Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2013

It might be best for you to channel your inner Grandpa Simpson as you read the following rant:

Back in my day, when we wanted to listen to fake music we didn’t need any newfangled Blu-rays. We’d pull out our Monkees albums or watch Milli Vanilli on MTV. You kids don’t know what real fake music is!

If you’re not up to speed with the phenomenon known as Hatsune Miku, prepare yourself to either be amazed or incredulous. Crypton Future Media is a software and media company based in Sapporo, Japan which has had unbelievable success in creating and marketing so-called Vocaloid applications. If you were to imagine voice recognition technology such as that which (occasionally at least) is able to divine your commands on your iPhone or Smartphone and which responds to you in semi-halting speech suddenly being able to sing rather than speak, you have at least a modest idea of what Vocaloid technology is and can do. Yamaha Corporation actually developed the Vocaloid technology, but it was companies like Crypton Future Media which really exploited it, no more so than in their creation of the first Vocaloid character, Hatsune Miku. Hatsune is therefore a completely computer generated “artist”, from her physical appearance down to her voice. Rather incredibly, Hatsune Miku became something akin to an overnight sensation, selling so many copies of the original version that Crypton couldn’t keep up with demand. It was Crypton’s brilliant innovation to blend an actual image with the Vocaloid singing ability, therefore creating a character that young consumers could instantly identify with and indeed even idolize. And so we’ve come to the next phase of Hatsune Miku’s “career”, namely “live performances” which in this case means something akin to holographic projections broadcast to the stage (and several attendant oversized monitors) while an actual human band plays along to prerecorded Vocaloid song stylings.

It’s hard for someone who (according to my teenage sons) has entered the ranks of “geezerhood” to take something like Mikunopolis in Los Angeles very seriously, but judging by the rapturous response by the thousands of fans in attendance, Hatsune Miku is a very big deal. Shots of the audience included on this Blu-ray reveal a lot of people sporting teal ponytailed wigs in honor of their heroine, and there is something akin to Beatlemania in the shouts of glee when the projection of Hatsune first appears onstage. It has to be granted that this concert, which took place in Los Angeles’ huge Nokia Theater, was part of Anime Expo and so had a sort of built in audience allure. But, still, isn’t it just a little strange to be watching an animated figure perform on stage (no Josie and the Pussycats jokes, please).

The music here runs the gamut of J-Pop styles, with occasional brief forays into a somewhat harder rock ambience, at least with regard to the live band appearing onstage (one has to wonder how these real musicians feel about backing up a projection). There’s nothing earth shattering about any of the music, but it goes down easily enough, and the audience obviously absolutely loves every Vocaloid-tastic note.

In terms of Hatsune “herself”, though, this is one weird character. She has a repertoire of maybe seven dance moves which are reordered here and there in some semblance of “newness”. She’s also shown in a variety of outfits, as any good diva should be. We’re in a world now where that old adage “is it live or is it Memorex?” needs to be amended to “it’s live and it’s Memorex”, and for this Brave New World, there’s probably no better example than Hatsune Miku, for better or worse.

The set list of this concert is:

• 01. Project Diva desu.
• 02. World is Mine
• 03. Electric Angel
• 04. Voc@loid in Love
• 05. Clover Club
• 06. Poppippo
• 07. Romeo and Cinderella

MEDLEY

08. Uraomote Lovers

09. Puzzle

10. VOICE

11. 1/6 –out of the gravity-

• 12. moon
• 13. The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku
• 14. The Butterfly on My Right Shoulder
• 15. Roshin Yukai
• 16. Just Be Friends
• 17. World’s End Dancehall
• 18. from Y to Y
• 19. The Furthest Reaches
• 20. Finder (DSLR remix re-edit)
• 21. SPiCa

ENCORE

22. Alkotoba

23. StargazeR

24. The First Sound

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Aniplex with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is one of the weirdest concerts to ever make it to Blu-ray and I frankly have to wonder why people would want a high definition account of this enterprise, at least from a visual standpoint. Just taking a peek at a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review should make the reason for this quandary completely clear: the projection of Hatsune is a fuzzy pixellated mess when seen close up. It's obviously meant to be seen from a distance, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having it seen up close and "personal" in high definition. If you can get past that central calamity, the rest of this presentation is really pretty nice looking. Though the audience is bathed in darkness and is pretty hard to make out other than from the effulgent light from their glow sticks, the shots of the musicians on stage pop quite vividly and offer excellent sharpness and fine detail.

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

By far the best thing about Mikunopolis in Los Angeles are its two excellent sounding audio options, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. The music here is often pretty pedestrian, but it's delivered with some great vividness and precision on both of these tracks. Hatsune's voice is not the strongest or most musically pleasing thing in the world, but it's well mixed here and the backup band is filled with some great instrumentalists. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track offers some really nicely boisterous low end which helps to amp up the dance tunes especially.

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Mikunopolis (1080i; 3:54) shows some of the vast array of computers that were required for this concert, along with shots of Hatsune ostensibly taking part in the festivities.


• Opening Act (1080i; 13:14) features The Danceroids, who are actual real live human beings. I think, anyway.

Mikunopolis in Los Angeles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm sure there are rabid Hatsune Miku fans reading this review and wondering what my problem is. As someone who has made at least part of my living for most of my life as a professional musician, I just kind of naturally chafe at the idea of a computerized device (for want of a better term) being elevated to "artist" status. It's probably akin to how a lot of working symphony musicians felt when they were replaced in things like film scores with synthesizers and sampled instruments. But even the biggest Hatsune Miku fan may think twice about this release, at least from a visual standpoint, for the simple reason that the projections of Hatsune simply don't look that spectacular in high definition. The audio options here sound excellent, however, and may make this a sort of "audio Blu-ray" must have for those who have until now been wearing their teal ponytailed wigs in the privacy of their own homes.