Starmyu

komasan★ 8

It's an immensely enjoyable ride with this series. It's a relatively simple story, but it's easy to follow and it's a fun watch. The series composition is amazing in that I always feel satisfied after watching because most times it contains drama within the episode and also balances it out with lighthearted moments. It never gets too heavy even while you are emotionally moved by plot developments. I first decided to try out this series because I saw a composer that I like was doing the soundtrack. Honestly this show wouldn't have attracted me otherwise since I like watching anime with action or romance, so Ididn't expect I would come to love this series. The first episode will definitely catch viewers off guard. But even though you'll often be surprised by the sudden songs it's something you'll find yourself more or less getting used to. I recommend watching at least the first 3 episodes to see how you'll like it. Starmyu appears to be this dumb silly show but if you go deeper you'll see the writers and director have put quite a bit of thought into it. There's symbolism here and there and I like how they lay down plotlines and details that are picked up later again in the show. And more than that, it's a classic story about youth and friendship, dealing with their own everyday troubles, chasing their dreams. I love the tagline on the show's promotional materials - "I don't know a way to give up my dream." A big plus of Starmyu for me is that it takes away annoyances I've had with other anime. There's always the energetic and optimistic character type which appears here in form of Hoshitani, but the good thing about him is that he's surprisingly realistic when it counts. Also, the lack of a female MC in this show (it being an all-boys school) was especially refreshing, and it made the relationship between the guys shine even more instead of watching them vie over a girl. If I had to name one fault that Starmyu had, it would probably be the animation, which sometimes looks derpy and low-budget. There were a couple of times where the characters didn't look themselves. But in return for that the staff puts special attention on the musical scenes. Some of them are really pretty and detailed, and the dance scene in one of the episodes was quite talked about thanks to the smooth hand-drawn animation. No grouches about the voice acting. There are some good choices here in the cast since there is a lot of singing going on and for the most part they have good vocals, including even the least experienced member of the cast Lounsbery Arthur, who's playing a main character for the first time. Standout singing voices for me are KENN and Hanae Natsuki. I think that the music is something that everyone can listen to. Personally the character songs are 50-50 hit and miss for me, but that's a very high rate by my standards. The good songs are really good, while the rest are just "meh" but not dislikable. Soundtrack BGM-wise, it's always excellent in this series. Lastly while this series is obviously targeted at females, I've noticed that there is quite a handful of guys in Japan who enjoy it. Don't be put off by the all-male cast; you might just enjoy the story.

Kileymik★ 5

Story: 5/10 Generic. The story involves 5 boys who have auditioned and been put into an idol group within their school and must compete to be placed into the music department. This means they’ll be evaluated on their performance growth to see whether they could make it in the schools official elite musical. Generally, you would assume this would mean competing against the other groups of performers for a place in the department. While this is true, it’s only to an extent. Ive counted over 20 different groups, and we only saw one group besides our main group ever perform, which they only did twice. Thismeans there is almost ZERO tension when they are ranked as we dont see what any of the other teams did to compare them too! We dont even get to see much of the technical side of rehearsing, as we mostly receive still shots of stretches or poses. Whatever. Sound: 7/10 Going back and listening to the tracks, they actually werent bad. I think my favorite voices belong to Kaito and Kakkeru. Voice acting was pretty solid but I cant really recall much background music. Characters: 5/10 Generic Tropes. We have the stoic, blue haired “perfect” boy with an Onii-san complex, Red-haired and arrogant uppity boy, a timid motherly type who just wants peace, The purple other-stoic but also edgy artsy one (he plays piano!), and the BORING upbeat brown-haired protagonist. Red-har was the most entertaining, as I appreciate the arrogant ones a lot plus, his cat stuff was cute. However, the character interactions just dont feel right. After watching it, the kids barely know shit about each other and I really barely feel any substance tying each other together aside from being on team Otori. I suppose Nayuki became more outgoing from being on the team and being around MC-kun, but it want really focused on. The characters barely reflect on their past or talk about their feelings so I really dont understand why I should care. Art/Animation: 3/10 Art: TERRIBLE. The character designs are so uncomfortable to look at. Almost every frame had me cringing just at the faces. Seriously, what were they thinking. It’s easy to see almost all the faces are identical to wear I feel like im watching the much-better Osomatsu-san. Everyone’s haor had this weird splotch of (root?) color at the top making it look like they all had bad dye jobs. Even the bodies have mostly the same shape. This designer should be fired. Some of the backgrounds during the songs looked nice I guess. Animation: Ugh. Some of these episodes would have at least a third of the scenes shown in still frames. It’s almost like they didnt try. Theatre is a very visual and moving art, but it feels so stiff, just like most of their dance sequences. Also, please fire this animation director. Overlaying ugly still images over simple repetitive movements doesnt look nice, it makes it look like you got lazy. There was also an extreme over use of sparkles. Come on. At least I got some good laughs at the over the top performances. Nayuki rode on a dolphin through the sky. That’s good shit.