BODY: The final day of the world's largest anime song festival opened not with a bang, but with a wink. Animelo Summer Live 2026 -Messenger- dedicated its day-three lead-off slot to a genuine crowd-pleaser: HoneyWorks assembling a dream-team collaboration to launch the night on maximum cuteness.
For the opener, the vocal-pop production unit HoneyWorks joined forces with the idol trio Sphere, voice actress and singer Yu Serizawa, plus CHiCO and Haconiwa Lily. Together the supergroup delivered two tracks: the runaway viral smash "Kawaii tte Gomen" (roughly, "Sorry for Being Cute") and the fan-service anthem "Fansa."
"Kawaii tte Gomen" has been a cultural juggernaut since its release, exploding across TikTok and short-video platforms with its irresistibly bratty hook and dance. Handing it the very first slot of Anisama's climactic final day was a deliberate statement β a song that turned online charm into a nationwide phenomenon, performed live by a rotating cast of the artists who help define the anime-music scene.
Anisama has run annually since 2005, filling the massive Saitama Super Arena over multiple nights and drawing tens of thousands of fans for marathon sets built almost entirely on unexpected collaborations. This year's "-Messenger-" theme leaned into that ethos, and few pairings capture it better than a HoneyWorks-anchored ensemble folding in Sphere and Serizawa for a single explosive opening number.
The insider take
For fans in Tokyo, the significance isn't just the song β it's the roster. HoneyWorks operates as a producer collective, so seeing them front a live stage flanked by Sphere and Yu Serizawa signals how thoroughly the "Vocaloid-adjacent, internet-born" sound has fused with the traditional voice-actor idol establishment. A decade ago these were separate worlds; opening Anisama's finale with "Kawaii tte Gomen" is proof the merger is complete, and that a meme-fueled hit now carries the same prestige as any legacy anthem.
Originally reported by γ³γγγ―γγΏγͺγΌ - ζζ°γγ₯γΌγΉ (Japanese).