[Report] KANJANI8 DOME CONCERT 2009-2010 - Dec. 30 & 31, 2009 and Jan. 1, 2010
Yay, I wrote a report! Woohoo!
(Caution: It's pretty long, lol. I have not read this over, so it might be full of grammar/spelling mistakes! Sorry!)
[Report] KANJANI8 DOME CONCERT 2009-2010 - Dec. 30 & 31, 2009 and Jan. 1, 2010
I went to all 4 shows. To make things easier, in this report I will call the first show “S1,” the second show “S2,” the third (countdown) show “S3” and the last show “S4.”
S1 - Dec. 30, 2009 @ 18:00
S2 - Dec. 31, 2009 @ 15:00
S3 - Dec. 31, 2009 @ 22:00
S4 - Jan. 1, 2010 @ 18:00
My seats for the four shows:
Yes, I went clockwise around the dome, haha. For the last three shows, I didn’t have the alphabet rows in front, which was nice! All my seats were in the 1st floor of stands and rows 22, 9, 6 and 8. I was surprised to see that they had people sitting way up in the “VIP” seats which were on the 6th and 8th floors! The best view I had was for S2 when we were really close to the back stage. The seats were called the “executive seats” so we had our own air conditioners on our seats and such, lol.
I never take pictures of the set (you’re not allowed to anyway, haha) so here is my FABULOUS drawing on Paint. …I am bad as Subaru… which means REALLY bad, lol.
Please watch the Countdown show they had on TV so that you can get a better picture, haha!! Basically when you get in the venue, this huge Castle-man is waiting for you. I didn’t notice it until I sat down in my seat for S1 because usually their concerts don’t have fancy sets, lol. The blue eyes float around. A part of the stairs is lit up in red so that it looks like the mouth of the Castle-man. On the left hand side, there are winter trees. On the right hand side, there are towers of the castle. They only used this set for a few songs, though! This time they didn’t have seats behind the main stage. There wasn’t a surrounding stage that went around the arena either; they moved around in the carts.
Once the clock hit the starting time of the show, the Castle-man (we learn his name later) started talking and said, “Thank you all for coming to today’s concert!” and went on to say the rules such as don’t take pictures, don’t record the concert, control your emotions and don’t fall in love easily, etc. “For some seats, the staff might come around and ask you to show them your membership card and ID. If they approach you, please respond WITH A SMILE (his eyes and the writing on the screen becomes bigger sometimes) and, on top of that, WATCH OUT FOR YOUR RIGHT SHOULDER.” What the heck? Haha. He also said “Oh! The show is about to start. If you’re still in the lobby, make sure you purchase MARU-CHAN’S poster before coming in!” They didn’t have individual posters this time but… oh well, I will let that one go, haha!
The Castle-man disappeared (although a part of the mouth was still left for S3, haha) and the screen then showed a fairytale-like animation clip. (It’s going to be hard to describe it but please bear with me!) The screen showed the words “Hurry! Hurry!” “It’s about to start!” The animals (mostly squirrels?) in the forest ran around carrying instruments. One leader squirrel was blowing whistles. They first gave the guitar to “DOCKUN” and I actually don’t remember what they gave to “TACCHON” (these names were all in English) but he had his drums. Then there were three shelves that said “DOTSUKUZO” “AHOKA” “NANDEYANEN” or something like that (Tsukkomi words) and when they opened the middle one, a keyboard came out and they gave it to “HINA” with huge, ugly teeth, lol. Then there were boxes lined up yoko-naka-yoko horizontally and ue-naka-shita vertically. When they opened the two yokos, bongos came out and they gave those to “YOKO” (or was it “YOKOCHO”?). Then the animals gave a naruto Kintaro-ame type thing (candy that’s long and when you cut it, it always has the same face) to “MARU” but the bass hit him in the head and replaced it with the naruto. Then they gave the guitar to “BARU”. Lastly, they were carrying the Kintaro-ame but the screen said “No, not that!” “Hurry, hurry!” and they finally brought the red guitar. Two hands with red stars/yellow sleeves came to take the guitar and that was “安田” in black ugly kanji, lol. The seven characters lined up in one line and started running. Then they were stopped “WAIT!” They all smashed into the screen, lol. “You forgot something!” There was a treasure box and from there, glass slippers (with an infinity mark looking like a ribbon) came out and each held one. Then the doors to the castle opened and the music started…
(*The set list for S3 was different: http://paaaaan.livejournal.com/170373.html#cutid2)
1. ROLLING COASTER - With the remix version from the Puzzle DVD, the boys came up to the stage in the darkness clapping their hands to the rhythm. They headed towards their instruments on the main stage still clapping their hands. Once the remix version stopped, the spotlight went to Ryo who started off the song, and then Subaru. There was a moment’s pause before Ohkura counted “1! 2! 3! 4!” and the stage lit up showing all 7 of them playing Rolling Coaster!! The screen was divided into seven so that they can show all of their faces. They came out wearing the leopard print costumes that they wore when they sang “Zukkoke Otokomichi” during Countdown. During each of their solos, the screen showed them and an introductory photo with their colors and names. First off was Shota and his picture was SO ADORABLE!!!!! People went KYAAAA KAWAIIIIII hahaha (I may be a bit biased, lol). Then Maru, Ohkura, Yoko (he sang longer than usual), Subaru, Ryo, and then Hina in the second verse. There were colorful shiny lights shooting around the screen and the whole thing was so pretty!!! It was cool to start off with the song they ended with during the PUZZLE tour :-)
2. GOJO NI GO! - Shota always screamed during his solo part instead of singing it. “LET’S HAVE FUN!!!”
3. MUSEKININ HERO - They got on to the big moving carts that went along the 1st and 3rd base line. The clip they were showing on the screen was pretty fun to watch; they had old, black phones for “Showa” and then cell phones for “Heisei”, then everything else went along with the song as well.
4. KANFUU FIGHTING - I love how they say “Hai, hai” during the intro haha.
5. IT’S MY SOUL - The carts made their last turns as they head back to the main stage.
GREETINGS - Usually, they went in the order of Shota, Maru, Ohkura, Ryo?, Yoko?, Subaru, Hina but in S3 Subaru was first so I knew it was different… they changed the order of the songs drastically after here. In S4, Shota said "We've had shows on the 30th and 31st... but today is the best ATARI KUJIIIII!!!" Hina, who came out last dressed in a red coat, introduced the Castle-man here after he did his "Let me hear your voices!" The Castle-man introduced himself. “Hi, I think you have all been wondering. My name is Oshiroda Jo. (The kanji of “Jo” is “castle” and his sentences usually with ~joooo.) The Kanjani8 members are really excited for the show tonight.” Then for S1 he talked about Hina, S2 Shota and S4 Subaru (they didn’t have this part for S3). “Murakami-san has been brushing his vampire teeth brightly so he’s all set and ready to go!” “Yasuda-san… you smile too much. Rumor says that your smile is the only good thing about you.” “Shibutani-san… Can you help me out? Can I borrow some money? I’m really broke!” Then he said “Kanjani8 will now take you to Winter wonderland!”
6. NANIWA IROHA BUSHI (WINTER MIX) - Shota went up on the “hand” of Castle-man (crane with a hand-shaped balloon attached to it) on the first base side and Maru on the third base side. Many chibi juniors were dancing behind them.
7. KIMI NO UTA WO UTAU - The eye part of the Castle-man showed hats. The boys were now holding their Ranger-colored hats. This was the cutest song/dance ever!! They were dressed in red and were dancing around cutely with their hats. Shota was so small and looked like a kid jumping around. They had water shooting up, too. My favorite part of the song was when Shota, Maru and Yoko went to the left hand side of the stage and dancing to the second verse. Ryo and Subaru exaggerated their “cuteness” during this song, haha. I also liked the move where they were on tiptoes going around in circles. In the end, they posed for a group shot and then threw their hats up. This caused problems for Yoko (later in the MC he complained about how Ohkura’s hat hit him and how while he was avoiding Maru’s hat, Ryo’s hit him instead the next day).
8. MINUS 100-DO NO KOI - After they threw the hat, they gathered in the middle for the “Woo wooo woooo” part. Then, Subaru, Hina and Yoko went to the tree side and the younger 4 went to the towers. Shota was on the tallest tower, Maru the next, and Ohkura at the shortest tower. Ryo was in between Maru and Ohkura on a platform. The four were the “chorus” boys. It was cute how Shota and Maru were looking at each other as they sang the chorus during S1. During Subaru’s first solo, Nakama (BAD) came out to dance while Kiriyama (also BAD) danced for Ryo. Starting from Maru’s solo, the screen showed the boys writing their messages that are to be shown in the next song. Maru did a small paaaaan to the screen which was cute. Shota got really close to the camera with his big eyes, glasses and hat which was adorable, but it was cut short when they showed Hina as well, lol. Subaru looked like he was in pain or something, but when the camera showed what he was drawing/writing, it was a picture of a super ugly “rabbit” yeah right!!
9. YUKI WO KUDASAI - The bell at the top of the castle rang and Yoko said “Oh, the bell has rung! This means that our gifts to you will be given!” He didn’t explain this well during the 1st show, so many people had no clue that the white things that they were shooting out in the arena were actually small tapes with the guys’ messages on them. After the fans found out what they were, they went crazy trying to find the message of the member they want. I unfortunately never was in the arena so didn’t get any. I hope if they were to make a DVD of this concert (which I highly doubt), they could put this in as the small treat! They did show their handwritten messages on the ceiling and on the screen (color coded) so I paid attention to those. Ryo’s said “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” in English, haha. Shota’s was his artistic drawing. As for the song, Ohkura first sang cutely and then the camera showed Maru and Shota together and they were like the most adorable people in the whole place! LOL. During their part, I don’t know why but they always showed Hina for a second or two and everytime his face came on the screen I was like “geez!” lol. Yoko, Maru and Shota singing together trying to harmonize was cute too. Ryo came in the way of Maru and Shota in one of the shows as well. Towards the end when they were showing the messages on the ceiling, all of them were looking up.
10. BRILLIANT BLUE - They wore white coats and started dancing HARD CORE to this song!!! Really cool choreography!!! For the second verse where they take turns to sing, they line up in one line: Ryo, Ohkura, Yoko, Maru, Hina, Shota and Subaru. They spread one hand and move around (imagine a much cooler version of what they did during the Countdown in Eight Ranger suits, lol). The screen showed a bluish night view of a city and it was pretty.
11. OSAKA ROMANESQUE - After the hardcore dancing, Subaru started singing the verse to this song. They got on to the gondola thing that you could see on the Countdown show when they sang Naniwa. Those things go up pretty high! There are only two cords holding those up, too. Most of the boys were leaning backwards so the gondola was tilting… I was so afraid that one of them was going to fall from that height!! Subaru, Yoko and Hina went up first; while they were raised up, the snowflakes on the screen matched with their gondolas so it was as if they were snowflakes. It was really pretty. Overall, I really think that the clips they used on the big screen was really well made.
KING WATCHING TV - The screen counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and the King of the castle started flipping through channels on TV. The most random things were on TV; Maru dressed in Indian style (for Wanshan Ronpin), ROMES clips (there were many kyaaaas for these, especially from me, haha!), Babun Man, Music Station clip of the Futari no Namida Ame performance including Ryo’s blonde and Ohkura shaking his hair at Yoko, etc. One clip was Yoko interviewing a famous (?) Korean actor called Ma Ryujon, also known as Jon-sama, lol. Yoko was waiting outside an elevator and the said star came out saying “Annyo haseyooo” and of course it’s Maru. Yoko asks the star if he knows of Kanjani8, and Jon-sama does. “Right now, Kanjani8 is doing a Countdown concert.” “Oh, really? Hello! How are you doing?” (waves to the camera) “I never said that they are watching this!” Yoko then asks if Jon-sama has a favorite in the group, and he says, “Hmm, Murakami-san.” The screen suddenly shows the clips of Hina smiling widely after throwing away money (as seen from the Eight Ranger clip on the Puzzle DVD) and the Gorilla Theatre. Yoko then asks “I heard that you were going to release a new single next year. What’s the title?” “Samgyeopsal” (a type of Korean dish) “Can you sing a phrase or two for us?” “Sure! Ohhh Samgyeopsaaaaaallll why are you so deliciousssss” Yoko stops him saying “Thanks, that’s enough. Thanks. It’s cold in Japan now so please take care and don’t catch a cold.” Then the King changes the channel and now we see Subaru doing his sumo pose just like the Ranger skit from the Puzzle DVD. He was about to attack the camera again, but this time, there was someone else… OH MY GOD, Nishikido Ryo dressed up as a sumo wrestler with his bangs tied up!! LOL He’s taking sumo poses and slapping himself left and right!! I was like “Noooo Nishikido you’re not supposed to do that!” LOL. Anyway, so Nishikido and Subaru started taking sumo. Out of nowhere, Jon-sama got in between to be the ref. Subaru and Ryo were sumo’ing it up, and I have no idea why but Jon-sama took his shirt off as well as he was being loud watching the two. It seriously looked like a gay porn video clip, lol!!!! Finally, the channel the King turned to showed the start of the Kyu! Jo! Show!! clip where the boys are walking out slowly to the stage. In synch with that, the stair part of the stage opened up to reveal the seven of them walking towards the stage with their colored guitars. The producer said “Action!” and the song started.
12. KYU! JO! SHOW!! - This is the first concert I think where they finally used this huge moving stage that goes over the heads of the people in the arena! Haha. Ohkura didn’t do the drum part because the drums weren’t on the stage. They sang the second verse as well, which meant Shota and Maru had their solo parts. Of course, Subaru had to do something to Shota during his part and Hina bothered Maru for his. Hina and Maru are always so close to each other during the “Shiawase wo sagashitara” part. For S4, Subaru hid Shota’s eyes with his hand and Hina hid Maru’s. I think I can never listen to this second verse properly anymore after seeing Subaru getting so close to Shota’s face during S3, haha!!
13. SUKIYANEN OSAKA - I haven’t heard this in a while! S1 they had Maru show his gag of the year 2010. It was “Koppa… mijinko!!” it was funny to me but not much to everyone else, lol. S2, I had a great view of Shota making a big heart at Ohkura for “Yappa Sukiyanen!” and then blowing a kiss to him. Ohkura looked so embarrassed but HAPPY!!! S2 was Ohkura but I don’t remember what he said, S4 was Shota and he said something like “Hai hai, Yasu-kun desu yo! Is everyone having fun!?”
14. ZUKKOKE OTOKOMICHI - Bright yellow green streamers came out before Yoko started counting “1! 2! 1! 2! Woo!” Later in one of the MCs, Ohkura said that Yoko quietly asked him which song was next before he had to count. Ohkura was like “It’s the best part of this concert and he gets to do this, but he didn’t remember it!!!” haha. I don’t know why but I found Ohkura quite adorable in the 4 concerts. I never thought of him that way! He was in a really good mood, which was nice to see.
15. 10-NEN GO NO KYOU NO HI MO - Instead of “I wish you Merry Christmas,” they sang “I wish you Happy Winter” since, well… Christmas is over, lol. But Ryo kept on saying “Merry Christmas!” when he was in a good mood. It had been so long since I last listened to this song, so I had a hard time trying to remember the hand moves, haha. It came back to me quickly though after a few choruses! On the screen, they showed some pictures that they later said they took of each other. The last group picture was taken by the manager using Maru’s single-lens reflex camera. There were old and new pictures. I don’t remember which show, but they talked about one of Subaru’s pictures where he was showing both his armpit openly. Shota was like “Shibuyan, your arm pit is intimidating!” The others went on to say “It’s not cute!” “It’s too much!” “Why do you always show your armpit on pictures; even for the calendar!?” etc.
MC - The S1 MC you can find here: http://paaaaan.livejournal.com/169816.html#cutid1. For S2, Yoko started complaining again about Kimi no Uta wo Utau. The day before, Ohkura’s hat had hit him in the face and this time, he made sure he didn’t get hit so he moved a bit. Maru’s hat was thrown weirdly so he tried to move away, then Ryo’s hit him instead, lol. Ryo said “I got pissed when I saw how randomly Maru threw his, so my hat might have hurt a bit if it hit you, haha.” From the beginning of S2, I thought Ryo was in one of his bad moods, but he was talking in the MC so I don’t know what’s up with this kid. Maybe he was just tired. Anyway, all the guys started attacking Yoko saying that he must be standing in the wrong place, etc. Yoko of course said “No I’m not!!” this went on for a while, haha. Anyway, they also talked about ROMES which was NICE. I don’t remember how it started, but Yoko said that they all have started making friends in the show business. Hina pointed out that Yoko and Kamiji Yuusuke went along well. Shota said that he and Ohkura had an end-of-the-year party with the ROMES cast and staff. They still get along well. Yoko said he was happy that two members of Kanjani8 starred in an NHK drama. He said “Do ROMES!” Ohkura and Shota said “Why do you keep saying that!” Apparently, Yoko says this in the dressing room as well, whenever he sees the two together, haha. That reminds me, in S4 during the encore, Maru came back to the stage saying “I understand uchiwas saying ‘make silly faces!’ but what do they mean by ‘do Suga Shikao’!?” Anyway, Yoko said that he watched a few episodes of ROMES. The boys were like “Yeah, right.” Yoko said “I did! Yasu, you were running a lot.” Shota said that yes, he ran a lot, but that wasn’t all that he did. Yoko then said “Ohkura, you were doing something with the machines.” …Yoko, did you really watch? Yoko said “I did! I saw the episode where Yasu was blown up with the car explosion and Ohkura running to him!” They also talked about Hina and what kind of commercials he could do. Yoko said “Hina, what kind of commercial would you want to do?” Hina suddenly got suspicious of all the cameras surrounding him because Kyocera Dome was where everything started, haha! Yoko was like “This is where it all started! In that dressing room!” Hina said that he wants to do a commercial for cosmetics. We were all “EHHHH!?” but he said “Well, there are many kinds of cosmetics!” Hina said that if he were to do a commercial for cosmetics, he can show a “Before” and “After.” Yoko said “Haha it’s not going to be very persuasive!” They talked about the commercial where comedian Iwao of Football Hour turns into Kimura Takuya after he washes his face. “If you do it, it’ll be before… Hina! After… Hina!?”
For S3, we didn’t have an “MC” because of the Countdown broadcast coming in.
The S4 MC was good and long…
To start off, Ohkura and Ryo were chipping in comments here and there, so Yoko’s like “Why are you suddenly so hyper for MC?” Ryo said “I have decided to work harder in 2010 (for MCs)!” But Hina pointed out that Ryo is “just repeating what Yoko just said.” They were all so proud of the work they had done for Countdown. Yoko kept on saying “We have left a mark!!!” They said that the office people in Tokyo had called them to tell them that they did a great job. Even Macchi-san and Johnny-san complimented them. They said that dressing up as ninjas and Eight Ranger were all their ideas. For the ninja song, Maru came up with the movements. Ryo said that Yoko was making so many mistakes for the Arashi song and that it was all on TV. Shota said, “Why did you make a mistake after we practiced so hard for it!!” They all told Yoko to do the dance right here right now. Yoko did it, but some parts his movement was too quick for it to fit into the song. “The moves are not that quick!”
Then they said that they all toasted to champagne after their show the night before. Shota was like “We toasted to champaaaagne! It was so much fun!!” Ohkura added “I knoooow! It was so much fun!!” smiling so much to Shota. They were in their own little worlds. They said that they have ended up giving otoshidama to the Juniors. Wow! There were 17 or 18 of them to give, and they all put money in the pochi-bukuros that they have for their goods. Yoko gave the most because he was the “oniichan” and he made sure that the juniors knew that by saying it in a loud voice, haha. They had one lucky bag that had more money than the others, and one that was a hazure. Ryo put Hong Kong dollars in that while Maru put in his airplane ticket. Maru said “Well, there’s only one of that in this world!!” It was a hazure, but in a way it was the luckiest one because the guys ended up learning the junior’s name. Hirano-kun of “Kyo Otoko” (a new group that no one had any clue of, led by Senzaki). Maru said that he was his kohai because he’s from Kyoto. Apparently Hirano-kun was so nervous that his hand was shaking when he received his pochi-bukuro, haha. Aww. Yoko said that when Hina was talking about money, he looked like a mafia of some sort.
They started talking about what they want to do as Kanjani8. Shota said that he wants to do a movie together. They said Arashi has acted together but they haven’t (they didn’t mention the drama they did a while ago with Uchi in it). Shota said to the crowd, “You want to see us on the big screen, right!?” Then Yoko said, “Yasu… just when you were saying that, you were shown on the big screen, haha.”
Maru wants to have a body builder type body this year. He lost a lot of weight so he’s now down to 62 or 63 kg. Maru said “I’ll be Tarzan!” …”I will be on Tarzan (magazine)!” The guys got confused, haha. Maru then said in a small voice, “I’ll be something like a Tarzan later…” Don’t spoil it yet for the fans who don’t know!!
What does Subaru want to do this year as Kanjani8? “I want to have nabe with you all.” Okaaay, then they said “Then let’s have nabe at Shibuyan’s place!” Subaru immediately said “No! No!” They started talking about going to each other’s houses. Yoko said “Who’s been to Subaru’s place before?” Shota said “I haven’t!!” The others haven’t either. The only one that has been to Subaru’s place before was Hina, when he delivered zousui to his house while he was sick. It was during Mitei Ichi. Hina had eaten nabe out, and he brought some zousui to Subaru in “ziploc.” Subaru said that Hina only had been to his door, but Hina said that he went to the living room. Hina also goes to Ohkura’s place a lot. Whenever he goes there, he gets wasted so Ohkura has a hard time trying to get rid of him, lol. Hina falls asleep, so Ohkura usually calls a cab and says “Murakami-kun, I have work tomorrow so can you please leave?” Yoko said that whenever Hina gets drunk, he tends to get really close to people. Maru and Shota are usually the victims.
They then asked who’s been to Ryo’s place. Ryo said “Murakami-kun, Sho-chan… and Maru! Kettei! (= decided)” haha what the heck. Hina smacked Ryo saying that it’s the wrong word but hilarious, haha. He said Sho-chan but then said “…Yasu came to my place to work on the jingles for Kanpani.” Maru also went to Ryo’s place. Ryo had taped Uta no Oniisan on his hard disc drive so they watched it together. Maru was all nervous because Ryo-chan was watching it with him. Maru looked back to see Ryo was playing the guitar, haha.
Shota’s house is kind of a mystery, but Ohkura has been there as well as Yoko, actually. Ohkura said “Didn’t he show you a weird DVD??” It’s probably one of those under the sea or animal whatever DVDs, haha. Ohkura went on to describe Shota’s place. “It’s very Yasu. He has both a girly side and a manly side! You’d see a pink t-shirt on display, but in the next room there’s his collection of guitars. It’s actually a pretty fashionable room. It smells like… senkou (an incense you burn in temples and such)” LOL “No, no! Like good incense!” Yoko’s been to Shota’s place as well. Hina asked, “Was it for Kicyu?” and no, it was when Yoko really had to take a dump and he borrowed his bathroom, lol.
Maru’s house… “Where is Maru’s house!?” the guys all said, haha. I wonder if he has a place of his own. Yoko said that he’s been to Maru’s house in Kyoto before. When he visited, he heard the sound of a bird chirping, and when he looked outside he saw a pigeon. Maru actually had a pigeon in his backyard. In a small space in between the air conditioning pipes, the pigeon was laying an egg. It hatched and when spring came, Maru would see the baby birds learning how to fly. It always reminded him that spring was here.
Yoko said, “Hina has three houses.” Hina said “Not yet.” LOL They all said that they want a house instead of an apartment. That was like the status of a man. They asked the crowd how many people lived in a house rather than an apartment. There were quite a few. Then they asked if they had more than three bathrooms, and some did. “You rich people!!” Then they asked if they had landscapers (Yoko didn’t know what this was) come to trim their trees.
Yoko then asked if their places were clean. Ohkura immediately said “My place is clean!” Ryo said “My place stinks!” Yoko or Hina said “Stink of what?” Ryo said “Unko (= poop)!!” Oh Ryo… Apparently, his place smells like his dog’s poop. Hina scolded Ryo saying “You didn’t tell the whole story!!!”
I don’t remember in which show, but they went on about the “back of the elbow.” In Domoto Kyodai, Hina said that throughout his life he had thought that his elbow was actually the “back of the elbow.” He defended himself by saying that if you look at the body from the front, the elbow is in the back so it should be called the “back of the elbow.” Ryo suddenly said “But yo! Listen! Ohkura, listen!” (Ohkura was listening, lol) “Bend your arm! If you bend your arm, the part on the other side of the elbow disappears! What happens then!? Am I going crazy!?” They then said that they should just come up with a name. Maru said that the bent part should be called the “shadow of the elbow.” Hina said “Maruyama-san, what should we call it if we didn’t bend our arm?” “It’ll be the… ‘paka!’ of the elbow!” Weird people…
16. DESIRE - In S1, Hina asked Subaru and Shota to go get ready during the MC so I knew it was coming!! First live Desire in ages!!! They weren’t wearing the white suits anymore. Subaru was wearing a hat with a dark cape type thing. Shota was wearing glasses! I don’t know where they learn how to sing like this, but they were very sexy, haha. Subaru was a bit shaky in S3, but both of them sounded the best in S4. Way to start the new year off!! They added a humming part at the end of the song.
17. TORN - Naturally, the intro to torn started right after desire. Ryo came out on the first base side wearing black and Ohkura came out on the third base side wearing red. They were both wearing sunglasses at S3. They first started off on the “hand” part of the castle, then got on the carts to go to the center stage. Then, they went to the back stage at full speed on the carts (the staff actually RUN pushing these carts!) and finished there. Ohkura ended up hugging Ryo from the back, but in S4 Ryo faced Ohkura instead. They showed the PV they had during the Ohkura solo concert back in 2008… I can’t believe that was 2008!! They had the water effect for this song.
18. WANSHAN RONPIN - HAHA what a pleasant surprise this was! Just the day before the first show, I went to karaoke with chimericalyours and her friend, and she had this whole jungle thing going on with this song so it was hilarious to hear this live, at last! Maru came out at the very top of one of the castle towers and he glided down on a rope like a tarzan. He was wearing an Uta-Oni type outfit. He always missed his landing (probably on purpose, haha). He asked us to applaud him when he landed safely, and after taking a moment to take off his equipment, he started singing and dancing along. It is such a cute song and I love how everyone naturally went HEY! HEY! HEY! HEY! even if it was the first time for everyone to listen to this live. Maru looked so happy when he was performing this, too! For the "me ga hareru" part, he made his eyes look like it was swollen, hahaha.
19. BABUN MAN - Oh dear… Before the concerts started, I was thinking they must put Babun Man in there somewhere but I had totally forgotten about it until the kid (it was Maashii for S3 because kids can’t perform that late, haha) got attacked by a tiger and said “Oh no, I got muddy! My mom will get mad!” I was like “OH DEAR THIS IS IT!!” Babun Man was on the middle gondola when the spotlight got on him. "Don't worry, kid! If you use Liquid M, your body and soul will be 'masshiro kekke'!!! (white)" The fans were quick to catch on, so they said “KYAAA!” and then fell silent after the “Kega suruze” part, lol. The place felt like it shook a bit when he first came out in S1, haha. Everyone went wild when they said SHINGO!!!!! Babun Man started on the main stage, then got on the cart top speed to the back stage where he performed with a bunch of topless juniors and never ending bubbles. For S2, I had a too great of a view of him… haha geez. It was pretty awesome to see the real BABUN! ATTACK! right from the front though, hahaha!
20. 413MAN - The screen showed the animation boys from the opening clip lined up with Yoko in the middle. They said good bye to each other and Yoko was left alone. Then, an old person with a cane walked towards Yoko and they took each other’s hands. It was a grandpa type person. While this heart-warming clip was being shown on the screen, Babun Man was coming back to the main stage in top speed on the cart in the darkness, lol. The guitar started for a surprising 413man, band style!!! Yoko was the main vocal with Subaru, Ryo and Shota on guitar, Maru (still in the big Uta Oni outfit) on bass, Ohkura on drums and Babun Man on keyboards, haha. Whenever Yoko sang the “Boku ni mo taisetsu na nakama ga dekimashita” part, he turned back towards the guys and that made me cry in S1!! I was fine in the rest of the shows, but it still was a very nice moment. In S4, when Yoko turned Ohkura was smiling big at him and Ryo came over to say something along the lines of “You can do this!” which Yoko said later. The band played its best in S4 in my opinion.
21. JUNIORS - After such a heartwarming performance, I wonder why they had to put this here. 7 WEST came out and sang their song, and then I don’t remember the order but the Veterans, “Shadow WEST” (who now!?), “Kyou Otoko”, BOYS and BAD sang their songs. Kiriyama said that they are going to have a concert in Osaka Jo Hall during spring break.
22. SNOW WHITE - The screen suddenly showed the words “Please turn off your penlights for this next song.” so the place became dark, except for a few areas of the Dome where they probably couldn’t see the writing on the screen. A clip of Ryo on top of a building burning matches came up as the intro to the song started. Shota started in front of the winter trees on the main stage, then Ohkura in front of the towers. Then Subaru sang on the left hand and Maru on the right. The first verse was sung by these four. I didn’t notice until S4, but Ryo, Hina and Yoko actually run towards the center stage while Subaru is singing his part. For the second verse, the three sing on the center stage as the rest of them come towards the center on carts as well. The lyrics are shown on the screen while they connect their solo parts along with their faces (Ryo, Hina, Ohkura, Yoko, Shota, Subaru, Maru). Then, this is where it gets pretty! The center stage lights each guy up in their ranger color. And, they put colored spotlights around the Dome and show the faces of the fans on the screen. For example, the Yellow light zone is shown on the screen when Ryo is singing, Red when Subaru is singing, etc. I didn’t notice til later but in S2, my section was lit up in blue. If you look at it from far, the blue one is actually lit in a heart shape! At the end, when Shota sings his solo, the blue spot light is on him and the heart is the only light remaining in the crowd. In S4, Shota sang “Tada minna ni aitakute” instead of “Tada kimi ni aitakute.” His smile after he sung that was so cute <3
23. MERMAID - They went back to the main stage in the dark as the screen showed the ocean and had sounds of the water. I was like “NO WAY!” in my head, but yes way, they were doing Mermaid. Ohkura sang the first part where Uchi usually sung. His voice was quite loud here. The dance to this was REALLY cool. It reminded me of their junior days. Shota did the “Lala lailala lalala…” part as Yoko hummed over that. Seriously, their dancing was awesome!! At one point, Hina was dancing alone in the center while the others did a wave type movement laying on the floor. It went well with the music. The screen showed the entire dance with the fire in the background, which looked really cool. Sorry for the lack of my vocabulary; all I could say is “cool” or “awesome” lol.
24. BURLEE - They danced on the big moving stage that goes over people’s heads. In S1, Shota couldn’t sing his solo part well because his timing was off. It was nice to be able to see their dancing from different angles.
25. KANASHII KOI - Wow, long time no hear! I was kind of hoping that they’d go to Osaka Rainy Blues right after this, but I don’t mind. They did this song on the back stage, where I had a great view for S2.
26. CINEMATIC - Ohkura, Maru and Shota went back to the main stage on the big moving stage while they sang the first verse. I knew that next up must be the band session then, haha. I love Maru and Shota’s harmony! In S3, they all came back to the main stage together because of the way the set list worked, so Maru and Shota stuck together as they sang their parts. It was so cute!!! Maru and Shota were seriously ADORABLE throughout the four concerts!! I like this song a lot so I was happy to be able to listen to it live.
BAND SESSION - This time, Maru started with the bass solo. Ohkura joined. While they were jamming, a small figure covered in white and red stripes came out… I was like “Oh dear…” Shota looked like a candy cane!! Even his hood was white and red striped! Ryo joined the session too. He kinda messed up in S4 and Shota smiled at him. They eventually led to playing a familiar tune that sounded like Misetekure. That’s when Subaru, Hina and Yoko came out to the top of the stairs and Subaru shouted MISETEKUREEEEEE!!!
27. MISETEKURE - Veins were popping up from Subaru’s skinny arms! He was very powerful when he sang this. Hina was standing right in front of Shota throughout the rap part. He was basically towering over him, haha.
28. GORI GORI - Maru’s bass started Gori Gori! From the Puzzle tour in the summer, my body naturally went from this to Jonetsu Party, haha. How scary habits are!
29. JONETSU PARTY - I just loooove this song live. In S4, Shota was playing his guitar on his back laying on the floor. He didn’t miss many notes, either!
30. FUYU KOI - Yoko had left the previous song early, so he came out dressed in a white suit first. He said his thank yous to the fans. In S1, he was saying how the group is in a really good situation now after talking a lot on a night in Nagano in the summer. They are working towards a common goal. In S4, he was saying that when they take each other’s hands at the end of the show, they usually grab the hands tightly saying that they’ve done a good job today. Yoko really loves Kanjani8. “Please listen to our last song.” The intro to Fuyu Koi comes up and the others come out all wearing white suits. Ryo started in the middle. They moved around during the song and Maru ended up in the middle for his big solo part. They were all into this song and it sounded beautiful. After they said good bye, the screen showed the fairytale-like clip again. This time, they threw the glass slippers and the words "You are my... <3" came up in the end. I don't remember seeing this in S1, though! Weird! That was why I was wondering what ever happened to those slippers!
ENCORE
1. MUGENDAI - The guys came out wearing their black concert t-shirt, each arranged differently. They all had an alphabet on their backs. Shota had “S” Subaru had “S2” Maru had “M” Yoko had “Y” Ohkura had “T” Hina had “S” and Ryo had “R”.
2. WAHAHA - They went around on the big carts with the TV monitors on them. Most of them weren’t singing properly at this point, haha.
3. HITOTSU NO UTA - They all gathered at the center. In S4, Shota and Maru were supposed to go to the center together on a cart but Maru was late coming, so Shota said “Maru-chan! Hurry! Over here!” “Sorry! Hold on!” so Yoko’s like “Are you guys best friends or what!!” Hahaha, yes they are <3 In S3, after the TV broadcast was over and they sang a few more songs, the guys asked for DJ YASUDA. Shota came to the front and said “Say YEAAAH!” “SAY YEEAAHH YEAAHH!” etc. being the DJ. “Do you want to become one!? Do you want to DO it with us!? Do you want to DO it!? Alright, let’s DO this! DON!” and the intro the song played, haha. In S4, Subaru was standing still in one corner of the stage throughout the song, looking at the crowd. We all sang the “Lalalala” loud and proud. They all looked very touched. In S4, Ryo and Shota were hugging each other on the center stage. After the song when they were on the moving stage going back to the main stage, Ryo threw Shota’s hat into the crowd. Shota at first was like “Huh!?” and Ryo kinda went “Oops! Sorry, was that bad?” and Shota kinda said “Oh, don’t worry” (I cannot hear any of these so I’m just guessing by their gestures) and Shota said through the mic “Present for you!” in English, and Ryo repeated that. From then on, Ryo was ALL OVER Shota!! All of a sudden lovey dovey!! He put his arm all around Shota while drinking his water and the crowd of course went kyaaaaa <3 haha.
DOUBLE ENCORE
1. I WISH - DJ Yasuda appeared in S4 as well, haha! This song is turning into one of my favorites… Subaru and Hina first start off with the weirdest movements; they are swinging sideways first with their backs really straight then they bent lower. They repeated this a few times before Subaru goes straight into the song; Hina can’t stop laughing at it. Ohkura and Shota are just too love love during this song!! In S2, they got on the cart together and Yoko was like “Oh look! ROMES!” (it was the show where they talked about “Do ROMES” during the MC). They sang their part together and they started looking for their pockets… but they didn’t have one! “Hey! We don’t have one! Haha!” LOL (The lyrics say that they put their hand in their right pocket) In S4… they came walking on the left hand of the Castle-man (whatever happened to that character anyway??) during their part and guess what Ohkura did!? Yeah, because Shota didn’t have a pocket, Ohkura put his hand down Shota’s pants!!! The lyrics then go “I get a bit shy” so Shota ‘pretended’ he was shy, lol. After Ohkura took his hand out of the pants, he kinda smelled his hand, LOL! HENTAI!! I am so thankful that I was on the third base side while this all happened, hahaha. This was the last song they did in S3, with the clock already past 1am… they weren’t supposed to perform after 1am because it’s going to bother the neighbors, but Hina was like “Let’s have fun! You guys worked well with us (with all the waiting we had for the TV broadcast) so we’ll get yelled at later!” The whole show went up to maybe 1:15am or so.
2. KYU! JO! SHOW!! - One final craziness! In S2, I clearly remember this one part where Maru is declaring his love for Shota while everyone else is focusing on Hina going crazy on the main stage. Yoko and Subaru were making Hina “let it all out” so Hina was doing the craziest dances topless, haha. While that was going on, Maru was saying “I have loved you for a long time!” during the scat part he has with Shota right in front of him. I couldn’t really see Shota’s reaction to it, but he was bending down in front of Maru. What in the world were they doing!? Gosh, they were so love love.
TRIPLE ENCORE (S4 only)
1. OSAKA OBACHAN ROCK - They came out for a final encore!! Yoko said “Let’s dance around! We have a song like this for you! Obachan Rock!!” but after that, Subaru said “Let me start…” and Yoko’s like “Oops, sorry!” Subaru then went “1! 2! Konnichi ONE TWO!” It’s been a while since I last heard this song as well, haha. I think it was during this song when Subaru was so obsessed with taking Maru’s shirt off. Maru kept on having to wear it back on again, haha. When Maru tried taking Subaru’s off, he wouldn’t allow it.
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WOW that was a long report, haha.
As I said at the beginning, the set list was a bit different for the actual Countdown live where they had to cut a few songs. While they had to change, they kept on apologizing to us saying “Sorry we have to go and change!” but they left in 3s and 4s so a few of them were always left on the stage. I think they did a great job trying to keep us entertained while they changed into 4 different outfits during such a short period of time trying to fit into the TV broadcast. I think they think about the fans so much, trying to do fun things like dressing up as ninjas or coming out as Eight Rangers.
I actually wrote in my Japanese blog that I wish they counted down in Eight Ranger costumes, lol. They didn’t actually do that for the countdown, but hey! They came out in the suit at one point anyway!
Before they started the TV broadcast, the guys talked a bit. Yoko said “Let’s all jump up in the air when the clock hits 12 (the clock at the top of the castle was showing the real time! Someone was like "It's like we're in London!" "This is London!") and say that ‘Oh, we weren’t on Earth when the year changed!’” He looked so happy when he was saying this, lol. He also made sure we were loud when Kyocera was on TV. He said “Should we practice that part now?” lol. Yoko, NATURALLY we will be loud if we see ourselves on TV! Hina apologized in advance that they will be going on and off stage because they’ve got to change a lot. But! It meant that we get to know what they were going to do well before anyone else in Tokyo or people watching on TV, haha.
Yoko asked us to promise two things: “Jump, and be loud!” and then the broadcast started. Before they sang Naniwa, the younger 4 were raised high up on the gondola and stayed there for a very long time! It must have been so scary staying up that high for that long!! Ohkura said “We go after KAT-TUN!” so we paid attention to the TV and waited for KAT-TUN to show up. Yoko said “You guys, remember to be very loud!!” Hina brought out something and put it down on the floor, saying “You will see eventually!” The “something” ended up being the Osaka Dome hat which he was wearing at the start of the song. Oh! He actually came out wearing that hat for Babun Man in S4!!
It was interesting because it felt as if Kanjani8 and us fans were all in one big living room watching the Countdown live on TV together. The guys were like “Oh, look! It’s Sho-kun!” while watching the screen and were singing loudly to the songs they were playing etc. The whole dome was like a big karaoke party, haha! When Uchi was on the screen, Shota and Ohkura were like "Oh, hey it's Uchi!" "Uchi~!"
It was funny when they were dressing up as ninjas. They all took their shirts off after Zukkoke on the back stage and started running around trying to get changed. The smaller 4 went to change first, and Ohkura, who had to stay on the stage with Yoko and Maru, stood there shirtless the entire time waiting for the others to get changed, haha. Yoko was like “Ohkura, just because you lost weight, don’t show it off!” Ohkura was covering his body up the entire time, haha.
Then, one weird looking person started running real fast through the arena… it was Hina dressed in a ninja costume! We were so confused as to why they were dressing up as ninjas, but we knew something hilarious was about to happen. A few moments later, smaller ninjas came running out. It was Shota and Ryo running together, with Shota constantly screaming “Someone get my sword! I don’t have mine!” LOL. Then we saw another small ninja running through the arena… in a very weird way, lol. It was Subaru. Oh the CHAOS!!! After that, the bigger three came out in their ninja costumes but Maru was being silly taking ninja poses and saying “Nin Nin!!” So in my head I was like “Don’t they have to hurry!?” but those three got to go on the carts instead of running on their feet!! Hey!! Hahaha. Oh man, everything was crazy at this point, lol. We see the TV broadcast on the big screen and the boys are yelling “We go after Go Hiromi’s song!!” haha. The ninja performance was what you saw on TV. They were crazy hyper and I am so happy to hear that the people in Tokyo loved it!! Yoko practiced his line a few times (giving the cue for the next song "Ikuta Toma will be there, too!")
Oh man, what a wonderful 3 days (4, if you count the day I went to buy goods!) it was! It was such a fun end to 2009 and a beginning to 2010. I love the group even more now, haha!!
I wish this whole performance will be on DVD, but I actually didn’t see any special cameras in the dome except for the ones that were there for the Countdown broadcast… so, to answer the many questions I received in my previous posts, “No, I don’t think they were taping it for a DVD.” At least that’s what I think. I REALLY hope they release a DVD of this (maybe the Jan. 1st performance because it was great) but I am not sure if they were taping any of it. There were so many songs, great choreography and great smiles that we could never get to see until next winter because there were so many winter songs!!! Pleeeease let there be a DVD but I don’t think it’s likely…
Anyway! 19 pages on Word, woohoo! I am sure I am missing many things from what I saw, but this is all I remember for now! I might add a few things here and there, but thanks for reading this long one (if you made it this far!)!!