Johnny's Countdown 2013-2014!
COUNTDOWN! I've been meaning to get this done, so I'm sorry it's taken forever for me to get to this, and the truth is that I STILL haven't watched the TV broadcast >__>;; But I figured I'd write up a little thing on the cute/amusing stuff that happened that didn't make it onto the broadcast (or at least I'm pretty sure it didn't, since the broadcast did play, albeit pixelated, on the screen at the dome)
A few things to know before reading this!
1) It's not a real report. I don't remember the setlist. This is just interesting things that I remembered well enough to want to report about them on LJ
2) I'm anti-Ijima... team Julie all the way!
3) I have Some Feelings about KisuMai :D
4) There was a bit of NEWS drama, and I'm not a huge fan of Yamapi, so I'll probably report about it in that light.
I don't think there's anything necessarily offensive under the cut, but like most human beings, I have opinions, so I'm just warning you here. XD;
And now! On to the report.
Countdown 2013-2014
In case it was hard to tell from the broadcast, they used the 360º stage (it's a relatively small circle stage in the center of Tokyo Dome with 4 catwalks extending towards the sides of the building), which seemed to work well for TV because it was small and there was only a limited amount of space, but while I'm sure they actually used it as 360º for Kinki Kids, it meant that my seats, which were in the second row from the stage in the B area, were literally directly behind the stage, since they spent the whole time facing once way for the cameras. But this lead to some interesting views and a generally "background" vantage point for us, so we were able to see a lot of the things that the guys did knowing they wouldn't be seen, like goofing off and horse playing. XD;
The concert started out before the TV broadcast with mini-performances from the younger end of the participating groups. First was Kisumai, who opened up with Luv Sick, Fire Beat, and Snow Dome no Yakusoku. They probably performed something else, too, I don't recall, but next, some familiar opening bars played, and I was screaming at the top of my lungs before I knew it, because it was Daybreaker.
All of A.B.C-Z came out, and EbiKisu performed Daybreaker, which I don't even remember all that well because I was freaking out and screaming the whole time, because Daybreaker is like, my ideal for what I want KisuMai to be (now if only Fujigaya had longer hair...) but then they left and Ebi did Vanilla (yay!), Crazy Accel, Zutto Love, and Walking on Clouds. Tsukada did a really impressive series of like 10 back handsprings from all the way down one catwalk to the center stage. XD; And generally, they were all adorable and in good spirits.
Next up was JUMP! They performed on carts at first, though, so they were pretty far away and I couldn't see them well. They came out singing Dreams Come True, and when it got to the part that they have the audience sing 90% of the time, Yabu was completely off key |D;;; He clearly forgot how to sing it live. Next they did Ride With Me on the stage, and then Magic Power, before making room for Sexy Zone.
Sexy Zone... ie, Kento and Fuma, performed Bad Boys, and Fuma was practically stripping the whole time. I think he wanted to show off his new necklace. ^__~ Also, since it was Bad Boys, of course, they did some fan service, but they were cracking up the whole time and couldn't take it seriously at all XD;
Last up for the intro was NEWS. I was surprised how short Tegoshi had cut his hair. All the songs they did were songs I didn't know, unfortunately. And then they welcomed the Kinki Kids onstage to prepare for the live broadcast~
As the Kinki Kids were getting ready and generally talking to amuse the fans until the filming started, all the juniors came onto the stage! Taiga and Yugo were right near us, and they were adorable~ Taiga had his hair in a polyanna/half ponytail, and it was the cutest thing. And of course, whenever Yugo dances and performs, he seems just so happy and excited to be onstage, and I just love him so much. Also, before the live filming started, Taiga and Juri fist-pumped randomly~ Juri wasn't that close to Taiga, but Taiga caught his attention and held out his fist, and Juri touched his fist to Taiga's, and it was super cute.
One funny thing that amused me was that, right before they turned on the cameras each time the filming was about to begin, the Kinki Kids would tell us to start cheering and get excited |D;;; But it was exciting, because then Countdown really began!
There's no real point in me talking about what songs were done and stuff, since it was on TV, but I saw a lot of cute stuff as the groups were preparing to perform~ For example, I saw NEWS and Hey! Say! BEST goofing around together when they were waiting to film, and it made me think back to the days of Ya-ya-yah~ They were really cute together. Also, Inoo and Hikaru started doing an impromptu weird dance together, which was adorable. XD
During another transitional bit (maybe after the countdown to midnight, during an ad break?) Yamapi tried to hi-five Koyama in passing, and Koyama seemed like he was trying to be polite and complied. Tego got this super bitchy look on his face, and once Yamapi had walked away, Tego said something to Koyama that made his head snap around super fast. |D;;; His body language said that he was definitely not pleased.
At another time when the juniors weren't dancing, and therefore had some freedom to goof off, Taiga and Kishi were right in front of me (remember, I was in the second row, so I could see their facial expressions and lips moving quite clearly). Kishi seemed to be staring off into space, and randomly started turning around in a circle and clapping his hands together. Taiga noticed and sort of scolded him to stand still, and Kishi sheepishly stopped, but then seemed to become fixated on Taiga's ponytail. He slowly reached out to touch it, but then Taiga swatted his hand away and (jokingly) slapped him. Kishi looked stunned, but when Taiga moved towards him again, Kishi practically leapt away from him. |D;;; Poor Kishi. Seems like he and Taiga got close during Kamen Teacher. Either way, Kishi's (o A o) face was as adorable as usual~
And of course, Johnny's WEST (4?) happened, and true to the reports, in the after-talk, they claimed that Johnny had told them their name 30 minutes before they started. Oh Johnny's. Why are you ridiculous?
Also, when Yamapi was giving his talk, of course most people were listening, but Tego looked as purposefully disinterested as possible. |D; He crossed his arms, looked away from Yamapi, looked at his nails, looked at the audience, etc... it was pretty hilarious how bitchy he was. XD;
All in all, Countdown was a lot of fun! We wrapped up around 1:30, but because of how late it was and there being only a few trains running especially for New Years, it took us more than an hour to get onto the train XD; I didn't get to bed until 4 am, but it was so worth it!
The only worrying thing to me was factions. Since Kouhaku was dominated by Julie's groups, and all of Julie's groups from Kouhaku did not participate in Countdown, and since Fuji TV is Ijima's station, it seemed pretty Ijima heavy. Hey! Say! JUMP and NEWS got less costume changed and less songs performed during the TV broadcast that Ijima's groups/solo artists, and Katori Shingo showed up, while no one from any of Julie's groups came specifically from Kouhaku. I guess I should be glad that they streamed in KAT-TUN, but as always, all the faction politics stress me out. UGH.
BUT! It was still really fun. I'm sorry this report isn't really a real ~report, and is more just my experiences, but I hope you can enjoy it anyway!
Today was my first day back at work, so even though I just sat at my desk all day, I feel tired. |D; And so, I'll leave you with this adorable paparazzi photo of Reia and Shintaro playing games on the train in 2012~ It's so cute that they're such good friends even so long after Snow Prince Gasshoudan worked together. Also, what Shintaro says about Reia here (also from 2012) is so cute, It's a feeling that we're always together. At rehearsals or shows, we're always playing the same video game, and we often go out to get ramen together, you know~ So cuuuuute. I find it adorable that they're still bffs even though Shintaro has gotten waaaaay bigger than Reia |D;;;
A few things to know before reading this!
1) It's not a real report. I don't remember the setlist. This is just interesting things that I remembered well enough to want to report about them on LJ
2) I'm anti-Ijima... team Julie all the way!
3) I have Some Feelings about KisuMai :D
4) There was a bit of NEWS drama, and I'm not a huge fan of Yamapi, so I'll probably report about it in that light.
I don't think there's anything necessarily offensive under the cut, but like most human beings, I have opinions, so I'm just warning you here. XD;
And now! On to the report.
Countdown 2013-2014
In case it was hard to tell from the broadcast, they used the 360º stage (it's a relatively small circle stage in the center of Tokyo Dome with 4 catwalks extending towards the sides of the building), which seemed to work well for TV because it was small and there was only a limited amount of space, but while I'm sure they actually used it as 360º for Kinki Kids, it meant that my seats, which were in the second row from the stage in the B area, were literally directly behind the stage, since they spent the whole time facing once way for the cameras. But this lead to some interesting views and a generally "background" vantage point for us, so we were able to see a lot of the things that the guys did knowing they wouldn't be seen, like goofing off and horse playing. XD;
The concert started out before the TV broadcast with mini-performances from the younger end of the participating groups. First was Kisumai, who opened up with Luv Sick, Fire Beat, and Snow Dome no Yakusoku. They probably performed something else, too, I don't recall, but next, some familiar opening bars played, and I was screaming at the top of my lungs before I knew it, because it was Daybreaker.
All of A.B.C-Z came out, and EbiKisu performed Daybreaker, which I don't even remember all that well because I was freaking out and screaming the whole time, because Daybreaker is like, my ideal for what I want KisuMai to be (now if only Fujigaya had longer hair...) but then they left and Ebi did Vanilla (yay!), Crazy Accel, Zutto Love, and Walking on Clouds. Tsukada did a really impressive series of like 10 back handsprings from all the way down one catwalk to the center stage. XD; And generally, they were all adorable and in good spirits.
Next up was JUMP! They performed on carts at first, though, so they were pretty far away and I couldn't see them well. They came out singing Dreams Come True, and when it got to the part that they have the audience sing 90% of the time, Yabu was completely off key |D;;; He clearly forgot how to sing it live. Next they did Ride With Me on the stage, and then Magic Power, before making room for Sexy Zone.
Sexy Zone... ie, Kento and Fuma, performed Bad Boys, and Fuma was practically stripping the whole time. I think he wanted to show off his new necklace. ^__~ Also, since it was Bad Boys, of course, they did some fan service, but they were cracking up the whole time and couldn't take it seriously at all XD;
Last up for the intro was NEWS. I was surprised how short Tegoshi had cut his hair. All the songs they did were songs I didn't know, unfortunately. And then they welcomed the Kinki Kids onstage to prepare for the live broadcast~
As the Kinki Kids were getting ready and generally talking to amuse the fans until the filming started, all the juniors came onto the stage! Taiga and Yugo were right near us, and they were adorable~ Taiga had his hair in a polyanna/half ponytail, and it was the cutest thing. And of course, whenever Yugo dances and performs, he seems just so happy and excited to be onstage, and I just love him so much. Also, before the live filming started, Taiga and Juri fist-pumped randomly~ Juri wasn't that close to Taiga, but Taiga caught his attention and held out his fist, and Juri touched his fist to Taiga's, and it was super cute.
One funny thing that amused me was that, right before they turned on the cameras each time the filming was about to begin, the Kinki Kids would tell us to start cheering and get excited |D;;; But it was exciting, because then Countdown really began!
There's no real point in me talking about what songs were done and stuff, since it was on TV, but I saw a lot of cute stuff as the groups were preparing to perform~ For example, I saw NEWS and Hey! Say! BEST goofing around together when they were waiting to film, and it made me think back to the days of Ya-ya-yah~ They were really cute together. Also, Inoo and Hikaru started doing an impromptu weird dance together, which was adorable. XD
During another transitional bit (maybe after the countdown to midnight, during an ad break?) Yamapi tried to hi-five Koyama in passing, and Koyama seemed like he was trying to be polite and complied. Tego got this super bitchy look on his face, and once Yamapi had walked away, Tego said something to Koyama that made his head snap around super fast. |D;;; His body language said that he was definitely not pleased.
At another time when the juniors weren't dancing, and therefore had some freedom to goof off, Taiga and Kishi were right in front of me (remember, I was in the second row, so I could see their facial expressions and lips moving quite clearly). Kishi seemed to be staring off into space, and randomly started turning around in a circle and clapping his hands together. Taiga noticed and sort of scolded him to stand still, and Kishi sheepishly stopped, but then seemed to become fixated on Taiga's ponytail. He slowly reached out to touch it, but then Taiga swatted his hand away and (jokingly) slapped him. Kishi looked stunned, but when Taiga moved towards him again, Kishi practically leapt away from him. |D;;; Poor Kishi. Seems like he and Taiga got close during Kamen Teacher. Either way, Kishi's (o A o) face was as adorable as usual~
And of course, Johnny's WEST (4?) happened, and true to the reports, in the after-talk, they claimed that Johnny had told them their name 30 minutes before they started. Oh Johnny's. Why are you ridiculous?
Also, when Yamapi was giving his talk, of course most people were listening, but Tego looked as purposefully disinterested as possible. |D; He crossed his arms, looked away from Yamapi, looked at his nails, looked at the audience, etc... it was pretty hilarious how bitchy he was. XD;
All in all, Countdown was a lot of fun! We wrapped up around 1:30, but because of how late it was and there being only a few trains running especially for New Years, it took us more than an hour to get onto the train XD; I didn't get to bed until 4 am, but it was so worth it!
The only worrying thing to me was factions. Since Kouhaku was dominated by Julie's groups, and all of Julie's groups from Kouhaku did not participate in Countdown, and since Fuji TV is Ijima's station, it seemed pretty Ijima heavy. Hey! Say! JUMP and NEWS got less costume changed and less songs performed during the TV broadcast that Ijima's groups/solo artists, and Katori Shingo showed up, while no one from any of Julie's groups came specifically from Kouhaku. I guess I should be glad that they streamed in KAT-TUN, but as always, all the faction politics stress me out. UGH.
BUT! It was still really fun. I'm sorry this report isn't really a real ~report, and is more just my experiences, but I hope you can enjoy it anyway!
Today was my first day back at work, so even though I just sat at my desk all day, I feel tired. |D; And so, I'll leave you with this adorable paparazzi photo of Reia and Shintaro playing games on the train in 2012~ It's so cute that they're such good friends even so long after Snow Prince Gasshoudan worked together. Also, what Shintaro says about Reia here (also from 2012) is so cute, It's a feeling that we're always together. At rehearsals or shows, we're always playing the same video game, and we often go out to get ramen together, you know~ So cuuuuute. I find it adorable that they're still bffs even though Shintaro has gotten waaaaay bigger than Reia |D;;;
