Paris Day 2: Gacharic Spin & Berrykyu Live
The second day was concert day! 3 of them o__o!
I actually had bought the ticket for Berrykyu long before anything else because I thought it would be a large meetup... yeah no lol that didn't happen XD but then I heard GACHARIC SPIN would be there and suddenly I was a lot more excited!
Decommissioned Concorde next to my hotel.
All pics clickable to CRAZY SIZE.
The Berryz/C-ute concert was on at 7pm, so Momo and her friends were waiting all day outside the venue so they could get to the front of the crowd, at Japan Expo the big live concert is usually outside of the massive Expo area (you don't even need to go to the Expo to see the live) and if you leave the expo, you can't get back in, so I was alone for the day until all the stuff I wanted to see was done. I got into the Expo early to try and get signing tickets for Daigo Ikeno, one of the legendary Capcom artists from it's golden age in the 80's & 90's along with Akiman, Bengus, Kinu, etc. I brought my copy of Dreamcast SF3: Third Strike for him to sign.
Ikeno's Artwork
Aaaaaaaand, yeah I didn't get a ticket :( this is becoming a theme, lol. But I did manage to get signing tickets for Gacharic Spin and Kenji Kanno easily, so that's good! But again, Ikeno's signing was the first thing I was due to do so again I was stuck there, so I did a bit more wandering around and watched some more wrestling and cosplayers in the second hall, oh and I got an onigiri so I didn't starve to death \o/
Final Fantasy Cosplayers
I also saw some Japanese archery demonstrations, too.
Japanese Archery
You needed to buy a Japan Expo licensed Berrykyu CD (I think they made it themselves, lol) to get into the handshake event which was also on that day, so I got one and hung around the stairs area, there wasn't really a line at this point, just kind of a sea of people so I just waited for a line to form and eventually it did!
A line is forming
Berrykyu CD
I joined the line, which was snaking around the signing area and just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, plus people who had bought more than 1 copy of the CD were rejoining the line so it was perpetually gigantic, haha. I did try to take a pic or two, but it seemed kind of pointless, and also 500 other people were taking pics so I decided just to leave it to them, lol.
My feeble attempt
I was pretty calm, while I did like both groups a lot I wasn't a CRAZY FAN so I was thinking “oh I'll be fine, this is okay” and I was amused by the girls who were walking out looking like they were destroyed after shaking all their hands, incredibly red puffy faces with tears of joy, then sobbing all the way to the back of the line. Hahaha....oh god, well I kept getting closer to the front of the line and they just kept getting closer and closer and I was getting less and less calm and my heart was beating faster and faster (lol)
THEN it was my turn, oh shit oh shit oh shit oh hi Saki, nice to meet you! She was really small and cute! and then 1 second later I was shuffled along to Momoko, or rather Momochi, because there is no Dana, only Zuul. I said “Oh!! Momo!” then showed her the JPH!P hand sign (she's done this on Japanese TV before) and she went “OHHH! 8D” then gave me a normal heart back... lulz then Chisato tapped her on the elbow and said something like “you've done it wrong” then Momochi was like “ohhh!!.... OHHH :|” I was suddenly worried like, omg ..WHAT DID I DO?! Is the JPH!P sign bad? Did she think I was talking about her butt?
Momochi did this sign on Japanese TV after meeting members of JPH!P in America
Oh well no time think about it because I had already been moved to Chisato when all of this was happening so she turned to me and shook hands with me, she seemed amused & I said hi nice to meet you (again), I think Maasa was next but I totally blanked that it was her birthday and just said hi, lol. Also if anyone thinks she is fat, in real life she definitely is not. Things just look different on TV or in pictures. Next was Miyabi who had a tiny tiny hand, what struck me the most (sorry if this is weird, lol) was how small she was, I mean she's taller than Saki and Momoko, but her head is so much smaller so she seems smaller in general somehow when you're looking in her eyes, lol. Then I was moved to Yurina who really IS tall, almost as tall as me, so after saying hello I did the “same height” hand signal and she did it back haha, next was Risako, who did not want to be there, or I repulsed her or something....I thought this was awesome XD Maybe she saw what I did with Yurina and didn't want me to do anything weird to her, or she just had no clue wtf I was saying (I mean, my accent isn't strong but I'm still Scottish, lol) and just kind of looked at me with some sort of confused revulsion.. I actually started to like her a lot more than before because of this, like a sign of her real personality? LOL idk I'm a weirdo. I didn't know the C-ute members very well apart from Mai, so I didn't say too much to them but it was nice to meet them too! Maimi was first and she was REALLY cute, very striking in person, then it was Saki who was also really cute and looks similar to Maimi, then Airi, a lot of this was a blur that happened in less than a minute, and this is one of the places, but Airi did speak to me in English saying “It's very hot today, isn't it?” and I was super surprised and said something like “ahh yeah it is! Atsui desu ne!” which I instantly regretted because she was trying to practice english with me orz and I'm pretty sure she said that because of how red my face was at that point, and she was sooo cute and friendly and held onto my hand the whole time, until I was moved to Chisato, so I think that helped me turn extremely red, she totally melted my heart, lol. When Airi let me go I went to say hi to Chisato, who does not look old at all in real life, but in saying that it's so hard to believe she's only 20, lol. She was quite quiet and reserved, but then I was moved to Mai, who I did know! Mainly because she used to look like -this- and was a cute little kid! But now... she looks like -this- :| XDD I was trying to think of a way for me to say to her in Japanese “WHAT HAPPENED?!” but all I could think of was hand motions or something weird that made her sound like a space monster or Kamen Rider, so I just told her I was so happy to meet her, then I got tapped on the back of the hand by staff immediately and had to go, I think Mai's was the least time I got with anyone, oh well, she was very nice! All of C-ute did seem a lot nicer and warmer in general I must say, maybe because it was their second visit to Paris.
So was I crying on my way out too?!.... no but almost LOL it was very overwhelming and my heart was racing and I had a hard time even accepting that it just happened. And this was only a minute or two! Woah!
Here's a link to tons of pics and videos of this signing and other events
No time to rest, I headed over to where Kenji Kanno was doing his conference for Crazy Taxi at the videogame stage a little later on. There was another thing going on while I got there so I watched a bit of that before it started. Kenji Kanno is the director for the Crazy Taxi series and some other Hitmaker games made by Sega, so it was exciting to see him there! I couldn't stay for the whole thing but if you've ever been to a convention, these things are always powerpoint presentations with a talk, except much like the Berrykyu conference it was in Japanese and French so I had no clue what was going on apart from my bad Japanese being the dominant language XD
A lot of the crowd was young, and Crazy Taxi is almost as old as the teenagers who were there, so unsurprisingly a bunch of them did walk out after a while, I felt a bit bad for Kanno-san, even worse when I had to run off to see Gachapin (Gacharic Spin) in the middle, I was one of the deserters, lol. But it was interesting seeing all the design documents and how the game was designed, but no time.. GACHAPIN TIME
So to get there I had to go across the entire convention, which is twice as big as normal because of the 15th anniversary, actually Momo said it's close to Eurodisney's size, it certainly takes a while to get around, especially with the crowds, but I started to figure out shortcuts and how to walk behind things to get around.
Anyways, I got to the Live House, and Tsukiyoi was still playing and they seemed kind of cool, they were an older looking man and a girl with cool stuff in her hair. I kind of got to the front-ish as there's someone on every 45min or so, so people just walk in and out. I was on the very left side with 1 person in front of me. It was kind of a weird situation because after the last band went off with a huge ovation, they came back out again 5 minutes later to get parts of the girls costume that had flown off, and some other things, but then 2 seconds later Koga walks out YEAHHHH oh she's setting up her effects pedal xD yeah, so she did give a little wave but got on with setting up her amp, Mai also walked out to assist Koga and Hana and the other members wandered back and forth while setting up their instruments and doing a soundcheck. It was really cool to see them do this, plus they're hard workers who actually set up their own stuff XD
F Chopper Koga, or FCK is my favorite member, and I was right in front of her position so YES, this was good.
So! eventually the stage goes dark and we all pretend we haven't just seen them for the past 15 minutes and Mai and Arisa come out and start dancing, they're the band's dancers and the youngest members, they did this cool dance with their arms, then Koga comes out and plays a bass solo before doing the dance herself, then Tomo-Zo the guitarist comes out and does a solo, but she can't do the full dance because of the neck of her guitar so she just does it one handed, which is adorable, but she is adorable in general XD she and Koga are really small, Tomo-Zo especially is tiny but Koga is a little taller. Next OreoLeona came out and did her keyboard solo, then finally Hana came out to solo on the drums, before Koga screamed that they were going to destroy us(or something lol) and then they blasted out Never Say Never, uggghhh it was so loud and EXCITING, I could have filmed the whole thing, but I was again surrounded by 500 people doing that, and I wanted to jump and clap so I did, haha I filmed and took pics a little bit though, mostly for twissie's benefit xD then I went crazy again inbetween.
Never Say Never Clip
They went right into Bakudan Musume, and the more the set went on the more and more impressive Mai and Arisa seemed, like they really belonged to the group and helped a lot with stage presence and hyping up the crowd, I really hope they're in the group for good :DD As you can see in the vid above they had these cool twirling lightstick things. This is also where OL did her trademark standing on her keyboard and playing between her legs, very cool XDD
Then Mai did the cup and ball trick at the end, which I had no idea was a thing until now, but yeah, this is a thing :D
Does she do it?!
....nope XD
Koga did a little MC in kind of half French half Japanese, but her French was actually pretty good! Certainly better than Momochi's “MEEEEERRRRRRCCCCIIIIIIIII?! 8D” from yesterday. Tomo-Zo did her own section here too, she had done her homework, but she did have to ask for Koga's help a little later XD Anyway the crowd understood both of them and Koga seemed extremely pleased with herself, haha.
While she was doing this she was putting on some white gloves, and I was thinking maybe she was about to do something crazy on her bass, I had no idea everyone else was doing it too while she was talking and Koga screams JUICY BEATS!
Juicy Beats Vid
The lights drop and their gloves start glowing in lots of different colors and they do a gloving dance, if I wasn't such a noob about Gatchapin I should of expected this, but it was soooooo cool XD I was really surprised and hyped for it. Now that I look back after watching the PV a million times I can say this is my favorite song from them, and also that I prefer the live version I saw as Hana sang without the electronic voice. The dancers too really help here as they can do the entire dance routine while the rest of the band plays the song and occasionally joined in, so great! And cool XD
The dancers exited the stage then everyone's smile disappeared as they started Sayonara Cherry from the new Boku no Cinderella single (which I actually do have lol) and they played this one pretty straight, great vocals though, Mai & Arisa eventually came out midway to sway with branches of cherry trees with sakura on them, lovely :D
Hunting Summer Vid
They went into Hunting Summer and OL came down from her keyboard area and starting singing front of stage, then Arisa came out with a blow up watermelon XD I was a bit confused as to why she was doing this, but after finding out the title later on it made sense :D This is another one of my favorite songs, but I do prefer Armmy on this one. The dancers were pretty good at hyping the crowd again and getting us to do the correct hand waving and claps XD
Next OL explained to the crowd about I'm Sexy! Like they would say SEXY!? And we'd reply WOOOOO~! And then they started playing, which is a semi-cover of “Do You Think I'm Sexy?” in GS style of coz, which was so awesome XD
I'm Sexy!
(I was clapping while filming again, sorry XD)
Arisa popped out later with a keyboard backpack and OL would occasionally push her over and start playing it, bwhaha, funny stuff. She also stood back to back with Tomo-zo too, I got a nice pic :D
This was also when Koga started giving me idol poses at her side of the stage!! she did the little fists on the cheeks which made me laugh, then the 2 palms under the cheeks, which I did back to her with a :O face and she burst out laughing then gave me an “OK” hand signal when she caught her breath :DDD so happy I got a little moment with her like that and made her laugh <3333
Now I know it's really hard to tell if someone on stage is looking at you, but in my case, the dude in front of me left long ago, I was at the rail, and there wasn't anyone behind me, just a black void, so yes, I think she definitely was XDD I'm really happy she paid me so much attention when she went to the far left (her right) of the stage, the others didn't as much, or not at all.
Then it was time for Unmei Saemo Kaeru Kotoba, also on the newest single, so I knew this one quite well, listening to it on the way to work each morning, haha. Anyway, this one is seriously heavy on the drums, Hana was like a crazy blur at times, she is so amazing :DD Although listening to it I had Hana & Leona's vocals mixed up but after seeing Hana work so hard I can see why she wasn't singing lead on this one. But this is a newer song, so it has lots of room for the dancers to do some weird stuff, so they did XDD when the background voice would come on, Arisa would run from the back in a blonde wig with a big nose ... I don't actually know if this is meant to be a white person outfit (I kind of thought it was supposed to be a monster or something XD) or.. idk.. Armmy? XD no idea.
And when the "DJ!! URUSAAAIII!!!" part happened.... out comes DJ Mai XD
Ahahaha, so Mai starts scratching a record for the DJ parts of the song, a record attached to Arisa's head via helmet, as she is her mixing desk XD She keeps popping her head up for the "womp womp!" parts and getting pushed down.
Then it's straight into Lock On! and Koga commands us to go at "FULL POWER!!!!" then everything goes blue, her bass, glowsticks... OL's oversized comedy breasts xDD much to my amusement and even more so the guy next to me who turns around almost doubled over in laughter :DD
LOCK ON!
Ahhhh so awesome XDD this is their first single and the coolest one, plus we got treated to some awesome FCK :DDD
As the dancers encouraged us all to do high claps, OL did this instead XD
After the show was done the ENCORE chants started, but as this was just a small 45 min showcase and someone else was going on, this was quickly DENIED by some random american pop music and all the lights going on, lol.
I headed out with the crowd and saw a table in the dark with so many people crowded around it (like, totally surrounded) and a female voice shouting GACHARIIIKUU SUPPIIIIIINN and thought, hey cool it's merchandise! I'll buy stuff.. I got nearer the front of the little crowd and omfg it was Mai & Koga, they were shouting that and selling the goods! I was next to Mai and I got stuff direct from her (she's pretty tall, lol) there was a bit of confusion so I did some pointing, and there wasn't any XL shirts so Mai had to go under the table to bring some up for me, eventually a staff member who spoke English helped her out a bit, Koga was next to all the CDs and DVDs, I was looking to maybe fill some gaps in my collection, but I couldn't move for the crowd and I was freaking out a little bit talking with Mai and Koga being RIGHT THERE so much that I forgot what her name was and just asked the guy for the yellow uchiha and a DVD orz then there was some more confusion about what the total was, I forgot all maths because I was going to pay Mai and no-one else could figure it out, then Tomo-Zo appeared from nowhere and told us, haha oh well, I gave Mai the money and squeezed out of the scrum of people.
I had to run all the way back to the other side of the convention again back to the signing area because it was time to get Kenji Kanno's signature!! I made it JUST in time as him and the translator were just about to get up and leave, phew I wasn't even really late, it just seems like not many people came to see him :( he did have posters there for his new game, but instead, I brought this!!
He shook my hand at the beginning and asked my name through the translator, the translator wrote it wrong so I corrected him, then he asked “You came all this way with the original Crazy Taxi?” I said yes and that I'd had it since the beginning and I really loved it, he gave me such a cool sign too!! ahh I was really thrilled and he shook my hand again, so great! He's a really cool guy~!!
Daigo Ikeno's panel was on right now, but unfortunately the line was already there for the Gatchapin signing, so I joined it, with my ticket ready. While waiting in the line staff handed out these flyers for the band and said “for you! A present!”
Inside was a small piece of origami paper in a random member's colour, and instructions how to make an origami heart! Ahh! I'm thinking this was to fold in the line while waiting and give to the member, but maybe I was the only person who got that, because no-one was doing it LOL
I got paper in Mai's colour but I was really struggling with my CD and DVD, and my camera, so I didn't fold mine, I might have been a bit embarrassed to do it too, she's cute lol. But then no-one else folded theirs, so I don't feel that bad.
It was my turn next! People were just getting one thing signed, so I chose my single sleeve, even though I was still holding my camera and DVD, and this was a struggle lol. Arisa was giving people full on doublehanded idol handshakes and Koga was next to her.. but this gets very very hazy for me here, I was super super starstruck even after seeing them around this much, so I'm not entirely sure what happened lol. I think I shook hands with Arisa, BUT maybe I didn't shake hands with Koga!?! because I asked Koga for a picture since lots of people were taking them, and I got this great shot :D
Ahhhhhh XD she did the same pose she did on stage with me earlier!! does that mean she remembered me?! I really hope so! Well it is hazy, so I may have shaken hands with Koga when I was leaving, but I have no idea.. I hope I did, but my brain was going asgfjakgjdgd more than with Berrykyu cause these ladies are so fucking awesome so I really don't know LOL Hana and Oreo Leona were a total haze though, I think I may have shaken Hana's hand? She didn't say much but she was SO COOL and awesome, maybe Oreo didn't shake hands with me, or she just intimidated me out of it LOL I don't know what happened!!! BUT I definitely shook Tomo-zo's hand because I vividly remember how small her hand was and how cute she was, ahhh Mai gave me my record sleeve back with all the signs
Oh and I didn't shake her hand, I just said thank you so much and wandered off, haha. I mean it was a signing, not a handshake, so if they felt like it, they would, I guess? lol
It was pretty much:
Arisa → Koga → Scene Missing → Tomo-Zo → Mai
Here's a link to some good pics from the signing, for the Berrykyu one too
Actually looking at that link now, they were selling the arena edition of their first album there!!! ARGH!!! it's so hard to get that!!!
So, I was getting pretty hungry by this point, and the kawaii caligraphy idol girls or whatever they were called were still on at the 15th anniversary stage, so I went to the ridiculously expensive sushi place and sat on my fav place to hang out, the stairs :D
While I was sitting there eating, Gachapin and their staff wandered past, and looked at the stage where they were going to perform a bit later.
I think Hana actually saw me take the pic huh? Lol Nice view of Koga's F*CK coat, too xD So, after the caligraphy girls were done dancing and making a mess (I think it looked really bad, lol) I went down and got a seat near the front for the Bass & Guitar demonstrations Koga and Tomo-Zo were due to do. After a while they came back to the stage area with their instruments and we got treated to another soundcheck and them pretending they weren't there yet, lol. It was nice for taking a pic of them though, I got a nice pic of Tomo-Zo here.
Koga also came with her real life handbag, which was almost as big as her, but seemed to be filled up with rolls of duct tape XD she got to fixing the effects pedals again. Oh and for CRAZY FAN info, Tomo-Zo has a pink and black backpack. I took a little video of Koga playing:
Koga's Bass Lesson
They pretty much repeated their instructional DVDs with a translator and Koga did the same solo from it, which was really cool to see live *___* she's so fucking awesome. Tomo-Zo too shredded awesomely before showing everyone how to do it too, lol. This was really cool, but I had noticed OreoLeona's keyboard sitting there...hmm.. SURPRISE! They were doing a small acoustic set!! well, half accoustic, lol. Koga and Tomo-Zo switched their guitars to acoustic mode, Oreo had her keyboard in piano mode, but Hana was sitting on one of those drum boxes with a small cymbal she hit with her hand.
It was really really cool! OL was great on vocals and they did 3 or 4 songs in total. My memory is annoyingly hazy, but Alive was definitely the first song they did, along with Sayonara Cherry(?) repeated from the earlier set.
Again, I didn't film this because I was having way too good a time watching (sorry!) however, the 15th Anniversary stage is one of the ones that is live streamed, not only that, I was surrounded by expensive HD cameras filming the entire thing, including people with tripods and press, and even Arisa was filming on the floor in front of the stage, which Koga pointed out, and this hand with a green wristband popped up and waved, lol.
So, I haven't found them yet, but there must be videos up of this somewhere, or the stream archive by Japan Expo themselves, but I haven't seen any sign of that yet either, if I find them I'll let you know!!
Here are some vids I found online though, including one of the entire 45min set~
(sound goes out of sync, but good)
(other side of the stage, but bad sound)
So, Gachapin time was over :( but!! it was time for the Berrykyu concert, and because Gachapin ran long, it was only 15 minutes before it started, lol oops but I didn't care, that set was so good and I didn't want to run away early.
Well, it was odd considering how long my friends and others had been waiting in line, but I just walked in (well, when I found it, lol) and I was category 1, and there was still space surprisingly, and I just stood at the back of the front? With cat 2 and 3 (felt so sorry for them) behind me by quite a large empty space. There was still a large amount of people in front of me but I could see just fine from where I was, so that was great \o/
After what felt like an eternity the concert started, after many many PV's played of both groups, people were going nuts and wota-ing like crazy to the PV's, while I saved my energy and relaxed, haha this was my 3rd gig of the day, my legs hurt, my back hurt, my voice was dying, also it was a million degrees Celsius so I just stood there and fanned myself with the Shi the kitty uchi I got given earlier.
I was far too scared to take any pics because it wasn't allowed, and also the security guy who was plowing through the crowd to get people taking pics was right next to me, so I figured I would just enjoy myself again :D
Eventually things got underway, and Berryz Kobo came out first and performed Because Happiness, next C-ute with Shiawase no Tochuu, then both together with Cho Happy Song, then they did a little MC section. I didn't really like these because they took a long time, also you had to stand still, and they were being translated into French, so I had no idea what they were talking about apart from my bad Japanese or my even worse French, lol. Being so tired I was kind of ehhh and wished they'd hurry up, lol.
I went into this concert thinking, I was a Berryz fan, I knew the members, I really like Momoko, and I knew their songs the best. On that last point? WRONG! Massara Blue Jeans hit and C-ute performed a super impressive set of Forever Love, Love Take it all and Crazy Kanzen na Otona. So good!! and this was so surprising to me, I knew the words! And I was singing along and cheering like crazy, I didn't even know I knew all these songs so well, but I did and it was really fun! I even knew the dance routines.. haha oh god.
Then there was another MC, you can see some details in the videos I linked below, but at the time, little to no clue what anyone was saying \o/
Next it was time for Berryz!! they did some really great stuff, Momoko was in Momochi mode the entire time, skipping arouund like 8D this the whole time and saying she was more popular and cuter than Kyari Pyamu Pyamu in the MC and all sorts of things, they did Rock Erotic, Genghis Khan, Loving You Too Much and Piriri to Ikou, it was really really good, I had lots of fun! But, being honest, I did feel that C-ute performed much better that Berryz did, I don't know if it was song choice, the MC taking too long or what, but I did feel that way.
Aaaand yup, another MC, haha but this one was a surprise video comment from other H!P groups...well it would have been a surprise, but the bald manager messed up again (he messed up the video for H&A in London too I think XD) and managed to skip to the end where Momusu appeared and said byebye, at this point I just started laughing my ass off with some French guys, and the crowd had a good laugh about it too. The video played and we got videos from J=J, Smileage, and Momusu. They mostly said around about the same thing, congratulating Jexpo for 15 years, talking about what they think of France, and S/Mileage mentioned how they wanted to do their first international live in Paris, but in saying that it sounded like they all wanted to come back/go there (please do, lol) Sayumi was talking about overseas concerts, seeing as she was the only remaining member who actually has been overseas, they might have mentioned the NY concert too, but it is kind of sad that Sayu won't ever be coming back there as part of Momusu D:
A lot of people were fake excited when Momusu's part came on like “what a surprise!! no way!!” etc etc xD but it was cool seeing them!
Then, almost like the video was some sort of cover for a costume change, 3 mysterious shadows appear... it's Buono! And wait.... wtf Momochi isn't in Buono... well she did change her bows to white, but still, Zuul is strong or whatever hair products are keeping those pigtails up are too strong so she stayed as Momochi the whole time, anyways, they performed Hatsukoi Cider, Gachinko de Ikou and Honto no Jibun, awesome! \o/
Next was another MC, but this one was a birthday celebration for Maasa! I mean this was the 5th or 6th time we'd cheered happy birthday to her, but she did seem legit surprised when Kumamon appeared with glowsticks and a large cake, not that he was a surprise to us since he'd been peeking out from the back for a while, lol. A bunch of wota started shouting at Kumamon for bringing out orange glowsticks when Maasa's colour is blue, lol. Like he was interrupting their sea of blue or something, But Kumamon's helper said these are Kumamon colours xD Next Maasa made a wish for a handsome French man who thought she was cute, to sweep her off her feet, which made all the gross guys around me start going crazy and saying MEEE!!! MEEE!! IT'S ME!! ahaha, maybe I shouldn't of laughed so hard when this happened.
Next C-ute did another great set of Tokaikko Jyunjyou, Kiss Me Aishiteru and fuku yeah, Dance de Bakoon! I was so hyped up for this and with 2 great sets I really felt like C-ute were really impressive and the highlight of the whole thing. BUT THEN, Berryz came back out with Dakishimete Dakishimete WOOOOOO then Special Generation then YEAAAAAAHH Cha Cha Sing, so much fun XD Berryz totally redeemed themselves with this set, and C-ute came out halfway in Cha Cha to close out the set and the concert, so good! Miyabi fell during Special Generation and everyone kind of freaked out a bit, but it was okay, she lived!
They came out to Amazuppai Haru ni Sakura Saku and sung together at the encore, then it was all over! Waaay better than I thought it was going to be, and even though C-ute stood out, at the end I felt like it was pretty even, but it's not even a competition anyway, so who cares!
I bumped into Momo & Yosh on the way out, but they really had to go, I mean you would too if you'd been a line all day, haha. I waited outside for them even though I was a bit wrecked, I think my voice was totally gone too, so I could barely speak, which didn't really help matters, haha. I bumped into some other members of Momo's dance group but I hadn't really spoken to them ever apart from a little on Twitter sometimes, and the girls I was standing with were teenagers too so that plus being shy, them being shy, my voice not working, me not speaking much French, them not speaking English much really added to the awkward XD Also, while I recognised Ringo, I had no idea I was standing next to other members, I just thought they were Ringo's friends, ahaha oh well. I saw another Twitter friend, Berry from their group but she had no idea who I was or what I even looked like so she just walked past lol. Suika came out a little later on who I was friendly with and talk to often, that was awkward too! But I think it was my fault really, we talked for a little while but she hadn't seen Ichigo in forever and she is very pregnant right now, so she ran over and talked to her for a while. I was starting to get really sore legs from standing around so I tried saying bye to Suika but she didn't hear me, so I found Momo and said byebye, I'd see them all tomorrow anyway \o/
There was a shuttle bus that took you back to the train station but I thought “it's not that far, I'll just walk” ahaha I think it was like 2 miles of snaking through the expo centre before I got out, GJ!!
Here's a couple of link to all the pics, including a few not seen in this entry :D
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zmjil3sa9enii05/AABmqP8I3rPgdWj9bMrnifKwa (day 2)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xjsot6lnyk6rxlt/AABqyNTUFV2dcsZvBSCiytWXa (Gatchapin)
Next, onto Day 3! Gundam! Nogisaka46!
I actually had bought the ticket for Berrykyu long before anything else because I thought it would be a large meetup... yeah no lol that didn't happen XD but then I heard GACHARIC SPIN would be there and suddenly I was a lot more excited!
Decommissioned Concorde next to my hotel.
All pics clickable to CRAZY SIZE.
The Berryz/C-ute concert was on at 7pm, so Momo and her friends were waiting all day outside the venue so they could get to the front of the crowd, at Japan Expo the big live concert is usually outside of the massive Expo area (you don't even need to go to the Expo to see the live) and if you leave the expo, you can't get back in, so I was alone for the day until all the stuff I wanted to see was done. I got into the Expo early to try and get signing tickets for Daigo Ikeno, one of the legendary Capcom artists from it's golden age in the 80's & 90's along with Akiman, Bengus, Kinu, etc. I brought my copy of Dreamcast SF3: Third Strike for him to sign.
Ikeno's Artwork
Aaaaaaaand, yeah I didn't get a ticket :( this is becoming a theme, lol. But I did manage to get signing tickets for Gacharic Spin and Kenji Kanno easily, so that's good! But again, Ikeno's signing was the first thing I was due to do so again I was stuck there, so I did a bit more wandering around and watched some more wrestling and cosplayers in the second hall, oh and I got an onigiri so I didn't starve to death \o/
Final Fantasy Cosplayers
I also saw some Japanese archery demonstrations, too.
Japanese Archery
You needed to buy a Japan Expo licensed Berrykyu CD (I think they made it themselves, lol) to get into the handshake event which was also on that day, so I got one and hung around the stairs area, there wasn't really a line at this point, just kind of a sea of people so I just waited for a line to form and eventually it did!
A line is forming
Berrykyu CD
I joined the line, which was snaking around the signing area and just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, plus people who had bought more than 1 copy of the CD were rejoining the line so it was perpetually gigantic, haha. I did try to take a pic or two, but it seemed kind of pointless, and also 500 other people were taking pics so I decided just to leave it to them, lol.
My feeble attempt
I was pretty calm, while I did like both groups a lot I wasn't a CRAZY FAN so I was thinking “oh I'll be fine, this is okay” and I was amused by the girls who were walking out looking like they were destroyed after shaking all their hands, incredibly red puffy faces with tears of joy, then sobbing all the way to the back of the line. Hahaha....oh god, well I kept getting closer to the front of the line and they just kept getting closer and closer and I was getting less and less calm and my heart was beating faster and faster (lol)
THEN it was my turn, oh shit oh shit oh shit oh hi Saki, nice to meet you! She was really small and cute! and then 1 second later I was shuffled along to Momoko, or rather Momochi, because there is no Dana, only Zuul. I said “Oh!! Momo!” then showed her the JPH!P hand sign (she's done this on Japanese TV before) and she went “OHHH! 8D” then gave me a normal heart back... lulz then Chisato tapped her on the elbow and said something like “you've done it wrong” then Momochi was like “ohhh!!.... OHHH :|” I was suddenly worried like, omg ..WHAT DID I DO?! Is the JPH!P sign bad? Did she think I was talking about her butt?
Momochi did this sign on Japanese TV after meeting members of JPH!P in America
Oh well no time think about it because I had already been moved to Chisato when all of this was happening so she turned to me and shook hands with me, she seemed amused & I said hi nice to meet you (again), I think Maasa was next but I totally blanked that it was her birthday and just said hi, lol. Also if anyone thinks she is fat, in real life she definitely is not. Things just look different on TV or in pictures. Next was Miyabi who had a tiny tiny hand, what struck me the most (sorry if this is weird, lol) was how small she was, I mean she's taller than Saki and Momoko, but her head is so much smaller so she seems smaller in general somehow when you're looking in her eyes, lol. Then I was moved to Yurina who really IS tall, almost as tall as me, so after saying hello I did the “same height” hand signal and she did it back haha, next was Risako, who did not want to be there, or I repulsed her or something....I thought this was awesome XD Maybe she saw what I did with Yurina and didn't want me to do anything weird to her, or she just had no clue wtf I was saying (I mean, my accent isn't strong but I'm still Scottish, lol) and just kind of looked at me with some sort of confused revulsion.. I actually started to like her a lot more than before because of this, like a sign of her real personality? LOL idk I'm a weirdo. I didn't know the C-ute members very well apart from Mai, so I didn't say too much to them but it was nice to meet them too! Maimi was first and she was REALLY cute, very striking in person, then it was Saki who was also really cute and looks similar to Maimi, then Airi, a lot of this was a blur that happened in less than a minute, and this is one of the places, but Airi did speak to me in English saying “It's very hot today, isn't it?” and I was super surprised and said something like “ahh yeah it is! Atsui desu ne!” which I instantly regretted because she was trying to practice english with me orz and I'm pretty sure she said that because of how red my face was at that point, and she was sooo cute and friendly and held onto my hand the whole time, until I was moved to Chisato, so I think that helped me turn extremely red, she totally melted my heart, lol. When Airi let me go I went to say hi to Chisato, who does not look old at all in real life, but in saying that it's so hard to believe she's only 20, lol. She was quite quiet and reserved, but then I was moved to Mai, who I did know! Mainly because she used to look like -this- and was a cute little kid! But now... she looks like -this- :| XDD I was trying to think of a way for me to say to her in Japanese “WHAT HAPPENED?!” but all I could think of was hand motions or something weird that made her sound like a space monster or Kamen Rider, so I just told her I was so happy to meet her, then I got tapped on the back of the hand by staff immediately and had to go, I think Mai's was the least time I got with anyone, oh well, she was very nice! All of C-ute did seem a lot nicer and warmer in general I must say, maybe because it was their second visit to Paris.
So was I crying on my way out too?!.... no but almost LOL it was very overwhelming and my heart was racing and I had a hard time even accepting that it just happened. And this was only a minute or two! Woah!
Click to viewHere's a link to tons of pics and videos of this signing and other events
No time to rest, I headed over to where Kenji Kanno was doing his conference for Crazy Taxi at the videogame stage a little later on. There was another thing going on while I got there so I watched a bit of that before it started. Kenji Kanno is the director for the Crazy Taxi series and some other Hitmaker games made by Sega, so it was exciting to see him there! I couldn't stay for the whole thing but if you've ever been to a convention, these things are always powerpoint presentations with a talk, except much like the Berrykyu conference it was in Japanese and French so I had no clue what was going on apart from my bad Japanese being the dominant language XD
A lot of the crowd was young, and Crazy Taxi is almost as old as the teenagers who were there, so unsurprisingly a bunch of them did walk out after a while, I felt a bit bad for Kanno-san, even worse when I had to run off to see Gachapin (Gacharic Spin) in the middle, I was one of the deserters, lol. But it was interesting seeing all the design documents and how the game was designed, but no time.. GACHAPIN TIME
So to get there I had to go across the entire convention, which is twice as big as normal because of the 15th anniversary, actually Momo said it's close to Eurodisney's size, it certainly takes a while to get around, especially with the crowds, but I started to figure out shortcuts and how to walk behind things to get around.
Anyways, I got to the Live House, and Tsukiyoi was still playing and they seemed kind of cool, they were an older looking man and a girl with cool stuff in her hair. I kind of got to the front-ish as there's someone on every 45min or so, so people just walk in and out. I was on the very left side with 1 person in front of me. It was kind of a weird situation because after the last band went off with a huge ovation, they came back out again 5 minutes later to get parts of the girls costume that had flown off, and some other things, but then 2 seconds later Koga walks out YEAHHHH oh she's setting up her effects pedal xD yeah, so she did give a little wave but got on with setting up her amp, Mai also walked out to assist Koga and Hana and the other members wandered back and forth while setting up their instruments and doing a soundcheck. It was really cool to see them do this, plus they're hard workers who actually set up their own stuff XD
F Chopper Koga, or FCK is my favorite member, and I was right in front of her position so YES, this was good.
So! eventually the stage goes dark and we all pretend we haven't just seen them for the past 15 minutes and Mai and Arisa come out and start dancing, they're the band's dancers and the youngest members, they did this cool dance with their arms, then Koga comes out and plays a bass solo before doing the dance herself, then Tomo-Zo the guitarist comes out and does a solo, but she can't do the full dance because of the neck of her guitar so she just does it one handed, which is adorable, but she is adorable in general XD she and Koga are really small, Tomo-Zo especially is tiny but Koga is a little taller. Next OreoLeona came out and did her keyboard solo, then finally Hana came out to solo on the drums, before Koga screamed that they were going to destroy us(or something lol) and then they blasted out Never Say Never, uggghhh it was so loud and EXCITING, I could have filmed the whole thing, but I was again surrounded by 500 people doing that, and I wanted to jump and clap so I did, haha I filmed and took pics a little bit though, mostly for twissie's benefit xD then I went crazy again inbetween.
Never Say Never Clip
They went right into Bakudan Musume, and the more the set went on the more and more impressive Mai and Arisa seemed, like they really belonged to the group and helped a lot with stage presence and hyping up the crowd, I really hope they're in the group for good :DD As you can see in the vid above they had these cool twirling lightstick things. This is also where OL did her trademark standing on her keyboard and playing between her legs, very cool XDD
Then Mai did the cup and ball trick at the end, which I had no idea was a thing until now, but yeah, this is a thing :D
Does she do it?!
....nope XD
Koga did a little MC in kind of half French half Japanese, but her French was actually pretty good! Certainly better than Momochi's “MEEEEERRRRRRCCCCIIIIIIIII?! 8D” from yesterday. Tomo-Zo did her own section here too, she had done her homework, but she did have to ask for Koga's help a little later XD Anyway the crowd understood both of them and Koga seemed extremely pleased with herself, haha.
While she was doing this she was putting on some white gloves, and I was thinking maybe she was about to do something crazy on her bass, I had no idea everyone else was doing it too while she was talking and Koga screams JUICY BEATS!
Juicy Beats Vid
The lights drop and their gloves start glowing in lots of different colors and they do a gloving dance, if I wasn't such a noob about Gatchapin I should of expected this, but it was soooooo cool XD I was really surprised and hyped for it. Now that I look back after watching the PV a million times I can say this is my favorite song from them, and also that I prefer the live version I saw as Hana sang without the electronic voice. The dancers too really help here as they can do the entire dance routine while the rest of the band plays the song and occasionally joined in, so great! And cool XD
The dancers exited the stage then everyone's smile disappeared as they started Sayonara Cherry from the new Boku no Cinderella single (which I actually do have lol) and they played this one pretty straight, great vocals though, Mai & Arisa eventually came out midway to sway with branches of cherry trees with sakura on them, lovely :D
Hunting Summer Vid
They went into Hunting Summer and OL came down from her keyboard area and starting singing front of stage, then Arisa came out with a blow up watermelon XD I was a bit confused as to why she was doing this, but after finding out the title later on it made sense :D This is another one of my favorite songs, but I do prefer Armmy on this one. The dancers were pretty good at hyping the crowd again and getting us to do the correct hand waving and claps XD
Next OL explained to the crowd about I'm Sexy! Like they would say SEXY!? And we'd reply WOOOOO~! And then they started playing, which is a semi-cover of “Do You Think I'm Sexy?” in GS style of coz, which was so awesome XD
I'm Sexy!
(I was clapping while filming again, sorry XD)
Arisa popped out later with a keyboard backpack and OL would occasionally push her over and start playing it, bwhaha, funny stuff. She also stood back to back with Tomo-zo too, I got a nice pic :D
This was also when Koga started giving me idol poses at her side of the stage!! she did the little fists on the cheeks which made me laugh, then the 2 palms under the cheeks, which I did back to her with a :O face and she burst out laughing then gave me an “OK” hand signal when she caught her breath :DDD so happy I got a little moment with her like that and made her laugh <3333
Now I know it's really hard to tell if someone on stage is looking at you, but in my case, the dude in front of me left long ago, I was at the rail, and there wasn't anyone behind me, just a black void, so yes, I think she definitely was XDD I'm really happy she paid me so much attention when she went to the far left (her right) of the stage, the others didn't as much, or not at all.
Then it was time for Unmei Saemo Kaeru Kotoba, also on the newest single, so I knew this one quite well, listening to it on the way to work each morning, haha. Anyway, this one is seriously heavy on the drums, Hana was like a crazy blur at times, she is so amazing :DD Although listening to it I had Hana & Leona's vocals mixed up but after seeing Hana work so hard I can see why she wasn't singing lead on this one. But this is a newer song, so it has lots of room for the dancers to do some weird stuff, so they did XDD when the background voice would come on, Arisa would run from the back in a blonde wig with a big nose ... I don't actually know if this is meant to be a white person outfit (I kind of thought it was supposed to be a monster or something XD) or.. idk.. Armmy? XD no idea.
And when the "DJ!! URUSAAAIII!!!" part happened.... out comes DJ Mai XD
Ahahaha, so Mai starts scratching a record for the DJ parts of the song, a record attached to Arisa's head via helmet, as she is her mixing desk XD She keeps popping her head up for the "womp womp!" parts and getting pushed down.
Then it's straight into Lock On! and Koga commands us to go at "FULL POWER!!!!" then everything goes blue, her bass, glowsticks... OL's oversized comedy breasts xDD much to my amusement and even more so the guy next to me who turns around almost doubled over in laughter :DD
LOCK ON!
Ahhhh so awesome XDD this is their first single and the coolest one, plus we got treated to some awesome FCK :DDD
As the dancers encouraged us all to do high claps, OL did this instead XD
After the show was done the ENCORE chants started, but as this was just a small 45 min showcase and someone else was going on, this was quickly DENIED by some random american pop music and all the lights going on, lol.
I headed out with the crowd and saw a table in the dark with so many people crowded around it (like, totally surrounded) and a female voice shouting GACHARIIIKUU SUPPIIIIIINN and thought, hey cool it's merchandise! I'll buy stuff.. I got nearer the front of the little crowd and omfg it was Mai & Koga, they were shouting that and selling the goods! I was next to Mai and I got stuff direct from her (she's pretty tall, lol) there was a bit of confusion so I did some pointing, and there wasn't any XL shirts so Mai had to go under the table to bring some up for me, eventually a staff member who spoke English helped her out a bit, Koga was next to all the CDs and DVDs, I was looking to maybe fill some gaps in my collection, but I couldn't move for the crowd and I was freaking out a little bit talking with Mai and Koga being RIGHT THERE so much that I forgot what her name was and just asked the guy for the yellow uchiha and a DVD orz then there was some more confusion about what the total was, I forgot all maths because I was going to pay Mai and no-one else could figure it out, then Tomo-Zo appeared from nowhere and told us, haha oh well, I gave Mai the money and squeezed out of the scrum of people.
I had to run all the way back to the other side of the convention again back to the signing area because it was time to get Kenji Kanno's signature!! I made it JUST in time as him and the translator were just about to get up and leave, phew I wasn't even really late, it just seems like not many people came to see him :( he did have posters there for his new game, but instead, I brought this!!
He shook my hand at the beginning and asked my name through the translator, the translator wrote it wrong so I corrected him, then he asked “You came all this way with the original Crazy Taxi?” I said yes and that I'd had it since the beginning and I really loved it, he gave me such a cool sign too!! ahh I was really thrilled and he shook my hand again, so great! He's a really cool guy~!!
Daigo Ikeno's panel was on right now, but unfortunately the line was already there for the Gatchapin signing, so I joined it, with my ticket ready. While waiting in the line staff handed out these flyers for the band and said “for you! A present!”
Inside was a small piece of origami paper in a random member's colour, and instructions how to make an origami heart! Ahh! I'm thinking this was to fold in the line while waiting and give to the member, but maybe I was the only person who got that, because no-one was doing it LOL
I got paper in Mai's colour but I was really struggling with my CD and DVD, and my camera, so I didn't fold mine, I might have been a bit embarrassed to do it too, she's cute lol. But then no-one else folded theirs, so I don't feel that bad.
It was my turn next! People were just getting one thing signed, so I chose my single sleeve, even though I was still holding my camera and DVD, and this was a struggle lol. Arisa was giving people full on doublehanded idol handshakes and Koga was next to her.. but this gets very very hazy for me here, I was super super starstruck even after seeing them around this much, so I'm not entirely sure what happened lol. I think I shook hands with Arisa, BUT maybe I didn't shake hands with Koga!?! because I asked Koga for a picture since lots of people were taking them, and I got this great shot :D
Ahhhhhh XD she did the same pose she did on stage with me earlier!! does that mean she remembered me?! I really hope so! Well it is hazy, so I may have shaken hands with Koga when I was leaving, but I have no idea.. I hope I did, but my brain was going asgfjakgjdgd more than with Berrykyu cause these ladies are so fucking awesome so I really don't know LOL Hana and Oreo Leona were a total haze though, I think I may have shaken Hana's hand? She didn't say much but she was SO COOL and awesome, maybe Oreo didn't shake hands with me, or she just intimidated me out of it LOL I don't know what happened!!! BUT I definitely shook Tomo-zo's hand because I vividly remember how small her hand was and how cute she was, ahhh Mai gave me my record sleeve back with all the signs
Oh and I didn't shake her hand, I just said thank you so much and wandered off, haha. I mean it was a signing, not a handshake, so if they felt like it, they would, I guess? lol
It was pretty much:
Arisa → Koga → Scene Missing → Tomo-Zo → Mai
Here's a link to some good pics from the signing, for the Berrykyu one too
Actually looking at that link now, they were selling the arena edition of their first album there!!! ARGH!!! it's so hard to get that!!!
So, I was getting pretty hungry by this point, and the kawaii caligraphy idol girls or whatever they were called were still on at the 15th anniversary stage, so I went to the ridiculously expensive sushi place and sat on my fav place to hang out, the stairs :D
While I was sitting there eating, Gachapin and their staff wandered past, and looked at the stage where they were going to perform a bit later.
I think Hana actually saw me take the pic huh? Lol Nice view of Koga's F*CK coat, too xD So, after the caligraphy girls were done dancing and making a mess (I think it looked really bad, lol) I went down and got a seat near the front for the Bass & Guitar demonstrations Koga and Tomo-Zo were due to do. After a while they came back to the stage area with their instruments and we got treated to another soundcheck and them pretending they weren't there yet, lol. It was nice for taking a pic of them though, I got a nice pic of Tomo-Zo here.
Koga also came with her real life handbag, which was almost as big as her, but seemed to be filled up with rolls of duct tape XD she got to fixing the effects pedals again. Oh and for CRAZY FAN info, Tomo-Zo has a pink and black backpack. I took a little video of Koga playing:
Koga's Bass Lesson
They pretty much repeated their instructional DVDs with a translator and Koga did the same solo from it, which was really cool to see live *___* she's so fucking awesome. Tomo-Zo too shredded awesomely before showing everyone how to do it too, lol. This was really cool, but I had noticed OreoLeona's keyboard sitting there...hmm.. SURPRISE! They were doing a small acoustic set!! well, half accoustic, lol. Koga and Tomo-Zo switched their guitars to acoustic mode, Oreo had her keyboard in piano mode, but Hana was sitting on one of those drum boxes with a small cymbal she hit with her hand.
It was really really cool! OL was great on vocals and they did 3 or 4 songs in total. My memory is annoyingly hazy, but Alive was definitely the first song they did, along with Sayonara Cherry(?) repeated from the earlier set.
Again, I didn't film this because I was having way too good a time watching (sorry!) however, the 15th Anniversary stage is one of the ones that is live streamed, not only that, I was surrounded by expensive HD cameras filming the entire thing, including people with tripods and press, and even Arisa was filming on the floor in front of the stage, which Koga pointed out, and this hand with a green wristband popped up and waved, lol.
So, I haven't found them yet, but there must be videos up of this somewhere, or the stream archive by Japan Expo themselves, but I haven't seen any sign of that yet either, if I find them I'll let you know!!
Here are some vids I found online though, including one of the entire 45min set~
(sound goes out of sync, but good)
(other side of the stage, but bad sound)
So, Gachapin time was over :( but!! it was time for the Berrykyu concert, and because Gachapin ran long, it was only 15 minutes before it started, lol oops but I didn't care, that set was so good and I didn't want to run away early.
Well, it was odd considering how long my friends and others had been waiting in line, but I just walked in (well, when I found it, lol) and I was category 1, and there was still space surprisingly, and I just stood at the back of the front? With cat 2 and 3 (felt so sorry for them) behind me by quite a large empty space. There was still a large amount of people in front of me but I could see just fine from where I was, so that was great \o/
After what felt like an eternity the concert started, after many many PV's played of both groups, people were going nuts and wota-ing like crazy to the PV's, while I saved my energy and relaxed, haha this was my 3rd gig of the day, my legs hurt, my back hurt, my voice was dying, also it was a million degrees Celsius so I just stood there and fanned myself with the Shi the kitty uchi I got given earlier.
I was far too scared to take any pics because it wasn't allowed, and also the security guy who was plowing through the crowd to get people taking pics was right next to me, so I figured I would just enjoy myself again :D
Eventually things got underway, and Berryz Kobo came out first and performed Because Happiness, next C-ute with Shiawase no Tochuu, then both together with Cho Happy Song, then they did a little MC section. I didn't really like these because they took a long time, also you had to stand still, and they were being translated into French, so I had no idea what they were talking about apart from my bad Japanese or my even worse French, lol. Being so tired I was kind of ehhh and wished they'd hurry up, lol.
I went into this concert thinking, I was a Berryz fan, I knew the members, I really like Momoko, and I knew their songs the best. On that last point? WRONG! Massara Blue Jeans hit and C-ute performed a super impressive set of Forever Love, Love Take it all and Crazy Kanzen na Otona. So good!! and this was so surprising to me, I knew the words! And I was singing along and cheering like crazy, I didn't even know I knew all these songs so well, but I did and it was really fun! I even knew the dance routines.. haha oh god.
Then there was another MC, you can see some details in the videos I linked below, but at the time, little to no clue what anyone was saying \o/
Next it was time for Berryz!! they did some really great stuff, Momoko was in Momochi mode the entire time, skipping arouund like 8D this the whole time and saying she was more popular and cuter than Kyari Pyamu Pyamu in the MC and all sorts of things, they did Rock Erotic, Genghis Khan, Loving You Too Much and Piriri to Ikou, it was really really good, I had lots of fun! But, being honest, I did feel that C-ute performed much better that Berryz did, I don't know if it was song choice, the MC taking too long or what, but I did feel that way.
Aaaand yup, another MC, haha but this one was a surprise video comment from other H!P groups...well it would have been a surprise, but the bald manager messed up again (he messed up the video for H&A in London too I think XD) and managed to skip to the end where Momusu appeared and said byebye, at this point I just started laughing my ass off with some French guys, and the crowd had a good laugh about it too. The video played and we got videos from J=J, Smileage, and Momusu. They mostly said around about the same thing, congratulating Jexpo for 15 years, talking about what they think of France, and S/Mileage mentioned how they wanted to do their first international live in Paris, but in saying that it sounded like they all wanted to come back/go there (please do, lol) Sayumi was talking about overseas concerts, seeing as she was the only remaining member who actually has been overseas, they might have mentioned the NY concert too, but it is kind of sad that Sayu won't ever be coming back there as part of Momusu D:
A lot of people were fake excited when Momusu's part came on like “what a surprise!! no way!!” etc etc xD but it was cool seeing them!
Then, almost like the video was some sort of cover for a costume change, 3 mysterious shadows appear... it's Buono! And wait.... wtf Momochi isn't in Buono... well she did change her bows to white, but still, Zuul is strong or whatever hair products are keeping those pigtails up are too strong so she stayed as Momochi the whole time, anyways, they performed Hatsukoi Cider, Gachinko de Ikou and Honto no Jibun, awesome! \o/
Next was another MC, but this one was a birthday celebration for Maasa! I mean this was the 5th or 6th time we'd cheered happy birthday to her, but she did seem legit surprised when Kumamon appeared with glowsticks and a large cake, not that he was a surprise to us since he'd been peeking out from the back for a while, lol. A bunch of wota started shouting at Kumamon for bringing out orange glowsticks when Maasa's colour is blue, lol. Like he was interrupting their sea of blue or something, But Kumamon's helper said these are Kumamon colours xD Next Maasa made a wish for a handsome French man who thought she was cute, to sweep her off her feet, which made all the gross guys around me start going crazy and saying MEEE!!! MEEE!! IT'S ME!! ahaha, maybe I shouldn't of laughed so hard when this happened.
Next C-ute did another great set of Tokaikko Jyunjyou, Kiss Me Aishiteru and fuku yeah, Dance de Bakoon! I was so hyped up for this and with 2 great sets I really felt like C-ute were really impressive and the highlight of the whole thing. BUT THEN, Berryz came back out with Dakishimete Dakishimete WOOOOOO then Special Generation then YEAAAAAAHH Cha Cha Sing, so much fun XD Berryz totally redeemed themselves with this set, and C-ute came out halfway in Cha Cha to close out the set and the concert, so good! Miyabi fell during Special Generation and everyone kind of freaked out a bit, but it was okay, she lived!
They came out to Amazuppai Haru ni Sakura Saku and sung together at the encore, then it was all over! Waaay better than I thought it was going to be, and even though C-ute stood out, at the end I felt like it was pretty even, but it's not even a competition anyway, so who cares!
I bumped into Momo & Yosh on the way out, but they really had to go, I mean you would too if you'd been a line all day, haha. I waited outside for them even though I was a bit wrecked, I think my voice was totally gone too, so I could barely speak, which didn't really help matters, haha. I bumped into some other members of Momo's dance group but I hadn't really spoken to them ever apart from a little on Twitter sometimes, and the girls I was standing with were teenagers too so that plus being shy, them being shy, my voice not working, me not speaking much French, them not speaking English much really added to the awkward XD Also, while I recognised Ringo, I had no idea I was standing next to other members, I just thought they were Ringo's friends, ahaha oh well. I saw another Twitter friend, Berry from their group but she had no idea who I was or what I even looked like so she just walked past lol. Suika came out a little later on who I was friendly with and talk to often, that was awkward too! But I think it was my fault really, we talked for a little while but she hadn't seen Ichigo in forever and she is very pregnant right now, so she ran over and talked to her for a while. I was starting to get really sore legs from standing around so I tried saying bye to Suika but she didn't hear me, so I found Momo and said byebye, I'd see them all tomorrow anyway \o/
There was a shuttle bus that took you back to the train station but I thought “it's not that far, I'll just walk” ahaha I think it was like 2 miles of snaking through the expo centre before I got out, GJ!!
Here's a couple of link to all the pics, including a few not seen in this entry :D
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zmjil3sa9enii05/AABmqP8I3rPgdWj9bMrnifKwa (day 2)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xjsot6lnyk6rxlt/AABqyNTUFV2dcsZvBSCiytWXa (Gatchapin)
Next, onto Day 3! Gundam! Nogisaka46!