Friday 13 June 2008

Momoi Halko AnimeNorth 2008 Live Report



Remember when I said I would cover momo-i's AnimeNorth performance, given my relative proximity to Toronto and my overwhelming appreciation for her music, past and present? Lies, filthy lies! Something came up and I was unable to make good on my promise. But wait, don't browse away from this blog out of disgust and spite. Dedicated 電波の世界 reader and full-time momo-i fan MandiChan has gracefully accepted my invitation to compose a summary of 桃井はるこ's recent performance in Toronto, Canada. No details were skipped, no stones left unturned, so grab a coffee or some お茶 to help you plow through the coming flurry of paragraphs. Note that the promoters didn't allow for live pictures, which sucks but is usually the norm.

Hi, nice to meet you readers of Denpa no Sekai! I'm Mandi, sometimes also going by the noobish sounding name of "mandichan". I was asked by Mr. Denpa to write about Momoi's live at AnimeNorth 2008 (Toronto, Canada) since he was unable to attend. I'm going to focus this report on the concert, but that still requires a little build up. Personally, I've traveled to see Momoi twice before this: first at Anime Expo in California, and then again in Honolulu, Hawaii. Each time I met up with the fans from Japan and other parts of the world and worked together to try and make the live a big success! With this experience, I think everyone was a little more prepared to take on AnimeNorth.

Those of us in America prepared the glowsticks and since I was close enough to drive, I paid up front and had them shipped to me and everyone paid me back. I was a little worried what customs would think of me bringing 1200 glowsticks over the border... but they almost all fit in the trunk and there was no problem! After arriving in Toronto, everyone worked together to put little Momoi stickers onto each one, though everyone had gotten so efficient at this by now they finished while I was in the shower! And as always, the Japanese fans made plenty of call books, professional looking and very informative as usual! They also made a website explaining the moves detailed in the call books. Even including great 3D animations showing how it's done! These guys (and gals) really go all out for Momoi, it's very touching to see everyone come together for her. By the way, I would recommend the site to anyone interested in attending idol or seiyuu concerts to learn about the otaku method of cheering!


There was one more step to preparation this time which was a first - we gave a workshop detailing how the cheers are done! I say "we", but really I was just a support member, Coverman and Catsspat were the leaders in the demonstrations. This was a last minute decision, so it wasn't in the program guide. But we hung up flyers and got plenty of endorsement from Momoi herself, so we had a good amount of people show up. Though maybe the sound of everyone's enthusiastic cheering had the most draw of all! The staff of AnimeNorth was very nice for allowing us to do it on such a short notice and even letting us do it in the live hall where the concert would be held. So, before the concert itself, we had gotten permission from the staff to have an area in front and to distribute all the glowsticks and call books. Most people were happy to get free glowsticks, and we were happy to give them! Almost anyone who refused one changed their attitude instantly when told "It's free!" Turns out we had lots of extras, so plenty of people had 2 or 3. Finally the glowstick chaos dies down a bit, everyone gets into place and... music start!

1 - Party!
Momoi busts onto the stage right away with a high energy song! She wore her Yume no Baton sailor fuku outfit. She once said that she thought it was her most recognized outfit by overseas fans, so that's probably why she also wore it for her lives in both California and Honolulu. Everyone cheered very enthusiastically, and I was really excited to see all the crowd behind us getting into it also, which just feeds into Momoi's energy and then comes back out into the audience again. Momoi gave a little self introduction. It's tradition that when Momoi introduces herself, the audience yells back "MOMO-I". However we also had a little plan to release some streamers when we yelled. But, the timing messed up... and no one did it. D'ohh!!

2 - GURA GURA
Next came the very cute and classic song GURA GURA with a focus on retro video games. Too bad Momoi didn't wear her power glove this time!

3 - Tondol Baby
Picking up the pace even more. Tondol comes from the word for "jumping", so this song is full of jumps! Also, lots of spins so you can see the audience behind you going just as crazy. It was a lot of fun to get some glimpses of the room behind me lit up with glowsticks.

4 - Ai no Medicine
OP Theme of Nurse Witch Komugi-chan. FEVER FEVER! Hearing this song is always nostalgic, fun, and more than anything... cute! This time, I was able to pull off the chant (detailed on the call site) without a problem!

5 - Mail Me
Slowing things down just a bit with Momoi's first CD single song. I don't remember her singing it at any of the other lives I've been to, so it was great to hear. Also important to note; it was the original single version, and not 2.0 version from the more recent Haruko Update album. I think a lot of people know the movie Suicide Circle so they are familiar with this song. Personally, I'm a little afraid to watch the movie and associate the song with something gory! But anyway, it was great to hear this classic song live.

6 - Shooting Star
During the opening ceremonies of the convention, they played an intro AMV movie which used some clips from this, which Momoi noted before performing. I wonder if that inspired her to choose it?

7 - Tenbatsu! Angel Rabbie
Classic UNDER17 song. When UNDER17 broke up, I was really sad when I thought I could never hear this song live. I was wrong, because Momoi continues to sing it, and she has sang it at all the lives I've been to! But, just like all the other ones I've been to, she just replaced the "beep" censor with "koroshicha ikenai" instead of a funny ad lib like she usually did on the DVDs I've seen, I guess due to the language barrier she just keeps it simple.

8 - Hide and seek
Before starting, Momoi explained the calling of "mou ii kai?" "mada da yo-" but at first some were a little confused and saying "mada da yo" instead of Momoi saying it. But, once the song got going it got fixed up!

9 - Popotan
Before this live, I had been wondering why Momoi never has sang any Popotan songs at the overseas lives, when she has sang many other anime/game songs like Komugi, Tenbatsu, Kujibiki... I guess she just needed a little inspiration to sing it again after so long, which in this case came from a young fan. Momoi was a guest at a special brunch where you could drink tea and eat snacks with the guests, but you needed to buy tickets to get in, so it was not very crowded and had a relaxed atmosphere. Amidst this scene, some chaos began when a little girl skipped in... dressed as Mii from Popotan! It was really surprising. She was excited to meet Momoi and they took lots of pictures together. Then she asked for Momoi's autograph - on a pair of custom printed Popotan panties!!! Momoi laughed and said in Japan no one ever asked her to sign panties before. Of course she signed them happily and everyone laughed and took lots of photos. So Momoi said because of this, after 4 (or 5?) years she would sing this song again. Personally I was a little surprised she went with the game OP instead of the anime, but either one is great.


10 - Naito de naito
Straight into another high tension game song. As usual, Momoi is showing no signs of fatigue, and much to my surprise and happiness the crowd seems as revved up as ever, hard to tell if they were feeling as exhausted as I was! In this song Momoi yells out "Nii!" which I thought was very weird. Usually she would yell out "hey!" or "fuu!", right? And the song is called "Night de knight"... it's gotta be THAT right? Monty Python? I was so sure of it, but during the Q&A it was confirmed to be just a complete coincidence! How weird is that?

11 - Ima, anata ga suki
Anyway, after so many fast and upbeat songs, Momoi let everyone take a little break by singing her newest ballad. Everyone sat down, but many still continued to wave their glowsticks slowly to the beat. Really, I think I like this song best live.

12 - 21 seiki
Thanks to the Avex translator, Momoi gave a great introduction to this song explaining her thoughts behind it. She always admired the 21st century, thinking it would be peaceful and full of advanced technology like in a futuristic anime. But even though there's still a lot of problems, it's a wonderful time and we should be proud to live in this century and be the best we can be. It was great that she had a translator with her to help express the thoughts behind her songs unlike previous lives. I hope they'll keep up that support in future overseas lives.

13 - WONDER MOMO-i
Thank goodness we had a little break with slow songs before this! For Wonder Momoi, everyone's gotta pull out all the stops and go wild! It's always impressive hearing Momoi manage the voice changes live while still being so energetic. For this song, everyone usually breaks out the ultra orange glow sticks. Unfortunately, I spent way too long on my regular glowsticks and didn't have any ultra orange prepared. Thankfully Catsspat, who was next to me, let me borrow a yellow at least.

14 - Romantic summer
Momoi introduced the OP theme song to Seto no Hanayome and did a little voice of San-chan before beginning. She sang the original version and not the new album version, of course either is good. Next Momoi announced "This is my last song!" and the crowd gave the usual response "Ehhh? We just got here!". Momoi laughed and explained this tradition to the audience then said it's not really the last song.

15 - Thunder shot!
The translator had a little trouble explaining her intro to this song, which was written for tamiya's mini 4wd cars. I was very glad to finally hear this hot blooded song live! It's one of my favorites on her latest album. Some report that they heard her say "sora no canada made" in place of the usual lyric "sora no kanata made", but I missed it!

16 - Saigo no Rock
Maybe a bit less hot blooded and a bit more ROCK, a great song as we are sadly nearing the end of the concert. Like many of Momoi's songs, it's just made to be heard live! Jump! Jump! Now for the "real" final song...

17 - LOVE.EXE
Yeah! One of the best songs for crowd interaction, and of course a fan favorite (isn't every song a fan favorite?) Everyone did their best to demonstrate the hand motions of E X E which the audience seemed to catch onto quickly. Of course hearing this song now just makes me remember getting up on stage with Momoi in Hawaii, which makes it all the more wonderful. After the song finished, Momoi waved and left the stage. The call for encore was the Japanese traditional "an- co- ru-", I guess it is a little easier on English speakers than the custom Momoi call "Mita-i mita-i, mou ichido haruko mita-i!" Everyone called out wonderfully until Momoi hopped back out onto the stage wearing her new world tour t-shirt.

18 - Yume no baton
Of course, the perfect song to end Momoi's live! Hearing this song live is so moving, especially as the last song. The final lines were "No matter how many seasons pass, no matter how far apart, I won't forget you. If you dream, we can meet again. Thank you!" Just perfect!

Momoi thanked everyone many times and even after leaving, she popped back out on the stage for more words of thanks, including shushing the audience and yelling it out without a microphone. Of course, in the end, we should be the ones thanking Momoi for such a great performance. Overall the live was a great success, right afterwards Momoi went straight to signing autographs. Talking to people who saw the live, it seems like both those who knew her before and those who didn't were touched by the performance. And of course, for me, no matter how many times I can see Momoi's live, once it's done I just start thinking about the next performance. It's really an addiction that I recommend to all readers of this blog, try it at least once in your life!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all, thanks a lot for the write-up and even more, thanks for your part in making the call workshop a success. I must say though that you have been quite reckless with the way you brought the glowsticks over. Having crossed the borders with band merch over 9000 times, I know exactly how to handle that situation. If they had opened your trunk, you would have been in for quite the ass whoopin' not to mention missing the concert. Next time you:

A) Get the conv. organizers to fax you a signed (fake) contract that states exactly how many glowsticks are brought and in BIG BOLD CAPS, that they are to be FREELY distributed as promotional items.

B) Have them shipped by airmail.

It doesn't matter if you tell them yourself that they're free for the taking, you need PROOF. Otherwise you could be banned from Canada for 5 years, and you won't like that when the US invades Iran. Now that I've scolded you, here are some questions regarding the live:

1) How many people showed up for her set?
2) Was she singing over instrumental versions of her songs or did she have a full band?
3) Which song had the biggest reaction from the crowd?
4) What live goods were on sale and did they have Region 1 DVDs?

That's it for now, thanks again and I hope others will have questions or comments for you.

Anonymous said...

lol thanks for the advice on getting through customs! We didn't have much time to prepare for this, otherwise I think we could have gotten paperwork from the staff, but I didn't want to bug them about it. I will keep your words in mind next time, I had never left the country before so I didn't know what I was getting into!

How many people.. Less than 1200, I guess! Maybe 1100? Trying to think of how many extra glowsticks we had... Staff took quite a few though for their own security uses. The auditorium didn't seem full all the way to the back.

She was singing over instrumental versions, I guess it is too expensive to bring a full band :( At Anime Expo, Manzo was with her, but that was it. I heard someone say she'll have a band in Germany, but I don't know if it's true, and I forget where I heard it, lol

Biggest reaction?? Hard to say because I mostly only looked back on the songs with spins. But towards the end, people were yelling out some things in between songs, like "We love you!" and that kind of thing. I think the tension got higher with each song, so maybe LOVE.EXE was the highest since that was the last really active song, and it's moves are pretty easy to catch on to.

They didn't have any region 1 DVDs, just the best clip dvd in region 2. They also had all of her albums so far from Avex and the new world tour t-shirts in black and yellow. None of the other live goods they sell in Japan like wristbands or penlights :(

Anonymous said...

Amazing! I can't read all of this right now, but thanks a lot for the review Mandi and Denpa! That web "Momoi.exe" about CALL in concerts, I knew this concept, but with the name of "wotagei", I suppose CALL is more adapted to momoists and Momoi live concerts ?

@_@ç

Anonymous said...

YAY! Thankyou for the concert overview! The concerts and booklet was really useful, Thankyou to everyone who supplied them!
;0; I was Mii-tan at the Meet-n-Greet and concert. I had planned that costume months before the con, imagine my surprise when I found out Momoi was the guest of honour! I was late for the Greet, and I left my camera in the car. I was right not to go back for it because Momoi left a little early, but I don't have any pictures with her now! I gave them my e-mail address and asked for them to e-mail me some pictures but I didn't recieve any. I understand, though. I'm still sad, though T-T Does anybody know where I can get some pictures?

I was so happy when she sang Icchae! Popotan! I started screaming and waving my undies around, I looked really weird, and I hope I didn't freak anybody out >.> Just that recognition from Momoi herself was overwhelming, no convention after this will EVER top AN08. I still have everything she signed for me, and I'm going to wear Mii-tan's costume for every con after this, Momoi-tan or not!
One day I hope to maybe meet Momoi again. I can imagine years from now, me just another person in the autograph line, until I ask her to sign the other side of my Popotan pantsu. Anime North 08 was awesome, especially thanks to Momoi and everyone who helped with her concert!

Eheh, if you ever catch a glimpse of any of the photos of me with Momoi-tan, could you please e-mail me at emmy_d_kitty@hotmail.com
I'm so sad I don't have any pictures of this event, it was very important to me! When I'm older I want to be able to look back on the event, and I want a picture so bad!
Thank you! ^0^
~Emmy

Anonymous said...

Actually, I may have what you're looking for. Mandi-chan sent me a bunch of pics, including yours. But one of my policies here is to not put up pictures of anyone's face (to preserve anonymity) unless I stick some "laughing man" logos on there or something. So check your inbox, and I'm glad to read you had a great time, welcome to the blog!

Anonymous said...

AH! Thank you so much! That's me and Momoi! ;0; Tears of joy, nyaaaa
The panties were signed at the Meet-n-Greet at the con. I got them signed at AN08, but Momoi hadn't sang the particular song for 4-5 years. I'm still so excited whenever I think about it!
Now that I can live in peace with a picture of the event, I'm happy I can remember it all the time!
However, if anybody does have any more pictures, I'd be ecstatic to have them! Thank you so much! Momoiiiiiii***

Unknown said...

So, I'm seeing this a little late. I'll note that Mandi got out of sticking the stickers on the glowsticks...again!

Actually, this time the stickers were on full sheets, so they were much easier to peel. In Hawaii, they were individually cut to size, so me and my stubby fingers couldn't peel them so fast. Much easier this time for me.

They didn't fill up the back section, at least when we were done handing out the glowsticks in the back. I'm guessing 1000-1100 range as there were a few duds and a few leaky glowsticks. Hey, what do you want for free? :P Okay, they weren't free for us, but...

It couldn't have been more than 4 years ago that she last sung Popotan...I'm glad she did. Though I'm with you Mandi...a little surprised that she went with the game OP and not the anime OP (I like the game OP a little more, so ^_^ ).

I know she did Mail Me on her Wonder Momo-i DVD. I was a little surprised to hear it.

BTW, I cracked Ultra Oranges for LOVE.EXE, because it's a really fun song.