One last UNIDOL event at USEN STUDIO COAST!
Early this year it was announced that the USEN STUDIO COAST will be closing on January, 30 th 2022.
The live house has hosted the UNIDOL Winter edition since 2015. Tears of joy and distress were spilled there. This ultimate stage has represented the hopes and anguishes of every UNIDOL participants. It was only proper to offer to the UNIDOL participants, fans and organizers a chance to say their farewell to the USEN STUDIO COAST. October, 10th 2021 would be the day.
On this day event, every generation of UNIDOL participants were welcomed. 40 dance-copy groups
took part to the huge farewell festival. They were divided into two groups: the “revenge” bracket and
the “appreciation” bracket.
The former was composed of mostly groups that had failed to set a foot on the UNIDOL podium
whereas the latter one was made of previous champions and “Older Generations” groups, participants who have graduated from college.
Revenge bracket – 16 teams
Ai Centimeter, SPH mellmuse, kimowota☆7, CompaS, Sayonara Moratorium, chocolat lumière,Seijo
Kanojo, Seishun wa mijikashi odotte yo otome, Hitonokanede sushiga tabetai, Prismile, BLUE
PRINCIPAL, monagirls, Momokyun☆, Yappari Macaron, Rikkyō Idol kenkyūkai, Wagamama
Marionnette.
Appreciation bracket – 24 teams
UNGRID, 1par=St., SPH mellmuse, Karen na hana ni wa doku ga aru, Kimi wa Toxic,
KORONA&DAKARA, Seitoku Romance, Sore kara fukuramu kawai isha o, T大学 OG, Desu tei ne ̄ shon,
Bakusō ☆ Pedestrian, Seishun wa mijikashi odotte yo otome, Hanairo biyori OG, Hanatan, Pichi Candy,
Hitonokanede sushiga tabetai, Prismile, Bombs!, Merisappi, Momokyun☆,Like OG, Rikkyō Idol
kenkyūkai, LiL Moon, Lady Hz.
To start the celebration, the UNIDOL committee had the AMASTAGE members to perform the
overture. AMASTAGE is a live café & bar chain with café in Akihabara (Tokyo), Namba (Osaka) and Sakae (Nagoya). There are not unfamiliar locations to 48 group fans. UNIDOL participants sometimes part-time there. The dozen AMASTAGE members meant business when they came on stage with their maid costumes. A few songs later, the crowd was ready to get onto the main event.
The lack of prizes did in no way lessen the quality of the performances. Every participant was aware
of the chance to stand on such historical stage and pushed themselves 120%. One group after one,
one kami-kyoku after one, the two hours and a half filled with passion went though like a blink.
After all the groups had come up on stage; it was time for the special guest which had been teased
on the UNIDOL official twitter account. For the last UNIDOL event at the USEN STUDIO COAST, the special guest was The World Standard.
The 5 Wa-suta members came up on stage wearing a simple light green satin dress far from their
usual colorful signature costumes but not without cat ears on. They performed 4 songs: “Inu Neko.
Seishun Massakari“, “Yomibito Shirazu no Seishun Uta“, “Pretty☆Channel” and “Seidaku awasete itadaku nya“. It was such a treat to everyone to be able to witness all 5 Wa-suta members before the graduation of SAKAMOTO Hazuki at the end of the year.
The day ended with a huge group photo with all 230 participants. The next UNIDOL event will be the winter edition with the on-going preliminaries held in 5 different regions: Hokkaido, Kanto, Tokai, Kansai and Kyushu. See you for the finales!
UNIDOL – Official website UNIDOL – Twitter UNIDOL – Facebook
A great thanks to UNIDOL management for the official photos.
Article and translation by Anthony.