Anime Weekend Atlanta day 7 - Kikka's last day amongst Yuu

Well blow me down has this been one hell of a week, but alas, the final day of the expo fun was upon us.  After the energy draining concert and signing sessions I managed to sleep in until around 7 in the morning, after doing my previous blog post I set off for the convention.  On the way I ran into Tomasz, catchfivebats and Manami kawai so we all walked on towards the convention together.  Randomly in the car park of the cumberland mall we also ran into Shug and needmorebuono!  None of these meetings were planned but they worked out very well in our favour!

Due to the final day happening on sunday, most of the places to eat were shut, so I ended up grabbing a subway in the cobb galleria itself.  After hanging around for a little while longer, Kikka gave us her final autograph session at 11am.  I got a second two shot photo that was taken by needmorebuono!

 
After all of these events from this week I have got a ridiculous amongst of signed merchandise, fourteen items in total, here's a shot of it all compiled together.

Kikka was her wonderfully elegant self and very energetic when we all came to speak with her and have things signed.  She was also up for yet another group photo, only this time, while it was being shot I noticed a tonne of random anime fans started to take our photograph as well which had me going 'why?'  Well when I saw the photo I found out why!

Yup randomly a Venom cosplayer joined in the fun!  It's cute how Kikka has pulled his tongue here, though if that were the real Venom I don't think that would be such a good idea!  After this was shot Kikka hung around for a little while longer before she disappeared.  With only a short time between the end of the autographing session and the final panel she would be part of, we all headed over to the main auditorium to get a good spot.  We ended up seeing half of a panel by Eyeshine and it was a poor knock off of Tenacious D, still we endured and as about 80% of the room left, we all went forward to get right up front for the Q&A.

This panel was interesting in that the Q&A was themed around Kikka's rise to becoming a soloist and questions about performing in general.  To guide us in this, Kikka had actually drawn some really cute pictures about the experiences she had, all the way from failing the 8th generation Morning Musume audition up to debuting.  During this we found out some really interesting things about the whole affair.

First of which was how she and other eggs would finish a school day and then travel to the training centre.  Kikka did it every day from Ibaraki to Tokyo, so she would find herself on a two hour bus ride, studying all the way!  Secondly, she talked about how leading up to the debut, both UFA and Universal were looking to make a solo artist and Kikka was the only one they saw who fit!  This was a really nice feeling as the debut has always seemed a little different from most.

In between this, Kikka opened herself up for being quizzed by the crowd, which led to some cruel questions like who was the first president of the united states? Kikka tried, but like me, she had absolutely no idea!  Although she did instantly answer one question about who the American commodore was who sailed there in 1852 or something!  so don't underestimate her! As Kikka's presentation carried on, she explained how going solo was very difficult for her, as she had always featured as part of a group.  Where as now, she was on her own, so she was faced with remembering a lot more things by herself, such as the MC's, the dances, lyrics, and that she could sometimes remember parts of one but not the other and it took a lot of time to get used to!

She also told us about the CM's she does for Kappa Zushi before she asked if everyone liked it, pretty much all of us said yes and she asked which sushi was our favourite.  I told her Tamago (egg) and Kani (crab), but lots of others such as salmon and mackerel were announced, but Tuna was left off which surprised her.  Kikka demanded that when we go to Japan, we all eat at Kappa Zushi!  After this, she presented a picture of a mountain saying she is aiming to climb to the top and that she requires a lot of energy to make it there, so we will as well to follow her.

Following this was the open floor Q&A so I asked if she had any idea when on her way to the Universal building that she would be debuting.  The answer was pretty much that the management and Universal were making a plan and that Kikka was the best fit which is how the solo debut occurred.  Her translator asked us if Universal were a good company and I was like 'err...  I guess so!'  Later in the Q&A I also asked a second question of which outfit was her favourite from all of the ones she has used so far.  Kikka chose the one from Konna watashi de yokattara, not only because it was quite girly with tassles and fluffy edges, but also that she has a black heart so needed a lot of white to hide it XD  She is just too funny.

A lot of other really interesting things came about from the Q&A.  One question asked what an average day in the eggs was like, Kikka explained that the eggs vary so much in age that all members must firstly finish their school day, then travel to the centre for training.  Once there they would spend around three hours doing dancing training, singing and so forth.  Kikka explained that this usually happened between 6pm and 9pm, then she would travel home for at least two hours by bus.  Meaning she would sometimes not get home until around midnight or 1am, then be up at 7am to go to school and she did this pretty muc h everyday!  That is astonishing effort and hard work, not just from Kikka, but everyone in the Eggs/Kenshusei.

Catchfivebats asked about the shift in music from her very idol-ish debut track kikkake wa you!  up to and including darling to Madonna.  The answer was really surprising in that there is a meeting of everyone from Kikka, Management, UFA and so forth and they all communally come to a decision of what sort of sound they all like to explore and everything, meaning that Kikka technically has creative control...  That blew my mind!

A question arose about the vocaloid production with the vocals and how she felt with her voice transformation.  The answer itself was a little bland in that it just simply she sang and then effects changed it.  However, she asked us to watch the MMD version of Koko kara hajimarunda together, there was some chanting from both us and Kikka herself during the video which was cool.  Afterwards was the interesting bit though, where she actually said she was jealous of the MMD version because she is very thin but has big breasts!  She even had a worry that we liked the MMD version better XD

Her translator fell apart laughing and most of us were thinking 'there is no way she will translate that!'  But credit to her she did, Kikka also said she hoped at one point to do a joint concert between herself and the MMD clone, with the idea being that when she gets tired the MMD version can take over!  A girl after my own heart!

A question was also asked about the fact she covered tan tan taan, romantic ukare mode and daite hold on me, asking if there were any other songs she wanted to do that got left out and also why she did them over some of her other solo stuff.  Kikka stated that she loved those songs to sing herself, but that the main reason for the inclusion was that some of the attendees may not be aware of her own songs but may recognise some of the big ones.  She did say as well that she wants to have a big versatile set of songs and may soon surprise us before going an evil laugh, terribly cute XD

Kikka also demonstrated her leg stretch for us for the first time ever live at an event, she had only ever done it before on television!  At first though it looked like it would not happen as she said her jeans were too tight XD But she just went for it and managed to avoid ripping her trousers, it really is quite a disturbing sight but stilll very cool.  No one nearly vomitted like those on television here.  She also joked that she had ate too much at cheesecake factory hence they were too tight lol

Kikka stated that she was close to Kitahara Sayaka when she was still part of the eggs, also explained that one of the moments she remembers from the days of Kirarin revolution her most memorable moment was quite a bad one where she went to Disneyland the day before recording it, and ruined her voice through screaming on the rollercoasters XD

A cosplayer asked in japanese if she liked ice-cream, Kikka immediately shouted out "daisukikka!" which was awesome!  She then went to say how Ben & Jerry's had only just come to Japan and she ate a lot of their stuff, her fave flavour being chocolate but she also liked their mint flavour. 

Towards the end she was also asked for some beauty tips, Kikka explained she really isn't that pretty as she has lots of pimples on her face...  I disagree, she's gorgeous!  A male fan also asked what haircare she used and Kikka answered with Downy which is a form of detergent lol  Even though the translator kept on correcting her, Kikka insisted people try it to make their hair as soft as clothes XD  I am not doing it before you all ask!!

The final question was asking what Kikka's strongest quality as an idol was and what made her stand out.  She said her smile and also that as a soloist she can talk to each fan individually easily and communicate with us to make her fanbase that much closer and stronger.  After this with regret they announced that she would be leaving, but Kikka announced that she had had a lot of fun.  At the end she asked if there were new fans and some of the con attendees outside my core group did say yes!  So I hope this is the beginning.  The Q&A ended with a final kikkake wa...  And the crowd chanting You! back at us, before she walked down the centre of the hall and out.

I have seen online a lot of people being quite jealous of not being with us, she has been absolutely amazing and everyone should take the opportunity to go out to see and meet her where possible!

After this fourteen of us paid homage to Kikka by going to the cheesecake factory, all week I hadn't really gone big with my meals, so I chowed down on a huge steak burger with fries, then followed with a cheesecake called the oreo extreme dream cheesecake.  I was expecting a simple chocolate thing with an oreo crushed in...  What I got was this!

I took it on, this was my man vs food...  food won, just!  There was literally the back chocolate wall left only, I would have eaten it, but then been sick and that would not have been cool.  Stuffed up, overjoyed at Kikka-sama and sad it was all ending the group bade each other farewell for one last time.

But man, what an amazing weekend!  Kikka was everything I expected and more besides, she truly is the best in the world in my opinion.  She has the look, the sound, the character, the humour...  She can simply do it all and I want all of you to support her!  Until next time, sets sail.