The Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club held their opening live event on 2023-06-04, and after attending both sessions, I left more convinced that they'll be interesting to follow. So I decided to write a bit about the event!

You can purchase the stream footage for both the day and night sessions through 2023-06-11—see the event information page for details on doing so.

I'll first introduce Hasunosora, since they debuted just a few months ago, and then talk about (most of) the setlist.

What's the deal with Hasunosora?

This branch of Love Live! is often described as VTubers, which is partially accurate, but doesn't capture the entirety of their activities. Like most of the other Love Live! branches, the content is split into:

• 2D: Centered on the Link! Like! Love Live! app (which I'll abbreviate as LLLL), where the story is presented in basically a visual novel format, and where the characters do frequent streams (hence "VTuber").
• 3D: The cast's activities in real life, including concerts (like the subject of this post) and the SeHasu YouTube series.

Despite this being called their "opening live event", this was their second time performing in front of an audience, after the 2023-04-21 release event for the Dream Believers mini-album. (You can still watch that one in its entirety for free on YouTube!)

On the setting: Hasunosora Jogakuin (Girls' High School) is a high school in the mountains of Kanazawa, a city a few hours northwest of Tokyo. The members are divided into pairs:

Cerise Bouquet

• Hinoshita Kaho, voiced by Mirei Nozomi (yellow-orange)
• Otomune Kozue, voiced by Hanamiya Nina (green)

DOLLCHESTRA

• Murano Sayaka, voiced by Nonaka Cocona (blue)
• Yugiri Tsuzuri, voiced by Sasaki Kotoko (red)

Mira-Cra Park!

• Osawa Rurino, voiced by Kan Kanna (pink)
• Fujishima Megumi, voiced by Tsukine Kona (white)

What's the deal with Mira-Cra Park!? (spoilers for LLLL story)

If you've looked at the Hasunosora discography (or this event's setlist), you'll notice that Cerise Bouquet and DOLLCHESTRA have a lot more songs.

The canon reason is just that Rurino and Megumi aren't part of the club yet... though it's not clear (yet?) what the reason is for writing the story this way.

Venue

I've been to Pacifico Yokohama's National Convention Hall a few times before, so I was already familiar with it. Some thoughts on it:

• Location: Yokohama is a bit far from Tokyo, but at least it's well connected. The venue itself feels like a bit of a hike from the nearest station, Minatomirai, because the station is deep underground, and you have to walk through most of a mall (Queen's Square), then a long walkway, before you get to the venue. But at least the mall and other surroundings are well equipped with restaurants, convenience stores, vending machines, etc. You can run to the mall and back to get a quick snack within 15 minutes (which I did between sessions).
• Capacity: This venue seats 5000, which is a step up from the ~1300 seats at their 2023-04-21 event in Toyosu Pit. For major Love Live! events, this is a bit small (compared to the usual venues of 8000+ capacity), but understandably so since Hasunosora is just getting started.
• Stage and seating: Visibility is quite good from the middle to the back of the first floor because of the elevation difference. This is in contrast to venues set up more for sports (Musashino Forest Sport Plaza) or conventions (Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Halls). If you're up in the front, it can actually be not that great depending on who (or what) is in front of you, since the elevation difference is less pronounced in the front-most blocks. (I was in the front row for the day session, but had a good chunk of the stage blocked by the camera most of the time...)
• Audio: The audio was honestly not great—from the middle-back of the first floor, it felt dulled, sounding a bit like there was a low-pass filter. Maybe the second floor above was blocking some of the sound.

Setlist

I put links to the full version of each song on Spotify/YouTube where available. Staff really put effort into making footage (from both physical and virtual performances) available.

Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club - Dream Believers (game version)

I was surprised that they started with the short version, but I guess they didn't want to start with the talk segment straight away, and this was probably the best way to get people hyped. At least we got to see it in the matching outfits.

Talk Section

For this section, the members introduced themselves, then talked about the topics they had recruited messages about:

• Day: Name for Hasunosora fans
• Night: Unit catchphrases

They were entertaining enough, but to be honest, this dragged on a bit, because they read a ton of letters on basically the same topic the entire time. But it did help that some of the suggestions were... interesting. ("Bloomer"...?)

Intermission

This was a 2D intermission featuring the characters in virtual space. (Maybe someday they'll get to exist in a place that isn't a void...) The 1st years and 2nd years each did a little skit, showcasing each of the characters' personalities.

It was a bit unfortunate that this (and the encore intermission) were the same for both the day and night sessions, but they must have had a lot of work over the last few months.

Cerise Bouquet - Suisai Sekai

This was the first time they showed off the "Suisai Sekai" outfits. While these were never used as CD art, they're shown off in the lyric video, shown in the background during the performance.

Always a pleasure to hear this song. While Cerise Bouquet's singing is quite strong, they had some shaky parts in their initial rendition at the Apr 21 event (linked above) that now sound consistently decent.

Cerise Bouquet - Fortune Movie

It's interesting how the meaning of the dialogue in the middle changes depending on whether you're listening to the studio version or seeing this live version.

In the studio version, it's very much just the two of them, so when Kozue says that Kaho's "destined one" is right in front of her, it feels like that refers to Kozue.

But in the live version, she instead points out the audience (upon which everyone waves and cheers loudly), inviting you to instead self-insert.

Another thing: I found it weird that people go "fufu!" instead of "kyuntto". They literally have lyrics, why do you need to replace it with something else? (In fact, it's the same thing in the last chorus of "Waku-Waku Week!"...) My hypothesis is that it's just easier, but then why do people sing along with the lyrics in songs like "Do! Do! Do!"...?

Anyway, after they performed this, Cerise Bouquet left the stage with a "thank you" to the audience, which made it seem like they were done. (But they weren't?)

DOLLCHESTRA - AWOKE

As with Cerise Bouquet, DOLLCHESTRA debuted their "AWOKE" outfits here. They're very nice and probably my favorite Hasunosora outfits at this point.

I found it funny that everyone settled on saying "fufufu!" in between the "hai" calls in the instrumental. At the Apr 21 release event, I remember some people doing three claps instead, which was also amusing.

DOLLCHESTRA - Tsukimakase

Like with the previous unit songs, this has the lyric video playing in the background. Considering that this and "Fortune Movie" are B-sides for the Sparkly Spot and Reflection in the mirror singles, I wonder why they made the choice to do videos for these but not the title songs.

And like with Cerise Bouquet, DOLLCHESTRA left the stage with a "thank you". I'm not sure what this sense of closure was for. Maybe the concept of this section was to give each of the units 2 songs for a "complete" set.

Mira-Cra Park! - Do! Do! Do!

Mira-Cra Park! showed off their new "Do! Do! Do!" outfits here. I was ready for people to go kinda nuts for this song (which they did), and I tried a bit to remember the lyrics that people use for the calls, but didn't get very far. (My memory is not very good.) Half of it is English (well, "English"), too! One day...

Mira-Cra Park! - Hakuchuu à la mode

Debuting a completely new song was somewhat unexpected, but not entirely, since MiraPa only had one song for themselves compared to the... several songs that each of the other two units had.

In the first session, I had no idea what the song was called or what people were saying, because I didn't want to take my eyes off the seiyuu to look at the screen... That being said, it was fun to see (well, mostly just hear) how people reacted to a completely new song, and the song itself is fast-paced fun.

DOLLCHESTRA - Kibouteki Prism

DOLLCHESTRA (and then Cerise Bouquet) getting more songs after the last section was a bit of an unexpected turn (at least the first time around), since there was that sense of closure after they left the stage, and since I wasn't expecting the event to be quite this long.

In any case, they got a big welcome back to the stage (everyone was hungry for more...). I especially appreciated the emotion that Nasu-chan (Cocona's nickname) put into her line in the bridge:「どこにも自分の居場所無いと嘆いていた」("I lamented that nowhere was there a place for me").

DOLLCHESTRA - Scapegoat (Day)/Tragic Drops (Night)

Some parts about the production I noticed: The effects on their vocals at the start of "Scapegoat" were a pretty nice touch, and the camera zooming in on Kocchan's (Kotoko's nickname) shoes when her line mentioned shoes in "Tragic Drops" was pretty apt.

For the evening session, we were wondering where the setlist would change, and this turned out to be the first change. This signified that both sessions combined would cover all the (original) songs revealed so far—pretty satisfying.

DOLLCHESTRA - Sparkly Spot

In the afternoon session, you could hear the crowd's confusion and laughter right before this song. I think many of us were thinking "a third song!?". Indeed it was, and a welcome one—I enjoyed "Sparkly Spot" more than I thought I would, since while I thought it was a good song but not an amazing one, the crowd's excitement really added to the experience. Venue buff!

As a Sayaka fan, I'm inherently biased, but I really like her line at the climax:「決めるのは自分だ。」("I'll be the one to decide.") While I'm at it, Nasu-chan's dancing and expressions are a joy to watch—I hope they'll continue making good use of those skills in upcoming songs.

Cerise Bouquet - Holiday∞Holiday (Day)/Ouka Ranman (Night)

I was really looking forward to seeing Holiday∞Holiday in person because of how much I enjoyed it during the Fes×LIVE (the virtual performance in the Link! Like! Love Live! app) where they revealed it, and it did not disappoint. It's probably my favorite Cerise Bouquet song right now, with the perfect combination of a catchy melody, a cute dance, and audience involvement. The high notes are a bit of a stretch even for Cerise Bouquet's singing skills, so I'm looking forward to hearing an even better rendition one day.

For "Ouka Ranman", some audience members switched their penlight color to pink (for cherry blossoms)—I followed along, since I felt like it was a nice touch. This song did give the flow of the setlist a different feel from the day session, since it's a calmer vibe than "Holiday∞Holiday". But even so, the next song perked everyone right up...

Cerise Bouquet - Reflection in the mirror

Like Sparkly Spot, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. Definitely more fun with the crowd to cheer along with. I don't really have much more to say—their performance was solid. Ui-chan's (Nina's nickname) consistent singing continues to impress me.

Cerise Bouquet - Mix shake!!

This song is a lot more exciting to experience at the venue, with all the call-and-response built in. And it's a towel song! Kind of? I felt it was strange to bring out the towels only for the last like 30 seconds of the song (where the other club members also went out on stage). A lot of the motions were definitely towel-able, so I was like "should I just be using my penlight...?". At least it made me glad I bought a towel from the merch booth.

Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club - Eien no Euphoria

This song strikes an interesting balance between being mid-tempo (I think?) and still being rather upbeat with getting the audience involved. The "yes!" being in different places between the first verses and second verses is funny, since people get baited into saying it where it isn't.

Encore Intermission

Here, the characters talked about there being a long tradition of Hasunosora school idols, and feeling not quite up to the task of following in their footsteps. I thought this was quite poignant, as it also reflects Hasunosora's status as a new Love Live! group within a larger series.

The cast mentioned before that they weren't sure, even anxious, about how well the ideas behind Hasunosora would be received, given how much of it is new for the Love Live! series. This was initially true for me—I never really got into VTubers, despite there being good music, and I didn't think I would get into Hasunosora as a result. But I gave them a chance (because I'm forever a LLer, apparently), and they won over not just me, but evidently plenty of people; it was nice to hear—and join in on—the roaring approval of the crowd affirming them in response.

Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club - On your mark

A great choice to get the blood flowing. The cast actually went out on stage during the last few seconds of the encore intermission, so they were ready to go (on your mark, get set...) right as Rurino finished her line.

I got so used to the Apr 21 live version on YouTube that it felt slightly weird hearing the first line without mic feedback... Also, people started adding "hai!" calls after "yume hirari (etc)". It's always interesting to see how songs evolve as they get performed more.

Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club - Dream Believers

I felt like this should really go after the ending MC... but on the other hand, I can see the reasoning for leaving the MC to the end. People mainly go to concerts for the live performances, and so if people have to leave early, it'd be unfortunate if this were the only song they couldn't catch. (This event was a bit longer than expected, especially the evening session, so I'm sure some people really needed to catch the train home for work or school on Monday morning.)

For the song itself, they had simplified choreography during the first chorus—maybe to reduce the burden on their stamina or to allow more flexibility to interact with the audience. In any case, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the song, so all's well that ends well.

Announcements

At the end of the evening session, they announced some new information. Most relevantly:

• their 1st Album will be out 2023-09-20, with 2 songs per unit ("Hakuchuu à la mode" included) and 4 full-group songs
• their 1st Live Tour will be in October and November 2023

With venue capacities of 8000 and 10000 (compared to this event's 5000-seat venue), the 1st Live Tour shows how much staff is anticipating Hasunosora's fan base will grow. Venues of this size often require booking a year or more in advance, so these are significant gambles for a completely new group. (Then again, it's Love Live!, so there's some group of people they'll always be able to hook.)

Like with Nijigasaki, the "1st Live Tour" name is different from how the "mainline" groups' concerts are named (e.g. Liella!'s "First LoveLive! Tour"). So in a sense, the Hasunosora project is considered "experimental" within the Love Live! series.

Closing thoughts

After seeing both sessions of this event, I left with my impressions of Hasunosora affirmed (and convinced I'll never be able to leave Love Live!). The music and concert atmosphere fit my sensibilities well, and the members each have their own charm.

While there are certainly strong parts of their performances, there's also a lot of potential for the members to improve. I'm looking forward to what we'll get to see once they're more experienced.

A challenge that'll face them is getting people to get into the 2D content. I know there are a decent number of people skeptical of VTubers, and even for those who are receptive, it's easy to feel behind when there have already been so many streams.

But on the bright side, stream archives are all uploaded on YouTube the same day, and chapters 1-6 of the story are on YouTube as well, so there's no need to get the app to get familiar with the characters. Hopefully staff will continue with the plentiful content and prompt uploads, because they'll need to grow the fan base in time for the autumn tour.

In the meantime, I'll be watching Hasunosora's progress closely. I hope they'll keep delighting us for a long time!

tipToe.'s one-man (the wasei-eigo term for "performance featuring a single act") concert "My Long Prologue" on 2023-05-29 was a great time, and I wanted to talk a bit about it in English—partially because English is my main language, and partially because I just want to show that English-speaking fans exist...

Update (November 2023): This post was originally written in June 2023, quite soon after the concert. I've left almost all of my original thoughts, but also added some additional information about what has happened since then.

I attended in person, but this event was also streamed on ZAIKO. As of 2023-09-14, it is now available to view for free, in full, on YouTube! The camerawork and audio quality are good enough that I can recommend watching.

What is tipToe.?

This is based on the profile on the official website.

tipToe. is a life-sized sentimental idol group based on the concept of "let's experience youth together". Members can stay in the group for at most 3 years. In that timeframe, the members each race forward, giving it their all. The group name comes from "standing on tiptoe", with the meaning of "stretching yourself a bit to reach further than you can right now".

The group was formed in December 2016. About 3 years later, many of the first six members reached the limit of their stay, leading to the 1st Season ending with a concert in January 2020. The 2nd Season started in September 2020.

The members of the 2nd Season that performed in this concert:

• Minami Airi (Pastel Blue): began activities 2020-09-27
• Yuzuki Rin (Pastel Purple): began activities 2021-05-22
• Aida Aran (Pastel Yellow): began activities 2021-05-22
• Koyoi Memi (Pastel Pink): began activities 2022-03-19
• Fukami Mikoto (Pastel White): began activities 2022-03-19, ended activities 2023-09-13 (see below for an explanation)
• Miyazono Yuka (Pastel Red): began activities 2020-09-27, withdrew 2021-09-05, and returned 2022-03-19

A bit more about tipToe.

So those are the basics. There's a bit more to it (though you can feel free to skip this section entirely).

There is a fictional setting and story for the music of tipToe., which is focused on the exploits of girls attending high school in a suburban city, far from the metropolis. Each song has its own protagonist(s) and its own place in the timeline of this story.

But the songs are not all just about the fictional characters, and the characters are not entirely fictional. The 3-year limit is connected to this idea of high school, and there are connections to the development and stories of the real-life members. Some songs, like "The Curtain Rises", were basically written based on their trajectory.

This storytelling element and the involvement of the real-life members are part of the appeal of tipToe. to me—it's nice to have an overarching story behind the music and behind what the members try to express with their performance.

The music, of course, is core to what keeps me coming back. The main composer for tipToe. songs is Sena Wataru, who also has produced Vocaloid songs as well as songs for other artists like airattic (tipToe.'s sister group), DIALOGUE+, and Toyama Nao. Hayashi Naohiro and Kanata Aoi also have contributed a few songs each—along with Sena, they're all managed by SOVA, the company that manages tipToe.

(Also, the name is "tipToe.", not "tip Toe.", "tiptoe.", "tipToe", or any another variant. Not that anyone really cares too much but it's funny watching the (jocular) "tipToe. police" point out technically wrong spellings.)

The context of this concert

If you did some counting after reading the member list, you may have realized that 4 of the 6 current members are in their 3rd year—they have less than 1 year left before they must graduate from the group. Furthermore, this current formation has been around for only about 1 year.

So in one sense, they're just getting started (hence this marking the end of the "prologue"), but in another, there isn't so much time left for most of the members (hence the prologue being "long"). The implication: if you want to see this set of 6 members, now is the time to do so.

The venue was LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo, the largest venue yet for their one-man concerts—it can fit an audience of about 1000 people. The members expressed some doubt that they could fill the venue, but the turnout was quite good.

The future of tipToe. (November 2023 update)

Unfortunately, Mikoto started having health problems in June 2023 and temporarily withdrew from performing. Her absence continued throughout the summer. Then on 2023-09-13, they announced that her activities as a member of tipToe. would come to an end, effective immediately. This decision was a result of discussion with Mikoto herself—they judged balancing recovery with performance would be too difficult.

Regarding the 2nd Season group as a whole, it was announced on 2023-08-04 that the 2nd Season will end with all active members graduating together, with staff aiming to have the last concert in June 2024 (almost certainly not earlier). There is no plan for a 3rd Season afterwards. Memi indicated she is planning to continue performing as an individual after graduation.

So the 5 remaining 2nd Season members will continue performing until the summer of 2024. As of the time of writing, there are only a few months left to see tipToe. perform.

Going down the setlist

That's enough explaining. I have a bit (or more) to say about each song, so here we go.

If you want to follow along, the top comment on YouTube has timestamps for each of the songs (albeit in Japanese).

01. SE (My Long Prologue)

Like with all tipToe. concerts, they start off with an instrumental track (usually called "SE" in Japanese, for "sound effects"). This was a new one based on the song "My Long Prologue", which was first revealed at the end of the main part of this concert. Yet, it felt somewhat familiar to me—there were definitely musical motifs familiar from other tipToe. songs.

Upon coming out on stage, the members were in newly revealed uniforms. The shorter sleeves signify the beginning of summer, and the red-and-black color scheme evoke the 3rd year outfits from the 1st Season.

02. Haru no Fuusoku, Tobari ga Yurete (The Curtain Fluttered in the Spring Breeze)

This is the first 2nd Season song, an appropriate beginning to this reflection on their long prologue. It's pretty common for tipToe. sets to begin with "Fuusoku" (it is a song about beginnings, after all), and it was a pretty clear choice here too. The fast pace and guitar-driven instrumental really make for an energetic start, and the lyrics about proving your existence tie into a later song in the setlist, "Raison d'être".

03. Natsu Matsuri no Machiawase (Summer Promise)

Another defining feature of tipToe. concerts is there often being special transitions between songs that you don't hear in the studio versions. The transition here was pretty great.

The "promise" of the English title「また来年も、ここに来ようね。」("Let's come here again next year.") is poignant considering that (for anyone reading this now) the 2nd Season will have ended by this time "next year". (Mikoto singing the last line 「また集まろうね」"Let's gather again." adds even more, considering her circumstances.)

But this song isn't just poignant—after all, it's about having a blast at a summer festival—and the upbeat pace of the song has the crowd explode with energy, like the fireworks the protagonist watches.

04. Clockwork Sparkle

A song about a party celebrating the graduation of one of the (fictional) members, it maintains an upbeat veneer while having sentimental moments. The member closest to graduation, Airi, starts us off with a "cheers!".

At the end of the song, the choreography evokes the motion of clock hands ticking down by having the members' arms sweep in a circular motion.

05. Kuusou Wandering

This is a relatively new song, unveiled at Memi's birthday event on 2023-03-11. Bright and catchy, this continues the upbeat tone and showcases the members' cute side with a focus on Aran.

The kuusou ("daydream") in the title includes kuu, the kanji for "sky", and the lyrics follow up on that with celestial concepts aplenty—moonlight, starlight, twilight (I said "bright" for a reason), comets, the Milky way, and space.

06. Syrup Time

A jazzy number about a girl going to a coffee shop to try being a little more grown-up, this starts with Memi giving a very cute rendition of the opening lines (that reinforces the protagonist being not quite grown-up).

I think there's some connection between the "first star of the night" at the end and the starry night envisioned by "Kuusou Wandering".

07. Akane

"Akane" starts a shift in the setlist to more "serious" songs, starring a protagonist longing for a love that they may not have much time left to be with. The line "how many times left are there for me to see you?" exemplifies how tipToe.'s lyrics can hit hard if you're conscious about the members' time limit.

They sold a CD with the "unplugged" (with an acoustic instrumental) version of "Akane" at the venue, and it's also available to order online (if you have a Japanese address to ship to).

MC 1

Here, the members took a break to talk for a bit and get some water. They introduced themselves and the new outfits.

08. Cider Aquarium (Soda Pop Aquarium)

The keyboard and synthesizer star in this song about someone lost in the city—maybe even drowning, hence the "aquarium" of the title—that eventually decides to swim their own way through. Somehow the instrumentation has an underwater feel, despite all the instruments and vocals coming through clearly.

09. marine blue

I think of "marine blue" as the spiritual successor to "Cider Aquarium", both musically and lyrically. The protagonist drowns in a sea of emotions—their heart—and at the end of both songs, a white flower appears.

These songs pair very nicely, and I especially enjoyed the transition between them here (which, again, makes you feel very underwater).

10. Raison d'être

This was newly revealed at this concert. As the first 2nd Season song composed by Suzuki Takayuki, who also composed the 1st Season songs "Bokutachi wa Iki o Suru" and "The Curtain Rises", this song brings a fast-paced rock flavor to this part of the setlist while keeping in line with the "cool" theme of "Cider" and "marine blue". The choreography (by Rin!) accentuates the frentic lyrics about living your own way despite everything. It was fun being part of the crowd coming up with calls to this completely new song.

11. Petrichor

This starts off the segment of the "rain arc" (the name given to the songs of fifthRuler., which form their own substory). In the midst of a downpour, the protagonist meets someone on the rooftop who can't cry despite feeling the need to—then they disappear.

Memi's lines at the climax weren't what she envisioned at the last one-man in April (due to throat problems), but this time she reached those high notes quite well.

12. Shizuka no Umi (Lunar mare)

This song feels connected to "Cider Aquarium" and "marine blue", with the protagonist burying themselves in bed and wanting to swim in a sea on the moon (the English title's lunar mare). It's great to listen to when you too feel the need to isolate yourself from the outside world.

It has some fun (though that word might be a little bright for this song) rap parts with cool lyrics that the members execute wonderfully.

13. Hello, World

The end of the rain arc, the protagonist frantically searches for and reunites with their companion, telling them what was before left unsaid. The rain lets up, and tsuyu—the rainy season in Japan—takes its leave.

The singing and choreography emphasize the directness and, at the end, the relief in this song. All throughout these songs, the members have a somber atmosphere, but at the end, Yuka smiles after her last line, and the members have some flowy moves.

14. Unite

This sequence of "Unite" following the rain arc mirrors the setlist of tipToe.'s 2nd concept one-man (held in November 2022), where the rain arc was revealed, so this was a familiar follow-up for many people. It's no accident, since it's set around the same timeframe—the first few lines talk about the spring rain receding.

In the stream, there are several very visible orange lights for the line about the protagonist's friend being bathed in orange light. I'm always glad to see that, since it's appropriate not just to the lyrics but as a homage to the graduated Hino Ami (whose color was orange), the 1st Season member who stayed on to complete her time in the 2nd Season. Reading the lyrics, one can think of her as a guiding light to the newer members.

MC 2

This put a cap on the block of "serious" songs. They discussed "Raison d'être" and how Rin choreographed it, as well as mentioning another song that Yuka did the choreography for ("Unite").

15. Yumebiyori

This is a classic, and one of the very first tipToe. songs. Like the title ("dreamy weather") suggests, it's an invitation to pursue a dream together. The audience calls each member's name aplenty, and the members reciprocate by egging the audience on. Very fun times, and you get to see a lot of the members being cute on stage.

16. White Piece

Another nice transition! (Yuka does a funny little "yeah!".) Like Yumebiyori, this is an invitation—to put together the pieces of the puzzle that is the future by making memories together. The dance is fun to join in on, and the members continue making cute appeals here.

17. Shutter Chance

Memi makes a (partially) a capella intro in this rendition, with a exuberant piano follow-up before the usual instrumental begins. That extended introduction worked pretty well for getting the audience hyped up for this song about enjoying a burning-hot summer together.

While very upbeat, parts of the lyrics, like wanting time to stop and taking photos together while you can (hence the title), highlight the passage of time.

18. Hoshi Furu Yoru, Kimi to Dance o (Dancing on a Starry Night)

Another song about having a blast together, this starts off with Aran giving a great forceful introduction before the opening instrumental. Lyrics about a never-ending night and a performance that was so much fun that I didn't want it to end either...

19. My Long Prologue

This was newly revealed at this concert, as you might expect from the title. It's an accumulation of the 2nd Season's journey so far, with allusions in both the lyrics and choreography to previous songs, including "Yumebiyori", "Fuusoku", "Sakurasou", the rain arc, and more.

The protagonist reminisces about the ups and downs they've faced together with you, pledges to keep moving forward, and invites you to sing along with them. Lines like 「来年の今頃、私、何を思っているのかなぁ」("What will I be thinking around this time next year?") really make you conscious of the future.

Encore MC

The members got bouquets from the fans, and took a group photo with the audience. Each member gave a bit of a speech, mostly thanking everyone for attending—after all, they didn't expect to fill the venue—and inviting the audience to follow them.

Encore. Sakurasou no Saku Koro ni (When Primroses Bloom)

This is often thought of as the 2nd Season's "theme song", and it's the most popular one among fans (myself included). Being ourselves—despite all our insecurities and struggles—and writing our own story together is the theme of this song.

This performance felt relatively relaxed (it is the encore, after all), and the audience had a surprise for the climax: everyone had a light stick with a random member's color (handed out before the concert by fans that were organizing the project). Though the colors were disparate, the concept is that of unity—supporting all the members no matter who your favorite was.

Closing thoughts

I've only been following tipToe. since September 2022, but in that time I've gotten attached to the members and music. Among the several performances I've had the privilege of attending, this concert was overall the 2nd Season's strongest one yet.

The overall flow of the setlist (upbeat to serious to upbeat) meant the members got to display both their cute and cool sides. While there was a nice breather in the middle, people didn't stay static for too long. They put in plenty of crowd pleasers as well as less-performed songs, making for a good variety.

The new songs they unveiled in addition to the unreleased "Kuusou Wandering"—"Raison d'être" and "My Long Prologue"—were quite fun, and I'm looking forward to listening to studio versions of them. My guess is that these will go into an album in the near future—if you add a couple more songs along with the fifthRuler. ones, that should be enough material for an album.

There are only a few months left to see the current tipToe. formation perform, so I hope you'll take the chance to watch them—virtually or in person—soon! (If you're reading this in the less-near future, I hope everyone's doing well.)

CUE! 2nd Party took place over two sessions on 2021-08-15, and it was one of the events I enjoyed the most this year! The characters and seiyuu mean a lot to me, and the event was full of great performances. Though I couldn't go in person—not being a resident or citizen of Japan—it was wonderful even on a screen.

There's not much about this event in English, so I wanted to write about some context behind it, the content of the event, and my own thoughts. It's... a few thousand words longer than I was expecting and several parts may not make much sense without watching the footage. But I hope someone somewhere finds something of value here.

Official event website (in Japanese): https://www.cue-liber.jp/live/sing-about-everything

Where can I watch this?

A short digest of most of the full-group songs from the night session is up!

The full concert is included with the anime's CUE! Blu-ray Vol. 1, which released 2022-03-16.

There are also official Spotify and Apple Music playlists for the setlists of the day and night sessions of 2nd Party. (Minus the unreleased songs.)

For more AiRBLUE live content: the CUE! 1st Anniversary concert is included with the Blu-ray edition of the Talk about everything album! That's also a great one. Here's footage from the day session and night session of it as a taster.

Background: What's CUE!?

(I'm not sure how many people are going to read this without already being somewhat familiar with CUE!, but hey, who knows?)

CUE! is a multimedia franchise from Liber Entertainment and Pony Canyon. Its first content was released in mid-2019, and it focuses on 16 characters, all newcomer voice actresses affiliated with an agency called AiRBLUE. (When they perform as a group, they're called AiRBLUE.)

They're split into 4 teams of 4: Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon—the four components of the concept 花鳥風月.

The main content up until now:

• The mobile game CUE! where you play as the characters' manager. This was our main window into the world of the characters. It operated from November 2019 to April 2021 and is currently on hiatus while the developers prepare an overhaul. (There's no timeline for the renewal, as of August 2021.)
• Music sung by the AiRBLUE seiyuu.
• Live performances, where the seiyuu sing & dance, as well as read plays in character. The major live concerts are labeled "Party", and the first one was CUE! 1st Anniversary Party in November 2020. (There was a 1st Party scheduled in April 2020, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.)
• Talk shows featuring the seiyuu, including CUE! ROOM (an occasional live stream on YouTube) and A&G Chou! CUE! & A (a radio show that airs every Monday-Thursday).
• The TV anime CUE!, which will air starting January 2022.

Fans of AiRBLUE are called "managers" since the game puts you in that role.

For more info on CUE!, there's an English wiki (not sure how much info is there), and this Spotify playlist has all the music released to date.

(The Flower and Bird seiyuu also perform as themselves in a separate group, DIALOGUE+, which is occasionally cross-promoted with CUE!.)

Background: A bit of context

Once the game went on hiatus in April 2021—the same month that AiRBLUE's first album Talk about everything was released—there was a lot of uncertainty in the air.

The anime had been announced at 1st Anniversary Party without a timeline for its release. Along with the game being indefinitely suspended, that meant there would be no character-focused content for a long time. And the game's suspension left the music releases in an awkward state: for the 3rd set of team singles, only 2 of the 4 teams had songs announced.

While seiyuu-focused content like CUE! & A and release events for the album continued, us managers (and the seiyuu, by their admission) were feeling a bit lonely, not knowing when we'd get to see more of the characters or get more music releases.

Amidst this dearth of content, 2nd Party was the last thing we had a definite timeline for (besides CUE! & A). With the event's title—Sing about everything—following the same idea as Talk about everything, AiRBLUE would certainly showcase songs they had yet to perform from the album.

For more invested fans, it was bound to pack an emotional punch: a reunion with the characters, a reflection on AiRBLUE's journey via their music and acting, and hopefully a more definite sign of their future. Many of us expected an announcement about the game or anime since this seemed like the best timing and it'd be an emotional critical hit.

Background: Vocabulary and people of interest

I'll introduce some terms and people involved in 2nd Party. Come back here if you come across something confusing.

Vocabulary

Squad #1-4: This is a loose translation of 1-4番手 since there isn't an official one. (Sorry that it's so close to "team". I should get better at words.) Lines in songs are often distributed by these "squads" of four members. Squad #n consists of the nth member from each team in the official ordering. Each squad also got a center song on Talk about everything—these were also the four completely new songs on the album.

1. Haruna, Yuuki, Miharu, Rie (the leaders of their teams)—"Mirai Canvas"
2. Maika, Chisa, Aya, Satori—"My Sustainer"
3. Shiho, Airi, Mahoro, Rinne—"Shizuku no Kesshou"
4. Honoka, Yuzuha, Riko, Mei—"Radio is a Friend!"

Seasonal groups: The non-leaders are also grouped into seasons, and the seasonal songs focus on them:

• Spring: Honoka, Chisa, Mahoro, Mei—"beautiful tomorrow"
• Summer: Maika, Yuzuha, Riko, Rinne—"Colorful"/"Kaleidoscope"
• Winter: Shiho, Airi, Aya, Satori—"Saikou no Mahou"

Parts of songs: Most of these songs are organized in an A-B-A-B-C-B pattern.

• A: verse
• B: chorus
• C: bridge (I also reference the "climax", which is often at the end of this)

Cast

Romanization and nicknames can vary, so I'll list the names I use here to be clear. I order names by "Family Given"/"Last First", the same as in the original Japanese.

They're in the same order (left to right) as on the official site's cast page, if you'd like a visual reference.

Flower

• Uchiyama Yurina, or Yurinya (voices Haruna)
• Hieda Nene (voices Maika)
• Moriya Kyoka, or Kyon (voices Shiho)
• Ogata Yuuna (voices Honoka)

Bird

• Takamura Ayaka, or Yakan (voices Yuuki)
• Miyahara Satsuki, or Sappi (voices Chisa)
• Iizuka Mayu, or Mayuyun (voices Airi)
• Murakami Manatsu, or ManaT (voices Yuzuha)

Wind

• Anzai Yukari, or Zaichan (voices Miharu)
• Matsuda Saki, or Kiichan (voices Aya)
• Yamashita Megumi, or Mamechan (voices Mahoro)
• Tsuruno Arisa, or Tsuru (voices Riko)

Moon

• Tachibana Hina, or Hinachi (voices Rie)
• Komine Ami (voices Satori)
• Satou Mai, or SatoMai (voices Rinne)
• Tsuchiya Rio, or ChanRio (voices Mei)

Some Staff

The first three people here had a retrospective stream on 2021-08-20, available to those who bought the stream for the main event. It was really informative and entertaining, so I'll reference some of that discussion in this post.

(I thought about including more from the retrospective, but there was so much content in those three hours, and I'd never finish this post...)

• Tsuruno Arisa: not only is she Riko's seiyuu, but she was also responsible for the script for the various character stories within the event (assisted by the staff at Liber). She's a (self-described) huge fan of the franchise and has reportedly read all the game stories. It's fun to watch her geek out!
• Nojima Teppei: a producer at Pony Canyon, and directed many of the aspects of the event. He cracks some pretty good jokes.
• Sawaguchi Kanami (nickname: Mi-sen, short for Kanami-sensei): the choreographer for all the dances accompanying each song. Doing choreography for so many 16-person songs is real tough, but she's so good at it.
• Atarashi Tomoko: the costume creator responsible for designing the seiyuu's outfits.

Songs #1-3: Go forth! (Outfits: Forever Friends)

Onto the main event. The night session was the only one that was streamed, so that's all I can substantially report on.

Preliminary notes:

• I split it into parts based on what outfits the seiyuu wore, except for the team-focused section. Conveniently, this also happens to be a good way to conceptually group the songs.
• When describing the contents of a skit, I use the character names even though the seiyuu are the ones acting it out in real-time.
• There are links to Spotify or the music videos so that you can listen along if you want to.

Introduction: A letter from Haruna

The event opened with an emotional music box melody, and voiced over it, a letter from Haruna. The text appeared on screen as she said it, "written" on some nice pink stationery.

Haruna said in her letter that there's so much she wants to talk about—in other words, she wants to Talk about everything, bringing in the album's title right away. Remember the title of the event—Sing about everything? Their singing is how they "talk" to us, tying the concepts together.

(The idea here is inspired by this tweet from the CUE! staff account, which mentions you can interpret that line as both the album title or event title.)

Song #1: Sayonara Ready-made (さよならレディーメイド)

"Ready-made" is the first song on Talk about everything, so combined with its theme of beginnings and determination, it made for a perfect opener.

During the instrumental introduction, the seiyuu walked onto stage from the center entrance. This was actually a fresh take—they usually start performing this song while already in position, with some choreo accompanying the intro.

They hadn't met the fans with all 16 of them on stage since 1st Anniversary Party, so while this is a serious song, you could see plenty of smiles from the seiyuu, glad to see everyone after nine months.

My favorite bit from this performance was the "amai dake no uwabe dake no yasashisa iya dakara" at the beginning of the second verse—Squad #4's voices sounded just right. The choreo there is also great: another member faces away from the singer, offering the superficial "kindness" from the lyrics, and the singer turns it away. It's a very nice way to convey the line.

Song #2: Watashitachi wa Mada Sono Haru o Shiranai (私たちはまだその春を知らない)

This is the B-side from beautiful tomorrow—a fitting follow-up to "Ready-made", the B-side from Forever Friends.

While they're both serious songs with similar musical atmospheres, and both involve pushing forth, this one also looks forward differently by musing about how you often don't recognize the importance of an experience until after it happens, and wondering how the present will look in the future. It's hopeful in the sense that perhaps the best is yet to come, and assures us that whatever happens, we'll have each other in our hearts.

Personally, I like the choreo in the chorus where they move their hand in a diamond shape in front of them. You could interpret it as a mirror where they look at themselves, either literally ("when you're left alone" 一人になる時) or figuratively ("is there something important" 大切なものはあるかい). At the beginning of the second chorus, it's instead "a space in this sky" (この空の隙間).

This time around, you could see them take the lyrics "smile, smile" (笑って笑って) quite literally, following up on the energy of the last song.

Song #3: My Sustainer (マイサスティナー)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live.)

This song features Squad #2, and before performing it, they started off with dialogue between the Squad #2 members.

Maika: We're finally here! We can finally see them! How does it look?
Aya: Now that I've left behind the part of me that was always looking down, what's in front of me is just amazing—I don't have the words for it.
Satori: Indeed. As the seasons change, both the scenery and our hearts follow. Just like you, what's in front of me is an incredible sight.
Chisa: Let's tie these songs together—we'll cross the boundaries of both the seasons and their expectations!

It's only a few lines, but there's a surprising amount to unpack in how it relates to the lyrics of "My Sustainer":

• In the first verse, they sing about seeing "sights"/"scenery" without compare (例えようのない景色), similar to how Aya and Satori describe what they see.
• When Aya leaves behind the part of her that's always looking down, she's making good on the beginning of the second chorus, which tells us to leave behind overdependence and our regrets (どんな甘えも後悔も／さようなら 塗り替えてゆけよ).
• Satori and Chisa's discussion of seasons foreshadows a sequence of songs later on that evokes the passing of the seasons.
• Chisa's line has a couple of references to the lyrics too: "tie these songs together" (歌を繋いでいく) is directly from the first chorus.
• Then the last line in the second chorus is about "surpassing expectations" (期待を超えて), with just about the same wording as Chisa.

Moving on to the song itself, I enjoy how the vocal melodies makes good use of their lower registers. Squad #2 often naturally sing noticeably deeper than the other squads, and many parts of this song bring everyone else down with them. This helps continue the "cool" feel from the two preceding songs in a brighter tone. (Though Squad #4 gets some real high notes in the bridge.)

"My Sustainer" hadn't been performed before, so the choreography was new to everyone. At the staff retrospective stream, Tsuru and Mi-sen agreed that the dance was quite difficult (Tsuru: "demonic"). Yurinya actually said that this was the most difficult dance in the AiRBLUE repertoire on her CUE! & A episode on 2021-08-23. Given the variety of formations and some complicated movements, it's pretty understandable why after seeing it. (Maybe it was a good thing to get it out of the way earlier in the setlist.)

Songs #4-6: Get hyped! (Outfits: Casualwear)

These outfits are casual clothes they might wear in day-to-day life. These clothes strike a nice balance between simplicity, cuteness, and elegance, and everyone looked great in them!

Video: Group chat

Everyone left the stage after "My Sustainer" to change clothes, and we got this character story to fill the time. It was a prerecorded video of a group chat with text bubbles and names next to them.

The chat is set before a radio recording involving all 16 characters. Haruna and Yuuki were missing at first, but they showed up eventually, having brought some cute animal-shaped chocolates from the convenience store. Haruna saw one that looked like a turtle... and she just had to buy them since it reminded her of her pet turtle Kamei-san. The chat cut off right before their recording session started.

(Fun little gag: it started with Yuzuha asking which studio their recording session is in and Shiho said it's at studio 9—9 is pronounced "kyuu"... or "cue".)

Since this is part of the lead-up to Squad #4's song "Radio is a Friend!", those members got most of the lines. Even so, each character got at least one line here, which was great to hear after the radio silence during the game's hiatus.

Skit: Please clap

You know how long that group chat video was? About 2 minutes. That's not very much time to get everyone changed, so Squad #4 got changed first and went out to buy them a few more minutes by entertaining the audience.

Once the group chat ended, Tsuru walked onto the stage to start this skit.

In the night session, she started with "this time, I won't mess up names"—a reference to the day session where she mixed up her name with Riko's during one of the roll calls... (Both incidents got a lot of applause.)

Then the other three walked on. After Yuzuha asked what exactly they were doing, Riko said that they were doing a public radio recording and Yuzuha insisted on having the audience clap furiously for them. Riko tried pointing out that's not really what you do at a public recording, but eventually, they got everyone clapping along. (Mei clapped very calmly.)

Apparently, this was all ad-libbed with only the general idea and roles set, so it was pretty cool how well they stayed in character.

Song #4: Radio is a Friend!

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live.)

After the skit, the drum and bass beat at the beginning of "Radio is a Friend!" started looping, and each of Squad #4 got to say a line to express their enthusiasm (Mei's was a little more lukewarm). They finished up just as the beat stopped—just right.

A brief pause, then the song proper started. The other four seiyuu with lines in the introduction walked on first, and together they got to the "Go on air!" line just on time here too.

Tsuru said the timekeeping was especially tricky with all the dialogue in and before the song—she and surely the other seiyuu had practiced a lot to get the timing right. It was really impressive to see. (To hear?)

I love songs with a lot of dialogue (...or a lot of DIALOGUE+) and this one is no exception—so many fun and cute moments. It really lets each of them show off their character's quirks, from the voices to their expressions and gestures.

Personal cutest moment: when Yuzuha/ManaT mentions the dessert "helo-helo" and Airi/Mayuyun corrects it to "halo-halo". ManaT and Mayuyun's faces there were great, and they brought out Yuzuha and Airi's cuteness really well. (...they're also my favorite two seiyuu and characters in AiRBLUE.)

To finish the song off with a nice transition, Tsuru replaced the final line—instead of "this program was brought to you by our managers",

Riko: Next up, please listen to this suuuper cute song— CUTE♡CUTE♡CUTE♡!

Song #5: CUTE♡CUTE♡CUTE♡

And super cute it was.

I'm thankful for the dance practice videos—they give a nice clear view of everyone, so you can watch whoever you want and notice details about the choreography.

Very cute parts:

• It's kind of an obvious idea, but I really love that three-heart formation, matching the three hearts in the song title.
• The choreo where they alternate between making Cs and hearts with their arms is also very nice.
• Squad #3's "kodomo no koro egaiteita fancy" in the second verse.
• In the bridge, they each pose one by one from left to right, with the pose inspired by what their character might do. (The camera didn't catch everyone's pose this time around...)
• ManaT's face right after that last "kyun" before the last chorus.

Song #6: our song

"our song" finished off the set of energetic + cute songs—this one's on the energetic side.

Circle formations aren't that prominent in AiRBLUE songs, so it's a bit of a fresh experience to see in this song. (It looks even better with an overhead camera, like the one they had at 1st Anniversary Party.) It's also nice how everyone else forms two circles right before the climax when Squad #1 sings their lines.

(Are there circles because the song title starts with an O?)

It looked like a lot of fun for those at the venue—the choreo in the chorus is relatively simple and the arm-waving with the "lalala"s at the end is always fun. Fitting that it's easy to join in "our" song.

Personally, this time around I really liked Squad #4's lines at the beginning of the second verse—"watashitachi ichido atsumattara/wakuwaku ga tomaranai"—since they sounded great and we got close-ups of Yuuna and Tsuru making really nice faces.

Songs #7-14: Teamwork makes the dream work

This section features two songs from each team with varied outfits.

Before each of the first four songs, the corresponding team read a short skit. You could feel each team's growth in these—at times in the game story, you could see personalities clash, while in these skits each team's dynamic was more harmonious.

Skits like these really bring home the fact that these are seiyuu—they don't only sing and dance, but bring the characters to life through their acting.

(Apologies in advance: my dialogue summaries aren't especially colorful.)

Skit: Scene. -1- (Flower)

Outfits: Casualwear

After "our song", the stage lights faded out, and everyone except Flower left. An image of a dance practice room from the game flashed on screen and Flower got illuminated on stage, starting Scene. -1-.

Shiho asked Maika to help with dance practice, but Maika pointed out that it was almost time to close up the lesson rooms. After reflecting on how quickly time flies, Honoka reassured them that "tomorrow we'll be able to do what we couldn't today!" Haruna agreed, but uneasily.

Since Haruna had volunteered on closing duty the last few times, the other three played rock paper scissors to decide who should do it this time. Maika lost and resigned herself to it. (Tsuru said they actually played it on the spot—instead of the result being fixed—and Nene lost both sessions, even though she's usually good at it...)

Haruna thanked them, saying "I was just thinking that even when I'm feeling anxious, being with you all makes me smile right away." Turns out the other three felt the same way, though Maika was a little embarrassed to talk about it.

Song #7: Field of Flowers

This song's lyrics are touching—it's about blooming like a beautiful flower with enough time and work, even if you keep finding fault with yourself or your goal seems impossibly far. It's very fitting for a story about the journey of rookie seiyuu, both the characters and their real-life counterparts. The music and choreography complete the package by being upbeat but gentle, like sunshine and flowers.

Of course, the seiyuu executed it really well. I loved their expressions, especially the soft smiles, and it felt like they were encouraging both each other and the audience. The visuals of colorful flowers on the screens behind them were a nice touch too.

Here, they're still in their casualwear, and it works really well with the song because of that balance between cuteness and elegance I mentioned before. The outfits really do feel flowery, in a low-key way.

Skit: Scene. -2- (Wind)

Outfits: NAZO-NAZE Jumping!

The background visual for this one was a street corner in the city next to a food stand and a few shops. You could see the sun setting, so maybe it was around the same time as Flower's skit.

Wind just finished a live stream, their first job together in a while. Aya felt like it was nerve-wracking, but she managed to talk a lot—she guessed it was because she felt at ease with the four of them. Miharu asked Riko if she enjoyed it, and while she did, it was still difficult. Mahoro gets it and says:

Mahoro: Right, we can't just say whatever. You have to think about what atmosphere they want to feel, how to bring out your own personality, and your expressions and gestures. All while you're talking.

Aya talked about how she wasn't sure how to "be herself", and Miharu reassured her that whether they're nervous or having fun, that's still a fine way to "be yourself".

Riko reflected on when she used to think that going on one of her favorite radio shows would satisfy her—it turned out that her list of goals just kept getting longer instead. Aya got a bit inspired by this and resolved to try her best too.

Finally, at Miharu's suggestion, they decided to all go drinking (with orange juice for Aya).

Song #8: Goodbye Objection (ぐっばいおぶじぇくしょん)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live.)

This song's lyrics mirror the growth you can see in the skit, with the singer feeling a bit lost in a world that won't wait for them, and eventually changing their perspective so that they're in control and making their own path forward.

The music has kind of a retro feel, matching the NAZO-NAZE Jumping! outfits, and is pretty groovy. Combined with the choreography, the seiyuu's performance sold this song's idea of them finding confidence in their own image. (I especially liked the chorus choreography and their ending poses.)

Skit: Scene. -3- (Bird)

Outfits: Override!

The background for this one: the entrance to a shopping street with a definitely-not-McDonald's. Like the last one, this was at sunset.

Bird had just finished a recording session. While Yuzuha had fun, Yuuki was rather displeased with her last ad-lib, even though it was at the director's direction. Yuzuha tried to reassure her that they can just train so she'll be better next time, but Airi pointed out this was the last episode...

Chisa told Yuuki they can try again to do better at the next job, and while Yuuki sullenly agreed, she wished she'd gotten one of the lead roles. Yuzuha, always a positive one, still enjoyed playing the background villagers, though, and Chisa pointed out that they didn't pass the auditions anyway, so maybe they should just be happy to have gotten work. Airi agreed and was thankful that they got to do a variety of jobs.

In the end, Yuuki decided it wasn't like her to mope around about the little things, and Yuzuha and Chisa joined in her renewed enthusiasm. Airi finished up:

Airi: I'm happy to see you all smiling! ...Huh? Are those birds up in the sky?

Song #9: Humming Bird (ハミングバード)

This started with twittering bird sounds, making for a nice lead-in from the skit.

The song is already super cute—it's about a small hummingbird's melody ringing through the vast skies (the bird being, well, Bird)—and the choreography makes it even better, with everyone hopping around and flapping their hands like wings.

One part that stood out to me was the choreo in the bridge where Chisa/Sappi moves her finger back and forth and the others move along with it, as if she were conducting for the other three in a little orchestra. It matches the music focusing on the orchestral instruments and reflects Chisa's big sister-like role within the team. (Despite her more mature vibe, she gets to be super cute in this song!)

Skit: Scene. -4- (Moon)

Outfits: Reach For The World! (first reveal)

Background: a recording studio. I like how Rie started this one by humming, following up on "Humming Bird". Mei asked how her throat was doing, and while Rie says (in an elaborate way) that she's feeling great, Mei pointed out her drink was almost empty. Having anticipated this, Satori and Rinne walked in with drinks, including one of Rie's favorites.

This recording session is for a song with all four of them, and while Satori was a bit nervous, Rinne and Rie were more excited. Or at least, Rie said she was—after Mei said the recording was going to start soon, Rie sounded more nervous. Rinne responded that she loves Rie's (and the other two's) singing and Satori expresses her confidence in the team too. They reflect on how each of them has changed after all the time and experience together, and in the end, Rie leads them forward:

Rie: So let us infuse our souls into this song, and let the curtain rise as we march forth on this road to our dreams.

Song #10: Determination -Koe no Kakehashi- (Determination -声の架け橋-)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live.)

The lyrics actually start with the "road to our dreams" (夢の道) from Rie's last line of the skit—nice transition!—and the curtain rising (幕開け) shows up in the second chorus.

The song is generally about, well, determination. I'll avoid thinking too hard about the lyrics because they put the "声の架け橋" from the title into English, the result of which (ironically) doesn't make sense to me.

My favorite things about watching any Moon performance are SatoMai's singing and Hinachi's expressions (she has some killer winks), and both of them were stellar here as always. (The other two were great too.) SatoMai's "un gai souten" before the second chorus hit the spot.

The visuals on the screen behind them were kinda epic (or extra, depending on your point of view), alternating between rain/thunder, some nebulous space-y things, and a background that looks like they're in an RPG boss battle in a firey dungeon.

Also, we finally saw the Reach For The World! outfits for the first time—they weren't a perfect reproduction (the hats shrunk...), but they matched the spirit of the 2D versions and fit the seiyuu nicely.

Song #11: Knocking on My Dream!!

Outfits: Knocking on My Dream!!

They started the song with a little musical flourish (that you might hear in the Magic Works in-game anime) that isn't in the CD version, just a couple seconds after the "Determination" music ended. This gave the Flower seiyuu a bit of time to walk on from stage right, while Moon left through the door in the middle of the stage. But Nene missed half of her opening line, probably because it wasn't quite enough time for them to get in position... (Love her all the same.)

This is one of those songs that I enjoy a lot more when watching it being performed—the outfits and the choreography (especially the batons) really make the song for me.

One change I noticed from the 1st Anniversary Party performance was that at 1st, they dimmed the stage lights during the baton twirling part of the bridge (to focus attention on the little lights on the batons), but here they kept the stage lights on.

Song #12: Nikoniko Wakuwaku Saikouchou! (にこにこワクワク 最高潮!)

Outfits: Nikoniko Wakuwaku Saikouchou!

When "Knocking on My Dream!!" ended, Flower was on the bottom half of the stage, and the stage lights dimmed on them. Then the bottom half's lights went out and the top half's lights went on simultaneously, illuminating the Bird seiyuu up there. The transition was so short that it made my brain go "when did they get there?" (Clearly, they walked on at the end of the last song, though it wasn't on camera so I can't be sure.)

They're singing in character (Yuuki, Chisa, Airi, Yuzuha), yes, but they in turn are singing as their characters from the in-game anime (Fairin Fairin) that this song is for. The additional layer adds to the fun when they really inject those personalities into their delivery, especially in the second verse section.

Song #13: MiRAGE! MiRAGE!!

Outfits: MiRAGE! MiRAGE!!

A 25-second instrumental played after "NikoWaku" that's very... Moon-like. It made me feel like a mystery in a JRPG just got resolved.

"MiraMira" is probably my favorite Moon song, and its live performance makes an already great song even better. Yes, they stood in place—they used stand mics—but they made up for it with some fun hand and arm movements, as well as leaning the stand mics over in the chorus.

In terms of singing, SatoMai's "itsudatte yobikateta" at the beginning of the second verse was just wonderful. I also really liked ChanRio's singing in her lines in the climax.

Song #14: Kiseki na Summer! (キセキなSummer!)

Outfits: Summer outfits (first reveal)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live, and also the first time it was revealed in full.)

After "MiraMira", the stage lights went out, and a short clip from this song's in-game anime Ashibashi! played before the seiyuu walked on to perform. (The PV of it is linked about, but doesn't have the dialogue in the clip here.)

It was a pleasant surprise if you hadn't heard anything about the day session, because the song hadn't been released in full, much less on CD. (In the day session, Bird performed "Land"e"scape", another unreleased song from the game, with similarly summery new outfits.)

Speaking of outfits, these were nice and summery, mostly blue and white except for Mamechan/Mahoro's pink belt. Kiichan/Aya's was a bit daring for an AiRBLUE outfit, with her stomach exposed.

The song itself is a bop, and it's another one where the characters themselves sing in their anime's characters, so we get to see the seiyuu deliver lines they wouldn't as their normal characters. (Aya yelling "Second set! Let's goooo!" after the first chorus is great.) And Tsuru's short line ("omoidasu") in the climax is nice and refreshing.

A new song means new choreography, and the dance is one of Wind's more active ones. In particular, the choreo that starts the bridge is fun to watch, and their poses in the first parts of the verse sections are cute too.

The song ended with Tsuru/Riko talking while the other three did some stretches (this is a volleyball anime, after all):

Setsuha (CV. Riko): With the four of us, we can go anywhere! Or at least, that's the feeling I get.

Then they struck poses matching the anime in the background and the stage lights dimmed to make way for a video.

Songs 15-22: Seasons come, seasons go... but Forever Friends (Outfits: Talk about everything)

This is where they debuted their Talk about everything outfits in front of an audience. The two-color (gray and white) scheme of the dress gives it an understated elegance. Instead of each member's image color being prominent like in the Forever Friends outfits, only the ribbons on this outfit are colored. (Meanwhile, the beautiful tomorrow outfits take a step further and don't incorporate their image colors at all, though they have their own charm to them.)

Video: Recording session

Unusually, this was a real-life video, and it featured the Squad #3 seiyuu. The audio was a voiceover with some strings-heavy background music. (I use the character names because they were very much in the characters' voices.)

Shiho: You hesitate to even breathe too loudly. The silence is tense. They're about to start recording.
Airi: But somehow, you feel like it'll be fine because everyone's there with you. No, you're sure it'll be fine.
Mahoro: Voice acting isn't something you do alone. Your heart connects to those of your companions, and you create a story.
Rinne: You put everything—even your weaknesses—into your acting, and convey your voice, your dreams to everyone.

The video itself showed Kyon walking into the recording studio, then greeting the other three, who were sitting down. They all had scripts with the CUE! logo on the front. (The actual text in the scripts: a Japanese translation of Hamlet.) Then they got up and went over to the mics, talking a bit.

A red light went on–the cue that the recording session was about to start.

The screens in front of them showed "CUE!" in the top right corner, "#01" in the top left, and "AiRBLUE" with some waveforms in the bottom left. In the middle: a countdown from 10. After it hit 1, the next video played.

Rinne: All right, here I go!

Video: CUE! Anime PV

This was first shown at the day session and then uploaded on YouTube around the same time. For those of us who weren't at the day session, it was a (pleasant) surprise, but it must have been really emotional to see for the first time at the venue, especially after that recording session video—the countdown was a really nice transition.

The PV was the first time we saw footage from the anime, as well as the first time we learned it'd start airing in January 2022.

Song 15: Shizuku no Kesshou (雫の結晶)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live.)

This is Squad #3's center song from Talk about everything: a gentle ballad where the singer accepts your weaknesses and imperfections as a part of you (like Rinne mentions in the intermission video) and hopes you'll always be walking alongside them. It's the kind of healing song that makes you (or me, at least) want to tear up.

Starting with Mamechan (whose line starts the song), the seiyuu gradually walked onto the stage as their lines came up. Most of the time, they stayed still or walked slowly, but one cool detail of the (minimal) choreography is that when they rotated, they walked clockwise around the stage—the same direction as the "clock hands" (時計の針) in the second verse section.

Song 16: Kaleidoscope (カレイドスコープ)

This is another gentle song—though it picks up the pace in comparison to "Shizuku no Kesshou"—about precious shared memories forming a kaleidoscope of stars in the sky. "What will you be seeing in 10 years? I'm sure that beneath these skies you'll remember." (10年後の君は今何を見てるの/この空の下で きっと思い出して)

"Kaleidoscope" is centered on the summer group, and their lines in the bridge are just wonderfully cathartic. At 1st Anniversary Party, Tsuru was particularly emotional so she sounded like she was tearing up when she sang her lines, but here, she smiled a lot more—now that they'd done the song justice at 1st, this time they could focus on enjoying it. Both of these were great to see in their own way.

More things to love about this performance: the pair-by-pair lines in the verse sections made for some wholesome interactions between each pair, and the starry skies (plus dots of lights on the stage) in the background visuals fit the song nicely.

Song 17: Shiroi Ensen (白い沿線)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live with all 16 members.)

For being about winter, the lyrics sure are warm, depicting a train journey towards the singer's dreams and a beloved one. This served as a sort of preface to the seasonal songs, set near the end of winter—the lyrics talk about advancing to a new season (新しい季節へ向かうんだ) and taking the last white (from the cold) breath of the season (この季節最後の白い息吐いたら進もう).

The vocals are really pretty, especially when they're layered, and the choreography incorporates the train theme—the title is "White Railway" (white from the snow)—with various formations having the seiyuu line up in parallel like parts of a railroad.

My favorite choreo is in the middle of the second verse section: "Feeling lost within the ticket gates/A drop of anxiety blended with excitement for a few moments" (そして改札の中とまどい/少しだけ不安と楽しみ入り混じって数秒). They're divided into their teams here and within each team,

• two members form a ticket gate,
• the singing member walks through, and
• the last member waves goodbye.

The latter two look back at each other, but out of sync so that their eyes don't meet, showing that feeling of being lost with a bit of anxiety. It's a cool way to bring the lyrics to life, and the seiyuu acted the parts well. (Bird was the team pictured on camera here, and Yakan energetically waving goodbye was cute.)

In the end, the sounds of a train leaving a station played as the seiyuu got in position for the next song.

Song 18: Saikou no Mahou (最高の魔法)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live with all 16 members.)

This is a pretty straightforward song about the singer wanting to convey their love with their strongest voice (the "best magic" of the title), set in the midst of winter. I was really looking forward to seeing it with all 16 for the first time, and they delivered. In particular, the winter group's lines in the bridge warmed me right up... Mayuyun was really cute as Airi here.

Then there were the white strips of paper they used as "snow" once the climax hit. The sheer volume of it was impressive to watch, but also made me wonder how hard it is for them to see when it's "snowing". You can see a few of them stick to the seiyuu's heads on the close-up shots (Mayuyun and Kyon...)—another cute touch, whether intended or not.

This gave a proper start to the seasonal songs, and once winter ended, it was time for spring.

Song 19: beautiful tomorrow

I always love watching this song, especially since it's one of my top AiRBLUE songs and spring is my favorite season. As the title suggests, it's all about following your dreams and forging your future, a perfect fit for the season of beginnings.

Highlights:

• In the verses right before the choruses, Squad #4 (first time)/#3 (second time) wave their arms to "direct" the movement of everyone else. Very fun to watch (and also gives me ManaT closeups).
• The choreo in the chorus isn't too complicated, yet visually striking and memorable. There are a couple shots where you can see a lot of the audience copying the arm movements. (My people.)
• ChanRio and Sappi's measured delivery of their lines at the climax felt really nice.

Akin to the white "snow" from "Saikou no Mahou", they showered the seiyuu with pink rectangles of paper representing cherry blossoms, starting in the bridge. (They'd done something similar in 1st Anniversary Party, but using much finer petal-shaped paper and starting in the first chorus.)

While at 1st Anniversary Party, this song started out the setlist by representing the theme of beginnings, in this context—between "Saikou no Mahou" and "Colorful"—it represented the spring season.

Song 20: Colorful

This finished off the set of seasonal songs by bringing us into summer, the present season (at the time), and it continued the theme of working towards the future.

The lyrics are reassuring even in the face of struggle—one of my favorite parts: "surely even the tears we shed are shining, and will sink into the pavement—eventually a rainbow will fill the sky" (きっと流れ落ちた　涙は輝いて/アスファルトに染み込んで　やがて空に虹をかける).

Highlights:

• The choreography with skirts in this song—during the instrumental breaks and before the choruses—is great, emphasizing how nicely they flow.
• Like "beautiful tomorrow", the dancing in the choruses is iconic and the arm movements are fun to copy.
• At the beginning of the bridge, Squad #4 stands in the middle and sings while the other members circle around them, fluttering their arms. It makes for a cool visual effect.
• I really liked Nene and ManaT's delivery of their starting lines in the last chorus—"ashita ga yondeiru bokura o matteiru".

Bringing in the title, the AiRBLUE members are the "colorful" ones here: "each and every one is different—our colorful selves" (一人一人違う colorful な僕ら). They're also the "rainbow" from the line I mentioned earlier.

The stage effects matched the title well: the stage lights were rainbow-colored, and in the last chorus, instead of snow or cherry blossoms, the strips of paper were each colored with the members' image colors.

This assortment of colored paper set the stage for "Mirai Canvas", where everyone's colors are important to the song, and for which the music video features colored paper too.

Skit: AiRBLUE and Haruna's letter

This began with slow music box-style background music. The leaders got their lines here, completing the rotation of the new songs from the album.

Rie: Training alongside these magnificent comrades of mine, there was not a moment to spare for boredom. So that I can answer with a smile to those that gave me the strength to believe in myself...
Miharu: Even if you're worried or lost, let's meet again tomorrow and talk about the future. I'm sure that all these songs and words will teach us precious things.
Yuuki: This scene in front of us is so colorful! I bet it's because our managers were with us. Thanks for always being by our side!
Haruna: This letter got quite long. But that just goes to show how much everyone has been putting into every day. Ah, the other day, we all made paper airplanes. If I fold this letter into a paper airplane too, I wonder if it'll reach you... maybe not.

On the top screen, a paper airplane flew across the key visual. The stage lights illuminated the seiyuu.

Haruna: Finally, each of us in AiRBLUE will sign off.

Each seiyuu read their character's name and walked into position.

Haruna: Thanks for reading all the way. Let's keep in touch.

Thus ended Haruna's letter—the letter's message wasn't just what she said, but also the songs and stories within the event, showing everyone's lives at the moment.

This dialogue felt like a slow burn for our hearts before the inevitable "Mirai Canvas" and the weight each seiyuu put into saying their characters' names added to it.

Song 21: Mirai Canvas (ミライキャンパス)

(2nd Party was the first time this song was performed live with all 16 members.)

This is the feature track on Talk about everything and my favorite song in the CUE! discography so far. As its title "Future Canvas" hints at, it's about them dyeing the blank canvas we call the future with a vivid picture, each person contributing their own color.

Some of the lyrics I especially like:

• "Fail as much as you need to/Because each time the new colors you gain/Become a source of strength" (何度でも間違えたっていい/その度に重ねた　新しい色が/ほら強さくれるから)
• "No color, not a single one, has been useless" (いらない色なんて/今までそう一つもなかったね)

In fact, one of Tsuru's tweets mentions the second one, saying that she feels like it's an answer to the "it's fine to become any color" (何色でもなればいい) lyric in "Ready-made"—both lines are Yakan solos!—making the setlist "perfect". (Her word, not mine, but I can't help but agree. That connection is just amazing.)

The full choreography is readily available in the dance practice video, though they don't have hand mics in this video, so the hand/arm movements are different from the live performance.

Highlights from the dance:

• In the first verse section, they do this choreo where two members form a "mirror" by creating a diamond with their arms, and the other two look at each other through it. (The formation here is four groups of four, each doing this.) It mirrors the lyrics where the singer looks at their reflection in the window—"someone that looks just like me is smiling" (私に似た誰かが笑っていて).
• If you view the Talk about everything dress from the left (very gray), it looks very different than if you look at it from the right (very white). That made for a really cool visual effect in the chorus when half of the members are facing the opposite direction from the other half.
• I love how they incorporate their characters' quirks when they pose for the "kimi to"/"zutto" in the chorus.
• When they hold their hands up with the palm facing inward at the end of the chorus for "on this canvas" (キャンバスに), it's very similar to the choreo in "Watashitachi wa Mada Sono Haru o Shiranai" during the chorus's "what color will [each of us] be" (どんな色が　見えるのだろう). (Or I could be overthinking the similarity.)
• The choreo in the team-by-team section of the bridge resembles each team's namesake and reminds us that together they represent the beauties of nature (花鳥風月).

I didn't actually have much to say about this specific performance, because the components are already so good, but I did particularly enjoy Yurinya and Hinachi's delivery of their lines and their expressions in the climax.

Closing Remarks

Yurinya asked the audience how they were enjoying the event, then moved on to announcements.

• CUE! and DIALOGUE+ Exhibition ~A dressing~: an exhibition of live event outfits, cast voiceovers, and video footage. This might include audition footage... which makes me very jealous of those who can go. (2021-11-18 to 2021-11-21 in Entas, an event space in Akihabara)
• CUE! Reading Live vol. 5 ~Wind & Moon~: an event with script reading and live music. (2021-11-21 in New Pier Hall)
• The CUE! TV anime will air starting January 2022.

Each of the seiyuu signed off by introducing themselves as the seiyuu—for example, "Uchiyama Yurina, the voice of Mutsuishi Haruna". This was in contrast to the roll call before "Mirai Canvas", where they were in character.

Hinachi paused especially long before she spoke, sounding like she was about to cry.

They closed with the classic line: "Please keep following CUE! and AiRBLUE!"

Song 22: Forever Friends

The title sums up the lyrics. It's hard for me to imagine a full-fledged AiRBLUE concert without this song, because of its importance to the group and franchise.

Highlights:

• The Talk about everything dress's gray-white division made a nice effect in the chorus here too, when they do high-fives in pairs. Everyone turns 180 degrees to alternate who they high-five with, which made the colors alternate too.
• Yurinya and Yakan poking each other's cheeks at the beginning of the second verse section. They do it every time they perform this, but it's also really cute every time.
• The leaders' lines in the climax are my favorite ones to listen to in the song, and they do a stellar job of portraying their characters' personalities.
• The gray-white division in the dress also looked great in the final pose where they all turn towards the middle, creating another half-and-half formation. (In fact, this is the exact opposite of the final pose in "Mirai Canvas", where they all face outwards from the middle!)
• The lower screens behind them showed colored squares floating into the air. Per this tweet from the CUE! staff account, you can see this as the fragments that were dyed each person's color in "Mirai Canvas" taking off. It reminded the tweet's author of the first time they discussed "10 years from now", hearkening back to the lyrics in "Kaleidoscope". Though the specific interpretation isn't mentioned, I think of each member ascending to new heights as we look into the future.

A nice touch: this concert started and ended with the same songs as the Talk about everything album—"Sayonara Ready-made" and "Forever Friends".

The End

"Forever Friends" ended with applause, the seiyuu gripped each others' hands, and they all thanked everyone without their mics.

You could see Hinachi and Tsuru get especially emotional here, and who could blame them? AiRBLUE's journey has had its twists and turns. The joy of seeing everyone, performing as and alongside a character that means a lot to you, and knowing the anime is coming soon—it must have been overwhelming.

Not to mention: Tsuru was not only critical to the event, being in charge of the script, but she had strained her back the day before the concert. She wrote about it on her blog after the event, recalling that her goal was just to get through the concert and that she worried a lot about whether she'd be able to pull it off and convey her feelings to the audience. Yet she did a stellar job despite the pain.

Anyway, they ended by walking off stage while waving to the audience, with smiles across the board. Seeing everyone with their smiling faces is always a great way to end a concert, and I'm looking forward to seeing their smiles again—one day, in person.

Aftermath

A deluge of videos and photos from the event awaited us on Twitter afterward.

Apart from the usual posts from seiyuu and staff, a couple new things happened this time compared to 1st Anniversary Party:

• The CUE_staffrio account tweeted backstage photos and videos after the event. Most of them were from the day session, which wasn't streamed, so this was especially great.
• As mentioned above, there was a staff retrospective stream announced on 2021-08-18, which took place on 2021-08-20. This was pretty rare for a CUE! event, but there were similar panels for many DIALOGUE+ events, where both Nojima and Mi-sen are also essential staff. I love that they carried over this idea to CUE!, since you get a lot of insight into the event from these discussions. A few of the seiyuu even watched along with us. (Mayuyun tweeted a lot...)

Hopefully, they continue doing these for future CUE! events. The Wind & Moon reading live is the only future performance announced right now, but I'm guessing there'll be a Flower & Bird reading live to follow up on that, and there'll probably be a 3rd Party after the anime airs. Given how well done this event was, I'm certainly excited to see them once the time comes!

Assorted Links

(All of these are in Japanese. They have nice pictures, too!)

• A collection of tweets from official accounts about the event, starting from the day of the event onward. (Warning: Twitter doesn't tell me how many tweets there are, but it's quite a few...)
• Matsuda Saki's blog post
• Tsuruno Arisa's blog post (she also has a set of links to her other CUE!-related blog posts)
• Tachibana Hina's Instagram posts on the event as a whole and the other Moon members; outfits, makeup, and the dances
• Komine Ami's blog post

Event info: Feb 15 14:00 in Akihabara Gamers 6F

Prima Porta is a new seiyuu unit that debuted a couple months ago! I noted down a brief profile of each member in this Twitter thread, from an early livestream. (Recent addition: you might be familiar with Tomoppe as Mira in Koisuru Asteroid!)

Talk Segment

The event started with self-introductions, leading into a talk segment. They drew from a box to pick topics to talk about. I couldn't remember all the topics, only about half—sorry!

• Shuchan: "Where would you like to perform [as Prima Porta]?" Her answer was, of course, her home country Australia. She hasn't been back in about 4 years. The 9hr flight back and forth is rough, and one of her flights with a connection was 16hr total...
• Following up on Shuchan's answer, Mayuchi said they'd like to go overseas. She asked the audience who thought they traveled the furthest, and someone from Oita (on the opposite side of Japan from Tokyo) got called on. (I hesitated to raise my hand, oops.)
• The others' thoughts on Agupon: weird and sometimes does very strange, inexplicable things (Mayuchi: "but she's cute so it's OK"). She doesn't say a lot but she's good at comforting people and putting them at ease.
• Agupon towers over Shukina, so she used this to her advantage when Shukina mentioned that she was weird, looking at her with a menacing aura. While Agupon is about the same height as Tomoppe, Agupon definitely looks taller in the album art. "Did I get shorter...?"
• Voice and dance lessons: Shukina was in charge of this, but she just asked everyone else about their thoughts. Nice delegation skills. A couple of them were pretty new to dancing—this is a group of relatively new seiyuu, after all—so they mentioned it was a bit of a struggle.

Concert Segment

Setlist, with what looked like the centers for each song:

• CALL&GOAL!: Tomoppe center
• Asayake Approach: Agupon center
• Trill de Hajimacchau!: Agupon center
• GO! BRONCOS GO!: Mayuchi center
• CALL&GOAL! (Yell for SAITAMA BRONCOS ver.): Tomoppe center

Since the room was flat and the stage was barely elevated, they asked everyone to stay seated during the concert. (I'm pretty sure very few people would be able to see Shukina if everyone were standing...)

Plenty of people did use penlights, and calls were pretty standard (I wasn't familiar enough for some lyrics calls). Based on the penlight colors I could see, Agupon and Shuchan seem to be popular, with Mayuchi following closely. (...LL definitely brings that name recognition.)

During the talk parts in between songs, they introduced a couple of hand signs they use in the choreography and asked us to follow along. These were in "Trill de Hajimacchau!" and "GO! BRONCOS GO!".

More on specific songs:

• Asayake Approach: one part switched from Agupon in the CD version to Mayuchi in the live performance. (Nobody in the audience noticed... Agupon looked disappointed at us, saying roughly "you have a long way to go"...)
• GO! BRONCOS GO!: the dance for this is particularly intense. Mayuchi mentioned her arm got tired from the fist pumping [not sure if I can describe it better] in the chorus. On the other hand, Agupon said she was fine, and flexed her right arm! Then Mayuchi flexed too...

Mayuchi also asked if anyone knew what "Broncos" meant. (They're the Saitama Broncos, a basketball team based in Saitama.) But the person she called on said "Saitama"—technically right! They made some jokes like "hey let's go up to Broncos!".

For some reason, there was also a discussion of each other's butts.

Agupon: "[Mayuchi] has a nice butt."
[butt touching ensues]
Shukina: "You're right, it has a good squish to it."
Mayuchi: "Sometimes I check it myself... it's quite nice and squishy."
Shuchan: "Agupon, though... there's nothing there."
Agupon: *walks off stage, looking offended*
me, internally: "...are you sure it's all right for us to be hearing this conversation"

At the end of the concert part, they gave brief farewell speeches. Shuchan did her speech first in English, then in Japanese. (The others had a bit of trouble—"is this an English test?") They mentioned that the live stream tomorrow (Feb 16) will have an announcement. 👀

Farewells

Finally, we ended with a 見送り会—they stood behind a table, and we walked past, getting to talk to them a bit before leaving. As a coronavirus precaution, they all put on face masks. Mayuchi's mask didn't cover her nose, though... (80-90% of the audience had face masks on too.

I told Shuchan "please come to America!" in English. She (plus Shukina, who was next to her) looked shocked to hear that—her eyes widened—and thanked me. 🤣

This report was also posted as a Twitter thread.

Post-event tweets from staff and the members

You can see their outfits pretty well here. (Shuchan twintails... 👀)

This event was held on 2019-09-07 in Waterras Common Hall—I attended only the first session of three that day.

It was basically a Maeshima Ami mini fan meeting and watashikai (meet & greet). あみ対いち ("Amitaichi") is a pun with her nickname, Amita, roughly "Ami 1-on-1". They gave us name tags to write our names on to make the meet+greet smoother.

Amita started out by explaining how the event came to be: she wanted to meet fans more directly than at stage or live events, so she talked to her staff and it eventually took form. When she came to the venue early, she made a big deal about it being close up.

Amita also asked where people were from: Tokyo, Kanto (outside of Tokyo), outside of Kanto, and overseas. There were maybe 6 of us from overseas (within the ~150 seats), and we got a round of applause.

Having introduced the event, Amita answered a few questions from Twitter.

1. Amita's favorite tapioca (milk tea) shop: The Alley, with locations in Shinjuku and Shimokitazawa, for example. She emphasized the deer in the logo.
2. Yoshida Yuuri (Hagumi's seiyuu): Amita was featured with her at the WEGO Bandori talk show on Aug 29. They whispered to each other while watching the Bandori Film Live CM (things like "it's PasuPare!" "ohh they're cute!"), and plan to get a meal together.
3. Challenge Amita wants to try: mountain climbing. She went up Mt Takao, and wants to someday climb Mt Fuji.
4. Presents she'd like to receive: anything, as long as the feeling is there. When people write Twitter handles, she might recognize them and their icon.
5. YouTubers of interest to Amita: Shimofuri Myojo (霜降り明星), and Yonsen Toushin (四千頭身), both of which are comedy-focused. The audience (myself included) didn't seem very familiar with them...

After the question segment, Amita announced some events:

• Her birthday events in Osaka (12/1) and Tokyo (12/8)
• Amitaichi Vol. 2, to be held next spring.

Her goal is to have opportunities to meet fans every 3 months or so.

Finally, Amita's watashikai began. It's a 20sec meet and greet where she gives you a sticker. They set up a divider in the corner of the room for privacy.At first, you could hear conversations, so the staff played videos from her YouTube on the projector to help.

My thoughts: the talk show was shorter than expected (25min), but they prioritized the watashikai—20sec is longer than many similar events, and it adds up to 50min for 150 people. Most people looked quite happy after talking to Amita, so I think it was a good choice.

Personally, I told her that since I'm from the US, I don't have the chance to go to many events, but I really enjoyed seeing her at RAS's performance at 7th Live. She was happy to hear that, and told me to try to come in January (to the PasuPare live event)!

(This was originally posted on Twitter.)

This Fan Meeting was held in Zepp Nagoya on 2019-09-05, with Saechi (Otsuka Sae), Hasshi (Ohashi Ayaka), and Itou Ayasa.

They started out with a skit read off a script. Tae, Saaya, and Arisa have somehow ended up in Nagoya (not knowing how they got there). As they're about to start a street performance, they see a blindingly bright light...

After the skit, they came out and greeted us with a bit of free talk, then started the variety segments.

First up: Saechi singing about a concept that the other two have to draw and then guess.

• Nagoya Castle: Hasshi drew a massive fish on top of some triangles and rectangles.
• Rokka: Saechi started off by describing a bunch of circles... so the other two drew big circles in the middle of their pages.
• Kira Kira Doki Doki: Saechi said that for Kasumi, it was stars, and for Rimi it might be choco coronets.

Next segment: solving a physical puzzle, hosted by Hasshi/Saaya but really a collaborative effort. Hasshi holding the puzzle:

Saechi solved it in 1m18s, even though they got 10 minutes for this segment... They spent the rest of the time trying (and failing) to put it back together.

After this was a segment where Ayasa dances about a concept and the other two try to guess it.

1. Rocket: they guessed (and I would've guessed) fish, but didn't get it in the end
2. Kasumi, rejected at the fare gates (presumably because she didn't have enough on her transit card): they didn't get the specific phrasing but guessed the general situation

At this point, Hasshi and Ayasa got to try dancing.

Ayasa got "Roselia". She did Aiai-like motions until they guessed Yukina, then she played the (air) guitar and they got it.

Hasshi got "miso udon" (Nagoya is known for miso) and made some noodly moves as well as eating motions, but they didn't guess the specific type...

As a bonus, they acted out "Roselia" with Hasshi as Megu, Ayasa as Aiai, and Saechi as Kudoharu. It was pretty funny and a little too accurate (Hasshi with the big smile on her face like Megu's!).

As the final talk segment, we helped make a theme song for the fan meeting. The song, eventually called "Nagoya o Tabetai", is basically about eating various things in Nagoya (suggested by the audience). There's some hype "whoawhoa"ing and singing "tabetai" along with them. It's a good song!

Finally, they went off stage and came back for the live segment. The setlist:

1. BOF
2. 8月のif
3. Time Lapse

Since Aimi wasn't there for the main vocals, they split vocals between them (mostly Ayasa for Time Lapse, Hasshi for 8月).

(This was originally posted on Twitter.)

This event was held on 2019-08-08 in Zepp Tokyo. I attended only the first (starting at 15:00) session of two.

Matsuzawa Chiaki was the MC for the event—she was engaging and did a great job.

The first segment: a talk session about the solo debut and finding her own direction. She's still not certain, but that's OK.

One of Rikako's dreams: holding a solo concert and maybe even a tour—she's gotten correspondence from fans from all over, and it'd be great if she could meet people outside of Tokyo. Though it does make her scared to think about preparing a concert—the responsibility is heavy.

Rikako hinted at the setlist, telling us what colors she felt fit certain songs: white for Ordinary Love, blue for Azurite Blue, and yellow for Future Line. That being said, she encouraged everyone to use whatever color they feel like using. (Except for Azurite Blue, of course.)

A lyric Rikako really likes from Future Line: ここから叶えたい夢を/数えながら踏み出そう (very roughly, "as we count the dreams we want to fulfill, let's move forward").

Rikako thinks it's important to not limit yourself to one dream—she herself is taking on many challenges.

Following the sit-down discussion, the next segment was a series of "first experiences", where Rikako thought of things she hasn't done before but wants to try, and the staff gives her the chance to do them.

1. Throwing darts. She actually hit a pretty good spot.
2. A quiz show. Rikako slammed the buzzer on just "[person] from Iwate Prefecture..." and got it right!
3. Pulling a tablecloth from under something. But... this table didn't have anything on the tablecloth. We collectively used our imaginations to make it dramatic.

After the "first experience" segment, they took a break, and we got to watch a video of Rikako and bread.

In the first part of the video, she tried to make bread and got as far as making the dough into the shape of bread. (...but due to difficulties, she never finished?!) In the second part, Rikako sampled bread from various shops. She compared one to a sponge... a really tasty sponge... 🤔

She baited us by saying that she might reconsider her side in the rice vs bread war... and then saying in the end that she's still on the rice side after all.

After the video, Rikako and another seiyuu from KenPro, Kitahara Sayaka, did a dramatic reading "Electronic Prelude", playing two girls who graduate from high school, go to separate universities, and stay in touch online. Except... one of them isn't who the other thinks she is.

Sayaka and Rikako are really good friends—MC Matsuzawa said that she could tell immediately once they regrouped after the reading. Their interactions are pretty entertaining, and Sayaka was really happy to celebrate Rikako's birthday with her. Very wholesome.

After the reading, they showed a behind-the-scenes video for the Principal EP. I think it's the same one as on the DVD version of the EP? The ending music for the video continued way past the end of the video... it felt like an eternity before the next part started.

Once the words "First Premium Live" flashed on the screen, everyone... stayed seated? It stayed that way throughout the live. Most people used penlights, though.

The setlist (as hinted at earlier):

1. ORDINARY LOVE
2. Azurite Blue
3. FUTURE LINE

Rikako's singing has definitely improved since the early Aqours days. She mentioned being really nervous, even though she had already sung Ordinary Love at release events. A lot of people said they liked Azurite Blue, which is why she decided to include it.

After Future Line, Rikako spoke a bit and then waved goodbye, walking to different parts of the stage.

Once she was off stage, a short announcement video played for her 1st single, out 11/13, which will be the opening song for Val x Love.

(This was originally posted on Twitter.)