Aqours 2nd Love Live! HAPPY PARTY TRAIN TOUR

On October 28, 2017, I’ve witness the return of Aqours as they returned for another concert after first one.

Yeah, it’s kinda late now given that the 2nd live tour is already finished but for the Filipino Love Live! fans, they got a treat as ODEX Private Limited brought a delayed live viewing of Saitama Day 2… with subs. With that said, I’m gonna talk about my time during Aqours 2nd Love Live! HAPPY PARTY TRAIN TOUR and man, I got some story to tell!

As always, I would like to thank Anime Seiyu for the official pictures and shout-outs to both the Love Live! subreddit page and Anime Pilipinas for news leading up to the concert.

Anyways, let’s start off at SM Mall of Asia where it’ll show the delayed viewing of the concert. Of course, it’s not just Mall of Asia who will host the delayed viewing, but also both SM Megamall and North EDSA. Oh and like I said earlier, ODEX will provide subtitles for the first time on this delayed view, but it’ll be shown during the MC portions as well as the short anime segments.

Now then, I arrived a bit late into the venue as I sprinted towards Cinema 6 where the concert is being shown. While I missed two songs (let’s pretend that I’ve watched the performance of HAPPY PARTY TRAIN), I managed to caught up the opening MC and afterwards, I didn’t leave the venue until the end.

So, how’s the concert compared to the previous one? Well, it was amazing as always and while it only show the Saitama leg, it’s still oozing with hype especially when it comes to the Summer Vacation Duo/Trio portion of the concert.

Heck, I’ve enjoyed watching the performance of both Unicorn Blizzard (JIMO AI intensifies!) and Inferno Phoenix, which I loved how Arisa Komiya and Ai Furihata performed with a flamenco twist. Speaking of Unicorn Blizzard, Shuka Saitou got freaked out when a beetle got stuck in her costume. Good thing the bug was removed by Aika Kobayashi without destroying the costume.

As for the sub-units, seems that they performed one song for each sub-unit. But hey, seeing the performance of CYaRon!, AZALEA, and Guilty Kiss is still good. Then again, Guilty Kiss stole the show with their performance of “Kowareyasuki” which is the edgiest song I’ve ever heard!

As for the rest of the concert, I have to say that it’s great to see Aqours performing Season 1’s Blu-ray bonus songs like “Daydream Warrior” and “Thrilling One Way”, the latter has caused some of the viewers to run around the cinema because how hyped that song is. Speaking of running/walking around the cinema, most of the Filipino fans are doing it during the entire duration of the concert such as “Sunshine Pikkapika Ondo”, even though the majority of fans would find it as bothersome. Lastly, I loved how the costumes of “Koi ni Naritai Aquarium” making its appearance and Aqours nailed it, especially when it comes to Shuka Saitou’s part.

On the other hand though, the subtitles provided by ODEX is a hit-or-miss as while it’s understandable, it appears that ODEX didn’t do a quality check prior to showing it. I mean, I got some instances of misspelling names like Uchicchi as Uchicchimo, reading a wall of text during Rikako Aida’s closing MC, and text getting cut off. While it’s a good effort by ODEX, I rather prefer not having subs in the first place.

Anyways, here’s the aftermath of the concert as they’re satisfied on how it turned out.

Also, I met Jay Agonoy after the delayed viewing and we got some good conversation on how the concert lived the hyped, as well as the issue with subtitles.

And here’s the shot of the banner after the concert is over. Can you tell where my name is?

Oh yeah, and big thanks to LyricalDragunov for bringing the banner in Mall of Asia and taking a picture of it. I’ve appreciate the work there!

Image courtesy via Pixiv

In any case, that’s about it for my experience in Aqours 2nd Love Live concert.

I have to say that Day 2 at Saitama is quite good, but I want the concert to clock at 4 to 5 hours so I can see the performance of “G Senjou no Cinderella” and such. Then again, it’ll be reserved for the Blu-ray release of both Nagoya and Kobe legs, plus both days of the Saitama leg ’cause having Day 2 is not enough.

As for the future of Aqours, they’ll have another concert tour for next year and while I doubt that it’ll show it live outside Japan (I’m hoping that ODEX and SM Cinema will do it right this time), it’s great that these 9 girls proved themselves that they not only great successors to μ’s (even though they might return) but they’re forging their own legacy that future generations will look up to them. I mean, 2017 is the most busiest year for Aqours as they’re building their popularity in both in and outside their country. Heck, I might even see them in this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen even though some of the fans are thinking that they’re not yet ready for NHK’s year-end concert.

But anyways, it was a fun train ride and I’m hoping that next year will be big for Aqours!