Prodigies (Japanese season 1)

The inaugural season of the Japanese classical music talent show Prodigies aired in May 2021 with COVID-19 safety precautions, for which spectators in the Cocoon Theatre, where the reality series takes place, 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.

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


 * Second Round

Trivia

 * Mariya and Keiju are siblings.
 * For Nonoka's performance in the semi-final and Koruri's performance in the season finale, one woman from the choir was given a microphone to sing the lyrics to "Nothing Compares to You" and "Someone Like You", respectively.

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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.


 * 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, so 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 11 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 16 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) 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.