Can まさにかわいい be used to say "very cute"?


I recently wanted to compliment someone for having done something "very cute,"
and wound up using まさにかわいい. They understood me, but now I suspect that is a
weird way to say it. More common variations would be ほんとうにかわいい and とてもかわいい. I
have seen people use what I wrote; for example, まさにかわいい男の子, but they're not
necessarily doing it right either. Does まさにかわいい even convey the correct
meaning, and if so, is it common enough to not seem bizarre?

Edit: Based on some comments, I should clarify that I used the phrase as an
exclamation. I said「まさにかわいい」only, in response to watching a performance. The
English equivalent would be to exclaim "very cute!" after watching someone
perform. The example I included of「まさにかわいい男の子」is one where I've seen the
phrase used; but I don't know I've seen it used stand-alone as I did.




まさにかわいいね does sound wrong. まさにかわいい男の子だね sounds grammatical but the meaning
would be a bit weird. It's hard to explain but it would imply the boy is
_representative_ of かわいい男の子, but it's not rare to be a かわいい男の子, so it feels
odd to say that (though I can imagine a situation where it could be said).

E.g. まさに日本一の美男子だね or まさに百獣の王ですね sounds natural, and it would mean "X truly
possess the characteristics of Y" or "X truly represents Y".

**EDIT** : Had a bit of thought after @suish's comment. I think the rule has
to do with identity. If somebody had "defined" the かわいいness as
"ほんとにすごいかわいい男の子なんだよ" as a thing, then later, you can say "まさにかわいい男の子だね" to
agree that that definition is indeed met. I think that's why it works with
日本一の美男子 or 百獣の王 because there is an implied identity of that thing.

As a further example, consider まさに赤いね. This doesn't quite work, but まさにどす黒いね
would work because どす黒い is much more specific.

