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UPbeats! is a fresh-faced 5 member idol group of best friends based in Dream Plaza. They are cheerful and will lift your spirits!

Neo Michel (Mickey Mouse)

CV: Shoya Chiba

“UPbeats!--and your smile, too--are what keep me going.”

His icon is the ☀️ (which may get confusing for Twsties since ☀️ is also used to refer to Kalim sometime)

The reliable leader and the center of UPbeats! Neo leads the group forward with a cheery, positive attitude.

Described to be a natural mood maker and a charmer who captivates everyone he talks to.

… Why does bro look like a combination of two Enstars characters???With his eyes being the same colors as Mickey’s torso, pants, and shoes??? And his name literally being “New Mickey” is INSANE work, such a silly name 😭

He looks so… generic? More Kirito SAO or literally any dark-haired Japanese protag-adjacent than inspired by Mickey Mouse. I wouldn’t even be able to tell he was supposed to be The Mouse without context and some of the accessories on his jacket. I wish the sneakers were at least yellow and they tried to incorporate the ears somehow (maybe as a hat/hood, headphones, hairstyle, sunglasses, or hair accessory).

As expected, he is… the genki leader. No shocker there.

Hugh Gardner (Goofy Goof)

CV: Fumiya Imai

“Come on, let’s try smiling. Something good is sure to happen if you do.”

His icon is 🧢

The big brother figure who watches over UPbeats! with a smile.

A mysterious presence who always manages to pull through almost any situation thanks to his innate and extraordinary luck.

Wow, uh… the Spalik designs continue to not impress. I think the colors on Hugh are really off—not just the lack of green hat or even orange shirt (Goofy’s signatures; I guess maybe everyone’s in red and black for more group unity), but also his SKIN?? Why does he look so grey washed??? Were they attempting to give him tan or slightly darker skin? 😭

The one element on him I like is how the hair bangs resemble the shape of Goofy’s ears. However, remove other indicators like the “gawrsh” pin, and I would have difficulties guessing what he is supposed to be.

“Hugh” makes me think of “hue” like a color. “Gardner” may be a reference to Goofy’s English VA, whose surname is “Farmer”. The name’s definitely more creative than NEO MICHEL.

I wonder why they decided to make him a big bro figure…? Is it cuz Goofy is canonically a father? But obviously he’s a bit young here so they had to interpret that as something else for this version?

Didi Cedric Bird/Bard (Donald Duck)

CV: Yuya Hirose

"My voice is too loud? Heh heh heh, I guess I’m just overflowing with energy!”

His icon is 🪽

A passionate guy who rallies and motivates the team.

He’s a competitive go-getter with a positive personality, tackling everything with his all/full effort.

This one is… slightly better than the ones that were revealed before him, but not by much. He still has the lack of iconic character colors, generic idol smile, and bland outfit. Is the little puff of hair atop his head supposed to resemble Donald’s beak…? Or is that just me overthinking it and giving the design too much credit?

Didi looks the most like his Disney counterpart, but that’s mostly because Donald has the iconic sailor suit and there’s a version of Donald where he is wearing a black variant. The pose is also less meh than the others; he does look more combative, even if his smile is still leaning bright and peppy. A detail I enjoy is that Didi doesn’t have very blatant accessories like Neo and Hugh do; he has more subtle patches that are in the shape of a duck’s webbed feet.

The name of this one is killing me 😭 “Didi”, like Donald’s initials, “DD”??? (“Didi” means “little brother” in Mandarin Chinese too, but I don’t think that’s the intended reference.) I think he has a middle name because Donald also had one as a reference to his sailor. And the surname being “Bird”/“Bard” (バード/bardo) is pretty on-the-nose.

I was expecting Donald to be a tsundere or have a rougher attitude… I guess being competitive is fine and all, but it seems everyone in this group is super positive.

Raska Moncliff (Chip)

*Note that this name may not be the correct spelling, since JP isn’t always clear with r/l, c/k, ea/i, etc. differentiation

CV: Hiromu Mineta

“Well, I have no intentions of showing you anything unseemly/unsightly, so look keep your expectations high.”

His icon is 🍿

He’s the brain behind UPbeats!, meticulously planning their stage performances. A reliable anchor/pillar that supports the team.

He’s always bold and confident, often tellinf his teammates “Come on, you can lean/rely on me.”

THAT’S JUST SOME GUY… 🤡 The one thing I like on him is the acorn earring. That’s about it.

I don’t have much else to comment on here since I’m not familiar with Chip or Dale. However, a friend pointed out that Chip has a black nose and Dale has a red one, so this guy could have had a black tie to better indicate which brother he is.

Since I don’t know the OG character well, I have no clue what his name is supposed to be about. Maybe “raska” as in “rascal”?

Raska looks to be the reliable type, but Hugh is described as a “big bro” type, which I also assume would be reliable…? How will they be differentiated? Maybe Hugh is not as competent since Goofy’s silly?

Ranka Munk (Dale)

*Note that this name may not be the correct spelling, since JP isn’t always clear with r/l, c/k, ea/i, etc. differentiation

CV: Gen Sato

"When you're feeling sleepy... The best thing to do is just go nap without a care in the world.”

His icon is 😴

The youngest member of UPbeats!

He’s extremely laid-back.

Usually teams up with Raska to pull pranks; this is Ranka’s cherished way of bonding with others.

This one looks like he has Ace’s hair if it were styled differently (closest I could find is Luxe Couture) and paler + Cater’s lazy eyes. I noticed he has the same acorn earring as Raska, but that’s the only thing on the design I like. There’s unfortunately a consistent pattern of the Spalik characters just not representing the designs of their Disney counterparts that well…

A-Are they… not brothers???? The Chip and Dale characters seem to have different surnames. Not sure where the first name comes from.

His + Didi’s personalities stand out the most to me. Maybe it’s because Didi’s competitiveness and Ranka’s penchant for sleeping and pranks can potentially lead to conflict www

General Thoughts

Those designs were ROUGH could have been… much better. My major issues can boil down to:

There’s not enough representation of the Disney characters’ colors; this was traded in for a group color scheme of black, red, and white.

It’s impossible to tell what Disney characters each boy is based on if you strip them of the accessories that blatantly have the character’s heads or key phrases on them. In fact, the accessories feel like they were slapped on with little thought as a shortcut to indicate what the inspirations were.

The poses and smiles are generically pleasant; there’s very little variation among the 5.

Not related to the physical design, but the personalties also read to me as “cookie cutter” idols. Could just be it seems that way because we haven’t seen them in action in a story yet.

It’s possible to make designs that read closer to the Disney inspirations!! Just take a look at these character designs by @ug0nba; the Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Chip and Dale DNA comes off much stronger in the shapes, colors, poses, styles, and faces:

This can be done with other characters as well! Look at Fragaria Memories, in which the characters are knights inspired by different Sanrio mascots. I would not need to tell you which knight is for which Sanrio character, because you can already tell a lot by the various design elements on display.

I’ve also seen lots of fan works of the UPbeats! boys that alter the designs or make their expressions more lively. The fan artists really improve upon the originals.

I definitely think Yana’s designs have spoiled many other anime-style gacha game designs for Twst fans because it made me realize a lot of them can read as generic 😭 In Twst. you can easily tell what a character’s personality is like based on just the subtleties in their posing or the differences in how they choose to wear their school uniforms. These sensibilities also often extend to other outfits. Certain characters wear their designated event outfits in a more loose way, or there are additional items that help express their individuality.

This has become a topic of discussion in the JP fandom lately, too. For example, this one really blew up:

“I think the strength of Yana Toboso’s character designs lies in their vast knowledge (of fashion); she could explain the intent behind every single detail (on a character) if she wanted to. There’s nothing in her work that’s vague ‘lace for the sake of having lace’. It’s more like, ‘This specific type of lace appears here because it was fashionable among this specific social class in Britain during a particular century, so its placement/presence is entirely natural.’”

I think that, if more character designs were as intentional as Yana and her team’s are, we would not have as many bland designs in animanga and especially in the gacha game industry 🥲 It’s such a shame that Spalik’s designs are as boring as they are, because they will always be compared to Twst’s and seen as lesser 💦

The fact that these designs fail short also do not help the generative AI allegations, which will make potential fans doubt the project. While the final product does appear to be done by actual artists, this doesn’t mean the designs given to the artists to render weren’t processed or conjured up by a machine.

Ahem

Okay so when I first saw Twinkey (Twink Mickey) I also thought of that Enstars lad but also got reminded of Ichiro and Saburo from Hypmic (Ichiro for the jacket and Saburo for the babyish face)

And while my mind does automatically link anything red and black with Mickey, this is such a bare bones design for a character referencing him and TRUST I’ve seen my fair share of anime boy Twinkey’s

A nice mouse eared hoodie or hat would’ve made the silouhette (however you spell that)

ALSO COME ON YELLOW SNEAKERS WOULDVE BEEN SO OBVIOUS 

Then Goofy Guy…..

Least favorite here. Why is it always the grey skin siiigh

I wouldn’t look at this guy and go “GOOFY!!!” I get they wanted similar clothing palettes to emphasize that this is a group but come on you could’ve added just a little more green and orange accessories he looks so boring and dry

I like the side hairs representing his floppy ears but the colors are just so frustrating 

I actually like the concept of a teen goofy being an older bro figure as a replacement for him being a father (….Sighs yeah I did that for my twisted Goofy)

Guy with mysterious luck is a….choice

Donald Donald Donald

I mean the design itself ain’t bad…..I guesss

I would’ve preferred some yellows here and there although I do love the sailor boy fit it’s perfect for him

But

The concept…of a Donald character….having a positive outlook

The concept of a Donald character being respected enough and rallying people together……

The fuck is this kingdom hearts

The main thing about Donald is how he’s like a foil to Mickey

Mickey is upbeat and positive and Donald…..is a DICK

He’s a hot tempered asshole with an unlucky streak half the time when bad stuff happens to him it’s either to teach a lesson or laugh at him getting his comeuppance 

Now these characters don’t have to be 1 to 1 with their counterparts but like shouldn’t the leader aka Mickey aka twinkey be the one to bring everyone together? You also got Goofy as the Big brother type so what’s the point here?

And Chip and Dale

I’m not the chip and dale guy as much as I am as the basic Mickey and Friends guy. I just found out that they weren’t actually related in fact

The most I know is that they’re a mischievous duo that like to cause trouble (Think Jerry from Tom and Jerry but split him up)

Frankly, I’m a bit fond of these mainly cause I like brown/orange palettes a lot (I wish they were tanner though why is everyone besides Goofy the same shade)

Raska being the brain behind the group is interesting I’ll say and I do fancy myself a mischievous duo

Still I come to wonder, what makes Twinkey so special as a leader? Goofy Guy is described as the big brother, Donald Dude is described to rally the team together, Chippy is the brains and Dale is the only outlier

Yeah I know these are just intros but they don’t really do that good of a job in differentiating and showing what makes each character unique which should be important if you’re like PROMOTING SHIT

Goofy was a klutz and not the sharpest tool in the shed

As stated Donald is kind of selfish and can be hotheaded

Mickey had a heart of gold and cares a whole lot about his friends and those around him

And I could not tell you who chip and dale are as characters I’m afraid

These traits have been usually consistent for each interpretation of them and added onto or dissected in different medias

I wouldn’t be surprised if AI was used for writing as well cause the descriptions already seem bare bones af