On 11/26/20, Lantis and Purple One Star teamed up to help expose the world to some of their newest artists via the New Generation LIVE. A few are actually veterans but with a new presentation. Kanako Takatsuki (Love Live! Sunshine!!), Marina Horiuchi (Sakura Gakuin), and Ai Furihata (Love Live! Sunshine!!) were some of those. If you had heard of them you were probably watching specifically to see them. You can count the others as a bonus if you'd like but they are much more than that. They are all part of the new generation of anisong talent and this is one of the best ways they could have performed. Getting people to see a new artist's concert can be difficult at the best of times and right now is downright impossible. A stream? Perfect.
All photos courtesy Lantis
Things had to move at a lightning-fast pace given that there were two hours to fit eight artists. There was only enough time for two songs each plus a little bit of Q&A. I'll be going over them one-by-one in the order they performed in.
The first act should be familiar to many people. Ai Furihata, better known to many fans as Ruby Kurosawa from Love Live! Sunshine!!'s Aqours. It's been a good six years since Aqours first came onto the scene and there's a passing of the torch going on. While the newest Love Live! generation, the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, has come to the forefront, their predecessors in Aqours are still actively performing even if their storyline saga may have come to a close. Some of the girls, like Ai, have even started solo careers.
Ai's style can be described as one thing: City Pop, and she had an equally 80s-esque vibe to her outfit. Even the art style of her mini-albums summons imagery of the era. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and wholeheartedly recommend her music (I do admit to being a fan of Europe and Journey so I might be a little biased). The music, down to the keyboard synths and guitar tuning, absolutely screams the 80s.
Both of Furihata's songs, Poolside Cocktail and CITY, are from her first mini-album, "Moonrise," which was released in October. A second mini-album titled "Makeup" will be released right before Christmas. For those in Japan, Furihata will perform live in February 2021 on Billboard Live TOKYO. Starting in April 2021 she'll be having a tour throughout the various Zepp venues.
The next artist was Marina Horiuchi. Formerly of the idol group Sakura Gakuin, she graduated in 2014 (in Sakura Gakuin you age-out upon finishing ninth grade, which the final year of Japanese compulsory education). In the meantime, she went to and graduated high school and is currently attending university. Industry-wise, she didn't have the biggest presence. For a few years, it seems like she might transition out of the industry completely. Come 2018 and she started appearing in more programs and works.
Marina's two songs were Nano-Hana and Welcome to Nanoland. It's my guess that they are part of a concept album of sorts but I'd have to hear more of the album to know for sure. Doing a quick analysis of Nano-Hana's lyrics lead me to believe that she might be talking about herself and the time where she was absent from the industry: "The world is the same as yesterday / At this rate I'll wither away / Without anyone noticing / I want to fly / I don't want to give up / I can't enter the wide-open sky [...] I know, but I can't fly" and "I wish I could believe in my heart but I keep getting lost." Wanting to sing yet being unable to find that stage must have been a trying time in her life.
She rebounds in Welcome to Nanoland where the tone is much happier. During one part she says that singing is her never-ending dream. By the time the chorus kicks in she's done a complete 180 from the serious tone of Nano-Hana: "It's my music / Not fantasy / You and me / Let's sing a song / Lalala / Welcome to Nanoland." Marina has always been known for her quirky happiness and this is more like the Marina fans love.
Her debut album, "Nano Story," will be released in March 2021. Two singles, Nano Hana and Kurappo no Watashi, will be released in January and February, respectively.
The six-girl unit ARCANA PROJECT followed. As mentioned in the preview article, they are based on tarot cards. The group is the product of the joint competition held by Lantis and DEARSTAGE. DEARSTAGE is a venue in Akihabara where indie idols can perform and has even given birth to professional units such as Denpagumi, Inc.
ARCANA PROJECT's debut album "ACE of CUPS" was released in January but due to circumstances, they have not been able to do proper promotions for it. They do stream on the live streaming platform LINE LIVE as a substitute. Tonight they performed the songs Campanella Hibiku Sora de and Hitori Gatari. The former is the opening theme for the anime Monster Girl Doctor and the latter is a b-side from that single. Their singing will be featured in the ending theme for the anime Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi this coming January.
Takao Sakuma, known by the name of takao, is a singer and voice actor. Earlier this year it was announced that he would sing the opening theme for the anime Skate-Leading Stars. That anime will feature boys competitive figure skating and premieres in early January. He also participates in the mixed-media project Futsal Boys as the voice of Nozomi Koumori, a member of the Momomi Academy High School futsal team. Takao sang CHASE THE CORE and LIP. Both are from the upcoming single which will be released in mid-January. This is takao's solo debut single.
If you recognize him that's not a mistake: he was previously the vocalist and primary lyricist for the band Fo'xTails between 2015 and their disbandment in 2018. Fo'xtails contributed songs for the anime Kuroko no Basuke, Junjo Romantica, Battle Spirits, Dimension W, Handa-kun, Chronos Ruler, and Shokugeki no Soma. takao's poppy solo music contrasts quite a bit from the hard rock of Fo'xtails but it's a little easier to do on his own.
MindaRyn, real name, Natcha Pongsupanee, is someone you might remember from the Tokyo International Music Market streams from early November. Hailing from Thailand, MindaRyn inherited a love of Japanese culture from her father. She utilized anisongs as a way to practice her Japanese and began a YouTube channel in 2015 where she uploaded videos of her singing cover songs. As of this article she has over 900,000 subscribers and still regularly releases content. Earlier this year, MindaRyn participated in the Thai dubbing for the Digimon Adventure movie. She's performed all across Asia including Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. The leading song of the night, BLUE ROSE knows, was released in mid-November and is the ending theme for the anime Kamitachi ni Hirowareta Otoko (known as By the Grace of the Gods in English). Her second song, START, is also on that single. She exudes energy and her upbeat stage performance is sure to win you over.
MindaRyn is an example of what you can do if you put your mind to it and stick at it. She didn't start by being world-famous but thanks to her work ethic and enough practice she's fulfilled one of her dreams. She used to be the one doing covers and now she's producing her own original songs.
One of the performances was distinctly different from the others. Kaede Higuchi is what is known as a Virtual YouTuber, or Vtuber. A Virtual YouTuber is a digital existence who streams on platforms such as YouTube or NicoNico Douga and chats with fans, plays video games, and sings. Many of them have fantastical existences like being part-dragon, a grim reaper, a mystical fox, a demon, or any number of things. Kaede, however, is just your run of the mill Japanese high schooler.
Kaede is part of Nijisanji which is one of the oldest and biggest streaming groups. She was one of Nijisanji's first wave of streamers. She can be a little hotblooded as seen in her video game playthroughs. She's got a bit of a mouth and swears like a sailor, which has led to a bit of trouble in the past. That just makes her all the more endearing.
A large screen was erected on stage and Kaede was projected onto that. She performed her major debut single MARBLE as well as one of her newest, Answer Song. On a side note, Answer Song's music video was just released and features an impressive amount of 3D match moving (combining 3D with real footage). Her new album, "AIM," will be released in mid-December and includes both songs.
Vtuber mocap tracking has advanced quite a bit over the last few years. Kaede's performance tonight had a lot more movement than her first live performance in January 2019. Back then, it actually looked a little awkward as the tracking was primarily focused on the positions of her arms and feet while leaving the torso more or less static. People don't move just their arms and legs; the torso helps keep balance with the limbs by moving to and fro. So, on that front, things were much improved. Many mocap performances still suffer from a bit of sameness or lack of overall movement but that might be from the fact that they're performing while being suspended in a finite space.
Koutarou Nishiyama is a singer and voice actor. His work can be seen in anime like Haikyu!!, Ensemble Stars, TsukiPro, idolish7, and many others. In 2018 he won the Best New Actor Award at the 12th Seiyuu Awards. Koutarou did not perform on stage like the other artists but instead sent in a few videos for broadcast.
Koutarou has sung quite a bit as part of his duties in his various roles but until now has not done much independently from those preexisting roles. He made his major-label debut under Lantis with a mini-album titled "CITY." The song Madoroki no Stella was used as the ending song for the Japanese TV show "King's Brunch." Koutarou wrote three of the six songs on the album including the second song that he performed, Tobikiri no Yoru wa Koko ni Aru. In interviews, he has said that his aim was to help distill the essence of a fun night with friends and I think he succeeded. During the post-performance Q&A segment, he said his favorite time of day is 7PM because work is over, you get to meet up with your friends and loved ones, and go and have fun. I can't argue with that. Getting off work is the best feeling ever.
The final artist of the night was Kanako Takatsuki, also known as "King." She's the actress behind Hanamaru Kunikida from Love Live! Sunshine!!. As mentioned previously, Love Live! Sunshine!! is approaching its twilight phase and the girls are now breaking out into side projects and setting up for a post-Love Live career. Kanako is a member of the singing and dance group BlooDye which acts in support of Mamoru Oshii's newest project, Vlad Love. It's a slapstick comedy and while that sounds a little odd compared to some of the other things Oshii is known for (Jinroh and Ghost in the Shell, amongst others) he did get his big break with the love comedy Urusei Yatsura towards the beginning of his career. Vlad Love was originally set to air in April but was delayed until October. It was then delayed again, this time with an unspecified new date.
Kanako sang the songs Anti world and Aishiteru wa gram? Anti world is the opening theme for the currently airing anime I'm Standing on One Million Lives, which is based on the manga of the same name. Aishiteru wa gram? is the third song on that OP single and contrasts Anti world by being more jazzy/bluesy than its counterpart. Kanako also voices one of the characters in the anime alongside fellow singer and seiyuu Ai Furihata.
She finished off by plugging the upcoming Animax Music 2021 Online supported by U-NEXT. That festival will be held at the very end of January on the 30th and 31st. Currently listed artists for day one include OxT, Tomori Kusunoki, ZAQ, TRUE, Shugo Nakamura, H-el-ical //, and PENGUIN RESEARCH. Day two will include GRANRODEO, Konomi Suzuki, Azusa Tadokoro, Miyu Tomita, Nano, Morfonica, Yanaginagi, and of course, Kanako Takatsuki. Tickets for the festival are 4700 yen ($45.12 at time of writing).
I do have one note about MixBox, which is the platform that Lantis and Purple One Star selected for this concert. I consider myself able to figure problems out but even some things are outside of my scope. This was very close to being one of them. It was a bit of an undertaking to be able to watch this live concert and that's with half of the process already completed and code in hand. Someone who isn't used to buying things in Japan from overseas (you need a Japanese address) or navigating Japanese websites would have had endless amounts of trouble. The last pitfall was especially contentious; if you did not have your computer's time set to 8PM JST you flat-out would not have been able to watch the concert as the code redemption box will never appear. This is not noted anywhere in any documentation. Without the timely assistance of a random person in a chatbox, I would have given up. Once you get to that code redemption box things went off without a hitch but there were numerous showstoppers that I can see a normal person falling prey to. MixBox itself is nice; the site functions as a free streaming music player when not being used for concerts. Naturally, a lot of songs are Lantis-based but that shouldn't hold you back.
Now besides that, New Generation LIVE 2020 was a success. I found a couple more acts that I'll be checking out on top of the ones I already knew. They bookended the event with two big names and that worked quite well. Fans of theirs would naturally watch the rest of the event. I hope that New Generation Live continues to be something that is streamed even once the world's condition improves and that they make it a little easier to watch for those overseas. I'm looking forward to next year's event.
Thank you to Lantis for the opportunity.