[CON] KAT-TUN @ The Tokyo Dome 16/05/2009 18:30
2nd round! I think I need to get another notepad. To save on questions in the comments: yes, you can translate this report into other languages/link to it from sites or whatever, just credit me, please. I am very happy to share my experiences with anyone who cares to read them, with the understanding that this is what happened as I saw it, which may or may not be how someone with a different seat/better understanding of Japanese saw it.
Tonight we had seats in the arena, so we were much closer to the screens and stage, and far enough to the right that we weren't many seats away from the right-hand aisle, meaning that plenty of things (and people) went past us. The giant planets look much larger when you're directly underneath them, I have to say. The set-list was similar to yesterday, so I won't comment on everything.
Differences in set-list: they didn't do 'Moon' or 'Ai no Command'. Ueda's chosen medley was 'Fight All Night', 'Sparking', 'Gloria', and 'Tsuki no Michi'. Plus there was a second encore, but I'll get to that at the end.
Before 'Rescue', there was a lot of massive, melodramatic music, but what I couldn't see until tonight was that there was actually a conductor on the stage.
During 'LIPS', Kis-My-Ft2 skated past us, looking very impressive as they flew round. There were some mad Wataru fangirls all around us, screaming out birthday wishes for him. Lots of Junior fans in the arena tonight!
Member intro - Jin asked us again if we were ready to rock. You'd think he'd know by now.
'Keep the Faith' - Jin, Junno and Nakamaru on the trolley nearest us.
'White X'mas' - Kame whispered his first 'Christmas', which he did yesterday as well.
'Sadistic Love' - I didn't notice the screens yesterday but they were filled with church images of stained glass windows. Until the chains started crossing them, that is. The guys were in spiky-looking open cages with chains hanging off them.
Cages mean 'Kame' this year, launching him straight into '1582'. More big, melodramatic music while he was up in the cage, reminding me more and more of Dream Boys. I knew it was coming but my heart still stopped when he fell to the ground. He actually materialised right up in the rafters, wearing a mask. (One of the Noh ones? I know nothing about Japanese theatre.) Fan dancing, coy sways and swishes, and of course going down a pole to the stage. He and Koki both had some black-painted nails tonight, incidentally. There were a few Dream Boys-style somersaults while suspended in mid-air, and it turns out to have been an upside down parasol underneath him while he was standing on the fountain.
One thing I forgot to mention last night is that the water wasn't just on the centre stage - there were nozzles on the sides of the walkway connecting it to the main stage, so the guys would walk between walls of water at times. Ueda did this during his solo.
Anyway, Kame - now in a white shirt and black shorts - remained in the centre stage for a bit of Koki's solo, getting progressively more drenched by the fountains. But no, that wasn't enough for him - he had to have Juniors throw buckets of water at him as well. (They should have done it for Jin, and you'll see why later.) Sorry about last night - I was close enough tonight to see that it was the other guy going round on the bike in the cage both times, not Koki.
Kis-My-Ft2 seem to have the knack for doing dance routines to Koki's stranger solos, as he always gets them for his backdancers. He ended up on the Wind trolley with Fujigaya and Kitayama, both looking very fetching in long gold costumes. I had the better view of Fujigaya, since he was facing my direction, and I will say I enjoyed it. Junno seemed to come up from inside the trolley?
During Nakamaru's beatbox segment, he explained that he was merging three sounds with his beatbox: the melody line, the scratching, and something I can't remember. Whatever it was, it sounded impressive. Today he rescued Chinen and Massu! (Why are we getting stuck with Hey!Say!Jump members again? I had enough of them at Dream Boys. Time to switch guests, please.)
Jin was rather adorable here, dragging Massu up to the trolley by his shirt, then holding onto Chinen so he didn't fall off the trolley. The bungee jump had three countdowns, and after the last one Maru swayed forwards a bit and the audience gasped, but of course he failed to jump in the end. He got the usual telling off from everyone, and Kame whispered stuff for Chinen to say to him.
Once again, Nakayama Yuuma (and some other Kansai kid) turned up, pimped out a Juniors concert at the Tokyo International Forum. I could be wrong here but KAT-TUN were getting nostalgic about their own shows there, and sang a few snatches of 'Best Friend'. Nakayama, the other kid, Massu and Chinen lined up and introduced themselves - Jin was standing in line, waiting to do his own introduction. Aww.
During 'Peak', Kame's cage flew right over our heads. Wouldn't have minded him falling out of that one, so long as he didn't break my glasses on the landing. He walked past us during 'Jumpin' Up', as did Maru, who was also over us in one of those moveable platform arm things.
For 'No Matter Matter' it was Jin's turn to walk past. He leaned on the back wall for a bit, back to the audience, then went and whispered something to Fujigaya (KMF2 were wearing green here), who whispered in turn to Kawai (ABC-Z were in orange).
MC - Jin kept going to the back of the stage to have a drink from his water bottle, so the others kept calling him back even though it wasn't a very convenient time for him. He was very happy, though, smiling and giggling and messing around - even if he did check his watch once! Lots of Gokusen talk, and they made fun of Nakamaru's suspenders. Kame played around with the fringe and stuff on Maru's costume, though I don't think he's in any position to talk because he had a dreadful bow tie on for the first portion of the concert.
More posters were given away. Kame almost got his gigantic bracelet thing caught in the box when he withdrew a ticket stub; Jin began his turn by reading out the ticket price rather than the seating.
During 'Love' (which has the most KAT-TUN-style dance ever - namely, a sort of messy, chaotic flail which makes you laugh but looks hot at the same time) Jin was singing with his hood up at first. Well, maybe it kept the hair off his face. It got in his eyes a lot tonight.
During the 4-seasons-I-cannot-remember-the-name song, I was watching the Juniors dancing in the giant frame on the stage, trying to see how many old costumes I could spot. Remember the purple tracksuits from 'Okyakusama...'? They're back again. The Juniors danced when the lights were on them, but had to freeze in their poses when the lights moved away.
ABC-Z did 'Vanilla' again, and Tsukada's hair was so crazy I thought he was Yonehana from 'Musical Academy' for a moment. Hasshi's the only one who gets a fancy long red coat - the rest all get short jackets. I guess it pays to be twice as tall as the rest of the group.
Kis-My-Ft2 just did 'Fire Beat' this time, and of course there were giant flames on the screen. No real flames, as KAT-TUN got all of those and boy, do you feel the heat when you're sitting in the arena!
'Real Face' was good fun. With a cry of "Kame-chan!", Koki got Kame to do the opening rap for him (so he then did Kame's part). Junno did the end rap again.
Ueda was tonight's producer and his medley consisted of: 'Fight All Night', during which Jin's hips were moving in that famed suggestive manner found in many GIFs. Then 'Sparking', and at first Jin and Ueda were buddying up to sing, then Kame and Ueda. Junno found himself singing alone when both the music and the other singers suddenly stopped, but he continued, undaunted. Jin walked past us again during 'Gloria', and the medley ended with 'Tsuki no Michi', during which Junno was up the stairs on the stage and Jin was sitting down right at the top, flanked by Juniors.
It wasn't Ueda's night, sadly. He put his finger to his lips to ask us all to be quiet when he played the piano, but the piano started off so quiet you could barely hear it until they fixed the sound. He screwed up the start of his solo, then started again; the audience laughed gently. Feathers and confetti flew down, some of it still falling during Nakamaru's solo. Poor Ueda apologised nicely at the end.
'Wonder' started off with the same 'Akanishi Jin feat. Crystal Kay' on the screen, then the title, then the credit for the lyrics (both of them). When the song finished, the camera showed Jin walked to the back of the stage with the girls, then he suddenly turned round, removed his hat, and bowed to the audience.
The pictures showed up at the right time to match the announcements Kawai and Tottsu were making for the King battle, and this time it was Junno vs. Ueda doing the balls of light thing. Then Koki and Nakamaru, who did their comedy act, making fun of Jin (twice). Koki did Jin's 'sweety' from 'Keep the Faith', and Nakamaru did the 'what' from DUES (as a sort of squeak). (They had upgraded themselves from 'kings' to 'gods'.)
Once again, giant Akame inflatable dolls, and Jin went past on a trolley to the left of us to get hooked up. He hung lifeless for a good chunk of it.
'Wilds of My Heart' was good for us - Junno, then Maru, then Jin ran past us.
'Neiro' - Jin only had his robe half-on again. The audience only sang the final line this time.
The penlights spelled out 'WE LOVE KAT-TUN'.
The encore came on very quick - the spaceshuttle trolley came right past us for 'She Said' with all six of them on (the inner side has the winged heart logo), with some planets behind and some after. Jin had obviously dunked his head in water, because his hair was absolutely soaked. I have to say, this was the first time I've ever found him attractive with wet hair. He looked incredible, actually, but the best thing was that he seemed invigorated. You could see in his face that he was tired, but he was smiling and making cute hand gestures and jumping up and down.
During 'Peaceful Days' Koki ran past us - shirtless, and I think wearing a red skirt? That's what it looked like, anyway! Maru and Massu had an arm around each other, and did the 'Ranger' salute.
Kame introduced 'FiVe' in English again (the poor guys were stuck on the main stage the whole time except during Junno's solo, when they got to ride on the trolley a bit), and the drummer had Nakamaru's name in kanji on his forehead.
After that, we didn't leave because the girls next to us were still sitting, and there was still a faint cry for an encore...so we got one! They came back out and sang 'Will Be All Right'. Jin messed up the lyrics so he sang 'Tell me' as 'Sorry', which was adorable. Junno and Maru both walked past us and threw their towels into the stands.
Screaming fans caught them. Good thing Koki didn't throw one, because his aim was a bit dodgy with the frisbee today and he made such an apologetic face afterwards.
Okay, that about covers it! I guess these reports will get shorter and shorter as the week goes on but this is KAT-TUN - there's always something to write about, even if it's only flail. And believe me, there was a lot of flail going on. If I could fit them all in my suitcase, I would. Failing that, I wonder if they really need that giant blow-up Jin after the concerts finish?
EDIT: I forgot to add that after Maru failed to jump, the others (including the guests) pretended to interview him while sticking microphones in his face like reporters. Sometimes *on* his face - I'm not sure if Jin thought he was going to tune in directly to Maru's brain by putting the mic on his forehead...
Tonight we had seats in the arena, so we were much closer to the screens and stage, and far enough to the right that we weren't many seats away from the right-hand aisle, meaning that plenty of things (and people) went past us. The giant planets look much larger when you're directly underneath them, I have to say. The set-list was similar to yesterday, so I won't comment on everything.
Differences in set-list: they didn't do 'Moon' or 'Ai no Command'. Ueda's chosen medley was 'Fight All Night', 'Sparking', 'Gloria', and 'Tsuki no Michi'. Plus there was a second encore, but I'll get to that at the end.
Before 'Rescue', there was a lot of massive, melodramatic music, but what I couldn't see until tonight was that there was actually a conductor on the stage.
During 'LIPS', Kis-My-Ft2 skated past us, looking very impressive as they flew round. There were some mad Wataru fangirls all around us, screaming out birthday wishes for him. Lots of Junior fans in the arena tonight!
Member intro - Jin asked us again if we were ready to rock. You'd think he'd know by now.
'Keep the Faith' - Jin, Junno and Nakamaru on the trolley nearest us.
'White X'mas' - Kame whispered his first 'Christmas', which he did yesterday as well.
'Sadistic Love' - I didn't notice the screens yesterday but they were filled with church images of stained glass windows. Until the chains started crossing them, that is. The guys were in spiky-looking open cages with chains hanging off them.
Cages mean 'Kame' this year, launching him straight into '1582'. More big, melodramatic music while he was up in the cage, reminding me more and more of Dream Boys. I knew it was coming but my heart still stopped when he fell to the ground. He actually materialised right up in the rafters, wearing a mask. (One of the Noh ones? I know nothing about Japanese theatre.) Fan dancing, coy sways and swishes, and of course going down a pole to the stage. He and Koki both had some black-painted nails tonight, incidentally. There were a few Dream Boys-style somersaults while suspended in mid-air, and it turns out to have been an upside down parasol underneath him while he was standing on the fountain.
One thing I forgot to mention last night is that the water wasn't just on the centre stage - there were nozzles on the sides of the walkway connecting it to the main stage, so the guys would walk between walls of water at times. Ueda did this during his solo.
Anyway, Kame - now in a white shirt and black shorts - remained in the centre stage for a bit of Koki's solo, getting progressively more drenched by the fountains. But no, that wasn't enough for him - he had to have Juniors throw buckets of water at him as well. (They should have done it for Jin, and you'll see why later.) Sorry about last night - I was close enough tonight to see that it was the other guy going round on the bike in the cage both times, not Koki.
Kis-My-Ft2 seem to have the knack for doing dance routines to Koki's stranger solos, as he always gets them for his backdancers. He ended up on the Wind trolley with Fujigaya and Kitayama, both looking very fetching in long gold costumes. I had the better view of Fujigaya, since he was facing my direction, and I will say I enjoyed it. Junno seemed to come up from inside the trolley?
During Nakamaru's beatbox segment, he explained that he was merging three sounds with his beatbox: the melody line, the scratching, and something I can't remember. Whatever it was, it sounded impressive. Today he rescued Chinen and Massu! (Why are we getting stuck with Hey!Say!Jump members again? I had enough of them at Dream Boys. Time to switch guests, please.)
Jin was rather adorable here, dragging Massu up to the trolley by his shirt, then holding onto Chinen so he didn't fall off the trolley. The bungee jump had three countdowns, and after the last one Maru swayed forwards a bit and the audience gasped, but of course he failed to jump in the end. He got the usual telling off from everyone, and Kame whispered stuff for Chinen to say to him.
Once again, Nakayama Yuuma (and some other Kansai kid) turned up, pimped out a Juniors concert at the Tokyo International Forum. I could be wrong here but KAT-TUN were getting nostalgic about their own shows there, and sang a few snatches of 'Best Friend'. Nakayama, the other kid, Massu and Chinen lined up and introduced themselves - Jin was standing in line, waiting to do his own introduction. Aww.
During 'Peak', Kame's cage flew right over our heads. Wouldn't have minded him falling out of that one, so long as he didn't break my glasses on the landing. He walked past us during 'Jumpin' Up', as did Maru, who was also over us in one of those moveable platform arm things.
For 'No Matter Matter' it was Jin's turn to walk past. He leaned on the back wall for a bit, back to the audience, then went and whispered something to Fujigaya (KMF2 were wearing green here), who whispered in turn to Kawai (ABC-Z were in orange).
MC - Jin kept going to the back of the stage to have a drink from his water bottle, so the others kept calling him back even though it wasn't a very convenient time for him. He was very happy, though, smiling and giggling and messing around - even if he did check his watch once! Lots of Gokusen talk, and they made fun of Nakamaru's suspenders. Kame played around with the fringe and stuff on Maru's costume, though I don't think he's in any position to talk because he had a dreadful bow tie on for the first portion of the concert.
More posters were given away. Kame almost got his gigantic bracelet thing caught in the box when he withdrew a ticket stub; Jin began his turn by reading out the ticket price rather than the seating.
During 'Love' (which has the most KAT-TUN-style dance ever - namely, a sort of messy, chaotic flail which makes you laugh but looks hot at the same time) Jin was singing with his hood up at first. Well, maybe it kept the hair off his face. It got in his eyes a lot tonight.
During the 4-seasons-I-cannot-remember-the-name song, I was watching the Juniors dancing in the giant frame on the stage, trying to see how many old costumes I could spot. Remember the purple tracksuits from 'Okyakusama...'? They're back again. The Juniors danced when the lights were on them, but had to freeze in their poses when the lights moved away.
ABC-Z did 'Vanilla' again, and Tsukada's hair was so crazy I thought he was Yonehana from 'Musical Academy' for a moment. Hasshi's the only one who gets a fancy long red coat - the rest all get short jackets. I guess it pays to be twice as tall as the rest of the group.
Kis-My-Ft2 just did 'Fire Beat' this time, and of course there were giant flames on the screen. No real flames, as KAT-TUN got all of those and boy, do you feel the heat when you're sitting in the arena!
'Real Face' was good fun. With a cry of "Kame-chan!", Koki got Kame to do the opening rap for him (so he then did Kame's part). Junno did the end rap again.
Ueda was tonight's producer and his medley consisted of: 'Fight All Night', during which Jin's hips were moving in that famed suggestive manner found in many GIFs. Then 'Sparking', and at first Jin and Ueda were buddying up to sing, then Kame and Ueda. Junno found himself singing alone when both the music and the other singers suddenly stopped, but he continued, undaunted. Jin walked past us again during 'Gloria', and the medley ended with 'Tsuki no Michi', during which Junno was up the stairs on the stage and Jin was sitting down right at the top, flanked by Juniors.
It wasn't Ueda's night, sadly. He put his finger to his lips to ask us all to be quiet when he played the piano, but the piano started off so quiet you could barely hear it until they fixed the sound. He screwed up the start of his solo, then started again; the audience laughed gently. Feathers and confetti flew down, some of it still falling during Nakamaru's solo. Poor Ueda apologised nicely at the end.
'Wonder' started off with the same 'Akanishi Jin feat. Crystal Kay' on the screen, then the title, then the credit for the lyrics (both of them). When the song finished, the camera showed Jin walked to the back of the stage with the girls, then he suddenly turned round, removed his hat, and bowed to the audience.
The pictures showed up at the right time to match the announcements Kawai and Tottsu were making for the King battle, and this time it was Junno vs. Ueda doing the balls of light thing. Then Koki and Nakamaru, who did their comedy act, making fun of Jin (twice). Koki did Jin's 'sweety' from 'Keep the Faith', and Nakamaru did the 'what' from DUES (as a sort of squeak). (They had upgraded themselves from 'kings' to 'gods'.)
Once again, giant Akame inflatable dolls, and Jin went past on a trolley to the left of us to get hooked up. He hung lifeless for a good chunk of it.
'Wilds of My Heart' was good for us - Junno, then Maru, then Jin ran past us.
'Neiro' - Jin only had his robe half-on again. The audience only sang the final line this time.
The penlights spelled out 'WE LOVE KAT-TUN'.
The encore came on very quick - the spaceshuttle trolley came right past us for 'She Said' with all six of them on (the inner side has the winged heart logo), with some planets behind and some after. Jin had obviously dunked his head in water, because his hair was absolutely soaked. I have to say, this was the first time I've ever found him attractive with wet hair. He looked incredible, actually, but the best thing was that he seemed invigorated. You could see in his face that he was tired, but he was smiling and making cute hand gestures and jumping up and down.
During 'Peaceful Days' Koki ran past us - shirtless, and I think wearing a red skirt? That's what it looked like, anyway! Maru and Massu had an arm around each other, and did the 'Ranger' salute.
Kame introduced 'FiVe' in English again (the poor guys were stuck on the main stage the whole time except during Junno's solo, when they got to ride on the trolley a bit), and the drummer had Nakamaru's name in kanji on his forehead.
After that, we didn't leave because the girls next to us were still sitting, and there was still a faint cry for an encore...so we got one! They came back out and sang 'Will Be All Right'. Jin messed up the lyrics so he sang 'Tell me' as 'Sorry', which was adorable. Junno and Maru both walked past us and threw their towels into the stands.
Screaming fans caught them. Good thing Koki didn't throw one, because his aim was a bit dodgy with the frisbee today and he made such an apologetic face afterwards.
Okay, that about covers it! I guess these reports will get shorter and shorter as the week goes on but this is KAT-TUN - there's always something to write about, even if it's only flail. And believe me, there was a lot of flail going on. If I could fit them all in my suitcase, I would. Failing that, I wonder if they really need that giant blow-up Jin after the concerts finish?
EDIT: I forgot to add that after Maru failed to jump, the others (including the guests) pretended to interview him while sticking microphones in his face like reporters. Sometimes *on* his face - I'm not sure if Jin thought he was going to tune in directly to Maru's brain by putting the mic on his forehead...