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sswirlicuee · 2 months ago

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You can get away with anything as long as you're pretty: The Ultimate Utapri 2024 Review That Nobody Asked For.

This is my lengthy, anachronic review of the multi-million yen fandom of, yes, you guessed it, Utapri, a.k.a. Uta no Prince-sama.

Let me start by saying that I got into this simply because I was watching all the anime where Suzumura Kenichi had a main role. Yes, I’m a Suzu fan.

Suzu's impression of Masato in one of his Prebanlab broadcasts (feat. Kishou).

About a year back, I came across Utapri and watched the latest movie (Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love STARISH Tours). I saw what there was to see and left it at that because I felt absolutely no desire to watch him in his Hijirikawa Masato role. The reason I’ve decided to give the fandom another go was because I’ve been watching videos and shorts of him all over Youtube. Of course Utapri and STARISH events came up a lot, and I enjoyed them immensely, even if I had no passion for Utapri as a franchise. So, I decided to pull up Maji Love 1000% again, saw the first few episodes, then Ren and Masato slid so fast into Odagiri my head was spinning, and here I am, writing the Utapri review of my life.

Before I get to the plot, let me go through each of the characters first since I have a lot to say about them. I won’t cover Quartet Night or HEAVENS though, because I don’t know much about the voice actors, and this review is already very long as it is. And I don’t know anything about the game (which has already closed down), since I have never tried it, nor do I speak Japanese.

Let's all appreciate a close look at the heels of Masato's feet in this Moonshine promotional art

Masato

The reason I couldn’t get into Utapri the first time was because of the voice acting Suzu did for Masato. I thought and still maintain that he was setting himself up for failure with the unnaturally deep and low voice he opted for this role. Unlike FukuJun or Sakurai who had really large vocal ranges, Suzu’s was very limited, which means that he couldn’t really go too high or too low without it sounding forced and unnatural. Or at least it sounded forced to me, a close follower of his works. In the same way I couldn’t stand Suzu’s voice in Dog Signal, Masato's stuck me wrong every time he spoke. I think Suzu could have gone with his normal voice here, the one he did for his other ML roles, like in Gridman or Macross Zero. It wouldn’t have made Masato’s character that much ‘softer’, per se, if he was going for the cool and collected impression for Masato.

That said, I asked myself if he could have taken any other of the STARISH roles? Not Ren or Syo or Tokiya for sure. Maybe Otoya or Natsuki? If I have to choose, I’d say Natsuki would be a good second choice. Then again, I don’t think Suzu could have pulled off Satsuki’s persona as perfectly as Kishou did.

In terms of character, Masato is really out of Suzu’s usual casting choices. I get the cold-with-a-tsundere-side type of character he was going for. Tsundere was at the top of Suzu’s typecast after all. And I find that Masato really shared a lot of traits with Iguro Obanai in Demon Slayer, especially the design (which was probably the reason why Suzu got the role for Iguro, imo) — but this comment was irrelevant, since DS came out way after Utapri.

To me, the only saving grace about Suzu’s Masa role was that he really paired well with Suwabe-san in Utapri. And this was mostly thanks to Be-san, in my opinion. I’ve seen Suzu against Be-san in other roles (including STAMEN stages), but none of them really left an impression.

I like Masato as a character, but to be honest, I really hate the voice. Every time he came on screen, I just wish he would stop talking.

The singing was another reason I think Suzu was setting himself up for failure. Ballades, really, Suzu? The way he rolled his tongue when he sang any song never failed to put me off. His Masato songs are not the worst among STARISH, but not the best either. But again, I can’t really judge because I’m quite biased towards Suzu anyways. My expectations were way over off the charts.

Despite the complaints, Masato remained my most favourite character in Utapri.

Ren

Everybody knows Suwabe-san at this point in time, because we’re living in the JJK era. Every one out of two people my age has something to say about JJK, which made me really happy for Be-san. But even back in the days, he was already rising in popularity. I’ve seen a lot of Be-san in STAMEN videos, and saw no chemistry whatsoever between him and Suzu. However, his Ren role really brought out everything that was good and pure in his voice acting. I really enjoyed this Ren-Masa relationship. They landslid into Odagiri so fast it left me breathless. (On the other hand, I honestly didn’t see any ship-worthy elements between Tokiya and Otoya or Natsuki and Syo, for that matter. I know the franchise was trying to sell these ships and I LOOKED for it, I swear. But no, there was just not enough in it to ship the rest of the cast.) Be-san’s smooth baritone voice was perfect for Ren. He never failed to deliver with these dominant, playboy types with a bit of insecurity.

That said, he’s probably one of the worst singers in STARISH (sorry, don’t hate me, Ren fans. I admire Be-san, I do.) I’ve watched him sing in multiple different contexts, but he never managed to impress me. I think he sounded too flat when he sang. It was exactly the same as his speaking voice. I really enjoyed Be-san in any seiyuu event, though. He added to the event with his own quirky personality, and I like that about him.

My favourite among backstage photos, cue the mirror.

Otoya

He is probably my least favourite character out of STARISH members. Because Terashima. That’s it. Don’t make me say any more. Also, at live concerts, I think his singing got drowned out by the background music. It’s such a waste of opportunity because he got the most catchy songs out of all of STARISH, being the main character.

Tokiya

Mamo really deserved all the praise and popularity he has gained to date. He’s really a true idol. Tokiya’s living Mamo’s life in the show. He has the look and the charisma. I really enjoyed Mamo’s skits and have watched them over and over again. His performances are those of a true idol’s, and even as a Suzu fan wishing for more screentime for Suzu, I still wholeheartedly agree that Mamo really shines in Utapri. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the Tokiya role really didn’t bring out Mamo’s best. Yes, he did great voice acting and singing, but Tokiya as a character is too solemn and serious (okay, so was Reinhard in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but that’s neither here nor there) and that was all there was to it. I just think the best role for Mamo would be some character with both a cool and a comical side, like Suou Tamaki in Ouran Host Club, for example. Or some batshit crazy villain like Light or Chrollo, for alternatives. Those are really the roles for Mamo. Plus, he really shone on stage. His live concerts are great. If anyone’s a pro idol, it’s Mamo.

If I said I didn’t see any chemistry between Tokiya and Otoya, I saw less between him and other characters that some fans actually ship him with, like Ren or Masa. He’s the only character I wish would get together with the female lead in this reverse-harem purgatory, though. It just makes sense. Girl had been pining for him for ages, and he even returned her feelings!

Removing my Suzu-fan lenses, I can objectively say that Mamo is probably the best thing to happen to Utapri.

Syo

Just like Be-san, in this day and age everybody also knows Shimono Hiro. But back in Utapri era, I don’t think he was really that well-known, because Dabi and Zenitsu were barely in the process of making. Shimono fit the role for Syo, but I can also name half a dozen other male voice actors who could have done as great a job as him. I do enjoy him at seiyuu events though. He’s a crowd-pleaser. Without him as the butt of the joke, several events would have turned out less fun, that much is certain.

His vocals are ok. Not the worst but not the best either. I really enjoyed the fun he brought to any event, though I wish Suzu could have been less mean to him.

Natsuki

Utapri is where I discover Taniyama Kishou, honestly. I mean, I watched Attack on Titan, but Jean didn’t stand out to me in terms of voice acting. Kishou in concerts IS so precious. He’s a singer (and I didn’t think he would be able to pull off the rock music for Satsuki, but man he really did). Utapri is probably Kishou’s best voice acting role (not that I’ve seen much else). And he really captured both the Natsuki/Satsuki personas equally perfectly. How naturally he switched from cute little puppy to dark sadistic voice was truly impressive. I really have to give it to Kishou, he really did nail this Natsuki role. Which was exactly why I hesitated when I tried to cast Suzu for an alternative Natsuki. I don’t think Suzu would have done a better job than Kishou. It’s just that the cheerful side of Natsuki would have been more up Suzu’s alley, but then again.

Kishou was also such a joy at any given event, be it live concerts, fan events or just variety shows. He’s such a dork and is really loveable. I wonder why he didn’t get any more voice acting roles, though.

Honorary mention : Cecil

Another STAMEN member. Tori-san had his quirks, but he always stuck me as a more subdued individual at any given event. I don’t have a lot to comment on his voice acting roles, since he wasn’t really on my radar, but he sounded kind of forced and unnatural with Cecil the same way Suzu did with Masato. I think Tori-san tried to pitch for the upbeat, cheerful kind of impression for Cecil, but since his natural voice was way deeper, I found Cecil’s voice very artificially nasal. It didn’t bother me as much as Suzu’s Masa voice though, maybe because I had higher expectations for Suzu…

As for singing voice, he didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, so I’d say he was average among STARISH. Tori-san was one of the less noticeable members of the cast at events, so he kind of blended into the background to me. Since I don’t know much about him, I can’t really give an insightful comment on his Cecil’s role, to be honest. My best guess would be that they cast him because he really did a good job with Cecil’s imperfect Japanese. The way he acted like a foreigner struggling to speak the local language was really fun and I truly enjoyed that.

***

Utapri as a story really embodies the saying ‘you’d get away with anything as long as you’re pretty’ …Pretty, or shiny (kira kira), in the case of idols. This was something the show has been preaching non-stop it was really in your face. I find this to be the only truth to the whole shenanigans, though. As idols (and as seiyuus and celebrities in real-life), the only thing that counts is to be shiny… to emit light halos you blind your fans at live concerts… To me, Mamo was shiny alright. Kishou as well, when he sang on stage. This anime had a total disregard for plot. They just did whatever and hope the shiny quality of the idols (seiyuus) work their magic. And it did. But mostly I stayed on because of RenMasa. It was delicious.

I just realized recently that Utapri and Osomatsu-san are just two sides of the same coin : they’re both idol animes. Not in the sense that the characters in Osomatsu were aiming to be idols, but that the franchise was riding on the popularity of these male seiyuus themselves. Until not long before, I had always thought that Osomatsu was a gag anime. Looking back, I realized that Osomatsu had always boasted this about itself. In the first episode, when discussing the direction they would take for this remake, the sextuplets eventually agreed to go with the ‘idol route’, becoming idols themselves in order to gain popularity. Even if this turned out to be just a gag, it was truer than any truth spoken on screen, and it wasn’t hard for me to picture the production company brainstorming and coming up with the exact idea (i.e. to cast these idols as the main six roles). The show had always hinted at this idol culture, parodying the Japanese showbiz all the time. The characters were even color-coded, just like in your average idol anime. The difference was that instead of having real-life idols (seiyuus) portraying idol characters as in Utapri, Osomatsu went for subversion. It showed a flip side of an idol. The show had Japan’s top seiyuus did all these dirty jokes and didn’t hesitate to throw in plenty of nasty gags.

One thing I noticed about Osomatsu was that all of the cast for sextuplets HAD never had a main role in an idol anime (to my knowledge). I think that was one of the requirements. I like how Suzu and Nakamura Yuuichi somehow ended up switching adjuvant roles. Suzu was Iyami in Osomatsu, whereas Nakamura was Ringo-sensei in Utapri. I really enjoyed Suzu in his Iyami role, though, and I wouldn’t have cast him in any of the main six. He was the perfect remake-Iyami, handsdown.

Masa and Ren figures I brought with me to where I'm currently living for emotional support.

One of my short term goals right now is to try to go to one of Utapri events in the near future (the seiyuus are getting old, they won’t keep giving live stages for long, in my opinion). I’ve read about how difficult it was to obtain a ticket, so I’ll have to plan carefully. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the franchise was still very very popular (especially among millennials) following the recent STARISH STAR TREASURE -Moonshine- concert. I know I’m late getting into this, but Utapri is such a strong franchise with such a large fanbase. I believe they still have at least a couple of years of juice in them to go on.

#utapri #utapuri #renmasa #osomatsu san #anime #uta no prince sama

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animemusicbrackets · 2 years ago

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HERES THE BRACKET. FINALLY. GOD.

sorry for the wait u_u

(Text version, with dates under the cut below)

For franchises that had more than one submission, I grouped them together so that after round 2, there will only be one contestant per franchise. to try to be fair or whatever, so that a small number of franchises dont dominate the bracket

yes i know mdzs and tgcf arent anime but its my poll tourney and i do what i want godbless

this might be too much to ask but please watch the videos if you can and vote based on that! idc how much you like or dislike the anime, how much do you like the OPENING. obviously this is for fun so you can do whatever but if possible i dont rly want this to be a popularity poll :')

propaganda welcome :)

Tag List: round 1 round 2 round 3 quarterfinals semifinals finals third place round propaganda bracket updates matches (the actual polls, not including any reblogs)

ROUND 1

PART A (5/6 12:00pm ET)

Match 1: "Peace Sign" - Kenshi Yonezu (My Hero Academia) {VS} "Hitamuki" - SUPER BEAVER (My Hero Academia) Match 2: "THE DAY" - Porno Graffitti (My Hero Academia) {VS} "H. T. [Humanoid Typhoon]" - Tsuneo Imahori (Trigun 1998) Match 3: "Kaen" - QUEEN BEE (Dororo 2019) {VS} "Naru" - PON (Tsurune: Kazemai High School Kyudo Club) Match 4: "DANZEN! Futari wa Pretty Cure" - Gojo Mayumi (Futari wa Pretty Cure) {VS} "Bye Bye" - 7!! (Kimi To Boku) Match 5: "Hikariare" - BURNOUT SYNDROMES (Haikyuu!!) {VS} "FLY HIGH!!" - BURNOUT SYNDROMES (Haikyuu!!) Match 6: "Gun's & Roses" - Paradise Lunch (Baccano!) {VS} "Flyers" - BRADIO (Death Parade) Match 7: "MAN HUMAN" - Denki Groove (Devilman Crybaby) {VS} "Goya no Machiawase" - Hello Sleepwalkers (Noragami) Match 8: "Maji LOVE 1000%" - STARISH (Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%) {VS} "KICK BACK" - Kenshi Yonezu (Chainsaw Man)

PART B (5/8 12:00pm ET)

Match 9: "Papermoon" - Tommy heavenly6 (Soul Eater) {VS} "Resonance" - T.M. Revolution (Soul Eater) Match 10: "Hyadain no Kakakata☆Kataomoi-C" - Maeyamada Kenichi (Nichijou) {VS} "Parallel Hearts" - FictionJunction (Pandora Hearts) Match 11: "Easy Breezy" - chelmico (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) {VS} "Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru" - Koji Makaino (Rose of Versailles) Match 12: "Tank!" - The Seatbelts (Cowboy Bebop) {VS} "COLORS" - FLOW (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion) Match 13: "Melissa" - Porno Graffitti (Fullmetal Alchemist 2003) {VS} "Golden Time Lover" - Sukima Switch (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) Match 14: "Rain" - SID (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) {VS} "Again" - YUI (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) Match 15: "Monochrome Kiss" - SID (Black Butler) {VS} "Brand New World" - D-51 (One Piece) Match 16: "Smile Bomb" - Mawatari Matsuko (Yu Yu Hakusho) {VS} "Dream Island Obsessional Park" - Susumu Hirasawa (Paranoia Agent)

PART C (5/10 12:00pm ET)

Match 17: "R★O★C★K★S" - Hound Dog (Naruto) {VS} "Lovers" - 7!! (Naruto: Shippuden) Match 18: "Far Away" - Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Naruto) {VS} "Blue Bird" - Ikimonogakari (Naruto: Shippuden) Match 19: "Hero's Come Back" - Nobodyknows (Naruto: Shippuden) {VS} "BLOODY STREAM" - Coda (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) Match 20: "Aoi Hana" - Kikukodan (Sweet Blue Flowers) {VS} "Unravel" - TK (Tokyo Ghoul) Match 21: "Setsuna no Ai" - GRANRODEO (Bungo Stray Dogs) {VS} "Gurenge" - LiSA (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) Match 22: "Scar" - Tatsuya Kitani (Bleach) {VS} "Eternal Blaze" - Nana Mizuki (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's) Match 23: "Sono Saki e" - RIRIKO (Children of the Whales) {VS} "Rondo-Revolution" - Masami Okui (Revolutionary Girl Utena) Match 24: "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" - Aya Hirano, Emiri Katou, Kaori Fukuhara, and Aya Endo (Lucky☆Star) {VS} "Moonlight Densetsu" - Dali, Moon Lips (Sailor Moon)

PART D (5/12 12:00pm ET)

Match 25: "99.9" - MOB CHOIR feat. sajou no hana (Mob Psycho 100) {VS} "1" - MOB CHOIR (Mob Psycho 100) Match 26: "99" - MOB CHOIR (Mob Psycho 100) {VS} "Kibou no Uta" - Ultra Tower (Food Wars) Match 27: "Departure!" - Masatoshi Ono (Hunter x Hunter) {VS} "Sakura Kiss" - Chieko Kawabe (Ouran High School Host Club) Match 28: "History Maker" - Dean Fujioka (Yuri!!! On ICE) {VS} "Kaikai Kitan" - Eve (Jujutsu Kaisen) Match 29: "Drunken Dreams of the Past" - Lin Zhixuan (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) {VS} "Connect" - ClariS (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) Match 30: "No Parting" - Jeff Chang (Heaven Official's Blessing) {VS} "Delicate ni Suki Shite" - Ota Takako (Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami) Match 31: "Kiss Me" - Celeina Ann and Nai Br.XX (Carole & Tuesday) {VS} "Sudachi no Uta" - Anemoneria (Wonder Egg Priority) Match 32: "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" - Yoko Takahashi (Neon Genesis Evangelion) {VS} "Shinzou wo Sasageyo" - Linked Horizon (Attack on Titan)

#poll tournaments #poll tournament #anime music #tumblr polls #tumblr poll #anime #music #anime openings #anime op #anime op tournament #bracket updates #brackets

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