New Generation Live 2020 Concert Review

 

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we were able to tune in online to a concert being live streamed from Japan presented by Lantis and Purple One Star called New Generation Live 2020. The initial stream occurred on November 26th aka Thanksgiving Day at 20:30 and ended at 22:30 (JST) [or from 3:30 to 5:30 PST]. The stream highlighted the "new generation" of Japanese artists in this two hour showcase featuring:

ARCANA PROJECT

Takao Sakuma

Kanako Takatsuki

Koutaro Nishiyama

Kaede Higuchi

Ai Furihata

Marina Horiuchi

MindaRyn

The concert was held on the website MixBox (which during non-events has a constant steam of music that you can listen to).

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ARCANA PROJECT

MATTHEW: When I started to look into who was performing that night/morning, a lot of the names that were listed I did not recognize except for Ai Furihata and Kanako Takatsuki and I only know them from one thing: Love Live Sunshine!! as the voices of Ruby and You respectively. I did like that this showcase had a wide variety of artists - a group in ARCANA PROJECT, solo female, solo male, someone who did covers of anime songs, and even a "Virtual Youtuber" that is catching on both in Japan and here in the United States.

Ai Furihata

The format was pretty straightforward - two songs from each performer then a short interview with the MC. For a showcase of this many artists, some I was able to get a feel for what kind of artist they want to ultimately be, what their overall vocal talent is, what type of music they want to perform (either something slow or quick and dance-worthy), and other tangibles. But some I wish I had more time to see in a longer set because with some before I had the chance to make a determination they were onto the interview and the next performer setting up in the background. Maybe if this wasn't a showcase and more of a traditional concerts with one to three performances in a longer set where I can get a better sense of those answers.

MindaRyn

One major concern that I have is that at first I could not access the link to the stream from the front page of MixBox. Wondering why I couldn't find a place to enter my serial number, I turned to the chat and found out that I had to change my time zone from PST to JST, reload the page, and only then I could find my way to the stream. I understand this is a Japanese stream but for international audiences this could be a major roadblock.

Overall, I had a good time waking up on Thanksgiving morning to watch this and I got to see what I can expect in the near future from Lantis and Purple One Star (a new music label under Bandai Namco Arts and Blue Sofa). With everything that is happening in our world right now, it was nice to at least see something that we can look forward to in the near future.

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NATE: With COVID ruining most of our plans this year from conventions to even our daily hangout with friends, there has to be a thing that can at least liven us up from this terrible year we’re having. Luckily, we were invited to check out this concert from Lantis and Purple One Star to see their singers rise up to become stars in J-Pop media. Hence their concert, New Generation Live 2020. 

Marina Horiuchi

The first thing that got me going to this is that this is most likely going to be my only concert to experience for 2020. Literally I had things planned up when it comes to concerts, especially one where we would have the CaliConBlog staff check out the FLOW concert in the summer, but this sort of fills the void. The New Generation Live 2020 concert showcased their artists in a two hour concert. What each artist would do is perform two songs and then the MC of the show will interview the artist afterwards. I was interested with all the upcoming artists they’ve got in their lineup, some I didn’t know like a youtuber named MindaLyn as well as a VTuber named Kaede Higuchi. But what really interested me was ARCANA PROJECT, a new girl group that debuted this year, Kanako Takatsuki who voiced You Wanatabe from Love Live Sunshine!, and Ai Furihara who voiced Ruby Kurosawa from the same show. Now as a Love Live fan, I was mostly happy to see the Love Live VAs perform but of course this is just more than them. This is a showcase for all upcoming artists signed on for Lantis. 

Kaede Higuchi

Now getting to the concert was going to be difficult nonetheless. The concert was supposed to be airing on November 26th at 20:30 JST, meaning that the concert was going to go live here at 3:30 in the morning! Pretty late in our area so I had to rely on my partner Matt to give me all the details about the concert. Luckily, the concert was available for us to check out at a later time which give me time for me to actually check the concert out. Although I had to make changes to my computer settings for me to be in the JST time zone for me to access the concert. Once all of this was configured, It’s time for the concert! 

Takao Sakuma

The 2 hour concert was pretty entertaining! I enjoyed the performances from Kanako and Ai as they performed their songs. It kind of is heartbreaking to hear them now go solo from when they began as members of Aqours but a new generation of Love Live is here and it’s the new Nijigasaki High girls. At least it makes me happy that some of the members are pursuing music after being with Aquors for so long. I’m really interested in MindaRyn after her performance on stage. I’ve never really heard of her but she is one of those artists who was found on YouTube doing performances of anisongs that got her to this gig which is a reflecting example for people to keep pursuing their dreams and never give up. Because one day, you can be like MindaRyn and can become a big star in the near future! Arcana Project interested me quite a bit as well with the group performing like an idol group. I’ve heard they’ve already been apart of singing opening songs for anime shows like Monster Girl Doctor and this performance makes me assume that they’ve got future roles ahead not just for openings and endings for anime but so much more! The V-Tuber, Kaede Higuchi, was an interesting one. Since she is a virtual artist, there was a screen for her as she was singing her songs. I know V-Tubers are becoming huge nowadays but I never expected to see a V-Tuber finally having their chance to have the spotlight on stage. I mean we’ve had them before like Miku Hatsune and Vocaloid but this just felt different somehow to me. Maybe it’s just because she’s just brand new, maybe it’s just how she was discovered, but no matter what the case is, she is now a singer under Lantis and she’s got fans so there’s that. Her performance wasn’t bad if only there was more during her performance. I mean you have a huge screen for special effects to have while she was performing but to no avail. Nonetheless, Kaede’s performance wasn’t bad and it seems the rise for V-Tubers to becoming notable J-Pop artists is starting to begin. And the rest of the concert wasn’t bad either, I just wasn’t too familiar with the rest of the artists that were performing but they gave it their all in this concert for new generation J-Pop artists and it all worked out in the end. 

Kanako Takatsuki

Koutaro Nishiyama

Overall, the concert was just something that I really needed: a concert that showcased really good J-pop music. Even if we were virtually part of the audience in this concert, it still is a great feeling to watch a live concert again. Sure it doesn’t have the hype of having so many fans surrounded around you cheering on for the artists and their great performances, but the feeling is still there. Hopefully soon, we will be back into concert halls and venues cheering on our favorite artists again. But with this pandemic still raging on, we don’t know for sure when that will happen. At least on this night, we were given a somewhat sense of what was.