Animelo Summer Live 2009 Day 1 report~

To be honest my whole body still hurts pasca the 11 hours marathon in 2 days that is Anisama 2009.. especially since I arrived in Japan in Saturday morning (just 8 hours before Anisama starts) and left the morning after it finishes. My boss kept emailing me and I kept ignoring him. *runs* Anyway here goes report(s) before I forget more details than I probably have. ^^;

No official pics yet, but I’ve leeched pics from the artist blogs. xD Credits to them.

I did some rushed shopping in Akiba, and only entered Saitama Super Arena just 30 minutes before the show starts. Oh btw my seat is really awesome, in a way that I got a very close look to the middle platform and the pathway, while being much cheaper than I expected.

The show begins with intro to all artists, only their pics on screen tho.. the crowd was being nice (or just generally hyped) by cheering to all of them, with occasional crazy LOUD cheers for the likes of Momoi, Hocchan, Kurinoko, May’n, angela, Mamoru, and especially Minorin and JAM~

When the crowd was still cheering, a very familiar verse kicked in..

angela + Ishikawa Chiaki

“Zankoku na tenshi no you ni..” and the arena exploded in excitement! Two of the most distinct and powerful voices sang the most recognisable anime song.. what an unexpected, mind-blowing top batter~! After a short MC and BIG grins for successfully surprised us with Cruel Angel Thesis, Ishikawa left the stage.

angela
angela being the usual loads of fun they are, taught the crowd a simple otagei movement for Spiral (mostly rolling hands in the air), making the song much more enjoyable than it already is. Shangri-La is different from last year’s Domestic Love Band version, but still awsm.

Itou Kanako

..entered the stage in the dark, but from my seat I could see a thin figure with scary wig and srsly thought it was Arika, before F.D.D started to play and I realised that it’s just Itou Kanako in a scary under-nourished parrot get-up.. too bad she only put up the encore pics. She’s really good live, though, and I yay Tsuisou no Despair!

Momoi Halko
Anisama version of Ai no Medicine! How I love Komugi-chan and the wotagei calls. She takes the theme “RE:BRIDGE” seriously, like how Ai no Medicine is very special to her, being her first tie-in back in year 2000.. so the 2nd song is special too, the song she performed in her first Anisama in 2007, which is also my #1 favourite Momoi song.. WONDER MOMO-i~!!! Kyaaaaa.

manzo + Momoi Halko
Manzo wore a real tuxedo suit that made him look like, more or less, a penguin. My Pace Daioh couldn’t get any more better when Momoi appears with her signature keyboard-guitar! Oy oy oy!

manzo
After finished with Mizonokuchi Taiyou Zoku, he announced that there will be a sequel of the Sunred show, and that he recorded the 2nd OP too. He said how the crew came up with super creative name: Zoku (sequel) Mizonokuchi Taiyou Zoku (group) LOL!

Ayane

..is MUCH cuter in real life than I thought. I love her smile. <3 The 4 people to my right are hardcore Ayane fans, especially the girl with a glowing head cos she wore the lightstick belt on her head. Endless Tears… was good, but Complex Image was special with famous composer Shikura Chiyomaru joined on stage! He’s unexpectedly young and good-looking btw.

ELISA
Wonder Wind got everyone excited, but I was busy drooling to her flawless fair skin *runs*. Her MC is amusing in a way, she wants to hear the crowd call her name.. I’m not sure if most audience knew who she is, but being a good ossan everyone was, she got an awsmly loud “E~~LI~~SA~~” that brought tears to her eyes. ebullient future was different with acoustic Japanese verse before going in the actual song.

Shimoda Asami

As expected she only performed one song. And no MC argh!! I wished it would be Rin Rin Signal but well Kokoro is pretty good too. The dance was a bit weird but Capybara sang pretty well, considering it’s hard to imitate a Vocaloid.

Hatsune Miku

That’s how they emulate her, tho I’m pretty sure people have seen the official Nico recording. Despite being totally virtual, the audience responded really good to Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru ♪ The Black Rock Shooter animation was totally an obvious promotion, I wonder how much they sponsored Anisama lol.

Beat Mario (COOL&CREATE)

Glad they sung the only Touhou song I know (and like): Help me, ERINNNNNN!! The calls are really fun (Erin Erin! Oppai oppai! Oppai Erin! xD) and I respect Beat Mario for not being nervous in front of that many people. And he is kinda cute with his rabbit teeth lolol.

GRANRODEO

For once I became a normal fangirl. Kiiyan is seeew hawt~~ XD They really rocked, earning them both fangirls and fanboys. tRANCE rocked, and modern strange cowboy rocked even more!

Horie Yui
..appeared from the left side of the hall in a carriage, singing JET!! all the way to the stage, in a very cute red mini dress.. before switching to Vanilla Salt after 2~3 minutes. She did the Perfume-ish hands movement like in the PV. And if you think that will kill you, PFFTTT. After the song, more dancers joined in carrying pompoms (one extra pompom for Hocchan).. and she performed YAHHO!! exactly like the PV, which by the way was playing on the big screen. I wished I had more than 2 eyes. ZOMG MOE OVERLOAD.

She talked a bit for the MC (while I was wiping blood from my nose).. she gave us the biggest shock of the day! (If you heard a looooud girl scream in the DVD/BD later, that would be me).

Horie Yui + Chihara Minori

!@#!#@!$!@#!#! HAPPY☆MATERIAL was really, really, really $@!#!!$!@#! mind-blasting / breath-taking / heart-stopping / just-name-it. In short I dunno how I survived. I bet townberry would be dead if she was there.

Ishikawa Chiaki

I’m really sorry but I don’t think I already recovered during her performance. I don’t really fancy First Pain honestly, and I’ve heard Prototype live last year.. so yeah back to recovering from the previous blast.

Miyano Mamoru

Must say he danced pretty well, and J☆S isn’t too gay, but the actual highlight for me was the fangirls sitting behind me. I told you my seat was so good that Miyano WINKED to the girls behind me during Discovery LOL. You bet they really cried. ^^;

May’n

Let’s say I saw her too many times (4 concerts in 1 year WTF) that I didn’t get really hyped up anymore. I enjoyed Kimi Shinitamou Koto Nakare and Diamond Crevasse, though. But what I was really waiting for was..

May’n + Okui Masami
Kyaa~~ Miracle Upper WL! Well for once I’m a huuuge Makkun fangirl, and this song really rocks. The PV was playing in the background.. and gawd I would so buy that PV, Makkun looks so so so hawt. I think I mentioned before that Makkun and May’n look a bit similar, like sisters? or mother-and-daughter? lolol.

Nakagawa Shoko

Unexpectedly pretty good live, since I watched a TV live of her before and that sucked balls.. or probably it’s just Sorairo Days that rocked. Her MC is pretty funny, a staff gave her a mobile phone, and she took pic with the crowd for her super-blog.. which, as you can see, is made of fail lol. Namida no Tane, Egao no Hana was okay, tho I think she should just stop after Sorairo Days lol.

Kuribayashi Minami + Taniyama Kishow
..appeared out of nowhere with the classic Bakuretsu Hunters song WHAT’S UP GUYS? and heck they were really great. Kishow and Kurinoko looked really hawt together~ Too bad I can’t find any pic of Kurinoko cos srsly I was reminded of her best days.

ALI PROJECT
Next.
..lol just kidding. I’m glad they didn’t sing the freaking SoraKake song. Arika’s wig scared me srsly, it was fan-shaped and 3 times bigger than her head that I can’t see Mikiya behind her. Kitei no Tsurugi was performed without the Alipon traps, but my joy ended when Senritsu no Kodomotachi kicked in.. and I saw suspiciously tall & scary white curtain thingy swaying around. The white curtains fell off.. and it’s Alipon carrying umbrella WTF. And Jigoku no Mon scarred me forever cos one of the Alipon licked his/her/its lips at me arggghh.

Chihara Minori

Oooh. I have Minorin overload too this year lol. I grew to like Voyager train a lot more after Daicon (ahem).. and I like how excited and happy she was during Tomorrow’s chance, as opposed to her usually popular but gloomy songs. Her MC was unexpectedly serious, about how she evolved since the last Anisama, with CD+DVD releases, first anime tie-in, various concerts, and also performing in Malaysia. Lots of great encounters and fan supports that she’s really thankful of, and then she bowed to the crowd. Minorin then ended her part with Paradise Lost, which was as powerful as always.

Kuribayashi Minami
Kurinoko performed Precious Memories just like she did in the first Anisama 5 years ago.. which was great, but I was busy complaining why the heck she changed the costume. To illustrate it, if last year she looked like a dumpling, this year she was an eggplant! Gargggh. It was a purple mini dress with huge yukata ribbon on the back. But she made it up with singing one of my favourite eroge ballad that brought tears to my eyes before: Namida no Riyuu, which was utterly beautiful. She mentioned how this year’s Anisama is really special for her, since she composed the theme song. She closed with sympathizer, tho I hoped for Miracle Fly.

JAM Project

Obviously the biggest deal of the day! Finally I get to enjoy the full awsmness of JAM Project. They performed most of their new singles, starting from Crest of Z’s, Shugojin -the guardian-.. and of course the new “motto motto song” RESCUE FIRE! I had no idea how they survived in the black leather jacket get-up though, cos the arena was totally burning on fire. And as expected, there’s no Anisama without SKILL! WE CAN FLY!

All performers
I enjoyed RE:BRIDGE much much more live. If anyone should complain, it would be my body. The usual Anisama theme is laid-back and everyone sing along while waving hands to the rhythm.. not like, otagei-ing with ultra orange sticks on hands.

Encore
Mostly wore the black Anisama shirt, tho quite a number of them wore orange. OUTRIDE was unexpected, I thought Yells would make much more sense. Some things I randomly noticed:
- Shoko-tan went home, and now that I think about it I don’t remember if manzo was still there lolol.
- Itou Kanako was notably scary, still having the scary hairstyle, dancing like some ancient Japanese ghost with the orange Anisama handheld fan.
- Minorin and Hocchan were sooooo friendly, sharing the mic and smiling to each other all the time.
- Hocchan took over Nana’s parts for the two songs again, like last year. <3
The individual MC was pretty generic, mostly just introduction to band members and gratitude.. and lots lots of fan screams.

After-encore
Instrumental version of Yells～It’s a beautiful life～ accompanied them walking around the stage.. thanks to my awsm seat, I got direct contact with most of them~ <3 the Miyano fans behind me started to hyperventilate again lol. Makkun said thank you to my side.. Asapon repeatedly doing her moe “Gambarimasu!”.. angela and GRANRODEO doing the metal hand-signs.. Momoi being hyperactive.. those was the times I couldn’t tell what’s real anymore lolol.

Anisama 2009 Day 1 was a blast! I had a good night sleep with broken bones and high expectations on the greatness of Anisama Day 2~ which probably had some unexpected turns of events. So yeah, until the next report~