Gackt RRII FINAL report, Osaka-jo Hall 20/06/09
Previous reports:
RRII, standing, Hiroshima 17+18/01/09
RRII, premium seat, Yonago 22/03/09
And I recommend you read sankakukoen's report of the same live here for more details of the MCs and other awesomeness! ♥
So, for this concert I ended up getting the tour pack, because I failed on both the Dears ticket lottery AND the Lawson ticket lottery... but it worked out really well. A week before the concert, this came:
And I was informed I'd be staying in a hotel in Shinsaibashi (which, despite their claims, I would not agree was all that close to the concert venue :p), but, it was lovely. I made it to Osaka for about 12.30, and then hung around killing time until I was able to go and check in at around 2.30. The hotel!
It was easy to tell who else was there for the concert, since most fans seemed to have the black leather bracelets from the previous dates, haha. Made it to my room and found...
So now I have another addition to my Big And Awkward Gackt Boxes collection. It's really lovely though. Got changed, made sure I had everything and then taxi'd it to the venue - for there for around 3.15, and there were already so many people there! Went straight for the merchandise stall, but of course all the cat paws had already sold out :( but not many people even seemed to have them during the concert, so there can't have been a lot of them to start with.
Queues at the merchandise stall.
My purchases :) See at the end for sticker details! Also, got you the keitai strap, karadin~
The picture book is beautiful, as evidenced by the crayon script on the cover, it's written almost fairy-tale style in a simple way. And thus has furigana over all the kanji, which I certainly appreciate :p The tour t-shirt pack is awesome, and the stickers... well. I think Gackt must have made back the cost of the tour on STICKERS ALONE. It's a new selection of stickers for RRII Final - there's 100 different ones, and of course it's random. And each sticker costs 200yen. Some people were buying ridiculous amounts! I only got fifteen, because... well. 3000 yen on stickers was quite enough for me.
After that was just more hanging around until the doors opened - it was kind of funny seeing the western tourists who'd obviously just come to see the castle and park stumble upon this huge gathering of weirdly dressed fans, they just seemed so bemused. As usual there were loads of cosplays, lolita, and this time around - ageha girls! There was a big group near me, but I didn't manage to get a picture.
Everyone was standing around opening their stickers :D
At five (shockingly on time!) they let us into the hall - as always, photos were forbidden and they searched bags for cameras (though not very well) and they had people with huge signs wandering around inside telling us all, again, that it's forbidden. But I did get this:
So you can roughly see my placement, and where the stage is. The arena was massive and in total seated over 10,000 people. And it shows again how polite Japanese fans are - look at how flimsy the chairs are! But everyone stayed exactly in place, no-one tried to move forward or go where they shouldn't. The stage was HUGE. And of course had a big video screen on each side.
You can also maybe see from the picture above that I was only the front row of my section; that is, there was a kind of corridor between the seats in front of me, which a) made it nice and roomy and b) meant there was no-one standing right in front of my to block my view. Yay! Also, during the concert an official guy with a video camera would come along and tape us, which was a bit weird.
The atmosphere was really amazing, everyone was so excited! Just before it started we all broke out the glowsticks that were on sale at the merchandise stall:
I think at least one in every two people had these, so the effect was brilliant. Overall, the performances were much the same as in the smaller venues but with fancier lighting and more soldiers, except, of course... for the PYROTECHNICS ♥ Gackt was a little late starting, but better than usual!
Because Jesus and Uncontrol had dark lighting, the glow sticks were at their best for these songs :D (for the 'hey!'s in Jesus, and the chorus in Uncontrol, it was perfect!) Then came three of the songs that haven't been released yet - Suddenly (which I adore), No Reason and In Flames (which is one of my overall favourites of the new stuff).
Naturally, it was during In Flames that the pyrotechnics started! There were eight torches in total positioned around the stage, and it was kind of insane. They must have leapt up to around six meters high! It was really hot in the venue anyway because it's horrible humid Japanese summer time, plus concert, but while they used the fire you could feel the temperature go up even more. I have no idea how they could stand it on the stage, it must have been hell (especially in those uniforms!) It's a miracle they didn't collapse from heat exhaustion, seriously... it looked extremely impressive though.
As always, the highlight of the concert was Gackt and You's violin duet - which in a way was even more amazing this time because it was just the two of them on such a huge stage, with the moon projected behind them and a single light shining down. So beautiful ♥ Also, the SHEER SILENCE in a venue of that size during Sayonara was unbelievable.
Then it was time for Ghost, and - were the dancers always unmasked? I swear previously you couldn't see their faces... or maybe I just noticed them more this time because one of them was a blond guy with really fluffy hair, he stood out a bit. :p The pyrotechnics also made another appearance. Of course following that there was Blue Lagoon and then Oblivious, one of my other favourites of this tour ♥
The interval movie gave a welcome chance to sit down, because I'd had the bright idea of wearing big heels so I'd be able to see over people. I don't regret it, because it did help, but... ouch. Standing up for almost eight hours straight = pain.
Afterwards they burst on after their big costume change for My Father's Day, which is such a wonderful song, and you can tell Gackt gets really emotional singing it :') For some reason, for the arena tour Gackt has chosen to wear a red tartan shirt over his t-shirt! It's bizarrely cute.
(At this point I'd also like to point out that the flags they wear on their belts during this section are NOT swastikas, they're very clearly the red/black/white cross scarves you can buy from the merchandise stall.)
The screams for Mirror went on foreverrrrrrr :D but it was funny, Gackt kept trying to outdo us for who could scream the longest, I swear he managed to hold his 'kikoemaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen' for like twenty seconds, it was scarily impressive. The crowd singback during Mirror was a bit disappointing (I thought), though everyone made up for it later :)
The okaeri/tadaima section was amazing with so many people! Though also frustrating, because he spent AGES getting the different section of nikai to do it, competing against each other, but completely ignored us on the arena floor on purpose :p and then pretended he was going to finish ;_; but when we finally got to do it we were louder than the entirety of nikai, and got a 'yaru na' from Gackt, haha.
During the Mirror screambacks he kept questioning our kiai, because it's impossible to scream loud enough for Gackt ;) He also got the men to do their own calls, which was pretty impressive! There were two young guys on the row in front of me who'd come together, they were quite awesome and really into it, one of them especially was dancing like crazy through the later songs (which made me feel less weird, I was between two middle-aged ladies who weren't very energetic) :p
Then he talked for a bit about how the band is his family, and how when people don't really know Gackt they're always like, "what, he has a band?!", and that it's not just him. He also mocked his own super-serious acting in the movies, "ore wa... dare da?!" (which was really cute) and the set-up of the whole thing, "is it a film?! is it a concert?!" because everyone was sat quietly during the film an clapped politely at the end :p
He also kept suddenly turning around with a cute 'arigato!' and peace sign, much like in this gif, just for reference ;)
(made by dominique_katze!)
When it moved onto the member introductions he talked about how the band members always complained it left them with no voice the next day, because he makes them do it without a microphone :p Jun-ji's intro was fun, he managed to get everyone clapping a rhythm and screaming his name. Chirolyn's was amusing, obviously he's taken over from Ju-ken so Gackt gave him a little into and said he had a passionate heart. But Chirolyn kept trying to be really over-the-top manly, so whenever he took a deep breath before shouting, someone would shout into the silence, "cuuuute!", and he'd have to start again :p
Then of course Chacha~ who Gackt introduced as "Chacha oba-san", haha (poor guy, the mother of the band). ♥♥♥ (then someone shouted out, 'mamaaa!') and Gackt talked about how Chacha had been with him since the beginning. Then You, but... nothing that interesting happened so I don't really remember, sorry You fans. And then Gackt, but he talked about himself in the third person a lot and I only understood some of it. :( But he did his own shouting without a microphone, and I have no idea how he can do these concerts and still have a voice at the end of it, with this and the callbacks during Mirror and the MC.
When it was his turn to shout without the microphone, he kept pretending to get annoyed because he wanted silence, but whenever he took a deep breath someone would yell that he was cute and ruin it, so he just eventually kept saying, "it's not cute, be quiet!" (with only a little success :D)
Then it was the amazing trio of U+K, Koakuma Heaven and Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped, during which everyone danced insanely and almost collapsed from heat exhaustion :D Before U+K Gackt had a tray of cat paws brought to him, and threw them to the crowd! During U+K we got to do another singback, and this one was amazing - Gackt looked so so happy :) Koakuma Heaven seemed to have a lot more glitter than usual, and at the end of PLAPL there was extra guitar that made it sound like they were going to burst into Lu:Na, but they didn't :(
And I have to say, there is something very, very special about 10,000 people all doing the stupid U+K dance, it was awesome.
Then it was Faraway with all the hand-towel twirling - and this time because there were side screens, they had cat paws clapping to demonstrate when the crowd should clap. Unfortunately this was REALLY CONFUSING, because for the first half of the song it was totally out of sync. Really fun though. Next was Flower, and the fire came back, great song.
For some reason, when he sang Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru Koto he put on that weird nasal voice he sometimes does... I'm not sure why, as he didn't for any of the previous performances, but, yeah. It lessened as the song went on though. Still brilliant, and everyone was so involved. I was a bit too far back to get any of the silver streamers this time, since they're fired from the front.
Lost Angels was, as always, a beautiful finish, really dramatic, and it was another good song for the glowsticks :p
And then, the final movie.
Overall it was a completely different experience to the other concerts - and even though I was further away, it was probably the most fun after the concert with my premium seat (well, obviously). Even though I loved the intimacy of the smaller venues, the atmosphere of this one was just incredible, and even though it was so BIG, it still felt really... together? Which is mostly down to Gackt and the way he talks to the crowd, and really does make everyone feel involved. As does the fact that everyone knows all the dances for the different songs, haha. He talked a lot more this time, so the concert stretched to over four hours! I really wish I could remember more of what he said, but I'm always in a daze even though I tried to make notes as soon as I got back.
It also made a difference, I think, now more of the songs are released so everyone knows them well. Being able to sing along was a lot of fun.
I was ridiculously dehydrated afterwards as I hadn't been drinking so I wouldn't need to go out partway through, but with the heat... not such a good plan.
And I feel I must reiterate: Gackt doing all that singing, dancing and screaming in heavy costumes plus fire for FOUR HOURS = he is a miracle. I have no idea how he does it, and yet is still always so genuinely happy and excited every time. ♥
Goodbye, Osaka-jo hall!
Finally, the stickers I got:
I got a good selection, and not even any repeats. :)
I also got what (I think) is the CUTEST OUT OF ALL 100 STICKERS. (I like the ones where he's being silly much better than the 'in-character' ones)
THE END!
RRII, standing, Hiroshima 17+18/01/09
RRII, premium seat, Yonago 22/03/09
And I recommend you read sankakukoen's report of the same live here for more details of the MCs and other awesomeness! ♥
So, for this concert I ended up getting the tour pack, because I failed on both the Dears ticket lottery AND the Lawson ticket lottery... but it worked out really well. A week before the concert, this came:
And I was informed I'd be staying in a hotel in Shinsaibashi (which, despite their claims, I would not agree was all that close to the concert venue :p), but, it was lovely. I made it to Osaka for about 12.30, and then hung around killing time until I was able to go and check in at around 2.30. The hotel!
It was easy to tell who else was there for the concert, since most fans seemed to have the black leather bracelets from the previous dates, haha. Made it to my room and found...
So now I have another addition to my Big And Awkward Gackt Boxes collection. It's really lovely though. Got changed, made sure I had everything and then taxi'd it to the venue - for there for around 3.15, and there were already so many people there! Went straight for the merchandise stall, but of course all the cat paws had already sold out :( but not many people even seemed to have them during the concert, so there can't have been a lot of them to start with.
Queues at the merchandise stall.
My purchases :) See at the end for sticker details! Also, got you the keitai strap, karadin~
The picture book is beautiful, as evidenced by the crayon script on the cover, it's written almost fairy-tale style in a simple way. And thus has furigana over all the kanji, which I certainly appreciate :p The tour t-shirt pack is awesome, and the stickers... well. I think Gackt must have made back the cost of the tour on STICKERS ALONE. It's a new selection of stickers for RRII Final - there's 100 different ones, and of course it's random. And each sticker costs 200yen. Some people were buying ridiculous amounts! I only got fifteen, because... well. 3000 yen on stickers was quite enough for me.
After that was just more hanging around until the doors opened - it was kind of funny seeing the western tourists who'd obviously just come to see the castle and park stumble upon this huge gathering of weirdly dressed fans, they just seemed so bemused. As usual there were loads of cosplays, lolita, and this time around - ageha girls! There was a big group near me, but I didn't manage to get a picture.
Everyone was standing around opening their stickers :D
At five (shockingly on time!) they let us into the hall - as always, photos were forbidden and they searched bags for cameras (though not very well) and they had people with huge signs wandering around inside telling us all, again, that it's forbidden. But I did get this:
So you can roughly see my placement, and where the stage is. The arena was massive and in total seated over 10,000 people. And it shows again how polite Japanese fans are - look at how flimsy the chairs are! But everyone stayed exactly in place, no-one tried to move forward or go where they shouldn't. The stage was HUGE. And of course had a big video screen on each side.
You can also maybe see from the picture above that I was only the front row of my section; that is, there was a kind of corridor between the seats in front of me, which a) made it nice and roomy and b) meant there was no-one standing right in front of my to block my view. Yay! Also, during the concert an official guy with a video camera would come along and tape us, which was a bit weird.
The atmosphere was really amazing, everyone was so excited! Just before it started we all broke out the glowsticks that were on sale at the merchandise stall:
I think at least one in every two people had these, so the effect was brilliant. Overall, the performances were much the same as in the smaller venues but with fancier lighting and more soldiers, except, of course... for the PYROTECHNICS ♥ Gackt was a little late starting, but better than usual!
Because Jesus and Uncontrol had dark lighting, the glow sticks were at their best for these songs :D (for the 'hey!'s in Jesus, and the chorus in Uncontrol, it was perfect!) Then came three of the songs that haven't been released yet - Suddenly (which I adore), No Reason and In Flames (which is one of my overall favourites of the new stuff).
Naturally, it was during In Flames that the pyrotechnics started! There were eight torches in total positioned around the stage, and it was kind of insane. They must have leapt up to around six meters high! It was really hot in the venue anyway because it's horrible humid Japanese summer time, plus concert, but while they used the fire you could feel the temperature go up even more. I have no idea how they could stand it on the stage, it must have been hell (especially in those uniforms!) It's a miracle they didn't collapse from heat exhaustion, seriously... it looked extremely impressive though.
As always, the highlight of the concert was Gackt and You's violin duet - which in a way was even more amazing this time because it was just the two of them on such a huge stage, with the moon projected behind them and a single light shining down. So beautiful ♥ Also, the SHEER SILENCE in a venue of that size during Sayonara was unbelievable.
Then it was time for Ghost, and - were the dancers always unmasked? I swear previously you couldn't see their faces... or maybe I just noticed them more this time because one of them was a blond guy with really fluffy hair, he stood out a bit. :p The pyrotechnics also made another appearance. Of course following that there was Blue Lagoon and then Oblivious, one of my other favourites of this tour ♥
The interval movie gave a welcome chance to sit down, because I'd had the bright idea of wearing big heels so I'd be able to see over people. I don't regret it, because it did help, but... ouch. Standing up for almost eight hours straight = pain.
Afterwards they burst on after their big costume change for My Father's Day, which is such a wonderful song, and you can tell Gackt gets really emotional singing it :') For some reason, for the arena tour Gackt has chosen to wear a red tartan shirt over his t-shirt! It's bizarrely cute.
(At this point I'd also like to point out that the flags they wear on their belts during this section are NOT swastikas, they're very clearly the red/black/white cross scarves you can buy from the merchandise stall.)
The screams for Mirror went on foreverrrrrrr :D but it was funny, Gackt kept trying to outdo us for who could scream the longest, I swear he managed to hold his 'kikoemaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen' for like twenty seconds, it was scarily impressive. The crowd singback during Mirror was a bit disappointing (I thought), though everyone made up for it later :)
The okaeri/tadaima section was amazing with so many people! Though also frustrating, because he spent AGES getting the different section of nikai to do it, competing against each other, but completely ignored us on the arena floor on purpose :p and then pretended he was going to finish ;_; but when we finally got to do it we were louder than the entirety of nikai, and got a 'yaru na' from Gackt, haha.
During the Mirror screambacks he kept questioning our kiai, because it's impossible to scream loud enough for Gackt ;) He also got the men to do their own calls, which was pretty impressive! There were two young guys on the row in front of me who'd come together, they were quite awesome and really into it, one of them especially was dancing like crazy through the later songs (which made me feel less weird, I was between two middle-aged ladies who weren't very energetic) :p
Then he talked for a bit about how the band is his family, and how when people don't really know Gackt they're always like, "what, he has a band?!", and that it's not just him. He also mocked his own super-serious acting in the movies, "ore wa... dare da?!" (which was really cute) and the set-up of the whole thing, "is it a film?! is it a concert?!" because everyone was sat quietly during the film an clapped politely at the end :p
He also kept suddenly turning around with a cute 'arigato!' and peace sign, much like in this gif, just for reference ;)
(made by dominique_katze!)
When it moved onto the member introductions he talked about how the band members always complained it left them with no voice the next day, because he makes them do it without a microphone :p Jun-ji's intro was fun, he managed to get everyone clapping a rhythm and screaming his name. Chirolyn's was amusing, obviously he's taken over from Ju-ken so Gackt gave him a little into and said he had a passionate heart. But Chirolyn kept trying to be really over-the-top manly, so whenever he took a deep breath before shouting, someone would shout into the silence, "cuuuute!", and he'd have to start again :p
Then of course Chacha~ who Gackt introduced as "Chacha oba-san", haha (poor guy, the mother of the band). ♥♥♥ (then someone shouted out, 'mamaaa!') and Gackt talked about how Chacha had been with him since the beginning. Then You, but... nothing that interesting happened so I don't really remember, sorry You fans. And then Gackt, but he talked about himself in the third person a lot and I only understood some of it. :( But he did his own shouting without a microphone, and I have no idea how he can do these concerts and still have a voice at the end of it, with this and the callbacks during Mirror and the MC.
When it was his turn to shout without the microphone, he kept pretending to get annoyed because he wanted silence, but whenever he took a deep breath someone would yell that he was cute and ruin it, so he just eventually kept saying, "it's not cute, be quiet!" (with only a little success :D)
Then it was the amazing trio of U+K, Koakuma Heaven and Papa Lapped a Pap Lopped, during which everyone danced insanely and almost collapsed from heat exhaustion :D Before U+K Gackt had a tray of cat paws brought to him, and threw them to the crowd! During U+K we got to do another singback, and this one was amazing - Gackt looked so so happy :) Koakuma Heaven seemed to have a lot more glitter than usual, and at the end of PLAPL there was extra guitar that made it sound like they were going to burst into Lu:Na, but they didn't :(
And I have to say, there is something very, very special about 10,000 people all doing the stupid U+K dance, it was awesome.
Then it was Faraway with all the hand-towel twirling - and this time because there were side screens, they had cat paws clapping to demonstrate when the crowd should clap. Unfortunately this was REALLY CONFUSING, because for the first half of the song it was totally out of sync. Really fun though. Next was Flower, and the fire came back, great song.
For some reason, when he sang Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru Koto he put on that weird nasal voice he sometimes does... I'm not sure why, as he didn't for any of the previous performances, but, yeah. It lessened as the song went on though. Still brilliant, and everyone was so involved. I was a bit too far back to get any of the silver streamers this time, since they're fired from the front.
Lost Angels was, as always, a beautiful finish, really dramatic, and it was another good song for the glowsticks :p
And then, the final movie.
Overall it was a completely different experience to the other concerts - and even though I was further away, it was probably the most fun after the concert with my premium seat (well, obviously). Even though I loved the intimacy of the smaller venues, the atmosphere of this one was just incredible, and even though it was so BIG, it still felt really... together? Which is mostly down to Gackt and the way he talks to the crowd, and really does make everyone feel involved. As does the fact that everyone knows all the dances for the different songs, haha. He talked a lot more this time, so the concert stretched to over four hours! I really wish I could remember more of what he said, but I'm always in a daze even though I tried to make notes as soon as I got back.
It also made a difference, I think, now more of the songs are released so everyone knows them well. Being able to sing along was a lot of fun.
I was ridiculously dehydrated afterwards as I hadn't been drinking so I wouldn't need to go out partway through, but with the heat... not such a good plan.
And I feel I must reiterate: Gackt doing all that singing, dancing and screaming in heavy costumes plus fire for FOUR HOURS = he is a miracle. I have no idea how he does it, and yet is still always so genuinely happy and excited every time. ♥
Goodbye, Osaka-jo hall!
Finally, the stickers I got:
I got a good selection, and not even any repeats. :)
I also got what (I think) is the CUTEST OUT OF ALL 100 STICKERS. (I like the ones where he's being silly much better than the 'in-character' ones)
THE END!