What year is it, I don't even know anymore.
LET'S TALK ABOUT JOHNNY'S 2020 WORLD!!! So this is your warning; spoilers beneath.
First off, I'm going to try to write a real report after I see the show from slightly farther away from the stage and therefore am 1) much more coherent and 2) much more able to actually see anything. So I'm sorry for the wait, but right now, I'm just going to explode with glee over what happened at the show!
So... yes. We were in the A row, which means we were about 2 feet from the orchestra pit wall. Johnny's uses the orchestra pit area as an extension of the stage, which means that if someone was standing at the end of the stage, they were like... practically within arm's reach to me. And juniors often came in front of the orchestra pit and danced, meaning they were practically dancing on top of my feet. It was actually surreal. Everyone kept doing double takes when they saw us, too XD; Pretty sure Watanabe Shota could't tear his eyes away from the spectacle of three foreign girls in the front row for a whole number, and Fuma gave us a really cute smile. A lot of the other juniors also sort of "woah!" reaction upon seeing us, and for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY that guy I hate Okamoto Kauan happened to stand right in front of me and wink at me AGAIN.
The show itself was definitely better and more coherent than last year. The first act had a lot of the same, starting with Yabu the Producer. This time, Shori took Yamada's part, and I think it was much better suited to him. Yamada really just came off angry and butthurt the whole time that the Producer had been critical of his performance, while Shori seemed much more at odds in terms of the philosophy of putting on shows. There were a lot of musical numbers before the Producer took Shori through the months again, and January (taiko), February (ABC-Z doing a dance with masks), March (sakura) were mostly the same, though Sexy Zone sang a new song for March, and it seems like it might be part of a new release? But since there was no Mori Mitsuko tribute this year, there were a lot of differences from last year and it got weirdly heavy handed. After Yabu sang My Heart Will Go On and ABC-Z/Snow Man/Inoue Mizuki died on the Titanic, and then Shori somehow didn't die on the Hindenburg, June was about WWII and featured a bunch of Juniors being Nazis (including GenGen... it was like, so cute, he was trying so hard to seem like a bad guy). They sort of flipped through July and August quickly talking about things that happened in WWII, and then September was about the Olympics (why?? no clue) and they skipped over October too. Then November was the Shakespeare part that was in act two last year, and then this year, instead of 47 ronin for December, it was Macbeth. They kept talking about Macbeth like it was history, and like Macbeth was this awesome hero, so it was sort of like ...okay. XD; Kento played Macbeth, while Fuma and a bunch of Juniors were Macduff/the army against him. Shori spent the whole time freaking out and accidentally (?) stabbed Macbeth and then was all like NOO DON'T DIE on Kento for about five seconds, which was cute |D;;; But again, Yabu died in the waterfall and then Shori got all up on him like NOOOO I LOVE YOU and angels Jinchan and Shori took him to heaven. |D;;
The second act was also different, and it was definitely better, but I think they weakened it by making ABC-Z not antagonistic from the beginning. They started off with a bit of a funny adlib section (where Kawai was pretending to be Funasshi? And Kento did a lolarious impersonation of Yabu) and ABC-Z only turned more antagonistic later, which was confusing. I feel like it felt a little less linear than last year, but they definitely helped the plot by adding the Producer character back in, and him going back to earth with them at the end. The way they introduced Tricember was better too, saying that Fuma/Kento/Shori went to space and THEN they find the Tricember bus stop made much more sense than saying they somehow ended up in Tricember, oh, and by the way, that's also outer space. It all tied in, since in the first act, Shori had said he wanted to search for Tricember with the Producer from pretty much the beginning (in a very Shori ~let's think about life and the universe~ way). So yeah... it was definitely better! Not great, but better.
BUT. The best thing happened at the end of the show, during the curtain call. For the most part, Reia had been on the opposite side of the stage, and I was bemoaning how unfair life was when finally, he was on our side at the end! When he was bowing, I was watching him adoringly and smiling, and then suddenly, our eyes met and he smiled back at me! Which caused me to smile more, which caused him to smile more too, and I was really happy! He had been seeming sort of tired, and then I made him smile! And then, when they were waving at everyone before leaving (because of course it's still Johnny's even if it's a stageplay), he caught my eye again and waved directly at me, and I waved at him, and he smiled again before leaving the stage and AHHHH this is the culminating moment of my Johnny's fan career, better than been seen by Takaki (who was very alarmed) or Chinen or Keito or Sakuma Daisuke, because I actually made him smile ahhhhhhh my life is complete now.
Er... oops, this turned sort of summary-y so I'm going to stick a report tag on it, but I'm still going to try to write a real report when I see it again in January XD; The other thing that I feel like came out of this show is that my love for Kishi totally grew. XD He's so adorably... faily. I love how terrified he looks approximately 100% of the time, and how intensely he concentrates when he's dancing, and how he trips on things and makes mistakes a lot. It's endearing. ♥ Also, Sakuma Daisuke is the best freaking dancer ever. He makes it look so easy that no one even appreciated it, but I clapped for him when he did like 10 fouettes and landed them perfectly without batting an eyelash.
And now, two more days until Hawaii. AHHHHHHH.
First off, I'm going to try to write a real report after I see the show from slightly farther away from the stage and therefore am 1) much more coherent and 2) much more able to actually see anything. So I'm sorry for the wait, but right now, I'm just going to explode with glee over what happened at the show!
So... yes. We were in the A row, which means we were about 2 feet from the orchestra pit wall. Johnny's uses the orchestra pit area as an extension of the stage, which means that if someone was standing at the end of the stage, they were like... practically within arm's reach to me. And juniors often came in front of the orchestra pit and danced, meaning they were practically dancing on top of my feet. It was actually surreal. Everyone kept doing double takes when they saw us, too XD; Pretty sure Watanabe Shota could't tear his eyes away from the spectacle of three foreign girls in the front row for a whole number, and Fuma gave us a really cute smile. A lot of the other juniors also sort of "woah!" reaction upon seeing us, and for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY that guy I hate Okamoto Kauan happened to stand right in front of me and wink at me AGAIN.
The show itself was definitely better and more coherent than last year. The first act had a lot of the same, starting with Yabu the Producer. This time, Shori took Yamada's part, and I think it was much better suited to him. Yamada really just came off angry and butthurt the whole time that the Producer had been critical of his performance, while Shori seemed much more at odds in terms of the philosophy of putting on shows. There were a lot of musical numbers before the Producer took Shori through the months again, and January (taiko), February (ABC-Z doing a dance with masks), March (sakura) were mostly the same, though Sexy Zone sang a new song for March, and it seems like it might be part of a new release? But since there was no Mori Mitsuko tribute this year, there were a lot of differences from last year and it got weirdly heavy handed. After Yabu sang My Heart Will Go On and ABC-Z/Snow Man/Inoue Mizuki died on the Titanic, and then Shori somehow didn't die on the Hindenburg, June was about WWII and featured a bunch of Juniors being Nazis (including GenGen... it was like, so cute, he was trying so hard to seem like a bad guy). They sort of flipped through July and August quickly talking about things that happened in WWII, and then September was about the Olympics (why?? no clue) and they skipped over October too. Then November was the Shakespeare part that was in act two last year, and then this year, instead of 47 ronin for December, it was Macbeth. They kept talking about Macbeth like it was history, and like Macbeth was this awesome hero, so it was sort of like ...okay. XD; Kento played Macbeth, while Fuma and a bunch of Juniors were Macduff/the army against him. Shori spent the whole time freaking out and accidentally (?) stabbed Macbeth and then was all like NOO DON'T DIE on Kento for about five seconds, which was cute |D;;; But again, Yabu died in the waterfall and then Shori got all up on him like NOOOO I LOVE YOU and angels Jinchan and Shori took him to heaven. |D;;
The second act was also different, and it was definitely better, but I think they weakened it by making ABC-Z not antagonistic from the beginning. They started off with a bit of a funny adlib section (where Kawai was pretending to be Funasshi? And Kento did a lolarious impersonation of Yabu) and ABC-Z only turned more antagonistic later, which was confusing. I feel like it felt a little less linear than last year, but they definitely helped the plot by adding the Producer character back in, and him going back to earth with them at the end. The way they introduced Tricember was better too, saying that Fuma/Kento/Shori went to space and THEN they find the Tricember bus stop made much more sense than saying they somehow ended up in Tricember, oh, and by the way, that's also outer space. It all tied in, since in the first act, Shori had said he wanted to search for Tricember with the Producer from pretty much the beginning (in a very Shori ~let's think about life and the universe~ way). So yeah... it was definitely better! Not great, but better.
BUT. The best thing happened at the end of the show, during the curtain call. For the most part, Reia had been on the opposite side of the stage, and I was bemoaning how unfair life was when finally, he was on our side at the end! When he was bowing, I was watching him adoringly and smiling, and then suddenly, our eyes met and he smiled back at me! Which caused me to smile more, which caused him to smile more too, and I was really happy! He had been seeming sort of tired, and then I made him smile! And then, when they were waving at everyone before leaving (because of course it's still Johnny's even if it's a stageplay), he caught my eye again and waved directly at me, and I waved at him, and he smiled again before leaving the stage and AHHHH this is the culminating moment of my Johnny's fan career, better than been seen by Takaki (who was very alarmed) or Chinen or Keito or Sakuma Daisuke, because I actually made him smile ahhhhhhh my life is complete now.
Er... oops, this turned sort of summary-y so I'm going to stick a report tag on it, but I'm still going to try to write a real report when I see it again in January XD; The other thing that I feel like came out of this show is that my love for Kishi totally grew. XD He's so adorably... faily. I love how terrified he looks approximately 100% of the time, and how intensely he concentrates when he's dancing, and how he trips on things and makes mistakes a lot. It's endearing. ♥ Also, Sakuma Daisuke is the best freaking dancer ever. He makes it look so easy that no one even appreciated it, but I clapped for him when he did like 10 fouettes and landed them perfectly without batting an eyelash.
And now, two more days until Hawaii. AHHHHHHH.