Since the 10th Anniversary event, I went through the third installment of HE★VENS GARDEN, the Shining Store, Shining Star Stage, and Metamorphose. The Grand Shining Hotel cafe collaboration with Sweets Paradise just started a few days ago, and then there's 7th Stage coming up...
I guess I can start with a very short summary of my impressions of the last few events:
BLACK GARDEN has been my favorite HE★VENS event by far. I fell in love with the visual novel on April Fool's and couldn't wait for actual merch to be released. It really solidified my love for Shion and I really enjoyed the illustrations for each member, especially Van who almost always has a grin on his face. His ending in the novel left such a strong impression on me. I'm really curious as to what they'll do next year!
Shining Star Stage was amazing. I did have my slight gripes about seating which I'll get out of the way now--it's not as enjoyable if you're watching the show from the far ends, because the visual becomes somewhat distorted. But the first show I saw was from the center block and it blew me away! It felt like they were alive, in that their movements were so incredibly smooth and realistic. The set list was also a mix of old and new songs so that was nice as well. And I know I talk about merch a lot but it's absolutely gorgeous and made me want to buy everything! Since then there's been an announcement of a DVD (thank goodness!) and an encore show in March. I don't know if the country will be open to tourists by then, but I think the success of the first round means this won't be the last time they do these virtual shows!
Metamorphose was like another dream come true! Seeing the idols in makeup made me feel a way about them (especially Ren), but also about myself. I wish they had done just a little more with the theme but since it's such a different concept from what they've done in the past (not including Magical Ichiko from the visual novel which was done for humor), maybe they didn't wanna take a big risk.
Now that the Shining Store is finished (excluding the pop-up shops moving around the country for the next few months), I can give my honest thoughts about it: I'm not sure that it was very successful compared to previous years. I know the All-Star Shop set a high bar, but the themes this year didn't really spark my interest. I was confused by the "Delicious & Tasty" theme which had no real food or drink collaborations with it. Instead it was somewhat randomly matched with a wristwatch collab--which was an okay concept--but not everyone wears watches, and some of the designs seem a little too elaborate. None of them sold out at any point during the shop's opening in Harajuku, unlike the Room Wear from last winter and the perfumes from All-Star Shop. "Classy Sailor" had a color scheme that was very easy on the eyes, and I admit I bought more curry than I expected to buy, despite not eating curry that often.
The other evidence that the Shining Store may not have been so popular this year was that they had three different promotions going on encouraging purchases, such as presenting a ticket from SSS to get a free novelty card with a purchase of at least 1000 yen. I had never seen such a push to buy merch before, so it may have been a last minute campaign after low sales the first weekend. Also didn't help that a third wave of 7th Stage merch had been released AND the SSS merch was gorgeous. Hopefully next year will be more successful!
Finally, I've visited Sweets Paradise once already, and the food is actually pretty nice! However, the visit overall is expensive, considering you have to purchase the buffet along with the collaboration items. I couldn't order Ren and Tokiya's drinks at the same time because all of the sugar AND having coffee in the evening seemed like a bad idea ^^;
Speaking of which, I'm taking requests for Sweets Paradise merch right now, and soon I'll finally take a look at the Grand Shining Hotel items that will be sold in December so I can prepare a group order for that as well!
On the translation front, which is why this blog exists in the first place: I'm finally back to translating pretty regularly now that the 10th Anniversary Book is out! I have most of STARISH's Q&A's done and will continue to release them over the next few weeks. After that I'll take a look at what else I can translate without taking too much time. Unfortunately I've pushed the Beautiful Memories translations aside for now but hopefully I can continue those at some point late this year or early next year.
So with that said, my new Ko-fi goal is to earn enough for about half the cost of a new computer (or a tablet, haven't decided yet) to buy sometime next year!
— 🎤💜Sooyong🧡🎷 (@bitchfacetokiya) November 15, 2021
My Ko-fi with goal details is here: https://t.co/b5OXftJ8Ft
(Yes even the keys come off when I type ðŸ˜) pic.twitter.com/nwToCBGM3P
As mentioned on Twitter, my new donation goal is to raise money to help pay for a new computer or tablet! I bought my MacBook in 2012 and have been resisting an upgrade for the last few years, but I think it's finally time to let go and invest in a new device before I suffer some irreversible loss of work or security risks! You can see the details of my goal and my work on Ko-fi!
What an incredible year it's been, I can't believe 2021 is almost over! Hopefully I'll have one last update before the year is over! ☆
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