Hololive’s Tokino Sora shares her feelings about her concert: “I wanna show 100% of who I am now”

Translator’s note: This is the second part of a two-part interview released before Tokino Sora’s Parallel Time concert – the first is here. The source for this interview by Marumoto Daisuke on Excite! is here.

Here you’ll get a more in-depth picture of Sora’s feelings about holding a concert online vs. offline, how she put the set list together, and get an idea of why she might have saved “Step and Go!!” for the end.

Also, if Sora-chan’s words at the end don’t convince you, I’ll add mine: watch this concert! Tickets for the archived video of the show are still on sale on the spwn website, conveniently also in English, and can be purchased for 5500 yen for a seven-day viewing period. Please note that the merch described in the article, however, is no longer on sale. Tickets can be purchased until Sunday, January 4th 2021 at 9:59 AM JST.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, it was a pleasure to translate. Thanks as always to Excite!’s Marumoto-san for the entertaining and intimate interview, and of course to Tokino Sora for her touching, funny responses and wonderful performance. ありがとうございます！

The jacket (first pressing limited edition “A”) for Sora’s second album, “ON STAGE!”, released on October 10th, 2020. The illustration forms a counterpart to the visual for her second concert, Parallel Time.

Tokino Sora’s second concert Parallel Time opens tomorrow!

Tokino Sora, the popular VTuber group Hololive’s “original idol,” is holding her second concert Parallel Time online on November 29th (Sunday). In the second half of EkiRebi!’s interview, Sora talks with us about how she felt when she announced the concert to her Sora-tomo (fan nickname), how she’s feeling now that the big day is tomorrow, and more!

[Part 1] Hololive’s idol VTuber Tokino Sora talks about “the year of change 2020”

I was also anxious about whether doing it online would make people happy

──The announcement for your 2nd concert, Parallel Time, was made on October 8th’s stream [Juudai Happyou/BigNEWS!] Announcement and Original Song [#tokinosora livestream]. On that stream, you spoke about how the concert itself had been decided on during the summer, but that it had been down to the wire on whether you’d be doing a real concert in front of attendees or online. Could you share how you felt when it was finally decided to do it online, and that your second concert was officially happening.

Sora Honestly, at first I felt very sad because I wasn’t gonna be able to see everyone. But, I also thought, “There are concerts you can only hold online,” and figured, why not make it another new challenge? So I wasn’t just feeling let down, but there was a sense of positivity too. My wheels were spinning for a long time about whether to do it online or offline, so when it was officially decided, there was also a feeling of relief.

On October 8th’s [Juudai Happyou/BigNEWS!] Announcement and Original Song [#tokinosora livestream] stream, she made a surprise announcement for the second concert after singing some original songs. It made the Sora-tomo who’d been anxiously awaiting it ecstatic.

──Like you said before (in part one), just like how you had to figure out how to spend time at home, it sounds like you took it as a challenge you could only have because of current events.

Sora If I’d been able to see everyone, I definitely wouldn’t have thought about doing something so new with my second concert. I probably would’ve just thought, “Let’s keep the atmosphere from my first concert while developing it a little.” So I feel like maybe it was actually a good thing to be able to think about something new, like, “How will a performance online look?”

──After you made the announcement on your stream, I remember you even seemed a little choked up. What kind of feelings brought those tears on?

Sora I knew there were a lot of people thinking “I wanna go to a concert” and “I wanna see you” because of comments on my streams leading up to that one, so I’d also been feeling nervous about whether doing it online would make people happy. But when I looked at the comments after I made the announcement, they were filled with people saying “awesome!” and it being online had made no difference, so I was really relieved.

──Was the title “Parallel Time” your idea?

Sora The staff and I thought it up by throwing ideas around together. For me, I wanted a cute and catchy title for an idol concert, and on top something with meaning.

We took “time” from the “toki” in Tokino Sora. The word “parallel” gives the idea of something like a “parallel world,” so we thought it was similar to how things are right now. Like in the way a lot of things are moving alongside each other. Or, like how there are things we can’t show you in the real world but can online. It’s got a feeling like, let’s enjoy our time in this parallel world…

Also, the words sound cute, and “parallel” is a word that makes me think of something fantastic and exciting, so we decided on “Parallel Time.” It took a pretty long time to decide on.

The concept for the set list is “wanting to trace the memories I have with everyone.”

──With Parallel Time, I expect you’ll also be debuting the songs on your second album, “ON STAGE!”, so please tell us a little about that album. Was it made, as the title says, with your minds set on concerts?

Sora Yes, it was. From the start, I even told the staff, “I want songs that are gonna shine in concert.”

Right now you can also listen to parts of every song recorded for “ON STAGE!” in an “all song trailer” on the Tokino Sora channel. Every song on the album is also set to debut during Parallel Time

──I think all 8 songs will shine in concert, but when you were recording, were there any particular that you were thinking about doing in concert while you were singing them?

Sora If I was gonna say just one, it would be “Sora Matsuri.”

──It’s a song with a real festival flavor, so much so that it must actually feel lonely to sing it alone.

Sora It became clear to me that it was a song written with everyone’s calling out in response in mind, so I thought, “This song’s gonna get everyone fired up!” I was imagining the parts where people would call out, and singing things like “sore sore!” with a ton of energy.

──And were any particularly difficult songs where you thought, “This is gonna be really hard to sing in concert…”

Sora I love the song “Step and Go!!,” but I think singing it while I’m dancing is gonna use a lot of power (laughing).

──You’re doing a cute dance in the Step and Go!! (Short ver.) music video (MV below).

Sora With the MV, the singing and dancing were recorded separately. Singing while I’m doing the same dance moves, well… (laughing). I have a sense that I’ve gotta dance in a way that allows me to sing properly, so I’m not sure what I’m gonna do about that. Also, in a concert you’re singing a number of songs in a row, so even if I’m able to sing and dance this song, not being able sing the next one well is no good.

The MV for Step and Go!! (Short ver.) where you can see Tokino Sora sing and dance. She (might) be debuting this cute dance where she moves her arms like a clock during Parallel Time

──People can also view the video for Guru Guru Love Story (Short ver.), and there’s a cute dance on display for this song too. Sora, are you good at memorizing dance moves?

Sora I’m really bad at memorizing dance moves… I’m the type of person who takes a lot of time to do that. I’m still all over the place (laughing).

──At your first concert, Dream!, it felt less like you were dancing from memory and more like you were dancing freely based on how you felt.

Sora There wasn’t a single song they asked me to do something choreographed for.

──In that case, memorizing choreography and showing it on stage while you’re singing is the new challenge for this concert.

Sora That’s true. Because I’m dancing in the MV I can’t do something totally different, so I wanna make as much of an effort as possible. But I feel like, in the middle of a song, my mind might just go blank and I’ll be thinking, “What was that again…?” That might be my biggest anxiety (laughing).

──My sense is that songs from “ON STAGE!” will be at the center of the set list this time, but you’ve got a lot of songs besides that, so I think there are a lot of Sora-tomo that are excited to see which songs you’ll be singing. Without giving anything away, please tell us the concept for this set list.

Sora When I thought of the set list, it was with the feeling of “wanting to trace the memories I have with everyone.” While I was deciding on it, I was thinking about how I wanted Sora-tomo who’d recently started supporting me to think, “These songs have a lot of of memories with them,” and Sora-tomo who’d been supporting me for a long time to think, “Ahh, this song.”

──Was it hard to decide on a set list?

Sora I was really lost. I love all my songs, so I wanna sing all of them, but it gets to the point where I’m thinking, if I do it, how many hours is that gonna take? (laughing). I took a lot of time thinking stuff like, “I wanna put that song in, and I wanna put this one in too, but if I put this one in with that one…” There are probably some songs that aren’t on this set list even though though they’re popular among Sora-tomo.

I wanna make this a concert where I can show 100% of who I am after three years of activity

──Before, you said you though about how “there are concerts you can only hold online,” but in concrete terms, what kind of things are you thinking you can do?

Sora In an offline concert, the width of the stage depends on the venue. This is obvious, but if I go sideways I’ll enter the wings of the stage and disappear (laughing). But if you’re doing it online, the width of the stage is, in a way, unlimited. I think the charm of doing it online is that you’re free to decide, and show people big movements in all directions. Of course, I think reality has its own charm, but for this one, I hope people enjoy the high amount of freedom from doing it online.

──Parallel Time is an online concert, but people can buy concert goods by mail order too. Please tell us if there are any goods you’re particularly interested in.

Concert goods for Parallel Time are on sale through the streaming site spawn’s official site. Six goods in all are available, including a penlight (3500 yen, tax incl.), sacoche bag (2500 yen, tax incl.) and more.

Sora Of course, if we’re talking about a concert, you’ve gotta have a penlight. Also, if I was gonna choose something that wasn’t standard, maybe the sacoche. If this was a real concert, you wouldn’t be able to do stuff like bring a regular bag into the venue, but it seems like you’d be able to do it with something this size. I think you could fit the penlight in it to, so it’d make me happy if, when we’re able to real concerts again, everyone brought this with them. It’s also got a simple design, so it seems like it’d be easy to use outside of concerts too.

──The goods for Dream! were too popular and sold out completely, apparently you didn’t even get any.

Sora That’s true. I still don’t have any…

──Does it seem like you’ll actually be able to get ahold of them this time?

Sora I asked the staff to set some aside for me, but I bought them when they went on sale too (laughing).

──Like, “I can’t trust you anymore!” (laughing).

Sora No, no! It was a backup plan, just in case (laughing).

──During Parallel Time, in what form, what kind of “Tokino Sora” do you want them to see you as, and want to show them?

Sora I want them to see me as the culmination of three years of activity since I started. Three years, I don’t think that’s such an easy length of time to continue through. Although, when I say “culmination,” that makes it sound like this is where things end…

──Sounds like you’re leaving the mic on stage at the end of the concert. [tr. note: a tradition of entertainers retiring by literally leaving their mic on stage at the end of a concert, most famously done by Yamaguchi Momoe but repeated since by members of AKB for example]

Sora Not like that (laughing). It’s the feeling of wanting to show them the complete form of my hard work leading up to now. Although, when I say “complete form,” that’s not my ideal 100%. I wanna make this a concert where I can show 100% of who I am after three years of activity.

──What kind of time, what kind of show do you want to make this for yourself?

Sora I wanna make this the happiest time of my life. Dream! is the happiest time I’ve had in my life up to now, so I’d like to break that record.

──Parallel Time is an online concert, so you can buy a ticket to view it not only now, but after it’s been performed on as well. Could you say something to those reading this article and who aren’t sure about buying a ticket?

Sora The actual decision to move forward with the concert was made in the summer, and since then, the staff and I have been working our hardest thinking about what kind of concert we’d be doing and creating it. So it’d made me happy if you enjoyed what we worked so hard to make with me. I’m definitely gonna make it a fun time, so if you’re interested, I’d be very pleased if you watched.

──And finally, please send a message to all the Sora-tomo who’ve been anxiously awaiting your second concert.

Sora Over the past three years, it’s because of the presence of everyone who’s come to love and support me that I’m still able to do this. I’m also gonna be having as much fun as I can the day of the concert, so I can express that gratitude to you properly. So, if I can get you to have so much fun you’re also thinking, “Today’s awesome!” I’ll be happy. Thank you for continuing to support Tokino Sora and Hololive!