Kalafina Post-Kajiura thread (Upd: Kalafina appeared at Animax Musix 2026)

[CloisteredFlame]

Keiko's channel has really become the unofficial Kalafina update channel!

I feel that they should really have Spacecraft or whoever open up the main YouTube channel to make it public, since it has many of their MVs, so that they can fully take advantage of it to do curated promotions and clips from their lives - not sure who set it up though, so maybe there's some gray area of control over that...?

Kalafina Official YouTube Channel
@kalafinaSMEJ • 294K subscribers

They can leave the more casual lives and personal BTS like this to Keiko's and the others' channels.

 

[grunty]

Butting in for this one conversation. We already talked about that channel before Cloistered. SMEJ in that channel's handle is Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Kalafina don't seem to be currently affiliating themselves with Sony.

Maybe they can figure something out, maybe they can't or won't. Personally, a completely unfounded belief, I doubt Sony would be that willing to let it go.

Enjoy the lives everyone. I have no interest in this until they release a song I like again.

 

[CloisteredFlame]

Stream link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeyRBI9EQq0

I am reminded about why I gravitated to Hikaru's looks and vibe more before than the others.
The hairdo really frames her face very well.

 

[CloisteredFlame]

Butting in for this one conversation. We already talked about that channel before Cloistered. SMEJ in that channel's handle is Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Kalafina don't seem to be currently affiliating themselves with Sony.

Maybe they can figure something out, maybe they can't or won't. Personally, a completely unfounded belief, I doubt Sony would be that willing to let it go.

Enjoy the lives everyone. I have no interest in this until they release a song I like again.

Thanks for reminding me. When I saw the SMEJ I thought twice as I typed, but I still think it would be ideal to engage/activate the almost 300k+ subscribers and take it from there, since the group is fully back to activities.

 

[grunty]

Thanks for reminding me. When I saw the SMEJ I thought twice as I typed, but I still think it would be ideal to engage/activate the almost 300k+ subscribers and take it from there, since the group is fully back to activities.

I understand what you're saying but, again, the handle suggests THAT is a Sony channel, not a personal Kalafina channel. Sony doesn't have to lift a pinkie for the new Kalafina activities.

And I'm not saying it's impossible. For all I know they could be working to resolve that channel's situation. I'm just saying, it's not as simple as the trio just wanting to use that channel (or the fans wishing they would). The handle suggests Sony being in charge of it.

 

[wat11]

I clicked on it after many uhhhhhs

Keiko in believe... is terrible? Nvm Wakana.... "mada boku wa shiranai kanashimi ga" ... my ears...

Wakana's progressive aaaahhh... sounds like a clean cloth being squeezed to death. Wakana, just stop with the high notes, please.

Hikari No Senritsu the duet aaarrghh. I'm out.

I... oof pant pant... clicked on adore... because I was curious... ccclick onn X nnnoww. ah whew. here's the antidote.

I listened to the first MC and I could not hear Kajiura's name being mentioned but I am not a speaker. Was she ever mentioned in the live?

Spoiler: same emotional rant

I am so sorry... it genuinely feels like sh*t when I compare things to how they were in the past. It truly makes me feel desperate. I keep expecting a nice surprise after clicking a new link and the outcome is always the same. Kalafina is just gone.

 

[Saber]

Wakana had this...noticeably scratchy and throaty and squeezed quality to her voice the entire live. There were very few parts where it was actually pleasant to listen to her (similar to when Kaori developed that same throaty quality in the first few lives post-covid). She didn't have this a year or two ago so I have to wonder if she had strained her voice prior because she had none of the vocal control she displayed in her solo lives, and don't even get me started on any of her head voice parts. Those were completely unlistenable (RIP progressive and red moon).

Hikaru was pretty good this live, when she didn't strain her voice (progressive, Kagayaku, adore, blaze, etc.). Aria and Red Moon was, uh, not great, but she was more good here than she was bad which is a huge improvement from last year. I'm surprised she couldn't pull off in every nothing, because it's one of their easier songs to sing and right in her current comfortable range. She doesn't have a great poker face, when she strains it's very obvious from her expressions.

Keiko was good as usual. The editing team left in, like, every vocal hiccup ever, so even Keiko isn't immune to being flat or sharp at times.

In a way I like the more "raw" sound with all the vocal mistakes left in, because it's more representative of how they actually sound live. On the other, I'm not sure it feels good as a singer for every vocal crack and off-key moment to be left in a live broadcast lol.

Oh and everyone has already said this but the mixing absolutely sucks. What sound engineer was in charge of this.

It's a big shame because the setlist is absolutely goated. Obbligato, red moon, adore, progressive, signal, Kagayaku and neverending in a single setlist, I wish their normal setlists were this great.

Can I also just say Keiko with curled hair looks absolutely stunning? I could not take my eyes off of her.

 

[CloisteredFlame]

Stream link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeyRBI9EQq0

YouTube Live Watch-Along (with the ladies):

After the ARIA, Wakana talks about the F5 to highlight that it wasn't easy to sing. I've never heard her refer to a specific pitch she's had to sing.

1:10:10 Keiko in a section where she was encouraging Wakana to be proud of her skills, compliments Wakana's ability to switch from singing the top line to the "classical" (I guess harmony or falsetto-y) parts, and says not many singers can do it and Wakana does it very well. She, in turn, said she could almost cry (since I'm sure she was touched).

Here it comes!

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1v...ck&vd_source=307f2d5c8d3d87f1a8be78592d1e30fd

Kalafina Reunion 2026:

- Hikari no Senritsu: Always gotta have the flute melody. It's the heart of the song instrumentally.
- Obbliggato: You gotta use the vocal tracks including Kajiura's voice. The ladies were definitely super-relaxed for this song. Wakana plagued by the high notes and jumps in pitch interval that Kajiura wrote for her.
- Lots of songs that required Kajiura's backing tracks, especially the ethnic chants in several of them.

I think this is their least edited live, ever.

I am not so sure about that, if you go back to their early standing-only lives they were more raw there. Right?

Enjoy the lives everyone. I have no interest in this until they release a song I like again.

I understand this, like what else can they offer?
Releasing a new song is possible with the Arrietty cover being a safe test of sorts, in my opinion.

She didn't have this a year or two ago

In the raw bootleg audio recorded in-venue from the 2025 anniversary live, Wakana sounded much better and more stable than this year's live.

Hikaru was pretty good this live, when she didn't strain her voice

She sounded OK. I was curious about the acappella intro for "Hikari no Senritsu" and Hikaru doing it without Yuriko's virtual support.

Keiko was good as usual. The editing team left in, like, every vocal hiccup ever, so even Keiko isn't immune to being flat or sharp at times.

You're right that they left several hiccups in, so that made it more "real Kalafina", rather than idealized version usually put out for their most popular lives. It just makes the fact they're a vocal/harmony forward group more painful when you hear the instabilities in singing parts that are not that extreme.

Oh and everyone has already said this but the mixing absolutely sucks.

Oh, the broadcast mix was subpar to the standard we usually got from Kalafina/FJ lives. We can't say about the state of the in-venue PA mix, but that of Animax Music (which was also streamed, right?) was better in my opinion.

The violins were thin and scratchy even during Konno's solo; the bass and band instruments were kinda loud.

 

[CloisteredFlame]

Stream link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeyRBI9EQq0

YouTube Live Watch-Along (with the ladies):

Around 1:10:10 in a section where Keiko was encouraging Wakana to be proud of her abilities, compliments Wakana's ability to switch from singing the top line to the "classical" (I guess harmony or falsetto-y) parts, and says not many singers can do it and Wakana does it very well. She, in turn, said she could almost cry (since I'm sure she was touched). It acknowledges (a bit) Wakana's struggles with stage fright or self-judgment.

Here it comes!

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1v...ck&vd_source=307f2d5c8d3d87f1a8be78592d1e30fd

Kalafina Reunion 2026:

- An OK live. Definitely the staging was superior to last year, including the lights. Hikaru was trimmer looking like her old self. The others looked identical to last year, physically.
- Hikari no Senritsu: Always gotta have the flute melody. It's the heart of the song instrumentally.
- Obbliggato: You gotta use the vocal tracks including Kajiura's voice. The ladies were definitely super-relaxed for this song. Wakana plagued by the high notes and jumps in pitch interval that Kajiura wrote for her.
- Lots of songs that required Kajiura's backing tracks, especially the ethnic chants in several of them.
- Mixing was not it. I'm still not a fan of how the violins sounded in the Animax and they were played back there. How about in this LIVE with Konno and his team being there??? Could it be the livestream quality inconsistencies were choking the violin frequencies, or it was just a bad broadcast mix.

 

[Lúa]

Regarding the editing or lack of it, there is a few times that Wakana's vibratos sound too... choppy wihle weirdly regular before it normalises towards the end so it makes me wonder if they tweaked those and made it sound just unnatural (or Wakana has a very peculiar style)

Hikaru's problem seems to be that goes very ham when trying to be dramatic and i thin that then prevents her from dealing with the higher notes of some phrases.

That being said, I both admire them and feel bad for them. Hikaru has to be decent in many ranges. Wakana has to expose herself in a very obvious manner very often ands still perform as is everything is ok and not get crushed under the pressure.