Due to a fortunate ticket lottery result and some questionable financial decision making I was lucky enough make it to Yukachi's birthday event this past weekend! It was so much fun that I really wanted to write about it here. I don't think they're planning a video release for this event, so I think it's OK to post a recap like this without worrying about spoilers.... (This is a long post, so click through if you want to read the rest.)
The event was split between live performances and talk-show segments featuring two guests - Asumi Kana and Sakurai Takahiro. In an interesting twist, Yukachi solicited requests for which songs she would perform at the event, and there was a form set up on her website that allowed people to vote for one original song and one character song that they'd like to see performed. Fans were so excited about requesting songs that they actually crashed the site when it first came online. (Personally, I had voted for Platinum Disco and Stand Still.)
The event kicked off with Yukachi performing Platinum Disco. While this wasn't a big surprise (she had been hinting for weeks that she'd be signing "THAT" character song at the event, and no, she wasn't talking about Di Gi Charat's Strawberry Magic....) it did get everyone in the crowd super-hyped. Since the event had a bit of a summer festival theme, Yukachi came out to perform the song dressed in a yukata, riding around the arena on a mikoshi-style cart. On a personal note here, I was seated at the back of the arena section of the hall (which isn't so bad, considering that Tokyo Dome City Hall is a pretty compact venue) and when Yukachi came past on the cart, she was only a few feet away. Yes, I was basically freaking out....
Platinum Disco led into two more characters songs - Happy New Nyaa (from Mayoi Neko Overrun) and Waikyou - Shenshou Jing (from Symphogear). Apparently these three were the runaway favorites from the character song poll. The Symphogear song was a really good change of pace from the other two, more peppy character songs - it has a really cool vibe to it that we don't often get to see from Yukachi.
After this opening live segment, it was time to call out the first guest - Asumi Kana! The two of them did a baseball themed talk segment (what with the event being at Tokyo Dome City Hall....) where they donned Giants jerseys and tossed balls at a target with each numbered segment corresponding to a different talk theme. For example, one topic asked the audience "Who would you rather have coordinate your clothes - Yukachi or Asumin?" Yukachi appealed to the crowd by saying we could rely on her "Simple is Best" fashion philosophy. Asumin retorted that this was hard to take seriously from a person currently wearing knee-high boots, a yellow yukata, and a baseball jersey....
The two of them have mentioned in the past that since they're together in private so often they sometimes have trouble knowing how to act when they're working together on a radio show or at an event like this, but there was no sign of any unease at this event. They both seemed totally relaxed and spent most of their time on stage together poking fun and teasing each other: for example, much was made over a slight mix-up in the birthday gift Asumin had given Yukachi. The clerk at the shop had added a second long skirt to the roomwear set Asumin had purchased, instead of the shorts that she had requested. Asumin threatened Yukachi with 'her first punch as a 27-year old' if she kept bringing it up.
After their talk segment was finished Yukachi announced that the two of them would be performing a duet together - the theme song from the first season of Yama no Susume, Staccato Days. Yukachi mentioned on this week's episode of Muuuun that being up on stage with one of her closest friends, singing a song that's all about how great friendship is actually felt a little bit embarrassing for her. It seems like she tried to hide her embarrassment by fooling around a bit with Asumin during this song, for example by trying to make her laugh by pointing frantically at her during the "Dear My Friend" parts of the song. At any rate, the duet was lovely and it was really fun to see the two of them together at an event like this.
After a quick wardrobe change, it was time for the second guest to come out - Sakurai Takahiro. The two of them host "Comchat Countdown" every week (a radio show where they count down the top ten most requested anime songs), but for this talk segment, they would be hosting "Iguchat Countdown" - a countdown of the most fan-requested songs from Yukachi’s solo career. The event staff really went all-out for this segment: they produced a logo and recorded jingles that matched the ones usually used on "Comchat". They even brought out a backdrop that was modeled on the bunka housou studio walls (if you've seen a lot of agqr radios, you know what I'm talking about). The attention to detail was really funny - even Sakurai was laughing at how far they had gone. The actual top ten had some fairly unexpected results:
10. Everything
09. POPCORN SMILE
08. Open Sesame!
07. Strike my soul
06. Kimi no Chikara
05. stand still
04. rainbow heart ♥ rainbow dream ☆
03. Hey World
02. Shining Star-☆-LOVE Letter
01. Grow Slowly
(If only stand still had been a few spots higher....!)
Also during the talk segment with Sakurai, they showed video birthday messages from Ogura Yui and Hidaka Rina. Rina's comment was especially fun. She talked about how she had first met Yukachi during recordings for the Index anime, and how they've had a good relationship - at work and in private - ever since. Then she mentioned that she had heard all about how Yukachi had talked on her radio show about wanting to give Rina "sexy underwear" as a birthday present (and had even solicited suggestions from listeners on which color to get....) and that she had decided to get back at Yukachi by giving her some "sexy underwear" of her own for her birthday. (Even though Yukachi had ended up relenting and giving Rina some relatively modest pajamas instead.) Yukachi mentioned that Rina had discretely asked her for her sizes recently, and promised to "reveal" what Rina had given her on a future episode of Muuun. Which prompted some teasing from Sakurai about what "revealing" a gift of sexy underwear on the air would entail.
After "Iguchat Countdown" it was time for another live performance segment - Yukachi performed the top three fan-requested songs from the countdown, including a second trip around the arena on the cart during Shining Star-☆-LOVE Letter. Grow Slowly was definitely the highlight of this part of the event. As you'd expect from the top-ranked song, it got a huge response from the crowd. I hope Yukachi gets a chance to perform this song (along with Hey World) at Anisama later this summer - I think it'd go over really well at that sort of event.
After Grow Slowly it was time to close things out - the guests came back out for some final greetings and they played the final birthday video messages. First was a comment from Hanazawa Kana, which meant we'd now seen messages from each of the Ro-Kyu-Bu members but one: Hikasa Yoko. Yukachi played off of this, saying we all knew it was Hiyocchi's turn next and asking "Should we really play it? Should we not play it?" After a bit of teasing, they started the video, which seemed like a normal birthday comment until Hiyocchi mentioned Ro-Kyu-Bu and suddenly gasped: "Ah! Ro-Kyu-Bu! Whenever I hear those words.... It makes me want to get up on stage!!" before dashing off camera. Yep, Hiyocchi had been lurking backstage the whole time, and now came storming on stage to present a birthday cake to Yukachi. She was extremely proud of herself as the event's "surprise" guest, until Yukachi stepped in and revealed that she had known Hiyocchi was coming all along! (How she knew about this was a really cute story, so I'm going to try to post about it in more detail later on.....) Hiyocchi is really great at this sort of thing - even though she was only on-stage for a few minutes at the very end, her totally manic energy and sense of humor were just perfect!
Ahhhh, it was so much fun!!! I wasn't able to make it to Yukachi's first live tour, but I feel really lucky that I was able to attend this event! I hope to get the chance to go to another event like this someday (here's hoping we'll see Yukachi's 2nd Live Tour announced someday soon!)
A few random notes that I couldn't fit in elsewhere:
During Ogura Yui's video message, Yui mentioned that she wanted to to out for dinner with all the Ro-Kyu-Bu members; Yukachi responded that she'd rather just go out alone with Yui.
The "Iguchat Countdown" segment included some brief talk about each of the songs, which yielded a few surprising points. For example, Yukachi first attempted singing Strike my soul with a bit of a "loli-esque" voice before settling on the cool style that was eventually recorded. And on rainbow heart ♥ rainbow dream ☆, Yukachi was really impressed by songwriter meg rock's fluent English, but had trouble duplicating the proper pronunciation of the English-language chorus herself.
Sakurai surprised Yukachi during their talk segment with a nice bottle of rosé as a birthday present - and then gave her another bottle of champagne later that night during their live Comchat broadcast. What a nice guy....
The level of detail that went into the "Iguchat Countdown" segment was so funny. They even played ads for other seiyuu radio shows (Asumin's HoshiHina and Hanazawa Kana's HitoKana) during the 'commercial breaks.'
No live performance of POPCORN SMILE, even though I practiced the furi! orz
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