What They Say:
Haruka meets a prince in her dreams, but was it really just a dream?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the first episode of the season largely being about the short re-introductions of the main cast as Haruka is back to take pat in the Master course, I’ll admit some guilt on my part. In a couple of ways at that. This is not a show that I can really find to be hugely engaging because it does the harem thing but in a way that doesn’t make me really connect with the characters since Haruka is just so lifeless so much of the time. But there’s a part of me that really loves the visual style of it, the music and the energy that’s present in it when it really comes to life. And it has a fantastic opening sequence that works wonders for me in really selling the show, which helps set the mood each week. But there’s just that hollow nature to the series that keeps it from achieving something significant for me.
With the introduction of someone new at the end of the previous episode, in a dream no less of Haruka’s, we get to see that there’s a new kind of magic in the air for her. But it’s still as strangely grounded as it’s always been with the rest of the cast, especially the principal who manages to make me stupidly grin on a regular basis. His interest in Haruka is comical since he wants her to write another song for Starish and she can’t help but to want to comply, giving us a background bit of motivation to factor into the series. This push ends up bringing her to a place where she ends up meeting Cecil, the man from her dreams, and in style. With him singing to her – and in front of all of the other guys as well – it’s a huge formal declaration of war that he may not even realize. He’s so smooth yet blunt that you have to love that he accomplishes more in his first true meeting with her than the other guys did in the entire first season of the series.
What all of this does is to finally get everyone to sit down and talk and they realize just how important he was to Starish coming into existence, something they were completely unaware of. It’s a pretty nice moment since even though there’s a lot of concern over him with how he seems to close to Haruka, they do give him a chance to explain and take everything at face value. Well, except for his professing of love for her, which they refuse to accept. The show does kind of devolve into the usual silliness after that as Cecil has to deal with the variety of men that populates Haruka’s life, but it’s all stuff that does admittedly allow them to grow a bit closer together in a way, especially since Cecil is just kind of over the top. While he’s incredibly smooth when it comes to Haruka, we see some gags that shows he can be just as goofy as everyone else when the time comes.
In Summary:
As the show gets more fully underway here, the fun is basically set up with what Haruka has to do with coming up with a new song for Starish. And it gets the added fun of bringing Cecil on board in full, something that brings a bit of a different dynamic to the group because of his nature and just how smooth he is while also being overt, something that some of the others have lacked. I’m not sure where to place Cecil in the grand scheme of things yet, but I do like his comical side and how the other guys attempt to handle him as it just nudges things a little more between them all. Haruka continues to be her usual self here, earnest and hardworking but kind of easy to roll over on when it comes to getting her to do things others want, but there’s just something about her in combination with the guys that allows it to work for me, weak as it is.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
