Atelier Kurotsuki

M@STERPIECE: An Average journey in TOKYO

Day 3 (oct 4th) – アイマス9TH東京1日 / Day 1 of iM@S 9th in Tokyo.

 

Before heading to live venue, I met with Shinn, Sets and ReyesMahou and went on a Shikishi shopping spree.

Met up with Shini, Landro, Dave, Chuck and Shini for quick food before rushing the the live venue.

Of course we did an obligatory 海外部 picture.

We got to see again old faces. It was great and heartwarming to see again the えりこ部(Eriko-bu) that came to Anime North in 2013.

Ninbinさん introduced us to his P family, it was so awesome meeting them  and set up a gathering point for after the live, then headed inside.

It was about to begin , my first imas live.

ワクワクドキドキ!!!

 

Day 1

Setlist here: http://imas-db.jp/song/event/9th_tokyo1004.html

READY!!

Classic live opener. Bringer of instant euphoria. It is without intended pun that I say I was Ready for this song. It’s the one I know the calls for the best after all. Finally getting to experience live and not beyond the small screen was as glorious as it can be.

 ラムネ色 青春

Right of the bat,  half the cast leaves and we get a 4 people version. I didn’t know the calls to that one, but it was very easy to follow the crowd. Another I expected, although I was taken by surprise at how early it played out.

 

– ERIKO CORNER –

START!!, 私はアイドル♥ & キラメキ進行形

First batter Eriko opened the solo corner festival with an Haruka song I knew but wasn’t really familiar with, during which I mostly focused on trying to follow the crowd during this one. But then surprise surprise 「私はアイドル♥」! Wasn’t expecting Eriko to pull that one at all. I started feeling the genki, and Eriko energy transcended the entire tokyo gymnasium. The hype got strong. My Regret: me not knowing the lyrics well enough to sing along with the crowd.

Her final song was unknown to me at the time, however fun was acquired nonetheless!

 

– ASAPON CORNER –

 おとなのはじまり, 黎明スターライン, YOU往MY進!

Batter Asapon hits pretty hard with the right songs in the right places. First deadly blow to me was「おとなのはじまり」as her first song. I’ve always had a sort of weird of fascination by Asapon singing this song,ut then again I have a weird fascination for Asapon singing anything. The genki train was already running at optimal speed by then, but then she showed that she just could not be stopped , her combo continued with 「黎明スターライン」. First heard this song in 8th and I couldn’t be more happier that it returned for 9th. Asapon taking her magic penlight and making us wave our arms is so blessing.

As with Eriko, her final song was unheard territory to me, but it was great, she had us pull out towels and wave them on her signal. In a later MC she explained that over the time she noticed people bought towels so she wanted to try that.

 

– HIRORIN CORNER –

 迷走Mind, tear, おもいでのはじまり

 She may have a motherly aura, make no mistake, batter Hirorin is a force to be reckoned with. I definitely wasn’t expecting her to hit me hard by starting with this one.

The crowd singing along “(Demo, kurushii no)” gave the greatest of feelings. She successfully managed to perform an unbeatable Makoto combo with 「tear」and 「おもいでのはじまり」

 

–  AZUMIN CORNER –

 ALRIGHT*, Kosmos, Cosmos , あの日のナミダ

OMG AZUMIIIIIIN!

Over the course of the year, Yukiho has tremendously grown on me in part due to my grown interest in Azumin. I wasn’t really into imas during the Yurushii years, and while it’s a shame I didn’t get to know her, I don’t think I would want to trade my azumin for anyone.

Opening with 「ALRIGHT*」 The iconic yell at echoed through the gym, it was time for Azumin! I just love that calls to including yelling her nickname a couple of times. Always fun to watch in BDs, participating In the act of yelling her nickname is somewhat gratifying.

The coup the grace and definitely my favorite day 1 moment was when she 「Kosmos,Comos」’ed. If you ever hear a loud “FUCK YEAH!!!!” While watching the BDs of this, then it’s most likely me. I pretty much went crazy when this song began. It’s the first Yukiho song I fell in love with and was always heartbroken that it had not been performed in a live since Yurushii. And Azumin did this Justice, her cute little dance did had a direct impact on my heart.

 

 After that corner, the ladies gave a break to the band to start the cover corner.

– Cover corner –

Day of the future

Eriko and Nu opened the cover round with this beautiful Miki cover. Seeing the crowd switching majoritaly to lime green felt incredibly heartwarming to me as a MikiP.  Eririn and Nu performed so beautifully, I’m going to repeat myself, but this was really touching for me.

9:02pm

Asuza, King ;A;

Performed by Asapon and Harami, the feels amount was incredibly over the top. Again, the crowd switched in majority to Azusa’s color. Hearing Asapon sing this was pretty darn special I have to say though. I will now root for AmiMami to get more 大人ポイsongs

チクタク

Suddenly the entire stadium shinned bring orange. The UOs army had awoken. Kugyuu and Mingosu delivered the Yayoi feels of this songs perfectly. Kugyuu mentioned during a later MC that she really appreciated seeing all the UOs during this cover. It really was quite something.

livE

A Ritsuko song I was unfamiliar with so unfortunately I don’t have much to say about it, expect for the fact that Azumin and Hirorin showed up with glasses and it was glorious.

After a brief MC, they hit us with 「ONLY MY NOTE

Finally, it was time for me to get some UOs cracking. My favorite new song, I was eagerly waiting to hear the live version. 楽しい successful! It was especially great since they were wearing their pseudo OFA outfits. Was hoping a bit they’d follow through the entire OFA choreography (like when one of them gets on her knee) but alas they didn’t which was expected, but they did replicate a couple of the steps so that was great.

– GUEST CORNER –

I was banking so hard on Minorin that I didn’t fantom for even a second that piyopiyo could come on stage. when Shacho announced her, There is a feeling I can’t quite put into words, but as I prepared for 9th in Tokyo, I already accepted and made peace with the fact that I would only get 8 out of the 13 cast members, and even though Juri was at some of the previous tour, she would not appear in Tokyo.
Seeing her , realizing that I got to see at least one more member procured me with incommensurable joy.

After the joy of seeing Juri, it was time to rock the place with one most genki live song ever, 「待ち受けプリンス」If you aren’t on fire during this song, then you are definitely crazy.
Can’t stop the 楽しい!

– NU CORNER –

Rebellion, オーバーマスター , shiny smile

As if to keep the fire in our hearts lit up, Nu opened with「Rebellion 」, also known as nubellion. A bit before the live I had heard mentions of preparing UR for this song, armed with that knowledge I noticed when the people on the arena started preparing their URs, and was ready when she shouted 赤.
It was glorious seeing the entire gymnasium turned red in an instant. The power of Nu is to be feared. Then she striked harder with her solo version of 「オーバーマスター」. Luckily for me, I had already seen her perform this at Chokaigi this year, so it wasn’t fatal to me, but seeing it live is definitely deadly.

– KUGYUU CORNER –

キミはメロディ, プライヴェイト・ロードショウ (playback, Weekday) , フタリの記憶

Kugyuuuuuu.

Heating up her corner by Kicking it off with 「キミはメロディ」、batter Kugyuu started pretty strongly. Perhaps the best thing about this was that once the song ended and she MC’ed she was completely out of breath, which for some reason was the most adorable thing ever. I never considered myself someone suffering from kugyuubyuou, but after 9th the diseases came dangerously close to seriously infecting me.

Being the one who looks the most reserved, I can honestly say that I never expected her to have such a stage presence, and damn did she own that stage like a boss.

– HARAMI CORNER –

KisS,  ふたつの月 , 恋花

Harami, oh Harami.

Like Nu before, she performed a Project Fairy song : 「KisS」and it was nothing short of glorious and borderline dangerous for the heart, still giving me hnnng attack months after her visit to Canada. During her MC she mentioned hoping to get to perform with song with the other two someday. My kingdom for this to happen!

– MINGOSU CORNER –

Blue Symphony , 眠り姫,  蒼い鳥 (M@STER VERSION) ~TV ARRANGE~

The final solo corner , batter Mingosu light up the place by opening with 「Blue Symphony」, then she had us sit down and relax and perfectly enjoy the reminder of her performance with 「眠り姫」and 「蒼い鳥」. It was pretty fascinating to see all penlights movement stopped for 15mins, everybody too simply engrossed in the Mingosu admiration.

And then it was time for the FINALE

Everybody came back and stage and performed 「M@STERPIECE」and it was too beautiful! Words cannot describe the feelings I have for this song, experiencing it live went beyond any expectations.

Once the song ended, they went backstage and as we started chanting EN-KO-RE, special guests appeared on the screen to chant the encore with us. It was Kami, King, Akky and Mayachon. Greatest and most beautiful encore !

When the girls came back they 「虹色ミラクル」, and my love for this song suddenly blossomed.

And the final song was the obligatory 「THE IDOLM@STER

Finally getting to do calls at a live with thousands and producers and produnus was magnificent.

Also Mingosu and Eriko did the most beautiful exit play which I’ll let you all discover in the BD release because words can’t do it justice.

Ah, what a great day, I didn’t get to hear some of my favorites but it was ok because I was there, in Tokyo for アイマス, finally and seeing the live was excellent. Unfortunately I didn’t know a lot of songs but they all left great impression on me.

And so as we exit the gymnasium to regroup, I couldn’t shut up about Azumin performing Kosmos,Cosmos , Juri being the surprise guest

We then headed back to Akihabara for the Pasela for a 4hs of karaoke and のみほうだい with a crazy amount of people.
Greatest offkai!


By 2am we split off, some went back to their hotels, the rest of us went back to karaoke until 7am.

Somehow Chuck managed to created a second search party for him by falling asleep in embarrassing locations w.

At 7am I went to crash until 11am.
It was time for round 2.

After quick dindins and getting soaked under the typhoon, we entered the gym again, this time I was in the Arena so I was able to focus more on them rather than watching the monitor.

I was told the set list for day 2 would be different, I guess none of us realized how different it would be.
Also for day 2 I tried convincing myself that I had given up on Minorin appearing but I still tried to believe that she would be there.

And then Day 2 began