PLAYZONE 2009 08/05 17:00 REPORT!
Show: PLAYZONE2009 太陽からの手紙 (Johnny's Jr.)
Location: Aoyama Theatre, Tokyo
Date: 5th August 2009
Time: 17:00 (2nd performance of the day)
I finally went to Tokyo and saw PLAYZONE with two of my friends. We had really good luck with our fanclub application, getting seats in row G (7th row), just left of the center block and right near the aisle! I sat two seats from the aisle (2 Japanese women sat next to the aisle), which was a very exciting spot to be, as I'll detail later. Before the show, I didn't expect that row G would be as close as it was when I actually sat there... obviously it isn't far (considering the rows go from A to Y) but I was more than surprised at any rate. The structure of the seats actually gives you a perfect view of the stage and the show, not so close as to make you crane your neck, but just... perfect!!
Because I saw the 2pm "Tegomass no Uta" show in Yoyogi right before PLAYZONE, I wasn't sure if I'd actually make it to Aoyama Theatre on time and I didn't want to have to run in the heat, so I skipped the encore of Tegomass (unfortunately) and gave myself plenty of time to go to the bathroom, get a drink, and cool down a little. Goods were being sold outside the Aoyama Theatre doors, and inside the lobby were the usual congratulatory flowers for the cast, sent by various people they work with, acquaintances and so on.
My friends arrived at the theatre just before the play started. One of them, primarily a KAT-TUN fan, likes Taipi, the other finds the juniors pretty boring, except for Ishigaki Daisuke, and Uchi. I was worried she might get bored or fall asleep during the show. Lucky for her though, Ishigaki's keyboard for the opening of the show was positioned almost right in front of where we were sitting. Yody's drum kit was to the right of the stage, and there were 3 mic stands in between. The stage at Aoyama Theatre is really deep and goes back quite far, but at before the show began, all we could see were the band's instruments and a background which shortened the stage. In the audience, sitting in the front row after the break in the seats, were some famous people. Okay, honestly, I didn't know who they were, but everyone was turning to look.
Now, onto the show. Just warning you that I'm only human and I've only seen the show once, so some things might be slightly out of order or not in as much detail as I'd hope. But I'll go through what I remember, with little details and opinions. In summary, the story is about where the boys in the company are putting on a show for a festival or something, and there is a big disagreement over what kind of show to make it. Taipi’s character wants to keep it in line with history (what Shounentai has done for the past 23 years), whereas Uchi wants to make it a more modern show (or something..) Hiro is in between the two, constantly trying to make them patch up their fight, so that they can actually perform the show. Because of the tension between Uchi and Taipi, it causes problems for all of Kisumai and nobody wants to work together. Yara is the choreographer, and he can see the dilemma going on, but at the same time, I don’t think he feels he can help it. Yara gets these messages on his keitai from “the boy who has crossed the bridge” (or something like that), kinda mysterious mails that have messages about teamwork and how everyone should overcome their problems. These messages, which Yara reads throughout the play, are eventually realized by Uchi and Taipi and co, and they eventually make up and resolve to work hard to create and perform the show, because no matter what, the curtains have to go up and the show must go on, that is what people expect and are waiting for.
So.. the show began with Question? taking their places and coming out to greet everyone. They were all in black clothing. I was still sore that Yone wasn't in PLAYZONE, but whatever. The rest of the members were there, that was enough! The last time I saw Question? was at the end of May, and since then, a few things, most noticeably hair, had changed. Ishigaki's hair was straight and short (last time I saw it, it was still permed at the back) and he looked quite clean-cut behind the keyboard. Akun... my lord. The floppy, messy curls were gone, replaced with sexy, dark short hair. Akun looked amazingly yummy, I couldn't help turning to my friend and remarking about how HOT he looked. His stare, his expression... okay, I'll stop before I go any further, but he was such eye candy, and right infront of us! Next was Yori, his hair is a lighter blonde now. He actually didn't look as strange as I sometimes think he does. And Yody, well, I couldn't see his face from behind the drumkit, but I saw it later, and he is still just as cherubic as usual. Shorter hair too.
After Question? introduced the play and Ishigaki wondered what "a letter from the sun" was and meant, people started turning to the left, just behind us, there was a stage door and who should appear in a bask of light but... Uchi Hiroki. Before the show, I’d been focusing so much on Kisumai that I literally almost forgot that Uchi had a major role in the show. But there he was, only a few metres away, looking fantastic! Again, I hadn’t seen him since April. I think his costume was jeans, with a white shirt. He has such long legs and he is so skinny, whenever he wears jeans, it looks like he has them pulled up really high. Now, his hair is gorgeously chocolatey and silky, about jaw length. Uchi walked down our aisle (kyaaaaa, so close) and onto the stage. Uchi joined the band on stage, and they began playing and singing the opening song. Uchi’s voice was faultless and even though I don’t like to say it, he fitted in pretty well on the stage with Question?
Next, the curtain (or screens or whatever they were that was behind the band) disappeared and the set was visible, with some kind of construction like a jungle gym. And who should now be on the stage, in shiny red tracksuits, but the boys everyone was waiting to see. They all had the hoods of their jackets on, and their heads were lowered so you couldn’t see their faces. It really built up the anticipation. They slowly walked towards the edge of the stage, then… bang… the hoods were down and their faces were revealed at last! This is when my heart jolted and I almost died of excitement, because Kisumai were spread across the stage, almost right at the edge, looking out.. and who was in my line of vision? That's right, Miyacchi (for those of you who don’t know, even though I love Taipi and Hiro, Miyacchi is my number one!) I kinda blurted out his name right then without thinking, I guess because I couldn’t believe that he was so close, right there. Last time I saw Kisumai, I still hadn’t figured out who my absolute favorite member was, so this was the first time seeing Miyacchi since I realized that he was my favorite. He looked… awesome. It was great, he was totally DRY at this stage, so his hair was really nice and framed his face nicely. Okay, so I don’t remember the order that everyone was standing in, but I definitely remember what they all looked like. Nika… took my breath away. His hair is a bit longer, really dark and he just looked so intensely sexy. Taipi… I was worried his hair was getting too long, but it looked just right. He has got some blonde highlights in the top layers, which seemed to really shine and stand out whenever he moved his head. Hiro… perfect skin and hair as usual. He just looked too gorgeous. Wataru… I really liked that his tracksuit (and Nika’s) were different to the others. It made him stand out more. Senga… gorgeous, still with caramel-blonde hair and really nice skin tone. And Tama… his hair is straight and a bit shorter now, I think. My friend (the one who likes Ishigaki and Uchi) later told me that she thinks Tama has “a perfect nose” and “people spent so much money on cosmetic surgery to get a nose like that”… I never really looked at his nose, but its obvious that Tama has a gorgeous face!
So Kisumai totally had my attention from then on. They were joined by They Budou and MAD, both groups wearing similar tracksuits to Kisumai (They Budou’s were sunshine yellow, MAD’s were a bright green). They performed “Tell Me Why”, all three groups together. This was the first of many times that my eyes kept going to YamaRyo (Yamamoto Ryota). I was, firstly, extremely shocked at just how small he really is, despite being almost the same age as me. He is quite pint-sized! His dancing was very noticeable, at times almost distracting. He really exerts so much energy dancing and moving about, he extends his movements all the time, sometimes to the point of looking a bit over-enthusiastic. He’s obviously very talented though, and always has a great smile when performing. His hair is still in that funny haircut, partly blonde on the right side. Unfortunately, I don’t really know the other members of They Budou or MAD well enough to comment on them individually, but I have to say that they were all, from the outset, extremely energetic and strong with their dancing.
Uchi was there, and Yara came onstage. Gosh, Yara is short. I’ve never seen him in the flesh before. His legs… almost don’t exist. I mean, I knew he couldn’t be that tall, but I didn’t know he was that short either! He was wearing a black tracksuit on his top half, then grey sweatpants on the bottom half (his character was sharing a dressing room with Takahashi Ryu’s character, and apparently they were Ryu’s sweatpants that Yara was wearing by mistake). The actual dialogue of the play began, where Uchi and Taipi are disagreeing about the way the performance should be done. Uchi leaves with Question? to go and rehearse or record or something. I think Uchi was like, in charge of directing the performance or like, deciding how it should be done or something, with which Taipi really disagreed with and couldn’t keep those feelings to himself any longer. Kisumai members, and even people like YamaRyo spoke lots of lines. You could tell that everyone had really worked on their delivery… they were all pretty flawless and powerful, there was no sense of like, one person being crap at acting or anything… they were ALL great.
So next, now that Yara is there with everyone, they do a rehearsal of their performance. They are rehearsing (Fire Beat… I think. Well, there is a scene when they rehearse this, it might not have been right now, I don’t know) and then when someone gets a mail on their phone, everyone kinda disappears from rehearsal to go and send mails, return phone calls and so on… basically have keitai time, to Yara’s annoyance. Yara stays onstage, delivering a kind of dialogue about cell phone usage. He was speaking really fast, but I remember he was talking about things like how people set their phone on manner mode (silent setting) so as to be polite and not cause disruptions, but then they put it on the table infront of them, and when it does ring, it vibrates really loudly and causes even more disruption.. therefore not really being “manner mode” at all. This whole section basically gave Kisumai time to get changed into their next costumes for “Keitai Tengoku” (Cell phone heaven)
“Keitai Tengoku”, well most people have probably seen pictures of the costumes for this song, but Kisumai come out in cowboy-style outfits, with Western kinda shirts, jeans, and those brown things cowboys wear over their jeans (I forgot the name…) They each have lassos, with their keitai attached to the end of them, and they use the lassos as props in the dance, swinging them around their necks and things. The lyrics for this song were really kinda funny, like, they just sing about how they love their cell phones and so on. Ishigaki and Yody appear in sombreros and things, and the set is like a desert with cactus plants. Next, these funny exercise machines (they are seats and they kinda rock back and forth when you ride them, as if to simulate horse riding) appear at the back of the stage, and Kisumai ride on them while singing. Then, they turn to face the side of the stage, and the screen behind them changes to a racetrack, and they have a pretend “horse race”, with someone else in the cast commentating. Each member’s horse has a name (I can’t remember what they were called, the commentary was too fast and the action was too funny!) Miyacchi is in the lead, Tama at the back, until Tama’s “horse” starts to move and he ends up overtaking all of Kisumai and winning the race (Miyacchi pulls a really depressed face at this…) So basically, a very funny and slightly random song, but I think it has its place in the play, to provide humor and also give the audience a break from the “tension” of the storyline with everyone fighting.
I think after this, the fighting continues. Hiro (?) brings out a camera, and talks about some word (I can’t remember what it is) but everyone is like “what is that?”/”what does that word mean?”… its something to do with the pixels in the camera, then like, the fighting continues, and they talk about how they don’t get along well or something, about how the show isn’t going to work because they are all different (Okay, I really have no idea, I can’t remember where this whole fight comes in or whatever… ) Then, Miyacchi gets angry and like, roars at everyone. (Or maybe that was earlier?? Eek. Anyway at SOME stage, Miyacchi gets to have this whole barrage of lines, getting very passionate. I think Miyacchi yells about how the word that Hiro mentioned means all of the small pixels in a photo coming together to create the image (like how all the different members should come together to perform the show)… SOMETHING LIKE THAT, my memory fails and my Japanese isn’t that good so sorry again…)
I think Kisumai all dissapear from the stage after fighting, and everyone is worried that the show wont be able to go on. Yara comes back and he is like, frustrated and sad. This is where he performs his solo. I’m not the biggest fan of Yaracchi’s voice, but it was still a pretty solo. He moved around the stage, singing at the same time as dancing what appeared to be contemporary or modern dance. I really liked his dance, his use of space and the way he showed us yet another dance style he can do, and all his technique. The emotions his character was feeling were really conveyed through his dance movements.
The next scene is a flashback to Uchi and Taipi, when they were younger. They are both dressed in baseball jerseys (Uchi with Hanshin Tigers, an Osaka team, and Taipi… with some other team..) Anyway Taipi had some baseball player’s name on the back of his jersey, and he was calling himself “Fujigaya ______” (whatever the name was, that obviously wasn’t his). It was too cute. Uchi had a backpack on. It was a scene where, basically, they are talking together, saying things like “when we both become famous idols, we’ll always be friends, right?” They did most of this dialogue just beneath the stage, directly infront of the front row (those lucky girls!!) and then exited from the little door on the left side of the stage. OMG… when they exited… Uchi left first, and Taipi, right before leaving, turned to the audience and did a really cute peace sign and a massively adorable Taipi grin!! (Of course, everyone squealed with joy at that one…)
Now for the chibi juniors segment. I don’t remember much of this, other than that Shintaro was in the centre, surrounded by other little juniors. Juri (Koki’s brother) was there too, he did a rap and it was too cute. So they sang “Akuma na Koi” (Nakayama Yuma with B.I Shadow), and the screens on the stage basically showed the area around Shibuya station covered in Johnny’s advertisements (as it usually is anyway)… billboards for “Koishite Akuma”, “Gokusen”, Arashi’s AU ads, “Orthros no Inu” and so on. They also showed random off-shot footage of Yuma. Basically a whole big way to use PLAYZONE as a vehicle for promoting whatever JE stuff is going on right now. (I’ve never seen PLAYZONE in past years so I don’t know if they always do this, or if they just used the opportunity this year because of Yuma/B.I Shadow’s debut, and Tama being in Gokusen). The juniors sang “Otona ni Nattara”… a song about becoming adults or something. And oh god… wasn’t it just hilarious?? Because it wasn’t only the chibi juniors, but Wataru and Miyacchi too! They were dressed in like, little kids clothing… Watta was in a stripy (?) shirt and really short shorts, pulled up too high. It totally showed off how damn skinny (but still muscly) his legs are. Forgive me, but I was mostly watching Miyacchi in this song, so I can’t recall much more about Watta. Miyacchi had these braces on to hold up his shorts, and… he kept like, accidentally pulling on the elastic of the braces, then jumping back in surprise when they’d flick against him. Okay, I can’t explain it really, but it was so damn funny. The little juniors put name tags on Watta and Miyacchi, that say “Yokoo” and “Miyata” in hiragana. They did some monomane next… Nika was there and he did impressions of the way Tsubasa stands, like his flamenco pose and stuff. It was too accurate!! Juri and Miyacchi did a comedy duo skit, and there might have been others but again, was paying attention mostly to Miyacchi. Ahh and Senga had a chimpanzee stuffed toy in his overalls. They did the whole “Chimpanzee ja nee yo” thing, and like modified the line, so Senga was then saying “Ippan jin ja nee yo” (I’m not an ordinary/average person) “Miyata is the ordinary one”… ha ha funny.
Okay, next was Tama’s solo. He appears as “Tamamori Man”… again, hilarious. There are all these juniors dressed as dinosaurs or something, they all have like, fairy lights and wires that light up wrapped around them. Tama has those goggles on, which are also lit up. He was wearing a blue suit or something of the like. The song had a kind of funny, futuristic feeling. Taipi then appeared, as did the others, dressed as clowns. Taipi looked so adorable!
I think the next song was Taipi’s solo, or at any rate, Taipi singing with Wataru playing acoustic guitar in the bottom corner of the stage. It was pretty nice, low key (in comparison at least to Tama’s solo) and really showed off Taipi’s voice. Somewhere in Taipi’s songs, he did a lot of rapping. Again, not sure if it was in this solo or not, but aside from rapping in the group songs, there was definitely some slower rapping somewhere.
Okay so then Hiromii appears. His song is called Oshare, which means “stylish”. Everyone says that he isn’t stylish, but he sings about being stylish anyway. This is the song where he wears a long-sleeved shirt with the buttons undone (showing off his chest a little), a black vest with a sparkly marijuana leaf on it, and jeans with fluro colors on them. I’m pretty sure They Budou were the primary back dancers for this song. They were all dressed in different trends of clothes, like those glasses that Kanye West made famous, bright colored shirts and stuff. Kisumai joined in too, as Hiro’s back dancers. Taipi appeared in his Benkei headdress. When he introduced himself, he goes “Benkei dayo”, just like Nika’s “Nika-chan dayo”… ahaha it was awesomely funny. Everyone was like “dude, didn’t you wear that headdress enough already? Embujo already finished”… lol.
Somewhere after this, the scene changes to Taipi in a yellow parka, sitting at the edge of the stage, fishing with a rod. Hiro comes over to him and talks. All Taipi had caught so far are small fish. Then, Taipi catches a big fish, and he needs Hiro to get the net to put it in, but Hiro is like, dumb and takes forever, and then does the thing where he throws the net over a member of the audience. This time it was a girl who was wearing a white hat with a black band around it. She looked kinda embarrassed but happy to have the net over her… unfortunately Hiro didn’t catch Taipi in the net like I heard he did at other shows, but oh well. Taipi and Hiro’s dialogue continues, with Taipi being like “so you mean, all I can catch is small fish?” (like, a kind of analogy? Like, if he doesn't make up with Uchi, he wont be able to become a better performer… err, my own interpretation of the line…)
After this, in the play, I think Yara has another solo. Err, Taisuke and Uchi may have made up their friendship and fixed their problems by now. Haha, that's like, the important conclusion of the story and I cant even remember when it happened!! I’m confused with the order. But anyway, there is this massive bridge construction in the middle of the stage, which rotates, as Yara stands on it singing alone. I forgot to add that all through the show, Yara has been receiving keitai mails from “the boy who crossed the bridge” and stuff. Anyway, Yara sings. Then I think Uchi and Taipi join Yara and the three of them sing.
And like, the entire cast comes out in the white gakuran (Japanese-style boys school uniform). They filled the aisles. As in, literally, this is the reason I was happy to be so close to the aisle. I mean, they’d all come down the aisle a billion times, especially Uchi and Miyacchi, but this was the best time. I was watching everyone come down, one by one. Miyacchi was closer to the front of the stage, then like, MAD members, and then.. who should be last, and stop on the step right just below our row, but… HIRO!!!! Okay, I have to get my thoughts together here. Hiro was, like everyone, in the white gakuran. They stood there in the aisles for what seemed like 5 minutes. They all had to face the back of the theatre, looking up, as if looking into the distance. As for me, I was looking straight ahead, my heart was racing coz Hiro was like, a metre away. I had plenty of time to look at him all over… his skin was gorgeous, not a spot in sight. His hair, lovely. But most importantly, his face. He looked so full of inspiration and he continued to stare straight ahead, despite all the heads looking at him, despite people like me going “oh my god” a little too loudly, despite the Hiro fangirls next to me who couldn’t stop gawking and freaking out. Times like this, Hiro’s acting skill really comes through. He didn’t flinch, didn’t get distracted, just stayed in his role. My heart was so doki-doki though, being that close to him. Actually, the lady sitting on the aisle directly next to Hiro (which would have been row F, coz we were row G) wasn’t even looking at Hiro, it was almost like she wasn’t interested!! At first, I was like, “what the hell? I would love to be right next to Hiro” but in retrospect, I actually liked that he stood one step further down, coz otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to look at him face on, I’d have to crane my neck just to get a side view instead. Haha. He was just sooooooo gorgeous though.
So after that, I think the whole cast gathered on the stage, and that was the end of the “Letter from the Sun”. They all looked so full of inspiration and stuff, standing in those white gakuran, across the stage. It was very, very moving.
Okay, now for all the little notes and details from the play that are just random:
• Nika screwed up a line, it was so cute, they made him do an extra monomane or something.
• Hiro’s character was so funny. He kept doing this really funny walk to exit the stage with. You could really feel how his character wanted Uchi and Taipi to make up and stop fighting. It was refreshing and enjoyable to see him in such an amusing, genki role though, it was a good contrast to Taipi and Uchi’s tense and serious roles.
• Someone brings out some clothes that Hiro apparently ordered from a store in Shimokitazawa. They are like, brown pants, with all these tears at the bottom, and they are all dusty and old, but Hiro is like “yes!! Finally, I’ve been waiting for these” and gets all excited!
• Taipi’s acting definitely stood out as the best for me. This one line in the beginning, when he like, totally snaps at Uchi. So powerful. His singing voice was also beautiful to listen to.
• Tama’s role, well I’m not exactly sure what it was… comic relief? He certainly had a lot of funny lines, and would do funny things like continue riding the horse exercise machine after everyone else, while still talking to them. I think he did a pretty good job, but for all the promotion of Taipi, Hiro and Tama as the three lead roles, I felt like Tama’s role was definitely not as big as Taipi’s or Hiro’s, or even Uchi’s or Yara’s.
• The rest of Kisumai were incredible too. Even though the others didn’t have as many lines, they were certainly always acting. You could see little things, like their gestures and body language while in character. Each of them was doing something, and had a place there, even if they weren’t speaking so much.
• I don’t think it was all that necessary to have the chibis like Shintaro in the play, except that it gave them another chance to perform, and it bulked up the cast a little. They were cute though.
• They didn’t sing NYC even though it is listed in the Set List in the pamphlet. I didn't see Masuda Ryo doing his solo (I read about it in reports from other shows)…??
• Ishigaki freaked me out during the last song, in the white costume. He kept singing, making these weird faces while looking at us. I mean, I guess maybe my friend who likes him liked it? Haha. At any rate, I found him weird. Guess I like him better behind the keyboard Lol.
My friends didn’t realize that it was only half time, they thought the show was over coz they forgot about the whole SHOW TIME part. In the intermission, my friends went to go to the bathroom, but I stayed in my seat and ended up talking to the two Japanese ladies who were sitting next to me, closest to the aisle. Obviously, they were still like me, “OMG”-ing because Hiro had been RIGHT THERE, infront of us. They kept saying how small his face was. Then, one of them got out of her seat and stood on the step that Hiro stood on. I couldn’t help but laugh at how cute it was. Then, her friend turns to her and goes “you were just laughed at!” and they looked back at me. So I was like “it was awesome, wasn’t it?” in regards to Hiro, and we started talking about how “yabai” it was that he was so close to us. I asked them who they like, and they said “Hiro!” so it was like… no wonder. They also liked Question too, and we were talking about how we wanted Yone to be there!! Anyway then they asked me who I like, and I was like “well, everyone, especially Miyacchi and Hiro and Taipi”. They were so nice to talk to. Some of the other girls near us had notebooks, and were writing down various dialogue from the show, like, of things that were different from other shows. Most people around us were still just in awe of all the boys being there at the aisle.
OKAY now onto the SHOW TIME part of the report. This will hopefully be a bit shorter.
So they all come out in those black costumes with the white shirts and waistbands, very Shounentai/ Johnny’s. They sang as a group on the stage, then they split up to do the Shounentai Medley. I’m no Shounentai fan so I didn’t know any of the songs, and wasn’t really paying attention to who sang what. But I remember different things like Uchi, Yara and Tama singing together with mic stands on the front of the stage, leaning in together. Now, there was one song where Kisumai did some extremely sexy moves, still in those funny Playzone-style suits, which was a bit… odd. Well, I don’t know, I was just surprised to see all those hip movements so early on!
They cleared the stage and the screen at the back was black, with “Yara and They Budou” written across it. And so, Yaracchi and They Budou came out and totally wowed us with their performance. They started with Now & Forever (Butoukan’s song), then some song called Strings (according to the pamphlet), and then moved on to the Combat CM.
Out came Senga, YamaRyo and Yara with their Combat “gokiburi” (cockroach) costumes on (silky brown jackets with bobbly antenna on their heads). Absolutely hilarious. They actually sang the same song as in the CM, only it was even longer, and didn’t sing the same exact part until the end of the song. It was just like… lol. They played the CM in the background as they were dancing, so Tsuka-chan and Bun-chan were visible too. Then this huge wheel thing (supposed to be the combat product) is wheeled out by other Kisumai members. I think, like, Hiro or someone gives Yara a big hug then goes to hug YamaRyo but doesn’t. ANYWAY, he is like “Hey Yara” and “Hey Ryota” and treats them as normal people, but then he sees Senga and is like “there’s a real cockroach here” (pretending that Senga is a real cockroach). They make Senga strap himself into the huge wheel thing, and then they try to see how long Senga cockroach lasts. They push the wheel, with Senga inside it, off stage and right at the end, they push it round really fast. Senga cried “too fast! Too fast!”…. poor thing.
The last song by Yara and They Budou is Kinki Kids “LOVESICK”, which Yara (with ABC-Z and Kisumai) performed on Shonen Club before. I really liked it when they did it on SC, so to see Yaracchi dancing it infront of my eyes was great! They sing the last line gathered together in the middle of the stage.
MAD’s dance section was next. They danced to two Arashi songs, Pikanchi and Jidai. For one of them (Pikanchi?) they were on this rising stages of different heights, and had these bright sports balls, which they incorporated into their dance ala that “Get Your Head in the Game” (whatever its called) from High School Musical. Both the songs really allowed them to show off their skills in dance and acrobatics, it was very impressive. Their voices also sounded quite good, I didn’t realize that the members of MAD could actually sing as well as they did!
Ah… and then there was Uchi with Question. They sang heaps of my fave songs… firstly, Uchi’s solo “All the Way” from previous PLAYZONE (2007 I think, when he and Kusa performed). I really, really love that song. Next was 3 piece, followed by Matchy w/ Question?’s Mezamero Yasei, then V West’s Believe My Story, Uchi’s old solo Master Key, Midnight Shuffle and the winner, Hi Hi Rocky. For Believe My Story, Taipi came out of the little side stage where Uchi appeared in the beginning. He was in those white Kisumai costumes that look like long skirts. Hi Hi Rocky was just hilarious. I mean, I really like the chorus and part of me totally wanted to bust out singing it like we did at Uchi’s concerts, but my conscience was like “dude, you’re in a theatre, don’t make a fool of yourself”. But Uchi actually saw me when the song started, coz I got really excited and kinda jumped in my seat, and he shot me this look of recognition… hence I felt like I should sing along… it was a real battle haha. Miyacchi was so cute when Kisumai was onstage with Question?, he went over and visited Yody at his drum kit, and sang while standing next to him. Aww.
NOW… the screen changed to “Kis My Ft2” and everyone was holding their breath. They appeared in the middle of the stage, in those special sparkly kimono, each member in their different color. They had white masks covering their faces, so you had to identify them by their costumes. They had swords, and did this full on battle, in their kimono, with their swords, ON THEIR SKATES, against Yaracchi and MAD. It was really impressive. This led into the new version of Inori. I heard people said this version made them cry… well, it didn’t make me cry but I just felt it was really powerful and kind of moving. During the sword fight, it looked like Yaracchi wouldn’t die, and that all the Kisumai members were going to die, but then they all, like, regain their strength and win the battle.
Um, and er, next, well… like, basically every fangirls heart and brain disintegrated with the performance of the song “HAIR”. They wore their new costumes, black and brown I think. Senga’s pants say CRAZY on the leg (the old title of the song) and like, man, the song is amazingly awesome and the dance was soooooo sexy. Taipi was just on fire… gosh, even though I tried to watch Miyacchi, Taipi won me over with this song… it was impossible not to be drawn to watch him. He really knows how to work it, but he is also just so extremely good at dancing and moving his body, you have to watch him. Hiro, well Hiro was sex on legs too, except it would have been far better if he wasn’t wearing that disgusting see-through mesh skin tight top…. Entirely shirtless would have been far better. I mean it was still sexy but kinda made him look like … some kind of stripper or something?? You’ve all probably seen the pics though so you know what I mean. He does this one move, I think its in the live photos, where he is sitting on his knees on the stage, like grabbing at the stage floor… geez…
And then… FIRE BEAT. Haha, they were so MEAN…. They were like “Now, FIRE BEAT” and start the song, but then just before the head shaking, the music stops completely. GRRRR! Hiro came to the edge of the stage and was like “everyone, did you enjoy today’s show?” and stuff. After that, they really DID do FIRE BEAT, and it was… so damn good. I’ll admit it was a bit funny to watch on stage in a theatre as opposed to like, on SC or in a concert environment. But man, I’ll never get sick of it. Haha, Nika did his flip and of course Taipi did all his sexy moves and the like (I can only imagine what it was like when his relatives came to watch!!) … a total killer.
The last song, everyone was back in the black suits. The whole cast came together and sang. They all filled the stage and the aisles. It was beautiful. When they ran through the aisles, Yody (who I’d almost forgotten about after Kisumai’s brain melting performance) was so cute, he grinned at everyone and even touched hands with one of the ladies I’d been talking to, the one who really liked Question?. Lucky her!! The cast gathered on the stage, and one by one, they were presented. The order was like Hiro, Taipi, Uchi, Tama, then Yaracchi. The boys all said their names, and thankyou to the audience. OMG There was a part when Hiro was like “I wanted to be in Gokusen”, and Taipi said “I’m glad that Miyata wasn’t in Gokusen” ha ha ha…. Not!! Taipi, you loser. “ After everyone had been presented, the boys all talked, kinda like a concert MC. So everyone kept bringing up Gokusen, and Tama was like “everyone, as you know, I’m in Gokusen” and telling people to please go and see it. And then, the CUTEST ever moment… They all talked about how Tama was sometimes away from PLAYZONE rehearsal because of Gokusen shooting and so on… and then they pointed to Miyacchi and were like “when Tama is away, Miyacchi gets all sad and depressed”… kyaaaaaaaaa. Miyacchi was totally bashful and cute, standing next to Tama. They said that Miyacchi said his favorite cast member of PLAYZONE was Tamachan, to which everyone laughed/ and went awwwww. They asked Miyacchi who his second fave was, he answered “Uchi”… then all the boys warned Uchi that when Miyacchi says he likes someone, its serious, so Uchi’d better watch out!!! Gahh, Miyatama were totally exchanging all these adorable looks at each other THE WHOLE TIME though. Like seriously…. Rofl. Hmm… what else? They talked about how the Tokyo shows are almost over, how there are so few left. Then Uchi was like “well, there are still Osaka shows” and they said how Osaka will be different yet again, and everyone should come and see them in Osaka too.
And oh yeah, like, how could I forget…. Yaracchi was like “Oh, tomorrow is a day off, isn’t it?” so they chatted about how they don't have any shows on the 6th. “But, you know, its actually someone’s birthday tomorrow…” and everyone was like “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKA!” and on the screen behind them, this huge image of a birthday cake was spinning around, with a Happy Birthday message. Aww, Nika chan was sooooooo chuffed, and happy. He was like “Since when did everyone have this planned?” and they were like “that's a secret!” Then, the whole cast and audience… we sang Happy Birthday to Nika chan!!! He was beaming, and he kept thanking everyone afterwards, to much applause. Like, seriously, he couldn’t stop saying thankyou. It was so sweet. I really hope that he had a lovely birthday (with Senga… hahaha) Oh yeah, they asked Nika how old he was turning, he said “19” and then Hiro reminisced about how little Nika was when he first became a Kisumai member. Aww. Taipi told Nika that he’d better not be introducing himself as “Nika chan dayo” when he is 50, then like… everyone went silent, and Nika was like “ehh? What’s with that?” lol. Then Nika even said “sankyu” in English, and gave us air kisses!! Just too sweet. They also talked about other people’s birthdays they had celebrated together, like Taipi’s. Ahh OMG totally forgot to mention how much Yara-Ryota interaction there was... seriously, like ALL THE TIME they were close to each other, giving each other looks, Ryota like kept flashing grins at Yara all the time.
After all the talking, they said goodbye, the curtains went down.
Then, the curtains re-opened and everyone was there again. They waved for ages. We got a bazillion waves in our direction, crap loads from all these Jrs I don’t know, Uchi, Akun, Gakki, and…. This is where my heart stopped beating…. TAIPI!!!!!!!! For real. My friends and I, we were just waving generally at everyone who was infront of us, and then we noticed Taipi was waving in our direction. So my friend (the one who loves Taipi most) and I both waved back to him, to show that we saw him waving. And…. What did he do??? He like, totally flashed this HUGE Taipi grin, and waved his hands really vigorously back at us!!! Yatta!!!!!! When I saw Taipi in KAT-TUN cons, he was always so busy, and had so many people screaming at him, that he would only kind of wave at the crowd generally. I’ve heard lots of people say he can be a bit “Akanishi Jin” like, and not really give much attention to the crowd. So be it, at a concert, but wow, I was so happy that Taipi waved to us, it was so funny, me and my friend like jumped in our seats when he waved back, and his cheeky grin was so, so precious. I just wasn't expecting it, so it made my day. Thanks, Taipi!
And then, that was that, the curtains went back down again! The show was over for another day.
I really had such a brilliant time, but moreso than anything, I just loved watching the boys perform the show that they’ve been working so hard on. Despite being the second performance of the day, they showed no exhaustion, they were just brilliant in everything they did. When I first heard about all the songs and things in the show, I thought it sounded random, but everything makes sense now that I’ve seen it for real. Kisumai worked so hard, and I am, like I’m sure every other fan is, amazingly happy for them that they were given such a fantastic opportunity to showcase themselves as performers. Now that they’ve been able to do PLAYZONE, they have been exposed to more people than just those who watch Shounen Club, or see them backdancing at debuted groups concerts. Kis My Ft2 are truly their own shining stars now, performers in their own right. I think anyone who got to be in the audience would still feel just as blessed and lucky as I do. Yara and Uchi also did sensationally, They Budou and MAD, and the little juniors too. Everyone worked hard, regardless of the size of their role. I think that I’ve been able to take so much away from the show too, because personally seeing how hard they worked, and how well they performed, gives me the motivation to do my best and achieve my goals too. So, thankyou, to Nishikiori-san for creating such a stunning show, and to Kisumai and co for a fantastic start to what will definitely be a future of more amazing PLAYZONE performances. Good luck for the remaining Tokyo shows, and for Osaka too. Enjoy the time off in between, and thanks so, so much once again!
Location: Aoyama Theatre, Tokyo
Date: 5th August 2009
Time: 17:00 (2nd performance of the day)
I finally went to Tokyo and saw PLAYZONE with two of my friends. We had really good luck with our fanclub application, getting seats in row G (7th row), just left of the center block and right near the aisle! I sat two seats from the aisle (2 Japanese women sat next to the aisle), which was a very exciting spot to be, as I'll detail later. Before the show, I didn't expect that row G would be as close as it was when I actually sat there... obviously it isn't far (considering the rows go from A to Y) but I was more than surprised at any rate. The structure of the seats actually gives you a perfect view of the stage and the show, not so close as to make you crane your neck, but just... perfect!!
Because I saw the 2pm "Tegomass no Uta" show in Yoyogi right before PLAYZONE, I wasn't sure if I'd actually make it to Aoyama Theatre on time and I didn't want to have to run in the heat, so I skipped the encore of Tegomass (unfortunately) and gave myself plenty of time to go to the bathroom, get a drink, and cool down a little. Goods were being sold outside the Aoyama Theatre doors, and inside the lobby were the usual congratulatory flowers for the cast, sent by various people they work with, acquaintances and so on.
My friends arrived at the theatre just before the play started. One of them, primarily a KAT-TUN fan, likes Taipi, the other finds the juniors pretty boring, except for Ishigaki Daisuke, and Uchi. I was worried she might get bored or fall asleep during the show. Lucky for her though, Ishigaki's keyboard for the opening of the show was positioned almost right in front of where we were sitting. Yody's drum kit was to the right of the stage, and there were 3 mic stands in between. The stage at Aoyama Theatre is really deep and goes back quite far, but at before the show began, all we could see were the band's instruments and a background which shortened the stage. In the audience, sitting in the front row after the break in the seats, were some famous people. Okay, honestly, I didn't know who they were, but everyone was turning to look.
Now, onto the show. Just warning you that I'm only human and I've only seen the show once, so some things might be slightly out of order or not in as much detail as I'd hope. But I'll go through what I remember, with little details and opinions. In summary, the story is about where the boys in the company are putting on a show for a festival or something, and there is a big disagreement over what kind of show to make it. Taipi’s character wants to keep it in line with history (what Shounentai has done for the past 23 years), whereas Uchi wants to make it a more modern show (or something..) Hiro is in between the two, constantly trying to make them patch up their fight, so that they can actually perform the show. Because of the tension between Uchi and Taipi, it causes problems for all of Kisumai and nobody wants to work together. Yara is the choreographer, and he can see the dilemma going on, but at the same time, I don’t think he feels he can help it. Yara gets these messages on his keitai from “the boy who has crossed the bridge” (or something like that), kinda mysterious mails that have messages about teamwork and how everyone should overcome their problems. These messages, which Yara reads throughout the play, are eventually realized by Uchi and Taipi and co, and they eventually make up and resolve to work hard to create and perform the show, because no matter what, the curtains have to go up and the show must go on, that is what people expect and are waiting for.
So.. the show began with Question? taking their places and coming out to greet everyone. They were all in black clothing. I was still sore that Yone wasn't in PLAYZONE, but whatever. The rest of the members were there, that was enough! The last time I saw Question? was at the end of May, and since then, a few things, most noticeably hair, had changed. Ishigaki's hair was straight and short (last time I saw it, it was still permed at the back) and he looked quite clean-cut behind the keyboard. Akun... my lord. The floppy, messy curls were gone, replaced with sexy, dark short hair. Akun looked amazingly yummy, I couldn't help turning to my friend and remarking about how HOT he looked. His stare, his expression... okay, I'll stop before I go any further, but he was such eye candy, and right infront of us! Next was Yori, his hair is a lighter blonde now. He actually didn't look as strange as I sometimes think he does. And Yody, well, I couldn't see his face from behind the drumkit, but I saw it later, and he is still just as cherubic as usual. Shorter hair too.
After Question? introduced the play and Ishigaki wondered what "a letter from the sun" was and meant, people started turning to the left, just behind us, there was a stage door and who should appear in a bask of light but... Uchi Hiroki. Before the show, I’d been focusing so much on Kisumai that I literally almost forgot that Uchi had a major role in the show. But there he was, only a few metres away, looking fantastic! Again, I hadn’t seen him since April. I think his costume was jeans, with a white shirt. He has such long legs and he is so skinny, whenever he wears jeans, it looks like he has them pulled up really high. Now, his hair is gorgeously chocolatey and silky, about jaw length. Uchi walked down our aisle (kyaaaaa, so close) and onto the stage. Uchi joined the band on stage, and they began playing and singing the opening song. Uchi’s voice was faultless and even though I don’t like to say it, he fitted in pretty well on the stage with Question?
Next, the curtain (or screens or whatever they were that was behind the band) disappeared and the set was visible, with some kind of construction like a jungle gym. And who should now be on the stage, in shiny red tracksuits, but the boys everyone was waiting to see. They all had the hoods of their jackets on, and their heads were lowered so you couldn’t see their faces. It really built up the anticipation. They slowly walked towards the edge of the stage, then… bang… the hoods were down and their faces were revealed at last! This is when my heart jolted and I almost died of excitement, because Kisumai were spread across the stage, almost right at the edge, looking out.. and who was in my line of vision? That's right, Miyacchi (for those of you who don’t know, even though I love Taipi and Hiro, Miyacchi is my number one!) I kinda blurted out his name right then without thinking, I guess because I couldn’t believe that he was so close, right there. Last time I saw Kisumai, I still hadn’t figured out who my absolute favorite member was, so this was the first time seeing Miyacchi since I realized that he was my favorite. He looked… awesome. It was great, he was totally DRY at this stage, so his hair was really nice and framed his face nicely. Okay, so I don’t remember the order that everyone was standing in, but I definitely remember what they all looked like. Nika… took my breath away. His hair is a bit longer, really dark and he just looked so intensely sexy. Taipi… I was worried his hair was getting too long, but it looked just right. He has got some blonde highlights in the top layers, which seemed to really shine and stand out whenever he moved his head. Hiro… perfect skin and hair as usual. He just looked too gorgeous. Wataru… I really liked that his tracksuit (and Nika’s) were different to the others. It made him stand out more. Senga… gorgeous, still with caramel-blonde hair and really nice skin tone. And Tama… his hair is straight and a bit shorter now, I think. My friend (the one who likes Ishigaki and Uchi) later told me that she thinks Tama has “a perfect nose” and “people spent so much money on cosmetic surgery to get a nose like that”… I never really looked at his nose, but its obvious that Tama has a gorgeous face!
So Kisumai totally had my attention from then on. They were joined by They Budou and MAD, both groups wearing similar tracksuits to Kisumai (They Budou’s were sunshine yellow, MAD’s were a bright green). They performed “Tell Me Why”, all three groups together. This was the first of many times that my eyes kept going to YamaRyo (Yamamoto Ryota). I was, firstly, extremely shocked at just how small he really is, despite being almost the same age as me. He is quite pint-sized! His dancing was very noticeable, at times almost distracting. He really exerts so much energy dancing and moving about, he extends his movements all the time, sometimes to the point of looking a bit over-enthusiastic. He’s obviously very talented though, and always has a great smile when performing. His hair is still in that funny haircut, partly blonde on the right side. Unfortunately, I don’t really know the other members of They Budou or MAD well enough to comment on them individually, but I have to say that they were all, from the outset, extremely energetic and strong with their dancing.
Uchi was there, and Yara came onstage. Gosh, Yara is short. I’ve never seen him in the flesh before. His legs… almost don’t exist. I mean, I knew he couldn’t be that tall, but I didn’t know he was that short either! He was wearing a black tracksuit on his top half, then grey sweatpants on the bottom half (his character was sharing a dressing room with Takahashi Ryu’s character, and apparently they were Ryu’s sweatpants that Yara was wearing by mistake). The actual dialogue of the play began, where Uchi and Taipi are disagreeing about the way the performance should be done. Uchi leaves with Question? to go and rehearse or record or something. I think Uchi was like, in charge of directing the performance or like, deciding how it should be done or something, with which Taipi really disagreed with and couldn’t keep those feelings to himself any longer. Kisumai members, and even people like YamaRyo spoke lots of lines. You could tell that everyone had really worked on their delivery… they were all pretty flawless and powerful, there was no sense of like, one person being crap at acting or anything… they were ALL great.
So next, now that Yara is there with everyone, they do a rehearsal of their performance. They are rehearsing (Fire Beat… I think. Well, there is a scene when they rehearse this, it might not have been right now, I don’t know) and then when someone gets a mail on their phone, everyone kinda disappears from rehearsal to go and send mails, return phone calls and so on… basically have keitai time, to Yara’s annoyance. Yara stays onstage, delivering a kind of dialogue about cell phone usage. He was speaking really fast, but I remember he was talking about things like how people set their phone on manner mode (silent setting) so as to be polite and not cause disruptions, but then they put it on the table infront of them, and when it does ring, it vibrates really loudly and causes even more disruption.. therefore not really being “manner mode” at all. This whole section basically gave Kisumai time to get changed into their next costumes for “Keitai Tengoku” (Cell phone heaven)
“Keitai Tengoku”, well most people have probably seen pictures of the costumes for this song, but Kisumai come out in cowboy-style outfits, with Western kinda shirts, jeans, and those brown things cowboys wear over their jeans (I forgot the name…) They each have lassos, with their keitai attached to the end of them, and they use the lassos as props in the dance, swinging them around their necks and things. The lyrics for this song were really kinda funny, like, they just sing about how they love their cell phones and so on. Ishigaki and Yody appear in sombreros and things, and the set is like a desert with cactus plants. Next, these funny exercise machines (they are seats and they kinda rock back and forth when you ride them, as if to simulate horse riding) appear at the back of the stage, and Kisumai ride on them while singing. Then, they turn to face the side of the stage, and the screen behind them changes to a racetrack, and they have a pretend “horse race”, with someone else in the cast commentating. Each member’s horse has a name (I can’t remember what they were called, the commentary was too fast and the action was too funny!) Miyacchi is in the lead, Tama at the back, until Tama’s “horse” starts to move and he ends up overtaking all of Kisumai and winning the race (Miyacchi pulls a really depressed face at this…) So basically, a very funny and slightly random song, but I think it has its place in the play, to provide humor and also give the audience a break from the “tension” of the storyline with everyone fighting.
I think after this, the fighting continues. Hiro (?) brings out a camera, and talks about some word (I can’t remember what it is) but everyone is like “what is that?”/”what does that word mean?”… its something to do with the pixels in the camera, then like, the fighting continues, and they talk about how they don’t get along well or something, about how the show isn’t going to work because they are all different (Okay, I really have no idea, I can’t remember where this whole fight comes in or whatever… ) Then, Miyacchi gets angry and like, roars at everyone. (Or maybe that was earlier?? Eek. Anyway at SOME stage, Miyacchi gets to have this whole barrage of lines, getting very passionate. I think Miyacchi yells about how the word that Hiro mentioned means all of the small pixels in a photo coming together to create the image (like how all the different members should come together to perform the show)… SOMETHING LIKE THAT, my memory fails and my Japanese isn’t that good so sorry again…)
I think Kisumai all dissapear from the stage after fighting, and everyone is worried that the show wont be able to go on. Yara comes back and he is like, frustrated and sad. This is where he performs his solo. I’m not the biggest fan of Yaracchi’s voice, but it was still a pretty solo. He moved around the stage, singing at the same time as dancing what appeared to be contemporary or modern dance. I really liked his dance, his use of space and the way he showed us yet another dance style he can do, and all his technique. The emotions his character was feeling were really conveyed through his dance movements.
The next scene is a flashback to Uchi and Taipi, when they were younger. They are both dressed in baseball jerseys (Uchi with Hanshin Tigers, an Osaka team, and Taipi… with some other team..) Anyway Taipi had some baseball player’s name on the back of his jersey, and he was calling himself “Fujigaya ______” (whatever the name was, that obviously wasn’t his). It was too cute. Uchi had a backpack on. It was a scene where, basically, they are talking together, saying things like “when we both become famous idols, we’ll always be friends, right?” They did most of this dialogue just beneath the stage, directly infront of the front row (those lucky girls!!) and then exited from the little door on the left side of the stage. OMG… when they exited… Uchi left first, and Taipi, right before leaving, turned to the audience and did a really cute peace sign and a massively adorable Taipi grin!! (Of course, everyone squealed with joy at that one…)
Now for the chibi juniors segment. I don’t remember much of this, other than that Shintaro was in the centre, surrounded by other little juniors. Juri (Koki’s brother) was there too, he did a rap and it was too cute. So they sang “Akuma na Koi” (Nakayama Yuma with B.I Shadow), and the screens on the stage basically showed the area around Shibuya station covered in Johnny’s advertisements (as it usually is anyway)… billboards for “Koishite Akuma”, “Gokusen”, Arashi’s AU ads, “Orthros no Inu” and so on. They also showed random off-shot footage of Yuma. Basically a whole big way to use PLAYZONE as a vehicle for promoting whatever JE stuff is going on right now. (I’ve never seen PLAYZONE in past years so I don’t know if they always do this, or if they just used the opportunity this year because of Yuma/B.I Shadow’s debut, and Tama being in Gokusen). The juniors sang “Otona ni Nattara”… a song about becoming adults or something. And oh god… wasn’t it just hilarious?? Because it wasn’t only the chibi juniors, but Wataru and Miyacchi too! They were dressed in like, little kids clothing… Watta was in a stripy (?) shirt and really short shorts, pulled up too high. It totally showed off how damn skinny (but still muscly) his legs are. Forgive me, but I was mostly watching Miyacchi in this song, so I can’t recall much more about Watta. Miyacchi had these braces on to hold up his shorts, and… he kept like, accidentally pulling on the elastic of the braces, then jumping back in surprise when they’d flick against him. Okay, I can’t explain it really, but it was so damn funny. The little juniors put name tags on Watta and Miyacchi, that say “Yokoo” and “Miyata” in hiragana. They did some monomane next… Nika was there and he did impressions of the way Tsubasa stands, like his flamenco pose and stuff. It was too accurate!! Juri and Miyacchi did a comedy duo skit, and there might have been others but again, was paying attention mostly to Miyacchi. Ahh and Senga had a chimpanzee stuffed toy in his overalls. They did the whole “Chimpanzee ja nee yo” thing, and like modified the line, so Senga was then saying “Ippan jin ja nee yo” (I’m not an ordinary/average person) “Miyata is the ordinary one”… ha ha funny.
Okay, next was Tama’s solo. He appears as “Tamamori Man”… again, hilarious. There are all these juniors dressed as dinosaurs or something, they all have like, fairy lights and wires that light up wrapped around them. Tama has those goggles on, which are also lit up. He was wearing a blue suit or something of the like. The song had a kind of funny, futuristic feeling. Taipi then appeared, as did the others, dressed as clowns. Taipi looked so adorable!
I think the next song was Taipi’s solo, or at any rate, Taipi singing with Wataru playing acoustic guitar in the bottom corner of the stage. It was pretty nice, low key (in comparison at least to Tama’s solo) and really showed off Taipi’s voice. Somewhere in Taipi’s songs, he did a lot of rapping. Again, not sure if it was in this solo or not, but aside from rapping in the group songs, there was definitely some slower rapping somewhere.
Okay so then Hiromii appears. His song is called Oshare, which means “stylish”. Everyone says that he isn’t stylish, but he sings about being stylish anyway. This is the song where he wears a long-sleeved shirt with the buttons undone (showing off his chest a little), a black vest with a sparkly marijuana leaf on it, and jeans with fluro colors on them. I’m pretty sure They Budou were the primary back dancers for this song. They were all dressed in different trends of clothes, like those glasses that Kanye West made famous, bright colored shirts and stuff. Kisumai joined in too, as Hiro’s back dancers. Taipi appeared in his Benkei headdress. When he introduced himself, he goes “Benkei dayo”, just like Nika’s “Nika-chan dayo”… ahaha it was awesomely funny. Everyone was like “dude, didn’t you wear that headdress enough already? Embujo already finished”… lol.
Somewhere after this, the scene changes to Taipi in a yellow parka, sitting at the edge of the stage, fishing with a rod. Hiro comes over to him and talks. All Taipi had caught so far are small fish. Then, Taipi catches a big fish, and he needs Hiro to get the net to put it in, but Hiro is like, dumb and takes forever, and then does the thing where he throws the net over a member of the audience. This time it was a girl who was wearing a white hat with a black band around it. She looked kinda embarrassed but happy to have the net over her… unfortunately Hiro didn’t catch Taipi in the net like I heard he did at other shows, but oh well. Taipi and Hiro’s dialogue continues, with Taipi being like “so you mean, all I can catch is small fish?” (like, a kind of analogy? Like, if he doesn't make up with Uchi, he wont be able to become a better performer… err, my own interpretation of the line…)
After this, in the play, I think Yara has another solo. Err, Taisuke and Uchi may have made up their friendship and fixed their problems by now. Haha, that's like, the important conclusion of the story and I cant even remember when it happened!! I’m confused with the order. But anyway, there is this massive bridge construction in the middle of the stage, which rotates, as Yara stands on it singing alone. I forgot to add that all through the show, Yara has been receiving keitai mails from “the boy who crossed the bridge” and stuff. Anyway, Yara sings. Then I think Uchi and Taipi join Yara and the three of them sing.
And like, the entire cast comes out in the white gakuran (Japanese-style boys school uniform). They filled the aisles. As in, literally, this is the reason I was happy to be so close to the aisle. I mean, they’d all come down the aisle a billion times, especially Uchi and Miyacchi, but this was the best time. I was watching everyone come down, one by one. Miyacchi was closer to the front of the stage, then like, MAD members, and then.. who should be last, and stop on the step right just below our row, but… HIRO!!!! Okay, I have to get my thoughts together here. Hiro was, like everyone, in the white gakuran. They stood there in the aisles for what seemed like 5 minutes. They all had to face the back of the theatre, looking up, as if looking into the distance. As for me, I was looking straight ahead, my heart was racing coz Hiro was like, a metre away. I had plenty of time to look at him all over… his skin was gorgeous, not a spot in sight. His hair, lovely. But most importantly, his face. He looked so full of inspiration and he continued to stare straight ahead, despite all the heads looking at him, despite people like me going “oh my god” a little too loudly, despite the Hiro fangirls next to me who couldn’t stop gawking and freaking out. Times like this, Hiro’s acting skill really comes through. He didn’t flinch, didn’t get distracted, just stayed in his role. My heart was so doki-doki though, being that close to him. Actually, the lady sitting on the aisle directly next to Hiro (which would have been row F, coz we were row G) wasn’t even looking at Hiro, it was almost like she wasn’t interested!! At first, I was like, “what the hell? I would love to be right next to Hiro” but in retrospect, I actually liked that he stood one step further down, coz otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to look at him face on, I’d have to crane my neck just to get a side view instead. Haha. He was just sooooooo gorgeous though.
So after that, I think the whole cast gathered on the stage, and that was the end of the “Letter from the Sun”. They all looked so full of inspiration and stuff, standing in those white gakuran, across the stage. It was very, very moving.
Okay, now for all the little notes and details from the play that are just random:
• Nika screwed up a line, it was so cute, they made him do an extra monomane or something.
• Hiro’s character was so funny. He kept doing this really funny walk to exit the stage with. You could really feel how his character wanted Uchi and Taipi to make up and stop fighting. It was refreshing and enjoyable to see him in such an amusing, genki role though, it was a good contrast to Taipi and Uchi’s tense and serious roles.
• Someone brings out some clothes that Hiro apparently ordered from a store in Shimokitazawa. They are like, brown pants, with all these tears at the bottom, and they are all dusty and old, but Hiro is like “yes!! Finally, I’ve been waiting for these” and gets all excited!
• Taipi’s acting definitely stood out as the best for me. This one line in the beginning, when he like, totally snaps at Uchi. So powerful. His singing voice was also beautiful to listen to.
• Tama’s role, well I’m not exactly sure what it was… comic relief? He certainly had a lot of funny lines, and would do funny things like continue riding the horse exercise machine after everyone else, while still talking to them. I think he did a pretty good job, but for all the promotion of Taipi, Hiro and Tama as the three lead roles, I felt like Tama’s role was definitely not as big as Taipi’s or Hiro’s, or even Uchi’s or Yara’s.
• The rest of Kisumai were incredible too. Even though the others didn’t have as many lines, they were certainly always acting. You could see little things, like their gestures and body language while in character. Each of them was doing something, and had a place there, even if they weren’t speaking so much.
• I don’t think it was all that necessary to have the chibis like Shintaro in the play, except that it gave them another chance to perform, and it bulked up the cast a little. They were cute though.
• They didn’t sing NYC even though it is listed in the Set List in the pamphlet. I didn't see Masuda Ryo doing his solo (I read about it in reports from other shows)…??
• Ishigaki freaked me out during the last song, in the white costume. He kept singing, making these weird faces while looking at us. I mean, I guess maybe my friend who likes him liked it? Haha. At any rate, I found him weird. Guess I like him better behind the keyboard Lol.
My friends didn’t realize that it was only half time, they thought the show was over coz they forgot about the whole SHOW TIME part. In the intermission, my friends went to go to the bathroom, but I stayed in my seat and ended up talking to the two Japanese ladies who were sitting next to me, closest to the aisle. Obviously, they were still like me, “OMG”-ing because Hiro had been RIGHT THERE, infront of us. They kept saying how small his face was. Then, one of them got out of her seat and stood on the step that Hiro stood on. I couldn’t help but laugh at how cute it was. Then, her friend turns to her and goes “you were just laughed at!” and they looked back at me. So I was like “it was awesome, wasn’t it?” in regards to Hiro, and we started talking about how “yabai” it was that he was so close to us. I asked them who they like, and they said “Hiro!” so it was like… no wonder. They also liked Question too, and we were talking about how we wanted Yone to be there!! Anyway then they asked me who I like, and I was like “well, everyone, especially Miyacchi and Hiro and Taipi”. They were so nice to talk to. Some of the other girls near us had notebooks, and were writing down various dialogue from the show, like, of things that were different from other shows. Most people around us were still just in awe of all the boys being there at the aisle.
OKAY now onto the SHOW TIME part of the report. This will hopefully be a bit shorter.
So they all come out in those black costumes with the white shirts and waistbands, very Shounentai/ Johnny’s. They sang as a group on the stage, then they split up to do the Shounentai Medley. I’m no Shounentai fan so I didn’t know any of the songs, and wasn’t really paying attention to who sang what. But I remember different things like Uchi, Yara and Tama singing together with mic stands on the front of the stage, leaning in together. Now, there was one song where Kisumai did some extremely sexy moves, still in those funny Playzone-style suits, which was a bit… odd. Well, I don’t know, I was just surprised to see all those hip movements so early on!
They cleared the stage and the screen at the back was black, with “Yara and They Budou” written across it. And so, Yaracchi and They Budou came out and totally wowed us with their performance. They started with Now & Forever (Butoukan’s song), then some song called Strings (according to the pamphlet), and then moved on to the Combat CM.
Out came Senga, YamaRyo and Yara with their Combat “gokiburi” (cockroach) costumes on (silky brown jackets with bobbly antenna on their heads). Absolutely hilarious. They actually sang the same song as in the CM, only it was even longer, and didn’t sing the same exact part until the end of the song. It was just like… lol. They played the CM in the background as they were dancing, so Tsuka-chan and Bun-chan were visible too. Then this huge wheel thing (supposed to be the combat product) is wheeled out by other Kisumai members. I think, like, Hiro or someone gives Yara a big hug then goes to hug YamaRyo but doesn’t. ANYWAY, he is like “Hey Yara” and “Hey Ryota” and treats them as normal people, but then he sees Senga and is like “there’s a real cockroach here” (pretending that Senga is a real cockroach). They make Senga strap himself into the huge wheel thing, and then they try to see how long Senga cockroach lasts. They push the wheel, with Senga inside it, off stage and right at the end, they push it round really fast. Senga cried “too fast! Too fast!”…. poor thing.
The last song by Yara and They Budou is Kinki Kids “LOVESICK”, which Yara (with ABC-Z and Kisumai) performed on Shonen Club before. I really liked it when they did it on SC, so to see Yaracchi dancing it infront of my eyes was great! They sing the last line gathered together in the middle of the stage.
MAD’s dance section was next. They danced to two Arashi songs, Pikanchi and Jidai. For one of them (Pikanchi?) they were on this rising stages of different heights, and had these bright sports balls, which they incorporated into their dance ala that “Get Your Head in the Game” (whatever its called) from High School Musical. Both the songs really allowed them to show off their skills in dance and acrobatics, it was very impressive. Their voices also sounded quite good, I didn’t realize that the members of MAD could actually sing as well as they did!
Ah… and then there was Uchi with Question. They sang heaps of my fave songs… firstly, Uchi’s solo “All the Way” from previous PLAYZONE (2007 I think, when he and Kusa performed). I really, really love that song. Next was 3 piece, followed by Matchy w/ Question?’s Mezamero Yasei, then V West’s Believe My Story, Uchi’s old solo Master Key, Midnight Shuffle and the winner, Hi Hi Rocky. For Believe My Story, Taipi came out of the little side stage where Uchi appeared in the beginning. He was in those white Kisumai costumes that look like long skirts. Hi Hi Rocky was just hilarious. I mean, I really like the chorus and part of me totally wanted to bust out singing it like we did at Uchi’s concerts, but my conscience was like “dude, you’re in a theatre, don’t make a fool of yourself”. But Uchi actually saw me when the song started, coz I got really excited and kinda jumped in my seat, and he shot me this look of recognition… hence I felt like I should sing along… it was a real battle haha. Miyacchi was so cute when Kisumai was onstage with Question?, he went over and visited Yody at his drum kit, and sang while standing next to him. Aww.
NOW… the screen changed to “Kis My Ft2” and everyone was holding their breath. They appeared in the middle of the stage, in those special sparkly kimono, each member in their different color. They had white masks covering their faces, so you had to identify them by their costumes. They had swords, and did this full on battle, in their kimono, with their swords, ON THEIR SKATES, against Yaracchi and MAD. It was really impressive. This led into the new version of Inori. I heard people said this version made them cry… well, it didn’t make me cry but I just felt it was really powerful and kind of moving. During the sword fight, it looked like Yaracchi wouldn’t die, and that all the Kisumai members were going to die, but then they all, like, regain their strength and win the battle.
Um, and er, next, well… like, basically every fangirls heart and brain disintegrated with the performance of the song “HAIR”. They wore their new costumes, black and brown I think. Senga’s pants say CRAZY on the leg (the old title of the song) and like, man, the song is amazingly awesome and the dance was soooooo sexy. Taipi was just on fire… gosh, even though I tried to watch Miyacchi, Taipi won me over with this song… it was impossible not to be drawn to watch him. He really knows how to work it, but he is also just so extremely good at dancing and moving his body, you have to watch him. Hiro, well Hiro was sex on legs too, except it would have been far better if he wasn’t wearing that disgusting see-through mesh skin tight top…. Entirely shirtless would have been far better. I mean it was still sexy but kinda made him look like … some kind of stripper or something?? You’ve all probably seen the pics though so you know what I mean. He does this one move, I think its in the live photos, where he is sitting on his knees on the stage, like grabbing at the stage floor… geez…
And then… FIRE BEAT. Haha, they were so MEAN…. They were like “Now, FIRE BEAT” and start the song, but then just before the head shaking, the music stops completely. GRRRR! Hiro came to the edge of the stage and was like “everyone, did you enjoy today’s show?” and stuff. After that, they really DID do FIRE BEAT, and it was… so damn good. I’ll admit it was a bit funny to watch on stage in a theatre as opposed to like, on SC or in a concert environment. But man, I’ll never get sick of it. Haha, Nika did his flip and of course Taipi did all his sexy moves and the like (I can only imagine what it was like when his relatives came to watch!!) … a total killer.
The last song, everyone was back in the black suits. The whole cast came together and sang. They all filled the stage and the aisles. It was beautiful. When they ran through the aisles, Yody (who I’d almost forgotten about after Kisumai’s brain melting performance) was so cute, he grinned at everyone and even touched hands with one of the ladies I’d been talking to, the one who really liked Question?. Lucky her!! The cast gathered on the stage, and one by one, they were presented. The order was like Hiro, Taipi, Uchi, Tama, then Yaracchi. The boys all said their names, and thankyou to the audience. OMG There was a part when Hiro was like “I wanted to be in Gokusen”, and Taipi said “I’m glad that Miyata wasn’t in Gokusen” ha ha ha…. Not!! Taipi, you loser. “ After everyone had been presented, the boys all talked, kinda like a concert MC. So everyone kept bringing up Gokusen, and Tama was like “everyone, as you know, I’m in Gokusen” and telling people to please go and see it. And then, the CUTEST ever moment… They all talked about how Tama was sometimes away from PLAYZONE rehearsal because of Gokusen shooting and so on… and then they pointed to Miyacchi and were like “when Tama is away, Miyacchi gets all sad and depressed”… kyaaaaaaaaa. Miyacchi was totally bashful and cute, standing next to Tama. They said that Miyacchi said his favorite cast member of PLAYZONE was Tamachan, to which everyone laughed/ and went awwwww. They asked Miyacchi who his second fave was, he answered “Uchi”… then all the boys warned Uchi that when Miyacchi says he likes someone, its serious, so Uchi’d better watch out!!! Gahh, Miyatama were totally exchanging all these adorable looks at each other THE WHOLE TIME though. Like seriously…. Rofl. Hmm… what else? They talked about how the Tokyo shows are almost over, how there are so few left. Then Uchi was like “well, there are still Osaka shows” and they said how Osaka will be different yet again, and everyone should come and see them in Osaka too.
And oh yeah, like, how could I forget…. Yaracchi was like “Oh, tomorrow is a day off, isn’t it?” so they chatted about how they don't have any shows on the 6th. “But, you know, its actually someone’s birthday tomorrow…” and everyone was like “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKA!” and on the screen behind them, this huge image of a birthday cake was spinning around, with a Happy Birthday message. Aww, Nika chan was sooooooo chuffed, and happy. He was like “Since when did everyone have this planned?” and they were like “that's a secret!” Then, the whole cast and audience… we sang Happy Birthday to Nika chan!!! He was beaming, and he kept thanking everyone afterwards, to much applause. Like, seriously, he couldn’t stop saying thankyou. It was so sweet. I really hope that he had a lovely birthday (with Senga… hahaha) Oh yeah, they asked Nika how old he was turning, he said “19” and then Hiro reminisced about how little Nika was when he first became a Kisumai member. Aww. Taipi told Nika that he’d better not be introducing himself as “Nika chan dayo” when he is 50, then like… everyone went silent, and Nika was like “ehh? What’s with that?” lol. Then Nika even said “sankyu” in English, and gave us air kisses!! Just too sweet. They also talked about other people’s birthdays they had celebrated together, like Taipi’s. Ahh OMG totally forgot to mention how much Yara-Ryota interaction there was... seriously, like ALL THE TIME they were close to each other, giving each other looks, Ryota like kept flashing grins at Yara all the time.
After all the talking, they said goodbye, the curtains went down.
Then, the curtains re-opened and everyone was there again. They waved for ages. We got a bazillion waves in our direction, crap loads from all these Jrs I don’t know, Uchi, Akun, Gakki, and…. This is where my heart stopped beating…. TAIPI!!!!!!!! For real. My friends and I, we were just waving generally at everyone who was infront of us, and then we noticed Taipi was waving in our direction. So my friend (the one who loves Taipi most) and I both waved back to him, to show that we saw him waving. And…. What did he do??? He like, totally flashed this HUGE Taipi grin, and waved his hands really vigorously back at us!!! Yatta!!!!!! When I saw Taipi in KAT-TUN cons, he was always so busy, and had so many people screaming at him, that he would only kind of wave at the crowd generally. I’ve heard lots of people say he can be a bit “Akanishi Jin” like, and not really give much attention to the crowd. So be it, at a concert, but wow, I was so happy that Taipi waved to us, it was so funny, me and my friend like jumped in our seats when he waved back, and his cheeky grin was so, so precious. I just wasn't expecting it, so it made my day. Thanks, Taipi!
And then, that was that, the curtains went back down again! The show was over for another day.
I really had such a brilliant time, but moreso than anything, I just loved watching the boys perform the show that they’ve been working so hard on. Despite being the second performance of the day, they showed no exhaustion, they were just brilliant in everything they did. When I first heard about all the songs and things in the show, I thought it sounded random, but everything makes sense now that I’ve seen it for real. Kisumai worked so hard, and I am, like I’m sure every other fan is, amazingly happy for them that they were given such a fantastic opportunity to showcase themselves as performers. Now that they’ve been able to do PLAYZONE, they have been exposed to more people than just those who watch Shounen Club, or see them backdancing at debuted groups concerts. Kis My Ft2 are truly their own shining stars now, performers in their own right. I think anyone who got to be in the audience would still feel just as blessed and lucky as I do. Yara and Uchi also did sensationally, They Budou and MAD, and the little juniors too. Everyone worked hard, regardless of the size of their role. I think that I’ve been able to take so much away from the show too, because personally seeing how hard they worked, and how well they performed, gives me the motivation to do my best and achieve my goals too. So, thankyou, to Nishikiori-san for creating such a stunning show, and to Kisumai and co for a fantastic start to what will definitely be a future of more amazing PLAYZONE performances. Good luck for the remaining Tokyo shows, and for Osaka too. Enjoy the time off in between, and thanks so, so much once again!