~tour Miss CARMILA~ final
August 06, 2000
Akasaka Blitz (Tokyo)
 

We arrived early for the show and met in the plaza outside the subway station, by the statues. A lot of the fun of going to lives is getting to see the cosplayers and taking pictures, after all. ^_^ There were a LOT of fans that I recognized from the previous shows! I'd picked up my photos from Nagoya and Osaka earlier in the day (and been annoyed at the way I turned out in the pictures, as my extremely-heavy-for-normal-day-wear makeup appeared nonexistent next to the cosplayers who were wearing special stage-style makeup. -_-;), and gave copies to some of the cosplayers with whom I'd posed before. For some reason, quite a few people thought I was cosplaying Lillie, which kind of surprised me because I didn't think I resembled her in any way except for having blonde hair, greenish eyes, and a white dress. (Err... I guess that DOES sound like Lillie. But my hair is Kamijo-blonde, not Lillie-blonde, and the dress was a totally different style!) I had a new pair of shoes -- monster gal-platforms that I'd bought the night before in the underground warrens around the Shibuya station for 1000 yen. (about $9.00 US) I'd purchased them especially for the concert, because my American shoes were neither high nor comfortable enough for a Lareine show. The gal-platforms were 7 inches high and made of cork, and had almost no heel, so they were much better for standing in crowds. And they brought me up to 5'10", which is a good height for looking over people's heads. ^_^

Abe, Dada, and Masahiro from Velvet Eden were outside handing out flyers for their upcoming shows. All three had blonde hair, and Abe and Masahiro were wearing purple-accented clothes. We didn't recognize them until they gave us the flyers because at the time, they hadn't yet appeared in any magazines with the new look. Abe and Masahiro graciously posed for a picture with me. I wanted to pose with Dada, but he was moving about through the crowd and looking somehow intimidating and scary.

It was pretty chaotic trying to get inside. Akasaka Blitz holds about 1800-2000 people and is much larger than the Club Quattros. In Nagoya and Osaka, we'd lined up in ticket number order (which I think is pretty typical for small-to-medium size livehouses), but at the Blitz, there was a guy with a megaphone calling people in groups. There were hundreds of people milling about, and between the noise and the fact that the numbers were being called in Japanese (I'm very bad with numbers), I was afraid I'd miss my spot. When they finally called my number, I was so excited I ran to the door and toppled right over because I wasn't used to the monster platforms. -_-; I pulled something in my foot, and it was extremely swollen and sore for a week and a half. How do gals manage to get around in those things?! And how can Mana and Közi DANCE in them?!

For this show, I didn't even try to get close to the stage, instead choosing to stand near the front of the second tier in back. Most of the livehouses I went to in Japan have at least two stepped levels, so the people in back can see. So it's a good place to stand, if you can't get to the very first row. (3rd or 4th row is NOT good enough! Not unless you're tall to begin with and wearing heels, because so many visual fans wear platforms.) It's absolutely impossible to take notes if you're in the middle of the crowd -- Lareine fans pack themselves closer and push harder than any other fans I've ever encountered.

• The World of Romance:   they walked out in their white costumes while this was playing.
• Dir En Gray:   It looked like Kamijo kissed Mayu's neck during this song. I was too far back to see clearly, but my friends who were closer said he did...
• Solitude:   I was kind of surprised to see this in the live reports in both Shoxx and Vicious... ^^; It's completely missing from my notes. I guess this means it was so energetic and exciting that I spent the whole song jumping up and down waving my roses, and totally forgot to be responsible and take notes for the site. ^^;;; (I got all the others, so this song must have been really good!)
• Je t'aime:   As always, this song was GREAT! You can hear how good it sounds live on "Chantons l'amour", but it's a totally different experience to be there with an entire audience going crazy around you.
• Suna no Shiro de Nemuru Koibito:   no fanservice of any kind during this song. But I thought it was funny how when Kamijo moved from one side of the stage to the other, you could see all the heads and flowers follow him...
• gerbe:   Emiru was really bouncy during this song! So cute! Kamijo sang part of this to Machi. And his shirt was transparent by this time... After the song was over, Kamijo talked a bit about the ocean. He said something like "Lately I haven't been to the ocean -- that's why I'm so pale. Let's go to the ocean together!" And everybody started screaming.
• émeraude:   Emiru bounced all over the stage with his maracas rousing the crowd, and was really really cute. Kamijo and Machi did the usual dance.
• Drum solo:   Machi played this to the accompaniment of Mylene Farmer's song "l'horloge".
• ~interlude~   They played the "Chantons l'amour" music, and Kamijo came back onstage wearing the "Blue Romance" jacket (the long black velvet one with the blue and gold brocade trimming) and talked for a while about all the members who'd been in Lareine and were no more, ending with the current ones. Then he introduced the others, and they came back onstage one by one in their black costumes. He gave Mayu a high-five and said something about his birthday in Osaka. When Emiru came out, he gave him a high-five too, but they didn't quite get it and everybody was laughing. When Machi came out, they hugged.
• Hakumei:   They played this the same way they did in "Chantons l'amour", and Emiru blasted the crowd with his dry-ice contraption. I bet the people in front really needed the cool air by this point. ^^;
• Shiroi Ito:   This was really cool!
• Fuyu Tokyo:   Okay, I'll admit it, this was not originally one of my favorite songs. But it's SO awesome live! Emiru's bass was really loud, and it just rocked! Kamijo did the same hand movements he did in the PV. After the song was over, Kamijo talked for a bit. All I understood was "Today is the last live with the three members..." He asked something of the others, and Mayu answered quickly, Emiru played a few notes on his bass, and Machi actually said quite a bit. (But I don't know what)
• Métamorphose:   Kamijo and Emiru were looking at each other for a while during the first chorus. And Kamijo went over to Mayu at the usual time, and put his arm around him. At the end of the song, he stood out in front in the "do you love me?" pose, and all the flowers went up.
• Ano Hito no Aishita Hito nara:   This was really passionately and powerfully done. Kamijo put SO much emotion into his singing for this.
• fiançailles:   This was really loud, and really cool! Mayu's playing during the verses is really excellent live.
• Fleur:   Kamijo had his arm around Mayu during the intro solo. During the first verse, Emiru and Mayu were playing at each other. Kamijo took somebody's roses and was holding them. During the singalong part, Kamijo put his arm around Mayu and put the microphone in front of him, but Mayu bashfully shyed away from it. The entire crowd held their flowers up in the air for this, despite weary and aching arms. It was really lovely. I'll never forget the sight of all those flowers waving.
• Lillie Charlotte:   Mayu's guitar during this was a lot louder thanon the videos or album. They did the usual moves during this song. Machi was really cute and graceful. Afterwards, Kamijo said "Lights please!" (in English) and made some funny comments.
• Kaze no Yuuwaku:   They played this with a new intro, that's different from the one on the album. Kamijo was actually headbanging during a good part of this song. And Emiru and Mayu were running all over the stage. Kamijo ran over to Emiru, and with his arm around him, was headbanging. And of course there was a spotlight on each member during their solo part.
• Saikai no Hana:   A bunch of mylar streamers exploded from the ceiling at the beginning of this. (I got one) Kamijo took somebody's bouquet of red and blue roses, and climbed up on the drumstand, and attached them to the drumkit. Then he patted Machi on the shoulder, and went over to the front of the stage where Emiru and Mayu were standing together, and put his arms around them. They went offstage after this song.
• Romancia:   Only Kamijo was onstage for this song. It's one of my favorites, and it was really really beautiful. He sang the lyrics from the single version, not the one on "Blue Romance".
• fierté no umi to tomo ni kiyu:   The curtain at the back of the stage spread open to reveal a blue-lit backdrop. I think this song might have been louder than the others. (Actually, it seemed like at all the shows, the music got louder as it went on.) There wasn't much flower waving during this song -- I think this was because everybody was so moved. During the singing/Asphodel/Aoi Gen-ei part, Kamijo spoke the Asphodel part. (The others were on tape) This was the final song. At the end, they all gathered at the front of the stage, and with their hands clasped together, bowed. Emiru rose first, but he was on the left side, and I think Kamijo (who was between Machi and Mayu) held the others down for longer. Then Mayu, Emiru, and Machi walked offstage first, and Kamijo walked off last, alone. (That was so sad...)

After the show, I just hung around outside the livehouse for a while. The intimidating and sinister looking Dada was handing out flyers again, and I steeled myself to ask for an autograph and picture. Once I actually spoke to him, he seemed... really nice. ^_^ Not as friendly and outgoing as Abe, but I got the impression that this was just because he was kind of shy, not because he was haughty. I tried to tell him that there were many overseas Velvet Eden fans, but my Japanese is terrible and I don't think he understood.

The Blitz staff chased everybody away after a while, so they could close up. On the way to the subway station plaza, I posed for yet another picture with Mariko, the beautiful Kamijo cosplayer from Nagoya and Osaka. And... it was so weird... suddenly a whole bunch of people pulled out their cameras and started photographing us. ^^;;; I'd seen plenty of cosplayers getting photographed by random people, but was surprised to find myself in the middle of a Kodak moment. Must have been the Jeremie/Lillie thing. (Afterwards, I heard people talking about the "lovers".)

 

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