Performance Critique: Akatsuki no Matsuri 2 J-Song

The thing that would be ideal for many of my performances involving Pokémon cosplay, whether directly as for performances and parades or indirectly through competitions like J-Song or karaoke, is to be able to gather evidence (read: recordings) for them so that I can look back on them and then be able to give critiques such as this, for my J-Song performance at last Sunday's theme event. However, this is not always achievable, and even if it is achieved, it may be less than ideal. This is the case for my performances there, including for J-Song, which I'm able to critique in this post.

A less-than-ideal spot for recording?

To be able to do so, I obtained a video recording of this performance, which a fellow competitor helped out with. But as is particularly evident, this is not one of the best recordings, because this recording was actually taken from stage left, where competitors were asked to stand by before performing. During my performance, I saw several phone cameras that may or may not have recorded my performance, but obviously I can't poll the people that have them one by one; that would take up too much of my event time as well as their event time. Alas, it's always hard to plan this out, especially if I don't know who is coming and when. The best I can do may only be able to set up recordings such as this one.

The first potential stumble: the second chorus.

As noted on Sunday, this is a repeat performance from the month before, being the same song and the same arrangement, only in a different setting and different circumstances. It may therefore seem a little redundant to record this one, but the fact is that each performance may seem different. For this one, though I've already memorized the whole song in and out and have performed two arrangements of it including this one, there were very brief times I almost forgot the lyrics, though it may not be immediately evident. As well, near the end, I almost mistimed the start of the second repetition of the coda (the part that starts with "aa, akogare no...") perhaps because of the echoing nature of the location. It may also have led to a "buzzing" feeling that almost made me forget the lyrics.

The second potential stumble: the coda.

Another impetus for recording for self-critique is that so far, all the performances I have recordings of and can critique have all been non-winning performances, which means that they tend to focus on the not-so-good parts to make them good, rather than the good parts to make them great. Evidently, the only times I've had winning performances (one earlier time for J-Song and this event's cosplay performance), I didn't have them recorded or even access to available recordings, if any. Eventually, I'll likely be able to critique a winning performance, but perhaps only time will tell.

As always, each performance ends with "arigato gozaimashita".

For now, this current performance sheds some light on what to watch for during a performance, which in this case is a singing performance. For as long as I continue to take part in cosplay performances (including J-Song and karaoke, which have some merit for cosplay), I'd like to be able to pick at them and find out how to improve them in the hopes that I eventually can execute one that is really great and really worthy of a prize... plus one that can be preserved to illustrate how good I can really make them.

One year ago: A Storybook and a Reference
Two years ago: A Successor Has Been Named