On December 19, 2020, the voice actress artist Uesaka Sumire celebrated her 29th birthday with her first online event, “Uesaka Sumire’s Distant Kachikomi Paradise – Happy 29th Birthday Special! ～” on December 19, 2020. The event, which was broadcast live for two performances, one in the day and one at night, was filled with singing, talking, drinking, and munchies! It was a special event full of Uesaka-san’s personality. This report is a digest of the event, focusing on the daytime performance.
As it was the first time in a long time for Uesaka-san to hold a solo event, there were many messages from fans waiting for the start of the event in the comment section, and the broadcast started on time.
Uesaka-san appeared on stage without an MC, full of enthusiasm, “Today is my birthday, but it’s also the day I’m going to work the hardest! After celebrating with a birthday cake, they toasted elegantly with a cup of tea without alcohol since it was a daytime performance (of course they toasted with champagne at the night performance).
One of the charms of online events is that you can enjoy toasting together even through the screen, and I could see from the comments that the fans watching were enjoying themselves in their own environment.
Next, one of the best parts of this event was the surprise release of the congratulatory comments from the voice actors who are related to Uesaka-san.
For the daytime performance, it was Suzuki Aina, Higashiyama Nao, Minase Inori, Ogura Yui, Sugita Tomokazu, and Yasumoto Hiroki (the first time). For the evening performance, messages were sent from Uchida Marei, Yasumoto Hiroki (2nd time), Komatsu Mikako, Izawa Shiori, Nakatani Kazuhiro, Kuroda Takaya, Mizuki Nanai and other gorgeous people.
Along with the birthday wishes, the fans were excited to see her respond to the requests of “things I’d like to do with Uesaka Sumire”, and even to the loving requests of dancing, Kinnikuman’s special moves, calligraphy, and muscle training.
In addition, as part of the radio program “Uesaka Sumire’s Heart is Cute” broadcast on Bunka Hoso, the popular corners “Get Wild” and “●● no Gyakuten” were performed live.
In the “Get Wild” corner, which was held during the daytime show, Uesaka-san took part in the pretense of “Rumor has it that Uesaka-san is a…”. It must have been a blissful time for the radio listeners to see Uesaka-san answering at a good tempo to the pretense from the listeners with their own peculiarities.
One of the things Uesaka-san mentioned as something she would like to do in her 20s was to try her hand at live game playing. With the help of game maker SEGA, of which Uesaka-san is a fan, she played “Ryu ga Gotoku 7: Light and Darkness” with the “Mega Drive Mini”.
In the evening performance, Uesaka-san played “Ryu ga Gotoku 7: Light and Darkness”, in which he also appears as a voice actor, and said, “I brought my own game data today!” Uesaka smiled as if she was enjoying the game at home.
Then came another surprise. A part of the interlude video that was to be played at the live tour “Uesaka Sumire’s PROPAGANDA CITY 2020” scheduled to be held in 2020 was shown for the first time.
The content is about Uesaka-san’s challenge at participating in the “once every four years sports festival”. The first half of the video was shown at the daytime performance, and the second half was shown at the evening performance. The full version of the video will be included as a video bonus somewhere in the future, so we can look forward to the full story.
The mini-live, which many dousha or comrades (generic name for fans of Uesaka-san) must have been waiting for, consisted of two different songs each for day and night.
In a rare combination of character songs and her own songs, the two songs performed at the daytime show were “Caramel Peach Jam 120%” and “Hotcakes in Hell”, the ED themes of the TV anime “Hozuki’s Coolheadedness”.
The numbers, which are standard songs in Uesaka-san’s live performances, entertained the fans with cute dance moves and powerful performances that could be felt even through the screen.
During the event, Uesaka-san responded to the congratulatory messages posted on Twitter and other comments with the hashtag “Congratulations to #Sumipe”.
One of her charms is that she responds to each message with care and humor.
At the end of the evening performance, she announced that she would hold her long-awaited solo live “Sumire Uesaka’s PROPAGANDA CITY 2021” in April 2021, and that she would start a new fan club “Sumipe Renpo”.
At the end of the event, she said, “Anyway, in 2021, I’ll be performing live, releasing singles, and starting a fan club! Please be good friends with me!” Uesaka-san cheerfully declared.
We can’t take our eyes off her rapid progress this year.
Photo: Kenta Suzuki
