Interview with May'n, the Galactic Fairy at AFA 2013, Singapore

[vanpang]

May’n, The Galactic Fairy at AFA 2013, Singapore.

Once again May’n is part of the line- up of artistes from Japan that performed at the Premier anime event in the region – Anime Festival Asia 2013 at Suntec Convention Hall, in Singapore beginning on the 8^th till 10^th of November. The three of us, vanpang, VF25-F and Ming were there for the event.

EVENT AT HORIPRO BOOTH - 8^th November 2013

Just like the previous year 2012, HoriPro has set up a booth at AFA. As we walked towards it, we saw May’n has left a message for her fans who have come to Singapore. Her promotional video was playing and fans have already crowded around the stage area of the booth. A short time later May’n san came out and introduced herself. After talking to her fans, she presented us with a song – ‘Chase The World’ (OP from Accel World), much to the delight of everyone at the booth. Over the next 2 days, various artistes from HoriPro, also took to the stage to meet their fans.

We managed to secure an interview with May’n on the first day of the event on 8 November 2013. Below is an extract from the interview. The interview was through a translator and therefore certain replies may be lost in translation.

THE INTERVIEW :

Us : Hi, May’n san. Nice to see you again. This makes the 4^th time we see you this year!

May’n : Wow! Nice to see you again!

Q : The Big news is of course your 9^th towards the 10^th Anniversary celebrations and the upcoming World Tour. What is the concept for your new tour “Dots and Lines”.

May’n : It has been my fervent wish to perform in every prefecture in Japan. And with my upcoming tour. I will be able to achieve my dream. The Dots refers to a trail like footprints left by a person moving from one place to another and the “Lines” represents the borders of each prefecture and later for the World Tour, it will be borders of each country.

NOTE : The tour starts in February 2014 and ends in August 2014 – 47 in total)

Q : When we heard of Nendroid version of May’n san, many fans are excited about it. Have you had a chance to look at it?

May’n : Yes. I’ve seen it (smile).

Q : I’ve asked some fans what they would like as accessories for the Nendroid to come with :-

1. a Mike,

2. a Taiyaki (a waffle shaped like a fish with Red Bean fillings), or

3. a Hippo (May’n’s favorite animal).

May’n : (Laughs surprisingly at the requests) Hmmmm…..there will be a surprise accessory.

Q : With reference to your visit to Vietnam, what impressed you the most in Hanoi?

May’n : I was thinking who would know me in Vietnam? And I was pleasantly surprised when there were fans there!

Us : Yes! There was a video showing your performance and there were fans in the background shouting ‘May’n!’ and ‘Bucho!’ just before you started singing.

May’n : Yes! I was so surprised.

NOTE : May’n attended the ABU TV song festival as a special guest, representing Japan and performed ‘Vivid’ – the opening song for the anime ‘Blood Lad’

Q : In your blog about the food in Vietnam, there was a picture of some fried marinated insects. Did you try it?

May’n : Yes! I ate it! (laughingly)

Q : What kind of insect was it?

May’n : I have no idea! Whenever I go and visit other countries, I always like to try food that cannot be found in Japan.

Q : What else did you try and perhaps describe what are they?

May’n : A Vietnamese’ okonomiyaki’ (pancake – stuff with vegetable and meat)

After that we had a short discussion about ‘ The Future of Entertainment’ and something called ‘Future Viewing’

That rounds up our interview with May’n san

EVENT AT HORIPRO BOOTH AND MAIN STAGE (9^TH & 10^TH NOVEMBER 2013)

There was also an introduction of HoriPro’s artistes at the Main AFA stage on 9^th November. (Valerie, Ayaka Ohashi, Asusa Tadokoro and ‘Senpai’ May’n) Each performed a song for the audience and when May’n performed ‘Vivid’, what was just an Introduction, erupted into a concert as fans took out their light sticks and joined in.

For the next two days, May’n had a ‘Meet and Greet’ event at the HoriPro booth , which anyone who buys any of her merchandize can go up to the stage and May’n herself will autograph it and have a chance to shake hands with her. As expected for an artiste of her caliber, the line was so long that it almost circled the booth almost twice! On the second day, the line was equally long as many of the fans decided once was not enough, and they’re not going to miss this chance to see her up close and personal. Many fans came from Japan and other countries.

CONCERT NIGHT (9^TH November 2013)

Performing together that night were Lisa, Milky Holmes, then Eiru Aoi and finally May’n. Her performance starts off with 4 dancers entering the darkened stage. The crowd immediate responded with excitement as their wait for their favorite artiste has ended. Immediately after the cheering died down, May’n opened the concert with ‘Forbidden Elixir’ (from Macross Frontier 2nd movie – Sayonara Tsubasa), followed by ‘Chase the World’ (Opening song for Accel World), a brief intro and ‘ Outsider’ from the online game ‘Oni Musha Soul’ from Capcom. A break and May’n works the crowd, asking ‘Are you ready AFA?’ And to that, the fans replied as loud as they could ‘YEEEES!’ May’n responded ‘Okay, Singapore! READY! GO! – which is the opening song for ‘Okami san and her 7 companions’, Next was an old favorite -‘Thou shalt not die!’ (Opening from the anime ‘Shangri-la’). Another old favorite – Universal Bunny! Next is the new crowd favourite – Vivid (Opening for the anime ‘Blood Lad’)

Just then she informed us that it this is the last song. My fellow fan standing next to me was like ‘What? So fast!’. He was not the only person who felt that as I can hear many said ‘Nooooo!’ and even ‘Encore!’ This phenomenon has been happening every year at AFA, maybe her act is the last on the list or her songs has the ability to fast forward us into the future cause it really felt like 10 or 15 minutes only! (every artiste had 8 songs to perform (except for Milky Holmes) and one song is about 5 minutes – 40 minutes in total) But what happens next made it a most memorable evening indeed.

May’n, speaking in English! – This is my 6^th time performing in AFA, Singapore is my first overseas performance. I was so nervous as I asked myself – who would know me outside of Japan?

(Back in 2008, during the first AFA, she was the only singer for the whole evening! You can only imagine the pressure on her as she alone carried the entire show and the expectations that comes with it as that was also the closing night for AFA).

‘ But when I performed for all of you for the first time, I was so happy and surprised that all of you know me and my songs. AFA, made me what I am today. Thank you all!

It certainly moved me (and many fans too), enough for me to include this together with the interview. What comes next (also the last song for the evening) is the sweetest ‘Diamond Crevasse’ I’ve heard in years, as what she said made it somehow meaningful and the fans joined in singing.

When it was over, you can clearly see May’n trying to hold back her emotions as the crowd cheered.

And with that she said goodbye to everyone, promising to be back and left the stage. As usual, the crowd screamed for ‘Encore!’ but that hasn’t happened since 2009 and the organizers have to announce the concert has ended to get the crowd out of the concert hall. Personally, we do miss it, hopefully one day it will return, till then everyone remained optimistic.

Thank you to May’n san, the organizers of HoriPro booth, the ever helpful folks of AFA, Shawn Chin, Aiko and Chun Kah of Sozo Pte. Ltd as well Lim Wee Ling, Joanne Tham and Stephanie Chin of Asia PR Werkz Pte Ltd.

[VF25-F]

If you're wondering about the picture she drew on the wall, we'll it's not - Godzilla spewing radioactive fire on hapless Singaporeans, and a giant sampan landed on the roof of some buildings and all this is happening while she's having Chicken Rice!'

Actually what it means is - It's the Merlion (Half Lion Half Fish) the symbol of Singapore, with water coming of of it's mouth, the Marina Bay Sands, with it's distinct curve shaped pool on top of the building (3 of them) and her favorite Singapore food - Chicken Rice!

Here r the photos taken during the 'Meet n Greet' sessions put in a photo wall.

http://s1320.photobu...t]=1&sort=1&o=1

http://s1320.photobu...t]=1&sort=1&o=0