Wednesday, November 17, 2010

SCANDAL @ Anime Festival Asia 2010 (AFA X)

Alright I know I should be studying for my finals right now, but I gotta write this out before its too late. The next post is likely to come after Christmas, which is around the time my exams end :((

Warning: Beware of excessive fanboyism.

All wonderful pictures credited to ken0601, from www.ani-culture.net, because my camera phone pictures were really bad.

To start off, AFA X was held on the 13th and 14th on November at Suntec Convention Centre. I didn't attend the past 2 AFAs - I was in India for overseas exercise in 2008 (which I wish I didn't go, because Quis were invited to perform, and had the chance to take photos with May'n!), and wasn't very interested in 2009.

But this round was different. Thanks to the amazing organisers of this years AFA X, SCANDAL were invited to perform for the "I love Anisong" concert!

Needless to say, I snapped up the tickets the minute they went on sale.

Fast forward to Thursday, 11 Nov. News had leaked that the performing guests of AFA were touching down at Changi Airport at 5pm, so I rushed down after class to meet up with a bunch of local SCANDAL fans at the airport, mostly members of SCANDAL-Heaven, an international forum.


First out of the blocks was May'n, AFA's loyal supporter for the past 3 years! She looked really sweet, and waved happily at us even though most of the fans there were waiting for SCANDAL.



and of course, SCANDAL followed soon after!





They looked really tired from the flight, but were all smiles and waved at us. They walked past us rather quickly though, smiling, nodding and waving, saying "arigatou!", but not before Rina took a glance at where me and Eugene were standing (he was holding the placard), acknowledged us with a slight nod and smile, before zipping off into a waiting van :D

First impressions of the girls in real life? Haruna looked pretty cute with glasses (she's really short!). Tomomi as well, and she looked really, really slim. Stick thin D: Rina looked really mature with the pony tail and that jacket of hers, while I didn't really notice Mami, maybe because of the mask.

And so that was it for the red carpet welcome.

Fast forward to Sunday, 14 Nov. Oh wait. Before that, on Saturday, I was preoccupied with project work so I didn't join the gang for the first day of AFA X, but I managed to spot a tweet by Mami (her iPhone's data plan works in Singapore!) about visiting the maid cafe in AFA, so I relayed the news to Eugene. And a few hours later he called back, sounding positively delirious. Apparently they had close contact with the girls at the maid cafe. I was feeling just a tinge of jealousy D:

Back to Sunday. We headed to the convention hall early to catch the screening of the Haruhi Suzumiya movie "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya". Great movie, even though I didn't understand the inside jokes (didn't watch the anime series beforehand). After the movie, I heard that SCANDAL were appearing on the mini stage so we bullcharged through the crowd towards the stage. And true enough, they were the judges for the Anisong karaoke competition!



I did pity the contestants slightly, because most the attention was on the judges, instead of the stage :P The last contestant was very good though, so good that the original singer of the song that she covered (Angela's Shangrila) came on stage to give support (Angela was coincidentally one of the guest performers as well).

We had a little surprise when SCANDAL's manager Eisuke and staff member came on stage to do a little cameo cover of Dragonball's opening song. The girls were having a fit laughing from their antics!



I think we were the only ones who recognised them, and when Eugene cheekily shouted "Eisuke kawaii!", the girls collapsed into yet another fit of laugher. I bet he's mightily pleased about that.

Team SCANDAL!



One of the guys managed to get Rina to wave at his video cam :D



What followed next was utter chaos, as the girls took their leave to go backstage. When walking past our camping spot (arguably the closest we could get to them), Tomomi and Rina slapped Eugene's outstretched hand. You can guess what happened next. The man was incoherent for the rest of the day.

We hung around the exhibits for awhile before the girls appeared again! This time it was at the handshake booth, where lucky winners could get a handshake with them as well as an autographed poster. I didn't win :(. Anyway, it was nice to have a nice clear view of the girls, and I could've sworn Tomomi looked at me in the eye and smiled on a couple of occasions

Since I've already been to a SCANDAL concert (refer here), I wasn't as pumped up as the rest of the guys. Still, I was pretty excited since they were on performing on our "home soil".

Angela were up first. I wasn't expecting much, but they were pretty good! The vocalist Atsuko has a beautiful powerful voice and it shone especially on their hit song "Shangri-la". Most of their songs were rather techno-esque, and didn't really click with me with the exception of "Shangri-la". But I was impressed most by the guitarist Katsu and his showmanship, doing crazy solos while swinging his guitar around his body - he literally flinged it around-the-world style. The only grouse I had was that his guitar was overpowered by the music track being played over the sound system.

After Angela left the stage, we were speculating if SCANDAL would be up next. And true enough, when the stage crew brought out Rina's signature pink Pearl drums, everyone went crazy. I was screaming at Tomomi's bass stack :P They took some time to set up, with their manage Eisuke getting the usual cat calls from us :D

And of course, when the girls took to the stage, there was this huge roar.

They kicked off with Everybody Say Yeah, and the fun started. They played mostly songs from their Temptation Box album, including Girlism, Aitai, Playboy part 2, Houkago 1 H, Hello! Hello!, and the kickass Hi-Hi-Hi. I was waiting for them to play that song, and when Haruna announced the title I was over the moon. The reason? Tomomi's awesome slap bass solo :D

Throughout the performance Tomomi was practically all over the place, jumping around, walking to and fro (especially to my side of the stage :D), dancing, headbanging and pretty much looking like she was having the most fun on stage. Haruna's voice lost a bit of power during Aitai - she was straining throughout the song - but otherwise she was excellent. And Mami did what she did best, striking epic guitar poses during her many solos and riffs.

Soundwise, they were tight, though not as tight as their HK concert, maybe because most of the songs were new. I think Rina missed a beat during Hello! Hello!, but she recovered pretty well. And there was a technical glitch with Tomomi's bass, but it was solved pretty quickly. Other than that, they delivered a fist-pumping performance!

And of course they did their signature songs Doll, Shoujo S and Shunkan Sentimental, the last of which really pumped up the crowd even though it was near the end of their performance. Everyone practically sang out the whole song together, it was pretty surreal.

Quotes of the day (during SCANDAL's MC)

#1 Haruna: "Next, bass.... TOMOMI!!"
Tomomi: "Hello!!!!......... Hello!!!!!......... Hello!!!!....... *whispers* I love uuuuu~"

#2 Tomomi: "We went to... Night Safari! Hippopotamus... very... great smell. I... die."

I nearly died laughing.

After SCANDAL's performance, I felt drained. Eugene looked dead while Kaito was staring into space.

Not long after, May'n came on stage. We were all absolutely lifeless, but I mustered up enough energy to at least wave the lightstick around.

Still, I was impressed by May'n's performance. She commanded the stage like a pro, and her vocals were very controlled and clear. I've always thought that her voice was one of the most unique around. Even during those impossibly high notes, her vocals came off as controlled and calm, not a hint of waver or near-screaming. She even danced in those crazy high-heeled boots! Its not surprising that she's crazily popular in Japan (and in Singapore too!). And when the intro of her signature song from Macross Frontier "Lion" started playing, I had goosebumps. I liked the song when I heard it on youtube, but hearing May'n sing it live was an entirely different experience.

Too bad she didn't perform one of my favourites,"Kimi shinitamou Koto Nakare", opening for the anime "Shangrila".

She did an encore of her new song, which was to complement a 3D movie/documentary about May'n to be screened in Japan (and maybe Singapore?). Man, a 3D documentary? That only proves how popular she is over there.

And with that, I conclude my AFA X experience. Awesome day.



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Ok I just wasted 2 hours typing this post. GG. There goes my plans for studying tonight.