Don’t get used to these, it’s just that the Extra Notes post has exactly 6666 words and I don’t wanna tamper with that by editing it. This will be just a bunch of clarifications and stray thoughts I would’ve added in other circumstances.
Let’s start with the dress.
E on BlueSky handily pointed this out which reminded me that yes, dresses like Still’s white dress became part of the recurrent pool of dresses a while back. In fact I think they got like that around the 2025 Halloween event? If so it would make sense it slipped my mind because October was hell for yours truly.
My point about it being meant to be Still purified of Crimson remains, though. But worth clarifying that it’s not an anomaly, more an early example.
Are there other white dresses specifically yet, though…?
Speaking of which, thanks to VZ via inbox for pointing me out that Full Armor Fukukitaru (the official name of the outfit is 吉兆・初あらし/Kichou Hatsuarashi/Auspicious First Storm) was actually first teased on Meishou Dotou’s scenario and not Aoharu Cup.
I THOUGHT it was in Aoharu Cup because Dotou was added on August 11th 2021 which is around the time Aoharu released so I basically mushed everything together.
Worth pointing out that TECHNICALLY TECHNICALLY TECHNICALLY, the first teased outfits ever are the Teio and McQueen alts, the one where they gain wings by grabbing a dropped feather from the other in a display of “there is no heterosexual explanation for this”. Those alts showed up in the anime first and then were added into the game later, which is different from the Kitasan Black alt in that that one was at the climax of the anime while these were in the first quarter of it. Cinderella Gray did something similar, but with its last volume instead.
There’s something to be said about redesigns showing up first in Cinderella Gray but that’s a different discussion.
It may be splitting hairs but that’s what we do in this blog.
One bit I forgot to comment on that’s super cool (though it’s evident just reading about the story) is that the story dives head first into madness after the point of “we should’ve stopped here” in a way where it feels allegorical of how in the real world Still In Love should’ve probably stopped after 2003 but they just kept going.
Insisting on running, seeing if something might change in the next race all the while Still In Love becomes more aggressive and starts biting more, giving in to the corrupted blood… except in the game you can win said races, but regardless.
I plan to write about Buena Vista in the near future so I’ll save most of the topic until later, but I wanted to point out since I made such a big deal about it, that the close ups have actually evolved since Still In Love’s implementation, now they’re not just for emphasis but as a means to focus on the girl’s changing expression, and they’ve even added different intensities of close-up while at it.
When I mentioned that Still’s Character Song wasn’t “electronic” what I meant was more that in my limited experience with Denpa music, they tend to be mainly spun off from electronic music and such and compared to that (again, limited) experience, Still’s theme is relatively more accoustic.
Also, the “attached to the character” comment is because one point that tends to slip by people is the power of the character itself. A LOT of the idol industry is built on having less-than-great singers sell a lot of a song because it’s THEM singing it.
This isn’t bad unto itself, in fact I’d argue music with a face attached to it has a unique power to itself that shouldn’t be underestimated. But I tend to think about how back in the day I used to be really REALLY into the OG Love Live but the moment I fell off it (not really by hate, just moving on, really) I forgot all but the handful of songs that are legitimately good music in a vacuum, like Soldier Game and Snow Halation.
By the way, I love to bring up that Nico Yazawa and TM Opera O have the same voice because Sora Tokui has improved SO DAMN MUCH since her Nico days, and not just improvements as a singer in general but also she always sings IN CHARACTER so she’s improved in achieving that too.
Anyway, that’s what I meant. I really like Ai Mai Kurai but I like to put the asterisk of “but also consider how many words I’ve written about this character so far as a bias”.
To Uma Musume’s credit, however, I can’t really think of any singer I have a problem with. A lot of it is that due to how songs are recorded they can’t afford the luxury of covering weaknesses via choruses where everyone sings together. Only one I can think of as being slightly below expectation is Mejiro Bright’s actress early on singing Next Frontier but a) it’s more being green than bad and b) I love Next Frontier but that song is TOUGH.
Oh also, in the post-Tulip Sho elopment event they DO run away… to a nearby park, and laugh at how they actually went and did it before going back to business as usual. There’s even a similar result to real life where they go “well, just gotta make sure we don’t fumble the real race”.
Part of me wonders if Ramone helped Still in the Japan Cup out of guilt… kinda like she tells the girl to go ape shit, gets amused by the mess that happened, and then decides to clean up as much as she can.
You know, the fact that they call the girl implied to be Akai Ito “Girl with blue-ish hair” is… oddly specific.
I assume it’s just that they’ve got a general guideline of how horses should be adapted based on hair color and such, but BLUE is such a specific color to bring up compared to say… “Chestnut” AKA what Fusaichi Pandora’s color was in Kawakami Princess’ scenario before being properly implemented.
Pandora doesn’t have chestnut hair, but considering she’s meant to be a hobo gyaru, I can believe she bleaches her hair.
Speaking of Akai Ito, that’s the name of one of my favorite songs ever, a song by Suara. It also happens to be the second ending for the anime adaptation of White Album… no, not The Beatles one, a VN about a college student courting one of two up-and-coming idols (or any number of other heroines). White Album has some premier talent to it too, to give you an idea: the two main heroines are voiced by Nana Mizuki and Aya Hirano.
Now that I think about it, Suara has sung a lot of VN-related songs, she also did songs for Utawarerumono.
Back to White Album, one funny bit is that one of the later versions added another heroine called… Mana Mizuki, voiced by Haruka Tomatsu of Anaru from Anohana fame.
I’ve been scouring the event archives for the one where Rob Roy and Still have issues with an automatic door but can’t find it. Mind you there’s a lot of events to go through unless I remember the general timeframe where they happen… which I don’t.
Just like with the Full Armor Fukukitaru bit, remember the disclaimer that “Fer is kind of a dumbass so always double check by yourself before quoting that bitch”.
The point about how Rob Roy and Still suffer from being in the shadows of the rest of their generation despite amazing accolades remains, though. Especially because if I remember the event right and I’m not making shit up under the illusion of memory, Still and Rob Roy struggle with a door until Neo Universe comes around.
See why I don’t make these? If I start writing about some stuff I forgot I end up writing a lot more and the blog runs the risk of becoming about a single girl and Still is by now arguably the girl I’ve written the most about.
Dang proud of the results, though.
Also now I know how to write furigana in this format, it’s over for you all, I’m gonna be SO insufferable.