The second annual ANiUTa Live 2018: Anyupa!! took place on Sunday 13 May at the Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Chiba. The show was a special event packed with anisongs for every anime fan, sponsored by anisong streaming service AniUTa.
Popular anisong singers including i☆Ris, Maaya Uchida, fhána, Walkure, as well as the special guests Masayoshi Oishi and Yuiko Ohara, performed their songs passionately in front of 5000 fans.
fhána kicked off the event performing ‘Hello! My World!!’, the opening theme song of Knight’s & Magic and Märchen Mädchen‘s opening theme ‘Watashi no Tame no Monogatari ~My Uncompleted Story’ back-to-back. They gave a short greeting and then performed their third song, The Eccentric Family 2‘s ending theme ‘Moon River’.
fhána then performed their fourth song, ‘World Atlas’, which is the titular track from their third album, and finished their live with ‘Aozora no Rhapsody’ from Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. They delivered a great opening with Towana singing and dancing around the stage. The hall was already filled with feverish excitement.
The next act to perform was i☆Ris. When they appeared on stage, the audience members switched on their colorful glow sticks, illuminating the hall. ‘We won’t let the excitement cool down! Are you ready for us?’ They greeted the audience after their first song, ‘Dream Parade’ from PriPara, and heated up the atmosphere in the hall with their energetic and beautiful dancing.
Next, they sang ‘Changing Point’, the opening theme song of the TV anime Magical Girl Site, with cool and strong voices. After the practice session for the call and response, they performed ‘Realize!’ and ‘Memorial’ from PriPara. ‘That’s it from i☆Ris! Bye-chu-chu.’ They said goodbye in their own cute way and concluded their live performance.
It was time for the special guest artists. Yuiko Ohara appeared on stage first, wearing a white dress and holding a guitar. She performed ‘Iwanai Kedo Ne’, the opening theme to the TV anime Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san followed by ‘Hoshi wo Megureba’, the ending theme song of the TV anime Little Witch Academia, with her relaxed and cute voice, while the audience was a sea of blue penlights. The audience was enchanted by her innocent atmosphere and beautiful clear singing voice.
The second special guest was Masayoshi Oishi and he loosened up the audience with his usual small talk. He then went on to perform the catchy Kemono Friends opening ‘Youkoso Japari Park E’, which was also the most played song on ANiUTa in 2017. The audience seemed to be having a lot of fun. The next song was ‘Kimi Janakya Dame Mitai’, the opening theme song of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and he sang the song while altering its lyrics from “♪Kimi Ja Nakya Dame Mitai” (I think it has to be you) to “♪Anyupa ja Nakya Dame Mitai” (I think it has to be Anyupa).
Dancers appeared on stage and Oishi sang ‘Otomodachi Film’, the opening theme of the currently-airing Tada Never Falls in Love while dancing with the dancers with light steps. ‘Can I sing one more song?’, he asked the audience after the performance. Maaya Uchida appeared on stage and the two sang ‘Moratorium Dance Floor’ together. The song was released by Uchida but written and composed by Oishi. They left the stage after giving the audience an energy boost.
An unlikely cross-label show which is only possible with ANiUTa was featured in the next segment, ANiUTa Premium. In the segment, fhána covered ‘Seikan Hikou’ from Macross Frontier and i☆Ris covered ‘Taiyou Iwaku Moeyo Chaos’ from Haiyore! Nyaruko-san. The audience was excited to witness such a rare occasion.
Maaya Uchida took the stage with the MAAYA BAND. Wearing a deep-red dress, she passionately sang ‘Sousho Innocence’ from Akuma no Riddle with the intense performance illuminated with red light. She displayed her charm to the audience with her signature phrase, ‘I chose my way.’
She then performed ‘Karappo Capsule’, followed by ‘aventure bleu’ (from Takunomi.) and refreshed the atmosphere in the hall. Her next song was a new song titled ‘take you take me BANDWAGON’, which is from her newly-released second album. To the fans’ surprise, she then did a self-cover of ‘Hana Tsubomi Yumemiru Rapsodia ~Alma no Michibiki~’, a character song for Ranko Kanzaki (VA: Maaya Uchida) from The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls. The audience couldn’t suppress their excitement. She then sang her second single ‘Gimme! Revolution’ from Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. to wrap up her part of the concert.
The final performance was given by Walküre, the Tactical Music Unit from the TV anime Macross Delta. Surrounded by colorful glow sticks, they performed ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ and then ‘Ikenai Borderline’ and ‘Ichido Dake no Koi nara’ back-to-back. The audience was stunned by their overwhelming singing abilities. They sang their signature songs ‘Walküre wa Uragiranai’ and ‘Walküre ga Tomaranai’. The audience got really into it and it was a great pair of songs to finish their live with.
To wrap up the event, Kanako Takatsuki, who participated in Anyupa! last year as a member of Aqours, appeared on stage as a surprise guest. Yu Serizawa, one of the members of i☆Ris and co-host of an ANiUTa program on Nico Nico Douga with Takatsuki, joined her. The two announced the next activities of ANiUTa.
After the announcement, every performer reappeared on stage. They called ‘Anyu—’ and the audience responded with ‘Pa!!’ wrapping up the heated event with 29 songs performed by 6 groups of artists over the course of 3 hours. It was truly an anisong-packed event for anisong fans.
Some performers expressed their desire for the event to leave Japan and be performed around the world, ‘I wish we could have the same event overseas…’; MANGA.TOKYO has high hopes for a special anisong event for every anisong fan around the world someday.
The first season of the new year is just one month away from its finale. It was a great start with many amazing titles that made these past months worth the extra hours we put in front of our sets. Now, it is time for the cold wind to give way to the pink hues of the sakura tree and for the Winter 2018 season to give the anime baton to Spring 2018.
