Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 2000% Ep 4: Overcoming the Hurdle to Embrace!

Masato prepares for an audition for a Historical Musical. He finds himself struggling to muster up the courage to embrace the actress whom he will be auditioning with, so the STARISH boys decide to give him a hand.

Impression:
Can I just say that Masato just SOARED up to my top three favorites? Last season, I could care less about Makoto, but today? BOOM. This guy just won me over. Masato is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE when he is so flustered, blushing and caught off guard. He is a quiet guy, but man- I am really happy that we were able to finally see a whole different side of him. I enjoyed the flashback with his grandfather, it was super sweet. His wisdom came into use and it now holds a very dear meaning to Makoto. Speaking of advice, Cecil had actually helped him out a bit by suggesting to just imagine the actress he will be auditioning with as the one he loves. Cecil was also the one to catch him and point out that he is in love with Haruka.
Unfortunately Cecil didn’t grow on me at all this episode (I really disliked how whiny he was), but today you could really see his jealousy kick in. He is visibly annoyed with the fact that Haruka loves STARISH and not him alone. He even went as far to say straight out loud that she is STARISH’s prisoner. The first thing that crossed my mind when he said that was, “Oh lord, this is going to be end badly.” Because lets face it, Cecil is a spoiled Prince, who is… I don’t think so much of needy, but very clingy and immature. I mean goodness gracious- but I’m sure that my friends and the rest of Cecil’s fan base found that utterly adorable. Again, this ultimately comes down to personal presences. With that in mind, when Masato told Cecil that for now, he won’t confess and is more than satisfied with his bond he has with Haruka through music, Cecil was taken aback. I am not entirely sure what went through his head right that very second, but today Cecil showed us that he wants Haruka to reciprocate his romantic feelings alone. So I don’t know how he feels about the boys having a bond with Haruka through music. I could see him initially using it as a strategy to create that bond with Haruka, but eventually/possibly becomes engrossed into the idol limelight.
I wonder who else will also be called out for being in love with Haruka, it doesn’t necessarily have to be Cecil to call them out, but either way- fueling jealousy is something that can potentially… no, will tear the group apart (it almost did just by Haruka keeping Tokiya’s secret as Hayato). I can see Otoya and Ren to be called out since they are far from hiding their feelings towards Haruka. Tokiya is the kind to prioritize properly and will definitely be focusing on Professionalism over Love (but who knows we might be in for a surprise). Natsuki is an interesting case since he loves EVERYBODY! I am crossing my fingers that this season will cover more on how Satsuki came to be, or whether Natsuki actually knows about his presence.
I really like that they are giving the boys their own individual episodes so I hope they will continue this streak because there are still plenty of remaining episodes, my guess is that Tokiya will most likely have a half episode because he had experienced his major character development in Season 1.
The only problem with this episode was that I could barely hear Makoto’s song (was it just me or did everyone else have the same problem as well?). It was so frustrating because the SFX and the grunts shouting just overwhelmed him. The beginning of the song sounded great and I REALLY wanted to hear it, so it was such a shame…
On the more humorous note, I absolutely LOST IT when Tokiya played as the lady to help Masato out.
(Scratch that I lost it throughout the ENTIRE EPISODE, it was fucking hilarious!)

They didn’t have Haruka help them out because one they didn’t think of it (or maybe they didn’t want to suggest it since it was about practicing an embracing scene LOL), nor did Masato want to bother her. Just oh my goodness, Tokiya… he was SO INTO IT. HE WAS COMPLETELY ENGROSSED INTO THE ROLE! I couldn’t breathe, and then speaking in a high voice in attempt to sound like a woman- I CAN’T.

I LOST ALL ABILITY TO CAN.
I CANNOT!
I CANNOT
HELP

ME

HALP

WHAT IS WITH THIS FACE?!?!?!

/DEAD

It makes it a million times more hilarious since Masato takes an embrace very seriously, and he sure as hell was not comfortable with the idea of hugging a complete stranger whom he is meeting for the very first time. It was really funny to see that Masato couldn’t even hug Tokiya even though he was engrossed in his acting and that Tokiya holds a lot of pride in his acting as well.

Last but not least, although Haruka hardly had any screentime, I really adored her today. It’s a whole different story when Haruka is AWARE that the guy across her has feelings towards her. She becomes very flustered and in a state of panic because she isn’t sure what to do. I am sure Haruka would lose it if all the boys came running up to her propounding their love for her.