For those of you who don't know the band and are still nice or interested enough to read the rest of my post, here's a little information about them. An Cafe are a Japanese band, who already have been touring in Europe several times before. They started an activity pause in January 2010 and surprised their fans with a come-back this summer. As I said, they are one of my most favourite bands, so you can only imagine how happy I was.
A little while after their come-back, they also announced a tour in Europe for November. Being the huge fangirl I am, I couldn't resist and bought four concert tickets for Dortmund, Munich, Paris and Berlin. Also, I was lucky enough to get VIP tickets for each concert. Meeting An Cafe was a dream come true and I'm still so happy that I got this chance!
And because I like long, very long posts, I will try to write a little something for every single concert, starting with......
Dortmund, 10th November:
After checking if I had all the tickets I needed a million times, I started my little An Cafe journey. I was very excited, not only because I was heading for the first An Cafe concert, but also because I was going to meet my dear friends Senja and Goof after not seeing them for what felt like ages. I've met the two of them years ago at an An Cafe concert and we've had quite some funny adventures in different places since then. They are two of the sweetest girls ever and the best company you could wish for at an An Cafe concert! ♥
Here's the only normal photo you will see of the three of us from this tour ;D
I was also able to meet Lilja again who I hadn't seen since the SCREW concert a few months ago. We sadly didn't have much time together because of the early entry for VIPs but I was still happy to see her again!
And this is a photo I took of Senja and one of her friends (I forgot her name, oops) who had an awesome style!
We didn't really have to wait for long, soon we got in order for the VIP event. I have to say, I wasn't nervous. Not even one bit. I seriously thought I would be super-excited to meet An Cafe, but I was.. happy. And calm. I still don't know what happened there but I didn't mind not being a hyperventilating fangirl in front of them haha :D
I was honestly a tiny bit disappointed. The event was announced as a 'tea party'. I had been to the tea party of kanonxkanon last year and that was a lovely experience. But since An Cafe have more fans, they also had 30 VIP ticket holders. Thus, the event wasn't as small and familiar as I hoped. But I already guessed that this would happen, so I wasn't too sad about it.
The fans sat down and there was a camera team from the German TV channel KiKa. They explained that they were filming the event and also parts of the concert later and asked if anyone didn't want to be shown on TV. After a few seconds of hasitating, Goof was the first to raise her hand. Senja and I quickly followed then. I really hope they will keep to their words and won't show us but I guess they wouldn't risk that :)
Shortly after that, the band entered the room. Each member gave us a little introduction and thanked every fan for coming to the show. Then the fans had the chance to ask the band a few questions. I can't really remember the questions from Dortmund because it's been a while now.
After the Q&A we lined up for taking a photo with the band. Because the three of us didn't want to be filmed by the camera crew, they asked us to be first in line so they could start filming after us. I think some fans were a little pissed off by that but oh well...
The staff asked us to pick our favourite member. Since I had more than one VIP event that I was going to attend, I chose Teruki for the first photo. We stood in the back while the other four members sat down in front of us. The light in the room wasn't really good, so Teruki and I look terribly dark on the photo and our black hair kinda disappears in the background xD
Then we had time to buy some of the merchandise and entered the concert hall to get a good place in the first row. I'm really bad with concert reviews and I'm not sure what to write because I don't think words can really get the feeling of a concert if you haven't been there? I can only say that they seemed even better than in their last tours, the show was super energetic and so much fun! They played a lot of old songs, only two songs were from their latest mini-album. I love the old songs but I was also looking forward to hear the new ones live, so I'm still not sure how to feel about that. Goof, Senja and I danced along to each song and it was just great ♥
Here's the setlist:
Maple Gunman
Kakusei Heroism
Tekesuta Kousen
Wagamama Koushinkyouku
Escapism
Jibun Setsumeisho (Self Instruction Manual)
Takaido
Nyappy in the world 4
Amazing Blue
Snow Scene
Cherry Saku Yuuki
~Encore~
Bonds Kizuna
Smile Ichiban Ii Onna
Kakusei Heroism
Tekesuta Kousen
Wagamama Koushinkyouku
Escapism
Jibun Setsumeisho (Self Instruction Manual)
Takaido
Nyappy in the world 4
Amazing Blue
Snow Scene
Cherry Saku Yuuki
~Encore~
Bonds Kizuna
Smile Ichiban Ii Onna
The concert was quite short, 1 1/2 hours maybe? Afterwards we had to wait a few hours for our train to Munich. We spent most of that time at the KFC together with Mutsu and Serina. We prepared our little presents that we were going to give Yuuki in Munich. Here are some photos of the night :D
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| Senja and I being pretty as ever |
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| Cute ducky Goof |
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| Me with our Yuuki glasses |
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| Mutsu with our Yuuki glasses She's the only person who can make them look cool! |
Munich, 11th November:
I won't write too much about Munich because it's basically pretty much the same as in Dortmund. Though I have to mention that before the concert we had some time to meet Natsumi, one of the summer school students who is currently studying in Munich. I was so happy to see her again, she's just adorable! ♥
For the VIP event, this time we asked if it was okay to take a big group photo with the three of us and the band and luckily the staff said okay. There were a few fans in front of us and funnily each of them chose Yuuki for the photo. Before it was our turn, the band members laughed and asked Yuuki what he did today for making every fan choose him. When it was our turn, I quickly explained that we wanted our photos to be a little different: We wanted to sit down with Yuuki while the rest of the band stood behind us. We also asked them to make funny faces or poses. After everyone agreed, we put on our huge glasses that we had prepared and surprised everyone and made them laugh.
We took three photos, this is the one I got.
Seems like the band hadn't really understood the part with the funny faces. Especially Miku has a really straight poker-face but if you look carefully, he's trying to take off Yuuki's glasses, which is why Yuuki holds them with one hand haha. Miku always teases poor Yuuki so much xD After the second photo, we finally got everyone to make funny faces because Miku asked "Wait, is everyone making a face?!" and all I could think was duh, that's why I told you before. One of the best parts was that we couldn't see what the rest of the band was doing behind our backs. The fans who were waiting were laughing the whole time, so I guess our idea wasn't just funny for us but everyone could enjoy it :)
After taking our photos, we gave the big glasses to Yuuki. But we had another surprise for him: A calendar with naked women. But we covered every private parts of the ladies with Yuuki heads we printed out earlier. The whole band went "Ooooh" and laughed when I explained that this was Yuuki's present because he said in an interview that he liked girls with C-cup.
The only thing I want to say about the concert is that they played the song "Duck no Magical Adventure", which is one of their best live songs in my opinion :D I love the song so much and it's just fun to headbang and dance to it like crazy. Miku also had his little red hammer and hit us on our heads with it. This was my highlight of the concert, definitely!
Paris, 18th November:
This time I went to the concert with Svea. I will make a whole post about our Paris trip, probably later this week! I was a little afraid of the concert because I've heard some not-so-nice things about French fans before. I expected them to react bad to the fact that we came from Germany and even had VIP tickets. Luckily, we had met 4 really nice An Cafe fans the day before the concert at the Tokyo Fashion Show event. That event will also get an own entry this week :)
I chose Kanon for the photo this time. He's actually my favourite member, so I'm not sure what made me wait so long before choosing him haha. Maybe because I already had seen him in 2010 and also 2011 thanks to other events.
They changed the setlist again and added "My Heart leaps for C"! To say something about French fans after my statement from before: The fans were LOUD. Like, they were screaming for An Cafe and I know how loud fans can be, Germany isn't really known to have a quiet fanbase, but the French fans managed to surprise me and also the band. The pushing was also harder than in Germany. I had bruises on my arms and on my upper body after being pushed against the barrier in front of me for almost two hours. But! I expected worse and after all it was okay. It was a concert, I still had enough space to dance and headbang and the band seemed impressed by how much the fans screamed for them :)
Berlin, 20th November:
The tour had just started and was almost over again. Berlin, the last concert for us and also the last concert of the European tour. Marie and I went to Goof and Senja's hotel room first to put on make-up and dress for the concert. Soon, Mao and Hani also arrived. The girls had the idea of styling my hair to a wavy hairstyle. I was unsure first because I always have straight hair, but I agreed after all and Mao started doing my hair. I had really nice locks thanks to her and they said that after a while it would turn into a wavy hairstyle like I wanted.
This time, I'll start with our super awesome presents for the band: paper lanterns that looked like the band members! How cool is that?! :D
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| Yuuki lantern |
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| Kanon lantern |
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| Teruki lantern |
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| Miku lantern |
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| Takuya lanern |
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| with Senja |
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| Our cute is showing (not...) |
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| with Goof |
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| with my favourite lantern: Yuuki |
Soon we went to the concert hall just to see that there weren't many fans waiting. It was way too cold to stand outside for long, so our group decided to get something to eat and enjoy the warmth of an Asian restaurant close by. We couldn't stay for long though because the VIP event was about to start.
This time I asked if the members could do the "Natsu Koi Natsu Game" dance and they first thought I wanted to do it but after quickly shaking my head no, they asked Yuuki to stand up and dance. Yuuki was happy to do so and he looked so cute while dancing! He sat down soon but the members said there was a newer, second version of the dance that they hadn't shown in Europe yet. Of course everyone wanted to see it! Yuuki seemed shy about it at first but he agreed after a while and danced the second version, which was just as adorable and funny as the first one. I really think he's one of the funniest and sweetest members :)
We gave them our presents before taking photos and everyone held their present in their hand for it. I chose Teruki again because he's such a sweetheart and I can't resist his smile!
I think Takuya actually managed to break his present while we were still taking photos because they were all playing around with the lanterns so much hahah. But it's okay, they probably couldn't get them to Japan anyway. At least they saw them and liked them :D
In my opinion, the concert in Berlin and Dortmund were the best. You could see that the band was tired, but they still had so much power. They also talked more since it was the last concert of the tour. Miku made me cry when he said that he would never forget us and he asked the fans to please never forget An Cafe too. I can't know what music I will like in 10, or 20 years. But I know that I will cherish all of these memories because An Cafe make me happy, they really do.
Because it was the last concert, I think we danced even more and headbanged harder than before. My whole body hurt after the concert and the bruises had gotten worse. But it was totally worth it because we had fun and the band looked like they had fun too! Miku was crazier than usually, he even climbed up the sides of the stage frame! I was afraid he'd fall down because he looked so exhausted but luckily he didn't. The concert felt too short again, I wanted them to stay longer, play more songs. I didn't want it to end. I couldn't hold back my tears when it did. I'm just so grateful for this band and also for my friends who made the concerts and this tour even better. I don't think I could've enjoyed it as much as I did without Senja and Goof!
So, thank you An Cafe. Thank you Goof. Thank you Senja. And thanks to everyone else who was with us and enjoyed the concerts. I will definitely see An Cafe live again, hopefully next year during my stay in Japan. Until then: NYAPPY ♥
