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Canada4481 Posts
Edit: Finally found poster hangers for my Nana loot from the concert.![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/244Nr.jpg)
Notes: This is actually what I would consider the first concert ever that I’ve actually been to so some special effects used might actually be standard at a concert, but it was new to me. My only other thing that could be considered a concert before this was Video Games Live in Toronto.
One year ago if someone had asked me who Nana Mizuki was, I probably would’ve said something like, “Oh, isn’t she just some anime voice actress (seiyuu)? She sings some theme songs too right?” I’m glad no one asked me that, especially KazeHydra, because I probably wouldn’t be alive and here writing this blog.
I remember the first time I heard about the goddess that is Nana Mizuki. I was relatively new to watching anime at the time, and it was my second season year of watching anime that was currently airing (Winter 2008) (Winter 2009). + Show Spoiler +(edit: yes it was year difference from what I originally thought the air date was, but I'd still consider myself relatively new watcher).
Fast forward to a few months ago, after watching Mahou Shojou Madoka Magica, I decided to check out other Mahou Shojou series to see what they were like. Nanoha was the big name that popped up when talking about Mahou Shojou genres so I decided to check that out, (that and Cardcaptor Sakura, but that’s another completely different tangent). After listening to the opening theme song for the first season of Nanoha (Innocent Starter) a few times, I had gotten hooked to the song. And guess who sang that song, that’s right, none other than Nana Mizuki herself. She was also the seiyuu for one of the main characters of the series, Fate Testarossa. Holy shit was that series awesome. I didn’t like the opening songs for the sequels as much as Innocent Starter, but lately, they’ve been growing on me again, partly due to hearing it constantly played in almost every store in Akihabara (Akiba for short) to promote her recently released album The Museum II.
A few weeks ago, I had been relatively depressed. I just graduated from university, and have been constantly job hunting with no success and just been stuck doing my shitty job at DQ for as little hours a week as I possibly can (I’ve grown to hate that place so much). My daily Facebook stalking of my friends had shown me pictures of them taking grad trips to pretty much everywhere outside of Canada, making me even more depressed because I had planned with my friends to visit Japan or Korea as our grad trip but that fell through and nothing came of it. After a couple days of thought, I said, “Fuck it, I need to get out of Canada if only for a couple weeks.” And so, I told my mom about it, and that day I had bought a ticket from Toronto to HK for a week to visit family in China I haven’t seen in 10 years, and then from HK to Tokyo for about 14 days.
While I was in Tokyo, I found out through KazeHydra’s blog that Nana Mizuki was going to be having a concert in Tokyo in December. I looked further into it, and realized it was going to happen while I was in Tokyo, Dec 3rd and 4th to be exact. By this time, the only full song I had heard from Nana was Innocent Starter, and knew a little about the extent of her popularity. I thought, “why not, since it sounds like such a big thing, let’s see if I can get tickets to it.” Long story short, I showed up at an Animate store and asked how I could buy tickets for it through some broken Japanese, their reply in broken English was, "sorry it’s sold out". Aw crap, oh well, guess I can’t go. I told my friend on MSN about the concert and he was like (exact quotes):
“U WANTED TO BUY TICKETS TO A NANA MIZUKI CONCERT HAHAHAHA TATS LIKE TRYING TO SEE THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND HERSELF. UR FUCKING FUNNY HAHAHA.”
Now I wanted to go even more. I had been looking up some more videos/songs of Nana, and her singing was just amazing, even live. And her appearing at Tokyo Dome was a big deal. She would be the first seiyuu singer ever to perform on a stage as big as Tokyo Dome. I asked about tickets in TLADT and Necrophantasia told me to try Yahoo Auctions, however the mark up could be as high as 3-5x original price. I decided against it since 1, I can’t read Japanese, so it would take me forever to go through the auctions, and 2, I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the seller. This is when I remembered my friend who had moved to Japan a few months ago talk about being able to get tickets to a Morning Musume Concert in Tokyo even though they were sold out. So I asked him about it, and he told me about this ticket reselling shop in Harajuku (~30min train ride from my hotel). Note: The date was Dec 2 by this time, her first concert, Queen’s Night, was the next day, and King’s Night the day after. I went to the shop in the morning (Dec. 3) and BAM! Right at the front of the store, were tickets for Nana Mizuki’s King’s Night (Dec. 4) for 10000yen (regular price was 7777yen, cute play on Nana, which means 7 in Japanese, at least that’s what I think they tried to go for). Excellent, 10000yen was exactly the upped price I was willing to pay for. Being ecstatic of acquiring tickets to such an amazing event, I couldn’t help but semi-brag about it on TLADT, sorry guys. I told my friend on MSN about it too, it went something like this:
Me: So, about those tickets to see the queen of england? *link pic of Nana Mizuki ticket*
Friend: Who’d you rape?
Me: My wallet
Friend: rofl jelly!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oqWt7.jpg) Nana Mizuki Live getto!
Next, I was told that I should probably get glow sticks to further enjoy the concert. Not just any glow sticks, but those of the specific performer’s unwritten colours. For example, a Hatsune Miku concert, everyone should be using green/teal glow sticks and etc. So in order to not look like a complete idiot at the concert, I decided to look up Nana Mizuki’s colours. After watching a few videos of her past live concerts, it looked safe that the general consensus was that her colours were blue and orange. Great! I can just go to Akiba tomorrow (day of concert) and buy some glow sticks I’ve seen being sold at the stores there and then head to the concert right after. I show up at Gamers, a major retail store for all anime goods with about 7 floors to the building and one entirely dedicated to Nana Mizuki for the month, hoping to get some blue and orange glow sticks, and to my surprise, they just so happened to be sold out of blue and orange glow sticks. FUUUUUUUUUUU! I found ONE blue glow stick at the bottom floor, so I quickly grabbed it and left.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lJxI6.jpg) Heaven.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PB5ih.jpg) On the actual floor itself. Took this picture before they were able to tell me to stop taking pictures. 
I still had some time left so I walked around Akiba to see if other stores had orange glow sticks. I stopped by TORANOANA, another shop like Gamers, to find while they had slightly more blue glow sticks, they too were out of orange. I was running out of time, the concert started at 4, but they let you into the gates at around 2, so I picked up 1 yellow and a couple more blue glow sticks and headed for Tokyo Dome.
Upon arriving to Tokyo Dome, HOLY SHIT there were a lot of people lined up, and this was around 1:30ish, about 2.5 hours before the start of the concert. I was still semi hoping there would be people outside the venue selling orange glow sticks, but that didn’t happen. Instead there were official people selling this stuff
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DFRxX.jpg) So many humans!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NQmNh.jpg) Had a moment of “shut up and take my money”.
Not being a big fan of posters and souvenirs like these because I know how overpriced they are, but this was Nana Mizuki, so what the hell. If I was going to own 1 poster, it might as well be of Nana. I thought at first it was 1500yen for only one of the posters, so I wanted the King’s Night one, the one I was attending, but turns out you get both!! XD. Also bought a key ring and a blue pen light. I ended up using this during the entire concert and wasted my entire time/money buying those glow sticks. /sigh. Cost still wasn’t as high as the pen light itself though.
The Concert
Now, onto actually going into the actual concert, sorry for making you guys read all of the above . After passing through the security guard (who asked if I had a camera, I just showed him my iPhone and he let me through) and some ticket checkers, I found my way to my seat. Btw Ferrose, turns out it was Aisle 20 on the ticket, pretty much the same as Section . It was mostly about 1.5 hours of me sitting and just admiring the amount of people flooding in. I thought my seats would actually be closer to the stage having seen the seating map of Tokyo Dome. However, it would be close if it was a baseball game. The main stage was actually placed in the outfield near center field, while my seat was around the first base line. There was an usher walking around the whole time before the concert with a banner saying “No photographs” which will explain the crappy quality. That and I only had an iPhone 4s camera, and not an “$800 professional dslr camera with 200mm+ stalker lens”. I took the sign as meaning no flash photography (I keep the flash on my iPhone off all the time), since there was a camera with a bright flash picture, but just in case I was still quite paranoid about getting kicked out for taking pictures. I found out shortly after by looking at the crowds where all the orange glow sticks had gone.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xdp44.jpg) This guy was nothing, the guy next to me had a stack of 20+ orange glow sticks, and blue pen lights from almost every Nana Mizuki concert that’s ever happened and pins too (at one point he used like 4 of the blue ones at once). Intense Nana fan! Also, these 3 seats next to me stayed empty the entire night, I believe they were the seats that the ticket shop was selling, but I guess no one else bought them.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gTGv4.jpg) The stage.
It was just slightly past 4 and I was kind of worrying what was taking so long, everywhere else I’ve been to opened/started eerily on time, down to the last second so I wasn’t exactly sure how much longer I’d have to wait. Then around 4:15ish, all the lights darkened except the castle, and I was expecting Nana to show up at the bottom door, but no, she showed up at the top of the balcony, in a royal king costume and she flew, that’s right, FLEW! from the balcony and descended to the main stage at the bottom. I had seen some videos of her past concerts of her on strings and flying down, but it was still breathtaking seeing it in person (she started singing as she was descending too, and it still sounded amazing). Sadly I didn’t recognize the first 2 or 3 songs she sang. After the first 3 songs, she started talking to the crowd. From the little Japanese I know, she said how yesterday, she was a queen, and now today she’s a king, and so she feels very cool. She then said something about a kid and a prince. The next song she sang was one that I recognized from her Museum II album, Shin Ai. She was singing and walked on one of the platforms that moved in an arc around the front of the stage. Next song was also one that I had heard of before but wasn’t sure of the name. It was most likely Brave Phoenix (edit: it wasn't). I also wanted to know how amazingly colour coordinated fans were whenever she began a new song. Remember what I said about Nana Mizuki? Turns out she has like 3-4 different colours depending on the song. Blue is the primary one and worked for the entire concert (hence why I stuck with the pen light the entire concert), while other songs such as Brave Phoenix and Eternal Blaze were primarily orange, and Shin Ai was blue and white. There was some red thrown in for one of the other songs too, but I don’t remember which one it was.
After Brave Phoenix, Nana disappeared behind the stage, and the band that was there began singing. I was surprised at first, but it made sense that there would be a couple filler songs so that she could change costumes. These breaks turned out pretty useful since I was able to take somewhat of a rest and take some notes down to help me remember some thoughts. When Nana came back, she came back in style as usual. This time in a hot air balloon! She sang a couple more songs while in the ballon, none of which I remembered or recognized the name of, but I did know from the crowd, the first one was primarily orange coloured, while the second one was blue coloured.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dKXJy.jpg) Probably the clearest picture I have of that
When she got off the balloon, she was talking to the crowd again. She said that when she had first heard she was going to be performing at Tokyo Dome, she was pretty scared/nervous. She was like “Here? Here?! Here?!” She said some other things but I didn’t understand it. She sang 2 more songs, one I believe was Pop Master and another I, again didn’t know the name of. After that song was another costume change, with the songs being done by what I believed to be a girl group, however I think it was her backup dancers. I found it amusing that during the balloon part, her backup dancers were still on the stage dancing while Nana was in the balloon. However, the dancers could’ve literally done whatever they wanted and no one would’ve paid them any attention because everyone was looking at Nana. This time, Nana came back in a bunny costume!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Mxsx4.jpg) Blurry, but super cute blurry
She came back looking super cute with bunny ears and sang a couple songs, but I don’t think I recognized any of it. During her talk with the crowd this time, she mentioned something about a bunny mansion/house? I don’t know. But she did spin around twice while acting as a bunny (different poses each time too nonetheless). Chouuu kawaii! XD. Nana sang another song afterwards, which may have been Junketsu Paradox, since I recognized it from hearing it in all the shops in Akiba.
Another costume change, this time it was the bands turn to fill time. They did some guitar stuff that I probably wouldn’t be able to explain properly. But it involved some cool solos and at the very end, they grouped together to make the ends of their guitars shoot sparks out. Pretty sick! She comes back after that in a knight costume, sword in one hand, microphone in the other, so awesome. It may have actually been a prince costume since there was a crown involved but it was still awesome nonetheless. It was around this point I started to lose track of how many songs she sang because I was too busy trying to follow the motion with the glow sticks, more on that later if I have time. One of them I think was Scarlet Knight, the other sounded familiar from her Museum II album, and the last one I think was from Nanoha, maybe Eternal Blaze since there was fire shooting out everywhere (curious at this point to check out the DVD when it comes out and see how well I guessed the order of the songs). The fire was like those from the GSL studio except like 3x more powerful. I could feel the heat from it every time it shot out and I was a good 200-300m away.
Costume change after that song and this time, they showed a little clip at the top of the dome, with Nana in a princess outfit staring at the night sky of a castle balcony. There was some lion thing that looked like Red XIII from Final Fantasy 7 and it acted like some bad guy. Some random person in the video gives Nana a sword, and she uses it to “befriend” the lion, and it turned into a White Lion with wings. This is followed with the real Nana, in the same princess outfit riding on that White Lion. She flies around and sings a couple songs (again sorry didn’t recognize it). She talks to the crowd again, this time barely holding back tears. She says how this was like a dream to her. Fans around me were shouting back at her how this was real, and not a dream. Nana looked really happy about it and announced her next song being Innocent Starter! The one song I was 100% sure of when she sang it mainly because of how well I know that song compared to everything else she sang. That song pretty much held #1 most played on my iTunes for a relatively long time, passing even songs that were added before it. I personally loved her timing to sing Innocent Starter. After the speech which sounded like one about how far she has gotten, from starting at the bottom to being the first seiyuu singer to sing in Tokyo Dome, it felt appropriate to sing one of the first songs in the series that really helped kick start her popularity. This could all have just been me putting words in her mouth, but that’s what it felt like to me when listening to her speak.
At this point, it almost felt like the concert was over, but even I knew better. The fans were chanting "Nana, Nana" after she finished Innocent Starter and she exited the stage. The fans were especially ecstatic in their cheering too. One person behind me kept shouting "Nana, Nana, Nana", and I can basically hear this throat pretty much give out but he kept chanting. She had exited to do another costume change, however this time there was nothing to fill time with the exception of the constant chanting of the fans. Of course, it wasn’t over, Nana came back in a float and sang a couple more songs, these ones I definitely had no idea what they were =(. She announced something for 2012, but that was about as much I had gotten with my knowledge of Japanese. Everything after she said the date was a complete blank for me, but it sounded like good news judging from the reaction of the crowd. (Edit: It was an announcement for a summer tour in Japan for 2012, thx KazeHydra!) She sings Astrogation and exits the stage again. More Nana cheering ensues and she returns to finish by giving presents to fans via a massive air cannon (gun would be an understatement). A couple more songs later, the last few of which, were actually sung by the fans and not Nana because she was too busy being awesome shooting gifts, it’s finally over. She ends in the same fashion in began, not flying but she did go back on the balcony (which was an elevator) and exited via the top floor of the castle.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wDy4G.jpg) She looked so sick holding that gun
The Crowd
The crowd was awesome in itself. They were so organized and energetic throughout the entire event. The use of the glow sticks was another form of art all together. They knew exactly when to use what colour glow sticks and for which songs, and how to wave them around. It wasn’t your simple left and right waving of your hands either. Some of that shit was complex as hell, and jumps involved. As KazeHydra had explained to me, the waving patterns followed the melody pretty well, however it was still something else to behold. I was really amazed during the concert just seeing all the colours move so in sync in the dark.
Overall Impressions
The concert was amazing. Period. However I did feel that I could have enjoyed it more if I was a bigger Nana fan, and knew more of the songs that she had sung. Most of them I had only actually heard for the first time, or at least, only parts of it while I was shopping around Akiba, and even then, I only knew how the chorus sounded like, and was lucky to even remember the name of the song. My only disappointment was that she didn’t sing Secret Ambition. That was one of the songs I had listened to the most the day before the concert, and heard the most in stores and was looking forward to it the most next to probably Innocent Starter. If she did sing it, I have no idea how I missed it, but I’m almost 100% sure she didn’t sing it in King’s Night.
Edit: Thanks again KazeHydra!
+ Show Spoiler [ Set List for King's Night] +Queen's Night differences in [square brackets], translation in (round brackets).
01. Next Arcadia [Brave Phoenix]
02. Stay Gold [Romancer's Neo]
03. Silent Bible [Transmigration]
04. MASSIVE WONDERS [Secret Ambition]
05. 深愛 (Shin Ai) [Mugen]
06. POWER GATE
07. アオイイロ (Aoi Iro)
08. POP MASTER
09. 7colors
10. PRIDE OF GLORY [Dancing in the Velvet Moon]
11. Gimmick Game [Inside of Mind]
12. 迷宮バタフライ (Meikyuu Butterfly)
13. 純潔パラドックス (Junketsu Paradox)
14. SCARLET KNIGHT
15. PHAMTOM MINDS
16. Synchrogazer
17. ETERNAL BLAZE [Wild Eyes]
18. Don't be long [Unbreakable]
19. ROMANCERS' NEO [Stay Gold]
20. UNCHAIN∞WORLD [Tears' Night]
21. Orchestral Fantasia [Zankou no Gaia]
22. innocent starter [Eternal Blaze]
-アンコール- (Encore)
23. アノネまみむめ☆もがちょ (A no ne Mamimume Mogacho)
24. song communication [Discotheque]
25. Astrogation [Take a Chance]
26. -ダブルアンコール- (Take a Chance)
27. SUPER GENERATION -MUSEUM STYLE- [Anohi Yumemita Negai
Random musings:
KazeHydra's opinion on the crowd months later.
[22:56] <KazeHydra> i imagine king's night only had really hardcore fans + this one random canadian who only knew innocent starter
Additional pictures can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/0NTcl#368
Note: The picture quality obviously isn't the best, I think I said it in the post, but for those that skipped it, it was all taken with my iPhone 4s, and there was a guy before the show walking around holding a "no photos" banner. Also, half way during the show, a random usher showed up just a few rows in front of me for pretty much the rest of the concert, so I was semi paranoid of them being on to me, so I didn't take any photos near the middle part of the concert.
tldr; Nana Mizuki and King’s Night in general was fucking awesome!
 
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Woot Nana Mizuki Live Castle. looks awesome hahahaha I wish I had time to go to Japan for stuff like that =D
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Had some downtime on a break and read through this, loved it. Also liked the included pics to break up the walls of text and make it feel more interactive. Glad you enjoyed the concert so much!
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Pictures of Japan make me so natsukashiiiiiiiii! Thanks for the write up, that concert sounds like it would have been a blast even just to see the production. That stage set up looks epic.
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KawaiiRice must be so jelly after reading this one.
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damn that stage is GIANT @_@... u have any est. number?
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Canada4481 Posts
On December 07 2011 00:52 NB wrote:
damn that stage is GIANT @_@... u have any est. number?
According to Wiki, the stadium's capacity is 55K but actual capacity of 42K. Not sure what they mean by actual, but if there were more seats in the outfield, then subtract maybe a few K since it was being used as part of the stage, but then add a K or 2 for the seats on the field itself, and it's safe to say it was probably still 30-40K people.
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Straight outta Johto18973 Posts
I'm normally supah polite on TL and don't swear.
But right now I'm really fucking jelly. Oh so jelly.
If you tell me you also got to meet Shizuka Itou or Emiri Katō and have their autograph I think I'd have to murder someone. @_@
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The airplane food (train food?) looks surprisingly good... Air Canada why can't you be like this?
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You have no idea how jelly I am.
I'm starting to notice a trend of blogs that make me jelly.
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United States4126 Posts
I'm super jelly as well. Glad you enjoyed yourself!
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On December 07 2011 01:03 Nagisama wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 00:52 NB wrote:
damn that stage is GIANT @_@... u have any est. number? According to Wiki, the stadium's capacity is 55K but actual capacity of 42K. Not sure what they mean by actual, but if there were more seats in the outfield, then subtract maybe a few K since it was being used as part of the stage, but then add a K or 2 for the seats on the field itself, and it's safe to say it was probably still 30-40K people.
According to this video, there were 80k people (I doubt uniquely 80k though) across 2 days, meaning about 40k per day.
+ Show Spoiler [ Set List for King's Night] +Queen's Night differences in brackets
01. Next Arcadia [Brave Phoenix]
02. Stay Gold [Romancer's Neo]
03. Silent Bible [Transmigration]
04. MASSIVE WONDERS [Secret Ambition]
05. 深愛 (Shin Ai) [Mugen]
06. POWER GATE
07. アオイイロ (Aoi Iro)
08. POP MASTER
09. 7colors
10. PRIDE OF GLORY [Dancing in the Velvet Moon]
11. Gimmick Game [Inside of Mind]
12. 迷宮バタフライ (Meikyuu Butterfly)
13. 純潔パラドックス (Junketsu Paradox)
14. SCARLET KNIGHT
15. PHAMTOM MINDS
16. Synchrogazer
17. ETERNAL BLAZE [Wild Eyes]
18. Don't be long [Unbreakable]
19. ROMANCERS' NEO [Stay Gold]
20. UNCHAIN∞WORLD [Tears' Night]
21. Orchestral Fantasia [Zankou no Gaia]
22. innocent starter [Eternal Blaze]
-アンコール- (Encore)
23. アノネまみむめ☆もがちょ (A no ne Mamimume Mogacho)
24. song communication [Discotheque]
25. Astrogation [Take a Chance]
26. -ダブルアンコール- (Take a Chance)
27. SUPER GENERATION -MUSEUM STYLE- [Anohi Yumemita Negai
Great way to start my day! Thanks for the awesome read and glad I helped, even indirectly, someone experience the greatness that is Nana. I said in ADT, I guess you missed it, that Nana announced a summer tour in Japan for 2012. A small group of us Nana fans were hoping for an overseas announcement at Castle due to Tokyo Dome being the best stage in Japan, but it didn't happen. Anyway, good write up; I'm so glad to be able to read someone's first hand accounts of Nana's concert ^_^ Now you need to go become a real fan and learn all her songs in preparation for another concert yes? :D
Also, something I discussed with KawaiiRice last night: how was Synchrogazer? It's this song, if you can recall it. We were wondering whether the background music is too strong or does it sound better live where Nana's voice dominates over the background much more clearly? Don't worry if you can't remember though, just curious :3
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On December 07 2011 04:09 KazeHydra wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 01:03 Nagisama wrote:On December 07 2011 00:52 NB wrote:
damn that stage is GIANT @_@... u have any est. number? According to Wiki, the stadium's capacity is 55K but actual capacity of 42K. Not sure what they mean by actual, but if there were more seats in the outfield, then subtract maybe a few K since it was being used as part of the stage, but then add a K or 2 for the seats on the field itself, and it's safe to say it was probably still 30-40K people. According to this video, there were 80k people (I doubt uniquely 80k though) across 2 days, meaning about 40k per day. + Show Spoiler [ Set List for King's Night] +Queen's Night differences in brackets
01. Next Arcadia [Brave Phoenix]
02. Stay Gold [Romancer's Neo]
03. Silent Bible [Transmigration]
04. MASSIVE WONDERS [Secret Ambition]
05. 深愛 (Shin Ai) [Mugen]
06. POWER GATE
07. アオイイロ (Aoi Iro)
08. POP MASTER
09. 7colors
10. PRIDE OF GLORY [Dancing in the Velvet Moon]
11. Gimmick Game [Inside of Mind]
12. 迷宮バタフライ (Meikyuu Butterfly)
13. 純潔パラドックス (Junketsu Paradox)
14. SCARLET KNIGHT
15. PHAMTOM MINDS
16. Synchrogazer
17. ETERNAL BLAZE [Wild Eyes]
18. Don't be long [Unbreakable]
19. ROMANCERS' NEO [Stay Gold]
20. UNCHAIN∞WORLD [Tears' Night]
21. Orchestral Fantasia [Zankou no Gaia]
22. innocent starter [Eternal Blaze]
-アンコール- (Encore)
23. アノネまみむめ☆もがちょ (A no ne Mamimume Mogacho)
24. song communication [Discotheque]
25. Astrogation [Take a Chance]
26. -ダブルアンコール- (Take a Chance)
27. SUPER GENERATION -MUSEUM STYLE- [Anohi Yumemita Negai Great way to start my day! Thanks for the awesome read and glad I helped, even indirectly, someone experience the greatness that is Nana. I said in ADT, I guess you missed it, that Nana announced a summer tour in Japan for 2012. A small group of us Nana fans were hoping for an overseas announcement at Castle due to Tokyo Dome being the best stage in Japan, but it didn't happen. Anyway, good write up; I'm so glad to be able to read someone's first hand accounts of Nana's concert ^_^ Now you need to go become a real fan and learn all her songs in preparation for another concert yes? :D Also, something I discussed with KawaiiRice last night: how was Synchrogazer? It's this song, if you can recall it. We were wondering whether the background music is too strong or does it sound better live where Nana's voice dominates over the background much more clearly? Don't worry if you can't remember though, just curious :3
Looking at the songs I like King's Night a bit more
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Posted before KawaiiRice? Something wrong with this...
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One interesting thing about Mizuki Nana is that the animes which she provides voice for main roles are uniformly bad; e.g. Nanoha, Shugo Chara!, Blood-C. Comparing to Hirano Aya, say, Mizuki Nana really fell short.
+ Show Spoiler +OK fine. I do have a soft-spot for Shugo Chara!
Her songs are OK, though.
EDIT: oh yeah, that poster gave me a nerdorgasm.
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On December 07 2011 05:10 Sufficiency wrote:One interesting thing about Mizuki Nana is that the animes which she provides voice for main roles are uniformly bad; e.g. Nanoha, Shugo Chara!, Blood-C. Comparing to Hirano Aya, say, Mizuki Nana really fell short. + Show Spoiler +OK fine. I do have a soft-spot for Shugo Chara! Her songs are OK, though. EDIT: oh yeah, that poster gave me a nerdorgasm.
Except Nanoha is widely considered really good. There's a reason why almost every fan will list Fate Testarossa as their favorite Nana role. Shugo Chara! is also considered one of her better anime, so you're better off listing examples like Rosario Vampire, White Album, and Dog Days. Tales of Symphonia is a funny example because she's the main heroine of a pretty well done game adaption but is mute for half the series XD
Something that I've always wondered is whether or not you can really say Nana has failed as a seiyuu. Certainly, she has never done a good, popular role with the exception of Fate. Aya Hirano is a really good seiyuu who has done several good roles, most notably Haruhi who really increased her popularity. But while Nana has never had much success, does that mean she has failed at it? If you look into her minor roles, you'll see she does a very good job doing a wide variety of voices, but with such short lines, it's not enough to be able to claim she's good. At the same time, there's no real examples of her doing a bad job; it's always the anime that fails. So yeah, Nana is certainly below Aya and many others in terms of (seiyuu-only) success but not necessarily in terms of talent, though I can't actually claim she is above them.
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WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
t.t
lucky ~.~
my friend helped me buy some merchandise from the concert tho at least :V
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Canada4481 Posts
On December 07 2011 04:09 KazeHydra wrote:Show nested quote +On December 07 2011 01:03 Nagisama wrote:On December 07 2011 00:52 NB wrote:
damn that stage is GIANT @_@... u have any est. number? According to Wiki, the stadium's capacity is 55K but actual capacity of 42K. Not sure what they mean by actual, but if there were more seats in the outfield, then subtract maybe a few K since it was being used as part of the stage, but then add a K or 2 for the seats on the field itself, and it's safe to say it was probably still 30-40K people. According to this video, there were 80k people (I doubt uniquely 80k though) across 2 days, meaning about 40k per day. + Show Spoiler [ Set List for King's Night] +Queen's Night differences in brackets
01. Next Arcadia [Brave Phoenix]
02. Stay Gold [Romancer's Neo]
03. Silent Bible [Transmigration]
04. MASSIVE WONDERS [Secret Ambition]
05. 深愛 (Shin Ai) [Mugen]
06. POWER GATE
07. アオイイロ (Aoi Iro)
08. POP MASTER
09. 7colors
10. PRIDE OF GLORY [Dancing in the Velvet Moon]
11. Gimmick Game [Inside of Mind]
12. 迷宮バタフライ (Meikyuu Butterfly)
13. 純潔パラドックス (Junketsu Paradox)
14. SCARLET KNIGHT
15. PHAMTOM MINDS
16. Synchrogazer
17. ETERNAL BLAZE [Wild Eyes]
18. Don't be long [Unbreakable]
19. ROMANCERS' NEO [Stay Gold]
20. UNCHAIN∞WORLD [Tears' Night]
21. Orchestral Fantasia [Zankou no Gaia]
22. innocent starter [Eternal Blaze]
-アンコール- (Encore)
23. アノネまみむめ☆もがちょ (A no ne Mamimume Mogacho)
24. song communication [Discotheque]
25. Astrogation [Take a Chance]
26. -ダブルアンコール- (Take a Chance)
27. SUPER GENERATION -MUSEUM STYLE- [Anohi Yumemita Negai Great way to start my day! Thanks for the awesome read and glad I helped, even indirectly, someone experience the greatness that is Nana. I said in ADT, I guess you missed it, that Nana announced a summer tour in Japan for 2012. A small group of us Nana fans were hoping for an overseas announcement at Castle due to Tokyo Dome being the best stage in Japan, but it didn't happen. Anyway, good write up; I'm so glad to be able to read someone's first hand accounts of Nana's concert ^_^ Now you need to go become a real fan and learn all her songs in preparation for another concert yes? :D Also, something I discussed with KawaiiRice last night: how was Synchrogazer? It's this song, if you can recall it. We were wondering whether the background music is too strong or does it sound better live where Nana's voice dominates over the background much more clearly? Don't worry if you can't remember though, just curious :3
Hm all of the links to Synchrogazer were taken down, I'm sure it was great. There wasn't a song I disliked at all.
On December 07 2011 01:47 canucks12 wrote:
The airplane food (train food?) looks surprisingly good... Air Canada why can't you be like this?
Train food, but I bought it at Tokyo station, so that's one of the reason why it looks so good. The lady I bought it from even heated it up for me!
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youtube takes Nana videos down so fast x.x
I guess when you're at a Nana live, you can't dislike anything because she's too perfect
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I wish I could got to a Nana live too. T.T
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OMG, so jelly :[ one of my dreams in life is to get to see Nana Mizuki perform live, watching her live concerts on youtube, the crowd atmosphere is just amazing!
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So THIS is the post that finally got me to register here. Hopefully some of you know who I am, if not, I'm the guy who introduced KawaiiRice to Nana.
Anyways, it awesome to see that there were people from TL @ Live Castle, but kind of tragic too. There was an overseas fans gathering that numbered almost 40 people, and we would have loved to have you join us too. :/ A bit surprised you didn't see a huge group of random assorted gaijin running around, we even got stopped by an NHK producer asking to film a short group interview for the Live Castle special that should be airing on her birthday (1/21).
Adding tragedy to tragedy, she performed Secret Ambition at Queen's Night, so you missed it by less than 24 hours. D:
Either way, glad to hear that you had a great time despite all the challenges you had to get through. I do suggest you (incoming plug of a friend's blog) head over to danie's shopping log in case something similar happens in the future, as she was the one who essentially organized the meet-up this time, and in general is considered the go-to English blog for Nana-related news. Just ignore all the recent AKB ranting.
Also @ KazeHydra - RE: Synchrogazer
We were too busy trying to figure out how exactly to otagei to the song since it's like a conglomeration of three different songs, so everyone I was talking to about it didn't really remember much aside from the fact they liked it and thought it was kind of amazing that Nana pulled it off so well. Having had time to loop it at least 100 times now, I'd have to say I definitely don't remember the instrumentals being that powerful. But again, disclaimer of the fact that it was the first time hearing it for most of us and trying to figure out the rhythm really took most of our concentration from the song itself (well in my case, at least). I'm sure when she next performs we'll be able to more accurately judge.
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On December 08 2011 10:10 Socratics101 wrote:So THIS is the post that finally got me to register here. Hopefully some of you know who I am, if not, I'm the guy who introduced KawaiiRice to Nana. Anyways, it awesome to see that there were people from TL @ Live Castle, but kind of tragic too. There was an overseas fans gathering that numbered almost 40 people, and we would have loved to have you join us too. :/ A bit surprised you didn't see a huge group of random assorted gaijin running around, we even got stopped by an NHK producer asking to film a short group interview for the Live Castle special that should be airing on her birthday (1/21). Adding tragedy to tragedy, she performed Secret Ambition at Queen's Night, so you missed it by less than 24 hours. D: Either way, glad to hear that you had a great time despite all the challenges you had to get through. I do suggest you (incoming plug of a friend's blog) head over to danie's shopping log in case something similar happens in the future, as she was the one who essentially organized the meet-up this time, and in general is considered the go-to English blog for Nana-related news. Just ignore all the recent AKB ranting.
Hi Socratics! Don't know if you remember me haha. I also support the stalking following of Danie's blog. She was the reason I was incredibly tempted to flying over to Japan just for a single weekend and go to Live Castle, since she offered to buy tickets for overseas people in advance and even organized some nice info on places to stay and stuff. Very awesome Nanatard. I rely a lot on her blog and twitter for Nana info
edit: ah I see. I hope the sound is like that because of it being a leaked video. Well, I'm sure we can get judge it fairly well after it comes out next month.
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On December 08 2011 10:33 KazeHydra wrote:Hi Socratics! Don't know if you remember me haha. I also support the stalking following of Danie's blog. She was the reason I was incredibly tempted to flying over to Japan just for a single weekend and go to Live Castle, since she offered to buy tickets for overseas people in advance and even organized some nice info on places to stay and stuff. Very awesome Nanatard. I rely a lot on her blog and twitter for Nana info edit: ah I see. I hope the sound is like that because of it being a leaked video. Well, I'm sure we can get judge it fairly well after it comes out next month.
Of course I remember you! Don't remember from where exactly (orz), but I definitely recognize your name. It's a shame you decided not to, it was an awesome experience. Well, aside from the goods line. Pouring rain and wind for 6 hours straight...almost wasn't worth it, because I thought it killed my camera (nothing a blow dryer can't fix though). Karaoke after the lives was sweet, although it's still left me hoarse and people asking if I'm sick.
As a guy I am ashamed, as most foreign hardcore Nana fans are females. Even all the main people who helped work on the overseas fan photobook were girls... <_<
In any case, I'm planning on uploading some of the pictures I took somewhere, and I'll make sure to link it here too for anyone who is interested in seeing other pictures! (wasn't quite as naughty as Nagisama was, only took pictures inside the dome before, not during the live)
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Yeah...I opted not to go because I would have arrived back here most likely jetlagged, on the biggest Nana high of my life, just in time to take my first final exam. I decided that wasn't a good idea for my academics. Anyway, we met on that international Nana fan site that died and then got remade but I never remade the account.
Lol yeah Nana having a ton of female fans can be weird; I can't even imagine it when you're out karaoke-ing with them o.o I was in the fan photobook though! The loner from UCSD holding a live grace dvd if you saw haha. Kind of wish I could've seen the final product, but I'm too embarrassed to at the same time. Look forward to your pics ^_^
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Oh, yeah, I was pretty out of it when I got back. Totally worth it though. And yes! Now I remember. That's where I was thinking you were from. Man, that forum was...iffy. Nana fan forum made and maintained by a bunch of young Ayu fans...was pretty much doomed from the get-go, especially after they all just compared Ayu to Nana (and implied Ayu was better, AS IF).
You've managed to one-up me still though, I WENT to Live Grace, and I still don't own it...didn't bring enough extra to even buy it when I was there orz. Had to borrow from a friend to even get Museum II, lol. And karaoke with a bunch of girls isn't too bad. I got to hear like, everything. Ika musume's OP, HeartCatch Precure's ED, lots of Yukarin and Momo-i songs, all otherwise impossible if you were going with a sausagefest...although something like SKILL probably wasn't quite as epic as it could have been.
And lastly, the pictures are here! I didn't think to take pictures of the inside, but I still got some pictures of the outside, so that's something. :/
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I dont even understand how Nana has female fans haha, just feels off to me. Nice pictures though!
BTW Nana looks sick in the King get-up with the armor and all.
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Had to resist opening this thread for awhile to maintain perfection as long as possible.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bBCTG.png)
On December 08 2011 14:49 Entropic wrote:
I dont even understand how Nana has female fans haha, just feels off to me. Nice pictures though!
BTW Nana looks sick in the King get-up with the armor and all.
I'll quote Necrophantasia on this because I think he did a good job explaining some of the main reasons why Nana tends to have mostly female fans.
The reason lies in the way Nana Mizuki is marketed. If you look at how she appears in media, she looks like a beautiful, mature, songstress (uta-hime). Girls associate with that and go, ahh how wonderful, I want to be like that. And so Japanese females dig her quite a bit. Her songs are also not the dime a dozen commodity idol songs you hear all the time. She actually has the ability to sing! And her appearance at mainstream events such as the end of year Red-White concert has moved her beyond the anime audience and into the main stream.
Also, she is not marketed like an idol. She doesn't rely on her sexiness. She doesn't do gravure (at least as far as I know), she doesn't dress provocatively (she's no Koda Kumi), She doesn't make herself a commodity (like those AKB48 idols).
So with a super conservative image she gives a lot of people here the impression that she's some refined, high class, songstress, rather than some cheapo commodity. And I think it's the reason why she's popular [with females].
@Socratics: haha I never actually read the forums that much, so I didn't know it was like that..silly Aya fans. Live Grace is actually the best Nana item I currently own. It was actually affordable (well...compared to her usual dvds which are double the price for twice the content) and when I saw first press came with a poster, I couldn't resist. But then I couldn't afford Museum II =/ Thanks for the pictures! Even the non-Nana pics are nice to see; I really want to go to Japan one day for a bunch of reasons, though of course Nana is #1. I'm thinking either this summer or the one after, I'll make my way there.
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Canada4481 Posts
On December 08 2011 10:10 Socratics101 wrote:So THIS is the post that finally got me to register here. Hopefully some of you know who I am, if not, I'm the guy who introduced KawaiiRice to Nana. Anyways, it awesome to see that there were people from TL @ Live Castle, but kind of tragic too. There was an overseas fans gathering that numbered almost 40 people, and we would have loved to have you join us too. :/ A bit surprised you didn't see a huge group of random assorted gaijin running around, we even got stopped by an NHK producer asking to film a short group interview for the Live Castle special that should be airing on her birthday (1/21). Adding tragedy to tragedy, she performed Secret Ambition at Queen's Night, so you missed it by less than 24 hours. D: Either way, glad to hear that you had a great time despite all the challenges you had to get through. I do suggest you (incoming plug of a friend's blog) head over to danie's shopping log in case something similar happens in the future, as she was the one who essentially organized the meet-up this time, and in general is considered the go-to English blog for Nana-related news. Just ignore all the recent AKB ranting. Also @ KazeHydra - RE: Synchrogazer We were too busy trying to figure out how exactly to otagei to the song since it's like a conglomeration of three different songs, so everyone I was talking to about it didn't really remember much aside from the fact they liked it and thought it was kind of amazing that Nana pulled it off so well. Having had time to loop it at least 100 times now, I'd have to say I definitely don't remember the instrumentals being that powerful. But again, disclaimer of the fact that it was the first time hearing it for most of us and trying to figure out the rhythm really took most of our concentration from the song itself (well in my case, at least). I'm sure when she next performs we'll be able to more accurately judge.
Once I got to my seat at Tokyo Dome, I did get up once to walk around inside the stadium to see if I could get any orange glow sticks and saw at most 2-3 gaijin walking around but that was about it. I didn't actually know there was an overseas fan gathering, as I mentioned, I did everything pretty last minute. They probably wouldn't have noticed me though haha, I'm Chinese so I would've blended in with the rest of the Japanese fans unless someone talked to me. I would've loved to have joined you guys though if I knew of it =(.
I actually ran into that blog when I began searching for where to buy tickets. But the offer was long gone since it was for up til end of August I think, so I just continued looking.
On December 08 2011 15:34 KazeHydra wrote:Had to resist opening this thread for awhile to maintain perfection as long as possible.
That's awesome haha.
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Hurray for semi-necro (wall of text) posts!
Happy New Year, etc. Magnitude 7 earthquake hitting Japan, only Nana fans could take that and make it into a joke (M7 = Mizuki Nana /trolololol)
Anyways, as great as Nagisama's report was, I was thinking some of the more informed Nana fans here (no offense Nagisama) might have liked a more in-depth report, albeit a few weeks late (hell even I would). One of the people in the group of overseas fans (more might have done, unfortunately haven't really kept in touch with most of them due to me being anti-social and not using Twitter/Facebook) actually has begun writing song-by-song impressions of her experience during the lives. Her Queen's Night report is here. I'm sure the King's Night will follow shortly.
To reply to some things that I kind of left unanswered in a wall of text because I am a long-winded, lazy bastard:
@KazeHydra - Visiting Japan is something you should totally do. It's made me certain that I'm going to try to live in a city in the future, with GOOD public transport (ie subway), not shitty buses. Plus it's pretty nice to never have your stuff stolen - one of the guys in the group forgot his camera at a station while tying his shoelaces, and afterwards, found it in the same place - nobody had touched it in the hour he had been away.
There's certainly things to be said about the costs of living and the fact social relations are arguably all skin-deep, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. (also I was talking about them being fans of Ayumi Hamasaki, not silly Aya Hirano, pretty sure she doesn't have fans at all anymore) And I will warn you if you do end up going, expect to spend much, MUCH more than you were planning on. Akiba is...not a healthy place for you (or your wallet) to be for very long.
Also on your quote from Necrophantasia in response to Entropic's question about female Nana fans - liking her for being a "refined songstress"? I suppose a portion are drawn in initially by that, sure. Although I'm very curious what image this year's Kouhaku outfit is supposed to project...anywho, from various online exchanges and things I've experienced, most (foreign, although I suspect it might be true for Japanese as well) female Nana fans seem to be just selectively bi for her. It was kind of amusing seeing most of the girls stare more voraciously at her latest Friday shoot than I was (Friday's a weekly magazine which is like People, but with gravure/softcore porn - don't worry, Nana's pictures are very tasteful, mostly just her staring coyly at the camera in a less-than-normal amount of clothing). Which is fine with me. I'd surmise it to be something of a GAR effect/mancrush that some guys have for Archer or Kamina, to make it something more relateable.
@Nagisama - I definitely remember seeing a few booths outside of the dome and probably inside as well that were selling glowsticks, but I don't know if you would have bought them even if you had found them - I believe they were 500 yen a pop (~$6.50, when you can get a bit lower-quality ones from glowstick sites for ~$1 each). And you DID know about her blog? You should have asked anyway, I think there were a few late comers who she still helped and ended up joining the rest of us, telling them how to get tickets and such. Pretty much any fan was welcome, since there was no way Nana was going to fill up the venue by being picky, haha.
But I guess there's no point in talking at great length about the past, just chalk it up to us guys being stubborn about asking a lady for help when we don't know what to do, am I right? 
Lastly, if anyone made it through all that text, and wants to (for some reason) just talk about Nana/animu/fetishe-wat/weeaboo things (I'm far too lazy to join TL's animu thread, sadly), feel free to PM me and we can share contact details. So ronery - KawaiiRice isn't as big a fan as you'd think (zomg blasphemy), and time zones (how do they work) make it almost impossible to talk with the few other "enthusiasts" I've gotten to know, due to aforementioned hating social networking. D:
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Canada4481 Posts
On January 01 2012 20:29 Socratics101 wrote:Hurray for semi-necro (wall of text) posts! Happy New Year, etc. Magnitude 7 earthquake hitting Japan, only Nana fans could take that and make it into a joke (M7 = Mizuki Nana /trolololol) Anyways, as great as Nagisama's report was, I was thinking some of the more informed Nana fans here (no offense Nagisama) might have liked a more in-depth report, albeit a few weeks late (hell even I would). One of the people in the group of overseas fans (more might have done, unfortunately haven't really kept in touch with most of them due to me being anti-social and not using Twitter/Facebook) actually has begun writing song-by-song impressions of her experience during the lives. Her Queen's Night report is here. I'm sure the King's Night will follow shortly. To reply to some things that I kind of left unanswered in a wall of text because I am a long-winded, lazy bastard: @KazeHydra - Visiting Japan is something you should totally do. It's made me certain that I'm going to try to live in a city in the future, with GOOD public transport (ie subway), not shitty buses. Plus it's pretty nice to never have your stuff stolen - one of the guys in the group forgot his camera at a station while tying his shoelaces, and afterwards, found it in the same place - nobody had touched it in the hour he had been away. There's certainly things to be said about the costs of living and the fact social relations are arguably all skin-deep, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. (also I was talking about them being fans of Ayumi Hamasaki, not silly Aya Hirano, pretty sure she doesn't have fans at all anymore) And I will warn you if you do end up going, expect to spend much, MUCH more than you were planning on. Akiba is...not a healthy place for you (or your wallet) to be for very long. Also on your quote from Necrophantasia in response to Entropic's question about female Nana fans - liking her for being a "refined songstress"? I suppose a portion are drawn in initially by that, sure. Although I'm very curious what image this year's Kouhaku outfit is supposed to project...anywho, from various online exchanges and things I've experienced, most (foreign, although I suspect it might be true for Japanese as well) female Nana fans seem to be just selectively bi for her. It was kind of amusing seeing most of the girls stare more voraciously at her latest Friday shoot than I was (Friday's a weekly magazine which is like People, but with gravure/softcore porn - don't worry, Nana's pictures are very tasteful, mostly just her staring coyly at the camera in a less-than-normal amount of clothing). Which is fine with me. I'd surmise it to be something of a GAR effect/mancrush that some guys have for Archer or Kamina, to make it something more relateable. @Nagisama - I definitely remember seeing a few booths outside of the dome and probably inside as well that were selling glowsticks, but I don't know if you would have bought them even if you had found them - I believe they were 500 yen a pop (~$6.50, when you can get a bit lower-quality ones from glowstick sites for ~$1 each). And you DID know about her blog? You should have asked anyway, I think there were a few late comers who she still helped and ended up joining the rest of us, telling them how to get tickets and such. Pretty much any fan was welcome, since there was no way Nana was going to fill up the venue by being picky, haha. But I guess there's no point in talking at great length about the past, just chalk it up to us guys being stubborn about asking a lady for help when we don't know what to do, am I right? Lastly, if anyone made it through all that text, and wants to (for some reason) just talk about Nana/animu/fetishe-wat/weeaboo things (I'm far too lazy to join TL's animu thread, sadly), feel free to PM me and we can share contact details. So ronery - KawaiiRice isn't as big a fan as you'd think (zomg blasphemy), and time zones (how do they work) make it almost impossible to talk with the few other "enthusiasts" I've gotten to know, due to aforementioned hating social networking. D:
No offense taken. I knew from the get go that my post was going to be lacking some a ton of in-depth Nana knowledge when I wrote it. I'm actually eagerly waiting for that person's King's Night post and compare with my own to see how far off the mark I really was (as evident since I thought Brave Phoenix was played at King's Night, but apparently it wasn't).
Maybe it was for the better I didn't find the glow stick stalls, and saved myself some money. But if I did find them at the time, I probably would've went and bought them for sure, regardless of price.
I only ran into Danie's blog when I was searching for tickets super last minute. I'm talking Dec 1-3 lol. I didn't actually buy the ticket until Dec 3. I was debating about posting on her blog, but I think the last activity I saw on it was like October or something, so I thought I wouldn't have been able to get a quick enough reply.
@KazeHydra RE: Synchrogazer, I just saw the PV for it that Danie posted on her blog and after listening to it just once, I remembered it from King's Night. There was definitely no problem with it being too strong compared to her voice because I remembered her voice being just as equally powerful. It made for a very energetic and powerful song.
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Don't wanna quote the wall of text again.
that M7 joke is great lol. Visiting Japan is something I will definitely do eventually, it's just a matter of time and money x.x I always mix up Ayu and Aya ugh, probably because I have a history of arguing with Aya fans. That was a awhile ago though and I learned to just ignore them and like you said, I don't think there's any left now. But yeah, I'll make sure to save up my money in preparation. I'm usually pretty good at resisting impulse buying but if anything can make holes in my wallet, it'll be Akiba. Anyway, I'll PM you my info. I think we're same timezone? I somehow recall that you're same as Kawaii unless I'm wrong.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6VR4g.jpg)
