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.
TWICE was announced to appear at this year's 68th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.
Kōhaku Uta Gassen is one of Japan's top-rated musical event held every year on New Year's Eve. The musical event consists of two team, the red team and white team competing against each other. This year, TWICE will be on the red team alongside returning performers Perfume, AKB48, and many more. TWICE's appearance will be first K-pop group to ever perform at Kōhaku since 2011.
68th Kōhaku Uta Gassen will air on December 31 from 19:15 JST to 23:45 JST.
Don't miss TWICE's first debut at Kōhaku!
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.
In less than two months Miku Expo will begin its journey through North America. Those of you in Europe were resigned to watch again from a distance. Your patience has been rewarded: Miku Expo Europe has been officially announced with shows in France, Germany, and the UK!
Looking forward to the Love Live Aquors concert at Anime Expo? Need a quick fix before that? How about checking out the Hakodate Unit Carnival?
Popular Japanese all-female rock band SCANDAL will be hitting American shores this September. It's been a long three years since they last graced our shores with a tour but that will be fixed in a few months. Their newest album HONEY follows previous album YELLOW and continues the trend of their evolving sound that started more than twelve years ago.
In just over a week the "Samurai Guitarist" Miyavi will begin the American section of his world tour. It's been just over a year since we last saw him as part of the Asia on Tour showcase and this time he's going solo.
Please join us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hikaru Utada!
2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Hikaru Utada’s debut and has kicked off by adding two brand new hits under her belt! “Play A Love Song”, - a commercial song for the TV commercial of <Suntory Minami-Alps Sparkling> is now digitally released as the first single of this special anniversary year.Look out for her second digital single due on May 30th, “Hatsukoi”, which she specifically wrote for a popular TV drama in Japan, Hana Nochi Hare – Hanadan Next Season as its “image song”.
All-Star Lineup of Nine Japanese Anime Song Performers Will Take Over L.A.’s Microsoft Theater on July 4th, 6th, and 7th.
Anisong World Matsuri (AWM) and Anime Expo 2018 (AX) have announced the complete lineup of anisong artists for this year’s live concert series at downtown Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater. The three-day music festival will be held in conjunction with AX 2018, the largest celebration of Japanese pop culture in North America, held July 4 – July 8 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The single and music video for “Moon & Bouquet” is currently available worldwide. “Moon & Bouquet” serves as an opening song to the beginning of a second chapter in Sayuri’s career, making it a must-listen. Sayuri made a groundbreaking debut with her single “Mikazuki” in August of 2015. Her debut album, Mikazuki no Koukai topped Japan’s Oricon daily album chart the day it came out, and charted #3 on the Oricon weekly album chart. Her music and actions have gained a strong fan base mainly amongst people in their 10’s-20’s.