Prodigies (Japanese season 1)

The inaugural season of the Japanese classical music talent show Prodigies aired on TBS in May 2021 and took place at the Cocoon Theatre. This season incorporated COVID-19 safety precautions, for which spectators in the auditorium were required to wear face masks through filming.
==Semi-Final==
The semi-finalists' postcards and rehearsal footage were pre-recorded from February 26-28, 2021, with the semi-final being filmed on March 20 and airing on May 22.
Order	Category 	Contestant 	Age	Composition/Song choice 	Result
1 	Musicians	Genjiro (piano) 	14 	"Hungarian Rhapsody #2" 	Eliminated
2 	Singers 	Anna 	14 	"Look to Your Path" 	Finalist
3 	Dancers 	Banri 	15 	"Reflections of Mufasa" 	Finalist
4 	Musicians	Keiju (saxophone)	16 	"Der Hölle Rache" 	Finalist
5 	Singers 	Ema 	16 	"Time to Say Goodbye" 	Finalist
6 	Dancers 	Chigusa 	16 	"Conquest of Paradise" 	Eliminated
7 	Musicians	Mariya (violin) 	12 	"Nessun dorma" 	Finalist
8 	Singers 	Fumito 	15 	"La donna è mobile" 	Eliminated
9 	Dancers 	Daichi 	16 	"Oyfn Pripetshik" 	Eliminated
10 	Musicians	Nana (violin) 	9 	"Can't Help Falling in Love"	Eliminated
11 	Singers 	Genzo 	10 	"Libiamo ne' lieti calici" 	Eliminated
12 	Dancers 	Koruri 	13 	"Dies iræ" 	Finalist
13 	Musicians	Rena (accordion) 	11 	"Hungarian Dance #5" 	Finalist
14 	Singers 	Hidehiko 	16 	"The Cold Song" 	Finalist
15 	Dancers 	Nonoka 	11 	"Nothing Compares to You" 	Finalist
==Live Final==
The finalists' postcards and rehearsal footage were pre-recorded from May 23-25, 2021, with the live final commencing on May 29.
The show began with all nine finalists performing "Bella ciao".
;First Round
Order	Category 	Contestant 	Composition/Song choice 	Result
1 	Musicians	Keiju (saxophone)	"O mio babbino caro" 	Eliminated
2 	Musicians	Mariya (violin) 	"Hallelujah" 	Super finalist
3 	Musicians	Rena (accordion) 	"Csárdás" 	Eliminated
4 	Singers 	Anna 	"Memory" 	Eliminated
5 	Singers 	Ema 	"Your Love" 	Super finalist
6 	Singers 	Hidehiko 	"Una furtiva lagrima" 	Eliminated
7 	Dancers 	Banri 	"Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"	Super finalist
8 	Dancers 	Koruri 	"Someone Like You" 	Eliminated
9 	Dancers 	Nonoka 	"Serenade for Strings" 	Eliminated
;Second Round
Category 	Contestant 	Super final performance	Place	Public votes(Percentage)
Musicians	Mariya (violin)	"Nessun dorma" 	3 	23%
Singers 	Ema 	"Time to Say Goodbye" 	1 	51%
Dancers 	Banri 	"Reflections of Mufasa"	2 	26%
==Trivia==
* Mariya and Keiju are siblings.
* Only a day after the season finale commenced, Banri revealed that he "prayed" not to win.
==Contestants' info==
;Musicians
* Genjiro Banno (born December 19, 2006; aged 14 at the time of the show) lives in Fukuoka. He started taking piano lessons when he was about 6 or 7.
* Keiju Fukufuji (born January 14, 2005; aged 16 at the time of the show) is Mariya's brother and performs saxophone covers of familiar operatic arias, show tunes, and pop hits.
* Mariya Fukufuji (born December 7, 2008; aged 12 at the time of the show) was born to a family of self-employed entertainers in Chiba and is Keiju's sister.
* Nana Ishimoto (born September 15, 2011; aged 9 at the time of the show) lives in Sendai. She took violin lessons in 2019 and launched her Vimeo channel in March 2020; the channel devoted to her performing violin covers of familiar pop ballads.
* Rena Hashioka (born November 15, 2009; aged 11 at the time of the show) lives in Yokohama. She started taking accordion lessons when she was 6, but she detested it, saying it was "too complicated" for her liking. Rena did, however get use to it when she was about 8 or 9.
;Singers
* Anna Ichigatani (born December 10, 2006; aged 14 at the time of the show) lives in Saitama.
* Ema Aoyagi (born January 11, 2005; aged 16 at the time of the show) lives in Kobe and sings multiple genres in additional to her classical repertoire. She started singing normally when she was 6, and due to an age restriction for a local music conservatory in her city, she taught herself classical singing when she was 10.
* Fumito Kanki (born November 26, 2005; aged 15 at the time of the show) lives in Tokyo and is fond of many musical genres.
* Genzo Kanazawa (born October 16, 2010; aged 10 at the time of the show) lives in Tokorozawa.
* Hidehiko Koizumi (born December 30, 2004; aged 16 at the time of the show) lives in Maebashi.
;Dancers
* Banri Fukao (born July 8, 2005; aged 15 at the time of the show) lives in Sapporo.
* Chigusa Harasaki (born December 5, 2004; aged 16 at the time of the show) lives in Rifu and dances to all genres of music.
* Daichi Jinno (born January 2, 2005; aged 16 at the time of the show) lives in Osaka and can't remember when he started dancing.
* Koruri Sonohara (born September 9, 2007; aged 13 at the time of the show) lives in Nagoya and has been dancing since the age of 2, much to the surprise of her parents and big brother Atsuhiko.
* Nonoka Takasugi (born January 1, 2010; aged 11 at the time of the show) lives in Kagoshima and has been dancing since she was 4.
==See also==
* Prodigies (Japanese season 2)
* Prodigies (Japanese season 3)
* Prodigies (Japanese season 4)
Category:2021 Japanese TV seasons
Category:Japanese TV seasons
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