On August 11, 2018, I’ve watched another Love Live! concert, albeit delayed and I have to deal with that but that’s okay because what’s important is that I’ve enjoyed it! Without further ado, let’s talk about my experience watching the 3rd live.

As always, I would like to thank Mantan Web for the official pictures and shout-outs to both the Love Live! subreddit page and Anime PH Project for news leading up to the concert.

So my journey begin at SM Megamall where unlike last time at SM Mall of Asia, it’s almost jam-packed! I mean, who wants to watch a delayed viewing of the concert on almost empty seats?

By the way, the delayed viewing will feature Day 2 of the Fukuoka leg, so half of the solo songs will be featured. But seriously, I wanna see Chika Takami’s “One More Sunshine Story” or even Yoshiko “Yohane” Tsushima’s “in this unstable world”.

But anyways, let’s start things off with “Mirai no Bokura wa Shitteru yo” and then “Kimi no Hitomi o Meguru Bouken” by Aqours. And after an MC segment, it followed with some of the interesting songs such as “MY Mai☆TONIGHT” and let’s not forget about their first single “Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai?”. Then again, I feel that the last two songs would need a costume change, especially “MY Mai☆TONIGHT”.

However, the biggest highlight of all is “MIRACLE WAVE” where Chika Takami’s voice actress Anju Inami pulled a double back flip. While it wasn’t perfect, at least she pulled one hell of an acrobatic stunt that made the audience go wild!

Now we move onto the solo song segment where I found some songs that I like during Day 2 such as Dia Kurosawa’s “WHITE FIRST LOVE” and Mari Ohara’s “New winding road”. Afterwards, the whole group returned with songs such as “Sora mo Kokoro mo Hareru kara” which I want a full version of it, plus “SKY JOURNEY” and “HAPPY PARTY TRAIN”.

Of course, there’s one performance that surprised me at all was “Awaken the power” when Saint Snow joined Aqours for an amazing performance just for one song. Oh and once they’re done with “Awaken the power”, Saint Snow performed “DROPOUT!?” which I last saw them perform at the Hakodate Unit Carnival. Gotta say that having Asami Tano and Hinata Satou performing together with Aqours was the best thing ever!

And finally, the concert is now in its final stages with Aqours perform “WATER BLUE NEW WORLD” and then followed by an amazing transition to “Aozora Jumping Heart” where the main 9 girls reflect on what they achieved until they earned the championship. Seriously, I got so teary-eyed upon seeing a short animated clip of Chika Takami and the rest.

Afterwards, time for the encore performance where it not only shows a special version of “Yuuki wa doko ni? Kimi no Mune ni!”, complete with audience participation during the last part of the song, but also shows the trailer for the movie. Man, I’m excited to see the movie next year!

Anyways, that’s about it for my thoughts on the 3rd Live and I feel that they’re getting better and better ever since Aqours performed at the Yokohama Arena a year ago. Not only the production has improved, especially the camera work, but the girls have leveled-up their game on dancing and singing. There’s nothing more I can say as these 9 girls (plus Saint Snow) proved time and time again that their performance has mesmerized the crowd both in and outside Japan.

Now for ODEX’s handling of the 3rd Live. I must say that their subtitles are decent but it’s not perfect as there’s some bits of untranslated dialogue that they miss on translating it, as well getting lazy during their closing remarks where the translators decided to place “Thanks!” throughout the final part until Anju Inami and the rest take their bow. Still, the delayed viewing is enjoyable to watch but who needs subs when you can understand what they’re saying from the heart.

Image courtesy via Pixiv

With that said, I don’t know what the future holds for Aqours after the 3rd Live or even the movie, but I’m hoping that they’ll stick longer for a few years until their successors are ready to take the mantle. And also, I’m hoping that ODEX will do a live viewing of the next concert.

Anyways, looks like I’m done with my thoughts on the concert. I’ll see them again in the future as Aqours will reach further heights until it’s time to bow out!