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For many, “Animelo Summer Live 2013 - Flag Nine-,” the world’s biggest anime song concert festival, has become a summer tradition. This humongous event was recently held at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Though it was the first time the festival was held over three days, it ended without a hitch with extremely smooth transitions between performers.
Opening the concert was a collaboration with Minori Chihara and Arika Takarano (Ali Project). The tension in the crowd reached critical levels even from the get go, with the two performing “Celestial Diva,” the theme song to the game Chaos Rings II. A strikingly impressive performance followed by Momoiro Clover Z. The girls gave a different performance than usual and sung three songs, all while being bathed in the audience’s cheers. Next up were the festival’s first surprise guests: NoB and Shoko Nakagawa who passionately belted out “Pegasus Gensō Ver. Ω.” The legendary Akira Kushida then took the stage and sung a three-song medley that consisted of songs from Toriko, Space Sheriff Gavan, and Kinnikuman that wrapped the audience in a feverish excitement. The last performance of the day was, as we thought, Minori Chihara. Her four-song set included the OP theme to Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, “Kono Sekai wa Bokura o Matteita.”
Opening the second day was a collaboration between Angela and Zwei who instantaneously electrified the crowd with their performance of “Bari Bari Saikyō No. 1,” the OP theme to Hell Teacher Nūbē. Following this, and showing an impressive presence, was Megumi Nakajima who got her debut as the singing voice for Ranka Lee in Macross Frontier. One of the highlights of the day was the performance by The Idolm@ster MillionStars who colored the arena in the charm of The Idolm@ster. Performing next as the secret guest for the second day was Anna Tsuchiya who heated up the arena with her two-song set. The second day closed on a high note with a performance from Granrodeo. Their high ability to entertain united the entire arena and surely moved everyone who witnessed it.
Opening the third day with a bang was a collaboration with Nana Mizuki and Mamoru Miyano who sung two songs: “Orfeu” and “Scarlet Knight.” These two representative artists in the world of anime songs brought the audience’s excitement to a boiling point right off the batt. Having the difficult job of following up this stellar performance was Hiroaki "Tommy" Tominaga who shined in his own right and enthusiastically sang along with a backup chorus the song “JoJo - Sono Chi no Sadame.” The JoJo theme continued as the third day’s secret guest, Coda, appeared on stage and sang “Bloody Stream”! Closing out this memorable festival in brilliant fashion was a rapid-fire Q&A segment with four of the festival’s performers: Mamoru Miyano, Sphere, Yukari Tamura, and Nana Mizuki.
Before the crowd dispersed, it was announced that next year’s festival will also span three days. Fans left fully feeling that the festival will be back bigger and better than ever next year.
© Animelo Summer Live 2013 / Mages.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
