Koda Kumi performs “Real Emotion” on her ~De-CODE~ tour dressed like an Al-Bhed

This is old as fuck. But I’m posting it anyway.

Koda Kumi has been making some wonky ass decisions over the past decade or so. But including “Real Emotion” on the setlist for her ~De-CODE~ tour last year was not one of them.
For a reason which continues to elude me, I cannot embed Avex videos on this blog. So you’ll need to head over to YouTube to watch this performance.

📺 Watch it: Koda Kumi performs “Real Emotion” on her 25th Anniversary tour, ~De-CODE~

Koda Kumi - Real Emotion (25th Anniversary Tour 2025 ~De-CODE~ performance) | Avex

I like that Koda Kumi has never been precious over the significance of this song — not just to fans, but also to her own career. We see it often in music, where there is a disdain for earlier material or the songs that made it big. But we see it far less in Japanese music and Kumi has never (at least not openly) looked down on “Real Emotion”. It coulda been easy for Kumi to have felt some type of way that a Final Fantasy song was THE song that really helped break her career and that it’s not reflective of the artist she became. But she’s continued to regularly include it on tour setlists throughout her career and without the slightest hint of ‘Here we fucking go with this song again’. I think it speaks a lot to the kind of artist Kumi is. She’s grateful to the song for the doors it opened for her — to be able to fully do music as a career and do what she loves. If only this gratitude extended to bettering the quality of her music, but that’s a whole other post.

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💿 Koda Kumi album reviews: Affection | Secret | Grow into One | Feel My Mind | Black Cherry | Trick | Kingdom | Universe | Eternity ~Love & Songs~ | Dejavu | Japonesque | Color the Cover | Bon Voyage | Walk Of My Life | W Face | AND | DNA | re(CORD) | angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] | Heart | Unicorn | De:CODE