Single Iwasa Misaki 4th [Hatsuzake] 2015/04/29

Wasamin made her debut performance of Hatsuzake at the AKB48 National handshake event in Hiroshima yesterday. Here are a few photos from the event, courtesy of 48g.jp

 

Wasamin promoting the new single for online retailers...

HMV

if the video does not show watch the video here

7net Shopping

if the video does not show watch the video here

Rakuten Books (I don't think it can be embedded, but here's a link)
http://books.rakuten.co.jp/rb/13111908/

Also...

Spoiler: Let It Go ~Ari no Mama de~ Preview!!!

If you queue up to around 7:00 of Wasamin's radio show this week, you can hear a bit of "Let it Go" in the background

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

At Wasamin's event yesterday they played all the songs from the upcoming release for the first time. I love her version of Hatachi no Meguriai! Along the same lines as Hatsuzake, it is a bit of a different style for her. The Enka version of Let it Go, despite some differences, sounds much like the original. Especially the chorus. But she pulls it off very well. My first impression is that the single is a nice combination of styles. Hatachi and Hatsuzake are more in her lower register, while the other two songs are higher. I must admit as a song I am not a fan of "Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari". Aside from Green Flash it was my least favorite song on AKB's last single. Although to me it becomes better with Wasamin singing.

 

Iwasa Misaki 4th Single Preorder Mini-live. 2015/04/26 at Yoro-do, Asakusa (Tokyo) AND 2015/04/26 at Onkokyu-do, Edogawa (Tokyo)
FYI, I am in town this week to support Wasamin's new release. So look forward to the firsthand reports. I will also report my personal experiences in the AKB experiences thread...

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13:00 Setlist (Asakusa)
1. Hatzuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
3. Hatachi no Meguriai
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)



Cute little store right in the heart of Asakusa near the shrines. There were thousands of people walking by the shop. A few people walking by actually came in for the performance too! Overall Wasamin sounded great, and she was positively beaming! Out of the gate they had some volume problems with the music which caused Wasamin to have a little bit of trouble at the beginning of Hatsuzake. But any issues she had singing the song seemed to be ironed out at her 2nd set later on. The other songs she performed very well. Suffice it to say Hakimono to Kasa is much more inspiring to me when Wasamin sings it. In fact I was going to tell her that at my first handshake, but Wasamin had other ideas. Additionally there seemed to be a temperature issue in the room. Everyone in the audience was cool and comfortable, but Wasamin kept complaining that she was really hot onstage.

2nd show




17:00 Setlist (Edogawa)
1. Hatsuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Mujineki
3. Hatachi no Meguriai
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)



Like I said, she ironed out a difficulty she had earlier on Hatsuzake. Wasamin is at the point where I hardly even worry about her performances being good. She is a total pro now. She hits all her notes. She doesn't have breathing issues anymore. She is completely comfortable onstage. The stage was in a tiny little room above this dingy and "lived in" little shop. In fact, all of these little Enka music stores seem to have that same dingy quality. Real old school. Nice sized crowd, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. In fact at one point Wasamin asked if we all went out drinking before the event. So she still hasn't performed "Let it Go" from Frozen. I wonder why they are saving it?

 

@oltrebla I'm not sure if the media will be there tomorrow or Wednesday. But we will find out soon enough...

EDIT: According to the fans on Mixi she actually said she would debut it on Wednesday in front of the media. I heard her talking about the song, but I wasn't sure what she was saying. Come to think of it she mentioned Shibuya as well. So I should have put 2+2 together.

Iwasa Misaki 4th Single Mini-live and Handshake event 2015/04/27 at Ario Kitasuna and 2015/04/27 at Marui City Kinshicho



12:00 Setlist (Kitasuna)
1. Hatsuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Hatachi no Meguriai
3. Akai Sweet Pea
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

15:00 Setlist (Kitasuna)
1. Hasuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
3. Hatachi no Meguriai
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

Ario (Ito-Yokado) is actually a nice mid-upscale mall very close to Akihabara. The event was taking place right next to the food court, which is the perfect place to draw a nice crowd. So she drew plenty of gawkers for both performances. Oh, and they were playing the full-PV for Hatsuzake on the monitor. Gorgeous! Wasamin was wearing her pale purple kimono with her hair pulled back. She hasn;t lost a beat with Akai Sweet Pea. Her singing was on point. Mu of her MCs today surrounded a recent promotional event she is doing on NicoNico next week.


18:30 Setlist (Kinshicho)
1. Hatsuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Mujineki
3. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)



The event was held in a conference hall on the roof of Marui City in Kinshicho. This seemed quite odd as there was virtually NO foot traffic up there. A rooftop soccer pitch and special window with a really nice view of SkyTree. The CD shop holding the promotion was actually across the street in front of the JR Station.



Most of the fans were just vegging up there watching the live broadcast of Andare. At one point Wasamin's manager came out and chatted with us for a little while. We entered the room 20 minutes prior to the show and it was freezing. The AC was up way too high. Then the MC apparently turnedhe microphone off before she handed it to Wasamin. So when she started singing.....This actually kinda threw Wasamin off for much of the first verse. Not to mention she looked a bit tired. I'm not surprised she hasn't tweeted since the event ended. But once she warned up she was good to go. She kept forgetting the details of the NicoNico event. She was mentioni something about karaoke too but I wasn't sure what.

So preorder events are done. Release events begin tomorrow in Ikebukuro. Which means we finally get our hands on the CD!

 

In addition there are also releases by Aiko, Shokotan, AAA, Flower from E-Girls, LinQ, not to mention Week 2 for HKT48. It really isn't going to be about the Oricon placing since there is too much stiff competition. This will be more about the overall sales numbers than anything else. Hopefully she will beat her sales for Tomobojo and at least get the number back to Moshisora level.

 

Iwasa Misaki 4th Single Release Event!!! Mini-Live and Handshake event (2015/04/28) Tobu Department Store Sky Deck Square, Ikebukuro

As Wasamin pointed out on her Twitter this morning, it is Furage day for Hatsuzake!!! And that means...



Score-a-rooni!"

Setlist 13:00
1. Hatsuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Mujineki
3. Akai Sweet Pea
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

Setlist 16:00
1. Hatsuzake (Abridged ver.)
2. Hatachi no Meguriai
3. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)


(Some of the earlybirds doing their best to stay in the shade)

On the roof of Tobu Department Store in Ikebukuro Station. This as the first of two consecutive days outdoor events. Although with this one most of the audience is in the sun, and it was a pretty warm and sunny day. Wasamin noted in the first MC that she was worried about a of us being exposed in the hot sun like that. Wasamin was wearing her Navy Blue Kimono with Sakura decor. Surprisingly, she did none of the new single B-side tracks for the early live, instead saving them for the later event. She had a lot more fans later in the day, but it was the earlier show that drew more passersby and local office people. It should also be noted that the 16:00 show handshake segment went for almost 90 minutes, which is pretty good! And it wasn't just a few people with a lot of tickets. The line of people snaked pretty far back for a good while.

Since this is finally release day there are a few additional bonuses being offered at the event. In addition to the "limited edition rare trading card", fans also received their choice of either a signboard or Hatsuzake sticker set. Tomorrow they will also be offering hatsuzake clear files. Lots of Wasa-swag!

Most of her MCs were focused on a) Wasamin's upcoming NicoNico appearance, b) the additional prizes being offered inside the CDs, like the "Wasamin Karaoke Party" c) Wasamin announced she recorded a performance for AKB48SHOW. So we have that to look forward to. Hopefully they will show it soon, and not wait until a month after it comes out (Like they did with Tomobojo)...

Oh and d) Wasamin's new "selfie stick", which led to an extremely memorable moment in the 2nd set. (But I will save that for the experience thread)



Tomorrow Wasamin performs in Shibuya, which will also be the media performance. I believe she will also be singing "Let it Go" for the first time. Not to mention they should definitely have the promotional truck driving around Tokyo. I will try to get some good photos of it.

 

@fubuki Please don't ask for an illegal download of Wasamin's single here. You can get the PV by purchasing the limited edition of the single

 

Time to catch up. Sorry, yesterday was a looooong day, and today I spent traveling to Nagoya. So some quick reports...

Iwasa Misaki 4th Single Mini-live and Handshake Release Event 2015/04/29 at Marui City, Shibuya



Setlist 14:00
1. Hatsuzake (Short ver.)
2. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
3. Let It Go ~Ari no Mama de~
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

Setlist 18:30
1. Hatsuzake (Short ver.)
2. Hatachi no Meguriai
3. Let It Go ~Ari no Mama de~
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

Guest MC: Nishiyori Higashi from Nagara Pro

This was the big release event. Full press, special guest MC. And a huge crowd, perhaps the biggest I have ever seen at a Wasamin event. Wasamin was wearing her bright red kimono. Rumor has it that Fujie Reina was somewhere in the crowd, although I didn't see her. However, I did see Wasamin's parents in the audience...as well as her younger sister. And let me tell you, there is no mistaking that is Wasamin's sister. They look so much alike! Except that she is much taller than Wasamin. (and ironically she looks older) Cute family, though. The first big surprise came during the 2nd MC, when Nishiyori-san asked Wasamin if she did any impressions. Some of you might remember Wasamin's impression of Inagawa Junji, which she did on AKBingo! a year or so ago. After Wasamin did her manomane, out he came!



Wasamin was running around the stage trying to keep away from him. So cute. Later on we got another surprise. To celebrate Wasamin turning 20 they brought out a Sake cask and held a Kagami Biraki ceremony. Unfortunately I think the cask was empty.



The other bonus was that today Wasamin debuted her performance of Let It Go ~Ari no Mama de~ from Frozen. It's funny how much more you like a song when your oshimen sings it. In fact, I originally didn't care for Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari at all. But when I hear Wasamin sing it, many emotions come up. There's just something about Wasamin singing a sad or sentimental song that really affects me. I felt the same way when I heard her perform Nada Sousou during her Request Covers tour. Handshake event went on for close to two hours. The line was 20-30 minutes long for the first hour. The same thing happened at the evening event as well.

During the second event Nishiyori-san again brought up Wasamin's manomane of Inagawa Junji. Was he going to come out again? Then, he asked her if she did any other impressions. To everyone's surprise, Wasamin does a PERFECT impression of Tani Marika!!! I swear, if you had your eyes closed you would have thought Tani was onstage. Wasamin said "Tani isn't back there, is she?" I thought the same thing since SKE was actually in Tokyo that day for a handshake event. It was a memorable day, and Wasamin made all of us proud with a top notch performance. She nailed Let it Go on the first try!

BTW, here are a few more press shots from the event.




As well as a group pic from Team Wasamin!




On to Nagoya...

Iwasa Misaki 4th Single Live and Handshake Event 2015/04/30 at Nadya Park, Nagoya

14:30 Setlist
1. Hatsuzake (Short ver.)
2. Hatachi no Meguriai
3. Hakimono to Kasa no Monogatari
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)

17:30 Setlist
1. Hatsuzake (Short ver.)
2. Let It Go ~Ari no Mama de~ (Complete ver.!!!)
3. Hatachi no Meguriai
4. Hatsuzake (Full ver.)



Wasamin performed here last year in support of Tomonoura Bojou. I'm not sure why they choose this place. It is really a dead mall. Not much foot traffic at all aside from the office workers from the neighboring office building. It is right down the street from Sunshine Sakae and the SKE48 Theater. The crowd was around 50% Nagoya locals and 50% fans who traveled from Tokyo. Wasamin was wearing her Navy Blue Kimono and had her hair done in a way I had never seen before. Double curls in the back, similar to when she did her "Sheep" hairdo earlier this year.

The big "surprise" came when Wasamin was singing Let It Go. I didn't realize it at the time, but in Shibuya Wasamin was singing an abridged version of the song. She was all ready to go into the bridge when, to her surprise, the second verse came up. She had a momentary look of panic on her face, but then went right into singing it...perfectly I might add. The funny thing was that her manager never flinched. Even when Wasamin questiod her about it after the song. It makes me wonder if her manager planned that. But what a pro, Wasamin just rolled with it!

Handshake sessions were relatively short, since the crowds were fairly small. But they must have known that since they have scheduled her for Nadya Park before and it was the exact same thing.

Tomorrow is Kishiwada Talktown in Osaka. Another "interesting" choice of location. Hopefully Wasamin's Kansai fanbase represent. Last year Talktown drew a fairly decent sized crowd. It's just that there's a weird element to that mall. We'll see how it goes.