Version F.0
Before we get started, I would like to extend my most insincere congratulations to Random Curiosity for their acquisition of a marvelous device, known as the "time machine." Because truly, how else is it possible that an assessment could be written 6 days before the street date?
For obvious reasons, the channels of procurement for these wonderful contraptions is a tightly guarded secret, but I must confess that I too would be interested in a time machine of my own, and if anyone were to be so magnanimous as to refer me to the proper avenues, I would be most deeply in your debt, and not the kind quickly repaid by foreseeing where the stock market is headed.
All right the gig is up. I'll stop with the flowery language. Also the naivety.
It may surprise you, or not, to know that I watched Macross F, because I don't particularly care for the franchise as a whole. Gundam's scthick is/was to appeal to pseudo hard science fiction, and Macross' pretty much continues to be to sweep people off their feet through sheer force of camp, and I don't respond well to either. But the director's cut pilot episode held out the prospect of Macross Zero-esque flight (and fight) scenes; in other words, instant buy-in.
There were shades of Macross Zero, in a very literal sense, but there was also obvious scene recycling, not to mention story recycling, and character design recycling, but you could chalk that up to a very successful hat tipping effort. As an attempt to actually advance the Macross universe, we get at best a modest evolution, a fresh look wrapped around a dated core.
Conjecture: People upgrade their entertainment more often than they do their operating systems.
It doesn't take a fan to note that so much hat tipping and saluting the past can be dangerous. Given that Macross F is a culmination of sorts, it wouldn't have taken much for Macross F to become Macross the Highlight Reel or worse, Macross the Remix. Anyone with a vested interest should hope that Macross' consolidation is not also its high-water mark.
The Budokan concert in many ways is a wrapper on a wrapper: big stage production, ceremony, theatrics, feel-good songs. I guess that's where the musical aspect comes from, but we should not kid ourselves, because musicals don't last 9 hours and have 5+ reprises.
That's almost what we get over the course of 3 hours, whether it is through medley(s) or encore. More recycling does not impress, but if you want to be swept off your feet Macross style, it would be in your best interest to overlook this.
That aside, what about the performance itself?
Well, they do say that first impressions are everything, although I cannot fault anyone for going cross-eyed trying to hold a pose for more than a minute.
That aside, I think May'N and Megumi Nakajima could be commended high praise for endurance alone. Megumi in particular, for singing about 20 minutes non-stop, without enough time in between songs for water, and with only a bit of an airy voice at the end of it all.
Generally speaking the songs play out like what you might expect out of a studio album, except better, because this is one take and there's nowhere to hide, unless you want to be cynical and invoke the miracle that is post-processing.
But I think not, because there is the odd flat pitch in what turns out to be a remarkably on-target affair, and a lot of those are in obvious places like sustained pitches. Also, you would think those hypothetical audio engineers would correct for May'N.
Oh yes, I just went there. You could say a few things about the timbre of May'N's singing voice:
- Powerful
- Raw
- Passionate
- Stringy (in a quavering violin way)
- Weepy, when applicable (Diamond Crevasse)
You could also say a few other things:
- Strident
- Scratchy
- Strained
- Reedy (as in, a junior clarinet/oboe student)
- Tight
- Pinched
- An overdriven amplifier
Okay, so maybe the last point is a bit obtuse, but power is where the problem most clearly manifests itself. The songs that she is known for have been written for a power singer, but I am unconvinced that she's cut out to be one.
Anyone can project power by virtue of shouting; it takes something more to not smear sound all over the place, and for all the talk about the musical aspects of the series, there is something definitely un-musical about May'N's unfocused performance.
Since Diamond Crevasse occupies such a prominent position in the series and the concert, it's worth mentioning that this is a song that may have been written for May'N, but could have easily been written for someone else.
Diamond Crevasse is to Macross F what Blue was to Cowboy Bebop, and practically demands someone of Mai Yamane's stature to render a respectable performance. Mai Yamane, May'N is not.
On a side note, I would pay money to see Mai Yamane take a run at Diamond Crevasse.
Megumi Nakajima sings in a rounded fashion, by way of comparison. The use of "oh" as opposed to "ah" means that she does have a tendency to drift flat on long notes (see above on sustained pitching), but it's not as if she misses outright. To compensate she has a solid lower register and put on a well-tempered performance. You know, over the course watching this concert I came to a realization that probably everyone else has come to already, but I'll say it anyway:
Megumi Nakajima could be the next Maaya Sakamoto.
Heck, she could be Maaya Sakamoto. Over the headphones, she is a dead ringer. She sings the same easy mode listening tunes of the YK-MS era, and she even gives Maaya a run for her money with her work on Triangler. On any given day, it might even be better.
Could you imagine how weird it would be if Megumi Nakajima wound up in a similar collaboration?
Or rather, how awesome?
The only song where she struggled was the encore of, coincidentally, Diamond Crevasse. It's probably not fair to take anything away from those shaky several minutes, though, in part because she was holding back tears. And by way of Utada Hikaru's Concert Rule of 2004 (in Budokan), you must not judge anyone if they're choked up.
What you should be taking away instead, and elsewhere, are two: she is on the quiet side relative to the band, and the unflattering display of her paper thin upper register.
Or not?
Perhaps a more accurate assessment is that both singers backed off when heading higher, but Megumi can literally be there one moment, and gone the next. And then she'd be back on the very next note, and it seems that she has this pitch threshold, above which she is only willing to tread as if on eggshells.
For obvious instances of the Megumi Fading phenomenon, refer to:
- The end of the finale medley
- Aimo OC, single pitch fading
- Do You Remember Love?. Especially DYRL
The DYRL of the 21st century is a lot less grandiose and reverby than its predecessor, rendering the contemporary version incompatible with the past, but still a very appropriate update. Megumi was on track to delivering a satisfactory, if dynamically timid, performance, and then she fades into the coda and never recovers because it's all upper range territory.
One of the things that made the original DRYL work was that haunting motif in the coda, and by haunting I don't mean a whisper verging on death. The coda requires softness and focus, and to do so means more intensity than had when singing at a comfortable mezzo dynamic.
The coda demands nothing less than piercing, laser-like intensity that you simply don't get when the intensity of your voice gives out.
And the short interjecting lines by May'N were totally incompatible, because there is too much mismatch between timbres. What the coda could have used instead was a bit of harmony, something also found at points in the original.
Speaking of which, there wasn't enough harmonizing overall, and there should have been more singing together, rather than letting the two singers go about their own lines that only occasionally linked up. But I suspect that I'm in the minority. I mean, harmony is something only a snob could love, right?
Or a Yuki Kajiura fan. But it's not like those two are equivalent or anything.
P.S.
How about those trumpets? Unfortunately, they needed to be at least twice as loud during Fold Out!. They should be ripping the air and carrying the day, but instead they got washed out, and talking about trumpets getting washed out is unusual, at least for me.
Megumi sings Ao no Ether better than Maaya Sakamoto, although it's live versus studio.
The DVD's audio is a rather pedestrian LPCM stereo. Well, it wouldn't be so ho-hum if the BD version came with the same, which it does, but why would you want that when it also offers 5.1 channel audio? Why not put surround sound on the DVD version, even at the cost of an extra disc?