Anime Column] Tokimeki☆Time Trip No. 7 "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji Love 1000%" is a pioneer in male idol anime!

I still love it when I look at it now!"
Why were they so popular with the ladies?"
There is a reason for everything that is interesting!　Female anime writers take a look back at the nostalgic works that have been a hit with female anime fans.

In this seventh installment, we look back at "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE 1000%" (2011), the first in the series whose fourth season began airing in the fall.

The long-awaited fourth season of "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE Legend Star" began, and we found ourselves saying, "Yes, yes, that's how UtaPri was! and while watching the main story, many fans are probably thinking, "Thinking back, we've come a long way ......", although it is not a line from Haruka Nanami in the first episode.

Although it is a purely female-oriented work based on an Otome game, the first season became a hot topic because of its power to attract the attention of men through word-of-mouth communication. Here is a look back at the first season of the series, which set the trend that continues to this day.

The addictiveness and impact of "Maji LOVE 1000%" was incredible!

After the first episode of "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE 1000%" aired, the ending theme song, "Maji LOVE 1000%," became a big hit.

The stage performance by the six members of "ST☆RISH," who sang and danced in 2D without using motion capture, had an impact that caught the attention of people who were not familiar with the work or the characters.

The song was so addictive that people who saw it once could not help replaying it, and for the time being, the song would have to be looped in their brains.

Until the broadcast of "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE 1000%," most "idol anime" were entertainment works featuring hard-working girls or depicting female units.

The only works that depicted male idols or entertainment activities were "Chousha Raideen" (1996), in which the main characters were also idols, and "KAIKAN Phrase" (1999), which featured a visual-kei band. However, "Chousha Raideen" was originally a transforming hero story, and "Kaikan Phrase" was a band anime. KAIKAN Phrase" is a band animation, which is different from what we now call "idol" animation.

In addition, there are also anime in which "male idols" appear as the flower of the setting, but it is rare to see a stage scene in which they sing and dance to the music.

The sparkle of the "male idol" stage is expressed in the anime.

To begin with, it is quite difficult to animate singing and dancing. To overcome this difficulty, the method of having 3DCG characters dance by motion capture has been widely used in animation.

At the same time, however, the difficult question is, "Is the character attractive as an animated character? Anime characters are required to be sparkling, unrealistic and cool in a way that is impossible in real life. Specifically, they need to have a cartoon-like appearance, and have a sense of movement and camera work, but 3DCG tends to make them look somewhat flat.

The one that really broke through was "Maji Love 1000%".

Once you hear the song, it will stay in your ears and never go away, filled with a sparkle and groove that thrills girls.

The cast is composed mainly of people who are themselves active as artists, as well as voice actors with strong singing ability.

The dance scenes and stage images were created by a production staff that loves real male idols.

The passion of the images broadcasted on TV surprised not only female fans, the original target audience, but also male fans who took a curious look at the show and said, "What is this? The video became the catalyst for the popularity of the event.

The proliferation of princes, a three-way battle in the fourth season

The main idol unit is "ST☆RISH. The name is derived from the initial letters of the seven members.

In "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE 1000%," the six members of ST☆RISH are Otoya Itsuki, Masato Hijirikawa, Natsuki Shinomiya, Tokiya Ichinose, Len Jinguji, and Sho Kurusu. Sho Kurusu.

It was the TV series that gave the six, who were independent characters to be captured in the original game, a name and debuted them as one unit. The "☆" stands for "A" and represents Cecil Aijima, who joined the group in the second season.

Another unit that appeared in the second season is "QUARTET NIGHT," an older unit belonging to the same Shining Office as ST☆RISH, and known for its mature charm.

The four members are Kotobuki Reiji, Kurosaki Ranmaru, Mifu Ai, and Camus. They have strong personalities and do not get along with each other even within the same group. They are portrayed as the ones who give various inspirations and advice to the members of ST☆RISH.

Furthermore, in the last part of the second season, an anime original unit called "HE★VENS" appears as ST☆RISH's rivals. After being defeated by ST☆RISH in the competition for the Rookie of the Year award, the unit went missing, but all seven members appeared together at the end of the third season.

In the fourth season, the competition between these three units should finally be depicted.

Anime, game, music, and live performance: a quadripartite attraction

The popularity of "Uta no Prince Sama!", which started as a PSP game in 2010, has grown dramatically with the anime adaptation. Many fans probably started playing the game from the anime. Many fans bought CDs, got hooked on the songs, and sang the songs at karaoke .......

Then, in January 2012, the first live "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE LIVE" was held, featuring the entire cast of ST☆RISH. This event has been held five times by 2016, and each year the battle for tickets has become more and more fierce.

Anime, games, music (CDs), and live performances. These four elements create a synergistic effect, and the four-in-one appeal of "Uta no Prince Sama!

The appeal of the music has been especially strong. Elements Garden, which is in charge of all the music, is a group of music creators who have been involved with the original game since its inception.

In this work, the songs are part of the characters' personalities. By tying the songs to the storyline, each song has its own drama, and as you listen to the songs, you can enjoy the growth and change of the characters.

The songs are easy to remember and easy to sing, and the enjoyment of singing duet songs with separate parts makes them suitable for karaoke. The groove and call-and-response elements are also attractive in a live performance. Above all, "Whose song will I hear next?" is one of the pleasures of waiting.

Time spent with the characters is the best asset of all.

For those who have been fans of the first series, five years have already passed. The time spent with the Princes (as we call the idols in this work) is the most precious asset for the fans.

We watched them grow, enjoyed them, and shared topics with our friends. This feeling is very close to that of real idols (it is also very close to the fact that fans are required to pay ongoing expenses ......).

From the first episode of the fourth season of "Uta no Prince Sama! Maji LOVE Legend Star," the first episode of the series has somehow created an atmosphere of a compilation of all the previous episodes, causing fans to buzz.

In the opening scene, there are many images of Haruka Nanami and ST☆RISH reminiscing about their time at school together, and the usual "the ending song sung by ST☆RISH is shown in the first episode," is not the case this time.

At the end of the fourth season's story, ST☆RISH, QUARTET NIGHT, and HE★VENS will clash with each other for the position of opening artist for the sports festival. Unlike in the past, the stage scene of "Maji LOVE Legend Star," which could not be seen in the first episode, can be considered to have been saved for the final episode.

Now that the series has been around for such a long time, it is no longer unusual to see singing and dancing scenes in anime, and the level of expectation on the part of the viewers has become higher. Still, the fact remains that "Uta no Prince Sama: Maji Love 1000%" was groundbreaking and full of charm.

Also, compared to ST☆RISH, which is now fully integrated as a unit, the six members of the first season were still very young and student-like, with their own problems and relationships being rugged, and the drama of each individual was carefully portrayed. Haruka is also an immature, hard-working girl, and her story is filled with nostalgia.

As I watch the fourth season and think about the accomplishments of the first series, I can't help but think that "UtaPri" may have already become a "legendary star.

(Text by YAMAYU)
(C) UTA☆PRI PROJECT