A Shoujo Enthusiast Viewpoint: Uta no Prince-sama

Synopsis

Haruka Nanami is a young girl who dreams of nothing more than to become a composer and be able to make songs that could touch the hearts of people like her idol did with her during a rough visit to the city. When she tried to enter into her dream school to take her entrance exam however, trouble strikes as she had been in fact late in entering. But the help of two handsome strangers she was able to not only make it but pass the exam and thus begins her adventures at Saotome Academy.

The Good

The music throughout the entire series never fails to be interesting and hold fun visuals when they are presented. With music anime that involves the growth and development of the characters, it’s fun to see the series present new songs rather than copy previous works which simply reapplied the same animation before adding something which would create a familiar but different scene at the same time.

For the character development of the series, they were well done in terms of their development throughout all the seasons of the series. While they may seem like stereotype found in many, many other shoujo, there are points to these characters and their connection the plot/characters make for an interesting read as more than anything, there is deep thoughts to what issues the characters are facing even if it may cliche.

Without spoiling too much, there is a highly interesting point in the third series which involve one of the main males of the original band and the newest character introduced. The emotional sense in this story arc makes for something actually different from the usual shoujo formula.

On a side note, the art and animation while not highly praise-worthy, does have its pretty moments with the details of small things such as character detail and background work.

The Bad

The biggest negative point of the series would be with the main protagonist herself. Haruka Nanami like many other female protagonists in reverse harem stories, does not truly stand out. While true she does have her moments in being a figure of encouragement for the male characters but in the general progression of the series, she makes out more as a side character rather than the protagonist that she is supposed to be.

Looking at her overall, she is the most generic side of multiple female characters in the shoujo genre, the sweet and kind girl who is passionate about her dreams and because she inspires the male characters, she gains their attraction.

Then there is the flow of the plot, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a pile-up of characters. Rather than develop the characters and expand on their stories, the second and third characters simply introduced new characters to have the main characters bounce off of and present their different reactions and development through their interactions rather than present them on a more personal level.

On the note of characters, it is not just Nanami who is a generic character but rather all of the characters who hold a generic to them to the point that they are easily identifiable to the stereotypes that they embody such as the flirty bishounen and the rough looking punk. Add to the fact that just about every male character holds an interest in Haruka and there is no female rivals whatsoever, this series makes up the largest reverse harem in the shoujo with 20 male interests if you count the teachers and even not this is just going overboard. While it is based off of a game, there is a limit to how much you can stuff into a series.

Conclusion

Out of all the reverse harem stories out there, this is the series that will mostly be remembered for its music or at best, that they developed the male characters well. Nanami did not work at all as a protagonist and instead turned out to be a side character to support the males as the series progressed. Then there is the generic qualities of not one but all characters and the fact that for the remaining two seasons they simply added new characters and based off the plots on them.

The main good points that could be said about the series is that most of the music that have been inserted and sung are catchy and well done. The development of the characters were steady and worked well with the flow of the series and the art while having some interesting combinations for the features of the characters, did well enough in little details

RATING: 5/10