CHUNITHM's original characters and stories encompass several "labels", or story universes. Each label has its own rules and dedicated lore, and can be identified by its unique background in-game.
Some labels are much more accessible to new fans than others. We have a list of labels below with notes on their general theme, story structure, and music genres.
This label list is a copy of the one in the glossary section of the website.
CHUNITHM's first label, focused on the fantasy genre and primarily featuring RPG composers. Its story follows an amnesiac boy named Shizuma Kurosaki wielding the legendary sword Seele Tact on his travels, gathering allies and facing evil. It is distantly connected to the Metaverse storyline, but can be read standalone.
Nine years after its conclusion, Monsieur Chapeau was added to this label, likely as a nod to composer Toby Fox's RPG work, as the story is entirely unrelated.
A label focused on idol and denpa songs. Not all of its stories are interconnected, but most characters are idols or otaku of some kind, and often include numerous pop culture references and detailed explorations of the characters' hobbies.
A number of Gumin stories are part of the "Demon Continent Akihabara" saga, featuring idols who want to turn Akihabara into their empire and spread otaku culture.
A label focused on Utaite and Vocaloid/VSynth producers. Relation is an umbrella label for a number of smaller, standalone stories, and spans a wide variety of genres, from slice of life to sci-fi and fantasy.
Some Relation characters' stories are connected, often in pairs such as Sylvias and Astraea (folern/Endmark), or Ruko Araba and Seito Maizono (Invitation/RevolutionGame).
A label focused on live and instrumental music, featuring many guitarists, pianists, other instrumentalists, and a number of artists known for Touhou arrangements.
G.O.D's story takes after fighting games, with a wide cast of musicians from different settings. Musicians in this universe have special powers, and are called to "purgatory" to fight against an evil god with the power of music. While the cast is loosely connected by the overall plot, the label is primarily character-focused, and many stories can be enjoyed independently.
The Metaverse as a whole is a label focused on electronic music. It is CHUNITHM's largest original label and contains many of the game's highest-level charts. Its main story is split into two halves, the first being the Digital Metaverse, up to CRYSTAL (and some of PARADISE).
In its story, the Metaverse is a virtual world created to house humanity after an apocalypse. Many early stories are connected in setting alone, but the story becomes more cohesive with each version, and are best read in order. The overarching story follows power struggles among programs and humans within the Metaverse, as well as its origin and the aftermath in the physical world.
The second half of the Metaverse story beginning from PARADISE. Humanity is finally ready to come back to the surface, but the returning humans are caught up in a war with the new race of synthetic humans created to fix the polluted planet, and the machines who created them. Like most of the Digital version, these are interconnected novel format stories and are best read in release order.
LUMINOUS PLUS and VERSE both use the Surface background, but their stories are independent:
LUMINOUS PLUS features the Farthest End Arc, a short arc set within the Metaverse in the distant future, in a world not yet impacted by the events of the Digital Metaverse.
VERSE's MultiVERSE Arc follows two teens on an adventure in a fantastical new world—it is currently ongoing, and its connection to the other stories is unclear.
A label focused on future bass music first added in STAR PLUS, featuring cute animal characters. Animalia is made up of slice of life stories in a world where animals can talk, set in Safari City, Gunma Prefecture. Animalia's stories contain references to each other, but can be enjoyed independently.
A label featuring composers from outside Japan, primarily the US and Asia, first added in CRYSTAL. Sibyl is a dark fantasy series about young women given powers of the four elements, and the struggles they face as a result. Many of its stories are especially tragic and gruesome, and may deal with very heavy subject matter—please take note when reading them.
The Sibyl stories in VERSE are a new starting point for the series known as the Scourge arc.
Irodorimidori is CHUNITHM's own idol series. Irodorimidori characters will not be translated or hosted here. They have their own dedicated wiki—please consult there! It's a multimedia offshoot series with some official translations out there.
A label consisting of songs written and performed by VTubers. As these are treated like collab songs and feature the artists' avatars instead of original characters, they have no stories to translate and will not be hosted here. The exception to this is Perio, an alias/character belonging to sasakure.UK who was originally featured as a Relation character in CHUNITHM's original release and later brought back under Omnibus with his VTuber debut. This story will fall under Relation.
A handful of characters have no label. This includes Chuni Penguin, whose unlockable story consists of messages from the team after each version.
Any currently untranslated stories can be found on the Japanese wikiwiki site, listed here by label.
This is a short list of recommended starting points for new fans, curated by the translation team! Choose one that piques your interest.
We recommend the Surface Metaverse, Seelisch Tact, and Relation labels the most.
J-Core/EDM ~ Sci-Fi ~ Long reading length (300k+ words)
Currently the most popular label according to devout CHUNITHM story fans. Notably, this is the translation team's favorite label.
RECOMMENDED IF:
You like dense (somewhat multiverse) stories with heavy subject matters and complex themes. Also, with a lot of attached lore; including world-building lore, species, and even non-story related things like etymology.
You like reading well developed characters in sci-fi settings—notably, the writing for female characters being just as strong as the male characters.
You like keeping up with active fandoms with avid fans, and keeping up with our translation batch releases.
JRPG Composers ~ Adventure ~ Short reading length (~30k words)
The oldest label in CHUNITHM. It's been fully translated into English.
RECOMMENDED IF:
You like classic JRPG settings and music from iconic composers in the game genre.
You want to read a shorter label-- one you can likely finish in only a few sittings.
You have the intent to read the Digital or Surface Metaverse labels.
Vocaloid/VSynth producers and Utaite singers ~ Variety ~ Very short reading length (~5k words per character)
Mostly one-off stories with generally lighter subject matter and straightforward plots. The most "accessible" label. Using the original Japanese text, these are generally easy to read using machine translations (MTL) without it coming out too garbled.
RECOMMENDED IF:
You like a wide range of genres, and in general, anime/manga.
Many of the Relation label's stories are lighthearted, and some have some more heavy subject matter-- generally not as heavy as any of the Metaverse. There's a lot of slice-of-life stories, romance stories, and supernatural stories. Outliers with more "intense" subject matter include characters such as Astraea and Sylvias.
You prefer not to read novel-length epics, with sometimes convoluted plot ties into other labels.