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English lyrics
City Pop
genre
overview
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. It was the first of her originals written entirely in English. The song captures the thrill of rediscovering beauty in everyday life, its warm, upbeat energy a toast to small moments and human connection. It gave IRyS a musical color of her own within hololive English.
One of her earliest original releases, Sparks of Joy showed that IRyS could work well beyond ballads. The city pop styling sat comfortably next to her existing discography while bringing out a lighter, more approachable side, welcome to longtime fans and first-time listeners alike.
role & scope
MV production capturing city pop aesthetics and warmth
The MV leans into the song's city pop aesthetic, putting the energy and warmth of the city at night on screen. LUMINA had already designed IRyS's emblem, logo, and broadcasting interface, so the visual identity was familiar ground. With brand design and motion work coming from the same hand, the MV connects naturally to her established look.
MV ProductionVisual DesignMotion GraphicsBrand Continuity
full credits
Composition & ArrangementSato Atsuhito
LyricsConnie Aoki
IllustrationKoma
Movie (MV)LUMINA (LMNQ)
VocalsIRyS
process
Establishing visual identity through city pop aesthetics
The creative vision came down to translating city pop's signature aesthetic — warm lighting, urban landscapes, intimate moments, optimistic energy — into a visual narrative that fit the song. Lyricist Connie Aoki and composer Sato Atsuhito wrote the track entirely in English: a bold choice for IRyS, reaching past her core Japanese-speaking audience while staying easy for the English-speaking hololive EN community to pick up.
LUMINA's role in the MV was a natural extension of the identity work that came before. The understanding built up through the emblem, logo, and broadcasting interface fed into every decision, from color palettes to composition, so the video reads as something grown from IRyS's brand rather than attached to it.
Released on December 26, 2021, Sparks of Joy landed at a fork in IRyS's early discography. It fixed her reputation as an artist who moves between genres and languages, and the city pop choice in particular left a musical footprint, distinct from her hololive EN peers, that persists to this day.
MV still 01
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impact
Setting the foundation for IRyS's multi-genre musical identity
Sparks of Joy was a weighty turning point in IRyS's creative development. Her first single, and the first original written entirely in English, it announced her ambitions as a bilingual artist with range. Many expected ballads from hololive English's Virtual Singer; IRyS picked city pop instead.
The video's success settled LUMINA in as an essential partner in IRyS's artistic vision. With emblem, logo, interface, and music video reading as one visual thread, IRyS came across as a complete artist rather than a collection of separate projects. That integrated approach became the shape of the collaboration from then on, and the ground for the more ambitious productions that followed.
LMNQ