SERA: The Musical

Hey everyone!

Remember a while back, this past February, to be exact, SERA00's first survival show, SERA00 Star City, was going on? I never did tell you the results of that, did I? Well now there's a reason to bring it up again. There was more than one prize for the winners of each stream, and if you recall, getting cast in the next SERA00 musical was one of them. That musical is premiering this Sunday! Why has it taken more than seven months for the musical to begin its run, you ask? At the time of Star City, the musical didn't actually exist. So the musical first had to be created, songs had to be written, dances choreographed, before the cast could even begin rehearsals. All the while, the members had to continue their SERA00 activities as well.

Let's talk about the winners. There were two streams, Star Talent and Star Power. You can refer to the second Star City post from February for the full list of contestants in each stream. Here are the results:

Star Power
1. Arron
2. Sammi Willis
3. Tang Tang Tsang
Runner-up: Holly Stern

Star Talent
1. Rachel
2. Macey Fent
3. Sayoung Yoon
Runner-up: JY

There's actually an overwhelming CASUT00 presence in the rankings, given the ratio of CASUT00 and SERA00 contestants. The first place from both streams were snagged by a CASU member. Miss Avery is pretty pleased by the results. It shows that CASUT00, who debuted after SERA00, is gaining traction in the entertainment industry.

To the musical - it's actually an adaptation of the 2013 movie "SERA", which was headlined by SERA00 members playing the four main roles. Actually, Angel's role was more of a cameo. Anyways, I listed the runner-ups in the rankings above, but as mentioned in the original Star City posts, only the top three from each stream will be cast. Perfect, since there are three main roles in the movie: Agent R, who was played by Luna, Agent T, who was played by Fracken, and Sera, who was played by Sassan. The cast of the musical will rotate between the winners of the Power and Talent stream. On the day of the premiere, there will be two showtimes, one by each cast. We skip Monday, which is Thanksgiving, and then from Tuesday, there will be one performance each night, alternating between Power and Talent from thereon. The last day of the run is October 31st, Halloween!

"Power" Cast
Agent R: Arron
Agent T: Sammi
Sera: Tang Tang

"Talent" Cast
Agent R: Rachel
Agent T: Sayoung
Sera: Macey

Of course, the musical is not devoid of participation from non-Star City contestants. Angel had a cameo in the original movie as the character "Gillian," and she'll be reprising that cameo throughout the run of the musical, with Harley filling in on days Angel isn't available. If you've watched the teaser for the musical, you'll recognize that the theme song in the background, "Follow Me", is sung by Luraland. She'll be releasing that as a solo single as well.

As a special treat and tribute to the original cast, the last performance on Halloween will be a special - sung by the original cast of the movie. The acting and dancing will still be done by the Star City girls, since it takes a lot of practice and rehearsal to coordinate the performances. Luna, Fracken, and Sassan will only be appearing on stage during musical numbers.

As for the technicalities... pricing remains the same as they were for Dreamweavers - $119, $89, and $59 for the three tiers, and the Halloween special is priced $144, $114, and $84. Run time is 120 minutes, 8 PM every day at the SERA00 City. Except for premiere day, which has two shows - 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM.

Anyways, I hope you can catch one of the shows during its run - if not, we'll be posting videos of the musical numbers from the two premiere shows, and the Halloween special show. SERA00 is also coming back with a new single soon - the election single, in fact ;) So look forwards to that as well. As always -

Please support SERA00!

CASUT00 1ST ALBUM: Cartography

Hey everyone!

Note: this post concerns both CASUT00 as a whole, as well as the Canadian and Japanese counterparts separately, so for the sake of distinguishing them, I will use the terms CASU-C to refer to the eight Canadian members, and CASU-J for the four Japanese members.

In my update post, there were a couple errors and omitted information regarding CASUT00's comeback, which will actually happen tomorrow for the MV drop - Sunday, July 24, 2016, and Wednesday, July 27, 2016 for the full album. As well, concerning their title song, CASU-C and CASU-J will have different ones (more on that later), although CASU-C will have an English version of CASU-J's title song in their album, and vice versa.

This is actually the first real collaboration between all the CASUT00 girls - previously, they just shared a name. CASU-J has been promoting separately in Japan, with their management outsourced to YS Japan. This will be CASU-J's first release under YS Canada's Infinity Project. When I've mentioned CASUT00 previously, I was always referring to just the eight Canadian members, so I hope you'll understand the slight change in terminology.

CASUT00 has a noticeably different music release system than SERA00. While we release a single every couple of months, CASUT00 releases albums/EPs around once a year. It may seem like a rather long break, but CASUT00 has been working very hard towards this comeback. This year, they've been writing their own songs.

That's exciting, because we rarely write any of SERA00's releases. They're almost always handled by Miss Avery's production team, or we get them from external composers. Although some SERA00 members who have an interest in songwriting may have released songs as B/C-sides, team songs, or Stage repertoire, we as members have never been directly tasked with songwriting. So for CASUT00, writing their own comeback song was a new challenge within the 00 realm.

A year later, CASUT00 is finally ready to comeback with their own songs! CASU-C and CASU-J each wrote their own title songs, "Uncharted" and "Destination: Journey" respectively. There are a couple other self-composed songs on their album. The other songs are written by a similar set of people from their previous albums, including Miss Avery, Angel, Huang Yu Yan, and a couple others. I may make another post if I feel like elaborating on their album, but for now, check out the full track list for their album in the "Songs" tab! Or just click here.

Please support SERA00!

July Update #2 - new single, concert, 9th gen, CASU comeback, new stages

Hey everyone!

I'm back with update #2! This time, all things SERA00! I'm not going to go into great detail here, as this post is meant to introduce you to the things you can look forwards to.

First up, our 35th single, currently titled "This Way to the Moon," will be released this Tuesday, June 12, 2016. More on that later - I will dedicate the next post to this.

The 2016 SERA00 Summer Concert "Walking On Flower Paths" will be taking place near the end of July! As always, it'll be a three day concert, July 29-31, 2016. Just to clarify, no flowers will be harmed in the making of this concert. :P

The 9th generation! I will also dedicate another post to the official announcement of the 9th generation, which will be soon, as they will be making their debut at the summer concert.

CASUT00 will be making their comeback too, and simultaneously with CASU-J. They will share the same title song, but CASU-J will be releasing a Japanese version, while the Canadian based girls will release an English version. They will be coming back with their first full-length album! The title song will be pre-released on Sunday, July 24, 2016, and the full album will be dropping on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (edit: I had the dates a week too early - it's fixed now)

What else is new? Totally, completely, long overdue - new stages! That'll be the 7th stage for Aurora, 5th stage for Angel, and 4th stage for Night. The 00 ranks won't be getting a new stage, but their most current stage (6th) will be updated. That means - all stages are comprised of new stage repertoire, with a couple of SERA00's most recent singles (most recent at the time the stage was debuted) thrown in - so the singles in the 6th stage will be updated with SERA00's current most recent singles.

Alright, I think that's a pretty decent update.

Please support SERA00!

Where do SERA00 members attend school?

Hey everyone!

I know that I regularly complain about school and how it hinders my ability to update this blog readily...and I was going to give the same reason for the lateness of the winter concert and SERA00 Star City recaps. (I'm still going to.) However, I realized that the last time I talked about school was two years ago, when I was in the tenth grade. I don't mean SERA00 School, or complaining about school, but actually dedicating a post to it. The SERA00 member schooling system has changed quite radically since I last wrote about it, so I thought it was worth an update.

First off, I'm in grade 12. If you recall my previous posts about school in ninth and tenth grade, all members were tutored within the SERA00 Complex. We had scheduled academic classes, but they were all exclusively with other SERA00 members, organized by Management. Now, there was nothing specifically wrong with the system - we were all well educated, and those members who wished to continue post-secondary studies were able to, and none of them has complained of being academically behind their peers. The schooling system was tailored to fit around our odd schedules, which made it difficult for us to attend a "normal" school. The concept is similar to child actors and actresses attending school on set.

What was the problem, then? Ultimately, the factor that caused the paradigm shift was the lack of "outside" contact. For many of the members, we could literally spend all of our time, 24/7, within the SERA00 Complex. We study, train, perform, work, eat, and sleep inside the Complex. You could literally never go out. Of course, it didn't exactly happen like that. We did leave the Complex now and then to visit family, go out to eat, have fun, attend events and schedules, etc. I'm sure there were many other factors as well, but this was the main one that Management quoted when the change was announced.

Where do we attend high school now? Two years ago (three? the 2013-2014 school year), the Modern Arts Performing School (MAPS) opened in the closest town to the SERA00 Complex, next to the plaza that Fela's Sweetshop is in. Although still considered a relatively new school, its reputation is already impressive, partly because it is the arts-focused counterpart of the prestigious Guilun Academy. Located in Taiwan, the Guilun Academy is attended by many YS Entertainment artists, including Huang Yu Yan, DRE4M, and ECTI. Unlike MAPS, Guilun Academy students are known for their academic prowess. 

MAPS is an arts school focused on "modern" performing arts. "Modern" bands and dance instead of classical orchestras and traditional dance. Of course, that's not to say that "modern" performing arts are better than traditional performing arts - this just happens to be MAPS' specialty, and it fits SERA00 very well.

Currently, every SERA00 member of high school age is enrolled in MAPS. There are around 500 students in MAPS, and about 60 of them are SERA00/CASUT00 members. MAPS has competitive admission, so students must go through a rigorous application and audition process. SERA00 members have to go through the same process too, although no member has failed to be accepted so far. We're treated pretty much the same as other students. We attend the same classes and the full 9-4 school day. The only exception I can think of is the MAPS Showcase. It's an annual concert that all students prepare intensely for - it's attended not just by parents, but media and entertainment agency recruiters as well. It's a unique chance for students to get noticed. As a result, preparation is intense and consumes many hours not just during but after school as well. It's a requirement for all MAPS students, but SERA00 girls are exempt, as it's simply impossible to squeeze in Showcase prep with all the SERA00 schedules. SERA00 members are already debuted as well, so there's no need to appeal to recruiters, although in the past two years, we have put on a performance as a group at the Showcase, usually our latest single.

SERA00 doesn't recruit at MAPS Showcases, if you were wondering. SERA00 doesn't do street casting in general. All members join through the annual auditions. The only instance ever where Management placed a member in SERA00 is 8th gen's Sayoung Yoon, but she was already a YS Ent. trainee. If a MAPS student wants to join SERA00, they go through the same audition process as the public. So far, SERA00 only has two members who were already MAPS students when they auditioned for SERA00 - 7th gen's Eliza Moir, and 8th gen's Romy Stokes.

Okay, I think this post is long enough. Looking at my school agenda, I have some sort of test or assessment EVERY DAY next week...plus tonight is an Angel Stage :D

Please support SERA00!

Welcome to the SERA00 City!

Hey everyone!

For the past eight years, we've enjoyed performing and interacting with our fans through our nightly SERA00 Stages in the theatre. We've put on well over 2000 shows and together, we've created many memories on that stage. It is the place we were introduced to the world of music, the place where we sang and danced our hearts out, the place where we've grown and learned, and also a place where we've said our goodbyes.

Which is why the announcement I have today comes as a bittersweet one for many members.

If you've watched the MV for our latest release, Ethereal Day, you would have noticed us walking around and dancing in a charming little town. If you assume it was just a set, you'd be mistaken. It was, in fact, filmed in the SERA00 City. 

Welcome to the SERA00 City...the place that will house the next chapter of SERA00's dreams.

The Complex will be undergoing renovation soon, and when completed will no longer be the SERA00 Complex but rather the CASUT00 Complex. CASUT00 is nowhere as big a group as SERA00, and they don't hold nightly stages, so you're probably wondering how they're going to use all that space. There'll be the normal amenities - living quarters, dance and recording studios, etc. The rest of the space will be transformed into an office for YS Canada. Before, the headquarters were located about an hour's drive from the Complex. This will make administration and communication more efficient.

As for SERA00, we will be migrating to the SERA00 City, which will essentially serve as our new Complex. Remember the old indoor amusement park that shut down about a year ago (around 10 minutes northeast of the Complex)? Well it was bought by YS Entertainment, and construction was completed around a month ago, right before the MV filming. That was the first time any of the girls have entered the City.

Since it was built inside what used to be an indoor amusement park, it really does have the charm of a little town, complete with streets and buildings. Residential complexes (our dorms) are scattered along edges of the City, with most of the training facilities located in the middle - the city square, featuring a fountain. The city lights up really prettily at night as well. Everything is like a little store. We could be practicing in the dance studio and be like "oh let's get food across the street". The cafeteria is shaped like an actual restaurant. There's the costume shop, which is really just the design studio where our costume designers create our outfits, and a gym. There are more, but I'm just listing a couple off the top of my mind.

Unfortunately, the cute little city is only available for fan viewing through photos and videos, but let's not forget the one part that you can visit - the SERA00 Theatre! It's a complete copycat of the original theatre. It was even made the same size (even though it could have been a lot bigger) to preserve the intimate feeling. Out front, in addition to the theatre there's also a merchandise shop, a café featuring some of the members' creations on the menu, and a grand hall. We often use the grand hall at the Complex for entire group meetings, concert rehearsals, etc, but the new grand hall is more than twice as large, so we will be able to hold handshake events, fan meetings and the like. Of course, we will continue to hold bigger events in stadiums and other centres, and the City doesn't have a concert hall either :P (what do you expect?)

Before the Complex renovations can begin, SERA00 needs to move out, which is why the City was completed first. We will be making the move in July, and there'll be a two week period between us moving out and construction beginning in which the Complex will be on exhibition. Fans are invited to explore the complex. It is the first and last chance to see the place SERA00 has been living and training in since 2007! I will post times and ticket info later. SERA00 Stages will start taking place at the City instead of the current location the day following the last day of the exhibition.

We'll release lots of photos and videos, so we hope you look forwards to both the SERA00 City and the CASUT00 Complex! (alliteration? XD)

Please support SERA00!

CASUT00 2nd EP "Star Sign"

Hey everyone!

As you know, the two day concert SERA00 ON AIR: Scents of Spring was successfully completed yesterday. Many of you are still waiting for the broadcast to air next week. We've already released the performance of "Ethereal Day" online for you guys to enjoy, and remember the single is released on the 5th (this Friday)!

Maybe you've already heard from fans who attended the concert, but yes - CASUT00 made a surprise performance of the title track of their new EP, "Star Sign"! This act was not announced before, so it was a pleasant surprise for fans. The album will drop the following Friday following SERA00's new single, which is the 12th of June. Here is the tracklist:

01  Every Day
02  Star Sign [title]
03  Love Tomorrow
04  With You
05  Channel
06  Bright Steps

CASUT00's first EP "Chocolate" was a smattering of styles meant to introduce CASUT00 and show off the girl's abilities. The second album focuses more on developing their identity as a group. They took a more coherent approach to choosing the tracks and making sure they all fit with the themes they want to convey. The concept this time is fresh, new, and hopeful, as if finding your first love. Here is the breakdown of each song:

The title track is Star Sign. It is a medium tempo track bordering on ballad-y, with a toned down dance to match the melody. All members.

Every Day and With You are both ballads featuring all the members' vocals in harmony.

Love Tomorrow features Arron, Rachel, Nikki, and Ava, also a slow, beautiful song.

Channel brings up the hype a bit, the most upbeat track of the album, featuring our dancers JY, Isabelle, Holiday, and Madison.

And to round off the album is another medium tempo track, Bright Steps, with all members.

Overall, this album slowed it down a lot from the first, but it's a nice change and I hope you'll all enjoy what CASUT00 has to offer! I guess when Miss Avery gets into a slow mood, it's not only SERA00 getting the ballads!

Please support CASUT00 and SERA00!

Updated Discography!

Hey everyone!

I had so much free time I was procrastinating so I decided to update the discography. Press the "Songs" tab (ßor click the link) at the top of this website and you'll see that the discography is now organized in neat tables! It's similar to the style on Wikipedia. I thought it would make it easier for everyone to find the information if it was better visually organized. I hope you find it useful! ^_^

Please support SERA00!

P.S. CASUT00 is in preparations for a new release too!

CASUT00 second gen? And the 2015 Winter Concert!

It seems as if it's a bit early to talk about auditions. These usually happen in the spring, don't they? I'm not talking about SERA00 today, but CASUT00! CASUT00 currently has 8 Canadian members and 4 international members. If CASU was like SERA00, they'd be recruiting the second generation. Unfortunately for those who wanted to join CASU, it won't work like that. CASUT00 won't be publicly recruiting new members. The number of members is fixed (at least for now) and new members will be added only as current members graduate. The new members will be chosen from the existing pool of company trainees. 

So BASICALLY, if you want to join CASUT00, audition for YS Entertainment! I say that jokingly but if you become a YS trainee, you won't necessarily join CASUT00. You may end up debuting in an idol group similar to DRE4M or ECTI. Which is definitely not a bad thing! Many people vie for the chance to become a trainee at kpop companies like SM, JYP, and YG, and YS is no different. It's in fact much harder to pass the YS audition than the SERA00 audition.

From what I've heard, trainee life is pretty strict and vigorous, so I'm a bit surprised at how lax they let us SERA00 girls off XD We do have training plans, supposedly (I made a post about it a while back), but with the sheer number of girls, we honestly don't follow them very well. It's mostly schedules first, and if you don't have a schedule you're supposed to be training. However, if you take some time off, no one will mind that much. DISCLAIMER: if my juniors are reading this, it's not my fault if you do this and get in trouble!! Management still focuses very much on the idols-you-can-meet concept. They believe that our training is done onstage, where our fans can see us grow and improve. I've mentioned before that this is the main reason why training to become a SERA00 member is so short compared to kpop trainees.

Every couple of months or so, our training does fire up. This is mostly right before we release a new single, and we need to learn new songs and choreography, or we're preparing for a concert and need to brush up on lyrics and dancing. SPEAKING OF CONCERTS...the date of our 2015 SERA00 Winter Concert is set for February 1st! Since we purposefully set it after exams, we expect to see everyone there ;) just joking! We love the fans who are watching from home just as much <3

Of course, there will be some special things happening at the concert. Last year was SERA00's Snowflake Symphony, this year we invite you to SERA00's Land of Wintry Dreams!

Please support SERA00!

CASUT00 at the Elections

Hey everyone!

Have you checked out the poll on the sidebar yet? Make sure to take a look! -------------------> 
So back to the elections a bit, if you haven't caught up on that yet, make sure to read that post first! (it's the one before this one)

Aside from the ranking changes, there weren't any lineup changes made to SERA00, and there weren't any graduations or promotions either. Considering that at least 2/3 of the things I listed above usually happen at events like this, I would say it's an accomplishment! (or disappointment, considering who's view you're looking at this from)

However, even though CASUT00 didn't participate in the SERA00 General Elections, they were in attendance and performed the title track from their recent EP, "Chocolate Weekend". In fact, they were the ones who experienced a small lineup change, and that was the swapping of members Nikki and Holiday from their teams. I added three lists, including CASUT00, to the List of Members page by the way~ Miss Avery says that this small change cannot be considered a lineup change or a team shuffle, since up until now CASUT00 has been performing as 8, and haven't performed as separate teams yet. The management wanted to even out the teams so that there would be an equal number of singers and dancers on each team. I'll post it below, but if you ever want to access the list again, you guys know the drill...list of members tab.....yeah....

Team Azalea:

JY (leader, Azalea captain, lead dancer, 1995)

Isabelle (dancer, 1996)

Arron (centre, main vocalist, 1997)

Nikki (vocals, 1998)

Team Bluebell:

Rachel (Bluebell captain, lead vocalist, 1995)

Ava (vocals, 1997)

Holiday (dancer, 1997)

Madison (main dancer, 1996)

CASU-J:

Konomi (leader, main dancer, 1993)

Sachi (main vocalist, 1994)

Haruka (main rapper, 1993)

Yuka (lead vocalist, 1995)

And that about sums up today's post. I have a TON of homework to do (any ideas for a creative assignment on Lispector? :P) so I'll catch you guys later <3

Please support SERA00!

YS ENTERTAINMENT: NEW GROUP

Hey everyone!
First of all, thanks to all the wonderful fans who came out for our Thanksgiving stage today! It was really fun :) So as you might have clued in, our company is preparing to debut a new boy band soon! Here are the current artists under YS Entertainment:

YS Entertainment
Huang Yu Yan (female solo artist)
Alex Xue (male solo artist)
DRE4M (3 member girl group)
ECTI (4 member boy band)
Tem:po (3 member boy band)
Dolce (7 member girl group)

YS Entertainment - INFINITY PROJECT
SERA00 (who knows how many member girl group)
CASUT00 (multi-national 8 + 4 member girl group)

YS Entertainment has been pretty successful in terms of spreading their idols internationally.

SERA00 and CASUT00 promote in English and are popular in North America.
Tem:po promotes in Mandarin and is popular in Taiwan.
DRE4M, ECTI, and Alex Xue mainly promote in Mandarin, but also in English, and are mainly popular in Taiwan.
Dolce and CASU-J promote in Japanese and are mainly popular in Japan.
Huang Yu Yan mainly promotes in Mandarin, frequently in Japanese, sometimes in English, and rarely in Korean. As a result, her popularity is quite high throughout Asia.

Now, onto the new group.
NAME: tba
MEMBERS: 5
NATIONALITY: mixed Chinese and Korean
PROMOTING LANGUAGE(S): Korean, Japanese, Chinese, (English)
BASED IN: Korea
DEBUT DATE: by the end of 2014. Their first song will be released in both Chinese and Korean. They will debut and promote in China first, and eventually make their way to Korea.

I'll keep updating you guys as more information comes in!

CASUT00 First EP - CHOCOLATE!

Hey everyone!
CASUT00 is back with their first extended play - CHOCOLATE!
Check out the tracklist; I'll make a more detailed post soon. (I guess I didn't actually end up doing that XD) EDIT (2015/05/30): I will add some detail below.

Cherry is a cute song with a fresh and natural feel. It is the only song aside from the title that features all members.

Chocolate Weekend is the title track. Fast, upbeat and happy.

Sunkissed is a smooth, sultry track reminiscent of Red Velvet's remake "Be Natural".

The Time Has Passed is a slower ballad showcasing the best vocals of CASUT00.

Inked is a fun, medium tempo song.

Sisterhood is an EDM, there aren't any lyrics. The track was created by ECTI's Fukuhara Kyou.

Please support CASUT00!

CASUT00 positions

Hey everyone!

More posts to make up for my inactivity (and more inactivity to come - exams TT.TT). This will be an informative post, I'll break down the positions of CASUT00's members for you. It's different from SERA00, in which everybody performs everything in sync; CASUT00 girls actually have positions.

CASUT00's team system doesn't play as big a part in their performances compared to SERA00, since they usually perform as eight, train and practice as eight, make public appearances as eight...

VOCAL LINE

Arron

Rachel

Nikki

Ava

DANCE LINE

JY

Holiday

Isabelle

Madison

Of course, all members can sing AND dance, but that's just their official positions in CASUT00. 

As for CASU-J, the lead vocalist is Yuka, main dancer is Konomi, main rapper is Haruka, and the main vocalist is Sachi.

Please support SERA00!

P.s. if you've read down to here I'll drop the news to you guys first, our company is thinking of debuting another group under the Infinity Project sometime in the future, but I believe they'll be situated overseas like CASU-J, not in North America.

SERA00 Regimen: Pre-debut

Hey everyone!

This is the second post in the SERA00 Regimen series, so if you haven't read the first one do that first. I'm just going to jump into the continuation.

PRE-DEBUT

The next stage is the pre-debut. This is where you are intensively trained for about a month leading up to your debut as a 00 rank. In CASUT00's case, they trained for six months to directly debut as official members. 

While CASUT00 did drop members from the line-up before debut, SERA00 actually doesn't do that. If you pass the audition, you can basically prepare to debut sooner or later (unless you're fired for other reasons o.O). However, it's not uncommon for girls who realize that they can't take the life to leave.

First and foremost, you have to realize that in the end, we are idols and we kind of need to look good. That's standard. So the very first thing we do during the pre-debut is learn how to take care of ourselves. Things like having a healthy diet, and putting on makeup. The stylists give you a makeover and teach you how to achieve it. 

Often they'll cut your hair and suggest everyday styles that will work. For example, ponytail, pigtails, braids, or keeping your hair down? Which ones do you pull off best? How to curl or straighten your hair, apply eyeliner. Which eyebrow shape suits you, which style of makeup complements you best.

They'll choose products for your skin to help keep it clear and stuff. But other than in your pre-debut, that's all the beauty lessons you're going to get unless you go to a stylist by yourself. Because of the sheer numbers of members, it's impractical for each girl to take her turn with the makeup team. So unless we're appearing on television, or having a big concert or something, we usually do our own makeup.

Workout! With all the physical energy being an idol drains, staying in top shape is a must! So the pre-debut puts a lot of emphasis on exercising. No, they don't spend money on getting us stylists, but they get us each a personal trainer. Yep. Intense workouts until you're deemed "fit", and then you go to the gym by yourself. To give you an example of "fit", Sassan is fit. None of the 00 ranks or recently promoted members are considered fit. Not even Macey or Sammi. Am I fit? I was declared fit maybe two months ago? :D but it took me like more than two years o__o

So basically (I use that phrase often in general, don't I?), a pre-debut training day would look something like this. 

(7-9 AM) You wake up in the morning and exercise first thing with your trainer for about two hours.

(9 AM -12 PM) Attend school. Most trainees are school aged. If not, then practice or do something else.

(12-1 PM) Everyone lunch time!

(1-5 PM) Two slots for two-hour classes. You probably have more than two so it'll be spread out over the days. Your classmates are pretty much different every day. The classes are singing, dancing, choreography, and media. Singing is pretty straightforwards. Dancing is literally teaching you moves, working towards being able to dance freestyle to any music that comes on. Choreography is the class where you learn the choreography for all of SERA00's songs, but they start out with what you need to debut, which is the most recent 00 rank stage. Media is how to handle yourself in front of an audience. For example, MC-ing, posture, TV appearances, etc. They may teach you what producers expect you to bring to a show and have you practice so you don't freeze up on your first appearance on national television. 

(5-7 PM) Group class. This is where everything is put together in preparation for your debut. Since you never have singing or choreography with ALL the fellow trainees, this is your chance. You'll practice singing and dancing in sync, and perfect formation changes for each song. 

(7-8 PM) Dinner time ~

(8-9 PM) Free time.

(9-10 PM) Evaluation O.O Remember how I said SERA00 won't cut girls before their debut? I lied. Well, kind of. So you see, the thing is, SERA00 is a big group. We have a set formation for each song, but the line-up is never the same each time it's performed. So in that sense, we don't really have a line-up of members like CASUT00 or other idol groups do. The number of new members we admit doesn't really affect us. 

However you can be cut if you don't perform well on the evaluations. There are levels 1-7 with 7 being the best, and you need to have at least a 5 or higher in all 4 classes or you won't debut. Every night you have a chance to show off to the teachers, who will decide whether your skills have improved enough to move up a level. When you start out most likely you're a 1 or 2 in each subject. 

When I debuted, I had a 6 in singing, media, and choreography, and a 5 in dancing. Rome had 6 in choreography and dancing, and 5 in media and singing. It's harder to get to the higher levels. Only one or two trainees get sevens each generation.

I heard that for the sixth generation, Macey , Echo, and Tomiko got 7666, while Sammi got 6666, and Yumichan got 7766. That's a scary generation, considering the highest marks are set by our seniors. Every current media member got at least one 7. The top holders are Geneviève, Maya, and  River with 7766, Luna, Fracken, and Harley with 7776, and Angel and Sassan with the only 7777s to date. 

I remember it being a pretty harsh routine, and even I only endured it for about a month and a half. The CASUT00 girls lasted 6 months! Both Arron and JY got 7777, but they got 6 times the time to do it. Not that the achievement isn't great, it's still pretty amazing. 

So that's the day. There are no more scheduled events after 10, but many girls choose to go practice by themselves or with friends. Every member has a SERA00/CASUT00 ID card that grants them access to our facilities, which are electronically locked. 

Usually all members have halted SERA00 activities by 12, but it's actually not uncommon, especially if we have something big coming up, to see members in the dance studies at 3 or 4 in the morning. New members, DON'T DO THAT! It'll ruin your health. You need sleep to function! Trust me, I know <<not mentioning August 2012>>.

So. Audition. Get in. Get at least four fives. Moving onto 00 ranks next time!

Please support SERA00!

SERA00 Regimen: Auditions

Hey everyone!

I noticed that you guys are interested in reading posts about how we train/debut, stuff like that. So having just refreshers my memory while training with CASUT00, I'll give you an updated in-detail post. If you don't like reading long posts about our system, just skip all the posts pertaining to this! So I already explained part of our system in a post before explaining our schedules. 

Now, first of all, it's not exactly correct to refer to our literal schedules as schedules. Maybe timetable or agenda would be better. We use the term "schedule" to refer to events an idol has to attend. For example, if Sassan has to attend a radio broadcasting at 3 pm, then Sassan has a schedule in the afternoon.

So I guess there are four main stages of SERA00. 

1) Auditions

2) Pre-debut training

3) 00 rank

4) Official member

For SERA00, the pre-debut training is about one month of intense training, which seems meager compared to overseas idols, who are trained for years since they were young before debuting. However, SERA00 encourages fans to support their favourite members and watch them grow, which is why most training and experience is gained when girls are in the 00 rank stage. Each girl's time in 00 rank differs, ranging from a couple of months to a couple of years. The girls that were promoted at the Winter Concert were 00 ranks for roughly a year. Then, of course, you are an official member until you graduate, or the rare case of demotion. 

CASUT00 is pretty similar, except the first gens are skipping over the 00 rank stage. Instead, they spent 6 months in the pre-debut stage, 5 months more than usual. And it was pretty intense, more intense than I remember mine being. 

So first I'll post about the audition process. I won't go into much detail since I've already posted a lot about auditions. Basically, you send in your applications and those chosen are briefly interviewed. Why are interviews first? Because SERA00 is not necessarily looking for talent, but rather, potential. So singing and dancing come after. 

Once the interview stage is passed, you audition for singing AND dancing. It's not singing first or dancing first, you're evaluated on both. At this stage it's still the mass group auditions.

If you pass that stage then it's one on one auditions for, again, both singing and dancing. 

Then the final audition goes back to group audition again, but of course the group is way smaller now, maybe 30-40 girls? After all, you are auditioning for SERA00, a girl group, so you have to be able to work in coordination with your fellow idols. 

Once you get in, you have to get your life in order before you enter the pre-debut stage, which starts just a few days after! There are actually a number of things you have to worry about. First of all, residency, since you most likely don't live anywhere near the Complex. Are you going to live at the Complex, live with a relative near the Complex, rent a place, etc.?

And then school; you will probably have to drop out of your current school and either transfer to a school closer to the Complex, or study in the Complex, which is the most popular choice for members. Of course, once you get to university that's another matter. 

Next comes the pre-debut stage, to be discussed in the next post. 

Please support SERA00!

CASUT00 Pre-debut Officialness

Hey everyone!

With CASUT00's impending debut, everything has finally been finalized! I'll post the training and debut stories later, so today we'll focus on what's official. 

First, all the members will debut as official members. There will be no trainees/00 ranks for the first generation. The overall leader, JY, and the ace, Arron, announced last time still stand, as well as all positions in CASU-J. However the same cannot be said for the other captains. 

There's been changes in the line-up, as a couple members have been dropped before the debut. Four girls have been dropped, with Team Narcissus being disbanded. The girls dropped are Narcissus' Via Rose, April, and Maylin, and Bluebell's Clover. These girls will be given a free pass to the final round should they ever audition for SERA00.

What else? Madison of Azalea and Isabelle of Bluebell have been swapped. Rachel, the remaining member of Narcissus, is now the leader of Bluebell. The official debut line-up is listed below. As I mentioned before, the CASU-J line-up remained untouched. 

After an intense six month training, all of the girls look a lot more like idols now! And not just because of their looks. Now, they're in shape, and can sing and dance in coordination.

So how do they look? Let's line them up in terms of height. The tallest member is their leader, JY. Here's a list from tallest to shortest. 

JY - Rachel - Arron - Isabelle - Madison - Ava - Holiday - Nikki. 

Rachel warmed up her hair colour to a chocolatey brown. JY has jet black hair dip-dyed in blue. Holiday also has black hair. Isabelle and Nikki have blonde hair, while Madison has dirty blonde and Ava has golden-brown hair. 

But our ace (for those of you who notice that I keep calling the centre the 'ace' it's the same thing) has the boldest hair. Now she definitely stands out amongst the members with her bright pink hair. Like, f(x) Krystal pink. 

As for CASU-J, they're like Arron x 4. They were discussing with management how they could be more unique in terms of looks, and came up with a common interest; anime. So...even though they might be criticized for going overboard, they're going to debut with Konomi's platinum blonde, Sachi's lavender hair, Haruka's sky blue hair, and Yuka's baby pink hair. Exactly like something from an anime. They look AMAZING. No kidding. But I guess they can't stay like that forever. Their hair will start growing in and it'll be a pain to keep bleaching it. 

Anyways, here's that list I was talking about ;)

Below: Leader - bolded. Centre - italicized. Age - (parenthesis). 

Team Azalea:

JY (18)

Arron (16)

Isabelle (17)

Holiday (16)

Team Bluebell:

Rachel (18)

Ava (16)

Nikki (15)

Madison (17)

CASU-J Members:

Team Sakura:

Konomi (20)

Sachi (19)

Haruka (20)

Yuka (18)

Please support CASUT00 and SERA00!

CASUT00 debuting soon!

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently. That's because I'm actually really busy with CASUT00. Our concurrent period will end this month with the official debut of CASUT00 on March 29, 2014, having trained for six months with Illusionary. The debut single will be named..."Illusions". Shocker XD

Wish us luck!

Please support SERA00 and CASUT00!

Who's the Centre of CASUT00? CASUT00 Positions!

Hey everyone!

Did you see CASUT00 performing yesterday? They don't have their own song yet so we performed covers of SERA00 and other artists. Illusionary's concurrent term is coming to the four-month mark! Only two months left :( it's really fun working with them. 

So anyways the captains of each team and the group's centre have been chosen! JY will be CASUT00's overall leader, as well as Azalea's captain. Team Bluebell's captain is Ava, Narcissus' is Rachel, and CASU-J will be explained separately below. 

As well, a big big congrats to ARRON of Team Azalea!!!!! She is now the Centre of CASUT00! Oh how exciting XD ~~~ I'm wiggling around here behind the screen. Maybe she'll get together with Sassan to learn from her, and then JY can learn from Angel. 

Even though I'm explaining it below, CASU-J is basically a separate group so I will also congratulate Konomi, CASU-J's leader, and Sachi, CASU-J's ace (centre)!

Below: Leader - bolded. Centre - italicized. Age - (parenthesis). 

Team Azalea:

JY (18)

Arron (16)

Madison (17)

Holiday (16)

Team Bluebell:

Ava (16)

Nikki (15)

Clover (16)

Isabelle (17)

Team Narcissus:

Rachel (18)

April (15)

Maylin (16)

Via Rose (17)

CASU-J Members:

CASU-J has three positions, the leader, Konomi, and the "ace", Sachi, but Yuka is the youngest, which isn't actually a position but is kind of well-known since overseas idol groups believe that the cuter the "youngest" (maknae), the more successful the group will be. 

Team Sakura:

Konomi (20)

Sachi (19)

Haruka (20)

Yuka (18)

Please support SERA00, CASUT00, and CASU-J!

SERA00's schedule and our company!

Hey everyone! With the recent announcement of expansion of the Infinity Project overseas, many fans were wondering how our training regime works, since Asian entertainment agencies are famous (or infamous...) for their factory-like production of idols. I've outlined life in the complex before, but I haven't really explained the system itself. 

It's kinda complicated and I'm not the best at explaining, you might have to read it twice XD (warning long post!)

Hmm, I would have to say the system resembles that of its Asian counterparts more than Western. Here in North America, the artist has to pave their own way, but in more than one cases in Asia, artists can be famous even before they debut! Entertainment companies like YS Entertainment scout potential talents and train them, and then package the best trainees into a group and promote them. Often fans are anticipating the groups before their first single. You could even say that is the case of CASUT00, where they were famous before they debuted since they are basically endorsed by SERA00. 

As for our system, it's tailored specifically for SERA00's large numbers so it's not one feature that CASUT00 will be adopting. You could almost compare us to an agency, with SERA00 being the company and us members being its roster...

The three main areas that members are trained in are academics, vocals, and dance. When you're accepted as a 00 rank, you're graded in each category, and there are certain gradings 00s have to obtain before they are considered for promotion. It doesn't stop when you're promoted though, we still attend lessons as members. 

The Academic sector is not like school lessons. Sometimes they teach that too, but it's not first priority. Academics are anything the management thinks you need to brush up on. Since SERA00 is managed under the Infinity Project, a collaboration with overseas distribution companies, we're always trying to break into the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean markets. For example, CASUT00's sub-unit CASU-J is located in Japan. 

As a result, the top members are required to study a range of languages as well as the conventional dancing and singing. Sassan was already fluent in Japanese in addition to  English, now she speaks Mandarin and Korean as well. Angel came with fluency in three languages from her ethnical background; English, Mandarin, and Italian. Like Sassan, she's learned Japanese and Korean, and can speak conversational Cantonese. And of course, since we're Canadian, French... Waaahhh, it's mind blowing thinking of the number of languages Angel can speak. (even without my Angel bias!!) However you guys probably know that it's a common occurrence amongst idols to speak many languages. 

So there are your Academics; if you're not learning languages you learn school stuff, which is mandatory for members 18 and under. Most top members are over 18. Then there's dancing and vocals, pretty straightforwards. 00 ranks have a lesson called Training, that's everything from how to take a photoshoot to acting to how to hold oneself in public. It's not usually the grade in Academics, Dance, or Vocals that holds back their promotion, it's the Training. But after you debut there aren't really any acting lessons anymore. 

Should I post a picture of our schedule? Each day we have to check the database when we make up to see which schedule we have. We have four variations of schedules (because there used to be four teams) and they are called S, E, R, and A. Each variation has the same classes, just in a different order, and are held concurrently. So each day a schedule will be assigned to each team to best meet their work schedule. Only schedule S has the SERA00 Stage; so whichever team is assigned schedule S will be performing that night's stage. So for example, S has a work block in the morning, E has it in the afternoon, R has it mid-day and A has it in the night. They're coordinated so that they don't clash - only one dance class at a time, so others are doing work, vocals, or academics, etc. 

00s have a different schedule, they don't have a work block. They have training, and they have the SERA00 Stage every single day. 

So we won't always go by the schedule. If we have a big scheduled event like group photoshoot or public appearance that requires the top members, we can't just send one team, as all the A ranks are spread out amongst the team. So I estimate we will use the schedules maybe 3-4 days a week? It's enough though, cuz the schedules are packed and they're extremely tiring. 

So if you've gotten this far in the post, yay! Check out guilunacademy.blogspot.com to find out more about our overseas Infinity Project counterpart; YS Entertainment. 

Please support SERA00!

SERA00 Fashion ft Arron

Hey everyone!!

My fans at the recent concerts said that they liked the SERA00 Fashion with Arron segments, so I made her send me more photos >.< And yes, I realize that it should technically be "CASUT00 Fashion with Arron"....whatever -_-

Arron says to excuse her messy house, but I greyed it out in the photo for her. This is Arron's casual Saturday outfit ^_^ enjoy and please support SERA00!

And CASUT00. :)

[EDIT: picture removed]

SERA00 Fashion! with Arron~

Hey everyone! Sorry for the less frequent posts, school and events together are robbing me of time as we near the holidays :(

The other day when the CASUT00 girls came to the complex to use the practice and recording rooms, I tried to get some pics for you guys! I managed to make Arron stand still in front of the piano long enough to snap a pic of her pretty black and white dress <3 

Please support SERA00!

P.S. the extra stuff and sparkles are my doing :p don't blame Arron

EDIT: I'm soooo sorry guys this picture has to be taken down bc apparently at the time of posting CASUT00 wasn't authorized by SERA00's (or their's, I can't remember) publicity agent or something?? -__- yeah, I don't know. Sorry guys!