J-Pop Summit 2016: Day One Report (July 23, 2016)

J-POP Summit returns to San Francisco's Fort Mason for another year of entertainment, music, and more!

This year's event officially kicked off with a special Kyary Pamyu concert at the Regency Ballroom Friday July 22nd, but the fun really began on Saturday (the 23rd) with a special early-morning performance of Tokyo Performance Doll and NHK mascot Domo, together stylized as "Tokyo Performance Domo" with a crowd-rousing rendition of their latest song, the "Domobics"! Both Saturday and Sunday opened up with a performance of this song to get the crowd pumped for what was to come and I am not ashamed to say that this is a song that really grows on you after even just one listen. Think J-Pop and exercise and you'll get an idea of how this song can really get you moving. Check it out below if you don't believe me!

Tokyo Performance Domo - Domobics

Various performances and activities filled the event. Sake tasting, vendors, a special Q&A session with Silent Siren, and smaller performances filled the first day. The Go-Torch characters returned as well bringing a couple new additions including the amazing "Zom-Bear"! Attractions included a capsule hotel display (for those that like the idea of sleeping in small tubes) and some of the most advance toilet seats you'll see on this side of the Pacific.

Silent Siren Q&A Session

Celebrity Chef Tatsuo Saito's Panel

Some of the Go-Torch Mascots

As the name suggests though, music is the biggest star at J-POP Summit and the night's concert was kicked off by Tokyo Performance Doll. Having changed out of their Domobics outfits, they performed that song again before jumping into their own set including some of their well-known songs like "Brand New Story" and "Dream Trigger". The crowd was hyped up for this performance and penlights could be seen throughout the front rows. It also helped very much that a lot of the MCs featured English!

Next up was Wednesday Campenella (Suiyoubi no Campanella). I want to stop here and admit that this was the artist I knew the least about going into this and I had no idea what to expect. For starters I was not expecting this "group" to only feature one performer, vocalist KOM_I. From what I understand the other members of Wednesday Campenella do not appear or perform live. Well, this wasn't the only shock in store for everyone. With no warning the performance started and everyone looked around confused where the music and singing were coming from. Eventually everyone realized (thanks mainly to the cameras which also appeared to be caught off guard) that KOM_I was singing from atop the giant Domo figure at the NHK booth! After being carried to the stage on a litter, the surprises didn't stop there. Snapchat filters, face-swapping, use of cut-out props, and even rubber duck tossing lead to a grand finale where KOM_I climbed into a giant ball and was carried along the crowd. While this marked the end of the performance, the crowd was kind enough to place her where she needed to be: at her booth for her autograph session. I think it's fair to say that many in the crowd might not have heard of Wednesday Campanella before, but they wouldn't soon forget this performance.

While I personally feel that Wednesday Campanella stole the show, the headliner for the first night was GARNiDELiA. For those that don't know GARNiDELiA is a duo made up of vocalist MARiA (Mai Mizuhashi) and music producer toku (Abe Yoshinori). Together they've provided music for many animes including Gundam Reconguista in G, The Irregular at Magic High School, and Kill la Kill just to name a few. They released their first album just last year and their set was a powerful way to end the first night and saw a return of the penlights that filled the audience for Tokyo Performance Doll earlier. While the crowd was on their feet for some of their most popular songs such as "BLAZING" and "Gokuraku Jodo", it was a cover of Neon Genesis Evangelion's theme "Cruel Angel's Thesis" that really brought the house down! The duo filled the stage well and the first day of J-Pop Summit drew to a close!

Be sure to check out our coverage of Day Two very soon!

-Manuel (alavic_222)

Photos: Manuel Figueroa, Tiffany Fujii, Heidi Alford

Oh yeah, and Heidi caught one of those rubber ducks mentioned earlier!