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I completed the romanization and translations for Kirito's "Saisei no Asa" and they are posted here for everyone to review and check over. I'm having the worst time trying to decipher what Kirito means with his song and I feel very shaky with my translations of the third line "aisuru hito no kakera to shirazu kuchi ni fukumu kodomotachi." Kirito uses a lot of compound/relative clauses in his sentences so it makes translating his lyrics a small hell. I'll give my current interpretation of the song after the translation (it might change after I officially translate DOOR but... ^^;) but if you have any thoughts or input, please let me know what you think. I would love to hear an opinion other than my own. (After all, two brains are better than one ne? ^_-) Saisei no Asa Composed by: Kirito / Written by: Kirito Romanized by: Ritz / Translated by: Ritz [i]hitsuzen no youni hibiwareta daichi wa subete wo seisansuru yotei chouwa wo kuzushita taiyou wa sugata wo keshiteita[/i] The vast earth, which has inevitably cracked, settles everything The sun, which ruined our planned for harmony, was disappearing [i]aisuru hito no kakera to shirazu kuchi ni fukumu kodomotachi[/i] Children, whose mouths contain, don't know the fragments of a loved person [i]tadareta hada ni ayamachi omou yoru ga akerunara[/i] Incorrect thoughts in inflamed skin, if day breaks [i]mou kono mama ushinatta kankaku wa modoranakereba ii shitsui no yoru mihanasareta kodomo wa tsugi no asa wo matsukara[/i] It's alright if I can't ever return to the lost sensations of this moment As the child, who abandoned the night of despair, will wait for the next morning [i]tadareta hada ni ayamachi omou yoru ga akerunara[/i] Incorrect thoughts in inflamed skin, if day breaks [i]mou kono mama ushinatta kankaku wa modoranakereba ii shitsui no yoru mihanasareta kodomo wa tsugi no asa wo matsukara[/i] It's alright if I can't ever return to the lost sensations of this moment As the child, who abandoned the night of despair, will wait for the next morning [i]konna yoru ni wa owari wo tsugeyou samui asa ni narukedo[/i] Though it will be a cold morning, let's announce the ending of this night [i]mou kono mama ushinatta kankaku wa modoranakereba ii shitsui no yoru mihanasareta kodomo wa tsugi no asa wo matsukara[/i] It's alright if I can't ever return to the lost sensations of this moment As the child, who abandoned the night of despair, will wait for the next morning Okay, here's my interpretation: This is a song about moving on and really works well as a companion piece to DOOR, which is a song about leaving the past. I feel the song is telling us that no matter how difficult it is and no matter how bleak our future may appear, we should not allow ourselves to be swallowed in the gaping mouth of our own despair/memories. We should always continue moving on. In the song, Kirito is the child that he refers to and I think his referral is very symbolic. It's like he's saying that he was a child in his moment of despair but once he leaves this night, he will become an adult. ...Or so I think this song means anyway. I don't know. *clutches head in hands and grimaces* What does everyone else think? Current Mood:  confused
Current Music: Kirito no "Saisei no Asa"
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This is my first draft for the FOLLOWERS LIMITED LIVE that I went to on April 29th, 2005. A more detailed version will go up on the Pierrot HQ in maybe a week or so but I hope everyone enjoys this for now! FOLLOWERS LIMITED LIVE >> DATE: 2005.04.29; 18:00-21:00 >> LOCATION: SHIBUYA KOUKAIDOU >> REPORT: RITZ LIVE REPORTSong 1: FINALE
Just after Jun played the intro of the song and right before Kirito began singing, columns of gold sparks shot out from 5 "cannons" placed at the front of the stage.
Song 2: ENEMY
Right after the first melody of the song (with the 2 guitars), a burst of red sparks shot out from the aforementioned "cannons." It was really cool, and really helped accent the song and its mocking lyrics about a man who destroys all his relationships with his irrational paranoia.
Song 3: WINDOW
MC
The theme of today's concert had to be "hisashiburi desu ne (it's been a long time)." All the members mentioned this phrase at least once in their MCs. Anyway, for this first MC, only Kirito talked. When
he was finished (he basically talked about how it's been a long time since a concert, etc) he had the crowd stick out their middle fingers and shout "FUCK!" with him. He did this several times to...
Song 4: PERFORMANCE
...lead into the next song, "PERFORMANCE." (You yell "FUCK!" and raise your middle finger during the guitar portions/rifts of the song.) It's a lot of fun (haha, I wonder if saying that makes me sound bad ^o^;;), and is a really great "action" and live song. Anyway, there was a fanservice element to this song where Aiji sank to his knees and Kirito grabbed Aiji by the hair and kept pushing the side of Aiji's face into his crotch. To be honest, it looked a little painful for Aiji but that's just my opinion on the subject... ^^;;
Song 5: PURPLE SKY
While I love listening to this song at home, I don't really like it when it's performed live. There's something about the sampling tracks for this song that just irks me. The electronic melody that's performed between each verse always sounds both tinny and high-pitched to me unfortunately...
Song 6: PARANOIA
I love this song live. It always starts with Kohta jumping onto Kirito's stand and riling up the crowd. What makes Kohta adorable though is because he'll shout twice to get the crowd going and then pause, act as if he's going to shout again, and then say, "Let's go. (ikuzo)" in a normal tone of voice. ^_^ Halfway through the song, Aiji tripped over Kirito's stand while he was walking backwards and tumbled to the floor. It actually looked a little painful because Aiji was unable to break his fall with his hands (as he was holding his guitar) and landed flat on his back. *wince* Anyway, the band kept playing, thinking that Aiji would get right up after his fall. However, when Aiji didn't get up after about 10-15 seconds,
Kirito went over to check on Aiji himself. After Kirito helped Aiji up though, Aiji bounded back to his side of the stage and amazingly seemed to be filled with even more energy than he did before. ^__^
Song 7: Kakumei no Kuroi Tsubasa
MC
Kirito had another MC here. In this MC, he basically reassured the fans again that Pierrot was going to stay together during this solo period and he said that he, Kirito, would continue to work very hard.
Okay, this is where I start forgetting which order everything was played in, so the order of the following songs may be wrong:
Song 8: ACID RAIN
Song 9: HOME SICK
Song 10: KEY WORD
Ah...the infamous fanservice song, and, boy, did Kirito fanservice Jun. What he did was during the song's instrumental section, Kirito sauntered (hips swaying and everything) over to Jun. He then grabbed Jun by the hips and began thrusting his crotch into Jun's ass. I think Kirito caught Jun off-guard because Jun twitched. When he tried to move away, Kirito looped one arm around Jun's waist, pulled Jun closer and continued thrusting in earnest before finally letting Jun go. I don't know if this sort of fanservice
usually happens but I was personally very surprised to see this. I'm not a prude but it almost made me feel a little dirty to be watching. *laugh*
Song 11: OVERDOSE
As always, "OVERDOSE" is a great live song with everyone pumping their fists in the air and yelling "JUST OVERDOSE!" with the song.
MC
Kirito had another MC here. I can't recall what he said here but he basically ended his speech by saying, "We are Medianoid" and the band launched into the song.
Song 12: MEDIANOID
"MEDIANOID" is again another great live song - both for its actions and for the intro that the band plays at the beginning of the song. ^_^ At one point where Kirito sings, "hontou wa yasuragi ni yoishire tada nemutteitai dake (all you really want is to sleep in peace)", he actually lies down on the stage and pretends to sleep. He then remained lying there for the rest of the instrumental section and just almost missed the beginning of the next verse. *laughs* I think Kirito was getting just a little too comfortable down there ne. ^_-
Song 13: Neogurotesuku (Neogrotesque)
The actions for this song are very fun too with fans emphasizing the "Yea, Yea, Yea, Yeaaa~" portions in the chorus. During the instrumental section, Kirito began throwing punches to the beat of the song. He then headed over to Jun and playfully pretended to punch Jun on the side of his waist a couple of times.
After he did that though, he put his hand on Jun's neck and gave Jun a kiss on the cheek - as if in apology for the punching . Just when I was thinking, "Aww~ how sweet," Kirito then pulled Jun to him and commenced dry humping him again. ^^; I think the KiritoxJun/JunxKirito fangirls went wild at this point but Jun merely laughed and shook his head as if to say, "Not again."
ENCORE 1:
Song 1: Oni to Sakura
Song 2: Aoi Sora no Shita
The version of this song that Pierrot played was the "DICTATORS CIRCUS" compilation album version with the stronger intro.
Song 3: Mycloud
Song 4: CHILD
Again, this is an absolutely gorgeous "live" song with Kirito putting all his emotions into the singing of the song. There actually seemed to be this air of reverence to the song and when it was done, instead of cheering, all the fans clapped while Pierrot walked silently off the stage. Of course, right after Pierrot walked off the stage, the fans again began clapping and chanting, "Encore!"
ENCORE 2:
This is where the other members besides Kirito got to talk. Takeo was the first to come out with his MC. I wonder if Takeo had a cold because he sounded raspy and honestly, was a little listless and unenergetic.
When he assured the fans that he was feeling energetic, all the fans went "EHHHH?!?!" in disbelief. Takeo then said, "Can't you hear it here?" He gestured to his lungs and said something like, "I'm all filled with energy here. Can't you hear it in my voice?" In the end, I couldn't tell if he was playing around with us or if he really was feeling a little under the weather.
Kohta, Jun, and Aiji's MCs were all rather standard with them saying "It's been a long time" and thanking everyone for coming. Jun did his customary "Do you love me?" and "Let's love together" lines, and none of them really said anything that was out of the ordinary.
Song 1: Mangetsu ni Terasareta Saigou no Kotoba
This song has pretty complicated actions to them! I often have a hard time following this song. It's a fun song to "dance" to though.
Song 2: SUPER STRING THEORY
Kirito introduced this song by telling us this was the last song. The fans went "Eh?!?" but the band went ahead playing the song. After the song was finished, the lights came on and the band gathered to the front of the stage for their customary thank yous and bows. Kirito was cute here. First, he tried to throw an opened water bottle to the people on the second level but he missed and the bottle bounded off the side of the wall and plummetted to the crowd on the first level. Kirito had a "Damn, I can't believe I did that" look on his face when that happened. ^_^ Then, after he told everyone he would see us at Saitama Super Arena, Kirito ran off the stage with a villain-esque "Hahaha!" laugh. *laughs herself* The rest of the band stayed behind to wave at the crowd (Jun was throwing out picks) before heading off stage themselves.
SURPRISE ENCORE:
After Pierrot left the stage, the lights on the stage went down and the speakers began playing the customary "Thank you for coming to this performance" message. However, the fans continued clapping and chanting, "Encore, encore!" One security guard then used a megaphone to announce to the crowd that the concert was over but the crowd just kept going. This went on for a good 5 minutes and thinking it was over, I packed up and left the concert hall. However, just as I was walking out of the building itself,
I heard this loud cheer and I turned back to see the stage completely lit with lights. I rushed back into the concert hall just in time to see the Pierrot members come back on stage and get into their respective positions.
Kirito then talked to the crowd saying, "Well, thanks to the strength of your feelings, we're back on stage." He then paused slightly before saying, "While I hate the fact that you're making us play again, I'm also really happy that you're making us play again. Hmm...difficult. Should we or shouldn't we play?"
Some fans then yelled, "Please play! (Onegaishimasu!)" and Kirito turned to the band and half-jokingly said to them, "You know, this does mean that we'll have to do this again tomorrow too." He then paused again, as if considering it (though we all knew that the band was going to play for us and that he was just teasing us ^_^), and finally said, "Okay. This is the VERY last song" and the band launched into a live favourite:
Song 1: HAKEN KREUZ (Jishu Kisei)
I know I've been saying this throughout this report but this is another great live song to dance to. It's hard to explain it but you do this fun "cross" action with your two forearms before pumping your fist down and upwards during the guitar sections. ^_^ During this
song, there was some really cute Kohta and Kirito interaction with Kirito rubbing the top of Kohta's
head (like a puppy ^o^). It was just adorable.
Anyway, after this song, Kirito said, "Bye bye (in a nice tone of voice though - he didn't sound angry or anything)" and left the stage with no further comment. The other members lagged behind for more prolonged good byes (Jun amazingly had some more picks to throw out) before leaving themselves. This time, though, the fans didn't push for another encore - respecting Pierrot's need for rest, and thanking them for granting us an extra song and an absolutely amazing concert. ^________^Current Mood:  content
Current Music: PIERROT - "Medianoid"
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[Cross-posted on Pierrot HQ.] THE EVENING OF UNDERMINING FINAL [After awakening] >> DATE: 2005.01.03; 18:00-21:00 >> LOCATION: NIPPON BUDOKAN >> REPORT: RITZ  OVERALL COMMENTS This was an amazing concert! Kirito was just on fire the whole night and thanks to his energy and zest, the band performed a total of 3 hours (there were 4 encores!). The actual concert itself, which was just a little over an hour, consisted of songs off of "FREEZE" while the encores were "a trip down memory lane" with Pierrot performing songs from their older albums. While I like "FREEZE", I have to admit that I enjoyed the songs in the encore more than the songs in the actual concert itself. "FREEZE" is a little on the hard and heavy side, and I found it a little more difficult to get into the groove of the concert. (I actually felt a little awkward doing many of the "dances" for the first couple of songs.) However, the encores consisted of many "audience interaction" songs and fun "dances" and I really lost myself in the atmosphere of the concert and music. The concert had many fun moments but the highlight of the concert, I think, had to be during the 2nd encore. In the 2nd encore, Pierrot came out not as Pierrot but as "Kimikura Junkies" - a switched position band with Aiji on vocals and Kirito on lead guitar. Aiji actually sang all of "Haken Kreuz" and Kirito actually did the "Haken Kreuz" guitar solo before the band reverted back to being "PIERROT" for the rest of the concert. Needless to say, all of us greatly enjoyed listening to "Kimikura Junkies" during their rather short-lived existence. ^_^ Now, on to the concert. LIVE REPORT Song 1: FREEZE I think this is a great song to open the concert with. We were all yelling the "speaking lines" ("I must build it now", etc) and doing this yelling really helps get people in the mood for the concert. It was a fitting way to open PIERROT's concert, which save for the encores at the end, was very hard and heavy. Song 2: Smiley Skeleton Song 3: Dramatic Neo Anniversary This song was where you started seeing a lot of the trademark "dances" that come along with many Pierrot songs. I had a hard time following the actions at first but you do catch on after awhile... For all Kirito x Aiji fans, during this song, Kirito fanserviced Aiji. My seat was on Jun's side of the stage so I didn't quite know what he was doing though. All I could see was his arm slung around Aiji. MC Kirito basically said, "Well, this is 2005, the new year." Then he said something like "to celebrate, I want you all to raise your middle fingers." Everyone did so and then Kirito yelled "FUCK!" and signalled for all of us to repeat after him, which of course everyone did. He then did this again for 3 more times (with us repeating him each time) and then led into the next song. Song 4: PERFORMANCE Song 5: Paranoia Right at the beginning of the song, Kohta leapt onto Kirito's "stand" (you know, those big black boxes/fans that are placed in front of Kirito at every live) and stood poised to play his bass. Kirito then got up on the box with Kohta and stood behind him. Together, Kohta and Kirito riled up the crowd some more. The 3rd time, Kohta playfully raised his middle finger and Kirito said to Kohta in response, "Uruse (Shut up)." That caused us all to laugh. ^_^ I'm afraid this is where I started losing track of what songs were being performed when. Therefore, I'm just going to mention the songs that I remembered being played in random order. EASTER At first I thought Kirito was singing the wrong lyrics (he cut out the first verse). Then I realized that the song had been rearranged for the live to cut down on the time of the song. (EASTER being a 6-7 minute song ne...) I'm pretty sure that "Fukai Nemuri ga Mezametara" was most likely either right after it or close to after it as I remember a row of 3 songs where there were no dancing actions involved and everyone just stood and listened to the music. For Jun's guitar parts (the little trill that Jun plays after each verse) and Kohta's bass solo in "EASTER", the lights on the rest of the stage went dark and there was this beautiful cut spotlight on them at the respective moments. The Dream which Warped Fukai Nemuri ga Mezametara WINDOW This song has pretty fun actions to it too. I liked the part where Kirito sings "mado no mukou de (in the direction of the window)" and you draw this sort of box with your hand and then point to symbolize the words. MC Referring to us as his "kichigai kodomo-tachi (insane children) <--a name that caused all of us to giggle each time he said the words", Kirito basically pumped up the crowd by asking us to go crazy more. UNMASK Kirito did introduce this song - basically yelling a short, "UNMASK!" UNKNOWN CLOWN'S MUTTER MYCLOUD Kirito announced this song too ("MYKURAUDO"<--sad to say, Kirito couldn't quite pronounce the "L" of "CLOUD"). Kirito did this really strange dance at the beginning and bridge of the song. It's this strange kicking dance. For Kirito's sake, I wish I could say it was cool but I'll be honest when I say that it just came off looking a little funny. (I'm sorry, Kirito-fans and Kirito. ^^;;) It was a great song though. Oh, and for Kirito x Jun fans, Kirito slung his arm around Jun and sort of fanserviced him during the lines "taisetsu na mono ga omocha no youni kowareteiku yo (precious things are going to crumble like toys do)." PIECES OVERDOSE "OVERDOSE" was a fun song. Everyone yelled the words "JUST OVERDOSE!" while pumping their fist in the air. ^^ ENCORE 1: Song 1: Powder Snow Song 2: ANSWER Song 3: HILL -Genkaku no Yuki- ENCORE 2: Kirito was the first to come out but instead of taking his place at the center of the stage, he began heading up the stairs to Takeo's drumset. He turned back and all the fans laughed because we thought he had made a mistake with his directions. However, instead of going to the center of the stage, he headed over to Aiji's side of the stage and strapped on a guitar. Then the rest of the band came out and that's when we found out that we were being treated to the debut performance of the band, Kimikura Junkies. Kimikura Junkies The Pierrot changed roles band, as performed at "The Evening of Undermining FINAL [After Awakening]." In actuality, the only two roles that got switched was Aiji and Kirito with Aiji on vocals and Kirito on lead guitar. *grin* What made this band really funny though was the way Aiji was imitating the way Kirito talks. He then stopped doing that after a couple of minutes and said something like, "God, I can't do it," and laughed. He introduced the band as "Kimikura Junkies" and then launched into introductions. MC Aiji: On drums--! Fans: TAKEO! Aiji: On drums--! Fans: TAKEO! Aiji: On drums, TAKEO! TAKEO: Basically he asked the fans how we all were ("minna, genki?") and then, in a total imitation of Kirito, told us to go crazy even more. Aiji: On bass--! Fans: KOHTA! Aiji: On bass--! Fans: KOHTA! Aiji: On bass, KOHTA! KOHTA: Kohta was cute. He seemed to be at a loss of words for the most part. First he mentioned that this was the new year, 2005, and then he said, "I'm turning 30 this year" to which many fans yelled, "Omedetou~" Aiji: On guitar--! Fans: JUN! Aiji: On guitar--! Fans: JUN! Aiji: On guitar, JOHN! JUN/JOHN: After Aiji introduced Jun as "John", Jun went into this whole spiel about how English sounding the name "John" was. "It's like Johnston," he kept saying. Then he ended his MC by saying something like "Do you love me?" to which all the fans of course cheered yes. Then Jun said something like, "I love you too. Let's continue to meet in love." I found it a little on the cheesy side (sorry Jun!) but needless to say, the fans went wild when he said that. *grin* Aiji: On guitar--! Fans: KIRITO! Aiji: On guitar--! Fans: KIRITO! Aiji: On guitar, KIRITO! KIRITO: He purposely played a really bad, ear-piercing guitar solo that made all of us laugh. Then he growled/groaned into the mic the words, "Ka.....ra......" It was so funny that all the fans laughed. After he was done, Aiji exclaimed, "What the hell was that?" *laughs* Jun: Okay, now I'm going to do introductions. For the man with funny hair. (Aiji's hair was all tied-up in this messy ponytail. I thought it looked cool though.) On vocals--! Fans: AIJI! Jun: On vocals--! Fans: AIJI! Jun: On vocals, AIJI! AIJI: Aiji didn't say much. He thanked us for coming to Kimikura Junkies' "final live" (at which all the fans laughed). Then we were given Kimikura Junkies' version of "Haken Kreuz." Song 1: Haken Kreuz (as performed by Kimikura Junkies) Aiji sang "Haken Kreuz", in what was, in my opinion, a hilarious performance. There was nothing wrong with the way Aiji sang. His vocals, while not as strong and broad as Kirito, are pretty good - though he did go off-key at one part. What I found hilarious was halfway into the song, Aiji forgot the lyrics and grabbing a copy of the lyrics sheet from behind him, basically sang the last half of the song while reading off of that sheet. *laughs* After Kimikura Junkies performed their first and final live, Kirito took over and at long last eluded to Pierrot's solo projects. He said that each person wanted to show their own "powers." He then asked all the fans to continue being their "customers" in their solo projects to which all the fans laughed (because he was referring to us as "customers" and acting like a sales assistant of some sort). Next, Kirito said in a serious tone, "Then in May, Pierrot will..." and he then paused dramatically and did this mock-sobbing sound to scare the fans before he yelled, "Pierrot will be having our seventh Dictator's Circus! In Saitama Super Arena!" God, you should have heard the fans cheer. It was such a great feeling to know that there was a performance with Pierrot as a band to look forward to this year. While I am looking forward to the members' solo projects, I was worried that Pierrot would pull a L'Arc~en~Ciel and stop all band activities for close to two years. ^_^ Song 2: CREATURES Needless to say, everyone head-banged to this song and the song following. These are just awesome live songs. ^_^ Song 3: Neogurotesku (Neogrotesque) ENCORE 3: Encore 2 was actually supposed to be the end of the concert and all the members gathered to the front of the stage for bows. Fans then yelled, "Encore" and Kirito turned to the other members and said something like, "Well, they ARE our customers." Takeo seemed to be the first one to understand what Kirito was saying and he immediately turned around and headed back to his drum set. The others then followed suit. Kirito and Jun consulted with the staff what they would be playing and then Jun passed the message onto Kohta and Aiji, and Kohta passed the message onto Takeo. There was a bit of a pause as the staff scrambled to get ready to accomodate the extra songs (probably in regards to lighting and such) and Kirito asked everyone in the crowd to "Wait." Then Pierrot was ready and the band played. Song 1: Mangetsu ni Terasareta Saigou no Kotoba Song 2: Super String Theory ENCORE 4: Again, all the members gathered at the front of the stage. Kirito then told the crowd that "You guys are saikou (the greatest)", "Tokyo is the greatest", "PIERROT is the greatest", and "this first live of this New Year is the greatest." Then this time, even before the fans could yell "Encore" or anything like that, Kirito again sent all the band members back to their respective places for one more round of encores. Before he did that though, Kirito talked again about the solo projects of the band - only this time very seriously. He told the fans over and over again, "Anshin shite (please feel at ease)", and basically asked us not to worry about Pierrot breaking up because that wasn't happening. He then said that Pierrot has been together for 10 years and as such, they were going to perform a song from the beginning - basically the song that marked Pierrot's major debut: "Clear Sky." Song 1: Clear Sky Yellow glitter shot out from the stage and everyone waved their arm in time to the beats of the song. It was so much fun! Song 2: Child Such a beautiful song and Kirito sings it so well. What I mean by that comment is not that Kirito doesn't sing the other songs well -Kirito sounds awesome live- but he put a lot of emotion into this song in particular. The live version of this song is beautiful with the band letting Kirito sing the final lines of the song on his own and Kirito letting us sing this line: "soshite mata atarashii inochi wo (and then a new life will again)" on our own. You could actually hear all the fans' voices in the building as we sang this line. It was wonderful. Song 3: Sepia The very last song (if my memory serves me correctly). I can't tell you how happy I was to hear this song played. It's my personal favourite Pierrot song. The "dance" accompanying this song was very nice to do and, I think, quite beautiful with the pointing emphasis on the words "temo" (but/though) and actions for the lines of the confession not reaching the intended person's ears ("mimi wo fusai"). MC The end of the concert. Kirito said "kotoshi mo yoroshiku (the customary new year's greeting meaning something like, "Please look after us again this year") and the band bowed. Many of us (including myself) then bowed in reply, as is custom when receiving such greetings. Kirito then said "sankyuu (Thank You)" and "Aishiteru zo (we love you)" and the band walked around the stage doing their own personal waves to the crowd (Jun, of course, recording the crowd using his digicam as he's often seen doing). The members then left one by one. Takeo was the last to leave and he yelled into the mic, "Omae wa saikou (You guys are the greatest)!" before leaving. *grins* Needless to say, that made all of us cheer and I'm sure all of us were like me and left with VERY happy feelings. ^__^ Current Mood:  cheerful
Current Music: U2 no VERTIGO
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John Kerry has lost the presidential election.
You know, I'm not an American but I can't tell you how depressed I am to hear the news. I admire Kerry. He has many qualities that I like in a person: He's analytical, calm, quick on his feet, smart, open-minded, and very gracious. In the presidential elections, he conducted himself like a true President - everything from the way he spoke to his posture while standing at the podiums - and his final speech today was impressive in itself. You're going to laugh, but I actually got teary-eyed while reading it. I couldn't help it. The part about all those young children donating their funds to the campaign, meager in our eyes but all the world to them, really struck a chord with me.
I think it's a pity that he wasn't elected President as I think he would have done a very good job, but alas, what can you do about it? That's life ne.
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This was such an AWESOME concert. I went with Kay and both of us agree that we were just blown away by it. Words can't describe it enough. I think what is even more impressive about the concert is the way Laruku turned the tide of the concert. You see, a lot of the people there were not real fans of Laruku and were only really there because heck, it's a free concert. They're not like other concerts where all the people going are already tried and true fans of the band. Therefore, the cheering in the beginning was, while enthusiastic, just lacked that certain something, you know? It just didn't have that extra "omph!" However, by the time, "Driver's High" came around, everyone got really into it and you can see everyone in the crowd really getting into Laruku and their music. And it's all due to Laruku. Laruku is just amazing onstage. They were really professional, had outstanding stage presence, and most importantly, you can see that they gave it their all. They did all the things they would usually do during one of the regular concerts in Japan and really pulled no stops. The concert just simply ROCKED. And here's my live report for it:Stage has the smiling beat-up happy face with the nail through its head, which is L'Arc~en~Ciel (Laruku)'s logo for their SMILE tour. Other than that, the stage is set up fairly simply with tetsu stage left, hyde center, ken stage right, and yuki center on an elevated stage. Opening was a little blah. The "Voice of Otakon", a heavyset otakurashii man came on stage and while he was introducing L'Arc~en~Ciel, the members came up from behind him and stood in their respective positions. It was rather like a band performing at a high school-ish. ^^; 1. Kuchizuke -a burst of flames shoot up at the front of the stage before the song starts. 2. Heaven's Drive -tetsu is doing his trademark "bouncing" already. However, the spotlight was focused on hyde only at the time. ^^; -hyde is just going crazy up there. Dancing, head-banging, everything. It's really cool. You can really see hyde giving it all that he had. -then on the guitar solo part with a speed that belies on his experience on stage, hyde steps back, whips on his guitar, and does his duet with ken. 3. Lover Boy MC1 hyde asks us, "Are you having fun?" and of course everyone cheers. Then hyde replies with a big "Me tooooo." (He literally does stress and elongate that "too." It was really cute. *laughs*) He then says "We are L'Arc~en~Ciel!" and everyone cheers again. Then he asks us, "Did you eat crabs?" However, his pronunciation was a little off and it sounded like he was going "Did you eat craps?" Well, everyone just laughed at that cause we thought he was joking around with us. But then when he said the same thing you could almost literally see the big collective "Uh-oh" that was going through everyone's heads as we realized that hyde was not saying "craps." The crowd went relatively silent as all of us strained to figure out what he was saying and when he said, "Did you eat craps?" the third time, everyone figured out he was actually trying to say "CRABS" (either that or we didn't want to make him feel bad by showing that we really didn't understand him at all) and then cheered. hyde then goes "I like crabs! I ate too~!" (I don't know if it's "two" or "too" but something like that...^^;;) 4. Spirit Dreams Inside -I didn't realize it, but hyde actually plays the guitar for the song. hyde's pronunciation is quite good here and every word is perfect. ^_^ 5. Jiyuu he no Shotai -Laruku's new single! Crowd cheered but I don't think that many people recognized the song (including myself, who didn't buy the single at the time ^^;;) so there wasn't massive audience participation. I think many of us were like me, just enjoying the song and its happy upbeat tempo. 6. Eien -this is a ballad so again, like "Jiyuu he no Shotai" people enjoyed it for the melody and there wasn't really any audience participation during the song. 7. Kasou -hyde does his whole "erotic wiggling" and everything for this song. *laughs* I'm almost positive more than one girl's eyes were riveted to his hips. Damn, but that man can move. ^_- 8. Hitomi no Juunin -I love this song. It's always been one of my favourites and it was really awesome hearing it live. hyde really hit those high notes well. -you know at the end when there's the violin/instrumental section before the song closes? Well, everyone naturally cheered when hyde finished singing the song but when the violin music kept going and all of Laruku stood there with their heads down, everyone realized that there was more to the song and waited till the song was completely over before cheering again. ^_^ MC2 hyde says to us, "Evangelion" and everyone cheers. Then hyde goes, "Going Berserk" and everyone cheers. Then he says something like, "Evangelion. Going berserk. I am going berserk!" And everyone just screams as we realize what's asking us is to go berserk just like Evangelion! Kay personally thought it was really ingenious of hyde to use anime to pump up the crowd but personally, I think hyde did it for personal reasons. Aren't hyde, yukihiro, and tetsu known for their love of Evangelion? I think it was just an excuse. *laughs* 9. Driver's High -Kay and I both agree that this was the song that turned the tide/atmosphere of the concert crowd. People really started getting into the song...partly because of its tie-in with the GTO anime but also because it's such a great song for audience participation. -hyde was doing the works, jumping on amps and pumping his fist on the words "Flash" and "Crash" -you could hear the audience singing "Flash" and "Crash" with hyde. -I believe this is the song where it happened...but halfway through the song, one of Ken's guitar string snapped. He tried his best to continue playing (Ying said the string just looked like it was going to poke Ken in the eye) but finally gave up and literally hurled his guitar off his shoulder in frustration. ken then kicked the guitar into the wings, looking really pissed (Kay and I just jumped at that - though we have to admit, it was really cool looking at the same time). You then see a staff member rush up from the wings and hand a guitar for ken. 10. Feeling Fine -wai~ seeing this live made me love this song even more. -hyde got the crowd to clap with him during the song. Also, you could hear the whole crowd shouting "Are you feeling fine?" with hyde whenever that line came up. 11. Stay Away -at the beginning of this song, hyde tells us to "Jump! Jump!" *laugh* -this was a really fun song! I don't know about other people but I was singing along with hyde when he sang, "causes stain, stay away" *laughs* -and yes, hyde was doing the hip shake throughout the song. Laruku didn't bust out into dance moves though unfortunately. ^_- 12. Revelation -it was a really good song with a lot of audience interaction. hyde sang the part of the chorus that goes "Yugadokusou" first and then the second time he sang it, he really enuciated the words showing us that he wanted us to sing that part with him. So everyone, or at least I, did ^^ -at the "HA!" part of the chorus, a lot of people jumped up and pumped their fist in the air with it. ^_^ 13. Ready Steady GO -hyde shouts "Are you fucking ready?" twice to us before the song starts (causing Kay and I to exchange looks at each other in amusement at how North American hyde sounded) -the crowd is just going wild because, as some of you know, this song is the OP theme for the anime, "Fullmetal Alchemist" so a lot of people know this song and are singing along with it. It was simply awesome and everyone was just so into it! That was supposed to be the concert finish. However, after Laruku walked off stage, everyone continued cheering like mad. People in the back began stomping their feet on the floor and chanting, "L'Arc~en~Ciel, L'Arc~en~Ciel" in attempts to get them back on stage. The only bad part of that was saying, "L'Arc~en~Ciel", is really LONG and tiring, so the chanting kind of died out after awhile. ^^; Nonetheless, the crowd kept up a steady buzz of noise and then Laruku walked out on stage again for their ENCORE! ENCORE/MC3 Ken comes out in a dolphin mask(!) and then makes a dolphin noise through the mask (probably blowing on something, I guess) and everyone cheers. He does this again and then everyone cheers and then Ken suddenly goes "NO!" The crowd immediately goes quiet as he does it again and when we cheer again, Ken goes "NO!" again and does the noise. That's when all of us realized that "...He doesn't really want us to do that noise, does he? ^^;;" Well, it turns out he did and so we do our best to mimic that buzzing sound and then Ken goes, "Who am I?" And then we all shout, "Ken!" And then he goes, "NO!" and asks, "Who am I?" again. Well, we all shout "Ken!" again but then he says, "No!" again and we all go silent and are like, "Huh?" He then says, "I am a dolphin!" And everyone just cracks up. Then he continues, "When trainer says jump, I say, 'No, I tired.' Then I heard that No. 1 Rock Band in Japan (and everyone screams at that), L'Arc~en~Ciel, is at Otakon (and everyone cheers madly at that again)." Then he says something like, "So I go see them!" or something... I'm sorry, I really don't remember the tail end of his MC very well, I'm afraid. ^^;; When Ken just finished talking though, I saw hyde look over at tetsu and make a small hand gesture as if to say, "Your turn, tetsu." However, tetsu didn't do anything and they started up with... 14. Honey! 15. Blurry Eyes -hyde twirls around and throws around a whistle at the start of the concert -before the song hyde yells, "Baltimore~~~" and "America~~~" to pump up the crowd MC4 Laruku does their customary stop/pause in the middle of the song and the crowd goes silent as tetsu steps up to the mike. tetsu looks at all of us and then says, "Would you like to eat my bananas?" Then he whips out two bananas out of what seems like nowhere and holds them out, one in each hand. God, the audience laughed and cheered so hard at that. Then tetsu tosses the bananas out ot the crowd. hyde then asks again, "Are you having fun?" and everyone cheers. He then goes, "Would you like us to continue?" and everyone cheers again and then hyde blows on a whistle and the song starts up again and while it's going, he throws the whistle out into the crowd. 16. Pieces -hyde says "last song" and everyone cheers (though you could hear a bit of booing going on the crowd for the concert being over (what it seemed like) so soon). -anyway, hyde starts up with the song and it is just gorgeous. Throughout the song, people in the crowd are waving their arms to the tempo and you could just feel that everyone is in the moment, you know? -near the end of the song, I see hyde pause and his eyes go slowly around the room. You can tell that he's just taking all of it in and there was this look of satisfaction on his face. It was really a very beautiful moment. Finally near the end, hyde says, "We love you!" and everyone cheers. He then says, "Thank you, America! Thank you, Baltimore!" and everyone screams even louder. hyde then says, "We love you!" 2 more times (with more cheering each time) and that's the end of the concert and hyde and yukihiro files off stage. tetsu stays around to throw out 2 more bananas and his bass pick, and Ken stays to throw out his guitar picks. Ken, who seems so comfortable on stage with us, is the last to go and he goes up to hyde's mic and says casually, "See ya." When Ken said that, I was just like, "Oh, I definitely hope I'll be seeing you again!" What can I say? The concert absolutely kicked ASS and if I ever get the opportunity again, I will definitely go check out Laruku. That concert was honestly the stuff that dreams are made of. *crosses fingers and prays it will come out on DVD* Some extra notes:-during the course of the concert, hyde sprayed water on the audience and threw out two water bottles. -yukihiro didn't talk once during the concert. He unfortunately just kept himself behind the drum set. ^^; -ken jumped up on the amps at one point to do his solo...I think it was for Stay Away... but I could be really wrong. I just can't remember what song it is. -apparently, from what people told me, hyde did fanservice tetsu really briefly (he was said to have gone up behind tetsu and stroked his chest) but I honestly didn't notice it so I can't say that happened for sure. -hyde did work the crowd at many points in time, screaming, "Baltimore~~~", "America~~~", and "Come on!" -Kay and I were up on the first row of the balcony, about 3/4 into the first section. It was a little unfortunate that we weren't on the floor but we still had an amazing view of the stage so it's all good. ^_^ -hyde's voice was just awesome live - really smooth and strong. Current Mood: content
Current Music: tetsu69 - Pretender
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Oh my God, I can't believe it but I actually got to meet L'Arc~en~Ciel in person and I actually talked to hyde very briefly. I met them not long after the Otakon concert at a restaurant in Baltimore called McCormick-Schmick. My friends, Josephine Yun, Ying, Jamie, Vail (of the US Gackt fanclub, "Muse"), Kathy Chee (of Jrock Online) and Kay, and I were in the restaurant having dinner. This is the story:Not long after we got to the restaurant, I got up to use the restroom to wash up (I was feeling a little under the weather at that time). There, I passed by a private dining room that was closed off to a group of Japanese people. I made eye contact with a man sitting at the table (the room has glass windows so that's why you can see in) but as I wasn't feeling well, I didn't smile and passed on. While I was walking I thought to myself, "Wow, that guy is cute. Looks just like tetsu." I don't know WHY I didn't realize that the man actually WAS tetsu but it just felt so impossible at the time, you know? I mean, the whole idea of L'Arc~en~Ciel having dinner at the same restaurant at the exact same time just seemed too impossible to be true. Therefore, I headed back to my seat without any comment or incident believing that the guy I saw was just a very good tetsu look-alike. It wasn't until all my friends and I finished dinner and began to leave that I realized that the man was actually tetsu. As we all leave, tetsu again made eye contact with each one of us as we passed by the private room. He then turned his head and actually watched us as we all filed past him. Once we had passed him, Kay turned to me and said, "Did you see that guy in there?" And me, being the complete IDIOT that I am, actually said, "Oh yah, he looks a lot like tetsu." Kay then gave me a look like she thought I was completely brain-dead (which I probably was) and said, "Uhh...Ritz, that IS tetsu." It was only then that I realized that the man I had looked at earlier was actually tetsu and that not only was tetsu in the room, but yukihiro was sitting right across from him! Well then, as if being in the same restaurant as Laruku and seeing them up close (we were a couple of feet away from them so we got to see them close up) wasn't good enough, when we stepped out of the restaurant we actually found hyde smoking outside with his bodyguards and some of the Laruku staff. Again, I wasn't the one who made this discovery and it was Kay and Vail who, when they saw a group of men sitting with their backs to us, saw the wing tattoo on one of the men's back and realized that one of them was hyde. Ying actually went up and talked to hyde for a bit, telling him (with a lot of hand gestures because hyde didn't look like he was completely understanding him) that he plays guitar and such. While Ying was talking, I went up to them and stood behind Ying as I waited for Ying to finish. After Ying was finished and left, hyde turned to look at me. I looked back at hyde and said fairly calmly, "Hi. Um, I just wanted you to know that I really like your music and please keep up the good work." hyde, who had been listening to me with a slight smile on his face then broke out into a wider smile and and nodded in acknowledgement. I then, according to Kay who was watching our interaction, nodded and smiled back before bidding him goodbye and then returning to where Kay and the rest of them were. And that was that. I did think about asking hyde for an autograph but honestly I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. I mean, the guy is out enjoying a smoke with his friends, ne. He's not expecting fans to jump him or anything. Besides that, I really don't think he would be happy with me badgering him when he's just trying to relax after the concert. I only went up and talked to him because I wanted him to know that I completely support L'Arc~en~Ciel and that I'll always be a fan of their music. Needless to say, there were tens of thousands of things that I wished I did differently later on. I wish I had smiled at tetsu or at least nodded in acknowledgement when I made eye contact with him those two times. I wish that I had told hyde that their concert at Otakon kicked some serious ass and that I hope they will consider another concert in North America... But ah well. I never like "What if's" and I'm already very satisfied with my enounter as it is. It will always remain a sweet memory to me. Some impressions:-hyde, tetsu, and yukihiro look the same as they do in their pictures. tetsu had some really deep bags under his eyes (he looked exhausted, truth be told) but he still was majorly cute. What really struck me with hyde is that he's a very small man. Though he was sitting and I was standing, you can immediately tell by looking at his arms and narrow back that the man doesn't have an ounce of fat on him. Plus, I'm fairly tall for an Asian girl (I'm close to 5'7") so I just about towered over him. But, he's VERY good looking. Looks exactly like his pictures actually. -hyde's a very nice guy with quite a bit of patience - or at least he displayed patience while talking to us. Even though he didn't look like he totally understood Ying when Ying was talking to him, you can SEE hyde trying his best to listen to, and comprehend, Ying. tetsu unfortunately wasn't smiling when he made eye contact with us, but he didn't look pissed off. He simply looked tired and somewhat curious. -though all of us went up to hyde and talked, he didn't say a word of English to us. He merely nodded and smiled an awful lot. Trust me, it was night of sign language. *laugh* I had a feeling hyde understood what we were trying to say for the most part though but perhaps he was just feeling too shy about his English to try conversing with us? -L'Arc's management is very tight. They told us later that they didn't want us trying to get autographs or photos of Laruku. As they told us this after Ying, Vail, and I had met them, their warning came late (and was for naught as none of us three did ask for an autograph) but still... -we all had no idea where Ken was. We didn't see him in the room with the others and he wasn't outside. Which is unfortunate because I would have loved to have met Ken. I mean, after being so goofy with us on stage, don't you think he would be even more fun offstage? Anyway, that was that. To me, that was the perfect way to end the evening and meeting Laruku and being able to talk to hyde really just boosted my love for them even more. hyde was really such a nice guy to all of us. ^_^ Here's a track listing of the songs played at the concert. Please note that the order might be slightly wrong: 1. Kuchizuke 2. Heaven's Drive 3. Lover Boy 4. Spirit Dream's Inside 5. Jiyu he no Shotai 6. Forever 7. Kasou 8. Stay Away 9. Hitomi no Juunin 10. Driver's High 11. Feeling Fine 12. Honey 13. Revelation 14. Blurry Eyes 15. Ready Steady Go 16. Pieces And oh god, the MC's! They were hilarious! tetsu and his "Would you like to eat my bananas?" and Ken and his "I'm a dolphin!" I will definitely give you more details on that on the next update. It just can't be ignored. Hahaha. Current Mood:  bouncy
Current Music: Err...grooving to the sound of the hotel lobby's TV ^^;
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Wow...it's been a really long time since I've last written in here. Gomen. >< I'll, uh, try to keep my updates more constant so I can entertain *coughcough* you guys more with my oh-so-interesting life. Right. *coughs again* All bad jokes aside though, it is good to be back. ^_^ I can't get over how busy I've been since school started. It's crazy! However, I did manage to watch two Japanese films during the last two weeks that I really want to talk about. The two films are "Alive" directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and "Hush!" by Hashiguchi Ryosuke. How are the films? Well, I loved one and I hated the other. I'll go into why below. First, let's start with the one I hated, "Alive". Well, perhaps "hate" is too strong of a word. I guess "highly disappointed" is the better word. After all the hype over "Versus" (done by the same director), I really expected more. "Alive" is based on a manga by Tsutomu Takahashi and features a convict who, after escaping the death sentence, gets instead utilized by scientists in an experiment. The experiment is for the convict to lure out an alien parasite called "The Displacer" from its host (who happens to be the sister of one of the scientists). "The Displacer" basically is a parasite that causes the host to become uncontrollably violent and slowly eats away at the host's personality. It can transfer - but only from the host to someone else with a stronger urge to kill. Okay, so far, so good, right? Now, let's go into the movie. The beginning of the movie when the main character and the other convict (who also escaped execution) are locked within the "experimentation" chamber is REALLY good. The feel is dark and as frightening as it sounds, it was really neat to see the scientists pushing the limits of the experiment both psychologically, physically, and emotionally. (Ie. They would cut meals, up the temperatures, ring an alarm in the chamber every hour for 10 minutes, etc.) It really brings to mind the philosophical question "just how strong is the human will/mind?" and plays on that idea nicely. Okay, so both convicts survive and they bring out the girl with "The Displacer" in her body. That's when things start getting really messed up and truthfully, very cheesy. For example, from senseless violence (people just drop like flies here) to horrible references (the scientists find out that lo and behold, they are actually working under a bigger company that has connections to *dramatic pause* "Area 51!!!" *gasp*) to cheesy lines (ie. "What happens when monster fights monster?"), this film became just one big overdone, badly pieced together, flashy action film so typical of our culture today. Don't get me wrong. I love action films. I'm a huge fan of Jackie Chen though his films admittedly have little to no plot. However, this film was just badly done. There were so many places where I thought, "You know, you could just end it here and give this film some more meaning" but it just dragged on and on with this bad guy being brought in to fight the hero, and that bad guy being brought in to fight the hero, and so on and so forth. The director and co-screenplay writer, Ryuhei Kitamura, is a director who likes to spoon-feed his audience. He doesn't let the audience deduct on their own but instead blatantly displays everything. Personally, this sort of style doesn't appeal to me. I'd like to think I'm not that much of an idiot that I need everything spelled out for me in big, flashy print (ie. in the movie, they had little screens where they would show the headings of each section: "The Choice", "Versus", "Against", etc.) and that I could logically deduct what's going to happen next. This film left very little to imagination - simply because it didn't allow you to imagine anything on your own and really, in my opinion, it could have been done so much better if only the plot was a little better worked out. Therefore, my rating for this film is probably 4/10 and is not a film I would recommend. The second film that I did watch, "Hush!" is really good. To give the really brief explanation, it's about a gay couple deciding whether they should start a family with a surrogate mother. However, the film is so much more than that. Built gently and quietly, this film really deals with the tricky aspects of human relations and human needs and wants in a very subtle manner. The director, Hashiguchi-san, has a way of just letting the camera rest on one character for a very long time (without cutting angles) just so we see the way in which the character usually acts/moves. The dialogue was well-written and I think, true to life. The characters weren't always able to clearly articulate their needs and wants. There were a lot of "ums..", "well...", jumbled words, and silent moments in the dialogue, and I liked that because I think this is how most of us usually talk in real life. The film was an endearing mix of drama, romance, and humour (with none really overpowering the other) and was very well done. Another thing that really sold the film for me was the way it showed Japanese society and its norms, beliefs, and stigmas. For those who are interested in Japanese culture, this film is pretty good in giving you a sense of what living in Japan (both in the city and in the country) is like. Lastly, unlike "Alive" with its mediocre acting, "Hush!" had a strong cast with the woman in the film, Fujikura Asaka (played by Kataoka Reiko), really standing out in particular. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Kataoka-san also got an award for her role in the film...? At any rate, she was very good and she really made you feel for her character. I could go on and on about the film but I think I'll stop here. At any rate, I highly recommend the film - it's definitely a 9/10 in my book. ^_^ (And hey, on a side note, this film was also featured at Cannes Film Festival 2001 so that proves that the film has got to somewhat decent, right? ^_^) Please go check it out if you can. Current Mood:  artistic
Current Music: Hunter x Hunter OVA Soundtrack
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