Tochiro

Thanks for the reply! Late is better than nothing! lol.

Yeah I picked up the Blu too but have only had time to watch a little bit of it. Glad you enjoyed it tho. Along with the Galaxy Frontier Blu, we now have a lot of great live Macross out there that all the fans can experience region free :-) (and then theres the Maaya Sakamoto Blu in August - my wallet cries!).

The funny thing with May'n is that it looks like she has gone back to playing smaller gigs. Her upcoming double tour in August-September is mostly at smaller venues and is back down to 4000-5000yen a ticket. Big Waaaave tics were close to twice that. Heck, even Mari Iijima's gig on July 31 is 6500yen or so! So I'm curious as to where her career will go from here (and yes, sigh, at that price Ill probably drop by her September Tokyo show, although its the same weekend as the Tokyo Game Show and a potential Maaya Sakamoto gig. Yikes!).

I agree that the production values of Big Waaave were excellent though! I stand by my original statement that it really was the definitive May'n experience :-)

For anyone in the Tokyo area, theres an all-night Macross night happening on July 30th, featuring DJs (including the lovely DJ Sou who I saw at a gig today dressed as Faye from Cowboy Bebop!).

Click on the pamphlet to enlarge.

Me, Ill be there all night and going straight to see Mari Iijima's concert at 2pm the next day. Gonna be a looooong day, lol. PM me if you are interested in coming.

Cool cool!

Tochiro do you happen to know if Akino was accompanied by YK at the Paris concert? Does she even perform with her anymore?

Well, I'm no Akino expert, but as far as I'm aware, you are presuming a link that never really existed. As far as I know, Kanno and Akino never did perform together (altho they may have been on stage together at the 15th anniversary concert, Im not sure). Kanno does have a history of slipping into concerts for a brief cameo (as she did at the Maaya concert a couple of months back - that DVD is gonna be AMAZING) but the only time she realy ever toured/performed with the artists she worked with was for a handfull of Seatbelt concerts at the turn of the century and the Macross F tour. Then there was Tanabata Sonic, of course, although THAT was more like everyone accompanying Kanno, not the other way around, lol.

The short of it is that Im pretty certain Kano wasnt at Paris (to answer your question).

Awesome write up as always Tochiro.

Yeah the concert at AX was simply incredible. Getting autographs on top of that was just icing on the cake.

By the way, someone in line told me that he saw footage on the net of some guy talking about a Bluray release of the Macross concert held last year. Can anyone confirm this?

Can't say I've heard anything and while I'd love for it to be true, I seriously doubt it.

To quote myself from a different thread:

"While I wish there was such announcement, there hasnt been and I doubt that there will be.

The concert hall wasnt set up with the number of cameras necessary for a proper DVD release imo. Just 2 or 3 cams for basic footage on the big screens for the cord at the back. Compare that to, for example, the Maaya Sakamoto concert a few weeks back where it was really obvious from the number of cameras and quality of the footage being played on the big screens that a DVD will be made (even though it hasnt officially been announced yet).

I could be wrong, but I checked on both days of the Crossover concert and, just like the Firebomber reunion, I cant see there being a DVD made.

A CD on the other hand might happen I suppose (I SO want one from the Soul G Gundam Anniversary concert too!). Fingers crossed?"

Dude....seriously....WOW!!!!! Thank you very much for posting those links. I seriously got shivers watching those vids. This is the first time I have ever seen video footage of Akino Arai performing live. Those Paris fans are lucky as hell to have seen it! Two questions:

1)To the best of your knowledge is there a dvd/BD of this paris concert...or *ANY* Akino Arai concert for that matter?

2)Do you or anyone else happen to know if Akino was accompanied by Yoko Kanno during that Paris performance?

Man...I swear if Akino Arai ever comes to Anime Expo I'm gonna freakin' lose it!

Oh and I just found an awesome interview with her about her Paris concert:

http://www.mimu-net.net/en/article_view.php?articleid=73

Damn! Some nice links! Thanks for sharing! She did the same 2 songs at the Crossover Live and personally I'd put the Crossover versions above the Paris ones in terms of quality - well noone recorded them so Im content with the Paris cam versions!

Boy do I feel stupid now....here am thinking it is May'N who did the actual non-singing voice work for Sheryl, when it is in fact Aya Endo who did the spoken dialog. Wow. You learn something new everyday.

Well, May'N is certainly nice looking and all, but man...Aya Endo is smoking hot! Would have loved to see her come to AX as well.

She is a damn talented seiyuu - probably one of only a handful of newer ones that I think are worth keeping an eye on. She did some work for our company once but not being directly involved, I missed the chance to meet her. Some colleagues did send me pictures of her somewhat tipsy at the project wrap up party though, lol.

Did anyone get a chance to see them at AX yesturday? I hate having to be a responsable adult & work...

Check the conventions forum - reports and pics a plenty!

It was such an unreal experience to have the actual Sheryl singer prompting you and the crowd to sing "motteke" along with her in the chorus of "Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't be Late."

Exactly! I felt the exact same way back during the Galaxy Tour Final concert. Afterwards its like waking back up to reality or something, lol.

The opening songs are called Triangular, and Lion. Though the actual opening version of the song was done by Maaya Sakamoto (whom i saw perform at AX05).

Would've loved to have seen Voices. Is there an album recording of Megumi doing it or is this a live thing only?

The only recording in the bootleg of the Tanabata Sonic concert. Which is a shame, but better than nothing.

Its AWESOME that you guys got to see VOICES done live! Its only the 2nd time that Megumi has done it. The first was at Tanabata Sonic! You were all part of something special guys!

OK, back from the first day. First off, MAY'N is gorgeous,,, and a sweetheart!!! I was in line for her panel with a friend, and we happened to see another MW member, Mitch there. I said hi to him, but he was way ahead of the line. Anywho, he let us get up in line with him, which was really cool. What ended up being a good trade off, was my buddy who is press there, was already inside, and saved two front row center seats and two 2nd row center seats to the panel. Also, my buddy who is press, got to take pics while May'n was doing the panel, and used my camera and his. I have probably about 50+ pics of her. Afterward was the autograph signing, and Mitch and I met up in line, got our respective CDs signed, and, well, what a ride. In the panel, May'n said that she was looking forward to having an American Hamburger, so when she was signing my case, I told her the obvious first, that I loved her music, voice, and her videos, then told her that for the best hamburger, to go to IN-N-OUT. Great first day. Also went to the Robotech panel, but that can go someplace where people are interested in that. Tomorrow, off to buy more cells, Macross posters, and a Sheryl PVC. Then stop at the car, then concert time.

May'n did say there will be some special things planned for the concert, so I'm gonna be really looking forward to this show. Here's one of many, many pics I took. From here, I only had to take two steps. You can tell how close we were. Oh, and sorry about the size. Haven't had time to resize. Just save it and fit it to a decent size you like.

I second Shiorikaze's sentiment! lol. Great pic JasonC! Any chance of putting a more permanent gallery up somewhere once the AX madness is over?

Morpheous - I hear you mate! Hope you manage to get your transport issues worked out.

And if anyone needs MORE Megumi in the leadup to tomorrows concert, I just posted the following review.

Looking forward to updates from AX guys! Keep em coming!

It’s often said that a good review needs a personal hook. I’ve never bought that fully - having been turned off by only too many self-indulgent Harry Knowles reviews. This time though, I feel that the personal side to this review warrants mentioning, so try to bear with me and I’ll try not to bore you too much.

I had planned to go to Anime Expo this year. Doing so was the culmination of two personal goals. Firstly, I’d always wanted to see the US anime scene first-hand, Having been in Japan for almost a third of my life, I found US fandom and many of the stories I’d heard arising from it to be pretty incomprehensible. Foreign even. I wanted to experience this twist on the culture I’d moved to Japan to immerse myself in first-hand. Secondly, and more importantly, AX this year was to be all about Macross - in particular it was about May’n and Megumi Nakajima. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that I’ve probably seen both of the Macross Frontier girls live more times than any Western fan on the face of the planet. From small performances at tiny clubs in Shibuya, to 17000 screaming fans at 2009’s Tanabata Sonic, I’d been to every performance that I could - fascinated by the different paths each girl has taken since Macross F ended. So what could a small performance at a US convention possibly hold for me? Well, it wasn't so much the performance itself as it was the signing sessions. In Japan we don't do meet and greets. And there isn’t an autograph culture here either (with personal seals/chops being used in everyday life for hundreds of years, signatures in general don’t mean much). So the appeal for me was to actually meet May’n and Megumi. I wanted to ask May’n about the huge Taiyaki cake that Aya Endo brought out on stage for her birthday at the Macross Crossover Live. I wanted to ask Megumi how she felt covering Akino Arai’s voices in front of a packed stadium an Yoko Kanno’s Tanabata Sonic. More than that, I wanted to say thank you for the music.

Well, a week before I was due to catch that plane to the US, fate decided it had other plans. Fate, of course, was residing in my appendix at the time and had decided it wanted to renovate the place by putting a few new holes in the walls. And so, at 2am on Wednesday June 23rd, I found myself racing through the streets of Tokyo in the back on an ambulance. One emergency surgery and 2 days later, the doctor made clear to me that I’d be laid up in hospital for a week and wouldn't be getting on any planes for at least twice that long. The following Wednesday I found myself discharged. I couldn't really sit but I could walk - well it was more like a zombie shuffle really. I’d lost my airfare to the US (no refunds), had several thousand dollars of new medical bills (emergency surgery was expensive!) and had spent the only vacation time I’d had in 3 years in the hospital. I was sore and not in the best of moods. But it was only midday and that night Megumi was due to perform a small gig in Shibuya before jumping on a plane to the US the following day. It was the last show of her summer 2010 concert tour. And I’d be damned if I was going to miss it.

After dropping by my apartment to clear out my mailbox, I cast a quick glance over the posters, cells and CDs that I’d had ready to get signed at AX before beginning to shuffle down to the local JR station and somehow get to Shibuya.

The concert was at Shibuya O-East. The Shibuya O group has no less than four tiny hole-in-the-wall event stages in a 2 building complex at the back of Shibuya. The stages were tiny. I’d seen Yoshiki Fukuyama play here before, as well as Falcom’s JDK band (from the Y’s series of games). I was surprised that Megumi was playing at such a small venue. I mean, May’ns last gig was at the freakin’ Budokan with a packed house of 14,000 people. Shibuya O-east had room for maybe 1,500-2,000 tops.

When I arrived they were already calling ticket numbers. There was a decent crowd assembled although it was by no means huge. The usual congratulatory bouquets lined the entrance of the venue.

The one from May’n was to be expected, although the one from Akihabara Queen Shoko Nakagawa came as a bit of a surprise. An apology for butchering Seikan Hikou on her recent cover album perhaps? Next to this was a bouquet from Macross (and all things mecha) artist Hidetaka Tenjin, who was to be found up in the guest section on the second floor.

Not being fortunate enough to be a guest though, I hobbled over to the 1st floor entrance and found myself a nice spot just to the right with a section railing to lean on should my recently sliced up innards decide to give me any trouble. About 20 minutes later the concert began.

I’ve mentioned this in past reviews, but the divergent career paths on May’n and Megumi never fail to fascinate me. While May’n is trying to go more mainstream with her new (poppy but decidedly non anime-pop) album and concerts at the Budokan, Megumi has fully embraced the otaku idol singer image - something which will most likely result in a smaller yet much more hardcore fanbase and guarantee her a pretty long career (a guarantee that May’n does not have). It's like watching Ranka develop for real. Or somewhat of a hybrid between Ranka and Minmay.

And nowhere was the idol singer image more apparent than the outfit that Megumi ran onto the stage in. Half Ranka, half Sleeping Beauty, and 100% 1980’s era idol. it was a shiny combination of red and blue sequins and a short fluffy dress with at least a dozen layers under it to make it flare out. I had seen Megumi in some pretty anime inspired outfits before, but the difference here was that she wasn’t playing Ranka, she was playing Megumi (or Mamegu as the fans call her). As such, the concert wasn't totally dedicated to Macross songs. It was all about Megumi, not Frontier.

We ended up with 5 Macross songs in total out of a setlist of 19. All in all thats not a bad number since the concert was mainly about Megumi's new album with was released several weeks earlier “I Love You.” The album included 12 tracks (some of which had been released previously on maxi-singles and mini-albums), with the idea that each song was supposed to represent a different month of the year.

Of the non-Macross songs, Sunshine Girl definitely stood out as an up-beat fun number and was fittingly used as both the concerts opener as well as an encore (although it was lacking dodgy gaijin jumping around with fake instruments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv43lmyuIrs ). ‘Jellyfish kokuhaku’ was also surprisingly good live, with a more jazzy feel to it than the album version. Her previously released songs were also a cut above the standard idol fare with ‘Shining On’, ‘Be Myself’, ‘Nostalgia’, and ‘Tenshi ni naritai’ all getting huge reactions from the audience - most of which were made up by pretty hardcore Akiba otaku types. When these guys get into it they do so in a big way with most of them jumping up and down and yelling for almost every song. And I’m talking full, mosh pit worthy jumps here.

The biggest cheers of course, were for the Macross Frontier songs, of which we got the following five:

-Lion (Ranka ver.)

-What ‘bout my Star @Formo

-Ao no Ether

-Seikan Hikou

-Anata no Oto

The Ranka version of ‘Lion’ was included in the first pressing of ‘I Love You’ and this tour was the first time it had been done live. Overall, Megumi pulled it off well, better than May’ns solo version in my opinion, although the song doesn’t have the same punch without both girls singing it together either way. ‘What ‘bout my star’ was also a success, with Megumi really showing that she has a wider vocal range than just her Ranka stuff (although naturally I prefer the original May’n version). ‘Ao no Ether’ was beautiful to listen to as always. Megumi had changed into a white summer dress for the second half of the concert and the song came across as very sad and more mature than a lot of her other poppy stuff. At the end of it she commented that whenever she sings ‘Ao’ it seems like Ranka is there - both next to her and also within her.

‘Seikan Hikou’ was a crowd pleaser as always - she can do that damn dance in her sleep now, I’ll bet - and ‘Anata no Oto’ was the first song of the encore. I can’t hear this song anymore without hearing the squeak of rubber duckies. Anyone who was at Tanabata Sonic or has listened to the bootleg will know what I mean ;-)

Overall, the concert lasted 2hrs 20mins, although a lot of this also included Megumi talking to the crowd and teaching everyone to do the dance for Sunshine Girl during the encore. And this is where she had most obviously matured as a performer - she was much better at talking to and interacting with the audience than in the past. In fact, she had them positively wrapped around her little finger - making jokes, admonishing some of the guys who were constantly calling out (it happens at most concerts here), telling a few stories (6 years ago she came to Shibuya O when she was in high school to see a concert and had apparently wanted to sing there ever since. Of course, the main result of that story was that everyone was trying to imagine Megumi in a high school uniform, but I digress)- the crowd was positively eating out of her hand so that, when she announced that her next concert would be in Yokohama next January, pretty much everyone in the room was on board to buy a ticket immediately. Megumi knows her niche, has become comfortable with it, and knows how to work it. I was initially concerned that she had set her sights too low compared to the heights that May’n has been striving for as of late, but came way convinced that she knows what she’s doing.

Was the concert a must-see for Macross fans? No, not especially. It was certainly a treat for Megumi fans though, and the Macross songs that we did get made it even better. Was it worth shuffling all the way there immediately after having being discharged from hospital? Probably not. But as a fan, it was a matter of pride. And thats what fans do.

(They also stay home and nurse their sore stitches most of the day after.)

thanks for the support guys. Sorry for the late reply-the last few days have been a drug induced blur....and no, not the good kind, lol.

Yes. It's gonna be on all your shoulders to give us all the juicy details on the concert then! I'm counting on you guys!

On this end, I'm due to be discharged from hospital the morning before Megumis concert on Wednesday. I'm not supposed to be moving but I may try to pop along. We shall see.

Oh and for anyone wondering- airlines are a pack of hyenas. I'm losing 70 % of the airfair refund as a cancellation charge, despite having a letter from the hospital stating I can't travel. Bastards.

But I don't mean to bring the mood down! Let the speculation of that AX2010 concert setlist commence!!

Some bad news...

Hey there guys. Well it's less than a week until the big event and I have my ticket from Tokyo booked and posters to get signed by mayn an megumi packed and ready to go.....

And then, on wednesday, my appendix apparently decided it was a lemming and hit the self destruct button. It was a close call and I spent a lot of Wednesday in surgery, but now here I am stuck in a hospital bed with the do tor telling me there is no way in hell I'm getting on a plane next week.

To be honest I'm pretty devastated. Sure, I've seen mayn and megumi probably 6 or 7 times in the past, but signings and meet&greets are not done here in Japan- and I was prepared to fly all the way to the US just to meet them and get these posters signed. More importantly (yeah yeah call me a sap- I'll just say that the pain killers are getting to me, lol) I was looking forward to finally meeting a lot of the MW crew in person at last. Well unfortunately I'm out of the game for now, and I apologize to yellowlightman and the oter guys I'd promised to meet up with. Have a drink at the yardhouse for me guys.

And now for something completely different - Sherryl water bottles!

http://www.news-gate.jp/2010/0618/10/

Coming June 26!

Tickets secured!

Excellent! Will be coming straight from the airport on Friday night. Its raining cats and dogs here in Macau.

Count me in!

Here's my number.

Mar (510) 364-8570. Please no spam messages.

So no phone calls late at night asking what colour your valkyrie is in a deep voice. Awwww, thats no fun at all. lol.

Looking forward to catching up with some of the MacWorld gang there!

Yup definately coult me in for the Yardhouse guys. Any idea how we will all recognise each other???

So, guys. Yardhouse. I'm free on Thu-Fri-Sat nights (although Im going to be jetlagged all to hell).

Who is going, when do you wanna meet up and how will we recognise one another? (I reckon whoever arrives first dresses as Ranka. What do you think? Guys?...Uh...guys?)

Ruskii - From memory you will be in Tokyo for WonderFesta, correct? If so, you should try to hit up the Chie Kajiura (Mylene) concert that Saturday night. Am out of tics myself but someone else on the boards could have a spare I suppose,

Woot! My blu of 2.22 just arrived. Thank YOU Amazon Japan :-D Ah, time to sit down and enjoy it for the first time...since I saw 2.0 in the cinema 4 times last summer ^^;

Am looking forward to seeing whats been changed.

I said it before, I'm bettin' on either Yoko Kanno (she did a lot of the music composition and writing for the songs, or good ol' Basara himself will be there to rock out with Sheryl. the May'n music DVD has them performing Totsugeki Love Heart together, and it's a great performance.

Well I can GUARANTEE it wont be Fukuyama, sorry. He has JAM Project Tour gigs on July 1st, 3rd and 4th here in Japan.

That leaves either Kanno or Iijima. I'm torn - logically I'd expect it to be Kanno due to her being the composer and having played piano for the Mac F girls at the Galaxy Tour concerts. However I cant help but think that Kanno's presence would be widely promoted if she was going. That leaves Iijima who, having sang with Megumi before and living around the corner, would be a reasonable expectation.

Maaya - highly doubt it. She only had one song in the entire series and, once again, would not be a guest that the organizers would keep quiet about (since she is in everything from FF13 to Durarara to Eva 2.0 these days and is pretty darn big!)

Wow, WHAT a line up this year has. You know, I've wanted to try a US convention for years but keep hearing that recent ones are all cosplaying teenagers or US voice actors - could this years AX be a final big hurrah?

Despite having seen May'n and Megumi multiple times (will actually be seeing Megumi play in Tokyo on June 30), I gotta say - I am tempted to fly over to the US for that weekend. Very tempted. Artists generally dont do signings in Japan. Getting autographs would rock. Hmmm...

So, while I go check my bank account/work schedule, Ill put the question out there - is anyone going interested in sharing accom? If I do go, I suppose I'd arrive the Thu morning (provided I can get a flight), so will be looking for a room to share or place to crash on Thu, Fri, Sat nights. If anyone is willing to share, PM me. (of course, this is all tentative for now).

Also, we HAVE to do a MacrossWorld met up on one of the nights! (regardless of whether or not I make it). Anyone wanna suggest a good pub?