Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is the rather overlong title for this film which has spawned from the Hatsune Miku videogame, my brief playing of that so far (below) showing me that it’s a mix of button-pressing as with Guitar Hero, and a Japanese Visual Novel where the characters do this and that, and after each line of dialogue, you have to press a button EVERY… DAMN… TIME…, which in itself, quickly puts me to sleep.
Just give me an ‘auto’ option for the chat. If I miss a line, it’s not exactly Shakespeare.
I’ll describe the plot as it appears to me, although a quick glance on Wikipedia shows there was apparently some deeper meaning in some of what was going on, but we see a group of schoolgirls finishing for the day, then heading to the shopping mall to buy clothes, go for a coffee etc, all agreeing to meet up later in their Sekai, a virtual world where they’ll play music together.
Later, the Hatsune Miku character keeps popping up from the girls’ phones, as if it’s an augmented-reality avatar. However, she’s lost her voice and can’t sing. It also doesn’t help for her, that at times, Miku appears to glitch for the phone users, yet on her side, it’s the humans who are glitching. Whatever’s going on, it puts people off using her app, which ruins her day even more.
However, after Miku’s world collapses, and we get acres of what feels like the most tedious dialogue ever to come out in a film – which mirrors the sort you get during such a visual novel – the girls write a Zen masterpiece of a song.
Can they get Hatsune Miku’s voice back to normal? Does a Pikachu shit in the woods?
And once everything’s resolved, we get a number of songs from the girls and Miku, as if it’s the third act in Bohemian Rhapsody.
There’s also a scene where a female busker is playing to a large audience, and I was expecting them all to cough up some green by the end, but not a note from any of them! Come on, give the young lady some tips! Don’t all be Mr Pink!
NOTE: There is both a mid- AND post-credits scene, as per my video below, but as soon as the main credits began, even the die-hard fans in costume upped and left. I think some did catch the mid-credits scene, but a scant few were still there for the post-credits scene.
Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, there is a long list of merch available online.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 110 minutes
Release date: August 29th 2025
Studio: Anime Ltd
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Hiroyuki Hata
Producers: Kabashima Manami, Yoshimasa Okunaga, Wataru Sasaki, Mitsuhito Tsuji, Hayato Watanabe
Screenplay: Yoko Yonaiyama
Music: Satoshi Hono
Voice Cast:
Konosuke Otori: Masaki Aizawa
Kohane Azusawa: Akina
Megurine Luka: Yu Asakawa
KAITO: Naoto Fuga
Hatsune Miku: Saki Fujita
Airi Momoi: Ai Furihata
MEIKO: Meiko Haigo
Keisuke Otori: Hikaru Hanada
Tsukasa Tenma: Daisuke Hirose
Shizuku Hinomori: Rina Honnizumi
Akito Shinonome: Fumiya Imai
Shosuke Otori: Atsushi Imaruoka
Saki Tenma: Karin Isobe
Toya Aoyagi: Kent Itou
Shiraishi An: Sumi Tomomi Jiena
Emu Otori: Hina Kino
Kanade Yoisaki: Tomori Kusunoki
Nene Kusanagi: Machico
Sanda: Hiromu Mineta
Ken Shiraishi: Hiroshi Nakamura
Shiho Hinomori: Yuki Nakashima
Ichika’s Mother: Kaori Nazuka
Ichika Hoshino: Ruriko Noguchi
Ichika’s Father: Hirofumi Nojima
Minori Hanasato: Yui Ogura
Mizuki Akiyama: Hinata Satô
Kagamine Len / Kagamine Rin: Asami Shimoda
An Shiraishi: Tomomi Jiena Sumi
Ena Shinonome: Minori Suzuki
Mafuyu Asahina: Rui Tanabe
Rui Kamishiro: Shunichi Toki
Mafuyu’s Mother: Megumi Toyoguchi
Honami Mochizuki: Reina Ueda
Haruka Kiritani: Mayu Yoshioka
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.