This past week(end) I traveled to Los Angeles for AX2017 and more importantly the Anison World Matsuri event at AX. In line with my previous posts I’ll just recount my time there as I don’t think I can do it much justice in any other way.

I originally did not intend on attending AX2017 because I’d already decided I wanted to go to Japan instead to see Sphere. However, due to the fact that AX is known for announcing guests really late, and the AWM line-up being something I really wanted to see (particularly Garnidelia, Cinderella Girls, and Walkure) I decided to scramble all resources I could to attend. I was lucky enough to obtain VIP tickets for both AWM events thanks to the efforts and help of a lot cool and awesome people. (@jonjonaug, @yggdrizzle, @shinikenshi, @orobleRL). I’d also planned on attending the Ajikan concert on July 2nd and Neon District on July 3rd but I’ll say right now that I did not go to either so I won’t touch on that.

The events I did attend were:

I left for LA on the morning of the 29th, standard fare travel. As usual flying fucks me up so I had a fun time making my connection. Arrived to LAX around 1pm local time. Spent like 2 hrs getting through immigration and customs and another hour making it to my hotel in downtown LA due to ridiculous traffic that day. Once I checked in I went out with jonjon for lunch/dinner in Little Tokyo we went to a Hakata Ramen restaurant named Shinsengumi, it was pretty good but it was not as good as the place I went to with Dad Southrop in Ikebukuro. I will say I did appreciate the gentle pricetag of the meal. the only time this would happen in LA. Afterwards I dragged us to a Yakiniku place nearby because I wanted to meet my good friend @Disgaeamad and met with a bunch of people from HPT including Kuro who I last met in Japan about a month prior and Chuck (@exciel_co_log) who I hadn’t met in person before. He’s a really awesome and welcoming guy who I wish I’d talked to more during my time in LA.

Afterwards we just went back to the hotel and met up with Yggdrizzle since he was rooming with us that night. Friday was pretty uneventful for most of the day. Went to pick up some stuff at the convention center and whatnot and met with Alex (another friend rooming with us). Afterwards I spent most of the afternoon running some errands but I was able to pick up callbooks from almost every group that offered them… with the exception of the Walkure one which ran out in like 10 minutes. I also met a fair amount of people I only knew from twitter before like my koroazu bro Shizu (@ShizuGivingsDay) and bbb (@bobbierob) who were distributing the Konomin callbooks.

Anisong World Matsuri 2017: Japan Kawaii Live (please use a better name lol)

I guess this was the main event of AX for me and most of the people I knew attending, I was able to get a VIP ticket for this thanks to jonjon and Yggdrizzle. Our seats for the event were unreal, practically stageside. I doubt I’ll ever have seats this good again, especially in Japan (koroazu lives being an exception). I got there at about 5:30 and had to wait in line at the VIP entrance since security was a little slow. I ran into Sam on the way there and we waited in line to get in for a good 25 minutes. After getting in I proceeded find my seat and went out to buy like 2 liters of water at the concession stand in the MS Theater lobby, it was expensive but worth it (about $5 per 600 ml bottle).

Not a good picture but my seat was godlike, only two rows ahead of me. Basically like all of HPT was in the rows in front of us which was amusing.

Let’s get this out of the way, Wake Up, Girls! (WUG) were my personal MVP because while I knew most of their songs I didn’t expect their live performance to be this incredible. My event ranking ended up looking like:

1. WUG
2. Walkure
3. Cinderella Girls
4. Aqours

That said Walkure was also fucking incredible as well, so 1st and 2nd are basically a tie. I’m only giving it to WUG for the surprise factor.

Cinderella Girls [Ruru (Jougasaki Mika), Yukinco (Futaba Anzu), Reichama (Moroboshi Kirari), Moyo (Akagi Miria), Iidashi (Hayami Kanade), Assamu (Miyamoto Frederica] :

They’re kinda the reason I decided to attend AX since I love IM@S and I wanted to attend their first live in the west. The lineup was extremely good with lots of fan favorites in the west. I personally enjoyed their performance a lot, especially their MC and Talk segments (having Ruru and Moyo re-enact that one scene from ep 17 of dereani killed me irl). Their setlist was pretty safe as it was all group songs that appeared in dereani with the exception of Yes! Party Time!!. I will admit I was a little disappointed there weren’t any solo or unit songs (or a medley of them) since everyone who was present has really strong solo/unit songs (I would have killed to see あんずのうた live). But overall it was pretty solid and I really really hope they come back in the future if AX/AWM/The Powers That Be allow for it.

WUG:

I was really blindsided by them because while I thought the songs I’d listened to before were pretty good. I had no idea they were gonna be this good live. Every single member of WUG surprised me with how intense their choreo was and how good their singing is live too. I will admit some of it is a blur now because I was so surprised but I specifically remember Tachiagare and Koi? De Ai? De Boukun Desu! being really heckin’ great. I will refrain from talking about favorites out of fear of being stabbed by the wugchan lickers.

Intermission:

Basically just took the time to drink some water and recharge. At this point I noticed there were two water bottles on stage so I knew Walkure was next.

Walkure (Junna and Minoringo):

WELCOME TO WALKURE WORLD

 

Holy shit Walkure started out strong with Koi! Halation The War which gave me chills irl when the intro started playing. I absolutely loved all their songs while watching Macross Delta and seeing this live was just another experience. This was followed by motherfucking Ikenai Borderline. At this point I was almost beheaded by Kuro because his Walkure blade broke and hit me in the head. Afterwards they had a pretty great MC and both Junna and Minoringo were relieved to see that people actually knew their songs (fair concern, Macross Delta still isn’t available legally in the west) and also tried to do most of their MC in English but were still surprised that people generally understood them when speaking Japanese. (This was a recurring theme for like basically every MC in both concerts).

Afterwards they went even harder with Bokura no Senjou and Ichido Dake no Koi Nara at which point Kuro once again almost killed me with his blade one last time to make sure. After those two songs they had one last MC where Minoringo got the audience to do the chorus for Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara like a million times because she was so happy everyone knew the song followed by the song which again was great because the audience followed along with the furi for it.

Aqours:

I’ll keep it brief, I was decently surprised by them. I don’t really know their songs and I was pretty tired but I tried as best as I could to follow along with the calls and stuff. They weren’t bad at all but also not entirely my cup of tea. People definitely went hard on the yakkai calls during their set. First time I experienced a house tiger and MIX at a live.

 

Finally all the performers came out to give their thanks to the audience and generally just say goodbye. With the exception of Junna because of japanese labor laws (I dunno how this works).

 

Afterwards I tried to find where the HECK the VIP only event was happening and managed to find it only to get owned by MS Theater staff and having to wait like 20 minutes to go downstairs for it. I didn’t really know what to say so I pretty much just waved back at the performers because I’m bad. It was still pretty great because Yukinco paid attention to me but in general they were pretty happy to see all the fans heading to see them.

After finally getting out of the MS Theater I met up with more HPT people and checked in for the Off and then I found my bro Shizu and we talked about how good koro is for a bit. Also this happened:

Offkai itself was pretty good, lots of people having fun and whatnot. Unfortunately I was super dead so I spent most of my time sitting down in the lounge with some HPT people. I got to talk to Ryan for a bit which was great. I do regret being a little quiet during it but the live killed me that day.

Afterwards I made the mistake of trying to sleep instead of just going to line up for autographs. I paid the price when I arrived around 7am at the autograph line and was on the fourth loop of it. I completely missed out on any chances of getting priority tickets for any artist I would have liked but took the gamble, waited like 3 hrs and got a standby ticket for Garnidelia since they were my first choice.

Near the end of the line I learned there were secret WUG autograph tix being given away the the avex booth but due to the autograph line starting to move like 45 minutes late by the time I made it to the exhibit hall even with my OP AX badge they had sold out like 2 or 3 people ahead of me.

Afterwards I headed to Kentia Hall to wait for the Garnidelia signing to start. I was a little scared since I was Standby 27. But they were actually super efficient about it and basically everyone with a ticket got their stuff signed. When my turn came I was a little nervous so I pretty much just said I was a big fan and I know namedropping’s a little uncool but mentioned my other koro bro Esh, since they know him and their reaction was pretty great (particularly Maria’s). I wanted to mention seeing them at SSA in Japan but I was too nervous/excited to attempt to form that kind of sentence so I basically just thanked them for being great afterwards.

Afterwards I headed back to the hotel to eat something quick and sleep before the live. Unfortunately my being extremely dead resulted in missing out in a lunch opportunity with Chika, my Aneki. I was pretty bummed about it since I only get like one chance a year to hang out. (unfortunately 0 this year) I then passed out for like 4 hrs before the live. Managed to make it in time to buy a drink and get to my seat. View wasn’t as good as the previous day but also nothing to complain about.

Anisong World Matsuri 2017: Japan Super Live

[Konomi Suzuki, Mashiro Ayano, Garnidelia, Ali Project, Minori Chihara, Angela]

I was still pretty dead from the last day and a half or so but it was an incredible concert either way. Favs include Konomin, Garni and Angela. I won’t rank these other than Ali Project being boring as fuck stop this shit.

Highlights:

• Cruel Angel’s Thesis with Konomin and Angela
• All of Konomin’s set
• Garnidelia
• Mashiron x Garni Sorariro Days
• Dis walking out during Ali Project
• Minorin making everyone die
• Angela being hilarious
• シドニア
• fripSide
• Dogeza a Traditional Japanese Greeting
• Konomin’s hands being Very Soft.

After the live I went immediately to the VIP event to avoid the lines again. I was pretty much at the front of the line waiting for the artists. I got to high five the entire line up and I got to tell Maria and Toku that Garnidelia owns. Did I mention Konomin has Very Soft Hands?

Afterwards I met up with people again and ended up going to Yardhouse for food with a few people including Kuro, Dis, Altered and Kei (to whom I never introduced myself to because I was too shy and was too far away on the table ;_;). That was a fun dinner experience. We were eventually joined by Minh as well. We stayed pretty much until last call. Afterwards at least I was able to sleep for a while mostly.

To be honest I don’t really remember Sunday other than I slept like 75% of the day because I was so exhausted from the previous 3 days. I ended up missing the Ajikan concert because I was so tired. Jonjon got me a shirt from it anyway because he’s a cool dude.

Monday was pretty uneventful mostly just hung around Yggdrizzle’s exhibitor booth and walked around the exhibit hall. I took a little time to talk to some friends at other booths since I basically didn’t see them all weekend. After exhibit hall closed me and Ygg met up with more HPT folks for dinner at the carvery and eventually went back to the JW and just hung around for a bit. Afterwards I just went back and finished packing and slept in preparation for my flight the following day.

Tuesday was once again the return to real life. Once again it heckin’ sucked. LAX is the worst airport in the universe.

Odds and ends:

• I really wish I could have seen people more but DTLA is impossible to find people in because it takes forever to get anywhere.
• I regret not talking to people more when hanging out because everyone was so welcoming and I wasn’t the most talkative.
• HPT is a bunch of incredibly cool people and I’m happy I got to meet a lot of them even if briefly at times.
• AWM is the best thing to ever happen to AX
• People actually recognized my Koroazu shirt!!! Which I guess shouldn’t surprise me given the amount of eventers at AX this year.

Shoutouts:

• Jonjon: Thank you for letting me room with you after bailing in like march. Also for the VIP tickets.
• Yggdrizzle: For the tickets as well as holding the merch I wanted. Also covering my ass for dinner on Monday.
• HPT: For being incredibly cool and welcoming even if I was very awkward during the week. You’re all awesome.
• Dis: For being a god damn legend.
• Kuro: Being extremely welcoming and awesome as usual.
• Shizu: For being my Koro bro and hanging out before the Offkai
• Shini/Rob: For helping me out with the VIP ticket for the Japan Super Live
• And everyone I met at AX that might have not been mentioned in this post. You’re all hella cool and I hope I can see you in Japan or next year at AX.

AX itself as a convention is a clusterfuck that I do not wish on anyone. However AWM is great and I hope I can justify and be able to attend next year.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this AX good despite how dead I was all weekend.

Part 1: http://iserlohn.co/?p=112

Let’s get back into it with Saturday, my plans for the entire day were the last stop of Hardcore Tano*C’s 2017 tour at WOMB in Shibuya. Due to not accounting for how long it actually takes to get to Shibuya through the Yamanote Line as well as accidentally taking an express train on the Keio-Inokashira Line I ended up arriving around 15 minutes after start time. This unfortunately resulted in me missing Kobaryo’s set and not realizing until the end of the event. I’ll write more about this event in a separate post since it was SO LONG and so full of highlights.

After the event my phone was dead so I had to ask Staff to direct me to the nearest station, unfortunately Shibuya’s kinda not that easy to navigate if you’ve never been there so I ended up having to walk all the way to Shibuya station on my own, I did stop for dinner at a Freshness Burger if anything to be able to charge my phone.

Sunday finally came, kind of a big day considering this was the reason I planned my trip to Japan in the first place. I left somewhat early for Yokohama and made it to Kanagawa Kenmin Hall with about an hour and a half to spare. I am very thankful I left early though because it takes a really, REALLY long time to get to Nihon-Odori station in Yokohama from Ikebukuro, about 85 minutes or so. After arriving at the venue I just waited for open time and went to buppan to buy some merch, particularly the venue limited tour shirt, tour penlight and a towel.

My seat for the venue was okay, I am thankful I was on the left side of the seating for reasons you all probably know.

The live itself was pretty amazing, the tour setlist focused mostly on songs from ISM since the album had just released a few months prior, but that’s okay because it’s a great album.
Highlights include:
-Seeing my favorite Sphere song [Now loading…SKY!!] in person.
-The solos because I GOT TO SEE MINAKO DO BLACK HOLE FUCKING YES.
-Ayahi debuting her new single Futurism at the live which I totally did not expect and it was incredible.
-Acoustic キミが太陽.
-Singing along to LET・ME・DO!! and キミ想う旋律
-NON STOP ROAD

Sphere’s fucking incredible and I’m so glad I got to see them again after my chance encounter with them at Anime Expo 2016. If you ever, EVER have the chance to see them live please do it’s an experience you will never forget.

After the live I decided to head back directly to Ikebukuro since it was already night and it took about about an hour and a half to get back there, decided to call it a night then.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful, I spent most of the time resting up from all the stuff I did over the last 8 days, I did meet up with Dad Southrop for dinner on Tuesday. We went to a ramen place called ばんから next to Ikebukuro station, apparently the place comes highly recommended by Mai Fuchigami. It was pretty damn great, really filling too.

Wednesday once again mostly uneventful, I did go to Shinjuku and made some bad decisions. I hate Shinjuku it was cold, humid, windy. Fuck that place.

Thursday I mostly just walked around Ikebukuro, I don’t know if it was this that caused it or going to Shinjuku the day prior (fuck that place) but I started feeling myself coming down with a head cold. Which wasn’t good at all since the next day I had a flight to Hokkaido. I did make time to visit Nakiryu a Michelin Guide recommended ramen restaurant near Otsuka station.

Friday was interesting, I was dying from a head cold, extremely sore and I had to be at Shinjuku station at like 5am to grab the Narita Express to take my flight to Hokkaido. I ended up arriving at Sapporo Station around noon and met up with Tim, exhchanged tickets and we grabbed some lunch at a Tonkatsu place that was really good and then I departed for my Airbnb which was thankfully next to Zepp Sapporo, the venue for both Sphere and SideM. Once I arrived I fell asleep for a very long time and woke up too late for the CG 5th osaka live viewing, which I regretted a bit but I was too sick to go out.

Saturday was exciting but also worrying, I was still pretty sick and relying on over the counter medicine to feel good enough for Sphere. I left for buppan around 2pm, got my venue limited shirt and went back to rest for a little more. My seat for this venue was amazing I was incredibly close to left of stage which again, made me incredibly happy. The setlist was a little different from last weekend but still incredible, and I actually liked it more because I was so close to stage and took it in even more than before. I was elated to have seen Sphere twice in such a short amount of time. After the live I spent the rest of the evening sleeping for obvious reasons.

Sunday came and again I spent most of the day resting, but I left early to meet up with Tim for SideM. We met up with other people Tim had tickets for. SideM Ps are pretty damn high level staying out in the cold and rain for buppan and whatnot. This time despite being the same venue the room was standing only which I didn’t appreciate in my condition. The live was good, FRAME and W were awesome. I came out with a new found appreciation of Altessimo. But overall I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I could have for various reasons including the fact that I was pretty sick and that I felt awkward blocking the view of a million girls who were behind me. Afterwards again more sleep for me.

Monday I finally felt decent enough to go out for food so I went to susukino and had some god damn tendies at KFC.
But the real main event of the trip, which I sort of expected by this point was happening that night. Koroazu at Kraps Hall. I went out around 4pm to get there before buppan closed and spent some money on the last two Koroazu singles I didn’t have and on gacha… and it fucking paid off.

I got the 1HOPE SNIPER doll and I am so happy I gambled the last of my money on it. Thanks to the doll I managed to strike conversation with two Japanese kids who were really friendly and curious as to why a foreigner was attending a live in the middle of nowhere at the tiniest livehouse. I found out that one of them actually came from Osaka and was skipping school to attend this live (Rock on buddy, I’d do the same for her) and the other one was a local who was going to attend the original date but found out day-of that it was cancelled. The rescheduled date turned out to be his birthday and boy was he lucky to have this as his birthday present. It was incredibly cold in Sapporo that day and they graciously offered me a can of hot coffee which felt like nectar of the gods at that time.

Afterwards time to line up and Tim showed up to line up with me, I was the first person in line… that didn’t have an April ticket. But I STILL GOT TO BE INCREDIBLY CLOSE TO STAGE. I’m probably gonna have to write about this live in a separate post with the rest of the Koroazu stuff I want to write about. One moment that sticks out is her asking if anyone had gotten the 1HOPE SNIPER doll from the gacha and me frantically scrambling to get it out of my bag only for her to move on to a different topic, it hurt a little ;_;. Setlist was the same as Hiroshima but the feeling was so different. I had such a good time at this live and she was incredible during every single song. To be honest I’ve been having a hard time trying to remember everything I want to talk about from this particular live because I was just awestruck by how amazing Koro is, even more so than before. I’m here for life.

Tuesday was just me getting back to Tokyo, it rained most of the day so I couldn’t really go out like I’d wanted to so instead I just rested in my hotel room and went to the arcade for a bit.

Finally Wednesday was the day I returned to real life. It fucking sucked.

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a little while but I’ve honestly been so overwhelmed by the last month or so thanks to a ridiculous amount of events and generally just cool things that have happened.

So during the last week of May I was finally able to go to Japan for the first time, motivated by Sphere’s 全国 Tour before their recently announced coming hiatus. The trip ended up growing in scale significantly as the date approached due to a ton of events happening to be around the dates I was gonna be in Tokyo and Hokkaido (locations for which I got Sphere tix).

Let’s begin with a small breakdown of events I ended up attending before I go into detail about the trip and the events themselves.

SME Music Theater 2017 Day 2, Saitama Super Arena May 28: This was actually one of the last things I decided to attend since I saw Harukas and Ayahi were in the lineup and I realized I was able to make it in time to Saitama Super Arena since my flight arrived at 6am to Narita.

「AZUSA TADOKORO LIVE TOUR 2017 〜DilEMmA〜」 @ Second Crutch, Hiroshima, May 29: This was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life but we’ll get to that later. I’d already booked my flight for these dates because I was originally planning to attend this live, but then the Hokkaido date opened up because of Koroazu being ill during the original one. So… this was actually a last minute decision I made at Narita since I was right there with like a billion yen bills and WELL the Loppi machine was RIGHT THERE.

田所あずさ×天津向 コントライブ～外国みたいですね～, Theater Sun Mall, Shinjuku, June 2: We’ll come back to this one.

Tano*C Tour 2017, Womb, Shibuya, June 3: Basically the first thing I got tickets for after Sphere.

LAWSON presents Sphere live tour 2017 “We are SPHERE!!!!”, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, Yokohama, June 4: So, here we are the reason I decided I needed to go to Japan, I got really lucky and won the lottery for this day.

THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS 5TH LIVE TOUR: SERENDIPITY PARADE Osaka Live Viewing, Sapporo, June 9: I actually secured tickets to this for me and my good buddy Tim (@monoids) but I got sick and couldn’t go.

LAWSON presents Sphere live tour 2017 “We are SPHERE!!!!”, Zepp Sapporo, June 10: As with the previous one I was immensely lucky to have won tickets for this one.

THE IDOLM@STER SideM GREETING TOUR 2017 〜BEYOND THE DREAM〜: I was in the area and as luck would have it MY GOOD FRIEND Tim happened to have a spare that I was glad to have for this.

「AZUSA TADOKORO LIVE TOUR 2017 〜DilEMmA〜」 @ Second Crutch, Sapporo, June 12: This is the best Live I have ever attended in my life, as I mentioned above I got tickets for this as the date opened up like 2 weeks before I left.

For now I’ll keep it to japan since I plan on writing about AX as well later.

So onwards to the trip itself:

I left home around 5:30 pm on May 26, did standard airport stuff as usual. You all know how it is, what I was NOT ready for is how hellish the travel from Mexico City to Narita is. It’s about a 15 hr flight which in my case was ridiculously packed and I basically couldn’t eat anything due to flights messing me up real bad. I arrived around 6am on the 28th at Narita airport, did the usual customs and immigration stuff, took me like 45 minutes or so. Afterwards I exchanged money and to my wallet’s demise I found out there was a Lawson in the first basement floor. So… I did what any reasonable person would do and I bought a ticket to see Koroazu in Hiroshima… but I didn’t have a JR pass… or lodging. So! turns out you can buy JR Passes at both Narita and Haneda airports now so I am now out like 45k yen after the JR Pass, Koroazu ticket and a Narita Express ticket towards Ikebukuro less than 2 hrs after arriving in japan. Definitely off to a good start!

After doing all my airport errands I ended up arriving at Ikebukuro station around noon-ish, I’d heard from a certain scottish lad that it’s a nightmare to navigate the station… and I certainly thought so at first but it’s actually probably my favorite station in Tokyo now. It did take me a while to find the West exit but afterwards I got to my hotel without trouble and managed to check-in early. So I took a shower and headed off towards SSA to pick up my ticket for SME from a gracious Japanese twitter user that was selling an extra… except this was my first time using public transit in Tokyo and I ended up in Shinjuku by accident. I made it to SSA a little before the doors opened for the live and managed to find the group of foreign eventers led by @Kurotsuki but I still needed to pick up my ticket! Thankfully I didn’t have a hard time finding the person who sold me the ticket. And I ended up finding the group again where I ended up meeting cool new friends like Esh the famous new seiyuu (@Crimsondramon), Rob (@OrobleRL) and Sam “オーペンさん” (@RideTheIcening).

I have to say though for getting my ticket the day of the live… my seat was pretty god damn awesome.

As for the live itself I was pretty exhausted from not sleeping/travelling but I still enjoyed it a whole god damn lot. Highlights I remember are: surprise 10ch, Garni (even if the audio for their set was messed up), Ayahi, Harukas (Q&A Recital is extremely hype), FLOWWWWWWWWWWWW (holy shit I did not expect Days), Trysail (they’re fun!), connect > magia (I’m a madoka hater but this was p hype) and SURPRISE FUCKING TM REVOLUTION (he performed on Day 1 too but I was in a fucking plane for like 75 years).

Afterwards I managed to meet up with the group and we went to Akiba for dinner, original plan was curry but the restaurant (cocoichi? I don’t remember) was full so we settled for McDonald’s next to the station… which was actually a fucking great meal probably because I hadn’t eaten in like two days. We also met with Dad Southrop(@southro_p) on the way to find food. We ended up staying at McD’s until basically the last train which was fun.

The following day I had to wake up early to make sure I would make it to Tokyo station in time for my Shinkansen to Hiroshima which proved to be an adventure because I only made it with about a minute to spare. The ride itself was pretty uneventful, unfortunately I reserved my seats before anyone else did so I had to ride alone in a different car. Once I arrived at Hiroshima station I met up with Kuro, Rob and Sam and we checked in to a hotel we found next to the station which was a pretty convenient location (cheap too!). And then I fucked up by walking to the venue for buppan. Turns out I can’t really handle 2+km walks too well. But it’s okay because I made it to the venue somehow and spent like 75 million yen on Koroazu merch, unfortunately the gacha didn’t go so well. Thankfully Kuro offered to help me get back to the hotel so I could rest for a bit before the live.

side note: Hiroshima’s public transportation is GREAT, it’s super easy to use and more accessible than anything in Tokyo.

Now for the live. Well. As you can probably tell if you know me (that’s why you’re reading this hopefully). This is the best decision I ever made in my entire god damn life. Koroazu is amazing and I love her so god damn much. I’m also glad it was at a small Livehouse because I got to be so close to stage. The actual setlist was SUPER hype as well.

I already loved Koroazu’s music before seeing her live, but what made me love this concert so much was actually seeing how much of a dork she is during the talk segments in between songs in person (which again, if you’re familiar with her is not news, especially if you’re into Million Live). She’s really funny but also gets embarrassed easily and it’s goddamn great seeing it in action. At one point she got so flustered she had to ask John Kanda (guitarist for Penguin Research, also part of her live band) to take over for her because she couldn’t continue talking. Another highlight was her asking the audience if we’d heard her latest single [DEAREST DROP] and the audience responding enthusiastically only for them to be completely quiet when she asked if anyone had bought the single (I did! I have two copies even). Cue a very loud “Oiiiiiiiiii!!!!” from her.

I could probably write a post just about how much I loved all the talk segments at her lives (I probably will!) but suffice to say that while I was already a huge huge fan now I’m here for life.

So as for the setlist itself. I’m super glad I got to hear all my favorite songs in one night (spit out, 1HOPE SNIPER, 孤毒ディストレス). However Boom! Boom! and Junshin Always jumped up a lot in my favorites because they’re so goddamn fun live.

So… immediately afterwards I ended up buying even more Koroazu merch and thank god I did because now I have like 7 million bromides.

The following day was pretty uneventful as I basically spent most of it trapped inside a Shinkansen bound towards Tokyo on my own.

Wednesday was a pretty low energy day all things considered I had been running on very little food and energy so I took the day to recharge as much as I could but I still made my way towards East Ikebukuro to see if I could find some M3 CDs I really wanted that hadn’t been ripped. I ended up being successful at melonbooks but I’m pretty sure the cashier hates me now because I grabbed display copies of like two albums by accident and didn’t really know what to do. At night I went out to dinner with the usual suspects but I did manage to meet Niichang for the first time! (you all know who it is I don’t even need to tag him). We had sushi in Ikebukuro near my hotel by complete chance because the place we originally were going to was extremely full. And we ended the night by doing some Karaoke at Pasela which was next to my hotel.

Thursday… man fuck Thursday, I went to Shibuya to meet up with PenguinMan from bemaniso so I could pick up my tickets for Sphere/Hardcore Tano*C/Koroazu Hokkaido/Cinderella Girls LV but I kind of got rained on suddenly… the same day my backpack kind of broke. I did end up getting my tickets and walking around Shibuya for a while with him. We ended up at the Guhroovy store which was pretty cool but I was so dead by then that I didn’t have the chance to truly appreciate it.

Afterwards I’m pretty sure I just spent the rest of the day resting at my hotel, probably played some IIDX at the bowling alley across the street. Ended up buying a ticket for 田所あずさ×天津向 コントライブ～外国みたいですね～ that night because I found out they were still available

Friday was kind of great, I went to Akiba during the afternoon, mostly to check out the area and went to Suruga-ya and K-books. Also spent some time at try amusement tower playing old bemani.

At night I went to Shinjuku to see Koroazu again, this time at the コントライブ and it was amazing. She’s really good at stage acting and it was amazing seeing it in person. She’s hilarious and the VTR they showed inbetween comedy skits was the best thing in the universe. It was her failing at middle school subjects for about 40 minutes and I loved every second of it. All the skits were really good too, I particularly liked the one where she plays a Yakuza(?) at a host club and hella negged the shitty Host played by Tenshin Mukai. I did get kinda lost in Shinjuku at night but it was SO worth it because I got to see Koro again. Shinjuku station’s kind of the devil, especially the underground. I’ve tweeted about it before but it legit makes Japanese dungeon crawlers look like a joke.

End of Pt. 1

I’ll talk about the rest of the lives and Japan trip in a second part (maybe third too?) and I’ll link back to the other entries as I write them.

 

Part 2: http://iserlohn.co/?p=138