Last Saturday I went to a small anime convention in San Diego called Hanadoki Con. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see the local community, since I’m new in town. I tried to arrange a show for Angel Hearts too, but it turned out I was the only member who could make it to the convention! I decided to go ahead and do a solo performance, which was a first for me. After 13 years and 53 performances though, I can’t help but think I should’ve done this sooner! It may not seem like it, but I’m a really shy person (like painfully shy), so having to rally people to come watch and to MC for myself was a challenge, but I feel like I leveled up. I guess I was also always afraid to do solo shows because I thought I would look awkward and lame dancing by myself, but I tried my best to pick songs that were interesting on their own, and I think the audience enjoyed it! Even though most of the audience wasn’t familiar with idols, they still clapped along and cheered, which made me really happy!
There was a little mishap with the schedule though. I’m still not entirely sure what happened, but it seems my performance time got switched with another performer’s (they switched me to an earlier time slot), and nobody on staff had any idea about it. It worked out in the end, but I had to perform later than planned, and unfortunately I had to shorten my set list. Also, since no one knew about the new performance time, there was no one in the audience at first. It was pretty much a performer’s worst nightmare. Another idol fan did me a huge favor and ran around the convention announcing my show. I did a bit of that myself, but as I said, I’m terribly shy, so it took a lot of courage. Fortunately, once the show started and the music was playing, more people came over to watch. In the end, the show went well, and it was a huge relief!! Thank you so much to the people who came to talk to me afterward to show their support. It meant a lot to me! ♥ I feel really bad that there were people who came at the wrong time and were mistakenly told I canceled, though. I enjoyed performing at Hanadoki Con, so I hope the staff are a little more careful in the future, so something like this doesn’t happen again, to me or anyone else.
Anyway, I’m really glad I had this opportunity to do a solo show. It was really exciting getting to choose whatever songs I wanted! Some of my favorite songs work better in groups, so I didn’t pick those, but narrowing down a set list was still hard! There were way too many songs I wanted to do! In the end, I learned eight new songs. I practiced nonstop for three weeks! Here are the songs I danced to:
Part one: THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls – Onegai Cinderella, Transing Pulse, Star!!
Part two: Aikatsu! – Idol Activity!, Hello New World, lucky train, Original Star☆彡
Part three: Wake Up, Girls! and Hello! Project – Tachiagare!, Balalaika (Kirarin Revolution), and Ne~e? (Aya Matsuura)
Part four was supposed to be IDOLM@STER 765Pro and end with Thank You!, but sadly I didn’t have time. I was especially excited to finally be able to perform Ne~e?, as Aya Matsuura is my #1 favorite idol. I was also impressed that people knew Balalaika! One girl in the audience was even singing along and doing some of the moves. It’s definitely a very fun song. I was very happy that people seemed to enjoy the Aikatsu songs too, even though they were not familiar with them. Aikatsu needs more love! ♥
As for my outfit, I used this opportunity to make an original idol-inspired outfit that I’ve always wanted to make, but never had the reason to. The outfit was inspired by obnoxiously sparkly and fluffy Hello! Project concert outfits, awesome holographic confetti dot in bright colors, and some matching turquoise and hot pink petticoats that I found online. The dress design is simple, but the focus is the bright contrasting colors! Seriously, I feel so happy every time I look at the colors. I layered three petticoats, alternating hot pink and turquoise [affiliate links], for maximum poof. The skirt turned out a little shorter than I had originally planned, but it was so fun to dance with such a bouncy skirt! I found some silver holographic glitter character shoes (made for dancing!), and they arrived literally MINUTES before I left my apartment for the convention! I wore a wig because my own hair would’ve gotten frizzy, but I think the pigtails may have been just a little too big! They were heavy and a bit hard to dance in. I finished the look with hairclips from 6%DOKIDOKI. I had so much fun putting this outfit together. I was so inspired, I came up with even more ideas afterwards! I hope I get more chances to do shows like this in the future!