Otsuka Ai - Love is Born (a J!-ENT Music DVD Review)

Celebrating her 24th birthday and her 3rd year as a music artist, a DVD of Otsuka Ai’s special concert at Hibiya Yagai Ongaku-Do from last September was released on New Year’s Day.

In three years, Otsuka has had 13 of her last 14 CD singles debut on the Oricon top 5 music charts and has become one of the shining female vocalists on the Avex label.

Otsuka fourth concert DVD “LOVE IS BORN”, is a 110 minute DVD featuring an energetic performance by the Osaka-born artist but this time at an outdoor venue. .

With “LOVE IS BORN” being my first Otsuka Ai concert DVD that I’ve reviewed, I would have to say that I’m quite impressed by Otsuka’s live performance.

I’ve watched many Japanese music artists do live concerts outdoors but for this concert, the ambience was just perfect.

At nighttime, nestled in Hibia Park with the rees and vegitation, buildings in the background and you can even hear the crickets chirping.

It was definitely a perfect and beautiful setting for a concert until the rain came (fortunately) at the end of the concert.

But even during the rain, the wet singer and audience didn’t seem phased.

With each song that she performed, Otsuka was energetc and it was great to see the camera footage on the musicians of her band and the audience.

Rarely do you see much focus on the band members for a solo artist but you can tell that they really feed off Otsuka’s onstage energy and it shows.

From the moment she starts her concert off with her hit single “Yumekui”, to the moment where she sings “Birthday Song” and interacts with the crowd to sing with her to the moment where bugs are flying towards the stage and a scared

Otsuka Ai stood cowering while her band members try to get the huge bugs away from her stage area. Also, the artist showing off her piano talent while singing “planeterium” to the final song before the encore as she and the fans get into the excitment of the song “Sakuranbo”.

Even when the concert is completed, the singer continues to talk and interact with her fans.

This is truly an artist that cares about her fans and I really found the interaction with the fans very enjoyable.

The camerawork on the DVD is very well-done with cameras everywhere on stage to cover Otsuka and her band even a camera at the audience.

With the use of many camera angles, It would have been nice to be able to select a concert angle to watch the concert.

The video quality of the concert was very good and stage lighting was well done. Well-balanced shots from all camera angles and nothing dizzying.

As for the DVD’s features, well, there are no special features but a menu chapter for 5.1 and 2.0 audio and song selection.

With 5.1, the audio is indeed crisp and with the crickets chirping, it definiitely gives you a different audio sense compared to most concert DVD’s.

If you bought the first pressing of this DVD, you were able to obtain a 40-page photo booklet. Otherwise, you can buy it now (w/o the book) at a cheap price at under $28 (US) which is great for fans who import and were used to paying $60-$100 for a concert LD or VHS back then.

Since Otsuka Ai’s debut, I have seen this artist mature and diversify her talents from music to acting (Tokyo Friends) and with each single coming one after the other making it on the Oricon top 5, she still remains grounded and keeps it real.

All in all, this is a great concert that I feel Otsuka Ai fans will truly embrace.It’s full of energy, great music and very well-done camera work that fans will definitely enjoy..

It’s a bit of a barebones DVD but on its own and for its price, still worth checking out.

A — DENNIS A. AMITH
Catalog #: AVBD-91442 | Duration: 110 min.
Release date: January 1, 2007
Region 2, 16:9

1. Yumekui
2. GIRLY
3. Amairo parasol
4. Himawari
5. Momo no Hanabira
6. Kaerimichi
7. BIRTHDAY SONG
8. Haneari tamago
9. Amaenbo
10. Planetarium
11. Kingyo hanabi
12. Daisukidayo.
13. SMILY
14. PRETTY VOICE
15. HAPPY DAYS
16. Kataomoi Dial
17. Sakuranbo
- ENCORE-
18. Renai Shashin
19. Neko ni Fusen
20. LOVE MUSIC