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

@Kagaribi no Hanabira from your description it seems like Emiko was a bigger part of the live than LL. Guess she might be sticking around indeed? Looking forward to some footage whenever that might be.

PS.
"Kioku no Mori" with Joelle on the bridge instead of Yuriko? 0_0 Tell me more.
Did Kaori do all the refrains in "eternal blue" too? Or was it split with someone like with Wakana in the past?
 
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Unfortunately there's been no news on any footage from vol#21 being released as of now. I imagine IF we get anything it's going to be the final date? One weekend left.

Compared to what you listed we also got vol1reprise (stream and released with Kajiura's Early Best), vol15 soundtrack special (CD only), vol16 (stream and released with PARADE), vol17 (stream only), vol19 (tv airing and standalone blurays), vol20 (tv airing).

Plus PriPri (tv and bluray) and Fate concerts (livestream and bluray).
 
grunty said:
@Kagaribi no Hanabira from your description it seems like Emiko was a bigger part of the live than LL. Guess she might be sticking around indeed? Looking forward to some footage whenever that might be.

PS.
"Kioku no Mori" with Joelle on the bridge instead of Yuriko? 0_0 Tell me more.
Did Kaori do all the refrains in "eternal blue" too? Or was it split with someone like with Wakana in the past?
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I think Emiko’s part is bigger compared to Lino. She handled Keiko’s part in 4-vocal FJ songs&leaded new song&covers, while Lino mainly a main singer in her songs or covers, and rarely took chorus/kajiurago parts in 4-vocal FJ songs.

I was surprised that Joelle replaced Yuriko in Kioku no Mori, and she sounds so great that I want her to take this role more. I think that she rarely did it before as she’s mainly a main singer in most songs she participated.

IIRC, Kaori leaded the whole Eternal Blue, including Wakana’s refrains.
 
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
Basically, it’s Joelle<-Yuuka and Kaori<-Hikaru
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I am sorry I didn't get the operator you used in the comparison, did you mean "less than / minus"?
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
Kaori was back to a fierce girl again
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That's my Kaori.
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
Joelle really owned the song! It’s as if the song is hers from the start.
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I am so pleased to hear this. Joelle doing well as expected.
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
Kaori leaded the song, with 2nd verse by Emiko. (She sounds so good that I wanna hear more of Lisa’s cover from her.)
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Hahaha! This is good!
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
Hikidashi de Hikaru Shiteru: Kaori new song. It’s really her song! It’s bright and beautiful, showcasing what she does well. From low to high, from soft to strong, from legato to vibrato, it brings all charms from Kaori’s voice to live. Already love it from the first listening.
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Can't wait to hear it!
grunty said:
"Kioku no Mori" with Joelle on the bridge instead of Yuriko? 0_0 Tell me more.
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I am seriously curious about this. I went back to watch the one from YKL#16 and from that bridge kajiurago with Yuriko (harmonized by Joelle) I was hyped all the way and it carried with the guitar solo into Kaori's passionate section all the way to the end.
Kagaribi no Hanabira said:
I was surprised that Joelle replaced Yuriko in Kioku no Mori, and she sounds so great that I want her to take this role more.
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It must have been really something! I mean Yuriko's memorable performance of the song in YKL#16 is still one of my favorite vocal displays / experiences of her voice in Kajiura's entire discography, because she really took charge (of course with the lighting and camera work, etc.) and it really let me appreciate her skill in register movement, dynamics and RESONANCE. She gave so many colors and so masterfully too! All Yuriko's work is internal and doesn't show so much in her face with opening wide (well she does a lot of tones and kajiurago has minimal consonants so more freedom).

This is why I am really curious to hear Joelle bring in her full resonance to see how it matches my high bar of Yuriko's as I mentioned (of course they have different voices with different colors, etc.) and I really appreciate Kajiura rearranging the parts to allow Joelle's head voice to shine in this particular highlight!
 
Seeing how much Emiko is being featured just makes me think "why the hell didn't Kajiura do this with Keiko more".

The last concert she had good screentime in with a healthy amount of lead parts was vol. 9. We only had a handful of songs since then with Keiko on lead that I can count:
- Hitorigoto
- Nohara
- Main theme of KnY
- Beginning
- Kioku no Mori
- Sora wa Chiisana Hikari no You na
- Yuuyami no Uta

That's it. In over 10 years, Emiko got more lead time in one concert that she wasn't even the main guest vocal in than Keiko had in over 10+ years with YK.

Yes I'm still salty.
 
Saber said:
Seeing how much Emiko is being featured just makes me think "why the hell didn't Kajiura do this with Keiko more".

The last concert she had good screentime in with a healthy amount of lead parts was vol. 9. We only had a handful of songs since then with Keiko on lead that I can count:
- Hitorigoto
- Nohara
- Main theme of KnY
- Beginning
- Kioku no Mori
- Sora wa Chiisana Hikari no You na
- Yuuyami no Uta

That's it. In over 10 years, Emiko got more lead time in one concert that she wasn't even the main guest vocal in than Keiko had in over 10+ years with YK.

Yes I'm still salty.
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I think Emiko has a more versatile voice and can sing higher notes that Keiko can't, however Keiko voice is darker than Emiko so in certain songs Emiko cannot replace Keiko. I wonder if Emiko will keep joining Fiction Junction Lives in the future, she is more known than the others singers.
 
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Saber said:
Seeing how much Emiko is being featured just makes me think "why the hell didn't Kajiura do this with Keiko more".

The last concert she had good screentime in with a healthy amount of lead parts was vol. 9. We only had a handful of songs since then with Keiko on lead that I can count:
- Hitorigoto
- Nohara
- Main theme of KnY
- Beginning
- Kioku no Mori
- Sora wa Chiisana Hikari no You na
- Yuuyami no Uta

That's it. In over 10 years, Emiko got more lead time in one concert that she wasn't even the main guest vocal in than Keiko had in over 10+ years with YK.

Yes I'm still salty.
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She could’ve had more solos if only she stayed. And to be honest, musically speaking, EMIKO is more versatile than KEIKO. Keiko excels more in lower to mid registers. She excels in harmonizing too.
But once Keiko reaches high registers, she has to sound cutesy or belt it out to reach it, BUT SHE CANNOT MAINTAIN IT like the way EMIKO can do it in the ending part of Black Rose. Keiko can maintain doing the mid registers like she did in RED MOON and that has always been my favorite. EMIKO can sing it but only KEIKO can make it sound the way it is intended. KEIKO excels a lot in YUKI KAJIURA songs. Her solos are good but not that breathtaking for me like in YK songs.

And also, this is a testing ground also to see how the audience will respond to the new singer. I have their recent performance of PARADE with EMIKO as the singer. She can pull of the KEIKO parts well.
 
Saber said:
Seeing how much Emiko is being featured just makes me think "why the hell didn't Kajiura do this with Keiko more".

The last concert she had good screentime in with a healthy amount of lead parts was vol. 9. We only had a handful of songs since then with Keiko on lead that I can count:
- Hitorigoto
- Nohara
- Main theme of KnY
- Beginning
- Kioku no Mori
- Sora wa Chiisana Hikari no You na
- Yuuyami no Uta

That's it. In over 10 years, Emiko got more lead time in one concert that she wasn't even the main guest vocal in than Keiko had in over 10+ years with YK.

Yes I'm still salty.
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I remember Keiko having a big part in Mohitotsu.. in PriPri live that you don't list, but other than that I'm going to trust your list 'cause I'm too lazy to look into it.

Going by @Kagaribi no Hanabira 's description Emiko had bigger parts in:
- black rose (solo lead, brand new song)
- eternal blue (presumably carryover parts from Keiko and maybe some og adlibbing)
- destination (presumably solo lead, never before performed without Yuuka - at least in main lives in Japan, maybe they did do it at some Talk&Live fanclub event)
- delete (presumably solo lead, only performed in vol14 which Keiko missed out on)
- from the edge (2nd verse solo, never before performed without LiSA, Keiko still did end vocalizing in that one live with LiSA)
- stone cold (presumably carryover parts from Keiko and maybe some og adlibbing)
- Mune no Yukue (presumably solo lead, carryover from Keiko and the rest of Kalafina, never before performed without Hikaru and Keiko)

Whatever else she sang was presumably carryover backing from Keiko. Italics above denote carryovers from Keiko, rather than new parts.

So..... Emiko got 4 "new parts" in this live. One new song. "destination" that perhaps Keiko would've sang verses for had she stayed around (or maybe not - maybe it would've gone to others even if Keiko was still around so you c/would've been salty about that). "delete" maybe could've been with Keiko. "from the edge" verse possibly would've featured Keiko, I guess.

Is that so many new parts for a newcomer (and possibly a mainstay performer for some time) to be salty about in comparison to Keiko (who also had Kalafina for years and you didn't care to list those)?

Edit: Oh wait, they did Mune no Yukue in #16 with Hikaru. So that's a carryover too. I can't imagine Keiko wanting to do Hikaru's/Wakana's parts even if Emiko did them here.
 
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Sora said:
I mean, Emiko is also a guest? We don’t know if she’s joining the roster permanently so it makes sense she’d feature her as much as she can while she’s got her
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That's true.

She's also a young, solo star and, as you said, a guest artist who is drawing her own built-in audience / followership to YKL, which will be exposing some of them to Emiko singing Kajiura's distinctive music (maybe hearing her in another light).

Who knows some of them may hang around and want more. 👌
 
toshiroukajiura said:
EMIKO is more versatile than KEIKO. Keiko excels more in lower to mid registers. She excels in harmonizing too.
But once Keiko reaches high registers, she has to sound cutesy or belt it out to reach it, BUT SHE CANNOT MAINTAIN IT like the way EMIKO can do it in the ending part of Black Rose.
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I agree with this. Different singers, with different skillets, with minimal overlap.

- Emiko is a powerhouse lead singer, period. Loads of charisma and experience handling songs and winning over the audience. An ability to belt high over and over again is almost always required for a female lead (see almost all of Kajiura's guest leads).
- Emiko is gifted with, and has developed, her low range and her upper range, so she can visit a lot of where Keiko sang in harmony, though since Emiko has a bias for higher singing and a brighter voice, she won't necessarily capture the dark of Keiko's singing.
- Keiko often depressed her larynx to get that dark tone we all appreciate, and similarly went for vibrato to give it that "classical style". She was the best at that apart from her naturally low range.
- In many places I've said that Keiko potentially has high notes (maybe not up to Emiko) but her mixed voice wasn't fully developed so she either yelled high notes, switched into falsetto, or went nasal a lot of the time. It's why she struggled with singing the top notes in "Be Yourself" live in her first live (even though I really believe it's within her range with mixed voice).

- Let's not forget stamina for extensive lead singing. It's something we know Kaori has available to her, because of how long she's been doing it (singing) and often in a lead context too. I dint think Yuriko for example has as much stamina (just a fact).

- Emiko has a fair ability to do runs! The musical theater/ acappella/ gospel exposure and experimenting she's done enables her to spontaneously create a new adlib/melisma every time she sings the same song (compare to Kaori who I've noticed though has jazz exposure from her early doesn't have much variety in her "Tsubasa" ad-libs).
 
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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