Magical Mirai lost its novelty. Something has to change.

The Vocaloid phenomena has been steadily loosing ground and it’s not a lack of hype. For the past 5 years live concerts hadn’t changed. In fact, they’re regressing. I’ve attended all concerts since 2014 and I need to rant.

Magical Mirai 2017 live by Crypton Future Media

The biggest issue can be seen in the photo above;

The 3D model is just bad

My guess is that Crypton is required to use SEGA’s models and those are direct ports from their PS games. You don’t need to be an expert to realize just how bad the graphics are. This 3D model is supposed to be rendered in real-time by a 10 year old console — the PS3. The projection at concerts, however, is not rendered in real-time, but a pre-rendered video. It does not matter how fancy the graphics are, once the render is complete, the video will play at as many FPS as it was rendered with. Nowadays even smartphones are capable of 4K 60fps video playback.

If Miku is not a real person, then why are animations so boring?

Especially this year, most songs used the basic model. Only a few had different costumes and only one song used 2017 design — Suna no Wakusei. I’m standing in the crowd wondering, just how stupid does Crypton think their fans are. You have hundreds of non-standard models, why don’t you use them? Every song could have its own model, intro/outro animations and background particles. Instead all we get is the standard model with the standard motion that’s being recycled year after year.

The songs for the concerts have been crowd-sourced. The same could be done with models. There are countless community models that make SEGA’s models look like Tetris compared to Final Fantasy. But Crypton needs to grow some balls and tell SEGA that they won’t be using their models anymore.

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This Digitrevx’s MMD model is 2 years old and looks better than any of the models used in the concert.

No concert venue will ever top Budokan

By far the best concert was in Budokan in 2015. Awesome acoustics there made even the most high-pitch songs tolerable. The flat exhibition halls don’t make good concert venues, especially for artificial vocals.

Makuhari Messe does have an oval hall meant for concerts but for 2 years now, Magical Mirai live was held in the exhibition halls. There are no raised seats. People on the sides and in the back can hardly see the projection and have to look at the large screens next to the stage. And people in front get headaches from overhead speakers smashing their ears.

Speaking of Budokan, even the video projection that year was great. They introduced background hype animations for the first time — like in the Rimokon song;

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One of the most appreciated concerts is from Yokohama Arena in 2013. Guess what? That was in a proper oval shaped concert venue.

Intex Osaka, where the 2014 concert was held, was an exhibition hall like Makuhari Messe, only smaller. The experience there was most likely the worst of all, but since it was my first, I kind of have fond memories. Also had front-row seats.

Please Japan, drop your no-photography crap

In Japan, when you attend a live, as soon as you pass the ticket gate, you better not raise your smartphone above your shoulder height or you’re gonna hear no end of complaints from staff.

Yes, I agree that recording or photographing during the concert is bad — not because of potential copyright infringement (like, who in their right mind would enjoy watching a handheld recording for more than a few minutes), but because it’s a distraction to other people actually enjoying the concert.

But not being allowed to take a selfie in front of the stage before the concert starts is mind-blowing.

I’m not going anymore

Anyway, that’s basically it. I’ll be in Japan next year again but I’ll skip Magical Mirai. It needs to change and the only way I can show my dissatisfaction is by not going. I doubt Japanese pay much attention to online rants, especially foreigners.