a nation ’09, the summer music festival for one of Japan’s largest music labels avex entertainment, inc. featured surprise performances, especially the return of musician/music producer Tetsuya Komuro. If you are a fan of avex artists/groups especially Ayumi Hamasaki, “a nation ’09 Best Hit Live” is definitely worth the purchase!
BUY THIS DVD at CDJapan:
ARTIST: Various Artists
TITLE: a-nation ’09 Best Hit Live
DURATION: 169 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Region 2, 16:9 LB, Dolby Stereo
Released on November 18, 2009
COMPANY: avex trax
TRACK LIST:
- AAA – Break Down
- Ami Suzuki – Delightful
- GIRL NEXT DOOR – Be your wings
- Do As Infinity – Saigo no GAME
- Ryuichi Kawamura – Brilliant Stars
- hitomi – WORLD! WIDE! LOVE!
- DA PUMP – We can’t stop the music
- LINDBERG – Ima Sugu Kiss Me
- My Little Lover – blue sky
- Ai Otsuka – Bye Bye
- Boa – Eien
- Every Little Thing – Dear My Friend
- globe – FACE
- Kumi Koda – ECSTASY
- Tohoshinki – Survivor
- TRF – Samui yoru Dakara
- Ayumi Hamasaki – Rule
- Ayumi Hamasaki – A Song for XX
- Ayumi Hamasaki – BLUE BIRD
- Ayumi Hamasaki – Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
- Ayumi Hamasaki – TO BE
- Ayumi Hamasaki – Boys & Girls
- Ayumi Hamasaki – Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~
- Ayumi Hamasaki – July 1st
- JURIAN BEAT CRIS – Go! Let’s Go!
- TRIPLANE – Ai Kotoba
- moumoon – Haleluiah
- J-Min – One
- Nana Tanimura – JUNGLE DANCE
- May J. – Garden
- alan – Kuwon no Kawa
- Maki Goto – Candy
Starring:
BoA
AAA
Ami Suzuki
GIRL NEXT DOOR
Do As Infinity
Ryuichi Kawamura
hitomi
DA PUMP
LINDBERG
My Little Lover
Ai Otsuka
Every Little Thing
globe
Kumi Koda
Tohoshinki
TRF
Ayumi Hamasaki
JURIAN BEAT CRISIS
TRIPLANE
moumoon
J-Min
May J.
alan
Since the early 1990’s, I have been a big fan of the Japanese music label avex trax and throughout the years, I have owned many of the label’s live performances on VHS and LD.
From the TK Dance Camp music festival from 1995 featuring mostly artist that were affiliated with producer Tetsuya Komuro, in 2002, avex began Summer music festival known as “a-nation”.
a-nation would be a summer music festival held in several cities throughout Japan and would feature the top artists from the avex trax and the various labels of Avex Entertainment, Inc.
Each DVD that has been released thus far featured several performances by an artist but at the same time, each release has been a mixed bag. Primarily because a-nation features so many talents and a few of the artist would be featured performing up to three songs with Ayumi Hamasaki being the final performance and having the most songs featured on each DVD release.
In 2008, avex entertainment celebrated their 20th Anniversary but the celebration for the label that year featured the reunion of the band Do As Infinity, a live performance at a-nation by Namie Amuro but most noteable, the celebration was not the greatest as it was marred by the arrest of Tetsuya Komuro (TK) on fraud charges.
And here we are with “a-nation ’09 Best Hit Live” with an impressive lineup as we saw old and new return for the latest music festival. Most notable was Do As Infinity returning to a-nation for the first time since their breakup, Lindberg celebrating their 20th Anniversary performing at the even for the very first time but most noticeable was the appearance of Tetsuya Komuro which was unexpected.
After receiving a suspended sentence in May 2009, Komuro made a surprise appearance at a-nation on August 22nd and apologized to all his fans for disappointing them. Komuro played the piano which received a standing ovation but also featured his band globe performing “FACE” at the music festival.
But this latest “a-nation” DVD was quite impressive as it featured many performances from a variety of artists. Typically, you would have a lineup with an artist performing one song (with the exception of Ayumi Hamasaki) and a an artist or group that were OK but this time around, performances were solid.
From AAA’s performance of “Break Down”, definitely one of my favorite performances by the group at a-nation, a good intro to celebrate the reunion of Do As Infinity and the 20th anniversary of LINDBERG, former Every Little Thing member Mitsuru Igarashi joined the group onstage for the performance, fantastic performances by Ami Suzuki, BoA, Tohoshinki, Ai Otsuka and many others.
Awesome choreography from Tohoshinki and Da Pump and also, great to see some of the former TK family members onstage again. Â But the most energetic performance definitely goes to Ayumi Hamasaki who performed in front of an excited and enthusiastic crowd.
VIDEO AND AUDIO:
Fortunately, there was good weather (where in the past, some performances were hampered by thunderstorms or rain). Editing focused on the artists from a variety of angles and camera work and editing was well done as we got good closeups from various angles, a camera above and overlooking the audience. But performances selected for each artist were fun and energetic.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital and for a more immersive soundtrack, I chose to have my home theater receiver set on stereo on all channels. But overall, audio is clear and understandable.
I do wish that avex would release their a-nation music festivals on Blu-ray and release them with a lossless audio soundtrack and also the whole concert in 1080p.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“a-nation ’09: Best Hit Live” comes with a few special features. Limited Editions of this DVD release also comes with an a-nation ’09 T-Shirt.
- “a-nation ’09 Live Digest” – (13:58) These are short clips of avex artists who performed on the smaller stage such as TRIPLANE, moumoon, Nana Tanimura, alan, May J., Maki Goto and JURIAN BEAT CRISIS.  There were some artists on the Live Digest that I wished they showed the full performance of.
- a-nation ’09 Documentary – (23:53) The following documentary featured the artists in their green room before heading onstage and talking with the artists and group after they left the stage. Also, seeing the fan interaction with the music artists/groups plus behind-the-scene clips and onstage clips during the artists and band talking to the audience.
This is the eighth “a-nation” that I’ve watched and definitely one of my favorites. I felt that the 2007 release was very well done especially with the special features but in terms of performances, “a-nation ’09” felt more lively and energetic. I also felt the lineup was much more exciting with this year’s offering (featured on this DVD).
The additional documentary was very cool as it showed how various artists and the groups did before they went onstage such as AAA playing video games to Tohoshinki working on their Japanese and much more. It was pretty cool to see the various artists coming to see other bands perform. Especially Ayumi Hamasaki who came to see Tohoshinki and TRF perform. Unfortunately, not everyone who performed are featured on the documentary.
But if there was one major thing missing from this DVD and I can understand why, was Tetsuya Komuro’s piano performance and apology. Granted, people can find this on YouTube but that piano performance and to see everyone so shocked that TK was back was priceless and to see the standing ovation. Unfortunately, this is not included on the DVD, only his performance with globe is featured.
“a-nation” is one of those DVD releases that people are split 50/50. I felt that considering the space on the DVD, it would have been nice to have a a two-DVD set, in order to get more performances but seeing that there is only one DVD, viewers are going to complain about the one song per singer versus eight songs for Ayumi Hamasaki.
There has always been a bias towards Hamasaki’s performances on the a-nation DVD’s and I can understand why those fans or concert-goers are upset each release almost every year. I’ve asked the same questions many times of why Hamasaki is given so many tracks and I understand its her popularity and her dedication to avex but I would love to see other artists/bands given two songs each to make the playlist much more balanced.
But if you have been following a-nation DVD’s, that’s the way things have been with these releases. One should expect mostly Ayumi Hamasaki performances and I don’t think it’s going to change anytime soon.
Overall, I enjoyed “a-nation ’09 Best Hit Live” and seeing the various performances of artists that I enjoy. Yes, I would love to see more songs from the artists, a full performance by those who performed on the smaller stage and a little less of Hamasaki. But in the end, I did enjoy this latest music festival and for avex trax fans, definitely a concert DVD worth having in your J-Pop DVD collection.
BUY THIS DVD at CDJapan: