Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-24187738-20151204193238

What a month. We updated November's news directly onto the Announcements section of the main page, but the past month has brought us so much it's staggering. Let's run through them in order.

1. μ's Fan Meeting Tour in Shanghai and Taipei announced

In a rare move, μ's has moved beyond national borders to hold a solo-event overseas. Shanghai's will take place in Mercedes-Benz Arena on January 30 with Emitsun, Ucchi, Mimorin, Pile, Rippi and Soramaru attending. Tickets were priced exorbitantly but still sold out within five minutes!

Meanwhile, the details for Taipei has yet to be announced, but it has been confirmed that Shanghai and Taipei will be the only countries having a Fan Meeting Tour.

2. μ's will be making an appearance at NHK's 66th Kouhaku Uta Gassen

Every year on New Year's Eve, Japan's NHK hosts a sing-off, a competition between two groups of artistes who will get audience to vote for them and see which group triumphs overall. As an intensely popular and important annual program, μ's has certainly made its mark by standing on the stage only top Japanese artistes can aspire for!

3. μ's made an appearance at Music Station

Yet another important goal achieved for μ's, who continue to defy all expectations with their sales by being the top 9th artiste in Japan in 2015, and making it onto all sorts of important programs normally reserved for J-pop culture! With their charm and power, they are part of the reasons why the division between anime subculture and popular culture are starting to blur in Japan.

'''4. New Trading Card Game: Love Live! School idol collection'''

As expected of Bushiroad, they're forever making more card games. And this time they're throwing in with an exclusive Love Live! card game instead of simply continuing to use them for material under their Weiss Schwarz brand! The new game will go on sale March 18, 2016.

5. SIF Arcade Version announced

No details or images on this one yet, but an arcade version of SIF was announced to be in the works at the last SIF special broadcast!

6. Aqours trio units announced to be Combination 4, now accepting entries for unit names How did everyone fare? It seemed that the most popular combination amongst Wikia users was Combination 3 according to the Main Poll, but it seems Japanese Love Livers thought differently! A likely reason for this is that Combination 4 is the only one where both You Watanabe and Ruby Kurosawa are in the same trio unit, and both of them were top favorites in the recent poll! Having both your favorites in the same trio unit would certainly make buying singles and merchandise a lot easier!

On that note, they're now also accepting entries for the trio unit names, until December 18, 2359JST. Results will be published in Dengeki G's March 2016, on sale January 30. Do check here for instructions on how to submit yours!

7. μ's Final Live and Final Single announced

It's finally here, the ending we have all quietly dreaded even though we knew it was coming.

Their 6th and final live, μ's FinalLoveLive! 2016 ~μ'sic Forever~ will take place on March 31 & April 1, 2016 at Tokyo Dome, just like in the movie. Their final single will be released on March 2.

To be exact, the words that Emitsun used were "our final one-man live", which means their last concert as a solo act. This means they may still make appearance on shows and other larger concerts with other performers. This is all merely speculation and cold comfort- so it's best not to read too much into it. What is certain is that the 6th live will be their last.

Here are some commonly asked questions:
 * Why? Aren't they doing really well?
 * We're not sure either. There's been no official reasons given, but speculation ranges from physical constraints such as Jolno's knee, to individual careers going separate ways.
 * UPDATE: There's been rumours going around that this is because μ's contracts expire in March. From what we know from the seiyuus' interviews and the rare individual conversation with them, this is likely to be true. The seiyuus themselves wish to advance their solo careers and do not wish to be tied to their characters forever, even if they will always have a special place in their hearts.
 * What will happen to SIF? It's not fair for them to shut it down with all the money I pumped in.
 * There definitely aren't any intentions to shut down SIF any time soon. We know as much from the recent UR/SR selection poll, that they intend to give us a promo UR every month for 9 months. That campaign hasn't even started yet.
 * Is content for LL going to just end here?
 * Content for Love Live! has ended/will end on three fronts: Anime, singles and concerts. Which of course is what most of us know Love Live! by, but it appears the rest of the franchise continues on. A new School idol diary is coming next March, School idol QUEST continues running on a monthly basis, and SIF isn't going to end.
 * Will the Love Live! Wikia continue working?
 * No, we're all going on indefinite holiday. Of course! We respect μ's dreams and wishes: to support all school idols no matter who and where they are. We'll be continuing our work on Aqours just like we have ever since that project started. We're heartened by the people who are already looking forward to more Aqours content, and hope you can stay with us for this next exciting journey!

Right now, my thoughts are overflowing just like I'm sure everyone else's is. But this definitely wasn't an easy decision to make, whether by the producers or the seiyuus themselves. And I believe that just like how they delivered the news to us with a smile in their special broadcast, we too should send them off into their widening careers with a smile. Let's enjoy our last four months with them to the best of our abilities.

That's all for this month. Please don't hesitate to post any questions you might have.

(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ Enjoy your idols!~  ♪ LuciaHunter ♪  19:32, December 4, 2015 (UTC) 