This feels like forever. The announcement and ticket sale began since May 2016 so it has been a year. I was so excited about this as it would be the first game concert that I would attend (although in the end, Final Fantasy Distant World concert played first in December). Thus I still decided to watch despite having little knowledge about Kingdom Hearts. Out of so many games in the series, I only played Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and honestly the only thing I remember is the names of the 3 main characters. Lol.. I remember nothing about the story, the gameplay, or the music. I read the manga for Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2 but I also remembered very little about the story.
I bought the category 2 ticket for $189. Sigh.. I should have bought VIP for $255 since it would come with the opportunity to take photo and get a signature from the composer Yoko Shimomura. I guess I can't help my ignorance 1 year ago. I might not even know about the VIP benefits when I bought the ticket last year.
I may be quite biased with my feelings towards the concert as I was not very familiar with Kingdom Hearts music. I also can't help but drawing comparison with Final Fantasy Distant Worlds last December. I honestly did not think that I really enjoyed this concert. The pieces sound quite similar and boring. Nothing was really memorable or outstanding. Some of the better ones (although I can't remember the tunes now and even when they are played now, I may not be able to recognise them as Kingdom Hearts music) are Roxas' and Ventus' character themes (perhaps because they share similar tune), At Dusk, I Will Think of You, Twinkle Twinkle Holidays, the Final Bosses' Medley, and the finale song: Passion. The one that made everyone happy was The World of Kingdom Hearts particularly because of the Mickey Mouse March. For the other worlds, I think there is a nice mix between Disney and Kingdom Hearts elements but I personally prefer if they improvise along the Disney tunes that I am more familiar with. To be fair, I am also not familiar with all FF music (especially FF X onwards which I don't play) but there are still songs with memorable and catchy tunes that I grow fond off, despite not knowing anything about them at first.
In my post on Distant Worlds, I said that it was great to see Arnie Roth conducting and emcee-ing at the same time as that makes the concert experience better for the audience. That is sorely missed in this Kingdom Hearts concert which really feels like a professional orchestra performance. Yoko Shimamura was present to say her regards and thanks and it is definitely great to have her also playing the piano for the final encore. Her translator needs to be fired though. She sounded so unprofessional and I personally think translator that translated in 3rd person language is bad. Is your job supposed to translate or to interpret?
Surprisingly the concert was not sold out. I saw plenty of empty seats, at least on the level 1. The audience was quite peculiar too as they are more mature and not many otakus and cosplayers spotted. Hmm.. interesting...I arrived 1 hour before show time and I managed to get the souvenir after about half an hour queue. That is not bad compared to FF Distant Worlds that I did not have the chance to queue at all and afterwards I read that people were queueing for 2 hours plus on that day. Haha..
Surprise surprise.. I did not get the concert programme. Haha.. I am not that huge fan of Kingdom Hearts to spend $55 on it although I have to admit that the quality of the book is quite high standard. However I spent $75 for a conductor baton which is shaped like a key blade. Lol.. It was displayed like it was damn epic although it turns out to be just an overpriced plastic piece. No regret getting it though as I am a sucker for this kind of thing.
Usually concert merchandises are exclusive so it is interesting that this concert's merchandises are available to be purchased online. In fact, the brochure they gave us is encouraging us not to queue and to buy the items online. Haha.. Can use credit card and free home delivery too. Wow.. The price is also exactly the same. The website is khshop.wildfaery.com and I am not being paid to advertise this. Perhaps I will change my mind to get the concert booklet.
In my post on Distant Worlds, I said that it was great to see Arnie Roth conducting and emcee-ing at the same time as that makes the concert experience better for the audience. That is sorely missed in this Kingdom Hearts concert which really feels like a professional orchestra performance. Yoko Shimamura was present to say her regards and thanks and it is definitely great to have her also playing the piano for the final encore. Her translator needs to be fired though. She sounded so unprofessional and I personally think translator that translated in 3rd person language is bad. Is your job supposed to translate or to interpret?
Surprisingly the concert was not sold out. I saw plenty of empty seats, at least on the level 1. The audience was quite peculiar too as they are more mature and not many otakus and cosplayers spotted. Hmm.. interesting...I arrived 1 hour before show time and I managed to get the souvenir after about half an hour queue. That is not bad compared to FF Distant Worlds that I did not have the chance to queue at all and afterwards I read that people were queueing for 2 hours plus on that day. Haha..
Surprise surprise.. I did not get the concert programme. Haha.. I am not that huge fan of Kingdom Hearts to spend $55 on it although I have to admit that the quality of the book is quite high standard. However I spent $75 for a conductor baton which is shaped like a key blade. Lol.. It was displayed like it was damn epic although it turns out to be just an overpriced plastic piece. No regret getting it though as I am a sucker for this kind of thing.
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| The plastic stand also has the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra engraving |
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