Glee Event @ Shinjuku
Today they had a Glee "private showing" at Shinjuku's Meiji Yasuda Seimei Hall as celebration of the Japanese DVD release (Jan 7th 2011). You need to register and hope you get chosen by lottery for an invitation to this event, so I applied at all 3-4 different venues that offered invitations.
I funnily won twice, and received 4 invitations in total so I brought jen_kat and 2 friends from school along with me. XD;
The event started with greetings by the chairman, Sascha Boeckle (found out through twitter) and Becky, the official "Glee cheerleader" in Japan. I'm confused on what's her purpose here but I guess it's Japan's way of promoting foreign TV shows here by using popular idols. And then it turns out our surprise guest for the event is the geinin duo "Hibiki" (the left two) who are part of the "cheering party" for Glee. I really don't get why they can't get Charice as a guest considering she IS in Japan right now doing her concert tour but I guess these Japanese celebrities are just here to expose the show more towards the Japan public.
They then showed a trailer of the show as an introduction (the short trailer that's on the official site) and then a "publicity report" video, which is a trailer showcasing the whole Glee phenomenon that's happening around the world (their award sweeps, huge fan reactions on TV shows and events, the flash mobs, their live performances at the White House, Super Bowl, concert tours, etc). This video is new to me and it made me so happy and proud to watch it because it reminded me of this fanmade tribute video. :)
They also had exclusive video messages by Lea Michele (who was wearing a very nice green blouse I haven't seen her wear before, but the background of the video is the usual library setting they have in their BTS/interview videos) and Matthew Morrison that were specifically for Becky herself. Matt greeted with "Sumimasen" (Excuse me) so that was awkward and the Japanese idols jokingly commented on that. XD But when Matt said "can't wait to see you all in Japan!" I was screaming in the inside thinking "I HOPE HE'S HINTING THAT THE GLEE CASTS WILL BE VISITING JAPAN IN THE FUTURE."
We then had a game of jankenpon with the whole audience against the 3 celebs, but with scissors being replaced by the "Glee sign" (the L sign). XD My friends and I lost, sob, and the remaining 17 winners each got a free Glee t-shirt! After they're done with some talks, they took photos with the audience crowd for the presses, gave some last words and then left.
Finally they showed the first two episodes of season 1 with Japanese subtitles. The sound system was very good but too bad the video's a bit blurry on the big cinema screen. Still, it's my first time watching Glee with this many amount of Gleeks under the same roof, so it was a fun experience to be able to watch and laugh in a huge crowd. :) There was a middle-aged American man among the audiences today and I think it was him that always laughed at the jokes that were lost in the translation when nobody else laughs (which is half of Sue's lines, sadly).
That's pretty much it. Once episode 2 ended, the lights turned on and that's the end. Although Jen's already following the series, it was the first time for my other 2 friends to watch Glee and they seem impressed, so I'm glad they enjoyed the show and hope everyone else in the hall did too. :) Here's to hoping Glee's DVD rental/sales will be good and the fanbase will grow a bit here. I really think it's something Japan can enjoy too.
Here are online articles on the event along with some photos:
http://www.tvgroove.com/news/article/ctg/2/nid/4198.html
http://eiga.com/news/20101224/22/