Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing

image for Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing

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Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 11 (themes, subtitles, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
  • a review of Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 5 May 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to themes, subtitles and scary scenes.
Children aged 10–11 Parental guidance recommended due to themes.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes (Note – The film also contains sequences of flashing lights which could be problematic for people with photosensitive epilepsy or photo sensitivities.)
Length: 116 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Hatsune Miku (voice of Saki Fujita) a Vocaloid software voicebank, travels between screens in Shibuya, often appearing as nothing more than an electrical glitch, as she searches for help. Her ‘Sekai’ (an alternate dimension formed from people's emotions) is nothing more than a bleak void full of dark windows, falling sand and broken dreams because the individuals who created it are struggling with self-doubt and are on the verge of giving up. Miku desperately tries to connect with them through song but repeatedly fails and, as a result, grows increasingly discouraged.

She then seeks the aid of five musical groups to help her refine her song and regain her confidence. However, when she attempts to reach out again, she is met with crushing failure. As the creators of her Sekai sink deeper into despair, Miku loses hope. In a final act of desperation, she transports all five groups into her Sekai, where they witness the struggles of those who formed it. They try to convince Miku not to give up but she ultimately sends them away and her Sekai is consumed by darkness, affecting all other Sekais and making their versions of Miku disappear. Heartbroken by what they have seen, the bands join together in an attempt to honour Miku and save her Sekai. The five groups give a concert in the hopes that they will be able to touch the hearts of all the hopeless and despairing, and inspire them to keep fighting for their dreams.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Artistic struggle; Failure; Loneliness; Powerlessness; Hopelessness and Despair.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A character slams a phone down and cracks the screen.
  • Other characters topple statues, crumple papers and throw things.
  • Miku’s Sekai crumbles and falls apart. She is buried in falling pieces of debris.
  • Black smoke claims the Mikus of other Sekais. One appears to have been exploded, while others are simply claimed by the black smoke or disappear.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Miku’s Sekai has a strange tangled knot at the top of the ceiling, it sometimes looks like an angry dragon eye. While it is unclear exactly what it, is seems sinister and oppressive. It is accompanied by swirling black smoke, sinister growling and foreboding music.
  • The haunting voices of hopeless people swirl around Miku, and her friends are sucked out of a window while they scream.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A knot explodes and Miku’s world is enveloped in darkness as black and red smoke pours down over everything and tears apart her Sekai.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Hatsune Miku is, herself, a mascot for Crypton Future Media, a Japanese media company. She is marketed as a virtual idol. In the opening sequence she encourages viewers to take photos of her and with her and to share these on social media.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Many teenage girls are shown wearing very short skirts.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Shut up!
  • Hell
  • Loudmouth.

In a nutshell

Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing is a Japanese, animated, musical drama based on the mobile game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage!. The film is in Japanese with English subtitles and is best suited to audiences over the age of 10, with parental guidance for 10 and 11 year olds.

The main messages from this movie are that failure doesn’t define you; that you should never give up on your dreams; and that music has the power to bring people together, speaking to the heart even when words can’t get through.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Persistence
  • Teamwork
  • Empathy
  • Determination
  • Creativity.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of making mistakes and struggling to achieve what they want. Parents could remind children that outstanding achievements are never easy and every perceived failure is an opportunity to learn, as well as how hard-won success has the power to inspire those still working towards their dreams. Parents could share real life examples of famous failures such as Michael Jordan, J.K. Rowling, Colonel Sanders and Thomas Edison.