Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 2000% Episode 3--It's Our Turn to Make Everyone Happy

Alternate Title: MAXIMUM MANLINESS

 
So far, blogging this show is a lot easier than I expected. There's even a theme in this episode and everything! That's not to say that UtaPri suddenly dropped its random acts of fabulousness, there's still plenty of that, but I like that the episode did have a central idea, however small. I like having things to write about!

But first things first. This episode introduces what will likely be the main plot element for this season: the UtaPri contest. I guess they figured that reusing their own name would make things easier to understand. Anyway, the goal of the Master Class is to make the members of Starfish Starish into real idols, not just one-hit wonders. To do that, they need to get more attention, and apparently the best way to get more attention is to win this contest. It seems pretty straightforward, but the contest itself is really vaguely defined and doesn't make a lot of sense. The boys are told that they'll be judged on their work, but if they work hard as idols, won't they get more attention anyway...? Doesn't that make the contest redundant? That said, this is UtaPri, where silly plot devices are around for the sake of existing, so I'm willing to let that go. The point is, now the group has a goal to work towards that will probably be the finale of this show, if I know my silly idol harem anime at all.

 
Anyway, the real spotlight of this episode goes to Shou, who is finally living out his dream of starring on a television show alongside his hero and teacher, Hyuuga. He's understandably excited, and when he does the polite thing and tells Hyuuga how happy he is to be working with him, Hyuuga says that he should stop acting like a fan and more like a pro. He makes thing even worse by saying that the two of them are rivals now. Hyuuga's intent seemed to be to motivate Shou to act as an equal, since he put in all this effort, but the result is that he feels inadequate, especially after he fails multiple times to make the stunt jump (complete with Looney Toons phsyics and facial expressions).

 
It's not until after he makes the jump to rescue Nanami (which is also the designated fangirl moment of the week) that we get to the heart of the problem: if you make your passion into your profession, do you have to leave behind the part that makes you a fan? I agree strongly with what Nanami said (which is also the title of this post), and think that fans can bring out some of the best work in the entertainment industry since they know what it's like on the other side of the screen, so to speak. Yes, there is a part of your work ethic that will change, but the passion that propelled you to pursue that dream should never be forgotten.

 
Slightly cheesy message of the week aside (although I have to say, I love my cheese), since this episode mainly focused on one of the boys, I'm assuming that we're going to get character-specific episodes for a while as we work up to whatever the UtaPri contest actually is. I wonder who's next?

What kind of show was this anyway? A medieval samurai wild west drama?

Images from Crunchyroll.com.