(no subject)
I am wiiiiiped.
I'll probs do a real report all in one go tomorrow night because the angle tonight was so weird I kept having trouble concentrating (plus the sound quality was so beyond shit; there were massive complaints two weeks ago and they should be ashamed of themselves for having it still be so utterly fucked - Kokuritsu has never had GOOD sound quality, but this was beyond the pale). We were watching most of the show from the back/side; tomorrow we should be closer to the center and easier to tell what's going on.
+ ngl, I think this is the weakest setlist ever. The entire first half before the MC was flat. I'm really surprised they didn't change it because I don't think it works at all. The second half was good (and in particular the Re(mark)able bit was on an entirely different elevated level from the rest of the show) but Jun and Aiba deserve most of the credit.
+ The sound came in "waves." I don't know if it was just my section's speaker that was utterly fucked, but the volume would go up and down like every other second like it was on a constant wave system. And it wasn't their VOICES (which the audience will make up for usually), it was EVERYTHING, which was very confusing. I felt like everyone around us kept staying quiet because if you didn't then you couldn't hear the music at all when it hit the "low" wave.
+ SOLO ROUNDUP:
Nino: this was my favorite song and it was so boring... lack of cute furi is inexcusable. The audience sang the "I love you" part which was sweet though. :)
Sho: I HAVEN'T LAUGHED THAT HARD IN A WHILE. OMG. The screens had two shirtless Shos facing each other and I kept hoping they would make out. SHO ON SHO ACTION.
Ohno: WAY better than the past two years. Not a fave overall but his dancing is so incredible even if this isn't quite up to the old standard.
Jun: I LOVE EVERYTHING THAT THIS SOLO CHOOSES TO BE. OMG YOU GUYS HIS OUTFIT.
Aiba: BEST COSTUME EVER!!! So groovy!
+ Arashi Showtime was really great, the MJ Walk remains amazing. :) Aiba joining in was awesome but also kind of just emphasized how freaking amazing Jun is on those wires. Aiba can flip around and everything just fine but Jun looks like he just BELONGS in the air.
+ Re(mark)able--->Monster really was absolutely godly. They lit the arena up red and the spots were casting the members' silhouettes against the stands and it was gorgeous. The green penlights in the arena against the red lighting was a STUNNING effect. Absolutely gorgeous, stunning, flawless, etc.
+ I think Aiba looked at me but if he did it was a glance, but I made eye contact with Sho. \o/ Speaking of, holy hell is he good-looking right now.
+ Couples' bracelet sighting lol. It disappeared for the encore though.
+ Aiba lost his voice pretty completely. :( By aisatsu it was basically gone.
+ CUTEST THING THAT HAS EVER EVER EVER HAPPENED EVER: one of the balloons got stuck underneath the corner of the moving stage. Jun noticed it through the floor, and he crawled to the edge of the stage and groped around underneath the stage to retrieve it. He got it, let it fly free, and then flopped on the stage flat on his back singing to the balloon as it flew off and waved goodbye to it. OMFG OMFG OMFG SO CUTE
+ Nino went second-to-last on aisatsu, Jun went last. They high-fived each other as they were switching places. ORZ
+ Apparently happened two weeks ago too, but Nino caught balloons when they were released. He was hugging them to his chest while singing his solo parts. He held onto them, and then he gave them to a staff member at the end who appeared to rush off backstage with them, lol?!
MC: Nothing for Jun's birthday, I guess he's partied out after three surprise parties.
+ Aiba had said "マックスです！！！” during his intro aisatsu. Nino asked if he meant his tension was to the max. Aiba said it was EVERYTHING to the max, and that in that moment he was AIBA MASAKI TO THE ABSOLUTE MAX.
+ Everyone was wearing t-shirts under their costume jackets except Sho, who was in a tank top. Nino asked why he was the only one different and why he was being such a show-off, and Sho said he'd asked himself but wardrobe had said THEY had been told Sho had to be in a tank top by someone, lol. Mysterious!
+ Sho said there are three different versions of One Love: the mike stand version, the headset version, and the 24 Hour Television version (?). Nino said the last didn't count because it was a one-time-thing. Sho said, "Fine, then the third is the people-are-dancing-around-us-for-some-reason version! But... (to the audience) ...which one are you guys concentrating on?? Which do you think is the real one to learn yourselves?" Jun said "the audience just copies whichever version we're doing at the time, don't they?"
+ Nino had gone to a konbini late the previous night. He was walking by two college-age girls who had their backs to him. Love Rainbow began playing in the store and one of the girls exclaimed, "Oh, it's the song from Junnosuke's drama!"
Nino sort of did an about-face. "I mean, a girl who knows about Junnosuke? My interest was piqued! So I turned around and started following after them."
"...you mean inside the store, right? Because otherwise that would be CREEPY."
"Yes, inside the store, because the alternative would be embarrassing." So Nino is being a creeper sneaking around the store eavesdropping on these two girls.
「潤之介のドラマ観てる？」
「うん、観てるよ。」
「最近の潤之介、いい顔してるね。」
「いい恋してるね、きっと！」
Jun like hit the floor looking all embarrassed and ADORABLE and Sho was like HOW OLD DID YOU SAY THESE GIRLS WERE AGAIN?! and Nino was like, probs in the 18-22 range, definitely younger than Jun (and yet talking about him like they're his mom or gossipy neighborhood ladies lmao).
+ Nino will be appearing in Natsuniji...? (There was like no crowd reaction, I haven't been keeping up at all, was this just announced so long ago it doesn't rate applause, or was it just them joking about it?) Jun asked if Nino would be playing a freeter for a drama hookup, or if he would be playing an actor visiting the company. Nino cackled, "If it's the latter, I can meet T-san...!"
(I know two weeks ago they said Natsuniji and Nino's drama were shooting side-by-side on location and Nino went to say hi to Jun and Jun told him he should greet Takeuchi-san while he was there, and Nino was like, "Already did!" and Jun was all pissy that she rated above him XXXXD)
+ On Mondays at nine Sho's in the dressing room for Zero, so he always has Natsuniji playing on the dressing room TV. At some point recently the only people who were in the dressing room were Sho and one of the stylists. The stylist saw what he was watching and said, "D: YOU WATCH THIS?!!" and Sho said yes. The stylist like FREAKED OUT going, "BUT IT IS A RENAI DRAMA????" and Sho said yeah, it was, and the stylist went, "YOU WATCH RENAI DRAMAS YOUR OWN MEMBERS ARE IN?!!" and Sho said yes.
"DON'T YOU GET EMBARRASSED?!?!" Sho said he didn't. "IS THIS REALLY NORMAL?!?!?!" Sho said yes, it was normal for everyone to watch each others' shows. The stylist was like, "BUT THEY ARE YOUR MEMBERS AND YOU'RE WATCHING THEM KISS SOMEONE!!!!!!! HOW CAN YOU BE OKAY WITH THIS!!!!!!"
Aiba said he was watching Natsuniji periodically when he got the chance. They asked Ohno what his thoughts were on the promo for next week's episode.
"Next week, that's the one where that thing happens, right!"
"...what thing?"
"...uh, you kiss or something? I don't know?"
"Leader... Have you watched a single episode of my drama?"
"(makes a silly face) Not a one!"
+ Sho said his movie would crank in soon. Nino asked what Kami no Karute's abbreviation was. "Kamikaru/comical?" Sho said, "I think this is one of those where you shouldn't abbreviate it at all..."
+ Nino was asked when his drama was premiering. He had no idea, and was told that was no good. He veered off to the side of the main stage, prancing around near the audience seats peering out into the crowd: "Lemme find someone who likes me and they can tell me when it's on!" The audience tried to yell the start date to him but he couldn't hear and finally gave up. XD
+ After Kaibutsu-kun they played a game where a tiny intro clip (like half a second) of a JE song was played and they competed to guess what the title was. Jun got the first one and started singing and doing the furi to it before saying the answer: "It's Kinki Kids' 'Distance'!! 懐かしいね〜" (lol, how does the furi never leave him...) Aiba was like, OMG I remember, wasn't that the one where for some unexplained reason the juniors had to dance backup shirtless?!
They kept playing until Ohno came back and then he had to do it alone. The first half-second was impossible, I don't think anyone even got it when they gave him a whole second, then they gave him two seconds and EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE STADIUM EXCEPT OHNO knew it was the intro to Firefly.
Ohno said, "It's an English title, maybe?" Everyone said it was. "! :DDDD Easy Crazy Break Down!" "NO!" Ohno was like, "THEN I DEMAND TO HEAR THE CHORUS!"
He said it repeatedly until they finally DID play him a line of the chorus and then he was like OH THAT ONE and he started singing, "雨はそう蛍のように．．．" and the audience was like YES HE WILL GET THIS ONE AFTER ALL but he said he still didn't know what it was, and Jun was like "蛍！！！！！！" and telling him his hint was WHAT IS HOTARU IN ENGLISH and Ohno had no idea and the audience started screaming it at him and he kept mishearing and throwing out gibberish English answers until Arashi was like IT'S FIREFLY, OKAY? FIREFLY!!!! and then they wheeled the game table away and everything went dead silent for a few seconds and someone went in a small voice, "...is the game over?"
Aiba said it was, and they were like, WELL. THAT WAS THE MOST PATHETIC RESOLUTION TO A GAME EVER.
+ They sang Refrain after MC, super awkward pick. I miss having Aiba amp up the crowd. :(
Aisatsu:
+ Sho first. He said he wanted Arashi to be the rainbow over all of our heads. That's "the view Arashi sees," he thinks. Sometimes life has hard things in it, sometimes there are storms that hit your life, but then you look up and even if it's hard to see sometimes, there's a rainbow overhead...
+ Ohno said he tries every time they do Kokuritsu to look carefully at all 70,000 faces. He says his facial recognition is pretty good so he remembers people who come to multiple shows even. "You may think we can't see you but I promise we can see you better than you think, so please don't forget to wear makeup!"
+ Aiba's voice was pretty much gone. Had to cover the mike to cough and clear his throat twice. Said he was still AIBA MASAKI TO THE MAX, and as his voice faltered the audience cheered super loud and he said, "I feel so alive! Here, right here, with you guys, I feel like we're all SO ALIVE!" It was longer than that a bit but I'm blanking, it was just really really cute ;w;
+ Nino came out and began speaking in Aiba's raspy voice. Picking up the "the view I see" theme, he said that Arashi had three regular programs now and it was thanks to all the fans. They have Arashi-chan, VS, and Shiyagare, and all of them are different. "There's a kind of Arashi you want to see when you turn on channel four. Another kind of Arashi you want to see on channel five. Another Arashi on channel eight. But the Arashi that Arashi wants to see themselves as...is the Arashi you see right here."
The crowd erupted into cheers and Nino said gleefully, "My aisatsu tonight is hella deep!!!" and exited to high-five Jun.
+ Jun: Arashi gets its energy from the fans and their smiles. They have a lot of work to do nowadays but he just has to come in to do a concert and see the smiles, and then he has what he needs to go on doing his best. "When I see you guys and your faces, you're what makes me think I gotta try harder the next day. And I can keep on thinking that way, how I want to try harder, until the next time I see your faces again."
More if I remember it later...
I'll probs do a real report all in one go tomorrow night because the angle tonight was so weird I kept having trouble concentrating (plus the sound quality was so beyond shit; there were massive complaints two weeks ago and they should be ashamed of themselves for having it still be so utterly fucked - Kokuritsu has never had GOOD sound quality, but this was beyond the pale). We were watching most of the show from the back/side; tomorrow we should be closer to the center and easier to tell what's going on.
+ ngl, I think this is the weakest setlist ever. The entire first half before the MC was flat. I'm really surprised they didn't change it because I don't think it works at all. The second half was good (and in particular the Re(mark)able bit was on an entirely different elevated level from the rest of the show) but Jun and Aiba deserve most of the credit.
+ The sound came in "waves." I don't know if it was just my section's speaker that was utterly fucked, but the volume would go up and down like every other second like it was on a constant wave system. And it wasn't their VOICES (which the audience will make up for usually), it was EVERYTHING, which was very confusing. I felt like everyone around us kept staying quiet because if you didn't then you couldn't hear the music at all when it hit the "low" wave.
+ SOLO ROUNDUP:
Nino: this was my favorite song and it was so boring... lack of cute furi is inexcusable. The audience sang the "I love you" part which was sweet though. :)
Sho: I HAVEN'T LAUGHED THAT HARD IN A WHILE. OMG. The screens had two shirtless Shos facing each other and I kept hoping they would make out. SHO ON SHO ACTION.
Ohno: WAY better than the past two years. Not a fave overall but his dancing is so incredible even if this isn't quite up to the old standard.
Jun: I LOVE EVERYTHING THAT THIS SOLO CHOOSES TO BE. OMG YOU GUYS HIS OUTFIT.
Aiba: BEST COSTUME EVER!!! So groovy!
+ Arashi Showtime was really great, the MJ Walk remains amazing. :) Aiba joining in was awesome but also kind of just emphasized how freaking amazing Jun is on those wires. Aiba can flip around and everything just fine but Jun looks like he just BELONGS in the air.
+ Re(mark)able--->Monster really was absolutely godly. They lit the arena up red and the spots were casting the members' silhouettes against the stands and it was gorgeous. The green penlights in the arena against the red lighting was a STUNNING effect. Absolutely gorgeous, stunning, flawless, etc.
+ I think Aiba looked at me but if he did it was a glance, but I made eye contact with Sho. \o/ Speaking of, holy hell is he good-looking right now.
+ Couples' bracelet sighting lol. It disappeared for the encore though.
+ Aiba lost his voice pretty completely. :( By aisatsu it was basically gone.
+ CUTEST THING THAT HAS EVER EVER EVER HAPPENED EVER: one of the balloons got stuck underneath the corner of the moving stage. Jun noticed it through the floor, and he crawled to the edge of the stage and groped around underneath the stage to retrieve it. He got it, let it fly free, and then flopped on the stage flat on his back singing to the balloon as it flew off and waved goodbye to it. OMFG OMFG OMFG SO CUTE
+ Nino went second-to-last on aisatsu, Jun went last. They high-fived each other as they were switching places. ORZ
+ Apparently happened two weeks ago too, but Nino caught balloons when they were released. He was hugging them to his chest while singing his solo parts. He held onto them, and then he gave them to a staff member at the end who appeared to rush off backstage with them, lol?!
MC: Nothing for Jun's birthday, I guess he's partied out after three surprise parties.
+ Aiba had said "マックスです！！！” during his intro aisatsu. Nino asked if he meant his tension was to the max. Aiba said it was EVERYTHING to the max, and that in that moment he was AIBA MASAKI TO THE ABSOLUTE MAX.
+ Everyone was wearing t-shirts under their costume jackets except Sho, who was in a tank top. Nino asked why he was the only one different and why he was being such a show-off, and Sho said he'd asked himself but wardrobe had said THEY had been told Sho had to be in a tank top by someone, lol. Mysterious!
+ Sho said there are three different versions of One Love: the mike stand version, the headset version, and the 24 Hour Television version (?). Nino said the last didn't count because it was a one-time-thing. Sho said, "Fine, then the third is the people-are-dancing-around-us-for-some-reason version! But... (to the audience) ...which one are you guys concentrating on?? Which do you think is the real one to learn yourselves?" Jun said "the audience just copies whichever version we're doing at the time, don't they?"
+ Nino had gone to a konbini late the previous night. He was walking by two college-age girls who had their backs to him. Love Rainbow began playing in the store and one of the girls exclaimed, "Oh, it's the song from Junnosuke's drama!"
Nino sort of did an about-face. "I mean, a girl who knows about Junnosuke? My interest was piqued! So I turned around and started following after them."
"...you mean inside the store, right? Because otherwise that would be CREEPY."
"Yes, inside the store, because the alternative would be embarrassing." So Nino is being a creeper sneaking around the store eavesdropping on these two girls.
「潤之介のドラマ観てる？」
「うん、観てるよ。」
「最近の潤之介、いい顔してるね。」
「いい恋してるね、きっと！」
Jun like hit the floor looking all embarrassed and ADORABLE and Sho was like HOW OLD DID YOU SAY THESE GIRLS WERE AGAIN?! and Nino was like, probs in the 18-22 range, definitely younger than Jun (and yet talking about him like they're his mom or gossipy neighborhood ladies lmao).
+ Nino will be appearing in Natsuniji...? (There was like no crowd reaction, I haven't been keeping up at all, was this just announced so long ago it doesn't rate applause, or was it just them joking about it?) Jun asked if Nino would be playing a freeter for a drama hookup, or if he would be playing an actor visiting the company. Nino cackled, "If it's the latter, I can meet T-san...!"
(I know two weeks ago they said Natsuniji and Nino's drama were shooting side-by-side on location and Nino went to say hi to Jun and Jun told him he should greet Takeuchi-san while he was there, and Nino was like, "Already did!" and Jun was all pissy that she rated above him XXXXD)
+ On Mondays at nine Sho's in the dressing room for Zero, so he always has Natsuniji playing on the dressing room TV. At some point recently the only people who were in the dressing room were Sho and one of the stylists. The stylist saw what he was watching and said, "D: YOU WATCH THIS?!!" and Sho said yes. The stylist like FREAKED OUT going, "BUT IT IS A RENAI DRAMA????" and Sho said yeah, it was, and the stylist went, "YOU WATCH RENAI DRAMAS YOUR OWN MEMBERS ARE IN?!!" and Sho said yes.
"DON'T YOU GET EMBARRASSED?!?!" Sho said he didn't. "IS THIS REALLY NORMAL?!?!?!" Sho said yes, it was normal for everyone to watch each others' shows. The stylist was like, "BUT THEY ARE YOUR MEMBERS AND YOU'RE WATCHING THEM KISS SOMEONE!!!!!!! HOW CAN YOU BE OKAY WITH THIS!!!!!!"
Aiba said he was watching Natsuniji periodically when he got the chance. They asked Ohno what his thoughts were on the promo for next week's episode.
"Next week, that's the one where that thing happens, right!"
"...what thing?"
"...uh, you kiss or something? I don't know?"
"Leader... Have you watched a single episode of my drama?"
"(makes a silly face) Not a one!"
+ Sho said his movie would crank in soon. Nino asked what Kami no Karute's abbreviation was. "Kamikaru/comical?" Sho said, "I think this is one of those where you shouldn't abbreviate it at all..."
+ Nino was asked when his drama was premiering. He had no idea, and was told that was no good. He veered off to the side of the main stage, prancing around near the audience seats peering out into the crowd: "Lemme find someone who likes me and they can tell me when it's on!" The audience tried to yell the start date to him but he couldn't hear and finally gave up. XD
+ After Kaibutsu-kun they played a game where a tiny intro clip (like half a second) of a JE song was played and they competed to guess what the title was. Jun got the first one and started singing and doing the furi to it before saying the answer: "It's Kinki Kids' 'Distance'!! 懐かしいね〜" (lol, how does the furi never leave him...) Aiba was like, OMG I remember, wasn't that the one where for some unexplained reason the juniors had to dance backup shirtless?!
They kept playing until Ohno came back and then he had to do it alone. The first half-second was impossible, I don't think anyone even got it when they gave him a whole second, then they gave him two seconds and EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE STADIUM EXCEPT OHNO knew it was the intro to Firefly.
Ohno said, "It's an English title, maybe?" Everyone said it was. "! :DDDD Easy Crazy Break Down!" "NO!" Ohno was like, "THEN I DEMAND TO HEAR THE CHORUS!"
He said it repeatedly until they finally DID play him a line of the chorus and then he was like OH THAT ONE and he started singing, "雨はそう蛍のように．．．" and the audience was like YES HE WILL GET THIS ONE AFTER ALL but he said he still didn't know what it was, and Jun was like "蛍！！！！！！" and telling him his hint was WHAT IS HOTARU IN ENGLISH and Ohno had no idea and the audience started screaming it at him and he kept mishearing and throwing out gibberish English answers until Arashi was like IT'S FIREFLY, OKAY? FIREFLY!!!! and then they wheeled the game table away and everything went dead silent for a few seconds and someone went in a small voice, "...is the game over?"
Aiba said it was, and they were like, WELL. THAT WAS THE MOST PATHETIC RESOLUTION TO A GAME EVER.
+ They sang Refrain after MC, super awkward pick. I miss having Aiba amp up the crowd. :(
Aisatsu:
+ Sho first. He said he wanted Arashi to be the rainbow over all of our heads. That's "the view Arashi sees," he thinks. Sometimes life has hard things in it, sometimes there are storms that hit your life, but then you look up and even if it's hard to see sometimes, there's a rainbow overhead...
+ Ohno said he tries every time they do Kokuritsu to look carefully at all 70,000 faces. He says his facial recognition is pretty good so he remembers people who come to multiple shows even. "You may think we can't see you but I promise we can see you better than you think, so please don't forget to wear makeup!"
+ Aiba's voice was pretty much gone. Had to cover the mike to cough and clear his throat twice. Said he was still AIBA MASAKI TO THE MAX, and as his voice faltered the audience cheered super loud and he said, "I feel so alive! Here, right here, with you guys, I feel like we're all SO ALIVE!" It was longer than that a bit but I'm blanking, it was just really really cute ;w;
+ Nino came out and began speaking in Aiba's raspy voice. Picking up the "the view I see" theme, he said that Arashi had three regular programs now and it was thanks to all the fans. They have Arashi-chan, VS, and Shiyagare, and all of them are different. "There's a kind of Arashi you want to see when you turn on channel four. Another kind of Arashi you want to see on channel five. Another Arashi on channel eight. But the Arashi that Arashi wants to see themselves as...is the Arashi you see right here."
The crowd erupted into cheers and Nino said gleefully, "My aisatsu tonight is hella deep!!!" and exited to high-five Jun.
+ Jun: Arashi gets its energy from the fans and their smiles. They have a lot of work to do nowadays but he just has to come in to do a concert and see the smiles, and then he has what he needs to go on doing his best. "When I see you guys and your faces, you're what makes me think I gotta try harder the next day. And I can keep on thinking that way, how I want to try harder, until the next time I see your faces again."
More if I remember it later...