Idols and Magic Come Together in One of KLabGames’ Latest Projects
KLabGames, a leader in the mobile gaming world, has not only been known for creating games related to some of the most popular intellectual properties such as Love Live!, Bleach, YU☆YU☆HAKUSHO, Utano☆ Princesama, and Captain Tsubasa, but has been one of the first and few that have reached gamers in the mobile gaming world on an international level. With KLabGames continuing to gain popularity with each new title, one of their latest projects has already hit the ground running this year, making its first appearance at AnimeJapan. Idols and magic come together in one of their latest projects, Lapis Re:LiGHTs.
When I had the opportunity to get a first look at this new project back in March at AnimeJapan, I was thoroughly impressed by the scope of this project. Lapis Re:LiGHTs is a cross-media project that will consist of music and live performances, a mobile game, a manga, a novel series, and even an anime project already in production. With production being done by KLabGames themselves along with KADOKAWA and Victor Entertainment, it’s clear that some very big names are part of this project.
Idols who use magic may not be an entirely new concept, but the difference in this case is how it has more of a mature feel to it. This is especially felt in the first songs of each of the units so far, with the songs “Your Lights” by LiGHTs and “RISE” by supernova having a more pop-trance deep emotion feeling to it versus what you may hear in more light hearted pop songs in current anime series involving idols.
Besides the trailer giving us a glimpse of the girls of LiGHTs, one of the subunits of the project, we were treated to the first live performances of the 20 girls that are part of the entire project. Each of the subunits are as follows, along with their character names and voice actresses:
LiGHTs
“We’ll be the new lights.”
An energetic, up-and-coming pop group that’s out to take on the world with a smile.
Tiara – Yukari Anzai
Rosetta – Risa Kubota
Lavie – Live Mukai
Ashley – Iori Saeki
Lynette – Mizuki Yamamoto
IV KLORE
“We’ll play for you a bewitching urban legend—an entrancing folklore.”
The charm of this unit is otherworldly… indeed, not human.
Emilia – Hazuki Hoshino
Alpha – Tomomi Mineuchi
Salsa – Yu Sasahara
Garnet – Yoko Nakayama
Konohana wa Otome
“Allow us to show you wabi-sabi rock.”
Three sisters from the country of Yamato here to deliver a dose of Japanese-infused rock.
Nadeshiko – Rina Honnizumi
Tsubaki – Arisa Suzuki
Kaede – Yuko Ono
Sugar Pockets
“We’ll pocket your heart away!”
A pop unit as cute as a toy box.
Ratura – Yukimi Hayase
Champe – Seika Hirose
Maryberry – Hikaru Akao
Sadistic★Candy
“Gimme candy, let’s go! Hello, hello!”
A topsy-turvy duo whose strength lies in their shocking antics and addictively sweet charms.
Angelica – Yuka Amemiya
Lucifer – Risae Matsuda
supernova
“We want to shine brighter than anyone else, ever.”
The most talented unit in school, led by a diva with a family history of musical success.
Yue – Yu Sakuragi
Millefeuille – Saeko Oku
Fiona – Haruka Ito
By the 2nd day of AnimeJapan, it was clear that this project was already garnering a lot of attention from the attendees, who quickly became fans of these new idols. Fans with penlights in hand already knew the lyrics of each of the subunit songs when watching their repeat performances on the 2nd day. As each of the girls introduced themselves, their enthusiasm for being on that stage and their first performance was met with a very warm welcome by the attendee audience, with even one of the girls giving a very emotional thank you to the audience for the support and chance to be part of this exciting project.
At the recent Tokyo Game Show, the stage event for Lapis Re:LiGHTs was a big highlight for attendees once again. With a crowd spilling out well past the immediate area of the booth during their stage event, it’s obvious the support for the project has been growing. With KLab project producer Kenjiro Yokoyama and music director Ryosuke Naya telling us more about the project, fans were definitely ready to see them again.
What was impressive at this event was that the fans with penlights in hand, at this point already had “calls”, “responses”, and movements for their songs this time. For those of you not familiar with concert culture, these are usually a type of interaction between the performers and the audience, where at certain points in a song, the audience will shout out a type of fanfare and/or motion with their penlight in unison in response to a particular word or line of lyrics in a song. This is well coordinated by fans who are familiar with the song and is a large sign of vocal support and admiration towards the artist(s).
The appearance of Lapis Re:LiGHTs at Tokyo Game Show came with some new and exciting surprises for fans to experience firsthand including supernova’s new song “Trinity”, a short little talk segment by the members of Konohana wa Otome, and the new song “Watashi no Na wa, Hikari.” performed by all 20 members of the project.
A special announcement at Tokyo Game Show was preceded by a message from voice actress Kana Hanazawa. She was pleased to announce that she would be the voice of Eliza in the new unit Ray.
The members of the new unit Ray are as follows:
Ray
“Now let’s go—and work miracles.”
A legendary unit that disbanded three years ago, leaving a legacy behind.
Eliza – Kana Hanazawa
Chloe – Yoshino Nanjo
Angers – Yuka Amemiya
Camilla – Sumire Uesaka
Yuzuriha – Ayane Sakura
The new unit Ray is described as a group of legendary idols. And if one of the members looks familiar to you, you may notice Angelica from Sadistic★Candy, who previously went by Angers as a former member of this unit. This new unit was previously hinted at the MF Bunko J Summer School Festival event back in July.
With character designs representing several themes across the subunits, this is a project poised to appeal to fans especially who love idols, with a theme for just about any type of anime idol fan out there. Currently, this is just a little peek at what we can expect, and the future looks very exciting for this project. As a big anime idol fan myself, I’m personally very excited to see what this project brings in the upcoming year.
For the latest, fans can check out the article featuring the unit Ray in the November 2018 issue of Comptiq Magazine. And be sure to follow the project on Twitter and through the official website for the project.
Official Website: https://www.lapisrelights.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lapisrelights
Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbia-gfyNViX55iSBIP5M4Q
Soundcloud Page for Unit Songs: https://soundcloud.com/lapisrelights/sets/aj2018