Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ United Kingdom Live Viewing
Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ United Kingdom Live Viewing
The Issue
The Love Live! franchise started from a small feature within Dengeki G's Magazine, and had its humble roots of selling only 434 CDs of its first single in its initial sales phase. Today, this franchise has gone on to become a massive juggernaut not only within Japan, but also across the world. There are millions of players of the tie-in mobile game Love Live! School Idol Festival worldwide, the anime Blu-Rays have consistently topped the charts as they are released, the Love Live! The School Idol Movie sold out in multiple international viewings and is also the #1 grossing late-night anime movie within Japan, and many fan communities exist throughout the world, each of them seeking to celebrate and enjoy the series and the girls that they love.[1]
But the Love Live! franchise is not limited to the 2D world. Ever since February 19, 2012, when μ's First Love Live! was held, "one-man live" concerts have been performed yearly by the voice actresses of the animated idol groups, first μ’s, and soon to be Aqours. These real-life concerts provide another dimension into the Love Live! franchise to enjoy, and many fans of the 2D idols are also fans of the 3D voice actresses as well, following their activities within and outside Love Live!. And ever since 2012, these lives have expanded greatly in both size and spectacle, from a concert at the Yokohama BLITZ with a capacity of around 1,700 culminating in one held in Tokyo Dome, of which all 50,000+ seats in it were sold out. Even so, competition for tickets is intense, with multiple lotteries which require purchase of a Blu-Ray worth anywhere from around 45-70 USD to enter. General sales exist too, but tickets are always immediately snapped up within seconds of sales starting. In the end, the most accessible way to acquire tickets is buying scalped tickets, which can go up to a price of 1000 USD, over ten times the original price of the tickets.
To mediate the difficulty of acquiring actual concert tickets, Live Viewings for these concerts have been held, ever since the μ's 3rd Anniversary LoveLive! held in 2013. These Live Viewings have expanded in scale ever since then, with the μ's Final LoveLive! 〜μ’sic Forever♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪〜 concert in 2016 having an estimated 250,000 attendees over all the Live Viewings, not only in Japan, but also in multiple Asian countries overseas, as well as Australia.[2] Theatres were sold out overseas in many countries, as many fans wanted to experience the final one-man live by μ’s before they would end their solo activities.
But now, the successors of μ’s, Aqours, has had their musical and visual debut, as well as an international debut within Anime Expo 2016, where six of the Aqours voice actresses held a talk show titled “Nice to meet you, we are Aqours!!”, where they introduced themselves to North America.[3] Ever since then, interest for Aqours has steadily risen, and with fan translations of many of the interviews and live broadcasts featuring them and their voice actresses becoming available, demand for more Aqours within the international fandom is at an all-time high.[4] But despite this, there is no guarantee that there will be an opportunity for international fans to catch the biggest event outside of the Love Live! Sunshine!! Anime airing, which is the Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ that will be held in Yokohama Arena in February 25-26, 2017.[5] Even for μ’s Final LoveLive! 〜μ’sic Forever♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪〜, attempts by fans to secure more overseas live viewings existed, but in the end no market in the western hemisphere was able to succeed.
This time, let us change it. There has already been a movement to email various licensors started by the Love Live! Wikia twitter, so let us supplement that with a petition to the many overseas licensors of Love Live! Sunshine!! content.[7] Please join us to get our voices heard, such that we will be able to secure Live Viewings for Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ all over the world, and support our beloved Aqours even more.
Aqours wanted to shine, and this Live will provide them a great opportunity to do so. Now, let them shine overseas as well, and turn the number of Live Viewings in the western hemisphere from zero, to at least one.
Sources:
[1] - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2016-03-14/love-live-the-idol-school-movie-ends-theatrical-run-with-2.86-billion-yen/.99770
http://www.klab.com/jp/english/press/detail/id=5295?date=2016
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-29/top-selling-media-franchises-in-japan-2015/.97051
[2] - http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Live_Concerts
[4] - http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/Translated_Voice_Actress_Content
[5] - http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/worldwide/sp_1stlive.php
[7] - https://twitter.com/ll_wikia/status/760505111206428673
The Issue
The Love Live! franchise started from a small feature within Dengeki G's Magazine, and had its humble roots of selling only 434 CDs of its first single in its initial sales phase. Today, this franchise has gone on to become a massive juggernaut not only within Japan, but also across the world. There are millions of players of the tie-in mobile game Love Live! School Idol Festival worldwide, the anime Blu-Rays have consistently topped the charts as they are released, the Love Live! The School Idol Movie sold out in multiple international viewings and is also the #1 grossing late-night anime movie within Japan, and many fan communities exist throughout the world, each of them seeking to celebrate and enjoy the series and the girls that they love.[1]
But the Love Live! franchise is not limited to the 2D world. Ever since February 19, 2012, when μ's First Love Live! was held, "one-man live" concerts have been performed yearly by the voice actresses of the animated idol groups, first μ’s, and soon to be Aqours. These real-life concerts provide another dimension into the Love Live! franchise to enjoy, and many fans of the 2D idols are also fans of the 3D voice actresses as well, following their activities within and outside Love Live!. And ever since 2012, these lives have expanded greatly in both size and spectacle, from a concert at the Yokohama BLITZ with a capacity of around 1,700 culminating in one held in Tokyo Dome, of which all 50,000+ seats in it were sold out. Even so, competition for tickets is intense, with multiple lotteries which require purchase of a Blu-Ray worth anywhere from around 45-70 USD to enter. General sales exist too, but tickets are always immediately snapped up within seconds of sales starting. In the end, the most accessible way to acquire tickets is buying scalped tickets, which can go up to a price of 1000 USD, over ten times the original price of the tickets.
To mediate the difficulty of acquiring actual concert tickets, Live Viewings for these concerts have been held, ever since the μ's 3rd Anniversary LoveLive! held in 2013. These Live Viewings have expanded in scale ever since then, with the μ's Final LoveLive! 〜μ’sic Forever♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪〜 concert in 2016 having an estimated 250,000 attendees over all the Live Viewings, not only in Japan, but also in multiple Asian countries overseas, as well as Australia.[2] Theatres were sold out overseas in many countries, as many fans wanted to experience the final one-man live by μ’s before they would end their solo activities.
But now, the successors of μ’s, Aqours, has had their musical and visual debut, as well as an international debut within Anime Expo 2016, where six of the Aqours voice actresses held a talk show titled “Nice to meet you, we are Aqours!!”, where they introduced themselves to North America.[3] Ever since then, interest for Aqours has steadily risen, and with fan translations of many of the interviews and live broadcasts featuring them and their voice actresses becoming available, demand for more Aqours within the international fandom is at an all-time high.[4] But despite this, there is no guarantee that there will be an opportunity for international fans to catch the biggest event outside of the Love Live! Sunshine!! Anime airing, which is the Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ that will be held in Yokohama Arena in February 25-26, 2017.[5] Even for μ’s Final LoveLive! 〜μ’sic Forever♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪〜, attempts by fans to secure more overseas live viewings existed, but in the end no market in the western hemisphere was able to succeed.
This time, let us change it. There has already been a movement to email various licensors started by the Love Live! Wikia twitter, so let us supplement that with a petition to the many overseas licensors of Love Live! Sunshine!! content.[7] Please join us to get our voices heard, such that we will be able to secure Live Viewings for Aqours First Love Live! ~Step! ZERO to ONE~ all over the world, and support our beloved Aqours even more.
Aqours wanted to shine, and this Live will provide them a great opportunity to do so. Now, let them shine overseas as well, and turn the number of Live Viewings in the western hemisphere from zero, to at least one.
Sources:
[1] - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2016-03-14/love-live-the-idol-school-movie-ends-theatrical-run-with-2.86-billion-yen/.99770
http://www.klab.com/jp/english/press/detail/id=5295?date=2016
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-29/top-selling-media-franchises-in-japan-2015/.97051
[2] - http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Live_Concerts
[4] - http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/Translated_Voice_Actress_Content
[5] - http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/worldwide/sp_1stlive.php
[7] - https://twitter.com/ll_wikia/status/760505111206428673
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Petition created on 9 October 2016