The official report from Aguri Onishi's fan meeting "Onishi Kindergarten Teacher Agupon!" has arrived!

Onishi Aguri, who announced that the opening theme song “Uptact” for the TV anime “Spirit Chronicles 2” will be released on November 20th, will hold a fan meeting “Onishi Kindergarten Agupon Sensei!” at Yamano Hall on Saturday, August 10th.

Here we report on the matinee and evening performances.

Four colored headbands are placed in each vertical block in the audience seats. Fans prepare by wrapping their headbands around their headbands before the show begins. The theme of the day is kindergarten, just like the event title suggests. There is a feeling that some kind of competition will unfold.

When the time came for the show to begin, Producer Kudo appeared and said, “First, let’s say hello to all the children,” and after exchanging greetings, he proceeded with the event as the assistant teacher (MC) of the kindergarten. “Mr. Agupon!” everyone called out, and Mr. Agupon appeared. “Hello, all you good children! It’s Mr. Agupon!” he said cheerfully, and all the good children responded cheerfully. There were quite a few fans who were actually dressed as children, and Mr. Agupon commented frankly, “It was a bit of a surprise because it was different from usual…” It seemed to be business as usual.

A day at Onishi Kindergarten starts with “Play Time.” The teacher teaches the choreography of the chorus, “Let’s dance together to “Aimai Girl” from the 6th single by Onishi Aguri, who is good friends with Agupon-sensei. “From ‘Twist’ to ‘Wakuwaku’ six times and then ‘Paa!'” she explains the choreography with words that make it easy to understand, so all the children absorb the choreography quickly. “Let’s try doing the first half through!” Agupon-sensei gently teaches the dance while singing the song a cappella.

The choreography in the second half of the chorus becomes even more complicated. Some in the audience exclaim, “I don’t get it,” but the teacher uses a carrot-and-stick approach to teach them, saying, “You don’t need to get it,” “You did it? You’re great, aren’t you?” and “Don’t laugh there! You have to do it properly!” The children desperately tried to keep up with Mr. Agupon’s guidance.

Once the choreography for the chorus was complete, they practiced the second half while singing it a cappella. Then, everyone had a dance time to try it out along with the actual song. The tempo of the audio was faster than when they were practicing the choreography, but it was amazing to see that most of the children were able to keep up. “You’re all amazing! How can you do that!? That’s impressive!” said Mr. Agupon, genuinely impressed. He even gave a lecture on the choreography for the part where the lyrics change in the second chorus. Although the children struggled, saying it was “difficult,” they were able to do it, which was very encouraging.

The next corner was “Team Competition! Recreation Battle.” This is where headbands come into play. The teams were named after Onishi Aguri’s songs, with the red team being the Heart Team, the blue team being the Elder Flower Team, the yellow team being the Jellyfish Team, and the green team being the Alien Team, and the competition unfolded.

First up was the “Tricycle Race Showdown.” Four people were selected from each team to take to the stage and compete for the fastest time in a tricycle relay. It must have been quite a rare experience to have Mr. Agupon cheering on them from close range, but it was also moving to see everyone desperately pedaling their tricycles. Next was the “Borrowed Things Race.” This was a competition to see who could own a given item. People who had Sanrio goods, Rolex watches (they had none as they were kindergarteners), sunglasses, etc. gathered in front of the stage, and it seemed like a sense of unity was already beginning to emerge within the teams at this point.

The last event was “Daruma-san ga koronda (Daruma doll falls over with balloons)”. The giant balloons were sent from the back towards the stage, but the Daruma-san ga koronda format was difficult. However, it was heartwarming to see everyone, who had formed teams for the first time today, working hard in solidarity.

In the overall ranking, the Jellyfish group came in first, but Mr. Agupon showed his generosity by saying, “Everyone worked hard, so everyone is first! We’ve won!” and presented everyone with a prize.

After praising everyone by saying, “I think it’s wonderful that you all worked together and had fun like children!!”, it was time for a nap. Mr. Agupon had everyone close their eyes and walked around the darkened venue. It was a very original idea to go down to the audience and get scolded if you opened your eyes, but the fact that it worked out was one of the great things about this fan meeting. Mr. Agupon sneaked out of the darkened venue. After that, the venue was a little noisy as the music box version of “Must, Open” played, and someone could be heard talking, someone could be heard talking in their sleep, someone cleared their throat to warn them, and after a while everyone quietly fell asleep…Everyone’s immersion into kindergarten was quite high level.

After the nap time, which lasted for a while, it was not Agupon Sensei who appeared at the venue, but Onishi Aguri, a friend whom Agupon Sensei had called, who appeared in a cute costume. She walked through the audience and returned to the stage, waking everyone up with a cheer. “Did you enjoy the kindergarten part? Now it’s time for the live performance. Can you get excited!?” she asked, and the fans, who had been building up energy from their nap, cheered loudly.

The concert started with the high energy live tune “To You, Jellyfish!” The fans energetically cheered while waving yellow penlights. Onishi’s choreography was also adorable. They continued with that same energy and moved on to the heart-warming number “First Love Colors.” At the point where the lyrics went “Blue and yellow, red and pink, purple and green plus you make seven colors,” the fans switched their penlights to seven colors, putting on a show. It was also impressive how the stage lighting changed colors to match the lyrics.

“There were no events in July, so it’s been a while since I’ve sung like this, so I’m happy! There were some things announced recently, right? Today I’m going to sing a song for the first time!” she said, delighting her fans, and then she sang her new song “Auftakt” (7th single/released November 20th), saying, “This is the first time we’re performing it in space, so I hope you enjoy listening.”

The song will be the opening theme for the TV anime “Seirei Gensouki 2”, and as it is a tie-up with the series following “Elder flower” (ending theme), she must be very happy and have a lot of feelings for this song. Her singing voice was so perfect that it was hard to believe it was her first time performing it, and she sang it with such ease that it was like the world of the magnificent story was coming to mind. It was also heartwarming to see the fans cheering loudly despite hearing it for the first time.

They also debuted “Fall in You,” the coupling song of “Auftact”! It’s a busy song with a variety of tempos, but the chorus has people wiping their hands and it’s a number that makes you feel a sense of unity at the live performance. The song itself seems difficult, but Onishi’s stable performance skills make him a reliable leader.

“I heard from Agupon sensei that you’ve been practicing the choreography for ‘Aimai Girl,’ so let’s all work together and do our best!” he said, and then they finally performed their latest song, “Aimai Girl”! It started with loud clapping, and everyone enjoyed dancing to the chorus, and I think the results of their practice really showed. There was a wonderful sense of unity. Partway through the song, the Uncle Dancers (staff) also appeared on stage, and the concert ended with a great sense of unity and smiles.

“Everyone danced better than the older guys (laughs). And their screaming of ‘Aimai Girl’ was perfect!” she said, and then added about the event, “Everyone was smiling and having fun playing games in front of the teacher, and getting into new songs they were hearing for the first time, and it made me so happy,” she said, concluding the attraction-like event “Oonishi Kindergarten Agupon Sensei!” for everyone to enjoy together.

◆RELEASE INFO

Release date: Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Aguri Onishi 7th single “Auftact”

[First press limited edition]CD + DVD COZC-2128-9 ¥2,090 (tax included)

[Regular Edition]CD Only COCC-18230 ￥1,430 (tax included)

1. Updakht

Opening theme for the TV anime “Spirit Chronicles 2”

Lyrics, composition and arrangement: Teruichi Tsurusaki

2. Fall in You

Lyrics, composition and arrangement: Keiichi Kondo

3. Auftakt (Instrumental)

4. Fall in you (Instrumental)