On February 23, singer and actress Mano Erina held a solo live concert "Mano Erina Memorial Concert 'OTOME LEGEND ~For the Best Friends'" at Nakano Sun Plaza. This was her graduation concert from Hello! Project.

Though Mano was putting smiles on her face during the concert, she could not hold herself from shedding tears when she made an appearance for the encore. She said to the audience, "I don't know what to say (as I have too many things I want to say), but this is not the last time seeing you. I want to have a place where you can come back, and I can come back as well. When I get the�opportunity, will you guys get excited again?"

With this concert, Mano's activities for about 4 years as a part of Hello! Project ended. She said, "I feel that all those fun, joyful, happy things, and lonely, regrettable�things all led to today. I am really�thankful�to all the fans I have encountered until now. Thank you very much."

To see Mano's�crowning�glory, a total of 4,500 fans visited the venue (for 2 stages), wearing red T-shirts which is Mano's image color, and cheered her passionately. For the night stage, she started with her debut single "Otome no Inori", and performed a total of 27 songs including the encore.

During the live, a video message to celebrate Mano's graduation was shown. In the video, the producer Tsunku? said, "My first impression toward her was simply 'pretty girl with big eyes', and she was delicately constituted. After she joined 'Gatas' (Hello!�Project's futsal team), I told all the team members to build some�muscles.�Then one day, her body clearly showed developing some muscle which I believe she worked out hard." He continued, "She is a good example of winning�success�after a lot of effort. I am sure she will be able to overcome anything even if it's something out of her line, with her hard work. Please continue doing your best starting tomorrow, and become a wonderful woman."

In the end of the live, Berryz Kobo's Tsugunaga Momoko and ?-ute's Yajima Maimi made a surprise appearance. Tsugunaga read a letter for Mano, and also said with tearful eyes, "I was living a happy-go-lucky life thinking that your graduation was still far away, so Your graduation is still impalpable. Please keep staying as my friend! Congratulations on your graduation-!"

Check out the photos from the live concert below.

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Source & Image(s): Oricon