Eva’s First Impression
Okay, I am going to be brutally honest here. Since the train wreck of Season 3, I have fell off the Utapri love train and went into this premiere with not only extremely low expectations, but very little patience. So when episode started off with every single member from STARISH, Quartet Night and HEAVENS (a total of eighteen characters) saying Nanami Haruka’s name, eighteen freaking times, it is an understatement to say I wanted to walk away right then and there. That’s right, I am not kidding you: you read right: THEY DID THIS 18 TIMES. As soon as I realized what was happening, as if clicking mute was not going to be fast enough for me, I just ripped off my headphones. I was not even two minutes into the episodes, and my patience had already flew out the window. And then I thought myself, “Wow I am actually not looking forward to this. Maybe I should skip this entirely?” I am not exaggerating. The premiere of Season 4 was excruciating for me to watch. I honestly don’t think I have it in me to actually cover this season. I mean, it really does not help that there is no visual preview because that is really the only form of hope it can give me in order for things to look up, and honestly I don’t think they will. Frankly I think this season and for the rest of the series (I mean I wouldn’t put it past them to milk out a 5th season) it would be much better if I don’t cover this at all, and just not watch it. I would probably take glimpses at it to find out if anything good comes out of it to give me a reason to resume watching this season for curiosity sake.
And this puts me in a tough position because my instinct (which is usually right 99% of the time) tells me drop it, drop it immediately. But then there’s another part of me who recognizes this episode was crappy not only because as per usual, the first episode of Utapri is usually a waste of time. Either it’s ten minutes of stupid re-introductions of characters we already know, or in this case this season: Listen to eighteen characters each say the heroine’s name and then have have each group abduct Haruka in a car in attempt to woo her to compose a legendary song for them all while singing some songs, OH- and cue to Season 3 reference, every single character basically confessing to her. So unless you really like that stuff, the repetition gets annoying real fast.
Oh and if you thought that was not enough, we then learn the results from the performances we had seen in the finale of Season 3. You ready? The results were as followed: HEAVENS were disqualified by default due to failing to submit their entry on time. That is only natural right? You bet it is. This leaves the competition between STARISH and Quartet Night, and ultimately Quartet Night came out victorious.
But no. NO no no no no no.
They couldn’t have that.
No, they just could not have that.
You know what happens? Because of the god damn fans in the audience complaining about HEAVENS’ disqualification, Quartet Night DECLINES the opportunity.
!@#()!@*#!@*&#!@*#&@!#
I lost my mind when they did that. I really did. I don’t give a flying @*#!* about the fans. HEAVENS failed to abide the rules and Quartet Night, because of their god damn ego of wanting to compete at the highest caliber, they walk straight into HEAVEN’S plan, who knew that despite the fact they were not able to enter, by crashing the competition and STARISH wannabes, they would be able to force a rematch. I don’t even care they are doing this for the sake of plot- I immensely dislike this because now we are in store of entire repetition of Season Three, only this time, it looks like instead of Quartet Night characters being featured, it might be the bloody Heavens characters taking up the precious screen time. And dear lord, I hope I am wrong about that.
I would have LOVED to see STARISH have to overcome this kind of defeat, I WOULD HAVE LOVED IT. IT COULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING, GREAT FOR THEIR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, BECAUSE THEY NEED TO SUFFER DEFEAT IN A MAJOR COMPETITION LIKE THIS IN ORDER TO BECOME EVEN BETTER. And you know what, this could’ve offered an opportunity to really focus on competing against HEAVENS’ who specifically revamped their group into a seven man group, specifically to cater and attempt to steal STARISH’s fans.
*HUFFS*
The only positive thing I got out of this episode, was the fact Haruka has acknowledged how far she has come and it feels like she is trying to figure out where she goes from here. More than anything, I would love to see Haruka undergo some character development has she has been reduced to a very passive background character role in the recent seasons. I think this is particularly important because Haruka honestly has not changed that much, so it is difficult to highlight her growth as a character. Without it, Haruka ends up becoming quite a bland heroine, which is really the last thing any of us would like her to be (especially when we know how lovable she can be).
As for romance, let’s be real here. If you are here for romance, get rid of the expectation. The last thing you need is to have another reason to be frustrated and disappointed in this series. If they actually move forward with romance, then the fandom will have a field-day and those who left the series will then have a reason to actually start watching this again.
Final Verdict: I will watch next weeks’ episode and see what comes out of it but for now, the three strikes I spoke out in the Fall 2016 Preview have been used up all in just one episode. It will take a god damn good episode next week to convince me to cover Episode 2 and see what comes out of Episode 3, but for now, it is extremely unlikely I will be touching this season at all.
Possibility of Blogging: Low – Miracles will need to happen in Episode 2 to convince me otherwise.
Possibility of Watching: Low – Will watch at the first three episodes to see if it’s even worth my time, if not, I’m out.
I will be honest and say that I will shameless watch when they sing and when there’s anything involving Haruka in-depth because I can see a zero effort cashcow from miles. It’s a sad day in Reverse Harem world when you give more fucks about the Heroine than the Bishounen options (not to be mean to Haruka, I love her).
Unrelated thing, but also relevant:
I don’t know if the High Quality subs updated or not for Arc-V, but don’t try to watch Arc-V episodes until 123 if you didn’t recover from the Utapri migraine because it’s horrifying crap, you’re safe in episode 124 and beyond, but 123 will make you have a anger seizure.
Hahahaha that’s fine! Haruka deserves all the love <3
Oh boy ahahaha, thanks for the heads up. MonoSubs have 122 out, so I have Ep 122 entry completed (released as a double entry w/Ep 123), so it won't take too long for it to come out once the subs are released (so as long as I'm not preoccupied with other things) to get 123 out as well. I will do my best to weather the storm for that episode!
Haruka and her creepy eyes can get eighteen men and I can’t even get one. >:T
This episode was by far the cheesiest, cringey, god awful piece of crap I’ve ever had the misfortune to see. It’s safe to say that I’m officially done with Utapri. I’ll check out your reviews to see if it’ll improve (I doubt that), but I’m just…not going to put myself through this any longer. *blows kiss* For Tokiya… I still like him.