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.

The 765PRO ALLSTARS+ put on a show in August 2025, for the first time in a long time, with the full cast. You can check out the set lists here.

I was asked to give some words about Never End Idol to Vini so he can put it in a video, which I will link back here when it’s ready to go. But in order to do that, I should write some of that down and organize my thoughts.

As someone who went to it with some trepidation and anticipation, I can say that in the end all of that effort and energy was met with an equally enjoyable and memorable experience, a touchstone performance for the ages. Part of it is what I brought–a bunch of tickets so folks I met on my P journey can share the moment. Part of it is what I … brought … in that with these fan-oriented events, you get as much out of it, to some degree, as you put in. Some Ps put their entire life (or life savings, maybe) into this series, so the payback could be (the focus is on *could*) tremendous, in terms of emotional highs at least. I am not sure that was me even in 2025 terms, but I probably was in that target demographic.

For sure, it was the FOMO, I think, that made NEI worth while. It’s never going to be better than your first Yakusoku, as the logic goes. I’m glad some people got their first Yakusoku finally. Looking back at that memory after Chihaya Budokan, though, I’m not sure about that logic anymore. It’s not about logic, after all, but that’s another post.

Personally, Yakusoku is a pretty amusing thing to talk about. As someone who got into IM@S through the original TV anime and IM@S 2, you would think that meant a lot to me, but I am sure even in 2026 as I write this, it’s still just “that Chihaya song.” I thought the whole thing that went down during 9th tour was, as everyone who witnessed it, an emotional touchstone of the franchise, the moment Chihaya Ps collectively melted into Primordial Puddles of tears. But since I wasn’t there, I don’t really have a handle on it to do anything, to process that event.

Of course, as someone who didn’t go to 9th, it was tainted with a shade of FOMO. It wasn’t even really the thing I was fearing out about–I just wanted to witness in person the peak Hirorin performances during the Nagoya stop. I had more urgent things to miss out on, as it were, that I didn’t really get to think about Yakusoku or feel like I needed to fixate on how Erimingosu had added that page to their legend at the time.

Fast forward to 2025–I got to meet Erimingosu at Acen. That was the weekend when the final piece of the puzzle kind of fell into place. For the short moments I got to talk to Mingosu I was able to get a glimpse why are so many ChihayaPs are earnest tryhards, or the 10 years of history recapped in that silly ending to MOIW 2015. Of course, I had casually followed the two of them over various media forms from SNS to their IM@S and non IM@S works for decades, but I never saw the “heart” of the matter until I saw the two of them interact and each put on their cast member faces for the oversea Producers.

Anyways, the short of it is that at NEI not only I saw the same thing Erimingos saw–which are the happy crying faces of other Producers, but also I sort of better understood how it felt and what it meant. I still think the lead-in to Yakusoku on day 1 was egging it on a tad too much, and I really enjoyed the set list on day 2 more, bias or not. Across both days of NEI, things were much better for the people who were disappointed with Sunrich Colorful. And it is a warning that with IDOLM@STER, we are always a hair’s breadth away from disappointment–because the stakes are always so high, because the fans put so much into it.

But because for everything that I had gone through since I began this journey and for every ounce of energy and money that I spent on this series, I can see that the magic and potential for something legendary is there. It’s always riddled with risk and disappointment, but in the world of entertainment there are few opportunity for legendary experiences, and the 765PRO ALLSTARS+ are one of the few who can deliver.

And no it doesn’t even have that much to do with the great seat I got on day 2, or I got fansa from Hirorin, or that I got TEARS or VOY@GER. I see the very deep cuts NEI had (the crown thing at the end of day 1 was chef-kiss I gotta say.) but that largely missed for me. Thanks to the powers that be I was able to do some uchiage with oversea Ps after day 1. Thanks to the Hilton setup I even had a great time talking about the show and fandom in general on day 2 with Ps who stuck around in the hotel and around the venue. I even was able to chill at the 7th floor bar on day 0. The show went on and on, and it never ended for me, I suppose.

PS. Never End Idol is the first time I put decoration on my hotel window? It was fun so it’s worth doing again. Next time I’ll bring some two-sided tape…

Mrs. Green Apple did the opening song to the latest season of the Frieren TV anime. A relative new comer to some of us, that it rode the major label marketing machine until the depth of COVID pause, then came back with a vengence. Mrs. Green Apple is, in recent years, a frequent resident of the Japanese pop top ten, and even shows up when you triage it to United States only. So, I present to you this graph, hopefully you can infer all that the thoughts I had, had to say.

The line indicates total views on YouTube Music, grouped by their artist handle (so this includes music videos and YouTube Music. Content ID tags? IDK). The line going up? That’s Frieren! That is just Frieren.

The other thought I had was, now you know what a mainstream pop artist looks like on this set of filters, what about some others?

First, a steady barometer of weeb interest. Maybe she’s a tad old now? I feel you, Ms. Hatsune.

For never-dead internet trolls and warriors alike, the latest iteration looks like this:

and

I don’t know what to say. All I can is, why isn’t Bandai Namco Entertainment not releasing Gakumas for EN/global? The question and the answer are right next to each other.

A real Japanese pop star number look maybe closer to this:

It’s still hugely affected by what Americans see, which makes total sense, these are the US charts for Japanese artists, after all.

PS. I showed the artist Miku Hatsune, but not music with her persona embellished by producers using her voice. This is also the same reason why I can’t find good counts for character songs (eg., all of IDOLM@STER outside of Gakumas and maybe Valiv). Somehow they’re all tagged by character as the artist, so it takes manual aggregation to collect data on a brand level. Or in Miku’s case, she is more an instrument sometimes.

The first time I saw otaku flower stands going to concerts was at MOIW 2014. The stands spanned across a good third of the main concourse. There were all kinds, but most notably were these similarly-formatted stands for every idol including Shacho and Kotori. Later I would learn that they were organized off 2ch. And in some ways this was peak. I think in MOIW 2015 there were literally like a kilometer worth of flower stands, and I now sort of shudder to think how much effort it was to deal with it. I guess on the other hand they were very much the full gamut of the most inexpensive to the most elaborate, but you still have to stick to the dimensions and regulations set by the event organizers. Maybe it’s a bit like an art contest, but more like an art family of love and appreciation.

I think more over the whole flower stand thing became its own thing, especially when it takes like 20 minutes to even see all the flowers by walking that kilo or more. I guess if I was doing something like hosting an IDOLM@STER concert at Seibu Dome, I can kind of wing it–there’s plenty of space, the weather was not the worst (imagine if it really poured), and at some level you kind of left it to people to fend for themselves. Japanese people are really good at self-organizing after all, and the visitors are respectful generally speaking.

But if you’re doing a show at SSA, K-Arena, or something much smaller than a stadium, you’re going to be under a lot more constraint. I can see why some shows don’t even bother with flower stands. I think everyone agree that we like these gesture of celebration to some degree, that the fans send flowers as an act of appreciation, but it’s a little too one-sided for me. This is not even mention the occasional drama that could occur from expensive fan projects, given these days the flower stands run from $500 to over $2000 even.

Actually that has been a persistent problem–most westerners who learn this cultural act actually do not know what it is like to deal with flower stands from a concert runner/promoter point of view. It’s why it will cost Anime Expo at least $500 plus union labor per hour to babysit a $500 flower stand outside Peacock Theater, so it will unlikely ever happen. It’s why you can’t just put a flower stand anywhere in the dealer room, because the fire marshal may have to OK your floor plan and which western con is going to take that into account? Or more like, even if it’s not very hard (and I don’t think it is), some guy working at a high enough level at the con has to give their 2c to make the magic happen. What magic? Maybe a photo op for the guest and some optics. I hope it’s worth the while.

[Otakon this year has a flower arrangement display near the panel room area that was roped off. It’s actually perfect for flower stands. If the right person can be reached maybe it might even work.]

I think it’s both “too much” and not enough– not many con in this country will sustainably grab guests that will have fans with enough motivation, disposable time, effort, money and skill to do it. This is why I actually prefer the Time Square ad drop, or what Bandai Namco has been working with, in terms of just actual ads in actual ad slots around town. If you’re going to throw $1000 in flowers, maybe sponsor a couple ads. You’re actually putting money into “use” and not just to flaunt at other fans attending the event. I guess flaunting is the purpose but there’s no less of that in a proper cheering ad… Just that things are much easier to deal with for the concert organizer.

I wonder how the nobori things work in comparison. Maybe it’s a push, and at least Bannam pockets the money that florists would otherwise get.

If you got too much money hosting flower stands because whatever you were doing was a popular IP and foreigners don’t have an easy way to run their own stands, maybe do what 2ch did back in the day and just play the middleman? I think it would be pretty neat.

Anyways, let me just end on this golden rule/warning. It would certainly be folly to spend too much on flowers that you can’t spend on other normal things. Flower stands are extra…nobody needs them, in a very literal sense. And when extra things cause strife, it’s what I call a self-own. The goal of these concerts is to have a good time, to shower your appreciation to the cast members or artists or whoever. Please remember the staff that run the shows also! Things like ads and even a letter to the person you like in the present box will speak just as much as having your name scribbled on a little piece of a flower stand in a sea of plants, if not more so.

PS. As I write this, the news about Aki Toyosaki’s husband just got out and I feel so bad about it. The grieving can have all my condolences.

I went to Anime Expo this year to participate mostly in the exact same things Anime Expo always offered: top lineup of seiyuu presenters at their industry anime stages, one good anisong concert, and midnight mahjong. On the side, we all know this is my one con to see Rinahamu and eat at Yard House. Also, there are international IM@S Producers gathering every time for some reason.

I said “always” but we know this is all just recent history. A couple years ago, it would take a whole village to camp for some Guest Of Honor autograph, literally, because that’s how those Funko Pop rings worked. This year it only took me a minute to reverse-engineer the wrong URL AX used to list Peach-Pit, in the comfort of my office chair. I really don’t know what to say other than, maybe this is the real lasting legacy of Anime Expo–that it screws fans, industry and staff alike, out of just near-competence and bad luck.

Of course credit is still due where it is due–I had a blast at Anime Expo this year, they made strides to improve the con. Outsourcing their autograph thing to Epic (or now part of Leap, like Growtix) may have made some things weird (I hear you Bannam) like other changes, but it’s a net positive overall. Everything on site worked smoothly once you figure out what is happening as it is new to me. The new layout of the JW ballrooms is new to me but we figured it out quickly. There are fewer volunteer staffs than ever, for better or worse, which means everyone is somewhat more rehearsed but also gaps of comms did exist in the few places I had to communicate with the hired hands at the con. For the most part the crowding is managed this year other than the day one linecon to get in.

This year they blocked off even more areas outside on the streets, and there were basically 3 or so food court/beer garden areas that are separated. At least two of them also have a stage. I wonder how much it would take for AX to put some anikura up on stage instead of random karaoke or whatever. I think once the sun sets outdoor grassland activity can be a real nice fit. Adding the Peacock theater for AX’s largest stages is also a great move I think. It still capped from a couple events, which is impressive.

I also think the attendance sort of flattened a bit from last year. There should be more people at the con this year than the last, based on my cursory observation, but it’s hard to see the masses all at once because AX has fully spread out all over LACC and LA Live. It was hard to actually canvas the entire con just due to the crowding at certain time/points and the sheer large area you have to go through.

The dealers were even more distributed between the South Hall (Exhibition Hall), West Hall (Entertainment Hall), and Kentia Hall (Artist Alley). I saw booths selling fanart in the Exhibition Hall. Usual suspect Retro Saikou is out in the Entertainment Hall along with all the Chinese mobile game booth hells. Everything is kind of scrambled. Also TIL Intel was sponsoring a glow-up experience at one of the PC gaming brands. Times have changed.

As per usual, AX this year had a lot of random stuff happening. We were half expecting a surprise Mariya Ise to show up at Panty Stocking S2’s premiere, but I didn’t think it happened? Instead we got surprise Asami Seto-chan at the Apothecary panel with the ever-not-AX-size Yuki Aoi. The seiyuu list is pretty star-studded this year compared to even the last, given how many more of them are here. I think I finally got to see Suguta close up this year, and also, lol, Sora Amamiya? Her famous cheeks made their Continental US debut at an event.

I somehow was not able to see Isobe or Shimayuki, probably because of conflicts, which is kind of unthinkable 5 years ago. Carin Isobe at AX and I didn’t go see her? LOL. Anyways, lots of people enjoyed the two of them who were dishing out fan service during the Proseka panel, or so it seemed.

Personally, I had a blast at AX. This mostly stem from seeing all the love for Umamusume, a really good “AWM” Jpop Sound Capsule show (largely thanks to Togetoge having like 9 songs and being good), and seeing and hanging out with people I know (and barely know). Midnight Jong has been a great blessing and it’s the best offkai every year in the USA (I guess, short of Offkai-expo?). I went super hard during Togetoge’s set, and having front row seats it gave us a lot of space. Somehow a lot of people I know are at that show? What a surprise.

For astute observers, every Anime Expo the magic only happens when it forces everyone to bring something to the village stone soup pot. AX itself (infamously) does not do a lot of lifting. The Guest of Honor list for AX is always pretty short compared to what the industry brings. I am nonetheless thankful it’s doing something at all, even if it’s riding on the coat tails of the industry, being based in LA and all that. AX’s fate at DTLA is in the balance, sort of, but there are not many really viable option–just one, Long Beach. And before people whipping out convention size comparisons, we need to realize AX has made LACC work because half of the con is outside the con center, across its parking lots, in LA Live, inside Peacock, and even the Novo the entire weekend. That outdoor vibe works well for a consumer con, being in LA, and actually is kind of Not The Worst. As long as you don’t need to wait in line for long, anyway…

The fact remains that while every JP industry is trying to get a seat at the AX table, it just feels like a waste of money. There are a lot of eyeballs at AX, sure, but 2025’s number is less than last year’s ANYC. And you are fighting literally against every other company for eyeballs at AX, across a giant area that probably a lot of people don’t even make it to all of it. Considering the number of other large (20k and up) cons across the USA/Canada that barely have any industry presence, it still boggles me why companies spend so much at AX, and what other events need to build to take a chunk of that business.

I guess for Japanese (and increasing, Chinese and others) companies trying to do business in the USA it could be a barrier in itself that has been worn down through repetition of annual AX tradition by the said companies. But if I had a US branch I would tell them to spread out. Well, maybe except Hulu/Disney, Netflix, and Crunchyroll? Truth is SoCal is saturated and most American live far away from any given city in the USA. Eighty Percent of Americans live in the Eastern half of the country. It’s way past time to escape from SoCal. I mean, after all, anime did it decades ago.

PS. I guess it’s not a good thing that ANYC is becoming more like AX in that regard. I just hope ANYC remember its roots and still pay for the things that only it can bring to its attendees (like, iono, anisong concerts not Ado or Yoasobi?).

PPS. Grats 3000th strikeout etc Kershaw

PPPS. Umamusume was great. Cygames did a booth, brought some huge things of figures, crane games for giveaways, long lines, merch, all that. I didn’t get anything because lol lines and didn’t want to spend the time. It’s the summer con that coincides with its 15 minutes of fame.