Kirarin Revolution

Kirarin Revolution
Cover of the first volume of Kirarin Revolution
きらりん☆レボリューション (Kirarin Reboryūshion)
Genre	Romantic comedy
Manga
Written by	An Nakahara
Published by	Shogakukan
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Ciao Magazine
Original run	March 2004 – June 2009
Volumes	14
TV anime
Kirarin Revolution (Kirarin Revolution STAGE-3)
Directed by	Masaharu Okuwaki
Studio	Synerg SP, Nippon Animation
Network	TV Tokyo, BS Japan, AT-X
Original run	7 April 2006 – 27 March 2009
Episodes	153
Games
List of Kirarin Revolution games

Kirarin Revolution (きらりん☆レボリューション, Kirarin Reboryūshion, lit. "Sparkling Revolution") is a Japanese shōjo manga by An Nakahara. The series' title is the supposed name of Kirari's debut single. As of August 2007, it runs in the shōjo magazine Ciao published by Shogakukan. It won the 2007 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga.

The anime adaptation is a Japan and South Korea coproduction, and it premiered on 7 April 2006 in Japan on TV Tokyo and ran for 153 episodes until March 27, 2009. Starting from episode 103, this show aired in High-Definition 16:9 with 3D animation. Its airing time was 18:00-18:30 on Fridays. A variety program named Sakiyomi Jan Bang! took its place on the TV schedule.

Plot

Main article: List of Kirarin Revolution chapters

Kirari Tsukishima, a gluttonous 14-year-old beauty, does not care about idols and the entertainment world because her mind is occupied by food. Her obsession with food only causes her to be clueless about love. One day, after saving a turtle that is stranded in a tree, Kirari meets a handsome and gentle boy named Seiji, who gives her a ticket to a SHIPS (a popular idol group) concert to show his gratitude for her saving his pet. However, when Kirari shows up at the concert, another boy only tears up her ticket, warning her to stay away from Seiji because she and Seiji live in different worlds. The outraged Kirari sneaks into the concert, only to discover that Seiji and the boy who tore her ticket, Hiroto, are actually members of SHIPS. Finally understanding the meaning of "different worlds", Kirari refuses to give up pursuing Seiji and declares that she will also become an idol. However, being an idol requires tons of training and talent. Faced with rivals and scandals, Kirari is determined to come out as a top idol.

Characters

Main article: List of Kirarin Revolution characters

Kirari Tsukishima (月島きらり , Tsukishima Kirari)

Voiced by: Koharu Kusumi, Drama CD voice by: Miyu Matsuki

Kirari is a cute and gluttonous 14-year-old girl who strives to be an idol. In the beginning she only wanted to be an idol so she can get closer to Seiji, but comes to like show business. She is clumsy, dense, overly trusting of others, and lacks common sense. Despite her shortcomings and lack of talents, she manages to persevere because of the help she receives from her friends and her unwavering resilience. She has a unique characteristic of turning all artistic designs into mushroom shapes. Over the course of the show she not only becomes an idol, but also performs a series of odd jobs to promote her company (or in some cases to accidents). Throughout the series, she is caught in a love triangle with Hiroto and Seiji. In the beginning, she liked Seiji and thought of him to be her prince. She tries to do what she can to impress him and make him fall in love with her. However, as time passes and she spends time with Hiroto, she begins to fall in love with him. In episode 133, he confesses to her and she returns his feelings, and onwards, they are boyfriend and girlfriend. In the second to last chapter of the manga, she confesses her love to him, and he returns her feelings, and by the end of the manga, they have been dating for one year.

Na-san (なーさん, Na-san)

Voiced by: Chigusa Ikeda, Drama CD voice by: Kumiko Higa

Kirari's cat. He is an outstanding cat that can sew, cook, and do other chores. Na-san has received recognition for his intelligence and singing abilities. As a mascot character to the heroine, he provides a lot of help to Kirari and protects her from danger. At the same time, it is also shown that he is a genius cat who excels in both English and Mathematics. His favorite food is taiyaki.

Hiroto Kazama (風真 宙人, Kazama Hiroto)

Voiced by: Akio Suyama (episodes 1-102), Takuya Ide (episodes 103-153) Drama CD voice by: Masaki Mimoto

A member of SHIPS. In contrast to Seiji, he is brutally honest and sometimes acerbic with Kirari, but he is usually the one who ends up helping her in sticky situations. He later falls in love with Kirari, but hides his feelings and supports Kirari being with Seiji. Despite this, he gets jealous when he sees Kirari with another guy (especially Cloudy) and often tries to win her attention. He officially confesses to her in episode 133, and in the second to last chapter of the manga. By the end of the anime, they have been dating for a few months; in the manga, they have been dating for a year.

Seiji Hiwatari (日渡 星司, Hiwatari Seiji)

Voiced by: Souichiro Hoshi (episodes 1-102), Shikou Kanai (episodes 103-153) Drama CD voice by: Wataru Hatano

A member of SHIPS, as well as Kirari's love interest. He is very rich. His parents disagree with him being an idol. Throughout the beginning of the series, he seems oblivious to Kirari's feelings, but by episode 12 he begins to portray feelings of jealousy over Hiroto's and Kirari's friendly relationship. He knows that Kirari and Hiroto love each other and that his feelings towards Kirari are not as deep as Hiroto's feelings towards her. He is gentle and says very encouraging words to Kirari. Since he is as dense as her, he always has a calm and clueless expression. When he is wandering around in the city, he disguises himself as an otaku.

Media

Main article: List of Kirarin Revolution media

Manga

The manga, written and drawn by An Nakahara, began serialization in the March 2004 issue of Ciao Comics. The first volume was released on August 28, 2004. Originally, Nakahara planned Kirari's name to be "Konomi Hazuki" and Hiroto's last name to be "Tsukishima."

Anime

Main article: List of Kirarin Revolution episodes

The anime, a collaboration between the Japanese animation studio SynergySP and the Korean studio G&G Entertainment, premiered on TV Tokyo. In addition, special band units created Up-Front Agency promoted the show. The anime did not use any of the CD drama cast, and instead picked a brand new voice cast. Koharu Kusumi, then 13 years old, was chosen to voice Kirari and also lent her vocals to most of the opening and ending songs. Additionally, she portrayed Kirari's personality live, especially during live-action sequences in the children's morning show Oha Star. Another unit called Kira Pika, which was Kusumi with Mai Hagiwara from the band C-ute, followed a similar format despite that Hagiwara's character was an original anime creation.

After episode 103, the show became animated in 3D and was viewed in HD format. It was titled Kirarin Revolution STAGE 3 (きらりん☆レボリューションSTAGE3, Kirarin Reboryūshon STAGE3). Another anime-exclusive unit, MilkyWay, was formed, featuring Yuu Kikkawa and Sayaka Kitahara, who would also be playing characters in the show. The largest change, however, was that the original voice actors for Seiji and Hiroto, Souichiro Hoshi and Akio Suyama, were replaced with a more youthful Shikou Kanai and Takuya Ide, who would then form the live band version of SHIPS, something the former voice actors did not do.

The anime, under the title Kilari!, is licensed by the European branch of Viz Media.

External links

• Kirarin Revolution Official web site - Japan (Japanese)
• TV Tokyo Kirarin Revolution Official Homepage - Japan (Japanese)
• Kirarin Revolution (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Konami's Kirarin Revolution-Nintendo DS games Official Website - Japan (Japanese)