Concert Review: Cinderella switch Vol 2
/Back and better than ever for Volume Two of this highly unique collaboration between VR company VARK and popular V-Tuber idol company hololive, the live concert this time featured the duo of Towa Tokoyami and Roboco-san. Over the last couple of months the two companies have banded together to bring the Cinderella switch live concerts. These feature a duo from the company performing a 3D live with one member onstage and the other in the virtual crowd, the two switching places with each other for the following performance. One of the added twists is that both concerts are VR viewable via multiple VR capable devices such as the Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR. After the highly successful duo of Kanata and Marine set the bar from their amazing performance in Volume One, how does the pair of Towa and Roboco stack up against them?
Towa Tokoyami
For the first round of performances Towa Tokoyami took the stage first, with Roboco-san standing in the crowd; like with the previous performance, one of the amazing things first noticed is the feeling that the member in the virtual crowd is right there next to you, remarking on the show. Roboco was an amazing hype person, reacting at the right moments and pumping the “crowd” at the right time.
I’ve watched Towa’s performances in the past but this blew them out of the water right from the get-go; her song “Grave” and her smoky and low vocal range is just amazing and honestly can’t be compared to. This energy didn’t stop with her second track “Kyoran Hey Kids!!”, as it had a high tempo banger of a composition as well. This time around the crowd was a bit more involved, participating through the “Hai Hai Hai!” ask-and-response parts of the song. One of the more adorable things to happen in the performance was that Roboco didn’t know when the response would end and had added an additional “Hai Hai Hai” before noticing that she had overstepped. Like the previous performance, Towa also stepped into the “crowd” for extra appeal, which is great for fans. Her fourth song, “GIRAFFE BLUES” was absolutely spectacular as it was; it was just a great ballad that paired very well with her vocals. This along with the shifting of the stage atmosphere was great and was one of my favorite acts of the performance. Overall, Towa killed it with her performance and she, too, raised the bar for future performances in terms of pure stage spectacle.
Roboco-San
I was extremely excited to see that Roboco-San was in one of the performances, as she was one of my favorites and being able to hear her catchphrase on such an amazing stage was just incredible. Having the crowd reactions chime in with fan chants was great and helped push the ambiance of it appearing as a live concert as well. Several of the songs were picks that she has done in the past, and while she isn’t the strongest vocalist, a lot of the tracks chosen matched her style perfectly. While the latter half of Roboco’s performance headed towards usual idol affair, I was extremely happy she did a cover of fellow member Subaru’s track, along with the debut of her version of the popular song “KING”. Stage effects were added to Roboco’s performance which I absolutely loved, such as hearts flying out from the background at certain parts, which added to the overall ambiance. The thing that I was somewhat disappointed in was Towa’s “crowd” interaction, but that’s only because I think Roboco did a great job supporting the crowd.
After-Talk Segment
Like the previous installment, the after-talk segment between Towa Tokoyami and Roboco-San was absolutely amazing. The conversation about eating yakiniku after a live performance was entertaining and brought more personality to the pair. Something I noticed that I hadn’t in Volume One was that the difference in microphones and noise ambience differed when the duo was on stage versus when they were in the “crowd”, and this is a quality that I really appreciate. I did like the fact that they reeled back the fan service this time around, too; however, the lack of 3D for this part was somewhat noticeable, as several points of the conversation were about the outfits. Both girls were great MCs for this part, playing great off of each other and they did an amazing job hyping
up Volume Three. Volume Two of this collaboration between VARK and hololive was just as great as the first, mostly thanks to Towa’s amazing vocals and Roboco’s spectacular stage presence matching Kanata and Marine’s beat-to-beat. While I did have some gripes about this one compared to the first, they did not detract from my overall enjoyment and I can’t wait for Volume Three!
