Last Saturday, May 19, Marina held a special live show held at 7th Floor in Shibuya to celebrate her 7th anniversary as a solo artist and birthday just a couple days later (May 21st)!
▲ Kawano Marina’s Debut Anniversary Solo Live – “Your Desired Farewell Grand Slam Hit”
First of all, I heard from Goto Takanori, the guitarist from the most recent YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical who was also involved with the NieR:Automata and Drakengard 3 official soundtracks, that he would be performing at Marina’s live show along with Kawaji Emi (piano) and Shimada Hikari (violin). Since this was the first time that all three–or rather four, including Marina–of them would perform together since the YoRHa Musical, they were dubbed the “YoRHa Team”. Look how happy they are to be reunited!
This year marks Marina’s 7th year as a solo artist after “graduating” from DearStage, however, she is still connected to them to some degree. How much, I’m not exactly sure, but I did see Sekiya Makoto and Iwasaki Takuya there at the show. I didn’t get the chance to say hello to Iwasaki-san, but I spoke briefly with Sekiya-san, since he was a huge help when I was trying to publish my article on the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical. I think I may have also seen Takamori Shoji, as well. I think he was the man who I ran into when I prematurely went up to the 7th floor (read below for that anecdote).
Marina is currently contracted under the Sony Music Artists (SMA) label, which is an entertainment office and music publishing company under Sony Music Entertainment (SME).
At the Venue
I didn’t purchase a ticket until pretty late after they went on sale, but I was still able to get a pretty decent seat inside. The location was held at the 7th Floor, a small live house literally on the 7th floor of the O-WEST building in Shibuya. Both the O-WEST and O-EAST locations are famous/notorious for hosting some pretty hard-core musical acts, although they are also known to host more subdued acts like Marina’s. Simply, if you ever plan on coming around this area of town, be prepared to walk past multiple “love hotels”, smell the lingering aroma of puke in the heat, as well as seeing all shades of people, especially hard-rock and punk enthusiasts.
When I arrived, there were a ton of people waiting in line, many of which did not seem to be the folk that would be going to Marina’s show, so I was confused where the entrance to 7th Floor was. I asked a worker where I should go, and he told me to go up the elevator he directed me toward. I did so, but was greeted by another staff member who seemed very confused why I was there. Apparently, they weren’t letting people in yet. haha I explained to him what happened and he kindly asked another staff member there to help show me where the line was down below. Everyone was really kind and treated me like a normal individual and not a stupid gaijin, so for that I was very thankful.
Below are a couple photos that I took at the venue. The first photo is of the sign that was placed within the small elevator hall leading up to 7th Floor, then the view of the stage from my point of view, and a couple of the nice floral displays at the entrance/exit. The seating was free style, so I managed to find an available seat in the 3rd or 4th row on the far right.
There was one other available seat to my right that was later filled by a really nice lady who had come all the way from New Zealand to see the show. She wasn’t a foreigner, so she must have been a major hard-core Marina fan to come all that way!
When I went to the bar to pick up my one drink that is necessary in addition to the price of the concert ticket, Goto and Kawaji-san were both standing in the back, sort of hidden from the rest of the people in the hall. When Goto-san called out to me, though, I was surprised to see him there. He again thanked me for covering the YoRHa Musical Ver.1.2 and I turned that right around and thanked him again for providing many photos he personally took behind stage as well as a really nice comment to fans. It’s always a pleasure to talk with him even though I’m always overly shy. haha
Now, for anyone who may not be familiar with Kawano Marina, one of the first things you’ll learn about her is that she is a MASSIVE baseball fan, which is why the motif for this particular show was all baseball related. You can see in one of the photos above that there’s a typical baseball scoreboard placed in one of the floral arrangements… I believe it is meant to show the number of performances she has made under her name spelt with full kanji 河野万里奈 (万) as opposed to katakana 河野マリナ (マ). She did perform four shows in 2017 as 河野万里奈, so I assume that’s what the numbers mean.
Two songs from NieR:Automata were performed by the YoRHa Team at the show:
- Voice of No Return / Guitar
- Weight of the World (Japanese, Acoustic Ver.)
Set List
- A Trace of Flowers (花痕)
- Fading Daydream (消えるdaydream)
- Morning Arch
- Do!! Do!! Let me fun♪
- Jersey Number 009 (背番号009)
- Voice of No Return / Guitar (還ラナイ声 / ギター)
- Weight of the World (壊レタ世界ノ歌)
- Treasure (たからもの)
- I Remember That Voice (その声を覚えてる)
- New World (アラタなるセカイ)
Encore
- Right-handed Throw to the Left (右利きの左投げ)
- Morning Arch
There were two songs that the audience could participate singing and dancing. This was the card given to everyone that lists the specific lyrics for the audience:
▲ You can see me just a tiny bit in this photo near the 2nd window on the far right side of the room. lol
▲ Original cake designed by pâtisserie concent.
▲ Marina also appears to be a big Rilakkuma fan! xD
3 Major Revelations
There were three main announcements that Marina revealed to the audience:
- Medical problems with her voice. – She stated that sometime around February this year (around the same time as the YoRHa Musical!) she was having trouble with her voice and was told that she had two options: Quit singing or get surgery. She was devastated at the news, but she also knew how much the ability to sing really meant to her, which lead to her second announcement…
- She underwent surgery on her voice. – Sometime in March, she underwent surgery on her voice. Although the surgery was a success, she was unable to speak for quite some time thereafter. Which lead to her last announcement…
- With the healing process complete after her surgery, this show was her first performance back as an artist. Not only that, but this was her first break as a Major artist. – Although she had worked under DearStage and others in the past, her comeback this time marked her break as a Major label artist. We ought to hear much more of her in the coming months and years!
Hearing Marina reveal this information was very emotional and I remembered hearing that she wasn’t feeling well during the YoRHa Musical regarding her “husky” voice, but actually seeing her get emotional recalling this obviously difficult time in her life really affected me. I know I got pretty teary-eyed. xD But I’m so happy that everything went well and that her career is only going up from here; so I’ll be anxiously awaiting to see what other awesome stuff she is able to do in the future!
A Look Back at Marina’s Appearances in 2017
As a quick aside from the main topic, here’s a brief look at Marina’s 2017 Japan Tour!
▼ “We are MARINARS!!” 2017 Japan Tour
・2017/9/23 (Saturday) @Nagoya・アポロベース
・2017/10/14 (Saturday) @Osaka・あべのROCKTOWN
・2017/10/15 (Sunday) @Fukuoka・Gateʼs7
・2017/10/29 (Sunday) @Shibuya・shibuya duo MUSIC EXCHANGE
▼ Here is a really cute livestream that Marina hosted in March 2017 to discuss her 2017 Japan Tour. Special guest appearance by Okabe Keiichi (MONACA)!! Around 10 minutes in, Okabe gets a phone call from Saito Yosuke (Square Enix). You can also hear Yoko’s voice in the background at some point, and Saito actually asks him to give a comment about writing the Japanese lyrics of “Weight of the World”, but he’s clearly talking on speaker phone, so his voice is really garbled. Marina also performs the song “Stars and Flowers” from the anime “Yuki Yuna is a Hero”, the soundtrack of which was composed by MONACA. Around 42 minutes in, Marina performs a short version of the song “Weight of the World” with Okabe on the keyboard. Okabe states that he really can’t play the piano (he’s such a liar!!) and always has Hoashi perform in concerts, but just this once… He decided to perform a song for the fans. <3
▲ Here is a clip of Marina performing the Japanese version of “Weight of the World” at one of her solo shows as published by DearStage on August 1, 2017.
Upcoming Events
As confirmed by the AnimeNext Facebook account, Marina will be performing at AnimeNext in Atlantic City, NJ on Sunday, June 10th at 1:00PM in the Main Events area.
Photo Credits:
Kawano Marina
Goto Takanori
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Shimada Hikari
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captain mogra
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pâtisserie concent
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