May 3, 2010
Pencil Live 2010 thoughts
Well I've had a long sleep deprived day now I'm finally home again
When Pencil Live 2010 advertised Momoi, Sakakibara Yui, KOTOKO, and others...I was sort of expecting Pencil Live to use them as key acts between a variety of artists and that ultimately we'd only see 3 - 4 songs from each performer. It turns I was wrong - this event was completely dedicated to them. The only unlisted performance was a special number by Sanch who flew in especially from South Korea.
What a combo huh?
The feed went up at 16:30 as promised (3:30 for me) and they started playing a lot of recognizable game music. A couple of death screams were heard, but all around the crowd was pretty subdued, maybe they warned them not to be rowdy. Of course whatever reservedness they had was filed away as the countdown started.
I always forget that in Japan, concerts actually start punctually and not 55 minutes past the billing time like in the U.S. Within half a minute on the turn of the hour, a guy came out to do a short intro and Momoi jumped in immediately after, dressed in full Tsurupeta cosplay. Intentional or not, the costume's style, accessories, and hat called strongly to her old UNDER17 outfits.
Momoi gave us a very impressive set list with a great mix of old favorites and newer songs, with the majority being from Pajamas Soft's series of Prism ____ games.
1. Shokuzai no rhapsody
It's a good opener that highlighted her singing abilities, with a lot of comments just remarking on her vocal mastery. But only after this track the moe song fan service begins.
2. Kyouryuu shoujo
Pencil's website telegraphed it was coming, but I still got overcome with nostalgic feelings form this wonderful callback to the UNDER17 era. When singing it, Momoi still sounds exactly the same as then. During MCs, Momoi spotted a guy with the T-shirt and towels from her old concerts with that unit.
3. Chiccha na bouken
Next was a blatant nya~nya~ track to get the comments box flooded with exclamations of cute. One of her rare cutesy songs in the last few years. Have not heard anything like it since Utamaru Ekaki Uta.
4. Majokko Tsurupeta Magical
Momoi also came armed with a brand new song from the new Prism Magical game, showcasing a warm airy tune that combined orchestral instruments with computerized bleep-bloop.
5. Naito de Naito
uuuuuUUUU HAI! Fast paced...UOs...the best kind of track for a live house.
6 Opera Fantasia
Another Shikura Chiyomaru track. Opera Fantasia is pretty standard Momoi fare which is reliant on strong vocals.
7 Yuuen no Amulet
A fan favorite. There were LOTS of UO lit up for this one, and an especially loud crowd coordinated perfect PPPH and stealth romance. This was a fitting closer that left everyone satisfied, tired, and thankful of a big break to come. (there was also Momoi singing about 30 seconds of Saisho to saigo no mahou but we won't count that officially)
So, did the Niconico format work? Overall, it was worth the $20. For one, psychologically just knowing something is in real time already provides a greater enjoyment similar to how we enjoy watching sports live rather than taped. Plus there's the running commentary from the viewers. But, even beyond that, there is a surprising bit of participation, which while at face value sounds incredibly lame, actually does provide a pretty unique and amusing experience. For Nico viewers, synchronized comment spamming fills in for cheers and color coded text fills in for coordinated glow stick coloring.
On criticisms, my main complaint would be to improve the stream quality. For $20, we had the feed get cut twice, and while the audio was good, picture-wise we got some grainy video that looked like it got uploaded from some guy's cell phone set on a tripod. The other is not directed to Niconico but to Pencil Live itself: don't waste the lineup! You're putting Momoi, Sakakibara Yui, and KOTOKO together and NOT doing a collaboration? When there was no encore I was incredulous. It's not like there's a shortage of songs. I mean there's even a Momoi and Yui duet already in Pajamas Soft's library (Prism Knight ~nijiiro no kioku~). Just jam KOTOKO in there and be done with it!
I do hope they made good sales on the web cast though. Dwango has a good thing going on here, and one that is sure appreciated by those of us who live on the opposite side of the world without the means to attend multiple events per year.
Other stuff I want to say (in order of appearance):
On Sanch-san.
She's a cute but really REALLY quiet girl who made her first trip to Japan from Korea. She got a big welcome though, maybe even a little too big. I didn't know the song she sang, but everyone else there did and their cheering was so intense sometimes the crowd actually drowned her out. A lot of comments were just cheering her on and asking her to throw herself into it more. I can understand the nervousness though. There are big fish there. Actually I would kind of like to know what song she did because it was pretty good, and she did a good job. That kind of soft-spoken voice was not a bad fit for the tune after all.
On Sakakibara Yui
I think Yuinyan's anti-otagei reputation is a bit overblown - when she appeared people were wondering if the audience would be banned from doing PPPH. Come on she's not that scary! I'm pretty sure she just dislikes the extreme stuff since some dude actually launched a glowstick onto her stage in the past, but regular jumping and cheering hardly falls under this umbrella. She looked absolutely welcoming of the crowd support. In terms of singing, Yuinyan always seems to be the most artificial to me. Her voice is very heavily processed and half the time I feel like it's actually just a recording in the back, especially since her dance moves are so incredibly hard - it seems nearly impossible to sing properly with that level of activity. Luckily to make up for it she has an excellent arsenal of songs, an absolutely fantastic "おk" which resulted in a zillion comments being posted gushing over it, and also the awesome Soshite boku ha which could have only been improved if she showed up in her skimpy nun costume. Ultimately, she is a good performer with a great repertoire even if all of her singing is prerecorded.
On KOTOKO
When KOTOKO did her MC, it really hit me that every that Momoi, Yui, KOTOKO...they are hardcore veterans with 10+ years under their belts. They know what they are doing. KOTOKO just really ruled the end like an iron fist dictator. Her command over the music and the crowd was just so complete. Just look at dis coordinated EEEEEEEEEHHH when she announced her last song.
And with her projection, she really is the one who earns the moniker utahime the most. Despite her gangly appearance, tongue-tied mishaps, and cutesy hairstyle, we all know the massive experience she has stowed away under all of it. Plus, everyone knows there are two KOTOKOs. The cute one we see here who forgets the names of her own songs (Genzai no Prism...uh I mean....Requiem), and the stone cold LED sunglasses wearing white haired alien space lady who shows up in videos like epsilon and Re-sublimity. Somehow she expertly plays both two images with minimal dissonance.
Posted by Paranda at May 3, 2010 11:26 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.paranda.net/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/188
Comments
hot damn. too bad i had to be in like 6 hours of meeting today...
Posted by: omo at May 4, 2010 12:07 AM
Great report! One thing that really impressed me was the camera angles. Unless there's plan for a DVD, that was a lot of different cameras and angles for an internet show. When there was an idolm@ster broadcast, they stuck to one far off camera. (Of course, that was free, and just the tail end of the concert.)
I remember reading that at the last Pencil Live (Which I think was focused on Prism Arc), people were told not to jump, and the rules were strict. That's why I figured it'd be the same this time. (That's also probably why Momoi & Yui didn't do the expected duet, they sang it there I think.) Of course I can't remember where I read it, probably mixi. She did add a note to the audience to "read the situation" and not overdo it on Puri Maji's call parts too! (I love that song... I think there is no way she could sing it live without getting interaction to the point I wonder if it was done that way on purpose!)
I had never really watched KOTOKO live except for clips here and there so I was really impressed. Looking forward to Short Circuit III even more :)
And YES it needed some kind of collaboration song.... that aspect was disappointing to say the least. Was nice to at least see Momoi & KOTOKO talk :)
Still EASILY worth 2,000 yen though!!
Posted by: mandi at May 4, 2010 9:36 PM
Thanks for the writeup. I was actually kind of curious what was going to happen to the otagei since you have someone like momo-i on the same stage as someone like Yuinyan XD
Posted by: zalas at May 4, 2010 9:36 PM
@omo
Wow 6 hours? You aren't in the management consulting are you?
@mandi
Yeah the angles were a nice surprise. I thought it was going to be that center shot since it was like that during the opening and then we switched views and I was like wooooahhh.
@zalas
Crowd was nice and orderly but still seemed very loud and excited so that was good. Of course after the last number, the second the end music started playing and they turned on the lights, people couldn't hold it in anymore and just started busting out bigger moves.
Posted by: paranda at May 5, 2010 3:03 AM