Konnichiwa Minna-san! ♥ Today I have a very special review for you all: the breakdown of my all time favourite anime, Uta no Prince-sama!
The plot revolves around a young girl named Haruka Nanami who has the ultimate ambition of becoming a composer; a dream she has held since she was a little girl. She has been accepted to Saotome Academy, a boarding school run by headmaster Shinning Saotome for people who wish to become either Idols or composers. The aim of the school year is to partner a composer with an idol and debut at the end of the year, with the hope of attaining worldwide fame. The main rule at this academy, however, is that love is forbidden during your enrollment (the reason for which is unclear). As Haruka begins her life at her new school, she meets her roommate Tomo-chan, who looks out for her in a big sister fashion and occasionally offers advice regarding the princes.
As this anime is based on a video game, the 7 princes that Haruka encounters all have very distinctive personalities which are designed to appeal to viewer preferences. One viewer may like Syo, whereas another could prefer Tokiya. This is the same setup seen in Kamigami no Asobi.
Despite the "no romance" rule, all the characters have a very close bond with one another, with each prince feeling fiercely protective of Haruka. Now, I will explore their pasts and personalities to reveal how their relationships enmesh in the anime. Let's do them in order of how you meet them ♥!
Haruka Nanami
Haruka is a vibrant young girl with a very gentle personality and captivating eyes. She is seen as very naive and gives an impression of fragility, which is why the princes become so attached to her and her music. Her music is described by the headmaster as the "Happy Pulse", which brings ultimate happiness. In her youth, she was quite ill, and lived with her grandmother in the country. Throughout the anime, Haruka narrates her troubles by speaking to her grandmother about any worries she may be having (even if her grandmother is not present). She has come to the academy to fulfill her dream of composing for the Idol "Hayato".
Otoya Ittoki
Otoya is such a sweet heart, very energetic and you create a soft spot for his kind nature right off the bat, plus this flame haired prince is pretty easy on the eyes as well. He really likes Haruka and tries over the two seasons to avoid falling in love (or farther in love) with her, which is both adorable and heartbreaking to see. Throughout the anime, he looks after Haruka and she relies on him a lot in the first few episodes. In the second season, it is revealed he is an orphan. This made me more attached to him in a way because he is so bright, yet has such a sorrowful past.
Ren Jinguji
Ren is the ladies man of this anime and the son of a CEO of a Financial Corporation. As this is a reverse harem, you will always get the over confident male who has had a troubled past. Instantly, he is drawn to Haruka because of her naivety and cutesy look, which is why he calls her "Little Lamb" or "My Lady" to make her flustered. His younger years are dark and a little lonely as his mother died: leaving him, his father and brother behind. His brother is older than him and therefore is the head of the company now, leaving Ren to become the poster boy for the corporation through his singing. This at first doesn't please him until he meets Haruka and the rest of the princes. This dashing prince charming is such a silver tongued fox, it's hard not to get attached.
Natsuki Shinomiya
Natsuki is the ray of sunshine in the group. He is very tall, but loves cute and small things which incidentally draws him to Haruka. He is a little naive, like Haruka, and enjoys cooking (despite lacking ability). His fondness for cute/small things also means he has a very good, somewhat one-sided relationship with Syo due to his height. Natsuki's past is unclear, but from the looks of it, he was a very trusting child and very gifted at composing music. The most widely accepted story is that he wrote a song for his music teacher and she stole it and claimed all the glory for herself. This made Natsuki very depressed and eventually resulted in a split personality; Satsuki.
Satsuki only appears when Natsuki has his glasses removed. When this happens, his eyes narrow and his facial expressions become a lot more intense. Satsuki has a talent for composing, but if you cross him he will eliminate you and everything within a 5 mile radius. It's truly hard to chose which personality you like best from Natsuki, personally all the danger from Satsuki is a definite positive from me!
Masato Hijirikawa
Masato is the quiet, heavy thinker of the group. He is very traditional and does calligraphy in his spare time. His very stoic and brooding appearance keeps him from interacting with the group straight away, but he slowly warms up with the help of Haruka and her sweet personality. He is also the son of a CEO of a Financial Corporation, except he is the sole heir of the company. He and Ren have a bit of a past with one another and this causes some tension between them. Ren was forced to attend the academy to sing, whereas Masato had to strike a deal with his father for the opportunity as he was raised in a stricter more traditional household. This leads Masato to feel anguished over Ren's attitude, believing he takes his position for granted. He has the personality where you just want to run and give him a big o'l cuddle... he's such a cutie pie.
Syo Kurusu
Syo is the comedian of the group and he also has a massive height complex. He is very sweet but can get extremely worked up. He and Haruka have similar dreams, as Haruka wishes to compose for Hayato and Syo wishes to act alongside his Idol, Ryuya. This gives them a pretty close bond and you can tell that he truly cares for her. Syo and Natsuki have known each other since they were children and they have a very close friendship. One of Syo's most significant characteristics is that he is completely afraid of heights, which the group try to help him with. Syo is my personal favourite as I have a thing for short guys, being a teeny tiny girl myself.
Tokiya Ichinose
Tokiya's personality is a little like Masato's except he has a cooler personality and needs to give everyone the cold shoulder. We are initially introduced to him as Tokiya, the twin brother of Hayato, which is Haruka's Idol. This is until it is revealed that he is in fact Hayato himself. He entered the academy to start fresh and focus on music as his entertainment company is making him focus on other things such as acting. Nonetheless, he has not ended his career as Hayato and tries to balance work and school. He warms to Haruka after she expresses a love for his music, both as Hayato and as Tokiya. It takes a while for him to be completely honest and at ease with the other princes as he doesn't want them to know about his work as Hayato.
Cecil Aijima
Cecil fully appears in this anime in the second season. He does, however, appear slightly in the first season as well -- but mostly as a cat. Yes that's right a cat. Cecil is the prince of a foreign land who has been trapped in the form of a cat due to a curse which was put on him. Haruka finds him and names him Kuppuru, giving him love and attention which is how we ultimately turns back into his human form. In the second season, he is seen as cheeky and tries to steal a kiss from Haruka more than once, which angers the princes. He eventually realizes that he wants to become an idol in order to make people happy.
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Each of these wonderful princes want Haruka as their composer for the end of the year debut, but she can't choose between them and decides to make a song for the six of them in a single group. Eventually, they become the group STARISH and debut with the encouragement of their head master. Their debut song is called Maji Love 1000%.
ANNND FINALLY... The second season, the group have debuted and have now entered the master course where they are molded to be perfect idols. Shinning Saotome has assigned an older idol group called Quartet Night to the boys of Starish to help guide them, which no party is happy with.
Later the boys finally meet Cecil, who has apparently been scouted by Shinning to be in the master course, however his only desire is to sing Haruka's songs. As the season developed, Cecil eventually desires to sing as a proper idol and later in the episode he joins Starish as the final member.
In the final episodes, Starish have been challenged by a rival idol group called Heavens. The bet is that they can sing one of Haruka's songs better than Starish. Both Shinning and his rival Raging who is the manager of Heavens agree that the group who loses will be dissolved, so there is a lot at stake for Starish.
Heavens start strong and Starish are nervous to perform with the fear that they will lose their dreams and Haruka as their composer. They overcome their fear and take to the stage with their new final member Cecil and have a performance that everyone will remember. Their singing makes everyone happy and sing along with them, including their rivals and Quartet Night. As the results are tallied it is revealed that Starish have won the competition and their wish as the winners is for Heavens to remain as an idol group.
I adored this anime, it was a lot better than most animes which are based on video games. There was a lot of depth in the story and in the characters which made it easy to fall in love with this show. The anime achieved two successful seasons with a third one due in April this year, which I await with bated breath!
Story: 8/10 - There is a lot of story in this anime compared to other animes of it's kind. There is a set plot which does not deviate into random episodes. Every episode has a greater meaning that forms the bigger picture of the story.
Character: 9/10 - Every character is very well thought out and has a beautiful depth to them. This makes you feel an emotional connection to the characters, allowing you to experience every high and low along with them.
Art Style/Animation: 10/10 - Amazing... For me the animation is breathtaking and modern, which I love. There is so much fun and magic involved in this anime and the art style definitely shows it.
Overall: 9/10 - I love this anime, so much so that I had to buy both seasons on DVD. It has a quality which makes you feel so happy. I feel like this is a very girly anime and any girl (young or old) would be enchanted by this frankly charming anime.
I hope you enjoyed this anime review Minna-san!
Sayonara ♥
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