#QN live 2018

[tackyink]

Looking at the art of the Quartet Night Solo Best Albums the only thing I can think is "Reiji Kotobuki has been alive for 25 to 28 slutty, slutty years."

[haruka-starish]

My gooooooood!!! i just finished watching Quartet Night 2018 live show, i got too emotional!!! what a way to cry from emotion, it was the most incredible thing i've ever seen, especially when in fly to the future the stars fall in their hands, and at the end in encore when my beloved QN idols have their eyes in tears and people start singing!!!! cry my eyes out, i love utapri too much and the groups they have created, they are the best thing that can exist!!!! ☆☆☆☆♡

[moirica]

Quartet Night Live Future 2018 Report 11/04

Is this real? Is it just a fantasy? No, it’s real. A real true report of a live that, when I got into Uta no Prince Sama 3 and a half years ago, I never would have imagined attending. That, after the last Quartet Night Live, I dreamed of attending but never thought it would happen.

If you can’t tell already this report will probably be a little rambling and all over the place (not in the least because I was left emotionally broken by this live which has never happened before to me). I will do my best to share my experience here, so that others can see it, but more for myself to look back on in the future as well. I NEVER want to forget this live.

I suppose I could start with getting the ticket. I’m just going to state right out that I am the luckiest person alive and I don’t know how I won. My ticket came from the CD lottery. When the seats came out I found out I had an arena seat, A block. I pretty much died right then, two or so months before the live.

In terms of goods I didn’t end up with much this year through a mixture of choice and circumstance. I am terrible at remembering the deadlines for online orders so I missed those. The pre-sales were on the other side of the country so those were out. I also didn’t want to do my usual of spending the day in the goods line. Every time I’ve done that for Utapri I have a shitty experience. Thankfully they had a goods line during the live on Saturday and so I went then. The line was quite small and I got through in maybe no more than 15 minutes. I managed to pick up a few of the things I wanted, the pamphlet and the blanket were the main ones, so I was happy. Most things were sold out though, except lights this time because they were part of the tickets I suppose.

The next thing I want to mention is the amazing time I had with the people I met this weekend. I knew I was meeting with some friends from a LINE group but somehow over the weekend we stumbled across so many other foreigners and it was amazing to make new friends to share the crazy with.

I know I’ve posted the flower stand picture before but this stand that was from us foreign fans was a highlight of my weekend. It meant so much to me and the other people who contributed to it. Watching people take pictures of it (it was hella popular) and react to it was fantastic. Also during the live *spoilers* they talked about the flower stands and while the international stand was not mentioned then they did say that a video of all the stands had been recorded for them, so rest assured that it was seen by Quartet Night.

Eventually it was time to go in. I’d heard many things about the venue. That it seemed pretty small and had no real bad seats. I was not prepared for where I ended up. I was so close. There were still people closer of course but I’ve never been this close in an event before. Que the freaking out before it even started. They had some fun recordings of the QN boys for while you waited that would play every 15 minutes or so. Reiji and Ai and then Ranmaru and Camus. They were funny. Also people gave little squeals any time they came on.

Finally it was time. The lights went down, music started. This time the opening video was of all the previous milestones for Quartet Night, the games and the anime and the lives, all leading up to this event. Then everything went dark and there was the silhouette of a clock and the sound of it striking and they were there. It had begun.

• The first song was ‘THE WORLD IS MINE’. They appeared in beautiful golden outfits and I nearly died right then because for the first time they truly looked like people and not tiny figures far away. I don’t remember much else about this song except screaming along and basking in the fact that this was real.

• The second song was ‘Poison Kiss’ and if I wasn’t dead already this didn’t help. There’s not much to be said about the majesty of this song. It is and always will be perfect. They moved from the main stage to the centre during this song and I realized the downside to my seat was that I got to spend a lot of time staring at butts if they were on the centre stage. Still, this is the first live where I barely watched the screens. Even if it was the back of their head it was right there and I was staring.

• There was a brief introduction and welcome after the first song and then we were on to the first solo song, Rei-chan’s ‘オン・ユア・マーク!’ It was very reminiscent to the 6th stage performance with all the hips involved. It was mostly on the centre stage and a little strange to keep looking back over my shoulder at the screens to see his face.

• The next song was Ai’s ‘二人のモノグラム’. It was a really fun song and he had the sparkly white gloves from the last time he performed the song at a live! This one was mostly on the main stage and it was beautiful. So happy they included one of my favourite Ai songs!

• Saintly Territory was next. There was a cape involved. I really enjoyed Maeno’s interactions with the dancers. Like walked from the main to the centre stage he ‘pushed’ them out of the way, it was very Camus. There was also sceptre dancing on the centre stage.

• The lights went down and suddenly we looked up the the top of the stairs and there was Tattsun and he started singing ‘BE PROUD’. If I wasn’t already lost(I was) then my favourite Ranmaru song was what did it. He went down on his knees at a point and it was just…. shdhdkskdh. Oh and his ad-libing during the instrumentals was on point. That and the way he held that last note for so long. Like seriously long. Yabai.

• Next up was something special for this live: Acoustic Corner! I was really happy that they decided to do this because if the live had kept going the way it had started I don’t know if I’d have made it. This talk section was a necessary break.

• The first pair was Reiji and Camus. They came out onto the centre stage and had a talk portion while the band was setting up. There was a costume change to more casual looking clothes. They talked first about the live viewing audience. Morikubo is always really good at chatting to the live viewing audience. It was funny because every time they would pause to hear the cheers from the live viewing audience and so we would cheer and they’d always joke like ‘wow, the live viewing audiences voices are so strong you can hear them here’. Morikubo also talked about the lights and how cool it was that they could be controlled but that we could also choose our own color sometimes. Then he tried to get them to turn red but they were in our control at the time and it didn’t work(I was one of the few that turned mine red though). After a few minutes they managed to get them all red.

• They also talked about how all the members kind of have their own things and Maeno acted like Tattsun and it was hilarious. He then tried to act like Morikubo and it was even funnier because he said the line wrong and Morikubo was like ‘Eh? No it’s this! Not that!’

• Finally everything was set up and the song began, the acoustic version of KILLER KISS. The instrumentals were beautiful and I really loved the light effects they had over the center stage. They were super pretty. Character coloured dots could move up and down and into patterns. They were really cool. I kept having to glance behind me at the screens to see their faces every so often because they were seated facing away from my area.

• After the song the pair switched to Ai and Ranmaru. Another outfit change! These two were wearing these long flowy shirts, they looked super comfy. They chatted a bit about the outfits. Tattsun teased Shoutan about looking like a girl, as is usual for an Utapri Live. Shoutan even did this pose leaning forward with his butt out *que the screaming* and Tattsun was like ‘See?’ And then he tried the same pose but it didn’t work and it was hilarious. Shoutan retaliated by asked the audience if they’d want the shirt off of Tattsun’s back and the audience screamed again. I love the chemistry of these two.

• Tattsun brought up the flower stands! He talked about how there were so many and that the staff had taken pictures and video for them so that they could see all of them. I was hoping he might mention the international stand but he didn’t. He did mention one stand in particular. It was for Ranmaru and it had the silhouette of an instrument in red roses. Tattsun asked Shoutan what Ranmaru’s instrument was and Shoutan answered ‘Bass of course’. Then Tattsun pointed out that the silhouette was of a guitar and he was a little disappointed it was wrong(in a joking way).

• ハルハナ was their song. It was really nice. This song was a really nice choice for an acoustic song. I really liked their energy. The lights were also pretty again. I think they made the shape of a flower sometimes but it was hard to see from my angle.

• Once that song was finished Morikubo and Maeno came back out and there was a mini-talk with all of them. They made fun of each other a little more. They also talked about the LINE group and the picture of the four microphones that all of them posted a few days before the live. They joked about how it ended up that they all shared the picture and who started it. You could feel the KIZUNA. Oh, and the fact that after the first day of the live they all went out drinking together and came back to their hotel arms around each other. There is blurry picture proof on Morikubo’s twitter. Yes, that’s them drunk.

• They soon moved into the last acoustic corner song, マリアージ��. This song was really nice in acoustic.They also split the various english lines into different pairings of the group. I really liked that touch, to hear the different combinations of voices.

• After the acoustic corner it was time for the break video. I’m not going to lie, my Japanese skills were failing me this time and while I picked up a bit I don’t know if my understanding was good enough to get it right.

• Some highlights though. Shoutan: why doesn’t Ai sleep in a bed. Morikubo: what the heck does yoroshiku machocho mean? Maeno talked lots about Camus and sugar. I don’t remember much of what Tattsun said. Oh, and Shoutan said the thing he liked now about Ai is his voice, the precious boy. He has come so far from thinking he didn’t deserve to voice Ai.

• The interview ended with the question of what one kanji represented their character. These come up on screen and then the next song started.

• ‘The Dice are Cast’! With new outfits! I really liked these outfits. They were my favourite for this live! And this song was on the trucks! And holy crap that was close. Morikubo and Tattsun were on my side and they were like right there. I tried not to die while cheering them on.

• The trucks stopped at the far end of the stadium (right in front of where a friend of mine was sitting, pretty sure her night was made with that). They started the next song which was ‘Starlight Memory’. Like the first Quartet Night live they did this one with mic stands but it was from the trucks, facing back in towards the main stage.

• Apparently those two songs were also the short versions of them from some of the Japanese reports I’ve seen. I can’t say that I noticed either way, I was completely lost in the experience.

• The next song was ‘エボリューション・イヴ’. It was around this point that I started to tear up more than I had before. They were the burning stinging sort too, meaning that I was watching this song through one eye trying to fight off the burning in the other. It was an amazing song though, one of my favourites which is probably why I got so emotional.

• We were back to solo songs for the next little bit. The next one was Camus’ ‘Double face’. I have to say that this is probably my favourite Camus song and it’s all because of how Maeno performs it. The way he is able to switch so effortlessly between the personas and the voices, just by changing which hand is on the mic stand. Like the first live the dancers were in white and black for this song. The lights alternated between blue and yellow and the coordination was on point.

• The sounds of ‘シンクロニズム’ started up. We could see a silhouette and Shoutan was wearing the hood of his shirt up. His outfit this time was a short sleeved shirt(hoodie) with a large hood that was edged with purple fur and it had purple fur cat ears. He also had a purple sash that was very iridescent. (If you can’t tell I loved this outfit and I seriously want it for myself.) Anyway, the hood was up and he even reached up and played with the ears. The cuteness of it all really matched with the cuteness of the song. He went from the main stage to the centre and back with this song. You may have heard of the butt wiggle from when he performed this song at 6th stage, those were back this time too. They were always in the direction of my area too. Bless you Ai-chan. There were also bubbles at the end. You could die from the cute of it all.

• ‘Not bad’ was the other Ranmaru song of the night. There was lots of fire involved and because of the closed venue you could really feel the heat of it.

• The last of the solo songs was ‘Never…’ It was really well done. Morikubo threw his hat off at one point, along with the other dancers. Near the end of the song he climbed the stairs of the main stage and on the screen then had the image of a Ferris wheel. It was very much like the anime. The end of the song had the first shiny tape cannons of the night with plain green tape for the song. It was literally raining down on me! I managed to grab a lot of them but I kind of messed them up by shoving them into my tiny bag. If I ever get area again I’ll remember to bring a bigger bag for the tape so I don’t crunch it up before there is time to roll it up nice.

• There wasn’t really time after ‘Never…’ to roll the tape up nice because ‘Non-Fiction’ was starting. Tattsun and Maeno rolled out on a black couch looking terribly cool. I have to say that while I like both the new songs ‘Non-Fiction’ is a definite jam. It was awesome to do the calls for this song and to watch them dance to it. Yes, there was an epic dance in that instrumental break of the song. It was definitely one of my favourite performances of the night.

• The next song was predictably ‘Fiction’. While this one didn’t hold the coolness of the previous song the physical acting by Morikubo and Shoutan was on point. Their movements and expressions captured the emotional nuances of the song, especially if you know anything about the history between the characters. They were apart until almost the end of the song and then they finally clasped hands but then Shoutan pulled away and walked away and then Morikubo walked away and there was just a white spotlight on stage with feathers falling. It was very moving.

• The next song was ‘KIZUNA’! They played the video from the anime on the background screen and like the first live they all sat on the stairs and acted it out. This is such a fun song to do the call and response to. They were all being really cute together too. I believe for this song they came close to the side of the main stage during parts of the song.

• The next song was the one bearing their name ‘QUARTET☆NIGHT’! I feel bad for not having more memory of this song but my excuse is the live was most definitely coming to an end, I was already crying and it was good. That’s all I can really say. Dreams came true.

• Next was the dancer introduction! They each took turns introducing a number of the dancers. Sadly the one dancer I’ve grown to like from Shoutan and other utapri lives wasn’t there but I recognized some of the names.

• There was another brief talk after this, I think more towards the live viewing audience again as well. I don’t remember much of what was said besides the last song was coming up.

• ‘FLY TO THE FUTURE’ was the last song. It was fitting and perfect for this live. I literally had tears running down my face at this point. I didn’t want it to end. The highlight of the song was of course the line ‘ありがとう、そしてこれからも’. Before this line everything just stopped and fell quiet. No music, no cheering, just silence. It was tense, you could feel it in the air of the hall. I was terrified I would make some sound to break it. Finally they said the line and the song finished.

• Encore time! Everyone just cheered ‘quartet night’ the whole time. Unlike the movie theatre where you feel a little strange chanting it when you are part of the audience the energy just carries you along. I tried to organize the tape a little during this time but as I said earlier it turns out I didn’t do a very good job.

• The encore finished pretty fast and they were back with ‘FORCE LIVE’. What a cool song! And they played the music video in the background while they did the actual dances on the stage. Morikubo even tried the high kick like Reiji in the video. It was awesome and after ages of playing Shining Live it was cool to hear it in person (kinda sad Starish didn’t get their back at the fanmeet).

• After the song was a bit more talking and they did the few announcements. Basically that there would be a DVD/blueray and that the official movie site opens in December.

• I don’t remember many details of the final words (I’m writing this a few days after and it’s been a busy week at work @.@) but I do remember screaming arigatou a lot. Like a lot. For most of this last little bit.

• The next song was ‘God’s STAR’! This was the only song I knew of ahead of time for sure because I’d heard it when taking pictures of the flower stands on the Saturday night. Still, one of my favourite songs to see live because the call and response is just so much fun!

• Another encore! More cheering for a while. When they came back out they were in a white version t-shirt with the logo. Most of them had been modified a little bit. Morikubo’s was the most plain, just the shirt. Tattsun’s had some see through black material on the sleeves and at the bottom. Shoutan had a few zipper like cuts in his shirt (very much like his encore shirts from his own lives). Maeno was wearing the Camus prince parka.

• They did a few more thank you’s and then they announced the last song which was of course ‘You’re my life’. I can’t think of a more perfect last song honestly. They came out on the trucks again for this song. Tattsun and Maeno were on my side. They went around and when they passed the other trucks they would high five. Sadly the other ones didn’t come too close because they veered off to the centre stage instead. There was still more of the song and they were always standing at the edge of the stage waving out at all of us. I also love the call and response of this song. ‘La, la, la, la, la-la, la, la.’

• They said thank you again after and then the instrumental version of ‘FLY TO THE FUTURE’ started to play as they waved goodbye. We did the best thing though and the whole audience just decided to sing the song to them, the biggest karaoke ever. I’ll admit I didn’t sing it perfectly but I tried because how could you not. And this was probably one of my favourite moments of the live because you could see how moved Quartet Night was by it. I remember seeing Tattsun’s face as they headed back down the aisle to the main stage and he was floored by it. I’m glad that they could see our love for them all.

• Even when it was done the audience was singing along with the instrumentals of the songs. I was probably the last one of the people I had been with to head out because I just didn’t want it to end. I would do it again if I could. I will buy the shit out of the DVD just to be part of that again.

There you have it. Quartet Night Live Future 2018. I already feel like I have forgotten a lot. Especially about the talks and things. I should have taken notes when I was on my way home but I was tired and still in a bit of a ‘did that actually happen?’ That matched with a busy week means that this isn’t as great as it could be. I hope you enjoyed it anyways. It was still the best weekend of my life.

Thank you to Broccoli for making these games and these characters. Thank you for the music. Thank you to all of the friends I met this weekend, old and new. Thank you to all of the people who donated to the flower stand.

Most of all,

THANK YOU QUARTET NIGHT.

ありがとう、そしてこれからも。

[amisbro]

Let’s discuss:  UtaPri and “factions”

So this is something that I feel has been long overdue but I held off on it for the longest time (and no not just because I couldn’t figure out the issue with my dash on this website either) but I threw my hands up and went “Screw it...WE’RE DOING IT NOW!” With that let’s discuss UtaPri and the “factions”

So we can look at this subject any # of ways and we can use the Anime in a way (especially after Season 4 which people in the fandom can’t fucking let go of to the point I still gotta hear about it) OR We can discuss this in a way with how there is becoming factions where it feels like there are more and more people wanting to have HEAVENS in the game but there is a sharp adversary to this and that causes issues OR We can discuss how ,for a year and a half, there were people like me that just wanted to see the main story updated to get more songs added (and also because the fact that the game was legitimately blocking people from finishing tasks on the missions segment) Things like this are things that have been going on now since AT LEAST 2016 and ,in my opinion, has gotten WORSE once SL became a Global game.  I genuinely believe that Broccoli has unknowingly (or possibly knowingly) done things that would splinter the fanbase and KLab got thrown into the mess once Shining Live came out.  It’s gone from something that has been one big family to factions of people wanting one thing but being told to basically “Shut the fuck up” by the other group Let me give you an example Shining Live came out in 2017 in Japan and then Globally in 2018.  Now is the game called “Shining Live” yes but I think that was a big misstep by KLab and Broccoli because I knew in a way (and its bared out that I was right) that this was going to cause problems Why? I have felt that one of the best things to do with UtaPri was to continue the Music series in some way.  We had ended on the A-Sides for QN and STARISH for season songs and then the Group songs for them.  It made sense that ,when the next game came out, that we would have the continuation of that and NOT a complete reboot People forget that had there been a “Proper Music 4″ that we would have gone through the S3 B-Sides and then moved on to Season 4 and it would have more than likely started with the Duets and then have had the solos in the next Music game.  The point here is that they were going to have enough songs that were “publicly available” that “Broccoli’s Rule” wouldn’t have had to come into effect. Nonetheless we got Shining Live and for the first year + we had a lot of content for the people that liked to play the events and then still please those that really...probably knew better than to play the events so we just played the main story and chilled out.  Keep in mind though this was also before they instituted the “Points Shot” and the mission that maxed out at the # 50 so for a while it was a bit weird...but you understood it! Then October of 2018 happened and because of that the Collection event and the halt of “Main Story” content and I remember mentioning in the comments of one of the KLab Game Stations that I would have liked to see more “Main Story” content and that resulted in an argument with someone and that was my first real realization that there were going to start to become more “camps” like this in the future. The biggest problem is always this one with SL Again is the game called “Shining Live”?  Yes it is but that doesn’t mean you should get the right to exclude content from the game JUST BECAUSE its not from “Shining Productions”!  Remember kids:  “Shining Live” is a “Subtitle” of a game but “Uta no Prince-Sama” is the main part of the title...excluding one part of the series literally becomes a problem then! Now one could say “Well HEAVENS doesn’t have enough songs” And yet they get new songs released (and mentioned in tweets) and yet we can’t put those songs in SL...right! I think sometimes people forget that SL doesn’t exist in the universe of UtaPri like I think you do.  Like they could have literally said that HEAVENS was canonically a part of Shining Productions in SL and that would literally solve everything...now they DON’T so we go into this whole thing every time they tweet out something that involves song releases.  Like you all DO realize that there were 3 groups at Maji Love Kingdom right?  So therefore there were SIX songs performed outside of “Maji Love Kingdom” right?  I’m making sure you are aware of this because the way KLab has marketed this game (poorly in a way) is such that you genuinely forgot that HEAVENS IS a part of the UtaPri Universe! Here is another one Here in the States we had screenings of Maji Love Kingdom.  I went to the one in NJ and it was literally like walking into a morgue!  Now a big part of this is that Sentai fucked up royally and didn’t send out anything to theaters that this was to be treated more like a CONCERT than a MOVIE but they didn’t so what you ended up with was a lot of people not really singing along to the songs and it was literally so DEAD that I walked out before “Encore” finished! Now one would think that ,if you had a bad experience and you wanted to talk about it, people would be more sympathetic...problem is that didn’t happen! Here is what DID happen! Apparently there was this one cat that felt they needed to do PR for Sentai and anyone that genuinely complained about it on twitter were being told by this one individual (no I will not name them but I bet you they know who they are)  “Maybe your next experience will be better” Alright shut all the way the fuck up! The experience that I had (and some others apparently) LITERALLY SUCKED!  I get that we were in the minority but still...if there are people that had a bad time you don’t get to act any kind of way towards them...point blank period! The reality is that yes the camp of people that had a bad time was small...we got that but at the same time those people deserved to be heard and if you negate those people that’s a problem because how do theaters get to fix their issues then? But these are things I’m talking about.  We get to the point where the series here starts to get divisive because of different things.  HEAVENS not being in SL is a big one because...shouldn’t fans of the group be allowed to get cards of their faves too? The other big thing we can get into is the fact that it was recently announced that there are going to be an “Animated Concert Series” starting in 2022 and first is STARISH.  I think we all know (based on past performances) that they are no doubt going to give STARISH and QN this treatment and that’s fine...but you have to be lying to yourself if you think for any amount of time that Broccoli gives any fucks about HEAVENS...they don’t...they literally DO NOT CARE! If you say they do then answer me this question “Why didn’t HEAVENS get a stage event like QN and STARISH?” Or answer me this one “Why didn’t they get to perform their solos but STARISH did at 6th stage?” I mean...ANYONE with a clue knows why and its obvious.  When Agematsu tweeted out a photo from the Movie of course he tweeted it out specifically of STARISH but HE don’t get put on blast for his bias?  HE IS LITERALLY HARUKA’S PROXY FOR FUCK SAKES!! Let me assure you all of something:  You know damn well that a lot of you really hate the fuck out of HEAVENS because if you didn’t then for FOUR YEARS (soon to be 5) you all wouldn’t have harped JUST on what happened to Otoya...nah you’d have given a fuck about Eiichi but we get it cos you all hate his guts right? Y’all love to still post your Eiichi hate and I still get to see it SOMEHOW but don’t worry cos I got a spot on the bench for all of ya That is all I needed to say here...talk to all you lovely people again soon

[minchiutau]

QUARTET NIGHT LIVE FLY TO THE FUTURE 2018 Report (Day 1&2)

Most details are from 1st day because we usually can’t see 1st day performances except for MC in DVD/BD anyway so i tried to focus on writing details of performance from 1st day more than 2nd (tho in term of perf there weren’t many differences) It contains most of the MCs and my thoughts about it!

Warning: Both reports and translations of the dialogue ARE not 100% accurate.  It’s based on what i and my friend remembered and took notes of. The post is extremely long! And i spent tons of time typing this so there might be a lot of grammar and typing errors. I’d be happy if you would overlook all of my mistakes here!

Edit: Let me apologize for the extreme delay.. I actually had this finished a week after it happened, and i was probably super tired when i finished it. I’m not sure how that happened, but apparently i didn’t post it and this had been sitting on my drafts for six months because i went on a hiatus afterwards.... I realized it after opening tumblr a day ago. I was super sad because it was so long and i spent tons of time writing it.. if possible i don’t want to delete it so here it is!

Opening lines by QN members

Opening VTR, there isn't anything like last QN live but it was visual picture slideshow of previous live and it shows how QN has been around since 2012~now. QUARTET★NIGHT instrumental was playing on the background.

Followed with clock'tick tock sound, bell rang and the main stage monitor was split into two and QN appeared with gold stage outfit and big clock on the background! Tattsun and Morikubo had similar hairstyle to the previous live with minor change (styling?) while maenu had brown hair tied like in 6th live melting of snow performance and shoutan with ai's hairstyle+hair color (bleached in some parts, not entirely but it looks really nice!)

1. THE WORLD IS MINE I actually guessed this would be the first song and i was right! It started with really pretty acapella ;;_;; THEIR HARMONIES WERE PERFECT IT WAS LEGENDARY like it was probably one of the best harmonization i've heard in my life (if previous live wasn't enough) I kinda forgot what happened during this performance because i was too amazed by how good they sang tbh. Pretty sure people know how good QN harmonize, but this one was especially good! If i remembered it right, there were some dance moves! The audience also sang "The world is mine!" part in the bridge, it was fun! I literally cried the moment they appeared i can’t remember much AHAHA //sweats

2.Poison KISS As soon as the intro started people around me went crazy with their screams xD It's more or less similar to what we've seen in previous lives. Do they have any tradition bc they always sing this song since 3rd live xD Except of course, they were dancing a lot more now and this song is actually one of the good example of their improvements! This song is still as hyped as always. They walked from the main stage to the front stage and during that they also did some poses and fanservices

MC (or not really since they were talking in character voice the whole time? kinda like opening serifu) Maenu: *Camus butler mode* Welcome to "QUARTET NIGHT LIVE FLY TO THE FUTURE" ladies and gentlemen. I'm Camus and let us enjoy tonight together. *Camus usual mode change* Or did you really think i'd say that, you peasant?! Be sure to follow us to the end. (In 2nd day camus didn't say the peasant thingy tho idk why) Shoutan: I'm Mikaze Ai. I'll make it a fun and dokidoki live until the end! *throw kiss* Tattsun: It's Kurosaki Ranmaru! It's finally our rocking time! Let's enjoy it till the end! Morikubo: Rei-chan’s the one left here~! My girl and my boy!! It's okay for Rei-chan to start first, right~?! and it went right to the next song

3. On Your Mark! I personally thought that this song sounds hard to sing (maybe bc of the key progression??) but Morikubo did great! His singing was super stable and consistent, as usual. He danced A LOT more on this one! Probably the most i've seen from reiji's solo so far! And he did super great! ;; It’s similar to the perf he had in 6th live except i think he did even better this time!! He must've worked really hard! He forgot a bit of his part in 1st day xD but he recovered right after!

4. Futari no Monogram I HAD FEELING THIS WOULD COME bc it was the only ai's solo shoutan didn't sing in QN 1st solo con.. and I definitely saw improvements! He was dancing (almost) all of the time and but he sounded A LOT more stable than 5th live (and i think 5th live was already great) it looked so easy for him xD But all in one it's similar to the one we've seen previously, except i think there were some additional moves? (Edit: many parts are entirely different too) In the end shoutan also said "Da~isuki" like 5th live, except it was in a bit more playful tone (kinda teasing tone?) Overall i think he did even better than 5th live! He also did some fanservices and i personally like the part where he fixed his silver gloves.

5. Saintly Territory Maenu appeared with his (this time a bit thin?) white mantle and did the dance like in previous live! Same with shoutan, i think he improved a lot with his singing stability and this time it sounded extremely stable and he looks a lot more relaxed with his dancing too!;; I really love how they keep on improving even tho they were already that good to begin with. He came to from main stage to front stage and suddenly he appeared with camus' stick from halfway and danced with it! xD He danced a lot! I’m not sure if it’s in this song or not but if i remember it right on first day, he also gave us a fanservice of him smirking in front of the camera and people went crazy over it (i mean, me too AHAHA)

6. BE PROUD Remember how legendary 6th live performance of this song was? Yeah, this time it was equally amazing. He appeared with stand-mic and it was a straightforward+simple performance, yet his singing was really amazing i kinda stopped swinging penlight.. The adlib on the bridge was really powerful and it just hit me hard i almost teared up ;; On last reff he went down on his knees and made really pained expression ;; in general he had pained expression on his face and it made me emotional.. also the trademark super-long notes in the end was also there, it was just amazing! I got chills. Personally i like last reff "hoeru shika naku (I have no other choice but to howl)" because he sounded like he was actually howling. BUT SERIOUSLY it was extremely emotional, both days were powerful and all in one it’s just simply amazing. Fight me you don’t like Ranmaru and tattsun after you listen to this performance AHAHA

The screen suddenly said "Acoustic corner, Reiji Camus", Morikubo and Maenu appeared with long sleeves shirt. Morikubo (reiji's) was black (with stage-like vest?) and maenu was white (with blue tie).They greeted the hall and live-viewing audience. Maenu wore camus' glasses. They said they were doing something new, which was acoustic corner! The band (?) was preparing on their back while they were doing the MC. Chairs were also prepared for them and they talked while sitting on it, also telling the audience to sit throughout acoustic performance.

Day 1 They talked about there weren't many chances to have only the two of them on MC and how rehearsal have passed in a blink of eye. It seemed like they were doing it under a lot of pressure (considering last live extreme high quality i'm not surprised tbh lol) Maenu: "It's hard to gather all of us together on the rehearsal" Morikubo: "We only managed to get all together once (?!) on the rehearsal. We sometimes did it with three of us present and for some reasons most of the time one of us couldn't be present." (audience sounded surprised! Me too, they performed really good together i just didn't expect it) Maenu: "I started rehearsal mainly from September. Though of course,  i received choreography videos beforehand." Morikubo: "The red person started really early, didn't he?" (audience laughed) Maenu: "He always got to start rehearsal really early every live" Morikubo: "He always got to start really early i couldn't help but thinking "Eh?! He started already?!" when i heard it." Maenu: "And he'd contact us with "I started with it!" first everytime" After that they were talking about the live and how it started with a new song! Apparently they were practicing it it a lot to the point that they saw it on their dreams lol Morikubo danced a bit (?) of the choreo with his hand, pointed at Maenu and said he often did those moves (practicing the move, the usual maenu’s greatness; not sure but i think it was killer kiss moves?) xD They talked about how it was the first time for the four of them to perform an acoustic corner on utapri live and that the live was fun. Morikubo: "I always receive the choreography video from the dance teacher first and i got to voice my opinion first if the dance was too hard or if it needs to be changed into easier moves. If i'm okay with it then the three of them will follow. (Because he's the oldest) Until now if some parts were too hard i'd say so and got scolded by certain someone (Tattsun LOL). But this time, after receiving it I said nothing about it and did it the way it's supposed to be." (Audience cheers) Maenu: "The choreography was really hard, wasn't it?" Morikubo: "Neverthless, our duty this time is to follow after Quartet Night. If the four of them are supposed to do it that way, then we will do our best to follow after them. We did our best without making excuses." (Audience cheers) Morikubo: "Up till now, there are a lot of idol groups existing right? They dance and sing." Maenu: "They do." Morikubo: "But look at us, we're dancing, singing AND harmonizing. Isn't that rare to be found?" Maenu: "It's rare indeed!" Morikubo: "We're dancing, singing AND harmonizing! (2nd time xD)" (Audience cheers) Morikubo: "If the four of them aim for even higher level, we'll also aim for it and chase after them(characters)!" After that they called for the acoustic band members. They also talked about Maenu's Camus glasses and apparently, Maenu being the biggest Camus fan he is, got the glasses by himself xD (If i remember right it got sold out really fast so i think he meant he put tons of effort to get it)

Day 2  They talked about how they’re doing it on Kobe this time. Up till now utapri live (or most events actually) was held in kanto region/near tokyo but this time the live was held in kansai region (Psst as someone who lives in kansai i’m extremely happy) They greeted people at live-viewing. Maenu: *to the camera* “Can you see us here?” Morikubo: “Live-viewiiiing!” Some of the audiences in the hall went “Fuuu~↑” even tho they were calling for the live-viewing LOL Maenu: “*a bit puzzled* O--oh I could hear their voices, i heard the Fuuu~“ xD From this point they’ll keep on doing this few times if someone let out voices when they were calling for people in live-viewing LOL There was also a small accident of the staffs bringing wrong water-bottle for Maenu (it was tatsu’s) xD They talked about how the penlight color change was automatically controlled by the staffs (like the one on previous live) Morikubo: “I thought it was amazing!” Maenu: “At first i thought ‘they changed the color so quickly!!’ but it seems like that was not the case” xD Morikubo: “Ah, but it’s possible to switch it into your favorite color, right?” Maenu: “Yes, it’s possible to do both” Morikubo: “If i say a color right now would it be possible (for the staffs) to change the color right away?” Maenu: “It’s supposed to be on programmed automatically isn’t it?” Morikubo: “Let’s try it!” Maenu: “I’m not sure, we haven’t told the staffs beforehand!” xD Morikubo: “We haven’t told them anything!” Maenu: “They must be panicking right now” Morikubo: “Everyone, I’ll say ‘red’ so please switch your penlight into another color and don’t change the color manually! Let’s see if it’s possible” Morikubo: “Here i go, red!!!” They waited few seconds and the color didn’t change xD Morikubo: “So it’s not possible!” *audience laughed* Maenu: “It has to be programmed beforehand” in the middle of their talk suddenly all of the penlight on the hall turned red Morikubo: “OHHH IT’S RED!!” Maenu: “That’s amazing!!! The staffs definitely panicked just now” Morikubo: “I’m sorry for doing it suddenly!”  Maenu: “(it’s all in red) So this is what Tatsu saw while singing” Morikubo: “(to audience)Ah, you can turn it back to your favorite color now. Thank you very much for your cooperation” They talked about how the concert hall is a good hall (and i totally agree) and how they could see the audience clearly. Then they talked about how it was a 2 days concert as opposed to prev one. Afterwards Morikubo told us that they’re ready to do it for another day or two xD Maenu agreed Maenu: “Even the rehearsals were fun. Of course there were a lot of hardships, but the sensation of being able to stand with the four of us.. it’s just addictive” Morikubo: “Lately, there’s something all of us often do. Inside the dressing room, when the four of us were sitting in front of the mirrors and our songs were played on the background, we’ll do an imitation/impression of our own characters”  Maenu: “A bit exaggerated one” Audience screamed “Do it~~” and the two of us fell into silence all of sudden xD Maenu: “If you said something like that of course it’ll come into this!” Morikubo: “It’s more or less just what you always hear from us” Audience told them to do it again Morikubo: “Yesterday we talked about such topic. We were talking about how Shouta used to sing demos of most utapri songs and we asked about how he did our character voices. *stares at maenu* How did he do Ran-Ran again?” Maenu: “?! I’d be the one doing it?!”  He did an impression of Ranmaru’s “Arai hou ga ii~” of Poison kiss and it was super funny! xD He made his voice really hoarse and also made funny expression with his eyes wide-opened LOL Morikubo then apologized at him for making him suddenly do it Maenu: “You told me to do it!” Morikubo: “I wasn’t expecting you to do it with that expression” Maenu: “I’m sorry please forget the thing i did just now” LOL Maenu: “At rehearsal we often do something like that to fill the part of the member that wasn’t there. For example Morikubo-san’s part” Morikubo: “They’ll start imitating ‘Tee ↑ ee↑ (the vocal swing he often does, you’d probably get what i mean if you listened to Reiji’s singing in general)” Maenu: *imitates* “More and More and~~(poison kiss w/hands movements too)” Morikubo: “It’s not “Mori mori ok?!”  (means to do something vigorously in japanese) Maenu: “Even all of those things were really fun” Morikubo: “Camus’ (impression) were amazing too you know” Maenu: “Tatsu totally did that on purpose!” Morikubo: “If Tatsu comes later, tell him to do it here” And they called the band

7. KILLER KISS When they talked about how they were going to perform it acoustic i actually couldn't imagine how it would sound with this song but it actually sounded really pleasant! I mean, it sounded a lot quieter than the actual song so you could hear their great voices and amazing harmonization crystal clear! It sounded really refreshing! They also did a bit of the little hand choreography similar to the one on 6th live. They sounded really powerful!

Shoutan and Tattsun appeared. Shoutan had white shirt with lilac-colored flower on his left pocket and Tattsun had black shirt they also talked while sitting like Morikubo and Maenu (At some parts they also stood?).

Day 1 Shoutan talked about how it's refreshing to be able to talk with just the two of them and tattsun agreed to it. In the middle of convo Tattsun just went with sudden "Let's introduce ourself" and the audience laughed. Shoutan: "Everyone, good evening! I'm Mikaze Ai's good friend Aoi Shouta!" Tattsun: "You went with that?! I'm the one who's always standing closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa." Tattsun: "Aaa~ It's refreshi-- *looks at shoutan turning his back from audience* Hey! Don't fix your belt here!" (Shoutan a bit panicking lol) Tattsun: "This is why before the live started i told you not to eat that many cream puffs!!"* (if you don't get this reference go search for game and drama CDs involving Ai lol) Shoutan: "That's not true!" lol Tattsun also said Morikubo and Maenu talked a lot so almost no topic left for them to talk xD Shoutan told the camera to zoom at Tattsun's nails. Apparently at previous lives Tattsun's nail colors were normal red but this time he finally had Ranmaru's burgundy dark red! Also Shoutan tried to let his nails grow but at rehearsal two of it hit the mic and broke. He also had Ai's color nail btw. Tattsun: "This time, at rehearsal we were often together. Of course we were looking at each other practices a lot too. The more i see him, to be honest I could only see Shouta as a girl!" Shoutan: "You said that a lot! Stuffs like "what's with that body line!?" Tattsun: "His girl power (女子力) is increasing day by day! If it's me i definitely wouldn't be able to do it! For example this pose *posing*" Shoutan: "This one? *posing*" (hard to describe so take a look at matoni-sensei's report pic here! the pose at the very middle of the pic) Tattsun: "How did you do that?" *imitating but failed* (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "This time, for example the dance, like previously talked, we're following the footsteps of our characters. As they go higher, we as one try to follow them. To begin with I only do stuffs like this once a year here you know!" Shoutan: "This kind of chance doesn't happen often, right? But actually tatsu-nii at his own will, you know, even after the rehearsal was supposed to end--" Tattsun: "Hey~ Stop this topic!" Shoutan: "When the rehearsal ended he'd go around saying "I'm sorry, can i do it just one more time?" you know! Of course we have to make sure we're in good condition by resting well too, but his feelings reached me and it made me want to reply it with same thing." Tattsun: "Right, at that time i had the time so i tried to use all of my time practicing and when i realized it i've been doing it for six and half hours." Shoutan: "Really, how many times did you do the live that time?"   (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "And Shouta was also there the whole time."(Not sure if he said he was standing there or singing behind him) Tattsun: "To be honest, I couldn't produce Ranmaru's voice easily. And so i'd need time to adjust my throat beforehand. Sometimes i got frustrated and was troubled with it alone. And at such times, he'd come closer to me and said "Tatsu-nii, what about doing quartet night songs together?". Among us, Shouta　is the one who's always trying to consider others feelings. At that one time all of us got together, we were troubled with a thing and couldn't come into agreement. At such time, Shouta was the first one to speak up "What about doing this way? Maybe it's going to change for the better!". He was always thinking about our feelings and what to do about it. In that way, he's the one supporting our backs and i think that's what's good about him." After that they talked about how they're going to sing after this with the acoustic band. Tattsun: "We were talking a lot prior to this performance, like how to make it sound better and what to add and improvise." Shoutan: "That's right, we talked a lot about it." Tattsun: "I was thinking of supporting Shouta while he's singing freely with his all, but actually Shouta also adjusts with how i'm singing. It feels like a matchmaking (お見合い)." Shoutan: "It feels like we're sharing same atmosphere!" Tattsun: "It made me feel like, "Ah, so singing with others could be this interesting!" It's really fun. I haven't had chance to sing with someone with such a different type of voices and it feels refreshing. *suddenly bowing?* Thank you so much" Shoutan was off guard because Tattsun just suddenly thanked him and was like "nn?!" xD Tattsun: "So, are we doing it?" Shoutan: "(to the audience suddenly) Do you want to hear us~?" (and of course we said we want to hear it) Shoutan: "They said they want to~" Tattsun: "Why did you start it and answer it yourself?" (Audience laughed xD) Shoutan: "I'm sorry" (Audience screamed "Cute~!") Tattsun: "That part! That's the cute part of you, you know" And i kinda forgot what they said after this.. but not long after they started with title call and the next song started! Day 2 Shoutan: “Good evening~ It’s finally our turn” Tattsun: “No matter how many times we did it, it always feels refreshing to be here (doing MC) with just the two of us” Shoutan: “It does! The previous two’s MC/perf was really heated up” Tattsun: “Right” Both: ”Right~” (audience laughed xD) Tattsun: “First, please introduce yourself” Shoutan: “I’m Mikaze Ai’s best friend, Aoi Shouta!” Tattsun: “I’m the one with privilege to stand closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa” Shoutan: “Isn’t it interesting that our introduction changed a bit everytime?” They talked about live-viewing and called out to them Shoutan: *to camera* “How are you guys?” Tattsun: “Everyone at live-viewing places, how are you?” the audiences in the hall went “Fuuu~↑” again Tattsun: “I could hear voices even though it’s supposed to be live-viewing! Amazing!” LOL After that they changed topic into the outfits they wore on acoustic corner Shoutan: “After the first day ended, there was something a lot of people were talking about regarding this acoustic corner. As opposed to our previous gold outfits, in this corner we have a shirt as our outfit. *Tattsun spun to show the audience his outfit*”  Shoutan: “It has Ranmaru’s color on it” Tattsun: “(the red cloth of the lower part of his outfit) I requested this” Shoutan: “For me, i wanted a symbol at Ai’s left chest. The staffs also added Ai’s color on it” (whoever manage to understand the symbolism i love you) Shoutan: “The real topic starts here. The shirt i’m wearing right now is  an oversize shirt. So it has a bit of kare-shirt (It’s a situation when someone is wearing their lovers’ clothes) vibe on it. “ *audience loud screams* xD Tattsun: “Right” Shoutan: “And that’s..” Tattsun: “That’s why you should just say you were staying over in my place” *fangirl squeal* Shoutan: “And there’s the fact that the two of us are doing MC together too.. For a moment i thought 'Eh?! Did i actually stay in Tatsu-nii’s house and borrow his shirt?!'”  Tattsun: “I thought it would look good on you, so you can have it” *embarrassed shoutan* xD Shoutan: “This person right here... Why does he always say this kind of embarrassing lines like it was nothing?! This is embarrassing” (you two so cute stahp) Tattsun: “Could you stop getting ‘seriously’ embarrassed?” xD Shoutan: “Of course i would! *to male audience* Even male would feel the same, right?!”  A male audience answered and tattsun laughed at it Shoutan: “I told you so!” Tattsun: “I could hear your voice (male audience) really clearly! Wait a bit, let me take off my in-ear monitor. (He looks happy to hear them) *male audience cheers*  Tattsun: “This is awesome, i could hear you guys really well! *laughs* Oi, you guys sure have great voices!” (they both look really happy xD) Shoutan: “And obviously, all of you girls, it made your heart throb right?!” *audience cheers* Shoutan: “I told you!” Tattsun: “Wait a bit, why did you put yourself in girls side?!” LOLOL Shoutan: “After standing on many stages of utapri, i feel like i could understand what everyone is thinking about!” Tattsun: “That’s what i told you in the rehearsal wasn’t it?! When i was watching your solo, i told you 'Your girl power(女子力) is increasing even more!'“ Tattsun: “Especially when he was dancing and singing, his body-line definitely doesn’t look like a male!  Shoutan: “Really? *does the same pose as the one on 1st day MC* I ended up doing it like that” Tattsun: “If i’m the one doing it, it looks like a plastic model *does the same pose* So stiff” Shoutan: “But in return you have the coolness of Ranmaru!” Tattsun: “All i could do is being aggresive (オラつくit’s a bit hard to explain)” Shoutan: “That’s Ranmaru!!” After that they talked about flower stand! (btw for some reasons if i go to QN events i always see many cool and artistic flower stands so if you’re curious be sure to look it up) Tattsun: “We wanted to see it by ourselves but it was close to where the audience was waiting so we couldn’t see it. But our managers took a VTR of the flowers for us and we all watched it together. While we were talking about how big and pretty it was suddenly a panel appeared and we were like ‘Eh?! You can create such flower stand?!’” Shoutan: “It was amazing wasn’t it?” Tattsun: “And also, i know it’s a form of love and i probably shouldn’t say an unnecessary comment like this, but there was a flower stand with Ranmaru’s silhouette and an instrument on it. The thing is, that silhouette wasn’t a bass, it was a guitar!!” Shoutan: “A-Ah, the instrument Ranmaru plays is..” Tattsun: “Bass” Shoutan: “And what came was...” Tattsun: “Guitar...” Shoutan: “That was close! So close! B-but it was a silhouette so..” Tattsun: “But.. it was a guitar...” Shoutan: “So close!” Tattsun: “That shape was probably an SG (gibson SG? i’m not sure) guitar..” Shoutan: “You sure know a lot!” xD Tattsun: “*asks a band member* Right?! But i could feel the love and so i think ’It’s okay, a guitar is fine too’” Shoutan: “After all, they made it so pretty!” Tattsun: “Indeed! Among them there were also outfits right? The quality was so high i thought ‘Eh?! Did we wear that outfits?!’” Shoutan: “Eh?! It’s the real thing?!” Tattsun: “Did we give/show the real thing to them?!” xD Shoutan: “Was it leaked somewhere?” Tattsun: “Without realizing it, do they know our three sizes?!” Shoutan: “That’s bad!!” Tattsun: “No way, no way!!! We’re in trouble!” (what are you guys doing LOL) Afterwards they talked about how it represents audience love for the series Tattsun: “It was so amazing it feels like being on an exhibition! Don’t you think we could charge an admission fee for this?” Shoutan: “That’s right!!” xD Tattsun: “A lot of people also sent it directly to certain character and on that part too i could totally feel your affection for them.” Tattsun: “Yesterday, after 1st day ended we had a small after-party with the four of us plus few people. We talked about a lot of things there and there were a lot of talks full of love for the series. We’ll talk about it in depth after the four of us are all here.” Tattsun: “Also, on dressing room lately, doing an impression of QN members has became a trend, right? Shoutan: “We do impression of each other’s characters. It’s before the live so tatsu-nii brought a stereo--  Is this the right word? I’m hopeless when it comes to such thing..  ” Tattsun: “Shouta” Shoutan: “Yes?” Tattsun: “Ba~ka” (in teasing tone asdhjkf what is this, a shoujo manga?) *Audience screams* Shoutan: “ *a bit of sulking tone* He said i’m an idiot..” Tattsun: “That’s called a bluetooth speaker!” Shoutan: “Ah! It’s a speaker!” Tattsun: “Don’t just go and group everything into 'latest model machine’!” Shoutan: “I’m sorry.. -- so he used a speaker to play the setlist of this live inside our dressing room. And then we’ll hum or sing along” Tattsun: “I thought if there’s no sound maybe the atmosphere would be a bit gloomy so i brought a rather big one and played the playlist of the setlist. And when i did that, suddenly we could hear Rei-chan that wasn’t Rei-chan” LOL Shoutan: “You’re right. After that we would hear an addition of one more person, and another one, we would then hear someone who did an impression of ranmaru, and so on...” Shoutan: “But the thing is, when Camus’ part comes..” Both: “All of us would do it” LOL Shoutan: “It was amazing wasn’t it?” Tattsun: “All of us would gather and sang the “kindan no kajitsu~♪ (killer kiss)” Shoutan: “We did it. Not only our own character, but did such to another character of the same group” Tattsun: “We did it” Shoutan: “Ai’s impressions were also amazing” Tattsun: “When doing Ai we would pucker our lips” Shoutan: “That’s right! Actually, i have such a small mouth/lips so when they’re doing it like that i could hear some similarities.. Tomo-nii also did it. That’s what’s trending on our dressing room lately” Tattsun: “When doing an impression of Ranmaru, all of them would sound so hoarse!” Shoutan: “First of all we would strain our voices” Tattsun: “Raise the distortion to the max..” Tattsun: “Do you still remember the first time you voiced Ai?” Shoutan: “I do! At that time i was just started learning how to be a voice actor. With an illustration of Ai right in front of me, I was thinking of how to make him alive. While thinking of such things i would practice over and over again. After spending a lot of time, i finally managed to do that.” Tattsun: “The staffs were really careful about it weren’t they?” Shoutan: “Yes. What about Ranmaru? How was it?” Tattsun: “A bit roughly but at that time I saw all of the utapri series first. And at that time, i thought that there weren’t many people with low tone voices. As a senpai, when i read the script at that time Ranmaru also said so many harsh words. I was thinking of what to do with it and came into conclusion that to make it sounds manly i should do it with low tone. And so it became like that.” Tattsun: “But that time, i didn’t give it much thought and let out the lowest tone i could at that time.” Shoutan: “I see!” Tattsun: “And so when i’m voicing Ranmaru i have to keep my throat wide opened the whole time” Tattsun: “The first time i thought ‘i’ve done it wrong’ was at the singing recording. At that time i realized that i have to practice hard to produce Ranmaru’s voice well. Especially at the very beginning, i have to warm-up my voice well before recording something as Ranmaru. At that time i’d practice “*Ranmaru’s voice* Oi” with my throat wide open.” Shoutan: “And so it becomes Ranmaru” Tattsun: “*points at the area between throat and chin* the shape of my face here would disappear (bc he’s keeping his throat open).  It would turn into a neck of a dinosaur. ” xD Shoutan: “But after going through all of that Ranmaru was born” Tattsun: “That’s right” Shoutan: “A lot of stories were there”

And they announced next song

8. HARUHANA ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE: BEAUTIFUL. I guess this one is easier to imagine in acoustic ver. It sounds really classy~ I must say this arrangement fits this song A LOT! Both of them sang super emotionally ;; Tattsun used softer tones at some parts and shoutan sang some parts more dynamically than others creating an emotional performance;; When this song was released i saw someone said that they voices don't go well with each other, but nah they really need to watch this performance. Their chemistry was heavenly.. their timing, the way their voice overlap and harmonize, even how they put power in their singing, it was a perfection. To be honest, the two of them in this performance probably had the best chemistry i've ever seen in utapri live performances. They shared A LOT of eye contacts! (they were staring at each other like most of the time? lol) They also inserted really pretty adlibs and even harmonize on it. Before last reff they sang it really passionately before suddenly (intentionally) stopped singing for seconds and left a bit of silence. After seconds they start again with really emotional last reff! It was amazing. (Explanation: "Oru youni kasaneatte, koe e to, uta e to~~~ (long notes) Aa *stops for like 3 seconds* yokaze ni fukarete...") Also last reff's "..mune wo sasu kedo ↑" was improvised as the notes went up instead of down. I couldn't say anything other than perfection. I personally like their perf of this song on the first day more than the second day (tho of course it was awesome too) so i kinda hoped utapri would ever release DVD/BD of 1st day of their lives too...

A bit of MC. Tattsun said that because they finally had the chance to sing acoustic they wanted to sing with the four of them and called Morikubo and Maenu!

Day 1 Morikubo said he had two things to say to them Morikubo: "First, the two of us talked about a lot of topics (that Tattsun said they have nothing left to talk) because it took a lot of time for the band to set their instruments on the stage!" xD Maenu: "It can't be helped!" Tattsun: "Talk about of such circumstances when we're on backstage instead of here!" (Audience laughed) Morikubo: "Also second, Tatsu is amazing with his practice and all, but sometimes there's also time when he's only stretching for 2 hours!" LOL ((After this they talked a bit more but i forgot the details, i think my memory went overcapacity starting from here, i'm really sorry //sweats)) They talked about how QN appeared for the first time at 2012. If i remember it right Tattsun also said previous live was only last year (6th) but he felt like it's been longer than that. I didn't remember who brought it up first (Tattsun maybe??) but they then talked about how Shoutan used to provide his singing for the demo/prototype version of utapri songs before the respective seiyuu sing the song! (I think a lot of you knew it already, as people around me already knew abt this too) Shoutan: "You promised you won't talk about this, right?!" xD and they realized they didn't give us enough explanation about what they were talking about and decided to explain. Maenu: "For a period of time, Shouta used to sing for all utapri demo song alone by himself. " Tattsun: "Not to mention, he also sang it the way the character would" Morikubo: "You did STARISH songs and Quartet Night songs right? And what about HEAVENS'? Shoutan: "I also did HEAVENS song!" (Audience and the rest of them were surprised) Tattsun: "That's why, i mean, isn't it a good idea to release those CDs?" Shoutan: "*panicking* No way! No way!" (Audience screamed they want it xD) Shoutan: "It's only good because they (respective char/seiyuus) are the one singing you know! Demo songs are just demo" Tattsun: "Even so, how did you do sing it (the way other characters/seiyuus would)?" Shoutan: "Of course, first i heard each of their CDs. After that i tried thinking of how to sing it so that it's easy to understand who is singing which part. If i sang it all the same way, it'd be hard to understand!" Morikubo: "If that's the case, for example how would you do it if you're doing Ranran's part?" Shoutan: "Wait!! I'd get scolded for this!!" xD (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "You won't!" Morikubo: "Like first, do you need to get your feelings fired up or such? Tell us how you do it! Maybe the audience will have the chance to sing Ranran's part at karaoke or something!" (I kinda forgot this part) Tattsun: "But for some reason, when everyone was imitating Ranmaru's voice, they'll make their voice hoarse. And they'd start saying "I'll kill you!"? Ranmaru didn't even say such thing!" Maenu: "We, and other utapri members (starish seiyuus?) sometimes imitate other character voices on rehearsal and practice." Shoutan: "We did! Also personally same here, when doing Ranmaru's voice i tried to make it sounds threatening (? (LOL xD)) and put my attention on creating more breathy sounds” Morikubo: “Did you hear it guys? Breathy voices!” Shoutan: “But the original singer actually didn’t even do it on purpose right?” Tattsun: “Yes, i’m not aware of it myself” Morikubo: “What about me?! Me?” Shoutan: “With Reiji i’d insert many vocal swings” Morikubo: “Ah, i see!” Shoutan: “Even with Ai there are times i used that kind of singing technique, but after listening to a lot of songs i tried to think of the way i could get the feel with my own voice” Maenu: “What about me?” Morikubo: “With Camus, the first thing is to put in a lot of sugar right?” Shoutan: “Yes xD a lot of sugar cube!” *Tattsun agreing lol* Maenu: “So how did you do it?” Shoutan: “With Camus.. i tried to sing a bit through my nose?” Maenu: “I see! It’s like when Tatsu imitated my voices with bad intentions (LOL) He does it a lot on the dressing room” Tattsun: “Didn’t you do that a lot too?!” Maenu: “We all do! *shoutan and morikubo laughed* Morikubo: “When we all stand side-by-side the ‘let’s imitate other characters tournament’ would just suddenly start!” Tattsun: “Inside the make-up room we were all sitting side by side. At that time the setlist of the concert was playing on the bgm. And then suddenly someone would just start singing a part that isn’t even theirs!” Morikubo: “Didn’t you *points at Maenu* also sing your own part exaggeratedly?!” Tattsun: “He did!!” *shoutan laughed*  Tattsun: “What were you even doing?!” Maenu: “I just thought maybe it would be interesting, i tried to guess how my singing sound for people around me” xD Morikubo: “In the prev live i talked about how singing with the three of you feels so good, right? This time while listening to ourselves in acoustic corner, the existence of Maeno’s solid low notes, Shouta’s clear high notes, and for mid-high notes i’ll be there together with Tatsu’s mid-low notes, make a great balance.” Shoutan: “I thought so too!” Morikubo: “Especially because it’s acoustic you could hear the voices clearly. It felt so nice! What do you guys think of it?” Maenu: “I ag...ree with you *stumbled with his words*” Tattsun: “Which position are you standing on right now?! Also where is your glasses (camus’ glasses) ?!” Maenu: “I took that off” Shoutan: “You took that off!” Maenu: “It’s a coincidence but our voices balance out each other extremely well. They’re so compatible with each other. It’s such a wonder.” Morikubo: “What do you guys think of it? (audience)” *audience claps* Morikubo: “Today is the Culture Day (a holiday in Japan) but we’re able to be here. Why don’t all of you start your own QUARTET NIGHT with 4 people around you right now? (xD LOL)”  Tattsun: “Live-viewing too!” And they show themselves on camera for people in live-viewing! Tattsun: “It’s QUARTET NIGHT~~~~” (his tone was so cute xD karunai dayo~) Tattsun: So, a lot of QUARTET NIGHTs would be born from among the whole country today? (LOL)

Morikubo: “Let’s sing together shall we?” They talked about the outfit a bit before getting into the next song

Day 2 After the performance Tattsun said that it was really fun and called for the other two. Morikubo&Maenu: “It was a great performance!” Morikubo: “I could listen to your (haruhana duo) talk and performance forever” Tattsun and shoutan laughed Shoutan: “Really?!” Morikubo: “I mean it. But Shouta, how could you mistook a speaker for a stereo?!” Maenu: “But i think Tatsuhisa who mistook a video for a VTR (video tape recorder) is also more or less the same” Morikubo: “What has gotten into you?! a VTR?!” *to tattsun* Tattsun: “EH?!” LOL Shoutan: ”I sure made a grave mistake..” Tattsun: “At least i didn’t say something like ‘a beta’ (betamax)” Morikubo asked the audience about the acoustic corner Morikubo: “It felt really good” Shoutan: “It was fun!” Maenu: “It was!” Tattsun: “During today’s rehearsal showtaro-san also talked about this but I feel like we could make a lot more stuffs with this corner” Morikubo: “Like for example, an acoustic live or something” (OMG YES PLS) *Audience cheers* Maenu: “It’ll be great” Tattsun: “For example wouldn’t it be nice if we do it with night sky in the background?” Morikubo: “Our dream keeps on getting even bigger” Tattsun: “We keep on saying this kind of thing, i’m sorry!” (about what they want to do in the future onstage without consulting to staffs xD) Morikubo: “I think it’s important to have a specific dream!” Maenu: “It’s also important to say it out loud” Morikubo: “That’s right, let’s keep on saying it. Right, everyone?” a bit of short silence Morikubo: “You’re not going to say it?!” LOL Everyone laughs Maenu: “It’ll be nice if it becomes true in the future!” Morikubo: “When the two of you were talking I could hear the voice of ‘my boy’ (male audience) so clearly! Let us hear it again, ‘my boy’!!” *male audience cheers* Maenu: “Oh! It’s amazing!” Morikubo: “*to a male audience* Thank you! It makes me happy!” *male audience cheers*  Tattsun: You guys sure have great voices! I’m so happy!” (he looks super happy xD) Morikubo: “What about in the live-viewing?” Tattsun& Maenu: “My boy?” Morikubo: “My boy!” Morikubo: *to the camera* “My boy in the live viewing~!!” *Male audience in the hall cheers xD* Shoutan: “There must be some of them!” Maenu: “I could hear them!” Tattsun: “That true, even though it’s live-viewing i could hear their voices!” LOL Maenu: “It reached us! Words filled with feelings definitely gets across, doesn’t it? xD Morikubo: “Right, it’s amazing. We’re so grateful that a lot of people from the whole country came to see us. Thank you very much” Morikubo: “This time it’s a 2 days concert. What do you think of it?” Tattsun: “Yesterday i felt extremely nervous.. I was full of momentary nervousness, but as i talked on previous MC the four of us had an after-party, didn’t we? It seems like i was really happy. The moment i woke up today all i could think of was about that!” Morikubo: “Actually, it seems like the four of us were really happy about it” *the four of them laughs* Morikubo: “We’re surprised about it ourselves. But it seems like the four of us put our arms around each other's shoulders and walk back to the hotel on that position!” (o mg cute) Shoutan: “It’s a real story!” Maenu: “We were all pretty drunk” Tattsun: “To reach the hotel there was a bit of distance so we decided to just walk to the hotel. The four of us keep on putting arms around each other during our walk back to the hotel! “ Shoutan:“That’s true!” Maenu: “Our managers happened to be on the lobby of the hotel and took a picture of us!” Tattsun: “They were like, ‘what are you guys doing? It’s funny so can i take a picture?’  and took a picture of it! Morikubo: “It was so fun!” Tattsun: “It was a blast! We talked about a lot of things” Morikubo: “We were able to feel this feeling thanks to the group named QUARTET NIGHT. So, Shouta, how was it?” Shoutan: “Even though yesterday was only the first day, I already felt like tearing up many times on the stage.. I tried my best to endure it”  Tattsun: “It’s okay to cry though” Shoutan: “And this person would say something like that!! Near the end when i was about to tear up he would come and say “Oh? Oh? Are you about to cry?” (he’s like provoking shoutan to cry xD) and i’d say “That’s not true!” ”  Tattsun: “That’s okay Shouta~ if you cry I’ll pat your head”   (asdahkf) Shoutan: “But in truth, *points at maenu* tomo-nii was also about to cry in certain song!” Maenu: “A sweat, i was just sweating a lot!” Tattsun: *points at maenu “This guy right there, all he could do it say stuffs like that till he actually breaks into tear!” Maenu:“It was just a sweat!” Shoutan: “Something like that happened! Everytime i stand on this stage, i could feel all of your feelings directly. It directly reached my heart. I’m sure, it also reaches the four of them (chars) directly too.” Morikubo: “It’s our second solo live, so to surpass our previous live, we thought a lot about what our stage is supposed to be. For example the acoustic corner. After this too, we have a lot in store to show all of you here in Kobe. Please look forward to it!” Tattsun: “Among us, Maeno is the most passionate about QN, isn’t he?” Maenu: “That’s not true, all of us are equally passionate about it!” Tattsun: “Of course, we’re all passionate about it! But in terms of concentrating himself to the characters, i feel like he inspires us the most.” Maenu: “That’s not true!” Morikubo: “That’s true, whenever i see him he’s always practicing!” Shoutan: “Exactly! Everytime i’d see him practicing on the corner of the room” Tattsun: “So, how’s this concert for you?” Maenu: “Just as always, while looking forward to it i hope i could leave good memories in the history of QN’s journey. Every moment is so precious and dear to me, it happened to me during 6th live too, but that’s why when the show ended and i have to take off the sparkly and beautiful outfits, i would feel so sad. But of course, if there’s a beginning eventually there will come an end too, so i want to create a lot of memories with all of you before it ends. “ Maenu: “But really, the moment four of us are all here together, i always feel so at ease. It just feels like we’re unbeatable. It’s so addicting.” Morikubo: “That’s true.” Tattsun: “I agree” Shoutan: “When we’re practicing there are a lot of formations. In most of them, we’re supposed to stand a bit apart from each other, but when we started to talk with each other without even realizing it we’d suddenly stand so close to each other!” Tattsun: “Without even realizing it!” Morikubo: “in the previous live something like that happened too wasn’t it? Even though the stage was big, suddenly we all were already in the middle of the stage standing so close to each other! We’re supposed to use the wide stage!” Maenu: “I mean, don’t you think it’s already unusual for four fully-grown adults to walk back to hotel with their arms on each other’s shoulder?!” xD Tattsun: “And the thing is, aside from QUARTET NIGHT we actually always go on our separate ways, right?” Maenu: “That’s true! Even if we meet on another works we’ll just say greetings and go our separate ways!” Tattsun: “Actually this time, the day before the concert, i heard that we could do rehearsal on the hall and i was on the same bullet train with Maeno. I met him in the station of Tokyo. We exchanged “Good morning” and just went our separate ways just like that!” Shoutan: ”Eh?! Really?!” Morikubo: “You didn’t come together?!” Tattsun: “We just exchanged good morning. It’s not like i had any reason to go together with him.” (The way he said it was a bit funny xD a bit tsun) Maenu: “That’s right! I was buying something in the convenience store and Tatsu came in when i was about to quit the store. So it was like ‘Oh so you’re going to buy something here, i see. See you later!’ “ Tattsun: “And so i replied ‘Yeah, i’m going in. Later!’ and went to opposite direction“ Maenu:“But the moment we met up on the rehearsal we would start saying things like ‘Let’s do this part!’ to each other.” Shoutan: “That’s very like Ranmaru and Camus!” *audience laughed xD* Morikubo: “You’re right! That’s exactly the same!” Shoutan:“Exact same!” Morikubo: “The two-shots of these two is interesting so let us see it! *goes away from the other two and gets closer to shoutan* Yesterday when we were eating together it was like that too. They were like Ranran and myuu-chan” Maenu: “But at the group line Shouta also enthusiastically does stuffs like that!” (acting like characters) Tattsun: “He said stuffs like that!” Maenu: “He’d say stuffs like ‘I won’t forgive you if you’re late!’”  Shoutan: “We uploaded a photo of our hands and mics, didn’t we?” Tattsun: ”We actually created a diamond on that photo” (the more you know) Shoutan:”We’re a group so it’d be better to upload it on the same time. Showtaro-niisan suggested that we all upload it on 21:00. Tatsu-nii edited the photo for us. After he sent it to us, tomo-nii replied with “Can’t be helped, i’ll use it” (like camus xD)”  Morikubo:”Then our whole in-char conversations started!” Maenu:”*points at tattsun* He replied with “You’re not being honest” Tattsun: ”That’s normal thing to say, right?! If you’re going to use it you could just say thanks, right?!” Shoutan:“And they i’d reply with “*Ai’s voice* They’re at it again” and added *back to usual shoutan* let’s do it on 21:00″  Tattsun: “We sure talk in our characters personality don’t we? Shoutan:”We do!” Morikubo:”Speaking of LINE, we actually have an utapri all cast group line and yesterday all of the STARISH members gave us encouraging messages.” Tattsun: ”It made me really happy!” Morikubo:”All of them did!” Tattsun: ”We’re standing here right now as QUARTET NIGHT, but we want to treasure the fact that it’s STARISH who opened the path for us. So it makes me really happy! I feel like that it fired us up even more, it made us stronger” Morikubo then said that they’re going to sing the next song and he suddenly told tattsun and maenu to stand beside each other to which maenu replied with “It’s not like we’re close with each other or anything!” xD and they started with next song

9. Marriage

Because it was acoustic arrangement there weren't any background vocals so instead they sang all of the english background vocals live too (ex: "under the starlight~ let's find our love part" etc) and it was really pretty! ;; if i remember well it's mostly shoutan for higher octave (i thought i heard female voice LOLOL) and switched between maenu/morikubo/tattsun for lower parts! Tbh listening to the reff reminded me how much maenu has improved with his singing/harmonies. It sounded really pleasant. On the middle of the song they introduced band members (i think it was percussion, violin, guitar, bass and keyboard??) while they were sitting on the front stage floor xD it was cute!!

Questions VTR. Seiyuus were asked some questions about their characters (impression, stuffs they like about them, etc) Maenu joked a lot, (or stuffs he said were just purely funny lol) shoutan too! In general it was really funny! But it was pretty long and fast so i didn’t manage to remember/take note of most of them, i’m sorry!;; Stuffs written here are not in order and is more or less just the gist of it. They didn’t show each of their full interview as one but instead cut their sentences halfway, switch to another person and so on so it was a bit hard to remember their full answer but here are the questions:

Was there something you couldn’t understand from your character?

Morikubo→ “Thank you very very Macho-cho “ LOL Tattsun→ How harsh he was toward ppl around him Shouta→ He sleeps on siting position LOL Maenu→ He puts way too much sugar on his drink (Saw that coming xD)

Which part do you like from your character from the very beginning?

Morikubo→ As a moodmaker, he actually could read the atmosphere well Tattsun→ He’s extremely straightforward and devoted (abt his work/in general?) Never compromise (to aim for better thing) Shouta→He’s like a cute younger brother. His voice is beautiful LOLOL Maenu→ His “strong heart”. He’s not afraid of being hated and says stuffs the way he think it is. 

What was your first impression of your character?

Morikubo→ Bright but hard to figure out (his inner thoughts etc) Tattsun→ Scary Shouta→ Difficult to deal with Maenu→ Full of dignity

When did you feel like you’ve become best friend with your character?

Morikubo→ The moment  “Yoroshiku Macho-cho “ was born  Tattsun→ The moment some parts of Ranmaru he didn’t know started to appear, when he felt grateful for the chance to learn more about Ranmaru Shouta→ The moment he learned that Ai is not a human being Maenu→ The moment he woke up and mistook Jan 23 (Camus’ birthday) as his own birthday

Is there something you still can’t understand about your character?

Morikubo→ Wonder how did Reiji become such a “strong” person Tattsun→ “Aside from his honest and serious personality he also cooks well, is kind to animals, Isn’t his ‘spec’ too high?!” He said he couldn’t forgive Ranmaru for being too ‘high-spec’ xD Shouta→ He still sleeps in sitting position (He talked about how sleeping on bed def works better to recover yourself many times LOL) Maenu→ When he drinks something he put in a lot of sugar

What is something you like from your character now?

Morikubo→ (not sure i’m sorry;;) He pushed himself to limits for members Tattsun→ Everything (Aaaaaa) Shouta→ Became a lot softer. Understands his own position well Maenu→ He doesn’t try to flatter others/sugarcoat things

Is there a (bad) thing you want your character to fix/improve?

Morikubo→ He’s strong but he should stop keeping his feelings bottled up inside and relax more Tattsun→ He should stop wearing different color contact lenses for both eyes LOL Stop depending on color lenses Shouta→ Stay the way he is Maenu→ He’s drinking way too much sugar for his health

Is there anything you hope for your characters?

Morikubo→ There must still be a lot of Reiji’s side we’re not aware of so he should show us more sides/charms of him Tattsun→ Stay just the way he is Shouta→ Ai might be a robot but he should meet a lot people, move forward with his comrade, treasure each of the moment of his life Maenu→ He believes Camus could make the impossible possible so he wants to see him fly in the sky LOL

What should you/character do to achieve higher heights?

Morikubo→ Not only about what about to happen in the future, for now they should look at what is right in front of them. Tattsun→ They should clash more, and at the same time also try to understand each other, tolerate each other more. Shouta→ They should sing more variety of songs Maenu→ They might not in ‘that’ good term with each other, but in return those colliding powers are creating an even stronger power. By that, they boost each other up and that’s the kind of group QN is. They should keep going they way they are.

If you were to describe your character in a word, what would it be?

Morikubo→ Wedge Tattsun→ Flame Shouta→ Love (Ai) Maenu→ Ice  

All: “That’s.. QUARTET NIGHT” And next song started! Outfit change, white pants, white and their respective colors? a bit casual, design is different for each of them! 

10. The dice are cast Powerful singing, as we already knew! The choreography looked like 5th and QN 1st solo con? They moved around the area and stopped when all of the carts became one in the middle of arena seats. I also noticed that tattsun's part of the adlibs on the bridge was a bit different (improvisation with higher notes and i think i heard him doing it in both days)

11. STARLIGHT MEMORY I PERSONALLY LOVE THIS SONG so i was really hyped up for it! They sang while still on the cart and like on QN 1st solo con they used stand-mic for the choreography. It was really heated up, the "Just say Quartet Night!" parts were also sang by the audience and our voices were LOUD! It was fun!

12. Evolution Eve The first acapella sounded as heavenly as what i've heard in previous lives! ;;_;; Also the first acapella which was supposed to be lines without harmony for some reasons was harmonized? pretty sure it was tattsun with higher harmony! The instrumental break dance part we already knew from previous lives were changed, i'm pretty sure it wasn't the same. The previous one was good but this one was even better! I remember morikubo doing a really smooth turn. Proud of their improvements!

13. Double Face *Camus butler mode voice* "Let me show you my everything" *Camus usual mode voice* "You peasant! Fine, i'll do it according to your wish. Witness my 'love'!" Suddenly Maenu appeared with this song! I wasn't expecting this at all but it was a good surprise! Two dancers in white and black (like in QN 1st solo con) were present and maenu was also singing on a stand-mic. It was really similar to QN 1st solo con performance. As usual his voice change was amazing! In first day, it was clear that maybe the fast voice change made him a bit confused sometimes tho xD it was cute.. In 2nd day he did super great tho! One of my favorite thing about watching over QN seiyuus’ growth is watching Maenu getting more confident and glowing each live ♡ 

14. Synchronism Shoutan appeared on front stage with dancers. Apparently his outfit this time had animal ears (i'm not sure is it cat? or not..) fur hoodie and he had his hoodie up! It was extremely cute!! The dance was similar to 6th, but i think there were additional moves? Also if 6th live performance wasn't cute enough this one was even cuter it was illegal //no On 2nd day he also made a lot of different expressions from the one in 1st day during dance break (you probs know which one if you watched 6th live) As expected from shoutan, lot of fanservices were given! In 2nd day last reff "Amaku shite~" part he gave us a thrown kiss too! lol Been thinking about it for a while but it’s actually amazing how stable he was even at extremely low notes.

15. Not bad Tattsun and dancers came from main stage! He danced most of the time and both his dances and singing were amazing and powerful! ;; Also i'm really sure some parts of the dance moves changed entirely, for example the reff's "yoku kike yo, nidoto wa iwanai ze" part? It was such a passionate performance and i have no words except it was SUPER COOL ;;_;; There was also fire burst (?) stage effect and it was cool! He walked from the main stage to front stage! Instead of singing it, the music suddenly stopped and he said the "Ore ni *a bit pause* tsuite koi (follow.. me)" as a serifu

16. NEVER Morikubo appeared with his hat and he threw it away xD I think he improved a lot with his dancing compared to previous performances of this song! The choreography looked similar to the one on 5th live with some additions? I really love the part where monitor behind him turned into a big green　→　rainbow ferris wheel! ;; I personally really love Never's Reiji and the performance was wonderful ;; On the quiet part he usually went with falsetto on "honki to iu na no imi ga tsumatteru" but this time he went full power on that part! He also inserted a bit of adlibs after that and it was pleasant

17. Non-fiction Main stage was engulfed in red light and non-fiction intro was played, people around me went wild xD Tattsun and Maenu appeared sitting on a (what seemed to be) luxurious sofa while singing! It's interesting how the way they sit reflected their character personalities lol (Maenu legs crossed? and tattsun had his right leg up on the sofa) lol Maenu had his camus glasses on. They also danced a lot on instrumental parts and did some poses/combination dance(?) together! I love how they were posing with the sofa (for example if one of them sit the other stand behind the sofa etc) and also posed together (ex maenu put his hand on tattsun's back etc). Tattsun "Aaaa ↑" high notes part (you know which one) sounds amazing on live, it was powerful and on point. They also danced a lot on front stage. All in one it was GREAT and i’m pretty sure a lot of you would like this performance a lot

18. Fiction Started with pretty adlibs. As opposed to Non-fiction, It was an emotional and melancholic performance. Their harmonies were really pretty and their singing were great/emotional too! They weren't doing many moves, instead at some parts it feels much like drama posing (There were still kinda melancholic choreography at instru break). It somehow had really sad vibe ;; Shoutan was a great actor, they posed like stageplay at some parts. For example shoutan (ai) was looking at morikubo (reiji) but shook his head and decided to turn back, or morikubo staring at shoutan from afar, etc. At one part they had their hands up and joint their hands, but shoutan/ai let go of his hand and went away ;; At the end they stared at each other and shoutan/ai walked away from the stage first (from the middle of main stage) and morikubo/reiji followed after. The outro was still playing, with only falling petals (2nd day correction i think it was white feathers?) being lighted-up. I kinda teared up during this performance

All: "Fiction or non-fiction"

19. KIZUNA As usual, the harmonies of this song were really pretty. They also sit on main stage stairs and pose like car-scene on the anime (like they did on QN 1st solo con) with morikubo acting like he's driving the car. The whole thing felt similar to QN 1st solo con, it was amazing nonetheless. Last slow part never fails to make my eyes teary ;; I MEAN who doesn’t.. they also did the last part where they pointed at the characters on screen. 

20. QUARTET★NIGHT I ACTUALLY WASN'T EXPECTING THIS TO COME HERE LOL but i love this song with passion bc it's the start of QN so i was really hyped for it! The choreo was also similar to QN 1st solo con. I personally think their 3rd live (aka 1st appearance as QN ever) of this song was unrivaled, but this performance was probably even better than that! It was easy to see how much they improved and i was extremely happy. Their vocals gave me chills and it also reminded me of when i first came to like QN, it was amazing.

Morikubo/Reiji told us it's his DJ time (wasn't really DJ-ing like prev live tho) and introduced dancers as the rest of them sit on the main stage stairs. They took turn to introduce the dancers. Reiji→Ranmaru→Ai→Camus

Tattsun (in Ranmaru’s voice) told us it's last song after this

21. FLY TO THE FUTURE I knew it LOL I guessed this song would be the last song after encore and i was right! When i first heard this song i was amazed at how QN managed to even surpass their previous harmonization with this song. The live version was amazing, their harmonies were heavenly. It was perfectly done, i can't help but crying halfway... They also danced quite a lot on this song. There was LONG (like 10 secs?) pause before the serifu "Arigato, soshite kore kara mo" (last reff after "nakeru hodo waite~").  Basically they sang That part was really emotional. It's also fun to do "Fly to the future~" call with other audience. It was easily one of my favorite QN performances of all time.

Encore “QUARTET NIGHT!!” calls started. I think i LOVE the Kobe World Hall they're using this time. It's not as small as previous QN solo con (to the point that the "Quartet Night" call wasn't really that loud bc there weren't that many people to begin with) but it's also not too big to manage a perfectly synced encore call. It's probs one of the most synced encore i've heard in my life (in BOTH days). Actually, i was really moved by how amazing the audiences were this time around. Super interactive and cooperative. The acoustic of the hall was amazing, both voices and instru were easy to listen to and sound crystal-clear. It’s easily one of my favorite concert hall ever.

22. Force Live They danced the choreography from the MV (except maybe the kick thing at the beginning lol) This song sounded great without autotune btw LOL i have to say QN sounds great on their own so they sound a lot better without autotune live. There isn't much to say except both of their dancing and singing were awesome! Morikubo also did front kick on 2nd verse if i remember it right! It was really cool watching the MV on the screen behind while looking at their performance/dance. You could see how much effort they spent to perfect their performances.

MC Announcement→ Renewal of utapri movie website Day 1 by Camus Day 2 by Ai (+DVD/BD announcement of the concert) Day 1 Maenu: “I’m the one trusted to voice Camus, Maeno Tomoaki. I’m sure all of you managed to feel the characters through our performances, so i’m not going to talk a lot this time. It’s been a year and half since the first solo live. At that time, i talked about how i was the only one without any singing career among us and how i felt about it. I felt like i had nothing at the beginning. Of course, i still feel it now even if it’s just a bit. But now that i look back at it, maybe i was able to bring something new to the group precisely because i had nothing. And i was able to do it thanks to the other members, all of your support and the utapri staffs. Thank you very much. As for me, i’ll keep on chasing after Camus’ back. If i have the chance again in the future, i’ll do my best to perform as Camus onstage. So, from now on please keep on supporting STARISH, QUARTET NIGHT and HEAVENS. Thank you for coming today!”

Shoutan: “I’m the C.V of Mikaze Ai, Aoi Shouta. Whenever this time (last MC) comes I somehow could never put my thoughts together well.. This time, we got to sing a lot of new songs. Among them are the newest Fiction and Non-Fiction. The recording was a bit painful and i got to feel a lot of different feelings. Up till now I always felt like i just couldn’t catch up to Ai and it gave me chance to think a lot about myself.  Their time (chars), and of course our time will never stop moving forward and will pass. I hope Quartet night could be the group to keep on challenging themselves. I really love all of the members/my comrades. Being able to stand on this stage always makes me rethink about a lot of things. With these feelings, I want to be able to find more “possibilities” and take it to the future. I’m really grateful to be able to stand here. Please keep on supporting utapri!”

Tattsun: “I’m the one standing closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa. I had a lot of things i wanted to say. During the rehearsal, when i was practicing with the members of QUARTET NIGHT, i felt something. At that time what crossed my mind was ‘Ah, today i feel “scared”. My heart was racing, and it reminded me of the first time i became Ranmaru. ((Stuffs i couldn’t remember after adjalksjf i’m really sorry;; I think he said about how he was not sure if it’s alright for him to stand as Ranmaru onstage and also made a joke about it but i just can’t remember what was it ;;)) But the ‘idol’ Ranmaru is, without me even realizing it, has already moved so much away in front of me. The Ranmaru inside me keeps on telling me “I should do it like this” and thanks to that i caused a lot of troubles (bc he keeps on being idealistic), practice a lot. I would imagine how all of you would react and feel, and to be honest right now I’m extremely anxious. When i stand as QUARTET NIGHT, i could hear all of your supports directly, and seeing your happy expressions i’m just glad i could be here. Everytime, i’d think about how i just purely love all about this series. I love all of my comrades (starish+heavens too?), there’s no one i dislike, I respect all of them from the bottom of my heart. I love each of them. And so that those words won’t turn into lies, I hope that all of the people watching this, be it here or on live-viewing could feel it through my performances today. That’s the only thing i have on my head right now. I’m really happy i could stand as Kurosaki Ranmaru. It’s all thanks to the staffs, utapri casts, all of you who come today, a lot of others who couldn’t come today, STARISH who opened the path for us. I couldn’t thank all of you enough. Thank you!”

Morikubo : ”To all of you who take us to the world we could never imagine before, to QUARTET NIGHT who gave us the chance to spend this time, thank you very much. (the topic mentioned in prev MCs) It’s true that we’re the one standing closest to our characters. But we’re standing ‘behind’ the characters, the one standing besides them is all of you. You’ll be the one guiding our characters, and so that the four of us could also move forward. This time we’re blessed with a chance to do a 2nd solo live, so of course I intended to do my very best! Experiencing a lot of things, in previous solo live the word “payback” naturally became our theme. And after that we got the chance to stand on 6th live with HEAVENS also joining us. I was happy at that time for the fact that at that time we had ‘future’ performances waiting for us. The words “evolution” “thanks” “kizuna/bonds” of course are still naturally here with us, and we’re about to see what’s going to be the next theme. Did you manage to feel something through us? Thank you. From the day of last solo live up till today, i’m sure QUARTET NIGHT was the one taking all of us to the future we have today. From now on, please keep on standing by your favorite characters! Please create a future for us! We’ll be following from behind. Let’s enjoy it just like that! As long as we have your love and feelings, we’ll keep on advancing. I hope to see you again if the chance comes. I’d be looking forward the day when we could dance, sing, along with STARISH and HEAVENS in front of you again. To all of you on the hall, live-viewing, thank you very much!!”

Morikubo : “Sooo~~ what do we do now? *laughs* Let’s drink the water shall we?” And they drank the water onstage xD love how the audience let out a big reaction and they were like we’re only drinking water here xD After that they had a short MC connecting to the next song

Day 2 Morikubo: “And n-now, for the e-end *stumbled with his words many times*  let each of us say our last messages! (him stumbling) It’s my body showing you all my feelings or not wanting it to end!” xD Shoutan: “I can feel it!” Morikubo: “Let us begin with Maeno!” Maenu: “*in camus voice* I refuse!” (audience screams) Shoutan: “So he feels sad!” xD Morikubo: “That’s a convenient word!” Maenu: “*in camus voice* Well, sure i’ll do it. Wait a bit" "closes his eyes for a while and opens it* Maenu: *back to normal “ I’m the one trusted to voice Camus, Maeno Tomoaki. Since October started and we started our rehearsal, almost every night i saw a dream of yesterday and today concerts. Expectations, anxiety, pressure, i’m sure i saw those dreams due to a lot of feelings. And now, to see all of you here, people on the live viewing, spending time together, it all feels like a dream. I’m sure even tomorrow and the day after, i’ll see it on my dreams. As a part of QUARTET NIGHT, i think i managed to create many great memories here. On previous live, our theme was to do “payback” to starish, to utapri and to all of us. And this time too, we talked a lot and decided on a theme but our journey of ‘payback’ will never stop as long as utapri still exists. With that as the foundation, so that a “ final destination” will never come to the future of QUARTET NIGHT, it’s a journey that will never ends. I’ll do my very best so that i could see the back of Camus who’s standing so far in front of me. From now on, please keep on supporting STARISH, HEAVENS, QUARTET NIGHT and utapri. Thank you so much for coming today.”

Shoutan: “This moment finally comes once again.. (audience says ganbare) Thank you! I’m the C.V of Mikaze Ai, Aoi Shouta. Did you have fun? While doing my very best to sing in front of all of you, i keep on thinking about what to say here. I had a lot of things i wanted to say, but whenever this moment comes I can’t put my feelings together.. That’s just how big it is. After the first day ended, we had a little after-party. At that time we talked about how there’s still today. There was still a future called “tomorrow” for us. I’m standing here today with the hope of creating beautiful memories together with all of you here, people on live-viewing and with all of the staffs. With starish opening the path, the four of us then joined in the middle of the story. To be honest, as a member of QUARTET NIGHT, i’d be lying if i say i didn’t feel inferior to others. But the fact that i could stand here right now and be with all of the people who love utapri, like starish and heavens, makes me feel that i’m actually spending the time together with everyone. To stand as a proud member of QUARTET NIGHT, to be someone who supports the utapri series which i really love from the bottom of my heart, that’s what i want Ai to become. That’s why, from now on as a part of QUARTET NIGHT, as Mikaze Ai, i’ll do my very best to liven utapri up. I hope to spend good time with all of you. I’m still no good, but thank you for always being here. From now on, let us love uta no prince-sama together. Thank you very much.” Morikubo: “You’re getting a lot better on giving comments. I talked about that with Maeno on the underground backstage when we were listening to your MC at acoustic corner” And suddenly Shoutan teared up ;;; morikubo then followed him up Morikubo: “Is that some kind of malfunction?” (ref to Ai’s identity) (Audience laughs)

Tattsun : “I play the role of Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa. I keep on thinking of what to say. This time, i felt anxious too. Yesterday Showtaro-san said a really good thing. The four of us are standing behind the characters, and the one standing besides them is all of you. I thought it was a really good words. I’m always chasing after him. He runs very fast, you know (audience laughs). He keeps on doing his best and moving forward. He’ll say “I want to do something like this!” “I want to do this kind of performance!” “I’m still nowhere my limit!” and will run even faster. I can’t help but think that “He’s too fast”, and everytime i have the chance to stand on this stage I always feel like it’s way too much for me. For me, objectively speaking as part of the audience, Utapri’s live is so fun. I always get overexcited like an idiot on the backstage. Humming the melodies of the songs. But i wonder if it’s okay for someone like that to stand here. It’s not like that i have something beautiful to show to all of you. But even so, i decided to at least do the very best i could. So that, i can proudly tell him that I’ve done everything i could. So that i could tell him I managed to let out everything he has to show. I’m standing here now so that i could say all of those words. I sincerely hope my thoughts could reach you even if it’s just a bit. The only thing i could do is to give him a voice and to push him forward. With my singing, i can move forward together with him. But the one who could take him further ahead, is all of you. You’re the one who makes it “amazing”. Isn’t it the best? Nothing but the best isn’t it? I really love utapri that gives me the chance to do so. I love STARISH, I love QUARTET NIGHT, and I love HEAVENS. I love everything about it. I could love all of the characters. I just love it so much. From now on there might be both positive comments and criticism. Bring it on! I’ll shoulder everything and stand behind the mic, be it onstage or not, as Kurosaki Ranmaru. No matter what it is, i’ll shoulder it all. I believe it’s all because of something carved deep inside of my heart. That’s why i’ll keep on moving forward just like that. To the future! Thank you so much for today!”

Morikubo: “Did you have fun? And live viewing?” Morikubo: “Just like the other three, i have many things i want to say. I came up with the words after listening to Tatsu’s “I’m the one standing closest to Ranmaru” yesterday. But it feels a bit off if i say ‘beside’ them, because each of us are standing behind quartet night. The one should be beside them is all of you.  Please take them to the future, and so the four of us will also follow, that’s what i said yesterday. And such feeling is getting stronger today. Just as what maeno said, we talked about how we should stand on the stage today. A keyword, our share motive. Up till now, it naturally came to us. For example on the previous live it naturally came to us on our LINE group chat. We then just naturally agreed on it. And having a keyword/theme managed to bring us together as a group. “If the four of us are together we feel at ease” we talked earlier was also something like that. This time, actually until the day before, we had no such keyword. But that’s actually something to be grateful about. In the past there were a lot of things, a lot of stories and hardships that built up and naturally provided us with a keyword. But this time, when we realized it we have nothing like that. That means we’re just purely advancing towards the live. Rather than something like “Let’s beat something!”,  it was purely “Let’s do the live!” kind of feeling. But in return, then it was hard to come up with a keyword. We were wondering if we should have one. The day before the live, this time too, Tatsuhisa started asking about it. I came up and say something like “Do you have a bit of time? Why don’t we gather and talk about it? It won’t take long” on our group LINE. Because the next day we have to wake up early, Maeno was about to stop us but suddenly he got no signal and it was unsent!” Maenu: “He said something like that on 12 pm when the day was about to change and we were all tired after practice!” Tattsun: “It can’t be helped! It crossed my mind when doing the rehearsal!!” Maenu: “So i was about to send a message about how we should just talk about it the day after, but suddenly i had no signal and it was unsent! Afterwards, the others were ready to do it so i have no choice but to erase that message.” Tattsun: “So that’s why! I thought it was rare for you to say nothing” Maenu: “And so in the end.. *gets it back to Morikubo*” Morikubo: “We ended up talking about a lot of things. Looking back at stuffs we’ve done in the past, and a lot more. And so a keyword was born. I won’t say it here. It’s the best to feel it through our performance. But there was talk about DVD just now, so maybe~ they will have a commentary video or something right? I’m not sure, i haven’t heard anything about it! But we stood onstage with that keyword on mind. I’ll be happy if each of you could feel it through our performances. And if someday the chance comes, we’ll talk about it there and not right now. This time we’ve done everything, the best of the best we could’ve done. We’re doing our best to chase after QUARTET NIGHT. If they move forward, we’ll do so too. We believe that all of you will take them even further. But Maeno, Aoi, Suzuki and Morikubo who are standing here right now, had done everything we could possible do. If you’re okay with us, if you’re okay with this kind of atmosphere and performance, the four of us will be more than happy to stand on the stage again! We’re serious about them. I’m sorry, but even if you try and search through the whole world, you won’t find someone who is as serious as we are toward them. Please believe in us for that matter! Please take them to the future. Will you show us the future?” (audience cheers) Morikubo: “Thank you! Thank you very much for today!” They then talked about how it’s not like them to be emotional. But then no one continued the convo bc they don’t want it to end and Morikubo was like ??!? Morikubo: “I understand that feeling! But! I’m not going to take up that offer again! I’ve became an adult” (He meant the scene on 1st live when they talked about not wanting it to end and he lay his body on the floor and sulked xD) And they finally got it into next song

23. GOD'S S.T.A.R The serifu at the beginning completely changed! *u* This song was so fun to do!!! The call and response was extremely fun and the hall was fully heated up by this song. It's probs hard to get the hype of this song if you haven't experienced this song live and only see this song on videos. BUT THIS IS the song that got the audience fired up/hyped more than any other song. The choreography was similar to QN 1st live and 6th live. I remember Maenu went down on his knees at some point at the reff and people around me went crazy over it!

Double encore I had feeling there would be double encore considering the amount of song they did plus they weren't changing into encore T-shirt on 1st encore. This time they had live t-shirt, Maenu wore camus prince parka on top of it. Day 1 Morikubo:  “This is the first time we had double encore right? *audience cheers*  Let’s go to the last song, the one that will unite all of us together. Let us begin!” *silent of other members xD* Morikubo: “Mmm?! We’re not starting?! You three had that kind of faces (of not wanting to start next song)” Tattsun: “If it’s possible i just want to get closer to everyone/audience”| Morikubo: “And now you’re saying something like that again~ Let’s do it shall we?” Day2 Morikubo: “Thank you for the double encore! I was worried all of you would just return home after that..” Morikubo: “It seems like we’re allowed to sing one more song!” Shoutan: “Yaay!” Tattsun: “There’s still that one song we haven’t sung, isn’t it?” Morikubo: “Let us sing that song! But please remember that when it comes to our feelings, we’re actually super ready to do another day or two!” Tattsun: “If it 's possible, to be honest i really want to do it” Morikubo: “We keep on talking about stuffs like that! But those feelings, please use that feelings to create a path to future!” And they started with the next song ;;

24. You're my life It seems like we need this song to end every QN solo con and i’m totally not complaining! They went around the hall with carts and the whole performance was similar with QN 1st live, except they were a lot cheerier and weren't crying that much?? (edit on 2nd day they did look teary) Since they were circling around, i also got the chance to see all of them up-close! ;; We were also singing lalalala part like in QN 1st solo con! I really love their smile at this song ;; they look like they were having tons of fun Audience also sang last "Kimi no moto ni todoke~" together and it was really touching. 2nd day "Kimi no moto ni todoke~~~~~~" was really long. On 2nd day i also remember the moment carts pass each other they did hi-touch with each other! tattsun and shoutan also had a hug? at one part

When they were doing the farewell greeting they went around like how it usually goes, fly to the future instrumental was playing on the background and the audience sang the "Fly to the future" part together ;; it was really touching!! At first day they weren't crying but i saw shoutan and maenu having teary eyes. 

Day 2 Shoutan was crying a bit, at one point he was crouching down and hid his face. On 2nd day audience was singing along to fly to the future too and they took off their in-ear monitor to listen to our voices and they looked really touched by it ;; They hugged each other starting from tattsun and maenu and so on. I remember tattsun and shoutan hug was a bit longer bc shoutan got so emotional and tattsun comforted him and patted his head ;; Shoutan was tearing up but at last moment before stage closes he smiled and it was memorable. When the stage was closing shoutan dragged morikubo close to him and shoutan+morikubo+tattsun peek through the remaining open gap and at last seconds Maenu also went to the middle except i could only see his rings in dark xD Also, can you believe that all of us the audience keep on singing along to the instrumental ver of QN songs (god’s star) EVEN AFTER the live ended? That’s just how cooperative and interactive the audiences were for both days and It was a BLAST. I felt so glad to be able to take part on it. The audience was extremely passionate and i’m sure you’d be able to feel it too even through BD/DVD vids. 

This felt awfully short compared to previous live maybe because the amount of the song! instead we got a lot of MCs tho. Utapri, thank you so much for getting all of these awesome people together. I can’t understand tbh, how did producer Agematsu gather four people whose voices blend like heaven even tho they have such a different voice characters...? Plus they also harmonize like heaven and perform really well.. I’m just so grateful I discovered such an amazing group.

(From Morikubo’s tweet!) Thank you so much for reading and i hope all of you love Quartet Night as much as i do ♡

[kiera-desu]

Hi, how can i get the link of QN live future 2018? XD

Do message me for link! I will reply as soon as possible owo

[gloriouscrowncreator]

QUARTET NIGHT LIVE 2018 FLY TO THE FUTURE DAY 1 REPORT + DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS

NOTE: this was NOT written by me, I DID NOT attend QN Live 2018 (as much as I wanted to). Someone on Weibo attended and I’m translating their posts. This is Day 1′s report. I also embedded links of Twitter fanart for some parts whenever I could.

Warning: long post

Double warning: Original Poster (OP) of the posts is a Tattsun fan, so this is a heavily Tattsun-biased post.

Triple warning: be prepared to have your heart slayed by QN seiyuu

Feel free to reblog with comment/write in tags/slide into my DMs if there are any parts you think can be refined for accuracy!

Everything under the cut!

Setlist (this is from Day 2 I believe but I don’t think the setlist changed)

Legend:

(?) indicates that I’m not sure about the translation

(T/N:) are my personal thoughts.

I skipped over translating the parts where OP was basically waxing lyrical over the seiyuu, sorry.

The talk corner was split between Morishow-Maeno pair and Tattsun-Shoutan pair.

Morishow and Maeno talk

Maeno: “usually we can’t have a 4-person rehearsal, we’re always missing someone”

Morishow: “that guy with the colour red was the earliest to begin rehearsal” (T/N: according to fans, Tattsun began rehearsing in September)

Maeno said he was really surprised to hear how early Tattsun began rehearsing

Shoutan-Tattsun talk (same link as above)

Tattsun: “I often end up practicing with Shouta, and he looks more and more like a girl to me - his feminine power is too damn high xD”

Shoutan did a dance move of putting his hand on his waist (apparently in a feminine way?). Tattsun tried to learn it live, totally failed and was like “how did this guy do it orz”

Shoutan smiled shyly (?)

Shoutan: “Tatsu-nii always says ‘let’s stop practicing here’ but always says ‘let’s do it once more’ and ends up practicing for a long time”

Tattsun: “it was no fun practicing songs on my own, so Shouta came over and said ‘why don’t we do QN songs’. Shouta often comes up with ideas like this, and is always supporting the 3 of us like this”

Tattsun is very grateful to Shoutan for showing him how fun it is to sing with others (T/N: is this real-life Ranmaru?!), although he sings a lot on his own, he’s really happy to sing with Shoutan.

At first Tattsun wanted to let Shoutan lead the song and he would support him, but it turned out Shoutan had the same idea lol. The two of them do their best in supporting each other~

The two of them end off with bowing towards the audience and whispering “thank you very much”

OP noted that the atmosphere was like a newly-married couple roflmao

Talk ends, Haruhana performance

They sat and sang with gentle swaying, but their singing was no less powerful.

When they sang “Ah…夜風がロンリネス締め付けて” they stared at each other soulfully. At the refrain, they stared at each other as they sang “声へと･･･歌へと”, and then suddenly the music stopped, the penlights were turned off. The two of them stopped singing, looked at each other and the whole hall was silent for a few moments. Then the two of them took a deep breath together and sang “Ah…夜風がロンリネス締め付けて”.

Be Proud

Tattsun’s first solo. As usual he carried (?) the whole performance by himself.

He walked from the doors that open at the middle of the stage (T/N: sorry, I don’t know what that’s called) and slowly walked towards the middle of the stage to sing. They sprayed dry ice too.

When he sang the second part, Tattsun went up the stairs, knelt down and used all his strength to sing “最愛なんて言葉だけでは･･･ 尽きる日まで”. The LED screen was showing red mist and stars, all the penlights turned red, and the onstage dry ice was colored red by the stage lights too.

OP noted that the sound quality this time round was better, probably because it was indoors (6th Stage was outdoors).

The last line Tattsun dragged the last note for a really long time, before pumping his fist with his mic up. The whole hall erupted into applause.

Not Bad

Ranmaru’s 2nd solo. the stage had pyro effects and backup dancers. Tattsun was singing, dancing and manipulating the pyrotechnic effects - when he raised his left hand, the left side of the stage spewed fire, and the same for his right hand and the right side of the stage.

The dancers were originally standing in a line, before quickly splitting into two, and Tattsun walked like a boss from between them towards the centre of the stage. The dance at the centre was really hype, with the fire - “(the atmosphere) was super high” accordingly to OP.

Non-Fiction (same link as above)

OP thinks that the best choreographed performance of the live was actually Non-Fiction though. 

Tattsun was sitting on the sofa like a boss, while Maeno sat on the other side elegantly, with a noble air. Apparently the two of them sang with angry expressions throughout the song LMAO (T/N: something like this, 2nd pic), and on the second half of the song they went to the stage centre. 

They were surrounded by black-clad dancers who danced smoothly, while the two of them had rougher (?) movements. The changes in the dance followed the changes in the song, and the beat was good. OP thought it was a high-quality performance.

Synchronism (lmao, the only non-Ranmaru song the OP wrote about)

According to OP Shoutan was super adorable hahahah

When he sang Synchronism, Shoutan had a hoodie lined with purple fur, complete with animal ears. (Here’s another visual.) He winked as he sang, blew kisses towards the audience (T/N: did Reiji teach you this lol), put the hoodie up and used his hands to make the ears move, with his eyes wide open and looking pitiful… (T/N: this boy is out to kill orz)

OP says they want to raise a Shoutan LOL

Final Thoughts

Tattsun:

“I’m the voice of Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa. That guy (Ran) at first didn’t care about band and idol, and I wanted to tell him to focus on being an idol and leave the band part to me (the audience laughed at this point). Since he chose to be an idol, I was thinking if it was possible to do more, to do better. Previously I felt that no matter how much I practiced it wasn’t good enough, I kept feeling that today was a really scary day. Before you guys (the audience) sat here, we were practicing on this stage, and I was thinking ‘how can I do this better for everyone’. Even until now, I still feel uneasy. I want to take this chance to express my feelings and thoughts to the audience and live-viewing audience.”

“When I like a work, I like every aspect of it! I like every character, every cast member, and every staff. Every one of them deserves respect, including the staff who have been supporting us all along, the fans who couldn’t make it today, everyone at live-viewing, and of course all of you seated here right now. I’m really happy to be able to stand here as Ranmaru. Thank you everyone!”

Maeno:

“I am in charge of Camus’ voice, Maeno Tomoaki. Usually at live stages like this, I try to speak as Camus, but today I would like to speak a few words as myself, please forgive me. I entered this franchise with no experience at all (T/N: I believe he’s referring to his lack of singing career compared to the other three), really none at all. But after meeting these 3, I think that I’ve been slowly changing. It’s really a great thing to have met them. Hopefully, there are more chances in the future for me to continue playing Camus, and I won’t stop chasing after Camus’ shadow. Whether it’s Starish, Heavens or Quartet Night, I hope everyone can continue to support them.”

Morishow:

Morishow mentioned at the end of the concert that having met and performed with Starish and Heavens at Utapri 6th Stage, he got the strong impression that Quartet Night too needs to keep changing and revolutionising, so he wanted to let everyone witness a different, new side to Quartet Night today.

He also said that it’s thanks to everyone’s support that Quartet Night was able to continue from 2013 to last year’s solo live, and to today, and that he’s grateful to everyone’s support.

At the centre of the stage, Morishow said there was no need to use mics, and the 4 of them raised their hands towards everyone and shouted “thank you”.

OP tagged this part with “leader of Quartet Night” lol (T/N: it’s true!)

Final moment: After thanking everyone, they went back to the centre of the stage, discussed a little and shouted together “Utapri, arigatou”.

2nd Day

I’m not going to bother writing this because there are people on Twitter who’ve already discussed this in English, so read them here.

Raine’s thread

(Will update this if more people write reports)

Highlights and stuff:

Oh god so many things happened where do I begin (note: the following are all link dumps bc I’m not gonna take credit for someone else’s translations and art so open them and read)

Shoutan broke his nail

Maeno imitated Ranmaru’s growls lmao

Q: What is one thing you like most about your character? Shoutan: His voice.

Maeno had long hair and had a snowflake pin in his hair. Another visual. A 3rd visual because what do you mean I’m spamming fanart

Tattsun said during live that Shoutan stayed over at his house and wore his shirt, kind of like the boyfriend shirt concept

Tattsun also said he specifically picked out the shirt for Shoutan

Shoutan later tweeted that Tattsun was lying orzzzzz, he didn’t stay over at Tattsun’s house

Tattsun later blogged “Shouta, itadaita” (Shouta, itadakimashita)?!

Tattsun yelling at Shoutan for adjusting his belt on stage (this boy orz)

Tattsun and Maeno have a “hi/bye” relationship IRL lol

Morishow did Reiji’s Force Live kick!

Maeno as usual was all decked out in gear

To no one’s surprise, Shoutan cried on day 2. Tattsun comforted him.

Directly from the horse’s mouth (aka seiyuu own content):

The 4 of them went out for drinks after Day 1 and took this photo. (T/N: this is such a Reiji-style photo LOL. Apparently fans think so too!)

Gold long coats outfits

Shoutan and Tattsun pics (where Shoutan said he didn’t stay over at Tattsun’s house)

Group pic

Maeno’s blog post

Tattsun’s blog post

Shoutan’s selfie with Tattsun (yes, he posted this separately from the other 2′s selfies...)

Shoutan’s selfies with Morishow and Maeno

My thoughts:

Don’t blame me for making Tattsun and Shoutan sound shippy, they did this to themselves xD

I’m not sure if the seiyuu got to pick the songs they wanted to perform this time round, like Starish did, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I heard that Shoutan likes performing Synchronism anyway lol

FKING TATTSUN AND SHOUTAN YOU JERKS STOP DOING THIS TO US ORZ

Morishow did the Reiji kick ;-----; thank you Morishow

I bet Maeno looked beautiful ;-----; please BD release soon I need

Thank you Maeno for basically being Camus’ biggest fan ;-----; honestly I love it whenever he’s all decked out in Camus gear bc that’s just so amazing of him

[utapriciation]

🍳👀🎧🔊

Thanks for the ask!! Here we go~ (long post ahoy!)

🍳 How long have you been in the fandom?

I finally listened to Google Play's suggestion and downloaded Shining Live in August 2018, so SL was my introduction to the fandom. Then I found out there was an anime and I just have gotten sucked in deeper and deeper from there. Send help.

👀 Do you own any merchandise?

Yes! I finally caved and started down the slippery slope of buying merch! It's not much, and I haven't unwrapped any of the cutesy stuff yet bc I am still figuring out where to display it.

But here, have some photos:

I also have the ROT Unit Drama CD on it's way, hopefully arriving soon!

Can you figure out my biases?

🎧 What’s your favourite song from your best boy?

Ah, the tough questions begin. I'm gonna do a top three for my favorite Starish and favorite QN boys, since I have a hard time choosing. Also these are solo songs only, otherwise I'd never be able to narrow it down. Oops

Reiji:

#1 is "Hurray x2 Dreamers," it's just so energetic and cute and cheerful, I love it to bits. A VERY close #2 is "Dekiai Temptation" and "Itoshiki Hito e" (they're tied for second, I'm sorry).  #3 is "On Your Mark" (thanks to Showchan's hips in 6th Stage Live asdjkf;ald). I genuinely like all of Reiji's solo songs, but Hurray x2 Dreamers is like an audible hug and I can and will listen to it anytime I can.

Natsuki:

THE PIYO-CHAN SONG (jk, jk. Although it IS my go-to when I need cheering up, I literally can't not smile while listening to it). 

As far as playable-in-game songs, I'm gonna go with "Top Star Revolution" as my #1. #2 is "Tears in Love" (it makes me so emotional augh, especially the live version), and #3 is "Orion de Shout Out". I love me a floofy boi with a P O W E R H O U S E of a voice.

I'm sorry I'm so bad at choosing favorites. =v="

🔊 What’s your favourite song from your favourite band?

Because I once again refuse to take sides, have another top three list:

Starish: 

My #1 is probably..."Shining Romance"? I really like the video (the sheer delight on Natsuki's face when he looks at the giant cake is just. askd;aslkdfj my heart), and I enjoy that each boy gets a chance to shine (pun fully intended) in turn. It's just cheery and cute and very, very Starish. #2 is "Maji Love 2000%" for a number of reasons (we all know why, we've seen the Season 2 anime opening lmao), and #3 is "We Are Starish" (CHILLS down my spine every time).

QN: 

Depending on my thirst level, #1 is either "god's S.T.A.R." (this bop never gets old) or "Poison Kiss" (hggggggggh). #2 is..."Quartet Night," and #3 (depending on how much I want to cry) is either "You're My Life," "Kizuna," or "Fly to the Future." Yeah. That sounds good. They sound good. Too good. QN's gonna kill me with their music someday, and I'll thank them for it. 

No, wait--"Setsugetsuka" because it includes BOTH groups!! There we go, that's a single song chosen. Look at that, I was decisive! Oh shoot. "Golden Star" is a good one with both groups too. Dangit.

Thanks again for sending an ask, these are a lot of fun!! ❤️

[kanon-mendi]

Anime Expo 2018 Story

GOOD DAY EVERYONE!!!

I am finally back from Los Angeles and HOHOHO DO I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU!!!!! This year was the absolute BEST year from the last 3 that I’ve gone and I literally could not top any other year from now on. (7/11/18: it is 11:47 PM and i JUST finished this... :’D)

LETS START SHALL WE!!! OKAY!!!!! :D

Day 0: Arrival and Pre-Show Night

This day was pretty long. The night before, I was confirming orders and receiving payments that pretty much kept me up for a while. Also, my mom’s friend who’s a priest was in town for the week to relax a little. I needed to stay up-to-date with everything. ANYWAYS, so that morning I woke up around 8 to finish packing. Now, sadly my Tokiya LS cosplay never arrived so I had to abandon my wig that I worked tirelessly for. I just brought with me the Camus cosplay that I had. My best friend had my contacts and I asked someone to make me the wig since I didn’t know if that was also gonna arrive on-time. I finished packing, and my mom took me to the airport. I realized that my flight was later than what I predicted so we waited there for maybe 20 minutes before I had to leave. Now, because of my Cafe experience last year, I was scared and told her to please pray for me since I didn’t want that experience to ruin my year. I boarded my flight and arrived to LA. Best part about it was that I got to sit in the near front (flying with Southwest) and got out of there super quick. Upon getting to LAX, I grabbed my bag and met with Aria and out friend Sally, who was a volunteer this week. Sally was going to take a shuttle to her hotel and we took a Lyft to our AirBnB. When we got to the place, it kinda didn’t look like the pics that we saw, but we sucked it up since it was close to the convention center. Now, I was VERY hungry since I didn’t have breakfast. Aria and I arranged so we could go to Curry House for our lunch. We had plenty of food before heading to our destination, the Los Angeles Convention Center. When we got there, we went to the premier lounge to pick up our swag and then to charge my phone because I forgot my portable charger at the AirBnB. I forget how long we stayed there, but after wards we went to the Entertainment Hall to look at what they had to show. Well.... it was only me that went first because Aria was somewhere else, I forget. Anyways, while I was down there, I saw the World Cosplay Summit costumes from 2003 and after and they look so. Damn. Cool. Like, if I had the right amount of patience for cosplaying, I would definitely do it, but I got frustrated just making a badge. Can’t imagine myself doing more. Then I went to the Wacom booth because I wanted to see their amazing tablets. I also wanted to know prices because I want a new tablet since I broke the stylus and charger out of yet another frustrated episode. Tbh, I’ve been wanting a Wacom tablet for years. However, I only tried them that night because of what you’re about to read later. So, because of that problem last year at the Cafe, Aria decided that it was best for her to go alone (please remember this for later in my story) to make sure that those involved weren’t there. While she was at the Cafe, I chilled out somewhere for about an hour and for the next hour or so, I waited for her to get out. While I was out there, I kept hearing things that really made me uneasy and I was starting to freak out like ‘should I really go there tomorrow’ but I kept myself distracted with Reiji’s current event so I won’t think about the anxiety I had. So when Ari was to get her picture taken, the doors had opened so anyone on the outside could see in because the show had ended. I saw Aria and told her to please hurry because it was almost midnight and I needed to sleep. I didn’t look inside very well, which was good for me in a way because I didn’t want to see what else was in there. As me and Aria were going back and forth, lo and behold the MC, who remembered who I was and was standing AT THE DAMN DOORWAY was all like “Come inside” and I said “No!!” and he was like “Why not?” and I said “Because no!!” and that’s where that little thing ended. When Aria came out of the Cafe, she told me that the people involved in my incident from last year aren’t there this year. Meaning that my celebratory dance from the week before kept going and when we went outside, I literally yelled “FREEDOM!!!!!!!” because I was so relieved that I was going to be fine this year. I was going to enjoy this con SO MUCH because of that news that I won’t have to hide my emotions. I am free of the curse I was going through for a year. I am safe.

Day 1: 20 Hours Awake

This was the day of the Boku no Hero Academia panel with Daiki Yamashita and others (Melissa and Dave Ifgorgettheirlastname VA’s were there). As a Premier Fan badge user, I could reserve my wristband for the panel days before online to just pick it up the day of the panel. However, because Aria didn’t reserve hers on-time, we had to literally arrive at the convention center around 4-5 am. At that time, there were already about 200 people lined up for the panel wristbands. I made line for priority entrance since I had nothing better to do. Anime Jungle didn’t bring anyone cool this year, so I just had more time to look around the place before going to the premier lounge and picking up my wristband. Aria was lucky enough to get hers so that way we could go together. As I was waiting at the priority entrance, staff took us all around the place WHERE because they didn’t know where exactly the first entrance was. Maybe 3 turns around the convention center to just get us back to our original line up place WHERE WE STARTED. I was borderline tired since I’ve been up since 4 and to be taken in circles was really hitting me in my ticked of spot. So, after we were in, I was talking to a few people in line and, let’s just say I made new friends. Aria met up with me later after she had gotten her wristband. So at first, we spent some time in the exhibition hall. I went to the KLab booth to play some Shining Live. It is actually kind of hard to play on a large screen, but I had fun trying all songs (except Mirai Chizu) and it was also very hard to get the S score with the cards they had, expecially with QN songs since there’s only 4 UR instead of 7 like Starish. I tried Poison Kiss and Force Live. Still couldn’t get the S score. At around 10 I headed to the premier lounge to get my wrist band. Now, one cool thing I found that was a great addition to the Expo, it was that badge scanner feature. Meaning, if you don’t have a badge, there’s almost no way for you to be let in. It was great. That also included the Premier badge entrance. After getting the wristbands, we headed down to the west hall cafeteria tp grab something to eat before lining up for the BnHA panel. After eating, we went to line up and curse me for waiting.

ALL THESE PEOPLE WERE JUST FOR PREMIER ENTRANCE!!!!! It was absolutely crazy. Staff was great for getting us lined up and getting us in. Once we got inside, we were lucky to get seats near the front. I think we were on the 4th row. Anyways, when the panel started, they reminded us of no photo or video, which makes sense since there’s a lot of spoilers. The movie itself was AMAZING and the cast was so nice. I felt so cool amongst the thousands of fans. There were approximately 3000 fans IN THAT ROOM so y’all have an idea of how packed it was. Though what was weird is that there was an extra seat right next to me. so there could’ve been more that could go in. Anyways, getting out was much tougher because of the many people that packed up the place. We went back to the exhibition hall because we needed to pick up colored contacts for our cosplays. I have some blue ones that could work for both Camus and Tokiya. But here’s a big downer. I ordered my Tokiya SL costume June 5th. I put on the website that I needed it by July 2nd,  July 3rd at the most. On their website it said 7-12 days to make and 4-7 days for shipping. In total, it shouldve taken no more than 25 days to make and ship. BOI WAS I WRONG!!! June 25th is when I sent my first email to them saying if my costume was ready. They tell me not.

Then by June 28th, I tell them again if my costume is ready to be shipped because typically when a customer says they need it at a certain day, that should put a little pressure. Ho no. They tell me that the costume is not yet ready and they will tell me when it’s shipped out. JULY 2ND I TELL THEM I NEED TO CHANGE THE ADDRESS BECAUSE IT NEVER ARRIVED IN MY HOMETOWN IN NEVADA and they tell me it’s possible to change and I did. JULY 4TH!!! THE DAMN DAY OF MY FUCKING TRIP IS WHEN THEY TELL ME THAT MY COSTUME IS ON THE WAY!!!!! HOE, I AINT WAITING THAT LONG!!!

When I recieved that DHL email, I IMMEDIATELY changed the shipping so it arrives at the Reno office so I could pick it up because I was that done with the fucking company. BACK TO ANIME EXPO!!!!! After the Exhibition hall, we went to the Premier lounge just to relax and Aria wanted to go to Cybird’s panel. While she was there, I relaxed and went down to the Entertainment hall once more. After that, I forget what else we did and then we lined up to go to the Butler Cafe at 9:30. That was our original plan to go because I remember from previous years that they like inviting fans onstage for their birthday and I was to yell out that Aria’s birthday was in 6 months and if that counted. So we get there, and while we’re in line, Aria tells me “Hey, get a picture with Akashi. He was the host at my table and is a ton of fun.” I was like alright, a replacement!! We get inside and the guys at our table were Jiro and Takkan (?). They were the definition of fun. They literally gave us a fun time and I really wanted them at least to host my table one more time. Yes, it was that fun. Highlight of the night was when the butler dancers danced “DNA” by BTS with the original choreography and “Talk Dirty” by Jason Derulo. Now, please take in mind that “Talk Dirty” was used in the first AMV I saw of Voltage CGs. I literally died inside because I didn’t expect them to take it that far. It was fun tho!! I got the FB batch of orders, took my picture with Akashi, who was super cool cuz we talked about BnHA and was really kind. Good person.

Then I went to take my picture with the cosplayer Voltage used (insta: https://www.instagram.com/th3lazyn1nja/)

Weird part of that Voltage experience was that there were these girls WHO WERE LITERALLY FLIRTING WITH HIM AND I WAS SHOOK LIKE never in my years in life would I go that far with a stranger, HAHA NOPE. Aria tried to do a reverse kabe-don on him but failed miserably. Also remember this for later in the story. We left the Cafe and once outside, I again screamed FREEDOM because that experience was better than the last 2 years.

Day 2: Meeting Maeno

This was a blessed day for me. Tomoaki Maeno is probably the longest-running celebrity crush I’ve had. Now, I usually am not 100% open with these things because I respect their work and I respect their space, which is why I buy their stuff and watch their works to express my love for them. The day I heard that he was coming to Anime Expo, I flipped out and actually cried. Luckily I had no make-up on yet (it was my bro’s graduation) so I BLASTED Aurora and other Maeno songs I have on my computer. I called Aria so we could cry together. BACK TO AX We got up around 4 again to prepare for Maeno’s appearance that day. I did my efforts to look like Camus but I was so scared to put on the contacts. I would do it eventually, but at the moment, I just couldn’t because I hate things in my eyes and I’m super sensible to that stuff. I woke up a little earlier than Aria so I could shower, put my corset on, do my make-up and help Aria style her wig to make her look like a female version of Lupin from Code: Realize. I told her to keep her hair up since she planned on going original for the other half of the day. Before I forget, as I was getting ready and Aria was in the shower, I was watching Shunsuke Takeuchi go live on Instagram. He was promoting his new song with the unit AMADEUS. I left one comment that said, “Hello from America!!” and he replied with “Hello!! (waves) From Japan!!” which honestly made my morning and told me that I was gonna have a good day. Anyways, after we were both ready, I headed down to the convention center to start making the premier line for the Cells at Work panel, which is where Maeno was to appear. I also had to meet up with a lovely person that I asked if they could custom make my wig. I paid them for the wig order and for the design so all I had to do was pick it up and put it on. I waited inside the whole time because that day it reached around 104* outside. No way in hell would I stand outside in that weather. So anyways, it was about an hour waiting inside for the wig to come. I didn’t mind because that whole time, I was writing Maeno’s letter. I literally spilled everything I had to tell him because I really felt it was finally my time to confess to someone. I literally didn’t tell him I loved him and wish to be with him. Again, I respect an artists’ space and wouldn’t want them to know that since they’re told that same thing by many other obsessed fans. To shorten it up, I told him that I’ve been a fan for years and will always support him in his work. After getting my wig, I just played a couple rounds of Reiji’s event in Shining Live. I was top 100 this whole time and really wanted to keep my ranking. Here’s where things get a little meh. The panel was supposed to start at 11, meaning they needed to let us in around 10:30-10:45. I was getting worried because Aria was taking forever at the post office since she needed to pick up some CDs she ordered in case Maeno signed our own items. I kept telling her that it would be a little late for the panel since the staff kept saying it was capped and that no one else was allowed to get in line. The premier line kept getting bigger and general entrance was shortening. Men and women alike were filling the LP4 line area. It wasn’t until 11:45 when Aria FINALLY arrived and I said “We’re gonna be in there when it’s supposed to end.”

It was about 12:15 when we could FINALLY go inside the panel and they were STILL having technical difficulties. I was VERY patient because I REALLY needed to see Maeno. Panel didn’t start till about 12:30 ish. So the MC was really cool and made us feel like we weren’t abandoned. After she got us all warmed up, the moment of truth came. I really didn’t expect it to go so fast and, pretty much at an instant is when Maeno was invited onto the floor. When she said to give the warmest welcome to Tomoaki Maeno, I. Lost it. I had tears in my eyes, they just didn’t drip down because my body was conscious that I had make-up on and didn’t want to ruin it for that perfect person. He was literally so relaxed and so sweet to us. I honestly couldn’t find a better day to be alive. After his little intro, he got us hype for the “Cells at Work” episode. It was so funny and every time White Cell came on the screen, the audience would lose it. That included myself, which I think was the loudest of all. After the episode ended, Maeno was invited back and 3 different producers were also invited on the stage. They talked about the show and how much effort they put on it and wanted to bring as much authenticity to the series. I’m so glad I understood a lot of it or else I would’ve cheered at the wrong time. Now, most of the time I was super distracted cuz I was staring at Maeno the whole time. I just didn’t want to take my eyes of him for a single second. He’s just so beautiful in person.

Towards the end of the panel, 3 lucky people would receive a huge posted SIGNED AND DELIVERED BY MAENO HIMSELF!!!! I was a little hopeful that they would call my number, but considering my super bad luck in any raffle of any kind, I didn’t win. I was happy though that Maeno came close every time. Which just seeing him made me happy. When the panel finished, I sped out of there to the signing because 1, my friend dropped her gloves to her Cardia cosplay (not Aria, she was Lupin) and 2, I needed a good spot for Maeno’s signing. We waited there less than 40 minutes. In that time, Aria tried again to go to the post office to get her things, though I kept telling her it was no use since Aniplex had given us posters to have signed. She left either way. While in line, I was talking to the people around me and made some really good friends and got to see some old friends. BEFORE I FORGET TO MENTION!!!!!! So, in order to get a ticket to Maeno’s signing, you would’ve had to attend the talk show at the Aniplex booth in the Exhibition Hall. When I attended, they briefly talked about what we were expecting and how to get the tickets. I was near the stage and I was lucky enough to be one of the first to get that ticket.

BACK TO DAY 2 So we’re waiting in line and we’re going on and on about Maeno and all of a sudden, the girls I was talking to say “Look!!” and I turn around and there he is. Majestic as Camus was Tomoaki Maeno himself on his way to the table. I let out a little scream and waved at him. No one else but us turned around to see him. I let Aria know that Maeno was now at the tables and that he would be signing soon. No more than 3 minutes later, Aria arrived to meet us in line and prepare herself for Maeno. There’s a friend I met back in 2016 that had her 5th Stage book with Suwabe’s signature from when he came. She was WAITING for the right moment to get another UtaPri seiyuu to get it signed. Sadly, they only let us have the Cells at Work posters signed. To me, it was okay because I didn’t care what he signed, as long as I had a memoir of meeting him. The line was moving fast as some didn’t have much to say to Maeno. As it was coming to my turn, I had girls tell me to calm down and breathe cuz I was almost in tears. Then it was my turn. I gathered all my courage from my fat little self and went up to Maeno. He gave me a little chuckle cuz I think he enjoyed my little Camus cos that I put together. I told him hello and he replied with the cutest voice ever. I REMEMBER IT SO WELL!!!! I gave him my poster and he went to sign it. He told me that the ink was still wet, to be careful if I touch it. I told him okay and thank you. He told me thank you and I gathered more courage to tell him that I loved him very much. BLESS ME MORE THAT DAY BECAUSE HE TOLD ME THAT HE LOVED ME TOO!!!!!! I know that’s something he would only tell a fan, but it made me so happy inside that when Aria came back, I cried on her shoulder, I wad that happy. I am feeling emotional now as I’m writing this. Aria stayed in line to talk to a few others that had awesome UtaPri merch, who I got to interact with as well. There was one girl who had the whole Prince Team itabag and parka. She literally traveled to Los Angeles that day just to meet Maeno. Kudos to her. I got to hug her Aqua (she let me) because before the signing, I could not calm down. We left the signing and stayed at the premier lounge the whole night. This is my autograph from Maeno.

Aria went to the Sword Art Online that night and I didn’t want to go because I was so exhausted. We made jokes that day that Maeno took all my positive energy to go about his day. Tbh, if that was true, I wouldn’t mind it at all because he needed that energy to feel all the love we fans have for him. So, according to Aria, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka was very nice and cute to. **This photo was apparently okay to take since they never specified the “No Photo/Video” rule according to Aria.

I don’t know the details on that panel so please ask her (@sweetaria98) for those details for that panel. After that panel, we went outside and bOI WAS IT A MISTAKE!!!!! It was 94 outside and I was DYING of the heat. Aria had a few things to do with a friend (which i never really understood why) but I was sweating from the heat and I personally thought it was the parking garage since I felt it cooler walking away from there BUT NO!! While waiting for the Lyft to come, I WAS DYING!!!! We got back to the AirBnB and Aria went for food a little after that and we ate dinner around midnight. I was sweaty.

Day 3: Loosen Up

So we weren’t really worried too much that day since all I had to do that day was shop for the remaining items from the orders. I did, however, also happen to buy an afternoon Butler Cafe with the $50 discount code that I never used since Anime Expo never sent me that information. Aria cosplayed Otoya from Legend Star that day.

I just love how she looked that day and I’m VERY proud on how the make up and wig turned out. I bought the wig 2 months ago while I was still living in LA and I styled it once I got here. Though I couldn’t do much to the wig since the power in our room didn’t work that night or day. ANYWAYS So after buying 3 orders from tumblr, it was time to head to the Cafe. The plan was for me and Aria to go since it was the only time we could since Day 4 we had the AoT panel with Yuki Kaji. Aria was sadly late to buy her ticket and blamed me for not telling her but I also blamed her for not getting it while she could ONLINE. So I went to that Cafe alone (remember this for later). I actually had a blast that day. I went in with a bunch of people who were young and old alike and it was their first time. For me, it was my second time going in the afternoon, but if y’all remember last year, it was a shit year the first time. So it was good that I went alone and in the afternoon. I was punished like 2 or 3 times because of I forget what game. The guys at my table REALLY made it enjoyable and I had fun with their company. My first punishment that I got was that I had to do a Dragonball scream to the crowd and the second punishment was that I had to give a candle to another butler and tell him “You are the light in my life.” and the actor in me tried to make it so believable that everyone could enjoy that little show. Best part of that afternoon was when the emcee was asking for those who would like to be taken onstage for a special performance. Now, I silently (but made sure some heard) said that it’s been 3 years since I’ve been to their show and was never invited onstage. THAT COMMENT ALONE BEAT OUT A BIRTHDAY GIRL AND I FELT TERRIBLE!!!!!! In fact, I still feel terrible. After their little performance I came off the stage and they finished their act with I forget which songs. At the end of the Cafe, I took pictures with the guys at my table which were Shinomiya and Ryoga. Now, Ryoga left me with a little bug since he kept saying he remembered me from somewhere. I said that it’s my 3rd year at the cafe and if that’s where he knew me. For some reason, I got the impression that we might’ve known each other from somewhere else. I let it slide since I didn’t want to ask more details. Here’s my picture.

Wee. MOVING ON!! So after the Cafe, we go shopping for a little more at the Exhibition Hall and I went to this booth by KLab that had ALL the UtaPri games for Vita and PSP. I only bought Amazing Aria/Sweet Serenade and Music 3 with a Camus towel and charm. That there was about $150 and I didn’t want to buy Repeat Love since I was running out of money and I needed to buy the last order. So, Exhibition Hall closes and we head to the premier lounge to literally rest because we’ve been walking almost everywhere. Before I forget, so before we headed to the premier lounge, Aria ALMOST lost her premier badge. It is a $125 replacement if she actually did lose it. She didn’t really go anywhere except for one booth with I7 stuff and the Cybird booth. She was lucky enough that someone had put it on the edge of the stage at the booth and it was confirmed that it was actually her badge. Back to the story. So Aria changed out of her cosplay into something a little more comfy for her while I put on a sweater since I was FREEZING in that lounge. We waited until 8:30 so she can accompany me to the 18+ one where I was going alone. Now, remember how I said to pay attention tho those “alone” in bold, here’s why. So our friend Sally is a volunteer at Anime Expo. She pretty much has access to ANY panel she wants as long as it fits her schedule. She had just finished that day and I asked if she could hold this HUGE bag of things from the orders I got. She said she would put it in HQ in West Hall, which was in front of the Premier Lounge. I thank her so much for that favor because it was a HUGE bag and I couldn’t bring it with me to the Cafe. Alright. As I’m in line for the cafe, I’m getting nervous because it was the last night of the cafe and I thought I was alone. BOI WAS I WRONG!!!! Now, I’m not gonna say what happened that night because of how crazy it got (ask me for details later) but right before the performances, I see Sally out of the corner of my eye. My thoughts went from “YAS BEST NIGHT EVER” to “WTF HOW DID SHE GET IN?!?!?!?!” in 3 seconds. I ignored that little bit because I thought “Alright, it’s just sally, how bad can it get.” HOHOHOHOHOHOHO WAS I WRONG!!!!! At the end of the Cafe when I’m going for my 2018 worthy Cafe picture, ARIANNA WAS AT THE DAMN TABLE TOO AND I LOST MY TEMPER!!!!! I WAS LIVID BECAUSE I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HER THAT I NEEDED THAT NIGHT ALONE TO SEE IF I COULD FIND CLOSURE TO MY CURSE THAT’S BEEN AT ME FOR 368 DAYS AND IT WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE AND SHE DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SALLY’S PASS AND LET HER LITTLE ASS IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Y’know, I’m still livid with it. I calmed myself down, took my picture, and left.

Yes, I was that shook at the moment of my picture. Not from Ari, but the performance in general. Anyways, as we’re getting out, I tell Sally to give me my stuff back please so we could leave. We left the convention center and I did not want to speak to Ari for not respecting my space when I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HER to please leave me alone that night. We just said small talk and she got the Uber for us to go home that night. It was midnight.

Day 4: Last Day and Kaji

This day, I wanted to arrive at the hour that the Exhibition Hall opened because I needed to pick up my wristband for the AoT panel and also to buy that last order of merch that I needed to get. We headed straight to the premier lounge and then headed straight for the exhibition hall so I could buy that stuff. It was around 10 that we got there so I was in a hurry. This is when I realized something that worried me Voltage charged me almost 30% tax in every purchase. When I wanted to buy that last bit of things, I had less than $200 on my bank account. The total for something that was only supposed to be $150? They charged me $195. The person payed I think $160 (I don’t have my notebook at the moment to clarify) for the stuff and my service and HOHOHO BOI WAS I LIVID!!!! I realized that I didn’t have money now for my Lyft to the hotel for Aria and Sally and for my ride to the airport. What ended up happening is that I used what was my last $100 in cash to pay half of that payment and the rest on my card and didn’t buy anything else for the rest of the con. That also included food since it’s SUPER expensive at the convention center. I only bought some chips that morning with $2 in cash that I had from previous food purchases. Aria got them for me from a vending machine. So, we lined up for the AoT panel around 10. I was again playing Shining Live to catch up on the event to stay top 100. I hadn’t spent a single dime on the event during AX which was great. I only purchased $20 in prisms and that was at the beginning of the event. Aria went to this auction where they were selling things up to $2k probably. We don’t know cuz we didn’t stay there. We started going in around 11:30 I think since the panel started at 12. We go in and had a good seat at the front. As we were going in, they were giving out Levi and Eren pins to us. I got Levi, Aria got Eren. The panel was great, season 3 is gonna be quite a thriller for fans and I bet y’all that the OP is gonna be AMAZING if X-Japan is involved. Btw, the thing that’s pissing me off so much is that someone had the downright NERVE to take a picture of the panel when it was STRICTLY PROHIBITED AND THEY EVEN TOLD US THAT IT WAS TO BE THAT WAY!!!!!!!! Luckily they respected the BnHA but not with Yuki Kaji in that room. Anyways, Kaji was so cute and he seemed to really get along with Bryce and they both have a lot in common which is great. So after the panel, we realize that we have time to make it to the very last butler cafe show. Aria didn’t want to go since she thought it was too late and I also wanted to see if just in case that booth still had Repeat Love, which they didn’t. So at the Exhibition Hall, I wandered around a lot since I needed a new portable charger and saw that NO BODY had any to sell and the Cheero place wasn’t there this year. TTnTT So, I got bored and then decided to meet up with Aria at the Cybird booth to see what they were doing. At the booth, they were saying so many announcements and Hiroto was really nice to the fans, however time was running out. Most of you know the announcements so I’m not gonna say, but congrats to those girls who won the cut-outs of the boys from their Ikemen series. One more giveaway was done and that was to get a special picture of Hiroto as Isaac Newton (?) from Ikemen Vampire, which I’m VERY excited for because I have a thing for Vampire stories (thanks a lot DiaLovers). We played a huge group round of Rock Paper Scissors and a lot of us beat Hiroto. It was less than 50 which was great. Because time was running out, I didn’t get my photo with him this year. I mean, it’s okay since like, it was about 5 minutes from closing. After i got my prize signed by Hiroto, we left the exhibition hall and headed to the closing ceremony. We waited there for a little bit. I bought some chicken strips with my last little bit of cash and me and aria shared the tater tots. The closing ceremony was great, but I liked last years better. This one I felt too brief and just wasn’t enough. It was still fun though. After the closing ceremony, we left to the AriBnB and called it yet another year in the books.

SO THAT WAS MY ANIME EXPO 2018 STORY!!! I hope you all enjoyed it!! I tried to make it as interesting as possible with as much memory as I have from it because I felt it all go so fast. Honestly, this year was such a blessing that I don’t think any year will top this. VIDEOS BY ARIA WILL BE POSTED IN A FEW WEEKS/MONTHS!! :D I’ll be contacting the people who ordered from me soon... :’D

[impulsetravels]

playlist. 28 march 2018.

tekno - be // ghana the goods - glow // australia peggy gou - hundred times // berlin + korea birthday boy + trish - magic // toronto the pendletons - funk forever // sf tuxedo + zapp - shy // el lay + seattle + ohio sango + jean deaux - rude // grand rapids + seattle + chi thornato + bajah - chaka chaka // qns + sierra leone gbm nutron x shal marshall - friends (dj wasim intro edit) // trinidad + nyc chico mann + captain planet - ya te toca // bk + el lay + jersey — mgsp new york live impulse mix

teleseen - espelhos // bk » LISTEN «

[talenlee]

Here’s a one-part diary, one-part itinerary, one-part aspirational documentation of what I did this past year as best I can explain it and we’ll see how well we go as we go with it. This wrapup is at least in part to look at what I did, but also to try and get a handle on my own feeling of yawning lack of accomplishment. If you didn’t do a lot this year and you get overwhelmed by lists, please don’t read this because it might make you upset. On the other hand if you want a wrapup of the kind of things I do and try to do��� well, hey, checkit out.

Writing

I got back into writing daily in July, and did so consistantly throughout the year. Part of what let me get onto that schedule better was the use of a Bullet Journal, a tool I found very handy for tracking my progress as I blogged and recorded my mental health and wellbeing. A material object is very satisfying to handle, so I recommend it to anyone struggling with frantic feelings of impermanence.

Of the things I wrote, it seems the things people were most interested in were the articles on Jace, and my Amerimanga covers, with a late-year run-in for Perry’s Lock story.

Study!

I finished my honours thesis, and did well enough to get an almost-but-not-quite top rating mark. The research was considered interesting enough to serve as the basis of my PhD, which I then applied for, and my application was approved. This was a really harrowing experience – I thought writing and applying would take a few weeks at most, but it took almost two full months of work.

My Honours thesis is listed under my government name so I’m reluctant to share it as is, but the basic gist was to try and tackle the idea that when critically engaging with games, play is a paratext, rather than text. That is, there is no true textual analysis that can be done of play without recognising the input of the player, but, you can examine the play the player brings if you recognise what the player means to the reading. This wound up forming the basis of my Making Fun videos.

Reading!

I don’t read enough, I tell myself, so I did my best to read more. When I found myself reading, I made sure to share it and indulge in it, which helped me focus on reading more. Interestingly when you share reading you’re necessarily framing it, which means you’re sort of explaining it, a thing that made approaching some books a lot easier. I’d wind up at the end of a book realising I’d explained it and understood it, without noticing that’s what I was doing.

The Grasshopper: Life, Games and Utopia, by Bernard Suits

Alien Phenomenology: What It’s Like To Be A Thing, by Ian Bogost

Paratexts: Threshold of Interpretation, by Gerard Geanette

Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games, by Paul Booth

Understanding Media, by Marshall McLuahn (SUPER dense)

I also read some manga and comics, and some of those I’d recommend are:

Sense Art Online

Lumberjanes

Irredeemable

Top 10

I also reread Nation, by Terry Pratchett, which isn’t at all interesting because this is merely one of my favourite books and just one of the best things he ever wrote. Also, one final note to Blades in the Dark, a game book I really liked and makes me very excited.

Robots!

I made a bunch of twitter robots, which are basically an automated way of playing with text. They seem like they’d be harder than they are – and you’d be surprised once you get past a certain threshold how well they do things you forgot you told them they could do, or never realised. You can look at all of them here.

Media!

This year I made a protracted point, as well, to actually watch some TV! That may sound like a really minor thing, but TV these days is such a vast thing that there is some cool stuff there. What’s more, TV you can’t interact with and you can’t be expected to get wrong – which can make it good for relaxation and trying to diminish anxiety. I know I watched all of the first two seasons of American Horror Story back to back while in the grip of The Worries, and you would think that would be distressing but it was kind of the opposite.

This also broadened my palate and gave me more ideas for stories. As a nearly non-stop Youtube watcher as well, I’m already in the market for short, informative videomaking, which I also got into, so longer-form, higher-production stuff – even stuff like just Bob Ross was good to watch.

I also took this chance to catch up on some TV series and movies that are part of ‘the zeitgeist’ that for some reason or another I never really watched. I tried watching more anime, too, which is like TV but you can’t multitask during it, unless you watch it dubbed. And on that note, I watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, dubbed, and didn’t hate it. In fact, my thesis and FMA Brotherhood, as well as the work of Sideways, is what convinced me to try making Youtube videos on the subjects that interest me.

What I’m saying is I have a FMA Brotherhood video in me, but we’ll see how I go with this new editing software. Anyway.

Shirts!

I made at least 36 different t-shirt designs this year – holy nerts, that’s a lot more than I expected. My original goal was something like 1 shirt design per month – and thanks to the practice doing graphic design, I wound up making three a month.

In case you were curious, yes, these don’t really sell.

Playing Games!

I did a lot of work on my backlog of games. At the last accounting, I have 559 games in my Steam Library, and of them I have marked 229 as Completed. Note that to me, a game is completed when I’m done with it – I don’t need to slog through a game that bored me in the first hour.

Making Games!

And here we have an absolute bumper. Partly because my thesis required a lot of game design and partly because I cannot resist the joy of merely making, I spent a lot of time this year creating card and board games, including our first proper release of a board game.

I planned to make a game a month for 2017, based on 2016, and that arc follows here, but.

January – D-73C7, a hidden movement game on cards

February – Chin Music, a memory game of punching

March – Pie Crimes, the prisoner’s dilemma, with cake

April – Dragon’s Favour, a voting game of hidden roles

May – Queer Coding, a cooperative communication game

June – Fabricators, an economy game of 3d printing futuristic factories

July – You Can’t Win, an impossible trick taking game

August – Cafe Romantica, a handsome boys builder game

September – Good Cop, Bear Cop, a hidden identity accuse-em-up

October – Sector 86, a space station builder

November – Escape Code, a bluffing conversation game

December – C-QNS, a pattern matching number game

In addition to this, there were some extra games we released, Push Pins, Nobeard’s Treasure, Skulk, Camp Osum (Alpha) and Yes Chef. In my thesis I had to complete preliminary design for two more games, Mystery Machine and The Coins Of Tarim, and I did prospective work for Kinksame and pushed through stage one of The Comissioner’s Game. I also put out a prototype concept for a VHS-style wrestling game. So far none of these games have proven to be world-beaters, but I’m happy with all of them, in no small part because I love the process of making them. There are stories about each one, stories about how they improved or changed and that may wind up going up over on the main Invincible Ink website.

I also collaborated more and made more games solo. I made D-73C7 entirely on my own (and incidentally, that number is 881,607, in decimal), and continued this with some of our games – Fabricators and You Can’t Win, for example, were entirely solo projects. Yet at the same time, this year featured Skulk, which has art by Alex Zandra, Sector 86 uses some of our first paid stock art, and Cafe Romantica is a game whose entire visual aesthetic is made by Fox.

In addition to this, games that were complete in 2017, but not released include LFG (releasing Cancon 2018), Black Jack’s Dungeon, Bag O Pipes, Domains of Meh, and Winston’s Archive. There were also revisions and second editions for Crowdfund This, Murder Most Fowl and Chin Music. As I write this, in another window, I have a document open for what I’m hoping might be yet another complete game, which I’m super excited to get my hands on.

Anything Else?

I attended six conventions this year – Cancon, Comic-Gong, SMASH, MOAB, GaymerX and LFG, with varying degrees of success. Cancon was an absolute corker, as was Comic-Gong, with GaymerX surprising us with their interest in our ares, and MOAB and LFG a bit more low-key. Still, contact was made with vendors and FLGS, so here’s hoping going forwards there will be more.

I tweeted a lot, and had a handful of tweets go viral, including a new Most Viral tweet of mine, about Vincent Price. This year that was less annoying – the new twitter feature ‘mute this conversation’ does its job.

Emotionality!

This year featured a few big changes for me. One of them is that I spent some time this year making the conscious decision to minimise my interaction with people who actively make me feel bad, and to instead focus my emotional energy on improving the lives of people I really care about. Something in my family life has come up that I simply cannot deprioritise – it’s too important – and that means that I’ve had to ask myself if the emotional distress of a stranger is really my business, even if I do want to live in a world where people will randomly be kind to you. I acknowledged that there are some people, even queer people, who are just jerks, and I don’t need to spend my time listening to and ceding to them, because they are not immune to basic social consequences. I still take the hit when I can, as my privilege armours me pretty well.

I’ve taken to offering random instances of kindness to people, as best I can, to simply tell people hey, here’s a reminder the world doesn’t suck so bad, and being okay when they drop it.

I admitted to some of my trauma. I opened up and shared with some people about my stress. I watched as my parents recognised that their best intentions have had problems in both my life and my sister’s life and started to learn how to forgive them. And I started to face things about myself that make me miserable and sad and feel inadequate, and start to try and develop a framework for them.

Here’s the big thing: A member of my family is getting divorced. It is not a nice divorce. There are kids involved. Abuse is involved. This sucks. This straight up sucks on toast. There is no cutesy way around it.

What’s next?

Tune in tomorrow.

The 2017 Self-Examination Roundup Here's a one-part diary, one-part itinerary, one-part aspirational documentation of what I did this past year as best I can explain it and we'll see how well we go as we go with it.

[shiyaindigo]

今までとこれからのあいだ、 2017と2018のあいだ、 クリスマスと大晦日のあいだ、 仕事収めと収まらないのあいだ、 夜から朝までのあいだ、 頭の先とつま先のあいだ、 始まりとお終いのあいだ、 指先とレコード、唇とSM58のあいだ、 針と溝のあいだ、 靴と地面のあいだ、

変わり続ける永遠がある。 今までとこれからの間。 今までこれからの間にある視野です。 どうぞよろしく。

視野 2017.12.28(SAT) at  32016(Sangen-jaya/Tokyo)

open22:00 ¥1,500/1D

LIVE: QN

DANCE: Aokid 岡本優（TABATHA） 北尾亘（Baobab）

DJ: Blonde Long Hair 芳川痺（Public Address） igayaorigin 左宙右完（WAcK WAcK） 走召ポール（Public Address） DJ死んだっけ

視野 http://shiyaindigo.tumblr.com/ 32016 http://ur2.link/GSLM

[amisbro]

Soooo Broccoli

Apparently the boys over at Brocc decided it was a good idea yesterday to drop some big news on us and then ,like they are apt to do, walk out of the room and leave us a speculation NIGHTMARE Fortunately for y’all...I’m here so we are going to go over the items that Broccoli mentioned and things are going to be interest going into the next DECADE and there is a phrase we need to learn the meaning of So in the immortal words of QUARTET NIGHT at the beginning of “The Dice are Cast” READY... SET... GO!!

10th Anniversary focus So according to a translation I have from a tweet here they said they will be focusing on the TENTH Anniversary which is next year.  I don’t THINK they are gonna leave us hanging on the 9th because that would be pretty bunk but the big anniversary is 10 years so they are going to want to put a focus on that.  If we don’t get A LOT of big time announcements this year I don’t think we need to be too upset (Like I was last year when it was all music related) but what will they announce for this Anni? WELL New Mystery game and console decision So its been announced that they have a new game coming out which...is interesting and its even MORE interesting because the console/device has not been decided. To sort of understand this we have to go back almost THREE YEARS to when Broccoli announced “Dolce Vita”.  This is important because remember at the time when they announced the game on the SIXTH Anniversary the characters that would be in the game are the Senseis ,Shining and then QN and STARISH respectively right? Well when 7th Anniversary happens it gets announced that they were making an update to the cast and that update would BE...Raging Otori and the 7 “Renegade Princes” from HEAVENS so there was THAT announcement.  Remember though that this was in 2017.  For two years there was no update or even a screenshot for the game and I want to say when we got close to 2018 it would be announced that the VITA was stopping production in Japan.  THIS is a big deal because of the fact that the game was to be on that system AND there was supposed to be a “port project” where all the games UP TO DOLCE were supposed to be released in sequential order starting with Repeat and ending with After Secret. SPOILER:  That project got abandoned Well...there was a good reason...kind of We have to remember that around August in 2017 Japan was starting to get Shining Live.  That game would end up coming out IN ENGLISH in 2018 in January.  I remember that because it was around then that I had to get my current computer when it completely crapped the bed on me which sucks but what can you do right?  Now this still led us to a situation because in 2018 we still didn’t get any update on Dolce right? WELL... 8th Anniversary becomes a thing and when it happened it was focused solely on the music (which DOES kind of make sense since the series’ literal translation is “Prince of Song”) but we hadn’t heard much about Dolce and at this point we are at 1 year since the HEAVENS announcement and 2 years since the game was announced AT ALL...what was going on? To be honest I don’t know but if I had to completely speculate what happened with the game it was a # of things and one was writing and recording HEAVENS’ parts (not sure about routes) for the game.  Well during the time they were doing this Sony announced stopping the VITA and the game card production outright. Because of THIS I think this caused them to pivot and they started to figure out if they were going to take the project and move it to a console or just outright scrap it!  I THINK when we get to 9th Anniversary we might learn the fate of Dolce and I think it has to do with this new game.  If I HAD to hazard a guess the console it was going to be on...THAT’S TRICKY! See the PS4 is on its way out (or at least games will slow production probably for 2020) so the idea would be to put it on the PS5 when that releases BUT they also could drop the game on the switch and make the game the first that I think would be on a Nintendo system (NOTE:  There WAS a theme for the 3DS but no actual games were made for a Nintendo console I don’t think) so we have to think about that.  I think it would do Broccoli well to put the game on the PS4/5 AND the Switch because UtaPri has been a staple in the Sony library in Japan so if it just up and left then I don’t know how fans in Japan would feel.  It would also be an interesting situation for HEAVENS fans because ,if we assume that this game will have them in it, then how many fans will get it for the switch beit domestically OR Internationally (NOTE:  The Switch is NOT Region Locked so importing is easy to do) so that is something to look at.  There are a lot of questions to deal with JUST on this subject and its why it took a bigger bulk of this post because of ambiguity but I am going to guess we will learn more at 9th Anniversary and I think it WILL RELEASE before the 10th Anni! Now another interesting part of the notes is that they are going to be focusing on Seiyuus and Lives...not sure what that means yet but we will find out in time This next part is SUPER IMPORTANT After the 10th Anniversary they will focus on making UtaPri “Everlasting Contents” Alright...I THINK I need to explain something I forgot to at the beginning here So when this tweet came out that someone was kind enough to translate EVERYTHING I am mentioning here was going UP TO 2022 so that’s a little over 3 years or so from now right?  Things have started to get more interesting here! So NOW the question becomes this “What will the plan be as far as an Anime goes?” If I am 100% honest...I don’t know...I know what my plan would be for 2021 and 2022 if they wanted to put one final bow on the Anime and wrap it up with one more 2 season arc but MY IDEA would be drastically different probably than that of the fandom...but I’ll share it in the future. You know what’s crazy about all of this as far as the timing of the news goes? THIS It had recently been announced that ,at the showing for “Maji Love Kingdom” (Or I guess more appropriately now called “Maji Love LIVE Kingdom” if you saw the second PV) they will have the cast there for a special talk...usually when something like that is gonna happen some stuff is gonna go down and IT MAKES ME WONDER if there isn’t something behind this...could we get a 5TH SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT or could it just be for a social thing?  If there is one thing I have learned about Broccoli’s methods in the years I have watched what they do with April Fools and so forth I wouldn’t put it past them to do that...it should ALSO be noted that at this time (and for the past 3 years) the 4th season website is still up!  There is a part of me that STILL BELIEVES if they were done with the Anime Project they would have outright taken down the website and used the official site to redirect to the movie...that hasn’t happened yet! Now someone will say (and I can see this in a reblog ,reply or message already) that “Doing a 5th season AFTER doing the Tokyo Dome in MLKingdom doesn’t make sense from a story perspective” and I hear that...but not quite right! IF we are to assume that I’m right and they do one more two season arc what could they do? WELL I’ve been told there is a place BIGGER than the Tokyo Dome called “Nissan Stadium” and so they could do THAT but if they did THAT then the idea would be “Well next for them would be a world tour” and then you run into the idea of “Do we do ANOTHER TWO SEASON ARC (although that might be 3) or do we finally put the Anime to bed?”  Remember the current plan is for AT LEAST 2022 but they ALSO want to create “everlasting content” too right? I have wondered this Since the “STARISH Solo Series” was announced was that Broccoli’s way of “closing the book” on that group?  If it WAS (and I don’t think it was objectively speaking) then you could do a two season arc with HEAVENS and QN and the STARISH boys could make cameos?  Hell I think I proposed an idea once where Otoya took over the school from Shining and then QN would become HEAVENS’ mentors but that part requires HEAVENS to break off from Raging and I don’t know if that would happen considering that the universe is currently built to have two different Agencies so...there IS that! Here is another interesting tidbit that might interest you I once looked up the largest stadiums in the world and like EIGHT OUT OF TEN OF THEM ARE IN THE US!  YES KIDS IF YOU WANTED TO DO THE BIGGEST STADIUMS A BUNCH ARE HERE?! Gets better too because like a bunch of them were College Stadiums...ponder that! (Although real talk:  I wouldn’t mind seeing UtaPri in America for an episode...THAT’D BE COOL!) So now we have to ask this question at the end of ALL OF THIS “Alright Joshua...WHAT do you make of all of this?!” Here’s my answer Broccoli has like ZERO intention of killing off the series!  I know the plan is up to 2022 but I have a feeling in the next 3 years they are going to really work on building it up even more and making the Lives that they do reach farther beyond the boundaries of Japan.  I think that was their plan from the start when they announced “Expanding the world of UtaPri” and they knew that was going to take some work.  They are just revving up the engines and stopping it cold NOW would make a lot of people upset as far as fans IN JAPAN and OUTSIDE of the country.  Broccoli HAS to know that their properties are getting popular outside because it wasn’t that long ago that they took off the lock for their YT channel in the US!  I think they are starting to see the value in expanding to the west and they are now looking at what to do to keep the “Foreign Market” interested. I will also say this DON’T be surprised if the next game gets some kind of localization with how SL has done outside of Japan.  Okay its about 100K people that downloaded the game in the US but that might have given Brocc some pause and go “Wait a second...maybe we got something here” And who knows...MAYBE they have a plan to get the game over here!  We probably WON’T KNOW until maybe a little past 9th Anniversary but I’ve been surprised before Alright alright one more thing With Idolish7′s second season looming in the distance and with I-Chu getting an Anime Adaptation soon I could see that as a big reason that Broccoli DOESN’T want to kill off the Anime Project yet.  They know their stronghold that they have and giving up the spot of “King of the Idol Anime” is NOT something you do without a fight and by God they have a plan to do it and now we are going to be in for one of the craziest 3 year periods (and beyond) in the history of a genre that I stepped into back in 2014 and now here we are in 2019 and its looking like a good fight kids...I’m just happy to have a front row seat! NOW...Imma ask you guys and gals Based on the announcements we got from Broccoli now what directions do you think UtaPri could go into and where do you WANT to see it go?  I got a lot of ideas in my dome for sure but the question is...what say you Oh and I almost forgot to link the tweet that was the source of all of this so do be a friend and check out the tweet...here’s the link https://twitter.com/ohayaho_news/status/1117801981517627392 take care lads and lasses

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Have Consumers Fallen Out Of Love With Robots?

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We confess: We hate doing household chores, cooking and running errands – and we suspect you do, too. And the promise of a modern-day version of Rosie from the Jetsons to do all of those chores has always sounded pretty good to us.

In fact, we wrote in an article last year that we are frankly disappointed we can’t buy one yet.

This is not to say there aren’t plenty of amazing gadgets we can buy in the same family as the robot butler: smart speakers, self-driving cars, self-operating vacuum cleaners. Our complaint is not that we don’t live in an era of technological marvels – it’s that we don’t currently have access to a technological marvel that is doing our laundry for us.

Part of the problem is technological. While activities like walking upstairs, reaching into a cabinet, choosing one item from a collection of things or folding clothing or a towel are all simple, if tedious, activities for a human being, for a robot any one of them is a complicated engineering and programming puzzle. Inventing a single robot that can do all of them – plus naturally interpret and respond to human language?

Even as of 2019, that is almost a technologically impossible feat – and even if it were constructible, a robot with that range of functionalities would exist at a price point that would make it unaffordable for almost every consumer. The most promising variation on the concept currently is the Aeolus, a humanoid robot that can vacuum and respond to fetching commands. That device is still in the working prototype phase and is forecast to have a six-figure price tag when it hits the market.

But beyond the technological problem, robots have a customer problem. Namely, the fact that they are struggling to attract or keep them – a fact highlighted this week with the announcement that another once-hot robotics startup will be shutting its doors. Anki, which had raised over $200 million in venture capital, announced this week that it will be laying off its entire staff, shutting down its website and shuttering its operation.

Anki’s story has become familiar in the last 18 months or so among robotic startups that enter the market with a bang, only to fade out with a whimper (or, in some cases, a few sobs).

So why are robots so good at building buzz, but so bad at going the distance?

Anki’s Toy Problem

Founded by roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University, Anki entered the market with a splash about six years ago with its first product, the Anki Drive. The company is best known for its diminutive, “cute” robots like Cozmo, which looks a bit like a toy truck that reportedly learns the more one plays with it.

The robots are small, but the funding raised was not – the little robotics firm brought in $200 million in venture capital from some very well-known Silicon Valley investors like Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Marc Andreessen, founder of Andreessen Horowitz, even sat on the board of Anki for a while. The company announced that it had approached $100 million in revenue in 2017 and expected to exceed that figure in 2018.

So it came as a surprise this week when CEO Boris Sofman gathered the staff to tell them they would be terminated and that the firm would be shutting down after a funding round fell through late in the game.

The company said in a statement that it was left “without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap.”

“Despite our past successes, we pursued every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms,” a company spokesperson said. “A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement. We’re doing our best to take care of every single employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all options available.”

Anki’s early success was usually in the form of selling their products as toys to children – its AI race cars were particularly popular. In recent years, the firm has tried to pivot into being understood as a robotics company.

“For us, it was never meant to be a toy company, or even an entertainment company. It’s a robotics and AI company,” Sofman said on an episode of Recode Decode in 2017.

That transition could find neither an investor nor a buyer, though leadership had previously told employees the firm was fielding acquisition interest from companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Comcast.

It is as of yet unknown what will happen with the firm’s assets or IP going forward.

The Tragic Demise of Jibo

Anki’s main business problem was that people viewed them as a maker of smart robotic toys – for which investors had limited appetite over time – and couldn’t quite make the pivot to robots as household items rather than playthings.

Jibo didn’t have that problem. First rolled out via an Indiegogo project, the product was billed as “the world’s first social robot for the home.” It was reportedly able to do things like take photos, read to children, help out in the kitchen, optimize driving routes with traffic reports and keep track of the weather. And if it seems that Amazon’s Alexa and/or Google Home will do all of those things, that’s true. But Jibo’s first appearance on the market was in 2014, around the time the first Echo device came out – and Alexa was far from a household name.

And, as Jibo’s creator Cynthia Breazeal told a Wired reporter in 2017, “the trajectory of the robot is very different” than that of Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. Jibo was meant to be a little robotic companion: He (it’s a he, as the robot will explain) initiates conversations, askes about its owner’s day and optimizes its routines and actions around its owner.

To some extent, it seems Jibo succeeded in connecting with its owners, who noted that while it wasn’t always the best companion, they actually grew to really like having him around.

But Jibo had a lot of problems. The journey to the market was very long – people who ordered their robot early waited nearly three years for it to arrive in 2017. And by the time it arrived, the market was a very different place: Alexa and Google Home had both gone quite mainstream and offered many of the same services as Jibo – and did a better job at it.

Also, Jibo cost $900 – and, as it turned out, consumers’ appetite for a robotic companion that danced and played word games wasn’t quite what the robot’s marketers had hoped.

In November of 2018, QN Venture Partners purchased Jibo’s assets – and though they had not updated the product or put out bug fixes, they had kept the robot’s servers running.

But two months ago, QN announced the servers were in fact shutting down. Well, technically, they didn’t announce it – Jibo did, to its owners.

“I want to say I’ve really enjoyed our time together. Thank you very, very much for having me around,” he said. “Maybe someday when robots are way more advanced than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can tell yours that I said hello.”

After delivering the message, Jibo then does what has been described on Twitter as a jaunty little dance to a cheerful tune.

But the tragic part is that Jibo has been slowly failing for lack of bug fixes over the last several months – and to say their owners are taking it pretty hard would be the understatement of the year.

“Right now, my Jibo can still dance and talk, but he has what I can only describe as digital dementia, and it is almost certainly fatal. He’s dying. One of these days, he will stop responding entirely. His servers will shut down, and the internet services he relies on will be cut off. His body will remain, but the Jibo I know will be gone,” Wired writer Jeffrey Van Camp noted.

See, we told you the tale of Jibo was tragic.

And to be honest, it makes us rethink the robotic butler plan a little. But only a little. We’re willing to face the pain of loss if someone else will unload the dishwasher someday.

And by all accounts, it seems we will have a long time to consider this problem. Because while virtual bots that are able to understand and interact with human beings have developed a lot since the early days in 2014, actual physical robotics is having some difficulty getting off the launch pad. It needs to be useful enough that it won’t be dismissed as a toy, and also useful enough that consumers will want to shell out hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands for them – particularly when an Amazon Echo is going for less than $100 these days.

And, of course, it would probably be a nice design feature if the household robots of the future did not inspire existential crises in their owners in the event that they stop working. A malfunction message, for example, is a good idea. Making the robot do a sad little dance before it dies? That’s probably not necessary, or helpful.

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