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Here, I'll sing with all my heart and soul. I'm waiting, I'm waiting. That's why, I want to cherish this place!

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codependency arc!

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on a rinmeikan kick

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stuffing crumbs into my mouth you need to be watching Tanaka Yuyuko's Classical Rakugo Theatre

rui saying she's more relaxed than usual before their performance because yuyuko's the one leading and bragging to maya & claudine that yuyuko has "hundreds of rakugo in her repitoire" with yuyuko whining her name in response healed my ruiyukko heart

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This is an essay I wrote for Curtain Call: A Revue Starlight Re LIVE Memory Book.

I don’t think we’ll get a proper ending or send off the Rinmeikan characters before the game shuts down, which is why I want to talk about Carmen - Song of Freedom. It’s about two years old at this point, but as we near ReLIVE’s end of service, I kind of see it as an epilogue to the Rinmeikan story.

Rinmeikan has a distinct separation between their second and first years. The second years are all haunted by failures. Tamao failed to keep her grandmother’s beloved performance department alive because she hadn’t been willing to risk everything. Fumi quit acting after becoming disgusted by herself, who was so focused on being the best at Siegfeld that she wished ill on her sister once she began to rival her. Ichie always regretted not going against management and turning on the mics for Sweet Pleats’s final performance to give her fellow idols a chance to really show off their talents. In Downfall, their chapters reveal their regrets about their past and what they lost, and ignites their desire to fight and protect what they have left.

Meanwhile, the first years aren’t weighed down by anything like that. They miss the Performance Department and the place they created with everyone, but they don’t really worry about what they could have or should have done. Yuyuko and Rui lament how empty their days are without the club, with Yuyuko no longer fulfilled with how she used to pass her time before and Rui being fawned over by others, but not by the one she really wants to look at her. And it’s because of how they can’t be satisfied without the Performance Department that they do something, not because they regret how it ended. Yuyuko writes a script for the second years because that’s what she knows she can do, and Rui constantly reaches out to Tamao, ready to join her the moment Tamao reveals their stage, because that’s how she’s always been, that was why she started acting in the first place.

Tamao is the one who enforces the divide between the years. She refuses to ask the first years to take the risk of getting in trouble with the school by going against their decision and reviving the Performance Department until Yuyuko joins her. And during the Performance Festival, she reveals her plan to reap her costars souls only to Fumi and Ichie, leaving Yuyuko and Rui in the dark once more.

During the Performance Festival, the second years are fueled by their regrets. Ichie doesn’t want everyone to split up and go their separate ways like her former group, so she goes along with Tamao and Fumi despite her misgivings, just so they can stay together. Fumi, in an attempt to atone for her attitude at Siegfeld, devotes herself to making someone else shine, even if it costs her own brilliance. And Tamao rejects her passive attitude from before, instead taking initiative to become the top star in this performance. But still, they end up making the same mistakes that caused their regrets. Ichie goes along with Fumi and Tamao’s plan at first even though she knows it’s wrong, not unlike how she caved under the pressure of the adults who managed her former idol group. Fumi runs away from being the star, just like how she ran away from Shiori’s brilliance. And back then Tamao tried to rely on the auditions to revive her department instead of fighting herself, and now she imitates stage girls like Akira and Maya instead of fighting with her own acting.

But with Yuyuko and Rui, they don’t have mistakes they can repeat or a past they are trying to escape. They didn’t start with failure or loss, they started completely blank when it came to the stage. They’ve only ever gained things at Rinmeikan, guided by the second years. What they do isn’t for the future of Rinmeikan, but for the place they created. Yuyuko does the same thing she did in Downfall, even when kept out of the loop she wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the second years, to bear their burdens as well. She hardens her resolve, and makes sure to bring Rui with her, just like when she made that script for Rinmeiki knowing that Rui would join them. Rui too, she started acting and learning because she admired Tamao’s kind acting, and in Arcana Arcadia she learns from other stage girls and improves so she can fight for Tamao’s kind acting.

Eventually, the second years decide to be true to themselves, using their pasts as the reason to change for the future and for Rinmeikan. Ichie stands up to Fumi and forces her to show off her true acting, something she wishes she had done with Sweet Pleats. She refuses to let Rinmeikan suddenly disappear without showing off their true shine. Fumi decides to aim to be the lead, even if it means outshining Tamao, because that’s the new way for her to keep her promise with Shiori. She will put Rinmeikan on the map herself, because that’s the kind of star she has always been. And Tamao decides to stand on stage as herself instead of as Death, because even if she failed before, everyone wants to see her shine brightest as herself. The Rinmeikan she revives will not be the one of the past, but instead her own.

But for the first years, it’s a little different. They want to be together with everyone else, but their reason to stand on stage will become a lot flimsier once the second years graduate. So Arcana Arcadia never really answers what is the fuel that keeps them going.

In Carmen - Song of Freedom, Frontier invites Fumi, Yuyuko, and Rui as guest performers for the eponymous opera, Carmen.

At first Frontier planned to just invite Fumi, but she initially declines because she wanted to instead work on training Rui and Yuyuko in techniques outside of their usual Traditional Japanese forte so the Frontier second years decide to invite those two as well. This is an opportunity for Rui and Yuyuko to learn from someone outside of their school, but despite that we hear that Rui and Yuyuko don’t particularly want to learn from someone else.

Fumi has always been the least Rinmeikan of the three second years as she saw herself as an outsider and brought a level of Siegfeld strictness to their practices, and she mentions that she wants to show Rui and Yuyuko the benefits to using singing methods other than the German singing style they had been taught at Rinmeikan, which while impressive, is also very intense and impractical for operas which are completely sung through. Tamao, Fumi, Shizuha, and Tsukasa all agree that they should pick up new techniques so they can adapt to new settings. This is a very Rinmeikan idea, considering how most of the second years have had to adapt to make the best of their circumstances after failing. Still, Rui rejects the new technique, claiming she wanted to be bound to Rinmeikan. But it’s rough on her and her singing can’t keep up.

But after watching Fumi’s etude with Lalafin, the two of them decide to stick to the German singing style, even if it will be harder on themselves.

Tamao, Fumi, and Ichie are all fueled by regret. Each of them are the way they are because they don’t want what happened to them to happen to anyone else, especially not their friends in the Performance Association. They are on their paths out of necessity, it's not what they initially imagined for themselves, but they have to make the most of the hand they’ve been dealt. A big part of their stories is that they can’t ignore their past, they have to accept their mistakes and bring it with them, as hard as it can be, since it’s part of them. That’s why they made the same mistakes even when they wanted to change. It’s disappointing for them.

But Rui and Yuyuko don’t see that. They think they’re amazing.

Although the second years see themselves as a cautionary tale, for the first years they are their inspiration. Even when they are introduced to new ideas at Frontier, they choose to stick to their ideal from Rinmeikan. They don’t want to learn something new to replace what they already had, they instead use the new setting to better showcase what they’ve learned. And it was because of Fumi that Rui and Yuyuko were invited to Frontier and had the opportunity to learn. But despite that, Fumi worries that Rinmeikan was wasting Rui and Yuyuko’s talents by not being good enough for them. 

In the event, when Shizuha tries to compliment Rui and Yuyuko, she is thrown off by how they only attribute their success to what they learned Rinmeikan. No matter what the second years think about themselves, Rui and Yuyuko adore them. Even when presented with new options, they choose Rinmeikan. The German singing style they were taught meant they needed to work a lot harder, but the end result gave them a more powerful performance. It might be tougher for them and they’ve been warned against it by people who experienced it, but they still choose that.

Because they want to be like their seniors who taught them, even if they aren’t perfect. They’ve seen how brilliant their struggles made them, so they’re willing to take the harder path too if it means they can be like them. It’s not as easy, but there’s nothing else like it. For the second years, their failures are a shameful part of them that they can never escape, but the first years who admire them don’t mind that at all because it made them who they are, and that’s who they want to be like.

And it’s just kind of nice to see that Rui and Yuyuko choose to follow Tamao, Fumi, and Ichie. Like despite everything that went wrong for them, they’re still inspiring.

It’s a story you can’t really have at Seisho, where everyone is a rival who inspires and pulls each other to aim for a higher stage. So it’s nice to have a school where it’s not the success but the failure that pushes everyone forward together.

Rinmeiki is a play about how there is beauty in death.

That line has a lot of interpretations throughout Arcana Arcadia, but I think the relationship between the second years and the first years is the best way to interpret it. Tamao tried to throw away her past self, but that was who captivated Rui. No matter how much Tamao cursed her own inaction, Rui still idolized her kindness, because she saw something that Tamao missed. It goes both ways too. Despite Rui’s initial stage fright and general anxiety, everyone encouraged her to stand on stage since they saw the potential in her. Even if Yuyuko tries to appear apathetic, everyone knows how hard she works, even if she tries to hide it. It’s hard for them to see themselves properly, so that’s why they have each other to see the best of them.

No matter how final or how tragic death might seem, it doesn’t need to be bleak. It can be inspiring, it can be an angel, like Rui’s interpretation of Death in Arcana Arcadia.

It’s hard for the second years to see the beauty in their own metaphorical deaths, in their failures, but the first years see it. They aren’t as wrapped up in what went wrong, and can instead appreciate the totality, how bright they shined before and how brilliant they were after. This wide view is like their traditions and history in a way. Even as the school’s reputation started to fall, there were still a handful of people who remembered them at their best. I think the beauty in death comes from the life that came before, in appreciating everything that came before, even if it has ended.

ReLIVE is approaching its death as well.

Honestly I have issues with ReLIVE. There were a lot of event stories that felt either way too short or way too drawn out. I didn’t get to see nearly as much of Frontier as I would have liked. And don’t even get me started on the timeline. There is only a three month window between Starlight and the start of their third year, are you telling me they managed to put on that many plays!? Also the predatory gacha system. That part sucks too.

But I also really enjoyed it. It gave me a steady flow of stories outside the anime and plays, and it was so cool to see the themes of Revue Starlight in new contexts and reimagined. I definitely won’t forget the characters it introduced any time soon. 

And I really will miss Rinmeikan.

It was nice to see how they were there for each other, how they supported each other and hyped each other up despite their own misgiving about themselves. Alone, they might have crumpled, but together they made a stage that will last, even past the death of their game.

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till theres no life left in me

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eldorado in two days cant wait to see in what ways bgumi are gonna ruin everyones lives this time

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!! GEGE KAIRAI (mirishita casting 01) SPOILER WARNING !!

so from the moment this cover had come out id been wondering if the flowers on it had any meaning

here is what google told me:

the flower itself is lycoris aka the spider lily aka higanbana which is often used to symbolise death. its practically one of the most common metaphors for it.

the red one (konomi, mizuki) means the cycle of death and rebirth.

yellow (iku, momoko) symbolises inner strength, wisdom, love and courage (this part seemed quite suspicious).

and finally white, also held by mizuki, means purity and starting anew.

takane is holding no flower which i thought was due to her role as she's the one performing the ritual.

..............and well it didnt explain much. but now as ive found the translation of the cd dramas (op if you see this im really really thankful to you) it has become a bit clearer

so let me recap the story:

it takes place in a village where its believed that after death souls move to wooden dolls and then leave them to inhabit newborn babies; sometimes it just so happens that two souls get into the same body which is...... not really good esp if one of them is a spirit, not a human soul. there is also kakurou-sama, a patron spirit everyone in the willage worships.

ayako (played by mizuki) and hanako (played by momoko) are sisters who lost their parents some years ago. since then, hanako had become terribly weak and was hospitalised.

after she was released and returned home, ayako and their cousin miho (konomi) noticed some changes within her. the friendly and active girl suddenly turned cold and distant. the villagers were just as strange, paying too much attention to hanako and talking about kakurou-sama nonstop.

soon hanako brought a friend, wakaba (inu), who was said to have been staying with hanako in the hospital and didnt remember a thing due to amnesia. the strange part to wakaba was that her personality was exaclty like the one hanako used to have.

ayako and wakaba quickly grew closer, and the jealousy inside hanako ("wakaba is mine and mine only!") awakened something evil. this evil nearly killed everyone, if not for something else awakening inside ayako and suppressing it.

.........now to the part that actually explains everything: miho and hanako used to have double souls, while ayako and wakaba were dead. ayako lost her life due to a powerful spirit corroding her from the inside which seemed to disappear after her death. a ritual was performed later to transfer one of the souls residing in miho, that brought ayako back to life and saved the latter. (this is heavily implied but not officially stated). turned out the spirit didnt disappear and was revived now as a reaction to the evil.

as for hanako, this evil spirit seemed to be kakurou-sama whose awakening was stimulated by the loss of the girls' parents. to save hanako's life, mikoto (takane) performed a similar ritual, transferring hanako's normal soul to wakaba's body (she died normally some time ago btw). and THATS why hanako has changed and why wakaba seemed so much like hanakos prev self.

this is getting pretty long despite me shortening some parts so ill retell the rest quickly. mikoto performed another ritual that made both magical spirits die. wakaba was sent to the city while ayako's body (unfortunately i didnt get which soul was left inside) was undergoing treatment in the hospital. and miho gave wakaba a wooden doll somehow connected with ayako as a parting gift. thats it.

now lets get back to the flowers:

turned out that matching flowers mean the souls inside the two girls were initially in the same body (ayako and miho, hanako and wakaba). the white one symbolises the spirit inside ayako

ah and also!

- hanako is grasping the flower firmly as this soul gave her the authority to make the villagers follow her orders and shes not willing to let this opportunity go;

- wakaba is hesitant about her past and worried about whats going on;

- miho doesnt know a thing yet gently embraces her life, treasuring it;

- finally, ayako is holding her "normal" soul the way she wont lose it, nevertheless focusing on the spiritual one, ready to let it consume her.

and thats kinda it! the post was much longer than what i had expected but i wanted to retell as many points of the story as possible

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(since the official announcement has been made i guess theres no problem in using the full card art)

I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS YUYUKO

LIKE. ATEAM ENCORE-ING EVERYTHING IS NO GOOD BUT THE CARD ART ITSELF IS SOOOOOOO

dont wanna rewrite everything but i summarised my screams on twt (character limit is killing me)

thank you very much.

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🪽🫀

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SHINY COLORS FASHION ANALYSIS: Yuika Mitsumine (三峰結華)

"I'm an idol… it feels kind of strange…"

This is a project analyzing and taking a look at the fashion design and application in the multimedia series, The IDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors. This section is about the eccentric and lively subculture girl of the series, Yuika Mitsumine! If you want to jump to a specific section, go here!

(This is a reprint of my thread on Twitter. I put it on Tumblr for easier reading and for archiving purposes. Enjoy!)

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INTRODUCTION

“Yuika is a first-year college student, a subculture girl with a free-spirited, light-hearted, & somewhat elusive personality. She can talk to people that she meets for the first time easily and has a deep knowledge of idols. Sometimes she has a serious expression on her face.”

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Profile

Age: 19

Birthday: January 16th

Height: 158 cm

Weight: 44 kg

Blood Type: O

Hometown: Fukushima

Hobbies: Watching idol lives, cameras, anime, games, reading

Special Skills: Studying & can be recognized by her oshi as quick as possible

CV: Shio Kisui

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Before starting the analysis, I would suggest if you haven’t already, read her W.I.N.G. (introductory) commu (through the broswer game's English patch or on YouTube). If you don’t play the game, I would listen to her image song and read the lyrics to get a better sense of her character.

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STYLE BREAKDOWN

Consisting of many different fashion elements, Yuika’s personal fashion is easily identifiable though hard to define. Labelled a “subculture girl,” her open-minded personality leads Yuika to incorporate various styles into her own while still looking unique & fashion-forward.

Before diving into her fashion, I’ll expand on her label as a “subculture girl” using this graphic. “Sabukaru” is more of a cultural movement rather than a fashion style, with personal fashion and expression being varied amongst members dependent on their hobbies.

Yuika’s fashion is mainly inspired from aomoji-kei or blue letter style, explaining her versatile & unique wardrobe. Formerly used as a catch-all for Harajuku fashion, it describes cute & casual fashion that doesn’t appeal to men with a motto of “wearing what you want to wear.”

Popular aomoji-kei magazines like Zipper, FRUiTS, and KERA! covered many different styles and brands, inspired by streetsnaps in Harajuku. The insides featured many experimental and exciting coordinates as sort of a counter against mainstream fashion and the male gaze.

Though all the magazines above have ceased production due to a change in audience and trends, the Aomoji-kei movement still lives on through brands, digital newsletters, and the thriving fashion culture of Harajuku. Also, magazines like mini and SO-EN are still around today.

This diagram from Asahi Sato shows that Aomoji-kei is split into many styles ranging from simple & girly to individualistic & sporty. The next few tweets identify major groups that Yuika’s fashion is drawn from, but keep in mind there is heavy overlap & won't include all of them.

Group 1 of her various styles I dub her “original style.” This style is highly featured in her default outfits and many other early cards of hers. Heavily influenced by the kawaii, amekaji, pop, & original harajuku street-style trendsetters, this style is very fun and eccentric!

Group 2 is less showy than Group 1, with a more conventional elements that reflect modern street style, but still show Yuika’s eccentricity and skill of outfit composition. Appearing after the peak of her “kawaii pop” style, it’s a more casual and laid-back style comparably.

Group 3 is the most mature, elegant, and “smart” pool of looks that Yuika wears. Featuring a mix of solids and simple patterns, dark and neutral colors, and elements of the mode casual and feminine styles, it’s a group that shows off a more simple but modish side to her.

Though I categorize her styles in groups, Yuika’s style can’t really be categorized. They bleed between different groups or don’t fit into any at all. These groups were made for people to identify her weared trends, but compartmentalizing her style doesn’t really fit her at all.

Now I would like to talk about some common elements of Yuika’s fashion that appear, regardless of style inspiration. The most famous are her trademark glasses and baseball caps, customized so they fit any look she wears.

Two more essential elements of her personal style are her frequent & variable use of pattern & color clashing and colorblocking & color theory in outfit composition. These being mainstays in her fashion make it as versatile and interesting as it can get.

This tweet shows four outfits and how she applies clashing, color theory, and conceptual importance to make them exciting, unique, & varied. Though a wide range of style influences and colors are used, all these outfits are “Yuika-core” connected by common styling values.

The above section was written inspired by a blog talking about Yuika’s fashion sense, so I would like to give them thanks for well-written another perspective on her style.

No need to talk about her fashion’s color palette as she doesn’t limit her fashion to a specific group of colors, but her image color is a medium-blue like sky or rain. For such an outgoing personality, her image color has a weight to it which we will cover in the next section.

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STYLE ANALYSIS

Yuika was scouted by Producer while taking shelter from the rain, coming back from an idol-merchandise haul. Upon seeing her smile and how much she loves idols, he asks her if she wants to become an idol.

She finds it hard to believe she actually got scouted and thinks it’s some kind of elaborate prank, but she accepts the offer and becomes an idol. It’s later revealed that she wanted to become one due to being curious about the world of idols and wanting to be admired.

To fans and the members of L’antica, Yuika acts as the moodmaker and jokester of the group, always having a huge smile on her face and constantly cracking jokes and making merry. She’s the initial glue that bonds L’Antica together and always makes sure everyone is feeling happy.

As to why she’s so outgoing, it’s revealed that it comes from interacting with other idol otaku at live shows but she keeps this a secret from most people. She is a diehard idol fan of many female groups, collecting merch and going to handshake events.

In fact, most people know that Yuika is a “subculture” girl and has many public interests like fashion, photography, and manga. However, she keeps her insane idol hobby under wraps, even hiding merch from the L’antica girls when they visit her place.

One special quirk of Yuika is her high degree of reading the atmosphere and sensing the mood of the room quickly. In her Landing Point, she reveals she keeps her otaku hobbies a secret because when she would talk to her friends about anime, she felt the vibe get uncomfortable.

Yuika is really sensitive to the vibe getting rancid in fact, feeling uncomfortable if everyone isn’t feeling content. She will do anything to make everyone feel comfortable, even putting her own feelings on the back burner if she feels it would unnecessarily complicate things.

Even with the Producer, she is known for hiding her true feelings and masking it with her outgoing personality and deflecting issues that bother her, burdening herself instead. She doesn’t like to show signs of weakness and keeps a well-hidden distance from most people.

In cards like “NOT≠EQUAL,” “Dizzy Dizzy,” and “No Life,” she is also shown to be very self-critical and barrages herself with deprecating comments. She only discloses these feelings with Producer, as she feels bad troubling anyone else with her “trivial” problems.

Her image song, “Plastic Umbrella,” discusses her habit of hiding who she really is and keeping a boundary from most people to “protect the peace.” Not wanting to “bump into anyone” but also “wanting someone to find her,” this paradox of personality is everpresent.

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Though her personality is somewhat hard to explain, her fashion really eludicates who she is as a person. At first glance, her style is very eyecatching and eccentric, but not in an intimidating way. It’s very fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously in a way that is amiable.

However, if you look closer you’ll see that a lot of care and meticulous detail is put into her outfits. The colors, patterns, silhouette, composition, mood, atmosphere, accessories, clothes, etc. are all specifically picked to fit each other in a way that is incredibly skilled.

As said by others, Yuika has an incredible eye for detail with people, but this expands to her fashion as well. She is good at studying, remembering, and applying knowledge to situations, seen in how variable her fashion influences are but still maintaining a cohesive style.

Personally, I would describe her “fun” fashion as an mechanism of lowering others’ guard similar to her outgoing personality, masking her real feelings. Not to say that her fashion is ingenuous, but it helps make other people feel at ease regardless of intention.

Yuika’s style evolution is hard to spot, but major style influences she wears change with time. Out of all the Shiny Colors girls, Yuika definitely has the most unique take on fashion & the fact that it’s also a commentary on herself (both shown and hidden) is the cherry on top.

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This is it for Yuika Mitsumine!

If you liked this thread, check out my Twitter and give me a tip on Ko-Fi so I can do more things like this with other idol series! Thanks for reading <3

Next section: Kiriko Yukoku

[thestarkn0ws]

—From THE iDOLM@STER MILLION LIVE!

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so pure so good so lovely

so swift so light so inescapable

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omg HI VIVI now i don't feel like i've gone crazy and am talking to myself

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i finally FINALLY brought some gay ppl!!

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some random memes i don't even remember making

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プラスチックアンブレラ

結華のソロ曲が1番好きかも