Kalafina in Budokan 28 February - 01 March 2015

Just a few thoughts.

ARIA: Oh Hikaru... this is supposed to be your song! Can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually prefer Wakana's delivery of the refrain.
Lacrimosa: I really like it. Wakana sounds great.
Natsu no Ringo: Oh, how differently this sounds from both the Red Moon & Closed Premium Lives...
I Have a Dream: Wakana almost sounds like her old self here.
Hanataba: Hikaru's general "off-ness" in these two lives actually kinda works in her favor here. She comes off sounding vulnerable, which fits the song. It's good.

Keiko sounded sublime as usual. No real complaints from me at all. Wakana was great. Hikaru, on the other hand... oy. I can't even. The ferocity that I love about her voice was nowhere to be found.

edit: My biggest mistake was listening to ARIA first without context from the video. Hearing how strained Hikaru sounded clouded my perception on her overall performance in these two lives. Even with video though, I still think Hikaru botched up ARIA... She's OK with some hiccups on Red Day, and better on Blue Day.
 
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Damn, Hikaru. Out of breath, nasal notes, shaky voice and no control over her voice. What had happened to her? In late lives she sounds so good! And, ironically, her troubles were highlighted by the great condition of both Wakana and Keiko. (Hanataba was great though)

On the other hand Wakana sounds almost perfect. Such a nice surprise^^ I have a dream was a pure blessing.

Keiko is great as usual, nothing to say. I'm not too fond of that cute voice but that also is a nice change.
 
I have not listened to the other ones besides "Storia", and I felt HIKARU was sounding especially nasally as she once was a long time in the past... I thought she grew out of that phase! I haven't listened to enough of the tracks to fully critique HIKARU as lacking in this performance...
Thing is, I don't mind her nasal voice. I actually like it since it adds a certain brightness and innocence to a song.

What I don't like is how she forces it now. Before it was a 'natural' kind of nasal, similar to Yuuka's. But now, it's like her range in her upper register has diminished and she now forces it to be nasal to emulate her voice in the past. Compare storia now to storia even in 2011. There's a huge difference in her delivery.

And one other thing, Hikaru generally doesn't try to make it sound like the studio version. The best example of this is Mirai. In the studio version, she uses her chest voice. And in the early lives, she maintains it (eg. the Niconico live way back when Hikari Furu was just released). Now, she just uses her nasal one instead of singing it like how she recorded it.

That's one thing about Keiko which I like - I can honestly tell she always tries to make her voice better and adjust it to sound close to what the recording would sound like (though it may get extreme at times to the point where it backfires, like in love come down and Kimi ga Hikari).
 
I get what you mean ablu
Thing is, I don't mind her nasal voice. I actually like it since it adds a certain brightness and innocence to a song.

What I don't like is how she forces it now. Before it was a 'natural' kind of nasal, similar to Yuuka's. But now, it's like her range in her upper register has diminished and she now forces it to be nasal to emulate her voice in the past. Compare storia now to storia even in 2011. There's a huge difference in her delivery.
I get the whole innocence thing haha I do personally enjoy it! But like you said, the delivery was just flawed in this performance. I find myself mimicking her nasal voice whenever I do Kalafina covers, and in some of my original kalafina-inspired vocal compositions. It certainly is a unique voice and style; but in some cases, can be ear piercing (like in the love comedown live at the end where she goes "kimi ga DAN DAN chikaku..")
 
So after reading all your posts about Hikaru, I decided to listen to ARIA. Hory shiet, her voice is all over the place. She sounds like an amateur.
 
Hory shiet, her voice is all over the place. She sounds like an amateur.
Worse than that. It's like she forgot how to even sing. The worst part of the song is when she sings after Wakana's part. Severe ear cancer.

*goes back to watch Red Moon, After Eden and TYPE-Moon Fes BDs where Hikaru actually sounded good*
 
It actually sounds like they didn't edit the audio much. Wakana was off key during the start of Lacrimosa, wasn't she? but otherwise doing very well. This was pretty much how Hikaru sounded during the live. I've been assured by a friend that she has been doing better in subsequent lives (back to normal). I'm told the last time she had issues like this was for one of the christmas lives with strings. It feels like something to do with pressure/nerves. I believe they touched upon it in the Kalafina bessatsu interviews? Can't remember.
 
@Hatouchan and @bevan , at the concert was Hikaru having problems on both days, or just Red day?

Can't wait for my copy to arrive tomorrow, looking forward to enjoying it regardless of any singing issues :stars:
 
I listened Blue Day.
I love:
- Natsu no Ringo
- Love come down (Hikaru was good here)
- Magia
- Heavenly Blue (was great!)
- snow falling
- sprinter

Hikaru was very good in new songs (they fit much more to her actually voice). In old just good (in sprinter especially). but I don't like her voice in storia (too harshy).
I hope that she will recover to FOW live tour.
Wow, Wakana was gorgerous. She improved so much. In all songs she was great. I like her in snow falling, destination unknown, signal, magia, natsu no ringo, kimi no gin no niwa.
Keiko was singing in some songs in another way but she was perfect
 
Sad to hear Hikaru wasn't doing too well, hope she's okay. Good to hear about Wakana though, she's the one I usually worry about. Some of their recent performances on TV have been fantastic so the concept of Hikaru being stressed might be true. Still waiting on my copies, they've been shipped but I'm practically guaranteed customs so it'll be a couple weeks most likely.
 
I gave in and listened to ARIA and Signal, but I'm forbidding myself from listening to any more until I see it visually. To me, Hikaru doesn't sound that bad. From what everyone else was saying, I was expecting something dead beat horrible like in 2013. Turns out, she didn't sound half as bad. ARIA sounded better than I expected, but she did sound nasal. Signal blew me away. Wakana was amazing!!! I'm glad she's sounding better, and it seems she's mastered her new technique :)
 
This was pretty much how Hikaru sounded during the live. I've been assured by a friend that she has been doing better in subsequent lives (back to normal). I'm told the last time she had issues like this was for one of the christmas lives with strings. It feels like something to do with pressure/nerves. I believe they touched upon it in the Kalafina bessatsu interviews? Can't remember.
Just curious, when you went to for the FJC live way back in the beginning of this year, did Hikaru sound this bad?
 
That's good to hear. I can at least write off Hikaru's Budokan performance as just nerves and/or stress.

I hope next year's BD release of their far on the water tour (we all know it's coming sooner or later XD) will sound a lot better than this one.
 
I'm relieved :TdT: So it was stress... Special Final is in Tokyo International Forum Hall A so maybe she will less nervous than in Budokan. Her voice is stronger than in 2013 Consolation Special Final (her voice sounded very weak).
 
As probably a lot of others have stated, Hikaru's voice sounds very weak and shaky, overall not very good (yet she sounds strangely comfortable in Fantasia). But the strings make up for it (sort of). It's made me fanboy over them a lot for this live (especially in Hikari no Senritsu). Speaking of Hikari no Senritsu, I do like how they had the same flutist as in Consolation's live. It gives another flute solo to fanboy over XD. Overall, very good live, except for Hikaru's issues. I'll probably post a review of sorts on my blog when I finish listening to the songs.

@nodame89 I think that Hikaru's voice sounded stronger in the Consolation live, but didn't have the tension that we're more accustomed to in it.

Just a side note, but for some reason, Te to te to me to me sounds faster than normal.
 
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on the first listen to some of the tracks, I agree with people on Wakana. Her singing seems smooth.
Hikaru is a big no. Even Keiko sounds less energetic than usual.
but this is a very pre-lim listen
 
Hikaru is really not that bad. I haven't gotten to ARIA yet, but watching it on the Blu-rays she doesn't sound too bad. Maybe a little shaky and loud at times, like when she used to do the "Sayonara" loudly in fairytale, but glad she changed that too. She's great in harmonies and Mirai is where she really shines. Wakana is amazing and so is Keiko, who is not that strong so far but seventh heaven just was... wow. There's no words. I think all three did awesome on that song. I will do a full review though after tomorrow when I have watched it all. The strange thing is though that when I received them this morning, I was expecting one Blue and one Red Day poster, but got 2 Red Day. Oh well, still happy though!
 
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