Specialite Members Sing in Turn From Afternoon to Night in Relay Hosted by Amakomo Linon

SPECIALITE — Specialite held its first singing relay among its own members on Saturday, Halloween, with Amakomo Linon, a virtual singer who joined the agency in October, hosting and performing the opening and closing slots. Under the hashtag #すぺしゃりて歌枠リレー, members took turns on separate streams of about 30 minutes each, from a 1:30 p.m. opening ceremony until about 11 p.m. Japan time.

At the opening ceremony Linon thanked the creators of the relay’s logo, group image and thumbnails, ran through the order of performers and set the rules: no theme, no setlist to report, no limit on songs, only the 30-minute slot. She walked viewers through the customs of a singing stream, including pasting preset emoji strings, called danmaku, into chat and posting with the hashtag. Kozuya Nano led off. Nano said she could hardly refuse the request after pulling a “welcome to the agency” prank on Linon, then sang “Voltecca” and a Halloween-themed song among others before handing off to the next stream.

“I thought, I’m so glad I got to come here, and I wanted to tell everyone.” — Amakomo Linon, between songs in the final slot

Owarino Mukuro’s stream opened late after she overslept. She apologized, said she had meant to be up two hours earlier, and sang the rest of her slot as a wake-up set before passing the relay to Onino Meru. Meru performed in a karaoke-room setting with four songs, including an Inazuma Eleven ending theme and a song by an oni character from an anime she loves, and said she had mostly kept away from singing streams. Omo Chitamu, whose computer had broken shortly before the stream, reconnected a minute before going live, sang “Iris Out” and “Momoiro no Kataomoi,” and told viewers that a news headline about the relay had appeared among X’s trends. Aisaka Siu fit more songs than the slot allowed by singing only the first verse of some, including “Mahou Shoujo to Chocolate,” “Monitoring” and “Remote Control.” Magomori Magomo, in a first relay, worried aloud about the connection, urged it on and sang “Country Road,” a theme from The Cat Returns and “RPG.” Ai Urara, who said she rarely sings, noticed that she and Magomo had picked the same song, “RPG,” and sang it anyway, along with “Again” and “Aoi Bench.” Lolo Orifice, in a first singing stream, said her throat was not in good shape, opened with “Get Along” from Slayers, sang a Pokemon opening theme and ran out of time in the final song, redirecting viewers mid-song.

Natsukawa Hinori sang a Demon Slayer opening, “Believe” with a call-and-response with chat, and “Mezase Pokemon Master,” and set a guess-the-song hint game for her last number. Kamitaba Neruko, who runs her stream as the manager of a shop, sang through a cold: the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl opening, “Overlap” from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, a Gakuen Idolmaster song and a Gundam SEED song. Hoshikuzu Planei, the robot-loving alien, had the backing track miss the stream for the opening Macross number, so viewers heard it a cappella; Planei kept singing and went on to Gundam themes. Honami Azusa built her set around songs from the Idolm@ster games. Yumemi Mumu, whose stream title billed the singing stream as a once-in-300-million-years event, sang with shaking hands, performing “Killer Tune,” “Kimi ni 100%” and “Toumei Ningen.” Chinen Seira opened with “Happy Halloween,” joked that nobody had chosen the same Halloween songs, and kept up her self-described seiso, or demure, image, which chat teased. Ryogoku Tsukasa, who calls the persona the strongest genius junior-high student, organized the set around the four emotions of kidoairaku: joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure.

Linon returned for the final slot and sang several songs, including “Ai wo Komete Hanataba wo,” saying she wanted to carry her gratitude for the past month into the songs. She later said she had teared up while singing. A closing ceremony followed in the same stream, with participants joining by voice to trade impressions. Many said they had been nervous and had enjoyed the relay once their own slot ended. Mukuro said that if there is a next time, she would take the lead-off slot herself. Linon said no one had been asked individually: everyone who took part had answered her call for volunteers.

In a feedback stream afterward, Linon replied to requests for an annual event by saying she would consider it positively, and said a collab on Ai Urara’s channel was set for noon the next day. Viewers had filled chat with emoji strings through each turn.