The Bonkurasu Brigade

Ume here, writing from Shinjuku. This post will be terribly delayed because the internet doesn’t work at the hotel I’m staying in, but in any case I’ll be typing this report while everything is still fresh in my head.

It’s the Golden Ticket!

Pictures and concert impressions after the jump!

Starting off with the goods.

There are two modes on the light stick, it either glows or flashes at intervals.

Shirts and deco-stickers. The design on the tote-bag is the same as the one on the shirt.

P3P and P4 spreads in the concert booklet

Concert impressions

I reached Wel City Tokyo (near East Shinjuku) 1 hour early before seating started. The merchandise booth apparently opened at 1.00pm but I reckoned they would have enough stock anyway, and so I missed out on phone strap goodness. But I managed to get everything else, with extra copies of some.

There was a seperate booth next to the concert merch tables from Animate, and they were selling CDs and DVDs from the Persona series. I had the stuff I wanted so I didn’t bother getting anything, but apparently they were giving out clear prints of the Persona Music Live art with every purchase. I considered going back to get it after the live but I put up my wota-barrier against temptation and skipped it.

Seating queues started a little before 5.15pm outside the venue. Seating started at 6pm, and the concert was slated to start at 7pm. Being a typical Singaporean I was one of the first in line for the seating queue, though it made no difference as seats were already assigned on the ticket. At least I didn’t have to squeeze my way in.

Sneaked a picture as I was walking in. It’s the Velvet Room! They were playing School Days (From the Persona PSP remake OST) and other pieces from the OST during the time allocated to seating.

People started streaming in at 6.25pm. By then, there were people seated on either side of me, and the ones on my immediate left and right were both playing Pokemon for DS. There were several DSes out too throughout the audience. Maybe they’re all playing Pokemon?

At 6.45pm there was the sound of guitars and stuff being tested. An announcement was also made reminding the audience to switch off their mobile phones, and to remain at their seat for the length of the performance. Someone who sounded oddly like Kawamura Yumi squealed into the mic, causing many people to jump and/or look up from their DS screens.

7.00pm came by after a very long wait, and the lights went off. A oddly familiar voice cackles and welcomes you to the Velvet Room (gokigenyou, etc). Igor? No way, and Kuma appears on screen! Kuma had all of us. There was a lot of laughter from the audience as he continued his Igor impersonation.

Elizabeth appears on the screen projection, and promptly removes Kuma-the-intruder with a healthy dose of Megidolaon. Margeret appears too, along with Igor. The real Igor again welcomes you to the Velvet Room. Aigis joines in the conversation (de arimasu!), and the usual humor ensues. Igor then mentions a second guest, and wondered where the second guest may be, while Elizabeth realises that she megidoloan’ed an innocent.

The introduction video ends, and Heartful Cry plays, along with a compilation of cutscenes from the various Persona games and adaptations. Kawamura Yumi then starts off as MC, and got everyone to stand up in front of their seat. Cue crazy lightstick swinging time! A wave of blue (The Persona Music Live lightstick) rose. She sang Dream of Butterfly, which was very good. In fact, it was so well-practiced, the effect was almost the same as the CD recording. What they said on the Persona Music Live blog was true after all! She then finished with P3 BGM, Want to Be Close and When the Moon’s Reaching out Stars, which was beyond awesome.

After all that high-tension Kawamura Yumi, Hirata Shihoco made her appearance. I went wild, of course, because I am nao a Shihoco convert, and broke out a bright pink lightstick which was way brighter than I expected it to be. She went through a medley of P4 BGM, from Pursuing My True Self (Which was very, very good live) Your Affection, Signs of Love to Heartbeat, Heartbreak, all of which I raved through with lightstick power.

My lightstick power.

After her part ended, there was a short silence, and then a familiar song could be heard. The opening chime to Jika-net Tanaka! But this time, we got to watch Tanaka strutting his stuff on TV. On the projection video, for the first time, our favourite TV promoter can be heard. Yes, Tanaka was voiced, and he was advertising the concert goods for sale. Kuma, having been megadolaon’ed and kicked out of the Velvet Room, joins Tanaka (Living in a television, anyone?) in promoting the goods.

Tanaka: Yo♪ro♪shi♪ku
Kuma: Yo♪ro♪shi…. Kuma!

Kuma’s awkardness was amazingly funny.

Lotus Juice then came in with Mass Destruction. Rapping is always upbeat and got the crowd grooving again. When it was his turn to MC, he asked how many people had gone to one of his sessions before, and then dove into Burn My Dread -Last Battle-. Kita Shuuhei, vocalist for the Persona Trinity Soul OP, then sang the P3P opening. He introduced Mayu Fujita, and she took the stage, and proceeded to sing a track from P3P.

This track from P3P is your usual electronic fare from Meguro, and seems like the sort of song which will grow on you after a while.

The video ended, and Shihoco stepped out again, and sang Heaven, followed by Never More, and this is my personal high point of the concert because I am a fan :3.

Kawamura Yumi returned and sang the Persona (PSP) ED, Voice. In her MC, she let out a little spoiler here and there, saying that there would be an encore, and if we asked for it, it would be a long one. Cheers from the audience. Voice ended, and the stage lights dimmed, and then mad clapping started. Calls for encore from different parts of the audience started. I sat down, finished all the water I had brought in one gulp, and joined in the encore clapping.

Another video started playing on the projector. It was from P3P, and had the female main character dying from a fatal attack. Continue? was shown, to laughs from the audience, and then a countdown (Like in arcade games) was shown, from 120 seconds. Lightstick revivial! The counter occasionally changed to ENCORE, which was a nice touch. The countdown started at 10. I shouted along with everyone else, and the atmosphere was amazing. At zero, we got our encore!

Kawamura Yumi sang the blues version of Burn My Dread. I broke out a bright green lightstick this time (It was actually more yellow than green), and sang through all the way from that to Kita Shuuhei’s Breakin’ Through. I hardly liked the song when I heard it on the anime, but the live version is just aural pleasure. Lotus’s Deep Breath Deep Breath was equally wonderful, and the choreography! There were people in front who were following the dance sequence with their lightsticks and I did the same, because it looked like a lot of fun.

The most amazing thing about the encore was the Kimi no Kioku duet between Kawamura Yumi and Hirata Shihoko. Their vocal combination was heavenly to hear. Before they went into the duet, Kawamura was talking to Shihoco and randomly asking ‘So, whats your ideal type?’ in between sentences, causing Shihoco to go ‘Eeeeeh’ in the cutest way you can imagine possible and tried to avoid the topic. Kawamura also teased Meguro as she recounted how they were first recording the vocal tracks for P3 and when they suggested a live performance, Meguro was all ‘No way, I can’t do it, it won’t happen’, and today they were playing to a full-house. Also, Kawamura remarked that since they had three times the audience compared to last year’s live, they should do a ten hour live next year. Cheers from the audience, which was met by a ‘That was definitely a lie!’ remark from Kawamura.

Kawamura then invited all the performers from the live, and they introduced the dancers/new singers, and took a bow while thanking the audience. Meguro thanked everyone again, and the lights dimmed as they left the stage.

But it was all too sudden and the crowd was obviously not satisfied yet, and cheers for a second encore started.

MOU IKKAI!!

And we were granted this wish. Another video was projected, and showed the residents of the Velvet room, along with both visitors, as they talked about how they enjoyed the live. Kuma then commented that while it looked like everything was over, everyone was still here and cheering. Elizabeth then deftly cut in and stated that it was everyone being able to read the atmosphere well.

And when the video ended, we were met with a loading screen (The spinning card on bottom right). Another bit of humor which was greatly appreciated by the audience.

School days played, and was met with a lot of cheering, but then it cut off abruptly and switched to an even better song. The on-screen game video was of the player turning to the corner of the street to the pharmacy…

Can you say, Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy?

Kita Shuuhei appeared on stage, with a doctor’s coat, followed by Hirata Shihoco, dressed in a nurse uniform (I fangirled, srsly). They started singing the infamous pharmacy song, making for the second epic duet of the night.

On the second verse, the lyrics were projected over the accompanying video, karaoke-style. Shihoko then asked the audience to sing along.

Doku de itai yo DIS♪POI♪SON.

It was great fun! They left the stage, and Meguro took their place. His MC started off with him recounting how he asked the concert manager how long his MC should be, and the concert manager told him it could be as long as he wanted to (Cheers from the audience, which was laughed at by Meguro as he told them to keep listening till the end), and when he got home and told his wife his plan, his wife bluntly told him not to push it (LOL).

Meguro then played The Battle for Everyone’s Souls. Screechy guitars!

He ended off by thanking all fans of the Persona series, and asked for the support of everyone in future games, and concerts as well. That concluded the live, and we were again shown a video of the velvet room. By this point, Kuma had a rather coarse voice (From mad cheering in the live? I understand!). He then tried to ask Margeret out for an after-party, and was once again megidolaon’ed by Elizabeth. Margeret then thanked the audience, and Igor praised them. He concluded with his usual(gokigenyou!), and the screen went dark.

Applause was, however, interrupted by a follow-up cutscene, where Theodore was unveiled. Cue roar of approval from the female members of the audience (Along with some of the male members, but I’m pretty sure I can recognise a wave of squealing when I hear one). Theodore’s speech and manner is very Margeret-like. Igor states that he has high expectations of him, and Theodore acknowledges it with an ‘Understood (Kashikomarimashita), and was met with another chorus of squealing.

Then the concert ended there, the house lights were brought back on and there was an announcement that the concert was officially over for today. That made an one hour encore.

Everyone then started taking memorial photos of the Persona Music Live event notice outside, at the lobby.

This is the first concert I’ve ever got to hear a band perform live, and I’d go again, if the tickets weren’t such a trouble to obtain. But really, I could die happy now.