First Impression – Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000%

Because having only one sparkling bishie just isn’t enough apparently

Kyokai: The stuff we do for Metanorn… You know what? While scheduling for who will get what from the Summer season, there were some titles that nobody wanted to pick but some of us, actually sacrificed and took up first impressions of titles just to test out the water. Like anaaga did for ro-kyu-bu! Kara has volunteered for Uta no Prince and today I’m joining her to give her a hand in setting up thoughts. But before that, Kara to the rescue for what went down in the first episode of this overflowing bishie hunt.

Karakuri: So yeah, feeling guilt after not following most of the spring shows, I decided to be more active in summer to make up for it. Thus why I decided to watch this. After seeing a few okay harem shows recently, my hated for them has lessened slightly so we’ll see how I feel about Uta no Prince….

So fabulous, it hurts. My sides. From laughing too much.

Uta no Prince-sama starts with the heroine, Haruka, being blocked from entering Saotome Academy and writing the entrance exam because she was late. She begs the guards to let her  in,but to no avail. Bishie #1 then shows up and tells them that she obviously wants to get in, so they should let her. The guards refuse. Bishie #2 shows up coming out of a nearby limo and tells the security guards that Haruka was late because she was helping a lost little girl. The guards still won’t let her through, but one of them suddenly gets a phone call and says that the academy is making an exception and that she can take the exam. Bishie#1 congratulates her and Bishie #2 then tells Haruka that they’ll meet again in April.

“But you have to let me in! The fate of my future harem depends on it!”

Haruka passes the entrance exam and time skips to spring. We’re introduced to Haruka’s friend and roommate Tomo and it’s then explained that Saotome Academy is a(n extremely prestigious looking) school for performing arts. Also, Haruka explains that her dream is to become a composer and thus why she entered the school.

Security guards, mazes, hidden cameras, sheep. This school has EVERYTHING. Hogwarts much?

Another scene change happens and it’s the schools opening ceremony. When the principal is called to make a speech, he then appears in costume on the rooftop and dramatically leaps from there (giving Ao no Exorcist a run for its money for most eccentric principal ever). After dancing for a bit, he then takes off again running in the sky through a shower of confetti.

Howl did it better.

In her homeroom, Haruka runs into Bishie #1 and it turns out that they’re in the same class. He introduces himself as Itoki Otoya . As they share introductions, we’re introduced to Bishie #3, who comes charging at Haruka yelling the name Elizabeth. Bishie #4 moves Haruka out of the way in time though and Bishie #3 hugs Otoya instead.

Bishie #3 then apologises and says that Haruka looked so much like his dog Elizabeth that he couldn’t help himself (just what every girl wants to hear). We learn that Bishie #3 is named Nasuki and that Bishie #4 is Masato. However, with all the noise going on, Haruka draws attention to herself and it seems she made a few enemies as well.

He likes small and cute things. Sounds like lolicon talk to me.

Apparently none of the teachers at Saotome are normal because the lights then go off and we meet the homeroom teacher, Tsukimiya Ringo who is also a famous idol. Tomo then points out that Ringo is a man (if you couldn’t tell already from the voice) and Haruka is shocked. We also learn that Haruka lived in a cave or something because she doesn’t own a television. It turns out the school has ridiculous amounts of money because it specializes in producing idols and their composers and that every one of the teaching staff is famous.

Stating the obvious here, but IT’S A GODDAMN TRAP.

During lunch, Haruka meets Bishie #5 while tripping over her ownfeet. He catches her lunch card for her and Bishie #2 (apparently his name is Ren) shows up again and Bishie #5’s name is introduced as Shou. Haruka thanks Ren for helping her out earlier and he says that their meeting must be fate. He’s interrupted by Masato (Bishie #4) and Tomo whispers to Haruka that Ren is famous (…is there anyone not famous in this school?) and that he doesn’t get along with Masato because they’re both sons of opposing financial groups. She also notes the number of hot men in the school.

When they return to the dorm, Haruka vows that one day she’ll write songs for her idol, Hayato. Tomo asks why she likes Hayato so much and Haraka explains that she was sick as a child and lived out in the countryside. However, when she visited the city, she was overwhelmed but she calmed down when she saw Hayato singing on a screen and then realised that she wanted the write music like that.

We then see the principal plotting something (not entirely sure what) and a cat shows up and steals one of Haruka’s handkerchiefs. She runs after it only to see Bishie #6, who suspiciously looks like her beloved Hayato, emerge from the bushes. Flustered, she tells him she’s a fan but he says that his name is Tokiya and that he has no relation to Hayato. Oh noes! Whatever will Haruka do?

I would call them by name, but Bishie #1 through 6 is just so much easier to remember.

Extra Idolness:

Introducing the most horribly color coordinated uniforms ever

Why would a school teaching idols even need sheep? They don’t exactly make for good back up dancers.

Hello Cookie: Hello Kitty’s lesser known and more delicious cousin

You can practically feel the yao- I mean tension… yeah that’s what I meant…. tension…

Ending Thoughts:

As I said in the Summer Review, seiyuu are my weak spot and there have been times that I’ve watched shitty shows just because I oh-so-want to hear them. I got through Starry Sky… so you can already imagine what I must be feeling right now? I got through the first episode and like I was expecting that I would be yawning my eyes out and dozing off; nothing like that happened; maybe some credit needs to be given to A-1 Pictures.

Of course, I rotfl’d from the OP performance of the bishie band, in which somehow or the other the band wasn’t able to sync in their steps. Like srsly man, look at SHINee or any other pop band who bank on their looks and bishieness to sell albums along with jumpy music, shouldn’t the animation have been better in that sequence? Sure, it was puffed up with many series of individual shots but oh well. The first thing I noticed was Sawashiro Miyuki voicing the main heroine and then Junichi Suwabe followed and Wakamoto too. What was left? Yuuichi Nakamura as a trap (HHNNGGG), Hiro Shimono and Mamoru Miyano’s only Summer role… I’m defeated. I can’t leave this be and for the wrong reasons too. But of course, that’s me and you don’t have to follow on my footsteps. I’ll just put some pros and cons for you and leave the final watch decision up to you:

• Pros: Seiyuu orgy. Like srsly. Miyano Mamoru actually singing rather than karaoke’ing Linda Linda! (Ref: Drrr! Kida Cover Song). Hawt Bishies. Some semblance of plot maybe (at least in first episode) and Director of Giant Killing (now that was an adaption that left you on the edge of the seat every week with cliffhangers!). I may understand now why guys like K-On!, it’s for the girls, right? Treat this as a male version of K-On! Also, HNG, DAT MOLE.
• Cons: More songs than OP and ED during the episode. Harem haters beware. Adaptation of a game, go play some dating sim rather. Too many bishie sparkles. Too colourful! My eyes hurt. Usual and typical arch enemies within student body and/or admiration of an idol turned sore due to personality change used for story progression. No dancing coordination!
• So yeah, decide yourself after watching the first episode. It can either be your cup of tea or isn’t. Ja ne~

This was…. Way better than I expected actually. In fact, it was great. By ‘great’, I don’t mean that the storyline was amazing (okay, well it was pretty decent) or that the characters were the most creative things ever, but that it was great because I spent pretty much the entire episode laughing. The opening… PFFT AHAHAHA oh god the opening. After they started dancing I just couldn’t take the show seriously and from there, making fun of it was extremely entertaining for me. Yeah, if I was taking it seriously, I would probably hate Uta no Prince-sama, but the over the top-ness everywhere makes it funny where it’s not supposed to be.

Most of the characters are definitely somewhat forgettable stereotypical otome game charas. We have the ever optimistic Bishie #1, the prince charming Bishie #2 and his BL part- er, I mean rival, the serious Bishie #4. Of course, we also have the token outgoing best friend Tomo. I’d go on, but let me note that Haruka has to be the most stereotypical of them all. She’s clumsy for one thing and she spent her childhood being sickly in the countryside. You don’t get more stereotypical than that. Just you wait, one of the bishies will turn out to be her childhood friend or something. To mix things up though, they have the whole school for idols thing (what good is a love interest if he doesn’t have a zillion fangirls to cause jealousy in the route? *sarcasm), a tranny teacher and the eccentric principal. I swear, the principal is the best character in the entire episode.

Okay, analyzing seriously, I like the color palette used for the characters. Everything looks so vibrant and so the anime has a bright, cheery feel to it. Also, the funniness of the opening aside, the animation was pretty solid and there weren’t any derp faces during the show. The seiyuu cast is pretty good too. It has Mamoru Miyano and Yuuichi Nakamura (which is slightly ironic because he did the voice of Saotome Alto. Right? Right??? …Fine, I’ll stop.) so the voices aren’t grating on the ears. However, I enjoyed this for pretty much all the wrong reasons. Will I watch this for the lols? Yes. Will I be watching this seriously? Not a chance.  Will I blog it? Probably not. (Bonus question: Will I buy the game? …..I’m thinking about it. Damn it.)