AX Show

slippy · Post by **slippy** » 2005-07-06 21:22

Oh I agree. It was kinda surprising that they had her walk in through the front, where we all were, rather than through the back. I was probably only 10 feet or so away from her when she arrived. She's really tiny in person and prettier than her promo photos suggest.

She definitely seemed in a hurry though. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if her flight back to Tokyo was only a few hours away.

My general impression is that the Geneon people, in emphasizing her as the voice actress from Esca, sort of underestimated her actual popularity with the general American audience. More people came then they or the Ax people were ready to handle.

Personally, I didn't sense much jeering at the concert. People were just crazy. But the concert setup had some organization problems (though not as bad as the first day registration/exhibit-hall situation.)

Post by **dillpops** » 2005-07-06 22:37

Thanks for the long report but I'm not surprised they emphasised Escaflowne - it is the one people know her for. I know that a lot of people know what else she's done but for the majority I guess it is Escaflowne then...um..what else has she been in?

I guess I'm being kind of blunt...

Thanks for the report. You guys are way too lucky, I'm so damn jealous!

Post by **Megumi** » 2005-07-06 22:40

thank you, it's interesting, apparently all the reports go on the same way

slippy · Post by **slippy** » 2005-07-06 23:29

Thanks for the long report but I'm not surprised they emphasised Escaflowne - it is the one people know her for. I know that a lot of people know what else she's done but for the majority I guess it is Escaflowne then...um..what else has she been in?

One of the cool things about an industry show like AnimeExpo is to see how the American/Japanese distributors *think* we like, or how we percieve their shows, sieryuus, directors, etc. I'm not sure Maaya is actually *that* popular among Japanese otaku , but here she's probably the most popular female sieryuu after Megumi Hayashibara. American fans love Maaya.

Sora · Post by **Sora** » 2005-07-07 07:04

We love Maaya in Europe too T_T

Anyway, thanks everybody for all the details :)

roxfan · Post by **roxfan** » 2005-07-07 20:11

[quote="slippy"] I'm not sure Maaya is actually *that* popular among Japanese otaku , but here she's probably the most popular female sieryuu after Megumi Hayashibara. American fans love Maaya.[/quote]
Sorry for nitpicking, but it's spelled seiyuu.

ReikokuKo · Post by **ReikokuKo** » 2005-07-08 00:47

Wheeeee. I rented a hotel with 7 other friends and went to AX'05 for all 4 days. I was amazed speechless from the KOTOKO concert, and then they had to hit me again the next day with the Maaya Sakamoto concert. it was lip synched because her michrophone went dead in the middle of one of her songs, like it went dead for 5 seconds or so and you can still hear her singing, but it was really really quiet, so i wouldn't consider it lip synch because she totally drowned out the back-up voice. I must say, gravity was my favorite song. Can't get enough of that after watching wolf's rain. After her concert, half the theatre left, and i was in the lucky half that decided to stay seated ^^ She came back out and sang one more song. She didn't tell us the title of it or anything, but it was awesome!!

jason · Post by **jason** » 2005-07-08 06:25

[quote="ReikokuKo"]Wheeeee. I rented a hotel with 7 other friends and went to AX'05 for all 4 days. I was amazed speechless from the KOTOKO concert, and then they had to hit me again the next day with the Maaya Sakamoto concert. it was lip synched because her michrophone went dead in the middle of one of her songs, like it went dead for 5 seconds or so and you can still hear her singing, but it was really really quiet, so i wouldn't consider it lip synch because she totally drowned out the back-up voice. I must say, gravity was my favorite song. Can't get enough of that after watching wolf's rain. After her concert, half the theatre left, and i was in the lucky half that decided to stay seated ^^ She came back out and sang one more song. She didn't tell us the title of it or anything, but it was awesome!![/quote]
She wasn't lipsynching at all... she was merely singing to karaoke tracks. And as other forum posters have pointed out, the title of the last song was "Kaze ga Fuku hi".

slippy · Post by **slippy** » 2005-07-08 19:01

I was amazed speechless from the KOTOKO concert, and then they had to hit me again the next day with the Maaya Sakamoto concert.

Oh definitely, Kotoko rocked. Kinda sounded like a cross between Evanescence and Nightwish out there. I had assumed both concerts would be karaoke-style, but when Kotoko came on with a full-on rock band, that actually raised my hopes that Maaya would do that too.

I must say, gravity was my favorite song.

You could tell how much English has significantly improved, by the enunciation and phrasing during Gravity. Which is not necessarily a good thing since English isn't really sung like that. But, I could understand every word she sang, and she seemed more emotionally connected with the lyrics than before. Gravity also had the best visual backdrop.

After her concert, half the theatre left, and i was in the lucky half that decided to stay seated

Yeah, that surprised me too. I doubt many of the kids go to proper concerts often; they would know to wait until the lights go back up.

like it went dead for 5 seconds or so and you can still hear her singing, but it was really really quiet, so i wouldn't consider it lip synch because she totally drowned out the back-up voice.

You could hear something of a groan/pause in the audience when her audio went out. And obviously that didn't help her nerves either. She came through just fine, though. I was actually most impressed/gushy by her impromptu singing of Loop during the focus panel. The nasal qualities in her voices are a bit smoother live, and there's an even fuller resonance. Just wonderful.

slade · Post by **slade** » 2005-07-09 08:45

[quote="ReikokuKo"] After her concert, half the theatre left, and i was in the lucky half that decided to stay seated ^^ She came back out and sang one more song. She didn't tell us the title of it or anything, but it was awesome!![/quote]

I think everyone stayed for the encore! Cause I know sure as hell I stayed. I think at the Kotoko concert half the audience left cause they thought it was over, where in reality she went into the back for a costume change. But when you really thought about it, it did seem like the Kotoko concert ended when she left cause even the band left if i remember correctly.

roxfan · Post by **roxfan** » 2005-07-10 17:34

Lookie what I found.

Post by **dillpops** » 2005-07-10 17:40

:evil: oooooh! Someone was naughty...Roxfan you are too good for us ^^ thanks so much, I wonder what the quality is like. I guess bitorrent the morepeople who are downloading at the time, the better...so let's all help each other

Thanks roxfan!

EDIT: is anyone always surprised at the amount of talking on concert bootlegs 0_o did they not go to hear the music?

EDIT 2: um...did Maaya make a mistake in Kiseki no Umi? In the second chourus it sounded like she sang a line from the last chourus instead of the one from the second chourus...or maybe I misheard...?

TenAJs · Post by **TenAJs** » 2005-07-10 20:42

Following up on roxfan's post, here is another recording by a "drobertbaker", shared via bittorrent: http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3354609

If you can't download from it, here is a direct link from which you can help seed too: Ma'aya_in_Anaheim.mp3

Tofusensei · Post by **Tofusensei** » 2005-07-10 21:08

[quote="dillpops"]is anyone always surprised at the amount of talking on concert bootlegs 0_o did they not go to hear the music?

[/quote]

Haha, I don't think they were going for a pristine HQ recording with no talking over it

A note on the mp3 recording. It seems to have a higher source quality than the ogg, so why the low quality encode settings? It seems to be a waste. If anyone can contact this person, please ask them to encode a higher quality version (maybe VBR around 128kbit or so)/

-Tofu

Post by **dillpops** » 2005-07-10 22:09

[quote="Tofusensei"][quote="dillpops"]is anyone always surprised at the amount of talking on concert bootlegs 0_o did they not go to hear the music?

[/quote]

Haha, I don't think they were going for a pristine HQ recording with no talking over it

[/quote]

Ha, ha beggars can't be choosers

...but I did giggle when one guy kept singing along. I don't know why I giggled but I did. And then they started talking about shopping on amazon in the middle of Maaya's song XD