Our BLOOD experience began on Saturday, when we all went to a local florist to buy a dozen long-stemmed red roses for each member of BLOOD. We all pitched in to cover the cost, and we even had a little leftover, which we decided to give to the members also. So after buying the roses, we returned to the convention center one hour earlier than the BLOOD panel was scheduled to start – and we very shortly found out that the panel had been moved up an hour, so it was just about to begin. So much for being early. x_x We got fairly decent seats somewhere in the middle of the room... but we had been hoping we would get there before the band, so we could give them their roses before they got seated and ready and not interrupt the panel or anything. But, we decided to just go on up and give them the roses – we had decided that Roxanne would give them to Kiwamu, Little Kristin would give them to Fu-ki, and I would give them to Kaede (thanks Suz and Kristin for letting us be the lucky givers :D).
I knew it was going to be a very, very good day when the three of us started to walk up to the front together, and as soon as he saw me carrying the roses in his direction, Kaede's face absolutely lit up. ^.^ I'll never forget how happy he looked as he took them along with the card Suzanne had made (which was adorable, I might add!). And after taking them he thanked me and very cheerfully held out his hand to shake mine. ^_^ We were so glad that BLOOD seemed to like the gifts... and as we returned to our seats we even got a round of applause.
Eventually the panel began, but unfortunately I couldn't hear a lot of the questions and answers. Several reasons: we were in the middle of the room (which was good sized), they decided to make people with questions walk up to the front to ask them which meant no one behind them could hear the question (that was the biggest problem), and the members of BLOOD were so quiet. ^^; Maybe the microphones were turned down, I'm not sure... but it didn't help that the translator just stole Kaede's microphone right from the beginning. ><; Anyway, I'll try to include as many questions and answers as I can remember, but don't expect them to be in any kind of order :P.
I'll start with one of my favorites... someone asked the members which they thought came first – the chicken or the egg. Fu-ki answered by saying that he created both, so it doesn't matter XD. When asked what each of the members did during their flight to California, Kaede said he slept, Fu-ki said he drank (of course ^^; ), and Kiwamu said he read books. Early on someone asked something about what kind of underwear they all wear, and only Kiwamu answered, saying he wasn't wearing any. O.o; Someone else asked what each member's favorite anime series was... Kaede said Gundam, Fu-ki said he liked Ge Ge Ge no Kitarou (I think that's right...) when he was younger, and Kiwamu said he doesn't watch anime. Another amusing one was when someone asked the guys if they would be willing to do... stuff... just for the sake of fanservice. In answer, Kiwamu quickly nodded and then sort of leaned on Fu-ki, and then Kaede leaned even closer and gave Fu-ki a sort of half-hug, along with that big amazing smile, which was a very cute answer. :3 I also seem to remember someone asking how they go about doing their hair and makeup, and in response they offered to demonstrate their techniques on the person who asked the question... flashbacks to Ohayocon! (the demonstration didn't happen this time though, lol) Another amusing moment was when a girl in a cow costume stepped forward to ask a question, and BLOOD pointed at her, started laughing and said "Ah, ushi!" ("ooh, a cow!") ^_^
As I said, I don't remember much in the way of questions/answers... which I guess is ok, because I think everyone, BLOOD included, was much more entertained by the more interactive activities that followed. First they were told to draw portraits of the other members – Kiwamu drew Fu-ki, Fu-ki drew Kaede, and Kaede drew Kiwamu. Fu-ki kept laughing while he was drawing, and it was amusing watching his hand fly over the paper in big flourished sweeping strokes that we later found out became Kaede's hair. The other members kept looking at his work-in-progress and laughing too. Finally they all finished their drawings and held them up for all to see. Kaede drew a very good Kiwamu with big eyeliner-heavy eyes, a somewhat evil expression, and perfect hair ^_^. Fu-ki drew Kaede with flowing hair, some big curls in front, big sparkly eyes, and the label 'KAEDE' at the bottom complete with a big heart at the end XD. Finally, Kiwamu drew Fu-ki as a caricature with tiny body and huge head... complete with Fu-ki's characteristic strong cheekbones. It looked like he added little circle-lens glasses too, which was interesting.
Hard at work on their portraits of each other... except Kiwamu, who finished first and took a little time to observe the crowd ^^.
Then came what had to be the most entertaining part of the panel: the BLOOD members were asked to make balloon animals. But no one had a hand pump to inflate the balloons, so they asked for some fans to come forward and help blow up a few. I used to do some work making balloon animals for my former youth group, and I had been stuck without a hand pump before, so I went up to give it a try... but for some reason I couldn't manage to get the balloon inflated. ><;; So I went back to my seat, where, after a little playing around, I finally managed to get the thing blown up and tied off – only after BLOOD already had all the balloons they needed. Go me XP. Anyway, so then the fun began. Kiwamu messed around with a balloon very briefly before getting fed up and tossing it into the audience – or trying to, but it ended up kinda falling right in front of him instead. So he batted it away and wrestled with a second balloon while Fu-ki and Kaede were making a little progress with the folding and twisting. But Fu-ki’s especially was turning out to look like... well, as he put it in his Bacchus entry, "a thing like a rod with two little ball shapes attached that I really can’t say here." XD;; And of course he and Kiwamu had just a little too much fun with these balloon "animals"... wearing them as hats, trying to stick them in Fu-ki's mouth, holding them in front of appropriate areas of their bodies...
I still can't believe my camera managed to capture this moment of BLOOD having a little too much fun with the balloons XD
...so yeah, the balloons were just a little disturbing, but very hilarious – especially when Kiwamu cracked up laughing so hard it was almost painful to watch XD!
Anyway, finally they finished, and Kaede's was the only one that seemed to resemble any kind of animal – one with a very long neck. ^^; So finally, they all autographed their balloons and their portraits of the other members, and all of the works were given to fans through a drawing. Lucky Suz won Fu-ki's picture of Kaede X_X!
Kaede's already signed his balloon, and poor Kiwamu's still wrestling with his second one, lol.
The only picture I got of any of BLOOD's drawings that actually turned out. Isn't Kaede's Kiwamu cute? :D
With that the panel ended, and BLOOD stayed around for a few minutes, mostly letting fans take pictures and stuff. I took the opportunity to snag a PERFECT photo of Kaede posing with his bouquet of roses. ^o^
I love this picture :D! Roses suit Kaede so well~
Then most people migrated to the dealers' room, where BLOOD would be personally appearing at the booth that was selling their CDs and merchandise. We spent the better part of 2 hours just hanging around the booth watching BLOOD goof around and mingle with fans. I wanted to buy the BLIND single, the poster set, and the newest photoset, but I was very low on cash, so after buying just the poster set (as they were selling fastest) I only had $3 left. T_T It was pretty cool though, since because of it I was able to have an amusing little mini-conversation with Kaede in Japanese, which went something like this:
Me: *gazing at BLIND single, whiny voice* I wanna buy this...
Kaede: *looks interested*
Me: ...but I'm out of money T_T
Kaede: *chuckle*
Me: I wanted to buy the newest photoset too, but...
Kaede: ...looks like they're all gone already. (I was amused that he finished my sentence ^_^)
Me: Yeah... *picks up some BLOOD stickers, not realizing they're stickers and studying them confusedly*
Kaede: *points at stickers* They're stickers. (his exact wording was "Stikkaa." hehe~)
Me: Ahh, I see ^^;
Kaede: You get three of them (I think it was three... they came in a set)
Me: Yeah... *observes $6 price* but all I have on me is $3, so... ><;
Kaede: *chuckle again*
I felt bad for being broke, but it was still pretty entertaining. :P;; Then later, I had a similar Japanese mini-convo with Fu-ki:
Me: *notices only 3 BLIND singles are left on table* Is this all that's left of these? They’re selling really fast...
Fu-ki: *looks amused* There are more.
Me: Oh, good. Because I want to buy one but I have no money left ><;
Fu-ki: *thoughtful* There should be more out tomorrow, too.
Me: Ah, ok, I'll buy one tomorrow then~
Fu-ki: Buy one, ok? ^_^
Me: Oh I definitely will :D
Fu-ki: *chucklenod*
Anyway... So the first order of business was working through the insane crowd to get my posters autographed, and then came pictures. Each of us had our pictures taken with the band, and when my turn came, Kiwamu sort of grabbed my waist on one side and my arm on the other side and pulled me backwards toward him, and then proceeded to plop his chin on top of my head for the picture. So I ended up looking really dorky in that shot because my head was half-tilted in a weird position and it was pinned under Kiwamu's so I couldn't move it. XD;;
Me with BLOOD! You can kinda see Kiwamu's hand on my waist, heh. And I love how Fu-ki seems to be saying "Ooh wait, don't forget me~!"
I actually got this shot of Roxanne with BLOOD just after the picture had already been taken on her own camera, so everyone was kind of moving away... though Fu-ki apparently noticed me and my camera still standing there ^^;
I love this shot so I had to add it too~ Kiwamu looks awesome, Kaede is being cute... and look at Fu-ki's smirk! XD
Da Suz gets in on the fun too! We all love Kiwamu's smile :D.
And finally, Little Kristin. You can tell from these pictures that Fu-ki was always the one still rushing to get an autograph done nearly every time people tried to get pictures of the band. He tried~ ^^;
A little later, when the insane crowd clamoring for autographs and photos calmed a bit, I asked for hugs from each of the members... mainly because I had a friend back home who wasn't able to go to Fanime and would've killed me if I didn't get BLOOD hugs. :P So I asked Fu-ki first, and he agreed, but then he just sort of stood there, not moving. o.o;; So I hugged him, and he finally hugged me back, which very nearly caused me to lose my footing and stumble on top of him... but he laughed so I guess he didn't mind, lol. I asked Kaede next, and he quickly agreed – and then he laughed and decided to sort of squeeze me to death XD. Finally I got to Kiwamu, and he also quickly agreed, and pulled me into one of those patented Kiwamu embraces. The man knows how to hug. *_*
So as the crowd cleared out, we got to witness BLOOD just hanging out and having fun, which was probably the best part of the day. Of course I have to start with the big Finding Nemo incident – Suzanne had made a picture from a Finding Nemo poster, with Kiwamu's giant grinning head in the place of a shark chasing some very frightened looking fish. It took Kiwamu a few seconds to figure out what it was, but he got a good laugh out of it when he did, which was very fun to see. Kaede squeezed in to look at it and had a good laugh too. But the funniest part was when we showed Fu-ki - he laughed too, and then he pointed at Kiwamu's picture and said "Uglyyyy!" We totally weren't expecting that – we all laughed so hard XD!
It was also fun watching BLOOD take pictures with their fans... especially the ones doing some form of cosplay.
Whenever a fan wearing any kind of leash accessory would ask for a picture (this one is Victoria *waves* and there may have been others), Kaede would grab the leash and tug on it with this quirky grin on his face that just screamed "yay, I have a new pet!"
There was also this guy with extremely spiky hair, which got a laugh out of all the members... and they posed for pictures while standing a marker on one of his spikes of hair. XD
This guy's cosplay involved fake guns, which Fu-ki repeatedly used to shoot poor Kaede in the gut ^^;
One girl had a kitty ears headpiece, and she asked Kaede to pose for a picture wearing it, which he did (and his pose was too cute! I really wish I had that picture...). And then he decided to put the ears on Fu-ki, who stood there looking very bored while everyone else laughed. Unfortunately my camera cut out Kiwamu, who was laughing too, as you can sort of see.
Fu-ki then decided to hold the kitty ears in front of his chest like a bra, which was even cuter. XD Unfortunately I was too slow to get a picture of it... so this shot is sort of the immediate aftermath.
Also, a bit later, Little Kristin was showing Kiwamu the sword she'd just bought, and Kiwamu decided to poke Fu-ki in the butt with it. In response Fu-ki turned around and grabbed the blade between his palms – little samurai action there, lol. It was so fun watching the guys have a good time and play around with each other like that... you could tell they were tired, but they were really relaxed and enjoying themselves, which made us really happy.
Some other random pictures that I really like...
Poor Kiwamu looks really tired, and yet Kaede seems to be plotting something... if I didn't know better I'd bet he had an inflated paper bag behind his back in this pic XD;;
And now Fu-ki and Kaede plot something together. ^^;;
Great group shot. They all look so sweet!
And finally, right before we decided to leave the booth (after 2 hours of just watching BLOOD goof around ^^;; ), we got to see Kaede taking a break, sitting in a chair behind the booth cradling his bouquet of roses and looking absolutely perky. We were so glad he seemed to enjoy them~ Oh, and before I move on, I have to note that Kiwamu's red and gold contacts looked SO awesome. *_*
So, at last we tore ourselves away... and a little later we all decided to wander around town for a bit and find dinner and stuff. As we were walking down the sidewalk I thought to myself, wow, the only band here that we haven't randomly encountered yet today is BLOOD (some of the members of Camino had passed us while we were in line for the BLOOD panel, and later we had run into Duel Jewel getting into the elevator that we were just getting out of). And just as I thought that, I looked ahead of me – and my eyes fell on a head of silver hair. Who else but Fu-ki, along with Kaede and some of the band's staff, walking toward us on the same sidewalk. We all waved and said hi and stuff, and Fu-ki was sort of straining to see who we were because he was walking into the sun, which I guess was blinding him a bit. So as he passed us, he gave us a little apologetic smile and, with one hand shielding his eyes, said "Too shiny." And once again we all cracked up laughing - it was just too cute. XD
That's pretty much it for actual BLOOD encounters on Saturday, unless you count when Suz and I were heading back to the Hilton bar late that night and saw BLOOD inside together with Camino (O_O). But the bar was closing and they were all on their way out, so we didn't get to talk to them or anything. After that I went back to Suz and Kristin's room where we played around with the BLOOD cola cans Suz had made and laughed for 3 hours straight... and with that the most amusing day of my life as of yet came to an end XD.
Sunday was MusicFest day, and after I stopped by the dealers' room again to buy the BLIND single (keeping my promise to Fu-ki ^_^), our BLOOD experience began as we all waited in line for the doors to open and the concert to start. Actually, it wasn't much of an 'experience'... not as much for me as it was for Roxanne and Little Kristin, anyway. ^^;; The extent of my pre-concert experience was seeing BLOOD walking from their hotel to the concert venue... and what really struck me was that Kaede was wearing his awesome spike-heeled boots, which appeared to be causing him great pain as he was lagging several paces behind the rest of the group. And he was carrying his bass at the same time. I was so tempted to jump up, abandon the line, and run across the street to carry his bass for him. x_x;;
Anyway, eventually the doors opened and MusicFest began. We got good seats in the second row on the right side, right near the aisle. As the concert event went on I did my best to save as much energy as I could for BLOOD's performance, which came at the very end. But the Duel Jewel set, which came next to last, was sort of annoying because of all the rabid DJ fangirls crowding the front of the audience section – we were in the second row of seating, yet still there were at least 4 rows of fans in front of us the entire time. Not to mention I had the aisle seat, so people were also pushing their way into the space in front of me, completely blocking my view through most of the show (even though I was standing). So as soon as their set ended, Suz, Little Kristin (who returned from her backstage heaven to watch BLOOD's performance), and I immediately claimed all the available space at the front of the aisle right behind the velvet rope barricade, just so we wouldn't have the same rabid fangirl problems. It almost worked. ><;
Unfortunately, by the time BLOOD appeared on the stage MusicFest was already running 2 hours late, so the techies felt the need to be in a hurry getting the equipment and such set up, which meant endless technical difficulties. ;_; For starters, Kiwamu's guitar seemed to be turned way down so we could barely hear it most of the time... Fu-ki's microphone also seemed to bounce in and out of audibility. Also, by the end, two of Kiwamu's guitar strings had broken. At one point Kaede disappeared from the stage for almost a whole song, I assume to try to straighten out some of the problems. We all felt so bad to see so much going wrong.
Anyway, depressing stuff aside. ^_^; BLOOD gave an amazing performance despite all the problems! It's really incredible how they can get the crowd worked up and having a great time in any situation – no matter how many difficulties, no matter how tired they were (and they all did seem very tired), no matter how hoarse and exhausted the fans were, everyone was on their feet screaming and having a blast. They all have amazing stage presence and put so much energy into every moment, and they truly know how to give their fans an unforgettable live. Between the constant screaming, jumping around, headbanging, singing along with the lyrics, doing para para, taking pictures, and scribbling down the setlist, I lost much of my ability to hear, speak, and just remain on my feet by the end of the show. It was excellent. ^_^
Kiwamu pumps up the crowd! This was taken pretty early in the show - shortly afterward, he removed the wings and red hair extensions.
As always, Kaede seriously rocked on that bass. I love watching him play *_*.
Fu-ki frequently crouched at the edge of the stage to encourage the fans to scream and get into the performance. I believe that's Little Kristin's arm partially blocking my shot :P
The setlist was:
1. BLOOD
2. Maria
3. Sweetest Disease
4. U+K
5. 白夜 (byakuya)
6. 朧 (oboro)
7. sakura
8. BLIND
9. morphine (TRANS mix)
10. 追憶 ~I remember you~ (new mix with English lyrics)
11. death dies
First off let me say that from the start I was entranced by Fu-ki's performance as vocalist. He has endless charisma, he knows how to get the crowd worked up, cameras love him (XD), and hearing his voice was just an amazing experience. Of course, Kiwamu and Kaede were amazing too, as always... but with Fu-ki being BLOOD's newest member, meeting him and seeing/hearing him perform for the first time were among the things I was looking forward to the most about Fanime. And I was not disappointed at all. *_*
Let's see how much I can remember in any semblance of order... as the recorded track for the first song started to play, the curtains opened revealing Kaede standing in the shadows at the right end of the stage (where we all were), and Kiwamu standing in the shadows at the other end. Shortly they walked forward, then Fu-ki joined them onstage and the show began. Not long into the concert, Kiwamu knelt down and Fu-ki stood behind him, bending down over Kiwamu and putting his hands over his face... and then he snapped his hands back and fake blood literally gushed from Kiwamu's mouth. Very nice touch. Also in the beginning somewhere, Kiwamu came over to our side of the stage and threw his bottled water on the audience, and I got soaked with it. Since I was screaming at the time, some of it got in my mouth... and it actually tasted sweet. I'll always wonder what he put in it... O.o;; The next highlight was probably the U+K cover, which we all agreed was quite unexpected – yet VERY fun! Kaede spent most of the song bouncing around the stage throwing candy at the audience and looking absolutely chipper (even more so than usual ^_^). I believe Kiwamu threw some candy as well, in between leading the audience in screaming and jumping around. Also, at one point Fu-ki and Kaede met at center stage and did this little spinny-dance thing that was just adorable. :D At some point a little later, Kiwamu started spinning and swinging his guitar around, as if gearing up to fling it into the audience... even though we knew he wouldn't, some of us were ducking for cover. XD;; Finally, we were all surprised when Tsuioku ~I Remember You~ began to play and Fu-ki started singing English lyrics for it. I couldn't really hear all the words very well, but if Tsuioku's new English version is anywhere near as good as Morphine's new English version, I'd certainly be among the first to buy it.
Some noteworthy occurrences throughout the live... I'm pretty sure Kaede and Fu-ki each took one or two (or several) long, amused looks in my direction. Maybe they were entertained by the fact that I was singing along through pretty much every song they played... ^^;; It was also interesting that the para para for some of the songs was different from what it was at previous conventions; that was a little confusing, but still enjoyable. Another interesting point was the fanservice – not only far more frequent than it was at their Ohayocon live, but also FAR more... intense, or believable, or something. Hugging, dancing, caressing, and no less than three full-blown kisses exchanged, all about as intense as fanservice can possibly be (without crossing 'boundaries,' of course). The fanservice fangirls definitely got all they ever could've asked for from this concert. O.o
Sadly, much to everyone's annoyance, concert security was terrible. They decided to just set up a human barricade, which lined up in front of the stage every time one of the BLOOD members came down to try to interact with the crowd. In all seriousness, the purpose of security is to keep the performers and fans from getting hurt, but these people caused more injury and annoyance to both BLOOD and their fans than what would've occurred if there'd been no security at all. They were actually elbowing the band members and pushing them down to keep them from getting to the crowd. >_< It was very frustrating, since Kiwamu especially loves to dive into the crowd, but he could only get away with it 2 or 3 times during MusicFest before the human barricade got too ridiculous. Fu-ki had the same trouble – several times he left the stage and actually tried to beckon the fans closer to him, but he had to give up too because security kept pushing him away. However, it was great when, at one point, the security guy standing right in front of me all of a sudden got a very pained look on his face and nearly fell to the ground, as Kiwamu flew right over him into the crowd. I was so proud of Kiwamu then. >:P
Anyway, finally BLOOD's set ended and they left the stage, but Kiwamu returned and continued revving up the crowd by leading in more screaming and cheering. He kept asking if we wanted an encore, and of course the response was deafening, but unfortunately it couldn't happen because the event was already running 2 hours late and Kiwamu had 2 broken guitar strings. So he started to leave, but on the way he dropped to the ground and just... laid there, worrying us greatly. :\ Fu-ki told the crowd something like "He's dead, sorry ^^;", and then went over to kinda kneel over Kiwamu for a minute while Kaede also ran out to do the same... but at that moment Kiwamu jumped up and went right back to pumping the crowd again. We all knew he's a very good actor, but considering how tired all the members had been before the show started, this was a little too scary for us. :\ Thankfully, Kiwamu seemed fine afterward, so we did our best not to worry anymore. And that was the end of the concert – BLOOD thanked the fans, announced that there would be no encore (they didn't seem happy at all about that either), and MusicFest staff practically shoved everyone out of the building.
That was the end of MusicFest day, and we didn't have a chance to meet BLOOD again on Monday because they had to leave a little early and couldn't make it to the signing event. So, maybe a somewhat sad ending to our BLOOD experience, but on the whole we all had an amazing time. Personally I've never had so much fun in just a few days as I did at Fanime, and I owe a huge part of that to BLOOD - between the panel, the dealers' room, the concert, and the good times with other fans, I left with some great memories that'll never run dry. BLOOD was the reason I took 6 days off from my last 2 weeks of college (not to mention every dollar I had and more ^_^; ) to fly 2500 miles and attend Fanime, and it was SO worth it. Thanks, BLOOD. ^^v
(A final note: I took more pictures than the ones I tossed in above, but I couldn't include them all here, and of course several of them didn't turn out... but I uploaded all the ones that did, and you can find them right here.)