The gauntlet has been thrown down, sparkly as it may be.

What They Say:
The six members of ST☆RISH, who have made their shocking idol debut, and Nanami Haruka, who has just begun her career as a composer, have advanced to Saotome Academy’s master course. As they continue their lessons in earnest to learn how to be top idols and composers, they join Shining Agency and begin to work as entertainers. But before that, some senpai idols and strange foreign idols with a few odd habits stand before them, and they end up getting dragged into the race for a mysterious “Newcomer Award.”

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Starish gang has come together well in the last couple of episodes as they dealt with the issues surrounding Cecil and what he wants to do and what he really does mean to the group. Especially when it comes to how Haruka had done a lot for him and the rest realized that he had a very positive impact on her, and vice versa. A lot of it does come down to the way that they do understand that he is important to Haruka, but also that she views them all in a similar light and that they’d do the same for any of each other at this point. So with that dealt with, events shift towards dealing with the Uta Pri Award itself, which has the finalists all getting announced, including HEAVENS’, an almost comical group in some ways with their personalities.

HEAVENS’ certainly makes an impression with the way they show themselves off in front of everyone and the scale of their fanbaes. With them being involved, Starish members feel even better about their chances since they know HEAVENS’s has such a reputation to them and they feel they’re on the same level as them. Being that it’s all about the music industry on some level here, there’s a lot of flash and not much substance, especially when the principal gets involved and promotes Starish in a big way. He’s obviously using the members here to achieve his own ends of course, but he’s got a strong push for the seven members in going up against HEAVENS’ manager, someone that he seemingly has a grudge against. And he intends to use Haruka’s songs against him in a big way to get what he wants.

The battle that gets set is pretty obvious, and was so as soon as we got introduced to HEAVENS’ and saw the Otori in the background that’s got the grudge with the principal. With the stakes set where the losing group would have to disband, everyone rallies together well since they know it’ll be the full on debut for Cecil and they have so much riding on it. The group is one that really does come together well and retains a positive atmosphere even after all that’s involved, which is a big part of their appeal. There’s some good fun as we see them prepare themselves mentally for this, but also when the members of the two groups meet outside of the public eye as that’s wher ethe real tension is. With Haruka as the glue of Starish, you can see that they know this and make plenty of comments about her to try and unnerve them, but also just get very into her personal space which raises the rest of the guys’ tension level. HEAVENS’ knows exactly how to change a mood in order to achieve an edge.

In Summary:
While there’s been a long and slow lead-up to where the show is now, giving us multiple episodes focusing on individual characters before fully affirming their bond together, Uta no Prince Sama is now set to move into the final phase by putting Starish up against HEAVENS’ for competition. An the stakes are high, foolishly so but it fits when you look at the personalities managing each of the groups, so there’s a lot going on and the pressure is there. The two groups definitely operate with a different dynamic and we see that come out plainly enough, even if it is just too overt in many ways, but it fits with the simplicity of the show and what it wants to do. There’s enough to like here with how everything comes together and the kind of goofy nature of it, but there are no surprises and it just goes through the flashy motions.

Grade: B-

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.