Mega Sphere

Mega Sphere (メガスフィア, Mega Sufia^?) is a large entertainment venue in the form of a traveling blimp. It is a project managed by Nice Arneb Thunder under Thunderbolt Entertainment's partnership with Ensemble Square. The Mega Sphere Project was launched with the objective of bringing idol culture from overseas into Japan in a sincere and fair manner, and dismantling the barrier that isolated the idol industry in Japan. As an additional perk, Nice Arneb Thunder also hoped that the project could provide aspiring producers an opportunity to be trained.

The Mega Sphere began its activities in July, around one year after the establishment of Ensemble Square. The venue revealed itself by parking itself above the island.

Function

As Nice Arneb Thunder's project following the 4piece Audition Program, Mega Sphere aims to further unify idols on a worldwide scale, and solidify the partnership between Thunderbolt Entertainment and Ensemble Square. Mega Sphere's facilities allow idols in Japan to make use of new overseas technologies while helping them make connections on a global scale.

The Mega Sphere debuted augmented reality and holographic technology that Thunderbolt Entertainment was developing.

Facilities

For a full list of the backgrounds, see Background List/ES!!.

The Mega Sphere is divided into five main sectors; residential, entertainment, commercial, athletic, and stage. During the opening of the Mega Sphere, only the residential and stage sectors are currently open, with the rest is still under construction and slowly opened throughout the month.

Facilities within the Mega Sphere include spaces for idol production such as the Producer Room, and a massive performing dome called the Sphere Stage. The Sphere Stage accommodate Sphere Lives that make use of the Mega Sphere's augmented reality technology.

The Mega Sphere is home to multiple studios that can be utilized for Mega Streams. Food services also exist on the Mega Sphere.

Mega Sphere Tower
A massive facility built for streaming. It contains a variety of studios for filming and streaming. There are also practice rooms and office rooms available.

Star House

The Star House and Passage constitutes the residential sector of the Mega Sphere. Here, each unit is assigned a room to house together. There are no streaming cameras within the Star House for privacy reasons. Beneath the Star House is the Passage Arcade, which offer a variety of services.

Mega Stream

The Mega Stream project is a month-long project within the Mega Sphere, launched in July, and in collaboration with Ensemble Square. It is mandatory for all idols to move to the Mega Sphere, but how they interact with the Mega Stream project is up to their discretion. The Mega Stream project revolves around digital streaming, with the goal of allowing idols and producers to discover and refine the potential of streaming for idols. It also aims to globalize the idols of Ensemble Square, as the streams are accessible world-wide and are outfitted with real-time machine translation features. Since the globalization of idols in Japan comes with the risk of endangering the domestic economy, a domestic producer, Anzu, is given a major role in the Mega Stream project. Assistant Director Chitose Tsuzura is given the role to document the project, and typically accompanies Anzu.

The Mega Sphere and its facilities are outfitted with a 24 hour stream available to anyone around the world to view. Additionally, idols can host their own personal streams via the Mega Phone device supplied to them upon entering the Mega Sphere. All streams are archived. The Star House and Producer Room locations are the only exceptions to the 24 hour stream.

Fans can gift Nice!s as they watch these broadcasts and streams. These Nice!s are awarded to idols and tallied throughout their stay at the Mega Sphere.

• If the viewer is watching the 24 hour stream: Every idol shown on the screen will be given a Nice!.
• If the viewer is watching a personal stream: The idol hosting the stream will be given the Nice!.

Every day, a summary broadcast will be given an official broadcast. Edited by Anzu, these summary broadcasts feature highlights both from the 24 hour stream and from the idols' personal streams.

Every weekend, there is a weekend special organized by a producer. Anzu is in charge of the first three weekend specials, and Nice Arneb Thunder is in charge of the fourth and final special.

The Four Sky Kings

The Four Sky Kings are idols chosen by Nice Arneb Thunder to bring forth a new era. They were selected prior to the Mega Sphere's unveiling for the purpose of debuting the Mega Sphere's new technology as well as to act as opponents during the Mega Stream project. They were selected based on their strong leadership skills. Nice Arneb Thunder avoided choosing idols and units who had a part in the 4piece Audition Program and took recommendations from Wataru Hibiki, who scored first in it.

Tori Himemiya, Rei Sakuma, Rinne Amagi, and Madara Mikejima were selected, with Tori leading the group. Shu Itsuki was recommended, but declined the offer. Tori originally was not going to be selected, but convinced Nice after chasing him down with interest in his upcoming project.

Under the Mega Stream project, the Four Sky Kings are kept together as a group. They are granted special rights that allow them to access the areas of the Mega Sphere currently closed to the public. Access to these luxurious amnesties as well as the Mega Sphere's special "transformation" technology gave them an advantage for the project that the other idols could strive to defeat.

Week Summaries

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  Week 1
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  Week 2
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  Week 3

Units are encouraged to stream as they like. Six idols that perform well will be selected for the weekend special, Sailing Ceremony. The Sailing Ceremony features a variety of events, with the main event being the selected idols, the Selected Six of Song, facing off against the Four Sky Kings. Those selected will then be granted special rights that allow them to access the areas of the Mega Sphere currently closed to the public. Mega Stream rankings throughout the week are kept secret from the viewers until the weekend special. Idols can still view the Mega Stream rankings.

Unit Summaries
fine	Held regular fine streams that showcased noble living. Eichi held a stream alongside Nice Arneb Thunder as a representative of Ensemble Square. Tori remained part of the Four Sky Kings.
Trickstar	Hokuto's natural air-headed nature made a hot topic. Makoto streamed mobile games. Mao held collab streams with Ritsu and other Knights members. Subaru was plunged into controversy after a malicious edit of him speaking to Esu was made to resemble power harassment. Subaru avoided streaming with Trickstar and other idols and primarily streamed solo. Subaru participated in the Nice Shot Battle stream alongside Esu towards the end, which went viral.
RYUSEITAI	Held regular RYUSEITAI streams, as well as a couple of personal live streams. Gained a lot of Nice!s due to their high individuality and compatibility with the Mega Spheres "transformation" theme. Midori struggled to adjust to the Mega Sphere at first due to the sudden change in environment, but by the third day, he joined in with the rest of the members to liven up the live streams with his own interests. The rest of the RYUSEITAI members were also able to obtain a lot of Nice!s through talking about their own unique interest. Chiaki held an Unofficial Mega Sphere Support Stream.
ALKALOID	Little is revealed about their streaming this week, as ALKALOID chose to support the new unit, Special for Princess!, throughout the week.
Eden	Avoided streaming and kept to the Star House. They did not try to become chosen idols, and instead allowed time for Ibara to draft an intricate production plan for the upcoming weeks.
Valkyrie	Avoided streaming. Shu struggled to adjust to the Mega Sphere.
2wink	Little is revealed about their streaming this week. They aided Subaru in preparing for their Nice Shot Battle stream.
Crazy:B	Little is revealed about their streaming this week. Fell to the whims of Rinne with a mahjong stream. Rinne remained part of the Four Sky Kings.
UNDEAD	Participated in the Rhythm Link collaboration stream to introduce Rhythm Link units. Koga took little interest in streaming. Kaoru held love advice streams which went viral. Kaoru participated in Chiaki's Unofficial Mega Sphere Support Stream. Rei remained part of the Four Sky Kings.
Ra*bits	Participated in the Rhythm Link collaboration stream to introduce Rhythm Link units. Nazuna held chit-chat streams called the "Nii~chan stream" which went viral. Nazuna participated in Chiaki's Unofficial Mega Sphere Support Stream.
AKATSUKI	Participated in the Rhythm Link collaboration stream to introduce Rhythm Link units. Held regular AKATSUKI streams (e.g., Learning How to Sword Dance). Keito held a collab stream with Subaru about glasses that had to be ended early due to many comments flaming Subaru. Keito regularly streamed "Daily Life of a Son of a Buddhist Temple" streams which went viral.
Knights	Little is revealed about their streaming this week. Held some collab streams with Mao.
Switch	Was among the first to begin streaming to gain advantage via the novelty of the new technology.
MaM	Since Madara is part of the Four Sky Kings, he remained with them for the duration of this week.
Special for Princess!	Esu and Raika held an adventurous collab stream with Subaru. Esu was involved in controversy after a malicious edit of Subaru speaking to Esu was made to resemble power harassment. Yume and Kanna avoided appearing on stream and instead took part in planning. Raika and Esu participated in Chiaki's Unofficial Mega Sphere Support Stream. Esu participated in the Nice Shot Battle stream alongside Subaru towards the end, which went viral.
Four Sky Kings	Used their special privileges to hold unique streams, such as food reviews at luxury restaurants. Held streams with exciting and click-bait premises. Their flashy presences naturally earned then Nice!s.

Selected Idols

Chiaki Morisawa • Nazuna Nito • Kaoru Hakaze • Keito Hasumi • Esu • Subaru Akehoshi Among the selected idols, Chiaki was the highest ranker in the Mega Stream ranking.

The Bunny Athletic Meet, a bunny-themed sports festival, was held over the span of three days during the week. Idols were split into the Black Team and the White Team, characterized by the color of the bunny ears handed out to them. The teams were chosen at random. Idols were encouraged to participate in a variety of sports and sports-like events, each with a bunny-like gimmick. The list of sports for the event includes but is not limited to; Bunny Three-Legged Race, Carrot Eating Race, Bunny Baseball, Bunny Soccer, Bunny Volleyball, Bunny Tennis, Bunny Tag, Bunny Racing Quiz, Bunny-back Archery, and a Bunny-back Battle.

Idols are judged by the number of Nice!s they receive throughout the matches. The winning team of each match will have their number of Nices doubled. The reward for the top six ranking idols was being chosen as the Selected Six and obtaining the opportunity to perform for the Athletic Atmos closing ceremony, where they would compete against the Four Sky Kings (whose role as villains were revived for subsequent weeks due to being well-received). The top-ranking idol would be granted the special reward of getting to bring an item from the Ground back to the Mega Sphere with them.

Participants would be disqualified for the current sport if their bunny ears either fall off or are taken off, and given a slice of carrot cake as a consolation prize. If a participant willingly removes their own bunny ears, they would instead receive a penalty that would require them to end their sentences with "-pyon" (onomatopoeia for bunny hops).

The Grand Idol Theater Festival was held at the end of the week, where teams of idols each perform theater of some sort incorporating music. The idols are all sorted into a team of six. Each team are to put on a musical and present it at the end of the week. The content and genre of the theme is up to each team's choosing, but each must incorporate the theme of "hell". The musicals will be performed upon the Sphere Stage, allowing them to make use of the "transformation" technology. The team with the highest combined number of earned "Nice"'s throughout the week will be selected as the Six Selected of Song for the weekend special.

The Four Sky Kings have the privilege of being grouped together, and get to personally choose which two other idols to make up their team of six.

Sphere Lives

Sphere Lives make use of augmented reality to revolutionize the concept of lives. The technology utilizes "transformations" to allow idols to perform with enhanced effects that appear to transcend reality.

Idols are supplied a Mega Phone and a Sphere Ring that sync together for "transformations". Each idol's Sphere Ring is styled after their unit with a gem in their image color.

Trivia

• As the Mega Sphere is situated high up in the sky, cellular signals can't reach any regular mobile devices. Phone calls and text messages are also unavailable. Idols must instead use the Mega Phone, which is specifically engineered to work in the Mega Sphere.

Gallery

Full view of the Mega Sphere

The Mega Stream Main Studio

The Mega Sphere's Special Room

Outside of the Mega Sphere Tower

A hallway within the Mega Sphere Tower

A four person room in the Star House

A two person room in the Star House

The Passage Arcade, located beneath the Star House

The convenience store for Star House residents

The Mega Sphere Stadium

The Star House's kitchen area for all residents

An area currently under construction on the Mega Sphere

References