Starmyu review (s1 and s2). I’m very careful not to write major spoilers!
I have to say, last year I came across this anime called "High School Star Musical" or starmyu on wikipedia, while tending a page of seiyuus. I never watch an anime unless it was recommended by my friends. So when I saw they have all great voice actors, I thought "Oh, this will be worth it." The only idol animes I watched prior Starmyu were Utapri and Shohari via recommendation. (Now I've watched most of them including B-pro, tsukiuta, , and tsukipro)
Yes, I find the abrupt burst to song hilarious! (Sorry) also the bg concept in their singles were... magically amazing. The soundtracks were godsent.
The main story is about the MC, Hoshitani, who enrolled to a music-focused academy (hs?) with the dream to perform with a student of the high school he briefly saw years ago while passing the school building. Never he ever thought that his future-coach was the high schooler, who is also a council member, which makes his team a Star team. MC's team consisted of 5 members plus 1 coach, and they have their own (rather serious) backgrounds and concerns, which were screened per episodes. We can see how their lives were heavily influenced with musicals. They did not start off well..
I skipped several episodes of season 1 until episode 9, I completely stopped. It was during the time I shifted all my attention to the worldwide recommended anime, Yuri on Ice.
After my breakdown 6 months ago, because of a college admission test, I detached myself from anime for many months. The very first anime I started to watch again was starmyu, and I was very surprised to know that SEASON 2 AIRED DURING THE BIG TEST. I am 7 months late to welcome the series. Talk about bad luck.
So I started from season 1, from where I left off, episode 9 and the previous episodes I had skipped. Starting episode 10, I realized that this anime was far more intense than I had previously thought. Selfishness was the cause of conflict.
Even worse, not only the pressure from the "bad guys", their luck wasn't any better. I absolutely love the resolution, I never thought the way they fix everything bad thrown to the boys. That's where I got invested to the series.
The OVA of season 1 was not to be skipped. The animation is very eye candy and not 3d generated smooth like in most idol shows (then again, they are not idols haha). There are character developments too.
I was excited to start watching season 2, especially after knowing the super hot alumni of the academy, the "Ancients". The season started off okay, and the mysterious new character (Ageha) is very cute too, despite his Haruto-obsession. Nanjo and Kitahara Ren gave me the impression of antagonist lol
This season, focused on musical drama performance.
Season 2 was quicker to intervene the smooth pace. I kind of expected some plot twist from the start, though. The gags were funnier. And although we get like 10 new characters, they all have unique personalities that we can easily differ all of them. Also I like how Ren obviously has a crush on one of the main boy Kuga, haha.
And after more episodes, we got more and more twists. It's a good twist though, with several miracles to fix it included. It's no wonder why the MC was so distressed that everyone thought he might kill himself. Ouch. Not really though, one of the boy was surprisingly imaginative.
Each character's interaction were interesting, which develop their characters too. Unlike season 1, we can see the star teams unite and chill together.
In season 2 two, we only get 2 singles. The rest of transition songs were collabs or duet, and the songs were a lot lot better than the previous season. (((( Someone give medals to the bgm team please. ))))
And oh my god, the problems were never ending. You wouldn't have guessed anything wrong until it happened, What I also like from this season is, though there are obviously stereotyped characterization, they actually put their "bad deeds" into good use we never thought were effective. For example, one of the character was marked a copycat, but later he was useful as a replacement with his mimic ability.
The intensity of the rivalry for the roles were told from the start. Don't be shocked to know of all many many 30 boys you would see, only 11 performed on stage and only 8 actually got on screen time. The rest were behind the scene staffs, which makes the point of the show that "no matter where we are, what position we are in, our hearts are one." I assure you, you will see that the bg team also shine the same with the ones on stage. If I hadn’t spoilered anything, even the first part the performance was magnificent.
OVERALL, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW THE SEASON TURNED OUT. I ACTUALLY CRIED @GOD WHY HADN'T I KNOWN THAT 2ND SEASON HAS AIRED SOONER.
I will end this speech. I still can't get over last episode. This anime man, was on par with yuri on ice to me on how unforgettable it is. I will continue to support this anime, since the fandom seems to be quiet. But that doesn't matter, I do my best even if I ended up alone.
