YMMV / King of Prism

• Americans Hate Tingle: King of Prism is well-known in Asia, consistently hitting the top 10 best selling movies on opening weekend for each of their films. However, reception in the West has been lukewarm for two specific reasons: 1. it's a Quirky Work catering to a heavily niche audience with reliance on Audience Participation and Idol Singer tropes, and 2. Continuity Lockout; Shiny Seven Stars is the first of the Pretty Series officially getting a widespread English release in the West,^note (King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm and King of Prism: Pride the Hero both did get an official English release, but only for screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival) and requires you to have watched the first two movies and Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, none of which have been officially licensed for English distribution in the West; therefore, there is no context for Westerners watching it for the first time.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Owing much to the Troubled Production of the series and the lack of promotion Avex allowed the film to even have in the first place, the original film was only limited to 60 minutes and Masakazu Hishida wasn't even sure a sequel would be made. Once it exploded it popularity, it got to the point where Pride the Hero had to be made and Tatsunoko Production was forced to open up job applications to get people to work on the film.
• Broken Base:
  • Some fans feel the Hotter and Sexier tone of the show compared to the more child-friendly Rainbow Live is nothing short of pandering, as almost every episode has a Bathtub Scene and the characters are sometimes nude during their Prism Jumps (especially Shin). There was also a minor fuss kicked up when Pride the Hero's trailer first dropped, which had a Big Damn Kiss between Louis and Shin while they were naked.
  • The main six girls from Rainbow Live (Naru, Ann, Ito, Bell, Otoha, and Wakana) are reduced to having short 5 second cameos, some even with non-speaking appearances (especially the Audience Participation scenes). Some fans had hoped that the girls would play a larger role even though they've already Graduated From the Story. It is, however, of note that Rinne plays a huge part of King of Prism through Louis.
  • Crunchyroll's translations of Shiny Seven Stars have been mostly accurate, but any Call-Back or reference to the other Pretty installments have been mistranslated due to the Continuity Lockout. Some fans feel that it's understandable that the translators are working under a deadline and don't have the time to watch the entire Pretty franchise, claiming that people are lucky that the series is having an official Western release at all. Others feel that the translators have glossed over important Mythology Gags and are concerned about any potential Sub-Induced Plot Holes.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • Watching Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream and Dear My Future is not required, but if you go into the series without watching Rainbow Live, you will be lost, as characters from that series also appear and are referenced to in King of Prism. While the first movie gives you about 10 minutes worth of flashbacks to get caught up on Over the Rainbow's backstory, Pride the Hero goes in hard on Hijiri, Jin, and June's backstories from Rainbow Live with no primer. Rainbow Live is also connected to one of the biggest spoilers as to who Louis really is and provides context to why this is a big deal.
    • For Western viewers, this is even worse, as Rainbow Live was never officially released in the West. (It did have an English dub produced by Animax Asia for distribution in Asian countries, only, however.) Not only that, but the King of Prism movies were only available through screening events at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Furthermore, Avex has banned exports of their home video releases since February 2017, meaning that you can't even buy the original Japanese DVDs/Blu-rays if you live outside of Japan.
  • Shiny Seven Stars requires you to have watched King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm and King of Prism: Pride the Hero. Masakazu Hishida has stated that Shiny Seven Stars was written in a way that won't alienate newcomers, but, again, the exposition given by Shin in the prologue can't really compete to actually seeing what happened.
• Cult Classic: When the first movie was released in theaters, it was almost considered a commercial failure. The popularity of the cheer screenings made it successful, with dozens of fans returning to watch the movie to participate in them. However, the fan base is still very niche and the series' popularity is still eclipsed by Mainstream Obscurity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Basically, if there is limited edition merchandise or a crossover, it is almost 100% guaranteed that Taiga, Kakeru, and Alexander will be involved in some capacity due to being the most popular characters. If there is room for more, expect Hiro and Joji to be there too. Shin only seems to be there because he's the main character.
  • Taiga is the most popular character out of the new cast and came in first during their popularity rankings. He is also the only new character besides Shin to perform a Prism Show in Pride the Hero, while everyone else got shafted until Shiny Seven Stars. Along with Taiga, Kakeru and Alexander are also popular enough to be featured collaboration crossovers, such as Hypnosis Mic and Ensemble Stars!.
• Fan-Preferred Pairing:
  • Koji/Hiro has a large following ever since their Ho Yay in Rainbow Live. The fact that the first two movies are centered on Hiro makes it easier to focus on the relationship between the two, especially with Ito, Bell, and Naru out of the picture.
  • Kazuki is paired with either Alexander or Taiga, despite the Audience Participation scenes pushing Ann and/or Wakana as his primary Love Interests.
  • Taiga is paired with either Kazuki or Kakeru.
  • Minato and Ryo are the most popular pairing options for each other.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Louis claims to have crossed 1000 years just to see Shin, but is he referring to Shin or Shine? And how can Shine be in stasis for "1000 years" when he was technically sealed for only 20 or so years, given that Ryo Yamada has met him before he was sealed?
  • Why does Alexander need to hide his Pair Friend when they're actually pretty common and no one in Rainbow Live batted an eyelash at the sight of their existence? It might count as Fridge Brilliance if you consider that Alexander feels like having a Pair Friend might cramp his style and ruin his image, but if he was really a hardcore fan of Rei Kurokawa, he would have known that Rei also had Momo as a Pair Friend, since Momo has been seen with him during his interviews with the press.
• Ho Yay: The series is has plenty of Ho Yay, so much that it actually has its own page.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Kazuki was already paired off with Ann and Wakana thanks to their Love Triangle in Rainbow Live, but he later gets plenty of Ho Yay with Taiga and Alexander, which are popular pairings in their own right.
• LGBT Fanbase: In the Western fandom, at least, there is a significant LGBT fanbase. The show has a lot of symbols associated with LGBT symbols (i.e. rainbows being a big motif, Hiro's song named "Pride") and many viewers identify with Leo. Also, Louis is canonically in love with Shin (this without discussing his Otherworldy And Sexually Ambiguous nature due to actually being Rinne).
• Mainstream Obscurity: The series is a big name in Japan, having made the top 10 during each movie release thanks to cheer screenings, but it still remains a bit obscure due to catering to a niche audience and because it was originally a Spin-Off of a kids' show.
• Memetic Mutation: Thanks to a chocolate mold of Alexander sold during the theatrical release of part 3 of Shiny Seven Stars, Japanese fans posted the "Alec Mold Challenge" on Twitter with the wildest creations made from the mold, ranging from hilariously placed chocolate, jelly, dango, tofu, candles, and even bath bombs.
• More Popular Spin-Off: The series sold extremely well thanks to the cheer screenings and hit mainstream popularity due to its Audience Shift, whereas the original series, Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, had only been marketed towards girls of the elementary school age.
• Narm:
  • In the first movie, King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm, Koji uses Honey Kiss (Mion's Prism Jump from Aurora Dream), which involves honey pots magically appearing from his ass. Yes, the musical does recreate that scene. Yes, it's just as silly.
  • In Pride the Hero, Hiro cheers up by eating Koji's apple and honey curry. Yes, he compares it to their Prism Jumps. Yes, we get a flashback of Koji's ass as to what was supposed to be a Tear Jerker scene.
  • In Pride the Hero, Kazuki goes all Eagleland on his Prism Show since the United States is known for having "freedom" as one of its core values. And how much more American can you get when one of your Prism Jumps is literally called "Make Prism Show Great Again?"
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: When the first movie, King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm, was released, it was possible to get a version of the movie tickets featuring Shin, Louis, and the members of Over the Rainbow naked, which stirred outrage in the fan communities for using gimmicks to get attention and for sexualizing characters in a franchise meant for little girls. However, the tickets were intentionally designed like this to get people talking, since barely anyone knew about Pretty in the first place due to being a kids' show.
• Periphery Demographic: The series is mostly aimed at older women who grew up with the early Pretty Series, but a sizeable part of the fandom is male, too.
• Signature Scene: Most people who haven't seen King of Prism are only familiar with the over-the-top dance battles set to "EZ Do Dance", in part due to it already being a popular song from the 90s and because the song had a crossover with Hypnosis Mic.
• The Woobie: At the end of Shiny Seven Stars, Shin turns out to be the biggest woobie after all. It turns out that the only reason why he was able to perform in Prism Shows in the first place was because Rinne had sealed Shine inside him, and that he was never "special" enough to do it after all. Without Shine, he can't do Prism Jumps or do solo Prism Shows. Then, Shine possesses his body when he is about to perform and earns him 0 karats, which caused Edel Rose to lose the Prism 1.
• Values Dissonance: Similar to Aurora Dream, at the end of Shiny Seven Stars, the Edel Rose Seven Stars put on a performance where they all get married to Prism Shows and their fans. This is a concept that's rooted in Idol Singer fan culture, where idols are supposed to be Married to the Job to show that they are devoted to their fans and their support. Because the Idol Singer phenomenon is predominantly in Asian pop culture, Westerners may find it strange.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: King of Prism is a Spin-Off of Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live, which was marketed towards girls in elementary and middle school. Unlike Rainbow Live, King of Prism is marketed towards an older demographic, explaining the nudity and complicated storyline. It's also way less accessible for children because it's exclusively a film series and the television broadcast of Shiny Seven Stars aired at a late night time slot (1:35 AM, to be specific). Despite official Prism Stone shops selling King of Prism products and elements of the other Pretty Series showing up, it is not officially listed as one of the Pretty Series in order to keep their target demographics separate.