Although the first idol anime series was arguably 1983's Magical Angel Creamy Mami , it wasn't until the 2010s when the genre really took off with series and franchises like Love Live! , Pretty Rhythm , and Tsukiuta. , among many others. With modern idol anime comes a lot of multi-media projects. One of those projects was the recent Kiratto Pri☆Chan virtual musical, titled Virtual Musical High School! Kiratto Pri☆Chan : Doki Doki Nyugaku no Sadame (Enrollment Destiny) and Mirai no Sadame (Future Destiny).

The Kiratto Pri☆Chan musicals' X (formerly Twitter ) account announced the virtual musical in early December 2023. The account noted that the musical would be split into two parts with the first part scheduled for February 10 and the second for March 9. A follow-up tweet revealed a crowdfunding campaign where fans could also “enroll” in the same high school as the characters from Kiratto Pri☆Chan was opened.

The crowdfunding campaign ran from December 9 to March 23. The campaign was started to fund other events related to the Kiratto Pri☆Chan virtual musical, which included a collaboration cafe, fan meeting, a special screening for fans, and the cast's appearance during the special screening. Fans who pledged to the campaign could also receive several different gifts at different pledge levels including:

• Your name entered into the school register
• Several digital student ID cards
• message from the school's principal
• A documentary video
• Several different “enrollment” congratulatory messages
• A leaflet and postcard with the school floor map
• A commemoratory ball pen
• A limited edition CD
• Clear files
• Pin badges

The crowdfunding campaign exceeded its initial goal of 10 million yen (about US$64,264.05) with a total of 32,126,572 yen (about US$206,458.36) from 1,294 backers.

During the crowdfunding campaign, the first and second episodes of the virtual musical dropped via the Zan-Live streaming service on February 10 and March 9, respectively. According to Zan-Life's website, ticket holders could also watch the archive stream on the Pretty Series Virtual Live YouTube channel. The first part was available between February 10-24 and the second part between March 9-23. While the archives' streams are no longer available on YouTube , there are a handful of digests and short videos for fans to enjoy.

A little bit about High School! Kiratto Pri☆Chan

According to the virtual musicals' website , the story follows the characters of Kiratto Pri☆Chan as they enter Sadame no Sono High School. In the first part, Hajimari no Sadame, the characters meet the ruler of the school, Sadame Ginga. Sadame tells them that the school's purpose is to heighten the power of Pri Chan idols to change fate, “Sadame Power.” In the second part, Mirai no Sadame, the characters are brought to a space colony to participate in the school culture festival, the Universal Sadamemorial Carnival. But lurking in the shadows, someone is watching the girls.

The two-part virtual musical features the following characters from Pri☆Chan:

• Coco Hayashi as Mira Momoyama
• Miyu Kubota as Emo Moegi
• Nanami Atsugi as Rinka Aoba
• Y? Serizawa as Anna Akagi
• Y?ki Wakai as Sara Midorikawa
• Y?ka Morishima as Mel Shido
• Himika Akaneya as Maria Kanamori
• Sora Tokui as Suzu Kurokawa
• Nanami Yamashita as KiracCHU
• Nichika Omori as Melpan
• Minami Tanaka as Rabbily

Along with the returning cast, two new members appeared in the two-part virtual musical: Rico Sasaki as Dia Another and Rina Honnizumi as Sadame Ginga. There is also a special guest appearance by Suzuko Mimori as Ange Shiatori.

For a fifth year anniversary project, the Kiratto Pri☆Chan virtual musical was ambitious. Hopefully the cafe will come to fruition soon, as fans pledged to the crowdfunding campaign to see it come to life.

Sources: High School! Kiratto Pri☆Chan virtual musical's website ( link 2 , link 3 ), and X/ Twitter account ( link 2 , link 3 , link 4 ), High School! Kiratto Pri☆Chan virtual musical's Ubugoe Crowdfunding website , Pretty Series Virtual Live's YouTube channel , Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web