Maji LOVE Revolutions – Sociopaths and Secret Robots!

• Genre : Reverse harem, music, happiness
• Episodes: 13
• Studio: A-1 Pictures

 

My hero and STARISH are all back at school? Camp? The Japan’s next pop superstar mansion? And this time they are doing stuff! Adorable stuff like entertaining kids and acting in what I suspect is the greatest play ever written. Move over Shakespeare! You can’t just take it easy if you’re going to be an idol and our lovely STARISH boys are happy to put in the work. There’s a love music revolution underway, will you be part of it? Also Quartet Night, their idol sempai/rivals/potential doujin partners are there. My hero serves tea and coffee. Goals!

Somewhere around episode 3, I was watching one of them pretty boys struggle with the concept of love and I rolled my eyes a little. Great another emotionless robot type, I thought to myself. Call me, I’ll show you what love is!!! Exactly 2 scenes later, it’s revealed that he really is a robot!!!!! You know the word masterpiece gets thrown around a lot these days but sometimes it’s the mot juste.

Uta no Prince Sama Magi Love Revolutions, the 3rd and not even last season of the sweeping UtaPri epic quickly becomes a parody of itself in the best way possible. I take breaks between the seasons of this show, one can only handle so much unfettered awesome at a time, and as pretty boy anime were starting to pile up and clutter in my queue, I considered dropping the remaining seasons of UtaPri. I decided to watch the first episode as a proforma ritual before hitting remove. As I was reminded of the absolute magic that is this show, I understood that I should not be trusted to make my own decisions, ever! I have no idea what’s good for me.

Production wise, it’s an UtaPri season. Everything’s good. Designs are prioritized over movement. My hero still has her freaky coked out eyes and she has had a major wardrobe update. I’m not even ashamed to admit that I found myself coveting some of her outfits and plan to occasionally steal her style.

Sound design remains decent. I was struck this time by the fact that I don’t particularly like any of their singing voices. Their speaking voices are fine – and I mean FINE! – but when they start singing, it’s just not to my taste. And I like the songs more that I care to admit. I may have even listen to revolution during my run this morning….Up until now this didn’t bother me much but it was glaring this season because I really loved Ai’s singing voice and the contrast with the others really brought it to light.

In any case, the tunes are catchy but if you’re in this expecting musical genius… Well you’ve come to the right place because EVERYTHING UtaPri does is genius!

This season, the STARISH boys need to earn their chance at a spot singing in the Triple S Sports festival (yup sports)  by working alongside and then against their mentor idols (I just can’t explain the pure glee this show instills in me)! The whole gang, and of course my Hero, are back at school(?). Ok I’m not sure where they all are. The production studio’s idol grooming mansion or something. In any case this place is an architectural MARVEL. From what I can tell it’s 92% enormous and sumptuously decorated hallways, with occasional spiral staircases leading to hallway pianos, and like 3 rooms. Zel, if you ever get around to seeing this show – I will pay to see a mock up blueprint of this place.

In any case, these 11 men (and they call each other amazing men – I flutter) along with the principal/director/producer/magical MAN Shining Saotome, two teachers(?) and my Hero are all holed up in this mansion with little to no contact with the outside world -and a dream in their hearts. To become the best Idols EVER. Now “best” isn’t really all that well defined. It could be best selling, best dancers, best vocalists, best at marketing products…. Apparently, it’s a goal that can be reached by splitting up and doing all sorts of adorable tasks which are mostly acting.

I’ve already established in my past reviews for this show that it’s the type of perfection that eschews logic. Rather than clumsily skip over plot points leaving the audience confused and frustrated, like for instance Grancrest, it joyfully bounds over them and answers your questions by looking deep into your eyes, pressing am unexplainably sweet finger to your lips and saying: shhh don’t speak – I just want to savor this moment!

By the end I had so many questions that they became irrelevant. The entire narrative seemed rhetorical, a deep artistic poem in anime form where the questions ARE the answers. Why is the biggest musical event a sports festival? Where are all the employees of the agency? The secret robot was going to run out of battery life – would he have died if he did? Did he just forget to bring his charger? How did he recharge anyway? Why didn’t anybody ask these questions? Is the one guy a vampire? Did glasses cure his split personality, or does he no longer take his glasses off ever? Is he evil in the shower? I think it’s very VERY important the we get a shower scene to clear that up…

If that last paragraph hadn’t made it amply clear for you yet, let me spell it out once again: m.a.s.t.e.r.p.i.e.c.e.!

Much like the show itself, I can no longer tell when I’m being ironic. Part of the problem is that I never really knew the proper definition of that word. Let me try to be sincere for just a second. Wow that itches… The story is disjointed and often silly to the point of ridiculous. The characters are shallow and don’t evolve at all. The only female character is supposedly an unparalleled musical prodigy solely responsible for the music of both groups (and therefore their success) without any help at all, she is also beloved by everyone there, yet her role is regularly reduced to telling the boys they are wonderful and serving them coffee…

BUT, all of these elements are purposeful and carefully balanced. This is a self-aware B movie. The pacing is fantastic, the irrelevant and disjointed plot of rife with absurdist humor. My Hero’s treatment is always respectful if uninteresting. I laughed out loud regularly with only one or two episodes I would consider boring. In a way, this could almost be viewed as a 4-panel slice of life comedy rather than an overarching narrative. Never for one second am I under the illusion that the people behind this show didn’t know exactly what they were doing.

Also, remember when I said every episode of every show ever (except Natsume – natch) should be episode 13 of Uta no Prince Sama 2000% Magi Love? Well I stand corrected, they should be episode 13 of Uta no Prince Sama Revolutions. Not only do we have a magical, apparently super powered battle of the idol bands BUT we have a surprise return of evil boy band with extra members (I guess we get 18 extraordinary men next season!!!) and a cliffhanger. Guys, the season ends on a cliffhanger!

When it comes to STARISH, there ain’t nothing “ish” about it! You have no idea how proud I am right now

Favorite character:  CAMUS

What this anime taught me: Passion, perseverance, friendship and LOVE

“Just because you can’t dance, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dance” – Alcohol

Suggested drink: Triple Sec

• Every time anyone blushes – take a sip
  • if it’s my Hero – take another
• Every time Shining makes an entrance – take a sip
• Every time my Hero is at a loss (dumbfounded/confused/lost) – take a sip of water. Do not do this with alcohol, you will die!
• Every time anyone says revolution – cheer!
• Every time someone is walking down a hallway – take a sip
• Every time ACTING – take a sip
• Every time Camus uses his nice voice – take a sip
• Every time there’s emotion wind (you’ll know it when you see it) – take a sip
• Every time someone is flying – take a sip
•  Every time someone gasps at  song – try to figure out if it’s good or bad
• Every time you see sheet music – take a sip
• Every time Camus owns someone – bow