In a blink of an eye, it’s already June? Almost.
In the past 3 months, I have taken to the land of streaming (Twitch, Youtube, and the underground where content ID is just a murmur) to stream some seiyuu live events. Knowing that every concert is going to get cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a bunch of people decided to watch IDOLM@STER Million Live concert content along online, so this group watch happened on almost every weekend leading into Memorial Day weekend here in the States.
The march from 1st live to today is a good idea to even the official folks running the franchise, so they are doing it in the month of June. Mind you I assume they knew of nothing of what we’ve been doing. Given how everything event-wise is shut down, musicians are also going online to show their stuff, either past performances or putting together new shows online-only. This much is the new reality in the age of COVID-19. On twitter I have seen other Ps watching old lives on their own.
With the first two shows out of the way this past weekend, it was definitely a nice salve for hardcore fans of the series, and also nice for casuals to join in to see something they might not have seen before, and get context from others following along the stream. Some of the staff and cast also tweet as we go.
This all precipitated when Million Live 7th anniversary live was cancelled about 3 weeks prior, and in its place, which were supposed to take place in the first weekend of May, were two live streams, each hosted by a cast member featuring the rest of the day’s cast in a zoom chat. The other main staff members also show up at the end on teleconference. Some announcement were dropped but none more shocking than the new song, Do the IDOL. This track is the promised fan-selection from those who watched Million Live Theater Days kanshasai in January, in which fans watching in person and online can vote for the theme of this song–techno and chupakabura were selected, so here we are.
In the continuing era of war of idols, mobile games clash with billions of dollars on the table in that ever-changing video game economy. It seems prudent, if not necessary, to continue to push forward the breadth and depth of the type of music, the quality of performances, and have genre challenges to existing works. It’s also important to keep pace and play up your core experience. Between the recent CG election and the Million Live stuff above, that seemed to play out plainly. These games are rather well-polished and take a well-funded team. It takes cohesive and compelling artistic vision that can sell both to management and customers. It’s about incremental QOL like the deresute monthly pack, as well as keeping what makes the franchise unique, as in, uh, the Chupacabra.
Million Live needs to be wild. With all the announcements due to 7th live now on drip over the next 4 weekends, we’ll see what is left in the gas tank after 7 turbulent years. It doesn’t help that we will be driving down (or again, in my case) that nostalgia lane, reminding us how it was in the “good old days.” It’s like taking stock and remembering this side of the franchise, when we’re just grinding Alive Factor on the other side? There’s a big surprise at the end of this road, in terms of the 3rd Theater Days anniversary content, and I’m hoping it’s something nice, and not a brick wall, LOL.
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