THE IDOLM@STER 2 765pro H@PPINESS NEW YE@R P@RTY!! 2011
10 January 2011 @Pacifico Yokohama

Photos from JPCul, 4gamer, etc.

Participating seiyuu.

Notice I only listed Mami for Asapon’s role cuz Ami wasn’t there! Just to break Im@s fans’ hearts even more, IM@S 2 new NPC unit 竜宮小町 Ryuugu Komachi seiyuu were missing. Kugimiya Rie (Iori) now has a good reason to miss events. Takahashi Chiaki (Azusa)’s absence felt odd since she was always there, let’s hope it has nothing to do with her new Avex contract. Glad RK Producer Ritsuko still performed or meganekko otaku would go berserk. xD

I arrived 15 minutes before the live, enough to get a pamphlet (since there’s nothing left), found my seat and arrange my penlights. Im@s songs were playing and fans were already busy otagei-ing loudly to it… expected no less from Im@s fans! Live started on time.

OPENING

As usual, 765pro shachou greeted us with important points (no phones, no recording, no hitting people around you with penlights). Also wishing us a good year in 2011 and there will be many otoshidama (New Year’s gifts) today!

1. THE IDOLM@STER 2nd mix（M@STER VERSION）

Always the perfect start, new remix, all casts!
I tried holding as many penlights as possible lol. 1st costume: New Year themed red/gold kimono! Short-skirt version with wide-sleeves.. boots decoration and hair-piece match each chara-color. Quick welcoming before they ran back in.

2. スタ→トスタ→ (Start Star). Asapon/Mami, Nunu/Hibiki
3. 乙女よ大志を抱け！(Otome yo Taishi wo Idake). Eririn/Haruka
4. ふるふるフューチャー☆ (Furufuru Future). Akki/Miki, Hirorin/Makoto
5. キミはメロディ (Kimi wa Melody). Harami/Takane, Azumin/Yukiho
6. いっぱいいっぱい (Ippai Ippai). Naomiti/Ritsuko
7. キラメキラリ (Kiramekirari). Mayachan/Yayoi, Mingosu/Chihaya

6 consecutive songs with no break, all seiyuu performed. All familiar 1st Vision songs with interesting collaborations, especially Kiramekirari with Chihaya?! Makoto aiding Miki’s Furufuru Future?! Hibiki for the twins’ Start Star?! They all turned out great!

(Mayachan, Mingosu)
It’s amazing how fans swaps lights quickly according to the performing idol’s color, with various shouting/clapping during songs. I’m proud of myself for doing this perfectly too, huge improvement from last year! xD

8. The world is all one!!（M@STER VERSION）. IM@S ALL STARS
MC: Greetings.

Eririn/Haruka starts first few lines by herself.. then shouting 「私、1人じゃないんです！」 I’m not alone! .. then Akky and Nunu joined. Slowly more members joined to sing this IM@S 2 theme song together.. it’s an upbeat pop song with simple lyrics, but carrying strong message about friendship.. touching. ;_;

First real MC, each member greeted us, mostly stuff about their 2011 resolutions or sth. Eririn, Akky, and Nunu left early to prepare for the next songs. Greetings continued with the rest of the girls. Mingosu acting cute since she did Kiramekirari, which was really cute.. “Uuu~“. Loved it when Asapon greeted fans as “Niichan~” AND “Neechan~“!! Finally someone who realize female producers exist xD

First otoshidama: greetings video from the missing seiyuu!!

Video #1 Takahashi Chiaki (Azusa) and Kugimiya Rie (Iori)!  First thing came to mind was LOL #1 oppai and #1 DFC of IM@S seiyuu together *runs* Chiaking’s sexy pose involving cleavage was.. *coughs* um, initiated Kugyu’s animegoe laugh… FFF–too cute. ;_;
Video #2 Takita Juri (Kotori) apologized for not coming due to her pregnancy. Loved how fans were congratulating a pre-recorded video. ^^;;;; Oh btw the whole time people cheered waving their colors!

Main event starts, each idol sings their newest chara-song, introducing the new 3-idols unit and singing 1 song together from BEST OF 765+876=!! albums. New costumes: rose-patterned gold and black accent.

9. START!!. Eririn/Haruka
10. Day of the future. Akky/Miki
11. TRIAL DANCE. Nunu/Hibiki
12. DREAM. Eririn, Akky, Nunu

Must compliment Nunu for her dance routine, much harder than other seiyuu.. well fits its title. Live’s lower voice version was MUCH better! Sorry I still don’t get Akky/Miki’s hype but START!! proved Eririn got all the fun! :3 Unit song choice was upbeat dance DREAM mostly led by Nunu.

(Akky, Nunu, Eririn)
MC. Promoting new outfits and asked if we noticed their connections: Akky’s gold shorts -> Nunu’s gold short+ black half-outer-skirt -> Eririn’s black skirt. Eririn teased Nunu if her outfit didn’t have enough material lol. Also Nunu complimented Akky’s long legs, “We’re wearing the same shorts but how come they look different?!” lolol

13. tear. Hirorin/Makoto
14. 風花 (Kazahana). Harami/Takane
15. 眠り姫 (Nemurihime). Mingosu/Chihaya
16. LOST. Hirorin, Harami, Mingosu

My fave team and why I attended this. tear is Makoto’s best song until now! <3 When I first heard Nemurihime it didn’t impact me instantly like Chihaya’s older songs, but after more loops and this grand live.. *bows* m(_ _m) Kazahana was ok, tho Harami missed few high notes. Unit song choice, love ballad LOST hit all the right spots.. I want Chihaya’s solo. >_<

(Harami, Hirorin, Mingosu)
MC. These 3 girls have a huge gap between singing-mode and MC-mode. ^^;; Harami was SO nervous while walking on upper stage since the wooden plank was swaying. Mingosu as usual started weird talk, in relation to LOST asked about the other two’s love lives lol. And I love Hirorin’s speaking voice <3

17. スマイル体操 (Smile Taisou). Mayachan/Yayoi
18. 何度も言えるよ (Nandomo Ieru yo). Azumin/Yukiho
19. ジェミー (Jemmy). Asapon/Mami
20. 恋するミカタ (Koisuru Mikata). Naomiti/Ritsuko
21. THE 愛 (THE AI). Mayachan, Azumin, Asapon, Naomiti

Azumin did a decent job; cute anime-ish song giving Yukiho a new image off her previous soft techno songs. Better song tho I liked Yurishii’s voice more. Mayachan and Asapon as usual were the perfect loli. Ritsuko performed her new, unreleased chara-song, which got the craziest response!! Wrong decision to kick her out the main team. The last unit joined her for energetic THE AI.. splitting into duets which wasn’t fair since Asapon/Naomiti obviously sings better ^^;;

(Yayoi, Azumin) (Asapon, Naomiti)
MC. Talking about how this team is full of crybaby idols+seiyuu xD Azumin is just like Yukiho at how easily she cries, and Asapon confessed she cried singing The world is all one!! just 12 songs ago.. (Naomiti: “That was fast!” xD).

22. MEGARE!
MC: Anime.
23. The world is all one!! (feat. 765Pro)
Final MC.

Everyone returned for MEGARE!, the only common song in all chara CDs, so this All Stars version was highly expected. I want this in a CD! :3 Gather 10 seiyuu and you got a very noisy MC I got confused what they were on xD aand 765pro shachou is back!
Otoshidama #2 IM@S ANIME!!! Waaaaaaai!! Been forever since I felt SO happy for an anime.. all Im@s fans deny the existence of a certain Sunrise failure. Not sure how this will turn out, but at least they got the right seiyuu! Hopefully the right settings! :3  Site and twitter started right after live ended.

Also 2 CD out Feb 9. Ryuugu Komachi’s CD SMOKY THRILL (c/w Ritsuko’s new song) and FINALLY The world is all one!! Six tracks of the same song: 3x new unit ver, Ryuugu Komachi + Ritsuko-P ver, All Stars ver, off vocal, +bonus: 765プロみんなで合唱VERSION (Everyone sings chorus ver.) and by “everyone” they meant…..US.

(Mic to producers!)
Live CD recording featuring fans singing together. Lyrics on screen was a sec late so everyone actually sang by memory ^^;; an easy song to follow with heart-warming lyrics.

Final MC with each seiyuu farewell message. Nunu debuted as IM@S in this very hall, which brought her to tears.. nearby Eririn and Akky hugged her in sympathy, and of course erojiji Mingosu didn’t let this chance slip and quickly hug her too ^^;;;;;; well everyone did.

Such a lovely view end. (´∀｀*)ﾉ

Encore.
24. GO MY WAY!!（M@STER VERSION）
25. THE IDOLM@STER（M@STER VERSION）
MC: Gami-P greetings.

Short encore since there’s no costume change. Woot not an IM@S live without Gomaeeee!! xD And final shot, the original THE IDOLM@STER. Lastly, game producer Sakagami (Gami-P)’s greetings. He announced IDOLM@STER 2 game is fully completed! Few words about his confidence on the new game before really closing this 3 hours live with ipponjime.

Even after stage’s empty, everyone kept doing “IM@S SAIKOU!” calls. :3

Impressions.
25 songs setlist is rather short compared to the annual Anniversary Live… (which I believe this year’s will fall on Nana’s Live Journey date), but it didn’t disappoint. IM@S live is like entering another world, totally different level of cheering, and the transparent line between 2D and 3D idols.. I’m impressed all seiyuu did great on their singing/dancing considering only 3 out of 10 are “real” singers (Mingosu, Asapon, and Akky).

Hardcore fans, hardcore flowers. :3 I wonder if those were handmade.. xD

Pamphlet. Interview of each seiyuu and the rest are… ads. orz.

This live will be included as bonus DVD in killer package of both days of 5th Anniversary Live BD priced at 19,800yen (Amazon sounds good).

IM@S SAIKOU!

Yup another concert. Almost didn’t go coz my head was pinging like mad 3 hours before the live. Note to self: never go clubbing until 6 am on a heavy duty concert day (otagei-wise) ever again. Big mistake. I also hesitated because my concert ticket was half price from auction, and it takes 1 hour to get there by train.

I went anyway, arrived in Makuhari Messe 30 mins before the live starts. My seat is still in arena, but way on the back. I could see the stage pretty okay, and could recognize the girls… well the 3 big screens helped a lot.

One thing very noticeable.. the fangirl and fanboy ratio is a joke. Nana’s live seems like a Johnny boyband concert compared to this. There was only 1 other girl in my block, so safe to say there was.. er, 1 girl for every hundred boys?

Performers’ List

You think Eternal Blaze has impressive otagei? IM@S fans has it on a totally different level. I could catch up fairly well with the tempo, but felt SOOO noob because I didn’t bring enough penlights. The official ones were sold out, and didn’t have time to buy from normal shop. Each idol has her own image color, though some share the same penlight color. Here’s the confirmed guest list.

* Makoto’s image color is black, so it depends on the song.

I fail because I only prepared half (ultra orange, Nana’s blue, Yukarin’s pink, Minorin’s red) .. and just waved my hands during the other colors orz.

Setlist.

PROLOG.
The concert started with a special message from 765 Production’s Company President, telling us about the concert rules.. no heavy otagei that may disturb other people, and he will burn our cameras if we dare to take photos. xD

1. THE IDOLM@STER. Everyone.
Obvious start.

New costume! I prefer last year’s costume more, but anything that shows legs. :3

2. キラメキラリ (Kiramekirari). ~ Maya (Yayoi), Asapon (Ami/Mami), Harami (Takane).
I forgot my hangover already and jumped higher than the guy next to me. One of my fave genki song, even better with Asapon there. Harami isn’t squeaky enough lol so couldn’t really hear her.

3. 乙女よ大志を抱け (Otome yo taishi wo idake). Eririn (Haruka).
Still squeaky and unstable, but hits most of the notes. She improved.

4. 迷走Mind (Meisou Mind). Hirorin (Makoto)
Is a really fine singer with strong voice, or maybe because she sang right after Eririn? xD

5. 空 (Sora). Jurikichi (Kotori)
Gentle, soft voice with a nice feeling to it.

6. L・O・B・M.
~ Eririn (Haruka), Hirorin (Makoto), Mayachan (Yayoi), Asapon (Ami/Mami), Jurikichi (Kotori), Harami (Takane)

MC 1.
First batch done~! Each idol introduced themselves in character, led by Eririn. Fans waved penlight according to the idol’s color XD

7. いっぱいいっぱい (Ippai Ippai). Naomiti (Ritsuko).
Her Ritsuko cosplay never fails to amuse me lol hair.

8. 目が逢う瞬間 (Me ga Au Toki). ~ Chihaya (Mingos), Azusa (Chiaking)
ZOMG$@#!$!@# This song is the culprit that got me into the money-sucking franchise that is Idolm@ster. And A DUET VERSION WITH CHIAKING, and she used her deep voice to match Mingos. What did I do to deserve this goodness! XD

9. フタリの記憶 (Futari no Kioku). ~ Kugyu (Iori), Akki (Miki)

10. Next Life. Nunu (Hibiki)
Definitely not photogenic since she’s MUCH prettier in real life. xD Voice is deeper than CD too, so it was a lot better.

11. キミはメロディ (Kimi wa Melody)
~ Naomiti (Ritsuko), Chiaking (Azusa), Mingos (Chihaya), Kugyuu (Iori), Akki (Miki), Nunu (Hibiki)

MC 2
Second batch done! Another introduction led by Mingos.

From here on, they wear the old costumes depending on the song. Damn OFFICIAL HI-RES PICS WHERE!!!

PV: Arcade game
It’s not resting time because sadly the people there are in love with the game characters too. Even louder cheers and plenty of Ultra Orange lights.

12. エージェント夜を往く (Agent Yoru wo Yuku). Ami/Mami (Asapon)
My favorite in-game song! Asapon used her real (deeper) voice to sing, obviously it’s easier and better than trying to be as squeaky as possible lol.

13. 魔法をかけて！ (Mahou wo Kakete). ~ Naomiti (Ritsuko), Hirorin (Makoto)
Interesting combination for the song, turns out great too!

14. ポジティブ！ (Positive!). ~ Eririn (Haruka), Kugyu (Iori)

15. 蒼い鳥 (Aoi Tori). Mingos (Chihaya)
Beautiful. Perfection. I don’t know how else to describe it. Though it was still early to judge, I was sure this is the single best performance for the night. I listened to this once in Anisama 2 years ago, but the full song floored me.

PV: XBOX game

16. 私はアイドル (Watashi wa idol). ~ Hirorin (Takane), Asapon (Ami/Mami)

17. relations. Akki (Miki)
Eee.. surprised that Miki sings this. Used to love this song a lot.

18. 思い出をありがとう (Omoide wo arigatou). Chiaking (Azusa)

PV: Live 4 U
The best everrrrrr. L4U is a rhythm game (pressing buttons) and each button represent a cheer.. They showed the gameplay bit, we cheered as if we’re in game haha.

19. shiny smile. ~ Naomiti (Ritsuko), Jurikichi (Kotori), Nunu (Hibiki)

20. Do-Dai. ~ Mingos (Chihaya), Maya (Yayoi), Harami (Takane)
I miss this song since Anisama 2008. Yappari much better with Maya on it~!

21. my song. Kugyu (Iori)
I know that Kugyu is a decent singer, but didn’t know she’s very good live too! She nailed the Iori pitch and the lower one…. omg I’m totally floored.

MC.
Kugyu expressed her happiness to perform in front of us, finally she has time in between voicing loli. Then she started crying OMG THAT’S THE CUTEST THING EVER!!!!#!@# The other idols appeared on stage to pat and cheer her up. I can’t believe this, I have a Kugimiya disease, and because of her real life cuteness…. well still in character though, so I am now Type I positive? ;A;

MC continued, asking each idol which in-game-only song they’d like to cover on a CD.. naturally I didn’t know any of the songs they were talking about, since I only bought IM@S CD and PSP game lol.

22. メリー (Merry).
~ Eririn (Haruka), Chiaking (Azusa), Hirorin (Takane), Jurikichi (Kotori)

23. バレンタイン (Valentine). ~ Maya (Yayoi), Asapon (Ami/Mami)
Super squeaky loli fun!!

24. サニー (Sunny). ~ Naomiti (Ritsuko), Kugyu (Iori), Harami (Takane)

25. inferno. ~ Mingos (Chihaya), Nunu (Hibiki)
Finally Chihaya/Hibiki duet in real life!! Fans got super excited.

26. 花 (Hana). Jurikichi (Kotori)
Rose displayed on the middle screen. Damn I start liking Kotori too THIS IS BAD.

27. シャララ (Shalala).
~ Naomiti (Ritsuko), Chiaking (Azusa)

28. Shooting!!!. Akki (Miki)

29. Melted Snow. Harami (Takane)

PV: IDOLM@STER SP

30. オーバーマスター (Overmaster). ~ Akki (Miki), Harami (Takane), Nunu (Hibiki)
Of course after the SP introduction, 961 Pro idols!!! DAMN COOL!!!

31. Colorful Days. ~ Haruka (Eririn), Chihaya (Mingos), Ami/Mami (Asapon)
Awesome cheers. Shouting seiyuu names in between songs lol. ERIRIN! MINGOS! ASAPON! Loved loved loved it!

32. 隣に… (Tonari ni…). Chiaking (Azusa)
This is not the first time I heard Tonari ni… The normal version was great too, this girl doesn’t need gravure yo. Juicy poly yay~~~~ ♪

33. またね (Mata ne).
~ Hirorin, Kugyu (Iori), Maya (Yayoi), Jurikichi (Kotori), Nunu (Hibiki)

PV: IDOLM@STER 2

This PV in a big screen, BUT with the idol + seiyuu names… except Yukiho. By the end of the song, we get very big announcement…… Introducing new seiyuu for Hagiwara Yukiho, a cute young lady named Asakura Azumi!! Crowd roared.

IM@S SEIYUU LEGS APPROVED.

Had no idea who she is but her voice is very cute, totally different from Yurishii’s image of Yukiho before. She broke into tears because she’s happy she can participate from this important 5th anniversary.

Here’s Azumin’s ANN and official blog.

34. The world is all one!!. Everyone + Azumin
Still can’t really tell how Azumin sings.. need charasong asap!! I like the new song though, too bad the event-limited CD run out… it’s 10,000 yen in auctions orz. I’ll just wait for the general release..

MC.
Each seiyuu gave the last talk. I personally loved Jurikichi (Kotori) since she broke into tears while saying “eventhough I’m not an idol…..” awwwww that’s so cute >_< Well she’s officially only a clerk in 765 Pro.

ENCORE. FINALLY I CAN SIT DOWN.

35. GO MY WAY!!. Everyone
Glad I rested my feet because GO MY WAY! (HEY!!) GO MAE HE! (HEYYY!!!!) times infinity kills.

36. THE IDOLM@STER. Everyone
As usual, opened and closed with the title song. Most people were busy collecting the encore ribbons tho lol, there were way too few to collect.. not even 1 went to my area T__T

After the concert ends, the fans spent some time cheering for the BGM instead of going home. Yes, after 4 hours and 36 songs they’re still so energetic. All I was thinking about was food and Kugyu. Wait that sounds so wrong…

Overall the concert was very nicely arranged. Balanced proportion for each idol, interesting in-character MC, and I’m definitely impressed with the girls’ performance quality. Much better than I had expected.

Goods.

Obviously I had no hopes on goods. Everything was sold out when I arrived. Even the bonus in CD section was gone! It was uchiwa (paper fan) with THE IDOLM@STER SPECIAL CD covers, one girl on one side. You can choose which one you want.. Chihaya/Hibiki (SP 3) and Haruka/Yayoi (SP 1) were gone.

From all goods listed here, I only managed to get pamphlet and white normal T-shirt. I could still get the nicer blue, but only XL left… and this size S is still too big orz.

Pamphlet listing all participating seiyuu and short interview. Yummy Eririn and Mingos.

Plenty of flowers, but this one is nice. From Mingos’ SSG blog.

2ch people sent 1 bouquet for EACH seiyuu… well not as impressive as those personal ones sent by fans ^^;

Next time I’ll come back as a better producer, fully prepared with all penlight colors, no hangover, and hopefully better seat where I can actually see their face haha.

…..

THE WORLD IS ALL ONE !!

…. damn I’m sinking deeper into this, yeah?

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So much for hoping for an epic game, huh? Can’t honestly say I’m impressed with this.. Hopefully someone uploads the other songs soon.. there’s still hope. OK I suck. Should have re-checked in the last minutes. Here’s the links to the four Nana songs:

1. 世には花・夢に星 Yo ni wa Hana, Yume ni Hoshi [watch]
2. ブランニューハート BRAND NEW HEART [watch]
3. スカイハイ！ SKY HIGH! [watch]
4. シューティング☆スター SHOOTING STAR [watch]

.. is it only my ears or they did put some effects on Nana’s voice? :-/ Or maybe it’s just really bad recording from Wii? I don’t think I’ll get the game, but I’m hoping there will be a CD with better mastering than this, or a full version whatever.. track 2 is not too bad.

Rather than this, I’d love to see her latest event in Shinjuku Koma on DVD. I mean..

DISCOTHEQUE live with the costume (and the dance!).

Punk Nana singing Trickster.

And the stage drama?

Hell yeah.

It’s finally out next month on October 23rd.

Happy Dance Collection is a Mizuki Nana game rhythm dancing game for Nintendo Wii, moving around your Wii remote as seen in the screencaps below..

..no idea how to do that.

The game will (only) have 24 songs, including Mizuki Nana’s 4 original songs with different tunes: a fun song, a slow ballad, a soulful R&B, and an energetic live song. LOL @ ballad, but Nana said the choreography fits well and wasn’t weird when she tried.. let’s just hope it wasn’t a marketing speech xD

..and to be honest I’m not so sure with the song choices. I only know some of the J-POP songs, know all the anime songs but will feel stupid dancing to them, and why the heck there will be only ONE Idolm@ster song? >_>

Anyway, here’s the song list:

J-POP
Kibun Jojo ↑↑ (Mihimaru GT)
Koko ni Iru yo feat. Aoyama Thelma (SoulJa)
Natsumatsuri (?)
Aiuta (GReeeeN)
Ikenai Taiyou (ORANGE RANGE)
KISS-shite (KOH+)
Choo Choo TRAIN (EXILE)
ASIA no Junshin (PUFFY)
CUTIE HONEY (some said it’s Koda Kumi’s.. can I have Makkun’s? )
POP STAR (Hirai Ken)
LOVE MACHINE (Morning Musume)
Aoi Sangoshou, Rock’n Rouge, Natsu no Tobira, Akai Sweet Pea (Matsuda Seiko medley)

Anime/Game
Chance! (Kirarin☆Revolution)
Happy☆彡 (Kirarin☆Revolution)
Together (Pokemon)
Hagushichao (Doraemon)
Precure 5, Full Throttle GoGo! (Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!)
Precure 5 Smile, go go! (Yes! Precure 5)
Anpanman no March (Soreike! Anpanman)
GO MY WAY!! (Idolm@ster)

Main characters Ai (Mizuki Nana) and Yuuki (no idea who).

When I knew Nana would voice the protagonist AND sing 4 original songs, I thought this would be a no-brainer for me.. but will it worth the effort? Since I need that Wii FreeLoader thing too so my dust-collector Australian PAL Wii can play NTSC-J games without modding it.. the gameplay is okay, but the song list is not helping at all (Nana’s CD is considered bought, though). Unless they put a bonus DVD of Nana playing the game.. then I’ll get it, lol.

Here’s the official site, but nothing to see there.