My Thoughts On Starry Symphony -the Midnight Sun- Day 1
My thoughts on Starry Symphony -the midnight sun- Day 1
Day 1 Setlist
long post ahead!
Today, June 29th 2024, marked the start of Ensemble Stars' Starry Symphony -the midnight sun- concert. The first day of the concert kicked off with Eden's performance of Deep Eclipse, and each member was doning in dark glittering cloaks as they sing their hearts out the entirety of the first song. The last time Junichi Suwabe (Nagisa Ran), Natsuki Hanae (Hiyori Tomoe), Ryota Osaka (Ibara Saegusa), and Yuuma Uchida (Jun Sazanami) gathered all together as Eden for an Enstars event was way back in 2021 for the Starry Stage 4th concert. At that same concert, Junichi Suwabe had appeared wearing a wig of Nagisa Ran's white hair in a ponytail, which he also did for this year's concert.
The next song was Feathers of Ark performed by the voice actors of fine, consisting of Hikaru Midorikawa (Eichi Tenshouin), Takuya Eguchi (Wataru Hibiki), Ayumu Murase (Tori Himemiya), and Koutarou Hashimoto (Yuzuru Fushimi). The actors were dressed in white cloaks of fine quality, similar to the actual uniforms of the fine characters in-game. Like with Eden, it was also their first time in three years to perform together as fine for an Enstars event.
Immediately after, Kousuke Toriumi (Madara Mikejima) appeared to perform HELLO, NEW YEAR! while accompanied with dancers throughout the song. For Kousuke Toriumi, it was his first time to participate in an Enstars live concert since he voiced the role of Madara in 2017. The excited shouting after the end of Kousuke Toriumi's performance merely passed on to the next performers as soon as the first beat of the next song dropped. Knights' performance of Or The Beautiful Golden Drop shocked everyone in the audience and the viewers through the Stagecrowd livestream as Knights—in a cart—were descending from the ceiling. The voice actors of Knights are rather active in Enstars events: Reiou Tsuchida (Tsukasa Suou) often hosts Tsukisuta—the monthly Enstars livestream where they announce new information related to the series—while Ryo Kitamura (Arashi Narukami) also appears in the stage play adaptations of the series, as well as the new baking show called 'Sweets Room+5,' wherein Daiki Yamashita (Ritsu Sakuma) appeared as the first guest. However, as a group, it has also been three years since they last gathered together. I am certain it shocked the audience once they saw Ryo Kitamura's fully blonde hair, Reiou Tsuchida's reddish colored hair, Masami Ito's (Izumi Sena) platinum gray hair, and Shintaro Asanuma's (Leo Tsukinaga) orange highlights at the ends of his hair, which was tied in a ponytail. Only Daiki Yamashita retained his black hair, but he had styled his hair similar to Ritsu's, like what he always does during an Enstars concert; it just perfectly shows how much love the voice actors of Knights have for the characters they bring to life.
Unlike the previous units whose last Enstars live concert performance was back in 2021, Ra*bits appeared as performers again after their last appearance in Starry Symphony -the first light- on September 30, 2023 to October 1, 2023. Shunya Hiruma (Tomoya Mashiro), Yuki Yonai (Nazuna Nito), and Tomoya Kosaka (Hajime Shino) reappear again months after the October performance, however, Daiki Kobayashi (Mitsuru Tenma) appears for the first time ever at an Enstars live concert—or even at an Enstars event in general—as the new voice actor for Mitsuru. Ra*bits immediately spread warmth towards the audience as they sing and dance to Love it Love it, jumping up and down like rabbits while they perform.
Speaking as an Enstars fan since 2021 and as seiyuu fan since 2018, this entire live has been a magical rollercoaster ride of emotions for me. It has been a while since I saw voice actors like Takuya Eguchi (Wataru Hibiki) or Natsuki Hanae (Hiyori Tomoe) in an Enstars event, and it was also a delightful experience to see Daiki Kobayashi (Mitsuru Tenma) enter the picture; I've only ever knew him through that one YouTube clip of him singing Ojamajo Carnival months before it was decided that he will take on the role of Mitsuru, but ever since he started voicing him and now that I've watched him match Mitsuru's energy on stage, I feel glad knowing that he has become part of Ensemble Stars at present and hopefully in the future as well.
The live then continued as follows: Blooming World by MaM, Joyful×Box* and Parallel Maze by Ra*bits, THE GENESIS and Absolute Perfection by Eden, then Voice of Sword and Luminous Crown by Knights.
(PSA: As a KnightsP, this is going to start to become heavily Knights-centric.)
If there was a performance that completely blew me away throughout this entire live, then it has GOT to be Knights' Luminous Crown performance. I already had a feeling in my gut that they would perform it right after Voice of Sword, but nothing could have ever prepared me for the performance by the end of the Luminous Crown's bridge. During the end of the bridge, a crown placed on a cushion descended from the ceiling. Shintaro Asanuma (Leo Tsukinaga) took the crown, then immediately, Reiou Tsuchida (Tsukasa Suou) knelt on one knee, head bowed down, as Asanuma placed the crown on top of Tsuchida's head—referencing the change of Knights' leader from Leo to Tsukasa in the Enstars lore. Now if this won't kill a KnightsP, then I don't know what else will.
After that rather heartwrenching performance, fine once again emerged from the backstage to perform a song medley of their own songs: Koi wa Primavera!, Tryst of Stars, Ghostic Treat House, and Holy Angel's Carol. I do not consider myself a fineP, but in my humble opinion, they do create one of the best songs in Enstars; or maybe it is because the genre of their songs are just my style, who knows. Their performance just struck a chord in me, especially with Tryst of Stars being one of my favorite fine songs.
After fine's song medley performance, all artists gathered on stage to perform LIMIT BREAK DREAMERS. Promptly after the performance came in the ment hosted by Reiou Tsuchida (Tsukasa Suou), where each member was given the opportunity to introduce themselves and their unit.
If you are new to Enstars or just to Enstars live concerts, a special guest or two will always appear at any Enstars live concert. For the first Starry Symphony concert, Kei Hosogai (Kaoru Hakaze) surprised the fans with his special appearance for a Date Plan A to Z performance while Tetsuya Kakihara (Subaru Akehoshi) and Showtaro Morikubo (Makoto Yuuki) genuinely bewildered literally everyone with their appearances during the second Starry Symphony concert as the two of them performed ONLY YOUR STARS!. However, for this Starry Symphony concert, Wataru Hatano (Adonis Otogari) appears through a video recording wearing Ensemble Training clothes, I am sure you can tell where this is heading. Wataru Hatano led the audience in an exercise/stretching routine while all the other voice actors just stared at the audience, who continued stretching.
After the abrupt stretching, the live continued on starting with Eden's EXCEED performance, followed by Melty Kitchen by Ra*bits (both of which I was unable to watch without interruptions because of third world country poor internet connection). Knights came out again to perform Coruscate Breeze, where they ended up throwing paper airplanes by the start of the final chorus, just like in the music video. Kousuke Toriumi (Madara Mikejima) goes around the stage, waving to everyone in the audience and to the dancers as he performs Yuukai Tsuukai, That's alright!. Afterwards, fine ends the last song lineup with a performance of Never-ending Stage!!!! (which is undoubtedly one of their best songs). Following this, all artists emerged again from behind the scenes to perform Surprising Thanks!!, which signaled the near-end of the concert's first day.
I watched the entire live concert through the Stagecrowd livestream, so immediately after the Surprising Thanks!! performance, everything went black—save for the colorful penlights from the audience. The audience chanted for an encore for at least five minutes, and then, here appears Shintaro Asanuma (Leo Tsukinaga), Masami Ito (Izumi Sena), Daiki Yamashita (Ritsu Sakuma), and Ryo Kitamura (Arashi Narukami)—who was wearing glasses—all doning in clothing similar to the outfits worn by War era Knights in the We'll be "Knights" music video. As mentioned, the four of them stood on stage to perform We'll be "Knights", even holding swords and swinging them around. What surprised me the most was when Reiou Tsuchida (Tsukasa Suou) came out from the center of the main stage then started walking towards the extended stage to join the rest of Knights; Tsuchida was also holding a sword and sang along with them for the final chorus. I think this was the final blow for all KnightsPs that were watching.
Knights returned backstage while the rest of the cast reappeared wearing white shirts and black pants for the final ment of the show. During this time, Ayumu Murase (Tori Himemiya) referenced his tweet posted earlier this morning that had a caption related to Pretty 5; he explicitly stated: "You thought you'd see Pretty 5? IT WAS ENSEMBLE TRAINING!" in reference to fans speculating that Pretty 5 would be the guest performers for today's concert. Knights came back again wearing the same outfits as everyone else, saying: "Sorry, we were swinging our swords around~ That was scary," as they stepped back on the stage. By the time it was Eden's turn to talk, Natsuki Hanae (Hiyori Tomoe) yelled his signature "II HIYORI!" and even did the echo by himself.
The second thing that could have never prepared me was when Hikaru Midorikawa (Eichi Tenshouin) started tearing up and crying during his turn to talk. Through his tears, he explained that he felt a lot of pressure as he was the oldest in the cast, and that he had also spent a lot of time working on Ensemble Stars, so he truly and genuinely did everything he can, which made him feel so satisfied. Throughout his talk, the rest of fine surrounded Hikaru Midorikawa and were patting his back in comfort and support. I felt just as emotional as Hikaru Midorikawa while he talked about the hard work he poured for Enstars, and it made me understand how much love he has for this franchise; he loves Enstars as much as we, fans, do, and it's such a heartwarming sight knowing that fact. Enstars has grown so much more than just a game to most fans, and especially towards the people involved in the making of the game; it has aged to become a story weaved by memories of the past, adventures of the present, and a catalog for the future.
With so many people loving this franchise internally and externally, I am sure that Enstars will still live for at least another five years. But for now, I think it would be nice to relish in the present Ensemble Stars as we await the future.
See you tomorrow for Day 2!
More Posts from Icylancet and Others
Editing Your Novel Part 2: The Plot Pass
Okay, it's finally time to edit. You've got all your materials sorted, it's time to dive right in. You want to start with the big edits first, aka the plot pass.
Now listen. You're going to want to linger and fix those little bits of grammar or dialogue, and I know it's so hard not to, but letting yourself get off-track might mean wasting hours on a scene you realize later you have to delete. Fix a few spelling errors, leave a note, and stay plot-focused.
Making Sense (Of the Plot)
In the plot pass, you're asking yourself some basic questions:
Do events follow a clear order? - When you're getting everything down on the page for the first time, scenes might get jumbled up or events might not have clear causes. Maybe you have a car crashing into the cafe pages before, but in a writing haze, you wrote your main characters having a casual conversation moments later. If the bad guy beats your heroes to treasure, is it clear how they got there? (Not everyone can be Yzma.)
Do circumstances feel contrived? If there are any problems that can be solved by your characters sitting down and talking to each other, it may be better to lean into their motivation for not speaking to each other, rather than coming up with bad romcom scenarios. If the plot can be resolved by the mcguffin the grandma had the whole time, it might be better to make finding that mcguffin part of the plot instead.
It doesn't have to be perfect, and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If someone gets bitten by a werewolf, it's perfectly fine to have them turn into one at the worst possible moment. When it comes to contrived, you're looking for problems that seem easy to solve and look for more interesting ways to complicate them.
Are your character motivations consistent to the characters throughout the story? - They can change throughout the story, but character motivations do need to be linked to the actions they take. An out-of-nowhere betrayal is way more satisfying if you lay the groundwork for it ahead of time.
Take a moment to list out the motivations of the characters in a scene you're not quite sure of can help you figure how to fix it. Having an outline helps with this a lot!
Are you following an "if... then" format? - My brain doesn't work like this when I'm writing, because as a writer you know how A got to Z, and it seems (in your head) obvious how it happened. This is where my scene card outline come in handy, because I can look at my overview of what should happen and why, and then compare it to what actually happens in the scene. I've discovered so many threads I forgot to connect that way, like why a character had a certain device (I forgot to have him pick it up two scenes earlier), or adding a few simmering dialogue bits that make the big fight pay off much better.
Can you fix the "Because the Plot Demands It" scenes? - Look, sometimes your character needs to be in that haunted house to see that damn ghost, but your character isn't the type to set foot in such a place. It's really easy, especially in the first draft, to contrive a way in there (she took a wrong turn on her way to grandma's!), but retooling these scenes to connect them to the characters motivations and needs is the way to go. The main character doesn't want to go into that obviously cursed place, but her best friend hasn't shown up for school in three days and now she's crying for help from the second floor window. Your character's strong desire to be there for her friend is a much better way to get her into that house.
This is not always easy - it took me six fricken drafts to realize a critical part of a character's motivation was because his father blamed him for his mother's death - but it is going to be worth putting in the work to hammer down.
Do you have a solid timeline? - This might not seem as important, but it's super easy to accidentally fit two weeks worth of activities in three days. Make sure you have that on reference, even if you don't mention it in the book. Also make sure to gauge your distances if your characters are on a trip, because if you do accidentally say it takes two hours to drive from Seattle to Spokane instead of five, someone will dive down your throat for it. Not me. Just someone.
Okay, maybe me. Slow down, you maniacs.
Next post we'll dive into the structure pass. See you then!
Tokyo daylight
🐚⚓️🫧List of Random Things For Your Dark Coastal Settings | For Writers🐚⚓️🫧
Since you all loved the list of random things for Dark Academia, here’s a list of items, things, sights etc.. you might find in a Dark Coastal setting.
The Cliffside 🌊
Jagged slate-gray rocks jutting out from the churning sea
Swaths of wild, windblown grasses and mosses clinging to the cliffs
Crumbling stone ruins half-hidden in the fog
The eerie cries of seabirds circling overhead
Gnarled, salt-weathered driftwood scattered across the shoreline
The Cove 🐚
A small pebbly beach tucked into a sheltered inlet
Seaweed-covered tide pools teeming with mysterious marine life
Centuries-old fishing nets and lobster traps hung to dry
Weathered wooden rowboats moored at a rickety dock
The salty, briny scent of the sea lingering in the air
The Lighthouse 🗼
A tall, round stone tower with a flickering lantern on top
Faded nautical charts and weather-beaten log books inside
An antique brass telescope trained on the horizon
The heavy thump of the lighthouse bell in the distance
Coils of fraying rope and a tarnished brass spyglass on the windowsill
The Shipwreck 🛥️
The rusted, half-submerged hull of an ancient sailing vessel
Tangled knots of kelp and barnacles clinging to the metal
Fragments of shattered wood and twisted metal debris
The eerie, echoing creaks and groans of the wreckage in the waves
Fragments of weathered, sun-bleached bones glinting in the murky depths
The Coastal Cottage 🏠
A small, weathered wooden house with peeling paint
Tattered sheer curtains fluttering in the salty sea breeze
Shelves lined with antique glass bottles and driftwood sculptures
A wood-burning stove with a teapot whistling softly
The distant sound of foghorns cutting through the mist
The Shipwreck Cove 🚢
Jutting black cliffs, their bases strewn with the bones of broken ships
Seaweed-covered ribs of an old shipwreck, barnacles clinging to the wood
Rusted metal and shattered glass glittering in the crashing waves
Cawing of crows circling overhead, their shadows flickering on the rocks
The hollow, echoing sound of the wind whistling through the caves
The Seaside Cemetery 🪦
Rows of crumbling tombstones covered in moss and lichen
Twisted, windblown trees casting long, ominous shadows
The faint scent of night-blooming jasmine on the breeze
A rusted wrought-iron gate creaking open to the path
Fog rolling in, obscuring the distant sound of the surf
i get tears in my eyes whenever i think of how karasuno was the foundation of kageyama’s growth. tobio found a team that accepted him & gave him the space to grow as a setter. not being accepted into shiratorizawa was the best thing that could happen to him. because of that rejection, he found his way to shoyo, who would become his lifelong partner and rival. because of his teammates, he finally understood what it meant to be a team. he felt valued and was able to build a connection with people that went beyond volleyball. it’s because he played at karasuno that he’s now able to create connections that help him become a better person AND player. karasuno needed tobio & tobio needed them.
"Even with his eyes covered in white bandages, Shen Yuan can still feel the way his ‘gaze’ rakes through the crowd of disciples[...]" - Locked and Loaded, Chapter 17: Sympathy for the Devil
Tony and his PPs (forgot to post this one too)
hyperfixation please stay with me long enough to complete the project. hyperfixation do not fade. hyperfixation finish what you started for the love of god
The Avengers 2012 era was the best time ever in the fandom
Thor loves pop tarts, Clint lived in the vents, Bruce and Tony did science together, Steve was the mom friend of the team and did art in his free time, Natasha was cool aunt of the team, Loki was there too and a bunch of other characters like Peter, Sam, Bucky, Vision and Wanda all lived in the Avengers tower together
It was a much simpler time where everyone in the fandom was chill and having fun together
2ha spoilers but i personally believe that 2ha was written so carefully.. like the attention to every detail is amazing. love you meatbun. like in ch 179 where mo ran taught chu wanning—who was afraid of heights—to ride a sword, then by ch 279, chu wanning FLIES across the skies on his paper dragon to save mo ran 🥲 his fear of heights faded, but his new fear became losing mo ran
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