ALTAIR THEATER

ALTAIR THEATER (劇団アルタイル GEKIDAN ARUTAIRU), or ALGEKI for short, is a unit series under the management of TSUKINO TALENT PRODUCTION and features a ninteen-man unit of the same name.

Overview
All members of ALTAIR THEATER were chosen to be represented by TSUKINO via a Music Grandprix, held in 2016. ALTAIR THEATER has a unique setup where the members form three different sub-units (RIGEL, Regulus, & Sargas), the members of which are decided by fan polls and are subject to change.

Initially, the unit only contained the 12 members who won the initial Grandprix, but in 2017 seven new members were added to the lineup, though currently none of them have been assigned to any of the sub-units.

Mascots
Like the other unit series ALGEKI has an animal mascot, Tomte (トムテ Tomute). Unlike the other units however, Tomte is a living creature; it is a blue fairy-like creature that can only be seen by Yuri.

In nordic folklore tomte are typically considered Christmas elves, which is possibly inspired by its connection with Yuri, as Yuri is half Swedish and Sweden is one of the countries that uses the word tomte for elves.

Behind the Scenes
Unlike the TSUKIPRO Grandprix that the ALIVE units participated in to become full units under TSUKINO's management, the Grandprix held to determine the members of ALTAIR THEATER was a real life event held by Sony and SACRA Music. The winners of the Grandprix were subsequently chosen to be the seiyuu for the characters of ALGEKI. Several of the characters had either their names or physical features inspired by the winners who became their respective voice actors; i.e. all of the new members introduced in 2017/18 share their given names with their seiyuu.

Initially there were to be two more members of ALGEKI, one from the group's debut and then another from the new additions in 2017. The first was dropped before the group could debut due to a breach of contract, while the second voluntarily dropped out before the new members debut due to school commitments. The latter was featured in some initial promo materials released by TSUKINO including a name, character color, and design, and can be seen here: Hibiya Ruki.

ALTAIR THEATER and its three sub-units all share a series artist, with their illustrator being Mayuki. Unlike some of the other units series, such as ALIVE or SQ, ALGEKI and its sub-units do not have a set producer with each CD having a variety of artists responsible for lyrics, composition, arrangements, etc.

ALGEKI are unique out of the current TSUKIPRO units in that they have two distinct logos that are used interchangeably to represent the unit:

The future of ALGEKI is currently considered uncertain by most fans: the official TSUKICRO site was recently taken down (though the ALGEKI site remains active), TSUKICRO has been removed from SACRA's artist lineup, they haven't produced new music or drama content in over four years, and the official fanclub was terminated at the end of 2018. However, neither Sony/SACRA or TSUKINO PRODUCTIONs have yet to make an official statement regarding the future of the series.