Gakuensai Days 1-3
Here’s a review of the first three Gakuensai shows - Day 1 and Day 2 were in Toyosu, Tokyo, and Day 3 in Fukuoka. If you read the Day 1 report I posted before, this fills in a few gaps, clears up a few things and adds in more days. There's a few photos, and they're all from GACKT's blog.
Day 1 was rather late, but Days 2 and 3 were only about ten minutes late.
[First half]
All of the show announcements were handled by Hagichan-senpai. He’s a comedian who’s worked with GACKT on some NicoNico broadcasts before. As always there was the school song, and then the opening address from Principal H.
Prinicpal H. is GACKT’s sound producer Hemmi. If you don’t remember, he’s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap - an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, and on Day 2 they showed the article on the screen. When he couldn’t read his speech, he pulled out a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how the tabloid had concealed his identity in the article by putting a black bar over his eyes. He also had a copy of the magazine. He read out some of the school rules that were all based around staying out of tabloids, and then it was time for Kaicho to arrive.
As always, Kaicho walked through the crowd and took to the stage. His opening speech was pretty standard too. The tour this year is called Hirakinasai, and as hiraku can mean “open,” he wants us all to open our hearts and bodies and be good Camui Gakuen students. He announced the winners of the Mr. and Ms. Camui Gakuen contests. On Day 1 he didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any of the photos sent in were smiley enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen on Day 1 cried, but managed to get a hug out of him. The Day 2 winners were both pretty normal. On Day 3, Mr. Gakuen was a high school aged boy that had sent in a photo of him pulling a very strange face. When he went on stage and just had a normal expression, Kaicho told him that his face was different.
Then, Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd answers with a “kashikomari”, too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd as they’re not in F9 and shouldn’t shout too. On Day 1, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, and all the senpais were staring at him and amused by his pouting. Eventually Kaicho congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever in about 8 years of doing the shows that didn’t mess that part up. On Day 2, he didn’t do this part at all! On Day 3, he did do this part and as a few people in the crowd shouted “kashikomari,” he was able to tell everyone off. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest on Day 1, and Sato won on both Day 2 and Day 3.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. On Day 1 it was very muted, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. He even remarked on Day 2 about the lukewarm reception the outfits received on Day 1.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. On Day 1 a fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.” On Day 2, two different people put questions in the box and attached AGA flyers for Takumi. Takumi later said that he was getting them in his present box too. On Day 3, someone asked Takumi how his hair was doing.
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video, with the worst performing senpai being nominated by Kaicho for another themed punishment game.
The first game was a real daruma game.
It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
On Day 1, the first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
On Day 2, the first pair was You-Suke and Val. They decided that Val would hit the discs when he said the “ro” in “hokuro” (“hokuro” means “mole” in Japanese, and of course Val has a noticeable mole on his face). They failed, and You-Suke landed on his butt on one of the discs as he fell. The second pair was Tennen and Takumi. Tennen said he was scared of heights, and didn’t look very happy up top! They failed too.
On Day 3, the first pair was You-Suke and Sato. Sato hit the disc out almost perfectly, but You-Suke couldn’t stick the landing. Rassan and Val didn’t have as much luck and failed too. After seeing both pairs fail, Kaicho started to explain how it should be done, so Shinnosu and the crowd asked Kaicho to try. He agreed to, and Madoka volunteered to be on top. Kaicho asked Madoka to demonstrate how he was going to jump, and then told Madoka how he should jump. Kaicho hit the discs left-handed, and for the first time on the tour, not only managed to hit a disc out, but hit several! Madoka fell on the very last disc! The second disc was a close call as Madoka landed on his back instead of his feet, but they managed it! Trust Kaicho to do something nobody else can...
On Day 1, the second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
On Day 2 and 3, the game involved a senpai lying on a trolley, and having his head shoved into a box, that would then be filled with something disgusting…. They then had to identify what it was. The first senpai to play the game was Hayato, and they filled his box with some small lizards. Only, the lizards didn’t play along much, and didn’t move too close to him.
For the second game, Kiryuuin Sho from Golden Bomber came out, and was forced into playing. He put his head in the box, and had to contend with Madagascan cockroaches. If you’ve never seen these, they’re huge. Kaicho was sat on his chair with his feet pulled up, and was hugging his knees to his chest. Sho could identify them as cockroaches, but not the breed so he lost.
(Hayato on Day 3)
On Day 3, it was Hayato again, but with bigger lizards. Again, they didn’t get that close to him. After Hayato finished, Kaicho grabbed Val’s hand and shoved it in the box so that Val had to touch them. Then Kaicho touched them, too. I think he was trying to pick one up, but it didn’t want to be picked up. The second senpai to play this game was Takumi, and his box was full of snakes. There were so many snakes! They were pretty small, but were pretty animated before they were released. Kaicho told Takumi to be careful as they were could be dangerous, and it sounded more like GACKT warning Takumi, than Kaicho warning Takumi-senpai. After the snakes were released, they became more docile and didn’t move much. YOU knocked the box to try to get them to move, and then Kaicho got up and violently shook the table to get them nearer Takumi. They still didn’t get that close though.
On Day 1, Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch. On Day 2, it was Val’s turn. On Day 3, Kaicho picked YOU. YOU was not happy about this, and marched over from the left side of the stage to where Kaicho was sitting on the right to argue about it. YOU’s argument was that he hadn’t done a game, so why was he being picked for the batsu game? Kaicho explained it was because he didn’t shake the snake box enough.
[Second half & setlist]
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He said he was a champion dancer, and had just come from America. Kaicho misheard “America” as “Africa”, and started a running gag of mishearing Madoka’s name and ignoring him.
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK - The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori - Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
(LOVE PHANTOM - B’z
Makenaide - ZARD
Donna toki mo - Noriyuki Makihara
La La La - Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now - T-BOLAN
Niji - L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna - Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro - B’z)
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! - GACKT
6. SEASONS - Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute - EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda - The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta - Mongol 800
S.E.X. Japan (not on Day 1)
10. Pegasus Fantasy - Saint Seiya
11. X - X Japan
12. SMAP Medley
(SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE)
There were quite a few differences between Day 1 and the other days. The main difference was in the use of the pen lights (or “harenchi” (shameless) lights as Kaicho kept calling them). On Day 2 and 3, most of the songs had a certain colour he wanted everyone to use, whereas on Day 1, only Whoo-ha Baby had a colour. Kaicho explained the yorotikubi move again this year - for “yoro” you make a heart shape, for “tiku,” you put out your hands in sidewards V shapes, and for “bi” you put the Vs on your nipples. Only this time, he asked that when you put your fingers on your nipples, it’s done with an erotic face. For Kaicho, this means kissy faces and pouts, and whenever he did that, love hearts would appear around him on the screen.
SPARK is just the intro and the first couple of words.
On Day 1 for the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons. On Day 2, Kaicho explained an easy dance and asked everyone to switch their penlights to a certain colour. Kaicho said that it didn’t matter if people didn’t know this song, as he doesn’t know it either.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two medleys done on previous tours. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song. The dancers kept on trying to anticipate when Kaicho would sing “ultra soul” and move to the next song, but each time he did it earlier than they expected. So, for one song they tried to anticipate it early, but he kept going and tricked them that way.
(This is all from Niji)
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, so there were lots of “Kaicho” chanting. There was also a very funny dance movement at the end where Kaicho asked everyone to lean to their left, and rapidly tap their right leg on the floor, like a dog in heat or something...
On Day 1 Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, and on Day 2 and 3 he said that a female student had asked him to be her Yumeouji, so they did a “non-stop respect version” of the drama’s theme song by Momokuro. Kaicho said that he also had a lot of respect for Tomoyasu Hotei, so they would respect both artists in the same song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of Hotei’s face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), and Kaicho added in an “e” sound after every syllable he sang, to kinda mimic Hotei’s singing style. On Day 3, some of the security in the crowd wore them too. Also, on Day 3, he explained that he would add these “e” sounds, and fanboyed whenever he mentioned Hotei. Kaicho would close his eyes and makes this shuddering “Uwhaaaa” sound. It was both cute and creepy in equal measures.
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. All of the senpais wore the cat ears, and Kaicho would get his literally clipped into his wig so they wouldn’t fall off. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely white Gakuen cardigans instead of the usual heavy black coats.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version. Kaicho did his usual MC where he comes across a female student and has a conversation with her. He made fun of how often he’s done this same MC though, by saying things like “you again?” and “you split up with your boyfriend again?” When he asked the girl her name, as always the crowd responded by shouting “Ayumi” and “Hamasaki.” This time though, he reacted to all of the voices coming at him from different angles and made comments about the girl’s voice sounding strange and wondering if there were spirits around.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. For his MC, he started by saying it was a beautiful moon, and wondered if the girl he was speaking about could remember some past memories. He started out by singing the song acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. Val started his MC by completely mocking the MC Kaicho had just done before the last song. Only, Val’s MC ended with him finding some business cards of the number one host at the Da Vinci host club, a guy called Bunta Shiratori.
The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. “Linda Linda” was changed into “Bunta, Bunta” and was about this host. At the end of the song, it’s revealed that Bunta is Shinnosu. At the beginning of the song, Kaicho (well, Gasshi) played a riff, and Val sang a few words, while pulling strange faces. Val then held the strange face until Kaicho played the next riff. On Day 3, Kaicho looked back at the screen to see Val’s faces, and made him hold some of them for a pretty long time.
On Day 1 before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. I don’t fully remember his MC on Day 2, but I think it was more of a generic love MC. He also interacted with the other members a lot more on Day 2 and 3, talking to each one in turn (although they never talk back to him or acknowledge him in anyway) and was punched in the face by Kaicho on Day 2. On Day 3, Kaicho threw the mic stand at him, and Takumi threw a banana in his face. Also on Day 3, both Takumi and Kaicho cracked up laughing. It was the first time I’d seen Takumi laugh at a Gakuensai show, and I think it was a holdover from the Balue Hearts solo show the day before (I’ll get to a report on that soon too). Kaicho cracked up three or four times at different things, and had to turn his back on the crowd to regain his composure. At the end of the set Val tries to time a jump, but the rest of the band don’t play ball, and Val ended up lying in a heap on the floor. The other 3 members all glared at him before leaving, and Kaicho literally stepped right on him on his way off the stage.
(Valto is scared to approach Gasshi, hahaha)
Chisana Koi no Uta was turned into a song about a blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as Val sang about fixing punctures and G-spots.
On Day 1, it skipped straight to the ending video and SMAP encore. On Day 2 and 3, the S.E.X. Japan set was added in. A video showed of Madoka and Kaicho talking about the next set. Madoka struggled to read a letter saying that Chacha was back in France (because of course Madoka can’t read Japanese properly…), and Kaicho got him mixed up with Obama. Kaicho said not to worry, as he had someone to sing.
The band members were the same as always, with YOU and Takumi on guitar, Sato on bass and Kaicho on drums. The singer was (sa)Toshi. Before the Day 2 show, several of the senpais posted a video that they said was homework from Kaicho, and it was to listen to “Pegasus Fantasy,” the theme song from the anime “Saint Seiya,” and this was the first song they did. It’s really epic, even in the anime version, and sounded good with the S.E.X Japan treatment. It was good to see them do something new. The performance of X was the same as always.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number for the encore. The senpais suggested a K-pop routine, and then AKB, but both of them had been done. Madoka suggested a more western, hip hop style dance, and then Kaicho yelled at them for disturbing his not-wine drinking.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and it was a lot of fun. They all wore one of the LVL tanktops underneath, and Kaicho has his hoodie unzipped to perfection. It falls off his left shoulder, showing off his arm and a little side boob, without falling off completely and looks completely accidental and effortless. Although it obviously isn’t...
And that was it. Kaicho wished everyone a safe journey home and it was over.
Day 1 was rather late, but Days 2 and 3 were only about ten minutes late.
[First half]
All of the show announcements were handled by Hagichan-senpai. He’s a comedian who’s worked with GACKT on some NicoNico broadcasts before. As always there was the school song, and then the opening address from Principal H.
Prinicpal H. is GACKT’s sound producer Hemmi. If you don’t remember, he’s the guy that “caused” all of the tabloid trouble earlier this year (quick recap - an alleged ex of GACKT’s allegedly attempted suicide after her engagement to Hemmi was called off). His speech was full of references and jokes about being in the tabloids, and on Day 2 they showed the article on the screen. When he couldn’t read his speech, he pulled out a pair of glasses with a black bar over them, to mimic how the tabloid had concealed his identity in the article by putting a black bar over his eyes. He also had a copy of the magazine. He read out some of the school rules that were all based around staying out of tabloids, and then it was time for Kaicho to arrive.
As always, Kaicho walked through the crowd and took to the stage. His opening speech was pretty standard too. The tour this year is called Hirakinasai, and as hiraku can mean “open,” he wants us all to open our hearts and bodies and be good Camui Gakuen students. He announced the winners of the Mr. and Ms. Camui Gakuen contests. On Day 1 he didn’t award a Mr. Gakuen as he didn’t think any of the photos sent in were smiley enough. The lady who won Ms. Gakuen on Day 1 cried, but managed to get a hug out of him. The Day 2 winners were both pretty normal. On Day 3, Mr. Gakuen was a high school aged boy that had sent in a photo of him pulling a very strange face. When he went on stage and just had a normal expression, Kaicho told him that his face was different.
Then, Kaicho introduced F9. Whenever he does their introduction, he asks F9 if they’re ready, and every time somebody from the crowd answers with a “kashikomari”, too. Then, Kaicho gets to yell at the crowd as they’re not in F9 and shouldn’t shout too. On Day 1, nobody in the crowd shouted. Kaicho seemed pretty unhappy that he couldn’t yell at the crowd, and all the senpais were staring at him and amused by his pouting. Eventually Kaicho congratulated everyone on being the first crowd ever in about 8 years of doing the shows that didn’t mess that part up. On Day 2, he didn’t do this part at all! On Day 3, he did do this part and as a few people in the crowd shouted “kashikomari,” he was able to tell everyone off. Val was announced as the winner of the sales contest on Day 1, and Sato won on both Day 2 and Day 3.
Kaicho left the stage and F9 danced to Paparapa. After the dance finished, they left the stage and Shinnosu came out wearing the new red training gear with the low crotch. Shinnosu always asks the crowds what they think of the new training gear for that year, and he usually gets an enthusiastic response. On Day 1 it was very muted, which at first he seemed surprised at, and then he started talking about how low the crotch was. He even remarked on Day 2 about the lukewarm reception the outfits received on Day 1.
Shinnosu read out some comments from the fans to stall for time. On Day 1 a fan asked if YOU preferred sailor style school uniforms or blazer style (he later answered sailor style), one fan told Takumi to go to AGA to get his baldness sorted out, and another fan addressed her letter to Val and it was literally just “I like you. Not really.” On Day 2, two different people put questions in the box and attached AGA flyers for Takumi. Takumi later said that he was getting them in his present box too. On Day 3, someone asked Takumi how his hair was doing.
F9 came out in the training gear, and Kaicho came back out in his uniform to sit and watch the oncoming madness. Hagi-chan acted as Kaicho’s mic stand, as he was kneeling next to Kaicho’s chair and holding his mic when Kaicho didn’t want to talk.
All of the games are based on Tsumi no Keisho and its video, with the worst performing senpai being nominated by Kaicho for another themed punishment game.
The first game was a real daruma game.
It involved some thick discs, each a couple of feet high and a few feet wide, being stacked on top of each other until they were about two metres tall. Then, a senpai would climb on top, while another hit the discs out with a hammer. To win the game, you have to stay on the discs. There were crash mats brought out all over the stage for this.
On Day 1, the first pair was Rassan on top, and Sato to hit. They failed in a spectacular fashion. Kaicho thought it was hilarious and immediately wanted to see the replay. The next pair was Madoka on top and YOU to hit. They nearly managed a disc, but then Madoka fell backwards and landed on his crotch.
On Day 2, the first pair was You-Suke and Val. They decided that Val would hit the discs when he said the “ro” in “hokuro” (“hokuro” means “mole” in Japanese, and of course Val has a noticeable mole on his face). They failed, and You-Suke landed on his butt on one of the discs as he fell. The second pair was Tennen and Takumi. Tennen said he was scared of heights, and didn’t look very happy up top! They failed too.
On Day 3, the first pair was You-Suke and Sato. Sato hit the disc out almost perfectly, but You-Suke couldn’t stick the landing. Rassan and Val didn’t have as much luck and failed too. After seeing both pairs fail, Kaicho started to explain how it should be done, so Shinnosu and the crowd asked Kaicho to try. He agreed to, and Madoka volunteered to be on top. Kaicho asked Madoka to demonstrate how he was going to jump, and then told Madoka how he should jump. Kaicho hit the discs left-handed, and for the first time on the tour, not only managed to hit a disc out, but hit several! Madoka fell on the very last disc! The second disc was a close call as Madoka landed on his back instead of his feet, but they managed it! Trust Kaicho to do something nobody else can...
On Day 1, the second game was a three senpai game. The first senpai was blindfolded, like the Tsumi no Keisho video, and had headphones so he could neither see nor hear. The second senpai was to act as his arms, and also couldn’t see. The third senpai was the navigator that had to direct the second senpai. A tray of spicy or gross sauces was brought out, and the idea was to dunk a chicken nugget in a sauce, and make the blindfolded senpai taste it and guess what it was.
For the first round, Val was blindfolded, a dancer (Tennen, I think) was the arms, and Takumi was the navigator. Val ended up with more sauce on his face than in his mouth, and seemed to be really suffering from how hot it was.
For the second round, Hayato was blindfolded, another dancer was the arms (You-suke, I think), and Kaicho volunteered himself as the navigator. Vegemite was one of the sauces, and Kaicho had no idea what it was (seriously, GACKT? You’ve been to Australia how many times now?) Kaicho was Kaicho, and had the chicken dipped in three sauces before he was happy to paint Hayato’s face with it.
On Day 2 and 3, the game involved a senpai lying on a trolley, and having his head shoved into a box, that would then be filled with something disgusting…. They then had to identify what it was. The first senpai to play the game was Hayato, and they filled his box with some small lizards. Only, the lizards didn’t play along much, and didn’t move too close to him.
For the second game, Kiryuuin Sho from Golden Bomber came out, and was forced into playing. He put his head in the box, and had to contend with Madagascan cockroaches. If you’ve never seen these, they’re huge. Kaicho was sat on his chair with his feet pulled up, and was hugging his knees to his chest. Sho could identify them as cockroaches, but not the breed so he lost.
(Hayato on Day 3)
On Day 3, it was Hayato again, but with bigger lizards. Again, they didn’t get that close to him. After Hayato finished, Kaicho grabbed Val’s hand and shoved it in the box so that Val had to touch them. Then Kaicho touched them, too. I think he was trying to pick one up, but it didn’t want to be picked up. The second senpai to play this game was Takumi, and his box was full of snakes. There were so many snakes! They were pretty small, but were pretty animated before they were released. Kaicho told Takumi to be careful as they were could be dangerous, and it sounded more like GACKT warning Takumi, than Kaicho warning Takumi-senpai. After the snakes were released, they became more docile and didn’t move much. YOU knocked the box to try to get them to move, and then Kaicho got up and violently shook the table to get them nearer Takumi. They still didn’t get that close though.
On Day 1, Kaicho chose Madoka for the batsu game, and it involved him being in the crotch splitter while singing Tsumi no Keisho. Some of the senpais attached clips to his ears and then yanked them off, while Val was vacuuming his crotch. On Day 2, it was Val’s turn. On Day 3, Kaicho picked YOU. YOU was not happy about this, and marched over from the left side of the stage to where Kaicho was sitting on the right to argue about it. YOU’s argument was that he hadn’t done a game, so why was he being picked for the batsu game? Kaicho explained it was because he didn’t shake the snake box enough.
[Second half & setlist]
For the live, the opening video showed Madoka coming to Camui Gakuen as a new student. He said he was a champion dancer, and had just come from America. Kaicho misheard “America” as “Africa”, and started a running gag of mishearing Madoka’s name and ignoring him.
Here’s the setlist!
Opener - [Just a little] SPARK - The Yellow Monkey
1. Wataridori - Alexandros
2. Ultra Soul Medley 3
(LOVE PHANTOM - B’z
Makenaide - ZARD
Donna toki mo - Noriyuki Makihara
La La La - Maki Ohguro
Bye For Now - T-BOLAN
Niji - L’arc~en~ciel
Zurui Onna - Sharam Q
Koi Gokoro - B’z)
3. Zen Zen Zense - RADWIMPS
4. Saraba, Itoshiki Kanashimitachi yo - Momoiro Clover Z
5. Whoo-ha BABY!! - GACKT
6. SEASONS - Ayumi Hamasaki
7. Tada Aitakute - EXILE
THE BA・LUE HEARTS
8. Linda Linda - The Blue Hearts
9. Chisana Koi no Uta - Mongol 800
S.E.X. Japan (not on Day 1)
10. Pegasus Fantasy - Saint Seiya
11. X - X Japan
12. SMAP Medley
(SHAKE
Yozora no Mukou
Aoi Inzauma
SHAKE)
There were quite a few differences between Day 1 and the other days. The main difference was in the use of the pen lights (or “harenchi” (shameless) lights as Kaicho kept calling them). On Day 2 and 3, most of the songs had a certain colour he wanted everyone to use, whereas on Day 1, only Whoo-ha Baby had a colour. Kaicho explained the yorotikubi move again this year - for “yoro” you make a heart shape, for “tiku,” you put out your hands in sidewards V shapes, and for “bi” you put the Vs on your nipples. Only this time, he asked that when you put your fingers on your nipples, it’s done with an erotic face. For Kaicho, this means kissy faces and pouts, and whenever he did that, love hearts would appear around him on the screen.
SPARK is just the intro and the first couple of words.
On Day 1 for the Alexandros song, the crowd were asked to take off ties/ribbons. On Day 2, Kaicho explained an easy dance and asked everyone to switch their penlights to a certain colour. Kaicho said that it didn’t matter if people didn’t know this song, as he doesn’t know it either.
The Ultra Soul Medley was lots of fun, although it was similar to the first two medleys done on previous tours. Niji was a good example of Kaicho trolling, as some props were brought on stage for that song… and he only sang two words before moving to the next song. The dancers kept on trying to anticipate when Kaicho would sing “ultra soul” and move to the next song, but each time he did it earlier than they expected. So, for one song they tried to anticipate it early, but he kept going and tricked them that way.
(This is all from Niji)
For the RADWIMPS song, the crowd were asked to shout out the name of the person they loved during the chorus line, so there were lots of “Kaicho” chanting. There was also a very funny dance movement at the end where Kaicho asked everyone to lean to their left, and rapidly tap their right leg on the floor, like a dog in heat or something...
On Day 1 Kaicho said that he had been told that he looked like Yumeouji from Akumu-chan, and on Day 2 and 3 he said that a female student had asked him to be her Yumeouji, so they did a “non-stop respect version” of the drama’s theme song by Momokuro. Kaicho said that he also had a lot of respect for Tomoyasu Hotei, so they would respect both artists in the same song. Kaicho and the dancers copied the dance routine pretty well. For the last part of the song, everyone but Kaicho wore these huge masks of Hotei’s face (even Val had one on while he was drumming), and Kaicho added in an “e” sound after every syllable he sang, to kinda mimic Hotei’s singing style. On Day 3, some of the security in the crowd wore them too. Also, on Day 3, he explained that he would add these “e” sounds, and fanboyed whenever he mentioned Hotei. Kaicho would close his eyes and makes this shuddering “Uwhaaaa” sound. It was both cute and creepy in equal measures.
Whoo-ha Baby was the same routine as at the LAST VISUALIVE, only it was chibi Kaichos on screen instead of the regular Gakucchis and used the penlights. All of the senpais wore the cat ears, and Kaicho would get his literally clipped into his wig so they wouldn’t fall off. During the middle part, all of the dancers and Kaicho put a penlight in the place of their dicks, and then used the second one to show it… extending…
For the ballad section, Kaicho and the band wore these lovely white Gakuen cardigans instead of the usual heavy black coats.
SEASONS had the same intro and outro as the Nestle PV version. Kaicho did his usual MC where he comes across a female student and has a conversation with her. He made fun of how often he’s done this same MC though, by saying things like “you again?” and “you split up with your boyfriend again?” When he asked the girl her name, as always the crowd responded by shouting “Ayumi” and “Hamasaki.” This time though, he reacted to all of the voices coming at him from different angles and made comments about the girl’s voice sounding strange and wondering if there were spirits around.
For Tada Aitakute, it was just Kaicho on stage and a piano backing track. For his MC, he started by saying it was a beautiful moon, and wondered if the girl he was speaking about could remember some past memories. He started out by singing the song acapella and was hitting falsettos everywhere.
As soon as Kaicho left the stage, Val, Shinnosu and Takumi came out for The Balue Hearts set, with Kaicho joining them once he’d changed. Val started his MC by completely mocking the MC Kaicho had just done before the last song. Only, Val’s MC ended with him finding some business cards of the number one host at the Da Vinci host club, a guy called Bunta Shiratori.
The two songs that they performed had changed lyrics, and the new lyrics showed on the screen. “Linda Linda” was changed into “Bunta, Bunta” and was about this host. At the end of the song, it’s revealed that Bunta is Shinnosu. At the beginning of the song, Kaicho (well, Gasshi) played a riff, and Val sang a few words, while pulling strange faces. Val then held the strange face until Kaicho played the next riff. On Day 3, Kaicho looked back at the screen to see Val’s faces, and made him hold some of them for a pretty long time.
On Day 1 before Chisana Koi no Uta, Val’s MC was about being a fan of an artist. He asked the crowd if they had a body pillow of their favourite artist, or posters on their walls, and he said that he a doll of his favourite artist. I don’t fully remember his MC on Day 2, but I think it was more of a generic love MC. He also interacted with the other members a lot more on Day 2 and 3, talking to each one in turn (although they never talk back to him or acknowledge him in anyway) and was punched in the face by Kaicho on Day 2. On Day 3, Kaicho threw the mic stand at him, and Takumi threw a banana in his face. Also on Day 3, both Takumi and Kaicho cracked up laughing. It was the first time I’d seen Takumi laugh at a Gakuensai show, and I think it was a holdover from the Balue Hearts solo show the day before (I’ll get to a report on that soon too). Kaicho cracked up three or four times at different things, and had to turn his back on the crowd to regain his composure. At the end of the set Val tries to time a jump, but the rest of the band don’t play ball, and Val ended up lying in a heap on the floor. The other 3 members all glared at him before leaving, and Kaicho literally stepped right on him on his way off the stage.
(Valto is scared to approach Gasshi, hahaha)
Chisana Koi no Uta was turned into a song about a blow up sex doll. There were close ups of this doll flying across the screen as Val sang about fixing punctures and G-spots.
On Day 1, it skipped straight to the ending video and SMAP encore. On Day 2 and 3, the S.E.X. Japan set was added in. A video showed of Madoka and Kaicho talking about the next set. Madoka struggled to read a letter saying that Chacha was back in France (because of course Madoka can’t read Japanese properly…), and Kaicho got him mixed up with Obama. Kaicho said not to worry, as he had someone to sing.
The band members were the same as always, with YOU and Takumi on guitar, Sato on bass and Kaicho on drums. The singer was (sa)Toshi. Before the Day 2 show, several of the senpais posted a video that they said was homework from Kaicho, and it was to listen to “Pegasus Fantasy,” the theme song from the anime “Saint Seiya,” and this was the first song they did. It’s really epic, even in the anime version, and sounded good with the S.E.X Japan treatment. It was good to see them do something new. The performance of X was the same as always.
Next, another video showed of the senpai dancers (and YOU) trying to sort out a big dance number for the encore. The senpais suggested a K-pop routine, and then AKB, but both of them had been done. Madoka suggested a more western, hip hop style dance, and then Kaicho yelled at them for disturbing his not-wine drinking.
After the video, Kaicho, the band and dancers came out in the sportswear and flashy orange/red Skechers, as Skechers are a tour sponsor. They danced and mimed their way through the SMAP medley, and it was a lot of fun. They all wore one of the LVL tanktops underneath, and Kaicho has his hoodie unzipped to perfection. It falls off his left shoulder, showing off his arm and a little side boob, without falling off completely and looks completely accidental and effortless. Although it obviously isn’t...
And that was it. Kaicho wished everyone a safe journey home and it was over.