#im talkin forearm-sized they're massive

[saitou-shuka]

hello shukamod this is embarrassing but what is a UO that you and other people that watch the live is talking about?

Nononono it’s totally fine! I’ve found that it’s actually really hard to learn about this stuff unless you’ve actually been to a live concert or viewing. Which… as some of you may know from experience, is excruciatingly difficult if you’re an overseas fan (꒪⌓꒪)

The short answer: UO stands for “Ultra Orange”, and is a chemical glowstick that glows bright orange, often only for a couple of minutes before it burns out. Because of how short-lived they are, people usually save them for their favorite songs at concerts.

The long answer: I’m gonna talk about glowsticks under the cut! Yayyy :DSkip to the Cyalume section for the full explanation on UOs :)

Disclaimer: I’m pretty new to all of this too, so any of you more experienced eventers please don’t hesitate to correct me if I say something inaccurate. Thanks!

Glowsticks are a staple of anisong and idol concerts, where audience participation is super important. The audience section is dark during concerts, and waving around glowsticks helps the performers know that you’re enjoying the show!

There are two types of glowsticks: battery-powered penlights and cyalumes.

Penlights

Pictured: @dyreatic​​‘s impressive penlight collection :^)

These are battery-powered LED glowsticks. Many of them can change color with the click of a button. It’s pretty much a plastic tube mounted onto a handle with buttons. You can almost always unscrew the tube off, and then the handle is basically a multi-colored flashlight. Most of them also come with wrist straps, so that the penlight doesn’t come flying out of your sweaty hands at a concert. The brightness and colors will die as the batteries drain, so I always recommend packing some fresh batteries for concerts.

If you’ve ever watched a live (whether in-person or not), you’ve probably seen plenty of these. I’ll cover some of the more known brands from the perspective of a Love Liver.

King Blade

Overview:Price: $30-35 USD, 4500yen (official Love Live! Blades, firsthand)Batteries: AAA x3Buttons: 2, on the bottom of the handle (Forward/Backward)Strengths: Custom colors

One of the most popular brands of penlight. The newest version (x10iii) comes with an app that allows you to tune the penlight to have whatever color palette you want (e.g. you can make specialized blades with the colors for μ’s, Aqours, or whatever you favorite group is!)

Most of the official Love Live! penlights are King Blades. They’re often colloquially referred to as “kbs” or “blades”. The King Blade is so common (at least in the Love Live! community) that sometimes you’ll hear people use the word “kb” as an umbrella term for all penlights.

Pictured: The official Aqours Blades for 1st and 2nd Live.

King Blades are in stock on Amazon with free shipping!King Blade x10iii Shining - $31 USDKing Blade x10iii Smoke - $31 USD

The Smoke version has a matte cover over the penlight tube, while the Shining version has a glittery cover. In my experience I’ve found that most people prefer the Shining version.

Lumiace

Overview:Price: $25 USDBatteries: AAA x3Buttons: 3, on the side of the handle (Left/Confirm/Right)Strengths: Cheaper than KB, 24 colors

Another good penlight brand, and a somewhat cheaper alternative at $25 USD vs. the King Blade’s $30-35. The default color palette on the latest version, Lumiace 2 Omega (abbreviated L2O) is 24 colors rather than the King Blade’s 15 colors. However, the L2O cannot be programmed to have a custom palette like the King Blade x10iii.

The official Aqours in Los Angeles penlight from Anime Expo 2017 was a Lumiace 2, and comes with the nine official Aqours image colors rather than the Lumiace default palette. As far as I know, this is the only official Love Live! penlight that isn’t a King Blade.

Lumiaces are also in stock on Amazon with free shipping!Lumiace 2 Omega Sparkling - $25 USDLumiace 2 Omega Matte - $25 USD

The two different styles are the same as the King Blade ones — the former has a glittery tube, while the latter has a matte tube.

PENLa

Overview:Price: ￥2500-3000 without shippingBatteries: AAA x4Buttons: A switch on the side of the handle (very easy to flip by accident)Strengths: Very bright but don’t die like chemical lights

A slightly different type of penlight. PENLas don’t actually change color, but they have three different brightness settings. The first brightness setting is about as bright as your King Blade or Lumiace at full battery. The second and third are much, much brighter. The primary advantage of PENLas is that they are just as bright as chemical glowsticks (covered later), but they are reusable.

They are suuuuper bright. My eyes.

A fan compares a PENLa UO to a KB x10ii. Jeez they are bright.

PENLas come in three tube sizes (S, M, L), but I recommend the S because same brightness + smaller tube = brighter penlight :)

Unlike KBs and Lumiaces, they also come with a small bag. I’ve heard complaints that the wrist strap that comes with PENLas isn’t as secure.

You can buy PENLas from Amazon JP with DHL shipping!PENLa Orange (S) - 2970yenPENLa Blue (S) - 2563yenPENLa Green (S) - 2950yenPENLa Yellow (S) - 2970yen

Cyalumes

These are chemical glowsticks. You crack them to cause a chemical reaction that makes the glowstick… glow. And boy do they glow. They’re much brighter than penlights, but they only glow for a couple of minutes before dying. And they’re one-time use only, so they’re useless after that. By the way, cyalumes are also kind of fragile. Don’t drop them unless you want to crack them by accident and have them dead before you actually need them (꒪⌓꒪)

Cyalumes are almost always colloquially referred to as the abbreviated form of “Ultra [color]”, regardless of brand. Ultra Oranges are UOs, Ultra Blues are UBs, Ultra Greens are UGs, etc.

The UO in particular has chemicals that make it much brighter than any other color of cyalume, making it the most popular color by far (regardless of who your best girl might be!). They’re an irreplacable part of idol concerts. Because of how bright and short-lived they are, people will save UOs for special moments such as solos or the choruses of their favorite songs. They’re also smaller and thinner than penlights, so it’s easier to go crazy and hold like 8 of them at once.

Exhibit A: Honoka’s parents with a whopping 16 UOs total.

For even more hype, you can take two UOs and do a rapid cycling motion above your head. This is called “cycloning”. At concerts you will often see people cycloning during the chorus of fast-paced crowd favorites such as Strawberry Trapper or Thrilling・One Way. You can also cyclone using your kbs, but it’s more exciting if you use brighter glowsticks like UOs or PENLas. It’s also way easier to cyclone with UOs — if you try to cyclone with bulkier glowsticks like kbs without practice you’ll probably end up hitting them on each other.

Perhaps the most famous use for the UO is during Honoka’s solo in Snow Halation. At Final Live, everybody popped a UO. No kidding:

The whole dome was orange (இ⌓இ )

Other colors are less common because they’re not as bright. Even so, in recent years, more and more Love Livers are starting to use colors other than Orange. I’ve seen people cracking UBs for both Koi ni Naritai Aquarium and MIRAI TICKET, and I know at least a couple of others who are considering UGs for HAPPY PARTY TRAIN.

How long do cyalumes last? A good rule of thumb is that the brighter they are, the more short-lived they are. The Lumica Daisenkou Kiwami Orange is one of the brightest brand of UOs available, and one stick lasts 2-3 minutes. Nice duration if you want to crack for a solo or chorus and have the UO last through the rest of the song before dying.

You can also buy standard Lumica Daisenkou Orange, which are not as bright as the Kiwamis (side note: kiwami means “extreme” lol), but last for 5 minutes instead. On the other hand, UBs are not much brighter than a KB at full battery, but they last for a good 15 minutes. In my experience, Kiwami UOs are always better than the normal UOs. The extra brightness is 500% worth it (•̀ ∀ •́)ﻭ ✧

You can either buy a box of 25 (left) or single glowsticks packaged separately (right).

The best brand of cyalume for buying in bulk (and trust me, you don’t want to buy just a single chemical glowstick. Especially if you’re importing from Japan.) is the Lumica Daisenkou. You can buy cyalumes in boxes of 25 from Amazon JP with Global Priority (DHL) shipping. Be warned: the shipping is not cheap. They’re also available on Amiami sometimes, but as of right now they’re sold out there. My personal recommendation is to always buy multiple boxes if you can afford it and just save the ones you didn’t get to use. Go to concerts with friends and split cyalume orders with them! ٩( ᐛ )( ᐖ )۶

Overview:Price: ￥2400-2500 for a box of 25, without shippingBatteries: None! :DStrengths: very bright, very hype, less bulky than penlight

Lumica Daisenkou Kiwami Orange (2-3min duration) - 2400 yenLumica Daisenkou Orange (5min duration) - 2400 yenLumica Daisenkou Blue (15min duration) - 2500 yen“Daisenkou” on Amazon JP (for other colors)

If you live in the U.S., you can also order Lumica Daisenkous straight from Lumica USA via email: jason.lumicausa@gmail.com

Why buy cyalumes at all when PENLas exist? They’re short-lived, and don’t seem very cost-effective.

The way I see it, the point of having chemical glowsticks is to show both the performers and the people around you how excited you are for your absolute favorite songs. As a novice concert-goer I’ve found that I really enjoy cracking UOs (and UBs) in the heat of the moment and seeing other people get fired up cracking UOs for the songs they like best. They may not be very cost-effective, but at the end of the day, they truly enhance your concert experience.

shukamod recommends at least one penlight and a handful of Kiwami UOs for the first-time concert-goer! For best results, at least two penlights and a box of 25 UOs! If you’re like shukamod, then be sure to bring a box of 25 UBs as well o7

As always, thanks for reading (` ･-･´)ゞ