In the second numbering concert for the sub-brand, Gakuen IDOLM@STER hauled out its budding-star lineup once more and put on a great performance. It’s getting absurdly good by josei seiyuu standards that I think the show itself has aspects that can stand alone. Forget that it has a video game (and it’s even fun, I mean, who doesn’t like Slay the Spire). Just watch Yukari Amane’s MY STAGE performance and let me know how you think? Actually, watch the music video and the vtuber version of each first if you have the time. Seriously, I want to know what people think.

In a grab bag situation with over a dozen heroines, do you even need the rest of the media mix? I guess so, because it’s how everything is put together. But first, links.

Setlist day 1. Setlist day 2. Playlists for each day. Official announcement posts day 1 and day 2. AP Kasshi teamed up with Aarin on day 1’s after stream. Day 2’s after stream link. Asobi Stage link for the actual streams. IM@S-DB (also ez links to xR HIF selection show last month). My quick takes here.

I think the easiest take is the same what I put on twitter, that 2nd is basically formatted the same as 1st. The one new element is Tsubame CV: Yukka, and she did some stuff for the first time during 2nd. If they want to retain this surprise element, I guess we’ll see Rinha next in 3rd? That means she gets implemented half way through year 3 I suppose.

Rinha’s implementation was one of the factors driving anticipation for 2nd, so maybe there needs to be something that follows if they really are adding Rinha. I think there isn’t any reasons to think to the contrary as that they won’t implement Rinha.

As to the show itself, it has been a long journey if you ask me. Part of this is just like how the Garakuta Road PV, the design elements in the 2nd anni outfits, that the 2nd merch was mostly based on Garakuta Road outfits… I don’t know, but those designed feels very well polisehd, for years. In the end, the cast wore step 3 outfits and performed step 3 songs. I suppose that much made sense given where we are at the game, and so far Gakumas has been the One Series that performs music from the game in the right timing. As an aside, where are our birthday songs? I guess that’s more to look forward to in the 3rd year and beyond.

The start of the show is obviously, the ticketing? Gakuen IDOLM@STER consistently outperformed its reasonable expectations and have smashingly sold-out shows. It’s a huge ordeal to get tickets to them, to the degree that many JP attendees come to the venue to socialize and go home to watch the stream. In order to win tickets, many of the oversea producers tried ticket pooling. Since there wasn’t a strict ID check, people generally were able to win tickets and transfer them, despite being against the terms of service. I think the popularity of Gakumas also affected oversea attendance and some of the ticketing situation did get a bit dicey to say the least.

Leading up to the show was the xR concert, which gave us the first look at the second single for Tsubame. The song selection was pretty basic but it covered the grounds we saw in 1st. I was able to watch it at Acen, which was fun with a group.

For the actual concert, we went into it planning an offkai on Saturday, and having a large group was pretty fun both pre-show and during the offkai. We did a smaller meetup on Sunday for lunch, eating Thai to manifest Rinha (because her seiyuu is born in Bangkok?) which was just a fun thing.

The weather more or less cooperated until Sunday afternoon. Maybe it’s just the collective tears of kimoi otaku to celebrate the announcement of Honoka Kuroki’s marriage, but it started raining right when the show doors opened for Sunday. It was fun seeing people make light and cheer for the big news before the show. There was a tweet or something about someone saying something about it while wearing a Village Vanguard Aoi Nagatsuki collab t-shirt, which made us want to get those shirts. I won’t bore you with the seiyuu otaku neta but fun was to be had.

The show itself is at Yokohama Arena, which is about a 7-10 minute walk from Shin Yokohama station. Given its oval shape and the stage being at one of the pointy end, you could end up in a seat very far back, or all the way to the side. I had pretty okay seats so there’s not much to complaint about, but I still had to watch the stream for both days to really get everything out of the shows.

In a way Gaku 2nd is a “letdown” in the sense that those of you who’ve been or seen Ongakusai a few months prior, it’s not going to be as lit. The main new thing was Tsubame’s new songs and the new outfits everyone wore based on Step 3. That points the rest of us looking for more excitement towards surprises, like manifesting Rinha’s implementation.

Sure, the longer POV is that we are pent up of new stuff that had to get released over time, so Gaku 1st had more surprises than Gaku 2nd. With big media mix projects like this, it’s always easy to fall into the trap of treating the live performances as afterthoughts in the overall plan. It does feel that way for a lot of IM@S sometimes, even if it is one of the franchise that does that the least. Anyways, I thought we had a thoughtful setlist and it was coordinated in a thoughtful way to squeeze out the feels to the max. I was next to a ChinaP for day 2 and he really had it going for him in the last block, while I’m just enjoying the coast to the end. I’m just glad to know that the planners know which songs people want to hear, and care enough for the setlist to put it in the right order.

If you are a big time Gakuen IDOLM@STER fan, you really should try to come to one of the shows in Japan. That said, it doesn’t have to be a numbered show, it could be any show with all the cast members, or even just your favorites. It’s all streamed, so there’s always that option too. I’m still stoked that one of my fav sub-branch is finally doing it right, and I hope we can enjoy it overseas or via flying to Japan!

Lastly and very briefly, my favorites:

• Naiwa is always a banger and I love this song at shows and at home. This is definitely one of the best versions outside HIF Selection.
• Kimi to Semi Blue is a reliable fun song, along with Campus Mode. On that note, also Mirakuru na Nau. Do the calls, to the left and to the right.
• I realize I care about the weirder step 3 songs more than, say, Ittai Itsukara. SUNFADED, Ume’s Step 3, and Wildflower are so good. Atmosphere is so good live. I don’t know. If China summoned her drones maybe I’d like the Evan Call masterpiece more. On that note it’s a rare treat…
• Garakuta Road is a lot of fun also. I want to see this a few more times.

This year for me it’s pretty crazy. Somehow I was indirectly being made aware of some of this stuff, partly because I also have been doing some fan projects for IM@S contents for Acen on the side. I think having some additional information did help make me make better plans in 2026, as once the IM@S stuff is locked in, it’s all I had time for at the con and before the con. I mean I wanted to go see FJ/Kajiura and I ended up not doing it because of various reasons outside my control, which kinda means the only thing I saw was the maestro herself on stage at Opening Ceremony. In addition I was able to see U3 and get an autograph from her too, thanks Sekai Project. There was a moment I got to see the INTERSECT guests, but that’s basically it.

So, where to start? I’ll just say that IDOLM@STER at ACEN is brought to you by nothing less than a small miracle. I’m sure Sujay and company have lost like 6 months of their life expectancy working on bringing IM@S to Acen this year so if you see Sujay and his crew, make sure to buy them a drink to further reduce said life expectancy. It was frenetic leading up to the big show on Friday and maybe Sujay can write a book about it when he retires or something.

What that meant for all the American producer, however, is probably a lot more than the total value of hard work of a small team over there at Acen, and even Bandai Namco. Overwhelmingly the reaction from all the Ps who went have been positive, including all the Japanese (and Chinese) producers who flew for this. As someone who goes to Japan for IM@S events I can only smile at how JP Ps are learning the fun experience that a good con can be. Even the local whiners, while loud and disproportionately reflected reality, still had a good time. Just about everyone I talked to had a great time, selection bias aside.

At the party was the only time I was able to go around and talk to a lot of people. Saturday during the day I was busy un-dying from watching HIF Selection Exam stream, then to deal with the panel, then to deal with the autographs, and then straight to the offkai. Friday I had some time to chat when I canvassed the line (thanks Cyberwave) to get P-cards. I gave up doing shikishi message boards because 6 sets is too many to deal with, I would need like 3 additional helpers. Also big thanks to pal Vanilla Thunder for hooking me up with his spare necktie since I left mine at home, among a number of other things. I also left some other things at home that cost me some money, but oh well.

Well, yes, I threw a party Saturday. Not a lot is to be said about that, but I feel it’s an important part of a culture of having a Good Time in the tradition of cons. Here’s a Google Photo pool that you can look through. First of all, it wouldn’t happen without the incredible turnout from Ps and folks willing to help. So a big thank you both to those who helped and those who came. If you ever want to throw a party, it’s really important to get the vibe right, and this, to me, is not only the key to success but I need the event that I throw the party with to be on the same page. Thankfully Acen is it, much like when Cinderella Girls came to AX that one time. What is different this time is there are actually Ps? Who are these Americans, that went to see IM@S in Japan, and brought that back, and all that stuff. Maybe some of them learned from Vtubers? Why, at the anikura on Friday, people only got hype from IM@S songs? I really don’t know.

What is truly unique about Acen IM@S, that I do know. That is the Miki solo showcase.

The Miki thing is not something you’d expect if you knew anyone involved, or Acen in general, although I suppose other Vtubers have landed at Acen before. But in IMAS 3.0 the whole XR/MR/VR stuff is beginning to pop off. All I can say is, I went to Chihaya Budokan, and it’s the most special thing I’ve seen in a long time, and definitely the best MR concert I’ve seen. Maybe it’s a bit of a promo for the July MR concert IWSF, but hats off to the folks who made the Miki show possible. It felt like a proper concert with Miki and I think everyone felt that. It’s a special sauce that added something extra to IM@S Acen, with its own substance, and a kick in the face for attendees (in a good way). I’m just laughing at how Japan reacted to the live stream, the American Ass thing.

Anyways, what else to say other than it’s great to have some drinks, cake, light meal, and a lot of happy Ps in one room, with some nice DJing going on? This is it. I brought some speakers for the offkai but I also used them to watch HIF Selection Exam day2. On Saturday night (like 3am), about 20 of us hijacked an unused room to put my $30 projector into use, so it’s dark enough to work. We got Tsubame’s new song. It was as lit as it can be at 4am.

Just a couple hours earlier, I went to see Kenmochi Hidefumi at the rave, which was great because I like his Denonbu hits! It was a fun time. Anyways, it was too much in a night for this old man, let alone the whole weekend. I had barely any time to eat Saturday, so basically I was living on fumes for half the weekend and in a physically active state. It wasn’t too bad, but it made the Italian beef after the con hit pretty good. I think the only thing missing was my roommate drank my last Monster which made Saturday just that much more painful.

In 2026 I have been doing the same “come to Acen way before” thing as I had done in prior years. I probably will again next year to witness how this Chicago dog is made from within and from the outside. Also there’s just so much good eats in Chicago that I want to have the time to do so, outside con hours. If it’s like any other year I will be very busy on the actual con days anyway.

PS.

Food-wise: Peaquods finally made it back this year, and I got Lou Manati’s twice. Funny story, I was suppose to eat pizza with some folks on Thursday night but they end up being very late (because they gave feed back to Bandai Namco staff at the mixer?) and I kept ordering more pizzas since the slices for them kept on getting eaten by other people who dropped by, lol. The main culinary focus on this trip was a dinner (regular) at Alinea, a three-star Michelin place. Was it worth it? It wasn’t that expensive, and it’s a fun experience. I probably won’t mind doing it again but it’s not exactly what I particularly care about in dining.

I still got to go to Gibsons at Acen. It’s becoming a tradition.

Drinking with friends, a wonderful time was had.

PPS. Murakami Munetaka is some special baseballer. I hope the Chicago White Sox treasure this man. Also, at the game, I almost caught a foul ball but I was too busy looking at my phone to react fast enough. If you go on a weekday night game when it’s chilly there’s not going to be many at Rate Field, so your odds of catching one are so much higher lol.

PPS. Some links as promised. Not exhaustive by any means.

• A MihoP from Japan
• Akiko Hasegawa
• A MikiP from Japan.
• Yumi Hara, part2
• A MikiP from Japan.
• A MikiP from Japan.
• A MikiP from Japan.
• Sujay gloat
• Banners
• Still can’t get over this
• Kind of how I feel.

Anime Central 2026 is soon upon us, and this year the IDOLM@STER is officially presenting a concert (two parts, one with cast member and the other with mixed-reality style), panels and autographs at the con. Big thanks to the GR and other teams of Acen that made it happen and also Bandai Namco Entertainment for rolling the dice with Acen. It’s definitely their best opportunity for something like this in the USA, so I’m glad they are shooting their shot.

Along with the official programs listed on Acen’s Guidebook, there was a drawing for VIP tickets to the concert. If you won that, congratulations, enjoy my envy, and remember to pay for it.

I am running an “afterparty” for Producers. Currently it’s sold out but I’m trying to move to a larger space(it’s sold out for good now). Tickets and details can be seen here. It’s turning out to be a big party. We will have a few DJs play music. There’ll be a birthday cake. We’ll have some stuff to give away. Maybe more stuff to-be-determined, but it’s in the middle of me trying to fast track a new venue contract to a new space so it’s kind of painful right now. I hope it’s worth it!

There is a separate meetup for Produnus on Sunday. It might already be full.

There is a general meet up, which is your usual cosplay meeting at cons but for im@s it has been a general one where you can meet, trade producer cards, and do all that stuff. Cosplay is optional. It’s on Friday at 2pm, flag 6 (check Acen Guidebook for maps). You can see a list of “idol vibe” events here.

For EN first time traveling to Acen there’s a guide some folks put together. I’d endorse like a good 75% of it, the rest I would rephrase differently. That’s still a passing grade so it’s worth a look if you are new. If you read my blog and wants to go, it’s definitely cutting it close, but it’s still very doable if you can manage an affordable flight to Chicago. Food, hotel, and the con itself are not really expensive. Chicago is one of the cheaper cost-of-living cities in the USA, and unlike many cities in this country it’s a real city (lol). It also helps that Acen is right near Chicago O’Hare, which is one of the largest airline hubs in North America with a lot of flight options. It is literally a free hotel shuttle ride away from the airport, or you can take the Blue L.

In terms of the logistics of the IM@S concert on Friday, it’s officially from 6 to 8pm. If you want to get a good seat, you will need to line up early, which will depend on Acen staff and lineup policy. In general they’re not going to allow people to line up more than 2 hours earlier, but it is case-by-case. Looking at the schedule there’s nothing earlier in the day besides the ballroom panels next door, so it could be a sweaty camp.

In addition, it is rumored that there will be merch for sale. More details hopefully will be announced soon. This could change the plans for camping for a space. Anyways, please follow the instruction from staff and try to not cause any issues with traffic flow and the like, when you camp anywhere.

Also, don’t forget about the flower stands in the Exhibition Hall, as well as some banners behind Retro Saikou booth. I’ll have a binder for your Producer Cards and will try to canvas the lines for it. Messages on shikishi is also happening as per prior years

A bunch of imas-fan-DJs will be playing an IM@S set starting around 8:30pm outdoors somewhere Friday night. Details are here. I’ll try to show up after dinner.

Lastly, I will be ghetto-trying to group watch the Gakuen IDOLM@STER HIF Selection event somewhere. I have no idea how, but it does start at 3am for both days, so it ain’t for everyone. I’m just hoping the now DRM-laden Asobistage stream works when I do a HDMI out from a laptop.

Aside from the IDOLM@STER, there are still many other events going on at Acen. There’s like 3 screenings I will have to miss that I would go otherwise. The new Hathaway, for example. Or the world premiere of Goodbye Lara. Yuki Kajiura is returning to Acen also for a concert with FictionJunction, plus panels and autograph ops. There are the guests from Sekai Project also, like U3 and the other illustrators.

Should be a great time. See y’all there?

I am not exactly a big Gakuen Idolm@ster player, in fact I am quite casual about it other than spending money on gacha. I’m not even P Level 70 yet. I’m probably more invested in the characters, the stories, the live concerts, and definitely the music, over the game itself.

I’m just writing that I can’t decide which game to play. On one hand, the grind in Slay 2 is a lot easier to mix it up, each run can be quite different than the next, especially at my point in the progression. In Gakumas, I’m generally taking the easiest P idol card to one of the two or three modes and just trying to hit the current event objective, maybe it’s Hajime Legend or NIA (either). I’m actually not all clear on the Step 3s, so I’ll be taking some time to grind that out. It’s kind of annoying some step 3s only gave you a week to clear before the boost period expires, and, uh, my oversea trips are sometimes longer than that!

I have a lot of backlog stuff to do in Gakumas, like all the idol road unlocks (I guess I have some XP to banked up there). I don’t even sweat the contests (auto team all the way, rank 6 and occasionally 7). The nature of service game is that it’s part of your life, a chunk of your routine. Slay 2 ain’t it. Maybe it is why the whole experience feels fresh, kind of like opening a new present on Christmas.

It is definitely a luxurious problem to have, but how do I allocate time to which game that basically scratch a similar itch? In Gakumas, the turns are basically a timer in which you have to hit a goal. In Slay the Spire, you also have to hit a goal (kill the enemy) but the timer is really your defense and health. For some decks it’s a DPS check, for others it’s the equivalent of Magic: the Gathering’s mono blue wincons. Is that something people understand these days? In Slay you are looking at a map and trying to smartly choose the path, choose your rewards, choose your upgrades and artifacts, for the max impact. In Gakumas you are picking usually 1-3 options to max your total stats versus your primary stat, while picking up potion combos and deck upgrades, and oh, there’s health here too.

Maybe it’s more about the issues with service games. You really need to have a good grasp of them before they tear too much of your life away from you. Don’t need them to block you from doing the things you want…indeed, the real buttery lobsters are waiting for you. It’s time to take a break from school to slay some for yourself.

I finally, finally, got to watch it in theaters. On the way home, my playlist rotated to GIRLS’ LEGEND U by chance. This is how it feels, again, to wait and finally fulfill that desire.

It didn’t occur to me at first that the Umamusume feature film, Shinjidai no Tobira, was something you had to see in theaters. I blame that on being exposed to so much lead-up marketing to the film, that desire to watch it as soon as possible–which, with a VPN on U-Next solved a few months after it hit the screens in Japan. I didn’t expect it to be a film that stretches into the contemplative. I would had thought it followed the fierce desire of its protagonist, Jungle Pocket, but the movie was a beast of its own.

Now that it’s finally a thing, which marks the 4th time I’ve watched the film, first I just want to thank REMOW/GAGA for making it happen, and it was not a 1-night event like many other anime movie screenings out here. Pretty sure I missed the last 7 or 8 out of 10 of those in my area, because they’re always happening on a weekend I’m out of town.

Second, as a part of the movie promo, the director, Ken Yamamoto, has done some interviews. I quote the Crunchyroll one here because it’s to the point:

With the mobile game launching in English, the Cinderella Gray anime airing and this film now coming out overseas, Umamusume has had a big year for fans around the world. How does Beginning of a New Era build upon that?

Yamamoto: Since this project was specifically made for the big screen, I feel there is profound meaning in fans experiencing Umamusume in a cinema, especially as a point of connection for fans coming from the mobile game, manga, stage plays, anime, and live concerts.

The world of Umamusume is incredibly vast; how it is perceived can change drastically depending on the lens you view it through. I hope this film contributes to that ever-expanding breadth and offers a new perspective on the franchise.

Having watched it on a PC, a TV, and on a tablet, none of it made as much sense as watching it in theaters. Everything just made the visual language click better, from the sound design to the contrasting lightscapes between the race track, Tachyon’s lab, and Pokke’s memories.

Unfortunately, like most people I don’t have access to Japanese films all the time at my local movie theaters. It seems like half the time I need to watch the said film in Japan, and that really comes down to timing. In this day and age of Netflix and what have you, it’s nice to see that the medium is still the message even if streaming has become the norm. I mean, I don’t need to bring up Cho Kaguya-hime here? Anime in movie theaters is for sure, still a large chunk of that pie, but we’re still not really established in terms of exporting that chain outside of east Asia maybe. When I visited Taiwan earlier last month I realized many Japanese works can be seen in theaters. I don’t mean just normal Japanese movies–that’s actually quite spotty–but things like the HypMic screening that happened recently, various live viewings, and other niche content with established fanbases. America is way, way behind on this front, despite how much we proclaim we may like anime and anime-adjacent media.

Heck, the fact that I had to watch the new Gundam Hathaway chapter in Japan is a huge sign that things are not doing as well as we could, not by a long shot. That said, review to come soon? I don’t know.

PS. Here’s a spoiler-lite quickie on the Hathaway film. Long story short, it’s a good second act in the story where Hathaway drives the camera time but the development is on what depicts the complicated life that Gigi lives. I did think the final scene/sequence was gratuitous in that they had to have that to relieve tension and give the movie something with oomf. It also would be cowardly to do things this way. I thought it would have been fine to have a quiet second act, for a proper SF-y story about the son of Bright Noa and the current-event-y themes this film tackles.