Million Live 3rd Tour Believe My Dream Nagoya

If 2016 starts off like this, it might inflate my expectations for the rest of the year so much.

????3rd???????????????????????????????????????????????????…????????????????????????????????????????(???P) #imas_ml pic.twitter.com/sEBGnRevcR

— ???????????????????? (@imas_lantis) January 31, 2016

Rather than sleeping or writing this post I probably should write about how using jetlag to boost your aggressive eventer schedule, but I guess I had to give these feelings an outlet instead. Or sleep more than 5 hours after waking up at 2am the day before.

For something different, I am not going to walk the setlist and you guys can get more of a TL;DR that is concise. Well, no promises.

Million Live had a 2-day weekender event to celebrate its first anniversary (which we affectionally nicknamed Wanst). ML 2nd was a much more scaled-up version of the event, going from Nakano Sunplaza to Makuhari Event Hall. ML 3rd scales up even more, by adding to a linchpin Makuhari weekend with 5 other shows, starting with a 1-show live at the Nagoya Congress Centre this past Sunday and another 1-show live at Xebio Arena Sendai on February 7th. They would later on do a 2-show weekend in Osaka and another 1-show weekend at Fukuoka before Makuhari in mid-April.

Nagoya’s event was held in a proper theater with a 2nd and 3rd level seating at the back, all three levels setup with arena seating. My seat was in the second row, by the aisle, and overlooking from the third floor. It wasn’t the best view distance-wise, as I can’t really make out the performer’s expression, but at least it was positioned enough that I can see the projection behind the stage and take in all of the stage from my vision. The high angle view also means appreciating the ML3rd uniforms from its not-best face.

When the performers trotted out on stage, I already blew a gasket. The outfits were not, as they say, the most apply-tongue-to-surface (abbreviated “prpr”) sort of thing, but having a royal blue theme on white trims and embroidered gold setting, gives it a sort of a maid cafe/Anna Miller vibe if you also carve out the outfit with a pinafore cutout. ML’s show outfits have a very strong theme going on now across three types of outfits, not unlike a certain idol company if you ask me. And anyways, the large embroidered “M” set on those super wide, super short ties look adorable on the idolchangs.

?????????????????????????????????*:.?. o(???)o .?.:*???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/JDjyzkINBZ

— ???? (@Suwa_Ayaka) February 1, 2016

Let me go on the outfit just a bit more. The sleeves this time are a little more aggressive on the shoulders for those with shoulders showing. Yukiyosama’s, for example, has these double loops that shows the top of her shoulder but another one set below them. Ibuibu’s have these loops that evokes a floral, white tulips, sort of thing. For the lower body, as usual it does the ML short-shorts, high poofy skirts, or low poofy skirts thing. For the girls who had shorts, they also all had skirt parts to their shorts that slants over their right legs, except Machico whose skirt part doesn’t overlap with the pant legs. My vantage point isn’t great for it because I’m in the nosebleeds but it did make a couple optical perspective illusions where it felt like the left pant leg’s rim looked like a garter belt/ZR thing to the skirt rims.

https://twitter.com/kenpro_official/status/693743117439119360

Aimin’s black stockings are back again, with matching black garter belts. Swua wore her white stockings too, remaking this Wanst pair. This came into fun visual effects during Sirius… Unlike Wanst and 2nd, they put actually some effort into these, because Aimin’s has embroidered trims to match. Also why did I wrote 3 paragraphs when a few photos can do the job?

Anyways, let’s quickly run through the mental notes I have. You can peruse the setlist and performer list here. Unlike Wanst and 2nd, ML 3rd Nagoya didn’t have any intermission and it did not have an encore part. I guess they were short on time, so they say, so we just banged through the whole thing, punctuated with MC segments where you can rest. I think they structured it so that there are the same patterns as other IM@S lives: opening, opening MC, first long block, first block MC, first short block, second MC, cover corner, third MC, second long block, fourth MC, final block, fifth MC, and finally the last two group songs with final MC in the middle.

Overall the MCs were probably somewhat above average, as we started out pretty fast with in-character teasing and tsukkomi and more than a few digressions on topics related to their practice sessions and other outside items such as what they ate in Nagoya last night. Well, I guess in light of what other music acts talk about during MC it’s kind of normal. Inagawa Eri (which I can’t stop calling her Greentea because that’s her internet handle, who also goes by Rally) was having a lot of fun, constantly was in character when she could, which was a very playful Tamaki doing Tamaki faces. Very MVP worthy dance and song to match.

Also, given the small-room and tour nature of ML3rd Nagoya, there are some gung-ho crazy ML Ps in this hall (uh don’t look at me like that!) and we definitely were the most energetic and enthusiastic crowd Greentea had appeared in front of. Thanks SB69 for preparing this newbie seiyuu for Million Live 3rd!

I thought Watanabe Keiko overall this time has the best voice-to-song performance, and if you ignore the appearance of a 20-something woman doing a song and dance for a 12-year-old character it was rather convincing. Well, to the degree that it was in the same tune as the others.

They all did the Machico heso thing again. It was Pyon who touched her thigh instead this time.

One thing they did for ML3rd was set some characters to be “leaders” throughout the tour. In Nagoya it was up to Kana and Tsubasa to lead the team. That frees up Pyon for this live which was ton of fun as she tries to be more in-character and could afford be. This means she’s extra coquettish than before, jumping back and forth between otona charming and uh…did you know Yamazaki Haruka has a sister who’s an aspiring actress and a model? I don’t know her, but I get the feeling that Mirai is kind of Pyon’s respectful integration of that aspect, during the live format.

Kiritani Choucho is this healing-voice lady who turned into a freelance seiyuu as a newbie. Do you know what this means? I’m not going into it here but let’s just say Million Live and Miya probably mean a lot to her. So this was an aspect of ML 3rd tour that is sorta tongue-in-cheek-ly advertised when they first announced that it will tour the country and showcase all 37 seiyuu members. People like Chouchou and Keiko-neesan and other first-timers. Those who went to ML 2nd know what it meant to Yunkon and Kotorin, to Rikanee and Komachan. Well, she’s probably the best embodiment of this, so when she started to lose it on the first MC after Dreaming… Well, Dreaming is a very special songs for the Milim@s Ps out there because its role in 10th, and Milim@s Ps tend to be the DD eventer types… Anyway.

I happen to like Chouchou as Miya’s voice, and it was fun watching her do the freelance thing, even if it does make you worry. It was also rewarding to see a honest turnout of MiyaPs at Nagoya, because these people probably aren’t your average seibuta types. It’s such a pain to get into release events, which were the only two times she appeared on stage for ML, so this was great turnout for her.

So, on to the regulars. You can count on our Nagoya leaders Ibuki Kido and Machico to turn in a solid performance every time as they have done before. Ibuibu also feels like she’s 10 years older. One of us compared her to Asapon, and it does feel like she’s got that vibe. Is this what happens to child actresses when they get older LOL. I mean Ibuibu debuted as seiyuu when she was 14, so it’s about 5 years now just on that.

I thought about how to really frame those two. It’s not like they are normally slackers or inadequate of any sort as live performers in seiyuu events from the get go, so just praising them normally feels like it’s not quite right. If anything Kidochang’s strongest when she’s under the spotlight, so this is probably just another step in her personal story as a seiyuu in this day and age. Machico simply rocked it. I’m glad they “killed the dream” by recognizing it and put Airu in the pre-live setlist. Did you know during IM@S events they play some of their songs during the time leading up to the live and during intermissions? And those songs are never going to be in the concert set. So when right before the live the speakers started blaring Airu we were like, yep. One of the guys on the ground level even fell to the ground and it was like… LOL. Sigh.

Machico, unlike a lot of the crop of ML idols, does rock and heat and passion songs well. Tasking her as leader means she gets to lead songs like I Want, for example, or Standing Alive, and it’s got the punch and passionate furi to go with.

Yukiyosama is my personal favorite in this live, because she did her dances better than the last I’ve seen (2nd). While I couldn’t appreciate the legs-that-goes-on-forever because of the 3rd floor vantage point, her Jireru performance really anchored the whole thing to allow Chouchou and Rally pop. Jireru, by the way, had to be my favorite song of the show because it’s a mix of gaps. I wouldn’t say “moe” per se although that might be a good joke to ジレるハートに火をつけて… Well, think of it from the Miliraji event last year and add your imagination, let’s just say for now.

I don’t know what I can say about Suwa besides her PS4M@S-level Yayoi hair. It’s wonder-ho, as they say. Her Illumination solo was really something I wanted to see and I’m glad the opportunity was there. I sucked at the calls though… Well, she did do Start, and that was a very cute dance. During Sirius she and Aimin flanked Kidochang and the thigh-high pair often reminds me of each other. I guess there was also Suwa in Decided which reminds me of not just a girl desperately trying to be cool, but also this video.

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— ???? (@Suwa_Ayaka) February 1, 2016

Speaking of Decided, Miina probably out did Suwa. If you saw her during 2nd she did a commendable job with Dear… but I think she’s actually about the same level as Suwa when it comes to dancing. Maybe she’s got a little more precise muscle control than Suwa does, but at any rate Miina showed off a lot of good moves, at least ones befit a seiyuu idol. I thought her songs were also just unfairly better than the average, which helps at least in my eyes. Anyways, Decided is like the LTD Blue Symphony, except they could do the actual version right off the bat since there are no 765pros involved.

The one thing that’s curious is the way they handled the LTD songs that had a 765. In one case it was a substitute in Shinsou Mermaid (which is also a very cool song for Machico). That was what I expected going in, but it keeps the hope alive for some subversion. Some of the songs can be done solo I think…

Ahh so hype for G(heart)F.

If she wasn’t so awesome I might have picked Aimi over Yukiyosama as personal best. But I think she’s beyond pushing from behind when she roped us in with Overmaster. It was way too cool. To that end, I just want to say they really toned Aimin down so it’s not so eroi. I guess it’s a matter of team harmony since her Wanst performance was just so nosebleed-inducing. I think the 3rd outfits elevated everyone to her level, and she didn’t have to do anything way too sexy.

And I think that’s more or less a wrap on everybody. The ten performers was all over in terms of their backgrounds, experiences, talents and situation, but they came together well. I think maybe this is why I like Jireru so much because it’s like the one song that really showed off Chouchou and Rally to the extent the other songs didn’t.

I am so hype for Sendai because of Nagoya, and I don’t even know what to do with myself, LOL.

PS. For buppan I didn’t first train, rather, I just walked to the venue from my hotel nearby (20 minutes). They ended up doing a first-train line anyway so I was at the tail end of that. No big deal, ended up getting everything I wanted. The memorial set, which was limited to like a retarded 20-per-day count, sold out before I got to the counter, but everything else went fine. Some stuff did sell out pretty fast, like the event-specific towel and t-shirts. Sasuga IM@S Live.