Break the Records Concert Report (090531, Osaka) - Part 2of2
Can't believe I have to post this in two parts. I've never had a post that was too long before. Anyway. Here's the second half.
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Ok. MC time. Overall… not the most interesting MC I’ve ever seen. I don’t really feel like they’re good at talking freely (making sure that everyone says something), which is why, I think, that they did it very systematically, talking about 1 project after another. They talked about Dream Boys (Kame’s the main. Also starring Subaru from K8 and Tegoshi from NEWS), Gokusen the movie (The other members think that Jin never got an offer to appear in the movie like Kame. Then Jin couldn’t remember his and Kame’s characters’ names. It was really funny.), Mr. Brain, and Konkatsu. I wanted them to do a little more than just advertise for their activities for the year… and if they’re going to do it anyway, it would be nice if it was more conversational than just going down a list.
They do make fun of Jin though. They’re like, “Jin, are you tired?” and he was retorts saying that he’s not tired and that today he’s in his ideal condition. Kame was like, “Um, excuse me but we’d like you to be in that shape all the time, not just today.”
Just when we thought the MC was wrapping up and that we weren’t going to get a guest, Koki announces that Higashiyama-san was at the concert. Holy crap, we freaked out! He was sitting in the stands right in front of the back stage. Higashiyama-san commented on how the individual personalities of KAT-TUN were very strong and that this was his first time at a KAT-TUN concert. Then, when they tried to talk more, he was like, “Let’s see what the audience wants you to talk about.”
The first question was, “What did you do last night.” Koki answers saying that they went out to eat dinner, all 6 of them. Higashiyama-san was like, you sure? Really? Haha… According to them, it was their first time this year eating all together.
The next question was, “What type of girl do you like?” Jin had all these individual requirements (pretty, good personality, can cook…) and then when all the other members started giving him crap, he said that the most important thing is the feeling that he gets from the person. Kame said that he starts to like people when he spends lots of time with them. Ueda’s one was the funniest. He was like, “My strike zone is pretty wide, so any girl is fine!” and Koki was like, “Ok, so any girl 2-70 years old is ok right?” haha…… During Nakamaru’s one, Ueda and Kame start playing with his hair, making it spiky. Btw… I miss Nakamaru’s pre-RESCUE hair immensely. *sigh* Then they try to continue the MC without doing Junno,but the audience protested. Haha….
They were about to move on when they realized, hey, we forgot the Juniors! Some of the Kansai Jrs came out to mention that their Ume Concert will be at the end of June. Shigeoka (yeah. Laruku was like, ‘why do you know who he is?’) was the one talking and when they asked his name, he was like, “You can call me ‘Shige’.” Haha…. Shigeoka… I don’t think it works that way… but it was cute.
Each of the members pulled a ticket stub from the box to give away the concert posters to. Apparently, Junno stole Jin’s thing where he read the other information on the ticket (like the price) instead of the seat number. 6 posters, 3 of which went to the same area. Boo…
After the MC they performed Water Dance and Moon. Sorry. I don’t remember much other than that they were on various parts of the backdrop grid with pretty Japanese style umbrellas.
AH…. EBIKISU CORNER!!! They didn’t get an introduction the way that the Kansai Jrs did. All of a sudden, ABC-Z were on the main stage singing Vanilla. They were wearing the red suits they used in the First Concert when EbiKisu did Seishun Amigo. The choreography seems to have changed a little, but I was really happy to see Vanilla live again. Laruku was like, ‘Why do you know the dance?’ Woman. I went to the EbiKisu concert and I watch Shokura. Of course I know the dance. >.>
Unfortunately, only Hasshi does a back flip at the end. *sigh* Hasshi… I know you’re trying and that you couldn’t do a back flip before, but you haven’t really gotten better at it… and it’s been like 8 months. At the same time, ABC, as the sempai, you need to teach your kouhai a little more.
Kisumai performed Fire Beat. I heard that they’ve been either Fire Beat or Kis-My-Calling and I’m a little torn as to which one I would have rather seen. I love Fire Beat a LOT, but I’ve never seen Kis-My-Calling live. They were wearing the tracksuits with the different colors (Kitayama red, Fujigaya pink, Wataru orange, Senga blue, Nika green, Tamamori yellow, and Miyata purple) They used both the main and middle stages. What surprised me the most, was that EVERYONE knew Fire Beat.
I was very happy, holding my EbiKisu and Gocchi uchiwa. It was totally worth it. (n.n)
Real Face was after the EbiKisu Corner and they made use of the moving stage. All over the backdrop were old video footage of KAT-TUN since their debut and it was a really nice effect. I was actually surprised that I recognized most of the videos. Kame did the opening rap, Nakamaru did Kame‘s part (at the end, Kame put the mic to Maru’s forehead and Maru pointed to his mouth. Cute) and Junno did the closing rap. Overall, REALLY liked this version.
Next is the part I guess each of the guys takes turns producing? It was Junno’s turn and the songs he chose were Seiten no Hekireki, Samurai Love Attack, Original Blue, and Crazy Love. Hahahaha….. Samurai Love Attack lasted right up until the actual verse starts before Ueda jumped over and hit him over the head with a huge paper fan. I guess he wasn’t supposed to choose a solo song yeah? I didn’t know the other 3 songs, but Laruku knew Crazy Love. It was pretty.
Oh Ueda. You try so hard with your piano… He got through the piano solo part ok, but messed up a little on the opening of Hana no Mau Michi. The song with all the visual effects was really nice. The upper VTR screens were white feathers floating around while the others showed scenes from Romeo & Juliet (I saw Shoon!) Good song, although if he couldn’t sing those last high notes, I don’t know why he put them there. Even in the recorded version it’s shaky. Felt bad though cause he had this look of disappointment on his face. (I wonder how much they thought about Higashiyama-san being there…)
Nakamaru’s solo was next. At first, I was kinda like, “Wow. Who’s that dancing?” and then it got more rigid and I was like, “oh. It’s Maru.” Haha… He and Koki then did this thing where they use the screens to ‘magically appear’ all over the stage. It reminded me of the ABC-Z Corner at the EbiKisu First Concerts. White World is a nice song. I actually like Nakamaru’s voice a lot… He’s just a little awkward in the visual component of his performances. *pats him on the head* It’s ok. We forgive.
*sigh* Jin, Jin, Jin… I feel like the only thing you learned in your 6 months in LA was how to swear. He came out, saying, “F*ck this” and “F*ck that.” “F*cking sh*t.” and then proceeded to give the audience the middle finger. For as popular as you are, you’re kinda mean to your fans. Granted, they don’t understand that you’re swearing at them, but you don’t face the audience a lot of the time and sing to the back drop. You are seriously one lucky guy to still have such a huge following. But then again, maybe they like that.
Anyway. Wonder. I really like this song. I like Crystal Kay’s voice and this song suits her a lot better than some of her other songs. I think she has a really strong voice that gets limited a lot when she sings Japanese songs. While Jin and some girls (yeah. He managed to get 4 female backup dancers) there was a PV-like video playing on the upper middle screen. Good song, good performance… coulda really done without the swearing at the beginning.
Oh… and then Tottsu and Fumito came out on the upper part of the grid to MC the Versus Battles. They were a good choice ‘cause they flow really well together (and for anyone who cares, they were wearing the silver outfits with the fur that they wore during Day Breaker at the EbiKisu Concerts. Yes. I’m weird for noticing clothes all the time).
First was Junno (blue) vs. Ueda (red). They were on opposite sides of the main stage on one of the raised platforms, throwing balls of energy at each other Dragon Ball style. Then they came down to the main level and pulled out these big guns that shoot out large streamers. Junno missed and tried to kill himself by drinking poison but the bottle was empty (Romeo & Juliet) and Ueda shot him from behind. Winner? UEDA.
Next, was Nakamaru vs. Koki. They did their manzai thing. Koki did a monomane of a ‘high-tension Nakamaru’ using the opening of Rescue where he says, “We will survive.” Then, Nakamaru gets told to do a ‘high-tension Akanishi’ and the audience was like, ‘Eeee?!’ Yep. Never actually seen that now have we. Haha… It was pretty funny.
Then was Kame vs. Jin. On the upper screen they showed the animated versions of them and then from the sides (Kame from the left and Jin from the right) large inflated versions of their animated selves come out while they’re on carts within the arena seating. They have a flying battle during which Jin holds himself rigid as if he were tied up head to toe. There was no winner for this one either. They ‘reconciled’ when they met on the middle stage (or at least that’s how Tottsu and Fumito narrated it.) Ueda’s the one who caught Kame when he landed and gave him a huge hug.
They performed Wilds of My Heart next. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why I knew this song. And then last night Laruku and I were watching old episodes of Shokura and realized that Mitsu had sung it in one of the medleys before. ^^; Oh god….
I think this is the song that Junno just ran around the arena the entire time and everyone changed the lyrics to sing about how Junno was running.
Neiro is a really nice song. A good choice for the last song of the concert. Once the song was over, Kame asked everyone to turn off their penlights and to look at their seats. The people with the red circles under the seat numbers would turn their penlights back on when he said. The stands spelt, “WE ARE KAT-TUN” and the arena seats made a heart shape.
We got 2 Encores. The first was She Said… and Peaceful Days, the second was Harukana Yakusoku (SO HAPPY!) and Will Be All Right. Jin messed up the lyrics in Peaceful Days and I thought it was really cute cause he changed the lyrics to say that he screwed up. Haha… That’s two times Jin…
They introduced the members of FiVE (the live band), the Kansai Jrs (HS7 West, BOYS, and BAD), ABC-Z, and Kisumai. Kame did all the talking. Ok. Laruku and I have a slight disagreement. When he was introducing BAD, he said Junta, but when it came to Akito, I heard ‘Akito’, Laruku heard ‘Hakushuu (clap)’. Akito did make a surprised face though, so maybe Kame did mess up? Not sure.
Then when they were introducing the individuals of Kisumai, he said, “Kitayama, Yokoo, Senga, Miyata, Nikaido, Fujigaya…” and then Fujigaya started to talk about Playzone and asking people to come support them. By the time he was done talking, Tama had kind of moved backwards, so when Kame called his name, he wasn’t being lit very well. Poor guy. There are 2 possible ways this worked out this way. Either Taipi forgot that Tama was after him, or Tama stood in the wrong spot (like, he was supposed to stand on the other side of Taipi or something). Both are possible.
I enjoyed this concert and I’m really glad I went. The singing was good, there were no horrid costumes, I’m not a Kame fan, but Kame was cute, and individual elements used in the concert were really nice. Only one thing actually bugged me. I felt like the planning of themes was a little too separated.
The overall theme was the elements thing, correct? The pamphlet, photosets, concert hall decorations are all related to this. There was even a VTR at some point (maybe before Water Dance?) that introduced each of the members as kind of a king/ruler of that element. All of this was more serious and had a very modern feeling to it.
But then you have 2 other conflicting sub-themes. One was the cute and playful animated VTR (btw… Jin’s animated face is noticeably fatter than everyone else’s). The other was the traditional Japanese theme that was first introduced during Kame’s solo, which would have been fine (I mean, it’s his solo. He can do what he wants with it), but then the used it again for Water Dance and Moon. Maybe it urk’d me because of my art background, but it was something that stood out for me. I think that if they’re going to promote a theme through all the goods and such, they shouldn’t have contradicted themselves during the actual concert.
Now, that aside, I still really want to see the concert again. It’s a good thing (for my wallet) that they aren’t performing in Osaka anymore. I would have found another ticket.
Ok. That is all I got. I really want this concert on DVD. Like, really badly. I’ve never been able to consider myself as a KAT-TUN fan, but I’m really glad I went to this concert. Thanks for reading, and I hope I didn’t offend anyone. ^^; Oh god. This is 11 pages on Microsoft Word.
See you all next week when we go to Kanjani8’s PUZZLE Concert in Kumamoto. *waves*
