fudan-no-nijiiro

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

k, regarding the new piece gacha/event double-hitter, a couple quick questions:

why do Eiji's expressions/poses in the card art go that hard

why does Ai specifically so often get just. the weirdest outfits

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

I'm not sure how you're using the term live2d bc live emotion doesn't use live2d at all. It's all 3d models,,

Oh, that'd be because I have no idea what I'm talking about. 3D is what I mean I guess lol

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

okay so SEE. the THING ABOUT EIICHI IS

He's so very very very Coded but like in five different directions at once and I just. Wasn't expecting this. At all. Just missed it completely.

Like he originally showed up in the anime to Go After Otoya and like. There were definitely some Interesting motivations in his design from the start. Because he is absolutely intended to be a predatory figure and an Artist but he has to be interested in Haruka at the same time. But frankly the anime was so fundamentally without rizz that the direction his charisma was supposed to aim in didn't really...come through. And so I honestly didn't think about it. The Vibes were Foe Yay set up for the purposes of making his dynamic with Otoya dramatic, whatever.

And then there's, like, Maji Love Kingdom and the audio dramas and shit. And any time he's with HEAVENS he is in Fearless Leader mode, first and foremost. Like, the franchise's dedication to keeping his vibe with his teammates firmly platonic is impressive. His devotion to them and to the Angels—and, incidentally, his duty to his father—is fucking ironclad and central to everything he does. (And then in the shuffle unit he's with fucking Natsuki, who has So Much Going On All The Time, and Ranmaru, who is Rock and therefore gets a backstage pass to kinky shit regardless of whatever else he has going on. Aspec Ranmaru would be a fucking delight, tbh, but that's another post.) So even with Egoistic I didn't really, like. Think about it. Because that was so clearly S&M coded and in my head that's a genre that's kinda gender-neutral, everyone is doing kinky shit, whatever, it's fine

(and YES OKAY there's the whole incest-tease thing with Eiji going on but tbh I still kinda headcanon that, never mind them intentionally bringing in that dynamic, probably someone in the agency if not Raging himself actively pushes them to do that. also incest still isn't the vibe I'm talking about here)

But THIS. Holy shit, this is taking tropes of predatory alpha male and queerness and balancing them against each other and riding a very thin line while doing so

For better or worse, of course, it is also a fucking hot line

but what can you do

(There might've been stuff in the other Live2D concerts but honestly the last time I watched one a *cough*certain other performance*cough* fried my brain so hard I honestly do not remember what Eiichi's dancing was like. So sue me)

So. State of Perfection, huh.

...

I can't stop LOOKING at him helppp

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

So. State of Perfection, huh.

...

I can't stop LOOKING at him helppp

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

State of perfection's MV has been added to Live Emotion

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

I feel like I should've seen a Natsuki-Syo-Ai gacha combo coming somehow, but also not—most of the combos so far have had HEAVENS members mixed in, so this is the first time they've used an old Repeat combo? I think??

Regardless I am being Targeted, and my prisms have not recovered from the Halloween gacha/event combos. So. 🙃

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

Who's got two thumbs and got to ambush a completely unsuspecting volunteer/staff member at work today bc he recognized her Ai Idol-Produced T-shirt?

This guy. This might be the highlight of my week, ngl

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

So I finished all the song quests for the latest event, and so now I'm just playing SONG LETTER on repeat (now that I'm at home on wifi and can watch the video without the lag killing me instantly). As you do.

And I absently started thinking about QUARTET NIGHT ships—y'know, also as you do. In this case, specifically the ships that you (or I, at least) don't usually see.

And now I want a serious, slowburn Reiji/Camus fic to exist so bad dammit.

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

QUARTET NIGHT MOVIE POSTER AND RELEASE DATE

Movie releases in Japan May 9th of 2025!!!

Movie website is here!

CD singles TABOO NIGHT XXXX and JINN-Ω-RAY release December 25th 2024!

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

Full versions of Frost Dream and Pit a pat from Camus' Solo Best Album!

Please buy the original if you can! It’s available internationally on iTunes! Apple Music has a sample version here that desktop users can then use to get to the iTunes store!

This CD plus his birthday solo now gives us international fans easy access to every Camus solo released ever! So buy them!!!

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

Session Live Event Announcement

‘SESSION LIVE ULTRA BLAST’ has been announced.

The event will start on September 2nd at 12:00 JST. Players can receive special ‘Ultra Blast’ themed costumes for the members of Starish as rewards.

See guide on previous Session Live event here.

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

So...that new MV-only feature huh

wild

Totally realized that was a thing from the jump btw. Absolutely didn't hit the new button without even realizing it and then get so mesmerized by pretty pretty video without any of those annoying buttons in the way that I immediately forgot I'd been expecting a beatmap for a good 20 seconds

nope. not me. didn't do that at all

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

On Live MV outfits

One thing I never would have expected about Live Emotion is how important the costume choices are for the overall effect of the Live MVs. However, now that we're three group-costume-events in, I'm able to verify that this is a consistent phenomenon.

My first hint was how much harder it was to take my eyes off the ST☆RISH members during their event whenever they were in their proper outfits. Since I started with a bunch of HEA★VENS URs, don't whale gacha very much, and haven't loved most of the SR outfit options to date, it was the first time I'd changed over any outfits for MVs, and so that event left a big impression.

(Another clue was that, speaking of SRs...Ai looks good in the standard QUARTET★NIGHT outfit. He looks amazing in his Lavender King outfit. Generally, I want everyone to match outfits when they're in a group, but I will make an exception for Ai's Lavender King oufit because it leaves a serious impact and I was lucky enough to get one.)

So anyway, I ended up changing all the ST☆RISH outfits to the 1000% ones in all their videos immediately after unlocking them all, and I stand by that decision so much. It was amazing how much better their movements look once they were in fancy, asymmetrical outfits—and yes, it was more than just the exposed skin, thank you. (See Ai above: his outfit has a ton of coverage, but it's still extremely striking.)

I think the reason for this is not just the designs better suiting the characters, but more of a subconscious reaction...or rather the lack of one. See, I've seen people in various colors of suit before, and when I see figures in those outfits doing some of the dance moves in the MVs, it just seems weird. The dances seem stilted, awkward, and on occasion pretty silly-looking.

What surprised me was how much that effect goes down when they're in less conventional outfits. It might be because the overall impression is more dynamic, but I think it's also that, well, I don't have a baseline for how people typically move and look when they wear clothes like these, and so my cringe instinct hasn't been trained on it and gives it a pass.

Thus, changing the outfits makes the MVs much more enjoyable. I can focus on their strengths rather than being distracted by their weaknesses. And there really are a lot of strengths, from the choices of visual effects to flatter the performer to the care that's gone into crafting different motions for each idol to the genuine effort (reasonably successful) to make complex facial expressions during close-ups.

Now, movements-wise, it's basically only Masato's power-stance squat during Knight that reliably breaks my immersion.

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

Emotional Piece Gacha - Stage for Myself ~Part 2~

UR Kurosaki Ranmaru (Memory of Road) UR Otori Eiji (Memory of Dreamer) UR Hyuga Yamato (Memory of Top)

“A special solo stage for the idols has been decided! Dressed in unique costumes created especially for their solo songs, they will be putting their whole heart into their performances. Stage On!"

This banner is available until 11:59 on the 16th of August (JST).

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I guess we can probably expect Winter Blossom MV on September 1st then~

[fudan-no-nijiiro]

Just remembered I have to cycle through everyone if I want all the rewards, lol 😅

Reiji and Ranmaru are both on-brand in very funny and telling ways as expected:

Reiji's two QN lines (continued caveat for sloppy translations) are "I might've jumped the gun a little" and "our bond is [something like "best" but didn't catch the exact word]". Sasuga team leader who uses self-deprecation as a conflict management strategy 😂😭

Ranmaru, OTOH, is "I'm the Number One" (he's got his his key phrases and he Sticks To Them! Truly, a master of branding) and...okay, this one is hard to translate, it's literally "That's the thing" but vibes-wise I'm imagining like a mishmash of "It is what it is" and "That's what I'm talkin' about"??? So, essentially:

Next up: Camus. I feel like I know what sort of lines he'll have, but we'l see.

So I decided to go for Yamato for my guaranteed UR, didn't work too hard rerolling, and plan to be as efficient as I can when it comes to spending actual money on gacha.

This all means that I haven't gotten an Ai UR yet, despite him being a big fave—which in turn means this QN event is the first time he's been my team leader.

All this to say, he has SUCH little shit energy during the high-fives and I had no idea until now.

So far (can't keep playing till I'm off-shift lol) I've gotten these two messages:

(to Reiji) "I'm the one everyone was looking at, you know."

(to Camus) "I can offer you some feedback later, if you want." (見直し is more like "review/revision" by the dictionary, but this sounded to me somewhere on the level of "constructive criticism".)

(Caveats: I've only heard these once and there's no on-screen text for them, so these translations are very loose. I could very well have messed up the connotative and/or denotative meanings here.)

One of the fun things about Ai in All Star (as opposed to SL and, to a certain extent, the anime) is how prickly and critical he can come across, so I'm pleasantly surprised to see that here.

It seems doubly funny and cute in high-five lines though, because like: this is contextually Ai's method of expressing comeradery. The way those barbs were personalized implies that Ai consciously chose to be more annoying to his fellow members rather than less. And best of all (albeit forced by the game mechanic), the others just take it with a smile!!!

I don't know, maybe I'm reaching, but I love the idea that this playful teasing is Ai's way of showing affection for his teammates, because it shows they've bonded well beyond the level of "keeping things professional." Heck, I love that Ai knows how to tease people—and not just generally, or because of a personality trait, but because he knows those people and knows exactly how to mess with them. He's clearly internalized an understanding that teasing can strengthen bonds rather than just straining them, and knows how to put that knowledge into practice.

I find it especially meaningful given the current QN main story arc, which features Ai's insecurities about how to implement team bonding in contexts outside of work.

he just. he loves his friends so muchhh 😭😭😭 I'm so proud of himmm 😭😭😭