Hibiki

The Kiramune 3rd Anniversary Fan Meeting took place in Okinawa City, Okinawa on April 29, 2012. My friends and I arrived a couple days early to do some sightseeing. We bought a day pass for the monorail in Naha (probably the only train in all of Okinawa) and hit up several locations. One of them was the touristy Kokusai Doori. Shops and restaurants lined the streets. Kamiya and OnoD went down this street for Kamiya’s seitansai episode earlier in the year. Found the restaurant where they had dinner and snapped a few photos. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time (or money) to eat there. My friends were staying at a hotel in Okinawa City, a few minutes walk from the event venue. If I may give some advice to anyone considering visiting the main island of Okinawa: Stay in Naha. There isn’t much to do in Okinawa City and the street we had to go down to get to our hotel was lined with bars and clubs where U.S. Air Force members hung out. Since we arrived at the hotel on a Friday night, you can imagine how noisy it was. There were tons of Americans, many of them trying to pick up girls, etc. Um… Yeah. It’s not a street you’d want to walk down alone at night.

On the day of the event, it rained. *sigh* Namikawa… Read more…

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

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This past weekend was KiraFes 2012 at the Makuhari Event Hall. There were two performances, one on the 17th and one on the 18th. I was hoping that since they were having the performances on different days that the set list would be different but unfortunately they were the same.

It rained all day Saturday and I stood in line for 2.5 hours in the rain for goods. Not fun. By the time I was finally able to buy the goods I wanted, doors were already open for the event. My seat for the day was in arena block 9 near the back.

When the lights went down, everyone broke out their pen lights and glow sticks. First up, surprisingly, was Kamiya! He wore a pink jacket that was very sparkly. It was funny because while waiting for the bathroom before the event began, my friend and I were wondering what Kamiya would be wearing for the event. We came to the conclusion that since he wore pink in 2009 and was sparkly in 2010, this year he would be a combination of the two–pink and sparkly. And we were right! XD

Kamiya sang Nijiiro Chouchou, Dual Wing, and For myself. Of course for For myself, everyone sang the “oh-oh oh-oh oooh oh” part. I’ve noticed that Kamiya tends to sing For myself on a bit of a higher note when singing live. It sounds good either way. He danced for For myself and it was the same choreography as when he sang the song for Harezora Party. Adorable! When Kamiya said his greeting, he said, I just said ‘good afternoon’ right now but by the time this event is over, we’ll all be saying ‘good evening.'”

There was a talk corner after all the main Kiramune members sang the first part of their set. Kamiya showed off his order-made outfit. The sparkles on the jacket were actually Swarovski crystals and when SuzuKen asked him, “What kind of jewels are these again?” Kamiya had a hard time saying “Swarovski.” It was very cute. On the back were the letters “Hiroshi K.” spelled out in the crystals and on the front were star designs. Near the bottom there was half a star on each side so when he zipped up, the star would become one. They also talked about Miyu kun’s blog entry that showed Kamiya’s gaudy rehearsal pants (also seen here in the staff blog). Apparently Kamiya received those pants from the Kiramune staff at the Harezora Party event and was told to wear the pants during rehearsal. Kamiya was all, “You want me to wear this during rehearsal? Okay, I’ll wear them during rehearsal, but don’t make me wear them outside.” XD And as always, they talked about food.

The new Kiramune members, Trignal (Eguchi Takuya, Kimura Ryouhei, Yonaga Tsubasa) and Okamoto Nobuhiko sang their sets and then had a talk with Iwata and SuzuKen of CONNECT. Next up was KAmiYU. Kamiya and Miyu kun came out from the second floor singing Taiyou no Sympathy! They were wearing checkered shirts and got pulled along between the 2nd and 3rd floor stands. They went all the way around and ended back on the main stage. Next they sang Sting of Love. The choreography was the same as the one during KAmiYU in Wonderland 2.

For the second half of Kamiya’s set, he sang STYLE, Silica Gel, and Mirror World. He changed into a stylish all-black outfit. It looked very good. He sang STYLE at the center of the main stage in front but for Silica Gel he sang from the left side. He was on a crane and lifted up high. As expected, the crowd yelled out “Hey!” during the song. It was very fun, and everyone was much more into it on Sunday. After Silica Gel was Mirror World. Kamiya started singing it from the left side but when the crane came back down, he was carted to the back of the arena where there was another stage. For Sunday’s performance I was in the last row of block 8, which is in the middle, so I had a very clear view whenever anyone stood on the back stage. I absolutely love Mirror World so I was very glad to finally be able to hear it live. I was hoping that he’d sing it during Harezora Party but he didn’t, so I figured maybe he was saving it for KiraFes. In any case, it was a great performance of a great song.

For the encore, Kamiya sang from near the middle of the arena. It was kind of funny because before it was his turn, you could see his shadow being carted to the middle near the end of the song. He wore the KiraFes 2012 t-shirt but it was purple instead of grey. Kamiya sang Happy Hour and everyone sang parts of the song, such as “Let’s join!” “Hey!” and the lyrics in parentheses. I was kind of expecting him to sing Harebare Heart but it seems they deliberately chose songs that he hadn’t sung live before. Aside from Dual Wing and For myself, all the songs had never been performed at any events.

Last was the new group song Get Together and then Ever Dream. All the guys were singing from different areas of the venue. Of course I kept my eye on Kamiya the entire time. ^^ For the final greetings, Kamiya told everyone to look at their watch and said, “See? Didn’t I tell you it’d be ‘good evening’ by the time this was over?” The event was about 4 and a half hours long (and very tiring on the feet ^^;).

As I mentioned, the performances on Saturday and Sunday were exactly the same. It was the same set list and in the same order. This was how it was in 2010 too when they had 3 performances that were exactly the same. I do kind of wish they’d shuffle things up a bit, either by having a different set list for each performance (preferable) or at least by having the guys sing in a different order, especially since the event it quite expensive. The only thing different was the talk corners, though sometimes they talked about the same things. Still, I had a great time both days and because the performances were the same, on Sunday I knew when Kamiya would be up.

Since this is a DGS fan site, I didn’t write about any of the other members, but let me say that Miyu kun is so cool. He’s such a great singer and dancer and I look forward to seeing his performance again on DVD. The KiraFes 2012 DVD will be released on August 24 and retail for 8190 yen. A bonus CD with Get Together will be included in the first edition and the DVD will only be available at Animate and .ANIME.

Set list

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

Studio Coast

Yesterday was the Harezora Party event at Shin-kiba Studio Coast. Of course, the event was held on Kamiya’s birthday. It was a very nice day, except for the wind and cold. It was very cold. I arrived at the venue a little after 12 and already there was a long line for goods. It took about an hour for me to get to the front of the line where I bought all the goods they offered, which included a hand towel, mascot cleaner, and bromide set. It looks like they were giving away Harezora promotional posters to those who bought the CD.

Goods

At 2:30, they opened the entrance doors. I was in the A group in the 400s. Got a spot sort of near the front to the right side of the stage, perhaps 6 or 7 rows back. They were playing the tracks from Harezora in the background. For the night event I was in the B group in the early numbers. My friend and I decided to take a spot in the back behind the staff. We were in the center and had a very clear view of the stage. (It was sort of interesting since I could see the staff controlling what’s displayed on the main screen.) When an announcement of the event rules and such came on with Kamiya reading them, everyone jumped. The announcement was played several times before the lights went down and everyone screamed as Kamiya took to the stage. Read more…

Reports/Photos Kamiya Hiroshi

A little late with the report, but this year’s OrePara once again took place on Christmas at Ryogoku Kokugikan. This year’s guests were Hirakawa Daisuke and OLDCODEX.

As usual, the live started off with the OrePara rap. For the noon event, OnoD’s performance was third, and for the night event, he was fifth. His set list was the same for both and included: DELIGHT, Ride On Funky Night, Netsuretsu ANSWER, and Daisuki.

My God, the screams when OnoD’s kanji for the live 継 (kei) showed up on the screen… The night event was especially crazy. The moment the kanji showed up, almost everyone in the venue broke out either a yellow glow stick or an ultra bright orange one. In any case, the venue was suddenly lit up quite brightly. OnoD came out on stage wearing a red suit jacket similar to the one he wore in the DELIGHT PV, but not the same. (Yes, he had black eyeliner on.) He also had a headset mic as opposed to a handheld one like everyone else. Why? Because he danced. And the dancers from the PV were on stage with him! At first it was just the two girls but then in the middle of the song the two guys came out too. The girls had different outfits but the guys were wearing the same red and blue shirts from the PV.

For DELIGHT, everyone yelled out “Delight!” and “Wo-oh!” etc. As for the hand movements, at the beginning of the chorus (“Mabayui mirai~”) everyone held their glow sticks up in the air and waved it in tune with the song. For the “delight” and “all right” parts, we all did the raise the roof motion. It was hilarious! During his MC, OnoD kept doing the motion for no reason and then everyone would do it too. He commented that it was funny when everyone does it together, hehe. They actually reenacted parts of the PV on stage, such as the dancing during the instrumental part. It was tons of fun.

Ride On Funky Night also had its own choreography. It was really cool! It’s hard to describe, but take my word for it… It was cool. For Netsuretsu ANSWER, of course everyone did the dance. I was sitting on the third floor so I had a good bird’s eye view of the entire venue and it was pretty amazing to see everyone dance in sync. The last song was Daisuki and this time they made up a little dance for it. OnoD explained it beforehand. It was kind of like hitting a taiko drum. The dance was for the “D-A-I-S-U-K-I daisuki!” part of the song. For “D-A” you would “hit the drum” to your left, alternating between left and right for each letter, and then “I-S-U” was on the right side. “K-I” was down below, and then for the last “daisuki!” you would “hit” with both hands above your head twice, once for “dai” and then once for “suki.” It was a lot of fun dancing along. Near the end of the song, Hirakawa, whose name is also Daisuke, came out on stage. It was cute.

At the end of the event they sang Nemuru Monotachi he and the new song Galaxy Bus. OnoD still had his makeup on and was wearing the gloves. For the noon event when they were doing the last jump, Iwata jumped and everyone else did the NAHA pose, which was opposite of what happened last year. (Watch the DVD for 2010 if you don’t know what this is.) Poor Micchan! XDDD The crowd was in the dark about this surprise too since they didn’t announce it beforehand like last year. Apparently they came up with the idea of doing it the night before. For the night event, they all surprised SuzuKen with a guitar signed by everyone and Yorke. of OLDCODEX painted on the case. It was a wedding present and the entire audience got to congratulate SuzuKen on his marriage.

The buzz on Twitter was that Kamiya and Sakamoto Maaya were at the noon event sitting in the middle section, front row on the third floor. I was 9th row and did not notice them. They say Kamiya was also at the night event. I was 3rd row for that one and again, did not notice him. ^^;; Ahh… So close yet so far. Obviously no one could squee about it since it would make things awkward. If someone squeed I think everyone would have realized he was there.

Anyway, the event helped me fall in love with OnoD all over again. We may laugh at his silliness but at the same time he can be so cool! I was reminded as to why I look forward to OrePara the entire year. This is definitely one of the best annual events out there and though tickets may be on the rather expensive side, the events are about 4 hours long each so you definitely get your money’s worth. Just when you think OnoD’s at his best, he outdoes himself again. I wonder what’s in store for next year. ^^

Reports/Photos Ono Daisuke

Meant to share these earlier, but here are some photos taken at the Bunka Housou booth at Animate Girls Festival in Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City. The first image is from Hamamatsucho when I went to the AoEx event, however.

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Now for the main topic at hand, Christmas is just around the corner! I’d like to organize a project to send letters and fan art to Kamiya and OnoD for Christmas, similar to the DGS4LO Fan Project earlier this year. Rules are the same, so let’s show the boys our support!

The premise
Send fan letters and/or fan art to Kamiya Hiroshi, Ono Daisuke, and/or the DGS staff. All letters and art will be sent together as one package to Bunka Housou and addressed to Dear Girl ~Stories~.

What is allowed
Letters and art only. Sorry, no presents.

DEADLINE
All letters and art must be received by DECEMBER 12, 2011.

Read more…

Projects, Reports/Photos DGS