Merry Boxing Day!
♪ One of these things is not like the other ~ ♫
This has got to be one of the most epic Johnnys medleys EVER. I'm not even looking forward to Johnny's Countdown as much now because of this. Everyone did such a great job even the stray Golden Bomber dude and since I'm not one for the Boxing Day shopping frenzy, I decided to cap spam some of the performances from last nights Kayou kyoku.
Johnny's aerobics? I'd sign up for that But how adorable are the juniors in the back with their pink tank tops, headbands and white cropped shorts? I'm sure this won't be a performance they'd be too eager to brag to their friends about. Chino looking especially ridiculous/cute in his outfit. Not to be mean, but the more Kaoru grows the more sluggish he comes off to me, when he dances it's like his trapped in someone elses body. I hope the awkwardness has to do with his age and he grows out of it, his a cute kid but I've never really seen his appeal and lately he doesn't seem to be improving much either.
Anyway, here's Chris-san as his usual colourful self leading the Shingo, Yamapi, Sexy Zone and the juniors in the aerobics.
Shingo smiling idol-ly as soon as the cameras on him.
Syunei, Genta, Matsukura <3 and Miyachika on the other side. Still find it weird how his always the only Trav5 member who gets grouped for these types of performances.
Nakai's absolutely loving this.
And the MVP of the dance goes to ....Ren!
Next up is the Johnny's Medley!
This is pretty impressive. It's like SMAP leading the next generation lol Besides JE's own concerts, events or exclusively Johnny's only shows like SC and SCP do we ever get to see a mash up of groups. Kayou kyoku has so far had Kis-my-ft2, SMAP, V6, Tackey and Tsubasa, Yamapi and NYC (from what I remember) so I've always been excited to see if something like this will oneday happen. My next dream would be for a JExAKB collab (the AKB performance with Hiromi Go doesn't count) but a little on that later in the post.
I love seeing the AKB girls singing along and jiving to JE songs, Yuko especially since she's always so into it. My Yuko highlight of the night was probably when, together with Takamina, they started dancing to Kisumai's Ai no Beat. They looked ridiculous (which in my books means awesome).
A lot of fans keep bringing up the fact that they think Shori can't sing. That's fine, I don't think his a particularly good singer either but I do think he has a nice voice. The kid did fine with his solo lines during the SC Xmas special and he did good here as well. He doesn't have an intolerable voice like Nakai's, it's just not strong as the rest of the groups but people need to let it go. The only place where I don't want to hear his voice is during GAME but that's a personal issue that I'm not going to take out on him for. His doing a great job as an idol, I just hope he'll be able to grow another few centimeters next year otherwise when Marius finally hits his growth spurt their going to look like russian dolls when they line up.
Looking great here with AKB as the backdrop.
I really tried here but couldn't get a decent cap with Kento moving around so much.
Fuma looked really good last night. His performance was also a lot less angsty than usual, was probably on his best behaviour for his sempai's.
A.N.JELL + Yamapi
Me trying to make up for my unflattering Kento cap before. They had the usual JUMP band members for 'Time Zone' with Keito - Guitar, Hikaru - Bass, Yuto - Drums, but they swapped Inoo for Kento on the keyboard. We really don't get to see/hear much of Inoo these days. Classic popular-junior pushed-to-the-back-after-debut scenario. No, actually scratch that. Inoo's probably the king and ultimate example of that scenario and 5 years after JUMPs debut it still pisses me off. Don't even use the fact his attending University or that being an idol isn't what he really wants as an excuse because we all know that's not true.
Chinen reminding me why his still my fav JUMP member with his amazing acrobatics <3
My mind was not mentally prepared for this. Most groups would be scared to fool around with their sempai's songs, but I guess when your SMAP, that's not much of a concern. This performance was hilarious. JUMP were adorable trying to hold back their laughter in the background.
Esumi laughing at Nakai <3
Kojiharu and Mayuyu are usually the most dead looking when other acts perform, so I was happy to see them laughing along to SMAP's antics.
Finale song
Kimura was totally boss throughout the medley. Even took Kame's part in his Seishun Amigo duet with Yamapi.
Confetti cannons goes off for the ending.
The 48 groups performances were good too but I don't think the people who read my posts would be too intersted in that review so I'll skip it. The Heavy Rotation collab with Mana-chan and so cute though and the SKE performance was the perfect Christmas present for fans and I'll leave it at that ^^
I really have Bakaleya to blame thank for my obsession of finding shows that link JE acts to AKB groups. It's usually not that difficult these days with Kayou kyoku, Shin Domoto Kyoudai and various music shows, but I always get a kick out of old/pre-fame AKB girls mentioning Johnny's names. Here's an episode of Akbingo from 2008.10.22 where the girls play shiritori where the second word has to be a celerbrity and this is what happened.
Unagi -> Kimura Takuya
Kaki -> Kimura Takuya
Ika -> Kamenashi Kazuya
Harumaki -> Kinki Kids
Nattsu -> Tsubasa?
The judges didn't accept this answer but I think Takamina was thinking of Tsubasa and Tackey then realised she didn't know Tsubasa's fullname XD
Itano's answer was the most surprising. She could've said KAT-TUN but she chose Kame <3 Adorbs these kids. This is why I want my JExAKB collab!! Then there'll probably be a mass graduation from both agencies lol Better keep this as just a dream then.