Last week, the Japanese band SCANDAL made their triumphant return to North America after a few long years. New York's Playstation Theater played host to their first showing in the US followed by performances in California, Mexico and Texas. We were able to catch the San Francisco show at the Regency Ballroom which marked the first time SCANDAL has returned to San Francisco in approximately a decade. The tour is titled "Special Thanks" and also coincides with the tenth anniversary of their first US tour.

Distant Worlds and A New World performances are familiar names in the world of video games, and this year at Otakon 2018, they were the main musical performances. This year, we had the privilege to witness both of these performances in one weekend, led by Grammy Award Winner Arnie Roth and his son Eric Roth for their respective concerts. Not only that, they were accompanied by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu and performed many outstanding scores from the Final Fantasy series on Friday and Sunday afternoon.

On Friday, July 6, Anime Expo hosted the second of this year's Anisong World Matsuri concerts at Microsoft Theater. This one would be the Japan Super Live and composed of the lineup of Aimer, Yuki Kajiura, May'n, and Senketsu Girl Sayuri. We at t-ono.net had a few of our staff attending the concert and decided to hold a round table discussion with our thoughts. 

Wow. What a hell of a way to start Anime Expo 2018.

The Aquors concert on Day 0 was truly a once in a lifetime event that will likely never be replicated. If you've been living under a rock, Aquors is the hyper-popular group at the central focus of Love Live: Sunshine. This is the first time that Aquors and Love Live as a whole, has held a full, one man, overseas concert. For a lot of people, this was THE event to see at Anime Expo and I'd be hard-pressed to disagree. Anisong World Matsuri has quickly become a cornerstone event of Anime Expo and it is hard to imagine an AX without one.

Memorial Day weekend's Fanime convention would have something very special attached to it: the Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert - Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki. The Symphony Silicon Valley performed five sold-out shows over four days at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Mamoru Fujisawa, professionally known as Joe Hisaishi, has been the composer for almost every film written by Hayao Miyazaki with the exception of 1995's Whisper of the Heart. Hisaishi's career spans more than 40 years with almost half of them in service to Miyazaki. This concert serves as a showcase and celebration of his music which has been a staple of Studio Ghibli films.

In less than a week Kyary Pamyu Pamyu will make her return to America and one of those stops is in San Francisco. The last time she was here I missed out (a scheduling conflict involving ye olde San Diego Comic Con) but this time there's nothing to keep me from seeing this show.

This is a developing situation. We will give you updates as soon as they are available.

All may not well be in Babymetal land. At the beginning of the month, "BABYMETAL RECORDS" was officially formed, the band dropped a thrashing new single yesterday called "Distortion", and a new album based on the "THE CHOSEN SEVEN" concept looked to be the natural direction.  Everything was looking up for their US tour until tonight's opening concert in Kansas City which had one big problem: Yui is missing.