Product Info

Studio

P.A. Works

Director

Hiroyuki Hata

Genre

Animation, Music

Rated

PG

Theatrical Release Date (NA)

Apr 17, 2025

Film Length

1hr 45min

Purchase From

Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is the first feature film based on the popular fictional character, Hatsune Miku. It is also based on the 2021 mobile game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! The film has many positive points such as its music and animation but has trouble giving enough backstory for many viewers to follow.

Another Miku Appears

Hatsune Miku, is a globally popular vocaloid (a singing voice synthesizer software product) character that was introduced in 2007. Since then, she has made an impact on various media, cameos and products. After many years, Miku has her first animated film that’s based off of a mobile rhythm game, Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!

In the mobile game, twenty teenagers discovered the existence of “Sekai”, an alternate world made from people’s feelings. Out of the twenty, each set of teenagers has their own band, making it a total of five bands with their own version of Miku and her other vocaloid friends. Also, none of these bands are aware of each other’s existence.

In the movie, the audience is thrown in with very little information about these twenty teenagers and not much about their Sekai. Additionally, the film will bounce around between each group without much transition, making it tougher to follow the path and the plot. If you played the mobile game or have some knowledge of the Hatsune Miku series, you’ll struggle to follow the movie’s plot.

The one thing that’s bringing all these varieties of characters together through the film is the sudden appearance of Miku, a different design than the teenagers have seen. This version of Miku looks depressed and her color palette, normally bright and cheerful, is dark and shaded. This Miku has travelled to various Sekai worlds to understand more about how to reach people as her singing cannot reach the people, who are mostly depressed and have other negative emotions. Hence the color palette of this Miku resembles her Sekai world. Miku believes the more she can understand about people who know about Sekai, the more she can reach those in her world. However, if things continue to go downhill for this Miku, things can take a turn for the Sekai worlds.

The plot itself is interesting in regards to Miku and her struggles but with so much time having to be split between a large number of characters, the film should have made more time to introduce these Sekai and teengers more to have a better understanding of the world and not guessing throughout. Another option, focus on just one band with a set of characters rather than the whole crew. Regardless, Hatsune Miku fans will enjoy the film.

Bring Out the Vocal

In the animated film, the voice overs for the cast reprise their roles from the original mobile game. The film introduces six new tracks that are not from the game. Each one is uniquely fun and when animated with each band member, it becomes more charming. “Hello, Sekai”, a track commissioned song by DECO*27 and tepe, used in pieces throughout the film with the new Miku as the character voicing it.

Animations are clean along with its character designs. Each Sekai world has its own unique atmosphere and colors that represent their style of music.

The Final Song

Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is filled with a vibrant set of music, animation and colors but comes with a complex, difficult-to-follow world-building.

An early screening provided for this movie. Fans can visit the official website for additional details and showtimes.