Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love Legend Star

Uta no Prince-sama, Maji Love Legend Star; the fourth season in the series. One of the better seasons in my opinion. It took a different turn in the plot despite taking off from where season 3 left off. I've made a TL;TR of cons and pros at the bottom for lazy people.

Story:
As the series focuses mainly on music and hot guys in matching outfits, there ain't much "deepness" to the story, which the viewers might have realised since the previous three seasons.

Art:
Despite a few awkward quality slips, the art is still amazing. The details and shadows are spot on. Where the quality slips occour is ... mostly during walking scenes where the characters have gigantic upper bodies and stickman legs that bend up and down to give the illusion of a character walking(Which is just hilarious and many great memes can be made out of it, so I can't even be mad about it) and shots where the characters are far away tend to give quality slips on the mouth movements but nothing too noticable.

Sound:
Since it is an anime about music, the music is obviously tip top, the music has also been upgraded a lot since the first seasons. Additional sound-wise, there are a few times the background music almost drowns the speech which I have only experienced in the fourth season. For the voices, I'm personally a big fan of the seiyuus/voice actors, so I can not say anything negative about that.

Characters:
In this season, the series goes a bit deeper compared to the first seasons. What I mean by this is that in the first season we got to know the characters by names and personalities while in this season, we were introduced to the characters backgrounds/backstories where some were somewhat deeper than others. However, what frustrates me is that they only get, what, less than one episode each to develop if they even developed at all, and since season 4 has 18 idols that all need their own screentime to shine, it has more become a big mess of characters to keep track of(However, although not all of them developed, some of them certainly did). The STARISH boys will however still be my favourites as I've had the previous 3 seasons to become attached to them.

Enjoyment:
There is a lot of humour going on in the first bit of this season(Episode 1 oh my goodness) with funny simple lines(Episode 3 *cough* banana *cough*) which makes it fun to watch, then there is the deeper stuff towards the end which makes it interesting to watch. I certainly enjoyed watching this season as much as the first season.

Now for the short pros and cons:

Pros:
- Character development(For certain characters).
- Good music.
- Bonding moments between the groups.

Cons:
- Still no romance(Not that I am expecting it to ever happen at this point).
- Too many characters to keep track of(18 bishounen idols y'all)
- HEAVENS is a poor copy of STARISH.

Overall I can really recommend people watching this season!

Too repetitive.

I'm actually rather disappointed in this season. I felt like I was watching the same episode over and over again, just with different characters. The beginning was good, but once the "duet episodes" started, that's where it got boring for me. Once the duets were done, it got good again, but getting there was tedious. It was nice to see some character development and learn a bit more about them, yes, but what was going to happen got a bit predictable. The format was the same.

A little unrelated, but I really wish they'd drop the English in the lyrics, it's so cringy most of ... the time.

This is the first time that I have to "force" myself to finish it (which, as of writing this, I still haven't done, and I started it when it first got out a year ago. 3 more episodes to go!) and sometimes I'd go MONTHS before watching another episode, while the other seasons I was just completely addicted and wanted to watch it all in one go.

Story
At present, sadly, the story is nothing progressive like the last seasons of this series; I find at present the basis is on an obsession between Part 1 and Party 2. There isn't much depth, not much background - It seems more of a drama than a reverse harem romance at this point, which disappointed me greatly.

Art
As per past seasons, I enjoy the art style very much. Eyes are expressive, backgrounds are detailed nicely and there's always a beautiful amount of color and nice effects during the songsy parts.

Sound
The music so far hasn't disappointed, which is a relief considering the anime is based around music. ... However, the songs are just "alright". They didn't blow me away like in previous seasons - Episode 6, thankfully, kept to that standard however.

Character
Sadly, this is what frustrates me most about this season of Uta No Prince Sama - The characters we all know and love are either OOC (Out of Character), or are getting absolutely no development other than their obsession with their competition. Nanami, whom I adored as the heroine for having a voice and a part in the previous seasons, barely shows up and has little to no dialogue from episode to episode. Again, episode 6 made up for that a bit, but up until then I've never been so unhappy with how a new season has come out. Considering the appearance of Heavens and the clear conflict that was present during Season 2, I was expecting a lot more - Though it is interesting to get a take on their group's personalities, what with the addition of members, I would never take that over keeping the personalities of the characters I already love. Bland and tasteless.

Enjoyment
My expectations for the show in general were high, considering everything Uta no Prince Sama has previously dished out. Season to Season, I've had nothing but a thirst for more, and have been thrilled when it was announced time and again that they would continue their series. The most recent one, I've been especially excited; I figured with a whole other group of antagonist men, things could get interesting. Maybe I would sit on the edge of my seat, awaiting what was to come. I've been disappointed, clearly.

Overall
Up until episode 6 at present, this barely qualifies as a decent anime; and I only say that because it breaks my heart to speak badly about an anime I've loved for so long. However, I can't accept the lack of character in general/at all with our Starish crew, the void where Nanami should be, and the progression of story that allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the show. As I've mentioned, episode 6 is starting to show more promise, so for any fan of previous Uta No Prince Sama seasons looking to avoid disappoint, I recommend you start there. I'm deeply hopeful that with the next few episodes, things adjust properly.

(P.S. The first episode still kind of makes me laugh xD Random buggers)

*Update* The anime has become increasingly disappointing and at this point is absolutely not worth watching for an Uta No Prince Sama fan, nor fo a Reverse Harem/Romance fan. At this time, the anime is moving forward in the same way as Free! or any other sports anime, with bits of yaoi innuendo within.

I have no issues with yaoi (positively love it, actually), but this is not what I came to see with this anime. The OOC tendencies have only gotten worse, and episode 6 is the only saving grace at this point. With most Uta seasons ending around 13 episodes - Leaving only 5 left to air - This anime has no chance of getting any better unless the sky comes crashing to the ground. I'm severely disappointed and would not recommend this anime to anyone.