Japan: Random Live Electro-Pop Anime Music Party. Impressions

[Art Blade]

Just take a look. A minute or two. Or more.. It is amazing how they go to a "live" concert when almost all of what they see and hear is computerised. It is also amazing how all those many, many lights keep moving (the audience waving light-sticks). The dancers on the stage are projected anime figures but obviously someone had to choreograph all that and then had it motion-captured.

Watching the real dancers would be boring.. Manga / Anime / Virtual Reality / becomes reality, the audience is part of it, embedded in it. They're quite actively following the show. And it appears to be huge, like the size of a festival.

Modern Japan is a cultural and medial mix that's next to impossible to understand if you're a Gaikokujin ("foreign-country person")

We may not understand it but we still may find it fascinating 

[fragger]

A couple of minutes was about as much as I could stand That kind of electronic music grates on my nerves. I'm a bit of a boring old stodge when it comes to music - I like to hear it come out of musical instruments, not computers.

Same with dancing. I'm not a huge fan of dancing per se, but I do appreciate the effort, the poise and control, that goes into a good dance routine. If I'm going to watch it at all though I'd prefer to watch real people doing it. Somebody may indeed have done the actual choreography and dancing for the motion capture, but they're such bland moves. Admittedly, I didn't see a lot of it and I skipped ahead to see what else they may have done, but what I saw didn't impress me as dancing. After seeing those high-energy dancers the other night at that Glenn Miller show, the routines in this show look more like slow-motion capture was used No comparison.

To each their own. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it. A lot of effort has obviously gone into it and judging by the crowd size it's a huge deal to them, and if they're loving it and having a great time, there's certainly nothing wrong with that. It would bore the socks off me, though.

You are correct, Art - Japanese culture can be pretty mystifying to people outside of it. Frankly, I'm not terribly interested in trying to demystify it. It's not a culture that particularly draws my interest.

"Fascinating" isn't really the word to describe how I find this. More like "baffling". "Fascinating" implies that one can't tear one's self away from it. I can, with very little tearing required. But I stress, that's just my staid old self

Now here is some serious dancing (starts at 0:30)

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[Art Blade]

 

And alright, those "spoiler moves" are pretty damn good However, I am aware that there's a difference and I never said "the choreography and performance was stunning and absolutely outstanding." The fact that they don't show the dancers but instead, have their captured motions displayed in form of animated comic avatars, and that so many people came to watch that, that I find fascinating, as well as watching those people going "wild" with those light-sticks instead of dancing.. I mean, the music is pretty damn fast, I reckon 180 bpm or some such, a lot faster than common western pop music, they should be dancing like crazy but there they are, waving sticks..

Also, I'd never be a fan of that music 

[mandru]

Nice find Art.  I like it.  The technology behind the presentation is admirable even if the music is not exactly to my taste it still suits the typical anime based gaming sound.

The audience's wands are individually (or at least in groups) linked to a radio signal that coordinates the colors as the show moves between scenes so that people standing side by side may have different colors.

The tempo is fast so as to increase heart rates and drag the crowd along with the pageantry but when there's a sudden break in the pace it creates something like a moment of free fall and then you get the feeling of being snagged up and tossed into the next sequence.

  As a anime fan I want subtitles!

It would make it so I could follow the actual story and not have to interpret from my knowledge of anime tropes which are sometimes amusing (or possibly not they can be overused) cliches that are common plot devices within a genre.  In this video most easily recognized was the guy dancing with the body pillow with the image of a girl he adores or the dropping of a wooden bathhouse rinse tub on his head to indicate (in this video's case) the dashing of hopes.

Even an admired 2D character(s) becoming 3D (which this entire show is all about) is a commonly used trope.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Then there's this:



As Stephen Colbert says at the beginning "I'm not sure what I'm about to see?" but it is definitely different and not for everyone. I kinda like their music, it's great for cranking while driving on the highway with the windows down.

[mandru]

@ D_B  I've come across Baby Metal before and you know what?  At least they're having fun.

I mean, when you pay attention to the back up band even they are occasionally smiling while shredding and unlike the players in most metal videos not acting like they are already burning in hellfire. 

[Art Blade]

  yeah, cool and crazy

mandru, I admit I like the show in a way that I'm fascinated by it. Although I can't really explain why, I think the whole concept works. I wouldn't say I like the music nor would I say the choreography was outstanding yet everything combined, including the audience with those light sticks (thanks for explaining how that works, I was already wondering about how the heck everyone changed their light colours so.. homogeneously) -- that being said, it's so different from anything I'd seen before that it does attract me. At least I watched the entire show and popped in several times again.

[Art Blade]

I just went through that Baby Metal again. Although I'm not into Rock let alone Metal, I liked that. The costumes of the guys were.. amusing? In a way that it indeed, I too think they're actually having fun. The girls, typical their general appearance, I know modern pop-culture in Japan has always adored the school girl look, preferably white uniforms, and they turned that whole concept into something like gothic school girls  Also funny how they manage to have pop song girly voices and a happy tune blend with the hard core background music -- crazy mix 

[mandru]

The girls in Baby Meta are in fact dress in a fashion referred to as Gothic Lolita or simply Goth-Loli for short.

Maybe a man my age should be embarrassed I am familiar with that term. 

[Art Blade]

not at all consider yourself an "open-minded" and "well-informed" man, which is worth even more having reached a certain age

Definitely better than being a bitter old man going, "that nearly gave me a heart attack! I utterly condemn that kind of devilish temptation, one must not abandon oneself to vice! It must be abolished immediately!"

I'm glad you're not like that.

Hmm.. maybe not yet.

[Dweller_Benthos]

The live shows are pretty wild too, search them on youtube if you want to check out more.

[fragger]

Maybe a man my age should be embarrassed I am familiar with that term. 

Not at all, mate