Should I watch Princess Lover?
note: Im LA
Money is a fickle thing, the richer your are, it's expected you will be better off but is that always true?.
Princess Lover! as an ecchi harem anime, there was actually alot of potential this anime had and by all means it succeeded in some, in others...well lets start with the characters shall we?
Character-wise, we have our typical harem cast archetypes with a semi-interesting main male protagonist. Shirou- Teppei Arima voiced by Takuma Terashima is our typical "wanting to protect and care for his harem" type with a tragic backstory added to him. The tragic backstory of his parents dying leaving him to his grandfather actually kickstarts the anime but that isn't really his bright spot for the Teppei as a character, it's more or less what happens when a normal teenager is now brought to a place of wealth (it might sound off but LA will get to this later). Sakur- Yuu Fujikura voiced by Yuki Matsuoka becomes Teppei's personal maid and is the typical nice girl who minds Teppei, she is LA's favourite character in this anime, no not only because LA has a thing for maids, but also because her typical nice girl and the minder to Teppei is a nice combination of NOT getting her annoying and helping Teppei's cause at the same time. Ride- Charlotte Hazelrink voiced by Ryouka Yuzuki is our resident genki girl and ALWAYS happy in any situation and she is our MAIN focus of this entire anime, why does LA say this?, well she's the first girl Teppei meets, she has the most screentime even outside of her main plotline and the anime itself is gunning for Charlotte and Teppei to be together as this relationship also gets the most screentime...LA didn't like this turn of events, she wasn't an absolute detriment to the anime as her plotline leads to one of the grander themes to Princess Lover!, but LA wished some of the other harem members could get if any screentime. Rin- Seika Houjouin voiced by Emiri Katou is your resident tsundere and strict "club president" type character and she gets a small arc to herself that ties into her and Teppei grandfather's family issues and LA didn't mind it but like any harem member with a small arc and gets added to the harem, she fawns and tsundere's over Teppei. Finally we have Sab- Sylvia van Hossen voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi the character with the most wasted potential within this harem and quite honestly the LEAST amount of screentime in LA's eyes. Why?, well Sylvia becomes Teppei's fiancee through Teppei's grandfather Isshin Arima. This is interesting as we could see how Teppei would have felt being forced to marry Sylvia and then later on Sylvia and Teppei might fall in love naturally and break the social structure OR Sylvia and Teppei liking each other but rebelling at their forced marriage just something like that but again...due to Charlotte being the main focus, this was just wasted potential from LA. LA still preferred Yuu as favourite, but Sylvia was probably the most interesting character in the harem. Also if LA's hinting isn't obvious enough, kinda a coincidence that the harem members were carbon copied from Fate stay night right?
For minor characters, it's expected that most of them supporting characters for a harem anime, but LA would note that the majority of the minor cast do have some semblance of screentime whether it be Haruhiko Nezu voiced by Minoru Shiriashi the butt monkey of the cast, Ayano Kaneko and Erika Takezono voiced by Nozomi Sasaki and Kaoru Mizuhara being Seika's posse members and Alfred voiced by Yousuke Akimoto, the extremely clingy butler of Charlotte.
Princess Lover!'s plot progression is albeit quick even for a 12 episode anime, consisting of 3 "arcs" in a ways, the Introduction arc focusing on what's going on and introducing the majority of the characters along with Teppei's situation of finding his parent's killers, Seika's arc along with the Hot Springs Meta Episode (Don't ask) then Charlotte's arc that gets serious. Now how the mood is placed, LA thought this anime would get extremely moodswinging due to how it gets "serious" and "comes out of nowhere" or stupid comedically ecchi moments appear but LA by the end didn't really see this, the anime was always goofy and ecchi as hell even when it's serious, minor characters and especially Charlotte backs up it's goofiness even in the most serious at times (also see the two dorky "terrorists", Nezu and gratitous amounts of fanservice). Like harems that are comedic ecchifest animes doesn't ALWAYS need to be like this, look at The World God Only Knows: Goddesses arc and hell Highschool DxD did this!, a harem isn't just limited to it's premise.
If there was anything LA could actually be annoyed by the plot is Sylvia's screentime taken away by Charlotte instead and adds to the missed potential Sylvia as a character would of had. Although it wasn't from the first episode, but it becomes quite noticeable almost blaring out like an S.O.S signal that this won't be a balanced harem and the Hot Springs Pact disguising as if it would was a lame attempt in thinking that no one other than Charlotte would win this harem.
So about Teppei's situation of being brought into a world of wealth through his grandfather is actually an interesting theme to this anime, as the majority of the harem and characters are aristocrats or of royalty or wealthy businesswomans, seeing Teppei being the average guy and STILL being one by the end of it is actually quite interesting as he is unaffected by money or power and this fuels his want to protect people due to his parents dying. This dynamic actually works pretty well and even Charlotte's arc main villain is essentially a polar opposite character to Teppei only this time the villain took the wrong path and doesn't care about anyone but himself and his ambitions. Princess Lover! underlying theme tucked under the forced panty shots and harem antics does shows us that even if your rich, you can quite easily have even newer problems as well as the fact that you might self destruct yourself if your not careful with your money. Cheesy enough as it sounds, this notion is kinda manifested in Teppei of that having power and money isn't everything.
On speaking of fanservice.......HELLLLLLLLLLLO uncensored glory, yup the anime is completely uncensored and although the forced panty shots and jiggle physics is strong in this one, the fanservice is pretty plentiful albeit forced typical for an ecchi harem anime.
The animation done by GoHands has GoHands'...hands all over it. From the typical shining effect to the decent enough backgrounds that could make JJ Abrams blush. The character designs are pretty polished and exotic, this is kinda obvious to the wealthy characters, special mention probably goes to Sylvia's normal outfit. The fights that happen in this anime is sparse but ok enough, though the fencing and swordplay are decent to look at. Overall, yes LA thought the animation was typical of GoHands and decent to look at.
The voice acting.....well NORIO WAKAMOTO as Isshin Arima, man LA heard him in quite a while. Yuki Matsuoka, Megumi Toyoguchiand Ryouka Yuzuki were pretty good however LA's surprising voice actor would go to Emiri Katou as Seika, mainly because Emiri is typecasted as the genki of the harem members, here?...she's the strict tsundere character?...yeah LA wasn't expecting it and she does it pretty well.
LA also thought that because of it's themes being taken full circle along with Teppei's resolution taken place during the finale, LA thought the ending was done pretty well for Teppei and this anime's themes quite well. Not so much with how the harem ending...ends with a harem ending with Teppei still not choosing even though it's goddamn obvious that he's gonna be with Charlotte.
So Princess Lover! kinda got LA torn over many elements to it by the end of it. LA liked it's grander themes of being rich not always being ideal and safe, Princess Lover! knowing itself and it's limitations and wanting to be different if it could and tried, the decent ending, the animation and voice acting being decent, however with Sylvia's and Yuu's lesser screentime due to Charlotte highjacking the plot and forced panty shots and fanservice and finally having that harem ending. Princess Lover! isn't that bad, yes it has it's problems and sometimes those problems are due to LA's own bias due to best girl and all but LA just can't hate it but it's not great either.
Money is a fickle thing, the richer your are, it's expected you will be better off but is that always true?.
Princess Lover! as an ecchi harem anime, there was actually alot of potential this anime had and by all means it succeeded in some, in others...well lets start with the characters shall we?
Character-wise, we have our typical harem cast archetypes with a semi-interesting main male protagonist. Shirou- Teppei Arima voiced by Takuma Terashima is our typical "wanting to protect and care for his harem" type with a tragic backstory added to him. The tragic backstory of his parents dying leaving him to his grandfather actually kickstarts the anime but that isn't really his bright spot for the Teppei as a character, it's more or less what happens when a normal teenager is now brought to a place of wealth (it might sound off but LA will get to this later). Sakur- Yuu Fujikura voiced by Yuki Matsuoka becomes Teppei's personal maid and is the typical nice girl who minds Teppei, she is LA's favourite character in this anime, no not only because LA has a thing for maids, but also because her typical nice girl and the minder to Teppei is a nice combination of NOT getting her annoying and helping Teppei's cause at the same time. Ride- Charlotte Hazelrink voiced by Ryouka Yuzuki is our resident genki girl and ALWAYS happy in any situation and she is our MAIN focus of this entire anime, why does LA say this?, well she's the first girl Teppei meets, she has the most screentime even outside of her main plotline and the anime itself is gunning for Charlotte and Teppei to be together as this relationship also gets the most screentime...LA didn't like this turn of events, she wasn't an absolute detriment to the anime as her plotline leads to one of the grander themes to Princess Lover!, but LA wished some of the other harem members could get if any screentime. Rin- Seika Houjouin voiced by Emiri Katou is your resident tsundere and strict "club president" type character and she gets a small arc to herself that ties into her and Teppei grandfather's family issues and LA didn't mind it but like any harem member with a small arc and gets added to the harem, she fawns and tsundere's over Teppei. Finally we have Sab- Sylvia van Hossen voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi the character with the most wasted potential within this harem and quite honestly the LEAST amount of screentime in LA's eyes. Why?, well Sylvia becomes Teppei's fiancee through Teppei's grandfather Isshin Arima. This is interesting as we could see how Teppei would have felt being forced to marry Sylvia and then later on Sylvia and Teppei might fall in love naturally and break the social structure OR Sylvia and Teppei liking each other but rebelling at their forced marriage just something like that but again...due to Charlotte being the main focus, this was just wasted potential from LA. LA still preferred Yuu as favourite, but Sylvia was probably the most interesting character in the harem. Also if LA's hinting isn't obvious enough, kinda a coincidence that the harem members were carbon copied from Fate stay night right?
For minor characters, it's expected that most of them supporting characters for a harem anime, but LA would note that the majority of the minor cast do have some semblance of screentime whether it be Haruhiko Nezu voiced by Minoru Shiriashi the butt monkey of the cast, Ayano Kaneko and Erika Takezono voiced by Nozomi Sasaki and Kaoru Mizuhara being Seika's posse members and Alfred voiced by Yousuke Akimoto, the extremely clingy butler of Charlotte.
Princess Lover!'s plot progression is albeit quick even for a 12 episode anime, consisting of 3 "arcs" in a ways, the Introduction arc focusing on what's going on and introducing the majority of the characters along with Teppei's situation of finding his parent's killers, Seika's arc along with the Hot Springs Meta Episode (Don't ask) then Charlotte's arc that gets serious. Now how the mood is placed, LA thought this anime would get extremely moodswinging due to how it gets "serious" and "comes out of nowhere" or stupid comedically ecchi moments appear but LA by the end didn't really see this, the anime was always goofy and ecchi as hell even when it's serious, minor characters and especially Charlotte backs up it's goofiness even in the most serious at times (also see the two dorky "terrorists", Nezu and gratitous amounts of fanservice). Like harems that are comedic ecchifest animes doesn't ALWAYS need to be like this, look at The World God Only Knows: Goddesses arc and hell Highschool DxD did this!, a harem isn't just limited to it's premise.
If there was anything LA could actually be annoyed by the plot is Sylvia's screentime taken away by Charlotte instead and adds to the missed potential Sylvia as a character would of had. Although it wasn't from the first episode, but it becomes quite noticeable almost blaring out like an S.O.S signal that this won't be a balanced harem and the Hot Springs Pact disguising as if it would was a lame attempt in thinking that no one other than Charlotte would win this harem.
So about Teppei's situation of being brought into a world of wealth through his grandfather is actually an interesting theme to this anime, as the majority of the harem and characters are aristocrats or of royalty or wealthy businesswomans, seeing Teppei being the average guy and STILL being one by the end of it is actually quite interesting as he is unaffected by money or power and this fuels his want to protect people due to his parents dying. This dynamic actually works pretty well and even Charlotte's arc main villain is essentially a polar opposite character to Teppei only this time the villain took the wrong path and doesn't care about anyone but himself and his ambitions. Princess Lover! underlying theme tucked under the forced panty shots and harem antics does shows us that even if your rich, you can quite easily have even newer problems as well as the fact that you might self destruct yourself if your not careful with your money. Cheesy enough as it sounds, this notion is kinda manifested in Teppei of that having power and money isn't everything.
On speaking of fanservice.......HELLLLLLLLLLLO uncensored glory, yup the anime is completely uncensored and although the forced panty shots and jiggle physics is strong in this one, the fanservice is pretty plentiful albeit forced typical for an ecchi harem anime.
The animation done by GoHands has GoHands'...hands all over it. From the typical shining effect to the decent enough backgrounds that could make JJ Abrams blush. The character designs are pretty polished and exotic, this is kinda obvious to the wealthy characters, special mention probably goes to Sylvia's normal outfit. The fights that happen in this anime is sparse but ok enough, though the fencing and swordplay are decent to look at. Overall, yes LA thought the animation was typical of GoHands and decent to look at.
The voice acting.....well NORIO WAKAMOTO as Isshin Arima, man LA heard him in quite a while. Yuki Matsuoka, Megumi Toyoguchiand Ryouka Yuzuki were pretty good however LA's surprising voice actor would go to Emiri Katou as Seika, mainly because Emiri is typecasted as the genki of the harem members, here?...she's the strict tsundere character?...yeah LA wasn't expecting it and she does it pretty well.
LA also thought that because of it's themes being taken full circle along with Teppei's resolution taken place during the finale, LA thought the ending was done pretty well for Teppei and this anime's themes quite well. Not so much with how the harem ending...ends with a harem ending with Teppei still not choosing even though it's goddamn obvious that he's gonna be with Charlotte.
So Princess Lover! kinda got LA torn over many elements to it by the end of it. LA liked it's grander themes of being rich not always being ideal and safe, Princess Lover! knowing itself and it's limitations and wanting to be different if it could and tried, the decent ending, the animation and voice acting being decent, however with Sylvia's and Yuu's lesser screentime due to Charlotte highjacking the plot and forced panty shots and fanservice and finally having that harem ending. Princess Lover! isn't that bad, yes it has it's problems and sometimes those problems are due to LA's own bias due to best girl and all but LA just can't hate it but it's not great either.
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