Uta no Prince-sama Episode 1: At First Glance

Is that guy in yellow wearing a skirt?!

Here comes the fangirl fetish induced reverse harem series of the season. From the first few seconds of this episode, we are treated to a colorful concert performed by a group of bishounen dressed in loud, colorful clothing. After their little number, we are introduced to the main heroine who arrives late for her entrance exams because she was helping a lost child look for her mother. But worry not, two random bishounen have come to her rescue and she is eventually granted permission to take her exam. Naturally, she passes and starts attending the school. Sadly, the cliches don't stop there.

Her eyes look so soulless

The fact that he was watching her the whole time she was helping the lost child is pretty creepy.

So, now that Haruka is part of this amazingly large and prestigious school, it's time to introduce the rest of the quirky cast! First off is the headmaster, Shining Saotome. He makes a fabulous entrance, and afterwards, we finally get a look at Haruka's new classmates and cross-dressing homeroom teacher. Every stereotype bishounen is present in any hair color of your choosing (granted, they aren't as colorful as the guys from Starry Sky). There's the cool type, the immature short (or shota, though he really isn't that short) type, the rich guy, the nice guy, the guy who has cuteness proximity issues, and the mysterious type.

At least her best friend doesn't look like a walking stereotype.

It was kind of weird hearing Hayate the Combat Butler's narrator's voice out of this guy.

CONFLICT

He looks like Finny from Black Butler.

 After Haruka's eventful day, she finally gets some screen time and character development for herself. We learn that she wants to study to become a composer so that she can write a song for her favorite idol, Hayato, who happens to be voiced by fangirl-favorite, Mamorou Miyano. Apparently, she had poor health as a child so her condition was never at its peak during her city visits. One day, whilst walking through the city streets, Hayato's song (which was playing on a large television screen on some large building) "saves" her from collapsing. How a song is able to do that, I have yet to undergo such an experience myself. The part where Hayato starts "singing to her" was also pretty cheesy in itself. Anyway, after her little flashback, a black cat appears out of nowhere and runs off with one of her handkerchiefs in its mouth. Haruka chases after it only to run into -le gasp!- Hayato. But! Hayato claims to be someone else.

The only merit this guy has so far is being voiced by Mamorou Miyano.

Okay, she was a pretty cute kid.

Either 1) He's Hayato's evil twin 2) He has amnesia 3) He's bipolar 4) He wants to start anew.

Cliches aside, the animation for this first episode was pretty nice. The only well-animated reverse harem series that I've watched were Ouran High School Host Club and Hakuouki, so I was pretty excited when I heard that A-1 Pictures picked up a series based on an otome game (dating sim geared towards girls). Chances are, I'm going to continue watching this show just because there aren't many reverse harem series out there, but I'm still not sure about blogging it yet.
This episode gets:

Well, now we know who the two main heroines bishies are.