#the 20th anniversary event where it’s been in stores has been bad for me lol

[seabeck]

A few months ago, my brother and I saw a semi truck with a Baja blast alcoholic beverage being advertised on the side but we forgot about it. I guess I thought I’d dreamt it but my brother snapped a picture of it apparently. I have yet to see it in stores

[karen-kk]

After a long flight home, I'm finally ready to sit down and write about my experience during L'Arc~en~Ciel 25th Anniversary event. This is more of my personal experience than a live report, sharing what I enjoyed and what I didn't. Shockingly it has turned out quite long, so you are warned.

First of all I must say I was very impressed by their Japanese management team and staff members. The scope of the operation was incredible with 110k people attending, and yet everything was well organised and well prepared for. I'll use the example of the goods store. The store opened at 9am each day, I was told people started queuing as early as 4am. I joined the queue around noon, by that time it had already taken over both side of the pedestrian paths and then some. I couldn't even see the store. There were security guards and staff everywhere making sure everyone knew where the end of line was (yes, it was that confusing. It took me 15 minutes to find it because I didn't speak Japanese), we were not blocking the path and obstructing other tourists in the Tokyo Dome City, and we were moving on quickly and efficiently. The store had total of 24 booths, so it didn't take as long as I thought it would. Even with the language barrier, the transaction was very smooth. All my interaction with the staff members had been extremely pleasant. From security check to being shown to my seats they were always there when I needed help. They had always been courteous and helpful even though most people I spoke to knew very little English.

Japanese Laruku fans were very interesting to observe. They seemed to be from all age groups and occupations. I had seen teenagers, young adults, people around my age, my parents' age and older even. It never ceases to amaze me how big their male fan base is in Japan. I would say about 35-40%? In contrast VAMPS hard rock style, their split was like 5-95 with female fans completely dominating the scene when I saw them back in 2009, but I think the ratio has shifted a bit nowadays. And I don't mean guys being dragged there by their girlfriends etc. A lot of them either came by themselves or in groups. The 2 guys next to me in day 1 were dancing hyde's signature moves throughout the entire live, and they were talking about how they admired the band since primary school. At lease third of the hyde cosplayers that I spotted were male. There were many families that brought their kids with them as well (I hope Ken-chan's MCs were not too r-rated). One of the cutest hyde cosplayer was this little girl about 10 years old dressing up as hyde in the 20th L'Annivesary period. She was so adorable with the braids and jacket and everything. On my way out in day 1, I overheard another little girl babbling about haido haido excitedly to her mother, so cute! The fans were so friendly as well. I had a yuki fan coming to me and giving me a present including a Japanese traditional dessert with her hand drawing of yuki. I had another girl coming to me when she realised that I didn't have a LED wristband, and she helped me to speak to the staff to get one. Then with her broken English and my non-existed Japanese we squealed over how "cute-handsome-kawaii-kagoii" hyde was lol

The tour goods are worth mentioning as well. They are such good quality comparing to what I bought during the VAMPS tour years back. My favorites include the expensive as hell handbag and the teddy. The handbag has all the staff access passes stitched on from all of their past tours. It is like carrying a piece of Laruku history whenever I use them. The denim material is thick and strong, the only downside is it is quite heavy. I personally think it looks so much better the 20th Anniversary version. When I went sightseeing yesterday I still saw a lot of people carrying it around Tokyo. The tour book is great too, with much better English. I only wish they would stop repeating the same paragraphs over and over though. And it also reminds me of the good old days when hyde still had our beloved eyebrows...

I was very impressed with the stage design. One of the reasons why I had always wanted to see Laruku in their home land was because they would have the budget and resources to go all out. And I was not disappointed. As soon as the screens lit up, I was in awe. It was so beautiful! The theme of the concert was locating pieces of Laruku's history and it was very well incorporated into the setup. They also integrated past live footages with the current live broadcast on the giant screens. The front part of the stage was detachable, it moved during Revolution and carried the members to the smaller stage at the other side. Everything was very well thought out and visually stunning. Not to mention there were real flames and mini fireworks. The Dome looked incredible with all the LED wristband, which were being manipulated as a giant LED screen.

This was why I found hyde's outfits so incredibly jarring. I know I've complained about this numerous times in the last 2 days, I just can't let it go. His first 2 outfits made him stood out like a sore thumb for half of the concert. I literally laughed out loud when I saw what he was wearing, and it was during Niji. I felt so bad about this. It is a song that means the world to the band and its fans because of what it represents. And there I was, laughing while he sang his heart out... ==|||

The other complaint that I have is the set list, with 2 days and only 4 songs being changed. I may have been spoiled by the 20th Anniversary where 2 days had completely different set list. The thing I really love about Laruku is their ability to make their older songs shine during lives. I haven't been a fan of their older studio albums for some reason. But their more recent lives always managed to make me realize how great they were even back in the days. I fell in love with songs like In the Air, Shutting in the Sky, As If in a Dream, Garasu Dama, Floods of Tears, Dune, White Feathers etc. this way. And I was hoping because it was an Anniversary event, older songs would have been performed. But no. And my all time favorite songs such as Metropolis, Jojoushi, Bless, Ibara no Namida, New World, Hoshizora, Umibe were not played as well. I was also secretly hoping for an appearance of P'unk-en-Ciel as well... I guess they are no longer doing it?

Given my first day's seat being really bad, being on the far right hand, I can't really say much because I could barely see anything. To make the matter worse, the bass sounded really loud and distorted, and it kept bled into the vocal. It was difficult to hear at the times so I can only share my favorite moments from day 2.

During Revolution, we all went crazy when we saw hyde and ken-chan on the drum, yuki and te-chan played the bass and guitar respectively, then the stage started to separate and carried them over to the other side of arena. At the end of that session, when the stage started moving back everyone had a basket of balls that they were supposed to threw to the crowd. Yuki, on the other hand decided to take a shortcut and just dumped his entire basket of balls along with his basket. He was clearly channeling his Acid Android persona. Unfortunately, it didn't get him out of his job, he was immediately handed another basket. Then ken-chan decided to get creative as well, he tried to balance one of his balls on the edge of stage and starting to blow at it to make it fall. During one of the MCs, hyde played Fullmetal Alchemist a few times by clapping his hands and slapped them onto the ground a few times to make us create human waves. We did, and we also did it in reverse while he screamed in fake horror. The staff then blew air or dry ice on him as the waves approached his side. During second half of Blurry Eyes, he forgot that he already threw his whistle to the crowd and he had to make a mad dash toward the back to get the second one. He never made it in time and we all laughed. Did I mention how hot leader-sama was in his stylish white suit and white Alexander McQueen scarf? OMG! I had never considered him good looking until now (gomenasai, leader-sama, your array of way too colorful outfits usually blinds me). It probably helped with hyde being such stark contrast.

Edit 1: Hyde did a member introduction during day 2, even though I doubted there was a soul in the Dome who didn’t knowing who they were. It went like “drum - yuki~, guitar - ken~, bass - tetsuya, and vocal~“ and we called out HAIDO~~~~!!! He looked so proud! It was so cute!

Ken-chan had sunglasses on the entire time during day 2. At the end of the concert, right before he went off the stage he was wiping his eyes with his hand. Was he crying? I couldn't tell. Leader-sama came back to the stage with his basket of bananas and asking "mina genki, genki desuka" as usual. Only this time, he took off his Alexander McQueen scarf and wrapped around one of the bananas and threw it to the crowd. We all went eh~?

My most memorable moment was definitely during My Heart Draws A Dream. When hyde took off his earphone to hear us sing the chorus and our voices echoed throughout the Dome, I cried.  The open tenderness on his (eyebrowless) face was so beautiful. It was the perfect moment that I will treasure forever.

Overall, the concerts were not what I expected, but I don't regret spending an arm and leg to participate in this important milestone in their career. As a fan, I already had so many regrets, like not seeing their AYR and their Theater of Kiss tours, and of course missing out on the 20th Anniversary. I didn't want this to be a regret as well. Leader-sama mentioned 30th Anniversary already and I do hope I would have the privilege of being there.

Happy anniversary, L’Arc~en~Ciel.