ALIEN STAGE
I started tuning in just a bit before CURE released. I had watched ROUND 1 when it came out since I already knew about VIVINOS. I really like VIVINOS’ stuff since I’m a sucker for cute girls and horror, and the lesbianism was a fun step away from the cutesy yuri that I usually find (no hate at all i love cute yuri). I’m not on twitter as much anymore so i think that i missed out on a lot of alien stage fanbase movements, but i did sense that CURE really boosted the series’ popularity because of that kiss.
Regardless, I kept up with the updates and read the free comics that were posted on Fridays. Now that it's over… I have a lot of thoughts.
One big disclaimer I have is that my opinions are based on the videos released on youtube and a few english comics for free. I dont have access to patreon nor did i seek out further content since i just did not know where to find it. I did look up a few things on the wiki for this review but I likely do not have the same opinions as a hardcore fan. Read on if you don't mind this!
POSITIVES:
The art is amazing. I actually really enjoy the older art style – specifically have always loved this shot of mizi. I'm a lover of pink haired women and this hairstyle was really cute. I wish they kept it more like this throughout with the hair tendrils…
As the art style evolved, I really enjoyed how the lighting and animation got more expressive. I did feel a bit sad because I felt that the cuter artstyle of the first two or three videos was a nice contrast against the ultra-realistic otherworldly art of the segyeins. I still think the most visceral reaction I had watching alien stage was when sua dies and it cuts to the segyeins laughing and clapping. This was before I was more stable (and medicated lol) so I did cry. It made me feel that pit in my stomach and i didnt even know alien stage was gonna have more videos. I'm not sure if anything else has come close to that horror aspect that exists in ROUND 1 and I see it as the one video that has the most VIVINOS charm.
Again, the art style evolution wasn't bad at all. The artists that worked on these series are actually insane with how they can color and shade so smoothly and also have an art style that is just so easy to crop into an icon. Every moment can be screencapped for a wallpaper. QMENG and VIVINOS have personal instagrams with extremely stylish art and creative concepts that are so embedded into alien stage and it's awesome. It's just a very personal and selfish desire that ROUND 1 was more indicative of the videos to follow.
The music is fun. Im not smart with musics technical aspects at all, so im not going to tell you that the beat and leitmofit is symbolic and deep hashtag. But i do have a heart and it loved the songs. The snappy transitions in time with the beat made for great iconic showstopping moments. My personal favorite songs at the moment are: sweet dream, blink gone, and karma. I kinda think TOP 3 has my favorite song with video – but i think its not a song made for this series? Ok yeah i just looked it up and it looks like its copyright free music. But its awesome. The vocals were really nice but i did think that, out of the boys, i would only willingly listen to luka on my own time. No hate to the other guys but he won alien stage for a reason.
Mizi and sua are really, really good. I was a big madohomu fan in elementary school and it warms my heart to see them live on in mizisua. Joking aside, this comic made me really love mizisua so much more than i had previously thought. Sua (and ivan) had been my favorites, but that release made me instantly love mizi the most. I really enjoyed the complicated feelings of wanting to hold power over someone else after being beaten so much. The comic posted previously to that one really hit home too. The reality of the comics get a bit warped which is used for atmospheric story telling and ill…get to that a bit later.
Anyways, i find that mizisua is a couple that is really hard to pinpoint. I cant exactly figure out everything, and i like it like that. For now, i see the dynamic as mizi seeking out someone to control, finding sua, and then after they fall in love and things happen (mizis attempted suicide, alien stage starting up, etc), it ends up being that sua becomes a sort of protector. Instead of the physical control that mizi is used to from her guardian, the emotional control in her relationship with sua is confusing and unbalanced.
Its a very twisted affection that seems light at first glance, but is revealed to be built on codependence and a need to take back agency through the other. Complex stuff. There are many ways to read their relationship which makes mizisua shine.
Ivan is also really cute. I like his little fang and how his color scheme is very dark with a lot of skin coverage. I think hes the most popular character and its easy to see why… hes a traumatized babe and his sad ending compels fans (and me) to dream up scenarios where hes happier.
Quick other note is that i kinda loveee the kids shown at the end of karma and their designs. Maybe i even like the designs more than the main cast?
NEGATIVES:
Sadly… I did not enjoy alien stage as much as I wished I could've. I felt a lot of the themes fell flat, characters were boring, and the ending was kinda a nothingburger. Let's start with my own biggest personal gripe: LOVE AS A THEME.
Alien stage has been very clear about its themes being about love and the different forms it can take. I think I even saw a couple of interviews from the creator that said love was the focus. I've had a problem with this since even before alien stage. Seeing people say that “xyz is about love” grates on me because it's a statement that can be applied to everything. You can say that the odyssey is about love or you can say the song I made up about how my cat smells is about love. Its such a base, human emotion (doesn’t even have to be romantic love. Familial love, friend love, etc), that saying a story is “about love” means nothing to me. I realize that it isnt the only theme – far from it – alien stage also focuses on the exploitation of idols and the sexism that comes with it (and rebellion. I guess. sigh). But for the characters, which are the aspect of the story I am always the most invested in, saying that their main plot is about love doesn't really cut it for me. This is where the other couples outside mizisua fall flat for me. It also, in my opinion, is so repetitive within the story that sometimes i just sat there watching the newly released video and I was like ok? We aren't getting more lore? We’re just gonna get rehashed symbolism representing their toxic love? It got boring to me.
Using ivantill as an example… I really enjoyed the meteor scene. Everything else was eh. I don't think we needed that second kiss in karma when alien stage is already such a brief experience. The meteor scene provided a lot of information on how this event had affected the future and dynamics that played out on stage. It's also such a sad feeling to know that ivan and till could have survived. Or at least ivan.
While I was just praising the art and artists connected to this project, I do feel that the coolness factor of the art often took priority over meaning. Not to say that it didnt have meaning, but it felt like a repetitive show of “look! They love each other but they hurt each other!”. And i was sitting there like. Name one relationship that doesnt come with some level of hurt. Again, it feels like such a basic part of life and alien stage unfortunately didnt feel like it was successfully conveying a new or interesting message about love. It came off as a huge show-and-tell at times. Very style over substance. I was just wondering if some people were not understanding some dynamics the first few times so the creators were like ok guys…..play the reel again.
Continuing with the topic of ivantill – i really just dont care for it. I like it as a yaoi ship but only for ivan like yesssssss ivan bottom truth bomb. I do not like till. The main reason for this is likely because till is one of the only characters to not get much of a POV (except for … loving mizi and feeling confused by ivan) which leads to him just feeling so so flat. I already dont like men who like girls and he was just too much for me. This is really a matter of personal taste here; i only like ivan more because his design and personality appeals more to me. Till is the embodiment of the theme of love and sacrifice which, again, feels like a nothingburger to me. I would love to be proven wrong with future updates but as of now, with the main videos being my main source of info, till is the weakest character of the ensemble. Which makes me so mad because hes the only one to be shown living by the end of it all. Grrr.
Theres the issue of the yaoi always being more popular than the yuri. It has annoyed me to see much more ivantill in the tag than mizisua. Age old sexism issue made even more frustrating by the fact that mizisua just objectively has more to gnaw on than ivantill. I personally do not care to think about ivantill on my free time and i almost wish it didnt exist at all so that mizisua would have been more centered.
Some smaller gripes i have before i move on to more lengthier ones: the timeline. I did not like finding out that the entirety of the alien stage competition took place within like a week. Give these people some space to breathe omfg? Wouldve loved for there to be more space for hyuna and mizi to really bond. I didnt even need the series to be longer – just the implied time wouldve been enough. Now im just wondering how mizi was able to psychoanalyze hyuna that good within 2 days.
I dont really like the environment or the clothes the characters wear in the garden. Its meant to be very bland since its like… a day dog care but for human pets. But the other environments are so cool and well designed that the garden just felt so boring. It's kinda like the promised neverland. Has anyone else read that? Me neither because I hated the designs.
Hyuna….oh hyuna. The only brown character in a cast of very pale characters, and being so intimately tied with luka who is the blondest blonde to ever blonde just feels so uncomfortable. It gets to a point of toxicity that genuinely feels horrible, and the narrative doesn’t really seem to acknowledge this. She's also stuck in the “rowdy rebel” role which lends itself to this “savior” role – taking a “”naive”” mizi away into a more brash setting. It's just a ton of racist tropes surrounding brown characters that never works and thus ruins her potential. It's also another case of a rebellion movement being portrayed as something doomed to go up into flames, and hyuna dies because of a really stupid reason. Like huh? It does make for some kind of poetic justice that we see luka still performing after the timeskip (although im kinda wondering if that really is luka, or just a clone of him made after he died in the fire? Who knows). Also its just a pet peeve, but hyunas story really only revolves around her little brother and luka. Mizi and hyuna had a lot of potential to break that pattern but unfortunately it just didn't end up like that. Also i think it wouldn’t have even been good because of the way hyuna is shoved into narrative necessities.
Hyuna would have been a great character for the narrative, showing someone who defies the standards with both her song and personality being so refreshing compared to the others, but her death ends her character on such a sour note. It's a predictable and bad ending for her. I almost wish stories would just stop trying the rebellion character because it never seems to work. It always ends in a disaster and/or described as a horrible sacrifice. whatever
Karma…karma karma karma
I didn't like the RGU references. The concept of mizi being a witch came out of nowhere and just fell super flat. I dont have anything super deep to dig into with this except that it
Vivinos’ videos have a common plot where two characters are at the whim of a larger, cruel fate that they cannot fight against. Whether its natural disaster, being born in a lab, or a hidden darkness within another character – there's a sense of being made for death.