Why is Ichika treated as the mascot character when all of the various units are treated equally in-game? Because Ichika's the biggest explicit fan of the Virtual Singers - who better to represent the Vocaloid-loving players?
Why does the Classroom Sekai Miku worry about being a senpai when she already acts as such to Rin and Len in other Sekai? The Sekai are influenced by the thoughts and feelings of those who create it. Ichika is great at seeing the strengths of others, but not her own. This lack of self-confidence ended up influencing Miku.
Why was Near given to More More Jump? It's not a particularly idol-like song, nor is it suited for a concert. However, the tale of Near growing as a robot under a man's tutelage mirrors Minori's journey to becoming an idol under More More Jump's tutelage.
Why does Mafuyu produce songs under the name OWN? Because unlike the collaborative effort that is 25-ji, these are songs she writes on her OWN.
Could also be because since she's looking for herself with songs. Since she's looking for herself on her OWN here instead of trying to see if Kanade would be able to save her with her song.
Why does Kohane become so enraptured when An sings Bring it On? It's a song all about getting rid of your self-consciousness, growing up and letting nothing stop you. For a Shrinking Violet like Kohane, the song's practically written for her.
Why is Emu's bodyguard dressed as a Kigurumi when a security guard would fit in fine at a theme park? It's the only job that allows him to perform on stage alongside Emu while requiring minimal acting ability, meaning he can best protect her. It also means people with bad intentions will lower their guards around him - who would suspect the giant flower wearing dog?
After reading through 25-ji main story, their initial 3* skill fits their character well.
Kanade, who wants to save people with her songs, has a healing skill.
Mafuyu, who grew up pleasing and meeting the expectation of other people, has a score boosting skill, one of the most sought after skill in-game.
Ena, who wants her drawing skills to be acknowledged, also has a score boosting skill, one of the most sought after skill in-game.
Mizuki, who has a 'just be yourself mindset', has a perfect lock skill.
Their corresponding SEKAI's Miku also has this. Miku's goal is to help Mafuyu recover and be saved, asking the 25-Ji members aid to do so. Her 25-Ji initial 3* card has a healing skill.
25-ji's members and their problems draw parallels to each other. Most notably:
Kanade and Ena's problems both relate to talent. Kanade is "loved by music itself" but has struggles related to her father thanks to her talent, while Ena struggles with wanting to be seen for her talent and being told that she's not fit to be an artist by her father.
Mafuyu and Mizuki's problems both relate to their identity. Mafuyu struggles with her lack of identity thanks to wanting to please everyone and be seen as a "a good girl", while Mizuki is comfortable in their identity, but is alienated by their peers and struggles with getting close to others as a result of it. This parallel is noted in the main story itself, and can also be noticed in ID Smile, a song about identity, where Mafuyu's movements are noticeably sloppier than the rest of 25-ji and MEIKO.
Akito's first event song "Cinema" is about him overcoming his struggles and becoming the protagonist of his story. When you keep in mind that Akito's storyline plays out similarly to that of shonen protagonists who struggle and eventually overcome, it becomes very fitting for his character.
In the song "Moonlight" Akito almost exclusively sings his parts alone, because he's the person the song is referring to as "chasing the moon alone" with the moon itself potentially being the other members of the Vivid BAD SQUAD or the lonesome ideal that Akito aspired to.
Despite being Akito's event song, Toya actually has the most sung lines. Outside of being relevant to Toya's role in the story and how he and Akito make new revelations through their experience with Arata and Souma, it reinforces that the song is just as much about Toya's insecurities as they are about Akito overcoming his feelings of loneliness and being left behind. What helps enforce this interpretation is that the Virtual Singer version and the version covered by the songs producers are both duets. The cards in the event's set also has Akito basking in the moonlight◊ while in Toya's card◊ he's avoiding it. Furthermore, both Akito and Toya ended up receiving Another Vocal solos for the song.
Toya's third event song "Utsuro wo Aogu" acts as a response to Moonlight on Toya's part with him resolving to close the gap between them and to be relied on. In contrast to Moonlight, the two primarily sing their lines together or in quick succession. The song ends with Toya saying that "We will look at the vacant sky together" in contrast to Moonlight where Akito is preoccupied with looking at the moon and stars in the sky alone. Toya's event card◊ also contrasts with the cards in Moonlight's event with Toya basking in the sun while Akito is avoiding it. What's different is that they're together on this card, while in Akito and Toya's Moonlight event cards they're alone.
Interestingly the duo has a Solar and Lunar motif even before these songs with Akito being associated with the sun due to his warm color palette and his last name meaning "dawn", while Toya is associated with the moon due his cool color palette and his casual jacket saying "Der Mond" which means "The Moon" in German. However these image songs has them reference the opposite motif while speaking about their aspirations to reach each other.
The motifs in Kohane and Akito's second events, and An and Toya's third events together form Flower Bird Wind Moon or Kachou Fuugetsu which are the traditional themes of natural beauty in Japanese aesthetics. The Vivid Old Tale features flowers, Walk on and on features birds, Legend Still Vivid features wind, and THE POWER OF UNITY features the moon.
"Kanade Tomosu Sora" means "Music Illuminating the Sky" when translated literally, but it can also be read differently. Remember that all members of N25 has a surname referencing different times of the day; in other words, the sky can be interpreted as referencing N25 members as a whole. Thus, if you read "Kanade" as the character, then "Kanade Tomosu Sora" means "Kanade illuminating N25", which fits when you remember that Mafuyu, Ena and Mizuki were all entranced by Kanade's music and she plays a big role in helping them to keep living. This also tracks with the song's lyrics, as unlike N25's previous Image Song (Jackpot Sad Girl, Close to Gray and IDSMILE) which only focus on their respective characters, Kanade Tomosu Sora gives plenty of attention to the other members of N25, fitting as Kanade devotes herself to saving / illuminating other people's lives instead of her own.
Sasakure.UK reveals in an interview that the different extremes in the nonsensical lyrics of “TONDEMO-WONDERZ” were intentional so he could convey that Tsukasa isn’t an overconfident optimist, but instead is someone who is aware of his setbacks and keeps his worries to himself. Sasakure.UK also describes Tsukasa as someone who not only repels darkness, but works hard to be the light that repels it, further emphasizing how much work he puts in in order to make others smile.
While many people think that Kohane doesn't have a Virtual Singer counterpart in the Street SEKAI, she does have one. It's none other than MEIKO. This is reflected by MEIKO's story, who despite her nature as a leader and mentor for he Street SEKAI Virtual Singers and Vivid BAD SQUAD respectively, she had no courage nor determination to join the others in their endeavor at all, reflecting Kohane own immaturity and indecisiveness in her choice to pursue street music, with MEIKO showing similiar indecisiveness and her persistence to simply watch from the back. As Kohane slowly built her courage and determination, MEIKO started to slowly become more open to the idea of singing with the others. Kick it up a notch shows Kohane developing her singing to the point she is at the skill level of Nagi. The lyrics of "Hitsuji ga Ippiki" focus on one's courage to stand up for yourself and the determination to stand out and go beyond, while subverting how people look at you as a weakling (which ties in with the imagery of sheep being seen as docile, non-aggressive animals that could turn especially aggressive if someone threatens them), a very fitting song for MEIKO and Kohane's character development.
The Immiscible Discord trained gacha card illustrations for Kanade, Ena, and Mizuki all symbolically represent how Mafuyu's mother views the members of Nightcord at 25 once she learned of their presence and they are all accompanied by a purple glow that represents Mafuyu. Kanade tries to hide Mafuyu away, Ena distracts her with frivolous art, and Mizuki lures her away. KAITO covering his face in his card could represent how Mafuyu’s mom is completely unaware of the SEKAI's existence. To Mafuyu's mother, she sees them as the temptations that drove Mafuyu away from being the "good girl" she imagined and wanted Mafuyu to be and the story of Immiscible Discord has Mafuyu's mother trying to nip the "threat" of Mafuyu straying away from the path of a Doctor in the bud by confronting Kanade.
In contrast to Immiscible Discord's more biased depictions, the trained card illustrations for Saying Goodbye to My Masked Self represent what the members of Nightcord at 25:00 mean to Mafuyu herself. Kanade keeps her close and nurtures her, Ena fights to be able to reach her, and Mizuki gives priceless advice.
The revelation that the Virtual Singers are real in Project SEKAI gets glossed over very quickly and as of now is left unexplained, but it leaves a few unanswered questions as to how the virtual singers are real andvirtual celebrities at the same time.
According to several stories and out-of-game content, Vocaloid producers, Magical Mirai (a real-world virtual singer concert), and other things based on real-world Vocaloid culture exist in the Project SEKAI universe, but how does that work? Is Crypton Future Media a thing in the Project SEKAI universe? And if so, did they create Miku? And if they did, how did she end up becoming "real" along with her friends? Does Saki Fujita exist?
Since Vocaloid producers also exist, how does the distribution of the virtual singer software work in-universe?
Ichika owns a Miku voicebank (seen here◊), which essentially confirms the existence of Crypton Future Media and Saki Fujita. The most logical conclusion seems to be that Virtual Singers exist in two separate forms - the "real life" version where they are voicebanks with character designs assigned to them, and the SEKAI version where the characters exist as real beings. How exactly the creation of the voicebank and characters caused them to become physical sentient beings on a separate dimensional plane to Earth is something that will probably never be explained in game. However, the existence of the many SEKAI outisde the primary one (such as the ones we see in game) are explained to form when one has very strong feelings, so it could be theorized that the primary SEKAI was formed by the feelings of someone who worked on the Crypton Vocaloids (or possibly Crypton as a whole), which would explain why only Crypton Vocaloids appear in them. Since Miku seems to be 'in charge' of the primary SEKAI as per se, it could be hypothesised that that SEKAI formed following her creation (even if MEIKO was actually the first Crypton Vocaloid, Miku is Miku).
If Miku and her friends are real in the Project SEKAI universe, does that mean that the other Vocaloids such as Flower, Gumi, and IA are too?
It's possible that they could, if the same phenomena that caused the Crypton Vocaloids to obtain a physical form occurred for them, although the game doesn't do much to suggest that happened (which is probably more of a rights issue than anything).
Are the five SEKAI that exist for the main units the only SEKAI to exist (along with the ??? Virtual Singer SEKAI) or are there more that exist offscreen? The temporary existence of the Evilious SEKAI seems to imply that there may be more... assuming that story is "canon".
Miku and Luka's 2022 fes stories confirm that more SEKAI exist out there beyond the ones we see with the main characters.
While Akito and Toya are shown to be very close and trusting of each other, there are some things that are explained in the present that you'd think they'd already know about each other in the two years they've been friends. This could be explained away as being so the player is aware of these things, however, it would make more sense if they were explaining it to someone that didn't know like An or Kohane. For some examples:
How did Akito not know that Tsukasa and Toya are Childhood Friends if he and Toya have been friends for two years? One would think with Toya's admiration for Tsukasa that he would have brought it up at some point before the events of the main story. If they needed the players to know about their relationship, they could have made it an As You Know moment.
Airi gets something similar, as she's childhood friends with Ena and is familiar with Akito through this, but she didn't know that Akito and Toya were partners until Ringing Sounds at the Summer Festival, despite the two being close and working together for over 2 years at that point.
While it's clear that Toya already knew about Ena, Akito explains his dynamic with her in his 2* side story, talking about how Ena forces him to take photos of her for SNS and can sometimes be abusive by throwing things at him and scratching him. Toya mentions that he saw the scratches on him when he first met but assumed he had a cat, so that could explain why Akito never elaborated before, but one would think it would have come up at some point before this.
It's implied in Akito's "Bask in Happiness" story that the two never really discussed their home lives due to Toya's discomfort over the topic (though Akito did know that Toya's father was abusive and unsupportive), so that could explain why Touya never asked for elaboration.
Similarly to the non-Mafuyu members of Nightcord at 25:00, were Kohane's thoughts absorbed into Street SEKAI? When you think about it, the SEKAI itself had little to do with Kohane in the main story. It's based on Vivid Street and WEEKEND GARAGE, two locations that had little significance to Kohane but are significant to the other members of the eventual group. The SEKAI was born from the collective dream of wanting to surpass RAD WEEKEND, a dream Kohane herself didn't obtain until much later, and even MEIKO was born because the members of Vivid BAD SQUAD had an attachment to Ken. While Miku reminds Kohane that her feelings are also part of the SEKAI, it doesn't actually match up with what Kohane says or experiences herself until after the bit of character development she gets later in the main story. So, were Kohane's feelings of wanting to dream big felt and absorbed into the SEKAI? Or were the Virtual Singers able to predict that Kohane would also end up having the same dream as the other members of her group before it happened?
When you think about it, with the exception of the "original" Virtual Singers who appear to be free to do whatever they like, the Virtual Singers in each SEKAI actually have it pretty bad, as they are limited to existing in the world of SEKAI and can seemingly never go beyond it outside of rare occasions like the April Fools' Day 2022 event. For the most part, their only exposure to the outside world is what the original characters bring back to them, as they can project from the world of the SEKAI into the real world but can't physically interact with anything unless it's brought into the SEKAI itself. While this isn't so bad for the Virtual Singers in Street, School, and Wonderland SEKAI, as their SEKAI's appear to have plenty of things for them to do to entertain themselves* Street SEKAI is based on a street corner but implied to be a whole city, Wonderland SEKAI is an amusement park, School SEKAI they can play instruments and watch videos in the projection room, as well as play in the schoolyard, Stage and Empty SEKAI are a bit worse, as Stage SEKAI is just that... various stages and backstages and Empty SEKAI is an endless void.
Luka's 2022 fes story only adds more horror to this, as she encounters a Miku who had been long abandoned by the owner of the SEKAI and had been alone for quite some time, singing by herself. The owner of the SEKAI doesn't come back in the end, despite the story ending on a hopeful note.
The April Fools' Day 2022 event offers some unfortunate implications for some of the characters' respective storylines, even though everyone seems relatively happy in their new, alternate scenarios:
Aoharu/friends quite possibly has the worst implications all around. Rather than rekindling their friendships as they did in the main story and reforming the band, Ichika and Saki form a band with Ena and Airi, making no mention of their former childhood friends Shiho and Honami who end up in different groups. As well, Airi is still stated to be a former idol, meaning that she was never motivated by Minori to give being an idol another chance.
MORE MORE JUMP! never forms in this universe, as Shizuku is the only one that still performs as an idol. As mentioned above, Airi joins the band Aoharu/friends and even mentions that she used to be an idol, Haruka joins Happiness Squadron Sunny-Sunny☆Wonder! which is a stage performer group, and Minori becomes a part of the hobbyist group Fellow Hobbyists on Days Off.
Kanade becomes an idol and composer in YUME YUME JUMP! and makes no mention of Mafuyu, who becomes a member of the stage performer group Happiness Squadron Sunny-Sunny☆Wonder!, leaving it up in the air if Mafuyu can or will be "saved" in this alternate universe.
While not as bad as the above, An ends up becoming an idol in YUME YUME JUMP! while Kohane is a stage performer in the group Happiness Squadron Sunny-Sunny☆Wonder!, meaning that it's likely that neither of them will ever come to meet each other as ideal partners in this universe.
Theoretically, if the Sekais in the new timeline remained unchanged (Aoharu/Friends still possesses the School Sekai and YUME YUME JUMP! has the Stage Sekai etc.) then that means that Tsukasa is no longer the source of the Wonderland Sekai, Mafuyu is! Then that would make Minori the new creator of the Empty Sekai, and despite her relative stride is utterly crushed by reality since despite her best efforts isn't able to achieve her dream of becoming an idol.
The fact that the only reason Tsukasa had a breakdown was because he needed to for a role gets a bit darker when you consider the fact that he's a first-born son. It's not uncommon for first-born children to have major burdens placed on them by their families, especially when they have an ill or disabled younger sibling to look after. While it's clear Tsukasa does not resent or begrudge his sister or parents and instead takes his role as a dependable older brother both gladly and very seriously, one can only wonder how much of his own struggles were repressed specifically because he had to be strong and thus possibly never truly had a chance to "be weak"? Rui may have been onto something when he said Tsukasa needed that.
◊ while in Toya's card
