[Report] Johnnys Countdown 2019-2020 Report
2019.12.31 - 2020.01.01
I was lucky enough to hit for the Countdown this year, whoo! Since not a lot of people get to go in person, and they do cut parts out of broadcast, I thought I'd share my experience here.
The countdown is one of the most competitive concerts since every fanclub can apply, and I actually didn't hit the first round >_< Later on though, they opened up another round for "second tier" seats that might have camera equipment or something blocking, and luckily I hit! I arrived in the afternoon hoping to buy some jumbo uchiwa, but my gosh, the power of Johnnys is incredible... The line was so long it coiled every which way across the floor and up and around many flights of stairs, probably comparable to Comiket although I've never waited there before opening. I gave up at that time since it was probably a 2h+ wait and decided to try my luck later...
So entry starts at 9pm, and I arrived at around 8:30 to line up for goods... I feel kind of crazy lining up for 1.5h, braving the cold wind, but I got my fans~ Some people bought a lot of fans from every group, and some people didn't bother buying fans at all, but I got Arashi and Sixtones~
They surprisingly didn't do any ID check at the door (besides bag check and scanning your QR code), but I guess the amount of people would make it pretty crazy. The stage was set up for the countdown and for Hey! Say! JUMP because their concert tour was also going on at Tokyo Dome (poor them, still had a concert to perform a few hours after the Countdown). There's the main stage, the center stage, multiple catwalks, and the front/sub stage. I got to my seat, and I can't believe how good it was! I was in the second row right in front of the front stage!!! And there was nothing blocking my view! All of us second tier winners were grinning from ear to ear and couldn't believe it ^^
So the show starts, and the NHK announcer comes out to introduce the show (and of course, it's Ikuta's younger brother) XD And then the Jr groups come out and perform their songs and appeal themselves. I'm not entirely knowledgable on the current Jr groups and their songs, but a lot of them came out and sang at the front stage which was awesome. They were also very friendly with waving and interacting with 'call and response.' We had the Kansai Jrs, Naniwa Danshi, A Group (?), Four You(?), HiHi Jets, 7 men samurai and probably one or two other groups... and then everyone screams when Snowman comes out right in front of us, and we get a shirt lift *nosebleed* They sang 2 songs, including the one where they introduce themselves. Raul wasn't there, but other members introduced him to us. The most memorable one liner was Sakuma's cuz he was like 'Suki da...anime wo!" while everyone else was giving their dokidoki one liners XD And then of course, after Snow Man, it was Sixtones, ahhhhh!!!! They sang Rampampam, Japonica Style and another one of their newer songs. So nice seeing the boys live and so close <3 Their dancing was just as sharp as on the screen, and they're very together~ Of course, with Japonica Style, they let down the paper cherry blossoms in the whole stadium >\\\< Souvenir #1 caught~
After the Jr corner, the MCs come out and the broadcast show is about to begin~ Luckily, Kisumai starts the show on the front stage right in front of me (well, their butts are right in front of me...) and Miyacchi goes to fix Nika's costume for a bit so he swerves around before the camera rolls and we scream and wave and he waves back and gets into position again ^^ I think the funniest thing was Higashiyama calling them 'ft2' every time and saying how hard it rolls off the tongue, and then Hiro says they're usually called Kisumai XD And he's like, oh, it's not 'She her her?!' Anyway, I'm glad I got to see them on skates so close ^^ Hiro looked pretty tired though. I mean, they had 3 performances in a row for different countdown shows, so it must've been a lot >_<
King & Prince is after and everyone screams really hard because they exit by us and then JUMP appears on this descending platform back on the main stage (so the fans next to me take out their binoculars >_<). Sadly, they never really did much on my side for the duration of the show, so not much interaction this time. A.B.C-Z was very friendly though, especially Tsuka-chan who always waves. They're just like last time I saw them live, very energetic! (but not that many screams compared to most groups :( )
The next group to come to the front stage was KAT-TUN. I guess it fits their image, but none of them waved back XD Kame & Yamapi also sang on the front stage, and neither of them waved, but Sixtones and Snowman were backdancing for them and they waved back. A girl in front of me had a Hokuto fan and shouted for him and he waved this way which was cute~ and she died XD
I was pretty bummed NEWS didn't sing on this side since they're also one of my favs, but later, they were on the platform car and came around after Koi no ABO. They were so close, that I dared shout to Shige and he waved back >\\\\< Okay, I can die happy now ^^
Third best moment was when ABC-Z sang Venus. Thank you boys for remembering T&T when it seems to be taboo everywhere and nobody except Nakai (and Hiromi) dares mention their previous existence.
And part of the MC that I think they cut out, is when Maruyama is being Maruyama and sticks himself in there and begins talking up a storm. They end up calling him 'MC thief' and he shamelessly continues talking XD And then we all counted down and they shot out the Johnnys Countdown 2019-2020 confetti, yay! Souvenir #2 caught~
And the highlight was probably when they were introducing Arashi who was about to come out. The fan next to me noted the cameras by the door like right below us. She called it right, and when they appeared, we both screamed so hard XD They sang on the stage right in front of us and Aiba waved back to our side <3 What a sweetheart~ Sakurai also waved to the other side, and MJ does little acknowledgements... Nino and Ohno unsurprisingly, don't wave much XD
There was MC at some point where they asked Tegoshi how NEWS' year was and Tego's like, why're you asking us when Koyama's not here?! And Higashiyama's like, 'cuz you looked like you wanted me to.' Then they asked Nakamaru about KATTUN's year and then the broadcast music starts playing all of a sudden and he's like, 'what's that sound?!" "You just said that on air" XD And they had some MC cut off after the broadcast at the end where everyone says their goodbyes :( Jesse talked from Sixtones with his cute little mouse headband and Maruyama stuck himself in there and gave every group a funny rappish intro. When they got to Kanjani's turn to say goodbye and leave, they were like, 'here keep him and do whatever you want with him, bye.' And of course, Arashi was the last group to leave, and Ohno finished it in a rappish fashion ^^
Thanks for reading this long report!
To finish it off, I'll talk about my weird New Year's dream! Somehow, Arashi was in a room, and Aiba and Sakurai had to read a doujinshi about themselves out loud (Aiba was uke) XD Nino was sniggering watching them, MJ was smiling while feeling sorry for them, Ohno was just ignoring them and doing his own thing, Sakurai was reluctantly reading it half-heartedly, and precious boy Aiba was doing his best to act it out realistically >\\\< Don't ask me what the plot of that doujinshi was, I've never even read any Arashi fanfics/fancomics XD
What was your first dream of the year like? Please comment if you want to share anytihng ^^
I was lucky enough to hit for the Countdown this year, whoo! Since not a lot of people get to go in person, and they do cut parts out of broadcast, I thought I'd share my experience here.
The countdown is one of the most competitive concerts since every fanclub can apply, and I actually didn't hit the first round >_< Later on though, they opened up another round for "second tier" seats that might have camera equipment or something blocking, and luckily I hit! I arrived in the afternoon hoping to buy some jumbo uchiwa, but my gosh, the power of Johnnys is incredible... The line was so long it coiled every which way across the floor and up and around many flights of stairs, probably comparable to Comiket although I've never waited there before opening. I gave up at that time since it was probably a 2h+ wait and decided to try my luck later...
So entry starts at 9pm, and I arrived at around 8:30 to line up for goods... I feel kind of crazy lining up for 1.5h, braving the cold wind, but I got my fans~ Some people bought a lot of fans from every group, and some people didn't bother buying fans at all, but I got Arashi and Sixtones~
They surprisingly didn't do any ID check at the door (besides bag check and scanning your QR code), but I guess the amount of people would make it pretty crazy. The stage was set up for the countdown and for Hey! Say! JUMP because their concert tour was also going on at Tokyo Dome (poor them, still had a concert to perform a few hours after the Countdown). There's the main stage, the center stage, multiple catwalks, and the front/sub stage. I got to my seat, and I can't believe how good it was! I was in the second row right in front of the front stage!!! And there was nothing blocking my view! All of us second tier winners were grinning from ear to ear and couldn't believe it ^^
So the show starts, and the NHK announcer comes out to introduce the show (and of course, it's Ikuta's younger brother) XD And then the Jr groups come out and perform their songs and appeal themselves. I'm not entirely knowledgable on the current Jr groups and their songs, but a lot of them came out and sang at the front stage which was awesome. They were also very friendly with waving and interacting with 'call and response.' We had the Kansai Jrs, Naniwa Danshi, A Group (?), Four You(?), HiHi Jets, 7 men samurai and probably one or two other groups... and then everyone screams when Snowman comes out right in front of us, and we get a shirt lift *nosebleed* They sang 2 songs, including the one where they introduce themselves. Raul wasn't there, but other members introduced him to us. The most memorable one liner was Sakuma's cuz he was like 'Suki da...anime wo!" while everyone else was giving their dokidoki one liners XD And then of course, after Snow Man, it was Sixtones, ahhhhh!!!! They sang Rampampam, Japonica Style and another one of their newer songs. So nice seeing the boys live and so close <3 Their dancing was just as sharp as on the screen, and they're very together~ Of course, with Japonica Style, they let down the paper cherry blossoms in the whole stadium >\\\< Souvenir #1 caught~
After the Jr corner, the MCs come out and the broadcast show is about to begin~ Luckily, Kisumai starts the show on the front stage right in front of me (well, their butts are right in front of me...) and Miyacchi goes to fix Nika's costume for a bit so he swerves around before the camera rolls and we scream and wave and he waves back and gets into position again ^^ I think the funniest thing was Higashiyama calling them 'ft2' every time and saying how hard it rolls off the tongue, and then Hiro says they're usually called Kisumai XD And he's like, oh, it's not 'She her her?!' Anyway, I'm glad I got to see them on skates so close ^^ Hiro looked pretty tired though. I mean, they had 3 performances in a row for different countdown shows, so it must've been a lot >_<
King & Prince is after and everyone screams really hard because they exit by us and then JUMP appears on this descending platform back on the main stage (so the fans next to me take out their binoculars >_<). Sadly, they never really did much on my side for the duration of the show, so not much interaction this time. A.B.C-Z was very friendly though, especially Tsuka-chan who always waves. They're just like last time I saw them live, very energetic! (but not that many screams compared to most groups :( )
The next group to come to the front stage was KAT-TUN. I guess it fits their image, but none of them waved back XD Kame & Yamapi also sang on the front stage, and neither of them waved, but Sixtones and Snowman were backdancing for them and they waved back. A girl in front of me had a Hokuto fan and shouted for him and he waved this way which was cute~ and she died XD
I was pretty bummed NEWS didn't sing on this side since they're also one of my favs, but later, they were on the platform car and came around after Koi no ABO. They were so close, that I dared shout to Shige and he waved back >\\\\< Okay, I can die happy now ^^
Third best moment was when ABC-Z sang Venus. Thank you boys for remembering T&T when it seems to be taboo everywhere and nobody except Nakai (and Hiromi) dares mention their previous existence.
And part of the MC that I think they cut out, is when Maruyama is being Maruyama and sticks himself in there and begins talking up a storm. They end up calling him 'MC thief' and he shamelessly continues talking XD And then we all counted down and they shot out the Johnnys Countdown 2019-2020 confetti, yay! Souvenir #2 caught~
And the highlight was probably when they were introducing Arashi who was about to come out. The fan next to me noted the cameras by the door like right below us. She called it right, and when they appeared, we both screamed so hard XD They sang on the stage right in front of us and Aiba waved back to our side <3 What a sweetheart~ Sakurai also waved to the other side, and MJ does little acknowledgements... Nino and Ohno unsurprisingly, don't wave much XD
There was MC at some point where they asked Tegoshi how NEWS' year was and Tego's like, why're you asking us when Koyama's not here?! And Higashiyama's like, 'cuz you looked like you wanted me to.' Then they asked Nakamaru about KATTUN's year and then the broadcast music starts playing all of a sudden and he's like, 'what's that sound?!" "You just said that on air" XD And they had some MC cut off after the broadcast at the end where everyone says their goodbyes :( Jesse talked from Sixtones with his cute little mouse headband and Maruyama stuck himself in there and gave every group a funny rappish intro. When they got to Kanjani's turn to say goodbye and leave, they were like, 'here keep him and do whatever you want with him, bye.' And of course, Arashi was the last group to leave, and Ohno finished it in a rappish fashion ^^
Thanks for reading this long report!
To finish it off, I'll talk about my weird New Year's dream! Somehow, Arashi was in a room, and Aiba and Sakurai had to read a doujinshi about themselves out loud (Aiba was uke) XD Nino was sniggering watching them, MJ was smiling while feeling sorry for them, Ohno was just ignoring them and doing his own thing, Sakurai was reluctantly reading it half-heartedly, and precious boy Aiba was doing his best to act it out realistically >\\\< Don't ask me what the plot of that doujinshi was, I've never even read any Arashi fanfics/fancomics XD
What was your first dream of the year like? Please comment if you want to share anytihng ^^