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Once inside, I found my seat and was pleasantly surprised to hear a run
of pre-concert songs that oddly sounded just like a mixed CD I have in my
car. Whomever on Kimeru’s staff (or Kimeru himself) that likes Green Day
gets two thumbs up from me. Boulevard of Broken Dreams and
Holiday eased me into thinking I was back home in the U.S.,
that is until I looked around and realized I was one of three non-Japanese people.
But that just made it all the more fun.
When Kimeru appeared on stage in a silvery-white sea captain’s
costume (I have no idea how to describe his outfit), he exploded
into a ball of energy that truly demanded your full attention. I
was happy when he took a mini-break from singing to talk about
his five year journey from his breakout song, You Got Game,
(which landed him the closing theme song for a popular anime called Prince
of Tennis (テニスの王子様) and thrust him into popularity) up until the present day.
Most of his story blurred into a translation overload for me,
but I didn’t miss his humorous antics that transcended all language barriers.
They put a big screen up behind him of his head so we could see him better and
at one point, he was chattering away and fiddling with his hair, so he turned
around to look at himself, as though it were a mirror, and started laughing
when he realized that when he turned around, he could only see the back of his
head because that’s what the camera was filming.
And if I thought his giggle was cute from watching him in various videos, it
was ten times more adorable to hear it in person. He giggles a lot. And
talks a lot, which was good for me because I don’t know when I’ll have the opportunity
to see him in concert again, so it was refreshing when he took time to talk to the audience.
For the encore, he changed into casual pants and one of his concert logo t-shirts and
waved a giant flag around (the Ark’s flag) to show his enthusiasm and never waning flood
of energy that carried from the moment he stepped on stage until the moment he disappeared
into the wings. After three final songs, he sent the band off stage to take his bows alone,
holding a rather long bow with his head all the way to his knees in a show of humbled respect
for the audience. That or he was showing off how flexible he was, but since he’s Japanese and
the concert was in Japan, I’m going to stick with humbled respect as it’s a safe bet.
After the concert, I bundled up and headed back into the cold February night, more excited
than I’d been before the concert, because Kimeru has that effect on people. From that one,
two hour concert, I buzzed the rest of my week in Japan and all the way home to America with
a renewed sense of what a real vacation should be.
ありがとう Kimeru. You made Ms. BeSparkly a very happy, very sparkly, fan.
♪(*^ ・^)ノ⌒☆ End
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