GKIDS announced today it has acquired all the North American theatrical rights for the COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing anime film. The company will begin screening in North American theaters starting April 11, 2025. The film first began screening in Japan on January 17, 2025.
The license acquisition deal was negotiated between GKIDS and CyberAgent, marking the first collaboration between the two companies.
Hiroyuki Hata (Lapis Re:LiGHTs) is directing the anime film, with Yoko Yonaiyama (A Sign of Affection series scriptwriter and screenwriter) as screenwriter, Yuki Akiyama (The Aquatope on White Sand) as character designer and chief animation director, Masatoshi Tsuji (Vivid BAD SQUAD Digest Animation – Journey to Bloom “Resolve”) as sub-character designer and chief animation director. P.A.WORKS is handling the animation production.
Saki Fujita reprises her role as Hatsune Miku from other works in the game franchise, while Ruriko Noguchi voices the film’s protagonist Ichika Hoshino. The voice cast also has several members from the media franchise reprising their roles.
COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie is inspired by the Project Sekai rhythm game (known in English as Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!), which was originally launched for iOS and Android on September 30, 2020 before getting a Western release in December 2021. It is a spin-off of Sega‘s Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series and features several other virtual singers, such as Kagamine Rin and Len.
GKIDS describes the film’s main synopsis as:
COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is an animation film by studio P.A.WORKS featuring an all-new Hatsune Miku and the first film with the iconic Virtual Singer. Based on HATSUNE MIKU: COLORFUL STAGE!, a game about high school students finding their true feelings through music in an alternate world called “SEKAI” with the help of Hatsune Miku.
Ichika is a high school musician who can enter a mysterious place called “SEKAI,” where she and her friends express their innermost emotions through music alongside Hatsune Miku. One day after giving a live performance, Ichika meets a new Miku that she has never seen before. No matter how hard this new Miku tries to sing, she struggles connecting with the hearts of her listeners. Miku must rely on the help of others to find a way to sing again.
Source: press release
