New York Hoshigumi Live 2011 Review (Part 3 FINAL)
Hahaha yup there's part 3 eventhough there's no Act 3
HOSHIGUMI CAMERA
It contained the usual backstage/rehearsal footage, which for me is one of the fun thing about SakuTai DVD releases. The CAMERA started with the very first actual meeting (July 3rd - yup, less than a month), with Subaru holding the camera and showing each cast including the guests Ratchet, Reni and Orihime. Subaru took the camera a lot, and she even has her own 5 part 'Catering Corner' where she viewed the foods served during the rehearsals (the taiyaki, and Rika's grandma's cooking looked very yummy). It's surprising to see that the girls haven't actually knew their new songs until the middle of the rehearsals schedules, this can be seen by them doing choreo for the songs, while other (unknown) singer are singing in the background. Later on, Sagiitta, Diana and Rika and also Shinjirou was musically coached by Kouhei-sensei regarding the new songs. WOW! At one time, Sagiitta and Diana didn't come to the choreo rehearsal, so Rika rehearsad alone with the dancer to thae song "Koibana", while Subaru and Gemini took over Diana and Sagiitta's singing part respectively in the background. It's fun to see them acting out as other characters hahaha.
Orihime got more spotlight compared to the other Europe Hoshigumi. She even took the camera, and it was fun to see her face popped up once in a while in the bottom right corner. Too bad no Reni for the camera role though. At one time, Orihime, Reni and Futaba wore a matching zebra clothes, and all the dancers took their photo together. Speaking of the dancers, the cast celebrated the birthday of one of them. There were 2 new dancers in the team, and one of it was even younger than Rika (though she looked older). Rika said that in this show, she finally became 'ONEESAN' (big sister), because she always been the youngest cast in the group. Oh, and they also celebrated Orihime's (character) birthday and Maya-san looked so moved.
There were also footage from behind the stage during the actual show. The hairdresser (along with the help of the other cast) handled Sagiitta's hair during the song "Kokoro no Oki Basho" cause earlier when the song started, she let it loose to reveal her long hair. There were one girl talk part as well, after the show, where Gemini (who's apparently clumsy in real life), did a mistake in counting the number of person in the wardrobe. Later Nakayama (SEGA) came to gave each of them the Pamphlet of the show. Redberry also appeared, because she was also the secret guest in the Senshuuraku. The CAMERA ended with the end of the senshuuraku.
SENSHUURAKU (Last Show)
This one can be found in the 2nd disc, and the duration is almost half of the actual show hahaha. There were plenty of adlibs during this final show, and it was awesome, I laughed heartlity through them all. The footage started with each cast coming to the theatre and giving their thoughts about the last day. After that, Dandy Dan and Kouhei-sensei came out to greet the guest who was already lining up to enter the theatre.
Instead of Plum, Anri and Futaba, Dandy Dan took the 'MAESETSU' part. Pero is the 'troublemaker' part to fill in for Futaba. At one part, Dandy Boss messed up by saying 'Hanagumi'... the crowd went laughing, and he then turned back toward the stage (the Star Five was already preparing for the opening number there) and bowed to apologize. They taught the audience how to use the SAIRIUM (okay, how do I write it in English? o_O) and eventually throw the one they held to the audience hahaha (Nishimura ran to give one to a little girl ~so sweet~). That act extended the senshuuraku for 3 minutes.
Lassie-sensei did a different 'UP' pose in this last show. Reni and Ratchet (who is wearing regular clothes but with her wig on) thanked the audience for the plenty flower bouquets. They went out during the show to check them all. During "Dandy", instead of Boss only, Takeda and Nishimura also took out red roses from their pocket, and before they left the stage, they threw them to the audience. Orihime and Reni copied Rika's cute gesture during their introduction scene XD. Redberry made her surprise appearance during the song "BaraIro no Jinsei", shocking the audience with her Tsundere attitude. Before the song started, the Star Five played around with Noco (Subaru's leading of course XD) on the right stage during the 'serious talk' between Sunny, Shinjirou and One Pair (left stage). The audience were distracted and they laughed instead of listening to the important dialogue hahaha. Especially when Subaru put Noco on top of his head while looking puzzled. Futaba and Lassie-sensei came out instead of Takeda during the 3-Minute Shopping. They promoted the Star Five folding fan, and also the Opera Binocular and told the audience to bring those at the October Budoukan show. Shinjirou sang a shaky "Chijou no Senshi" when he was teaching the audience the chore pose, and everyone laughed.
Sunny, Dandy Boss and Nishimura played a prank on Takeda after "Golden Way". Sunny was supposed to stay on stage and forgive Takeda after Dandy Boss begged him to mind Takeda's laziness. In the Senshuuraku, Sunny actually left the stage, prompting major shock to Takeda (who obviously didn't see it coming). Boss and Nishimura left the stage as well, further confusing Pero. Pero was very confused on stage, he panicked because he didn't know how to adlib, and everyone laughed. Another Pero-Prank well done said Boss and Nishimura backstage (they did this many many times on the previous shows) ahahaha. Oh yeah, before Boss left to Tokyo, he showed the audience that he's using the Star Five folding fan instead of his usual one. Dandy Boss managed to get a souvenir after all hahaha.
During the talk between Shinjirou and the Star Five (after he sang his solo), the Star Five did their 'YABOOO' skit one after another (and urged the hesitated Subaru as well). I forgot to mention about this skit, it was done by Plum and Anri during the early 'MAESETSU', after Futaba joked. YABOOO came from Yaboten which means tasteless, boorish, or dumb XD. This skit is actually the trademark of this show, and they continued it on the Budoukan later on. Futaba went into daydream mode when Sunny told her she's too young to be grandma, and started flirting the scared looking Sunny instead hahaha. During the song "Symphony with Friends", Redberry and Dandy Dan visit the audience on the 2nd floor and asked them to join along. These audience looke more enthusiast compared to the 1st floored, and they didn't get this visit from the cast on the earlier shows.
Before the final curtain call, Gemini introduced each dancers one by one. Each character also had longer ending speech. Orihime was very glad she was able to make it to this show after her long hiatus, she said that under the same sky she always think about the Sakura Taisen world, and during this show she always felt anxious. Reni pronounced her full name like she always did on the last shows. She called upon Ratchet and Subaru and thanked them for finally able to meet and sing together. She then followed, of course with Orihime too (did you forgot about me? asked Orihime hahaha). She thanked the NYKD, and followed, of course Dandy Dan too XD. Finally she said "Liebe ist Alles" from the Europe Hoshigumi song, which means Everything For Love (Ai Koso Subete). During the Dandy Dan part, Boss called Nishimura (who had to cross the stage from left to right) to join them, and announced eventhough Pero is no longer with them, Dandy Dan will live on. Nishimura said that he felt bad losing his 'cute little brother' (audience laughed for sure), but their bond will live on (even after 9 previous shows together) Pero shouted, "Dandy Dan FOREVER". They kept teasing Pero all the way. Nishimura returned to the left stage passing everyone else through the back. Lassie-sensei also thanks the warm welcome for the their danced routine (he's the show main choreographer after all). Futaba said SHIN-KUN-MAMA would never let go her future bride for Shinjirou hahaha. Plum and Anri ended their speech with 'Chuuuu'. The 3 looked forward for the Budoukan rendezvous with fans. Anri in particular loved 'YABOOO'ing with everyone. Sunny sang an old love song, and invited the audience to meet again in the Budoukan, 'Chuuu' as well. Shinjirou thanked for his solo song, that now he's now at he same level at Uncle Oogami hahaha. Subaru made a quite long and touching speech, she thanked her opportunity for being able to stand in two Hoshigumi at the same time. She treasured this show so much. Her speech moved the others as well. Diana talked about the many and different love she felt in this show, and wished everyone to have lots of love as well. Rika said she's actually felt very afraid all the time, but she had a great time and feel happy. Rika sounded very very cute in this part. Sagiitta did Gemini's 'Nanchite Nanchite' skit after doing her cool talk, prompting the audience and the other cast (especially Reni) to laugh out loud. Gemini said she was happy when they finally have a live, after their duet show with Paris Hanagumi the previous year. She then invited everyone to Budoukan, cause it's definitely not a 'Nanchite Nanchite'. Redberry showed up during "Chijou no Senshi", afterward Sagiitta and Rika brought camera to shoot the audience. Gemini thanked Ban Mariko (choreo), Ouji Hiroi, Kouhei-sensei, and producer Masaki Nakayama (from SEGA) as well. She forgot Nakayama-san's first name XD, and mistakenly said it as Misaki instead of Masaki. They eventually brought (forced to be honest) Kouhei-sensei and the very nervous Nakayama-san to stage. Nakayama was tapping with CAMERA as well. Each cast said their farewells to the camera in the backstage for the DVD viewers as usual. Unlike previous shows, this one had less teary parts, since they are happy and looking forward to Budoukan instead. At the end, Plum, Anri, Reni and the tsundere Redberry YABOOO-ed off camera XD
Oh yes, I forgot... there's the less-than-6-minutes SUNNY SURPRISE part on the 1st Disc as well. It contains:
1. Sunny greeting the audience lining up without his wig on, and bumped into a Sunny cosplayer. He also hugged several audience.
2. Orihime bursting out to the audience enthusiatically saying 'It's been a while'.
3. Sagiitta did her mistake on "Kiss Me Sweet" (is it actually Sunny's trap?), because the music actually started late and the Star Five paused confusedly after "5tsu no Recipee". She then asked the audience to keep her 'sin' a secret for themselves during the ending speech, and said that the next day will be PERFECT.
4. Rika dropped Noco from her shoulder while performing "Bara Iro no Jinsei" as she climbed the stairs, and Sagiitta helped her to pick Noco up. Rika ended up holding Noco in her grip afterwards XD.
The 1st Disc also contains the audio commentary by 4 teams (named after the trump card symbol). I haven't heard it yet, probably later on...
...
Yup, this's why I need to have part 3, because the additional bonus movie is long as well. Overall, I really REALLY enjoyed the show, and this DVD is worth buying. This is better than the previous 3 New York shows. Apart from that, it's still not perfect. I wished they would've hired those 2 male dancer as well (I never know their names, but one of them is Hikaru-san - the cool guy one). Maya-san's Orihime make up looked kinda weird, and made her looked fatter instead of her usual self (from the Hoshigumi Camera). Reni somehow lacked screentime, whether in the show or in the Hoshigumi Camera, and several performance are shaky. But nonetheless, it's a great show! Highly recommended!
That's all for my trilogy review... I hope you didn't mind reading such long posts... and pardon for any (cause I'm sure there are lots of it) grammatical error or typhos everywhere. I'm simply too lazy to re-read and do any corrections or even thorough re-check. So.. enjoy the show! ^^
THE END
Oh... not yet, I'll be posting the lyrics for the new songs later on. I've finished transliterating them since yesterday's afternoon. Different post then... hahaha
Bye now!