Disclaimer: The content below did not come from any of the writers of Seiyuuri. They are completely the words of the reporter who wrote the article. ╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑ Please also do note that due to the image heavy nature of the original article, some photos has been omitted.
Lantis Festival’s first world wide concert ends in Taipei, with over 30 Seiyuus and singers putting up a brilliant 2-day performance; creating good memories with thousands of fans. (Source)
Written by: nakedjehuty | All photos are a property of Gamebase | Translated by: Souhi | Proofread by: Seiyuuri
Lantis Festival’s first worldwide concert, already traveled round America – Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Korea – Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, and the final performance was in Taipei, which was broadcasted live in Japan and Hong Kong cinemas. The purpose of this event was to convey Japan’s anime music to the world, and let the world experience the passionate and moving anime music.
To make it the best performance, there was a live orchestra playing the music, and projection screens at both sides of the stage playing images of anime related to the songs,which combined the anime and the live performance to bring an impactful visual and auditory experience to the audience.
During the two days of performances at the Taipei International Convention Center, many fans were waiting outside the arena early. Regardless of whether they were iDOLM@STER ‘Producers’ or Love Live’s ‘LLer/LoveLivers’, they all brought their supporting merchandise to show their passion to the seiyuus and singers whom they could finally meet.
There was also a gift box provided, for fans to place all sorts of gifts,cards, or signs of encouragement, and there was a huge crowd queuing up to buy this event’s exclusive limited merchandise.
There were 11 artistes performing in these two days: JAM Project, Suzumura Kenichi, OLDCODEX, Kita Shuuhei, bamboo(milktub), Sasayi Sayaka, Hashimoto Miyuki, THE IDOLM@STER MILLIONSTARS,Oohashi Ayaka, µ’s, TRUE, who all brought together an amazing performance.
Apart from the 20 minute intermission, the seamless performances blew the fans away, leading them to express themselves through their cheering.
SUZUMURA KENICHI
Suzumura Kenichi who is rather popular in Taiwan started the first day’s programme with a bang, specially using Taiwanese to greet the fans, and shared his experience looking for food in the middle of the night in Taiwan. He passed by a hotpot store which was about to close for the day, but the boss still invited him to eat, and that left an impression of Taiwan food and the hospitality of the Taiwanese for him.
He performed the ED of the anime CØDE:BREAKER “Shiroi Karasu”, and Heaven’s Memo Pad’s ED “Asunaro.”
Suzumura Kenichi who likes Kamen Rider Ryuki, together with JAM Project’s Kitadani Hiroshi, sang Kamen Rider Ryuki’s “Revolution.” Both singers’ blood-pumping performance roused the fans to sing along.
On the last day, He was in charge of the first half’s finale, and performed his original songs “SHIPS” and “A I U E Ongaku,” causing the fans to sing in unison and turn the whole arena into a sea of blue lights. Suzumura Kenichi likes Taiwan cuisine a lot, and specially mentioned that Taiwan’s water bamboo + mayonnaise was ‘SWEET!’, capturing the female fans’ hearts with his attractive voice. He also ate a very tasty and very soft sandwich, and it was so good he wanted to bring it back to Japan.
KITA SHUUHEI
Kita Shuuhei performed for both days, and brought “Issei No Sei” from the popular anime Natsume Yuujinchou, Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi’s “Sekai No Hateni Kimi Ga Itemo,” Shin Megami Tensei’s main theme “Breakin’ through,” as well as other songs.
On the first day he performed “Yume Kounen” with his senior Kageyama Hiroshi, with Kageyama Hiroshi playing the acoustic guitar. Kita Shuuhei said “To me, this one is like the existence of a ‘divine song’ because he sang it when he won a competition to start his career as a singer, and on the first day he was able to duet with Kageyama Hiroshi. Kita Shuuhei felt as though he was dreaming, and even shed tears while speaking, showing his emotional side. Perhaps because of the first day’s performance, on the second day, when he just announced the song title, the whole arena was filled with the green glow of the light sticks/king blades, displaying the fans’ warm response.
HASHIMOTO MIYUKI
It was her first time coming to Taiwan, and she performed four songs, including the TV anime iDOLM@STER XENOGLOSSIA’s OP, “Binetsu S.O.S!!”, the TV anime Saki’s OP “Glossy:MMM,” and Saki Zenkoku-hen’s OP, “New SPARKS!,” and on the final day, Hashimoto Miyuki performed the anime Shukufuku no Campanella’s OP “Mirai Kaikisen,” which immediately fired up the atmosphere. Hashimoto Miyuki has always liked Anime Songs, and wanted to spread this energy to the audience. She was very surprised and happy when the audience reacted immediately when the song titles were announced, and thanked those who were watching the live viewing in Hong Kong and Japan.
SASAKI SAYAKA
During her performance of the anime Nichijou’s ED “Zzz” which brought a joyful atmosphere, she asked the audience “Is everyone happy?” in Chinese.
She revealed that three years ago, she had come to Taiwan with her friends for a vacation, but this time she came to Taiwan to perform solo.
She sang So, I Can’t Play H!’s main theme, “Reason why XXX” and displayed her vocal prowess performing the main theme of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing’s “JUST COMMUNICATION” from her latest cover album SAYAKAVER.
On the second day she was part of the audience, enjoying the performances with the fans in the arena.
OOHASHI AYAKA
She appeared only on the second day, but this was her first time appearing for the global tour. To convey “ENERGY☆SMILE”‘s cute topic, she specially used Chinese to greet everyone: “Let us get hyped together!” She sang a total of three songs, including Sabagebu!’s OP “YES!!” and her new single “ENERGY☆SMILE.” With the light sticks dancing along to the songs, the whole stadium was filled with a joyful atmosphere. Her voice and songs were full of bubbly energy, and the fans present were dazzled by her cuteness after seeing her live. They adored Oohashi Ayaka, and kept calling out “Angel”.
TRUE
TRUE (Karasawa Miho) also only appeared on the second day. To attend this tour, she specially went to apply for her passport, and even went early to Taiwan’s LongShan Temple to pray for a smooth performance. This time she sang three songs, including the anime BUDDY COMPLEX’s OP “UNISONIA” as well as the new production Maria the Virgin Witch’s OP, “ailes.” During the exciting performance, she displayed her strong singing capabilities! (As TRUE was able to perform her four singles here, I felt really happy.)
bamboo(milktub)
milktub’s lead singer bamboo, who likes Taiwan a lot and has already visited Taiwan 15 times, came for the second time this year. To bamboo, Taiwan felt like a reassuring place. He performed the renowned Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu’s ED “Baka Go Home” and during The Eccentric Family’s “The Eccentric Family,” he suddenly ran down the stage towards the audience, allowing the audience to get up close with him like an idol.
And similarly to Japan’s dramatic performance, he took out a dakimakura to raise the atmosphere of the audience. During the second day, they were specially joined by JAM Project’s Endoh Masaaki to sing Kenzen Robo Daimidaler’s ED “Kenzen Robo Daimidaler” and sang the chorus together with the fans.
This song’s lyrics are written by bamboo, Endoh-kai performed it, and bamboo is also a member of Endoh-kai.
OLDCODEX
Rock Band OLDCODEX only performed on the first day. When the lead singer Ta_2 and artist YORKE arrived on the stage, the female fans started to scream and cheer! It was their first time performing in Taiwan, and they sang 5 songs, including Kuroko no Basuke’s main theme “WALK”. YORKE started to do spray painting on the stage, while singer Ta_2 mentioned that after arriving in Taiwan, he had taken a walk in the streets of Taipei. Seeing a different scenery as compared to Japan, and thinking that there are OLDCODEX fans around, he felt elated.
As they are gaining popularity in Taiwan, there have been a number of fans who had wished they would come to Taiwan to perform. He also excitedly said “We finally reached here to meet with everyone!” OLDCODEX which had fulfilled its wish was filled with emotion, and even though artist YORKE had to be sent to the hospital due to liver problems, he also left a message to give his regards to the fans. Ta_2 also made a promise to return to Taiwan.
THE IDOLM@STER MILLIONSTARS (THE iDOLM@STER: Million Live!)
As the performers for the finale of the first half of the first day, the lineup for THE iDOLM@STER had 6 singers who shared the stage, including Nakamura Eriko (as Amami Haruka), Imai Asami (as Kisaragi Chihaya), Yamazaki Haruka (as Kasuga Mirai), Tadokoro Azusa (as Mogami Shuzuka), Machico (as Ibuki Tsubasa), Asakura Momo (as Hakozaki Serika).
They were very happy to come to Taiwan to perform, expressing that the six of them being able to come to Taiwan together was like a dream come true. The fans who had been eagerly awaiting them produced the light sticks according to the character colors, and reacted rapidly to every song, letting the first day’s first half end on a high note.
μ’s
μ’s, the idol group which appears in LoveLive! made an appearance only on the second day. Even though it was announced before the performance that Nanjou Yoshino (as Ayase Eli) was unable to perform due to a knee injury, during the opening of the last day, she recorded a video to apologize to the fans. She often received greetings from Taiwanese fans on Twitter, and she expressed that she would come to Taiwan if given the opportunity. The fans also immediately changed their lightsticks to Eli’s character colour, ‘Aqua Blue’ as a response. The whole scene was extremely moving.
This time μ’s came with 8 members, including:
Kousaka Honoka (CV: Nitta Emi), Minami Kotori (CV: Uchida Aya), Sonoda Umi (CV: Mimori Suzuko), Hoshizora Rin (CV: Rida Iiho), Nishikino Maki (CV: Pile), Toujou Nozomi (CV: Kusuda Aina), Koizumi Hanayo (CV: Kubo Yurika), Yazawa Nico (CV: Tokui Sora), entered in the Bokura wa Ima no Naka De outfits to perform. The eight of them had their own unique call and response, and the fans also quickly changed their light stick colors to respond. They said that “The feelings that everyone in Taiwan has, we have received them!”
The second day of the performance was also Nishikino Maki’s birthday. μ’s led the arena of 3000 people to sing a birthday song as well wishes, and performed 6 popular songs, including “Bokura wa Ima no Naka De,” “Bokura no Live Kimi to no Live,” “Sore wa Bokutachi no Kiseki.”
The fans waved light sticks with different characters’ colors, making it the most colorful sea of light sticks in the two days of performances. Because Taipei International Convention Center’s stage is similar to the school’s auditorium, during “START:DASH!!” when the song started, the arena would fire up, μ’s said “It might be a little warm” and brought the what the fans had been anticipating, the second single “Snow halation,” causing the whole arena to get riled up.
In two seconds, the fans also changed the originally white sea of light sticks to an orange one, completing the miraculous color call.
JAM Project
This time JAM Project came in full attendance. The last time they had come to Taiwan was a couple of years back, but in the Taiwan anime fans’ hearts, they still held an important place.
They took on the responsibility of performing the finale for both days, and was always able to lead the audience to get incredibly pumped up.
On the first day, they performed Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector’s main theme “Break Out” and their entrance was feverish. They brought out their members’ solo performances in a routine. On the first day, there was Kageyama Hironobu’s “Saint Seiya~ Soldier Dream,” Endoh Masaaki’s “Believe in Nexus,” Okui Masami’s “Rinbu Revolution,” Fukuyama Yoshiki’s “PLANET DANCE,” Kitadani Hiroshi’s “We Go!” and finally JAM Project’s classic piece, “SKILL” and they brought the “101” call that had not been seen in Taiwan for a long time
On the final day, Team leader Kageyama Hironobu specially used Taiwanese to tell the audience “Hello everybody, I like it!”, making the fans extremely happy.
They performed the game 3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha: To the End of the Galaxy’s Main theme “GONG” with a fast paced rock music, as well as the previous high atmosphere created by μ’s, the audience rose to an evern greater energy, with three thousand fans responding to the passionate singing with a sea of red light sticks.
During the final performance on the second day, most songs sung were also different, with Endoh Masaaki’s “Yuusha Otanjou!” from The King of Braves, Okui Masami’s “PREDESTINATION” from Garo: Makai Senki, Fukuyama Yoshiki’s “Makkana chigai” from Buso Renkin, Kitadani Hiroshi’s “We Go!” from One Piece, and Kageyama Hironobu’s “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA” from Dragonball Z.
The whole arena was singing along to the songs, requesting TRUE to sing along for Super Robot Wars MX’s “VICTORY.”
Finally, the whole arena sand the blood pumping “SKILL” together. Kitadani Hiroshi might have seen the advertisement a couple years back about Taiwan and Japan’s pro baseball match, this time “SKILL” had the familiar “MEP cold medicine song” in it, making the fans pleasantly surprised, and they couldn’t stop laughing.
Fukuyama Yoshiki specially mentioned that the first time he came to Taiwan was in 2006, and almost every year later he came to Taiwan, but this time her had been absent for three years. He said, “You must call us to come over next time okay!”
The performances across two days lasted four hours, but the fans still yearned for more. When the last group was about to step off the stage and the audience were shouting for an Encore. The members wore this event’s themed T shirt and made another appearance, and gave a speech. even though there was someone translating, the fans, despite being unable to understand Japanese, were able to interact with the performance on stage.
For the solo performers, Sasaki Sayaka mentioned that “It was great that this time’s tour ended in Taipei, everyone was earnestly listening to Japanese”. Hashimoto Miyuki thanked the fans for their warm responce, Kita Shuuhei said that the warmth in Taiwan, as compared to Japan, was considerably big, and the passionate Taipei audience expressed their warm feelings. He would come back again Suzumura Kenichi expressed that Taipei International Convention Center was a rare performance ground, to be able to hold so many fans, and at th same time feel close to them, and also being able to collaborate with his senior Kitadani Hiroshi made him very happy. He was even more thankful to the live audience who were able to react warmly even though they didn’t know his songs, letting him experience the cohesive ability of anime music. This tour gave him the best memory. For bamboo who has came to Taiwan many times, he said this was his happiest time, and he hoped to be able to come to Taiwan again to enjoy the food and perform. Oohashi Aya and TRUE thanked the fans once again, TRUE emotionally said that 10 years ago she was just an anime fan, but now, she was very happy that she could perform with her seniots JAM Project as a singer
For the groups, OLDCODEX deeply thanked the fans for giving their group the best view, and the lead singer said in Chinese, “I love you all!”
iDOLM@STER’s 6 members were also very happy that they would collectively meet the eagerly waiting fans here.
The members of μ’s said that it was their first times coming to Taiwan, an they were very thankful to feel the audience’s warm response, and as singers, would let everyone love anime music even more.
Returning to the Taiwan after a few years, JAM Project’s 5 members might have joined the ranks of uncles and aunties, but during the curtain close they were still as playful.
Kitadani Hiroshi repeatedly said towards iDOLM@STER that he wanted to join and become ‘Ojisan m@ster], and on the second day, Fukuyama Yoshiki joined in and talked about joining μ’s to become ‘Ojisan live!’ Okui Masami put all her feelings into th activity, she felt very happy that the tour’s final stop was in Taipei. Fukuyama Yoshiki mentioned that the country he visits is Taiwan, and that he had come either as a group or solo close to ten times. Coming any number of times would be great, and the whole arena reponded to the [FIRE] call. Kitadani Hiroshi mentioned that he was very touched as he saw the sea of red lightsticks during the performance, and led the audience with his own unique [Hiroshi call]. He thanked the audience’s wam response, and indicated that he would return.
Kageyama Hironobu said that ever since his first trip to Taiwan, every time he came, he created great memeories, and he had unknowingly liked ‘Smelly Tofu’, and the members by his side called him ‘Smelly tofu brain’. But he emotionally said that this time’s perdormance was due to Taiwan and Japan’s workers working hard togetehr, and he thanked the Taiwan staff for their cordial service, and treated them to Horny Ryen Jen sandwiches and other food. He also thanked the Taiwanese Amuse workers for their efforts in being able to make this Lantis tour a success.
Finally, all the performers got together on the stage to sing Lantis Festival’s main theme [Starting STYLE!!].
After two days’ passionate performance, the first Lantis Festival global tour, with the warm audience and high and euphoric atmosphere, ends in Taipei International Convention Center.
For Taiwan to be able to have such a large scale event anime and festival like activity for the first time, many fans also went to Lantis Festival to thank the organisers, and look forward to the next time they’ll meet.