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Lantis Festival is a large-scale outdoor concert being held in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Lantis, a well-known music label in the worlds of anime and games. This concert tour is being held in four cities around Japan for a total of nine shows. It’s an event with an amazingly large scope.
Continuing from its stop in Mie Prefecture, the day of the first concert in Osaka, the tour’s second stop, was the hottest day of the year! When the venue opened, attendees were putting on intense karaoke performances on stage at the Joysound karaoke booth located in the booth plaza outside the main stage area! It was the perfect warm-up for the concert! As the curtain rose on the main stage, the sensational voice actress Minori Chihara appeared along with fireworks before the crowd, who was already fired up from the karaoke. In true festival fashion, the performers were incredible from the very beginning. It was an absolute blast. The moment Chihara left the stage after passionately singing three popular anime songs, who appeared next was the prince of the anisong world, Hironobu Kageyama! The heat under the blazing summer sun got 100 times hotter when he sang “Heats”! And robot anime fans were dancing wildly when he sang the theme song to Getter Robo! The crowd was so crazy, everyone was probably thinking, “I may never feel this alive again…”
Fans happily cheered for the anime songs performed back-to-back without a rest! The roughly 5-hour concert held over two days only had one intermission! This live event was surely worthy of being called a festival!
The second day saw unexpected heavy rain just before the concert began. Because of this, the concert started 15 minutes late, but miraculously the weather ended up clearing and being just as good of weather as the previous day! Though the weather was awful to start with, the performing artists took the stage and together gave a masochistic MC talk called themselves “rain men” and “rain women.” To this, laughter spilled forth from the crowd over and over again.
The second day of the concert was blessed with miraculous weather, and just like the previous day was a non-stop anisong affair that fired up the venue! The audience was fed all kinds of anime songs ranging from the newest songs to nostalgic ones. The genres sung also showcased the extravagance of everything Lantis and included bishoujo anime, idol songs, robot anime, female-oriented songs, and more. The best part was the volume of the concert which included over both days 32 artists and 83 songs. For the finale, all the artists got together to sing the Lantis Festival theme song, “Starting Style!!” Such an extravagant spectacle could only come from the Lantis Festival!
The audience at the Lantis Festival in Osaka consisted of, of course, young anime fans and veteran otaku, as well as many couples and females. It was very clear that the majority of those in the audience were the type who enjoy anime songs.
The stops left on the Lantis Festival tour are Tokyo and Tohoku. If you’re an anisong fan, you have to attend this extravagant festival! It was also announced that next year a Lantis anisong world tour called “Anisong World Tour - Lantis Festival 2015” will be held. The announced five stops on the tour are Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Las Vegas. This unprecedented event will allow fans all over the world a taste of the wildly intense anisong live festivals held in Japan. It will surely be a bridge for expanding anime songs to the world! Make sure to experience this festival put on by Lantis!
15th Anniversary Live Lantis Festival 2014
Tokyo Performance
Dates: Sept. 13-15, 2014
Venue: Shiokaze Park Sun Plaza Outdoor Stage
Tohoku Performance
Dates: Nov. 15 and 16
Venue: Xebio Arena
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
