Even by the standards of franchise anime that caters to the faithful and drops newcomers in blind, this is particularly incomprehensible. Based on the mobile game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!, it features a barely characterised blur of wannabe musicians and actors who ascribe Manhattan Project importance to writing syrupy J-pop. As they interact with virtual counterparts in metaverses called “Sekai” created from users’ emotions, the film is like The Matrix if Neo had huffed a nitrous oxide canister before having every edition of Pop Idol downloaded into his cranium.
One of the virtual pop stars, a rogue version of Hatsune Miku (voiced by Saki Fuijta), keeps invading high-school kids’ mobile phones and flatscreens, begging for help. Apparently issuing from a Sekai created by the emo angst of everyone about to give up on their creative ambitions, she is hoping to connect with these lost souls. So Miku taps this creative hive mind about how better to refine the ditty she believes can unite the world – while the seething mass of negativity in her home dimension swells to apocalyptic proportions.
Amid interchangeably candy-haired popsters screaming hysterically, the opening to Colorful Stage! has precious little to grasp hold of. None of the characters are given any weight, other than the introspective Ichika (Ruriko Noguchi), whose vaguely implied past disappointments mean Miku is drawn to her. With the franchise’s five pop groups not even named as they decide to put on a show, the film just leaves a blanket impression of ultra-pious self-empowerment and aspiration. Characters make such heroic exhortations as: “We should probably put more work into our socials than we usually do.”
More’s the pity, as the animation is absolutely top-drawer. The lollipop-headed, tendril-headed popsters are lushly drawn, and director Hiroyuki Hata is particularly gifted at using light to lift scenes with an Elysian glow. The climactic gig, is as dynamic and even more psychedelic than professional concert films. But this garbled, chronically online film is clearly targeted at the TikTok generation, and might just be the future of film-making after all.
• Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is in UK and Irish cinemas from 31 August
