gildedstage | Entries tagged with ephemeral

New Song Preview: Regain Again LLLLove

I didn’t include this in my last post of the year since I’m not good at describing music, but now I’m desperate enough to try without a release date to look forward to.

I think what caught my attention the most from the preview is the difference in mood. It’s a more serious side of the girls both in the lyrics (not just a love song but love lost and found) and how its delivered (as opposed to something like the lighthearted “no!” response to “I need a hint to happiness, is there one out there“ in their debut song). Yet, there’s also the cheers, especially the sustained “ooh” in the beginning, and the instruments that make it feel adventurous and playful.

I already praise Oyuki and Nose’s singing enough to the point it might lose meaning, but I really do love getting to hear Shion’s elegant side in this. Of course, Yukuri’s usual theatrical singing suits a dramatic song about love perfectly. Akira and Shion’s low notes also stood out to me.

Nose considers this song to be the girls singing as real-deal school idols for the first time and I really feel that. Both the title and coupling track of “What is my LIFE?” were songs about the girls feeling we could see in the story, but this feels like them singing about something outside of their experience.

Can’t wait to get more details about the song…

Satellite Original Songs Announced

I was really nervous when it appeared but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. Four new original songs announced and confirmation that there will be non-satellite groupings in the future.

The video itself was also great. I like that Polka calling Shion “Shion-sama” has already happened twice and is so unremarkable that no one reacts to it. I also liked the triangle dynamic of Polka wanting a song from Shion and Yukuri wanting to pair up with Polka in the future. Most importantly… finally, a look into the group roles and my wish for composer Shion came true!

So their solution for composing when they’re split into satellites is that the kids who can’t compose will have someone else do it. We already know that Shion will compose her own and Fukui won’t, so I wonder about the other two. No one in Chaki! seems to have music experience, but I still want them to try. I can already imagine Mai being at wit’s end, but maybe she’d unexpectedly take to working in a DAW (and trying to translate Polka’s bizarre suggestions into music). This is almost certainly my bias and greed talking, but I could see Yukuri putting her experience and passion into songwriting. Although maybe not if she’s already their dance teacher.

It’d be interesting if there was more than one composer in the group.

Also, they’re still clinging hard to calling these the “cover song units” even as it becomes distanced from its original purpose, so I wonder if they’ll really give up these names soon and introduce the traditional subunit voting. It’s just hard to believe that the satellites won’t be the main groups the way things are right now. But only time will tell what goes on in LLStaff’s decision making.

What Happened to Aurora’s Birthday??

Speaking of decision making, why did they completely skip over a birthday just because it was on the weekend? Staff’s decision to have a real time story without fully committing to it becomes silly at times…

Honestly, it feels like there hasn’t been any interesting developments since the beginning of their school festival arc (too much telling and not enough showing their struggles), so I felt a macabre sense of excitement to see Yukuri’s tweet “because life can suddenly end at any time” on my timeline first thing this morning. That, combined with Shion’s panic attack at going out into public by herself earlier this week, brought back the feeling that things are actually progressing and we might be getting closer to unravelling their mysteries.

Next LLDays and the Ikizulive Comic Speculation

The preview of middle school Mai in yesterday’s livestream has me excited, so here are my predictions (or more like wants) for each of the chapters.

Akira: Maybe what motivated her to leave Numazu and/or what led her to believe she’s not the type who can make friends

Hanabi: Hanabi growing up as an heir to a family business and watching the other traditional shops surrounding her close (from her self-introduction)

Miracle: I can’t see it being anything but the arguments she kept getting into with her vocational school teachers that led her to transfer to L High instead

Noriko: Maybe what motivated Noriko to suddenly gain the courage to apply to an agency at the end of middle school.

Yukuri: I’m most interested in this one by far, especially with Yukuri’s recent ominous tweets that have made her connection with death explicit (saying on her birthday that not all life is distributed equally and today she said to chase your dreams because you never know when life can suddenly end). I think the dead sister theory is the most likely, so I’m really hoping that it will shine some light on the mystery of Yukuri, her sister, or what caused the end of both of their dreams (and maybe even a life). Anything about her, really.

Aurora: They’ve mentioned her loneliness a couple of times. I’m probably overanalyzing a couple of tweets, but I thought it was interesting how her family was shocked that she didn’t want to spend time with them overseas during the summer like usual, especially since she used to miss school just to stay a little longer with them. I think that dynamic of relying on family to tide over her loneliness is interesting, but I think her loneliness as a constant transfer student is probably the angle they'll go for.

Midori: Midori unfortunately has a case of One Thing Syndrome and I can’t think of any hardship level struggle she’s had. They’ve mentioned her frustration that no one will listen, but I don’t think that’s very compelling. I think that period in her life where she wanted to go to grad school to study environmental protection but then pivoted to activism would be interesting to go back to, but I think that was in elementary school if I remember right.

Shion: I’d like to see what led to her feeling unaccepted, skipping school, and going going to the internet for comfort. Also, her difficult relationship with her parents.

This is assuming that they’ll all be backstory though and I’m not sure about that since at the current pace, they won’t finish until *February 2027* (another reason why I’m skeptical that they’ve planned real time graduation for the girls)

Also, now that every satellite has a full page illustration, I’m hoping this month’s issue will be cross-satellite, maybe the girls at the sleepover.

After WiML Speculation

It surprised me to realize that this period of Ikizuraibu might already be coming to an end soon. The characters’ solo single promotion will be over in two weeks and until the 1st Live in February, there’s only the satellite performances currently planned. So I’m curious what will come next…

Maybe another group single? It would be nice to get their first diegetic song(s), but I’m skeptical of that since the uniforms still haven’t been revealed and they haven’t mentioned songwriting or choreographing in the story yet (my composer Shion prediction will be answered one day. Maybe. Hopefully.) My second guess would be satellite songs, but probably not since it would overlap with the cover songs they’ve already put so much hype into. Maybe another non-diegetic group single about their feelings after getting started.

Current Mood: excited

I started drafting this post last week, but I was too focused on Deltarune to finish it.

There’s now less than a week until the first seiyuu stream. It feels like that will be when the project’s activities start in earnest, so I am looking forward to seeing what’ll be announced and how things will change in the next few months.

Last Week

Shion’s Continued Ikizuraibu Crashout

Within the span of a week, Shion went from making fun of Ikizuraibu for trying to save a failing online school to wanting to transfer there herself to teach them a lesson about school idols. Shion seems to be fixated on Ikizuraibu approaching the legendary number of 9 members. Considering that this week they’ve set up potential ways for the Fukui branch to meet the others (Miracle’s sweets are popular as far as Tokyo and MiraNori uploaded a karaoke cover together), it’s possible Shion might end up being the 10th member instead.

I don’t think that would be a problem for most people, but since Shion fixates on random things to distract herself from her bigger problems, I could see her reacting negatively to say the least. It also seems like Shion might also be doing solo activities? I wonder if she’ll compose music for the other branches.

Aurora and Midori Join Ikizuraibu (alternatively, why is the timeline so unclear???)

It was surprisingly confusing. From what I understand, on May 28th Aurora mentioned wanting to hunt down Yukuri the next day. Then on the 2nd, Midori and Aurora met Yukuri and were accepted into Ikizuraibu without much fanfare. The other Ikizuraibu girls (Akira, Hanabi, and Mai) only mentioned them joining offhand. I hope next week we’ll be able to see more of their dynamic in Ikizuraibu as a whole before the other girls join.

This Week

Noriko and Miracle Join Ikizuraibu

I saw a post wondering when Noriko and Miracle are going to do something that’s actually relevant to the plot and it still makes me laugh whenever I think about them. They have posted more than some of the girls that are already in the group and yet it’s mostly things like Miracle offering to keep Noriko’s belly warm with her hands or wanting to stuff Noriko’s face with sweets. They live on their own yuribait island. They’re also in my top 5.

Yet, I do think how they joined was also underwhelming and slightly confusing. On the 5th, Noriko and Miracle tried to record her karaoke singing, but Noriko was so nervous that Miracle decided to sing with her. On the 9th, they uploaded the video where Noriko joined but they didn’t explain how that happened outside of a vague post from Miracle, let alone build up to it. It sound like from Hanabi’s post on the 10th that Polka scouted Noriko (from the karaoke?) and Noriko just accepted it. It’s funny how Miracle folded only 2 days after she rejected Noriko’s invitation to join.

I am hoping we’ll learn more about the branches outside of Tokyo and how they will function before the 17th. Maybe we’ll learn more once they aren’t constricted by the June 17th stream.

Hanabi’s Birthday

Since we’ve barely seen any interactions between Hanabi and other characters so far, I ended up drawing her with Akira and Yukuri for her birthday. I was surprised to see the group interactions with Polka and Mai. She even mentioned Noriko Chofu, even if only in a generic message.

Hanabi Turned 16

I completely missed the significance of this yesterday but Hanabi turned 16, so that likely makes Ikizuraibu a real time project. In other words, that means graduations. Maybe the fact that only two out of ten characters are older than a first year should have been more suspicious. At the same time, that means 8 characters would graduate at once which seems unlikely. It would make more sense to replace a few members at a time so that the group can maintain their identity.

Assuming it’s true for a moment, I feel conflicted about it. I know about Hasunosora, but I am very used to Love Live groups remaining the same age from start to finish and all members retiring at the same time. I really want to take the chance with Ikizuraibu to follow a group from beginning to end as an active participant instead of passively consuming so it’s a bit sad to think that I might have to say goodbye to the characters or seiyuu so soon compared to the other main groups of LL.

However, I do think this could work well with Ikizuraibu’s concept. A central part of this project is the girls fulfilling their ambitions, such as Mai’s dream to become the president of an IT company. It would make sense for them to take what they learned from being an idol and go off into the world since this is not all they want. I wonder if we’ll get to see them post-graduation somehow. It’s too early to make any conclusions.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Black Knife - Toby Fox

For a few days I convinced myself that the YouTube upload schedule actually made sense since it would end with Shion on the 16th (the day before the seiyuu streams and the “real” start for their activities), but they threw a curveball again with Shion as #5.

It’s interesting to see how they’re fitting this in the timeline. It feels confusing in some of the videos since Polka’s original character introduction mentioned wanting to make friends, while Akari’s introduction took place in a future where even the satellite girls were already in the group.

Since Yukuri joined Ikizuraibu around the 27th/28th and now Aurora (doubtlessly with Midori in tow) is about to break down their door to join, that will only leave Miracle-Noriko and Shion. Surprisingly, we know more about how Shion could potentially join more than Miracle and Noriko.

Ikizuraibu’s Reactions to Polka Inviting Yukuri

I am dying for character interaction crumbs.
Mai: Polka entrusted the logistics to Mai, so Mai mostly focused on coming up with a solution to the distance problem that wouldn’t cause Polka to give her “puppy face.” She talked more about Polka than Yukuri, but she mentioned Yukuri’s ballet training as an asset to their group and also a way for her to not stand out herself.
Akira: Akira thought it would be a waste not to at least try it out. She also thinks Yukuri will be a much better dance teacher than Polka, who doesn’t know proper dance technique and just tells them to “do it like this, like that.”
Hanabi: Kimono queen Hanabi already began to think of what this means for kimonos and wants to go on a kimono date with Yukuri.

Umeda Satellite Meeting

I was wondering how Yukuri, Aurora, and Midori would meet, but I wasn’t expecting Aurora to take charge herself. I love the unhinged level of confidence to not only declare to hunt down someone she’s never met before just to insert herself and her friend into an idol group, but also to give that stranger a nickname (Yutti). While Mai has trash-talking Polka in her digital footprint*, Aurora has the stalker-like “Harumiya Yukuri-chan, huh? No matter how many times I think about it, it’s such a beautiful name!! 🏖️🏝️✨ Alrighty~ I won’t wait 🔫 I’ll definitely capture Yutti 💝💘💖”.

Aurora said she’ll do it first thing tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to the chaos that causes (unless Midori talks her down after waking up). I’ve thought before about her potential dynamics with the princely underclassman Yukuri and “not like other girls” Mai, so I’m looking forward to seeing their canon interactions.

*Shion also has this honor now.

Shion’s New Video

Since this video is very similar to her character introduction video (grrrr no new character sprites), I am glad we got explicit confirmations and lore drops.

Just as I thought, Shion skips school because of her feelings but will blame it on any weather, whether it’s rainy, windy, or sunshine. She lives outside of Tokyo and is potentially outside of major cities altogether (she thinks online school is just a quirky Tokyo thing). She talked more about her collection of uniforms (a lot for a girl that hates going to school) and dancing (a K-POP styled dance for that stream, so she’s good enough at dance to know different styles).

Most significantly, she ranted about the Ikizuraibu girls’ video (probably why Shion’s needed to be posted now). She was angry and derided them for wearing casual clothes instead of school uniforms, performing a cover instead of an original, having their terrible skills, and for the idiocy of trying to save an online school instead of just transferring. She views the latter especially as an affront to Umi and the dwindling legacy of school idols.

My current prediction is that her rage and passion could be enough to get Shion out of her depressive episode to “fix” Ikizuraibu, like a combination of Nico and Maki.
Speaking of μ's, I started to rewatch the entire franchise and I plan on writing a big post about it, but I probably should start drafting it so I don’t forget the details. >.>

5/30 Edit:

July 2025 Love Live Days Issue

It’s so late but I want to write it down before I forget. We finally got explicit confirmation that Shion is enrolled in a regular high school and we even learned she’ll be transferring to the Sendai satellite school in Tohoku (though she’ll be alone). It’s funny to know this while reading her new Tweets about hate-watching Ikizuraibu videos with her viewers instead of thinking about transferring like her parents asked. Also, it was nice to get confirmation that how the Fukui satellite joins Ikizuraibu is also intentionally mysterious.

Speaking of the Fukui satellite, I was not expecting the lore drop that Miracle quit confectionary (?) school after getting into an argument with her teacher. I also really like the quote about Miracle and Noriko that even the waves from the seas of Japan can’t stop their dreams.

The short reflections that went with the chibi art were also great. It’s cute how 7 out of 9 of them talked about another girl (mysterious Shion didn’t have one). I keep hoping Hanabi will mention any of her friends, but she is always in kimono girlboss mode lol. Even Akira “friends are meant for different types/worldview” Gotou will at least talk about Polka.

Most of all my favorite was Yukuri’s, who continues to be the most hopeless Romantic out there. She described Polka as a smiling dance goddess who was put right in front of her just as Yukuri was losing her dream, as if she was in a storybook. It’s implied that Polka’s dancing and song gave her courage and smiles, which is what Yukuri loves most of all.

We got left on a cliffhanger this week for Aurora’s tweet but honestly I expected that. The LLD issue said that all three Osaka members became involved with Ikizuraibu on 5/30, so I’m looking forward to it next week.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Ave Mujica - Crucifix X

A collection of random thoughts about LLBB. I am conflicted about making such disjointed and “low effort” posts here, but that’s probably a topic for a post of its own.

I drafted a post like this the other night, but by morning it had already become outdated.

A Tweet by Love Live character Mai Azabu reading “They don’t have that one either? Damn 💻”

A Tweet by Love Live character Mai Azabu reading “They don’t have that one either? Damn 💻”

My favorite Tweet so far: “They don’t have that one either? Damn 💻 “

Mai’s New Video and Name-Dropping

Out of the three character videos released so far, I like Mai’s the best as it contains the most new information about the character than all of them. A lot of it is specific to an absurd degree, like Mai attributing being short to being born early and having a 5 year plan of becoming taller as a result or hats always falling off her small head. I think my favorite line is Mai being certain that this group would become part of her embarrassing past (黒歴史). She is objectively right though. An IT company president who used to be a school idol would be funny and hard to live down.

Her video also continues the trend of name-dropping IRL brands and media (before it was McDonald's, Trader Joe’s, and extremely specific environmental regulations). The detail of Mai playing Minecraft and Scratch as a kid is too relatable. We also learned her family uses Macs and her goal is to be included in the Times’ Top 100 people who have changed the world.

Silly Meme I Thought of While Watching Akira’s New Video

The meme “awesome lesbian couple” and “evil and intimidating horse,” but the lesbian couple has been replaced with Polka and Mai and the horse was replaced by Akira.

Polka-Yukuri

I really like how they described Yukuri meeting Polka and wanted to highlight it here. Yukuri was enjoying the impressive view of the Sanja Matsuri when a girl caught her eye by dancing as if there was no gravity. Afraid that she was going to lose her just like a small bird flying away if she didn’t seize the chance, she called out to the girl. Polka assumed that Yukuri was lost and promised to help her out since Asakusa is her hometown. Yukuri noted that Polka has a strange charm to her that makes it impossible for her to look away (protagonist aura described like a crush is always funny). Yukuri was shocked that the girl was the same girl she saw in a video and praised less than a week ago.

Yukuri also mentioned Polka in her introduction video, calling her “little Polka” and saying that her “otoko kokoro” (male heart) spurred her to join and help her out.

We did hear from Akira that Polka freaked out from getting a message from a beautiful person she just met, but I want to hear Polka’s side of the story. It would be funny if even Polka was flabbergasted by Yukuri’s artistic appreciation of Polka/her capital R Romantic tendencies.

Character Relationships:

So far it seems like the character relationships in the group have mostly been developed in duos. Polka-Mai’s close bond as the scatterbrained sunshine girl and logical tsundere girl is well established (I think it was Mai’s VA that said Polka is always going “Mai this, Mai that”). Compared to how Mai and Polka constantly bring each other up in their videos and Tweets, Hanabi and Akira’s relationship with their group feels underdeveloped so far. Especially Hanabi, who is scarcely mentioned and only vaguely posted about her friends once. This isn’t a serious complaint since I’m sure it will change soon, but I’m hoping for more Hanabi interactions and not just kimono posts. I do wonder if Hanabi-Akira will happen to balance out Polka-Mai.

The other duos are Miracle-Noriko and Aurora-Midori. Miracle-Noriko is the most obvious result since they’re the only two at their satellite school to begin with. Noriko is polite but pessimistic and Miracle is cheerful and assertive. I enjoy Miracle’s dynamic with Noriko the most as she lights up the passion in Noriko, while also having a funny view impression of her (viewing Noriko as someone with a cute face that is begging to be fed sweets).

Aurora-Midori was the first duo established after the accounts were found. They contrast each other well. Midori is driven and serious, but she is also oblivious and socially inexperienced. Aurora brings levity to Midori’s life, while also fulfilling a role as an older sister who will dote on her and guide her (funnily enough this could also describe Miracle-Noriko).

Yukuri and Shion are the only characters not in a duo. She still hasn’t met the girls on the same campus as her (Aurora-Midori), so I wonder if she’ll be the one to recruit them. I did think Yukuri and Shion would make an interesting duo, as the girl who has her dream threatened by illness and the other who either doesn’t have a dream or has suppressed it so much. We know from her posts that Yukuri is incapable of suppressing her dream for the stage. I am not sure who will reach out to Shion now, but I am looking forward to it.

I rewatched LLSIP and most of the characters are already childhood friends, so it’s really interesting how most of the LLBB girls only met in the past month or two. I wonder if we’ll find out that any of them that haven’t met are acquaintances or something, or if the entire cast is meeting for the first time (which could be very interesting).

This is my first time being involved in Love Live since Liella S1 so I forget how these things work, but I think the June issue of Love Live Days should release this week. I’m hoping there will be new art of the girls. This is probably too much to wish for from a debut issue, but it would be cool to see their daily life. For example, practicing by the river or having meetings at a fast food restaurant that is definitely not McDonald’s.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Ave Mujica - Ave Mujica