The highly anticipated music festival OTONOKO, produced by Yasutaka Nakata, was held on December 2nd in Hall 4 of Ishikawa Sangyo Tenji in Ishikawa, the birthplace of Nakata.

The first OTONOKO was held last year to a buzzing crowd of 6,500 and became a huge success. This year’s event was only bigger and better, with a record breaking 8,620 music lovers lined up to witness once more this new kind of music festival, with an unmatched line up consisting of Yasutaka Nakata himself as well as CAPSULE, Perfume, tofubeats, C&K, Taiiku Okazaki, 80KIDZ, DAISHI DANCE and more.

The venue was broken into two sections: the main stage and the second stage. For the opening acts of the main stage, the crowd were graced by DJ audition winner DJ KOKI, ASOBISYSTEM’s young and fast budding newcomer artist MANON, and Atarashii Gakkou no Leaders who made their major debut earlier this year.

Over on the second stage was a diverse range of artists blending together different areas of culture, including Una, Anna Yano, as well as local specialist schools who showcased hair & make-up and fashion shows and more.

The first of the main acts to open was none other than CAPSULE, welcoming the crowd with a set list that was inevitably guaranteed to get everybody pumped, including songs such as “more more more,” “FLASH BACK” and “JUMPER.”

Artists from last year’s OTONOKO festival then returned to the stage such as DAISHI DANCE, TeddyLoid and 80KIDZ.

Popular Japanese YouTubers HIKAKIN & SEIKIN took to the stage during TeddyLoid’s act. They added variety to their set by performing songs such as their 2015 hit “YouTube Theme Song.” 80KIDZ’s set electrified the audience with a full band set who provided some sharp and catchy beats.

The middle slot of the night was taken up by live acts Taiiku Okazaki and C&K as well as hugely popular DJs and close friends of Yasutaka Nakata, banvox and tofubeats. Taiiku Okazaki made his original style known with tracks such as “Open” and “We Can Get Over It.”

C&K began their set with their emotional ballad “Y,” changing the mood of the floor with their crystal clear vocals and pop musicality.

Then, like passing a baton, tofubeats effortlessly transitioned to the DJ booth from banvox where he created hooks with a selection comprised of “POSITIVE feat. Dream Ami,” “LONELY NIGHTS,” “Too Many Girls feat. KREVA” and more while interweaving them with the roaring beats of tracks such as “Drum Machine.” Chisato Moritaka’s vocals were played for his killer tune “Don’t Stop The Music feat. Chisato Moritaka” to which the crowd clapped along. With the mic in hand, tofubeats sang along with everybody during “Asa ga Kuru Made Owaru Koto no nai Dance wo” and “Suisei.”

Finally, the wait was over. The moment “GLITTER” began playing and the lasers shot through the air, the crowd knew that could only mean one thing – Perfume. The crowd went wild, and although dancing to the heavy and upbeat songs “FLASH” and “FAKE IT,” A~chan gave spoke of some observations about the event: “Doesn’t listening to that heavy bass all the time get to your ears after a while!? The people at OTONOKO are something else.” Yasutaka Nakata has produced Perfume’s music for a very long time, but this is the first time ever in 15 years that him and the J-pop trio have performed together. The girls see him as a “god” and commented: “He has been with us for such a long time and never grown tired. We were able to go on television with him this year, and he’s even kindly invited us to OTONOKO. You probably think that Nakata is weird. But we’re super thankful to be able to work together with a god.” The crowd were divided into three sections – “na,” “ka” and “ta” – for a call & response session to revere the godly Nakata.

Towards the end of the show Perfume switched to some club tunes, delivering “Chocolate Disco” and “TOKYO GIRL,” before performing a completely brand-new, not yet released song titled “FUSION.” Nakata surprised everybody by taking to the DJ booth for this song which showcases a cool side of Perfume the likes of which nobody has seen. The song has thick bass and is exotic with almost no lyrics, and the choreography has gentle movements and a downbeat rhythm to them.

Yasutaka Nakata subsequently took over the stage with his solo performance. After Perfume’s act he was the only one up there where he played a number of songs from his forthcoming first ever solo album “Digital Native,” set for released next year on February 7th. As well as that, he hit off a behemoth list of other tracks including “NANIMONO (feat. Kenshi Yonezu),” a remix of “Stay” by Zedd & Alessia Cara, new solo tracks “Give You More” and “Jump in Tonight (feat. Momo Mashiro)” announced this year, and more.

Perfume made a guest reappearance for “If you wanna” as if it was a return gift to collaborate once again. The spectacle of seeing Perfume sing and dance alongside Nakata had the entire room with their hands in the air.

For the night’s grand finale, CAPSULE member Toshiko Koshijima stepped onto stage to perform CAPSULE’s hit song “Starry Sky.” The song encapsulated the show’s climax with fireworks, smoke, confetti and endless strings of high speed lasers. With that performance, Yasutaka Nakata vividly proved his ready wit and unequalled talent as one of Japan’s foremost leading artists, producers and DJs. The edgy dance beat defined that fact to the end before concluding OTONOKO 2017.

Nakata said his goodbye to the crowd: “Thank you for being here tonight! I will return to Kanazawa!”

With the forthcoming release of his 2018 solo album, it’s time to get excited about Yasutaka Nakata and his spirited activity.

TEXT by Mami Naruta