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
Anime television series
Kirarin Revolution (Kirarin Revolution STAGE-3)
Directed by	Masaharu Okuwaki
Studio	Synerg SP
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 (Japanese: きらりん☆レボリューション, Hepburn: Kirarin Reboryūshon, 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.

Plot

Main article: List of Kirarin Revolution chapters

Kirari Tsukishima, a 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 named Hiroto, tears up her ticket and warns her to stay away from Seiji, because they both live in different worlds. The outraged Kirari sneaks into the concert, only to discover that Seiji and 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 characters

Kirari Tsukishima (月島 きらり , Tsukishima Kirari)

Voiced by: Koharu Kusumi, Drama CD voice by: Miyu Matsuki, Kanako Koizumi (Fisher-Price:Bright Beats)

Kirari is a 14-year-old girl who strives to be an idol, and the main reason to become one was because she fell in love with Seiji from SHIPS and wants to get closer to him. She has a huge appetite for food, and she is clumsy, dense, overly trusting of others, and lacks common sense. Despite her shortcomings and lack of talents, she manages to persevere as a result of the help she receives from her friends and her unwavering resilience. As an idol, she gains countless friends and supporters, but her strongest bond is with Hiroto and Seiji, who act as her protectors. She has a unique characteristic of turning all artistic designs into mushroom shapes.

Throughout the series, she is caught in a love triangle with Hiroto and Seiji. In the beginning, she liked Seiji and thought of him as her prince. She tries to do what she can to impress him and make him fall in love with her. As time passes and she spends time with Hiroto, she begins to fall in love with Hiroto instead. In the manga, she eventually confessed her love to him during their first date.

In the anime, she is also a member of the idol unit Kira Pika which consists of her and Hikaru Mizuki, who is talented but has stage fright. Later, she starts another group known as Milky Way with two other girls: Noel and Kobeni.

Naa-san (なーさん, Nā-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. Naa-san has received recognition for his intelligence and singing abilities. As a mascot character, he provides a lot of help to Kirari and protects her from danger. It is also shown that he is a genius cat who excels in both English and mathematics.

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 popular idol boy band, SHIPS. He became an idol when he teamed up with Seiji at age 12. He is the oldest of five brothers, whom he takes care of while his parents are away. For some reason, he gets cold coincidentally when Kirari's grandmother is being starstruck about him or when she is mentioned.

In contrast to Seiji, who is kind and gentle, Hiroto is honest and strict and is sometimes acerbic with Kirari. Despite how he treats her, he truly cares about her and likes to see her smile. Although he supports Kirari's feelings for Seiji throughout the series, he often worries about her when she faces difficult situations, and he is usually the one who helps her out. He is very intelligent and talented in household chores, which he teaches to Kirari to help her on jobs.

Hiroto has a hidden soft side; he gradually shows more affection to Kirari, and he also gets jealous of other guys like Cloudy, who tries to get close to her, and on rare occasions, Seiji. By the end of the manga, he realizes his true feelings for Kirari and returns her feelings when she confesses to him. In the manga, he also kisses Kirari after he came back from New York.

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 popular idol boy band SHIPS, as well as Kirari's initial love interest. At age 12, Seiji became an idol when he teamed up with Hiroto. He is from a very rich family, and his parents disagree with him being an idol and want him to get married into another rich family. Throughout the beginning of the series, he seems oblivious to Kirari's feelings, and he treats her like a little sister, even though he gets jealous of her closeness with Hiroto by episode 12. Since Seiji is as dense as Kirari, he always has a calm and clueless expression.

He has a deep love for Kame-san and has a murderous look when something is spilled onto it. When he is wandering around in the city, he disguises himself as an otaku.

Friends and rivals

Arashi Amamiya (雨宮 嵐, Amamiya Arashi)

Voiced by: Takafumi Kawakami

Kirari's childhood friend who moved to Osaka when they were six. As an illusionist, he plays all sorts of tricks to get Kirari to quit the entertainment world so that she will fulfill their childhood promise of being his wife. He tends to break into explosive nosebleeds when he comes into contact with anything related to Kirari. He gets very jealous of Hiroto and Seiji because of their closeness with Kirari and doesn't hesitant to pull pranks on them.

Erina Ogura (小倉 エリナ, Ogura Erina)

Voiced by: Masako Jo

Although she is an idol who belongs to the same company as Kirari, she views Kirari as a rival. Using her crybaby act and girlish charms, she manipulates others in order to interfere with Kirari's progress. Attends the same 'idol school' as Kirari, and formerly held the position of 'princess' in her class' popularity ranks (before Kirari transferred.) She has been saved by Kirari on more than one occasion. To boost her idol image, she attempts a gang thug image, complete with a kendo shinai and an austere-looking long skirt.

Fubuki Toudou (藤堂 ふぶき, Tōdō Fubuki)

Voiced by: Noriko Shitaya

She is one of Kirari's toughest rival. Having to recently gone from being a model to an idol, Fubuki regards Kirari as not fitting enough to be an idol herself. Fubuki is friends with Kirari, but is still her rival. She is viewed as spoiled and confidant, likely due to coming from a wealthy family and being famous since childhood.

Izumi Amakawa (天川 いずみ, Amakawa Izumi)

Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki

Izumi works in the same company as Fubuki and considers Kirari a rival for Hiroto's feelings. Although sweet and charming at first glance, Izumi plays a double standard and immediately shows hatred towards Kirari. His feelings for Hiroto have brought him to the extent of stealing Hiroto's first kiss, and injuring Kirari's leg; these feelings only intensified when Hiroto angrily demanded her not to touch Kirari. During a fashion show, Izumi's identity is revealed to be Hyoutarou Izumi, a childhood friend of Hiroto's. Back when the two were little, Hiroto promised to become an idol unit with him, but Hyoutarou's family moving separated them. Hyoutarou later realized that Hiroto had broken his promise and teamed up with Seiji, which led him to pursue Hiroto aggressively by becoming an idol under the guise of a girl.

Cloudy (クラウディ｜Kurodi)

A new idol working for the Higashiyama company. He flirts with Kirari, much to Hiroto's dismay, as part of the company's orders to sabotage Kirari's career. He also blackmails Kirari and Hiroto with a photo of them hugging. However, he soon develops a real interest in her. Cloudy is his stage name; His real name is Kiriya Hayami (流水霧也｜Hayami Kiriya)

In the anime version only; Cloudy was childhood friends with Noel. He eventually quits the company after realizing that he can't make Kirari unhappy after all.

Rin Ibuki (伊吹 リン｜Ibuki Rin)

A female model. She is, like Erina, always trying to defeat Kirari. She has a crush on Hiroto and has a twin brother named Ren. She keeps on telling Ren to seduce Hiroto. She competed in the Princess Tiara audition with Kirari.

Ren Ibuki (伊吹 レン｜Ibuki Ren)

Rin's twin brother. He is a winner of Ciao manga magazine manga award. He seems to have incestuous feelings for his sister and does just about anything she tells him to do.

Rhinoceros Members

• Yuki (雪) and Rai (雷)

They work for Higashiyama company. They are like a mirror image of SHIPS, or called 'the second SHIPS', and are rivals to them.

Family members

Takashi Tsukishima (月島 天, Tsukishima Takashi)

Voiced by: Chomenori Yamawaki

Kirari's doting father who brought up Kirari by himself. Although an easygoing and kind person, he is initially opposed to the idea that Kirari becomes an idol. Later, however, he recognizes Kirari's seriousness regarding the idol business and begins to support her. In episode 53, he quits his company and decides to open his own cafe.

Subaru Tsukishima (月島 すばる, Tsukishima Subaru)

Voiced by: Shintaro Asanuma

Kirari's brother who resides in America with the hope of having his own idol debut. He currently studies acting in New York. He looks incredibly similar to Kirari and first appeared in episode 20. He has a cat, Mr. Na, who he found a half a year before he visits home on New York's fifth avenue. He is friends with Hiroto and Seiji, as they care for his sister a lot.

Managers and producers

Chairman Muranishi (村西 社長, Muranishi Shachō)

Voiced by: Susumu Chiba

Chairman of the company that Kirari and SHIPS belong to. He recognizes the potential that Kirari possesses and makes a lot of arrangements before and after she becomes an idol.

Kasumi Kumoi (雲井 かすみ, Kumoi Kasumi)

Voiced by: Michiko Neya

Kirari's manager. Although externally a serious and humorless person, she is actually pleased by Kirari's willingness to do her best in every situation. 10 years earlier, she was an idol working for the Higashiyama company. Her previous name was Hoshino Kasumi.

Manager Shakujii (石神井 マネージャー , Shakujii Manējā)

Voiced by: Hisayoshi Izaki

Erina's subservient manager who tries to fulfill Erina's every request.

Mr. Kama (Kamata Tomo)

Kirari and other idols' song writer.

Chairman Higashiyama (東山薫子, Higashiyama Kaoruko)

Voiced by: Naoko Matsui

Chairman of the company of Fubuki and Rhinoceros. She has a crush on Chairman Muranishi. Originally, she used dirty tactics to attempt to cause Kirarin's downfall, but after her best stars quit and Chairman Muranishi refuses to let her interfere with Kirari, she softens a bit and instead concentrates on making top quality stars rather than sabotaging her anymore.

Takada Pinau

Director of Sanata Of Love And Youth. Hypnotysed by Arashi to steal Kirarin's First Kiss.

Animal mascots

Director Nezumi (ネズミ 会長, Nezumi kanchou)

The director of SHIPS and Kirari's company. Although he is a mouse, he plays an important role in choosing job for idols.

Kame-san (カメさん)

• Birthday: May 2, Favourite food: Chinese cabbage

Seiji's pet turtle. Kirari believes in a childhood tale of Urashima Tarō who rescued a turtle, and the good things happened to him. Since Kirari rescued Kame-san, she met Seiji and started her "sparkling revolution".

Na-yan (なーやん, Nā-yan)

Voiced by: Miwa Kouzuki

• Birthday: July 3

Brother of Na-san. Kirari gave Na-yan to Arashi one week before he moved to Osaka. Na-yan is a magician's assistant and has the speed of a thief. He makes appearances in some of the episodes helping Kirari, even when Arashi isn't included in the episodes.

Mr. Na (Mr.なー, Mr. Nā)

Voiced by: Megumi Shinkawa

Subaru's little cat raised in America.

Mya-san (みゃ～さん, Myā-san)

Voiced by: Hisayo Mochizuki

• Birthday: July 3

Fubuki's cat that loves to play pranks on others. He is actually Na-san and Na-yan's brother

ToriDoshi (とりどし, Toridoshi)

Fubuki's pet chick with great strength. Also called Bird year. Along with Mya-san they are both irrevocably smart as shown with using a phone to place a vote for Fubuki-san during the Idol competition with Kirari.

Yoka

She is Izumi's pet and is first mistaken for a boy cat. She wears glasses and has a crush on Naa-san.

Catherine

Chairman Higashiyama's pet alligator with great strength in its tail.

Myuu-tan (ミュウたん, Myū-tan)

(manga only character)

She is Rai's pet, who falls in love with Nā-san after he rescues her from a bullying cat.

Anime original characters

These characters appears only in the anime version.

Band unit members

Noel Yukino (雪野 のえる, Yukino Noeru)

Voiced by: Sayaka Kitahara

Noel is an athletic girl who loves playing sports. She is a member of Milky Way. Due to her love for sports, she refuses Kirari's request to join her, but changes her mind. Long ago in grade school, she had loved Cloudy, who was once her best friend. When they met again, she hopes to make up with him.

Kobeni Hanasaki (花咲 こべに, Hanasaki Kobeni)

Voiced by: Yuu Kikkawa

Kobeni is usually seen with a crystal ball and wears glasses. She is a member of Milky Way. However, she takes off her glasses when she is performing on stage with the other members of Milky Way, Kirari and Noel. Like Noel, she refused to join Kirari as an idol because she felt she wasn't good enough, but changes her mind.

Hikaru Mizuki (観月 ひかる, Mizuki Hikaru)

Voiced by: Mai Hagiwara

First appearing in episode 62, Hikaru was a 13-year-old idol-in-training that was assigned to learn under Kirari. Kirari and Hikaru later team up to form the idol unit Kira Pika, but the pair was shortly disbanded. After that she sees Kirari as her sensei. Hikaru continues her career as a soloist. Her childhood friend is Wataru.

Friends and rivals

Aoi Kirisawa (霧沢 あおい, Kirisawa Aoi)

Voiced by: Chiwa Saito

Dubbed the "idol queen", she is a popular idol. She is very kind and helpful, and is Nojo's 15th top idol winner. Aoi is graduated from being an idol and travels around the world pursuing a new career in music, implied to be playing the guitar. She and Kirari remain good friends even though Aoi makes few appearances.

Akane Minami (南 あかね, Minami Akane)

Akane is an idol working for the Higashiyama company, the same company as Fubuki and Izumi. She is considered a top idol, at the top of the ranks with Kirisawa Aoi. She is very subservient to Higashiyama company, as they made her popular in spite of her inability to dance (after an injury she suffered at a young age). She will do mostly anything she is ordered, including sabotage Kirari's idoling career.

Miku (みく)

Voiced by: Kumiko Itou

One of Kirari's friends from her original school.

Sayaka (さやか)

Voiced by: Kaya Miyake

One of Kirari's friends from her original school.

Family members

Grandmother (おばあちゃん, Obaa-chan)

Voiced by: Masako Nozawa

Kirari's grandmother who gives Kirari her tone-deafness. She encourages Kirari to be an idol since she is a secret fan of SHIPS (particularly Hiroto). She is very attracted to Hiroto as seen in episode 34, when she pulled him away from work and took him around the town, due to the fact that he reminds her of her deceased husband.

Urara Tsukishima / Luna (ルナ, Runa)

Urara is Kirari and Subaru's mother. She is a famous actress and Luna is her stage name. She first appears on episode 97. She confesses that she is Kirari's mother in episode 101. She had left the family when Kirari was young to pursue an acting career. She pleads with Kirari to go to Hollywood with her but Kirari refuses and decides to remain in Japan, continuing to be an idol.

Animal mascots

Nii-kun (にーくん, Nī-kun)

voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara

He is Noel's cat. He used to be the cat leader of his gang in cat town. Later, he realize his job is missing something 'big'. So he and Mii-chan both sets out together to make their 'bigger' dreams come true. After seeing Nā-san appears on TV in cat town, showing his talents, they realize this might be what they are searching for, and asked Nā-san if they can be his apprentices, despite rejected by Nā-san at first. Nii-kun, Mii-chan and Nā-san later forms their band called 'Triangle', playing alongside Kirari, Noel and Kobeni.

Nii-kun and Mii-chan are the only animal characters that has human speech dialogue, when they were first introduced in the anime,

Mii-chan (みーちゃん, Mī-chan)

voiced by Noriko Shitaya

She is Kobeni's cat. She use to live in luxury, and other cats are jealous of her wealth. But then she realize she is 'missing' something in her life. She then met Nii-kun, who keeps going to her house (outside stalking her), since Nii-kun finds her attractive. She then joins Nii-kun to their adventure to make 'bigger' dreams come true.

TanTan (たんたん, Tantan)

Voiced by: Koichi Sakaguchi

Erina's dog.

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 Cute, 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.

Video games

• Na-san Tamagotchi
  • Console: Handheld Electronics
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Genre: Puzzle, Pet Care
• Kirarin Revolution: Kira Kira Idol Audition
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: August 10, 2006
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Puzzle, Music
• Kirarin Revolution: Naa-san to Issho
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: December 7, 2006
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Action
• Kirarin Revolution: Mezase! Idol Queen
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: July 12, 2007
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Strategy
• Kirarin Revolution: Tsukutte Misechao! Kime*Kira Stage
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: December 13, 2007
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Action, Music
• Kirarin Revolution: Minna de Odorou Furi Furi Debut!
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: July 24, 2008
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Action, Music
• Kirarin Revolution: Atsumete Change! Kurikira * Code
  • Console: Nintendo DS
  • Release Date: December 20, 2008
  • Region: Japan, Europe
  • Developer: Konami
  • Genre: Action, Music

External links

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