So awesome, pictures won’t even load on KK. So you get a big red X as a substitute. (nah I’m just trying to avoid copyright issues)
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I’ve just finished watching the 2 Mizuki Nana concerts she held for the year of 2009. Live Fever series in January culminating in her return back to the BUDOKAN on the 25th of January and Live Diamond, held at the even BIGGER Seibu Dome on the 5th of July. Here’s a review expressed in 7 (NANA!!) reasons why awesomeness just oozes out of the box set. So get ready your blue, yellow and red glow sticks, a towel and other assorted merchandise and enjoy.
1. EPIC AMOUNT OF FOOTAGE
With over 8 hrs of concert footage and extras, this 5 DVD or 3 Blu-ray Disc boxset release is definitely worth the money. More than enough Nana to go around until her next concert series starting on Valentine’s Day 2010.
2. Stage and Costume Design
Getting to see Nana wear costumes ranging from sexy to cute to the totally outrageous, is such a blessing.
Stage designs are very elaborate. From a water fountain surrounding a rising platform for Nana to stand in to a fireman’s lift to get closer to the back audience to lots and lots of fire for sequences in Eternal Blaze to fireworks for Maria + Joker to laser shows to LED lighting, watching a Nana Live concert is truly a feast for the senses.
3. Cherry Boys
Not to be confused with Hobby Japan / Channel’s short story series about cross-dressing boys, Cherry Girls.
Cherry Boys is Nana’s backing band whenever she does a series of concerts. When Nana goes for a costume change (usually the very first time), they get to do a skit introducing themselves to the audience.
In Live Fever, one of the guitarists, Watanabe Itaru aka Itaruvich, pulls out a self-designed can of grapes (葡萄缶), making an obvious pun on the concert arena (武道館). Both are romanised into /budoukan/ for your information.
In Live Diamond, they decide to do a Sentai intro, and are known as the Ongaku Sentai Cherry Boys Seven (音楽戦隊チェリボゼブン), complete with cheesy theme song and damsel in distress (NANA!!!!).
Fun aside, these 7 provide all the music that Nana uses throughout the concerts, as well as keeping the performances from screeching to a halt when Nana goes for costume changes with such skits or extended endings to some of Nana’s songs.
4. Crowd Interaction
Other than the glow sticks and light batons spamming that goes on in Japanese concerts. It’s great to see how Nana interacts with the crowd during her MC sequences.
When the audience requests for Nana to do a turn, parading her current costume,(MAWATTE! MAWATTE!) she will initially appear to be reluctant to do so. Upon further prodding by the audience, she relents and says she’ll turn if the crowd will do a turn as well. In Live Fever, she first gets the audience in the main arena section, then those on the middle level seats and then those on the highest seats to turn.In Live Diamond, the sequence is the main arena (the baseball field), those behind the first base line, those behind the 3rd base line, and finally those behind the home plate. It’s very cute to see the audience going along with her demands.
After all that, Nana does one turn. Then the audience goes shouting one more time (MOU IKKAI!!!!!!). So on and so forth.
Another MC sequence later on in both concerts has her doing some announcements, here’s a brief transcribe of what went on in Live Fever:
Nana: I have an announcement! (Crowd goes nuts)
Nana: Mizuki Nana! (Crowd goes HEH?!?!)
Nana: is! (Crowd goes HEH?!?!)
Nana: releasing a new album!!! (referring to the as then unreleased and untitled Ultimate Diamond) (Crowd goes nuts)
Then the crowd spontaneously breaks out in cheers of BANZAI! BANZAI!
Then she goes on to announce that she’s doing a live performance at the Seibu Dome in July. Pretty much the same thing as above happens.
In Live Diamond she announces she’d be releasing her 20th Single (referring to MUGEN), same thing happens.
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The infectious behaviour of the audience even affects me sitting in front of my computer. I was shouting along to MAWATTE!!! and MOU IKKAI!!!
I can only imagine what it’s like to be at an actual Nana live concert. I wish one day I’d be able to go.
5. Live Music
The benefit of performing live is that you get to play around with the music. Re-arranging the music to give a new way of presenting the same song. In Nana’s Acoustic Corner in Live Diamond, Nana delivers 3 songs with music WAY WAY different from their studio recordings.
The one song I did not expect to get the acoustic treatment was the uber OP to Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, INNOCENT STARTER. This song was flanked by the 2 guitarists, Itaruvich and Kenny, playing the acoustic guitar. I now have a new way to enjoy my favourite anisong.
The other 2 songs to get the acoustic treatment are NAKED FEELS (off the album Hybrid Universe) and SHIN AI (White Album OP), and they hold their own in quality compared to the studio recording versions.
For the remaining songs, they receive subtle or major changes depending on the members comprising Cherry Boys (they do vary here and there depending on requirements). Live Diamond includes a saxophone player in Fujioka Masahiro, who does a wonderful job in making everything so sooooooooo good.
Also, almost all the songs she has currently done for the Nanoha series were performed, except for Pray, the insert song in StrikerS, when she (as Fate) kicks some ass with Shin Sonic form.
6. EPIC CREDITS ROLLS (yes you’re not reading this wrong)
Why the credits when people usually don’t even bother watching?
Well first off all the music that plays during the credits roll, are re-arranged versions of Discotheque and Miracle Flight, the opening songs for Live Fever and Diamond respectively. Both give off the retro, 8-bit kind of feeling. Live Fever’s credits have Nana performing various poses and pointing in a stop-motion capture-ish slideshow. Live Diamond has Nana going to the batting cage to hit some baseballs, a feat in which she fails horribly, but that totally just ups her MOE factor.
7. NANA
Lastly, the glue which holds them all together… NANA!!!!!!!!!
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This brings to end my review of sorts. See you all in the new year.
^_^
3 Responses to “7 reasons why Live Diamond x Fever is awesome”
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I think your glue held something else altogether… 8D *runs*
Nana is a great singer and performer, not to mention all-rounded (seiyuu, singer, ‘idol’)
sentinel011´s last blog ..Anime blogging – why and for what, exactly?
WHAT?! NO?! I DON’T DO THAT SORT OF THING WHEN WATCHING HER PERFORM.
WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN….
chibihien´s last blog ..7 reasons why Live Diamond x Fever is awesome
Hey,I really appreciate about live fever’s credit,especially the background music,Remix ver. of Discotheque~~~~
I hope someone can upload this version of Discotheque MP3 later on.
In these two concerts,I think Nana had performed very good.And you are right,credit and making of are very interseting.
Suoport and love Nana Mizuki Forever~~777777