(On a side note, I hate the English title. Whoever came up with Mr. Ginpachi’s zany class? I had to look up what zany even means. A comedy stops being funny the moment it advertises itself as being hilarious… Also, as a seiyuu fan, Okita being one of Suzu’s best roles in my opinion, I’ll put the voice acting aspects in perspective as well.)

For me, Ginpachi-sensei is a quick cash-grab for Bandai. Do they have to try hard for it to sell? Apparently no: the franchise is already popular enough on its own. If you are not familiar with the anime merch market, I'll just say that Bandai churns out a new 3Z line-up practically every week. Did the production team actually try hard with the anime? My answer is no. The show falls flat. It ran for a cour, and for me it’s enough. I didn’t simulcast the show when it first came out in October, but saved it until it finished airing, which is around last week. Here’s my review from having freshly watched the show.

Ginpachi-sensei doesn’t work with great source material to begin with. I read the translation of the the novels years back — the 8 original publications, I mean. The 2 new instalments haven’t been translated yet. I don’t remember much of the story, only that I didn’t enjoy them. (And I’m a big fan of these light novel spin-offs. Trust me, if a major franchise gets one of these, I’ll be sure to consume them.) Out of the 8 volumes, I remember only appreciating 1 short story. The rest was absolute meh. The stories were really empty. They were not even funny, which was the whole point of the franchise to begin with. The author focused more on exposition — making sure each of the characters make an appearance, however minor or superficial — which ultimately resulted in lack of concrete plot or even humour. I don’t reproach them much for the former, but the later is in excusable.

Which brings me to my second point — Ginpachi is such a performative hero it's in your face. While each novel volume consists of several short stories, when these get adapted into a 20-minute animation, the production has to conclude the story somehow. Consequently, Ginpachi-sensei’s episodes end with Ginpachi coming in to save the day, delivering a cool speech, and leave without fail. It’s ok in the main show… Gintoki is the MC after all. We’re all here to appreciate how cool the hero is. But he didn’t have to play this role every week in Gintama, which alternated between longer and shorter arcs, and some were even purely for comedy. With Ginpachi-sensei’s weekly instalments, it feels like I’m being force-fed the ‘coolness’ of the MC at the end of each episode, and it’s too heavy-handed.

My last and biggest gripe is that the show really skimped on voice acting. This is the most serious issue for me. A lot of the side characters’ appearance on screen was not voiced. Most of the time Okita, Zura, etc. are there for the action, but they have no lines to say. Is it that necessary for them to say something? I’d say no, it doesn’t add to or deduct from the story whether they get to say anything or not (I can’t even be bothered to check the novels if they really had dialogues). But still, it feels like cutting cost to me. Ok, seiyuus have gotten expensive over the years. Inflation and increase in popularity and whatnot. I’d imagine that the pay for a lot of them has risen exponentially since their Gintama recordings. But still, Gintama largely built its popularity upon its voice actors. I understand that the production doesn’t have to try hard to get original fans to watch Ginpachi-sensei, but skimping on voice acting is a bit much for me. I still remember this one episode in Gintama, in which Hijikata went out and got in trouble over something, and then there was Kondo and Okita staying at home, playing game together. I recall being honestly surprised when Chiba and Suzu made that small cameo just to voice the lines, with Kondo screaming something about the game and Okita musing his inner thoughts about being bored to death. And here we are in Ginpachi, with Zura stretching and inadvertently knocking over that bottle of lotion, Hijikata preparing his bottle of mayonnaise in that school mystery episode, Okita with his bamboo sword hitting the bad guy, Saito Shimaru making a cameo appearance in the classroom in the first episode etc. None of these appearances received a voiced line. And the treatment Takasugi received deserved another post on its own. What I’m saying is, whatever the source material, the production could have made an effort to sneak in a line here and there and get more voice actors to make a cameo appearance, even if it’s just for a line, like they did in Gintama. But no, they didn’t go down that road.

I went to see this thing today at my local cinema. It still earned a solid 8 out of 10 from me despite it being mostly a repetition of the TV anime with a sprinkle of fresh scenes. I think the fact that I didn't watch the TV version of this arc in its entirety contributed heavily to this high scoring. Spoilers ahead, before I forget.

I'll start with what I don't like : the plot. This heisei kitsch is getting very redundant and outdated when it's being rerun in this day and age. I've already criticized Sorachi's weakness of repeating the same plot from start to finish elsewhere, and this arc made his insistence truly distasteful. Sorachi's sole (and unredeemably repetitive) plot posits that there're no true villains in Gintama, and when someone does a bad deed, they're only doing it to mask their good intentions. Everyone is a hero in their own way. ...That got a big NOPE from me. Especially in Yoshiwara arc whose main theme is prostitution and abuse of power. One simply can't justify Hosen's abuse of Hinowa (making her his personal sex slave for at least 8 years, maiming her until she's permanently handicapped, bereaving her of her foster child etc.) by the fact that she sympathized with him first when she was a child and still did after everything he had done to her. No. Hosen was simply evil and what he did was unforgivable. Hinowa is plainly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Having to watch the whole rerun of Sorachi's no true evil agenda today was very absurd. I was literally scratching my head towards the end of the film.

I liked what they did with the comedy though. What's not to love about the Shinsengumi in drags? Yamazaki and his jelly nails. Sougo and his idea of 'cute girls'. I had already known this going in because I saw some spoiler, but I still find it hilarious. They should have shown more of this scene. Plus, they really sold me on this Kondo and Zura romance. Trust me, I tried to resist, but it was very funny. I think these two really carried the show. The scenes with the kunais were also ok. It felt like they were trying a bit too hard at times, but overall they still turned out comedic.

Kudos on the voice acting work went to Hino Satoshi's Kamui. My first impression was that Kamui started out as Rengoku before slowing melting into his own character. Hino did equally great on both blood thirsty Kamui and giggly Kamui. I really like him in this arc. He's very sexy. Kugimiya Rie also did a stellar job on Kagura, especially when she's lost it. (I'm not sold on PachiKagu though. Nah thanks.) It really gave me the feeling that this is what really distinguishes pro-VAs from the others. I also appreciated Ootsuka Houchu's Abuto a lot. I first noticed him in Kamen Rider Den-O. His acting here demonstrated again what veterans were truly capable of. Oh and Suzu, you asked? He said like three lines max. I wasn't even listening to Sougo when I was focusing on trying to figure out who voiced the Gorilla amanto (it's Yamaguchi Kappei).

Overall, it was quite enjoyable. There's no denying that the franchise is milking Gintama for what it's worth, but as long as it continues to be enjoyable, there's no reason not to indulge a bit, right? One trip to the cinema was enough for me though, since Yoshiwara is not one of my favourite arcs.

About a year back, I came across Utapri and watched the latest movie (Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love STARISH Tours). I saw what there was to see and left it at that because I felt absolutely no desire to watch him in his Hijirikawa Masato role. The reason I’ve decided to give the fandom another go was because I’ve been watching videos and shorts of him all over Youtube. Of course Utapri and STARISH events came up a lot, and I enjoyed them immensely, even if I had no passion for Utapri as a franchise. So, I decided to pull up Maji Love 1000% again, saw the first few episodes, then Ren and Masato slid so fast into Odagiri my head was spinning, and here I am, writing the Utapri review of my life.

Before I get to the plot, let me go through each of the characters first since I have a lot to say about them. I won’t cover Quartet Night or HEAVENS though, because I don’t know much about the voice actors, and this review is already very long as it is. And I don’t know anything about the game (which has already closed down), since I have never tried it, nor do I speak Japanese.

Let's all appreciate a close look at the heels of Masato's feet in this Moonshine promotional art

Masato

The reason I couldn’t get into Utapri the first time was because of the voice acting Suzu did for Masato. I thought and still maintain that he was setting himself up for failure with the unnaturally deep and low voice he opted for this role. Unlike FukuJun or Sakurai who had really large vocal ranges, Suzu’s was very limited, which means that he couldn’t really go too high or too low without it sounding forced and unnatural. Or at least it sounded forced to me, a close follower of his works. In the same way I couldn’t stand Suzu’s voice in Dog Signal, Masato's stuck me wrong every time he spoke. I think Suzu could have gone with his normal voice here, the one he did for his other ML roles, like in Gridman or Macross Zero. It wouldn’t have made Masato’s character that much ‘softer’, per se, if he was going for the cool and collected impression for Masato.

That said, I asked myself if he could have taken any other of the STARISH roles? Not Ren or Syo or Tokiya for sure. Maybe Otoya or Natsuki? If I have to choose, I’d say Natsuki would be a good second choice. Then again, I don’t think Suzu could have pulled off Satsuki’s persona as perfectly as Kishou did.

In terms of character, Masato is really out of Suzu’s usual casting choices. I get the cold-with-a-tsundere-side type of character he was going for. Tsundere was at the top of Suzu’s typecast after all. And I find that Masato really shared a lot of traits with Iguro Obanai in Demon Slayer, especially the design (which was probably the reason why Suzu got the role for Iguro, imo) — but this comment was irrelevant, since DS came out way after Utapri. 

To me, the only saving grace about Suzu’s Masa role was that he really paired well with Suwabe-san in Utapri. And this was mostly thanks to Be-san, in my opinion. I’ve seen Suzu against Be-san in other roles (including STAMEN stages), but none of them really left an impression.

I like Masato as a character, but to be honest, I really hate the voice. Every time he came on screen, I just wish he would stop talking. 

The singing was another reason I think Suzu was setting himself up for failure. Ballades, really, Suzu? The way he rolled his tongue when he sang any song never failed to put me off. His Masato songs are not the worst among STARISH, but not the best either. But again, I can’t really judge because I’m quite biased towards Suzu anyways. My expectations were way over off the charts.

Despite the complaints, Masato remained my most favourite character in Utapri.

Ren

Everybody knows Suwabe-san at this point in time, because we’re living in the JJK era. Every one out of two people my age has something to say about JJK, which made me really happy for Be-san. But even back in the days, he was already rising in popularity. I’ve seen a lot of Be-san in STAMEN videos, and saw no chemistry whatsoever between him and Suzu. However, his Ren role really brought out everything that was good and pure in his voice acting. I really enjoyed this Ren-Masa relationship. They landslid into Odagiri so fast it left me breathless. (On the other hand, I honestly didn’t see any ship-worthy elements between Tokiya and Otoya or Natsuki and Syo, for that matter. I know the franchise was trying to sell these ships and I LOOKED for it, I swear. But no, there was just not enough in it to ship the rest of the cast.) Be-san’s smooth baritone voice was perfect for Ren. He never failed to deliver with these dominant, playboy types with a bit of insecurity. 

That said, he’s probably one of the worst singers in STARISH (sorry, don’t hate me, Ren fans. I admire Be-san, I do.) I’ve watched him sing in multiple different contexts, but he never managed to impress me. I think he sounded too flat when he sang. It was exactly the same as his speaking voice. I really enjoyed Be-san in any seiyuu event, though. He added to the event with his own quirky personality, and I like that about him.

My favourite among backstage photos, cue the mirror.

Otoya

He is probably my least favourite character out of STARISH members. Because Terashima. That’s it. Don’t make me say any more. Also, at live concerts, I think his singing got drowned out by the background music. It’s such a waste of opportunity because he got the most catchy songs out of all of STARISH, being the main character.

Tokiya

Mamo really deserved all the praise and popularity he has gained to date. He’s really a true idol. Tokiya’s living Mamo’s life in the show. He has the look and the charisma. I really enjoyed Mamo’s skits and have watched them over and over again. His performances are those of a true idol’s, and even as a Suzu fan wishing for more screentime for Suzu, I still wholeheartedly agree that Mamo really shines in Utapri. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the Tokiya role really didn’t bring out Mamo’s best. Yes, he did great voice acting and singing, but Tokiya as a character is too solemn and serious (okay, so was Reinhard in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but that’s neither here nor there) and that was all there was to it. I just think the best role for Mamo would be some character with both a cool and a comical side, like Suou Tamaki in Ouran Host Club, for example. Or some batshit crazy villain like Light or Chrollo, for alternatives. Those are really the roles for Mamo. Plus, he really shone on stage. His live concerts are great. If anyone’s a pro idol, it’s Mamo.

If I said I didn’t see any chemistry between Tokiya and Otoya, I saw less between him and other characters that some fans actually ship him with, like Ren or Masa. He’s the only character I wish would get together with the female lead in this reverse-harem purgatory, though. It just makes sense. Girl had been pining for him for ages, and he even returned her feelings!

Removing my Suzu-fan lenses, I can objectively say that Mamo is probably the best thing to happen to Utapri.

Syo

Just like Be-san, in this day and age everybody also knows Shimono Hiro. But back in Utapri era, I don’t think he was really that well-known, because Dabi and Zenitsu were barely in the process of making. Shimono fit the role for Syo, but I can also name half a dozen other male voice actors who could have done as great a job as him. I do enjoy him at seiyuu events though. He’s a crowd-pleaser. Without him as the butt of the joke, several events would have turned out less fun, that much is certain.

His vocals are ok. Not the worst but not the best either. I really enjoyed the fun he brought to any event, though I wish Suzu could have been less mean to him.

Natsuki

Utapri is where I discover Taniyama Kishou, honestly. I mean, I watched Attack on Titan, but Jean didn’t stand out to me in terms of voice acting. Kishou in concerts IS so precious. He’s a singer (and I didn’t think he would be able to pull off the rock music for Satsuki, but man he really did). Utapri is probably Kishou’s best voice acting role (not that I’ve seen much else). And he really captured both the Natsuki/Satsuki personas equally perfectly. How naturally he switched from cute little puppy to dark sadistic voice was truly impressive. I really have to give it to Kishou, he really did nail this Natsuki role. Which was exactly why I hesitated when I tried to cast Suzu for an alternative Natsuki. I don’t think Suzu would have done a better job than Kishou. It’s just that the cheerful side of Natsuki would have been more up Suzu’s alley, but then again.

Kishou was also such a joy at any given event, be it live concerts, fan events or just variety shows. He’s such a dork and is really loveable. I wonder why he didn’t get any more voice acting roles, though.

Honorary mention : Cecil

Another STAMEN member. Tori-san had his quirks, but he always stuck me as a more subdued individual at any given event. I don’t have a lot to comment on his voice acting roles, since he wasn’t really on my radar, but he sounded kind of forced and unnatural with Cecil the same way Suzu did with Masato. I think Tori-san tried to pitch for the upbeat, cheerful kind of impression for Cecil, but since his natural voice was way deeper, I found Cecil’s voice very artificially nasal. It didn’t bother me as much as Suzu’s Masa voice though, maybe because I had higher expectations for Suzu…

As for singing voice, he didn’t really leave much of an impression on me, so I’d say he was average among STARISH. Tori-san was one of the less noticeable members of the cast at events, so he kind of blended into the background to me. Since I don’t know much about him, I can’t really give an insightful comment on his Cecil’s role, to be honest. My best guess would be that they cast him because he really did a good job with Cecil’s imperfect Japanese. The way he acted like a foreigner struggling to speak the local language was really fun and I truly enjoyed that.

***

Utapri as a story really embodies the saying ‘you’d get away with anything as long as you’re pretty’ …Pretty, or shiny (kira kira), in the case of idols. This was something the show has been preaching non-stop it was really in your face. I find this to be the only truth to the whole shenanigans, though. As idols (and as seiyuus and celebrities in real-life), the only thing that counts is to be shiny… to emit light halos you blind your fans at live concerts… To me, Mamo was shiny alright. Kishou as well, when he sang on stage. This anime had a total disregard for plot. They just did whatever and hope the shiny quality of the idols (seiyuus) work their magic. And it did. But mostly I stayed on because of RenMasa. It was delicious.

I just realized recently that Utapri and Osomatsu-san are just two sides of the same coin : they’re both idol animes. Not in the sense that the characters in Osomatsu were aiming to be idols, but that the franchise was riding on the popularity of these male seiyuus themselves. Until not long before, I had always thought that Osomatsu was a gag anime. Looking back, I realized that Osomatsu had always boasted this about itself. In the first episode, when discussing the direction they would take for this remake, the sextuplets eventually agreed to go with the ‘idol route’, becoming idols themselves in order to gain popularity. Even if this turned out to be just a gag, it was truer than any truth spoken on screen, and it wasn’t hard for me to picture the production company brainstorming and coming up with the exact idea (i.e. to cast these idols as the main six roles). The show had always hinted at this idol culture, parodying the Japanese showbiz all the time. The characters were even color-coded, just like in your average idol anime. The difference was that instead of having real-life idols (seiyuus) portraying idol characters as in Utapri, Osomatsu went for subversion. It showed a flip side of an idol. The show had Japan’s top seiyuus did all these dirty jokes and didn’t hesitate to throw in plenty of nasty gags. 

One thing I noticed about Osomatsu was that all of the cast for sextuplets HAD never had a main role in an idol anime (to my knowledge). I think that was one of the requirements. I like how Suzu and Nakamura Yuuichi somehow ended up switching adjuvant roles. Suzu was Iyami in Osomatsu, whereas Nakamura was Ringo-sensei in Utapri. I really enjoyed Suzu in his Iyami role, though, and I wouldn’t have cast him in any of the main six. He was the perfect remake-Iyami, handsdown.

Masa and Ren figures I brought with me to where I'm currently living for emotional support.

I'm a big fan of Eureka Seven, a previous success by Bones. I've watched it several times and considered the show one of the best anime of all times. Captain Earth is anything but. It has elements that is a nod to this previous success, but utterly fails to deliver a meaningful story. I smashed the skip button on my keyboard so much I'm surprised it didn't break... Writing a lengthy review of this show seems an unforgivable waste of time, so I'll keep it short.

It scored 2 points from me because Suzumura Kenichi and Sakamoto Maaya were in it as the main villain pair, and they were already married at that time. I've watched other shows where they starred together as love interests (Gundam Seed Destiny, Kara no Kyoukai, FFVII, FGO (does this last one even count?)), but this one stands out thanks to the fact that during the show, Amara and Moko are already an item! In other shows they were just trying to figure out their feelings, only to end up together at the end of the show or offscreen. It's such a treat. Did I mention that I'm a Suzu fan? I only watched this show because I am.

I deducted 1 point for the studio's inability to produce a good show, despite the available resources. Bones had everything — the experience, a luxurious cast of voice actors, plenty uses of fan service etc. So I don't understand why their execution (mainly storytelling) was so poor. It's honestly shit. (Unrelated, but I was so surprised that Uchiyama Kouki sounded exactly like Kamiya Hiroshi in this show. At first I thought Kamiya was voicing two roles, but no. It's so out of left field because I was used to Uchiyama's low, husky villain voice. Didn't realize he sounded so similar to Kamiya when he speaks relatively normally!)

Captain Earth's biggest offense, though, lies in the fact that the producers are chickens!!! Cowards!!! They made Moko kiss other girls (to activate her special power), but didn't allow Amara to kiss any of the guys!!! What the heck. I know the main target audience is male, but Bones should just own up! The Baku recruitment episodes were such a let down. I sat through them waiting for Amara to step up and smooch him to awaken his memories. But nope, not gonna happen. The show wasted two episodes making the characters run around for nothing, only to make Moko kiss him in the end. This would have saved us a whole episode if Amara had just kissed him in that ring. TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT. Deducted 7 points.