[Report] Gamushara! Summer Station, 2015.8.7
Next up in the list of Stupidly Late Reports is Gamushara Summer Station. I attended the show on August 7th (so yes, this is two months late, I'm so sorry), which was a Sha vs. Ra show, because of course, I wanted to see Reia and Jinguji together ♥ It's sad that they weren't on the same team this year ;__; But I also really wanted to see the team with the most members of SixTONES, too, which happened to be Reia's team, so it all worked out well~ Of course, I was dressed in blue rooting for Team Sha! But really, both teams did very well!
This isn't going to be a complete and total report because you can easily find a setlist on twitter, and things that were important to some people probably didn't stand out to me, and vice versa. I'm just going to try to write about the things that I enjoyed. If you're interested, please check under the cut!
Our seats for this show (that we actually hit for! Woo!) were in the balcony, which was really nice, because every since taking a break from Juniors as my main fandom, I'd much rather have a clear, really nice view from the balcony where I can sit during the MC and not be elbowed or have my feet stepped on, than an amazing but somewhat obstructed view from the floor where I might get injured by people pushing and stuff. We were even in the third row of the balcony, so we had a really great view.
Our view of the stage!
An interesting fact was that they finally made it such that the guys could walk easily from the stage to the side platforms, where they could wave to the people in the balcony. This was really nice, since before they could only get there by going backstage and disappearing from view for a long time. This time, they were able to take advantage of the side stages right away from the beginning, which was really nice! They performed the first few numbers, Route 17 and Boogie Woogie Cat, without much choreography, just running around the stage and the upper side stages and waving at fans and stuff, and it was nice to get to see them up close from the balcony right away! The guys were also goofing off, including Jinguji getting Amu toh hold his mic and then doing a handstand before high-fiving Amu afterwards as if to say "I'm so awesome." XD; He then glanced to where Reia was, but Reia was ignoring him… XD; There was also a cute moment early on, though, where Jinguji caught Reia's attention, and the two of them started talking and giggling about something for a moment onstage, briefly holding hands before parting ways. It was adorable.
But then Team Ra left the stage, and Team Sha performed Machikado Deep Blue, during which the members harassed Jinguji by opening his shirt on the stage. XD; Then Team Ra did Sankyuu, during which Yugo harassed Reia the whole time. It was super adorable, and he continued to grab him, tickle him, surprise hug him, shove him, etc, through the whole show. Yugo is such a good senpai; I think he probably knew that Reia would be shy around senpai like him and Hokuto, and wanted to help him feel included.
After that, they performed Gamuhara-ra, and then started into a Sexy Zone medley starting with Cha Cha Cha Champion and Otoko Never Give Up. For some reason, Shintaro didn't do the choreography a lot of the time, and just sort of randomly moved to the music… I guess they probably didn't have enough rehearsal, as usual, but I was surprised, since Shintaro is such a good dancer… I guess you can't forget he's also a teenage boy. XD;
After that was King & Queen & Joker, during which Reia got to say "Queen," which made me really happy. ♥ He was so cute and perfect. Through Sexy Summer, Baibai Dubai, and Real Sexy, various guys came up on the side stages and waved to the fans in the balcony, which was nice. I'm pretty sure Hokuto saw me, and was really awkward, waving and, when I didn't realize it was me right away, pointing and waving more insistently. XD; He's so cutely awkward. After that came Lady Diamond and Sexy Zone, and everyone regrouped to do the choreography, and then the medley finished with Kimi ni Hitomebore.
After the Sexy Zone Medley, Team Sha performed Lost My Way, and then Team Ra performed Butsukacchau Yo! Yugo was particularly cute with Reia during this; since the song is called "I'll knock you down" essentially, he kept trying to knock Reia down in various ways. XD; Hokuto joined in and teamed up with Yugo against Reia sometimes, and Reia couldn't help but laugh the whole time. It was really cute. Yugo also took some time to tease various backup juniors, and even offer them the mic, to get them attention, which was really cute and sweet. He really is such a good senpai. Also, I forget when, exactly, but Team Ra had some costumes that were divided by SixTONES members and non-SixTONES members, which was a little weird, since they're one team, but nice, because… SixTONES.
Also through the whole time, Gengen really needed to put his hiprolls away. I know they happened during Lost My Way, but also just throughout the whole time. He needs to stop growing up and go back to being a cute baby ;__; Last time I checked he was 14, what is even going on. According to various tweets my friends have shown me, Japanese fans are also distressed by this fact. XD;
After that, Marius had a rather long solo corner, first singing Ame ni Utaeba, then Knock Knock Knock. During Knock Knock Knock, Marius was singing over the original recording of the song, where his voice was a tiny baby voice. |D;;; It was pretty ridiculous. Also, he did Super Delicate with choreography that was slightly off the actual choreo? Not sure if this was a mistake or intentional. XD; And then Sou did Parade as his solo, which was a much shorter solo corner than Marius, because of course even in this someone has to be getting the short end of the stick. =__= But both of them are so talented and their performance was so good, and I was so proud watching how much they've grown. ;__; They really are amazing performers.
They all came back to perform Suki Sugite, before it was time for the MC and performance battle. Sanada Yuma showed up to help with this whole segment, and had a cute teasing talk section with Marius. They talked about Fuma, and Marius said that Fuma was his Nii-chan… and then blushed XD Sanada pointed out that he was blushing, and asked if Marius got embarrassed easily, and Marius said "I often get embarrassed by things I say myself." XD; Poor Marius… think before you speak! XD;
Last year, the scoreboard was a really crappy magnet cardboard thing that kept falling apart during the show, but this year, they had a computerized scoreboard that they could display on the big screen on the stage. They showed how Ra was losing, and Sha was doing well, then announced the start of the performance battle!
Up first was a VTR, and then team Ra! They had some misses, but their performance was really impressive! I think it was just as good as last year, and the dance and double-dutch were well integrated. Reia was super cute, even though clearly double-dutch wasn't his strong suit. Also their blue Ra costumes were adorable, especially Reia's. I'm sure it's been on the TV show at this point, and I know it's been in magazines, but I really, really liked Reia's outfit~
Then it was time for Team Sha! They didn't make very many mitakes, but I really didn't think their performance was as fun or exciting as last year's. It just struck me as… them playing some drums onstage? I'm sure they were working really hard, but as someone who doesn't know much about drums, I couldn't really tell just how hard it was. They did it very well and cleanly, though! But I enjoyed Ra's performance more, personally.
After that it was time to vote! After the screaming, the decibels were tied at 115, but then Ra won by the Junior vote!! ♥ I was really happy… even Johnny's clearly does rig these things to some extent, I thought Ra deserved it. ♥
Once the results were announced, they had a small talk section with Sanada. He asked them about working on their performances… but then called Okamoto Kauan "American." (In Japanese the word he used was exclusive for people from the Unite States). AWKWARD. Yugo jumped in like UH he's Brazillian, thank you Yugo. XD; Afterwards, they talked about the TV Asahi Summer Station attractions, and Hagiya talked about how he and Gengen went to the haunted house together. Hokuto replied that all of Team Ra had gone together, and they all agreed that it was scary. XD Hokuto also talked about how they found their own pictures on display at the Gamushara Corner of the Summer Station stuff (I'm unsure exactly where it was because I didn't go, but there was stuff around Roppongi and in the TV Asahi buildings and such.) Also, this whole time, Shintaro was encouraging Reia to take the mic and talk, which was adorable, because in my experience it seems that Reia tends to want to let other people talk, rather than take the limelight. Also, according to yomimashou, who loves both of them, Amu and Shintaro were both making weird faces form their respective sides of the stage. XD;
After that, Marius and Sou came back and performed Traffic Jam, Ame Datte, and With You, and then Team Sha had a medley, which consisted of SEISYuN performed as a solo by Jinguji, LOCK ON by Jinguji, Amu, and Tajima, sing for you by Hagiya and Gengen, and then Lips by all of Team Sha. And then of course came the Team Ra medley, which started with onedrop by the SixTONES members (joined by the others in the middle), and then… Reia's solo, Zutto LOVE!! I was so excited that I got to see Reia do a solo, especially since he, for whatever reason, didn't do his solo while I was at Crea this year, and also, he did his skateboard, which was cute. ♥ He was really perfect and adorable. After that came Kauan with Asia no Yoru, and then Kimi to no Kiseki starting with the SixTONES members again and then finishing with everyone.
Next Marius and Sou had a few more numbers; Sou performed Everybody Up! and Form, and then they everyone briefly came back for Yozora no Mukou, before Mari perofmed Sakura Saku Color and Sou and Mari performed Kono Te wo Tsunagou together. Everyone came back again for Kanzen My Way, during which Hokuto waved at me again, and Gengen also waved at my group of friends, too. He was really cute and excited, so I hope he was glad to see foreign fans. They ended with Bad Boys (what an odd song to end on) before going offstage-- unlike last year, they actually left a break before the encore, rather than having a couple people stay onstage and lead back into the "encore."
They came back and did Gamushara-ra again for the encore, and it was mostly just them running around the stage messing around and being cute. Yugo harassed Sou, messing up his hair and teasing him. It was really cute to see Yugo really going out of his way to tease everyone and make sure everyone felt included. ♥ Meanwhile, Reia had his towel tied around his head under his chin, which was odd but cute. XD;
And then last but not least, as the boys were leaving the stage, Yugo called out "Jesse!!" It turned out, Jesse was in the audience at our show, and Yugo was very excited to see him. ♥
And that was it! It was a fun show, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. In general, I hate the competitive aspect of these things, but it seemed much less tense this year, and the boys were all smiling and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm really glad that I went!
Whew! Only one more report left… that I'm definitely not getting done before JUMPing CARnival in Yokohama, OTL. Oh well… at least I won't be more behind than before… T___T;;
This isn't going to be a complete and total report because you can easily find a setlist on twitter, and things that were important to some people probably didn't stand out to me, and vice versa. I'm just going to try to write about the things that I enjoyed. If you're interested, please check under the cut!
Our seats for this show (that we actually hit for! Woo!) were in the balcony, which was really nice, because every since taking a break from Juniors as my main fandom, I'd much rather have a clear, really nice view from the balcony where I can sit during the MC and not be elbowed or have my feet stepped on, than an amazing but somewhat obstructed view from the floor where I might get injured by people pushing and stuff. We were even in the third row of the balcony, so we had a really great view.
Our view of the stage!
An interesting fact was that they finally made it such that the guys could walk easily from the stage to the side platforms, where they could wave to the people in the balcony. This was really nice, since before they could only get there by going backstage and disappearing from view for a long time. This time, they were able to take advantage of the side stages right away from the beginning, which was really nice! They performed the first few numbers, Route 17 and Boogie Woogie Cat, without much choreography, just running around the stage and the upper side stages and waving at fans and stuff, and it was nice to get to see them up close from the balcony right away! The guys were also goofing off, including Jinguji getting Amu toh hold his mic and then doing a handstand before high-fiving Amu afterwards as if to say "I'm so awesome." XD; He then glanced to where Reia was, but Reia was ignoring him… XD; There was also a cute moment early on, though, where Jinguji caught Reia's attention, and the two of them started talking and giggling about something for a moment onstage, briefly holding hands before parting ways. It was adorable.
But then Team Ra left the stage, and Team Sha performed Machikado Deep Blue, during which the members harassed Jinguji by opening his shirt on the stage. XD; Then Team Ra did Sankyuu, during which Yugo harassed Reia the whole time. It was super adorable, and he continued to grab him, tickle him, surprise hug him, shove him, etc, through the whole show. Yugo is such a good senpai; I think he probably knew that Reia would be shy around senpai like him and Hokuto, and wanted to help him feel included.
After that, they performed Gamuhara-ra, and then started into a Sexy Zone medley starting with Cha Cha Cha Champion and Otoko Never Give Up. For some reason, Shintaro didn't do the choreography a lot of the time, and just sort of randomly moved to the music… I guess they probably didn't have enough rehearsal, as usual, but I was surprised, since Shintaro is such a good dancer… I guess you can't forget he's also a teenage boy. XD;
After that was King & Queen & Joker, during which Reia got to say "Queen," which made me really happy. ♥ He was so cute and perfect. Through Sexy Summer, Baibai Dubai, and Real Sexy, various guys came up on the side stages and waved to the fans in the balcony, which was nice. I'm pretty sure Hokuto saw me, and was really awkward, waving and, when I didn't realize it was me right away, pointing and waving more insistently. XD; He's so cutely awkward. After that came Lady Diamond and Sexy Zone, and everyone regrouped to do the choreography, and then the medley finished with Kimi ni Hitomebore.
After the Sexy Zone Medley, Team Sha performed Lost My Way, and then Team Ra performed Butsukacchau Yo! Yugo was particularly cute with Reia during this; since the song is called "I'll knock you down" essentially, he kept trying to knock Reia down in various ways. XD; Hokuto joined in and teamed up with Yugo against Reia sometimes, and Reia couldn't help but laugh the whole time. It was really cute. Yugo also took some time to tease various backup juniors, and even offer them the mic, to get them attention, which was really cute and sweet. He really is such a good senpai. Also, I forget when, exactly, but Team Ra had some costumes that were divided by SixTONES members and non-SixTONES members, which was a little weird, since they're one team, but nice, because… SixTONES.
Also through the whole time, Gengen really needed to put his hiprolls away. I know they happened during Lost My Way, but also just throughout the whole time. He needs to stop growing up and go back to being a cute baby ;__; Last time I checked he was 14, what is even going on. According to various tweets my friends have shown me, Japanese fans are also distressed by this fact. XD;
After that, Marius had a rather long solo corner, first singing Ame ni Utaeba, then Knock Knock Knock. During Knock Knock Knock, Marius was singing over the original recording of the song, where his voice was a tiny baby voice. |D;;; It was pretty ridiculous. Also, he did Super Delicate with choreography that was slightly off the actual choreo? Not sure if this was a mistake or intentional. XD; And then Sou did Parade as his solo, which was a much shorter solo corner than Marius, because of course even in this someone has to be getting the short end of the stick. =__= But both of them are so talented and their performance was so good, and I was so proud watching how much they've grown. ;__; They really are amazing performers.
They all came back to perform Suki Sugite, before it was time for the MC and performance battle. Sanada Yuma showed up to help with this whole segment, and had a cute teasing talk section with Marius. They talked about Fuma, and Marius said that Fuma was his Nii-chan… and then blushed XD Sanada pointed out that he was blushing, and asked if Marius got embarrassed easily, and Marius said "I often get embarrassed by things I say myself." XD; Poor Marius… think before you speak! XD;
Last year, the scoreboard was a really crappy magnet cardboard thing that kept falling apart during the show, but this year, they had a computerized scoreboard that they could display on the big screen on the stage. They showed how Ra was losing, and Sha was doing well, then announced the start of the performance battle!
Up first was a VTR, and then team Ra! They had some misses, but their performance was really impressive! I think it was just as good as last year, and the dance and double-dutch were well integrated. Reia was super cute, even though clearly double-dutch wasn't his strong suit. Also their blue Ra costumes were adorable, especially Reia's. I'm sure it's been on the TV show at this point, and I know it's been in magazines, but I really, really liked Reia's outfit~
Then it was time for Team Sha! They didn't make very many mitakes, but I really didn't think their performance was as fun or exciting as last year's. It just struck me as… them playing some drums onstage? I'm sure they were working really hard, but as someone who doesn't know much about drums, I couldn't really tell just how hard it was. They did it very well and cleanly, though! But I enjoyed Ra's performance more, personally.
After that it was time to vote! After the screaming, the decibels were tied at 115, but then Ra won by the Junior vote!! ♥ I was really happy… even Johnny's clearly does rig these things to some extent, I thought Ra deserved it. ♥
Once the results were announced, they had a small talk section with Sanada. He asked them about working on their performances… but then called Okamoto Kauan "American." (In Japanese the word he used was exclusive for people from the Unite States). AWKWARD. Yugo jumped in like UH he's Brazillian, thank you Yugo. XD; Afterwards, they talked about the TV Asahi Summer Station attractions, and Hagiya talked about how he and Gengen went to the haunted house together. Hokuto replied that all of Team Ra had gone together, and they all agreed that it was scary. XD Hokuto also talked about how they found their own pictures on display at the Gamushara Corner of the Summer Station stuff (I'm unsure exactly where it was because I didn't go, but there was stuff around Roppongi and in the TV Asahi buildings and such.) Also, this whole time, Shintaro was encouraging Reia to take the mic and talk, which was adorable, because in my experience it seems that Reia tends to want to let other people talk, rather than take the limelight. Also, according to yomimashou, who loves both of them, Amu and Shintaro were both making weird faces form their respective sides of the stage. XD;
After that, Marius and Sou came back and performed Traffic Jam, Ame Datte, and With You, and then Team Sha had a medley, which consisted of SEISYuN performed as a solo by Jinguji, LOCK ON by Jinguji, Amu, and Tajima, sing for you by Hagiya and Gengen, and then Lips by all of Team Sha. And then of course came the Team Ra medley, which started with onedrop by the SixTONES members (joined by the others in the middle), and then… Reia's solo, Zutto LOVE!! I was so excited that I got to see Reia do a solo, especially since he, for whatever reason, didn't do his solo while I was at Crea this year, and also, he did his skateboard, which was cute. ♥ He was really perfect and adorable. After that came Kauan with Asia no Yoru, and then Kimi to no Kiseki starting with the SixTONES members again and then finishing with everyone.
Next Marius and Sou had a few more numbers; Sou performed Everybody Up! and Form, and then they everyone briefly came back for Yozora no Mukou, before Mari perofmed Sakura Saku Color and Sou and Mari performed Kono Te wo Tsunagou together. Everyone came back again for Kanzen My Way, during which Hokuto waved at me again, and Gengen also waved at my group of friends, too. He was really cute and excited, so I hope he was glad to see foreign fans. They ended with Bad Boys (what an odd song to end on) before going offstage-- unlike last year, they actually left a break before the encore, rather than having a couple people stay onstage and lead back into the "encore."
They came back and did Gamushara-ra again for the encore, and it was mostly just them running around the stage messing around and being cute. Yugo harassed Sou, messing up his hair and teasing him. It was really cute to see Yugo really going out of his way to tease everyone and make sure everyone felt included. ♥ Meanwhile, Reia had his towel tied around his head under his chin, which was odd but cute. XD;
And then last but not least, as the boys were leaving the stage, Yugo called out "Jesse!!" It turned out, Jesse was in the audience at our show, and Yugo was very excited to see him. ♥
And that was it! It was a fun show, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. In general, I hate the competitive aspect of these things, but it seemed much less tense this year, and the boys were all smiling and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm really glad that I went!
Whew! Only one more report left… that I'm definitely not getting done before JUMPing CARnival in Yokohama, OTL. Oh well… at least I won't be more behind than before… T___T;;