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// On :Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Hey guys, kanna here. There are no excuses for why this is late...is what I want to say. Unfortunately, due to packing, my summer job, and a few other things, I wasn't able to write much. Also, writers block.
But, never fear! I slapped myself this morning for what an idiot I was being when I had perfect comedic gold right in front of me. It's...
UTA NO PRINCE-SAMA: MAJI LOVE REVOLUTIONS
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| Note that the word "revolutions" is in katakana, the Japanese alphabet used for most English words. I'm sure that there is an actual translation, and the most unreliable translator in the world (Google translate) gave me the word 反乱 (hanran), which technically means rebellion. I guess the words rebellion and revolution are close enough, but... |
OK. Where do I begin with this? Well, in order for you to understand this review, I would suggest that you go and read my review of Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000% and 2000%. But that's a suggestion.
If you feel like being lazy (nothing wrong with that), here's a run down of the show in the form of bullet points:
So...yeah. That's basically the general gist of it. If you want info on the characters, I suggest (again) reading my UtaPri Maji Love 1000% and 2000% review. You don't have to, but at this point, I highly recommend it.
I guess I should give some visuals, given that hardly anyone can keep the names straight (myself and my friends included). So, let's get to it!
If you feel like being lazy (nothing wrong with that), here's a run down of the show in the form of bullet points:
- MAJI LOVE 1000%
- MEET COMPOSER HARUKA NANAMI
- STARISH IS FORMED; HARUKA NANAMI IS THEIR COMPOSER
- Members
- Otoya Ittoki
- Natsuki Shinomiya
- Masato Hijirikawa
- Ren Jinguji
- Tokiya Ichinose
- Syo Kurusu
- STARISH DEBUT
- note: They're called STARISH because different parts of their names make up the word. So we have Shinomiya Natsuki, Tokiya Ichinose, * instead of 'A' (stay tuned for next season), Ren Jinguji, Ittoki Otoya, Syo Kurusu, and Hijirikawa Masato
- MAJI LOVE 2000%
- QUARTET NIGHT INTRODUCED
- Members
- Reiji Kotobuki
- Ranmaru Kurosaki
- Ai Mikaze
- Camus (pronounced ka-myu)
- NEW MEMBER CECIL AIJIMA JOINS STARISH
- Becomes the 'A' in STARISH
- STARISH WINS UTAPRI AWARD AGAINST HEAVENS (another group; basically side characters)
Haruka Nanami is pretty much irrelevant, as nearly EVERYTHING in this show has to do with the guys. I mean...there's really not much to say about her. At all. It's just...the only defining characteristic she has is that she falls. A lot. Oh, and she's pretty clueless about a lot of things. Including when the guys are trying to confess their feelings to her, which happens quite a bit. She works with both Quartet Night and STARISH this season.
I guess I should give some visuals, given that hardly anyone can keep the names straight (myself and my friends included). So, let's get to it!
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| Natsuki Shinomiya |
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| Tokiya Ichinose |
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| Cecil Aijima |
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| Ren Jinguji |
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| Otoya Ittoki |
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| Syo Kurusu |
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| Masato Hijirikawa |
And the members of Quartet Night:
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| Reiji Kotobuki |
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| Ranmaru Kurosaki |
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| Ai Mikaze (note: surprisingly, I couldn't find pictures like the ones above for him. odd, considering his popularity.) |
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| Camus (no last name) |
OK. Now that that's settled, let's get to the plot.
To be honest, there really isn't that much of a plot this season. Hardly any new characters are introduced, but we do get some development on the members Quartet Night. Reiji and Camus are basically the only ones we don't get development on, which is a bit of a letdown. But we do get some interesting development with regards to Ai and Ranmaru.
Ai is actually...an idol robot. Yeah. Apparently, the writers thought Ai=A.I.=Artificial Intelligence.
Huh.
Then again, that's character development you wouldn't have known about unless you had played the games. The other members had their characters...more or less developed. We learned in 2000% that Ranmaru used to be a bassist in some rock band that disbanded for some reason, and Camus is the count of some foreign country called Permafrost. We got to see a little more of Ranmaru's past in this season and how he sometimes struggled keeping his rock side and idol side together. And Reiji...well...
Let's be perfectly honest; he didn't really get any development. At all. And that kinda pissed me off. Sure, in 2000%, Quartet Night was just introduced and all we basically got were just personalities. But while Ranmaru, Ai, and Camus got a lot of character development this season and a bit of last season, Reiji didn't get any.
And I know I said I wouldn't bring up the games in my reviews of adaptations of otome games (and if I didn't say that, I'm saying it now), given that the games are only released in Japan and everything is coming from research, but...THE GAMES GAVE REIJI SO MUCH MORE DEVELOPMENT!
How can I do this without spoiling anything? Okay, the long-ish short version of this is that before Quartet Night debuted, Reiji was a part of another idol group that disbanded due to the attempted suicide of one of the members who wound up in a coma (note that this is never brought up in the series. Whether it will be next season or not, I have no idea). This semi-links to Ai's story which wasn't 100% developed (I'd say somewhere between 10% and 30% developed), but you'd have to play the games in order to understand how, and given I don't want to spoil anymore, I'm just going to stop there.
Anyway, where the last seasons were more...expository, this one got right down to things. The main plot was that there was this Olympics-type event known as Super Star Sports (Triple S for short) and how the host country got to have one of its many artists sing the opening song. So President Shining decided to be a jerk and call STARISH and Quartet Night in and say that they're entering Quartet Night--NOT STARISH--into the competition to pick who sings at the Triple S. And I call this grounds for being a jerk because...well, would you call a bunch of people into a room, tell them about an amazing opportunity, and then says "It's not you"? NO!
So at first, STARISH is just nonchalant about the whole thing, until Cecil points out that this is their chance to debut worldwide and that another opportunity like this won't come again for a while, if at all. So STARISH say "REVOLUTION!" and run into Saotome's office after saying.
Saotome listens to their nearly identical arguments and asks if that's everything they have to say before he says he can't enter them. STARISH asks why and Saotome goes Super Saiyan and screams "REVOLUTION" (take three shots). Then the STARISH members (and Haruka) all say "revolution" one after the other in confusion, and this...really isn't explored in the next episode.
Huh.
Then again, that's character development you wouldn't have known about unless you had played the games. The other members had their characters...more or less developed. We learned in 2000% that Ranmaru used to be a bassist in some rock band that disbanded for some reason, and Camus is the count of some foreign country called Permafrost. We got to see a little more of Ranmaru's past in this season and how he sometimes struggled keeping his rock side and idol side together. And Reiji...well...
Let's be perfectly honest; he didn't really get any development. At all. And that kinda pissed me off. Sure, in 2000%, Quartet Night was just introduced and all we basically got were just personalities. But while Ranmaru, Ai, and Camus got a lot of character development this season and a bit of last season, Reiji didn't get any.
And I know I said I wouldn't bring up the games in my reviews of adaptations of otome games (and if I didn't say that, I'm saying it now), given that the games are only released in Japan and everything is coming from research, but...THE GAMES GAVE REIJI SO MUCH MORE DEVELOPMENT!
How can I do this without spoiling anything? Okay, the long-ish short version of this is that before Quartet Night debuted, Reiji was a part of another idol group that disbanded due to the attempted suicide of one of the members who wound up in a coma (note that this is never brought up in the series. Whether it will be next season or not, I have no idea). This semi-links to Ai's story which wasn't 100% developed (I'd say somewhere between 10% and 30% developed), but you'd have to play the games in order to understand how, and given I don't want to spoil anymore, I'm just going to stop there.
Anyway, where the last seasons were more...expository, this one got right down to things. The main plot was that there was this Olympics-type event known as Super Star Sports (Triple S for short) and how the host country got to have one of its many artists sing the opening song. So President Shining decided to be a jerk and call STARISH and Quartet Night in and say that they're entering Quartet Night--NOT STARISH--into the competition to pick who sings at the Triple S. And I call this grounds for being a jerk because...well, would you call a bunch of people into a room, tell them about an amazing opportunity, and then says "It's not you"? NO!
So at first, STARISH is just nonchalant about the whole thing, until Cecil points out that this is their chance to debut worldwide and that another opportunity like this won't come again for a while, if at all. So STARISH say "REVOLUTION!" and run into Saotome's office after saying.
Saotome listens to their nearly identical arguments and asks if that's everything they have to say before he says he can't enter them. STARISH asks why and Saotome goes Super Saiyan and screams "REVOLUTION" (take three shots). Then the STARISH members (and Haruka) all say "revolution" one after the other in confusion, and this...really isn't explored in the next episode.
So now that that's all been said and done, Shining decides to plan out...cross-units! According to the show, this basically means that members of STARISH would sing with other members that they wouldn't normally sing with.
So Otoya is paired up with Natsuki, Tokiya and Masato are paired up together, and Ren, Syo, and Cecil are all grouped together. The idea here is to give STARISH more publicity through various projects (a rock musical, a cell phone commercial, and singing at some concert), but the members want to use this as a chance to show Shining that they feel they are good enough to enter into the Triple S. So between mediocre songs by STARISH and somewhat decent songs from the members of Quartet Night, even the FREAKING MUSIC, THE THING THAT THIS SERIES IS ABOUT, can't save it.
All right, I'm not being entirely fair. The songs that the members of STARISH sing are actually decent songs. I just think they paired up the wrong people for them. Quartet Night's songs, on the other hand...I give a 50% rating. Why? Because there are four members, and only two of them got good songs that I could listen to over and over again. So let's just go through a brief review of each of the songs that WERE NOT the group songs. If the title is in ALL CAPS, the title was originally in English and not translated. If the title is Japanese, I'll put the Japanese title and the English title.
EMOTIONAL LIFE (Otoya and Natsuki): This was from the third episode of the series. Both have great voices, and the song is great. I love the violin intro before it gets into the electric guitar. It really gives it that classical music and rock music feel. However, these two SHOULD NOT have been paired up.
INNOCENT WIND (Ai Mikaze): This was from the fourth episode of the series and was the first of Quartet Night's solo songs to make its debut into anime. Ai's voice actor, Shouta Aoi, is an AMAZING singer, and I think they released Ai's song first because he's one of the most popular characters from the show. This is a REALLY addicting song and definitely suits Ai's character. And that high note at the end... -sigh- Well, you had to find the full version of the song to truly appreciate his voice. Or just listen to him sing any of his other songs, regardless of if it's from UtaPri or not.
CODE T.V.U (Ren, Syo, Cecil): This was from the fifth episode of the series and...well, as an episode for a music series about a group, it was pretty formulaic. But as for the song...it's an okay song. It's not good, it's not bad. It's just okay. Ren and Syo actually do sound pretty good together. But Cecil...I just can't. I mean, Cecil's voice actor, Kosuke Toriumi, sang the theme in Diabolik Lovers, and while his voice is naturally high-pitched and a little on the nasal side, he can go lower. Which would have sounded SO MUCH BETTER and really harmonized with Ren and Syo. All in all, good song, but Cecil should have been with someone else.
SAINTLY TERRITORY (Camus): This was from the sixth episode. And...as much as I can't stand Camus, I will admit he has a good voice. The song isn't that great in my opinion, but it does fit his character.
ONLY ONE (Ranmaru Kurosaki): This was from the seventh episode where we REALLY dove into Ranmaru's character and backstory. I'll admit, I couldn't stand him in 2000%. There was just something about him I didn't like at all. But after this episode, I started to really enjoy Ranmaru as a character and thought he was pretty awesome. The song is catchy, too, as it combines both elements of the world of a rock band and the world of an idol. The bass is ADDICTING. And Ranmaru's voice is pretty awesome. You can definitely tell that they did a good job of combining rock band music with idol music.
ORIGINAL RESONANCE (Tokiya and Masato): This was from the eighth episode, and HOLY FREAKING CRAP this song was perfect in every single way imaginable. First of all, the intro just hooks you right in. And then when they start singing, it's just ultimate perfection. This is the one pairing that I wouldn't change AT ALL. I just...this song is so amazing, I can't find the words to describe it.
NEVER... (Reiji Kotobuki): This was from the ninth episode, and what else can I say, other than IT SUCKED. I already didn't like Reiji (just too peppy for me and a little...um...I can't really find the word), and not only did the song suck, but the lead-in to the song was pretty bad, too. I mean...it fits what little we know of his character (almost nothing), but it just sounds AWFUL. Not on the level of nails on a chalkboard, but still awful.
We also get a lot of group songs. Most of which are...meh, at best. I mean, for a series that's ABOUT music, the music in this season of UtaPri is pretty lacking compared to the last two. I feel like the people who made the songs for UtaPri, Elements Garden, just decided to ride the popularity from last season and be lazy. I mean, STARISH's group song just SUCKED, whereas Quartet Night's was FREAKING AMAZING.
There was also a plot twist in the last episode of the season, but what really pissed me off about it was how they said "See you next season" at the end of the episode, before a fourth season was even announced. What can they possibly make a fourth season out of, anyway?
So, how do I rate this season? Um...well, it's too difficult for me to rate by number, so I'll just say it was...half-decent.
Why: The music isn't that great. I mean, it's hard to be proud of a series ABOUT music when you only have THREE good songs in the entire series.
The animation has slip-ups, especially during the ending credits, so the animation isn't great, either. I mean, watch these credits. REALLY watch them. Because...well...just watch.
Now TO BE FAIR, the song is actually a pretty decent song. It doesn't suck. They say "REVOLUTIONS" so many times that you could be drunk by the end of the song (and that's if you listen to the full version). But the animation is AWFUL. I mean, there are some parts where STARISH's dance movements look almost robotic; as if they're from a video game. Which, if video-game style animation was what they were going for, would be great. But it's not.
What's interesting, though, is that the song used for the opening theme of the first episode isn't sung by Tokiya's voice actor, Mamoru Miyano, the guy who sang the opening themes for the previous seasons. Nope, it's by the amazing members of Quartet Night, and it's called (and the style of the title is really weird, so I'm just going to put it in quotes) "The dice are cast." While I didn't like it at first, it started to grow on me after a couple listens. The animation isn't that great during it, and their dancing does seem pretty robotic, but then I discovered why the animation SUCKED in SO MANY SCENES. It's because the animators blew ALL THEIR MONEY on...this:
That's right. The animators blew ALL THEIR MONEY on the video for Camus's song, SAINTLY TERRITORY. While the video isn't that great (actually, that's an understatement; it's pretty bad), the animation is the best animation you're going to get throughout...basically the whole season.
STARISH and Quartet Night actually do have a song that they sing together, called GOLDEN☆STAR. And, guess what? It's not that great, either. Which is a shame, because you have some AMAZING voices singing together for the first (and quite possibly only, unless you go to the live shows or play the games) time in the anime, and it just doesn't sound that great. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it.
So Otoya is paired up with Natsuki, Tokiya and Masato are paired up together, and Ren, Syo, and Cecil are all grouped together. The idea here is to give STARISH more publicity through various projects (a rock musical, a cell phone commercial, and singing at some concert), but the members want to use this as a chance to show Shining that they feel they are good enough to enter into the Triple S. So between mediocre songs by STARISH and somewhat decent songs from the members of Quartet Night, even the FREAKING MUSIC, THE THING THAT THIS SERIES IS ABOUT, can't save it.
All right, I'm not being entirely fair. The songs that the members of STARISH sing are actually decent songs. I just think they paired up the wrong people for them. Quartet Night's songs, on the other hand...I give a 50% rating. Why? Because there are four members, and only two of them got good songs that I could listen to over and over again. So let's just go through a brief review of each of the songs that WERE NOT the group songs. If the title is in ALL CAPS, the title was originally in English and not translated. If the title is Japanese, I'll put the Japanese title and the English title.
EMOTIONAL LIFE (Otoya and Natsuki): This was from the third episode of the series. Both have great voices, and the song is great. I love the violin intro before it gets into the electric guitar. It really gives it that classical music and rock music feel. However, these two SHOULD NOT have been paired up.
INNOCENT WIND (Ai Mikaze): This was from the fourth episode of the series and was the first of Quartet Night's solo songs to make its debut into anime. Ai's voice actor, Shouta Aoi, is an AMAZING singer, and I think they released Ai's song first because he's one of the most popular characters from the show. This is a REALLY addicting song and definitely suits Ai's character. And that high note at the end... -sigh- Well, you had to find the full version of the song to truly appreciate his voice. Or just listen to him sing any of his other songs, regardless of if it's from UtaPri or not.
CODE T.V.U (Ren, Syo, Cecil): This was from the fifth episode of the series and...well, as an episode for a music series about a group, it was pretty formulaic. But as for the song...it's an okay song. It's not good, it's not bad. It's just okay. Ren and Syo actually do sound pretty good together. But Cecil...I just can't. I mean, Cecil's voice actor, Kosuke Toriumi, sang the theme in Diabolik Lovers, and while his voice is naturally high-pitched and a little on the nasal side, he can go lower. Which would have sounded SO MUCH BETTER and really harmonized with Ren and Syo. All in all, good song, but Cecil should have been with someone else.
SAINTLY TERRITORY (Camus): This was from the sixth episode. And...as much as I can't stand Camus, I will admit he has a good voice. The song isn't that great in my opinion, but it does fit his character.
ONLY ONE (Ranmaru Kurosaki): This was from the seventh episode where we REALLY dove into Ranmaru's character and backstory. I'll admit, I couldn't stand him in 2000%. There was just something about him I didn't like at all. But after this episode, I started to really enjoy Ranmaru as a character and thought he was pretty awesome. The song is catchy, too, as it combines both elements of the world of a rock band and the world of an idol. The bass is ADDICTING. And Ranmaru's voice is pretty awesome. You can definitely tell that they did a good job of combining rock band music with idol music.
ORIGINAL RESONANCE (Tokiya and Masato): This was from the eighth episode, and HOLY FREAKING CRAP this song was perfect in every single way imaginable. First of all, the intro just hooks you right in. And then when they start singing, it's just ultimate perfection. This is the one pairing that I wouldn't change AT ALL. I just...this song is so amazing, I can't find the words to describe it.
NEVER... (Reiji Kotobuki): This was from the ninth episode, and what else can I say, other than IT SUCKED. I already didn't like Reiji (just too peppy for me and a little...um...I can't really find the word), and not only did the song suck, but the lead-in to the song was pretty bad, too. I mean...it fits what little we know of his character (almost nothing), but it just sounds AWFUL. Not on the level of nails on a chalkboard, but still awful.
We also get a lot of group songs. Most of which are...meh, at best. I mean, for a series that's ABOUT music, the music in this season of UtaPri is pretty lacking compared to the last two. I feel like the people who made the songs for UtaPri, Elements Garden, just decided to ride the popularity from last season and be lazy. I mean, STARISH's group song just SUCKED, whereas Quartet Night's was FREAKING AMAZING.
There was also a plot twist in the last episode of the season, but what really pissed me off about it was how they said "See you next season" at the end of the episode, before a fourth season was even announced. What can they possibly make a fourth season out of, anyway?
So, how do I rate this season? Um...well, it's too difficult for me to rate by number, so I'll just say it was...half-decent.
Why: The music isn't that great. I mean, it's hard to be proud of a series ABOUT music when you only have THREE good songs in the entire series.
The animation has slip-ups, especially during the ending credits, so the animation isn't great, either. I mean, watch these credits. REALLY watch them. Because...well...just watch.
Now TO BE FAIR, the song is actually a pretty decent song. It doesn't suck. They say "REVOLUTIONS" so many times that you could be drunk by the end of the song (and that's if you listen to the full version). But the animation is AWFUL. I mean, there are some parts where STARISH's dance movements look almost robotic; as if they're from a video game. Which, if video-game style animation was what they were going for, would be great. But it's not.
What's interesting, though, is that the song used for the opening theme of the first episode isn't sung by Tokiya's voice actor, Mamoru Miyano, the guy who sang the opening themes for the previous seasons. Nope, it's by the amazing members of Quartet Night, and it's called (and the style of the title is really weird, so I'm just going to put it in quotes) "The dice are cast." While I didn't like it at first, it started to grow on me after a couple listens. The animation isn't that great during it, and their dancing does seem pretty robotic, but then I discovered why the animation SUCKED in SO MANY SCENES. It's because the animators blew ALL THEIR MONEY on...this:
That's right. The animators blew ALL THEIR MONEY on the video for Camus's song, SAINTLY TERRITORY. While the video isn't that great (actually, that's an understatement; it's pretty bad), the animation is the best animation you're going to get throughout...basically the whole season.
STARISH and Quartet Night actually do have a song that they sing together, called GOLDEN☆STAR. And, guess what? It's not that great, either. Which is a shame, because you have some AMAZING voices singing together for the first (and quite possibly only, unless you go to the live shows or play the games) time in the anime, and it just doesn't sound that great. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it.
Quartet Night did, however, get a group song. While it's not as good as ポワゾンKISS (Poison KISS) from 2000%, it is a pretty good song and I like it almost as much as ポワゾンKISS (Poison KISS). They start out a capella, before the music comes in, and the song just sucks you right in. I actually like this better than STARISH's group song, マジLOVEレボリュウションズ (Maji Love REVOLUTIONS).
This season may have revolved more around Quartet Night than STARISH, but I still felt as if more time and effort could have been spent on STARISH's songs, and the animation. Haruka also managed to become more annoying this season, something I honestly didn't think was possible.
I'd love to say that the music makes up for the somewhat sloppy animation, but it doesn't. When you like only three or four songs from the entire series, it's a little hard to say that the music makes up for the crappy animation. I just hope the writers and animators don't ride that popularity high for too long. It's making them lazy and making the show become more and more formulaic.
Well...that's it. In the meantime, I'm off to get ready for Anime Mondays #10. What is it? Well, I'll give you two hints:
1. "angriff auf die Titanen"
2.
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| OK, if this picture doesn't give anything away, I don't know what will. |
And that's all you're going to get from me! I'll do my best to make this one a video, but given that footage is pretty hard to find, it will either be me just talking on camera the whole time with bits of the anime edited in, or a written review. Look forward to it!
Loving life :)
~k
