hartmann tells Josephine to secure the hostage. I suppose jealous Josephine was going to shoot them both but Hartmann shoots her first, claiming she’s a nuisance. So much for a one-sided love. A short flashback reveals Hartmann as a pick-pocketing thief when he was a poor young boy. He was caught by Isshin and ever since felt humiliated and wanted revenge. That’s it? Apparently not. He plans to take everything Isshin has and put forth his whatever plans. He separates the train from the other carriage and during the struggle, Teppei managed to pull Charlotte back inside after being flung out. As a result, this gives Hartmann an opportunity to shoot him and send him falling off. Is he really dead? Well if he could jump down from a bridge to a running train, what are the chances he’ll survive a fall from a moving train.

 

Apparently in episode 12 Teppei is still alive. How? He was caught by Sylvia while Alfred is riding a bike! Don’t ever try this stunt anywhere! Hey. How can a bike ride 3 people? I guess since it’s slowing them down, one of them have to get off. Teppei or Alfred. Rock-scissors-papers. The old geezer lost. Meanwhile Hartmann and Charlotte are having their conversation about truth, lies and deception. For once Charlotte doesn’t sound like an airhead and emits an air of maturity and seriousness. She wants Hartmann to save Josephine (hanging on to her dear life) but he refuses so Charlotte carries her for help. Thankfully the pair of militiamen blokes have medical background. Not joking. But they’re dropout students not because of their clowning around. Just that they had no money. Don’t worry, Josephine is in safe hands and since this is a government train, it has a real operating theatre. Teppei catches up with the train and Hartmann isn’t pleased to find out he is alive. Now here is another bike stunt never to imitate. Swiftly and faster than Jackie Chan, Teppei switches with Sylvia so that she could take control of the bike while he gets onboard the train. Dangerous. In the carriage, Teppei confronts Hartmann with Charlotte as his hostage. You know those heroic and honour words from heroes of what he learned throughout his journey. From his side of course what the main girls had taught him. I’m not going to bore you by going into details.

 

He tells Hartmann that he got it wrong while he was pick-pocketing. Isshin didn’t humiliate him but rather wanted him to ‘rise up to his level’. Teppei wants him to start anew his life but Hartmann isn’t going to believe those lies. He’s so crazy that he even placed bombs in the carriage and blows them up! Great. Now the train is on fire. Hartmann reveals that he was the one that killed his parents when he found out she was alive. No matter how painful it is, Teppei has to swallow his displeasure and forgives him! Why can’t all of us be like this guy? Hartmann still isn’t buying Teppei’s crap so in a split second, Teppei disarms his gun with his sword and lands his fist in his face. The train explodes and the trio are flung out. How are Teppei and Charlotte saved? You should have guessed it. All in good timing, they landed on Sylvia’s bike in precise timing (not sure if it was a fluke). Unbelievable. Oh yes. Don’t try this anyhow, people. As for Hartmann, he landed safely in the arms of Alfred riding a slow tractor. Disappointed he did not catch Charlotte, he throws him into the river. With the ordeal over and everyone heaving sighs of relief, I’m not sure what Charlotte did to thank Teppei but she can’t wait to do ‘it’ right in the vineyard no matter how embarrassing it was. Josephine wakes up and is on the road to recovery to see Hartmann by her side. Change over a new leaf has he? When Teppei and the girls get back to Japan, Seika and her Social Club throws them a party as Teppei dances with the main girls. And later goes apologizing to them for all the trouble that has happened. Like they ever blamed him in the first place. Well, that’s why the love him too.

 

So okay, nice happy ending. Just like in fairytales. Just that we don’t know if they’ll live happily forever. Now that Teppei has solved the mystery surrounding his parents’ demise, would he return to his normal ordinary life? I don’t think so. With the developments that have taken place, it is best that he continues to be the successor of the Arima Group. He has proven his worth. There shouldn’t be any international issue since the parties involved tried their best from letting it get out of hand. And will they not prosecute for his crimes? Well, he seems like he has turned over a new leaf and besides, Teppei did forgive and wanted him to restart his life again. But I still feel he needs to face up for his past crimes. Murdering and conspiring on an international level is something not to be taken lightly. I don’t mean to be disgusted with Teppei’s kindness but if he lets criminals go after committing a major crime, what the heck is the justice system for?

 

One thing different about the main girls in this series as compared to the girls in other harem animes, is that they are intellects. Okay, maybe one of them is an airhead but even so she shows responsibility when needed. You don’t see them fighting over the man they love, right? Unlike jealous high school girls who can’t wait to get a piece of their guy and eliminate competition at every opportunity present. So the girls here may have a little disagreement here and there but nothing major. They are really honouring the Hotspring Pact. Teppei may have not choose who he wants to be yet probably because as Sylvia said it doesn’t matter who he ends up with as they are happy with the way things are now and don’t want to change that. If I have to make a guess, my best bet he should end up with Charlotte. Hey, isn’t that what this series is named after? Besides, it’s not like Sylvia or Teppei agreed to the arranged marriage thingy in the first place. Hey. I just noticed something trivial. Teppei has got the 3 main girls kissed him but not Yuu. Perhaps putting his head on his lap is enough? Consider the scandal if a maid and master kissed.

 

Speaking about the fanservice and if you are a great fan of it (heck, if not why are you watching this in the first place?), you might be disappointed if you were watching the TV version. All those panty shots and the likes have been censored by convenient steam and ‘dark shadows’. Even the ending credits animation show the main girls in their pose and clothes slowly turn into sexy bikini outfits is considered mild at this rate. So if you like to see beyond that, there is this motivation to buy the DVD version. Fully uncensored, guarantee. And speaking about the DVDs, buyers will be treated to several specials. They are divided into Picture Drama, Secret Girl and Magical Knight Maria-chan. Thus there are a total of 18 specials (6 instalments each). Picture Dramas are the longest duration with each special lasting 10-12 minutes. Basically in this segment, you have a still picture of the characters in the series while they ‘discuss’ about several stuff. Like the first one is about Black Holes. No, they’re not teaching us about astronomy but those ‘dark shadows’ that I mentioned earlier. And yeah. What is a Picture Drama without ecchi and ‘danger level’ pictures.

 

Picture Drama 2 has the gang talking about transforming into magical girls (sexy ones of course – you should see Nezu’s one. Disgusting). Picture Drama 4 is about the girls comparing and ‘arguing’ about boobs size since we all know Seika is a flat chest (Nezu’s comment that everyone is a winner at the end of some piggyback fighting contest is so true). Ayano and Erika get more screen time in Picture Drama 5 as they seek to punish Teppei because they see him as a threat to do yuri stuff with Erika (Grand Wave blast? How the heck did they do that?). Picture Drama 6 has the gang doing a little recap and this one is a little informative because it tells the difference between the anime works from the game production and its process of doing certain stuff for certain scenes. At the end of each Picture Drama, viewers are treated with bonus pictures. Pictures of the ladies in nude and sexy poses. What else? Except for Picture Drama 3, whereby it is a melancholic flashback on Yuu’s past and on how she came to meet Teppei and regain the ability to use her lost voice once more during her days at the orphanage.

 

Secret Girl specials last about 2 minutes each and I don’t understand what its significance is. It takes random and ambiguous ecchi scenes from the series and compiles it into this montage (some parts now uncensored of course). As for Magical Knight Maria-chan, they are like a minute preview of Maria’s spin-off series like herself being a magical girl or even a grow-up busty version attending Shuuhou Academy. I guess she did not have enough screen time appearance in the series proper so maybe loli fans were disappointed. But this? Don’t get it either. And I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a joke because at the end it mentions this series has 40,000 volumes! And for some of them, the project starts like in the year 2020?! I think this has to be a joke.

 

On a trivial note, at the next episode preview has a character (usually Charlotte) asking a question. Then some other character will either give an unnecessary reply or the answer going off tangent. Anyhow, it has no relation to the next episode. Each episode title is short and simple and most of them, how should I put it, come in pairs. For instance episode 2’s "Academy and reunion", episode 5’s "Sunset and Ferris Wheel" and episode 11’s "Calvary and Train". Makes it easier to recall what happened in that episode and beats having long winded titles that have no relation whatsoever. Before I forget, I just want to mention those bike stunts Teppei did. Something I feel Evel Knievel wouldn’t even be able to pull off if he was still alive today. Another reminder not to try them anywhere and anyhow!

 

I’m not sure if I can handle the huge responsibilities like Teppei did if I were to be entrusted with a sudden change in life direction. Being a successor for a huge corporation is not an easy thing. You got to have the brains, the charisma and the connections while keeping in view of those who are just out to get your money. Then there are decades long family conflicts to resolve, parties to attend, business deals to close, contracts to sign, important decisions to make, uprising to curb, international tensions to quell, action hero, stuntman, negotiator, hostages to rescue, and man, the list goes on and one. On top of that, Teppei is still a high school kid! (Okay, maybe some of the items in the list were made up). Would you do it for the money? I think I’ll pass that up. It’s better to be an anime otaku-cum-hikikomori watching animes like this. But really, what would I really do? Erm… I’ll think of something somehow.