PJ Collins’ opinion on “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing.”
Hatsune Miku is a figure well known in Japan whose animated film debuted on the big-screen in America on April 11, 2025. With the characterized portrayal of Miku being her signature blue characteristics and different stylistic outfits her fans have come to expect, the movie is sure to get some attention from audiences abroad. Though Miku as a character is recognizable, the actual plot of the movie left me confused on some elements, and the narrative struck me as underdeveloped. The film also only utilized its talent in limited aspects. The animated film “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing” is a mediocre work with huge talent sprinkled throughout the runtime.
The plot of “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing” could have been better communicated to audiences. Throughout the runtime, I felt as though I had to piece together a significant portion of the plot myself. The film left the understanding of key terms and concepts up to audience inference. Not being well-versed with the modern franchise licensing surrounding Miku and the “Colorful Stage!” universe, that originates from the rhythm game “Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!” published by Sega, could leave viewers confused. Whilst I had base knowledge of the subject, people within my theater had to read plot summaries to understand what had been occurring at key moments within the film. An uninformed audience is left with visual context clues that are easy to miss within the plot itself. Unfortunately, the convoluted plot contributes to the mediocrity of the overall work.
Major parts of the story are underdeveloped. When looking past all the bright colors, the Hatsune Miku movie has little to show for its cast and dialogue. The majority of banter between characters is surface-level and fails to serve any relevance to character development or the plot. Many scenes felt forced and had the large cast interacting with the vibrant world on a surface-level. The individual actions of characters had seemingly little to no impact on the story. The inciting incident of the movie involves the characters doing absolutely nothing. Whilst the characters are all vibrant, they feel as though they are of little significance. All in all, this contributes to my lack of satisfaction with the final product.
The talent behind the film only shines in limited aspects. For the duration of the showing, it seemed bland. While the writing was incredibly simple, the film shines in music and visuals. The art was vibrant and was pleasing to look at. The animation was especially wonderful when showing musical performances. Combining the two best aspects of the film allowed the media to shine. The musical performances blending with the world and color were by far the most enjoyable aspects for me. Unfortunately, that was a small portion of the film. The majority of the runtime was only tangentially related to music. While the animation was pretty, that is only one aspect of the film. When standing complete, the film is carried by the musical and visual representations of the world and characters.
The convoluted plot, underdeveloped story and hyper-specific application of talent are the biggest overall issues. The story being generally basic and confusing made me concerned for the work’s broader audiences. This eclipsed with underwhelming plot and dialogue, contributing to an overall neutral impression. Lastly, the imbalanced approach to talent distribution made the film feel better visually and musically, whilst leaving room for improvement in writing.
Evelyn Rose’s opinion on “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing.”
I went into “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing” expecting it would be a replica of “Purple Rain,” a weird under polished concert film with more music than actual plot. Instead, I got a film that does not understand what fans want from the movie.
“Colorful Stage: A Miku Who Can’t Sing” decided to focus much more on the plot at the expense of an intriguing experience for an audience. Though if a film is going to focus on the plot more than anything, then it should be interesting and thoughtful. However, the plot is awful, relying on back to back montages with dialogue that feels like it’s written to be a passing grade on an English assignment.
Themes can be intriguing when you allow the audience to interpret them on their own, however, this movie decides to hammer the theme into your brain. The dialogue is mostly bland as a result of the writer outright saying the main idea instead of allowing the characters to be subtle. An example of this is in a scene where one of the main characters, Hoshino Ichiika said, “I felt like giving up for a while when we first broke up [as a band] but I was so excited when we got back together.” This line was simplistic leaving the viewers with no room for their own interpretation.
The animation was solid throughout, with one of the most appealing color palettes I have seen in a while. Each character felt different even though I was unsure of most of their names. The color pallet made the confusing plot slightly easier to follow since I could easily differentiate between everyone. The color palette is the main reason that I would tell anyone to see this film.
The last reason to see this film is that the sound design is unique and sounds good compared to recent films in 2025, making me wish this film was more widely available in Dolby Cinema screenings. The sound designers would certainly deserve it because I never felt like I was having a hard time hearing the dialogue while music was playing, but the music was lacking in areas such as bass. They also cast voice actors that sounded perfect for each role.
If you wish to see a film that captivates you or changes your life, do not go see this film. Only watch it if you want to have a good time with friends or are really passionate about Hatsune Miku.
