A city pop celebration of everyday beauty and human connection
Sparks of Joy is a city pop-inspired original song by IRyS, released on December 26, 2021. Notable for being written entirely in English — a first among IRyS's original tracks — the song captures the excitement of rediscovering beauty in everyday life. Its upbeat, warm energy reflects a celebration of small moments and human connection, establishing IRyS's musical identity as distinct within hololive English.
As one of IRyS's earliest original releases, Sparks of Joy helped establish her as a multi-genre artist capable of moving beyond ballad-oriented compositions. The city pop styling complemented her existing discography while introducing a lighter, more accessible musical side that resonated with both existing fans and new listeners discovering her work.
role & scope
MV production capturing city pop aesthetics and warmth
The MV production leaned into the song's city pop aesthetic, creating visuals that evoke the energy and warmth of city nightlife. LUMINA, who had previously designed IRyS's emblem, logo, and broadcasting interface, brought a deep understanding of IRyS's visual identity to the MV, ensuring continuity between her brand design and motion work. This comprehensive creative oversight resulted in a cohesive visual experience that felt authentically aligned with IRyS's established aesthetic.
Establishing visual identity through city pop aesthetics
The creative vision for Sparks of Joy centered on translating city pop's signature aesthetic — warm lighting, urban landscapes, intimate moments, and optimistic energy — into a visual narrative that complemented the song's themes. Lyricist Connie Aoki and composer Sato Atsuhito crafted a track entirely in English, an ambitious choice for IRyS that signaled her intent to reach beyond her core Japanese-speaking audience while remaining accessible to her English-speaking community within hololive EN.
LUMINA's involvement in the MV production represented a natural extension of their earlier work designing IRyS's visual identity. Having created her emblem, logo, and even her broadcasting interface, LUMINA possessed an intimate understanding of the visual language that defined IRyS as a character and artist. This deep context informed every creative decision in the MV, from color palettes to compositional choices, ensuring that the music video felt like an organic expression of IRyS's established brand.
Released on December 26, 2021, Sparks of Joy arrived at a pivotal moment in IRyS's early discography, helping establish her as a versatile artist capable of delivering in multiple musical genres and languages. The city pop choice, in particular, set her apart from many of her hololive EN peers and created a distinctive musical footprint that persists to this day.
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impact
Setting the foundation for IRyS's multi-genre musical identity
Sparks of Joy represented a crucial moment in IRyS's creative development. As her first single and the first of her original works to be written entirely in English, the song signaled her ambitions as a bilingual artist and her commitment to musical diversity. The city pop choice, in particular, distinguished her from the ballad-heavy trajectory that many expected from hololive English's Virtual Singer.
The music video's success helped establish LUMINA as an essential creative partner in IRyS's artistic vision. By ensuring visual continuity across emblem, logo, interface, and music video, LUMINA created a unified visual universe that made IRyS feel like a complete artistic package rather than a collection of disparate projects. This integrated approach to visual identity would become a hallmark of LUMINA's ongoing collaboration with IRyS, laying the groundwork for the more ambitious productions that would follow in subsequent years.