Four months after hololive production provided the opening act for Riot Games ONE, six of its VTuber talents descended to the Land Down Under for another gaming event performance: the “hololive production x DreamHack Melbourne 2024: Down Under” concert.
“Your local Aussie rat has come home!” declared Hakos Baelz, drawing a roar of approval from the packed Rod Laver Arena.
When it comes to VTubers in general, I have to confess that their music activities are not one of the main areas I engage with. I have enjoyed more than a few VTuber songs — “Purple Disease,” “Shunkan Heartbeat,” and “Bibideba” among them — but I spend much more time listening to their zatsudan (free talk) streams and livestream commentary and viewing clips than I do watching 3D lives.
But with Anime Trending’s resident VTuber expert occupied, it fell upon me to cover the livestream of hololive’s first-ever Australian concert, which was hosted on SPWN. It was around an hour of performances from hololive English’s Mori Calliope and Baelz (to be referred to as Calli and Bae, respectively, for the rest of the article), hololive Japan’s Houshou Marine and Tokoyami Towa, and hololive Indonesia’s Kureiji Ollie and Pavolia Reine. The setlist featured 12 songs, and every hololive member, or holomem, had a solo performance.
“Worth every penny,” said one comment after the concert livestream ended. I don’t have sufficient concert experience to agree or disagree with that, but after experiencing Towa’s beautiful voice swirling within my eardrums, Calli enlisting Marine for a duet of “Future Island,” and the energy and passion every holomem brought to the stage, I can’t deny that I had a good time.
One of the best parts about watching events from the comfort of your home is following the camera’s pan over the crowd, and seeing the attendees’ varying merch and items. The pre-concert sweep of the DreamHack crowd showed a considerable number of attendees armed with official event penlights, and many had brought their hololive plushies, including Hoshimachi Suisei, Amane Kanata, Bae, and a smooching Calli and Takanashi Kiara.
The camera also showed what I can only assume to be a home-made mask with COVER Corp. CEO Motoaki “Yagoo” Tanigo’s face on it, a Towa banner, and a printed copy of a “JDON MY SOUL” meme image in the mix.
The Down Under concert began with a quick video explaining VTubers and hololive, and giving basic intros to the night’s performers. Then, it was on to the first performance. Calli, Bae, and Towa initially appeared as silhouettes, then were properly unveiled for hololive Myth’s “Journey Like a Thousand Years.” What better way to kick off their first Australian concert than a song with the words, “I won’t wait a thousand years to meet”?
After the trio exited the stage with a stylish digitized fade, Ollie dialed the energy up to another level, bouncing around the stage with “JOLLIE JOLLIE.” When the infectiously lively zombie was done, Marine came onboard with her catchy 2023 single, “Bishoujyo Muzai♡Pirates,” the screen behind her lighting up with the opening frames of the song’s anime music video. Loud cheers greeted her arrival, and at the end of what was likely the cutest performance of the night, a couple of people could be heard yelling her nickname, “Senchou!”
After this opening salvo came the first of three emcee portions by Bae and Calli. As the sole Australian in hololive, it made sense that Bae was there to co-helm the interactions on her home turf, and to illuminate Calli and most non-Australians on the pronunciation of Melbourne (it’s, unexpectedly, something like “Mel-bin.”)
When the two had finished speaking about the city’s attractions — “The chicken’s so good!” exclaimed Calli — Calli added, “Also, speaking of loving chicken. Hey — you in the crowd who did the Takamori — me and Kiara —kissing thing. You’re not gonna get away with that! I’m just letting you know…”
“Good job, good job, good job, I applaud you,” interjected an amused Bae. This caused Calli to quickly respond with, “Hey, don’t encourage them!” before changing the subject with a chuckle.
The end of this emcee segment was also the cut-off point for the free preview. After a moment, the sharp electronic sound signaling the appearance of a holomem caused the ocean of people to rise with penlights in hand for Towa.
The opening piano keys to “Palette” drew cheers and screams that soon faded to allow Towa’s voice to envelop the venue. As the first slow song of the night, it provided a nicely timed reset to the concert’s pace, and the perfect opportunity to bask in Towa’s emotive vocals. She was then joined by Reine for a duet of Moona Hoshinova’s “High Tide,” with Reine’s sharper voice harmonizing with Towa’s deeper tones.
The EDM beats of “High Tide” faded from the background for Calli to deliver her rock/rap song “Wanted, Wasted,” filling the stage with rapid, confident bars of rap and more intense music than the preceding two songs. Then, it was on to Bae, one of Hololive’s best dancers, manifesting as a bundle of energy and freestyling the choreography to “MESS,” the fourth track of her 2023 first EP.
“I can be a handful, hard to handle, down in flames, everything I touch/Is it a scandal if you try and screw it up sometimes/I don’t need your guidance or advice/I know I’m right where I want to be,” she sang as she asserted her presence. The only thing upstaging Bae in that moment was the crowd shot of two fans ardently mouthing the lyrics and waving their penlights in big, sweeping motions.
The head-bobbing pop tune was followed by the second emcee section of the concert, where there was a call and response bit that included Bae and the crowd doing the “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi” chant. It ended with three rounds of Bae shouting, “JDON,” and the crowd replying, “MY SOUL!”
After this was the last solo of Down Under, with Reine taking the stage for a strong performance of “Illusion Night.” Then, Calli and Marine teamed up for Calli’s One Piece song “Future Island,” which fit Marine’s distinctive voice like a velvet glove. This was also an opportunity to hear the pirate captain rap. Towa is my favorite artist out of the six participating holomems, but Calli and Marine’s duet was, without question, my personal highlight from the show. I’ve already taken advantage of the archived VOD to revisit it multiple times.
Around this point, I finally realized that when it came to big sweeping views that covered both the stage and venue from the air, the livestream was mostly, if not entirely, limited to a camera hovering around the left corner. It wasn’t a deal breaker, and I think the camerawork for the concert was good overall, but this particular view started to feel overfamiliar towards the end.
Ollie and Bae were up next for Calli and Gawr Gura’s “Q,” followed by Marine, Ollie, and Reine with their cover of hololive 5th Gen’s energizing “BLUE CLAPPER,” the penultimate performance of the show. When it ended, Bae and Calli returned to the stage.
“I’ve always wanted to perform on the stage… on home soil,” an emotional Bae told the crowd. “And, I, you know, we did the meet and greet, I met so many amazing Australians… Thank you for making my dream come true. I love you all. Thank you.”
For the finale, all six holomems changed into idol-like outfits for “Shiny Smily Story,” the first official hololive song, and the type of song that has hopes and dreams coded into its DNA. “The hololive anthem,” as Bae put it. And so the night came to an end with the holomems singing, as confetti filled the air, “Koukai nante koko ni nai/Sorezore chigatta/Kokoro de tsukuru WORLD.” As per the official English translation: “There will be no regrets/Each and every different heart will make a world.”
There were calls for an encore, but it didn’t seem like the schedule allowed for one. Time might have been the reason there weren’t emcee moments with the holoJP and ID members as well. But that hardly took away from the event, and when the DreamHack X account teased, “Maybe we should make it (the concert) a tradition?” it felt clear that the fans had only one answer to that.
The archive of the “hololive production x DreamHack Melbourne 2024: Down Under” concert will be available until May 27 at 10:59 PM GMT+8. Tickets will be on sale until May 26 at 10:59 PM GMT+8.
