Setting Information

[miraclelivemod]

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General Setting
The setting of Miracle Live is a mountain town in Japan that's been absorbed into a larger city; details on that are below. The world at large is a mundane and generally optimistic modern Earth, with the main standout being the existence of school idols.

As explained on the FAQ, school idol clubs appear in many schools; it's a popular competitive extracurricular that garners a lot of attention across the country and sometimes outside of it. While some other countries are starting to develop school idol units, it's been a long and hard process without much fruit, so there are multiple canon examples of students from abroad who came to Japan because it would be easier to be a school idol there than to try and start the entire system up in their own home.

For the canon-familiar, this game follows the timeline of the anime adaptations and places itself in the present day. The canon characters will not appear in-game in person, but may be referenced, and settings from the series still exist and may be visited when the plot takes the player characters out of Maizumi. As we saw in Sunshine, even retired units can still produce merchandise for their school if they were popular enough, so yes, your character can have a nesoberi of her best µ's girl if she wants to.

The School
Harugaizumi International School is a girls' preparatory high school with a long history. It's operated in the town of Maizumi for close to 100 years and has, throughout its time, been renowned for its quality education preparing students for university, as well as waves of success in extracurriculars.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the school. The facilities are aging; the paint is peeling and window seals are cracked in some areas (particularly in the club building), the heating system sucks, there's no air conditioning, and they still haven't installed an intercom, communicating everything in printed bulletins, school assemblies, or just putting the student council on messenger duty around the school. Combined with the general demographic shift as towns started to lose people to cities and after the nearby city of Hikarizaka absorbed the town a decade ago, Harugaizumi spent some time on a decline; however, it got a boost a few years back. It's in no danger of closing, in part thanks to the efforts of KiSeKi, the successful school idol unit that operated out of the school a few years ago. Since then, a few repairs have been made, most notably the work that they just finished on a new gym to replace the visibly aged one they had.

Harugaizumi is still a small school and a busy community; news travels quickly, and if you don't know at least most of the people in your year, you soon will. The teachers all seem to know every student and their history, even the ones they've never taught, and the student council is very active and pops in on classes and clubs to offer advice. The uniform is old-fashioned (classic, depending on who you ask), but they've relaxed much of the dress code and allow jackets, hair accessories, jewelry, and the like. (This relaxing of the usual restrictions was an early bid to attract more students before KiSeKi saved the school, and they just kept it.)

And, yes, the clubs. While the school is sitting under the shadow of its former School Idol Club, other activities have grown in popularity; the baseball team and Chess Club are the largest in the school, even if the former isn't actually any good at their sport. Other prominent clubs include the Tea Ceremony Club, the Creative Writing Club, the Kendo Club, the Archery Club, and the ever-underperforming Manga Club, though other clubs and teams exist at player discretion. It isn't hard to get a new club going, as the player characters will need to do for the School Idol Club; all you need to do is apply to the Student Council and then prove you have what it takes before Wakaba will let you make it official. Just make sure to impress her.

Locations in the school include, but are not limited to:
Main Building: This is where you're taking most of your classes. It's a standard-layout two-storey school surrounded by forest with the mountain rising up in the back. The faculty office and student council office are in here as well if you need to approach either. You'll also find the school store, where you can buy all the snacks and school merchandise a girl could ask for, and the cafeteria, where students themselves are assigned to take turns cooking and serving the meals to the rest of the school! (Savvy students know to check the schedule and bring their own lunch on days when someone really untalented is on the board.)
West Wing: Added some time in the 1970s, the west wing doesn't quite match the rest in its architectural style, all windows and angles instead of old brick. Most of this wing is composed of the library, the computer lab, and the art room, plus a "study lounge" that's really just two couches. You'll also find the pool here in the basement.
East Wing: This is where the dorms are for students who don't normally live in the town. The dorm dean is a little strict with making noise after hours or during exam weeks, but otherwise, feel free to hang around here. Underneath that is the music room, if you need the space to record.
Club Building: The club building is more worn-down than the rest of the school -- looks like the renovation efforts were more focused on the main building and then moved to the new gym. Still, you'll find facilities for everyone from the school newspaper to the Theatre Club, and a few empty club rooms, too.
Gym: The brand new gym that just opened this year, with a shiny wooden floor, bleachers that fold into a wall, a weight room, plenty of sports implements, and a stage. Athletics really do always get the bulk of the school budget, don't they?
Grounds: A baseball diamond, a soccer field (also used by the rugby and football teams), an old and rickety greenhouse used by the Biology Club, much better-kept club rooms for the sports teams, and otherwise, a whole lot of forest and rocks. Sometimes kids sneak out to the forest to party.
Courtyard: A small green space with benches and grass, and one (1) large plum tree in the middle. It's been growing for years and years and is taller than the school at this point. Maybe if you confess your love under it -- wait, wrong game.

The Town
Maizumi isn't really a town anymore, more of an incorporated community now that Hikarizaka spread big enough to absorb it. However, the community is still going along, especially with the factories still active and employing plenty of workers, and there are a number of resources within walking distance of the school, such as a shopping district. Trains and buses also run to take the characters around the city outside of Maizumi, as well as out of the city when required.

The community is set around a mountain, with most of Hikarizaka being down at the bottom and Maizumi being partway up. The name Maizumi comes from a spring that supplies most of the area's water, which you can still visit along with a nearby shrine. Overall, the community is calm and friendly, if still visibly dated compared to the newer buildings and facilities you'll find throughout the rest of Hikarizaka. Most of the adults either work in factories or shops or commute down to the office buildings in Hikarizaka proper, if they don't work at the school, the shrine, or the transport stations. It's not uncommon to find office workers who choose to make their home in Maizumi because the housing costs are lower than Hikarizaka or simply because of the mountain views.

Locations in Maizumi include, but are not limited to:
Ao-Mart: The convenience store a block from the school, where students regularly pick up snacks (or prepackaged lunches, especially if they didn't check who was cooking in the cafeteria today). A family business that's been around not as long as the school, but a pretty long time.
Emerald Cafe: A coffee shop in Maizumi's shopping district that's known for a weird split between healthy food and really extra desserts. Try the Rainbow Special if you want a stack of pancakes with a bazillion toppings, enough to feed maybe five people.
Link Together Secondhand Shop: A place where you can find all kinds of antiques and secondhand things. If you can sift through the old curtains and toys from candy packs, maybe you'll find exactly what you're looking for to give your live that pop it needs to stand out.
Maizumi Shrine: A shrine near the spring that gave Maizumi its name. It's small and old, but well kept up.
Maizumi Station: The main train station for Maizumi. It's small, but it functions. Best known for its mascot, a giant sparkly railroad tie named Yui-chan. Who thought that was a good idea?

The City
Down in the valley is the rest of Hikarizaka, a growing city that always seems to feel exciting to the people coming down from Maizumi. The thriving business district has drawn people from all over the country and the rest of the world to move in, leading to the city growing big enough to have absorbed the nearby town. The mountains shield it from the hottest of summer and the coldest of winter, so the weather is generally mild, and a river runs through the middle of town from the mountains.

Locations in the greater Hikarizaka area include, but are not limited to:
Business District: The heart of the city, where many people work in tall buildings. While the district isn't exactly a teen hangout, it's peppered with coffee and lunch shops and features a calm park with plum trees and plenty of places to sit and think.
Tsubaki Fabrics: A fabric store in Hikarizaka that's seen better days, but still has a decent selection. They'll order in what you need if they don't have it, going out of their way just to survive against the big chains.
Amazing Games: An all-purpose Nerd Stuff Store in Hikarizaka. Along with all the games and anime merch you don't want to admit you own, they have an idol section with a good chunk of it devoted to school idols, past and present.
Southwest Mall: Hikarizaka has a number of malls and shopping areas, but Southwest Mall is the closest to Maizumi. It's also got the best selection, with fashion outlets, a sports store, and a large bookstore making it a popular spot for young people.

KiSeKi
KiSeKi was the original school idol club of Harugaizumi International School. While they never won the Love Live, they garnered a lot of attention while active and at one point helped to save the school. However, three years ago, after most of the group had graduated, the remaining members couldn't keep the club going, and it quietly fell apart and disbanded.

None of the current students were around when KiSeKi were active; they were founded almost 10 years ago, and they disbanded the year before the current third-years would have entered the school. However, they often performed around town, so most characters who grew up in and around Maizumi are likely to know of them. Even now, founding members Kimiko, Serina, and Kinomi are still the most famous; they gave the unit its name and they’re the ones who saved the school. Their last roster was composed of five girls, the centre being a second-year named Aoki Chiharu.

The School Idol Scene
While KiSeKi are still remembered after having disbanded years ago, there are plenty of current school idols across the country vying for spotlight and prizes. The current favourites to win the Love Live are Sanayume, a nine-girl unit from D.A. Academy in Tokyo, but it's anybody's game. There's so much information about school idols, you might not know where to start.

Good thing B♡nd is there to help. B♡nd is an anonymously-run school idol fansite that regularly reports on news in the scene, as well as collecting and sharing links to promotional videos, information on popular groups, merchandise collecting, and opinion pieces. In-game, characters can check B♡nd for information to prepare for lives, and if B♡nd reports on the player characters or anything particularly relevant, that will be posted to the weekly log.

Submissions
Want to submit a major location, like your character's workplace or favourite hangout? Do it in the comments here!

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