Uta no Prince Sama

marusamarento★ 3

To put it bluntly, don't watch Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000%. Some exceptions to this rule are as follows: - If you're competing with a friend at a drinking game (drink every time the lead girl stutters, you'll lose consciousness fast - you're welcome). There are no other exceptions . . . only excruciating elaboration. Uta no star prince hyphen sama music note maji love 1000 percent sign (it has not earnt the familiarity of UtaPri with me) is a depressingly high-budget anime of a dating sim aimed towards women. Ostensibly about the power of music, love and friendship, it is, realistically speaking, actually aboutjack shit. Our protagonist is a modern day Yamato Nadeshiko with eyes the colour of soup, who wears a short skirt and can't do anything by herself, except play piano. So of course she enters a prestigious idol-making music academy (disguised as a gigolo school) where the ratio of male to female students is astonishingly unbalanced. Despite a personality that is as inviting as her pet cactus and terrifying, terrifying eyes she manages to attract several of potential suitors, apparently through magic, or, as yaoi would put it "sex smell". By the end of this 13 episode series (or, as I like to think of it, six and a half hours of my life I will never get back) Soup-chan has to pick one of the guys to duet with for her graduation audition. Thus the achingly vacuous reverse-harem sausagefest begins. Daringly, unlike several music-based anime series that came before it, such as Nodame Cantabile, Detroit Metal City, Beck, K-On!, and so on, Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000% decides to forego having any listenable music tracks in its OST. The OP is as dull as the protagonist's personality and the ED (which you will hear in various instrumental and acapella forms throughout) is the musical equivalent of putting a cotton bud too far in your ear and experiencing the crippling though dull facial pain that follows. Other tracks in the OST are just forgettable. Like a song that's so cute it angers you, the talented vocal cast in this show fail to shine. Miyuki Sawashiro, for example, is just incessantly irritating as the voice of our main character - and similarly with Mamoru Miyano, as all I wanted to do was give his character a surprise tracheotomy with a pen for that goddamn vibrato he used in every song. It's the same with the other voice actors, though those two were particularly grating. Most of the male characters, except the slightly shady evil twins and split personalities, of course, have bizarrely high voices in a desperate bid to sound cute. Or maybe there's an implicit rule that all male Japanese singers are eunuchs, I don't know. The concept of a music academy that caters to exclusively creating idols that sing pop songs, rather than to cultivate actual talent, is an apt metaphor for this anime. On the surface the art is pretty, bright and cheerful, but it soon becomes clear how the studio cut corners with the budget - the horrific spasms the male characters experience when dancing, the occasionally over-bright scenes where characters are standing in thick fog though they are indoors, and - I can't express my anger enough over this - the chibi. It's like the art director (cunningly disguised as the manager of Death Records) went "bitches love chibi, give them MORE chibi, FUCK!" and that is what they did. If I had a drink every time there was chibi, I would be dead. Though I enjoyed hating this anime, and laughing at the incredible stupidity (talking to her grandmother in her head - presumably her grandmother is dead - presumably that cat has the spirit of her grandmother - did her grandmother just turn into a bishie?), there is a more serious issue with this show. That is, the reason for its very existence - to perpetuate the kind of obsessive fan culture that encourages people to watch pretty boys in every stereotype you can imagine, from sweet to suave and silly to tsundere, have ~subtext~ with each other while still being interested in the [insert yourself here] main role. The same kind of people that would buy the merchandise and image CDs. It leaves a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Much like staring into our lead girl's eyes, watching this anime, you will realise it has no soul - and that watching it probably devalues your own. Like an egotistical person, the show is admittedly pretty, but, boy, doesn't it know it.

asckj1★ 8

O_O Now I've seen it all *shoots self* Story [7/10]: The concept of having a music academy to train students to become future idols. That itself sounds really interesting. In the 2nd episode there was good development in the story through assignment given to the students where one has to compose other to write lyrics and record it. Alas such challenges were never shown after ep 2. The heroine has been given extra special attention by all the guys right from ep 1 without any reason(maybe typical of a reverse harem). A big letdown. I mean why cant the feelings develop slowly as the daysof all characters together progress. Pace of the story is really slow in terms of development. Episodes are wasted on introducing all the guys (6 + one magical creature/guy perhaps- yeah talking about Cecile) no excitment to watch except seing the bishonens in different angles. The way the story is revealed looks very plastic- unrealistic and made up for visual feast to the girls exclusively. The only other good point storywise is the continuity it has kept from one episode to the next. Inspite of all this I dont know why but I am still continuing to watch the show. So if you are okay with a not too interesting plot development then go on ahead to watch. Art [10/10]: No doubt in this. All the guys are awesome. Haruka's eyes though is a heavy disappointment. I actually avoid looking too much in her eyes (cause then maybe I'll get hypnotised :P). Background scenery is good. The campus seems really beautiful. Sound [10/10]: Need I say anything about this. AWESOME SONGS!!!! Just listen to the tunes and you'll be fluttering like a leaf in the wind. Voice actors all have done a good job for their characters as well. AWESOME SONGS Characters [8/10]: All guys have a distinct personality. Though I would have preferred genuinely smiling characters as a change. i mean come on, you cant have an expression like this =.= all the time and expect the audience's mindset to change forcefully towards the character by suddenly seeing him singing and dancing. Smile is a must while performing (well with expections of course for songs which are supposed to be grim). And it is the only thing that also adds vibrance to the idol image of the character. Still most of the guys have this feature so its all good. and Haruka completely fails to give any impact on screen for me. Her personality is absolutely weak. Even Ringo the supporting character has her screen presence felt. Overall [8/10]: I give this ratings because of the following points: 1) Pop music theme. This is the first series which I actually came across with a full fledged pop music theme. Though I agree skip beat also had some of it. 2) Bishounens. No interesting scenes showing the actual process of training students to be future idols. Though i have to admit songs are groovy in each episode. Wait songs are AWESOME. Amazing grace !!!!! All in all its the kind of show to get caught up watching in all the hype.