no. 5 - joe hisaishi

vocals: 10/10 || setlist: 9/10 || stage presence: 10/10 || audience: 9/10 || logistics: 10/10

Nothing hits like the first time seeing him, but the second time was still amazing. I cried just as hard as I did the first time lmao. I probably cried harder during Spirited Away because I knew it was his daughter this time. I saw it with a friend this time, and their favorite song is Ashitaka and San. However, it was not played during the Mononoke set and it made my friend believe that he wasn’t going to do that song. I pretended that it wasn’t going to happen, but the Mononoke set is actually continued in the encore, and it starts with Ashitaka and San. The set in the concert ends with the scene where the forest spirit’s head is cut off, and the second encore picks back up when the restoration of what was destroyed begins. I thought that was a nice way to end the concert, as Mononoke generally had a very hopeful message. It was also awesome to get to see my friend’s reaction to the song coming on.