Our new heart-throbbing adventure is starting!
In this Event Report of mine, I shall be talking about the highlights that were happened recently during the Aqours EXTRA LoveLive! ~DREAMY CONCERT 2021~ live performance last December 29-30, 2021! In fact, this was just a tail of the lizard of their year-end Countdown LoveLive! live performance! At last, we could get to see the Aqours together once again, since last year!
Alright, let us start with the summary first! We shall be talking about the Day 2 performance, in which that was the only day that I had attended and watched!
SONGS SETLIST (DAY 2)
| Live Part | Song/Part |
|---|---|
| STAGE 1 | smile smile ship Start! (smile smile ship Start! costume) |
| Wake up, Challenger!! | |
| Dance with Minotaurus | |
| MC: Call and Responses | |
| JIMO-AI Dash! | |
| Bouken Type A, B, C!! | |
| Intermission: “Today’s Aqours” Voice Drama – Part 1 | |
| STAGE 2 | Aozora Jumping Heart (WHITE ISLAND costume) |
| Humming Friend | |
| Pops heart de Odorundamon! | |
| MC | |
| Mattete Ai no Uta | |
| Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM | |
| Intermission: “Today’s Aqours” Voice Drama – Part 2 | |
| STAGE 3 | Fantastic Departure! (Fantastic Departure! costume) |
| Deep Resonance | |
| MC | |
| Jump up HIGH!! | |
| Kokoro no Hane yo Kimi e Tondeke | |
| Intermisson: “Today’s Aqours” Voice Drama – Part 3 | |
| ENCORE STAGE | DREAMY COLOR |
| Announcements (Hatsune Miku collaboration) | |
| Ending Remarks | |
| FINAL STAGE | Yuuki wa doko ni? Kimi no mune ni! |
| Future flight |
SUMMARY
Though that there are no pictures or screenshots present here (only the embedded Tweets from the official source), this might contain minimal spoilers!
Finally, this is definitely a paid streaming of Aqours that I had attended and watched since last December 2020. This time around, Kanako Takatsuki (voices as Hanamaru Kunikida) is now present in this live performance! It is a fact that it’s a long story to tell that Kanako was totally absent in the previous live performances, which shall include the AZALEA unit lives.
For the summary, here it goes! Again, this might contain minimal spoilers, if you haven’t watched it yet.
At the start, just after their name cards appeared on the big screen, it begins when they performed smile smile ship Start! at the beginning. It was then followed by the other songs that appeared before in their previous LOST WORLD and WHITE ISLAND live performances last year. And then, they had previewed their costumes (smile smile ship Start! costumes) to the audience. Meanwhile, Kanako Takatsuki (I shall nickname her Takatsuking or Kin-chan) is really glad, and her fans are very happy seeing her perform on the stage once again, after a year.
The live part continues after their MC, having their songs, JIMO-AI Dash! and Bouken Type A, B, C!! being the last in their Stage 1 set. Afterward, their “Today’s Aqours” voice drama had ensued as an intermission.
In the Stage 2 set, they are wearing costumes that appeared before in their previous WHITE ISLAND countdown live, and five more songs had been performed live, which included “Humming Friend”, where its MV background came from the LoveLive! ALL STARS game. An MC has been made in between, just after the first three songs in the Stage 2 set. Afterwards, they performed “Mattete Ai no Uta”, as well as the return of the all-time favorite song of most fans of Aqours, the “Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM”. A voice drama has been ensued afterward, ending the Stage 2 set.
Stage 3 set has been ensued, and they are wearing their Fantastic Departure! costumes, and also performing the same song title mentioned. Deep Resonance was also performed, and an MC has been done afterward. Jump up HIGH!! (Appeared previously from their 5th Live) was also performed. This time, they are not riding on a moving carousel platform. And lastly, they had done “Kokoro no Hane yo Kimi e Tondeke!” song performance, which in fact, I had never heard this B-Side song before in their smile smile ship Start! album. The Encore Stage has ensued, just right after the last voice drama part.
They performed the DREAMY COLOR song in their featured costume, which is also their main feature song of this live concert event. They were impressed in performing that song for the first time, in their Extra LoveLive! live performance. And then, it was followed by some major announcements, in which it also reveals the two key visuals of their upcoming 6th Live Tour performance, which shall take place on February to March 2022.
Finally, they had performed the last two songs, which is named as the ending theme song of the Aqours Anime Season Two, and Future flight, which did appear also on their WHITE ISLAND live as their last song.
REVIEW
Alright, let’s head on to the review!
☀️#いっしょにAqours年末ライブ_Day2☀️#Aqours EXTRA LoveLive!
— ラブライブ！シリーズ公式 (@LoveLive_staff) December 30, 2021
DREAMY CONCERT 2021
2日間無事終了しました✨
会場と配信でご参加いただいた皆様ありがとうございました💐
明日はいよいよシリーズ年越しカウントダウンライブ🎆
Aqours9人、まだまだ元気いっぱいで駆け抜けます🎶#lovelive pic.twitter.com/f0t0uhRbxm
For the general review, Aqours is back as a whole! And they aren’t Aqours at all, if it happens that Kanako Takatsuki (Hanamaru Kunikida) isn’t appearing at all, just like last year, and in the previous AZALEA unit live shows. And then, Kin-chan has really improved her body shape, just a year or months after her absence. And she is still being the tallest among the other eight members.
We could finally get to see the smile smile ship Start! costumes used during this live performance. They were supposed to appear in the previous 5th Anniversary LoveLive!. But then, the series of cancellations due to the ongoing pandemic has totally shut them down. They even did the kuru-kuru (Japanese language for round or turn around) movements just to show and preview their costumes for us.
In the live parts, they had utilized the MVs from the LoveLive! ALL STARS game, and they integrated them along with their live show part performances (notably in Wake up, Challenger!! and Humming Friend songs). But then, there are still songs in their songs set list that don’t have yet an MV, where their Anime character counterparts are dancing on the screen. I hope that in their future lives, soon, almost all of their songs in the set would have an MV, whether coming from their animation PVs or from the ALL STARS game.
I am quite impressed that Aqours did perform some songs that appeared previously from their LOST WORLD and WHITE ISLAND live performances last year. And also, they had brought back some of our all-time favorites, which included Aozora Jumping Heart and Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM, in their songs set list. Finally, I am also hearing some songs that I had never seen or heard before, in which there could be at least only one, for me. That song is Kokoro no Hane yo Kimi e Tondeke, and it is a B-Side song from their 5th Anniversary Album, the smile smile ship Start!
For the intermission parts, there are at least three (3) of them, in which they are occuring at the end of each “Stages”. The voice drama is called as Today’s Aqours (きょうのAqours). If it happens that you are seeing or hearing them from the LoveLive! Series Official Channel on YouTube, it was introduced since October 29, 2021, starting with Chika Takami. You can check them out, if you got time! This voice drama is showing some still drawings of the Aqours characters, while dramatizing their real-life stories as voices along with the drawings!
For the announcements part, they had announced everything, which included the key visuals of their upcoming 6th Live, which shall take place around February to March 2022. The rest of these shall be highlighted soon on a separate post!
In my final review part, I am falling in love with their blue-and-white long dress costumes! During their DREAMY COLOR song performance, I could get to see them dancing in actual, as seen from their official MV on YouTube. Yeah, and that is so heart-throbbing, in actual! And finally, their last two songs are just a piece of cake, except on Yuuki wa doko ni? Kimi no mune ni!, in which it was previously used during their 3rd Live performance, or so! And Future flight is just basically a déjà vu song from their WHITE ISLAND Countdown live last year, 2020.
I am really glad that Kin-chan (Kanako Takatsuki) was able to perform this time around, along with the other members of Aqours. Without her, it won’t be the same “Aqours” that I used to know anymore in the past six years. And then, seeing them standing together in one stage makes me feel that they are just like a “family” to its fans and me, who are keeping to follow and support them through the years. They are still continuing and performing, so as long as their fans are just around and continuing to follow and support them.
THE END…?
And this wraps up their entire live performances in this year 2021, as Aqours, the flagship School Idol Group of the LoveLive! Sunshine!! Anime Series.
But then, that doesn’t really mean it’s over for them. In fact, we could still see their unforeseen future, where many possible upcoming projects may ensue — most probably after their upcoming 6th LoveLive! live performance!
Aqours shall return… In Aqours 6th LoveLive! Tour.
ABOUT AQOURS
Aqours (pronounced as “aqua” as in water) is a School Idol Group of the LoveLive! Series, namely for LoveLive! Sunshine!! Anime Series. They had debuted in the universe or series since October 7, 2015, with their first animation PV and single, titled as “Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiterukai?“
The current members of Aqours are as follows (In their official character ordering):
Anju Inami as Chika Takami
Rikako Aida as Riko Sakurauchi
Nanaka Suwa as Kanan Matsuura
Arisa Komiya as Dia Kurosawa
Shuka Saito as You Watanabe
Aika Kobayashi as Yoshiko Tsushima
Kanako Takatsuki as Hanamaru Kunikida
Aina Suzuki as Mari Ohara
Ai Furihata as Ruby KurosawaAqours has released over 50 different albums and singles, which also include the ones from their sub-units counterpart (namely as CYaRon!, AZALEA, and Guilty Kiss). Saint Snow, the rival School Idol Group of Aqours, is also included, with the first single album, Dazzling White Town.
Aqours has also done several major live shows, which included one-man live shows and fan meetings, under their School Idol Group name. This group has done at least over 10 major live show performances. Their very-first live performance was done since February 25 and 26, 2017, titled as “Aqours First LoveLive! ~Step ZERO to ONE~”.
ABOUT LOVELIVE! SUNSHINE!!
LoveLive! Sunshine!! (ラブライブ！サンシャイン!!) is an Anime Series — a second installment of the popular franchise, known as the LoveLive! Series. It debuted around July 2016 since its first episode. The series lasted for at least two seasons (Season Two debuted on October 2017), and lasting for at least 13 Episodes each.
And in January 2019, the movie, LoveLive! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow, has appeared in Japanese cinemas nationwide, and also on the overseas worldwide, just few months later after its premiere. The story of the movie takes place after the events happened in the Final Episode of the Anime’s Second Season.
This Anime Series has been re-run and re-streamed many times (either on their YouTube channel or other streaming platforms), not only due to popularity. But the sole purpose is they are usually making a ‘tie-up promotion’ of their upcoming projects, like live show performances (i.e. Guilty Kiss 2nd Live), and so on.
Chika Takami is just a sophomore schooler who studies at Uranohoshi Girls’ High School. Until one day, she saw a group of School Idols dancing on a stage via a jumbotron screen. She was fascinated with them, until she decided and attempted to form a club, in which she wanted to form a School Idol Group. And in order to achieve for that dream, she encountered various struggles and problems, along with her new members in her School Idol Club, named Riko and You. Can Chika be able to reach for that light, and be able to find the “path” that leads her and her friends to an unknown future? This is a story where they could search for their own “radiance” as School Idols.
About LoveLive! Series
The LoveLive! Series is a Japanese Anime multimedia project. This was produced by the collaborating companies, the Japanese Anime music label Lantis, animation studio Sunrise, and Dengeki G’s Magazine, a magazine by ASCII Media Works (KADOKAWA Group label).
This project began somewhere in 2010 and it starts as a multimedia project, where it introduces female high school characters who were grouped and formed a band together. This project was dubbed as the ‘School Idol Project’. The girls will produce music and singles, as well as making a full music animation video out of that music.
Cover Photo (Featured Image) used for this blog post report is coming from LoveLive! Series Official Twitter account. Image is slightly modified to adapt with the site’s viewing optimization.
All images used are for illustration purposes only. They are belonging to their respective owners and companies.
©2017 プロジェクトラブライブ！サンシャイン!! (Official Website)
