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On Sept. 28 at Maihama Amphitheater near the Tokyo Disney Resort, the Tokyo performance of Animelo Summer Live’s (ANISAMA) new brand called ANISAMA WORLD was held. At this concert, seven artists and groups, including Hironobu Kageyama, performed. Each artist gave spirit-filled performances, wrapping the packed Amphitheater in a swirl of excitement.
ANISAMA was born in Japan in July 2005 as an anime song and game song concert event that crossed the boundaries of management agencies and music CD makers. With the goal of “becoming a bridge that unites the anime and game song worlds,”ANISAMA seized the hearts of anime and game fans, acquiring more and more fans with each passing year. The ninth ANISAMA event, Animelo Summer Live 2013 -Flag Nine-, was held this August. This three-day event had attendance numbers in the vicinity of 27,000 people each day, making the event a huge success.
The recently held ANISAMA WORLD was the launch of a new brand by ANISAMA. Based on the aspiration to “provide a means through with ANISAMA can more easily hold performances in different regions as well as overseas,” this celebration-worthy first performance, titled ANISAMA WORLD 2013 in Tokyo, was put together with content that can easily translate to overseas performances in the near future. Tickets for this event were sold out soon after they went on sale, which is a testament to the deep-rooted support of Anisama’s fans.
The concert kicked off at 5 p.m. with two hit anime songs by Masami Okui, Minami Kuribayashi, and Minori Chihara: “Mask,” the ending theme to Sorcerer Hunters, and “Rinbu -Revolution-,” the opening theme to Revolutionary Girl Utena. Fans waved their glow sticks back and forth while being reminded of these two ‘90s anime through the songs’ nostalgic melodies.
As the artists performed one after the other, we were given a glimpse of one of ANISAMA WORLD’s standout points: the closeness between the artists and the fans. Without fences between the fans and the front of the stage, fans in the front row were so close to the artists, they could even reach out and touch them. This aspect was played on throughout the concert to the joy of singing fans, such as Okui and Kuribayashi singing in the aisle in front of the audience during their performance. Similarly to Okui’s comment on stage that ANISAMA WORLD is an intimate event, a highlight of this new brand may be that it is an event at which fans, artists, and anison can be more closely linked.
Another impressive moment was the scene overflowing with videos of past ANISAMA concerts. Fans on the screen and fans in the audience, the past and present, were synchronized as they waved their glow sticks together. The sense of unity was truly moving. It was so surprising, that Kuribayashi even blurted out during her performance of “Zero!!,” the opening theme to The Devil is a Part-Timer!, “I can’t tell the difference between the fans on screen and the ones in the audience.”
Furthermore, Kageyama, who appeared at ANISAMA for the first time in three years, revealed his reason why JAM Project 1 had stopped joining in ANISAMA by saying, “I wanted new artists to take the stage, even if it was just one.” Moreover, in response to the ANISAMA performance in Shanghai being cancelled, he stated, “Even in the face of that, Anisama’s staff aren’t giving up in holding concerts all over the world. Instead, they launched the new label ANISAMA WORLD.” He went on to declare to the audience his intention to participate in overseas performances of ANISAMA WORLD: “We want to take ANISAMA to the world and (if there is really an intention to hold them all over the world) we would like the opportunity to be the very first performers.”
When the audience cried out for a classic anime song, singers Akasaki from Taiwan and Valerie from Singapore (both of whom came from overseas to perform) joined Kageyama on stage for an enthusiastic performance of the well-known theme song to Dragon Ball Z, “Cha-La-Head-Cha-La.” When the opening intro flowed through the Amphitheater, the audience cheered out simultaneously and sang the chorus along with the artists. On stage, Kageyama was thoroughly enjoying himself and grinning from ear to ear. During the performance, he pointed the mic toward the fans over and over, inviting them belt it out.
The concert came to a close with a solo performance by Chihara. Fans were captivated by her set, which included songs from Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere and Ga-Rei: Zero.
For the encore, all nine performers took the stage to sing the theme song to Animelo Summer Live 2010 -Evolution-, “Evolution -For Beloved One-.” As with past concerts, this concert too was ended with all the performers holding hands in a line across the stage and bowing to the audience. In response to the artists asking the audience if they enjoyed themselves, the audience, with looks of joy on their faces, raised their voices, saying, “It was a blast! Thank you!”
Regarding the next performance of ANISAMA WORLD, we heard from the organizers that they were “thinking of holding the first overseas concert in early 2014 that will primarily include the artists who performed at the Tokyo concert.” Moving into the future, the outlook and development of this event will expand to include even more highly popular artists from Japan. Below is an official comment from them.
>”Anison” is able to cross over all and connect all. That is the idea of anison and that is why we believe it has the possibility to even cross country borders. Moving forward, in order to cross over country borders, nationalities, and languages through ANISAMA WORLD and bring happiness to people through anison, we are coming to meet you fans around over the world.
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>Please look forward to it.
We want everyone living outside Japan to experience the excitement of hearing your favorite anime songs being performed live. ANISAMA WORLD is an event that is earnestly striving to create opportunities and locations at which this can happen. For those wondering when this event will visit a city near you, it may not be as far into the future as you may think… Otaku all over the world, look forward to this!
^1^ JAM Project is a Japanese anime song group attached to the record label Lantis. They have been in charge of countless songs for anime, games, and special effects shows and have performed overseas in such areas as Hong Kong and Paris. The group’s formal name is Japan Animationsong Makers Project.
© ANISAMA WORLD
© Animelo Summer Live 2013 / Mages.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original Article.
Photos by O-mi
