Rinami Himesaki made a surprise appearance in Laplus Darkness' bumper birthday livestream yesterday, performing such songs as 'clumsy trick' and '36°CU・B・U' from the Gakuen Idolmaster mobile game.
The founder of Secret Society holoX, hololive's sixth generation of virtual talent, Laplus has never attempted to hide her love for The Idolmaster series. In 2023, she served as series ambassador alongside NIJISANJI streamer Dora for the Ijigen Fes event in Tokyo Dome that brought Idolmaster and Love Live! together for a historic collaboration. More recently, her love for Rinami has come to the forefront: her playtime from year one of Gakuen Idolmaster revealed an overwhelming tendency to use said character for playthroughs.
Considering Laplus' love for Rinami, it's no surprise that she was a little bit nervous once the character appeared on the livestream. The usually boisterous streamer could barely talk once her oshi asked for her name: she then proceeded to spend the entirety of the performance either watching from the sidelines, blocking the camera by taking photos, or supporting from the audience with an uchiwa fan in hand. Sakura Miko even joined in for the second song!
To be fair, the whole of Laplus' 2026 birthday livestream was set up like a Gakuen Idolmaster playthrough, complete with a Producer character and the same style of dialog boxes. Nevertheless, this is the first time that any characters from the series have appeared in anything but their own content. Some users expressed dissatisfaction at this fact, especially because Rinami wore a new dress that has yet to be revealed officially, but the majority of the reaction has been positive.
