“ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream!”, a boys band project originated from “BanG Dream! (Bandori!)”, the next-generation band content of Bushiroad, held live streaming “MixChannel Presents ARGONAVIS Special Live -Starry Line-” with no audience on Jul. 25, 2020. This article will report about the performance, which gave us a realistic feeling despite having no audience, and many attractive performances there.
“MixChannel Presents ARGONAVIS Special Live -Starry Line-” was set “after” the final story of TV anime “ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream!”. A voice drama by characters and real-live performances by voice actors had been combined as if it was one story.
The live begins with a voice drama, which depicts a party held by Argonavis members to celebrate that Banri, who had been in hospital to treat the after-effect of an accident in the original TV anime, came back.
Banri was excited with heartwarming decorations made by Ren, and dishes cooked by Rio. The members give “Argonavis Submariner Mini Live” as a gift to Banri, who cannot wait to perform a live. The members were happy that the live has been decided to be live-streamed to show it to the fans, who came to Destiny Rock festival.
After the voice drama, Argonavis members appeared on the stage clothed in the costumes, which the characters were wearing in the anime, and the live begins with “Hoshi ga Hajimaru”. The voice actors, who voiced characters, performed a real live, which is a characteristic of this project.
Ito Masahiro as Nanahoshi Ren magnificently sang in the center of the stage, and Hyuga Daisuke as Goryo Yuto powerfully plays the guitar. As responding to them, Maeda Seiji as Matoba Wataru brightly plays a base, Morishima Shuta as Kikyo Rio brilliantly plays the keyboard, and Hashimoto Shohei as Shiroishi Banri energetically plays the drums. They look full of pleasure as if they were saying “Finally, we are here at the stage!”, after the live, which was planned to be held in April, had been postponed.
Next comes the Ito's famous dialogue “Raise a sail! Let's start a voyage!” followed by “Steady Goes！”.
The live streaming gets viewers more and more excited as they can closely see how musicians are playing, their ear monitors of their own theme color, their face expressions while unison, and other details.
Next were played “GO!”, “Melissa”, and other remake songs in a row from the beginning, and actors introduce themselves as the characters.
“This is the first live streaming. I feel you!” (Yuto)
“We will try our best for you to spend a wonderful time!” (Wataru)
“We'll make the stage wonderful again!” (Reo)
“Please cheer us up with a loud voice, but be careful not to annoy your neighbors!” (Banri)
“We'll send our songs to each of you !” (Ren)
In the next remake song “＊～asterisk～”, Ren and Morishima perform a rap with their “Ikevo (cool voice)”. In “Ryuseiu”, which tied Yuto to Argonavis, the gentle voice reminds us of the memory in the original anime. In “Ameagari no Sakamichi”, the dancy rhythm of the drum and the chorus of members together remind us of a rainbow after rain.
The 2nd voice drama part depicts Argonavis holding a mini-live at a live cafe “Submariner” one week after the party to celebrate Banri coming back from hospital.
While the members were taking a break, Nayuta of “GYROAXIA” appeared in the back of the audience. Ren gets surprised and makes his costume dirty, and Argonavis also gets irritated. Nayuta tells Ren to change the clothe and he implies that he is going to be a vocal.
In the next part, Ogasawara Jin as Nayuta is standing in the center of the stage, and sings the remake version “READY STEADY GO”. In the past sound-only-live “CROSSING”, Wataru, Reo, Kenta, and Miyuki played together along with Nayuta singing, but it is the first time for Hashimoto as Banri, Hyuga as Yuito, and Ogasawara as Nayuta to play together.
After the performance, Ren thanked Nayuta, saying “Thank you for helping me” at the stage, but Nayuta still takes a severe attitude.
However, Ren is so excited as Nayuta, whom Ren admires, has come to Hakodate to see his live performance, and says “How about singing next song together? You must want it as well. All the time, one more song!” Nayuta replies “You talk as if you knew my feelings.”（in a little rude way of saying）, and they start singing “STARTING OVER” together.
The two vocalists, who have a history, sing the following remake song “Carma” alternately, and together at the climax. Red and blue laser illumination lights them up. They showed what they have in common and what they don't, and Nayuta leaves the stage.
In the next voice drama part, the members after live streaming at Submariner had announced to the audience that they will restart their performances. On the other hand, Nayuta tells Ren, who followed Nayuta, that GYROAXIA was chosen as Tokyo representative of Live Royal Festival, saying “I'll win the 1st praise on Live Royal Festival, and will beat the world.”
Ren goes back to Sabmariner and thinks about their future with the members of Argonavis, telling Banri, the only drummer, “Welcome back.”
Coming back to the live part, everyone played “AGAIN” together. The camera projects Argonavis members smiling as if 9th episode of anime was reproduced. Their expressions “today” after various difficulties are truly inspiring.
Ito says “Your thoughts reach us!” “I trust the ship five of us boarded, the ship we boarded with you.”, and moves on to “Goal Line”.
The members express their feelings for the live.
“Thank you for coming to see our live today!” (Wataru)
“Today is live streaming, which is different from the usual. Did you enjoy it?” (Yuto)
“We are really glad that we can send the Argonavis' songs to you like this.” (Reo)
“It is too sad that the live has almost finished. I want to pray the drum more!” (Banri)
“We are tied by music in our hearts!” (Ren)
They played the last song “Starry Line”, which is also used as the title.
While the beautiful piano sound was playing, Ren put his hand on his chest, and sings, saying “I want to believe that you will receive it.” This should be a message to everyone who is watching the live on the screen. The performance by all the members tells that Argonavis and fans are tied like the constellations no matter how far apart we are.
When they leave once and come back for an encore, they look relaxed wearing T-shirts, which each character is printed on.
From this point, they perform as themselves, not as the characters.
In the encore song “STARTING OVER”, the two vocals come up to other members, and perform as much as they like, which is more natural than before the encore, and we usually cannot see them like that.
They talks about the enthusiasm for their future with a feeling of loneliness.
“This is a step that I realized a live with no audience have some good aspects.” (Ogasawara)
“I feel as if you were here.” (Hashimoto)
“We are trying so that you can enjoy.” (Morishima)
“To be honest, I really miss you. We will definitely see you again.” (Maeda)
“We'll see you next time for sure!” (Hinata)
“During this period, I got more familiar with characters and members.” (Ito)
Ito sayed, “Please listen our feelings.”, and they move on to the last song “VOICE”. The five members performed a cappella, and sang it gently to the end.
They promised fans “We'll see at the venue next time!”, and cheerfully waved their hands.
（C）ARGONAVIS project.（C）DeNA Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.（C）bushiroad All Rights Reserved. photo:Nishimaki Taichi
