We got the next best thing to a Magical Mirai, and it's freaking awesome. The screen, the set design, the additional graphics, the set list...it all came together into what I can best describe as Magical Mirai in a box, able to go on the road on a tour across a continent.
The centerpiece is the new screen. No more little rectangle like last time, no small glass like earlier Expos...we have a super wide screen that's about Magical Mirai size. (To my eye, the vividness and lack of light bleed is indicative of MicroLED, and it has a kind of matte anti-reflective coating.) We get to have more characters on screen and moving around more.
The screen also blends far better than last year. The lighting and set dressing hide the edges well, lights cast across the fog add depth, and they did something clever with its positioning that kind of tricks your eye into thinking the character is in front of it, with the edge lighting and side scaffolds that separate where the band members are. There are also several small satellite screen on the sides and above that have different images come in throughout songs.
We've got graphics, backgrounds and virtual props! Some songs have fun image backgrounds, some have words or additional objects that pop in around the characters. They did a great bit with Oedo Julianight where Miku plays a taiko solo, and then there's stylized text that pops in when she whistles.
The set list is great overall, and the whole thing felt like a selection you'd have at Magical Mirai, complete with a "final song" and a several-song encore. I'd have personally swapped Luka's solo song for Luka Luka Night Fever, and I'd have loved to have Kimagure Mercy in Denver (I'm a sucker for Eurobeat)...but overall I'm very happy with what we got.
Room for a Fantasy is interesting. I was a bit lukewarm on it when the contest results came in, but the band arrangement goes HARD. It gains a lot more energy and works really well. (Speaking of, the band did great.)
We got a little bit more Luka in Denver, because Bring it On was substituted for Drop Pop Candy. Which kind of works, because it was fairly Kagamine-heavy. (As long as we get some Giga!)
I've had a suspicion that the set last time was influenced by Coachella, since they were going to perform the same songs there and wanted a more English-heavy selection for that. So they reached a bit deep into their grab bag of Expo contest winners, and omitted other staples. (Though I think it's still neat that a bunch of English language producers got to have their songs played at one of the most prestigious US festivals...)