Reviews for UniteUp! -Uni:Birth-

I'm not surprised that the series composition for this season is credited under some faceless committee; I certainly would be embarrassed to attach my name to this uninspired follow-up. While the first season definitely fumbled how it handled its drama, there was clearly real heart and charm to its writing, especially in how it depicted the friendship between the main three in Protostar in such a natural and effortless manner. The second season however is bad in the same unremarkable way that many idol shows are bad: shallow episodic stories with dull stakes and a too large cast that only pre-existing fans care about. Theoreticallythe deep personal drama and emotional climaxes in each episode would be fine, decent even, but aside from Protostar, it's a struggle to care about them because the audience has no attachment to these characters. Their stories hinge upon a foundation that the writers never spent the time to build up in the first season, and it's not like the Protostar episodes this season were all that compelling either. To exacerbate the issue, the writers clearly weren't lacking for time in this season. Almost every episode is fluffed out with some extended montage as if the writers couldn't bother writing a full script, and it's egregious to the point that even the winner of their big season-spanning idol competition is revealed in a montage sequence. At least the soundtrack is competent and the unique EDs are cute, but they can't carry a show by themselves. Aniplex mismanagement at its finest, I suppose.

This is another one where I'm making one post about both seasons because I don't have nearly enough to say about this anime to justify discussing both seasons individually. This is basically just a male idol anime. Are there any good male idol anime? I mean when it comes to female idol anime, if you exclude anime that gives meta commentary on the genre and profession like Perfect Blue and Oshi no Ko, there's at least Love Live which I like. I've also heard that The Idolmaster is good, but I haven't seen it. I suppose they at least have theadvantage of the cute girls aspect. There are cute, moe esque boys in anime, but they are phenomenally more rare. But I still don't think it would be impossible to make a male idol anime good, interesting, and engaging. To their credit I think the main male character, Akira Kiyose, had actual surface level personality at the start, as do a few of the other characters, which shows a marginal amount of effort above most other anime like this. But they're shallow enough that it doesn't take long for them to get old. And beyond that it was just really boring.

Despite being an anime about being an "Idol", there's not much about the industry nor the actual music itself. This series has led itself to focus more on character drama, and it's annoying and contrived at times. In particular, episodes 10 and 11 are the worst for it; they actually made me hate one of the main characters. This show is about groups of friends, but none of them act like they're in one, incredibly frustrating watch. I wouldn't recommend this show as there are better music anime and idol anime out there, Love Live or Idolmasters. The animation is fine, and the CGI elementsare well choreographed for the musical styles they represent.