NKDS

With the memories of our marathon of Animelo 08 still fresh on my mind, I thought it would be a good idea to write down what I felt about the concert, before my muddled mind forgets everything. I will only be writing my impressions of what I thought were outstanding songs or singers, since there is really not much point to me commenting about the artistes or songs that I am not familiar with. Sentinel011 of Bonkurasu was with us during the marathon, please feel free to head over to his site to read what he has to say about the event.

Day 1, Disc 1

Koi se yo Onna no ko, Mamimume Mogacho (Yukarin, Nana-chan) : It was amusing to watch Nanoha and Fate on stage having a duet, but slightly disappointing that they did not sing a single Nanoha song. Do not let that get you down though, the pair did extremely well in their joint performance of both songs. Besides, how often do we get to hear the cute version of Nana’s singing voice?

Towa no Hana(Ishida Yoko): A personal favourite of mine, since it reminded me of the days when I first started anime as a hobby. Towa no Hana itself is a rather old song, but still performed to perfection by Yoko-san. Kudos to her!

Gamble Rumble(m.o.v.e): I swear Yuri never gets old, she still looks as beautiful as she did all those years back when I first watched Initial D 2nd season and watched the Gamble Rumble PV. Motsu has aged a bit, though one could never tell by how he moved and rapped effortlessly. Oh, and watch out for the carbon fibre bike that Motsu rides on at the start of their segment.

Over The Future(Karen Girls): Three real-life lolis having their live debut on stage. Thousands of lolicons cheering for them. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the Karen Girls performed well under pressure, managing to put up an extremely competent rendition of the song that shot them to fame. When we first heard that the Karen Girls would be attending Animelo, we conjured up a scenario where the Karen Girls would get stage fright and break down in tears, thus prompting the motherly singers like Minami Kuribayashi and Masumi Okui to come up on stage and hug them. This “dream scenario” obviously never happened; the Karen Girls were professional despite their youth.   

nowhere(savage genius, Minorin, yozuca): The Nana songs aside, this is hands down the most epic performance that Day 1 has to offer. When all three singers harmonized on the chorus of the song, I literally felt a chill down my spine. It was that awesome. To have such a challenging song performed so successfully by all 3 singers at once speaks volumes about their coordination and the amount of effort they put into practice and rehearsals.

Also, A-chan, Yozuca and Minorin are now known as the Yamani Girls. Please watch the actual performance for more information. 

Love Jump, Next Season, Shining Days (Minami Kuribayashi): Minami performed up to her usual high standards, but her costume designer needs to be shot. Seriously, please give her better costumes that can accentuate her figure. That golden thing that she wore this year was simply atrocious.

Day 1, Disc 2

Shijin no Tabi, all Minorin songs(Minorin): Minorin has come far since her big break as “Yuki’s seiyuu”. Her live singing skills has improved to a point where I can compare her favourably with Nana herself. And trust me, this is high praise coming from a self-admitted Nana fanatic. Hirano Aya would need a heck of a lot of practice before she can even begin to challenge Minorin’s superiority. Funny how they both got their breaks from the same anime and yet exist on totally different levels now,

Rinbu Revolution(Masumi Okui, Minorin): Remember the duet of the same song that Nana and Okui performed in Animelo07? This year brings us the version by Okui and Minorin. It is not superior nor is it inferior to last year’s version, it is just different. It was nice to see Minorin behave like a little girl in front of Okui. Real life moe in action indeed.

Pray, all Nana songs(Nana-chan): Perfection as usual. Not much to talk about here, I could write an entire article proclaiming the greatness of Mizuki Nana in Animelo08 and it would all boil down to this simple fact: her performance was flawless. Pray deserves special mention though, Nana had 6 guitars playing for her in this song, and I believe the end product is the best live version of Pray ever performed by Nana in any of her concerts so far. In fact, I would want to rip out this version to replace the CD version in my MP3 player. It is that good.

Eternal Blaze(Nana-chan, Ali Project): Where should I start… let’s just say Arika totally slaughtered and butchered the song, while Nana looked on helplessly as she tried to salvage what was left of the duet. Arika forgot the lyrics right at the start, slurred her way through the rest of the song, and mistimed after the 2nd chorus. I don’t understand, Nana did Arika the honour of providing an excellent performance of Seishoujo Ryouiki at Animelo07. Why did Arika have to screw up Nana’s song so badly this year? I have never seen Nana so distressed during a live performance before. You just have to watch it for yourself to get what I meant.

So this version of Eternal Blaze became two halves rather than a single unified whole, Nana’s perfect half and Arika’s screwed-up half. If “nowhere” was the high point of the event, then this sorry rendition of “Eternal Blaze” surely had to be the low point.

Conclusion

Overall, Day 1 felt a lot more normal as compared to the random fun that goes on in Day 2. As a matter of note, Masumi Okui was sick during Day 1, yet she turned up for her performances and sang as well as she normally did. I respect her from the bottom of my heart, one only has to look at the ”Making Of” portion of Day 1 to see how unwell she truly was. Little wonder why so many artistes look up to her as the “Onee-sama” of the industry.  

Day 2 impressions tomorrow, I feel Ibuki from Asu no Yoichi calling to me.

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.