The Greatest Hanabi Show with Film Music
Designed by and soundtrack by Kentaro Saito, Tadanobu Komastsu, Yoshikazu Konno and Kazuyubi Kamekawa; PyroDigital firing with 4600 cues
Summer weather conditions were on full display for the first participation of the Omagari Hanabi Display Team, effectively opening the 38th edition of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. Despite the precipitation radar showing the threat of two rain cells, conditions remained perfect throughout the display with enough wind to move the smoke without impinging on the audience too much.
This was a highly anticipated display for several reasons. Firstly, it has become very difficult to export Japanese pyrotechnic products to the west and the competition organizers should be commended for achieving this. Secondly, Japanese artisans are renowned for producing unique large calibre fireworks that are rarely seen outside of Japan. Thirdly, this would be the first display to incorporate two mandatory laser show segments. However, as the laser parts are not being rated for the competition, no further comment will be made in these pyrotechnic display reports.
During the interview we were told that the display would be a melding of the tradition Japanese display techniques, where large shells are fired individually so they can be appreciated by the audience, as well as the more typical pyromusical style we’re accustomed to in Montreal. This plan was somewhat successful as we were given the opportunity to observe many fantastic shells, some with six layers of colour-changing stars, but this wasn’t always successful, especially for the ghost (gradation shells). The ramp one firing site is actually quite narrow, given the size of the shells used and, unfortunately, sometimes several ghost shells were fired at once, which caused their bursts to overlap, losing the drama of the apparent movement of the patterns. I was also a bit surprised that we didn’t get to see some of the complexity of this type of shell that we see from videos of Japanese festivals and competitions. On the more typical pyromusical design, it was largely good, and excellent in places with good synchronization to the music, though the use of the space was a bit more restricted than we’ve seen from teams who are more familiar with the site and its capabilities.
One unique effect that we’ve never seen in Montreal before was the use of so-called “daylight shells”. These are designed to leave trails of coloured smoke. Now one might think this wouldn’t work when it’s dark, but that wasn’t the case. Beneath these shells the team fired waves of “pillar mines” – which contain dramatic colour-changing stars and, above, shells of bright white strobes. The daylight shells appeared at first like regular skymines of white stars, but the light from the strobes and mines lit up the trails of coloured smoke, to gasps of amazement from the audience! Another nice effect was the use of rising effects, but, instead of the usual mini-shells, we saw a column of bright which flashes.
The display also featured a segment with lots of pattern shells and it was fun hearing the audience cheer when they recognized particular patterns like cats or characters from the file Monsters Inc. The finale of the display was exciting with waves of pillar mines and volleys of huge shells above, bringing the display to a dramatic conclusion with cheers from the very large audience.
Overall, this was a good display. There did appear to be a few firing problems on ramp three which left a couple of holes here and there, breaking some of the patterns of firing. The speciality shells were good, but sometimes they could not be appreciated as much as I had hoped, particularly the ghost/gradation shells. The mixing of design styles was OK – I would have actually preferred a more traditional Japanese approach for the large shells, then we could have better appreciated them. Another small criticism is the one-shots (from Europla) were a bit brighter than the shells, so sometimes distracted a bit. However, the pillar mines were really great – I wish we could have seen more of them during the display. The soundtrack was enjoyable, too, though we did have a couple of places were there were somewhat long pauses where nothing was being fired. All that said, it was a privilege to see such high quality Japanese products without having to travel to Japan!
