ANN’s coverage of Anime Expo 2024, sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!
Hatsune Miku’s colorful stage! return anime expo Bigger, better, more iconic. last year, colorful stage 25:00 Panel discussion in Petree Hall, moderated by Nightcord voice actors Kanade Yoisaki and Mizuki Akiyama (Kusumochi and Hinata Sato). I participated in this group the year before when I was at AX and I thought it was great. There are some fun talking points with the voice actors, some line readings, and a few giveaways at the end. This year they hosted another panel discussion, but now it was held in the main event hall (much larger than Petree Hall) and had lowering the flag love and Mayu Yoshioka (voiced by Momoi Airi and Kiritani Haruka from “MORE MORE JUMP!”) as guests.
Let me say that I am not only a colorful stage fan, but my favorite game set is MORE MORE JUMP! So, I’m really looking forward to this panel!
First, Eugene (the product manager for the Japanese version of the game) greeted the crowd and introduced the voice actors. lowering the flag love and Mayu Yoshioka‘s appearance was met with cheers, applause and waving laptops (yes, I did bring mine). They introduced themselves and recited iconic lines from the characters in the game.
So the panel discussion began.
It starts with chatting with the voice actors about their time in Los Angeles, reading some messages, and answering fan questions. Some fun highlights include Mayu mentioning that her father was the captain of their flight and him wishing her good luck, and both talking about their relationships with their characters as both have experiences as idols (Ai is idolized part) Love life! Group, Aqours; Mayu was part of the disbanded group Wake up, girls!)
The next part is colorful stage The team showcases voice actor and audience custom profiles that people have submitted for the team. exist colorful stage, there is a feature in the game that allows you to create custom profiles using artistic text, shapes, and art from cards obtained from the Gacha. It’s like a custom badge system from call of Duty Black Ops series. and very similar black ops Badges, it’s always impressive to see what players can do with the tools they’re given. My favorites are the two profiles near the end, where each character is re-created using the tools in the custom profile.
Afterward, they joined the voice actors for an exclusive reading of lines about two of their characters’ visit to Los Angeles. Accompanied by artwork of Airi and Haruka standing in front of the Hollywood sign created specifically for this panel. When the characters asked the audience where they should go to eat, In-N-Out was the most prominent answer, the same choice last year when Nightcord members asked where they should go to eat.
The following section is (in my opinion) the best section of the group. Before the group started, people were given glow sticks during the call and response portion. Inspired by their idol’s song performances, they had voice actors perform two “MORE MORE JUMP!” songs and had the audience cheer along (with slides to help them). As someone who is (very) familiar with these types of shows, I’m glad to know that’s why everyone gets glow sticks. I always wanted to cheer and wave my penlight for more jumps! I’m so happy that not only did I get to do this, but I also witnessed a rare “live” performance colorful stage Voice actor. They sang the classic songs “New Edge Idol” and “MORE!” Once the music started playing, the energy of the crowd went from 10 to 11 o’clock. video on demand While it was still playing, it didn’t quite depict the experience of being in a room full of fans shouting “Motto!” “Ha! Ha! Ha!” “More! More! Jump!”. It was indeed an unforgettable experience.
Also, I just want to give a shout out to Eugene and his hops during the show.
The next part is interesting. The voice actors take turns drawing MORE! more! Jump! related prompt (which they had to complete within seven seconds), while the other guessed what it was. If they all guess correctly, they win a box of donuts. At the beginning, before Xiao Ai drew the picture, Mayu accidentally looked at the screen and made a small mistake, but this was made up for by Xiao Ai’s impressive drawing of a penguin in seven seconds. There are a lot of funny moments in this one, and some lovely drawings. One of the highlights is Mayu’s painting of “Meeting and Meeting,” which looks like a confession. By the way, they did get donuts.
The last part is a signature lottery. Just like last year, everyone receives a lottery ticket and the voice actors will draw the numbers to see who can win. colorful stage– Theme style signed by guests. Now, I don’t think it’s going to look like the winners walked on stage after their numbers were called and received their autographs directly from the voice actors. Usually the winner receives their prize after the judging is over, but luckily everyone was very respectful when it came to receiving their prize from the voice actor. There have been a few times where people have gotten excited and said nice things about the voice actors when they get signed autographs. This turned out to be a great giveaway segment.
Afterwards, the panel began to wind down and the voice actors began thanking everyone for coming and being fans of the series. They walked to the front to take photos with the crowd, and just as everyone was getting ready to say goodbye, Eugene surprised everyone by asking, “Why don’t we end the panel with another performance?”. The voice actors got microphones and started playing more! Jump! more! Again, we all started cheering again.
Just like that, it was over.
I really like this group, more than last year. Am I biased because I think anything idol-related is good? Clearly. But I like how involved they are with fans this time around: tagging their account names in messages, displaying their profiles, and allowing fans to meet the voice actors when they catch their gimmicks. That’s always been the best part anime expo (At least for me): See everyone here has a chance to interact with each other. I mentioned that watching the show and wielding my penlight was an unforgettable experience, but honestly one thing I won’t forget in this group was seeing people without glow sticks and putting my other Penlights were handed to them so that we could all cheer our idols together.
