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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Sunday, December 12, 2021

Maji Love Live 7th STAGE Report


Nearly two years ago, I had tried in vain to get tickets for Maji Love Live 7th Stage. I had pretty much given up on going and started to think about what else I could do that weekend.


A lucky break in the Grand Shining Hotel room lottery gave me hope to try just one more time.

I went from being ticketless, to attending 7th Stage in person on both days thanks to two very kind people who answered my call to help me and my friend (who had never been to an UtaPri concert). I've had a few days for everything to sink in so I can give a brief report.

I may not have to write so much since many people were able to watch the concert in the theater and livestream, meaning more people were able to live tweet set lists and document different moments. So the most I can give is my own personal impression.


I was very excited of course, not just because I was there but because I was sitting incredibly close to the stage for the first time, perhaps about 20 to 30 rows from the front? Both for 6th Stage and the Starish Fan Meeting I was in the stands, the closest being the "field view" and not quite in the arena.

I was emotional almost immediately, as the lights went out and I could see the first group ascending from the bottom of the stage, and I noticed immediately that standing directly in front of where I was sitting was Tokiya (Miyano Mamoru, of course). Who better to be in that position than the one that my Twitter is named after?

The introduction songs were the same as presented in the movie, Maji Love Kingdom. But of course following ST☆RISH with "Fantastic Prelude" was QUARTET NIGHT with THE WORLD IS MINE...and one person absent. I know everyone was curious to see what would happen without Ranmaru's voice actor, but the three members performed profesionals and as a group of sempai idols would be expected to. And Ranmaru's voice remained in the song.

So when it was HE★VENS' turn with GIRA x2 SEVEN, of course Nagi's voice was still in it. Ono Daisuke did the same sexy pose that Kira does in the movie. Yamashita Daiki, who I had come to love ever since adopting Shion as one of my favorites, sounded wonderful and looked adorable with his Shion-like hairstyle.

Once they started having their MC, I felt really relaxed and glad to be there, but I think my spirits fell when I realized that they were only doing two old songs: HEAVENS GATE and Fumetsu no Inferno. I say a bit because I wanted to hear more recent songs, but at the same time HEAVENS GATE sounds amazing live.

I knew QUARTET NIGHT would be next, but I think I was still a bit disappointed that they opened with Dancing Over Night. It's not really one of my favorite QN songs, and I had also heard it at Shining Star Stage just back in August. But once that song ended, I absolutely didn't expect to start hearing Love Evol, and I was incredibly excited since Ai's new solo songs are probably my favorite out of the 2021 round of QN idol song releases! I assumed that the set list would have involved songs that were new around the time of 7th Stage's original date of April 2020, so to hear it as well as Steward Dance and Alright, All Night was probably one of the biggest highlights for me. I'm very glad they decided to give us those songs to somewhat remedy the fact that the full quartet wasn't there in the flesh.

After Reiji's solo was done, I heard a very familiar rhythm and bassline as Morikubo said that there was one more song, and as the stage turned red I knew they had chosen to recognize Ranmaru. I gasped the moment that the intro of Only One started playing. A wave of thoughts ran though my head--it's an old song, why THAT song, with THAT title? What does it mean?

Obviously there's "only one" Ranmaru, and I don't know if I want to also interpret it to symbolize that there's "only one" voice actor for him...the situation of changing voice actors is a really touchy topic when it comes to longtime roles. But in regards to the lyrics and the sound, Only One was a perfect fit to pay homage to Ranmaru. Their last song, KIZUNA, was of course the obvious choice to recognize the everlasting ties between QN's four idols.

From there, ST☆RISH took over, and there was a bit of an awkward start, as one of them started too early, but realized within a millisecond that they were supposed to wait, haha. They opened their set with the usual Maji Love 1000%, and then continued with Shining Romance. I wasn't too thrilled once again with hearing old songs after such a long wait for this concert, but I was caught off guard when they started singing STAR WISH, which includes the Ren and Tokiya duet of my dreams. Unfortunately they didn't actually act out the music video, but it was still great to hear them singing this song live.

Following was the highly anticipated announcement of a Blu-Ray and DVD release of the concert next year, and then the announcement of an hour-long TV special before the Starish World Tour movie premiering next year. Nothing too big but still nice to be getting something animated that isn't a whole concert.

After ST☆RISH was done, they (re-)introduced the Maji Love Kingdom Special Units, and while it was really exciting to see the choreography for Up-Down-Up! being done live, when it was apparent that they were doing the full version, a part of me wished that they made time for other songs. This time we wouldn't get to hear anything else like Shining Masterpiece Show or the theme songs for Another World White&Black. The order of Unit songs was exactly the same as the movie (which I had seen about 7 or 8 times) and there were no breaks in between.

I think Souai Traumerei was my favorite performance of the concert, as Suwabe, Ono and Morikubo did the poetic monologue from the movie mid-way through the song, and they even made replicas of the illuminated flowers. I admit I didn't appreciate that song enough, because I was always so obsessed with UDU and Egoistic. But for some reason in the few days leading up to the concert, something told me to listen to it more often and I'm glad I did!



The rest of the concert was as expected, and while it was of course enjoyable, I left the stadium on Day 1 with a bit of disappointment, realizing that the pandemic is the reason why we didn't get to have the full experience of what Maji Love Live typically is. No streamers (and I'll probably never have a chance to sit close enough to catch streamers ever again), no cars rolling around the stadium for them to greet the fans in the stands, no end of show announcements. Even the VAs looked a bit somber on stage; there was none of the celebration or close-distance interactions between them as usual.


Going home, I almost felt as if I didn't even need to attend Day 2, but of course I had already committed to being there. Ultimately I'm glad I went--everyone seemed to be more relaxed, the camera work for "Only One" was more focused on the trio and the backup dancers instead of awkwardly focused on the microphone stand set up on stage, and during GIRA x2 SEVEN the members replaced the first GIRA GIRA chant with NAGI NAGI which was really adorable. It also seemed like the voice actors were in better spirits as well, so I left with a much better feeling. There was a mishap during Shining Romance, where the line to the camera was cut off during Mamoru's part in the first verse. I was wondering if this only affected the jumbo screens at the stadium, but a friend who watched the live stream said they witnessed it too...fortunately there was no problem on Day 1, so hopefully it can be fixed when the DVD is released.



7th Stage weekend closed as quickly as it had opened. Reflecting on both shows and the circumstances under which the concert was held, I think my expectations of the concert were a bit high. I started to remember all of the things that happened during 6th Stage and the Starish Fan Meeting: Sales of goods were held for days, there were flower stands and boxes to drop in gifts and fan letters. People freely interacted with each other. Those things didn't happen this time, so the concert was pretty much a "come and go" event. I don't know when we'll ever have that kind of fanfare again. Of course I hope things will get better, but something Terashima said at the end, "7th Stageをやらせていただき、ありがとうございます！" ("Thank you for allowing us to do 7th Stage!") really struck a chord with me. It could be said that it was somewhat of a miracle that 7th Stage happened, even with two voice actors missing, but it happened because the powers that be allowed it, and because the staff, and the fans all did their best to make it happen.

The person who gave me their ticket entry for Day 1 doesn't live in Japan, and was kind enough to message me just hours before the ticket deadline when I announced that I was searching for tickets. There were friends that I haven't seen since the pandemic began. They should have been at the concert, or at least should have been able to watch a live viewing in the theater. I hope things get better soon in time for the next concert. But I'm also happy that UtaPri will continue to go strong for a while longer, even through this new era. ☆


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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Fall 2021 Update

The past few months have been chock full of events, although I don't feel as busy or suffocated as I felt earlier in the year.

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. 

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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