by Finnlay Dall
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Ado, Drums: Morita Ryunosuke, Bass: Naoki Kobayashi, Keys: Sara Wakui, Guitarist/Band Master: Takafumi “CO-K” Koukei
Intro:
… promises to capture the love, energy and sheer size of one of Ado’s grandest performances.
With the dying out of traditional media in Western countries, musicians becoming famous through viral songs or through a presence on the internet is not uncommon. However, the rise of Vocaloids, and the singers who cover their songs, have been a major internet subculture in Japan well before Justin Bieber learned to pick up a guitar.
Utaite (taken from the expression “Utattemita” or “I tried singing” in English) are online singers – usually from the video site nico nico – who sing their own rendition of famous Vocaloid songs. The vocaloid community is varied, with many different genres and a plethora of talented producers. However, the speech synthesis software it’s named after – embodied by many famous characters including the familiar Hatsune Miku – sometimes lacks the same emotional weight as a flesh and blood singer. So, many artists like Reol, Eve and Mafumafu have not only carved a unique space for themselves in Vocaloid fandom, but have been able to launch respectful careers as solo vocalists.
And none have had a more explosive career than Ado, whose meteoric rise to stardom with her single Ussewa in 2020, exposed the world to just what one of these “ameture singers” was capable of. At just 18 years old, Ado’s versatile vocal range and metal-inspired gravelly cadence won the hearts of many during the pandemic. And now with several albums and a leading role in the One Piece Film: Red under her belt, the twenty-two year old singer comes home to pay respect to the community that has meant so much to her.
Coming off the back of her world tour, Wish, Ado returns to Japan to deliver a victory lap of a concert in the form of Shinzou or “Heart” – a curated performance of her discography that she hopes will reach the hearts of the fans and the online community that has kept her going all this time. Returning to cinemas roughly a year after the live performance, Special Live Shinzou (2025) promises to capture the love, energy and sheer size of one of Ado’s grandest performances.
As the camera pans across the full sports stadium, scanning excited faces, we’re given a glimpse of just how far this young girl has come from making covers in her bedroom. And as Ado emerges in silhouette, caged in front of an expectant audience, the cheers are deafening.
Ado belts out Ussewa with a particular controlled grunginess that’s impressive on a recording, but has a whole new flavour live. The camerawork matches the frenetic energy of the singer as she rattles around the small cage, even blurring and shifting focus like many of her lyric videos. It’s clear from minute one that Ado is not just content with playing listlessly through her “Greatest Hits”, as the setlist bounces from first album favourites (‘Lucky Bruto’) and Anime tie-ins (‘Tot Musica’) to even her famous covers (‘Aishite, Aishite, Aishite’). Rather than feeling disjointed, Shinzou’s songs are cleverly linked by genre. Moving from Metal and Pop Punk to Electronica and Ballads, allowing Ado to flex her full range as a vocalist. While her aggressive attitude sets her apart as an artist online, it is her incredible vocal control on the top notes of songs like ‘New Generation’ and her ability to adapt to any style that continues to cement her as a terrifying talent within the Japanese music industry.
The choice to shroud the stage in darkness, as opposed to having a virtual persona for the anonymous Ado, is a real treat. On one level, it allows her to perform complex movements and still keep some level of privacy, but on another, it’s true to the spirit of being an Utaite, by allowing her voice to literally speak for itself, as many singers choose to remain anonymous and are instead, like the Vocaloids before them, a depiction based on their music taste and vocal style.
In a gorgeous fireworks intermission after ‘Eien no Akuruhi’, in which a heart pumps blood in a light display and the leaves of a rose come together, it’s clear that Ado “doesn’t need love anymore,” because she’s received plenty from the people who have gathered here in the stadium. As the sky darkens, fans’ LED bands light up and continue to return her love in kind. The stage effects are not overcomplicated by any means, but their synchronicity with Ado and her audience are impressive and efficient.
While Ado is “used to performing alone”, there’s no shortage of musical guests, with a surprise solo from B’z guitarist, Tak Matsumoto, during ‘Dignity’; in which even her concert band get their own time to shine. Yet, it is her duet up on-stage with Hatsune Miku herself that turns out to be the emotional highpoint of the concert.
As Ado wavers in singing ‘Sakura Biyori and The Time Machine’ with her robotic idol, she’s able to pull through an incredibly strong performance in front of 140,000 Vocaloid and Utaite fans. For many, getting emotional over a fictional character might seem ridiculous, but to music lovers raised on the internet and self-admitted “loners” like Ado, Vocaloid offered a welcoming community and a place for self-expression in a culture defined by repressive modesty.
Before her last song, ‘KokoroToIuNaNoFukakai’, Ado gives a heartfelt thanks and speaks on her loneliness and self-hatred growing up, her need to constantly compare herself to others only deepening those feelings. Choking up, she says that the Vocaloid producers and artists who supported her helped her find a way out of that negative headspace. In doing so, she reveals what the concert’s title really means: She’s not referring to her own heart, but instead, the heart of the online Utaite community itself. Shinzou then is an ode to that heart and a promise to keep it pumping, no matter what!
Find out where the film is playing near you, here.
