Interest

Onsen Musume Project Holds Women-Only Event

The Onsen Musume multimedia project has so far targeted a mostly male crowd. The animated music videos and over 36 hot spring-inspired, singing girls started as a crowdfund campaign earlier this year. It reached its goal in 10 days and ultimately raised 7,110,540 yen (about US$64,000), enough to fund production of a drama CD with the main cast. The project then added a manga, fan clubs, live events, a Wixoss trading card game collaboration, and merchandise.

In the meantime, the project announced a ninja counterpart starring male characters for next year. It seemed like creators Enbound would focus on female audiences with that iteration, but a new event is showing otherwise.

The Onsen Musume project will hold a women-only fan event on December 9 at Quiche Yoroizuka, Minamiaoyama shop in Minato. The event will host cast member Karin Takahashi (Nanako Akiu), musician and Onsen fanatic Choco Yushima, and Enbound assistant producer and event MC Moe Yamazaki.

The event will sell T-shirts printed to look like the Poka Girls' school uniform.

In the project's story, god of hot springs Sukunahiko summons nine girls to fight the decline of interest in hot springs. To fulfill their role, the Hot Spring Girls form the idol group SPRiNGS. The girls serve as guardian deities who are voiced by seiyū and designed individually by different character designers. Animation studio Doga Kobo brought the idols together for their first animated music video featuring their first song "Mirai Imagination!" (Future Imagination!).

Gender-segregated events have appeared in the past. The Sailor Moon Crystal premiere event only allowed women and men accompanied by a female companion. Yuruyuri held a women-only talk event and T.M. Revolution held a men-only concert in Okinawa.

Source: Animate Times