Performance Critique: GACOS LEVELUP J-Song

I should say that yesterday's post from one year ago, which deals with a certain theme event, is actually significant, as it makes yesterday the one-year anniversary I leaped into J-Song or karaoke competitions. The way I do it, of course, is by involving Pokémon and my cosplay, which means songs from the anime paired with my costumes, often selected for appropriateness. Since then, I've continued to participate in these competitions, with results that are just as mixed as my actual cosplay efforts. And one of those participations happen to be the theme event from Sunday, when I took part in the J-Song competition, for which I'd like to take this post to critique.

For this one, I of course performed "Mezase Pokémon Master", but not as the original version performed by Rica Matsumoto herself. It's actually the "2001 version" (at least as it is commonly referred), which is performed or covered by a band named Whiteberry. Interestingly, it also becomes the second opening of the Johto saga of the anime, right after a certain OK one. Despite that, the cover maintains more or less a significant commonality with the original, including tempo and background voices. To that effect, I don't consider it a completely different version, rather an alternative arrangement to the original. As I noted the other day, I also wanted to perform this earlier at a certain time, but this deserves a different discussion that I'm not sure when I'll be able to do so.

Same old song... and dance?

For now, there is this performance to critique. With the aid of a friend - though unfortunately not someone who really knows me well - I had my performance recorded. From this recording, a few things can be gleaned. Overall, the vocal performance seems quite perfect, even if I thought I messed up the beginning slightly. Others who saw me perform gave much of the same remark, that it's hard for them to find any flaw. Based on what I heard when I performed and from the recording, I also seem to have done well in harmonizing with the last part of the karaoke track, which contains the sub-harmony of the chorus pre-recorded. Either that, or I somehow managed to really cover it up with my singing.

"Pikachu?" The mic is pointed there as such.

That does segue to an interesting topic. Again as I've noted, this is a similarly-designed theme event, in the same place as an earlier one, and even organized by the same people. In fact, the judges know me well; one of them was from the previous theme event, and another from last year's. Recall from my "OK!" performance from then that there seemed to be audio problems; those problems may have emerged again - during the performance, I noticed the judges feigning and indicating to the sound crew that something may need to be fixed. I could only go on, of course, since my duty is only to sing, and I couldn't do much about the equipment. Still, everything seemed to be fine, as the recording seems to be fine as well, and so did the previous performers. I intentionally didn't register early so that I wouldn't be the first in line to perform and therefore the "first victim" due to equipment.

"Itsumo itsudemo umaku yuku nante..."

As for why I didn't win this time, other than the fact that there were only two prizes, it may be hard to say. One thing that I can think of that may have played a role is "stage actions" or even "flair", which is sometimes evaluated. I hardly moved during my performance so that I can focus on the vocal aspect, though once in a while I did. That may have factored into the evaluation and didn't bring up my performance. And I don't know if my cosplay affected things or not. It remains hard to say.

"...zettai natte yaru!"

On one hand, this performance was great. It's one of the best times I've performed any Pokémon song. On the other hand, I didn't know how I really did against the other competitors, even though it looked and sounded great. After one year of taking part in these competitions, I can still say that these are still great. It's especially great that I can still tailor them to my interests, of which the overarching one is certainly Pokémon. I suppose that might bode well for continued participation, and I may execute something radical one of these days.

One year ago: New Pokémon, New World?
Two years ago: Pikachu with Regional Caps