Untitled Concert Thoughts
So this concert has become one of my favourites!
Spoilers
MJ keeps on surpassing himself with his ideas. The space was utilised very well with massive screens that allows the audience, who are further behind, to be able to see them. Technology has come very far with minimal screen delay when each member is being filmed 'live'.
The editors have done a very great job keeping the raw voices of each singer rather than polishing it too much into people wondering if they are actually singing live or not.
The concert structure was broken up very nicely as it felt like you were going on a journey with them.
Unit songs were all amazing in their own way: UB great choreography with both Aiba and Nino, Come back was like two different gangs being against each other, kind of reminded me of West Side Story, Yoru no Kage great choreography by Ohno (love the hip circles !!) and Bazuri Night was fantastic with the use of pen lights and being otakus to singers. The wigs must be super heavy.
The dance before Tsunagu was fantastic see Ohno showcasing his skills and the costumes were very fitting to the theme. Lots of flowing fabric to showcase their movement in dance.
The dance/ penlight sequence before Sugar was amazing. They patterns created were wonderful to watch and very unified. Sugar was so good. The jarring 360 camera and the cut between the camera and actual singer was very smooth and made it something very different great. Very enjoyable and fun to jam to.
My most heartfelt one and favourite sequence is Song for You and Mikan. Song for You, I was lost for words. Very emotional and it is so good to see their journey from when they were young to now and to the future. It was a good decision to make it seem like a musical number which the dancing, costumes and the stage design reflects due to the length of the song. The Johnny's Jr's were also incorporated well, not just dancing at the back but interacting with Arashi. Mikan straight after was a little jarring, from being teary eye to pump up but it was also well done. They seemed to be very passionate and a very energetic side of Arashi was seen.
Kanpai Song rounded everything off very nicely and it was hilarious to see them all sitting down when being brought up. Good energy to finish off.
What I think is different in this concert is that there are not too many dance heavy numbers (like really, really jumping up and down movements). This I think helped them to sing clearer which may have resulted in less audio correcting. (Maybe I'm wrong though) While they may be getting older with age they can still pull off amazing, show stopping concerts and I am very excited to see where they will continue on in the future.