Kiramune Music Festival 2015
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This year’s KiraFes took place a bit later in the year on May 9-10 at Yokohama Arena. It felt really weird going to KiraFes in May… A few days earlier during Golden Week, a couple friends and I headed to Yokohama for a buffet lunch in Chinatown and also to check out the Kiramune Museum at the Yokohama branch of Animate. At the “museum” they had on display panels from the Fan Meeting event in Yokohama and outfits worn by the Kiramune members during last year’s KiraFes (the shiny outfits they came out with at the beginning of the event), and of course there were lots of goods and media for sale. The outfits were by Jill Blaze and of course customized for each member. Kamiya wore a size M. I think only Eguchi, Namikawa, and Iwata wore size L. On Namikawa’s jacket, there was a large… discoloration… on the right side. Wonder what that was. ^^;; They didn’t allow photos of the outfits.
On the day of KiraFes, it was really cloudy and had actually started to sprinkle a bit. Not too bad, but it was a little annoying. (Grr, Namikawa!!) When we got to the venue, my friend and I headed towards the end of the goods line. We must’ve walked at least 3/4ths of a mile to get there! Had the staff pointed us towards the end instead of making us walk all the way around the venue I think we would have gotten there a lot faster. (He probably didn’t know where the end of the line was.) Um, yeah… Long line was long. I heard that people started lining up at 4:30 in the morning. x__x After goods, my friend and I chilled at a nearby cafe. When we got back to enter the venue, there was a sea of people “lined up.” We had to get our IDs checked before we could go inside. It was pretty exciting to go inside because we didn’t know how the stage was going to be set up so we didn’t know what our view would be like. The setup was different from last year. The arena is oval-shaped and they had the main stage in the middle with a stage in the back, and walkways from the main stage to the sides. For the first day, I was facing towards the front of the stage on the right side. On the second day, I was parallel to the back stage on the right side. This meant that I wouldn’t get a very good view if they came to the back stage– I would only see their side and if they lined up then they would be covering each other. Also if they were standing at the main stage and facing towards the front then I would only see their back. Oh well, it was pretty cool to have a 360 degree stage, and on the second day I was at the second to last row of the section which means I would be really close when they go around on the carts.
When the lights went down, the opening movie played on the monitor above the arena. That’s another thing with a 360 degree layout like this: It’s hard to look at both the stage and the monitor at the same time, and if you were sitting in the center seats (down in the arena pit) then you wouldn’t be able to see the monitor at all. There was a chandelier at the main stage and we could see someone go inside as the movie was ending. It was Namikawa and he was first up. I’m not versed in his songs but I do like his “Funky” ones. He would later sing Funky Wave and we all did the wave. It was fun.
Kamiya was after Nobu and for his first set of songs he sang Dolce misto, my diary, and GLORIOUS TIME. Dolce misto was so cute! During the chorus, he would move his right fist in a circular motion near his ear. He sang on the lift at the front of the center stage and at the end was at the center of the center stage. We had no idea what he was going to sing for the next song because when the music started, it wasn’t anything we recognized. We finally new what it was when he started singing– A remix of my diary!! The center stage lifted up and there were screens at the top and on the sides. They played footage from the my diary PV and making video! So nostalgic~! After my diary was GLORIOUS TIME and Kamiya rode in a cart around the upper ring of the arena. I think the key is a little lower when he sings the song live since it didn’t sound like he sang it in as high a tone as the CD recording. On the second day, he messed up at the end. ^^; There’s a long instrumental part before the “todoke ashita he” but Kamiya missed the timing and when he started singing “todoke” the music was fading out and then the song ended. Oops. ^^;;;;
With CONNECT gone, Kamiya took the lead. During the first MC on the first day, they mainly talked about the fan meetings. On the second day, they mainly made fun of Eguchi and Namikawa. XD Nobu had a dream the night before where Namikawa was chasing him and then Ryohei was all, “This way!” and then they both ran away from Namikawa together. ^^; Eguchi had a dream where he was running late because he was out shopping with Ryohei. They then began to pick on Eguchi because his stories have no punch line and are “boring.” XD Miyu was all, “If Suzu san were up here, he’d tell you how boring you are.” LOL. Then they made fun of Namikawa because he doesn’t understand Japanese. XD They also talked about contents in the pamphlet and about the page where everyone answered where they would want to go for the next fan meeting, what they anticipate for each member’s stage today, etc. A lot of them wanted to go to Hawaii or overseas, and Kamiya’s answer was “HAWAII” in big letters. He specifically requested that it be written in big font. XD Namikawa’s answers were all so weird. For where he wanted to have the next fan meeting, he wrote “city at the bottom of the sea” (= Atlantis). His reason was that he wouldn’t have to worry about sweating if he’s underwater, LOL. Yeah…………
KAmiYU had a small set list this year compared to just the one encore song last year. They sang REASON and EXOTIC FEVER. For REASON, Kamiya rode on the crane on the left side of the stage and Miyu on the right side. In the 4th verse where Kamiya is supposed to sing “kokoro no ondo ga,” he accidentally started singing the “bokura wa kanarazu” part from later in the song. ^^; This confused Miyu but he and Kamiya ended the line with “soko ni tadoritsuku yo” and then went back to the correct lyrics. It was kind of cute seeing Kamiya go a little silent when he realized he was singing the wrong part. Oops again. They sang EXOTIC FEVER at the back stage. The choreography was the same as when they sang it during KAmiYU in Wonderland 3. So coooool~!
For Kamiya’s last set of songs, he sang Kodoku to Jounetsu no Shouten and SELFISH. Not too much to say about SELFISH, but Kodoku to Jounetsu no Shouten was really cool. Kamiya sang it at the center stage and there were flames and everything. They timed it to the music and Kamiya’s movements so it would look like he’s controlling the flames. Very neat, though I don’t know if it was just because of the angle I was viewing from or what but Kamiya’s timing seemed a bit off on the second day.
Kamiya sang WALKIN’ WALKING’! for his encore. He would lift his legs high and his arm parallel to the ground in a walking motion and it was really cute. In the middle of it, Nobu and Ryohei came out with Kamiya and “walked” together. ^^ Kamiya came out again with Eguchi for Yocchin’s Do It encore. They had neckties around their heads and acted like drunk salarymen. Very cute.
After everyone finished singing their encore songs, all the members came out on stage again and each of them promoted their upcoming lives and CDs, etc. When Kacky was reading the promotions, everyone kept blocking the monitor so he couldn’t read it and then Nobu came from behind and covered his eyes with a “Da~re da?” LoL. Namikawa did another wave with the audience since the other members wanted to see it. Kamiya was last and he sent the entire venue screaming with his announcement of not one but TWO new CDs and his first solo live. I may have clutched onto my friend’s arm very tightly during all this to contain my excitement. XD I did think that Kamiya’s movements during live were better than in previous years, so maybe he’s been working on increasing his stamina for his upcoming solo live in September. Man, no one is going to stop me from going to this!!! On the first day after Kamiya made his announcements, he talked about how the PV and making for my diary were playing on the screen as he sang, and he said that he wanted to die (of embarrassment). XD I guess it is a rather embarrassing to see video of yourself from 6 years ago.
At the end they sang Ever Dream and Get Together! while riding cranes and going around the arena in carts. They also threw some autographed color balls into the audience. After the first day, my arms were dead tired. It wasn’t as bad the second day but my feet hadn’t recovered from the first day so they hurt a lot. The event was a little over 5 hours both days.
Some last thoughts: I looooooooove Miyu’s singing! He nearly had me tearing up when he sang Dilemma no Yoru. Your heart hurts whiling listening to it, and not only that but Miyu’s facial expressions– Wow! So much emotion! I really liked his new songs too. Trignal and their new songs were cool. There was this one part where they had mic stands leaning on the ground and they used their foot to get it to stand up. That was pretty cool. I think it was Eguchi who said it during the event, but Yonaga was pretty sexy. XD He was also wearing his wedding ring which made me smile a bit. I’m wondering how they will edit GLORIOUS TIME on the BD/DVD since Kamiya messed up on the second day when they were recording for the home release. I hope they keep it in instead of using footage from the first day. I didn’t see it personally because of the angle I was sitting at on both days, but some people have reported that Kamiya scratched his butt a few times during the MC. ^^;;; Will have to check on the BD/DVD release, LoL. Apparently Iwata was there on the first day for a bit before he had to leave early for work, and Suzumura was there on the second day. It really does feel different without them on stage with everyone but I suppose the up side is that now Kamiya gets to sort of play leader. I hope next year’s KiraFes will go back to being held in March.
