Long thoughts:
Day 1:
- Everyone's body tracking is excellent, especially down to finger movements like Roboco's. But mouth tracking seems worse than in their own 3D lives.
- Roboco kept her robot legs but not her arms. REEEE
- Starting the solos with strongest idol Haachama is a good choice. Starting with Buta is... lol
- I felt a little bad for Koyori calling for the women in the audience lol. I know the Fes crowd is predominantly male, but there still seemed to be more women on the con floor than the response to Koyori would suggest. Maybe those women were there for the Stars. Or maybe they're shy - there was one girl in the crowd who covered her face with her Shuba fan when she saw the camera.
- Overd and Dark Breath are... not idol songs lol
- Risu is my favourite solo act.
- Ame's "prrrrrr" for ChikuTaku was an interesting touch. Also she's brushing up her nihongo.
- I was already surprised by Ollie's stage presence in her solo. Pairing her with Haachama for Lost One's Weeping was an excellent choice.
- lol Suisei popping in because she can
- As much as Jouya Repaint leans into HoloX's cartoon villain lore, I'm now convinced it's specifically written to be performed to a crowd. Just listen to the crowd doing the "rapapa" in the chorus and the call-and-response in the bridge. (I now also think HoloX were deliberately kept on the same day for this reason.)
Holo*27:
- I would be happier if this cost slightly less than the other two stages. The songs and performances feel more same-y and it is of course shorter. Still good.
- Favourite choreo: Mio/Koyori. It fits the song and they go all in without cringing.
- I'm a little suspicious of Baby Don't Stop's lyrics lol.
- I'd like to know what P.E.T.'s lyrics mean so that I can tell the roles of squeaky orca and resonant orca.
- Most surprising moment(s): Iroha and Moona solo MC. Iroha handled it very well for a country girl former 2view who, unlike her genmates, still had her day job for a while after debut.
- Iroha likes to do the X-stance a lot lol.
- Mumei's default outfit is so much more elaborate than Kiara's.
- I wonder if the JP audience understands why the EN audience sees Calli as a dork after her MC segment lol.
- I figured Planetarium would be the last song as it is a very hard act to follow, but Sora's Ai Kotoba IV is a great capstone.
Day 2 thoughts:
- Korone is my favourite solo act. How do you top one flip? With two flips! Also "hashire, hashire~" is stuck in my head.
- After seeing Ayame's stage presence, it's clear why Nakiri-gumi are so dedicated.
- Bae is absolutely right; I need her and Laplus to have a dance-off.
- Anya doesn't have an original IIRC, and most of her covers are fast Vocaloid songs, so this was the first time I've heard her sing a slower song. lol at her hair. IRyS' rigger has no right to complain.
- Really like Moona's live performance of Ai no Chiisana Uta.
- First time hearing the JP version of Illusion Night. I think it sounds better in English, and I wonder whether JP audiences run into the issue we have with songs that are written in Japanese first and then translated. I understand using the JP version though, as Reine probably wanted the audience to understand the spicy plot.
- I'm not sure I would have paired Here Comes Hope with hip sways and body traces, but in a way it's fitting for IRyS to come up with that.
- Going from Here Comes Hope to Let Me Stay Here is some whiplash lol
- For group acts, what sticks in my memory is SMOK's weird donut song and Bae and Fauna doing Naruto runs around Kronii.
- I feel that Day 2 was "safer" overall than Day 1. You can see the pattern from Day 1 where EN and ID do their group songs together, with one cross-branch pair. Ollie and Haachama stole the show because they don't stream together much (AFAIK), yet they worked perfectly together on stage. Contrast, say, Gura and Shion as a more obvious pair.
God I love watching these girls have fun and live out their dreams.
