【EN】2025 Is Coming to a Close

Hello everyone, this is emi.
It’s been a while since the last blog update in August—how have you been?

Before I knew it, 2025 was already drawing to a close.
Since it’s the end of the year, I thought I’d take a moment to look back on it.

This year, Release Hallucination didn’t release any new songs.
The main reason was family-related circumstances affecting each of the members.

On a personal level, it was a year that never really allowed me to relax—accompanying my mother during her hospital stays and discharges, as well as making three emergency hospital visits due to health issues of my own.
It was a year that constantly required different kinds of decisions and frequent mental shifts.

I know some of you may have felt disappointed about the lack of new releases.
At the same time, this year also became more than ever a year of focused refinement for us.

Release Hallucination has never aimed for a steady, constant release schedule.
Our approach has always been to refine, experiment, and work toward delivering something new.

Through regular Release Hallucination JAM sessions shared in the fan club, individual technical practice, and challenges in areas we hadn’t had enough time to explore before,
I feel that we were able to grow significantly—once, or even twice over—on a technical level this year.

I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, but I’d be very happy if you could look forward to the day we can finally share the results of that work.

This year, I spent a great deal of time practicing singing, but just as much time writing.
I’ll likely talk more about this someday in my column, Wordsworth’s Labyrinth.
In fact, with the regular updates to Wordsworth’s Labyrinth, I think I ended up writing an incredible amount overall.
It was a fulfilling period—full of new discoveries, opportunities for objective feedback, and time spent confronting both my strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of activities,
January marked the end of Release Hallucination pixivFANBOX,
and February saw the launch of the Release Hallucination Official Fan Club.

Within limited time and scope, we’ve been carefully thinking about what we can offer and what people might enjoy.
There’s still a lot to build, but I hope we can deliver even more fulfilling content next year.

In August, THE SHOP Release Hallucination celebrated its first anniversary.
We were able to deliver merchandise to people all over the world without major shipping accidents or product issues, which I’m very grateful for.

This year also included the release of new TOUGH CASE products, improvements in accessibility through the publication of HS codes,
and in June, a commemorative T-shirt celebrating the 10th anniversary of Nightmare Outbreak.
That same month, we released the Chronostasis Official Guitar TAB Book (Digital).
I was a little surprised to hear that these scores are being used not only by guitarists, but also by people creating rhythm game maps.

In July, ASTERIA, which was released last December, was added to osu!.

I’m once again reminded how grateful I am to live in an internet age where I can communicate with listeners all over the world in so many different ways.
I’m not particularly good at being actively outspoken, but next year as well, I hope to continue delivering good work at my own pace.

That said, it also feels like a year where work completely took over.
I don’t think I did much in the way of pure “fun” in my personal life.
I did go out with friends nearby from time to time, but looking back, it feels less like I was playing and more like I was studying—a lot.

With changes such as the end of the U.S. de minimis system, I found myself paying closer attention to cross-border e-commerce, international regulations, and current conditions in different regions.
I also spent a fair amount of time thinking about legal matters.
It was interesting and educational in its own way—but probably not what most people would call fun.

Speaking of fun, I did update to Windows 11 purely for gaming, including a BIOS update.
It was all for BF6. I had a great time with the demo, bought the full version on release day—and then immediately became too busy to play it for more than two hours.

I had much less time for games, especially in the latter half of the year, but PowerWash Simulator and PowerWash Simulator 2 were lifesavers.
Quietly washing away dirt became a kind of calm reset after days when my mind was running at full speed.

This overlaps with work a bit, but introducing a Stream Deck significantly improved my efficiency.
It’s been especially effective with Adobe software and video editing.
After years of working with a single monitor, I finally switched to a dual-display setup this year—main screen horizontal, sub screen vertical.
It’s incredibly convenient. I love gadgets like this, so setting everything up was genuinely fun.

This year, kaoru also fixed the broken door of my soundproof room, which made it comfortable to use again.
Smooth door operation really is a wonderful thing.

I’m sure next year will be busy as well, but being able to continue these activities is entirely thanks to the people around me.
Thank you so much for all the support, kindness, laughter, shared moments, and warm messages.

I wish you all a wonderful end of the year.