On Saturday September 20th, anime and manga fans flocked to Miyako Messe in Kyoto for the first day of the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair (KYOMAF).
As part of the larger festivities, anime soundtrack lovers got to experience their favorite songs at the Kyobansai Kyoto Soundtrack Festival held at the Main Hall of ROHM Theatre Kyoto. The first day of the soundtrack festival featured several well-known composers led by Yuki Hayashi as they entertained the crowd with some of their best and most popular compositions.
At the start of the event, the theatre was buzzing with excitement as fans filled the seats dressed in Kyobansai t-shirts and sporting lightsticks to wave along to the music. To entertain the crowd, a DJ booth was set up towards the back of the stage with DJ TAIJI playing energetic music.
The festival opened with a special video message from voice actor Yuki Kaji’s character Soyogi Soyogi from his special AI project Soyogi Fractal. Yuki Kaji himself joined Soyogi Soyogi to explain a bit about the project and then the two of them welcomed everyone to the live show.
The crowd began cheering as the members of the orchestra took the stage followed by Yuki Hayashi who gave a bow and welcomed everyone once again. He asked the crowd if they wanted to see the real Yuki Kaji and then welcomed him onto the stage as a special guest. As a treat to the crowd, the first song of the night was a song by Soyogi Soyogi that not even Yuki Kaji had heard yet so he was incredibly touched by the performance.
As a reminder, Yuki Hayashi told the crowd that they could stand and dance and have as much fun as they wanted because it was a festival after all. With that the stage was open for the first composer of the night.
Jun Murayama took the stage and immediately got the crowd fired up with a selection of rousing tracks from the Blue Lock anime series. The songs were accompanied by official clips from the anime showing the characters going head to head in exciting football matches. Flashing lights lit up the stage and together with the live orchestra it made the music feel dynamic and alive. It was a perfect match to the action on the screen and promised a great night ahead.
He was followed by Yoshimasa Terui who mentioned that it was his first time playing Kyobansai and he was really happy to have so many people listening to his music. He started his set with songs from Jujutsu Kaisen which were also accompanied by official clips from the anime and he played along on an electric guitar. For his set he invited guest vocalists Maria Miki from NOMELON NOLEMON as well as vocalist KOCHO who both worked together with him on the Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX soundtrack. As a special treat for the audience present, they added their vocals to the Jujutsu Kaisen songs making the music even more emotional. After that he played a medley of songs from the Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime before ending his set.
During the intermission, Yuki Hayashi came on stage with another special guest, Tomoyuki Tanaka also known as Fantastic Plastic Machine, a legendary figure in the music industry as well as someone that Yuki Hayashi himself looks up to. He explained that he was currently working on the new anime Sanda so the audience got to have a look at the trailer.
Up next was Kaoru Wada who was also playing Kyobansai for the first time. He gave the audience a nostalgic trip back in time with medleys from Gegege no Kitaro, Graveyard Kitaro and The Kindaichi Case Files. When introducing the Gegege no Kitaro medley, he commented that most of the audience probably would not have been alive at the time the anime was airing. Even so, the crowd happily participated waving their lightsticks to the songs. With most of these anime being mystery and horror themed he joked that he could tell something bad was happening on the screen from the looks on the audience’s faces. The crowd favorite from his set was definitely the Inuyasha medley which brought even more nostalgia and was followed by music from Yashahime. Finally he played the theme song from the newest Ranma 1/2 anime which ended his performance on a bright note.
Yasuharu Takanashi took the stage next with his band. As a Kyobansai regular he was definitely a favorite. He started with the Fairy Tail soundtrack and once he began playing the audience stood and began dancing along to the music. He was joined by special guest Kurona, known for his wadaiko playing in Wagakki Band. They continued with the Kinnikuman soundtrack getting the crowd to sing along before moving on to the Naruto medley which was one of the most popular medleys of the night. For this soundtrack he was also joined by a shamisen and an electric flute player who brought even more energy to the stage. As a fun call and response, he got the audience to yell “dattebayo” in tribute to Naruto and kept everyone dancing until the end of his performance.
Finally, Yuki Hayashi came on stage and immediately began with the lively soundtrack from SAKAMOTO DAYS. He then followed with his compositions from Medalist which he admitted makes him incredibly emotional especially when paired with moving scenes from the anime. Two of the insert songs from Medalist featured guest vocalists who gave heartfelt performances and drew the crowd into the world of figure skating. He continued with songs from the Arknights soundtrack. After a short break, he asked the crowd, “Do you like volleyball?” to which there was a cheer in response. The songs from Haikyu!! got everyone dancing and waving their lightsticks again as clips from the movie played on screen. He confessed that last year there wasn’t much video to accompany the performances but this year they were able to get lots of video making it much more interesting for the crowd. For the final medley of the night, he asked, “Do you like heroes?” and launched into a series of moving songs from both My Hero Academia: Vigilantes and My Hero Academia that got the audience’s hearts racing.
At the end of the show Yuki Hayashi introduced the band to thunderous applause from the audience and then all the composers returned to the stage for final comments and to take their bows. Hayashi emphasized how much effort it took to make Kyobansai a reality and thanked everyone for their hard work. Next year he hopes to do a show in Tokyo as well so fans will have even more to look forward to.
You can listen to the music played at the show via the official playlist here!
from Tokyo Otaku Mode News https://ift.tt/5V4RUoE
