Once upon a time, the plan was for this to be a bucket-list-level weekend. I was supposed to wake up in Tokyo this morning and hit Cinema and Boy CQ’s second anniversary live in Shimokitazawa before heading off to Hanako-San’s Death Day celebration and album release event. After a good night’s sleep, I was going to spend Sunday at day two of the Gyuu Agricultural Festival, aka Gyuno Fes (chika idol’s answer to Coachella) which was celebrating it’s fifth anniversary with an epic line-up of 50+ units that read like a Who’s Who of Homicidols. 

That was before the international travel warnings were issued, concerts were cancelled and new terms were added to our vocabulary like “social distancing” and “PPE”.

The only upside to all of this pandemic brouhaha is the dramatic increase in the number of chika idol live streams. So, even though I didn’t get to fly to Japan and attend Yanakoto Sotto Mute’s major label debut concert in person, I did get to watch it live from my living room.

And now we can all experience Gyuno Fes the same way!! Although the two-day festival has been postponed indefinitely, the organizers will be broadcasting a defiant “IDOL is STILL ALIVE” version of the event live on Nico Nico several hours from now. Continue reading →