PARADISES no Subarashiki Mirai

『PARADISESの素晴らしき未来』スタート！

PARADISES no Subarashiki Mirai (PARADISESの素晴らしき未来; The Wonderful Future of PARADISES) is a livestreamed audition event starting on October 10th, 2020. The event involved all members of WAgg competing for a promotion to PARADISES.

The audition officially began with a NicoNico broadcast on October 10th. After this initial Nico broadcast ended, a second livestream was announced for October 31st.

A new song, PLEASE LISTEN TO MY, was specially written for the event. WAgg members participated in the recording and music video shooting.

On October 25th, WAgg member Naayu went on hiatus from all activities due to health reasons. Due to this, she also withdrew from PARADISES no Subarashiki Mirai despite appearing on the October 10th stream.

Featured Members

WAgg

• A Anzupia
• Love
• Sayaito
• Utauuta (Winner)
• Ainastar (Eliminated, December 13th)
• Naayu (Withdrew, October 25th)

PARADISES

• Terashima Yuka
• Tsukino Usagi
• Naruhaworld
• Kila May

Star System

During the October 31st livestream, a digital release of PLEASE LISTEN TO MY was announced, as well as a new system in the audition process; depending on judging criteria, four different stars would be awarded to WAgg members throughout the audition:

Star	Description	Criteria
	Performance Star (パフォーマンスの星)	Given to members who excel in singing and dancing
	Star Quality Star (スター性の星)	Given to the most popular trainee among NicoNico viewers and on social media
	Beloved Star (愛されの星)	Given to the most popular trainee among staff members
	WACK Star (WACKの星)	Given to trainees who most fit WACK's image

Early Audition Progress

On October 31st, following the introduction of the star ranking system, the first award ceremony took place.

Interviews with each participating member of WAgg were broadcast on Instagram on November 2nd. Following a successful interview, Love, who had previously not won any stars, was awarded a yellow WACK star.

On November 14th, a public performance review was held at the Kamakura Art Museum in Kagawa, in which both PARADISES and WAgg performed. That same day, WAgg versions of PLEASE LISTEN TO MY were released digitally, as well as a WAgg version of the music video.

During the November 14th performance review, Love was awarded red, blue and green stars. At the end of the event, the next steps of the audition were announced.

Partnerships and Boot Camp

On November 29th, another public performance will be held and livestreamed via Niconama. Leading up to this event, every member of PARADISES was given 1-3 WAggs to mentor. The mentor is intended to accompany their respective WAggs at any public event and vice-versa. On December 13th, each team will perform in a "team battle".

The selected partnerships were:

• Terashima Yuka, Utauuta
• Naruhaworld, Sayaito
• Kila May, Love
• Tsukino Usagi, A Anzupia, Sayaito

A two-day boot camp took place from November 21st to 22nd, followed by another performance review on the 29th. After the December 13th performance, any WAgg with each of the four stars would progress to the next stage of the audition. WAggs who have fewer than this will be eliminated.

Boot Camp

The PARADISES no Subarashiki Mirai bootcamp started at 13.00 JST, and was livestreamed on Nico Nico. It took place on the same island that holds the general WACK AUDiTiON CAMPS, Iki Shima.

For most of the day, the teams prepared for a dance examination to be held later in the day. At 18.00 each team performed "PLEASE LISTEN TO MY" and be awarded stars afterward. The WACK stars will be decided by both staff and Nico Nico viewers. The Star Quality star was decided by Nico Nico viewers and the performance and Loveable stars were decided by staff.

At the end of the first day, staff members gave their team rankings:

1. Kila May, Love
2. Naruhaworld, Sayaito
3. Tsukino Usagi, A Anzupia
4. Tsukino Usagi, Ainastar
5. Terashima Yuka, Utauuta

They also added that no stars would be rewarded today, and that there was a very close difference between 4th and 1st place.

On the morning of day 2, all teams ran a marathon, with the rule that whoever came first would earn a star, and whoever was last would lose one. This included mentors; if a current member of PARADISES ranked first or last in the marathon, then their designated WAgg would win or lose stars depending on the outcome. Halfway through the marathon, Sayaito was given cola, being told that if she didn't finish quickly enough she would have to run the return leg of the marathon. However, she finished quickly. Similarly, Terashima Yuka was given bread.

The rankings of the marathon went as follows:

1. Kila May
2. Terashima Yuka
3. A Anzupia
4. Utauuta
5. Tsukino Usagi
6. Sayaito
7. Ainastar
8. Love
9. Naruhaword

As Kila May was partnered with love, and Naruhaworld with Sayaito, this meant that Love was rewarded one star, while Sayaito lost one.

After breakfast, the teams practised for four hours until 12.30pm, when Niconama viewers would choose which teams performed the best during that period. For this round of the audition camp, each team had to perform a designated song.

• Naruhaworld, Sayaito: Onegai
• Terashima Yuka, Utauuta: Kimochii Koto Shitai
• Tsukino Usagi, A Anzupia: Bright Future, Your Smile
• Tsukino Usagi, Ainastar: Onegai
• Kila May, Love: Inochimijikashi Otometachi

Following the Niconama popularity vote, the WAggs ranked as such:

1. Love
2. Sayaito
3. A Anzupia
4. Utauuta
5. Ainastar

In response to the vote, manager Tsujiyama said "All five pairs were so close that we don't know what will happen in the final judging presentation."

At 2pm, individual interviews with each WAgg were held, where WAggs talked about their weaknesses and Tsujiyama gave them advice. Talks with the mentoring PARADISES members also took place.

At 6.30pm the final dance presentation for judging was held:

Niconama Vote

1. Tsukino Usagi, Ainastar
2. Tsukino Usagi, A Anzupia
3. Terashima Yuka, Utauuta
4. Kila May, Love
5. Naruhaworld, Sayaito

Staff Ranking

1. Tsukino Usagi, Ainastar
2. Kila May, Love
3. Tsukino Usagi, A Anzupia
4. Terashima Yuka, Utauuta
5. Naruhaworld, Sayaito

Following votes throughout both days, the overall results of the audition camp were announced and stars were rewarded:

Niconama Vote

1. Sayaito
2. A Anzupia
3. Utauuta
4. Love
5. Ainastar

The member who felt most eager to work through the camp (awarded one blue star and stripped of 5th place)

1. A Anzupia
2. Utauuta
3. Love
4. Sayaito
5. Ainastar

The member who performed best throughout the camp (awarded one green star and stripped of 5th place)

1. Love
2. Ainastar
3. A Anzupia
4. Utauuta
5. Sayaito

Team Battle and Final Results

The last Team Battle portion of the audition took place on December 13th. As an additional rule, it was announced that whichever WAgg ranked in first place could choose the star they wanted to be rewarded, while the WAgg ranking last could choose a star to return.

Following performances from both WAgg and PARADISES, the results from this portion of the audition were announced:

NicoNico Popularity Ranking

1. Love (25.2%) (Chose a WACK star)
2. Sayaito (23.7%)
3. Utauuta (21.2%)
4. A Anzupia (20.5%)
5. Ainastar (9.5%) (Chose to return a WACK star)

Staff Picks

• Sayaito earns a beloved star and popularity star
• Ainastar returned two WACK stars

Watanabe's Picks:

• First Place: Nobody
• Fifth Place: Everybody ("Nothing moved me") (Ainastar returned a WACK star, Sayaito returned a performance star, Love returned a star quality star, Utauuta returned a beloved star, A Anzupia returned a beloved star)

The final amount of stars for each WAgg at the end of the performance were:

• A Anzupia: 2 Beloved, 2 Star Quality, 1 Performance, 1 WACK star
• Sayaito: 2 Beloved, 1 Star Quality, 2 Performance, 2 WACK stars
• Utauuta: 2 Beloved, 0 Star Quality, 3 Performance, 2 WACK stars
• Love: 1 Beloved, 4 Star Quality, 3 Performance, 1 WACK star
• Ainastar: 1 Beloved, 0 Star Quality, 1 Performance, 2 WACK stars

Following the star announcements, A Anzupia, Sayaito and Love were able to progress to the final stage of the audition, while Utauuta and Ainastar were eliminated from the audition. However, with the release of WAgg's promotional CD, WAgg to PARADISES no Subarashiki Sekai to Mirai the following day, the eliminated competitors were offered a chance to return to the audition if their individual CD sold well. In a stream broadcast on December 19th, it was revealed that Utauuta's individual CD had sold more copies than any other WAgg, and as such, she was allowed to return to the audition.

On December 23rd, PARADISES released a digital EP linked to the audition, Special Xmas Songs + XXX. Following the results of the November 30th audition recital, Ainastar, A Anzupia and Love all featured on the EP (despite Ainastar having been eliminated from the audition several days after the initial announcement was made).

Final Results

The PARADISES no Subarshiki Mirai audition ended on December 26th, with a performance at Sanrio Puroland. During the performance, it was announced that Utauuta had won the audition, and would be joining PARADISES. In addition, current PARADISES member Tsukino Usagi would temporarily join WAgg alongside former CARRY LOOSE member YUiNA EMPiRE.

Trivia

• During the audition, Watanabe Junnosuke referred to himself as "J.J Park". This was a parody of famous Korean music producer J.Y Park, whose audition-based reality show Nizi Project (and its subsequent girl group, NiziU) had been a huge success in Japan the past year.

External Information

• Announcement
• Livestream
• Event site