KyoAni Music Festival, the 5th Kyoto Animation Thanks Event, took place two weeks ago on November 20 and 21, 2021 at ROHM Theatre Kyoto Main Hall. I had wanted to write about the event earlier, but things (like setting up the rack server) interrupted the priority and before I knew it, the official reports (in Japanese: Day 1 and Day 2) had been posted on the official website. Still, the archive stream is available for a few more days, although they are switching over to the anime-focused version. I haven't seen the anime-focused version yet, but I assume it will be focusing on the projection on the large screen (excerpts of different anime works) that showed during the concert.
Anyway, this post is more about my thoughts on the event, rather than a blow by blow account of the two days.
Day 1 featured the following series: Tamako Market, Tsurune, Sound! Euphonium, Free!, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Munto, and Liz and the Blue Bird.
Day 2 was: Violet Evergarden, Kyokai no Kanata, Maid Dragon, Munto (again), and Chunibyo.
The event spanned two days, and I originally wanted to attend only Day 2 (the one with Violet Evergarden). Given that the event was in Kyoto, which was a bit of a travel (in terms of time and money), I decided to forgo the option of actually attending the event, and opted for the online streaming ticket. So I bought a ticket for Day 2 that came with the commemorative goods (which were delivered a few days before the actual event).
But as the days drew closer, and with all that hype on the official Twitter account, I gave in and bought a streaming ticket for Day 1 too, this time without the extra stuff.
So on November 20, I dutifully logged in to the streaming site, put on my headphones, and waited. Day 1 opened with the Munto series, which I think KyoAni sees as the starting point of its animation fame. This was followed by songs from Tamako Market and Phantom World. It was also nice to hear the songs for Tsurune, a series which I rewatched recently and thus still fresh in my memory. This was followed by the song from Liz and the Blue Bird. I recently rewatched this movie too, so I really love it. Director Yamada Naoko actually wrote the lyrics for one of the songs in the movie.
This was followed by a surprise. "Special Stage" came on the screen, and the audience was greeted with songs from K-On! series. Wow! TRUE came up to sing "Don't Be Lazy" and was followed by Tadokoro Azusa singing "Fuwa Fuwa Time". It is a pity the actual voice actors of HTT did not actually appear, but I was more than happy to hear the songs from another beloved KyoAni work. I mean, I was wondering why K-On! wasn't on the list for both days. After all, it is a series about music and more than appropriate for a concert. (Maybe because the VA for Mugi was in UK...)
This was followed by another series not listed: Hyouka. ChouChou came up to sing "優しさの理由" before the break.
After the break was Free!, a series that I haven't watch (and probably won't) so it didn't really resonate with me. Finally, we got to the final series, Sound! Euphonium, and the songs were performed by the Kitauchi Quartet and TRUE. TRUE was really working hard on Day 1, and she was going to appear in Day 2 as well. For a series about a school band, I had thought there would be more music pieces from Sound! Euphonium. But I guess they focused on the songs and not the music. Anyway, Day 1 ended with all performers singing "Te to te to te".
On to Day 2. I was really looking forward to Day 2, since it will feature Violet Evergarden. Like the day before, I sat down early to log in and don my headphones. Day 2 opened with Munto too, with basically the same song and act by the two main voice actors.
This was followed by songs from the Chunibyo series, which I have... watched. Never got to the end of season 2, though. 😅 Then, Chihara Minori came up to sing the OP and other songs for Kyokai no Kanata series, followed by that idol dance/song in the series, which she sang together with ZAQ and towana.
Next was the Maid Dragon series. The Super Chorogons and fhána performed songs from this series. A pity Miss Kobayashi herself did not make an appearance... I had thought the VA would at least have sent a video message or something.
And the "Special Stage" for Day 2 was... the Suzumiya Haruhi series! Chihara Minori sang "優しい忘却" and this was followed by her, ZAQ and TRUE singing "ハレ晴レユカイ".
The final part of the special (as well as the end of part 1 before the break) was the OP from Lucky Star series, performed by the Super Chorogons.
Finally, after the break, we got to part 2, which was solely Violet Evergarden. Evan Call welcomed everyone to part 2, and it felt like a mini Violet Evergarden orchestra concert. Part 2 kicked off with a special arrangement of music pieces from the Violet Evergarden series, arranged for this event by Evan Call and performed by a quartet and a pianist.
TRUE then took the stage to perform "Sincerely".
This was followed by Chihara Minori's performance of "Amy" and the movie version of "Michishirube".
For "Michishirube", the screen showed the exact cut when the song played in the movie. It goes to show how well the song fit that particular scene. This exact cut can now be used as the new music video for the song, I guess.
And just like during the concert, and during the movie's end credit roll, TRUE performed "WILL" followed by "未来のひとへ". She really worked hard over the two days, singing so many songs. And like in the concert, someone had to clap in between the two songs...
Finally, Yuuki Aira wrapped up this section with her performance, singing "Violet Snow" while playing it on the piano. This was where it all started, and so this is where it ended.
And like Day 1, all the performers for Day 2 came on stage to sing "Te to te to te" to conclude the event.
As you can see, the second part of Day 2 was really a mini Violet Evergarden orchestra concert. This is a series where music really played a crucial role, and it is nice to see it being given that amount of time during the music festival. I am also glad that the organizers made the concert available through online streaming, so that fans who couldn't travel to Kyoto were also able to enjoy this event. (I had some bad experience with the streaming platform, but I decided not to write about it anymore.) I really hope they will continue to adopt such an approach. Plus, I really hope they will hold more Violet Evergarden concerts. Because after comparing this event with the Violet Evergarden orchestra concert... I must say I enjoyed the Violet Evergarden concert a lot more. Maybe because music played such an important role in the series. Maybe because the music was so fitting. (Maybe because I am just such a Violet Evergarden fan...)
Next up: watch the anime-focused version of Day 1 and Day 2, which will start streaming tomorrow and the day after respectively.
This is the song list for Day 1.
And this is the song list for Day 2.
Note: All pictures/photos in this post (except the one of the commemorative goods) were taken from KyoAni Music Festival's official Twitter account and the official website.
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