On June 9th, 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary, “Utahime Dream 2nd Live ~I Want to See a Sky Full of Penlights~” was held at the Airship Theater in Tokyo.
With the Utahime Dream Band as their backing, they performed in the afternoon and evening, and in the evening they played a total of 24 songs, mainly cover songs! We will report on the evening performance, where the Utahime sang and performed divine songs from the three eras in a realistic way.
In the narration before the show started, Arisa Sonohara, who plays Kiyomi Mashiro, asked the audience to cheer, and the audience responded with “Oh!”, but she added, “That’s not enough!”. Hanaya, who plays HiREN, added, “Are you all awake?”, and Karin Isobe, who plays Hikari Mizuki, asked, “Everyone! Aren’t you all asleep!?”, to which the audience responded with, “We’re awake!”. They were hyping it up even before the show started. And at the end, all the members shouted together, “We want to see a sky full of penlights!”, and already each member’s image color shone brightly.
Less than a minute later, the seven members appeared in their respective character costumes and performed “Utahime Dream,” which can be considered the main theme song of Utahime Dream All Stars. After singing “Hey everybody are you ready” and singing one chorus of “CHU CHU CHU I love you ♪,” the tune changed completely and they went into the new song “No Gifted,” the ending song for the new anime program “I’ll Parry Everything” that will start in July. The band started with “WOWWOWWOW ♪” and the singing voice became hot and emotional. In the big chorus, they split into four and three on the left and right, then joined together to form a line and circle around, which was beautiful to watch from the audience. They sang the last phrase of the last chorus, “Gifted,” and closed with a chorus of “WOWWOWWOW.”
After finishing the song, even though they had been singing seriously, everyone smiled and cheered, “Good evening!” After that, each member gave a greeting along with their character’s lines. At Isobe-san’s request, all the members called out “Utahime Dream” to the audience, who responded with “Awesome!” in a call and response.
Jenna Sumi, who plays Takagi Rin, who was watching next to her, also felt the need to do something, and responded with “Good morning!” to “It’s night, everyone.” In response, she responded with “Great! I was awake.” It was then announced that the CD for “No Gifted” will be released on August 28th, and the cover was also revealed for the first time. On the same day, a Blu-ray disc containing an uncut recording of the memorable first live performance held on November 9th, 2023 will be released.
After introducing the band, Kurachi Reo, who plays Hagiwara Himawari, began singing “Beautiful Dreamer,” the opening song for “I Want to Be the Strongest in the World,” starting with the line, “In order to become the strongest in the world.” The audience clapped along to the up-tempo A-melody. Kurachi spun around and put her foot on the sound monitor, singing and performing with passion. At the end, she raised one knee and put her hand on the floor, as if to express her feelings of never giving up. As the intro to each song played, the song title and singer were displayed on the stage and in the frame to the left.
Next, Hana-san, who plays HiREN, sings “Sad Night Stop” by Sonoko Kawai, the first solo debut member of Onyanko Club, which dominated the idol scene in the 1980s. The mysteriousness of HiREN and the ephemeral song are a perfect match. Hana-san’s singing voice and facial expressions, as well as the choreography where she raises her arms high in the chorus, are just like the original. In the outro, she places her right palm in front of her chest and tilts her face.
Arisa Sonohara, who plays Kiyomi Mashiro, sings “Hello Goodbye” with a nasal, somewhat languid voice sung by Yoshie Kashiwabara, and even though she follows the same choreography, she is lively and cute. At the end of the chorus, “Turn my heart round and round,” she spins a spoon with her right index finger in a beautiful gesture. After finishing the song, she introduced, “From here on, we will perform three songs in a row that you can sit down and listen to at your leisure, a specialty of the ‘Utadori’ live performances. Everyone, please sit back and enjoy.”
Karin Isobe, who plays Hikari Mizuki, appears with a spectacular drum intro and sings “Ninpasen” by Akina Nakamori, who was known as the diva of the Showa era. She stands almost completely still as she sings while bubbles in the water are projected in the background. Isobe’s passionate singing voice and facial expressions create a unique atmosphere, and the audience holds their breath. At the end, when the spotlight hits, her gesture of looking up is also heartbreaking.
Once a desk and chairs were prepared on the stage, Tomomi Jena Sumi, who plays Takagi Rin, sat down. Holding a red-wrapped Valentine’s chocolate in her hand, she began to sing Leo Ieiri’s “Chocolate” in a refreshing voice, while a fancy image of a red box and chocolate appeared in the background. As she fiddled with the red box over and over again, trying to come up with a solution, she looked like a girl who was excited and nervous about Valentine’s Day. At the end, she hugged the red box tightly.
The lights turned blue, a microphone stand was set up, and the intro to the pop blues song “Mino Kokoro mo,” with its sobbing guitar and similar to enka pop, started playing. Yamazaki Reina, who plays Yumesaki Ibuki, sat on the band set, which was a step higher, and bowed her head. She put her hand to her cheek, and during the interlude she moved the microphone stand from side to side several times and opened her legs manfully and roughly. It’s amazing that Yamazaki, who is still in her teens, can express this grimy atmosphere while also delivering the male lyrics with her fist!
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