Is it really worth visiting a cinema for an Enhypen VR concert?

Can VR concerts in cinemas offer a unique live music experience? I went to check it out!

Many artists who were unable to hold in-person concerts during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic used virtual concerts as a way to interact with their fans during lockdown. It was an intriguing experiment. They are not the same as the real thing, but the best ones didn’t try to do that either. They used a form that was freed from the constraints of fixed stages to embody the identity of music in multimedia performances. What’s particularly memorable for me is that a Japanese idol group that I like transforms the entire holiday resort into a live stage, playing music, chaos and even boats to assemble performances instead of a typical annual stadium summer concert.

The live concert is back now. Despite the occasional benefits of formulas, virtual concerts have almost disappeared, with limited exceptions such as Vtubers. Still, this does not mean that the possibility of formats that bring a new dimension to performance has been completely discarded. In collaboration with Amazevr, numerous K-Pop groups are using VR to turn online concerts into a collaborative experience for those who don’t have a headset through cinemas around the world. Enhypen is the latest to join the trend, with the first VR concert, which recently premiered in Korea and Japan, before travelling to the US and other countries in the coming months.

But this is actually worth your time and what is it like to attend a VR concert in a cinema?

On a damp night in Tokyo, I headed to the Shinjukuwald 9 Cinema for myself. I’m familiar with the group’s music, but I don’t call them stubborn fans like many who gathered in the cinema and sold out each of the seven screenings per day that the cinema hosted over the opening weekend. In comparison, my Wednesday event event was certainly quiet, although far from the sky.

Croppings of group members decorated the film’s lobby and handed me an entry bonus for A3 posters and photo cards while walking into the screen itself. We also offer hygienic face masks to wear before wearing the Quest 3 headset used for your experience. I sat down in my seat, yelling through the music video and film speakers.

Once the event started, we guided us through a simple setup process to make it easy for first-time users to place their headset. I was asked to go back to my seat completely and hold my hand in front of me to allow for tracking of my hands.

The VR performance is touted as “like seeing a personal concert from the first row” with closest views and personal fan service that are unlikely to be possible in a typical stadium concert. This is almost immediately emphasized, with each member appearing before me, staring at my soul as if only a few inches away from my face. I can clearly see all the wrinkles in their clothes and see their amazing angular shape of Adam’s apple. Even as a more neutral person, I was upset, but the rest of the audience was already lost in a sea of screams.

However, you can shoot performers that are close to the project on the film screen, or upload them as YouTube videos. The more the show progresses, the more it becomes clear that the show has no ambition to take the next step and avoid this VR experience being surprisingly flat in terms of execution. Of course, there are limitations that teams had to consider beyond the typical VR setup.

You cannot move from the seats in a cinema where up to 200 people share the screen. Even hand calibration takes into account the width of the movie seat by enhancing the inability to use the penlight beyond the narrow range of the seat.

This quickly becomes clear to me that this concert is a bare minimum show to please fans without taking advantage of the fact that it is VR. Performance itself runs on a green screen with a virtual dynamic background, instead of building a physical set. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the dynamism is lacking depending on how static they feel, even if these highly choreographed dancers are matching up around these arenas and pirouettes.

Rather than using a 360-degree camera, the concept of “front row seating” is literally filmed. The concert uses a static front camera with only minimal movement. Occasionally members will come nearby and either place their hands in front of your face or wink at you. However, it’s just a flashy screensaver, and it’s filmed in the same way as the choreography and practice videos the group has already uploaded to YouTube.

Without a doubt, one of the concert songs is a perfect example of this. Certainly, you are approaching the dancers and they are looking at you in person. But aside from proximity, the performance is shot almost exactly like the videos the group has already uploaded to YouTube, and will not adapt the performance to this live experience.

Why not adjust your choreography to make use of new media? Members can not only stand in front of them at all times, but also circle themselves. Instead, not only are 360-degree videos not captured, but efforts are also made to create a 360-degree environment. VR By Design will immerse you in that world, so perhaps to see your favorite members, the moment you move your head from a perspective that directly improves your head is quite confusing.

Using VR in this Enhypen concert is similar to 3D movies from the early 2000s. This forces the action to jump out of the screen to ensure you recognize what you paid, rather than really taking advantage of the new media. Today, you can watch those movies in 2D at home without losing anything in translation, and if you did it at this concert, I can’t help but feel that nothing will be lost.

You can’t even take advantage of the interactivity of VR. Towards the end of the concert, the only interactive that doesn’t just shake the virtual penlight, you can vote for your favorite members. The member then quietly sits in front of you, shaking and gestures with a handwritten message, floating above your head before moving quickly.

If fans vote for their favorite members and are able to take advantage of each person’s bespoke headset perspective, why not go beyond 30 seconds of fan service? The following songs can be replaced, for example, with fancam-style performances centered around selected members: Why is it not good? Perhaps this required more recording time, so you would have to film the song many times from the individual member’s perspective. On the other hand, the actual concert feels like it was filmed with a minimal number of takes in a few hours. I’ve even noticed one or two choreography mistakes, but it’s hard to overlook with pre-recorded performances.

But is that really important? As a neutral viewer who thinks the music is decent, but not a major fan of the group, I find it easier to separate from that moment and judge the productivity of this VR more critically. And hey, it works! I sway as Jung Won’s silver hairbrush approaches my face and the music explodes from the film speakers.

These screams are a clear indication that the opportunity to bring this closer to band members to perform fan favorite songs is worthy of admission to stubborn fans, whether they are fully exploiting the medium or not. However, this is a 45-minute concert of just 7 songs (almost $30) compared to a typical all-price Japanese movie ticket (about $14) of 2000 yen. Certainly, you get photo cards and posters as bonuses, but that’s expensive for such a short performance that could have been a shorter performance than that, with relatively little effort on the part of the production staff.

This was fine, but I can’t say I’m keen on visiting another VR concert film experience in the future. There is a novelty to blend the clarity of the medium with the clarity of the clarity of the film with the clarity of the clarity of the film’s sound, especially when you can enjoy these concerts as a group, compared to the only lonely experience of wearing a VR headset. But this feels like a minimum. Fanservice smears cracks onto paper and distracts you from how much you spent there. Not bad, but there’s more to it.