Day 1 Report:

Thank you all for waiting, here is my report for the first night of Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 7th Stage!! I wanted to make sure I covered it in as much detail as I could, however if you just want to see the setlist, you can see it here on tumblr. If anyone doesn’t know my personal history with this concert, I have been an Utapri fan for about 10 years, and for the first time ever, I finally managed to hit for tickets to view it in person back in 2020. Although I can no longer travel to Japan, I was lucky enough to be able to watch the first night’s performance (27/11/21) and exchange information with someone who saw the second night. I have also tried to include some information from tweets and other posts from people that attended day two, but this report will mostly focus on the first night.

The set list was the same on both nights. The main difference between the two live streams were apparently vastly different camera angles. The cast were also reportedly more confident and had slightly better vocals on the second night. Both live streams had some minor infrequent audio issues (mics being too quiet or mics occasionally cutting off others), but they were also seemingly slightly improved for the 2nd live stream. I believe these were livestream-only issues, and people who viewed live in the MetLife Dome did not experience this. I reccomend reading on the google doc linked below do you can see the proper formatting!

7000+ more words below the read more, or see the full google doc of the report here!

To quickly cover Suzuki Tatsuhisa’s (Kurosaki Ranmaru) and Yonaga Tsubasa’s (Mikado Nagi) absences (although I’m sure I will reference it multiple times throughout this report), both were handled a little bit differently due to the reasons each was not taking part, and the timing of those decisions in the planning of the concert. As far as the audio goes, both Ranmaru and Nagi’s parts in songs were played as regular background audio alongside otherwise off-vocal versions of the song tracks. In Tsubasa’s case, it seemed they knew the whole time, or at least from very early on in planning that he would not be able to attend due to his dysphonia. Tsubasa has been advised by his doctor and other professionals to limit his voice acting work so he doesn’t strain or damage his voice and throat which obviously means no extensive live performances. There seemed to be more consideration put into the camera angles and choreography for songs that include Nagi. It is sad to see him gone, and Heavens would never feel complete without him, but I am glad he is prioritising his health especially since that can be such a difficult decision to make in the idol and voice acting industries. Both Yonaga Tsubasa and Nagi were given huge amounts of respect that they rightfully deserve during the concert.

On the other hand, Tatsuhisa’s absence from the concert was decided very late into not only planning, but also after the concert was originally supposed to be held. This impacted the choreography, camera angles, and set list as they were all decided on and rehearsed by the voice actors before they knew he wouldn’t be able to attend. This resulted in the gap left by him in most songs to be more noticeable than Nagi’s as it seems (at least for the first night) they didn’t have time to change most of these elements before the performance, leaving occasionally awkward pauses in dances, or zooms on empty microphones and spotlights. If you do not know why Suzuki Tatsuhisa was absent from the concert, I suggest you take a quick google and form your own opinions on the matter. I will not go into depth here as I am not fully informed on the subject, and I don’t know the validity of the claims against him. Regardless, he is currently on a hiatus I believe to prioritise his non-work life and his mental health. It is unclear if he made the decision himself or was advised/forced to cease work by his management. Despite everything, I still hope he can get back on his feet and at the very least stay healthy and well. Whatever conflicted emotions you may now have towards Tatsuhisa, please do not let them influence your opinions on Ranmaru or any of Tatsuhisa’s other characters. At least, that is how I will be approaching him in this report.

Now that the basic information is out of the way, onto the opening! Of course, this report will contain spoilers for pretty much everything in the concert (outfits, staging, set list, mishaps, announcements etc) so this is your warning to stop here if you would like to remain unspoiled for when the DVD/Bluray are released in 2022 (date undecided). 

Stage setup: This is the third Utapri live in the MetLife Dome in Saitama! Previously, 6th stage and Welcome to Starish World were both also held here. It is difficult to describe but I’ll do my best. The stage is a lot simpler than recent Utapri Lives. There is one main stage that is just a long rectangular platform. There are four different doors  on the bottom layer of the stay. Behind the main stage, there are three higher platforms connected with stairs. Each of these three higher stages also has a screen behind it. There is no extended runway like in 6th Stage, Maji Love Kingdom or the Starish fanmeet. The stage’s theming makes it look very vaguely like a castle. It’s really interesting to see how different the vibe of the concert/arena can be just dependent on how the stage is set up, even within the same arena. I have to say, I think the other two set ups in previous Utapri concerts in the Metlife Dome lent themselves to more interesting staging and effects.For comparison, If you look at the stage for 6th stage or the Starish fanmeet, both of them had a main stage at the back and different types of longer walkways stemming off it (6th stage also had a secondary stage in the middle of the arena) and space around the edge of the floor seats for songs to be performed on carts. It may be due to some covid restrictions in Japan (unable to get in the extra stage equipment etc) or maybe because of a higher seat capacity, but 7th stage only had the basic rectangular stage. 

If nothing is said about a songs staging, assume it was just walking around and doing a little bit of dancing on stage with a microphone. 

The beginning:

After a standby screen, and overhead view of the audience in the MetLife Dome, the concert opens with an introductory video to the Utapri characters from Starish, Quartet Night, and Heavens. They are shown in the usual order. Ranmaru and Nagi are included, despite the absence of their voice actors. The voice actors from Starish (Terashima Takuma (Ittoki Otoya), Suzumura Kenichi (Hijirikawa Masato), Taniyama Kishou (Shinomiya Natsuki), Mamoru Miyano (Ichinose Tokiya), Junichi Suwabe (Jinguji Ren), Shimono Hiro (Kurusu Syo), and Toriumi Kousuke (Aijima Cecil) rise from platforms below the stage, and the first song begins.

Song 1: Fantastic Prelude

Impressions: 

Fantastic Prelude is a great beginning to the concert. The camera angles were the livestream were great, so many different views of the stage, close ups, really everything you’d normally see on the final bluray release. Saying that though, I’m excited to see how the impression of each performance changes once they have been edited for release. Starish are wearing all dark red outfits reminiscent of their Maji Love Kingdom outfits. As usual, the details of each outfit are tailored specifically to each voice actor/character. They also all wear concert rings of their characters’ image colour on their right hands. I will go into more detail on the outfits during the character introductions shortly. 

The majority of the song is performed on raised platforms high in the air. For the m,ost part, there isn’t much choreography for Fantastic Prelude, but they do mimic parts from the official choreography in some parts. Each boy comes on during an instrumental to say a line in character to welcome the audience. It’s wonderful to see them all together again after so long, it nearly made me cry. 

Song 2: The World is Mine

Impressions:

The first note I took for The World is Mine was “THEY HAVE SWORDS?!?” The song opens with the Quartet Night Voice actors (Morikubo Showtaro (Kotobuki Reiji), Aoi Shouta (Mikaze Ai), and Maeno Tomoaki (Camus) in shadow. As the lights turn on, they each pull out a sword and point it to the sky. Their outfits are primarily dark blue, almost seeming black in some lighting. These are also similar to the Maji Love Kingdom outfits for Quartet Night. During the song, they stab their swords into a hole in the floor where im guessing some staff members underneath take them away. As mentioned, for Ranmaru’s lines, his voice is played in the background and red lights shine on the stage for him. The ‘yonin no kizuna/the bonds of four” is particularly sad without Ranmaru. While I was almost crying at Fantastic Prelude, my hands were shaking while typing my notes for The World is Mine. 

Song 3: Gira x2 Seven

Impressions:

The stairs at the back of the stage open and the Heavens Voice actors (Midorikawa Hikaru (Otori Eiichi), Ono Daisuke (Sumeragi Kira), Uchida Yuuma (Otori Eiji), Takahashi Hidenori (Kiruiin Van), Kimura Ryouhei (Hyuuga Yamato), Yamashita Daiki (Amakusa Shion) walk out. They are wearing dark green outfits of course inspired once again by the Heavens movie outfits. An important and very endearing detail with the Heavens outfits though, is that they wear not only their own character’s image colour ring, but they also each wear a yellow ring for Nagi who was unable to attend. The first solo line in the song is by Midorikawa, and it seemed his voice and hands were both shaking a little bit. He seemed quite nervous, and I’m so proud of him, it must be so scary to be the first one to sing, and he always seems to put so much pride and care into his role as Eiichi. This is followed by Uchida Yuuma who of course seems so comfortable and confident on stage. Hidenori’s voice broke during his long high pitched note which was a bit tough, but as far as I’m aware he doesn’t have as much live stage experience as some of the other voice actors, and even though he missed this note he otherwise really shone on stage and always drew my attention whenever he was on screen. His smile absolutely lit up my loungeroom. I didn’t hear anyone talk about him missing the note on the second night either! Like Ranmaru’s voice, Nagi’s voice is also played in the bg audio. On the second night, instead of chanting “gira gira gira gira” after Nagi’s “haato yo moechae” and “Hikari mo tomochae” lines, they chant “nagi nagi nagi nagi!” instead. I really hope this makes it to the bluray version, it sounds like a really sweet and fun moment. Much of the choreo for Heavens group songs leaves an empty space for Tsubasa and it seemed more like a deliberate choice to pay respect to him and acknowledge him as a part of the group than just not being able to change the staging.

Character welcomes and intros:

Each voice actor does a very short line in character to welcome the audience to the concert and introduce themselves. This is done in the usual order, Otoya - Shion. Since these speeches are pretty much all “Im ____’s Voice actor ______. I hope we have fun tonight” I’ll just mention a couple unique things about their outfits before moving on. 

• Takuma is of course wearing glasses
• Kishou had some hair clips on the left side of his hair
• Suwabes hair is styled similar to Rens with one long spike of his fringe in between his eyes. I can’t remember if he had part tied back in a short ponytail or not. He addressed the crowd by saying “Ladies and gentlemen, no, everyone!” which was lovely. 
• Shimono has pink hair clips in his hair in the same pattern as Syo’s. I believe he also wore these in 6th Stage. His nails are painted black 
• As usual, Toriumi is wearing a hat
• Shouta has highlights in his hair syed the same colour as Ai’s and it is also styled like Ai’s hair with part pulled back into a short ponytail. He dyed his hair back to black the day after the 2nd performance haha. His nails were painted a very light purple, and his outfit has white frills on the hips of his coat.
• Maeno has his nails painted, is wearing blue contacts, and wears the same hairstyle and accessory (or at least very close) as he did in 2018’s Quartet Night Live Future. And of course, he had to call us all gumin. Shouta and Shoutarou bowed as he did so.
• Midorikawa is wearing glasses, and drew on Eichii’s mole again
• Ryouhei has his hair dyed blond for Yamato

Following the short introductions, there is a small video slideshow of the Heavens 7th Stage art to introduce the beginning of the Heavens section.

Song 4: HEAVEN’S GATE

Impressions:

Although it’s been performed before (you’ll find that to be a common theme with 7th Stage), we start with Heaven’s Gate! As much as I would’ve liked to see some new songs represented, it’s always nice to see more Heaven’s Gate. They are all on platforms high in the air like in 6th stage. There was an empty platform for Yonaga Tsubasa, and after the platforms sank back to the stage level, I think there was once again space left in the choreography for him as well. 

Heavens MC

Midorikawa opens and introduces a Heavens only MC. They talk about how its been a long time yet they’re back in the same arena as 6th stage. Apparently last time Midorikawa had a cold, so he feels like this is a revenge match haha. Yamashita points out their yellow rings to symbolise that their hearts are always one with Yonaga Tsubasa even if he isn’t there. They call out and wave to Nagi, asking if he can see them as they hold up their rings. They say that since he isn’t with them, they’ll have to battle it out to be just as cute as he usually is. This leads to OnoD impersonating Nagi/Tsubasa’s cute voice and mannerisms to read out a short greeting that I think was prepared for Nagi by Yonaga in the Heavens Line group chat. “Heavens is the best isn’t it! Angels, please be super excited and have a lot of fun, by Nagi.” OnoD of course instantly gets embarrassed and collapses to his knees. Apparently they talked about something different on the second night, and Midorikawa delivered a different message from Nagi. I wonder if they’ll edit together parts from each night’s talk segments for the DVD/bluray. 

Song 5: Fumetsu no Inferno

Impressions:

My notes for Fumetsu no Inferno start with “YUUUUMAAAA!!!!”. It’s hard for me to pick a favourite Heavens song, but Fumetsu no Inferno is so great, and Yuuma especially shines so much while performing it. I especially look forward to seeing it on the DVD/Bluray release which I’m sure will have improved audio mixing for the live vocals. Smoke shoots out in front of the stage as the Voice actors raise to be on three different platform heights, arranged in a triangle. Since I feel that so much of this songs greatness comes from Eiji’s harmonies and high notes in the background, its wonderful to see Yuuma front and centre in the middle of the bottom row. All stages become the same height again. During the livestream, whenever they were close to the smoke or fire, you could hear it through their microphones. 

There is a very short video introducing the Quartet Night Section.

Song 6: Dancing Over Night

Impressions:

Each boy comes out of a different door on stage with a group of backup dancers. I think this was the first time we saw the dancers, and I like their outfits, they’re wearing simple european styled long black coats and black pants with a plain white shirt on underneath. Each of them does a little dance as they come out, and there is quite obviously a pause in the choreo for when Tatsun would have walked out. There are plenty of red penlights in the audience for Ranmaru, as well as some yellow for Nagi too! Towards the end of the song, they stand in formation on the stairs with dancers to form the shape of a diamond.

Song 7: Love EVOL (Short ver)

Impressions:

Something you might notice here, is that the versions of the heavens solos were shorter versions! I didn’t notice this, likely because I hadn’t listened to their new solos a lot yet, but I saw people mention it on twitter! I remember thinking Fumetsu no Inferno also felt short, so it’s possible there were other short versions that I didn’t catch. Super odd decision since the run time of the concert was already much shorter than the last couple.I was definitely not expecting Love Evol, or any Quartet Night solos since there weren’t any released at the time when 7th stage was supposed to occur! Sadly though, there are no Heavens or Starish solos. Hopefully next time. I do find it funny though that I predicted Starish and Heavens solos, and we got the exact opposite. It was instantly noticeable that Aoi Shouta is very comfortable with live vocals and dancing on a stage. He looks so comfortable, and all his movements were polished to absolute perfection. Super cute of course too. The music paused and he did a little finger heart, smile, and laugh at the camera.

Song 8: Steward Dance (Short Ver)

Impressions:

I’m very proud of Maeno for doing a little dance! He seems to be more confident with choreo every concert. The performance is super cute, performed in the higher pitched Camus voice which switches to the deeper Camus voices. He’s also dancing with backup dancers who at once point mime being a table in front of Maeno that he pretends to take a teacup off and drink from. 

Song 9: All Right All Night (Short Ver)

Impressions:

Not a lot of notes for this one. Morikubo on stage with backup dancers, a bit of dancing, including some hip swaying. It did have a part that I feel was really hindered by the audience not being allowed to yell/cheer, or use their voices to take part in audience calls, so i’m curious how it comes across on the Bluray/DVD release. After his solo, Morikubo welcomed out the other QN boys for a Ranmaru solo.

Song 10: Only One (Short Ver)

Impressions:

The Quartet Night voice actors and a bunch of backup dancers to a tribute (?) to Ranmaru by dancing to Only One. At first I thought they might sing it in his place, but no, just dancing. Okay, so I seemed to interpret this quite differently to other fans. It could’ve been a difference between the camera angles in the livestreams, and it certainly was nice to see Ranmaru acknowledged, but honestly I mostly found this performance really funny?? And I don’t say that to at all demean Ranmaru or the effort that obviously went into it by the voice actors and dancers, but rather than a tribute that made me emotional, if felt more like a rushed “oh shit we couldn’t change this performance in time” with CONSTANT close ups, zooms, and pans across an empty microphone with the loneliest spotlight on it you’ve ever seen. Talking with someone that saw the second night, this wasn’t really the case there, as the camera angles mostly focused on the remaining QN boys doing the choreo. However, saying all that, Ranmaru is definitely missed, but to me this performance felt so out of place and made me feel his Morikubo, Shouta and Maeno doing a really nice pose for the camera which I‘m sure will be screenshot and posted all over the palace once the DVD/Bluray are released. 

Quartet Night MC

More “kono gumin ga” thank you Maeno it is always appreciated. I think on the first nights performance, it was about 5 degrees Celsius in Saitama, so they said they hope everyone brought blankets and clothes to keep warm. Maeno said “Its as cold as Silk Palace.” As I mentioned earlier, due to covid safety measures being taken in Japan/the MetLife Dome, the audience wasn’t allowed to cheer or raise their voices during the concert, so they released voice recording concert merchandise that fans could use to record their voices in advance cheering a set amount of different cheers in support which they could play during the live. They asked to have the background music removed, and everyone who bought them to all press play on the count of 3. You couldn’t hear it on the livestream, but I’m really excited to hear them on the official release! If I heard correctly, they got goosebumps and Shouta cried when Starish first performed Fantastic Prelude. From Morikubo: “Its been a while since we’ve been able to return here with all four of us, but sadly we cannot do our best to keep our spirits up and entertain you! I hope you enjoy the rest of our songs let’s get excited!”

Song 11: Kizuna

Impressions:

After their talk, they go to sit on the stairs and act as if they are in a car like how the song appears in the anime. The was a cute use of handheld camera right next to them on the stage so you felt like you were in the car with them. I think this was maybe the same choreo we’ve seen before for Kizuna. Seeing Kizuna with only ¾ Quartet Night members feels especially lonely since I feel like so much of the song’s charm is dependent on their harmonies, and finishing each other’s lines. Having said that though, they all put so much effort into the performance and asked the audience to call out the “whoa-oh”s in their hearts. From memory, I think they all looked emotional at the end of the song. 

And of course, there is a small video introducing the Starish boys with the 7th Stage art.

Song 12: Maji 1000% Love

Impressions:

As soon as the intro to Maji Love 1000% started playing as they walked out, I got so emotional. It really is such an important song to the franchise and my personal nostalgia. That nostalgia was interrupted when Suwabe and Takuma accidentally started early when they were supposed to wait for the fireworks/fire effects to go off in front of the stage. Very funny little mishap that will 100% be cut out of the final version, so I’m glad I got to see it! To be fair, I was also definitely expecting the song to start when Suwabe started singing! They use a lot of split screens throughout this performance so we can see the different boys together while they sing their little duo lines (for example, Mamo and Takuma split screen for “Dochi wo erabu princess” line.) 

Song 13: Shining Romance

Impressions:

Lots more handheld camera on the stage for this one on the first night! Super cute performance, each of them have the concert mino towels which they spin around in the air and dance with. Since there’s no Shimono solo. I’m glad they got them in there for a performance, it seems like such a Utapri Live tradition at this point! There was a very fun close up of Shimono that I enjoyed a lot. I definitely enjoyed this song, but I feel like it will be even more fun to watch when more camera angles are edited together for the DVD/bluray that focus on each of the boys more with their little towel twirling and silly dance moves.

Song 14: Star Wish

Impressions:

I love Star Wish! Possibly my second favourite Starish song (ignoring Nostalgia for 1000% 2000% etc) so I was so happy to see it live, especially since it’s one of the only relatively new songs we got. I wonder if they would be waiting to do Quartet Crown and Endless Score for when all of the Quartet Night and Heavens voice actors are able to gather together? The staging for Star Wish was all them standing stationery at mics which kinda reminded me of Night Dream’s staging. Very simple staging, but it worked very effectively. The lack of dance choreo also meant their vocals really got to shine. Something else I loved that I feel might show up better on bluray release, is that as each of them said their solo syllables in “Ki-su-ya-mi-su-go-ku” etc, each of them got individually lit up by a spotlight in their characters image colour. 

Starish MC + Announcements

Terashima almost falls down the stairs and the others made fun of him for it. Takuma sais this is now Starish’s third concert in the MetLife Dome! I wonder if they’ll keep up this tradition if we get more lives in the future. Terashima Takuma: “Even if we cant be close to you in person we can be close in our hearts.” They bring up that apparently shouta cried backstage seeing the 7 members of Starish perform 1000% together. Takuma passes over to Suzumura-han as usual for announcements! I love that Suzumura gets this responsibility, and you bet he did his robot voice. They tease him saying that the voice was a bit different than usual, and Suzumura says “Hey! Even the announcer can have growth/character development!”  Of course, usually by the time I see the announcements on a bluray, we’ve already known them for months, so this was so exciting to see live! The first thing they announce is the Bluray and DVD release for 7th Stage sometime in 2022. Nothing unusual there. However, he goes on to say:  “Of course it’s getting a bluray release though right? So we have more announcements!” They announce the return of animated Utapri  content that we’ll receive via a one hour Utapri TV anime special! The Special will serve as a bridge in canon to connect the story between Maji Love Kingdom and the 2022 Utapri Movie, Utapri Maji Love Starish Tours. On the second night, they also announced the title of the 1 hour special; “Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Starish Tours ~Tabi no Hajimari~”/Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Starish Tours ~The Beginning of the Journey~”. Takuma points out how whenever they enter announcement mode, all the pennlights turn blue for Suzumura. Apparently on the second night, Zuzumura did a wasurero beam so people would act surprised when they announced it again. After the announcement they acted as if his wasurero beam was too powerful and made everyone forget all about Utapri. Takuma announces that the next song will be Starish’s last in the concert and although I knew they’d definitely be doing an encore, I was still surprised because we were only an hour and a half in!

Song 15: We Are Starish

Impressions:

They kinda do the dance/movements from the anime. In general, this has pretty basic staging, but Mamo and Kiiyan’s vocals were perticularly good. I really don’t have a lot of notes for this one!

Following We Are Starish, it’s Maji Love Kingdom time! There is a video montage that once again shows the 7th stage artworks in the Maji Love Kingdom shuffle unit song groups in order as well as short clips from their songs from the movie to remind you what they looked like in the anime. For example, they first show Otoya, Ai, and Van, then a little clip of Up Down Up.

Song 16: Up Down Up

Impressions:

Here we get the first outfit change!! Each group wears outfits reminiscent of their movie outfits without just being copies. Instead of being white, the Up Down Up outfits are mostly black with shite shirts underneath and their signature colours applied similarly in patterns to how they were in the movie. The screen in the back of the stage shows a lot of footage from the performance from the movie. As far as the performance goes, they are joined by backup dancers, and all three of them do quite a bit of the dance from Up Down Up. It’s super cute! Something I was looking forward to with these songs was seeing different combos of penlight colours in the crowd, and the lavender, orange and red lights look really good! The dance moves for “up up down up” look really fun, they asked the audience to do them together at the end. All three of them look like they’re having so much fun! Sadly Shouta and Takahashi couldn’t throw or princess carry Takuma like Van and Ai did with Otoya in the movie haha.

Song 17: Egoistic

Impressions:

Somehow the staging for this one didn’t emphasize Tatsuns absence as much for me, despite only having two other people on stage. It was still noticeable though, but I imagine with editing for the Bluray/DVD release that would be improved on. He would have killed this live, but Kiiyan and Midorikawa do really well with just the two of them! Their outfits have leather jackets and pants, and they each have harnesses across their chest like the movie outfits. I’d say Midorikawas outfit looks closer to the movie than Kiiyans did. They’re both just standing with stationery mics on stands, but the shots of them on the big screens in the back have a filter that looks like metal bars over the top so it looks like they’re in a cage like in the movie! Kiiyan intentionally kicks over his mic stand, and it looks super cool. And of course, Kiiyans improv vamping (is that the right term?) in the instrumental parts. 

Song 18: Feather in Hand

Impressions:

I was hoping for water effects with this one (like Masato’s solo in 6th Stage), and sadly there weren’t any, but they did have feathers flying through the air! At the start, Maeno has one in his hand, and I wasn’t sure if he had it the whole time or if he actually caught it. These outfits are probably the most different from the movie since it seems like they wanted to stick with majority black and white looks so all the members still looked cohesive when they were together at the end. The outfits mostly resemble the movie outfits since they both had a lot of diagonal lines. Later in the song, they go on raised platforms high in the air similar to the movie. No matter who he’s on stage with, Yuuma always seems so comfortable, and Maeno and Suzumura are both so good, but I still couldn’t take my eyes off Yuuma! He’s just so charming. The light blue, dark blue, and purple lights also look great in the audience for this one!

Song 19: Souai Traumerei

Impressions:

Suwabe, Takahashi, and Shoutarou rise from below the stage. They’re wearing all black, with lots of things to create a long coat-like silhouette that reminded me a lot of the movie. I’d say these are the closest to the movie outfits. They pause the music in the middle and each give a little emo speech in character about love and while doing so, they each pick up a lily! The lilies are lit up in their character’s colour. I really hoped they’d, they put the lights out, and turn off the lights in the lillies so it looked like they dissolved like they did in the movie, but they didn’t. Still super cool to have them at all though! There wasn’t as much cool choreo in this one, but thats fair enough, it was still really nice. 

Song 20: Colourfully Spark

Impressions:

So cute! But especially since its such a cute song, it was sad to be missing Nagi! Again, like Feather in the Hand, these outfits are lacking a lot of the colour that made them recognisable, and even the cuts of their outfits are quite different! Instead, the colours are applied like splatters of paint on the mostly black outfits. The backup dancers have cute colourful star shaped balloons. Shimono couldnt get out all of his little “aaaah” note, it was more of an “aA-”. They do the little arm motion choreo like the movies choreo which I like! The stage in the background has three little mini stages. each one is lit up in a different boy’s colour. The middle one is yellow for Nagi. You can tell they had more time to plan for no Yonaga with this one, theres not as many awkward empty camera angles. This is another one that I feel like would benefit from more close ups in the final edit for the Bluray release since I swear every time they did cute expressions or focused on the choreo it cut away to far away or shots from the side where you couldnt really see them! After the song, Shimono tried to say “arigatou!” but they cut off his mic so there was just a very loud “ARI-”

Song 21: Kaleidoscope

Impressions:

I’m guessing this will be cut out for the bluray, but there was this horrible sound effect in between Colourfully Spark and Kaleidoscope that kept playing on repeat. However! This was so they could set up the hot air balloons! They can’t fly through the air on hoverboards, so this is the best option I think haha. Super cool to see these return after they were in 6th Stage. Quite similar execution to Visible Elf there, so go rewatch that If you want an idea of what they look like. Each boy is in their own hot air balloon. From memory, was Ryouhei scared of heights? I swear I heard that somewhere, and he was certainly holding onto the railing on the balloon’s basket the whole time. They land, and sing the end of the song on the stage. Their outfits are kinda work casual, but they’re each quite different. Instead of being grey like in Maji Love Kingdom, they’re mostly white with black accents. Mamo wore a white blazer with thin black pinstripes. They each mime drawing a big heart in the air at the end.

Song 22: Ai wo Sasageyou

Impressions:

Midorikawa announces that this is “Heaven’s final song”. They’re each still wearing the outfits from their Maji Love Kingdom songs. This is another one I didn’t have many notes on. I LoVe  Ai wo Sasageyou, but there wasn’t a lot of interesting staging for this one, but similar to Star Wish, that meant their vocals sounded a bit better since there wasn’t much choreo. At the end, they’re all one one rising platform together, and they each strike a pose after saying their solo lines. 

Song 23: Fly to the Future

Impressions:

Most of my notes for this were me freaking out as a Shouta stan because HIS MIC WASN’T WORKING. Its really hard to tell, but it seems like maybe it was working in the arena but they didnt turn on his mic to transmit to the livestream? I couldn’t tell if he looked a bit frustrated because it wasnt working or if I was just seeing things. His mic wasn’t working properly for a while, but later on when the 3 of them stand a bit closer, you can hear Shoutas voice quietly and it sounds like it’s maybe one of the other boys’ microphones picking it up from the arena. This was thankfully fixed on the second day. At the start, there was a shot of Shouta singing, but all you could hear was Morikubos voice. His solo bit at the start of the song was also completely silent, just the instrumental. It was interesting however to hear the start of the song without Ai’s harmonies, I feel like his voice really adds a lot to the other three boys’ deeper voices. This was another song that made use of a handheld camera on stage in parts. Morikubo announces that this is ”Quartet nights final song” before Shouta’s mic is out again for his solo part. Thankfully it gets fixed towards the end of the song though! It felt even more exciting to hear his voice back in a very triumphant part of the song! At the “arigatou, soshite, korekara mo” they’re on a raised part of the stage. I have to admit, I was so focused on Shouta’s mic I totally forgot about Tatsuhisa’s absence haha. At the end of the song, Shouta’s eyes looked a bit watery, and I couldnt tell if he was frustrated because maybe his mic didn’t work, or if it was just the lights reflecting off them. I imagine it had to have been working at least somewhat in the arena because I’m sure they had spare mics on standby that someone could have ran on and given him if it truly wasn’t working. But anyway, this has been your full rundown of my panicked “Oh no Shouta’s mic isn’t working” notes!

Song 24: Ultra Blast

Impressions:

Again, not many notes about this one, but it did have nice fire effects! There was a nice 7 way split screen effect showing them all at once, but Kiiyans screen was fully covered by fire. Toriumi misses one of his solo lines. And of course, this is the “last song of 7th Stage” with the usual incredibly transparent fake-out ending before an encore! It’s always fun to see them finish and just walk straight off the stage. 

Since the audience wasn’t allowed to cheer or raise their voices, you can’t hear them calling for an encore, but they did clap for one instead!

Encore 1: Welcome to Utapri Kingdom

Impressions:

Whoohoo, encore! Only a two song encore though, and the talk was nowhere near as long as 6th Stage’s! Some people might prefer this, but I was looking forward to another 45 minute talk full of crying haha. I guess they’re saving that for next time! I was also totally expecting them to wear the concert t-shirts, but they’re all still in their Maji Love Kingdom outfits! In any case, Welcome to Utapri Kingdom works really well for an encore. I’d love more songs with all 18 of the characters in them. Of all of my many mistakes in the set list predictions I made in 2020, I’m glad I at least got the encore songs right! Maeno is wearing at least four Camus rings, and all of Heavens has their yellow rings back on after removing them for the Maji Love Kingdom songs. 

Following Welcome to Utapri Kingdom, there is a very short talk. Takuma covers how the concert was supposed to happen in April of 2020, and all the hardships everyone has gone through in the past 2 years in order to stand here together. Shouta looked to be crying a little bit. Takkun talks about all the different things people have gone through to be able to perform/watch live. Takuma passes over to Yamashita Daiki who starts their solo goodbyes in character. This is one in reverse order, starting with Shion, and ending with Otoya. Each voice actor says about one sentence and I didn’t manage to make notes for all of them, but for example, Uchida Yuumas goodbye was “I would be happy if my feelings were able to reach you. I will make sure that my memories of today remain in my heart forever. I’m Otori Eiji’s voice actor Uchida Yuuma, thank you!” One the second day, I heard that Takahashi accidentally cut off Ryouhei’s goodbye speech and they both started speaking at the same time. Takahashi got embarrassed as they others made fun of him and Suzumura did another wasurero beam. 

Encore 2: Maji Love Kingdom

Impressions:

Although this is the final song, I again didn’t take too many notes so I could just enjoy watching it. Like in the movie, each group does each other’s hand signals! They end the song in a heart shape on the stairs like at the end of the performance from the movie!

After the song Takuma thanks the shining dancers as they walk off stage. Finally, to end the first night of 7th Stage, Takuma leads the others into saying thank you, and the curtain/screen behind them rises. Mamoru Miyano’s ‘Encore’ starts playing in the background as Takuma invites Heavens, then Quartet Night to leave the stage. As Starish stands up to leave, Shimono gets to his spot quickly and Suwabe says “Ochibi-chan there’s no need to rush.” They all look a bit emotional, and Takuma says “Let’s definitely meet again, that’s a promise.” I will hold you to that promise Takkun! The screen lowers, and they squat and look under it so the audience can see them for as long as possible as they wave goodbye underneath it. The concert ends with a “See You Again” message on the screen. 

Final Impressions:

I’m so happy I was able to watch this livestream. It was such a special night. This was only possible thanks to the friend I had in Japan who let me borrow her Japanese phone number to use ticketPIA, and of course thank you once again to everyone who gave me their codes back in 2019 to apply for tickets. I doubt I would have put this much effort into getting access to the livestream and covering it in such detail unless I had originally gotten tickets thanks to you. I am sad I had to cancel my trip to see the concert in person in 2020, but the fact that the voice actors, and of course the staff went ahead with their plans for 7th Stage despite their many hardships really shows their devotion to this franchise. 

I wonder if there were restrictions on having songs performed on the carts, because I don’t think there were any at all. If so, probably due to them needing to be distanced as much as possible on stage. This also could be what impacted a lot of the staging if they couldnt be as close to each other as often, and had to potentially rework some cart songs to be “standing stationary at a mic and doing a bit of dancing” songs.  Saying that though, They definitely did their best they could with lots of restrictions in place in Japan at the time, and I am so incredibly thankful that they made the concert available via livestream, even if it was still difficult to access as someone living outside of Japan. The TicketPIA process was very complex and I saw a lot of Japanese people complaining about it on twitter as well, so I hope they may streamline the process in the future for both Japanese and international fans of this franchise that we all love so dearly! 

Like everyone else, I have also been through a lot this past 2 years, and earlier this year I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes which will make it more difficult for me to travel in the future, however I am more determined than ever to do my best to make it to any future Utapri concerts. Utapri has been a part of my life now for about 10 years, and I’m so happy I binged it one day when I was sick in 2011. It led to me meeting some of my closest friends, and it has been so great being a part of this wonderful and forever growing international fanbase through my ShiningLiive blog and admin work on various Utapri zines has been so wonderful. I look forward to following the future of Uta no Prince-sama for as long as I can. If you’ve read this far, thank you! 8th Stage, here I come!

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To give you an idea of the length of this 7th stage report is, I have 700 words before I even got to talking about the staging, let alone the set list. I’m definitely going overboard with this, but with the chance to takes notes live while i was watching the livestream, I’m making sure i include absolutely everything that I can to be as thourough as possible. I want to spend another day at least finishing and editing this absolute beast of a report, so I thank you once again for waiting so patiently, I know it must be difficult waiting for news!

If theres anything in particular you all would like to hear about in my 7th stage report, send me a dm or an ask and I’ll make sure to cover it if I can! I want to make sure I write in detail about things you all are actually interested in. Of course Im going to cover the outfits, staging, and my impressions, but how much do you want to hear about talks/MCs etc? Let me know anything youre interested in seeing in the report! 

The second and final day of 7th Stage is over! I hope you all enjoyed my rather limited coverage of it, but as I’ve mentioned, Im going to release a more detailed report that covers the outfits, staging, and any funny little moments that might be cut from the DVD/bluray version as well as my impressions of the live. It might take a couple days to get out depending how carried away I get but I’ll do my best to post it as soon as possible. 

Since I have the chance to see 7th stage via the official live stream, I thought I’d share the set list in real time with everyone! It is kept below a read more in case people dont want to be spoiled, but if you do, then read away! I may also be posting this on my twitter @/ToughMuffins.

The concert starts at 4:30pm Japan time, so keep your eyes peeled for updates once it begins. I am expecting that the start could potentially be delayed slightly if there are still people waiting outside the arena. *There may be slight delays inbetween updates as I’m also writing up more extensive notes on Google Docs to make a better report over the next few days.

Song 1: Fantastic Prelude
Song 2: The World Is Mine
Song 3: Gira x 2 Seven
Welcomes and character intros
Song 4: Heavens Gate - The Beginning of the Legend
Heavens Talk
Song 5: Fumetsu no Inferno
Song 6:  Dancing Over Night
Song 7: Love Evol
Song 8: Steward Dance
Song 9: All Right All Night
Song 10:  Only One (no Tatsun, the qn boys and backup dancers are literally just dancing to an audio of Only One
Qn Talk
Song 11: Kizuna
Song 12: Maji 1000% Love
Song 13:  Shining Romance
Song 14:  Star Wish
Starish Talk/announcements
Song 15: We Are Starish
Short video interlude
Song 16: Up Down Up
Song 17: Egoistic
Song 18:  Feather in hand
Song 19:  Souai Traumerei
Song 20: Colourfully Spark
Song 21: Kaleidoscope
Song 22: Ai wo Sasageyou
Song 23: Fly to the Future
Song 24: Ultra Blast
Call For Encore
Encore 1: Welcome to Utapri Kingdom
Encore 2: Maji Love Kingdom

END!

shiningliive:

I managed to get a ticket for the livestream of 7th Stage! Thank you so much once again to everyone who initially gave me their codes to get my original ticket back in 2019 and although I can no longer attend in person, I’m still so excited to be able to watch the live stream. 1 million thank yous as well to the wonderful friend in Japan who helped me set up a ticket PIA account. 

While I dont use this account as much as I used to as I dont really keep up with Shining Live at the moment, if anyone is interested, I’m hoping to write up some kind of report for the first day of the concert that I’ll likely post here and on twitter (@ToughMuffins). Likely it will include the set list, notable staging and outfits, any fun moments, and my opinions/impressions, so heads up if you’d like to avoid spoilers until the bluray release. It might take me a few days to get out depending on how in depth I want it to be. Ive been into Utapri for about 10 years, so Ive been looking forward to this moment for a little bit under half of my life. Im so excited. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything actually works on the night of the performance! <3

As well as making full report, Im also thinking of making a post here or live tweeting the set list for the first day on twitter if I am able to and the stream works. Would anyone be interested in a live posting of the set list? If it’s on tumblr, I should be able to put it under a read more and edit it to update with the new songs so those who want to avoid being spoiled can do so.

I have also cleared out old asks from my inbox, and temporarilly opened asks again just in case anyone wants to give feedback or ask any questions about 7th stage!

I managed to get a ticket for the livestream of 7th Stage! Thank you so much once again to everyone who initially gave me their codes to get my original ticket back in 2019 and although I can no longer attend in person, I’m still so excited to be able to watch the live stream. 1 million thank yous as well to the wonderful friend in Japan who helped me set up a ticket PIA account. 

While I dont use this account as much as I used to as I dont really keep up with Shining Live at the moment, if anyone is interested, I’m hoping to write up some kind of report for the first day of the concert that I’ll likely post here and on twitter (@ToughMuffins). Likely it will include the set list, notable staging and outfits, any fun moments, and my opinions/impressions, so heads up if you’d like to avoid spoilers until the bluray release. It might take me a few days to get out depending on how in depth I want it to be. Ive been into Utapri for about 10 years, so Ive been looking forward to this moment for a little bit under half of my life. Im so excited. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything actually works on the night of the performance! <3

Let’s Talk: UtaPri and Information

Or I guess you could say “Broccoli and Information” but using UtaPri is easier I think…

HERE’S THE POINT!

I fully understand that UtaPri is a franchise based out of Japan and they typically want to stay there (in a way) because that is where a good # of fans live…no issue there.

Here’s the problem: The fandom is also WELL OUTSIDE OF THERE TOO!

UtaPri’s reach is well past Japan at this point and they (the twitter handlers) need to figure out a way to convey information BETTER to those fans overseas (in my opinion).

What caused this thought process? Let’s talk

First and foremost let me state again that I am fully aware its bigger base is in Japan…got that and I’m good with that so no issues. The problem comes that ,when there is information to be shared (officially and not through leaks), we run into this issue of we need a twitter to translate information from the twitter or we need someone to fansub the stages. THIS ,in my opinion, is a big problem and has been since at least 7th Anniversary (you’ll see why I picked that one in a second)

The main twitter I think everyone and their brother follows in this fandom for information is the official UtaPri twitter which is where we get a lot of our news. The problem is that there are now 2 major twitters (that one and the HEAVENS twitter) that you have to follow because you see all the “Shining Agency” information is on the UtaPri twitter and the HEAVENS info is on the other one…rest assured the UtaPri one gets updated more but I’m sure if you headcanon a reason as to why it could make sense.

Now I would have no issue with this…IF you didn’t have to follow a THIRD account to read the translations of the news (if you didn’t read the machine translations from Google). Its almost like Broccoli doesn’t know how to convey the information proper to International fans so they literally rely on translators in the West to do it.

And that’s to say nothing about the Stages!

Stages and Anniversaries are usually where we get the most amount of news from. The problem is we have to wait usually an obscene amount of time to get the news because ,no joke, if no one does the report on here (and someone used to I think) then you have to wait for the DVD/BDs to come out (because Broccoli doesn’t know how to stream these things for fans outside of Japan still) and God help us with the fact that the DVDs are bloody expensive!

Now you might be saying to yourself

“Bro its not that deep”

Alright…then tell me why ever since 5th Anniversary (Minimum) they tweet in English for western fans if they didn’t want to include us…seems counterproductive don’t it?

UtaPri has a history of going “Dark” a lot and usually when they do you feel like they are setting up for something BIG and usually when they do drop the info we all get hyped to hell about it because we kind of know WHAT it is and we can sort of piece together how its going to go. I haven’t started losing my mind about this upcoming project because ,despite the report from Anime News Network about it…I still don’t understand WHAT is going to be done so I can’t get “hype” for it until somehow I get better information which hopefully will be at either this Anniversary or 7th Stage

Now let me back up to 7th Anniversary…why did I pick that?

I picked that because ,before the platform change, the last bit of intel we got about the game “Dolce Vita” was HEAVENS was gonna be in it and I told you how I felt the reaction was on here about that and it wasn’t “great” (or at least to me). Since the Platform change over from VITA to Switch we haven’t heard much about it. Hell we finished the Debut port and I expected them to announce either All-Star or Dolce Vita was next but they didn’t and that baffled me. Like I genuinely am concerned about that game project now since we hadn’t heard anything about it!

This past April Fools was interesting because of the fact that Broccoli went the route of doing a “Game” based on HEAVENS (and it was MESSED UP MAN) but I hope I am not reading too much into it that they are going to work on a Visual Novel game for them or ,at the very least, make a new Music series of games based off of HEAVENS Music because remember that in Music 3 we got the Mini game that was from an April Fools prank!

Again though this is where they (Broccoli) don’t communicate what is next for either side and rather go

“If you know…then you know”

And its like

“No…no I really don’t because I am waiting for you to spell it out!”

Like at the very least HEAVENS needs the following

Their own VN games
Their own Music games
Their own Anime Series

Or their own stage

Any of

these would be fine for them so we know where HEAVENS actually is in the pecking order of Broccoli’s vision for UtaPri. I generally see Agematsu tweet about QN/STARISH but rarely see a tweet from Elements Garden in support of HEAVENS. I’ve no joke seen ONE in the past few years but that was just recently

Again though this goes back to the whole “Information” flow that International fans don’t get

Either someone needs to set up a dedicated account that literally translates all the tweets from the UtaPri/HEAVENS twitters or Broccoli needs to hire someone to freaking translate the tweets for us so we can understand the next step without relying on translators and reports. That “flow” doesn’t work because all it tends to do is create anxiety for the International base and its a problem but I don’t know how to fixit

*Cough*Streamthestagesoverseas*cough*

Okay but for real I know that that can be a bit of a financial issue and the margin might not work considering there are those in the International fandom that run adblockers so I get that…I think though that there has to be a way by now for the fandom to get the show and enjoy it. A viewing scheduled to go off when everyone is awake would be nice instead of like 6 AM and then you take it down for reasons…shit GENESIS and Mamo kept shows up longer than that for God Sakes! Mamo showed Loving which was like a concert (at the time) that was only like 3 years old! Hell the first concert are out of print so there HAS to be a way to show those to Overseas fans now right?!

Alright Alright I’ll get off that but my point stands for Heaven sakes!

UtaPri ,Broccoli ,King and whoever else involved in the running of the series needs to find a way to communicate with the International fans better. Hell KLab HAD the Game Station show but they axed that temporarily (and I couldn’t understand Alex for the life of me to understand why…she needs to learn to speak up or get a mike on her or something) so we don’t have any proper communication with KLab anymore which is weird and its just a problem.

Maybe I’m the only one though. What do you all think? Does the twitters for UtaPri need to find ways to communicate with International fans better or are you okay with the flow of information we get now? Let me know what you think and I shall talk to you later

What would it look like?

So this is a question I have thought about for a while because of the fact that I think a lot of people (Myself included) believe there is more of a story to tell in the world of UtaPri.  I think with enough time we could get a very interesting idea for a season and honestly I think WHATEVER this project we got coming up actually IS could be an interesting testing ground for something.

Let me explain

So if we think about how Season 4 ended it seemed rather definitive.  Like the way that message was wrote made you believe ,to a degree, that the series had ended as far as an Anime project.  Then we got the end card AFTER that and that kind of made things turn on its head cos no one knew what that was supposed to be until 6th stage happened right?

One thing that always stands out to me is the fact that Season 4 was a bit of a mess and I say that in the most objective and neutral way possible because…when you have an Anime that is based on a Manga we typically get a story based around that in some fashion.  It might not be panel for panel and word for word but we get one and that is always fun to see how certain scenes get animated for sure.  When you do an Anime based on an Otome game you almost always do whomever is considered the “true route” or just leave it open ended so people will want to play the games (which is what I think DiaLovers did when it had its run).

UtaPri has a very interesting situation because the series DOES have an idol component (and the Anime made sure to really focus on that mostly) but it is also an Otome game so the studio (A-1 Pictures) had that to work off of for the most part.  The problem is that when they were done with the material they DID USE it created a problem because Season 4 was a mess if I am being as objective as possible about it.

So here was the problem

You had 3 groups in play here

STARISH
QUARTET NIGHT
HEAVENS

Forget whom your group was for a second…this was going to be a problem because 2 of the 3 groups had content that was used in the first 3 seasons but Season 4 was going to be a problem.  How this would have been remedied I have no fucking idea!  Like if Broccoli knew they were going to do this season they needed to get something out BEFORE IT so people would have had something to go off of for HEAVENS so we could have had 7 episodes that made sense instead of episodes where it felt like they didn’t know how to have the HEAVENS member that was being featured in it not look like a complete ass!  If we are honest this is what happened and its frustrating to remember

One of the biggest issues with the season was that you had a group that HAD been Antags during Season 2.  I said HAD because I genuinely believe that the marching orders for A-1 was to write a season where STARISH was still THE focus but HEAVENS could be rehabbed into a group that was more “likable/marketable” so when the time came to sell CDs and merch that they would fly off the shelves and could be a contender to at least QN if not both them and STARISH.  As we saw during the Oricon charts it was a puzzling time because the duet CDs sold like garbage in the sense that only TWO our the 7 actually charted in the top 10

Ren/Van - Lovely Eyes
Syo/Yamato - Justice Impulse

This was the most puzzling thing I ever dealt with because I tried to figure out WHY and to this day the best thing I could come up with is the fact that the CD releases were slated to come 10 days after the episode aired which seemed like the dumbest thing to do (IMHO) because when I looked at Season 3 all of the releases charted in the top 10 and a big reason for that was the gap between CD/Episode was only 4 days…well we got to QN and HEAVENS’ CDs they did VERY WELL in Season 4 and its because of how close they released them (I think) to the episodes…funny how that works!

What was really weird also was during the “Duet Project” episodes the writers didn’t know WHO to make the focus of the episodes and that was weird BUT ,looking back on it, this whole season was gonna be weird because of how quickly the season was coming in the turnaround vs. its normal time for a season.  Typically a UtaPri season gets a 2 year window and this time they were going under that…about a year and 4 months so this was going to cause a crunch and also a mess of a message as to what the writers wanted to do!  I personally believe that the writers wanted to make HEAVENS all the more sympathetic and they were able to get SOME of the backstories in that they could for certain characters but a few others (Nagi and Eiichi for example) “kind of” tried to show you the “why they were acting the way they were” but it felt (at least Internationally) that the episodes didn’t register or if they did not as well as they hoped.  I do wonder if a big reason that the content is as out of sorts in terms of balance for HEAVENS vs. the other two groups is because of how jacked up that season got.  I genuinely wish I could sit down and discuss that season with someone that was in the room when they were given the orders on how that season was supposed to go vs. what actually happened after the fact!

So this brings me back to the “What would a 5th Season look like if we got/get one in the future?”

The weird thing is I think A-1 already knows but they have to get the reference materials FIRST before they start writing it.  I genuinely think they saw/heard about what happened Internationally when it came to the “NEXT DOOR” saga and they didn’t want to see that happen again so NOW they want to work on these projects to get the idea other there right now that all the groups are separated as first we have STARISH and then no doubt QN but the big question of course is HEAVENS…can they do a concert with them at some point with hopefully more songs under their belt OR will Broccoli start to really consider them a lost cause and that the fandom just doesn’t want them.  You can only go with the “Round peg/Square Hole” philosophy so much before people get mad and don’t want to deal with the series (or at the very least HEAVENS) anymore.

The other big issue is HEAVENS’ role in Dolce Vita because, As of this writing, we still don’t know ANYTHING about that game…like we don’t know if its a straight up VN or is there going to be something similar to the original La Corda back in the day which ,fun fact time, had Kishou and Mamo in it.  Like if anyone would know how a game like that worked it would be them (And they ARE in the new game “Starlight Orchestra” btw) so they HAVE to have had given some input about how the mechanics worked and all that…right?!

(Oh and unrelated but Kishou’s original character in Len Tsukimori is a special character in that game.  He was unlocked through a campaign we had in that fandom a bit ago)

So again…what would Season 5 look like?

Well my guess is that it would have to be a STARISH/HEAVENS season again but with new duets unlike last time.  The other possibility (And I think they were teasing this at the end of Season 4) is that it would somehow be a HEAVENS/QN season which could be interesting especially if they did something like how Season 2 was probably supposed to go…and in a way didn’t because of how the story worked.

The thing is its been almost 5 years since we had a proper season…FIVE!

Let’s assume that the “Anime Project” as we know it is over alright?  STARISH and QN’s brand is already established so what do you use to help HEAVENS’ get on the same level?  That’s a big reason why I don’t think they could/should end the “Anime Proper” because to do that you literally would be cutting off a way to properly market a group that actually needs it vs. the groups that clearly don’t.  I won’t go so far as to say that the STARISH/QN Animated concerts are going to be “Vanity Projects” because they aren’t.  They are clearly something that Broccoli believed in as far as a project to do for the series BUT I will say that having 7th Stage so close to this project is a bit…weird?!

Like okay to be fair this probably was planned well in advance and the Pandemic fucked everything up because it was supposed to be announced at 7th stage in 2020…okay cool fine but let’s say it was right?  What stopped them from revealing it at 10th Anniversary when it would have been a bigger “Holy Shit” moment?  What was really so important that they had to do EVERYTHING ELSE and not that?  Just seemed weird to me.

But anyways HOLY SHIT did we go around the block here…I need to stop

If you were going to script out a proper 5th season when would you do it and how?  The thing to remember is we have a 3 group scenario and now HEAVENS is trying to become an even better group to finally beat STARISH and QN so do you have QN and HEAVENS do a thing together or do you do a 3 cour season where each is dedicated to a particular group?

Love to hear your answers on this and take care