March 25, 2005

By Dave Garcia

Houston, TX - I must confess, I was not expecting much from a jpop performance at an anime convention. In the months before the concert, I kept tabs on the Con’s forums which had minimal activity around the musical guests. Sure there were the usual demands for the obscurest of Japan’s underground independent acts – those fans always are the most vocal, and all the while, very little buzz about Kumi Koda. The only clue of the strong demand for jpop came from word that Ushicon (who first hosted Kumi Koda in January of 2004) had no jpop guest this year because they simply couldn’t handle the crowd.

Nevertheless, KamikazeCon was very well prepared with a large venue, a professionally laid out stage, complete with lighting and properly “flown” speaker assemblies. As if that were not enough, the 5 foot high stage was flanked with two 10 foot video screens that streamed close-ups from the stage to the 1,500 seats. Very impressive for a convention’s first year.

After obligatory announcements, Kumi’s opening act, Kumiko Kato, gave an outstanding performance. How outstanding? Good enough to deserve it’s own review! With the audience still riding high in Kumiko’s afterglow, illuminated cell phones began to wave overhead. And yes, being the crowd that this was, there were a few PSPs & DSs in the mix as well.

Kumi’s standard dance ensomble (featured in most of her music videos) took to the stage first with her intro track to her latest album Secret, Get Down. A black-shirted Japanese B-Boy flung out to the stage with a triple roundoff into a flip. He was then joined by two other dancers with accompanying ladies who all gave a stellar exposition. Sure, we’ve all seen dancers dance, but I’ve never seen dancers FLY until then.
Riding on that momentum, Kumi Koda pounced on stage with her dancers to the opening of her theme to Cutie Honey — a perfect fit for an anime convention. The audience responded with impressive intensity that could only be rivaled by Kumi’s on-stage presence.

Kumi’s dancing was just as amazing on stage as it is in her videos. She later said her favorite sport was dancing – and it definatly showed. I was actually a bit surprised that Kumi did not lip-sync. After all, since she is well known for her dancing as well as her powerful voice, usually one will yield to the other. Kumi held back neither – no compromises. She kept the intensity going with introducing “a song about me – Selfish,” she said with a playful laugh.

In her press conference, Kumi mentioned how she felt she felt the language barrier was not significant when performing to American audiences. “American audiences … don’t really care about it as long as the music is good. And that makes me feel really happy.” With the audience still on it’s feet, this performance was a perfect example of that.

Without much warning Kumi then transitioned into a restful pace with the ballads Kiseki and Hands. It was a stark contrast, and yeah there were a few yawns in the crowd.

Not soon enough, the audience awoke to themselves singing 1000 no Kotoba (which everyone seemed to know from the Final Fantasy X-2 Soundtrack.)

Then her dancers reappeared while Kumi donned a Brown “Trucker” Hat with matching puffy vest and then began to coax the audience to give her the “yeeea-yeeea-yeeea-”s, as she unleashed her newest single Hot Stuff.
She really seemed to enjoy it, nevertheless, the song was Hard HipHop – which didn’t seem to blend well into this crowd. We later learned that she had actually just finished filming the Promotional Video for it right before this performance and the single was not to be released for two more weeks (Release Date: April 13th).

Thankfully, Kumi ended the awkwardness with asking “What can I do for you?” At which point the masses leapt to the much needed Real Emotion (also from the Final Fantasy X-2 Soundtrack). The response was truly astonishing as every fanboy/girl/and little sister sitting in front of us jumped to the beat. And yes, I couldn’t help but mentally plot a path to safety as the 4th floor moved beneath my feet.

Then came the obligatory encore. Which had me wondering – how could she top Real Emotion? — Apparently the only way to top it was to play it again! Some theorize it was lack of planning that lead to the faux pas of replaying the final song as an encore, I personally think it was Kumi that loved to see how much the crowd enjoyed it. She was definitely feeding off of the audience’s energy and she playfully showed it in her final song of the performance.

In retrospect, Kumi had put on a great performance, and it was made even better by seeing her playful side not usually seen in her videos. I’ve always believed that we were ready for a top level jpop star to play to American audiences. Never mind the language barriers, the relative inaccessibility to easily purchase music, and lack of guidance to who is who in the Japanese Entertainment scene. It was clear the audience has done their work to do what it takes to overcome all of these obstacles. It showed in the venue filled to capacity, in the audience participation, and even in the smile on Kumi Koda’s face as she said she wanted to come back next year!

March 25, 2005

By Dave Garcia

Houston, TX - I must confess, I was not expecting much from a jpop performance at an anime convention. In the months before the concert, I kept tabs on the Con’s forums which had minimal activity around the musical guests. Sure there were the usual demands for the obscurest of Japan’s underground independent acts – those fans always are the most vocal, and all the while, very little buzz about Kumi Koda. The only clue of the strong demand for jpop came from word that Ushicon (who first hosted Kumi Koda in January of 2004) had no jpop guest this year because they simply couldn’t handle the crowd.

Nevertheless, KamikazeCon was very well prepared with a large venue, a professionally laid out stage, complete with lighting and properly “flown” speaker assemblies. As if that were not enough, the 5 foot high stage was flanked with two 10 foot video screens that streamed close-ups from the stage to the 1,500 seats. Very impressive for a convention’s first year.

After obligatory announcements, Kumi’s opening act, Kumiko Kato, gave an outstanding performance. How outstanding? Good enough to deserve it’s own review! With the audience still riding high in Kumiko’s afterglow, illuminated cell phones began to wave overhead. And yes, being the crowd that this was, there were a few PSPs & DSs in the mix as well.

Kumi’s standard dance ensomble (featured in most of her music videos) took to the stage first with her intro track to her latest album Secret, Get Down. A black-shirted Japanese B-Boy flung out to the stage with a triple roundoff into a flip. He was then joined by two other dancers with accompanying ladies who all gave a stellar exposition. Sure, we’ve all seen dancers dance, but I’ve never seen dancers FLY until then.
Riding on that momentum, Kumi Koda pounced on stage with her dancers to the opening of her theme to Cutie Honey — a perfect fit for an anime convention. The audience responded with impressive intensity that could only be rivaled by Kumi’s on-stage presence.

Kumi’s dancing was just as amazing on stage as it is in her videos. She later said her favorite sport was dancing – and it definatly showed. I was actually a bit surprised that Kumi did not lip-sync. After all, since she is well known for her dancing as well as her powerful voice, usually one will yield to the other. Kumi held back neither – no compromises. She kept the intensity going with introducing “a song about me – Selfish,” she said with a playful laugh.

In her press conference, Kumi mentioned how she felt she felt the language barrier was not significant when performing to American audiences. “American audiences … don’t really care about it as long as the music is good. And that makes me feel really happy.” With the audience still on it’s feet, this performance was a perfect example of that.

Without much warning Kumi then transitioned into a restful pace with the ballads Kiseki and Hands. It was a stark contrast, and yeah there were a few yawns in the crowd.

Not soon enough, the audience awoke to themselves singing 1000 no Kotoba (which everyone seemed to know from the Final Fantasy X-2 Soundtrack.)

Then her dancers reappeared while Kumi donned a Brown “Trucker” Hat with matching puffy vest and then began to coax the audience to give her the “yeeea-yeeea-yeeea-”s, as she unleashed her newest single Hot Stuff.
She really seemed to enjoy it, nevertheless, the song was Hard HipHop – which didn’t seem to blend well into this crowd. We later learned that she had actually just finished filming the Promotional Video for it right before this performance and the single was not to be released for two more weeks (Release Date: April 13th).

Thankfully, Kumi ended the awkwardness with asking “What can I do for you?” At which point the masses leapt to the much needed Real Emotion (also from the Final Fantasy X-2 Soundtrack). The response was truly astonishing as every fanboy/girl/and little sister sitting in front of us jumped to the beat. And yes, I couldn’t help but mentally plot a path to safety as the 4th floor moved beneath my feet.

Then came the obligatory encore. Which had me wondering – how could she top Real Emotion? — Apparently the only way to top it was to play it again! Some theorize it was lack of planning that lead to the faux pas of replaying the final song as an encore, I personally think it was Kumi that loved to see how much the crowd enjoyed it. She was definitely feeding off of the audience’s energy and she playfully showed it in her final song of the performance.

In retrospect, Kumi had put on a great performance, and it was made even better by seeing her playful side not usually seen in her videos. I’ve always believed that we were ready for a top level jpop star to play to American audiences. Never mind the language barriers, the relative inaccessibility to easily purchase music, and lack of guidance to who is who in the Japanese Entertainment scene. It was clear the audience has done their work to do what it takes to overcome all of these obstacles. It showed in the venue filled to capacity, in the audience participation, and even in the smile on Kumi Koda’s face as she said she wanted to come back next year!