Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 2000% Episode 12--Here There Be Idols

Just when I thought that UtaPri's antics couldn't get any more ridiculous, this happens.


First, let's address the elephant...er, dragon in the room. I'd figured that Heaven's performance would be over-the-top and jaw dropping, but I don't think that anyone could've predicted a Giant Screw You Dragon would rise from the stage for the finale, setting the stadium on fire with blue flames. I think that UtaPri finally broke my WTF meter with that one. I'm still not sure what to make of it, since this series has a history of blending fantasy and reality in ways that are not entirely clear. Sometimes a music video is just a music video, and other times the whole group is the center of a heart-sparkle storm. Of course, Heavens didn't really kill hundreds of people (right?) and it's more likely that this is some kind of elaborate special effect or a too-literal interpretation of "bringing the house down."

The moral of the story is, this show is insane. I will never stop loving it.

 
Aside from Giant Screw You Dragons, the beginning of this episode made me think that the show was finally fleshing out the senpai characters. In a way, I was right, but not in the way I would've liked. We do get to see how the character dynamics of Quartet Night operate, and arguably the most ignored characters--Ran and Ai--get their moment of focus. However, their role in this episode basically boils down to: "Why am I having these feelings? I don't do feelings." At least in Ran's case we get a little bit of backstory: the band he was in previously ditched him, making it hard for him to trust people. However, I still feel that these characters got the short end of the stick in terms of screentime and development. Maybe they'll have better luck in season 3...?

Let me show you the dance of my people

And then there was Cecil with his Agnadance. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I like his character, but I think he's finally won me over. The silly sound effect as he spun around in a circle was too priceless. And his justification that he'd danced that way since he was a child made it even better. It does seem like something a small child would think up, yet the idea of innocence and pure love for music is a big theme in UtaPri, so it works well. At first I was as concerned as the other characters about Cecil's ability to learn all the choreography in a day, but then I remembered that he got permission to be an idol from his vague country in a matter of hours, so this is nothing.


But seriously though. A Giant Screw You Dragon. What is Starish going to summon? A tiger?

Why don't these two have their own spinoff yet?

Images from Crunchyroll.com.