Love Live Bluebird: Midori Down
Jan. 24th, 2026 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gildedstageIkizulive is in a weird state lately where there’s a lot in progress, but not a lot to talk about. Some things have been announced like the second group single and satellite original songs, but there’s no release date or any further information on those yet. I’m glad the story seems to be progressing further after a disappointing autumn, but even that has become controversial with this week’s developments.
Since Christmas, we have learned that the new A-Rise and Ikizurai-Bu have been considering a collaboration together. However, they had difficulty finding a venue since A-Rise is not officially recognized by UTX, just like how Ikizurai-Bu couldn’t secure a location for the school festival they had attempted back in September. That is, until Chun-sensei (highly implied to be Kotori) gave them permission to perform at the old Otonokizaka auditorium on February 14th. The part causing the most controversy is that the auditorium has been scheduled to be destroyed and rebuilt due to its age and poor condition.
To be honest, I wasn’t happy with this development either at first, though for a completely different reason. It’s a bit disappointing that their next performance would be so referential after their Christmas performance felt so thematically on point as “Ikizurai-Bu,” with the girls taking advantage of the online aspect to perform “together but separate” across Japan. I just hope it’s part of them finding their footing as a group (like Aqours did) and staff doesn’t rely on it for easy engagement instead of building an independent identity for Ikizulive. There’s nothing left to do but to wait and see.
Still, I wasn’t expecting that level of backlash. It was sort of a wakeup call that most of these people aren’t even concerned fans of Ikizulive, but fans of the older generations who already wrote off Ikizulive for one reason or another (funnily enough, a lot of them are Twitter addicts who don’t want to read Tweets). The day where I don’t have to read that a new group in a long-running music project is just “nobodies” using the old group to make themselves “relevant” can’t come soon enough.
At least things should be picking up again soon. Next Wednesday is the last livestream before 1st Live, with the next issue of Love Live Days following the day after (can’t wait to see the chibi art for December, I’m hoping for Yukuri since Shion has gotten a lot these past few months). I try not to have high expectations for the streams since they’re very unpredictable, but I’m hoping for more information on “Regain Again LLLLove” (a release date, the cover, anything really).
Since Christmas, we have learned that the new A-Rise and Ikizurai-Bu have been considering a collaboration together. However, they had difficulty finding a venue since A-Rise is not officially recognized by UTX, just like how Ikizurai-Bu couldn’t secure a location for the school festival they had attempted back in September. That is, until Chun-sensei (highly implied to be Kotori) gave them permission to perform at the old Otonokizaka auditorium on February 14th. The part causing the most controversy is that the auditorium has been scheduled to be destroyed and rebuilt due to its age and poor condition.
To be honest, I wasn’t happy with this development either at first, though for a completely different reason. It’s a bit disappointing that their next performance would be so referential after their Christmas performance felt so thematically on point as “Ikizurai-Bu,” with the girls taking advantage of the online aspect to perform “together but separate” across Japan. I just hope it’s part of them finding their footing as a group (like Aqours did) and staff doesn’t rely on it for easy engagement instead of building an independent identity for Ikizulive. There’s nothing left to do but to wait and see.
Still, I wasn’t expecting that level of backlash. It was sort of a wakeup call that most of these people aren’t even concerned fans of Ikizulive, but fans of the older generations who already wrote off Ikizulive for one reason or another (funnily enough, a lot of them are Twitter addicts who don’t want to read Tweets). The day where I don’t have to read that a new group in a long-running music project is just “nobodies” using the old group to make themselves “relevant” can’t come soon enough.
At least things should be picking up again soon. Next Wednesday is the last livestream before 1st Live, with the next issue of Love Live Days following the day after (can’t wait to see the chibi art for December, I’m hoping for Yukuri since Shion has gotten a lot these past few months). I try not to have high expectations for the streams since they’re very unpredictable, but I’m hoping for more information on “Regain Again LLLLove” (a release date, the cover, anything really).
