Hatsuboshienbu

The IDOLM@STER 765Pro All Stars solo live in 2017 is called Hatsuboshi Enbu. That’s a mouthful. Notwithstanding the jittery that comes from witnessing another one of these, and how a bunch of the fandom speculate how every one of these is the last one of these, I went, as usual (kind of). This is actually my first 765Pro All Stars live, believe it or not, partly because they’ve not had once since the 9th anniversary tour in 2014. Well, I kind of had to go I guess.

Hatsuboshi Enbu (初星宴舞) loosely translates to the promenade of the first star, first star being a reference to some new year-y thing, as the live takes place literally the first weekend of the new year. Naturally the loot and theme of the show is new-years-y, the MC was kinda new-years-y, and they while there aren’t any new-years-y songs in IDOLM@STER really (they ain’t gonna perform Happy New Yeah, yeah?) they did whip out that wa-fu, Hatsuboshi mix of Utamas. I really want that song on MP3 or something…!

For some reason, I feel like an old cat at my first 765Pro All Star live, probably because I’ve seen all of them more than once at this point, and as recent as last October even. Even Azumin, who was at the launch events for the Chu2koi movie that weekend and not present at the live, felt more like an unfortunate afterthought than a sorely missed part of the IM@S family. I guess that’s okay, because we can focus congratulating Pon on her marriage? LOL.

Just going to keep it short since I have to drop that hot take on Winter 2018 animu still…? Check the set lists linked below and follow along, since I’ll just jump to songs that are remarked here.

• Day 1 setlist
• Day 2 setlist

C A L L BOOK pic.twitter.com/9ISWiCFaRb

— omo@KawaiiKon2024 (@omonomono) January 6, 2018

1 THE IDOLM@STER 初星-mix 765PRO ALLSTARS

This is a different arrangement both in dance and song, and it was nice. It’s basically marrying some fierce shimasen playing on top of Utamas’s already electric chords. The effects is almost subtle sometimes but quite memorable. It suits this live very well, in fact; a New Years spin on a classic. The flutes in the chorus, too, makes this super…wa fu.

5 トリプルAngel 下田麻美

I think this song was the best of the block for me. I love this song even just from casual listening and seeing it live adds a certain undeniably … seiyuu factor. By this point in the live I figured the whole block will be some based MA3 stuff, bracing myself for Zenryoku Idol…which didn’t happen, at least today.

8 LEMONADE 中村繪里子, たかはし智秋, 平田宏美

This might be my favorite song from the Master Primals, tied with Funny Logic? Not having Azumin I was wondering what we’ll get, but having Hirorin sub in is, uh, an upgrade. Sorry Azumin fans, but I loved this version of Lemonade too much. They used stand mics that popped up from the stage and this was really ace.

9 Funny Logic 仁後真耶子, 下田麻美

It ain’t Sweet Sweet Soul is what. That said it’s still quite fun with these two, as how things couldn’t be fun with these two amirite. Was just thinking to myself during this song how watching Nigochan dance is kind of a special IDOLM@STER charm that you can’t really get anywhere else.

11 addicted 原由実

One of my favorite Million Live solos. Always thought this was actually Takane’s better songs among her catalog.

12 Day of the future 長谷川明子

I was not expecting this, but I should have been prepared? This is a classic that came out of nowhere and it’s one of those moments where you’ve been a fan for like 5+ years and you finally got what you saw so many moons ago.

13 Next Life 沼倉愛美

Best Next Life ever. The dancing was at least on par with Hotel Moonside, so I was more than satisfied.

16 合言葉はスタートアップ！ レジェンドデイズ (沼倉愛美, 若林直美, 下田麻美, 釘宮理恵, 仁後真耶子)

I almost lost my stuff here. It made Hatsuboshi Enbu the best Million Live concert since Hotch Potch. Legendary song finally performed by actual cast is something that just doesn’t happen much in Million outside of release events. Actually, this song was kind of what people wanted out of Hotch Potch but did not get, so it is almost weird to get it here.

????????????? pic.twitter.com/jCWJhputGa

— ??? (@jinma84) January 6, 2018

17 Light Year Song 仁後真耶子, 平田宏美, 下田麻美, 沼倉愛美

The set really works with this song, complete with the shooting star effect. Makuhari Messe event hall has a domed roof so there was a planetarium effect going on. The crowd-facing lasers doubled as stars. Plus, it’s just a chill song too.

18 隣に… たかはし智秋

What the flying fffffffff. Also, Chiaking did this with no limiter, so you can tell the toll on her while she was belting it out.

21 Just be myself!! 今井麻美

OMG yet another god tier Million Live solo. Possibly my favorite Chihaya song now.

23 自分REST@RT 765PRO ALLSTARS

Some part of me in a primal way wanted this song, and when it comes on it just feels right.

General comments, part 1: My seats both days were towards the back, in A block stands. It meant I had a full view of the stage and most of the hall. It also meant I saw that one guy who UO’d for Tonari ni. It meant I didn’t miss out on the planetarium effect in Light Year Song. Somehow a lot of my fellow eventer friends also had seats in the stand A block, so I wasn’t far from a bunch of them. There was also a long line to view/photo the flower stands, much longer than the line to see up close the new official products (like all the new POPs). There weren’t a lot of flower stands, but more than Producer Meeting 2017.

We did uchiage in Akiba both days, and on Saturday it was at a place where the food and service was slightly better than our usual joint. Actually, I don’t know if that’s really true. The going price for a course-meal nomihoudai is about 3000/person in Akiba anywhere, and we just came under it a bit. It’s a course-meal nomihoudai because you had to get it if your group is too big.

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— Chris (@Kurotsuki) January 6, 2018

Originally I was going to live view day 2, but I came across a friendly P who extended his pair ticket to me since his RL friend didn’t want to go (???). It was a big surprise but I am also now eternally indebted to him. I guess making friends and other Producers is part of the fun at these things!

Day 2. We knew how day 1 went so how will day 2 surprise us? Let’s find out.

3 フラワーガール 原由実

This was one of my very first imas-based call-and-response experience back in SSA 2014, and hearing it again here just brought back a lot of memories for me. Daisuki Haramii!

5 全力アイドル 釘宮理恵

This was the song I called the day before and I was not fully ready. Just kind of ready. At least I was emotionally prepared to do the calls, not that I did it with a lot of vigor. I miss my Iori Ps!

8 ブルウ・スタア 平田宏美, 沼倉愛美

LOL this song. I’m glad it exists to make this particular pairing work vocally.

9 ゲンキトリッパー 仁後真耶子

It’s not Kiramekirari but I think it works in a similar way.

10 いっぱいいっぱい 若林直美

Probably the song that really broke the ice for day 2, between this and Nanairo Button. So first, there was the Ryuguu Komachi nod where Ritsuko introduces the Ryuguu unit as transition into 7iro. Then there’s the fact that this is Ippai Ippai where she made us sing like half the song. In which she commented herself later in MC.

11 七彩ボタン たかはし智秋, 釘宮理恵, 下田麻美

One of my favorite song-and-dance routines from IM@S 2, done live like this, is bliss.

12 ら♪ら♪ら♪わんだぁらんど 中村繪里子, 今井麻美, 仁後真耶子, 若林直美, 平田宏美

LOL this song was a ton of fun. Everyone got into it but I can tell some people were a little bit confused. Anyways, epic song finally performed.

13 オーバーマスター 長谷川明子, 原由実, 沼倉愛美

PF~!~!???? pic.twitter.com/19jnJbrREH

— ??? (@Reckgal__) January 15, 2018

LOL Overmaster OG. Yeah, they said in Aisute they would really like to do this song and they did (and I think the other callouts in Aisute got done too…). After 7iro I knew this was happening, and there was the extended instrumental lead-in to pump us up. Let Nunu’s SNS output do the talking, let’s just say.

14 迷走Mind 平田宏美

This was the one song on day 2 that made me super glad that I was able to be there. I felt like all these years of mild regret slowly come crumbling down for missing 9th when Hirorin did classics like this and Tears…

15 追憶のサンドグラス 長谷川明子

Damn Akki with all these Million songs. I love it. I guess she’s done it once for a release event but I’m just happy to hear it here.

16 Rebellion 沼倉愛美

Shinjitsu no Aka time. Too bad Kuro wasn’t sitting next to me. I got these King Blade branded URs, it’s nice because they have a unique shape so I can mix them with my UOs and tell it apart. The show had a perfect color switch, to the degree that some people switched on red too early almost. With a seat in the stands, you can see people with bandoliers with their lights on very well, so it is a different look than from the stage of course. Nu remarked that the switch was perfect, so hopefully we can see it on Bluray.

21 細氷 今井麻美

It’s hard to comment on this song, but Saihyou is the ultimate Chihaya song so it seemed apropos. We can make jokes about how certain songs are now sealed due to history and past epic-ness, but this is OK by me.

???????????????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/QOjG7RcwiC

— ???P (@nmop) January 6, 2018

MC and announcements: From my porous memories, there’s some remarkable stuff and some stuff now I firmly forgot. I already mentioned the congrats to Pon for her marriage. During day 2, there was a series of MC which the performers got to pick one new years wish and write it on an ema as if the characters would. I guess also to note along with that was before the live, there was a 3 week period where people can input online a form and send messages. A lot of them are recorded in the live pamphlet, as well as some statistics. Anyway, the ema picks were fun in a radio show recording kind of way, where the lucky “winners” can show themselves at the live if they made it there. Some of the selections were interesting in that it keeps on reflecting that the seiyuu themselves aren’t that keen on MC most of the time!

???????????CRIMSONLOVERS????#imas pic.twitter.com/hmGNFWJayS

— ???? (@tepo_tama) January 7, 2018

The MC from day 1 was more like a typical 765Pro live gag topic kind of thing, but this chemistry is just lols. However across both days I think some of the more emotional performers kept their stuff in check and shared some of their bigger items, like how everybody loves Hirorin and Kami (err NaohiroP?) and Mingos are just doing stuff they’re calling out last year.

The news from Day 1 was just the Tales SNS game is getting some Stella Stage collabs, and you can get outfits for some in-game characters. The news from Day 2 was the trailer for DLC pack 2 of Stella Stage, and two Theater Days updates. We all did calls during the special preview of RE@DY, of course. Now that I’ve had time with the Stella Stage outfits in Theater Days, it sure is…hardcore.

https://twitter.com/v_vgokinjo_/status/949988589269499904

On that note, both days we started with Kouhaku Ouen V in the form of a VTR, as the full hall did the calls to it. Yukiho lead the way into the segment, as a nice compromise as expected. The cheers really warmed things up for the start of the show.

Wrap up: My first 765Pro All Stars solo show was great, it was basically what I expected, and I still came away with some surprises. I don’t know if I’d say it’s a bucket list kind of thing, but within the niche of this niche fandom I think I got a few nuggets of experiences that I will carry with me for a long while.

I made this trip partly along with the goal of spending New Years in Japan, and hitting my first ket, but this was definitely the main attraction and it did not disappoint. I guess this means I’m not fully giving up on Producer Meeting 2018…? Time will tell.