Your JPop artist encounters

Same as the H!P and AKB48 encounters thread, only for general artists! What have you seen, heard, or done?

Being in Texas, I do have the opportunity to see some Japanese artists once in a while at an anime con or whatever. The only one I made it to was when I was in Waco for college in 2004. Kumi Koda was performing at an anime convention so I just had to go since it was down the road in Austin. It was a fun event, even though the concert started super late. She wore the Crazy 4 U outfit. HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWT. B-) After the concert, she signed autographs despite it being very, very late. I bought her Seven Spirits PV DVD to sign. She was very nice, I got to tell her how awesome I thought she was, and she kissed my hand. Though I wasn't special there, she did that to most of us. Still, she was totally awesome to us, and I'm glad she's made it big since.

We've had quite a few JPop acts in Texas since then(Yu and Kana from dream, Nami Tamaki, and High and Mighty Color come to mind), but I didn't make it to those.

 

lucky u to have met Koda Kumi. being in indonesia, just have to wonder freely...hmmm, when will ANY j-pop artist come to my country?
if only AKB48 or any H!P artists come to indonesia, i would risk my like to watch them...

 

SAME. MM even went to Taiwan. I wonder if ANYONE will step into Malaysia.

 

Not so lucky here in the Phlippines either. Well, CORE OF SOUL performed here once, before they disbanded. I'm not really counting on any of my idols invading my country, but I can always dream. XD

 

I've met Shokotan twice! (idol.. gravure.. sings for various animes..)



and Jyukai twice!!(great singer!)

yeah.. that's my jacket.

and also Chiaki Ishikawa (from See-saw.. Gundam Seed anyone? great voice too!)

and from Jrock.. I've met Gagaaling!

All thanks to Anime Expo ^_^;;

 

Well I haven't seen too many Japanese bands but of the ones I have seen the only ones I didn't get to speak to were Dir en grey. Also been watching Akiakane and Polysics and got to spoke to both bands, Polysics were especially awesome.

Planning on going watching Maximum the Hormone next month if my bank account allows it...

 

^ I've seen Diru too, redux! The first time, a bunch of us waited in the parking lot after the show, and eventually Toshiya walked by, stopped in front of us (maybe a few feet away from me!), and waved and smiled to us all. It was amazing.

In May '07, the band ZZ - you may know them for the song Samurai Blue, and they're signed to Avex - played at Anime North, which is held about a 10-15 minute drive from where I live (luckily for me!). I'd never listened to them before, but I LOVED their show, and I was happy to meet all of them and get their autographs afterwards. A couple of months later I downloaded their album ZZB and fell completely in love with it. It hurts, because they haven't been active in a looooooooong time, and I seriously love them. Their site hasn't even been updated since March '07, two months before I saw them live. =/ I don't know what the hell happened to them.

 

Like hahaxwill, managed to catch the performances of both Gagaaling (sp?) and Shokotan at AX08. We should've met up, if I had known you like 2 months earlier than when I joined the forums XD

Honestly, I hated Gagaaling's performance. That bored me to hell. I don't mind jrock, but the stuff they played sounded exactly the same song after song. I just took out my DS and started playing Pokemon Pearl -__-

Shokotan's concert was much better though. Because I had book a hotel room for 4 days, I got first pick on concert tickets, and was able to sit in the orchestra pit, which is right in front of the stage. She has a really good voice, and the crowd absolutely loved it. I had some crazy Shokotan wota next to me though @_@ He like knew the lyrics to every song and shouted her name constantly. I mean, it was my first concert EVER, so I was pretty pumped up, jumping up, cheering, but the guy next to me was like WHOA. Unfortunately, I got to the concert late because of some stupid problems with stupid friends, but I arrived like halfway when she was doing the Haruhi dance. I think that was the most awesome part of the concert XD But the best song was when she did the cover of the Neon Genesis Evagelion theme. Never watched the anime, but I loved the song. Oh, and it helped that her music videos were like playing 24/7 in the hotel room if you went to the right channel XD So she has my respect. At least she breaks out of the bad name otaku have made for themselves in Japan, by being cool despite labeled as an "otaku".