[report] Johnny's Ginza 2015 @ Theatre Crea, 2015.5.12
I'm going to try to get my quick write up of Crea done now before my memory fades! Because 1) the show was extremely short (an hour and 15 minutes, plus two encores, making it about an hour and 30 minutes total), 2) I went alone, so I don't have anyone to help refresh my memory, and 3) I honestly don't have that much to say about it, this is going to be a short bullet-point writeup, rather than full report. As always, the focus is the experience for me, not the setlist or every detail, which you can probably find on twitter. Also, seeing as it's me, it's going to be pretty Reia-focused, because Reia is who I watched. That being said, I included information about other guys, too-- just a warning that I had my Reia goggles on while watching.
☆ The main performers were Matsushima Sou, Matsukura Kaito, Matsuda Genta, Nakamura Reia, Takahashi Fu, Haniuda Amu, and Tajima Shogo. It as billed like this (with all 7 names written out), but the show was really a Sexy Show performance with 4 featured backers.
☆ The backdancing "assorted little ones," as I like to call them, were Kaneda Yosei and Kawasaki Koki (these two were featured) with Vasayegh Wataru, Toyoda Rikuto, Haba Yuki, Hayashi Ren, and two others that I didn't recognize and whose names I totally forget (they announced them once but I wasn't familiar with them).
☆ The theatre set up was the same as it has been for the past 3 years; the guy came and stood on blocks in the center aisle at times. This year only Sexy Show came into the audience, the other four never left the stage.
☆ My seat was just house-left of center 3 rows back from the center aisle. I was right at the right distance to perfectly see the people who came to the center aisle… only, you know, Reia didn't come. :| But I really had a great view-- it was definitely the best Crea seats I've had so far.
☆ yomimashou came along and tried to get toujitsuken (same day tickets). She lined up at 4:15, and while the lottery was supposed to start at 4:30, there were so many people that it didn't happen until 4:45. There were 593 people lined up and 8 tickets available. Needless to say, she didn't get one, sadly.
☆ I sat between a Reia fan and a Fu fan, but it seemed like the majority of the audience was Sou fans.
☆ The show opened with all 7 members performing Arashi's Toublemaker, which was surprising to me because Juniors just don't cover Arashi that often. The choreography generally was such that Sexy Show were in the front row and the other four behind them, but they did rotate a bit. Sou was obviously the center the majority of the time, but Genta did get a few turns, and Matsuku as well, though fewer. They then performed a variety of senpai songs including KAT-TUN's Real Face and Kis-My-Ft2's Firebeat, for both of which Amu did the rap sections and was generally ridiculous. Reia couldn't help but grin at goofy Amu trying to seem "cool," and he was adorable <3 Sou was really incredibly talented, attractive, and attention-grabbing through all the "cool" numbers, and I was reminded yet again how ridiculous it is for him to be excluded from Sexy Zone activities.
☆ Eventually, MatsuMatsu performed Seishun Amigo and Genta needs to put his hip rolls away. I'm not sure when he started being able to dance that way O__o; Sou introduced them as "cool Genta and cute Matsuku," aww XD;
☆ Next up was Sou's solo, Byakuya from the new NEWS White album. I had just seen NEWS perform this in Nagoya in March, and obviously, the staging here was much less low budget, but Sou was really amazing. His dancing really is impressive, and his singing is great too. I really enjoyed his rendition of it.
☆ After that there were a few more numbers before the MC. Reia didn't particularly get any special treatment at all, so I don't really remember anything to remark on… There was a junior medley in here somewhere where Kawasaki and Kaneda were featured, singing the usual songs.
☆ At this point it was particularly easy to see the guests. At Crea, they sit in the balconies on the sides of the house, though while usually they're on house-right, this year they were on house-left. In the first balcony was Inoue Mizuki and Takahashi Kaito, the second was Hashimoto Ryo and Marius, and the third was Muraki Ryota, Sugeta Rinne, and someone else I didn't recognize. Johnny was also in the second balcony with Marius and Hashimoto Ryo, but he left after the MC. In particular, Marius was super annoying; he moved around the whole time, leaned over the edge of the balcony, looked around at the audience, took off his hat and ran his hands through his hair, and was generally really distracting |D;; Oh Marius.
☆ Sexy Show did a few moments of MC, mostly thanking the crowd for coming, saying they had worked hard to plan the setlist, etc, before announcing that they had also planned a mini sports festival! The guys all came out wearing headbands, and Sou announced while Matsuku joined Fu and Amu on the red team and Genta joined Reia and Tajima on the white team. The first game that they played was pop-the-balloon-between-two-people's-bodies (unsure if there's a better name for this in English |D), and Genta was paired with Toyoda while Matsuku was paired with Kawasaki. As Sou was explaining the rules, Tajima accidentally popped a balloon he was holding, to which everyone was like TOO SOON! TOO SOON! XD;; But then once the game started, Kawasaki and Matsuku popped 5 balloons before Genta and Toyoda even popped one |D;;; So the red team was the winner. Next up was jumprope, and they let the teams practice before they did the actual competition. Genta and Tajima held the rope; The babies went into the rope first, and then Reia was last. However, the babies didn't scoot close enough to the front of the rope, and so Reia literally couldn't fit in, got hit in the head with the rope, and then got tangled. |D; Poor baby. For their actual run, they got 12 jumps with all 5 people in the rope before Kaneda accidentally tripped. They let him comment, and he said he was happy that he was able to do his best even though he tripped. The red team was next, and beat the white team with something like 19 jumps, so then the white team had to get on their knees to beg to make the last game worth 10 point so that they had a chance at winning |D;;; The last chance was tug-of-war, and somehow, despite the red team having Fu (who strikes me as the one with the most upper body strength from breakdancing), they ended up losing, with the white team managing to pull the rope so hard they lost their footing and fell into the wing. XD; Yay white team! I was happy that Reia won. Then all the babies got to give a comment before everyone besides Sexy Show left the stage again. (Note that Reia, Fu, Tajima, and Amu were the only people who didn't get to talk at all/make any comment through the whole show.)
☆ Sou talked about how Genta had just graduated JHS and gotten into high school, and asked him how it was going. Genta cutely tripped over his words trying to say he was enjoying it, but then they announced that the next song would be for Genta/with Genta as the main. They asked us to stay seating because they would be walking up and down the aisles, and finally announced the title of the song, "B.I.Shadow's" Akuma na Koi. This caused many audience members to go "ehhh??" though I'm not sure why (perhaps because they forgot to mention Yuma, lol). True to their words, they walked up and down the aisles and touched the hands of the girls on the aisles. They even reached pretty far for fans farther from the aisle who were reaching to touch them. It was pretty weird to hear that song in concert, honestly. But they were cute.
☆ Next up was the solos corner; no one told us to stand up again, but we did. First was Amu with an amusingly flaily version of Sakurai Sho's T.A.B.O.O., followed by Tajima, who had Fu and Reia dancing with him, but he was the only one singing (I forget what song now). Then came Genta, then Matsukura, and then Sexy Show. After that came Fu, who didn't sing but did breakdance… and then… another junior number, followed by Kis-u-mai done by the whole group. That's right, Reia didn't have a solo. I wasn't even surprised at this point, but it was frustrating and upsetting. Supposedly, he had one yesterday, so we'll see if he has one today, too, when the twitter reports come out. Yesterday night he supposedly performed Tegomass's Neko Chuudoku.
☆ There were a few more group numbers in the last spurt before, just one hour and fifteen minutes after the show started, it ended. Only Sexy Show gave final greetings; the other four didn't talk at all. Of course, there was an encore, and this was the first (I think?) time anything by Sexy Zone was performed. On the bright side, they didn't perform any KFS-only songs! It was super awkward when they forced Sou to perform Otoko Never Give Up at J's Party lol.
☆ They announced everyone's name before going off, and I feel like, besides Sou, Reia got the most cheers ♥ The crowd was, by and large, pretty tame and quiet though. It's always sort of awkward when this happens, because you know the guys want a big response, but sometimes Japanese fans are just too shy and reserved to scream if the girl next to them isn't screaming too. When I'm next to people I know it's one thing, but I admit that I was probably quieter because I was surrounded by two very quiet, tame Japanese fans.
☆ I don't know who told the guests what to do, but for some unknown reason, they waited until this point, when the lights came back up, to awkwardly look at one another, then stand up and sort of shuffle out. Marius took it upon himself to wave at the fans for a while before leaving, and Takahashi Kaito bowed very awkwardly and stiffly before leaving.
☆ Both the girls next to me and I didn't know whether this was going to be the end or not, and started packing up, unsure, but everyone was cheering for another encore, and they ended up giving it to us! They performed a song they'd done in the show over again before finally leaving for the last time.
All in all, the show was cute and enjoyable, but really, Reia didn't get to do anything special, and so it was mostly just watching him backdance. While the show was billed with just 7 names, equally, it was clearly a Sexy Show show with the four other juniors there. But Reia was cute and worked hard and did his best, so I can't really ask for more from him. I hope that he enjoyed himself, at the very least.
Sorry that was sort of short and lame, but it was sort of a short and lame show XD; I hope it was at least somewhat informative and amusing, though.
☆ The main performers were Matsushima Sou, Matsukura Kaito, Matsuda Genta, Nakamura Reia, Takahashi Fu, Haniuda Amu, and Tajima Shogo. It as billed like this (with all 7 names written out), but the show was really a Sexy Show performance with 4 featured backers.
☆ The backdancing "assorted little ones," as I like to call them, were Kaneda Yosei and Kawasaki Koki (these two were featured) with Vasayegh Wataru, Toyoda Rikuto, Haba Yuki, Hayashi Ren, and two others that I didn't recognize and whose names I totally forget (they announced them once but I wasn't familiar with them).
☆ The theatre set up was the same as it has been for the past 3 years; the guy came and stood on blocks in the center aisle at times. This year only Sexy Show came into the audience, the other four never left the stage.
☆ My seat was just house-left of center 3 rows back from the center aisle. I was right at the right distance to perfectly see the people who came to the center aisle… only, you know, Reia didn't come. :| But I really had a great view-- it was definitely the best Crea seats I've had so far.
☆ yomimashou came along and tried to get toujitsuken (same day tickets). She lined up at 4:15, and while the lottery was supposed to start at 4:30, there were so many people that it didn't happen until 4:45. There were 593 people lined up and 8 tickets available. Needless to say, she didn't get one, sadly.
☆ I sat between a Reia fan and a Fu fan, but it seemed like the majority of the audience was Sou fans.
☆ The show opened with all 7 members performing Arashi's Toublemaker, which was surprising to me because Juniors just don't cover Arashi that often. The choreography generally was such that Sexy Show were in the front row and the other four behind them, but they did rotate a bit. Sou was obviously the center the majority of the time, but Genta did get a few turns, and Matsuku as well, though fewer. They then performed a variety of senpai songs including KAT-TUN's Real Face and Kis-My-Ft2's Firebeat, for both of which Amu did the rap sections and was generally ridiculous. Reia couldn't help but grin at goofy Amu trying to seem "cool," and he was adorable <3 Sou was really incredibly talented, attractive, and attention-grabbing through all the "cool" numbers, and I was reminded yet again how ridiculous it is for him to be excluded from Sexy Zone activities.
☆ Eventually, MatsuMatsu performed Seishun Amigo and Genta needs to put his hip rolls away. I'm not sure when he started being able to dance that way O__o; Sou introduced them as "cool Genta and cute Matsuku," aww XD;
☆ Next up was Sou's solo, Byakuya from the new NEWS White album. I had just seen NEWS perform this in Nagoya in March, and obviously, the staging here was much less low budget, but Sou was really amazing. His dancing really is impressive, and his singing is great too. I really enjoyed his rendition of it.
☆ After that there were a few more numbers before the MC. Reia didn't particularly get any special treatment at all, so I don't really remember anything to remark on… There was a junior medley in here somewhere where Kawasaki and Kaneda were featured, singing the usual songs.
☆ At this point it was particularly easy to see the guests. At Crea, they sit in the balconies on the sides of the house, though while usually they're on house-right, this year they were on house-left. In the first balcony was Inoue Mizuki and Takahashi Kaito, the second was Hashimoto Ryo and Marius, and the third was Muraki Ryota, Sugeta Rinne, and someone else I didn't recognize. Johnny was also in the second balcony with Marius and Hashimoto Ryo, but he left after the MC. In particular, Marius was super annoying; he moved around the whole time, leaned over the edge of the balcony, looked around at the audience, took off his hat and ran his hands through his hair, and was generally really distracting |D;; Oh Marius.
☆ Sexy Show did a few moments of MC, mostly thanking the crowd for coming, saying they had worked hard to plan the setlist, etc, before announcing that they had also planned a mini sports festival! The guys all came out wearing headbands, and Sou announced while Matsuku joined Fu and Amu on the red team and Genta joined Reia and Tajima on the white team. The first game that they played was pop-the-balloon-between-two-people's-bodies (unsure if there's a better name for this in English |D), and Genta was paired with Toyoda while Matsuku was paired with Kawasaki. As Sou was explaining the rules, Tajima accidentally popped a balloon he was holding, to which everyone was like TOO SOON! TOO SOON! XD;; But then once the game started, Kawasaki and Matsuku popped 5 balloons before Genta and Toyoda even popped one |D;;; So the red team was the winner. Next up was jumprope, and they let the teams practice before they did the actual competition. Genta and Tajima held the rope; The babies went into the rope first, and then Reia was last. However, the babies didn't scoot close enough to the front of the rope, and so Reia literally couldn't fit in, got hit in the head with the rope, and then got tangled. |D; Poor baby. For their actual run, they got 12 jumps with all 5 people in the rope before Kaneda accidentally tripped. They let him comment, and he said he was happy that he was able to do his best even though he tripped. The red team was next, and beat the white team with something like 19 jumps, so then the white team had to get on their knees to beg to make the last game worth 10 point so that they had a chance at winning |D;;; The last chance was tug-of-war, and somehow, despite the red team having Fu (who strikes me as the one with the most upper body strength from breakdancing), they ended up losing, with the white team managing to pull the rope so hard they lost their footing and fell into the wing. XD; Yay white team! I was happy that Reia won. Then all the babies got to give a comment before everyone besides Sexy Show left the stage again. (Note that Reia, Fu, Tajima, and Amu were the only people who didn't get to talk at all/make any comment through the whole show.)
☆ Sou talked about how Genta had just graduated JHS and gotten into high school, and asked him how it was going. Genta cutely tripped over his words trying to say he was enjoying it, but then they announced that the next song would be for Genta/with Genta as the main. They asked us to stay seating because they would be walking up and down the aisles, and finally announced the title of the song, "B.I.Shadow's" Akuma na Koi. This caused many audience members to go "ehhh??" though I'm not sure why (perhaps because they forgot to mention Yuma, lol). True to their words, they walked up and down the aisles and touched the hands of the girls on the aisles. They even reached pretty far for fans farther from the aisle who were reaching to touch them. It was pretty weird to hear that song in concert, honestly. But they were cute.
☆ Next up was the solos corner; no one told us to stand up again, but we did. First was Amu with an amusingly flaily version of Sakurai Sho's T.A.B.O.O., followed by Tajima, who had Fu and Reia dancing with him, but he was the only one singing (I forget what song now). Then came Genta, then Matsukura, and then Sexy Show. After that came Fu, who didn't sing but did breakdance… and then… another junior number, followed by Kis-u-mai done by the whole group. That's right, Reia didn't have a solo. I wasn't even surprised at this point, but it was frustrating and upsetting. Supposedly, he had one yesterday, so we'll see if he has one today, too, when the twitter reports come out. Yesterday night he supposedly performed Tegomass's Neko Chuudoku.
☆ There were a few more group numbers in the last spurt before, just one hour and fifteen minutes after the show started, it ended. Only Sexy Show gave final greetings; the other four didn't talk at all. Of course, there was an encore, and this was the first (I think?) time anything by Sexy Zone was performed. On the bright side, they didn't perform any KFS-only songs! It was super awkward when they forced Sou to perform Otoko Never Give Up at J's Party lol.
☆ They announced everyone's name before going off, and I feel like, besides Sou, Reia got the most cheers ♥ The crowd was, by and large, pretty tame and quiet though. It's always sort of awkward when this happens, because you know the guys want a big response, but sometimes Japanese fans are just too shy and reserved to scream if the girl next to them isn't screaming too. When I'm next to people I know it's one thing, but I admit that I was probably quieter because I was surrounded by two very quiet, tame Japanese fans.
☆ I don't know who told the guests what to do, but for some unknown reason, they waited until this point, when the lights came back up, to awkwardly look at one another, then stand up and sort of shuffle out. Marius took it upon himself to wave at the fans for a while before leaving, and Takahashi Kaito bowed very awkwardly and stiffly before leaving.
☆ Both the girls next to me and I didn't know whether this was going to be the end or not, and started packing up, unsure, but everyone was cheering for another encore, and they ended up giving it to us! They performed a song they'd done in the show over again before finally leaving for the last time.
All in all, the show was cute and enjoyable, but really, Reia didn't get to do anything special, and so it was mostly just watching him backdance. While the show was billed with just 7 names, equally, it was clearly a Sexy Show show with the four other juniors there. But Reia was cute and worked hard and did his best, so I can't really ask for more from him. I hope that he enjoyed himself, at the very least.
Sorry that was sort of short and lame, but it was sort of a short and lame show XD; I hope it was at least somewhat informative and amusing, though.