#Where are my PV and Rippy moments at?

[dorkafricska]

🖤 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓂  🖤

in

[fruitycircus]

ok quick rundown of my take of that laserblast & venomous are brothers au i drew earlier. ill probably revise this later with images & junk but im just gonna go through it now and update later.

it also might be nice to mention that this was based on my own speculation of the connection between lb & pv back in 2019, all pre-big reveal & lets get shadowy

soo laserblast and later venomous were born between two heroes in neo riot city (im not sure if id get into the parents but id say one was human and the other some type of lizard/snake mutant) laser got his folk's powers and good looks, and venomous didn't, tho he did recieve some mutant traits including always being ourple.

fast forward a couple years to when POINT has been a solid team for a while now with laserblast himself, foxtail, and dr. greyman, and also silverspark, el bow, and rippy roo a bit later. venomous had been offered to enroll in POINT prep so he could join the team by his big brother, but as of right now venomous holds it off and says he's busy with his own personal studies, all of which are based on glorbs (like what theyre made of, if they can be modified wink wink nudge nudge, etc) but he is able to take on the offer. he currently studies in a separate building disguised as a common shop winkity wink wink. tho he admits its a tad bit suspicious, ven claims that he means no harm and just uses the building as a controlled work zone for his projects. only he and laser know about this location, and ven says he doesnt trust POINT with this information but plans to tell them when he can confirm his tests are stable and safe to use. he also recently aquired a test rat from a science program that "re-inhabits" lost critters for the sake of science. although ven just didnt have the heart to use her for his projects, thus she treats her more like a pet / friend / child and names her fink

now would also be a good time to mention laser & ven's own issues; laser's is unchanged from canon (abt him feeling that his powers are mid compared to his team and how he felt like he couldnt be himself even with his girlfriend carol and what he was capable for doing compared to her.) ven, although content with his complete lack of powers, struggles with being seen. his brother is the laserblast for crying out loud, he often feels overshadowed and/or just known as laserblast's sibling. he wants to make a name for himself with his own passion. yeah, being offered to possibly join POINT is an amazing opportunity, but ven isnt sure if huge superhero teams are his calling. all he knows that science is something he likes but is unsure if his current experiments are something he'll do forever. he wants a life that he doesnt have and an opportunity that doesnt exist...yet!

anyways, ven and fink goes out into the city to get more supplies for his experiments, but while he was gone greyman enters the "donut shop" and then its all downhill from here: greyman alerts the team of a possibly villain living there (again, laser was the only one who knew that ven was doing this), foxtails sends laser, silverspark, and el bow to investigate, laser offers to "check the perimeter" and tries to cover up his brother's work, which all leads up to the sandwich incident where laserblast is presummed to be shrunk or teleported or whatever. POINT recieves the news and his heartbroken about the loss of their beloved hero... but we all know he survived by escaping into a sewer pipe and left the scene.

the next morning, laser tries to go back to the surface and explain everything to the team but is confronted by ven. he doesnt know how to feel knowing his life work was destroyed, why laser almost abandoned his team / girlfriend in the moment, or just really what laserblast was thinking. laser and ven squabble for a moment until laser straight up tells ven to confirm that he is dead and isnt coming back, and then leave. ven assumes hes bluffing and waits...and waits...and...uh oh.

a few weeks pass and POINT is nearly in shambles. el bow was fired since he was blamed for laser's disappearance, rippy roo starts looking into atomic physics, greyman starts building chip damage, and carol is confirmed to be pregnant with laser's baby. during all of this, ven tries to contact POINT about the truth about the sandwich incident, but no one is able to give him the time of day to listen. this breaks him to bits, he knew POINT didnt know him that well, but they were just straight up ignoring him now. he felt so powerless knowing that his brother was alive and probably wouldnt bother coming up after what he (and carol) said. what was ven supposed to do without his big brother in the w-

wait a minute!

ven has an epiphany: with his brother no longer a thing, he's no longer in laser's shadow and could do whatever he wanted to now!! sure its grim, but its true. POINT never gave a second thought about him so its not like they'd reach out now! and soon enough venomous started studying bioengineering and making various projects and weapons and even begins working with glorbs again, although rather than just studying them he dives deeper into their effects and how they can be used a power supplies, both as actual energy and powerups for heroes. he also invents what would be the turbo collar, to which he gives to his daughter / now (maybe-self-proclaimed?) minion fink!! however, a problem did arise: no hero was willing to buy his projects feeling as if they were made with ill intent. some villains did reach out to purchase and although ven was skeptical they sure did pay a pretty peny for it, not to mention he did realize that he had some sharing ideals with them, and before everyone knew in ven broke into the villain market and became who we know today as professor venomous. sometimes he missies his brother, but he now considers it a lost cause and not much we can do about it today. from here on out everything about him lines up to the show's events (we're captured, villains night out/in, etc)

on a more somber note, laser stayed under the city weeping about being far weaker than he was before. he begins physically deteriorating into something he could even reconinze. but even at his lowest point, he refused to give up. he needed his powers back and then sum. he wants his old life back to the way everything was. he remebered some of his bro's studies about glorbs, but only the results of each experiment. he had to learn how to reverse engineer it all by himself, and thats what he set himself to do. but how was he supposed to get glorbs? steal them? well, yeah, i guess. and thus changed lase- no, shadowy figure's trajectory and goal. he travels though the city system to steal glorbs from various hideouts, stores, etc. and once the city ran dry, he jumped to the next town over and rinse and repeat until he went to lakewood plaza turbo, home of the elusive glorb tree which would of gave shadowy an almost lifetime supply of glorbs for him. when we wasn't stalking to plaza and being a creep, he was working with the glorbs he stole to make them regain his original powers and more permanently.

the thing is, he actually did have a power that survived. y'know that purple depower bubble TKO can make?? yeah, shadowy is completely immune to that. you cant mess with something that isnt there. it might seem usless considering not many heroes possess that type of power, but it sure can come in handy when your son, specifically his evil alter ego, tries to attack.

aaaand thats it!! ill probably have to look back at this later but for know here it is in all of its angst-fueled glory. moral of the story? you can both be the evil twin. ty and goodnight!!!!

[3wisellamas]

Hey, remember my pet cracktheory that Darrell is a clone of Laserblast, or is somehow connected to him in some way?  I finally cleaned up and sorted out my full list of weird things I’ve noticed that they both have in common, or that otherwise support that, or are just weird about this stupid robot in general.  Because I wasn’t fucking joking about there being a lot of it.  Probably not gonna actually amount to anything, especially with not much series left, but meh.  It’s fun.  Enjoy.

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Appearance/Body:

(Okay, I admit most of this section was pretty much killed by Darrell's canon human form in OK AU, which looked NOTHING like Laser at all.  But just in case...)

-Identical body shape/proportions to LB/SF, with wider torso/hips and very thin waist -- maybe a little smaller because he's a teen (and a robot)

-Very close head shape to LB/SF/PV:  square jaw (when it’s not exaggerated to make him cuter), similar rectangular shape and proportions if you include the braincase (since it would normally be inside his skull)

-LB's mask looks a LOT like Darrell's head, with the entire top half and most of the sides of his head covered and with circular ear...things

-That mask also tends to be quite expressive, almost functioning as a single eye sometimes

-Their big heavy boots are also kinda similar (Though honestly Darrell's boots look slightly more like Chip Damage's...)

-LB is based off of the superhero Cyclops, and Darrell is literally a cyclops

-Only robot that really seems to have an organic, human brain, and has human feet too along with Shannon -- even for just the feet, someone's DNA has to be cloned to make him, and not necessarily Boxman's.

-Darrell can grow stubble, according to that one tiny joke shot in Let's Watch the Boxmore Show; his face may be organic just like his brain and feet.  Also worth noting, the specific spots on the side of the jaw where LB's/SF's stubble shows are covered by metal for Darrell -- when comparing Darrell and LB, each character's most distinctive visible features (one eye and brain, cheek stubble) are covered up on the other!

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Costumes:

-Darrell seems to enjoy dressing up as a HERO -- when he's in cowboy mode he plays a sheriff, and when the bots play Golden Statues he always plays the museum guard, both specifically hero roles!

-In fact, the costumes in general -- he definitely likes pretending he's someone else, rather than just being fashionable like his siblings.

-LB and SF both hide their eyes, and may have something unusual/distinctive about them, especially with Laser because of his eye-based powers.  LB!SF in particular would hide his if there was something that might immediately get him recognized as his former identity.  Perhaps only having one eye (hence the visor acting as one on occasion like I pointed out)?  (We got to see behind LB's mask once in Gar's fear sequence in Face Your Fears, with one red eye showing where the mask was broken, but there it did look like he had two.  However, Gar would never have seen what was ACTUALLY under there...)

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Habits/Personality:

-LB was an anti-hero, willing to do some fucked-up things in the name of good, while Darrell is an anti-villain, who focuses more on just doing his job, having fun, and trying to make his father happy than crushing the heroes out of malice

-Darrell's also just a terrible villain in general.  Of course, he's directly killed another villain (or tried to anyway), and his idea of doing the most evilest thing was reporting Boxman's lies to the board and stopping him, AKA doing the RIGHT thing -- even with the betrayal, not very villainous of him, huh?

-Weird shared oral fixation?  There's a very unusual emphasis on food/mouth things with Darrell (his lowkey obsession with eating, spitting Boxman into the spitoon in his office, brushing his teeth), and LB's trademark was always having that lollipop in his mouth.

-Hugging soft cute animals, like Rippy and Fink

-Darrell writes in concrete in You're Level 100, and LB does the same using his eye laser in Glory Days (in the POINT theme song)

-Neither one is a big fan of new members of their respective teams right away.  LB refused to take junior members with him in both Glory Days and Let's Take a Moment, and doesn't seem to think much of them in either episode at all, aside from Silver Spark (and then, he still left her behind as one of his lookouts).  Darrell...just freaking HATES new siblings at first, having a problem with every single one he gets, at least the ones we've seen (we didn't get to see his and Mikayla's introduction).  He's also like this to siblings he considers inferior to him, to a point -- he and Shannon both got pretty jealous when Boxman started praising Jethro's "new moves."

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Boxman stuff:

-Timing is correct, Darrell and the others were created right after LB disappeared according to Lad and Logic, since Boxman only drew the first three members in his original plans to attack POINT, and Gar was already building the plaza by the time Boxmore was opened.  This means the Boxbot quadruplets and KO were actually born around the same time, making them all 6-11 years old, roughly the same amount of time that's passed since the Sandwich Incident.

-Boxy was obsessed with POINT at that time (and still is, since he's kept the coordinates for POINT HQ memorized), and possibly LB himself (given his later attraction to PV)

-Boxman may also have some POINT tech and connections of his own?  First off, access to a huge supply of glorbs, the easiest and closest source of which Foxtail and Carol have been protecting and heavily monitoring, and are normally very hard for non-heroes to get their hands on.  Second, those boxes he sends the robots to attack in might use the same wormhole tech as POINT Prep's bus, since it looks a little similar both in transit and emerging at its destination, plus its driver sounds exactly like Ernesto.  And speaking of Ernesto, that one time he straight-up drew a POINT drone as part of a family portrait…

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POINT stuff:

-There were six members of POINT before the Sandwich Incident, and LB was one of the original three, and seemed to function as co-leader alongside Foxtail.  There are six Boxbots, and Darrell was one of the original four, and kinda leads them in battle alongside Shannon, especially once he becomes CEO.

-And coincidentally, the original six members of POINT also share colors and in some cases roles with the Boxbots -- Shannon and Foxtail are orange, Greyman and Ernesto are purple, El-Bow and Jethro are blue, Rippy and Raymond are green, Silver Spark is...difficult but her hair is pretty distinctive and works with Mikayla for yellow, and of course, Darrell and Laser are red.  The robots' colors and relative ages even match POINT'S senior/junior members, with Greyman, Laser, and Foxtail representing three of the older Boxbots, and then Rippy, Silver Spark, and El-Bow representing the two newer ones and Jethro, who only recently was able to show his true personality/potential.

-"Junior Members" = "Junior Deputies"

-"Code Vermillion."  I made an entire post on this a while back, but to summarize, Vermillion is a bright, slightly orange-y red, and in most episodes is Darrell's exact color.  And Vermillion, as a red pigment, tends to darken over time into purple and black -- and SF and PV have connections to both glorbs (which Code Vermillion refers to), and to LB as well.

-Darrell has a bunch of weird similarities to Chip Damage as well, who is basically Laser's replacement at POINT, minus being the Charisma discipline rep:  Robots made right after LB got iced, green powers, special limited-edition costumes/POW cards, similar dark gray boots, the remote controls (Wisdom class blackboard for Darrell, Final Exams for Chip), possibly both made with actual brain tissue (The flashback to Chip's creation had a brain on one of Greyman's screens), etc.  Also, a dumb one, but...remember those Double-Dipped (KO and TKO?) Laser Chips (self-explanatory), that are "probably just a limited-edition" (Darrell).

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Other assorted weird things:

-Darrell’s laser eye attachment shown in Stop Attacking the Plaza -- still being worked on in the episode (and it looks like it has been for a while, since it had been some time since Boxman was in that specific lab...), but used by a Big Darrell in the opening, where it produces a very similar (green) copy of LB's beam.

-Darrell is right-handed, in a left-handed family -- he's shown eating with his right hand in Stop Attacking the Plaza while everyone else is using their left, looks like he’s wielding a lightsaber right-handed in Plaza Film Festival, and draws with his right hand in Villains Night In.  Left-handedness is often associated with villains in fiction, so he may not be a full one?  (Definitely not as sinister as the rest of them, hehe.)  Though, some instances of Darrell using his left hand too, and other bots using their right, so I dunno how strong this particular point is.

-Line to keep an eye on:  "Just reboot yourself into a new body!  I do it all the time for funsies!" from Rad Likes Robots.  Related, Darrell reboots by exploding himself, which is how LB may have "died" and took on a new identity (if he's SF)

-Weird shit from Let's Not Be Skeletons:  Potato demonstrates a skeleton remote wearing a cowboy hat, and in addition to turning people into skeletons they remove powers, just like that red orb, and they also left Rad's and Enid's boots intact for some reason.  Darrell's also one of the biggest customers of the remotes, using his foes' weapons against them ("What do you say we snag more of them before they fall into the wrong hands?  We could even use them against our foes!")

-When we first saw TKO's power manifest in You're Level 100, it was while KO was trying to defeat a giant superpowered Darrell.  When we first saw TKO in physical form in Face Your Fears (as KO's "evil burp"), he was sent out to defeat a giant superpowered Laserblast head.  When we next saw TKO in, well, TKO (as his true self for the first time), he defeated another giant superpowered Darrell!

-Really dumb one, the letter right before C and D is B, so the acronyms LB and LCD may be a thing?

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Turbo/SF/TKO connections, just in case those turn out to be related to Laser as well:

(Under the cut, since this is long enough already!)

-SF hints that negative emotions, particularly anger, fuel Turbo powers.  Darrell has quite a few jealousy and anger issues in general -- "Gets flustered by petty insults," HATES new younger siblings (or existing siblings showing him up and getting more of dad’s attention), etc -- and seems to be way more capable of mayhem than usual when running on these emotions.  They even gave him the power to defy his programming and (attempt to) kill Boxman!

-He can also have his power boosted by a ton in a very short amount of time, from level -4 up (down?) to level -100 and able to destroy the plaza in one shot, and for as brief as that level -100 thing was he STILL has yet to be topped as the most powerful villain in the entire series!  But, Boxman doesn't do it often -- even regular Big Darrells are implied to NOT be that powerful normally.  Perhaps he's holding Darrell back for a reason?

-A lot of emphasis on his brain, similar to TKO: the visible brain is obvious, he has the most noticeable hivemind, and he pilots Big Darrells from inside their braincases similar to how KO and TKO controlled Big KO (even the name's similar!) in TKO's House

-Also, he doesn't have to glitch or change colors with his mood like Shannon does, he can make decisions and go against his programming all on his own -- perhaps he runs mostly on that meat brain?  Or maybe his brain is actually a mass of pink glorbs like Jethro got in I Am Jethro that unlocked his intelligence and potential?  

-SF's speech to KO in TKO: "Everyone holds you back because they're afraid of your raw, natural ability.  They want you small and nice, blissfully unaware of your true potential."  Darrell in Lord Cowboy Darrell:  "Nobody's gonna hold me back."  Shannon to Darrell in Plaza Film Festival:  "Where do you think you got all that natural talent?"

-TKO ultimately came out of wanting recognition from his boss.  LCD ultimately came out of wanting recognition from his boss.

-That VERY noticeable purple glow in the "I'm the Daddy now!" scene in Lord Cowboy Darrell.  Like, to the point it seemed specially painted for emphasis, rather than the normal animation.  

-Also, Junior is pretty heavy evidence that Turbo powers do not necessarily = purple, as Junior's powers were all green (and so were Chip's Turbo-ish powerups!)  Darrell also has green powers (that even carried over to his human alternate in OK AU, despite Shannon and Raymond getting Enid’s and Rad’s exact same powers and colors), and is sometimes surrounded by Turbo-esque greenish lightning when he's angry, the best example being at the beginning of Legends of Mr Gar after being trash talked (remember that he can't take petty insults; he was PISSED there!)

-(If it looks like I’m insinuating Darrell’s secretly got more power under the hood than even he realizes, I absolutely am.)

-Darrell still has his dark hooded cloak from the pilot, which looks a little like SF's.

-Darrell's the only one who wasn't invited to Junior's funeral, and doesn't give half a shit, instead using it as an opportunity to betray people and take on a new identity.  Possibly like LB faking his own death, therefore not attending his own funeral, and taking on a new identity as SF?

-Sneaking through the vents = sneaking through the pipes (SF, maybe how LB survived given that pipe in Let's Take a Moment)?

-Weird broken halo imagery shared between both Darrell and SF in TKO.  (Not my observation actually, pointed out by @david-yells-about-cartoons )  Darrell's cloud halo thing in that episode also looks almost exactly like the clouds swirling above KO as he shoots a power fist for the first time at the end of Let's Be Friends…

[kuuxkat]

[EN]Lisani Vol. 27.1 Interview with Iida Riho

Translated by: @astralwinters and @kuuxkat​

Typeset by: @kuuxkat / QC by: @yujachachacha @ #teamonibe

Originally TL by: 凛樂@PTT

Sourced from: chip_17

Images from: @emitsunosaurus-rex

DO NOT USE THE SUBS FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES!

Contents under the Cut!

Typeset images can be found: here

[I thought it would be sad at first, but it was a refreshing feeling instead. Even though I felt like this, it seems like I have performed it fully.]

Q: So it's been about half a year since μ's Final Love Live, hasn’t it?

Rippi: Even though it's clearly only been half a year since then, it somehow feels like it happened way further back than that - almost as if it's been one, two years since the Final Love Live.

Q: During this time, have you ever tried to relive your experiences, like going back and listening to the songs, or rewatching the footage of your performances?

Rippi: I haven't been listening much to μ's songs recently. I'm not sure myself whether it's because I just don't want to listen to them, or that I couldn't bear to listen to them - put simply, even if the songs are available on the playlist, I wouldn't play them. Listening to any of the songs, though, would probably bring forth countless wonderful memories and dredge up all the emotions that come alongside them. Perhaps it's better for me to explain it as if the countless wonderful memories and powerful emotions were kept inside a treasure chest - to just casually open it up again whenever would never feel right to me.

Q: Winding back a little while further - when you first heard that you were going to have a live at the Tokyo Dome, how did you feel?

Rippi: At that moment I simply thought, "Awesome!" - but in hindsight, perhaps I had held the thought somewhere at the back of my mind, "There's bound to be a day that μ's will be standing atop such a stage, no?", or perhaps I held a goal in mind from the very start - to stand atop that kind of stage - and worked my hardest to that goal; I really can't say. So there was perhaps that part of me that also felt, "Yes, we've finally made it here!" (laughs).

Q: So from the very beginning, you were hoping to perform on such a big stage?

Rippi: Personally for me, it's better to bring the conversation back to when we had our μ's New Year Love Live! 2013. When we were on the stage of Tokyo Dome City Hall, I suddenly had the thought, "Perhaps, sometime in the future, we'll be able to stand on the stage of Tokyo Dome, huh?". And in the past when we appeared on one of the TV programmes, when we received a rather candid question - "What are your plans after this?", we gave a rather hurried reply, "We're gunning straight for the Dome!" in the last 5 seconds of the programme. After all this, not only were we theatrically featured in the Dome, we were actually able to step up to the stage of Tokyo Dome... The feeling of a strange coincidence, that was the premonition that I had within me.

Q: What was your practice like, leading up to your biggest stage performance ever - a marathon of a performance?

Rippi: Wow, this really brings back memories. Our priority was to train up on our stamina for the performance - in addition to stretching and progressive exercises as well as strength training at home, we even tried to cycle in the freezing cold winter days to the practice studio. Even though these were all measures that we had never taken before, we wanted to do this because we really wanted to give our all to our final hurrah, and to never leave behind even a shred of regret.

Q: In the rehearsals leading up to the performance, what kind of impression did you get when standing on the stage of Tokyo Dome?

Rippi: Overall it felt very spacious, and the ceiling was super high - you get a rather strong feeling of being surrounded. Saitama Super Arena was a more oblong-shaped venue, but the Dome gives you the impression that it's a more rounded stadium.

Q: On the official day of the performance, as expected, were you nervous?

Rippi: Until the last moment where we went on stage, I didn’t have a shred of nervousness at all. As there were 8 other inspiring comrades by my side, it couldn’t be helped that I was embracing an unlimited amount of expectations in my heart, right? When I was waiting for the time when we would be raised to the stage, I realized that my hands were shivering very strongly. I thought, “Ah, so I am nervous,” and felt that reality for the first time, but 5 seconds after appearing on stage, I immediately reverted to the state where I was fine again.

Q: How was the view from the stage on that day?

Rippi: It was extremely amazing - it was as if I was being surrounded from all sides by lights. Everyone's cheers rocked the entire place, and I was shaken not through the sounds in my ears, but somewhere deep inside my bones (laughs).

Q: From the very beginning the cheers were very energetic, weren’t they? So the tension of all the members rose greatly due to that, right?

Rippi: Of course, our happiness meter rose straight to its limits, and hit the climax, but the performance itself was surprisingly very calm. We were not caught unawares of our surroundings due to the excitement getting to our heads. Rather, we had the good sense to maintain the calm that we should have had, and continued the performance.

Q: Regardless of whether it is your expressions while facing the camera, or in your performances, we can see that you are in control - you give an impression of being very reliable.

Rippi: I think that is due to the process of going through so many practices, and mentally it feels different from where it was before. As I am harboring passion for it, I would be able to successfully resolve difficulties one after another.

[The feeling I had when I was in Tokyo Dome was that of a strange coincidence, and that was the premonition that I had within me]

Q: As you were immersed in the high tension, at the same time you would have been touched by the loneliness of “This is the final time”, right? What was the performance on the second day like?

Rippi: The second day dawned with the prickling sensation of my entire body aching from the soreness of my muscles, but I didn’t feel any particularly special emotions - everyone also appeared as normal as can be. It was to the extent that it made one doubt whether this was the final performance. But, as the performances neared its end, and when every member entered the flower-shaped stage after changing our outfits - in that space where no one else could see, where it was just the nine of us, everyone exchanged gazes and we all formed a circle with our hands interlinked. That was perhaps the first time that I felt that loneliness. The memory of that very instant, I will forever cherish as a precious memory deep inside my heart.

Q: After singing the final song [Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari], what about the time when you left the stage?

Rippi: At the time when we were exiting the stage, it was as if my vision suddenly became all encompassing, and in an instant I could see with full clarity the individual faces of the audience. There were those who looked overjoyed with happy smiles waving at us, and those who were crying uncontrollably. Regardless of who they were and what their expression was, I could see it clearly. It was an indescribable feeling. Even after we left the stage, we could still hear everyone singing, and could strongly feel everyone’s love. There was an instant when I thought about returning to the stage once more, but in my heart I understood that wouldn’t be right, so I could only continue on, leaving the stage.

Q: What was the situation like on the morning the day after the Live ended?

Rippi: I originally thought that it would be a morning filled with sadness and a feeling of emptiness. But surprisingly, it was one where I felt relaxed and happy. For me to have such feelings, it definitely is because I used all of my strength, and had completed my mission fully.

A period of six years spent worrying about Rin-chan and the growth of μ's, while at the same time working hard to chase them.

Q: We hope to bring you back to the activities that you’ve done for the past six years. Are there any periods or places that left you with very deep impressions?

Rippi: The setting of the first-ever recording was something that left a deep impression on me. Although the recording was done together with Pile-chan and Shika-chan (Kubo Yurika),as it was the first time that we ever met each other, the three of us were maintaining our silence, so we didn’t exchange a single word with each other (laughs).

Q: It was due to the many different recordings that the members gradually become familiar and got to know know each other better, right?

Rippi: That’s right. After that, it wasn’t just recordings, but there were also many songs that would have lines from the nine members; in order to gauge the length of time to record, the individuals who wrote those initial lines would have to have someone to recite all the lines in their designated timeframe. I think it was in [Kaguya no Shiro de Odoritai] and [Mermaid festa vol. 1]? As I was the first to do the recording, I mimicked everyone’s voices and said their lines, and as a result I got responses from them like, “You were able to mimic them really well!” (laughs). It set off a spirited discussion among the members, so it was small incidents like these that left me with very strong impressions.

Q: In the first performance in 2012 at Yokohama BLITZ, what were your feelings like as you welcomed the coming of the Live? The link and relationship between the First Live and the Animation PV is something that is inseparable, right?

Rippi: The memories of the days spent going through my college classes while taking dance classes at the same time are still fresh in my mind. As it was my first-ever experience having to remember the exact same steps in the animated sequence while having the nine of us dancing together, it carried with it a very vivid feeling of it being something totally new. Only, at that time I did not know a single thing about Rin-chan, and even now I’m still too embarrassed to revisit the initial CDs and DVDs. Although my inept performance with dancing was one of the problems, I had never ever considered the level of my synchronization between me and Rin-chan then, so perhaps that caused Rin-chan to appear odd at the initial phase? At that time, the person showed in front of everyone was the person Iida Riho. It is because I didn’t have the spirit of Rin-chan with me, so I guess going back over it would make me feel too embarrassed.

Q: In the script, Rin-chan has always been the one to push others forward, so she has the role of a character who is responsible for bridging the gap between people, right?

Rippi: Surprisingly she is a very serious child, but at the same time she doesn’t lose her cuteness. Internally, I harbor the thoughts of, “I wish to make her even cuter”, similar to that of a parent. It is because of this that I always wanted to let Rin-chan be exposed to the spotlight even more. And it was due to those reasons that there would be times where I couldn’t fully grasp this girl, so I would have an internal dilemma, floundering left and right.

Q: The situation is the same as the story: you were once troubled on how to express yourself too. In this journey, what was the opportunity that allowed you to shorten the distance between you and Rin-chan?

Rippi: It was actually quite late - I think it’s during the time of [Love wing bell]. The footage from the TV anime was great too. I fully felt the love that the staff had (for the project) as I performed.

Q: At the same time that the TV anime garnered popularity, the live concerts received more and more attention, and the venue would get larger and larger accordingly. What are your thoughts about this progression?

Rippi: This is literally coming from a third-person perspective, as in my heart I totally didn’t have a real grasp on the situation. “Eh, how could this group of individuals be so amazing, but speaking for real, the nine of them are indeed very cute, right?” - it’d feel somewhat like this (laughs).

Q: Do you mean that you observed the process by which they became renowned stars from an angle looking over them?

Rippi: Undoubtedly I myself was part of this too, but everyone would still have a part of their psyche that would be observing from the viewpoint of an onlooker, so thoughts similar to, “It feels like it has became something very incredible, right?” were repeated countless times. Even if we appeared on TV, and later saw the footage being aired at home, I still felt as if it was a group of individuals that I did not recognize who were dancing. It is an incredible feeling, and at the end, my feelings would be close to: “Because they wore the same outfits, so we would wear the same outfits”. Looking at μ's on TV or in magazines getting cuter and cuter, we were at the back chasing their shadows - I guess this was the state of mind that we had.

Q: In 2015, there was the Live at Saitama Super Arena, the movie version, the fan meeting tour, TV appearances and etc. In conclusion, it was a very busy year with very packed schedules. Is this one of the difficult points for all of you when chasing after the girls?

Rippi: The period between Music station to Kōhaku Uta Gassen was very short, and at that time it coincided with the practice period for Final Live, too. Everyone pulled out all the stops to manage it, so it felt like a large pile of things were swiftly dealt with in the wake of an amazing momentum.

The thing that directed me in the direction of my goal - that is what we call “Love Live!”

Q: As a member of μ's, for the six years that you spent together with this project “Love Live!”, how were those six years like for Iida-san?

Rippi: I guess it was six years that changed my entire life. When the project just started, I had just turned 18 years old. From entering college until graduation was encompassed within this six-year period, so at the time frame when the first season of the TV anime ended, originally I should have been starting to look for a job like an ordinary person (laughs). If I had left halfway to look for other jobs, perhaps right now I would be leading a totally different life. But as expected of this job, I do wish that I can always continue on with it. The culmination and alignment of a large amount of beneficial coincidences allowed me to walk down the path that I had always wished for internally, and then I too was able to spend the most precious stage of my life together with “Love Live!”.

Q: You can see too that the relationship between the members is a close one where you could always stimulate each other.

Rippi: The days that I could spend with them as part of my school life had influenced me deeply. I have a momentum where I want to absorb all of the other members into me, and I really learned many things from my comrades.

[Even now there are fans that love Rin-chan, and it totally doesn’t feel like Rin-chan is far away.] 

Q: If you can send a message to Rin-chan, what message would you choose?

Q: Even if the activities for μ's have stopped for the time being, the fans still love Rin-chan dearly, so it totally doesn’t feel like Rin-chan is far away from us. To date, with regards to the path that Rin-chan and the rest had taken, I myself feel that I am still chasing them from behind. In the past, when I was in a swirl of many events, there would always be a feeling of camaraderie formed like, “Let’s go forward together, all right?”. But now, even if I put her name down as [The Goal to Reach], that’s not wrong, either(laughs). “I want to try being a person just like Rin-chan” - so from a relationship of camaraderie to being a goal, I guess? Because Rin-chan is seemingly in front and calling out: “Hurry over, all right?”, so if I could pick a message, I guess I would say: “I’m going over now, Rin-chan, I’m going over to your side right now, you have to wait for me, all right?”

Q: Finally, please say some words to the fans.

Rippi: I am very happy to be able to be with everyone through this interview once again. Due to the broadcasted TV anime, it seems that there is still an endless stream of fans touring at the sites that we had appeared in. Looking at that lively image, it lets me sincerely feel that even if it’s after 20 years or 30 years, it’ll be great if μ's continues to be a precious treasure in everyone’s heart. After a period of time passes, I do wish to go on the same tour too (laughs). Even after 10 years have passed, if I could still remain as the Iida Riho who is part of μ's, and be the Iida Riho who voices Hoshizora Rin, that would be great. If everyone could remember this in occasion, I would be very happy.