Anime / King of Prism

It's been one year since the Over the Rainbow boys made their mark, and now everyone is trying to get into Edel Rose to be like them. Their latest focus: the Prism King contest, an event held every four years to crown only the most dedicated and appealing of young male performers. Suddenly Edel Rose met with a serious opponent in another idol school — Schwartz Rose, who also wants to compete for the title. Who will come out on top? Who will take the coveted quadrennial prize? Who will make the ladies swoon the most? And what is Schwartz Rose's deal?

King of Prism is a male spinoff of the Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live anime and a part of the larger Pretty Series franchise, taking place 1.5 years after the events of the last episodes of the former. The movie was first teased in PriPara The Movie before being officially announced later in 2015. The movie was first seen in theaters in January 9, 2016, selling an amazing 600 million yen overall at the end of its run, and 30 million in the first month alone. It proved so popular with audiences that a sequel was immediately considered and greenlit, with King of Prism: Pride the Hero opening in July of 2017. The series also received a novelization, a mobile phone game titled King of Prism: Prism Rush! Live in 2017 which largely keeps the same writers as Rainbow Live, a stage play, and a manga spinoff series, King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm Party Time.

The series, as is the case for many idol franchises, got its own concert in 2017. Titled "King of Prism Super Live Ready Sparking!", it features all of the actors from the first two movies, singing the songs featured in them.

• King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm (2016)
  • King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm: Party Time (2016): Manga adaptation
  • King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm ~Over the Rainbow! (2016): Manga focused on the titular group's growth
  • King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm: Mune Kyun One More Jump (2016): Gag spinoff
• King of Prism: Pride the Hero (2017)
  • King of Prism: Over the Sunshine! (2017): A stage musical condensing both King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm and Pride the Hero
  • King of Prism: Prism Rush! Live (2017): Rhythm Game on mobile devices meant to create a connection to Pride the Hero and Shiny Seven Stars
  • Young of Prism: Boku, Umareta (2018): A Spinoff Babies novelization with short stories focused on each of the characters from when they were babies
• King of Prism: Shiny Seven Stars (2019)
• King of Prism All Stars: Prism Show Best 10 (2020)

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Provides examples of:

• Advertised Extra: The members of Over The Rainbow are advertised as the main characters in the first two movies, but Koji rarely gets screentime (especially in Pride the Hero, where he's Put on a Bus to Hollywood) due to the story focusing on Hiro and Shin.
• Alliterative Name: The third part of the series is titled Shiny Seven Stars, which is also abbreviated as SSS.
• Anachronic Order: Most of the characters' backstories in Shiny Seven Stars is told in flashbacks while the Prism 1 scoring takes place in present time, which can get confusing.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: The character models in Rainbow Live were much simpler and childish, but in King of Prism, the characters look more detailed and mature. This is most evident when comparing how Koji, Hiro, and Kazuki looked in both series, where they were drawn with a much smaller build in Rainbow Live. The animation quality in King of Prism improved vastly due to being released later and running on a film budget.
• Ascended Extra: Yu was originally a minor character in Rainbow Live, but here, he's one of the main characters.
• Audience Participation: The movie showings have "Cheer Screens"; they can cheer and sing along with the in-series audience, play the Straight Man during comedy scenes, and have scripted reactions during certain parts of the film.
• Audience Shift: From Rainbow Live, which was primarily focused towards little girls. The King of Prism movies, on the other hand, have major focus on the male idols and much more fanservice geared more towards older female audiences.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Hiro wins the Prism King Cup, and during his Prism Jump, The King of Prism, the Prism Goddess personally floats down just to give it to him.
• Bathtub Scene: Jin and Schwartz Rose seem to do a lot of planning in their extravagant communal bath house.
• Bittersweet Ending: In Shiny Seven Stars, Shine is reawakened and possesses Shin, and his performance at the Prism 1 Grand Prix earns 0 karats because it ends up scaring the audience. The seven Edel Rose freshmen manage to seal him and earn 20000 karats for their unit performance, but it's not enough to beat Schwartz Rose. Even though Jin essentially wins, he doesn't destroy Edel Rose.
• Call-Back:
  • Louis says "Happy Naru!" after performing Naru's Prism Jump, "100% Pure Pure Arrow."
  • In Prism Rush! Live, during the "Road to SSS 9" event, Louis tells Shin about the one time the Prism Sparkle had faded from the world, and seven heroes helped bring it back, even singing Rinne's song, "Gift." This references how Naru and the other girls, including June, had helped Rinne save the Prism Sparkle in episode 50 of Rainbow Live.
  • Yukinojo's episode in Shiny Seven Stars references him giving up his position in the Prism King Cup's Thunder Session to Shin during Pride the Hero.
  • Taiga's episode in Shiny Seven Stars showed that he moved from Tokyo on the same day Wakana discovers Ann had stolen her center position in their club's Prism Show, an event previously featured through a flashback in episode 23 of Rainbow Live.
  • Kakeru's episode in Shiny Seven Stars deals with the repercussions he faced after trying to stop Jin from cheating his way through the Prism King Cup in Pride the Hero.
  • Alexander's episode in Shiny Seven Stars references Rei Kurokawa's past and the events of the Prism King Cup's Fly High Session, which was seen in a flashback in episode 44 of Rainbow Live.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The main cast consists of young, attractive male Prism Stars.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The main cast of boys do have slight variations to their bodies while still maintaining the same style. Petite, muscular, square chin, round face, and anything in between, the boys are.
• Cerebus Retcon: Near the final quarter of Shiny Seven Stars, Taiga is penalized for interfering with Alexander's Prism Show, which puts Schwarz Rose in the lead. Since Shin is the only one left to perform, he tells him not to worry because he'll make up the point loss. Later, when it's his turn to perform, he ends up earning 0 karats because Shine took over his body.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The Prism World cuts off the Prism Sparkle during the Edel Rose 7 Stars' performance. However, the audience begins singing their song (which the audience in real life can join too, with the lyrics appearing on screen), which allows a new Prism Goddess to be established and return the Prism Sparkle.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • The main six girls from Rainbow Live make minor appearances. In King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm, they appear in magazines and posters. When the movie became popular enough for a sequel, they make minor speaking cameos in Pride the Hero and also watch the Prism King Cup with the audience. They also appear as the Audience Surrogate scenes in Over the Rainbow's Prism Jumps (Naru or Bell appear in Hiro's, Ito appears in Koji's, and Ann or Wakana appear in Kazuki's).
  • The girls from Dragon Diner (non-speaking background characters from Rainbow Live) appear in the audience in King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm.
  • Meganee and Meganii show up at certain points in Pride the Hero. Meganee shows up as a cheer girl, while Meganii is a janitor. Meganee also shows up as Shin's mom in Shiny Seven Stars and with the same voice actress, Kanae Itō.
  • Pride the Hero specific:
    • The Prism Goddess is depicted as Aurora Dream's Sonata Kanzaki.
    • Tanaka from Rainbow Live appears as one of the referees for the Prism King Cup.
  • Shiny Seven Stars Specific:
    • Mion Anastasia, one of the contestants at the Miss Kakyoin Contest, is a Palette Swap of Aurora Dream's Mion Takamine.
    • The Pair Cheers from Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream appear in Yukinojo and Leo's rooms. Leo is often found hugging Rabichi, and his house has both the Pair Cheers and Pair Charms from Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future. Rabichi, Bearchi, and Nekochi are also mascots seen at Prism Land during Louis' episode (with "You May Dream" playing in the background), and Shin gives Louis a plushie of Yammy as a gift. In one of the Shiny Seven Stars home release extras, Yukinojo has his own kabuki version of Rizumu's teddy bear, Andy.
    • Aira and Mia visit Prism Stone in the final episode.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The choreography from Prizmmy's TRF covers, "Crazy Gonna Crazy" and "EZ Do Dance", were reused in the Prism Battles, much like how "Boy Meets Girl" was used in Rainbow Live.
  • Shin sings a Cover Version of Naru's Image Song, "Heart Iro Tori Dream", for an event in Prism Rush! Live, where he has to make a guest appearance on the children's show she stars in. Koji also sings the same song when Minato first meets him in Shiny Seven Stars.
  • Over the Rainbow crossdressing for the Miss Kakyoin Contest was first displayed on the official website as an April Fools joke in 2016 and later briefly shown in the credits for Pride the Hero. It later received a novelization and becomes a plot point for Leo's episode in Shiny Seven Stars. Also, the boys mention that Rinne had won the year before they entered the contest, referencing episode 6 of Rainbow Live.
• Contractual Purity: In-Universe: In Shiny Seven Stars, Leo warns Shin not to be caught with a girl (although he might be against him sneaking out for other reasons). In the finale, the Edel Rose 7 Stars exchange wedding vows with the audience in true idol fashion, showing that they are devoted to their fans and Prism Shows rather than their own individual love lives.
• Cover Version: TRF's "EZ Do Dance" is featured as a battle song in the first two movies. The TV version of Shiny Seven Stars all feature covers of TRF's most popular songs as the ending credits.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: "Over the Sunshine", considered to be the main theme of the series, has a version done by all of the major players of the story.
• Female Gaze: The movies were certainly made with an older female audience in mind, given how many service shots the boys have, all the shirtless scenes and provocative outfits, and the rampant Homoerotic Subtext. The stage plays are no slouch here, either.
• Graduate from the Story: PRIDE the HERO ends with Over the Rainbow graduating from Edel Rose, at the very least.
• Hotter and Sexier: Than the rest of the Pretty franchise in general, thanks to the audience shift. When one boy can do what amounts to pole dancing in his Prism Show, and several idols can walk around in skimpy costumes without batting an eye, you know your series is this.
• Idol Singer: And as a Pretty Rhythm first, it's all boys this time around.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Hiro, Koji, and Kazuki debuting as a Prism Star unit named Over the Rainbow was originally a surprise that took place at the final episode of Rainbow Live. However, because the first two movies are about their careers as Prism Stars, it's hard to avoid this.
  • DJ Coo, the DJ and handyman at Prism Stone, is actually Rei Kurokawa. This was originally revealed during the climax of Rainbow Live.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Louis and June are the only ones who know about Shine, the Prism Sparkle, and the Prism World, while everyone else is oblivious as to what's going on.
• Love Confession: Louis admits his feelings for Shin in the second movie, though it's ambiguous as to whether he meant Shin or Shine. He confesses again in his episode in Shiny Seven Stars.
• Love Triangle: Louis and Leo both like Shin. For Leo, it may be a bit of Ho Yayinvoked that even the voice actors play around with, as during a skit at Rose Party 2018, a "female" version of Leo becomes Shin's Patient Childhood Love Interest. Louis is more explicit about his feelings for Shin. Shin is Oblivious to Love in both cases, unfortunately.
• Married to the Job: In quite the most literal sense, at the end of Shiny Seven Stars. The Edel Rose 7 Stars put on a performance where they literally get married to Prism Shows and their fans to show their devotion to them. The finale even plays out as a wedding ceremony, where the audience can yell out their wedding vows.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The series created new original Prism Jumps for the male characters in contrast to the Prism Jumps originally used in the Pretty Rhythm arcade games; however, some of them do make a return.
    • "Honey Kiss", "Red String, Summer Love", and "Jewel Spin Cross" were used by Koji in King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm and Pride the Hero.
    • Louis uses "100% Pure Pure Arrow", "Bloom-Bloom-Blooming Love Flowers", and "Aurora Rising." He also uses "Infinite Hug Eternal" from the Dear My Future anime series and "Fluttering Rainbow Tail" from the Rainbow Live anime series.
    • Among the Prism Jumps from the arcade game, some of the Prism Jumps that Shin uses were recycled from other male characters in the Pretty Rhythm anime series. Shin creates his own version of "Infinite Hug", which was originally used by Sho in Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream. In Shiny Seven Stars, when Shine takes over his body, he also uses his own versions of "G-A-Z-E", "Dangerous Baby Face", "Unlimited Love Shower", and "Bloom-Bloom-Blooming Love Flowers."
  • The Edel Rose freshmen / Septentrion's "Ready Sparking!" pre-performance cheer was first used in episode 35 of Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, when MARs used it to hype themselves up.
  • Shin says, "I've been born!" after his "Rising Sunshine" Prism Jump. Mion had said the same thing back when performing "Eternal Big Bang" in Aurora Dream.
  • Louis' pre-performance line, "May the Prism shine down upon you!" was originally June's pre-performance line. The line was also first said by Mion in episode 16 of Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future.
  • The Shuffle's Image Song in Pride the Hero, "Love Mix", was originally Love-Mix's song from Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future.
  • In Pride the Hero, the way Louis holds up Hiro's hand to show him as the winner is near identical to when Aine was crowned the same way in Aurora Dream.
  • In Pride the Hero, one of Koji's Prism Jumps is a shot-for-shot remake of his Love Confession to Ito in episode 26 of Rainbow Live.
  • The opening animation of Shiny Seven Stars, where the seven Edel Rose freshmen fly in space and become a rainbow, is literally shot-for-shot the same as Rainbow Live's fourth opening, "Butterfly Effect." Much like the "Butterfly Effect" and "Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live" Freeze-Frame Bonus at the end, there's a Freeze-Frame Bonus at the end, too, with "Shiny Seven Stars" and "King of Prism" instead.
  • In Shiny Seven Stars, Kazuki inspiring and playing with Taiga during childhood uses the same shot of Ann and Wakana doing the same in their own childhood during episode 23 of Rainbow Live.
  • In Shiny Seven Stars, Kakeru does a Cyalume Change during the Prism 1.
  • In Shiny Seven Stars, Yu does a Prism Live during the Prism 1 with Naru, Ann, and Ito's instruments. He later does a Prism Jump that references all signature group Prism Jumps of Happy RAIN, Bell Rose, and Over the Rainbow.
  • In Louis' episode of Shiny Seven Stars, "You May Dream", the first opening theme song to Aurora Dream and MARs' first group performance song, briefly plays when Shin and Louis first enter Prism Land.
  • In Shiny Seven Stars, there is a character named Wataru Hibiki, a combination of Hibiki and Wataru's names from Aurora Dream. Also, he resembles Wataru physically.
  • In Shiny Seven Stars, Rinne and Shine's confrontation mirrors the one Rinne and June had in Rainbow Live, where they are tossed in an alternate reality with the moon in the background. Also, when Louis gets his wings destroyed and collapses, the way Jin catches him is not unlike the way Hijiri caught June when the same happened to her.
  • In Louis' episode of Shiny Seven Stars, Cosmo Hojo from the Kira Kira My Design 3DS game, Aira and Sonata from Aurora Dream, and Mia from Dear My Future, are some of the people influenced by the Sonata program from the Prism World.
  • In Louis' episode of Shiny Seven Stars, he and Shin go on a date to Prism Land, which was the same exact place Rizumu took Mion out on their date.
  • In Louis' extra released with the Shiny Seven Stars home release, Louis and Shin eat at one of Prism Land's cafes, and Louis runs through every single Catchphrase from the main six girls from Rainbow Live. It ends with him saying, "Gyafun!", Aira's Catchphrase.
  • In Shin's extra of the Shiny Seven Stars home release, it begins with Rinne running to school late with food in her mouth, which references the Magical Mion shorts from Aurora Dream.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end of the third part of Shiny Seven Stars, Taiga starts a Prism Battle during Alexander's turn out of suspicion that his Prism Show will end up destroying the stadium like in Pride the Hero. Instead, Alexander out-gambits him, as he knew Taiga would act like this from the start and used the battle to excite the audience, earning 8660 karats. Because Taiga interfered, he gets a 50% penalty on his score, causing Edel Rose to lose the leading position.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: In Shiny Seven Stars, Kakeru is reassigned to the Madagascar branch of his father's company as punishment for his actions in Pride the Hero, where he secretly signed a deal to have the Itsutomo Group be in charge of their company's project, the Prism System, without the rest of the company knowing. He did this as a means of preventing Jin and Schwarz Rose from completely rigging the results of the Prism King Cup.
• Reincarnation Romance: Pride the Hero hints that Louis used to be Rinne, while Shin was her lover, who nearly destroyed the world. In Shiny Seven Stars, it's later revealed that only the first part is true. Shine is actually very much alive, only sealed inside of Shin. But regardless of this, after spending years watching over Shin, Louis comes to love Shin for who he is, and not as Shine.
• Remember the New Guy?: While it is true that Taiga was inspired by Kazuki when he was younger, he is also shown meeting some of the Rainbow Live cast as children despite not being present during their backstories in that series.
• Sealed in a Person-Shaped Can: Rinne was ordered to kill Shine, the male Prism Messenger, for running away to Earth to perform Prism Shows. Instead, she seals him inside Shin.
• Sequel Hook:
  • King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm ends with a post-credits scene revealing that Hiro is no longer able to use his trademark Image Song, "Pride", after Jin claims the copyrights and registers Louis in the Prism King Cup with the song.
  • Shiny Seven Stars ends with the Edel Rose freshmen debuting as Septentrion; the Amamoto twins and Revonlutet (characters from Prism Rush! Live) appearing among the new students at Edel Rose's orientation; a Prism 2 tournament featuring more YMT29 members; a street-style Prism 1 hosted by Rei Kurokawa; and Taiga getting a Pair Friend, who helps him engage in Prism Battles with Alexander and Dorachi.
• Ship Tease: During the moments where Over the Rainbow interacts with the audience, the faceless girls resemble their Rainbow Live love interests.
  • Kazuki gets paired with Ann and Wakana.
  • Hiro gets paired with either Bell (most frequently) or Naru.
  • Koji is paired with Ito, considering they are an Official Couple. Their scene in Pride the Hero is an almost 1-to-1 copy of Koji and Ito's first kiss scene in Rainbow Live, where his lines addressing her by her name were kept. He also uses some of her Prism Jumps (Red String, Summer Love is one), Ito accompanies him to the airport, he turns someone down because "he has a cute steady", and they are seen on a date in Prism Land in the credits of Pride the Hero.
  • Louis makes it no secret that he's in love with Shin, declaring he "crossed a millenia" just to see him. He also gives him both a Big Damn Kiss and Love Confession in Pride the Hero. Unfortunately, Shin is Oblivious to Love and also doesn't remember this event.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the second film, one poster has the Rainbow Live characters do a Time Bokan parody, with some cues from Yatterman Night in the henchmen's outfits.
  • The Edel Rose freshmen have to compete against a member of ∀'s (a parody of μ's from Love Live!) during the Miss Kakyoin Contest.
• The Show Must Go On: Due to Edel Rose's low point gap, Schwarz Rose wins the Prism 1 before it is even over. Despite this, Hijiri encourages everyone to perform their group song anyway, because Prism Shows are meant to entertain people.
• Spear Counterpart: Not only does this feature male characters, but the main seven also clearly mirror the main seven from Rainbow Live. In fact, in Prism Rush! Live, Louis even does a Call-Back and talks to Shin about the Prism Radiance fading only to be saved by seven Prism Stars, Foreshadowing that it will happen again and this time he will have to take Rinne's place in saving it.
  • Shin: He's seen as a counterpart to Rinne because of their matching hair colors, and because they both have a connection to the Prism World.
  • Yukinojo: He's seen as a counterpart to Bell because they both specialize in Sexy-style performances and have red hair.
  • Taiga: He's seen as a counterpart to Ann because of his close connection to Kazuki and his Hot-Blooded nature.
  • Kakeru: He's seen as a counterpart to Wakana because he acts as The Gadfly to Taiga (just like how Wakana provokes Ann) and has also used her Catchphrase, "Ohhh, what's this? (Are areee?)" at times.
  • Minato: He's seen as a counterpart to Otoha because they have a sweet disposition.
  • Leo: He's seen as a counterpart to Naru because of their hair colors and their brand is Lovely.
  • Yu: He's seen as a counterpart to Ito because they share the same image color and because they are siblings with a Tsundere personality.
• Solar and Lunar: Shin represents the sun and has sun-themed Prism Jumps (Over the Sunshine, Rising Sunshine), while Louis represents the moon and has moon-themed Prism Jumps (Whispering Lunamystic Heaven). In the TV version of Shiny Seven Stars, there's a scene of them juxtaposed against the sun and moon as the (just as the insert song reaches the "Sun and moon" part), and in Prism Rush! Live they even get sun-and-moon-themed outfits when performing in the duo tournament.
• Spoiler Opening: The TV version of Shiny Seven Stars immediately spoils Shin and Louis are connected to Shine and Rinne. In the very final episode, Torachi appears behind Taiga briefly during the opening before he is officially introduced.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Shin and Louis are from rivaling schools. Even though Louis is clearly in love with Shin, he chooses to stay by Jin after Schwarz Rose loses to Edel Rose in the Prism King Cup. Their first meeting also took place on July 7, Tanabata.
• Stunned Silence: After Shin briefly gets possessed by Shine, the audience reacts to his performance with dead silence, as they are completely terrified by what happened.
• Spinoff Babies: Young of Prism shows the main cast as children and babies. An article of one of the boys is released monthly.
• To Be Continued: The TV version of Shiny Seven Stars ends every episode with the caption "The sun shines again!"
• Tournament Arc: King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm and King of Prism: Pride the Hero focuses on the Thunder Session for Prism King Cup. King of Prism: Shiny Seven Stars focuses on the Prism 1.
• Wall Pin of Love: Over the Rainbow had a cameo in the 2015 PriPara movie, where each of the boys pinned the viewer in first person.
• Wham Episode: Louis and Shin's episodes in Shiny Seven Stars are enough to affect the audience's views on those two characters. Not only that, but their episodes change the tone dramatically and causes the story to fall victim to a Cerebus Syndrome.
• Wham Shot: After building up Louis as a mysterious boy who introduces Shin to Prism Shows, King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm ends by revealing that he is a student at Jin's school, Schwarz Rose.
• Whole Episode Flashback: In Shiny Seven Stars, the episodes tell the characters' backstories in flashbacks, while the events of the Prism 1 takes place in present time.

Tropes applying to Prism Rush Live:

• Homage: For April Fool's Day 2019, the cast, in an exchange with the Hypnosis Mic franchise, hosted a rap battle themed event called "Rap Battle Royale".

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