Episode 01 – Immature Knights

Did you ever expect to see an anime series revolving around female knights and jousting?  Well, I certainly didn’t, but this season is packed with surprises.  Walkure Romanze, is an adaptation of an eroge created by the same company that created Princess Lover, Ricotta.  Now while the elements of knighthood and jousting may sound intriguing, this series also packs a fair amount of ecchi (remember that it’s based on an eroge).  We first start with an interesting match of jousting between two ladies before skipping to a scene of a horse going rogue nearby.  Upon reaching a care-free girl with pink hair, the horse decides to tear off her skirt and introduce the ecchi.  Thankfully, a young man by the name of Takahiro Mizuno (CV: Seiichiro Yamashita) interferes before things get worse.

Such passion…

The unfortunate girl from before is revealed to be a close friend of Takahiro, named Mio Kisaki (CV: Ai Shimizu).  The two proceed to return the horse and run into the female knight from the opening scene named Celia (CV: Kei Mizusawa).  Celia requests Takahiro to become her begleiter (knight’s assistant), but he requests more time to get her an answer.  After a few scenes introducing several supporting characters, Mio and Takahiro go on their own little adventures.  Takahiro wanders into a forest and runs into another knight by the name of Noel Ascot (CV: Eriko Nakamura), who apparently wants him to become her assistant to defeat Celia.  Noel doesn’t receive a clear answer from him, but simply requests for his consideration.  Meanwhile, Mio attempts to capture Takahiro’s heart with a homemade lunch, but ends up freeing the enraged horse from before.  After a long chase that unfortunately drags a conceited female knight into the fray, Mio finds a way to calm the horse.  Before Takahiro can dash in and save poor Mio, the female knight challenges her to a duel and the episode ends.

She has tamed the beast.

So…I suppose this series is alright, but the ecchi is abundant throughout this first episode, with multiple panties shots and whatnot.  Along with this, I found the characters to be pretty one-dimensional and unappealing; with the protagonist being too melancholic and the main female lead being a bit too ditzy (you’ll be hearing “ehhhhh” a lot).  8bit studio does a nice job with the visuals and overall presentation, but not much else caught my interest in this first episode.  I will probably try to continue watching this series next week, and hopefully it will get a bit more intriguing in the future.