Here is a report of the Kagrra One Man Final I went to on the 17th of December 2001. It was held at non other than the infamous Shibuya On Air East that has a maximum capacity of 1000 audiences. This last Live would end their One Man Tour for 2001 so it was a no miss. For an official report don't forget to visit {BANDSjapan} --Japanese only though. Pictures used on this page are not authentic 12/17 Live pictures, they are from a previous show. No cameras allowed in Live Houses so no pictures until they release official ones. S E T L I S T 01.鬼遊の唄 02. 魔笛 03.鵺の哭く頃、、、 ~ MC ~ 04.妖祭 05.眩暈 06.碧の葬列 ~ VOCAL SOLO ~ ~ DRUM SOLO ~ ~ BASS SOLO ~ 07.白い魔手 08.神謌 09.桜～再会の華～ 10.徒然なるままに、、、 ~ MC ~ 11.「し、み、め、ゆ、き、さ、あ」 12.恋綴魂 13.刹なる言葉 ENCORE1 01.新曲弐 02.百鬼夜行 ENCORE2 01.葬春華舞い散るあの丘で C O S T U M E                      R E P O R T 5 : 00 pm Went to get tickets at the gate, it cost me ¥4500 including drink coupon, that's ¥500 more than pre-booked tickets. Had one hour to kill before door opens so decided to head back to Royal Host, a family eatery just down the street to pee and freshen up. We prepared our 'attack toys' and wrote our phone numbers and stuck our purikuras on it just dreaming about the possibility of one of them calling us up. All for the fun of it ne. Then Mo~So~ stuck tiny lil'red hearts on the chocolates she bought for each of them, nicely color coded too. After doing the Nature Call check one last time we headed back fighting the cold wind, climbing our way up to On Air. 6 : 00 pm They let us buy some Tour Goods before the 'Number Calling' was to commence so we grabbed a few goodies and headed off to the line. Waiting outside of the Live House with 500 plus Kagrra fans, too many phlufies around and some were huge! There was one really nice Nao cos player that got the attention of many fan girls just standing in front of On Air West. There were also many old men in business suits waiting in line, wondering if they are all here for Ishi and Nao. There were also two flower bouquet stands from SHOXX and ESP for Kagrra placed at the main door. Opposite in On Air West some band called 'The Pan' was to play. Met up with two lost looking gaijins who after an unplanned yell out, happen to be Kagrra fans too but they didn't have tickets for the show so they were just loitering about the area. Helped them purchase tickets and then chucked all our things into coin lockers, including our warm coats reducing us to skimpy one piece clad human beings who were all shivering down the the bones. Waiting in line seemed forever. It was time for the number calling, you only get to go in when your number is called and me being one who was holding onto a ticket bought on the day itself knew it was going to be long before I was able to enter. Me, Cat and Travis (the lost looking gaijins from Australia ^^"") yapped on ceaselessly about who we like in JRock and life in Japan trying to keep our minds off the freezing night weather. It was near 7 : 00 pm when we finally went in with the remaining 10 fans left outside T___T 7 : 10 pm After waiting for what seemed like an eternity the show finally started. The stage had a simple set, they had the extended stage out that night and I got a spot right in the middle of that. I was in third row but near enough to see everything up Isshi's kimono XD The curtain that was drawn down on the stage had black on white or was it the other way around(??), circular splotches painted on them. Looked like sperms at first glance but I didn't pay much attention to the art expressions there because I was too excited about what was behind the curtains! Then suddenly the whole area went pitched black and spot lights blazed from behind the curtains illuminating five nice forms of Kagrra boys in a traditional Kagura opening pose. I thought they were all going to be clad in their kimonos but no, they all had on normal leather suits that had slits on the shoulder with long pull up gloves. For the exception of Isshi(vo) who looked traditional that night with a new headpiece too, the rest of the band members were dressed in new modern costumes. Shin had his black oversized headband on as always. Cute as ever. Akiya was wearing black and red, his hair was pulled up with streaks of red. Akiya definitely looks different in flesh than in his photographs. More often than not Akiya looks a tad on the chubby side but not at all when he is standing no more than two feet away from you. Izumi was blocked by his enormous drum set to notice what he was wearing but his hair was an amazing shade of blue that night. Now my favorite boy of the night, Nao, was wearing black and he did not have one tiny tinge of femininity on him at all. He was all man and he had the best wear that night, no doubt.      As they start to play their songs and Isshi starts to do his sway and hand movements the fans too started to move along with the beat waving their fans on cue. It was magical, it was beautiful. Everyone was in synch and Kagrra was full of life! Akiya was running around on stage, he was so energetic. Often running up to the extended stage to stand next to Isshi. The fans in the area I was standing in were definitely Isshi's fans as I was in Isshi territory that night. Everyone around me were screaming "Iiiii-sama! Iiiii-sama!" And I wasn't even paying attention to Isshi that night. My eyes were either glued on Izumi because of his extremely good drumming or gazing over to the left side of the stage to where Nao was standing so far behind. I never once took the liberty of checking Shin out *XoX* Akiya was totally in sight as he kept moving a lot.      I also came up with an equation that people in Second Row has it best because they don't get moshed at by the girls in First Row as they are all plastered to the railings. First Row people do not move a muscle throughout the show, they just stand still. You wonder if they are actually there. Third Row people (ie: me) has it worst because Second Row people do a lot of butting for space in front of them. The girl in front of me was practically sitting on me throughout the show when it was so apparent that she had so much space in front of her. And such a huge behind she possess too!! Third Row people also get it bad from everyone from behind when the whole Live House goes into frenzy and squash us all. But thankfully for us the two girls who were butting us left suddenly mid show and we got their places in Second Row!! Yatta!      After two songs Isshi greeted the fans. He said that since today was going to be the final Live, Kagrra will do their best for the fans. Isshi kept on saying that he, as a vocalist, vows to be better for the fans and for Kagrra. In fact he repeated this every time he did MC ^_^ In my opinion Isshi is one of the best front man I have ever heard in the visual scene. He has a very strong voice and the fact that he can go to a very high pitch just amazes me. Anyone who can hit a high note and not sound off key, live, is very endowed in the vocals department and Isshi here is the best you can get. The third song they performed was [Nue no naku koro] from their [Nue] album. I love that song. Everyone followed Isshi in the hand parapara, hand fans flapping wildly everywhere. Sugokatta. Again here Izumi and Akiya were the highlight. Isshi was magnificently standing in the middle of the stage moving gracefully with the music.      The sound system was mediocre. It was On Air East *_* after all. It was my first time in On Air East and I thought that it would be bigger but it turned out to be a rather small Live House. It was not even packed that night so there was still a lot of space in the back. You can't actually hear the music quite well, everything just seemed to clash into each other but the bass sounds were audible so you can feel the beat. A plus to the sound system was the very clear microphone sounds. Isshi's voice was very clean and clear despite the rather noisy sound disruptions. After one more song, the lights went out. That was when I decided to start on our 'gaijin attack'. I threw a bun (we prepared at Royal Host earlier) onto the stage. It was dark so nobody realized it was me but the fan girls were all puzzled when they saw a glimmering 'something' fly onto stage just as Isshi walked behind the curtains. Thankfully non of the roadies saw the bun, which was now nicely lying by the side of the extended stage *evil grin*      After five minutes of waiting the lights came on again and Izumi was seated behind his drums preparing for a drum solo. This was followed by a bass solo by Nao. Gosh, I just have a soft spot for bassists X-x Nao and Izumi were excellent, then...Isshi came out walking so elegantly down the aisle towards the extended stage area, my eyes were flying to and fro from Isshi to the bun lying by the side. In my mind I was chanting "Please don't trip on the bun...Please don't..." over and over again. He then came to a halt at the very end of the extended stage right in front of us and he started to sing in the most beautiful voice a hymn like tune. It was mesmerizing! I totally forgot about the bun ^_* He then did this dance like thing and began to walk back, he was getting into the beat too as he was moving faster to the beat. Then it happened! He kicked the bun and he realized it!! Just in time for the lights to go off again. LOL. We were laughing and the fan girls around us must have thought we went boinkers. Naturally the bun went behind the curtains as the curtains came down again. Still none of the roadies realized the bun. It was later on when Isshi was sitting in front of us on the extended stage that Mo~So~ threw another bun and it hit Isshi right in the head or his headpiece to be precise. It fell down to the right of him and we could see he was looking curiously at the bun while trying hard to concentrate on singing. I wonder what does Kagrra think of fans who throw food onto stage?? Heheh...      Ahh, it was almost time to the end of the show. Isshi came out again to do a speech thing. He was telling everyone about the upcoming LIVE VIDEO (see flyer on the left) that would be released next March. It will include tonight's Live! Will I be in it? *_* Isshi also said that they made two new songs but due to some unavoidable circumstances, which he didn't elaborate on, they were only able to perform the second new song. I didn't catch the title but the song was rather upbeat. It has a different music direction from their past works but I kind of enjoyed it. During the MC, he said again that he wanted to protect all that he loves and wants to become a better musician to make Kagrra a stronger band. The end T_T But not so soon. The place went pitch black for the third time and there was a long interval before the fans started to chant "Encore...Encore..." Just then they appeared again and this time clad in their Official t-shirts!! So kawaii. Again Isshi talked about their upcoming events and said that today's Live was the best (heh, they always all say that ne?) ..blah..blah..blah..It was then when Nao joined the squatting Shin who sat down on the platform to the right side of the drums just waiting for Ishi to stop talking already. They both looked so cute together. It was then only did I notice how adorable Shin looked with his hair falling into his eyes and how tiny he was compared to Nao!! They both stood up, I totally lost Isshi now. I was just staring at the two of them huddled by the right side of the stage. Then it came, Nao gave Shin a kiss! Shin bent down in embarrassment and he played shy boy for a bit and some fans who noticed laughed at their childish acts. The whole scene reminded me a bit of Luna Sea's J and Inoran. *natsukashii naa...* Soon after they launched into their final song of the night. What other than AIYAIYAIYAI!! It was crazy, if you don't join in the moshing here you'll be lucky to get out alive. I was jumping as high as I could on cue. The fan behind me hitting into me, me hitting into the fan in front who got swamped into the railings. Ouch. I had my hand protectively around my left ear covering my five piercings. Don't want to rip any of my lil'babies now. It was during the last song that the members took turns to come up front the extended stage area to connect with the fans. Nao was so so close!!!!! Heheh...I mean to say that he really looks different real life. He is nothing like the girly image we see in all their posters and flyers. Well they threw their picks, towels and water bottles into the audience. As always they throw to the people behind so I didn't keep my hopes up to high. When the song ended we were all wet and drenched in sweat but so very satisfied.      But wait, it's not quite over yet. There was the final photo session with the fans. Isshi joked and said " I hope it's ok that you girls don't get to fix your make up before we take this picture," They had a professional photographer lady come in for the photo session. The guys lied down in the middle of the extended stage so that all the fans could try to get into the picture. I was in the middle so I'm pretty sure I got in, unless Isshi's head was in the way X_x 9 : 55 pm Then they bid their farewells and we pulled our streamers we bought at Lawson earlier and the fan girls thought it was cool. We went to the goods booth again to do some final shopping and handed gifts to the staff to pass on to Kagrra. We even made a special box for Isshi that included a piece of sweet potato cake, some sugar syrup, lemon sauce and another bun with our purikura on. After that we exited, got our things from the lockers and sighed. Wow, was all that was left to say. TOUR GOODS They had quite a nice selection of Tour Goods. They had keitai straps and wrist bands but they were all white so I didn't get that. They also had Irodori and Nue 2nd Press on sale of course. I got the pamphlet which was ¥2500!! But very worth it because it was large and you get a nice PS Company bag that reads [Kagrra, Due'le Quartz and Ash --if you're looking for a challenge!!] LOL The pamphlet (I have it scanned in my photo section) was fully colored of course and the pictures were all so yummy. I also got some trading cards, postcards, picks... Here is a catalogue of what was sold on that day {click} FINAL IMPRESSION It was a great experience. Look at me, I even made site for them because of this very One Man Live! Yes, it was a great Live. As I have said so many times before, a Kagrra Live is essential to really experience the true Kagrra. Your whole perception of them will change, I am sure of that. I can't wait for my next Kagrra Live because I am definitely never missing them play. PS : We now know that the new song they played during the Live is the new single [Yume Izuru Chi] due out in April 2002 PPS : Cat or Travis...if you are reading this please e mail me!! Gotcha! Report by, webmaster 01/12/26 { M E N U } Kagrra Unofficial Fansite (c)2001-2004