Totally Spies is a show about three valley girls who are secretly spies in LA. Princess Principal is about five young ladies whose lives were forever changed by a a civil (now cold) war in Great Britain during or after the Industrial Revolution and now are spies trying to change the course of history…or something like that…and with that we join young Chise on her first month of school as a secret spy.
English cafeteria food sucks.
Let me just say Chise was at her cutest in this episode so this was a very special gift for all Chise fans. A majority of the episode was told in the form of a letter Chise was writing to her older sister. In said letter she described how her new English school was like, her teammates and how she did her best to adapt.
Highlights of the letter include:
Chise vs Fencing Club Captain.
1: Wanting to challenge the captain of the fencing club to a duel. She learned that day the basic way of starting duels was with gloves, not turnip slices.
Lily Gaveston.
2: Meeting one Lily Gaveston, a stereotypical popular girl wannabe who used her social status to feign superiority over others. Chise stood up to her snobbishness and then Princess quickly put her down.
Dorothy readying her secret weapons.
3: Chise acknowledging she had a ways to go before achieving full womanhood. Some animeniacs would say she already had but that is a topic for another time. Oh and Team White Pigeon were on a mission to track down an enemy agent.
Chise relishing the sweet taste of kintsuba.
4: Relishing the sweet taste of kintsuba.
Before we continue it must be pointed out that Chise’s main objective was to investigate Team White Pigeon and inform her superior on Operation Changeling and whether the best option was for Japan to form an alliance with the Commonwealth or the Kingdom.
Now back to the highlights.
Chise observing the wonders of evolution.
5: Witnessing the wonders of evolution through a chrysalis. Unfortunately said enjoyment was cut short by pompous rapscallions needlessly getting in her way because she’s an “oriental”. As we recall from Chise’s backstory episode “orientals” were looked down upon. Chise wanted to challenge the hooligan to a duel but Ange and the others arrived and told her to not make that could have put their secret identities in jeopardy.
Princess teaching Chise the proper way to duel.
6: Being educated by Princess on the ways of the duel.
Chise vs racist hooligan leader.
7: The next day preparations were made for the 7th highlight, Chise’s duel with the racist hooligans’ leader. Chise used her badassitude to come out on top, even overcoming a sabotage attempt by the hooligan. The duel is best enjoyed by seeing it for yourselves. After the duel Chise was sad the only one who was there to see her victory was Princess, making her think the others didn’t trust or respect her for going through with this duel.
Sumo Princess.
8: Being part of a “Dohyo Iri” sumo celebration. It also turned out that Miss Lily was the enemy agent Team White Pigeon were looking for. While Chise had no idea she was helping out by keeping Lily distracted (she was the “witness” of the duel) she was happy to have been able to help on a mission even if it was involuntarily. And now we know why Chise’s so trusting of Team White Pigeon, especially Princess as we saw in episode 3.
I don’t know how others felt about this episode but I enjoyed it. Unless the main plot will continue in the next episode I somehow suspect this show will be a 2-cour. Guess we’ll find out in due time.
The Yuri Empire 
I was sort of luke warm on Chise prior to this episode. I mean, we knew she was a badass but I didn’t really care too much about her. After this episode, however, I’m definitely fully on board. Great episode with some really nice character and world building even if it wasn’t a plot mover.
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How amusing. I know someone who felt the same way about another one of the girls. Like her though, I will tell you the same thing, if there was one member of Team White Pigeon you didn’t care as much about, rest assured the show would find a way to expand their character. That’s what they did here with Chise.
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It’s soon cool that the princess is always try to help Chise get use to there customs.
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Princess is a good guide in English mannerisms. She had plenty of time to learn the hard way after all.
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Les Mis isn’t the only 19th Century French Novel I’m familiar with (actually I haven’t read Victor Hugo’s novel, it’s like trying to binge a season of PreCure).
Duels are a rather common plot point in them, the second Racomole novel even gets self aware about it. So seeing that Duel trope play out in an Anime was quite a treat.
This show is checking off all the conventions of 19th Century Melodrama.
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Not a literary guy myself but again I’ll take your word for it that the show’s heavily inspired by 19th Century French novels.
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Still not sure who’s my favorite. Chise, Ange, and Charlotte battle it out constantly! But the whole cast is fantastic, and this show just is tons of fun~
Next ep has gotta be when they push the plot again. They’ve already explained all the characters by now, and even gave some interesting world building. this is the time for them to begin the descent into madness
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Same here. It’s hard to pick out a favorite because each of them are good on their own. Let’s just enjoy this story build up because there’s a storm coming up after the calm.
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Yes indeed.
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You still have time to pick a #1.
Most likely.
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So context again
Japan was viewed around this time the same way we view China now where they were “westernizing” fast but cultural and racial tensions showed up with things like the Gentleman’s Agreement between us and Japan banning immigration to America
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Good to know.
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I was happy to see some more quality Chise development and although I had no poor views of her before, I’ve come to like her character even more. I also really enjoyed getting to see a bit more on their daily school lives. This episode continues to be my most anticipated show of the week. I’m praying for it to be two cour, so I hope you’re right about that.
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Yes. It most certainly could use more than 12 episodes. It’s practically begging to be two-cour from my point of view.
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Getting a rare feeling of wanting to see more of each of the main characters almost equally… And this is coming after an episode in which my favorite was the center.
I don’t doubt that this is a rare feeling for many others either, so i’ll ask to be excused once again for not seeing this coming. This anime, yo! A second cour would be just wonderful!
For the episode itself though, I don’t really have much to say at the moment besides that I enjoyed it and will be using Chise’s sling attack as an example of how much of a badass she is. And I suppose that I’d like to see more of Lily.
As always, looking forward to the next episode, and thanks to that feeling, an advancement of the plot.
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Patience lass, patience. The main plot will resume soon enough.
Chise’s badassitude and cuteness levels are through the roof.
I’d love for the show to be 2-cour. We’ll see what happens in the last three episodes.
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I saw something amazing; a ball being bowled in a game of Cricket. In an anime!! This may have happened before but it’s the first time I’ve seen it and I was just awe-struck. To add to the awesome, Chise was holding her bat in the Iai style and boy did she hit that ball for a six. So yeah, highlight of the episode for me.
The difference in cultures was hard for Chise to navigate through at times, resulting in some insults thrown her way, especially from a douche-canoe of a noble. The way the duel ended up was so satisfying.
Chise was thinking that her allies didn’t like her that much due to how different she was from them but that was far from the case. In fact, it was a good thing that duel happened since they were able to complete their mission. Also, Chise may be struggling with these customs but it’s not like Princess and the others are experts on the customs of the East, as seen with their attempt at the Dohyo Iri ceremony. You could say that their differences makes their bonds stronger.
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Chise’s quite awesome.
You go Chise!
Well said.
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This episode was necessary for the plot. Now that Chise trust the princess and the girls completely, she’s willing to fight without a single doubt. She’s indeed the strongest and the cutest samurai ninja ever. But to become the best spy, she has a lot to learn. I like all the girls, but Chise is always my favorite.
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I bet she volunteered to “monitor” the princess because she actually harbours secret feelings for her, i mean, her name is Lily right. 😀
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Possibly. She doesn’t look like a conniving agent but more of a “What a pain” agent.
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