FOLLOW: the concert

Hey everyone!

To promote the upcoming SERA00 6th General Election and the 36th single, we are holding our first one day concert series - "FOLLOW"!

On Saturday, October 22, SERA00 will be hosting a free guerilla concert in various locations around Toronto. How it works - there will be ten mini-performances, each with a different set list, performed by different groups of girls throughout the day. The first mini-performance begins at 10AM, with each subsequent performance starting at the top of the next hour. The members have been grouped into 10 groups, with one leader per group. The "leaders" are actually the top ten ranking members from the previous election (which means I get to lead a group too!). You can refer to the concert poster above to see who's performing when.

At each mini-performance, we'll be performing four songs - three group songs and one solo by the leader. If you're interested, I'll be performing "It's Okay, Wolf Boy" :D. There'll also be a chance for each member to give a short spiel to promote herself for the upcoming election.

What's the catch? Location ??? Hehehe, that's right - you'll have to find that out yourself! We'll be posting clues on social media as to the location of the first mini-performance. Each performance lasts half an hour, and at the end, a giant arrow will light up, pointing in a certain direction. That'll be the only clue as to where the location of the next performance is until it starts. The fans will have to work in unity to follow the arrow to the next group of girls, and so on. The location of the next performance will never be more than a half hour's walk from the previous performance. And at the end, congregate at the city square to join the main event of the night - a full length concert with all of the members of SERA00! CASUT00 will be making a special appearance as well.

If you make your way to the location of the final concert, you'll be able to hear some new, unreleased music - Luraland is opening up with her solo single "Follow Me".  You'll also present for the first playing of our 36th single, "Follow the Railroad Home"! The MV drops at 12AM the next day (technically 4 hrs after the final concert begins).

The set list for the final 8PM concert is a secret for now, so I'll update you after the concert, along with how the event went. I was really excited when Miss Avery first told us about it, and I'm still really looking forwards it. I hope I'll see you all there!

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36th ELECTION single: Follow the Railroad Home

Hey everyone!

Finally dropping the streak of fantastical concepts (but keeping the long titles :P), SERA00's 36th single adds a touch of nostalgia to the fall.

The album drops October 23, 2016. Voting opens up 12 AM the same day, and lasts the usual two weeks, ending November 5, 2016 at 11:59 PM. The election results concert is being held the next day at the Canada Stadium in Toronto. Oh by the way, did you know that this year's album includes a raffle ticket for one of five free pairs of tickets to the results concert? Ooooh :D For those of you who are not as lucky, tickets can be bought during the voting period as well. For any first time buyers who are worrying that the two week voting window will be over before your CD arrives in the mail, worry not - as long as you purchase your album through an official supplier, you can apply to receive your voting code and raffle ticket via email.

TRACKLIST*

Follow the Railroad Home (title)

?

?

5 Days (Type Aurora)

Spectacular (Type Angel)

Deadline (Type Night)

Online release:

She Knows (b-side)

Together We Will (c-side)

*the track list is kind of ambiguous at this point - I've explained why below

MAIN CAST

Centre: Sassan

Luna, Maya, Angel, Harley, Evie, Kotoka, Luraland, Yumichan, Fracken, Alyss, Geneviève, Wyoming, Brindle

I've been hearing that the b-side and c-side won't be included in the CD. I haven't heard it directly, since I wouldn't be participating in it regardless, but apparently the B and C ranks haven't had their recording session yet. There's usually a deadline for recording - past a certain date, nothing more can be recorded for the single, since they need to master all the music and send the CDs into production. If the b-side and c-sides haven't been recorded yet, then they probably won't be included in the upcoming single. I can understand why they'd be upset. The election single is the last chance before the upcoming election to promote themselves through an official release. The b and c-sides give these girls a chance to shine, where they aren't pitted against the more well known members. But if the b and c-sides won't be included in the CD, why did they give them songs to begin with?

I just took a break from writing this post to attend a main cast dance practice for the upcoming single. I asked Angel about the b-side c-side situation, and she confirmed that they won't be on the track list like usual, but they'll be released online. I know Management wouldn't release the CD with just the title and team songs - so the fact that they're not including the b and c-sides probably means that they're leaving the spots open for other songs. A solo, likely, since I haven't seen any groups of girls in the recording studios. Although, there is a rumour that Sassan, Angel, Luna, and Geneviève have been seen meeting frequently. They happen to be the four remaining first generation members. Perhaps there's something going on there?

Anyways, the B and C ranks shouldn't have to worry too much about lack of exposure before the election, since this year SERA00 is holding a promotional event we've never done before, both to introduce the 36th single and to promote the election. We're holding a special event titled "FOLLOW"...which I will tell you the details of in the following post...ha...haha...okay. I'm very excited for it. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

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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 -

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Uni life + Yura's birthday

Hey everyone!

Yura's birthday just passed - for those of you who are wondering, who's Yura? That's a good question! She's another member of SERA00, and this blog's (supposed) co-author. She's an '02 liner, brought on to supplement this blog's posts as I transition into university. Yep, Evie is not a high schooler anymore...

Anyways, I told Yura that if she wasn't going to write anything for the blog, she should at least post some pretty photos for you all to see. (Of course, that didn't happen either.) But no worries! I have photos of the event as well...so without further ado, Yura's birthday cakes:

It's only the second week of university, and it's already beginning to feel overwhelming. I really wonder how my SERA00 seniors juggled both university and shows. If you've been attending the nightly SERA00 Stages, you may have noticed that my appearance in the Angel stages have been somewhat erratic. Shout-out to the 00 ranks who have been filling in for me! I do apologize for that, and once things settle down (hopefully soon), I believe Management will release more accurate member schedules for the upcoming season. Here's where I've been spending most of my mornings:

I took this photo with my phone. You may recognize the building as the Isabel Bader Theatre (or you can just read it from the photo :P), one of the locations at which U of T classes are held. Come say hi if you see me around!

Yes, many things have happened since I last posted. I do realize that it's unrealistic for me to post as often as I did before (although you may have things to say about my frequency in the past year as well...), but I'll try my best to post periodically. So yes - many things have happened, and there are many things happening soon - I'll see you then! For now-

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SERA00 in Orlando: Universal & Disney

Hey everyone!

In my last post, I told you guys we were going to Orlando, so here's my first photo update post! I apologize in advance if the formatting of these posts are off. I don't have access to the laptop I usually post from, so I'm doing it all from my phone.

In front of Hogsmeade's Forbidden Journey at Universal Studios' IOA

Diagon Alley

Gringotts Bank in Diagon Alley at night

Mt. Everest in Disney's Animal Kingdom

Entryway in Morroco at Disney's EPCOT

I'll update the formatting once I'm back in Canada. So for now-

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Vacation & flight delays

Hey everyone!

With the summer concert now over, SERA00 is going on a working vacation! We're taking a flight over to Orlando, Florida. First stop, Universal Studios - then we make our way over to Disney World. If you're going the same time as us, you may be able to see us perform :) Hehe, it's been a cool experience being in the centre of our latest performances of This Way to the Moon. We'll also be filming the music video for our 36th single while we're there. I'll keep you guys updated! Here's a photo of some free food, because our flight was delayed...

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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.

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Introducing the 9th generation!

Hey everyone!

Today I'd like to introduce SERA00's 9th generation in advance of their debut at the 2016 SERA00 Summer Concert "Walking on Flower Paths."

Cassandra Seong "Cassie"
Celia Park
Gianna Li "Joy"
Kaira Hayes [ACE of the 9th generation]
Koto Lazos
Linden Kelly
Milla Cassano
Saerim Kim
Valerie Trent "Velvet/Vel"

Indeed, you may find that the list seems somewhat lacking - at nine girls, the 9th generation is the lowest number of girls accepted in the history of SERA00. Even the 1st generation had more than nine girls. It is true that SERA00 is trying to downsize - not significantly, since part of the charm of the group comes with our unconventionally high number of members, but to a more manageable number. Not only does it allow Management to better handle the group, it also gives each girl a bigger chance of exposure. Most of the limelight does tend to fall on the more popular members of SERA00, so for many members, getting through the audition is only the first challenge towards stardom. I think the magic number is around 60 right now, approximately 20 girls per team. But don't take my word for it - my sources are unofficial.

But of course, the 9th generation's low numbers doesn't make them any less of a generation - in fact, less spaces means the odds of getting in were higher this year. It's a feat to be congratulated. To the aspiring girls who didn't make it this time, don't worry - SERA00 will still be holding yearly auditions, and you can always try again next year! Or perhaps another route can be to audition for YS Entertainment? Although the odds of being accepted as a company trainee are significantly higher than SERA00's auditions, the company does hold auditions more frequently - once a month at all locations.

You may recall that the ace of the 8th generation, Sayoung Yoon, was the first SERA00 member who did not partake in our annual audition. She was the first YS trainee who was placed into the group by Management. Following her success, Management has decided to repeat the move this year. Both YS Japan and YS Taiwan have sent over one trainee each, Cassie and Joy respectively. Which means that technically, there were only 7 spots to be filled through the SERA00 auditions this year, compared to the usual 12~16. A rather competitive year.

As usual, I'll provide a brief summary of my first impressions of the new girls. Hmm...I do wonder what they think of me though. I literally sat through their final stage auditions and initial training in order to observe them and write about them...

The YS girls. What can I say? Not to sound biased, but Cassie and Joy top all the other girls in every aspect of training. This isn't a bad thing though. As I've already explained with Sayoung, being a company trainee, they've both already gone through extensive training. Kaira, the selected ace of the 9th generation, has an outgoing and energetic personality, is willing to help others, and is fairly talented in both singing and dancing. Saerim is also another girl whose skills are well-rounded. In terms of singing, Celia, Linden, and Milla stand out, while Koto and Velvet are more dance-inclined. For visuals, I'd say Joy and Koto? They're all beautiful girls.

For any fans who can somehow remember that yes, there is another Trent already in SERA00 (Evalyn Trent), I'd just like to mention that she and Valerie are not related.

If you've browsed the site lately, you'd notice that I redid most of the lists of members - it took quite some time, but I think it's now easier to read and more efficient for fans who want to access the members' information. Enjoy :)

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