The official report from the event’s afternoon performance has arrived!
Onishi Aguri, who announced that the opening theme song “Auftact” for the TV anime “Seirei Gensouki 2” will be released on November 20th, will hold a fan meeting “Onishi Kindergarten Agupon Sensei!” at Yamano Hall on Saturday, August 10th. We will report on the day and evening performances.
Four colored headbands are placed in each vertical block in the audience seats. Fans prepare by wrapping their headbands around their headbands before the show begins. The theme of the day is kindergarten, just like the event title suggests. There is a feeling that some kind of competition will unfold.
When the time came for the show to begin, Producer Kudo appeared and said, “First, let’s say hello to all the children,” and after exchanging greetings, he proceeded with the event as the assistant teacher (MC) of the kindergarten. “Mr. Agupon!” everyone called out, and Mr. Agupon appeared. “Hello, all you good children! It’s Mr. Agupon!” he said cheerfully, and all the good children responded cheerfully. There were quite a few fans who were actually dressed as children, and Mr. Agupon commented frankly, “It was a bit of a surprise because it was different from usual…” It seemed to be business as usual.
A day at Onishi Kindergarten starts with “Play Time.” The teacher teaches the choreography of the chorus, “Let’s dance together to “Aimai Girl” from the 6th single by Onishi Aguri, who is good friends with Agupon-sensei. “From ‘Twist’ to ‘Wakuwaku’ six times and then ‘Paa!'” she explains the choreography with words that make it easy to understand, so all the children absorb the choreography quickly. “Let’s try doing the first half through!” Agupon-sensei gently teaches the dance while singing the song a cappella.
The choreography in the second half of the chorus becomes even more complicated. Some in the audience exclaim, “I don’t get it,” but the teacher uses a carrot-and-stick approach to teach them, saying, “You don’t need to get it,” “You did it? You’re great, aren’t you?” and “Don’t laugh there! You have to do it properly!” The children desperately tried to keep up with Mr. Agupon’s guidance.
Once the choreography for the chorus was complete, they practiced the second half while singing it a cappella. Then, everyone had a dance time to try it out along with the actual song. The tempo of the audio was faster than when they were practicing the choreography, but it was amazing to see that most of the children were able to keep up. “You’re all amazing! How can you do that!? That’s impressive!” said Mr. Agupon, genuinely impressed. He even gave a lecture on the choreography for the part where the lyrics change in the second chorus. Although the children struggled, saying it was “difficult,” they were able to do it, which was very encouraging.
The next corner was “Team Competition! Recreation Battle.” This is where headbands come into play. The teams were named after Onishi Aguri’s songs, with the red team being the Heart Team, the blue team being the Elder Flower Team, the yellow team being the Jellyfish Team, and the green team being the Alien Team, and the competition unfolded.
First up was the “Tricycle Race Showdown.” Four people were selected from each team to take to the stage and compete for the fastest time in a tricycle relay. It must have been quite a rare experience to have Mr. Agupon cheering on them from close range, but it was also moving to see everyone desperately pedaling their tricycles. Next was the “Borrowed Things Race.” This was a competition to see who could own a given item. People who had Sanrio goods, Rolex watches (they had none as they were kindergarteners), sunglasses, etc. gathered in front of the stage, and it seemed like a sense of unity was already beginning to emerge within the teams at this point.
The last event was “Daruma-san ga koronda (Daruma doll falls over with balloons)”. The giant balloons were sent from the back towards the stage, but the Daruma-san ga koronda format was difficult. However, it was heartwarming to see everyone, who had formed teams for the first time today, working hard in solidarity.
In the overall ranking, the Jellyfish group came in first, but Mr. Agupon showed his generosity by saying, “Everyone worked hard, so everyone is first! We’ve won!” and presented everyone with a prize.
After praising everyone by saying, “I think it’s wonderful that you all worked together and had fun like children!!”, it was time for a nap. Mr. Agupon had everyone close their eyes and walked around the darkened venue. It was a very original idea to go down to the audience and get scolded if you opened your eyes, but the fact that it worked out was one of the great things about this fan meeting. Mr. Agupon sneaked out of the darkened venue. After that, the venue was a little noisy as the music box version of “Must, Open” played, and someone could be heard talking, someone could be heard talking in their sleep, someone cleared their throat to warn them, and after a while everyone quietly fell asleep…Everyone’s immersion into kindergarten was quite high level.
After the nap time, which lasted for a while, it was not Agupon Sensei who appeared at the venue, but Onishi Aguri, a friend whom Agupon Sensei had called, who appeared in a cute costume. She walked through the audience and returned to the stage, waking everyone up with a cheer. “Did you enjoy the kindergarten part? Now it’s time for the live performance. Can you get excited!?” she asked, and the fans, who had been building up energy from their nap, cheered loudly.
ライブは、ハイテンションなライブチューン「ジェリーフィッシュな君へ」からスタート！ 黄色いペンライトを振りながら、エネルギッシュに声援を送るファンたち。大西の振り付けも可愛らしく決まっていた。そのテンションのまま、キュンとするナンバー「初恋カラーズ」へ。〈青と黄色 赤とピンク 紫 緑に 君を足して七色〉という歌詞のところで、ペンライトを七色に切り替え、ライブを演出していくファンのみんな。ステージの照明も、歌詞に合わせて、色が切り変わっていったのが印象的だった。
「7月はイベントがなかったので、こうやって歌うのは久々なので嬉しいです! 最近、発表されたものがありましたよね？ 今日初披露の曲を歌います！」とファンを喜ばせると、「宇宙初披露なので、楽しんで聴いてください」と新曲の「アウフタクト」（7thシングル／11月20日リリース）を歌う。
TVアニメ『精霊幻想記2』のOPテーマとなる曲だが、彼女としては、「Elder flower」（EDテーマ）に続き、同作品でのタイアップでもあるので、喜びと、この曲に懸ける想いは大きいものだろう。初めて披露するとは思えないほど完成された歌声で、とても伸びやかに歌っていたし、壮大な物語の世界観が目に浮かぶようだった。ファンが、初めて聴くにも関わらず、大きな声を出して盛り上がっていたのも温かかった。
さらに「アウフタクト」のカップリング曲「Fall in you」も初披露！ 緩急のある忙しい曲だが、サビで手をワイパーさせたり、ライブで一体感が感じられるナンバーだ。曲自体、難しそうだったが、安定したパフォーマンス力で、みんなを引っ張っていく大西も頼もしい。
「あぐぽん先生から、『曖昧ガール』の振り付けの練習をしたって聞いたんだけど、みんなで協力しながら頑張ろうね！」と伝えると、いよいよ最新楽曲の「曖昧ガール」を披露！ 大きなクラップから始まり、サビはみんなでダンスを楽しんでいたのだが、しっかりと練習の成果が表れていたように思う。統一感が素晴らしかった。曲の途中からは、おじさんダンサーズ（スタッフ）もステージに登場し、大きな一体感と笑顔に包まれて、ライブを終えた。
「みんな、おじさんたちより踊れてましたね（笑）。それに『曖昧ガール』の叫びもバッチリでした！」と言うと、イベントについては、「みなさんが先生の前でニコニコ楽しくゲームをしていたり、初めて聴く新曲にノリノリだったり、私も嬉しい気持ちでいっぱいになりました」と伝え、みんなで一緒に楽しむアトラクションのようなイベント『おおにし幼稚園 あぐぽん先生！』を締めくくった。
2024年11月20日（水）発売
大西亜玖璃 7th シングル「アウフタクト」
CD＋DVD 2,090円（税込）
CD Only 1,430円（税込）
1.アウフタクト
TVアニメ『精霊幻想記2』オープニングテーマ
作詞・作曲・編曲：鶴﨑輝一
2.Fall in you
作詞・作曲・編曲：近藤圭一
3.アウフタクト（Instrumental）
4.Fall in you（Instrumental）
＜DVD収録内容（初回限定盤のみ）＞
「アウフタクト」ミュージックビデオ+メイキング映像
■オフィシャルファンクラブ情報
大西亜玖璃 おふぃしゃるふぁんくらぶ「あぐりんぐ」
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