Sunday, December 12, 2021

Maji Love Live 7th STAGE Report


Nearly two years ago, I had tried in vain to get tickets for Maji Love Live 7th Stage. I had pretty much given up on going and started to think about what else I could do that weekend.


A lucky break in the Grand Shining Hotel room lottery gave me hope to try just one more time.

I went from being ticketless, to attending 7th Stage in person on both days thanks to two very kind people who answered my call to help me and my friend (who had never been to an UtaPri concert). I've had a few days for everything to sink in so I can give a brief report.

I may not have to write so much since many people were able to watch the concert in the theater and livestream, meaning more people were able to live tweet set lists and document different moments. So the most I can give is my own personal impression.


I was very excited of course, not just because I was there but because I was sitting incredibly close to the stage for the first time, perhaps about 20 to 30 rows from the front? Both for 6th Stage and the Starish Fan Meeting I was in the stands, the closest being the "field view" and not quite in the arena.

I was emotional almost immediately, as the lights went out and I could see the first group ascending from the bottom of the stage, and I noticed immediately that standing directly in front of where I was sitting was Tokiya (Miyano Mamoru, of course). Who better to be in that position than the one that my Twitter is named after?

The introduction songs were the same as presented in the movie, Maji Love Kingdom. But of course following ST☆RISH with "Fantastic Prelude" was QUARTET NIGHT with THE WORLD IS MINE...and one person absent. I know everyone was curious to see what would happen without Ranmaru's voice actor, but the three members performed profesionals and as a group of sempai idols would be expected to. And Ranmaru's voice remained in the song.

So when it was HE★VENS' turn with GIRA x2 SEVEN, of course Nagi's voice was still in it. Ono Daisuke did the same sexy pose that Kira does in the movie. Yamashita Daiki, who I had come to love ever since adopting Shion as one of my favorites, sounded wonderful and looked adorable with his Shion-like hairstyle.

Once they started having their MC, I felt really relaxed and glad to be there, but I think my spirits fell when I realized that they were only doing two old songs: HEAVENS GATE and Fumetsu no Inferno. I say a bit because I wanted to hear more recent songs, but at the same time HEAVENS GATE sounds amazing live.

I knew QUARTET NIGHT would be next, but I think I was still a bit disappointed that they opened with Dancing Over Night. It's not really one of my favorite QN songs, and I had also heard it at Shining Star Stage just back in August. But once that song ended, I absolutely didn't expect to start hearing Love Evol, and I was incredibly excited since Ai's new solo songs are probably my favorite out of the 2021 round of QN idol song releases! I assumed that the set list would have involved songs that were new around the time of 7th Stage's original date of April 2020, so to hear it as well as Steward Dance and Alright, All Night was probably one of the biggest highlights for me. I'm very glad they decided to give us those songs to somewhat remedy the fact that the full quartet wasn't there in the flesh.

After Reiji's solo was done, I heard a very familiar rhythm and bassline as Morikubo said that there was one more song, and as the stage turned red I knew they had chosen to recognize Ranmaru. I gasped the moment that the intro of Only One started playing. A wave of thoughts ran though my head--it's an old song, why THAT song, with THAT title? What does it mean?

Obviously there's "only one" Ranmaru, and I don't know if I want to also interpret it to symbolize that there's "only one" voice actor for him...the situation of changing voice actors is a really touchy topic when it comes to longtime roles. But in regards to the lyrics and the sound, Only One was a perfect fit to pay homage to Ranmaru. Their last song, KIZUNA, was of course the obvious choice to recognize the everlasting ties between QN's four idols.

From there, ST☆RISH took over, and there was a bit of an awkward start, as one of them started too early, but realized within a millisecond that they were supposed to wait, haha. They opened their set with the usual Maji Love 1000%, and then continued with Shining Romance. I wasn't too thrilled once again with hearing old songs after such a long wait for this concert, but I was caught off guard when they started singing STAR WISH, which includes the Ren and Tokiya duet of my dreams. Unfortunately they didn't actually act out the music video, but it was still great to hear them singing this song live.

Following was the highly anticipated announcement of a Blu-Ray and DVD release of the concert next year, and then the announcement of an hour-long TV special before the Starish World Tour movie premiering next year. Nothing too big but still nice to be getting something animated that isn't a whole concert.

After ST☆RISH was done, they (re-)introduced the Maji Love Kingdom Special Units, and while it was really exciting to see the choreography for Up-Down-Up! being done live, when it was apparent that they were doing the full version, a part of me wished that they made time for other songs. This time we wouldn't get to hear anything else like Shining Masterpiece Show or the theme songs for Another World White&Black. The order of Unit songs was exactly the same as the movie (which I had seen about 7 or 8 times) and there were no breaks in between.

I think Souai Traumerei was my favorite performance of the concert, as Suwabe, Ono and Morikubo did the poetic monologue from the movie mid-way through the song, and they even made replicas of the illuminated flowers. I admit I didn't appreciate that song enough, because I was always so obsessed with UDU and Egoistic. But for some reason in the few days leading up to the concert, something told me to listen to it more often and I'm glad I did!



The rest of the concert was as expected, and while it was of course enjoyable, I left the stadium on Day 1 with a bit of disappointment, realizing that the pandemic is the reason why we didn't get to have the full experience of what Maji Love Live typically is. No streamers (and I'll probably never have a chance to sit close enough to catch streamers ever again), no cars rolling around the stadium for them to greet the fans in the stands, no end of show announcements. Even the VAs looked a bit somber on stage; there was none of the celebration or close-distance interactions between them as usual.


Going home, I almost felt as if I didn't even need to attend Day 2, but of course I had already committed to being there. Ultimately I'm glad I went--everyone seemed to be more relaxed, the camera work for "Only One" was more focused on the trio and the backup dancers instead of awkwardly focused on the microphone stand set up on stage, and during GIRA x2 SEVEN the members replaced the first GIRA GIRA chant with NAGI NAGI which was really adorable. It also seemed like the voice actors were in better spirits as well, so I left with a much better feeling. There was a mishap during Shining Romance, where the line to the camera was cut off during Mamoru's part in the first verse. I was wondering if this only affected the jumbo screens at the stadium, but a friend who watched the live stream said they witnessed it too...fortunately there was no problem on Day 1, so hopefully it can be fixed when the DVD is released.



7th Stage weekend closed as quickly as it had opened. Reflecting on both shows and the circumstances under which the concert was held, I think my expectations of the concert were a bit high. I started to remember all of the things that happened during 6th Stage and the Starish Fan Meeting: Sales of goods were held for days, there were flower stands and boxes to drop in gifts and fan letters. People freely interacted with each other. Those things didn't happen this time, so the concert was pretty much a "come and go" event. I don't know when we'll ever have that kind of fanfare again. Of course I hope things will get better, but something Terashima said at the end, "7th Stageをやらせていただき、ありがとうございます！" ("Thank you for allowing us to do 7th Stage!") really struck a chord with me. It could be said that it was somewhat of a miracle that 7th Stage happened, even with two voice actors missing, but it happened because the powers that be allowed it, and because the staff, and the fans all did their best to make it happen.

The person who gave me their ticket entry for Day 1 doesn't live in Japan, and was kind enough to message me just hours before the ticket deadline when I announced that I was searching for tickets. There were friends that I haven't seen since the pandemic began. They should have been at the concert, or at least should have been able to watch a live viewing in the theater. I hope things get better soon in time for the next concert. But I'm also happy that UtaPri will continue to go strong for a while longer, even through this new era. ☆


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