It’s finally here.
A few months ago, I spent 13 hours in an oversized aluminium alloy tube to get to Japan and back so that I could attend Maaya Sakamoto’s 15th anniversary concert at Budokan. A few days ago, the DVD and Blu-ray recordings arrived at my door step. A few hours ago, I finished encoding them into H264 MKV files and went out for ramen.
Packaging
The first press releases of the DVD and Blu-ray come with a special matt cardboard packaging and a ribbon. Future releases will only come with the plastic DVD case found inside the box. The Blu-ray box is white while the DVD box is black, but I suspect the actual plastic cases have the same cover design. (I don’t have a Blu-ray player, so I only opened the DVD version.)
DVD edition with red ribbon
The ribbon comes in either red, blue or gold colour at random. The gold version is supposedly a “rare” item, but I suspect it’s only there because they ran out of red and blue…
The special box has a cover fold that doubles up as a small photo booklet. It’s pretty decent considering that it’s a freebie for first press buyers.
The DVD casing is a regular plastic case. The front cover art is a photo of Maaya playing the guitar intro for “Get No Satisfaction!!” and the back is a song list.
There’s another smaller booklet of credits and a few photos in the DVD case itself.
The DVD edition comes in two discs. The first disc contains the main concert itself (2hr+) and the second disc contains the encore (40min) and two short specials (behind the scenes footages and Maaya practising the guitar).
Concert
The recording is pretty decent, although the Blu-ray version should be even better. I sat pretty far away from the stage during the concert, so it’s nice to finally get to see the performance close-up. But it does kind of miss out on the stage effects.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the most memorable moment for me was this part where all the lights were switched off, leaving a few spotlights trained on Maaya as she was slowly elevated by a mechanical platform in the centre of the stage. When she reached the chorus of Hikari Are (“Let there be light”), the lights came on. This effect is quite unnoticeable in the video because the camera auto compensates for the change in ambient brightness. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.
Her first costume was a “gift”
Guitarist Masato Ishinari
Vocalists Kazco and Mari Asai
Her second costume. She’s wearing the third one underneath
Yoko Kanno
Maaya performing with a guitar for the first time
Her third costume is…colourful
If you squirm hard enough, you can see me. Or at least my seat section…
Composer Shoko Suzuki at the drums
Maaya’s fourth costume
I have that T-shirt :D
Maaya plays the piano for Everywhere
Maaya leads a sing-along POCKET wo Kara ni Shite
Refer to my post on the concert for more thoughts.
Watching through the DVDs, I’m actually quite surprised by how much I managed to cover in my last post by memory. I’m usually not very good at remembering details. The only thing that I didn’t catch was when Maaya missed a line of PLATINA.
I also love the MC sessions where Maaya talks about her personal take on life and how she expresses it through her songs. Not all singers can do it the way she does, full of sincerity and meaningful pauses.
Specials
The two omake footage on Disc 2 show the lead-up to the big day.
There’s a scene in the encore, where Shoko Suzuki presented Maaya with a surprise birthday cake and Maaya blew the candles while the audience sang Happy Birthday, that was cut from the main recording for some reason. The first omake footage contains a short portion of it starting at around 13:30.
Don’t know why they cut it from the main footage. Maybe they forgot to keep the cameras running… Oh well.
Oh noz, no one showed up
Yoko sending off Maaya
Group cheer before the show
The brithday cake’s hiding place under stage
Air guitar
Conclusion
It’s damn awesome, so please buy the DVD or Blu-ray if you can (or if not…). In the meantime, I am working on translating and subbing the entire thing. Will post it up somewhere When It’s Done™.
Pingback: [DM] å‚本真綾 Maaya Sakamoto 15th Memorial Live – Gift [DVD-Rip] [TORRENT] « Jun Shibuya
Waiting for the 1080p subbed BD-rip. Maaya deserves 20+ GB.
Awesome, can’t wait for a subbed version. Also because my PS3 is in the shop :(
By the way anyone living in US or Canada wants a copy of the limited edition Blu-Ray version of this thing? I got an extra copy for some reason and will part it with a small loss on my part. Interested people please go to my blog and find my email and email me? :3
By the way #2, mine was blue. What was yours? The BD version has the BD keep case inside, which is your standard blue thing. The cover image is the same as the DVD version.
Looks like there are at least two persons interested in that BD! So uh, yeah, deal’s over.
Nice write up of the concert video… but what’s the point of pleading people to buy it if you are just going to rip and torrent that whole thing? Maaya deserves more than people pirating the video.
Went for the live too and got the BD. Aww.. didn’t get the gold ribbon, got the red one as well.
It was great being able to watch the live again. The extras were also fun, especially seeing Maaya struggle with playing the guitar. “Ah, chikushou!” LOL.
Noticed that on top of the birthday cake bit, they also edited out some of the MC bits, like the Tower Records standees and the short bit about customizing her T-shirt. Even the silly “oishii~~?” bit when Maaya had a sip of water. Haha.
Anyway, thanks for the write up. Looking forward to your translations/subs. And do try to get your hands on a BD player to watch the BD. The concert definitely deserves to be seen in Full HD 1080p. =)
OMG!!!!! IT CAME OUT!!!!
I WANT!!!! (+ O__+ ) *desk almost flooded with drool*
first press seems a bit hard to find to buy (online) now… (seems like only cdjapan has it atm)
Omo-san~ i’d love to ask u abt it but damn… no $$$$ now… (and won’t have for quite a while, stupid me having an accident costed me 15k+ TT___TT)
I’ve emptied my pocket and bought the dvd last week online at cdjapan and received it the other day, we watched it right away and it was sooooo amazing!!! from the lighting to the stage from the backup vocals to the band and of course maaya sakamoto.. it was so worth it!!! how i wish i can afford to her live. for those who CAN buy, please do and when you do, SHARE! =)
I’m so excited for the subtitles! I can’t wait! =)
Can someone please tell me what song is sung at 56:20. It’s driving me bananas in trying to work out what it is. Please help.
@EonX at 56:20, i believe it’s SONIC BOOM.
@momo
TT____TT now i’ve made the decision to perhaps break my arm and leg to buy it… BUT THE FIRST PRESS BLU-RAY IS SOLD OUT LIKE EVERYWHERE >__<""""""
T__T anyone knows where i can still buy the first press blu-ray?
(lol, sorry to hijack your entry, DM)
很å¯æƒœï¼Œåˆå›žDVD没有入手
预定晚了买到的是普通版
：（
@chinafox
there are still 13 stocks of first press/åˆå›ž DVD available on CDJapan
but i want blu-ray >.<"" (jp dvd region is not 4…*sigh*)
(and omg, i can’t believe i still subconsciously check this entry in a regular fashion hoping someone may direct me to a first press blu-ray >.<""")
just wondering, is there any reason why you seem to order all your dvd/cds from amazon? I supposed they don’t ship internationally as well. Wouldnt it be easier to order from play-asia or cdjapan?
Amazon JP does ship internationally. It also usually has the cheapest price, although that may be cancelled out by shipping in the end.
But I actually preorder most of my stuff from CDJapan because they always include the promotion posters meant for in-store use for free. I actually have two posters for Gift and a few others for Maaya’s more recent albums.
ok… although irrelevant, i’m waiting for an entry about Maaya-san’s new single 『DOWN TOWN / ã‚„ã•ã—ã•ã«åŒ…ã¾ã‚ŒãŸãªã‚‰ã€ from you (ok, i actually meant DOWN TOWN’s PV lol…)
…fine, just to stay relevant, I bought the First Press DVD of the live too, blue ribbon (second last copy of CDJapan… *wallet weeps*)
Is there an available DVD of Maaya Sakamoto here in Philippines?
Could you PLEASE upload Maaya Sakamoto’s Photografy Book scans somewhere???
I can’t find it anywhere, and it’s not available anymore T.T
Have you completed the subbed version? I’d love to finally understand what she was saying during the concert. :)