Back in October, Comic Frontier made a surprise announcement on their social media: the appearance of virtual musician Unnämed as a guest star for Comic Frontier 19 (CF19). It was later revealed that they would have a one-hour-long live show on Sunday, 10 November 2024, the second day of CF19.
Unnämed is a Japanese-Korean virtual singer-songwriter and streamer who does most of their activities in English. Aside from releasing content and occasionally streaming on YouTube, they also hold voice-only livestreams using the Space feature on X. Unnämed held their first YouTube livestream on 18 December 2022, with Summer Song as their first official release on 5 February 2023.
The mysterious virtual musician @unnamednow00 will be coming to #Comifuro19 Main Stage! Catch their special performance on Sunday, November 10th, 2024. pic.twitter.com/hFtM5wIfgo
— Comic Frontier (@comifuro) October 10, 2024
Fans of Unnämed, also known as U-rei, received this news with major anticipation and excitement. On the second day of CF19, the fans gathered around the main stage area long before Unnämed’s scheduled show. They patiently wait for Unnämed’s performance by taking pictures and trading freebies with other fans.
At 1530 West Indonesian Time (GMT+7), two hosts returned to the stage and opened the show by inviting Unnämed to the main stage screen. The mysterious virtual musician greeted the audience by saying selamat siang, then correcting it to selamat sore to match the time more properly.
“I have no name. I’m a musician. I like strawberries. I like music,” Unnämed introduced themself in Indonesian. They immediately switched back to English after laughing at their own attempts. “You can call me U-san. I’m sorry, my Indonesian is, uh, finished.”
Unnämed’s appearance in CF19 was their first time performing in Indonesia. They are aware of their many Southeast Asian fans, and they personally feel close to Indonesia because they grew up in Thailand. They really appreciated the organizer for inviting them and thanked their friend Michi Mochievee from VShojo for connecting them with the Comifuro committee.
During the Q&A section, Unnämed revealed the reason they like music. They grew up in a difficult household environment, so singing was their way to escape from their constant sadness and loneliness. Their music player, MP3 player, and their puppy were always by their side at that time. Unnämed also grew up watching utaite on Nico Nico Douga (now Niconico). Unnämed considers utaite as their inspirational heroes who change and connect the world through singing. For Unnämed, the fact that their main job now revolves around music is both crazy and awesome. Unnämed then mentioned some of their favourite songs, which include Fire by Queen Bee, a song that Unnämed has covered before, and The Beginning by One OK Rock.
Unnämed also shared some of their singing tips for the audience, while also reminding the fans that the tips won’t make them good at singing immediately. Practice is still needed, obviously, but Unnämed noted that recording their singing improves their skill pretty fast. Doing exercises like sit-ups and push-ups also helps, but the most important tips are to try performing in front of an audience, like family members or friends, and learning to have fun singing.
Unnämed performed Show by Ado as their opening song, a song which they also released a cover before. When hosts asked how they could pull off so much energy in performing the song, they first joked by saying “food” in Indonesian. Unnämed mentioned that they actually had not been allowed to sing in such high spirit by the indie music label they were signed into before becoming a virtual musician. Their desire to sing like that “exploded”, so now they just cannot stop themself from singing that way.
When Comic Frontier announced on social media that Unnämed would be presented at the event, Unnämed also asked their fans which songs they should perform during the event. Unnämed appreciated the overwhelming responses given by fans, but they were surprised that almost 90% of them were Indonesian songs. The audience playfully guessed that they would sing songs like Kopi Dangdut, Goyang Dumang, and Jagung Rebus, to which Unnämed reacted, “Jagung Rebus (Steamed Corn)? Oh my God, I’m hungry now.”
Following this, they surprised the audience by performing Roman Picisan by Dewa 19, a famous Indonesian song that was popular in the 2000s. Unnämed interacted a lot with the audience while singing and ended the song by exclaiming, “Dewa, I love you!”
Unnämed confessed that it was super difficult to sing in Indonesian, but they chose the song because they thought the melody was nice. They proceeded to show their pronunciation guide on screen, which has the lyrics transcribed into hiragana. After their live show, Unnämed replied to a fan’s tweet saying that Unnämed wore a kimono during the performance to show respect for Indonesian culture as a Japanese person.
The final song of the day was Trails of Flame, Unnämed’s latest original song released in October. They considered this song their treasure because they included their favourite people and their fans in the production process. Trails of Flame is currently their largest project, having a choir track consisting of voices submitted by 700 fans ranging from amateur singers to professional creators. Unnämed said this project could be achieved due to the hard work of people working behind the scenes and all the love, support, and donations they received. Unnämed always wanted to do something that their fans could join in, but they knew singing was not easy, so they allowed everyone to record their voice using smartphones. They thanked everyone, including those in the audience, who had contributed their vocals to the song.
Unnämed also sent their support to aspiring artists in CF19, reminding them that while not all their effort will be rewarded, it’s still better than doing nothing and receiving nothing as well. They told everyone to make sure the effort was in the right direction and to not be afraid to invest in it.
When asked to share about their upcoming plans and projects, Unnämed mysteriously told the audience to “wait for the full moon”. Throughout their career, the virtual singer often dropped a new release or previews of their projects according to the moon phase, particularly during full moons or new moons.
“I will be releasing something this month, but well, it might be after the full moon…” Unnämed added apologetically. “Sorry, guys!”
This article is also written in Indonesian for KAORI Newsline: Unnämed Tampil di Comic Frontier 19: “Dewa 19, I Love You!”
The Indonesian Anime Times | Event report by Shayna Agasthya
