#enstars album series

[sinful-liesel]

Ensemble Stars!! Album Series "TRIP" Crazy:B

Release Date: July 19, 2023

CAST

🐝 Rinne Amagi (CV: Yohei Azakami) 🐝 Himeru (CV: Jun Kasama) 🐝 Kohaku Oukawa (CV: Tasuku Kaito) 🐝 Niki Shiina (CV: Tomohiro Yamaguchi)

[zymple]

ok rough draft done, anyone got any insight on changes i should make?

[cakeemoji]

collection of fics i've written :]

| links in each section are sorted by most "recent" to oldest lol; click "read more" to view the rest (watered down my works in the mini description here so please read the tags of my pieces for more info !!)

rinhime works (enstars)

☆ forget-me-nots | rinhime bathe together and speak of philosophical things aka immortality (set in a universe i call "the warped tour au" hehe)

☆ a little death | rinhime metaphorical cannibalism

☆ favourite record | written for rinhime week 2023. one of the prompts was "alternative universe" so i wrote this in mind to crossover with mcr's concept album, "danger days". features crazy:b as killjoys and a little peek into their crazy lives :]

☆ black morgue + back to you | two-shot mini-series, based on the concept of a one-night stand, some love and the aftermath. third person limited, himeru-centric.

rinnazu works (enstars)

☆ rinne puts his boyfriend on speaker (WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU) | rinne gets a call from nazuna and puts him on speaker, traumatizing crazy:b for life (<-a pretty unserious work so i shared it under a separate pseud)

☆ u pretty, he ugly! u swan, he frog! | shu finds rinne and nazuna holding hands one not-so-peaceful morning. he assumes the worst

☆ hand in mine into ur icy blues | in which rinne and nazuna laze around on a snow day and warm each other up :3c (written in dec 2023)

applejuice works (twst)

☆ madol for your thoughts? | deuce and epel go on a date (very fluff-oriented ^_^)

☆ small, simple, safe price | deuce and epel bond over apple carving

mammon/reader works (shall we date?: obey me!)

☆ winter mood/dreaming of spring | emotional hurt/comfort, dabbled on idea of wanting to love + be loved while being terrified of commitment and never being good enough

☆ we'll get by, somehow | "i'm tired of losing people i love." - a take on a "what if" scenario where MC dies in L16 (<-personally, i think this is the best thing i've written for this fandom)

☆ bulletproof loneliness at best | in which reader finds old scars on mammon's back and comforts him, features small scene of bathing together and sleeping together (literal sense)

☆ where i belong | waking up from a nightmare and being comforted by the great mammon =]

☆ summertime | inspired by the devilgram "a private beach for two", short & sweet.

☆ hearts only hurt from here | heavy on hurt/comfort + implied/referenced self-harm. based on what i wanted to hear when i was in a dark place.

hidadei works (naruto)

☆ hands that god gave you | two gross men do gross things (care for each other)

☆ a lovely night | inspired by the song from la la land the musical; this was written in 2021 so it's definitely not all that great lol

[couldbebetterforsure]

It's here!!!!!!! The Ryuseitai Trip Album cover is finally here!!!!!

Ahh, my sweet boys, they all look so pretty and cool and handsome! And I love how their outfits remind me of their Comet Show oufits! Tetora, Midori, and Shinobu are all up front, taking center stage in the shot while Chiaki and Kanata are to the sides and more to the back. But they're all standing together, as one unit! Five incredibly and wonderful individuals who make up the brilliant Ryuseitai!

And here's the preview for Ryuseitai's new song, which we'll get an MV of once we get the album release on March 6th, New Daybreak! Once again, Ryuseitai refuses to release any bad songs, it's banger after banger after banger with them!

Looks like the lyricist is Maori Kodama. I can't find any information on them other than they're also the one who wrote the lyrics for Bokura no Stella from Ryuseitai's Stella Maris story. And that song is the current love of my life, so I totally look forward to hearing what lyrics they came up with for New Daybreak! EDIT: Okay, turns out Google Translate and the Enstars Wiki was just lying to me...The lyricist's ACTUAL name is Saori Kodama. In which case, there is PLENTY of info on her! She has a long history of song writing under her belt, with plenty of anime being graced by her music. And, from what I'm seeing, it looks like she was especially involved in magical girl anime! She also has written prior stuff for Enstars other than Bokura no Stella and New Daybreak. So yeah, how fun that Ryuseitai's new album will have both tokusatsu AND magical girl influences!

The arrangement of the song is being done by Shuhei Naruse. He's done compositions for several Kamen Rider series and some Mega Man anime as well!

And the composer of the song is Hironobu Kageyama. A singer and composer who has done a TON of music for a variety of tokusatsu series as well as several anime, including famously being the singer for Dragon Ball Z's first, and honestly most well known, opening theme "Cha-La Head-Cha-La".

Having two people who are known for their work on tokusatsu shows working on a song for Ryuseitai is perfect! And from the preview alone I am already loving the feel of this song. Can't wait for the full version.....Especially when we get the MV!!!!

So yeah, I've already preordered the limited edition version of the album. So I am ready for that Ryuseitai musical goodness! Especially since we will be getting full versions of Bokura no Stella and Relax Paradise too! Aaaaaahhhh!!! I love you Ryuseitai!!!!!

[01turnkill]

Some of my CDs.

Owl City, Ocean Eyes losing the quality battle since there's no lyric booklet. The booklet only has credits inside. The CD case was also damaged by me (oops). This album is known for Fireflies of course but I'm way partial to Dental Care, Hello Seattle, The Bird and the Worm, and basically anything else. The Saltwater Room is on this album too but I won't lie I prefer the "Maybe I'm Dreaming" album version of it.

Kaizers Orchestra, Maestro has a 360p video of the song Maestro's video in it that you can watch on PC. The CD also has an installer for an audio player which unfortunately doesn't work anymore since it's meant to be verified from a page on the website, still brilliant though. For the rest of these I haven't played them on a PC so I don't know if there's anything but music on them.

Buck-Tick, Darker Than Darkness -Style 93-, I could go on about it, it's such an amazing album, and I'm not just talking about the songs! The booklet's pages are mostly gold with a few that are black, and there's photos of the band members inside as well as the song lyrics. I have mentioned this elsewhere but there's beauty in the actual experience of putting the CD in a CD player and watching it count up after track 10 (Die) plays. 11, 12, 13, ... Until 93 where D.T.D plays. Genuine hidden track, which I hadn't experienced before!

Buck-Tick, Kurutta Taiyou, another brilliant album. This CD is the 2002 remaster version and the booklet just has lyrics inside. It's another great album but the CD is just normal. As far as I'm concerned, Taiyou Ni Korosareta is one of the greatest songs of all time.

When it comes to Enstars I really won't lie it was a phase but having these in my collection is still cool so I don't regret it. I never let myself regret purchases. The CD is very pretty especially the Album Series one with all the signatures on the disc. In the end it's capitalism 1000 though so I can never trust too hard.

Eve, Official Number CD is pretty typical as well, though it came with a sticker which I put on my laptop. To me it isn't as strong but I was obsessed with Demon Dance Tokyo and there's some other cool tracks that I like.

La Roux CD, is also pretty typical. I grew up with this album and I found this at the charity shop so that's why I have it. I'm pretty fond of almost every one of the tracks and that's what makes it worthwhile to me. The booklet has a cool spread page picture of her, very retro looking.

I don't tend to buy CDs that often, it's only when I get obsessed with an album which means fondness for 9/10 songs and an urge to listen to them on repeat for a long time. I'm also music first with artists. I'm not usually so concerned about the members (Enstars was the exception of course and I've become a different man from that time).

I do a fair bit of streaming and I also don't bring the CD player out that often, you know? So these albums are cool functional collectibles to me that represent a time in my life. Next on the list is going to be The Cure, if I could actually choose a favourite album!

[hiyojun]

i don’t say this to dog on the person who started it cause i think it was just a genuine mistake but the “the trip album series will be on global streaming on june 29” thing was a case study in how easily misinformation spreads in the enstars fandom cause happyele literally… never said that. that’s the date they gave for the instrumental versions coming out… the entire time it was getting spread around i knew it wasn’t true but didn’t have the clout needed to spread the message i just had to watch on in horror

[wildwoof]

Rebuilding my enstars song playlist on spotify has been a trip. hgfsjfhksf tho it appears the trip series albums are not global yet, so... I might still stick with my youtube playlist for the time being before I completely switch to spotify.

[berries28]

mann

this is gonna get a bit long but its been bothering me a lot so just wanted to put this out there Looking at some of honeyworks’ songs and comparing them to other idol series, sometimes i reeallyyy think Honeyworks is wasting budding singing talents like Shimazaki Nobunaga (AIzou’s VA). He used to be an utaite (japanese cover singer) before becoming a voice actor, and while he wasn’t the best by any means, he’s slowly but surely GETTING there. Listen to PrinceXPrince and Aoi Pierce and you’ll get it. Honeyworks’ songs don’t seem to flatter or show off his talents at ALL. 

And dont get me started on Uchiyama Kouki (Yuujirou VA). He wasn’t a singer at any point before, and you’ll really notice it in some of LIPxLIP’s first songs, but Honeyworks, again, does not show off or flatter his good parts at all.

And what bothers me about it is Honeyworks DOES have good, banger songs that makes the best use of what the VAs are good at. They just seem to fall off in LIPxLIP’s case. You may argue, “But LipXLip is one of Honeyworks’ best selling units/solos/albums, even more than some of their other songs/couples, most of whom are voiced by voice actors who also have a rich history of singing and VA work! Surely they wouldn’t be this popular if they werent as good as them!” And I think it has something to do with the fact that Uchiyama Kouki and Nobunaga Shimazaki arent part of any other virtual singing groups, but they’re both VERY popular VAs with large fanbases who understandably want to hear them sing, especially together, since they have such lack of roles together in any anime. And I think Honeyworks was wasteful with a lot of their VAs as well. Some were done justice with songs that flatter their range and singing skills- Yuji Kaji as Mochita, Kamiya Hiroshi as Yuu, UCHIDA YUUMA AS RIO (seriously brilliant job on FT4 Haniwa, all of them are top tier casting and all their songs let them sing how they sing best).... but then I cant think about the few most unutilized of all, Hanae Natuski as Kotaro and Matsuoka Yoshitsugu as Koudai... both genuinely good singers with a great singing voices (You can go listen to some of their songs, and Hanae Natsuki is also in Enstars and several other idol games) who only have 1-2 songs in haniwa.  

TL DR; Honeyworks cant figure out how to bring out LIPxLIP’s VAs’ best singing voices or what kind of and while Haniwa is the reason I get to hear my favorite VAs sing about love and stuff, I sometimes wish some other composer group/ idol game got hold of these two first

[chichapalabok]

GOT THEM ALL!!!! and so I can finally quit..... 6 long years with Knights and enstars..... I started playing when the first Knights album series was released back in may 2018....so it fits to stop may 2024 dhjhda

bonus obligatory eepy ritsus

[gachadiy]

DIY CD tutorial - from burning the CD to customizing the case and making a booklet - coming very soon! I just have to settle on which album I want to make first ^^;

[vanrougelia]

Heyyy so uh I follow you on twitter (hi!) and I see that your main interests other than twisted wonderland are hypmic and enstars. (also you're a ritsuP 👀)

i have a proposal to make. smau/multi-part story of enstars au twst/hypmic au twst? feel free to choose either one of them^

since hypmic is basically a mass media so you could make a whole smau series for those!! you know, like album teasers and such👀 we were screaming for matenrō 2017 album being on sale again, for enstars au you can decide what you want there (i think smau is also fun !!)

whoever you are and how did u find my tumblr... pls show yourself /j

anyway thank u for this ask anon!! i have smau ideas regarding idol au for a while! but i haven't paid too much mind about it and now you reminded me ... i may start soon ✨ though i don't know if i should post it here or on my main blog instead (this is only my writing blog!!!)

i can def see enstars au happening ... since im a casual enstarrie myself (and ur correct once again, im a KnightsP + ValkyrieP)

i will make a navigation page for smaus soon though! i will try to find more time in making it while i finish some requests bcs i love writing for my bois 🥰

anyway, my twitter is @/easyReii. feel free to follow me there if you'd like^^

[kantostarter]

i am only noticing now how insanely long the ask was IM SORRY BC I MIGHT SEND LONGER LMAO anyways idol content is everywhere! i also talked intensely abt my genshin idol au in my blog if u wanna check it out ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ ALSO SAY HI TO MIR FOR ME AND I'D LOVE TO TALK ABT HYPMIC!! the bois give me many amounts of joy and i like watching the anime sometimes too despite the backlash it got KFHFJHF enstars is super fun!! i miss playing it but if i download even a single rhythm game i will download all of them and thus my peace and quiet will end once again SOB im glad u like the ones i listed!! there r probably a shit ton more bc the virtual idol community is just. MASSIVE???

LASTLY I SAW YOU WERE INTERESTED IN HONEYWORKS! im worried i'll hit the character limit for asks but i'll try to give a brief summary of honeyworks itself! hnw is a japanese music group that started out with producing vocaloid songs! if you're familiar with vFlower (the vocal synth), hnw also produces him! anyway, their core members are Gom and shito, who compose the music, and yamako and mogelatte as their illustrators. they started with vocaloid songs but eventually branched out to human singers, and they're also well-known for collaborating with the singer CHiCO! and in 2014, they made a professional debut as an independent music circle with their third album and the beginning of Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (Confession Executive Committee) or otherwise known as Confession Series as a multi-media franchise!

Now, Confession Executive Committee, which is too long for my own sanity so we call it CEC, is divided into two series, Love Series and Idol Series. they share some characters and character relationships (such as the shibasaki brothers and the narumi sisters) and exist in the same universe. most of everything happens in sakuragaoka high school, and love series takes place here almost entirely. i'm unsure if you wanna learn more about love series, but a brief cut on it is it's about three different classes (which are referred to by the fandom as generation 1-3) and their very fluffy high school romances. pls lmk if you wanna know more bc im gonna focus on the idols!

idol series is the one i've probably talked about too much, but of course it generally centers around idols such as lipxlip's shibasaki aizou and someya yuujirou, minami, mona, and full throttle4's rio, megu, dai, yui, and iv! romance in the idol series is never fully fleshed out yet also incredibly heavily referenced and expressed, as it focuses on the struggles and experiences of idols before, during, and after their debut into the idol industry! i've already talked an incredulous amount abt lipxlip but i also have more to say, most of their songs and MVs are hard to understand on the surface bc most of them exist as in-universe music videos (for example, if you watch the romeo MV of lipxlip you might think these two dumbasses are trying to woo princess sena, when in fact this is?? acting?? it's hard to explain but they're not really princes and the events of romeo as well as a good number of other MVs are entirely fictional, both in-universe and out. sena, my beloved, is featured in the love series and has a canon love interest! so she only views lipxlip professionally. and also aizou and yuujirou are. themselves.) part of lipxlip's stories is also suzumi hiyori! while she isn't an idol herself, she serves as lipxlip's manager in training and is constantly being tormented by these two fuckers. but they care about her a lot i swear. they're just like that™. there's a currently airing anime that centers on her story, it's titled heroine tarumono! kiraware heroine to naisho no oshigoto (heroines run the show! the unpopular girl and the secret task). she's listed as part of the love series but ⚫👄⚫ i pretend i do not see /j

there's sm more i can talk about (IM SO SORRY HNW HAS BEEN TORMENTING ME FOR. SO LONG. I NEED PPL TO INFECT IT WITH FJFHJD) so pls lmk if u wanna hear more abt the singing pretty pixel people bc this ask is already too long to be normal. ALSO I WILL TAKE U UP ON THE REQS PREPARE TO SEE A TON OF IDOL MEDIA

doesn’t tumblr have a character limit for asks..!? i’m honestly shocked that you were able to type this much! anyway. i’ve Filed all the knowledge about honeyworks into the little filing cabinets in my singular brain cell. thank you again, ess!! i mean, like. feel free to share more about hnw because i am Quite intrigued?? actually, there’s this other like. ig you could call it idol media? called dear vocalist that i know a few of my alters are familiar with, but. i’d have to let them talk about it since my brain cell is filled with things like this video now. -w-” 

ALSO, WHEN I SAW YOUR REQS?? I WAS LIKE. TY ESS FOR ENABLING ME!! i will be very powerful this short king spring <3

[nagihiko-dayo]

Day 24: Crossover

Shining Live, we got to see a crossover with Enstars, give us a crossover with IDOLiSH7 and Bandori! I will riot! I drew the face of each of their respective series, so the “centers”. They also happen to be my favorites and fall in the category of “I look happy but I don’t cope with sadness or depression properly”. I love them and I will protect them (even though I make really sad headcanons for them shhhhh)

The text is all my puns for seiyuu jokes (Lol). I shall explain them...now!

The title is “Idol Grandprix” based on the an actual Japanese magazine called “Seiyuu Grandprix”.

The center text is all of there names and the little bubble says: “There is a special talk with the 3 centers”

The text on the bottom left goes as follows:

“I’ll tell you” (oshiete ageru yo) Terashima Takuma&Mamoru Miyano

(this was from a radio where a fan asked if Terashima had an Ittoki Switch since she didn’t expect him to voice a high-toned character and that’s they start to sing, “oshiete ageru yo kimi dame no Ittoki switch”) link: https://youtu.be/jLxnLnRrmig

Ima boku wa hashiru yo Lyrics from “Hikari” by Hatano Wataru

(this is from the Hamatora event where the cast was promoting Hatano’s album but in comical ways) link: https://youtu.be/1QTJkZwIlTA (someone put all the time stamps for the clips in the comments please refer to those)

Obaa-san janai yo (I’m not an auntie/old lady) Yonaga Tsubasa gag ^^

Sou, hakanai Tadokoro Azusa the seiyuu for Kaoru Seta from Bandori

The bottom text goes:

My (ore) name is NAGI

This person’s voice is high Mafumafu

Idol Talk Aoi Shouta

Ittoki-san and Nanase-San and Toyama-chan are seriously angels Shirogane KanadeーYoshida Ichirou (this is just @d-redlocks and I lol)

[mikarashis]

Ensemble Stars Episode 1 Analysis

Hello, hello everyone!  It’s finally time for Ensemble Stars: The Anime Experience!  If you were around a year or so ago, you may remember that I did something like this for IDOLiSH7 as well, so this will likely be the same sort of thing: a lot of screenshots, a lot of flailing, and hopefully some interesting character/story analysis thrown in there.  

That being said, if you’re an anime-only watcher, do be wary of spoilers, but otherwise let’s get into the first episode!

First, a bit about, well, yours truly: I started playing Enstars in spring of 2016 (during the Valkyrie introduction event) and have been in this hell world ever since!  My best boy in the beginning was Mika, and unlike a lot of series, that really hasn’t changed - however, I have a massive amount of love for pretty much every single character and that will probably be evident as you read through this!  

So, here we go!

I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of the way the intro was set up to basically look like a mobile game because at this point we know what the source material is and there’s not really a reason to connect the two so literally, but it’s a style choice and I understand why they did it.  It’s cute that they start with a song from the very first album series, though!

Oh, so it’s gonna be Like This, huh… 

(For anyone wondering, there aren’t really explicitly...canon relationships in this series, but there’s a lot of really unsubtle moments and I think it’s safe to say certain pairings get majorly hinted at)

I’m biased because my top...four characters are all in Mao’s class (2-B) so I’m sad we didn’t actually get to see them all, but while this seems like a minor detail, Mao being in a different class from the rest of Trickstar is actually kind of a Thing.

Everyone has a different opinion on Anzu being included but personally, as long as they give her a personality and she doesn’t feel extraneous, I’m all for it.  Plus she’s voiced by the incredible Maaya Sakamoto so that already earns a lot of points from me.  

One thing I really do appreciate about an anime adaptation is that in the game we always hear things like ‘Subaru is always touching/hanging off of people’ but the models just stand there beside each other so actually seeing it is nice.  

THERE HE BE.  I could say a lot about this opening but the number of little details in it is so well-done, from Subaru’s reference to his father with the marble at the beginning to Tsukasa’s licence plate being his birthday to Eichi rolling up in a super expensive car to Ritsu snoozing and ignoring a phone call from his bf Mao to Leo apparently being in Syria to Leon and Daikichi being one of the screen wipes, it’s full of little easter eggs for fans of the game to discover. 

I will mention, though, that an official Yamaha account tweeted what Izumi’s bike is and that bike is entirely too cool for someone like Izumi Sena.  

Also I think the composer is the same one who wrote the opening song for the game and mentioned that it was also written this back in 2014 so I’m sure it’s very nice to see it used now!

(Help him).  This is actually one of his character traits though so it’s nice to see it referenced.  

Subaru can just...get away with saying things like that to Jin, amazing.

Adosou just casually strolling to class together, no big deal, 

Subaru��s just willing to let all of Hokuto’s character quirks get exposed for ten yen (and so the audience can learn about them)

Poor boy

~~foreshadowing~~

One of the things I do kind of wish they did was aside from putting names on these little character placeholder cards, that they also mentioned what unit everyone belonged to - especially in this episode where everyone was just in their school uniforms, it would be hard to place for new viewers.

Okay admittedly they do kind of do the unit thing in these little eyecatches (which are really cute with the game card art) but they introduce way more characters than they show here.

If anyone is wondering whether most of these characters know each other or have history: yes.  A lot of it isn’t really explored in the main story so I’m hoping that’s one of the things they’ll add in the anime version.  

I WAS NOT EXPECTING RIOT WOLF SO THIS WAS A NICE SURPRISE.  It’s also really smart of them to introduce a rock song because a lot of the units in Enstars don’t necessarily do ‘traditional’ idol music so this already subverts that possible expectation.

KURO PLEASE.  

He’s so soft though, I love it.

FOR REFERENCE most of the lives are...not like this...so I’ve always kind of found it interesting that the very first one we see in the main story is.  Eichi would literally be dead already if this was common practice.  

The game card has this art of Koga leaning over her and here he’s just squashing her, rip Anzu.

Keito’s just standing there with that megaphone waiting for the right moment.

More...foreshadowing…

Look at this conniving little pink-haired child

I was...slightly worried about how Akatsuki in particular would come off here because they’re wonderful but I feel like it’s...alright?  Keito’s just uptight but that’s normal for him I may have a slight bias toward everyone in 3-A so I’m just getting that out there now

See if you’d have just put their unit name on their introduction slides we wouldn’t have needed this line, but then Keito loves to talk so he probably would have said it anyway.

I saw some remarks from people who were unfamiliar with the source material saying the foreshadowing in general was too heavy-handed but I like that they didn’t have Mao expressly say he’s playing a double-agent, they show him with the StuCo at one point so it’s mostly implied but I feel like that works.  

And then we get this really serious scene at the end, which is quite honestly more normal for Enstars in general. There’s a lot of humor but the heart of the story is character development and growth both individually and as units or relationships in general, so I’m glad they have this scene here.

She literally had 130 pounds of boy + a guitar drop onto her from a height, I’d say she’s doing pretty well, actually!

They throw a lot of information at the viewer in this episode and quite honestly even after being in the fandom for three years I still don’t know how the live system pyramid thing really works, but it’s not super important - the one plot thing that is integral is that things need to change and the system the way it is now isn’t working.

‘Risking our lives’ may seem dramatic but this is...how characters in Enstars talk.  All the time.  

Again, beautiful but not overtly obvious composition with the three of them learning toward Anzu and a noticeable space between that group and Mao who’s standing straight at the back.

The ending song is cute too and I think most people assume that all the units will get one at some point?  Since I believe these are supposed to be cards for the next game event as well, but if it means more original songs, I’m very for this idea.  

So, that was the first episode!  All things considered, I think they did a good job with it, though as with most series the beginning always feels a little rushed until things settle into their normal pattern.  For all the re-working that’s been done on this anime I do expect a lot from it, and I’m really interested to see how they incorporate the units that didn’t exist when the main story first came out (we know from spoilers that this already happens next week with a certain...member of 2-A that didn’t show up to class this episode…).  

I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope to continue doing these throughout the season so please let me know if it was interesting and if you’d like to see more!  

And if you’d like to find me on twitter I’m probably 90% enstars over there, so feel free to say hi! 

[bethygauw]

[1/2] Online B’s-Log Interview with Satoru Kuwabara

Update:  - (2 Sep 2020) Correction “ When we started making the unit songs, we didn’t make hip hop songs, afraid that the female players may stab us” --> “When we started making the unit songs, we didn’t make hip hop songs, afraid that it wouldn’t resonate with the female players”

* * *

Released 4 June 2018

Original source Part 1 The original article has pictures that complement well so please check it out too.

B’s-Log started a new project, “Creator Touch”, an interview series with creators of popular series. The first person they interviewed was Satoru Kuwabara, the music producer of Ensemble Stars!.

In this first half of the interview, they asked about how Kuwabara started to get involved with Enstars unit songs. Kuwabara also talked about the points he focused on in the song series that have been released so far. (~2.8k words)

In the second half, they talked about song numbers that left the biggest impression on Kuwabara, the 3D live concert, the voice actor live concert and Enstage. (~2.2k words)

Some of the info has already been published somewhere before, so this may be a repetition to some. But otherwise, it can be a refresher as well. Enjoy!

Q: Kuwabara-san, you’re also Arte Refact’s representative. Could you tell us what your job entails?

K: As part of Arte Refact, my work revolves around anime and game music. It doesn’t mean that I’m not working with other genres at all, but Arte Refact is basically a company where people who love anime and games gather around. So we want to surround ourselves in that world and conform to it as much as we can.

Q: Could you tell us what started your involvement in Enstars unit songs?

K: Before the game release, a person I was indebted to gave me a tip, “There’s this game that’s coming up,” he said, and showed me the proposal and illustrations. I had a look at it and thought, “I really want to do this!” If I remember it correctly, it was around about the start of the preregistration period, so the only information I had in hand was that it had the high school idol theme and idol units. It also had a simple description of each character and a main theme song. I was sure that they would already have songs for the units prepared as well, so when I was given the chance to introduce myself to Happy Elements, I made some unit songs while expecting to be shot down. There were 8 announced units, so I visualized and prepared 2 songs for each unit and went to present.

Q: This was before the game even started… So you made these songs with so little information to go on with.

K: The unit that I misunderstood the most was fine. It’s pronounced like “fee-nay”, which is different from the English pronunciation of “fain”, right? I ended up making a song with lots of the “fain” version in the lyrics (laugh). Other than that, I thought the “bits” in Ra*bits referred to, say, 1bit, so I thought that maybe their songs have lots of pinging sounds like those in a game. Turns out I was completely wrong for both (laugh). On the contrary, Trickstar, UNDEAD, and Ryuseitai were easy to figure out and I remember that it was a smooth process.

Q: Among the songs that you presented, were there any that actually got released as unit songs?

K: I think it would be Knights’ Checkmate Knights and Ryuseitai’s The Unrivaled☆Meteoranger!. Although we remade those after receiving the units’ proper background setting.

Q: You have been playing the actual game. Can you tell us your first impression or what it is about the game that attracted you?

K: My true first impression would be during the pre-release, but I thought that their illustrations were nice, generally speaking. In general, the art in a female-oriented series has that touch that doesn’t sit too well with guys. But Enstars feels like anime and its head count for the character design is actually pretty close to that of a real person and without being deformed in any weird way. So it’s also easy for guys to accept. When I first saw the illustration, it gave me a gush of inspiration and I could keep churning out songs. But after the game got released and I started playing, my impression shifted to, “It’s this dark?” (laugh) If I had to choose, male-oriented series have a fundamentally happy atmosphere and not many would delve into the characters’ upbringing or pasts. Even if they do, they only do it lightly or they would only touch on some characters with a considerably rough past… just like that. But pretty much all Enstars characters have something that they’re worried about, right? That’s what makes female-oriented and male-oriented series different, and what I think makes Enstars attractive.

I think of them as idols and create.

Q: Can you tell us specifically how you make these songs?

K: All units have already had a few songs released by now, so I would start from thinking about what kind of songs a particular unit would need next, while also taking their previous songs into account. I have the image within my mind that these characters are alive. My way of thinking will also change depending on the unit and the CD’s month of release. Take Ryuseitai’s album as an example (released on 7 March 2018). It was released around the “Repayment Festival”, so it had a White Day theme. If there are songs made based on established event stories, there are also those made simply because we wanted to make this kind of songs—the origin may vary. But if I know a lyricist who fits the image of a particular song, the first thing I’ll do is to place an order with that said lyricist.

Q: How do these lyrics come about?

K: Our main lyricists are Youhei Matsui-san and Saori Kodama-san. Enstars had its 3rd anniversary and at this point, a lot of content has been fleshed out. We want someone who understands the story and won’t cause discrepancies in the lyrics, so in the end it’s difficult to ask someone who isn’t used to the series. If I do ask someone other than those two, it’s often the case that I think their usual writing style fits a particular unit.

Q: An example would be how Arika Takarano-san from ALI PROJECT worked on Valkyrie’s Bewitching Theater.

K: Exactly. I asked Takarano-san beforehand that we may cause her a lot of trouble and may ask her to retake so many times and if she was alright with that, but she still said that she was going to do it. And in actuality, it was accepted without any revision so it was really cool!

Q: I believe there would be a lot of fans out there who would listen to one song and think, “This is the feel that this unit has, huh!” and then would get surprised by the approach of another song. But it was actually just the perfect balance. How do the artists begin their work on the songs and the lyrics?

K: It goes without saying, but Matsui-san and Kodama-san play the game as well. There are times when they come up with a selection of scenes because they want to write about those parts. The lyricists rely heavily on the script, but on the other hand the composers have told me that they make progress when they are given visuals. It’s really easy to understand when you look at an illustration, "so this is going to be a song where this character sings with this kind of expression, huh.” I’ve heard that the event CGs are their most helpful reference.

Q: Rather than a 2-dimensional character, they imagine that it’s a real singing idol as they make the songs.

K: That’s what I do—I think of them as idols who really exist as I make the songs. I don’t even think of them as game characters anymore. I’d say things like, “Hey check this out, this kind of song is nice, don’t you think? What? The pitch is too high for you? Nah, I know you can do it. You can, can’t you?” (laugh)

The 3rd season’s theme is “Love”!

Q: So far, the series has released 3 seasons of CD singles and right now the album series is ongoing, with one album being released after another. Could you tell us their concepts and any fixation you had on each series? To start with, how was the first season?

K: The first season was something that we made with zero-based budgeting, so in that sense, it was probably where I participated like a music producer the most*. In the first season I was being rather pushy about my opinion on how this particular song would definitely suit this or that unit. It was also because Happy Elements was not used to music production, so if I was hesitating, they would too. I thought that it would be better to give out a clear-cut proposal, so I told myself to express my opinion properly while also offering some options.

*[T/L note] I wasn’t sure if this would make sense to the readers since I still translated it quite literally, but basically since the unit song series just started out they didn’t have much luxury to call out to other composers/lyricists like they do now, so they had to use the limited resources (and human resources) to the best they could. Please note that this is my interpretation since the whole original sentence looked pretty vague to me.

Q: I feel that the first season is filled with many songs that exude each unit’s character and public image.

K: Personally that’s my intention. That being said, to be honest we started making the songs when the game was not even out yet. We didn’t know how far we could experiment with these songs. We also didn’t know if there was going to be season 2. So, of course we wanted to make more, but if there was no second season, we decided to make songs that would make these units complete. We wanted these songs to be popular too, so we made a lot of up-tempo songs that have a good beat. But I also wanted to make some ballads, so I included Checkmate Knights for Knights and Love Letter of the Brilliance of Cherry Blossoms for Akatsuki.

Q: Now, onto the second season. Some units have songs with a different taste compared to those from the first season. Did you intend to show another side to them that you couldn’t in the first season?

K: Let’s see. Now that the fans are aware of these unit songs, we started the second season by creating songs meant to be something original and asking artists we would like to place an order with. I had the impression that my job was to materialize the unit image that Happy Elements had in mind. If they had artists whom they would like to work with, I’d go around making offers, become the middleman, and suggest to brush up some parts of a song as we record the music. That was the kind of job I did. But among that, I think I let myself loose quite a bit when making songs for Valkyrie and Switch, who joined from the second season.

Q: How about the third season?

K: After observing the audience reception until the second season and receiving fans’ responses, we made songs “that are needed” and “that it should be like this!” on top of putting the unit members into consideration. The hidden theme of the third season is “Love”. Basically, there’s “Love” on the A-side. It can be love for their fans, or for their friends—it varies. Even though the word “Love” itself is not used in the songs, they still have “Love” as their theme.

Q: This makes me want to listen to them once again to find some “Love”…! Then, what about the album series that are ongoing right now?

K: The theme for these albums are “Presents”. It’s a thanks to the fans of course, but it’s also a thanks to their supportive friends. I want to make something that everyone can enjoy, so basically there are a lot of songs with lyrics that are filled with gratitude. It also has something akin to the third season’s “Love”, but that’s what idols are! I think fans would be happier to receive love that’s almost excessive (laugh).

Q: The albums also include the idols’ solo songs.

K: To many of the voice actors in the first season, it was their first time recording a song, so we talked a lot before we began to record. There were 8 units at that time and I was talking with this kind of feeling, “I want to make something that can get each of the unit up on the Budokan stage for 8 days and on the last day I want to see everyone perform at Tokyo Dome together. So let’s make lots and lots of songs!” The voice actors were really happy about that and they sang for us. So to me it felt like it’s the long-awaited solo songs.

Q: Especially with these solo songs, I can feel that you understand a fan’s mentality and the characters really well!

K: It’s because I love everyone (laugh). I also think of them as real people while creating. I think I do as I please during the recording, like suggesting that we should change the lyrics because I don’t think he will say this kind of thing for example (laugh). I also dare to play around with the song and rip things apart. Although I would also record a few versions and present it to Happy Elements to see which they would prefer, like, “(I think this one here is better but) what do you think?” (laugh) Also, I wouldn’t change the rough outline of the songs I receive, but I often discuss with the composer to tweak the melody line or adjust the key to match with the character.

The teachers’ songs are Mr. Kuwabara’s long awaited production!

Q: Apart from songs by the students of Yumenosaki Academy, you have also released songs by the teachers and the rival unit, Eden. How did the teachers’ CD come about?

K: I had always wanted to make songs for the teachers! Even when I first introduced myself to Happy Elements, I asked them if the teachers would sing as well, and then they replied “I suppose not.” (laughed) I asked them the same thing a few times after that as well, and finally around about the 2nd anniversary of the game’s release they finally said, “We’d like to make songs for the teachers,” and I replied, “I’ve been waiting to hear those words!” (laugh) That’s how it started. I personally like Jin Sagami a lot and in the game I just keep entering the nurse’s office “by mistake” (laugh). My wish of making the teachers’ songs came true just before the third season. In Akira-san’s mind, apparently they’re idols who dance with roller skates.*

*[T/L note] A reference to an older generation idol, Hikaru Genji, who performed with roller skates in the 80s. [YouTube]

Q: It felt like we had moved back a generation or two…

K: Yes, I also stopped myself and thought that the teachers were probably around 30 years old (laugh). I chose the direction that would lean towards that age group as best as I could.

Q: The CD jacket and design labels made a big impact.

K: This is, well, a total grownups’ practical joke (laugh). Someone suggested to make it an 8cm CD, but going that far would be difficult after all.

Q: I also felt that the sound quality felt close to that of the CDs released some years ago.

K: True, we added a bit more echo than usual to get close to the era we were aiming for. But the art and craft of audio recording continues to evolve from day to day, so without dropping the sound quality down too much, we chose to focus on bringing out the intended atmosphere and made it into a 12cm CD to match with the current age. Likewise with the acoustic pressure—if we dropped it down too much, it would also not be a good thing to suddenly hear a drop like that in quality if the listeners chose to add the songs into a playlist.

Q: On the other hand, Eden’s CD also ended up with a different taste than that of Yumenosaki Academy’s units’.

K: Eden’s setting is that they’re a rival unit that stands up before Yumenosaki Academy’s representative, Trickstar, and block their way. So Eden’s song has to surpass Yumenosaki Academy’s unit songs like Trickstar, fine, and Akatsuki. We’ve always been serious about making these unit songs, so the moment I was told that, I didn’t know what to do (laugh). And then, I asked them to lift the ban on rap songs. In the end the song wasn’t a pure rap, but up until now I had been asked to avoid rap as much as I can.

Q: Is that Happy Elements’ request?

K: Yes. When we started making the unit songs, we didn’t make hip hop songs, afraid that it wouldn’t resonate with the female players… But various series have made a hit with the genre and maybe it’s now recognized, so I went to discuss about lifting the ban. I asked them like this, “When they fuse into Eden, please let me give them rap”.

Q: With a hip hop-like element included, it became a unit song that had a different orientation from Yumenosaki Academy idols.

K: Right. I think they managed to exude out a different kind of mature feel. Their CD booklet is amazing too, don’t you think? It used special paper, special printing, unusual cutting… (laugh)

Q: Was the packaging your idea too, Kuwabara-san?

K: No, it was Happy Elements’. They wanted to make it that way. Each piece’s lumber quality was just so extravagant. The third season had clear sheets as well, but Eden’s CD booklet was really a surprise (laugh).

Continued to the last half of the interview: song numbers that leave the biggest impression, 3D live concert, voice actor live concert and Enstage.

[kanasmusings]

Hello ryota! I was wondering since you're daiking's fans, have you listen to his solo song as Ritsu (Enstars)? It's really a good song :)

Hello! Yes, I love Daiking~! OMG, my copy of the Knights Album Series arrived today and I have been fangirling ever since XD