Megumi Hayashibara To Hold First Concert in the 30 Years of her Career

If you’ve heard about a voice actor causing a sensation over the Internet since the past weekend, it’s probably Megumi Hayashibara.

The veteran voice actor and singer who’s been active for over 30 years suddenly announced her first live concert on her own radio show last weekend.

Fans were shocked. The venue will be Nakano Sun Plaza which can hold 2,222 people (from Sun Plaza hall information page). Considering her work history and popularity, there’s no way it’s big enough for all the fans, and people are already worried about it.

The date is Sunday 11 June. It’s almost certain that there will be a fight for the tickets. The odds of getting one are very low.

Megumi Hayashibara, the Voice Actor Artist Pioneer

In 1986, Megumi Hayashibara made her debut as a voice actor playing a kindergarten child in the anime Maison Ikkoku. Since then, she’s been active in popular works for over 30 years.

Her most representative works are probably in:

Slayers as Lina Inverse
Neon Genesis Evangelion as Rei Ayanami
Detective Conan as Ai Haibara
Ranma ½ as Ranma Saotome (female)
Cowboy Bebop as Faye Valentine

She also works as a singer. She’s performed a lot of great songs mainly for the opening and ending themes of the works in which she acts.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people who are active as singers as well as voice actors, so-called voice actor artists. You could say she’s a pioneer.

Why Was the First Live Concert Announcement a Surprise?

Some people say that the first solo performance by Megumi Hayashibara, who has even been in the Oricon Top 10, is: ‘Like The Beatles’ first visit to Japan.’ They say that ‘it might truly be the chance of a lifetime, so fans have to see it at any cost.’

There are some people wondering why she decided her first performance to happen now even though she’s a veteran. She’s done some free mini live performances in the past, but hasn’t done any paid solo live performances.

「林原めぐみってライブやったことないの？」という若い人たちに説明すると、林原めぐみは過去一度として「有料の単独ライブ」を開催したことはありませんでした。
フェスへの参加を含めてもキンスパなど数回。
なお、ラジオの公開録音など、無料招待のミニライブを行ったことはあります。

— あーる・ヤマモト (@aaru_yamamoto) February 25, 2017

To younger people thinking: ‘Megumi Hayashibara hasn’t done live performances?’ Megumi Hayashibara has never done any paid solo performances in the past.
Including participating in festivals like KinSupa, she’s performed only a few times, plus some free mini live performances like public radio recordings.

That’s why the announcement of Megumi Hayashibara participating in King Super Live 2015, an anime song festival by King Records, the record company to which she belongs, was also a big surprise for fans.

Megumi Hayashibara has been active for a long time, so it’s expected that there will be a gathering of a wide age range of fans, from ones who know her works from back in the 80s and 90s to newer fans too.

林原めぐみファーストライブ
・エヴァ世代
・スレイヤーズ世代
・らんま1／2世代
・ポケモン世代
・名探偵コナン世代
他にも色々とありすぎて、つまりチケット入手がまず無理ということですわね

— ダージリン (@nekosen_saki01) February 25, 2017

Megumi Hayashibara first live concert
・Evangelion generation
・Slayers generation
・Ranma 1/2 generation
・Pokémon generation
・Detective Conan generation
and there are more, so that means getting a ticket is completely impossible.

That’s why people think that Nakano Sun Plaza with the capacity of a little more than 2,000 isn’t good enough. There are a lot of comments saying: Do it at Nippon Budokan…!

A Tribute Album From Megumi Hayashibara to the Late Ritsuko Okazaki

Furthermore, on Monday 27 February it was also announced that the singer will release a tribute album for the late Ritsuko Okazaki.

Ritsuko Okazaki wrote a lot of songs for Megumi Hayashibara like Sakura Saku, the theme song for Love Hina. Apparently, the tribute album will have cover songs re-recorded by Megumi Hayashibara.

The release date is Wednesday 3 May.

In 2015, Megumi Hayashibara reached her 25th year since her debut as a singer and released a BEST OF compilation album. What will happen to the first live performance which can only be described as ‘long-awaited’?