Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#21 - 60 Songs (July 26 - August 24, 2025)

Lúa said:
Tbh, Keiko felt in many ways very favoured by YK in other ways. She wrote music for her solo career.

YK has spoken about how she likes to find ways to make new singers look cool and Emiko’s bg with gospel singing, musicals and what not gives her a flexibility that Keiko doesn’t have. Keiko has range but doesn’t mean she shines as bright through all of it.
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Oh, yes, this is true. Kajiura has/had a special place for her and they resonated in many ways.

Firstly, as two fellow low-voiced ladies, Kajiura understood her vocal challenges/crisis and gave her a role/place to shine, and wrote for her voice. Female singers with low voices have to grow up dealing with the observable bias for soprano voices in choir/singing competitions when they're growing up. I have a friend who struggled with identity issues as a singer, because of how she feels marginalized by her choir master in her church choir, because she's a natural contralto - passed over for solos (which were written for soprano lead). She's taking vocal lessons to smoothen out her voice and I am always encouraging her, when I can, to use the voice she's been given to the best of her ability and forget the rest.

Secondly, Keiko was personally and emotionally devoted to Kajiura, and Kajiura reciprocated this as well, including writing two non-FJ songs for her solo career (one in part, and the second in full), which I am not sure she has not done for any other of her main vocalists.
 
CloisteredFlame said:
Secondly, Keiko was personally and emotionally devoted to Kajiura, and Kajiura reciprocated this as well, including writing two non-FJ songs for her solo career (one in part, and the second in full), which I am not sure she has not done for any other of her main vocalists.
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She wrote a solo song for Yuriko Kaida (can't remember what it was called). Calling was written for Kaori without the FictionJunction moniker (released under Kaori Oda officially). But Nanairo no Finale is a garbage tier song and Yuuyami no Uta is so incredibly repetitive that they feel like throwaways than anything else.

Who's to say if Keiko would have gotten the same solos Emiko has if she stayed? I lean towards the "not likely" category and remember, it was not Keiko's choice to not be in the FJ lineup for vol. 21 (remember, it was Keiko who stated, if she was able do both, she would have). Happy that Emiko is getting a lot of love from this forum, but again, I just can't help but feel that she should have gotten more space to shine as a main vocalist in the almost 2 decades she has been with YK. I feel the same about Yuriko Kaida as well, but at least Yuriko gets a ton of featuring in her OSTs.
 
Saber said:
Who's to say if Keiko would have gotten the same solos Emiko has if she stayed? I lean towards the "not likely" category and remember, it was not Keiko's choice to not be in the FJ lineup for vol. 21 (remember, it was Keiko who stated, if she was able do both, she would have). Happy that Emiko is getting a lot of love from this forum, but again, I just can't help but feel that she should have gotten more space to shine as a main vocalist in the almost 2 decades she has been with YK.
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You are right.
We don't know if Keiko would've gotten anything from what was new with Emiko this tour.

If you want to argue a case that she wouldn't... well then maybe Emiko is more inspiring to Kajiura. Sux for Keiko and her fans. Only fact remains, she is the only old regular to get a solo song on PARADE.

And not going to lie, at this point I'm a little amused that so many Keiko fans (not necessarily you) lamented the loss of Keiko as this "irreplacable pillar to YKL/FJ" and now you are saying this.

And yes, I'm also waiting for a new Yuriko song myself. And a Joelle original too.
 
Eri got LOVING YOU music from Kajiura.
Yuriko got Tokoshieni music from Kajiura.
Kaori got full Calling song and produce from Kajiura.
Keiko got Nanairo music and full Yuuyami no Uta song and produce from Kajiura.

Unlike Cloistered and others who keep bringing these songs up, I really don't think it's as deep as Kajiura favoring any singer. Particularly the full productions (Calling, Yuuyami no Uta). I feel like it's more that the stars and their paths (singers and Kajiura's) aligned in the anime world.
 
I'll be content if she at leasts announces a new digital single with muh Joelle.
I'm also predicting the final raibu will be recorded cuz it has both ASCA and JUNNA.
 
I want Shoot! covered by Emiko and someone else do Shinkai no Kodoku (delete sounds like someone mixed Red Moon with Shizuka na Yoru ni so i dont really like it - meanwhile longing is TTB #2)
 
Saber said:
She wrote a solo song for Yuriko Kaida (can't remember what it was called). Calling was written for Kaori without the FictionJunction moniker (released under Kaori Oda officially). But Nanairo no Finale is a garbage tier song and Yuuyami no Uta is so incredibly repetitive that they feel like throwaways than anything else.

Who's to say if Keiko would have gotten the same solos Emiko has if she stayed? I lean towards the "not likely" category and remember, it was not Keiko's choice to not be in the FJ lineup for vol. 21 (remember, it was Keiko who stated, if she was able do both, she would have). Happy that Emiko is getting a lot of love from this forum, but again, I just can't help but feel that she should have gotten more space to shine as a main vocalist in the almost 2 decades she has been with YK. I feel the same about Yuriko Kaida as well, but at least Yuriko gets a ton of featuring in her OSTs.
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Hmmm.

I went back to listen to almost all the songs written for the singers (as listed by grunty).

Which of the other songs were, in your opinion, significantly better compositions than Yuyami no Uta"? I can agree that that Nanairo no Finale we got was weak, but even that I imagine if played as an acoustic song with just the piano and vocal (as I imagine Kajiura wrote it since she plays the piano) and at a slower tempo, it would actually be a superior song (maybe with Yuriko Kajiurago at the bridge in place of the guitar solo). Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I recall that Kajiura only composed and didn't do the arrangement and instrumentation.

Yuyami no Uta is an anisong and we know Kajiura writes to her expression of the story first, and with the preferred vocalist in mind for range and style. I doubt Kajiura is trying to write worse music for the anime, or for Keiko over the others. In fact, to take it further, the vocal attributes / vocal performance of the singer is also a part of the overall impact of a song, no matter the composition.

Again, no, Keiko wouldn't have been able to do everything Emiko did to deliver her new FJ track if given the same song, for example. She doesn't have the vocal flexibility, developed high range, and variety of vocal colors to differentiate each verse, and give the powerful climax at the end.

I say this as someone who has praised Keiko's stylistic experimentation with her vocal in the solo cover she did for the Parade album, and in her solo album.

Keiko has also had the more recent music written for her to lead out of the OG three (her. Yuriko, and Kaori).

I can appreciate your frustration about Keiko since you're more survivalist a fan of hers, but Yuriko just sings Kajiurago in songs and does high or low harmony (depending on who's with her), she doesn't get to lead. She had led maybe a quarter of the time Keiko has one the years, probably less.
 
grunty said:
Eri got LOVING YOU music from Kajiura.
Yuriko got Tokoshieni music from Kajiura.
Kaori got full Calling song and produce from Kajiura.
Keiko got Nanairo music and full Yuuyami no Uta song and produce from Kajiura.

Unlike Cloistered and others who keep bringing these songs up, I really don't think it's as deep as Kajiura favoring any singer. Particularly the full productions (Calling, Yuuyami no Uta). I feel like it's more that the stars and their paths (singers and Kajiura's) aligned in the anime world.
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Thanks.

My inability to recall these songs s examples shows my relative lack of awareness or familiarity with them (and most of Kajiura's discography I must say).

My main argument wasn't that Kajiura had such a special relationship with Keiko that she favors her over the others, just that she's written more for her in recent times (not for free, I could imagine, with Nanairo no Finale).

I mean, I read that Kajiura let it be known in this very YKL#21 that her songs wouldn't work without Yuriko being present, when she was ill, leading to the use of full backing track of Yuriko all through a couple of the shows. That actually speaks to Kajiura "need" for Yuriko's vocal performance and part in the way that music was rehearsed and put together. It must have been a strange experience, thinking about it.
 
Saber said:
it was not Keiko's choice to not be in the FJ lineup for vol. 21 (remember, it was Keiko who stated, if she was able do both, she would have)
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She waa willing, I imagine, but it's not as simple as that.

Life is about choices and I think she should be free to choose, and so should everyone else.
 
Aug 23 setlist
https://patchin.jp/2025/08/23/yuki-kajiura-live-vol-21～60-songs～埼玉公演1日目/


overture〜black rose

eternal blue

MC

destination

八月のオルガン

焔の扉

ことのほかやわらかい

MC

nocturne

delete

Rainbow 〜Main Theme〜

nostalgia

MC

風よ、吹け

MC

lighthouse

from the edge

stone cold

zodiacal sign

MC

引き出して発光している

Encole

overture〜時の向こう 幻の空

parade

MC

moonlight melody


Also summary from all the setlists
https://patchin.jp/2025/08/24/【ネタバレ注意】ykl21の計9公演の曲まとめ/

2 songs left to reach 60. My bet is its 2 new songs (album please).
 
CloisteredFlame said:
I mean, I read that Kajiura let it be known in this very YKL#21 that her songs wouldn't work without Yuriko being present, when she was ill, leading to the use of full backing track of Yuriko all through a couple of the shows. That actually speaks to Kajiura "need" for Yuriko's vocal performance and part in the way that music was rehearsed and put together. It must have been a strange experience, thinking about it.
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Yuriko getting sick and not being there for some concerts that they already had rehearsed for is one thing. Yuriko no longer being available .period., would be another.
I'm sure if Kajiura had to, she would find someone to do those parts & new ones. It would obviously not be the same and the transition wouldn't necessarily be smooth but... Life finds a way. If Kajiura needs those harmonies, I'm sure she would figure it out.
Not that I really want this to happen.
 
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