Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Spring 2022 Update



What has even happened since 7th Stage? Everything has been so busy these past few months! After what felt like an eternal winter, the weather has finally gotten warmer and with it has come a wave of UtaPri announcements and events.
I've been swamped with group orders and then tried to rest as much as I could over the winter break in anticipation for the orders coming early this year. That all turned into a train wreck as the merch from Shining Star Stage ended up being delayed by a month, leaving me to go from a clean apartment and free weekends to juggling incoming orders while having work on Saturdays.

Even after all these years, I'm still working on improving my group order process, but also still making mistakes here and there. Everyone has been very helpful and understanding so I'm very grateful for that. The mistakes cause me a lot of anxiety and sometimes I wonder if I should scale back, but then in comes a wave of requests for popular items and I remember that if there's anything for the UtaPri community that I can do, it's this. And blog about the events going on here, of course.

So where to start...? Around the time of my last blog post, I finally was able to see the CG Star Live for QUARTET NIGHT! Earlier in 2021 I had a ticket, but due to pandemic-related cancellations, I ended up getting a refund for my ticket instead of waiting for a rescheduled date. This time I was able to get two tickets, as well as tickets for STARISH Secret Party with Ren as the MC, which I had been waiting over two years to see.

I can't remember if I ever talked about CG Star Live in detail before, but basically it's a show in which the idols are projected on a theater screen to make it appear as though they're actually on stage. It's similar to Shining Star Stage but on a much smaller scale--think live house compared to a concert hall.

For Starish Secret Party, the show and set list is mostly the same except for the MC and Q&A portion which varies by character. In 2019 I was able to see Tokiya's and Syo's, but in every lottery following that I failed to get a ticket for Ren's MC. Finally I was able to see it (on my birthday!) and it was so nice to see Ren as the star of the show. I was actually able to see his MC a second time because I snagged a ticket during the general sale.


QN's CG Star Live is pretty different. Of course there's the performance portion, but instead of a "secret love" and a "secret question" that the audience chooses from, there are two games in which the group splits into pairs. I found it to be really entertaining, especially seeing Ranmaru's reaction when he does (or doesn't) become teammates with Camus.

There's also Photo Time just like with Starish Secret Party, although depending on the seat it's difficult to get a good picture, and the lack of lighting doesn't make things any better. I've never gotten a front row seat to any of the shows I've attended, but I feel like that's probably the only way to get a clear, unobstructed photo.



I can't recall if this has always been the case, but outside of the theater they had boxes where you could give fan letters, to really round out the experience of attending a live show.

After having attended CG Star Live a total of six times, I think I can say that I'm done with it unless they release an updated version. The costumes are color swaps of their Legend Star outfits, and the set list is a few years old at this point. Shining Star Stage is much bigger and the movements are smoother as well. But at least CG is small enough that you don't have to worry about sitting too far away.

Speaking of Shining Star Stage, I talked about that on Twitter a few weeks ago, so if you missed it here it is below:



I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do reports in blog form, actually. As you can tell, this one is already months late! Lately I've been trying to reduce my screen time since I spend a lot of time working on group orders as well, so doing a Twitter live is much easier.

On the translation front, I've begun posting Cecil's 10 Questions Q&A from the 10th Anniversary Book on my Ko-fi. Once that's done, I'll be taking a break from the series to work on something else. Donations would be very much appreciated--I should be able to afford a new computer this fall (fingers crossed that Apple will announce a new MacBook Air). Following that, my next goal will be to work on earning enough money for a round-trip ticket to the USA to visit my family for the first time in years, now that I've gotten my booster vaccine! 

I'm optimistic about what 2022 will bring, especially with the Starish Tours being released!☆
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