[818] 8.1.8 Great Things about 818
If I had the time, I probably could come up with 818 (eight hundred eighteen, yes) things that were good about 818 (Hachi * Ichi * Hachi), Shota's solo entertainment show that ended on Feb. 26... but, since that is beyond crazy, I have thought of listing 8+1+8 = 17 great things about 818 instead, haha.
I am definitely going to write a report on 818, but I just don't know when I could work on it. I am thinking of writing the report focusing on the show itself because it had such a good message behind it. So, that means that all my personal thoughts (OMG Shota's so cute! etc.) should not be included in the report... and this is why I want to organize my thoughts in this particular post before I write an objective report. Do you know what I mean??
Anyway, I just thought that listing some great things about 818 will be a fun thing to do, that's all, haha.
Before I go on, here is a brief summary of the show for those who don't know much about it yet:
The main character is a Boy that came out to Tokyo from Osaka in search for a dream. He has a wild ambition to "take over the world," but he doesn't know what it is that he really wants to do. He has no money, no contacts, no fabulous academic background and no dream...
One night, he meets three street performers: the Musician, the Art Performer and the Dancer. Each of these street performers were also facing individual problems, and through their encounters with the Boy, they all start to realize what it is that they are missing and what they really want...
Now, here are my thoughts from the show:
[ HACHI - STAGE/STORY ]
1) The show averaged an hour and 45 minutes in length, but it was neither too short nor too long; it was about the perfect length. The story itself had such a clear plot that it was easy to understand and follow despite the fact that one person was acting out five (strictly speaking it was four, but in a way it was five) different characters. There were no breaks in between scenes to move the stage around or something, so no time was wasted. The set was simple and yet had all the necessary equipments out there.
To the left was the section for the Musician, where they placed his guitar case, guitar and a music arch to hold his musical scores. Toward the center was the dance floor for the Dancer and a few steps that led up to the big screen, which had an important role in the show. To the right was the wall where the Art Performer painted a picture with multiple colors of paint. In between the big screen and the wall was the door where the Storyteller often came in and out of. The other characters have used it occasionally as well. Here's what the stage looked like (the pamphlet had the image of the stage):
The stage depicted the "street" that the Boy was walking around on in the VTR very well.
2) The use of sound effects/BGM and lighting was outstanding. The BGM used for each of the five characters fit them so perfectly: the one for the Storyteller was somewhat mysterious and fairy-tale-like; the Boy had a casual sounding music, the Dancer a heavy hip-hop tune, the Art Performer a wacky tune and the Musician... well, I don't think he really had a BGM for himself since he is the "musician" after all, haha. The song that could really be associated with the Musician is Sorezore no Kimi to, which is the main theme song and what Shota had written and composed particularly for this show... it was a BEAUTIFUL song; I was tearing up the first time I heard it!
I thought it was pretty cool in between the time when the Storyteller (who is actually the Boy when he is a lot older) left through the door and the Boy showed up from the side just a few seconds later (Shota quickly changed into the Boy in a matter of a few seconds)... they had a warping-kinda sound as well as bright, rainbow-colored lighting going right to left. To me, it had a time-warping effect that showed that the story was moving from the Storyteller's time back to when he was the Boy.
The lighting work was also magnificent for the Dancer's dance. The dance itself was just W.O.W. but the lighting made it even better.
3) Each character stood out so much and Shota acted them all out extremely well. I thought it was fantastic that they associated each character with symbols and colors consistently throughout the show and they had distinct characteristics...
The image color for the Musician (the narcissist) was red and his symbol was a star:
The color for the Art Performer (the okama - drag queen) was green and his (her? lol) symbol was a heart:
The image color for the cool Dancer was blue and his symbol was lightning:
Whenever the story mentioned a character, the stage light lit the color red to the left side (the Musician side), blue to the center (the Dancer area) and green to the right (the Art Performer side).
Since I don't want to leave out the adorable Boy... :
Unfortunately, the Storyteller didn't make the cut on the pamphlet, haha. Awww. But here's what he looked like on Oricon Style (thanks Annie for the scan!)
4) The big screen had an important role in the entire show. It linked with what was going on on the stage. The story progressed using the screen effectively. The very first introductory VTR they showed was the coolest video ever!!!! It starts off right when the Boy on stage screams "WHAT SHOULD I DO!!!!"; the screen shows a pouty Boy (see picture below) and it pans to show the sky where the logo for 818 comes up with the words "Shota Yasuda Entertainment Show" (or something like that... I forgot, oops) in English.
Then they go on to introduce the four characters, in the order of the Musician, the Art Performer, the Dancer and the Boy.
The Musician is at the train station waiting to get on the train. When it comes, he picks up his guitar case and stands by the door. The drawing of stars (which quite obviously were drawn by Shota) are twirling around and they turn into a guitar pick, which slides into the Musician's jeans pocket. --- MUSICIAN - SHOTA YASUDA
The music changes and we see the Art Performer's fancy leggings... she (I'm going to call her a "she") is pulling her little wagon full of paints and pens. She is wearing sunglasses and is walking around the street. She stops to see a postcard, takes off her sunglasses and smiles sweetly (LOVED that smile!). --- ART PERFORMER - SHOTA YASUDA
The heavy hip-hop tune indicates that the scene has now changed to the Dancer. He's tying his shoelaces at the door of his apartment. He looks down at his boom box that has a skull face on the speakers, smiles, and puts his hood on and walks out the door carrying the b-box in his hand. --- DANCER - SHOTA YASUDA
The casual BGM for the Boy plays and we see question marks (also drawn by Shota) shooting out from the Boy's head. He looks like he is lost in his thoughts. --- A BOY - SHOTA YASUDA
The four faces appear in each corner and they start to slowly move toward each other... until the right (to the left when looking from the audience) eye of the Boy, left eye of the Musician, the right mouth of the Dancer and the left mouth of the Art Performer (I might be wrong about this... I was too focused on the left eye of the Musician because it was just too beautiful, lol) form one face and BAM! The number 818 appears and that was the end of the intro VTR. Super cool VTR for sure!!!! The music that went along with it was just fantastic!!!
5) Shota made sure that everybody in the audience had fun no matter where their seats were. The venue in Tokyo had three floors and the one in Osaka had two. The Art Performer came into the audience and drew pictures for lucky fans who sat at the front row center and some random row/seat number she chose that day... this all happened on the first floor. But, when the Musician asked for song requests from the audience and when the Art Performer asked the crowd where they were from and what they think humans were made of, he/she made sure to point to the people on the upper-level as well. Shota made sure that everyone was a part of it all.
During one of the shows I went to, I was lucky enough to have the Art Performer point at me and ask me where I was from. I was in the fourth row of the second floor on the far left (right from Shota), but he asked me anyway. Since I was with a friend from Canada and I wanted him to know that he had fans from overseas, I yelled "CANADA!!" At first, he didn't hear me correctly so he said "Kanagawa? Oh I know they're famous for noodles..." so I was like "Chigau! (= No!)", then he went "Saga?" I said "CA-NA-DA!!" and he TOTALLY freaked out, haha. "EHHHHHHHH!" he said, as he put both of his hands out in surprise. "You came all the way from Canada just for me!? That is quite a far away land... That's where maple syrup is famous for!!"
A memorable moment for me for sure <3 It was pretty cool to have that moment where he was responding to things I was saying instead of me just yelling at him over the TV screen or something, lol.
6) The Musician was a narcissist, who had a great guitar and awesome fingers... but he knew he was missing something. He could sing other people's songs quite well, but he can't come up with lyrics to his own songs. He has the melody, but he can't put any words to it...
This character was a pure representation of how much Shota practices the guitar with zeal. He doesn't know what songs the crowd would throw at him, but somehow he always found a way to pull it off. Not only was his guitar impressive but his VOICE. ........MAN!!!!!!!!! This boy could really sing.
He usually asks the crowd for two songs and chooses one song he wants to sing. He sang Magic Word (yes, Maru's solo song) and Sorezore no Kimi to in every single show since it was part of the story. Here are the songs he sang at the shows I went to:
2/23 (1) - Watashi Kagami, Kimi to Boku, Real Face (KAT-TUN)
2/23 (2) - Heavenly Psycho, Anniversary (Kinki Kids), Hoshi ga Kirei (The Little Monstars Family)
2/24 (1) - Ai no Katamari (Kinki Kids), Kimi to Boku, Tsubomi (Kobukuro)
2/24 (2) - Watashi Kagami, code, Real Face (KAT-TUN)
Note that all these songs were played by his guitar only; no background music whatsoever. Just shows you how talented this boy is!!
It was HILARIOUS when he "sang" code (Ryo's solo) though. Since he's supposed to be the "Musician" and not "Shota", he said, "Hmm... that's the song by the scary dude in Kanjani8, right? I unfortunately don't know that song too well... but it was on DVD and stuff right? Okay, I'm going to do air-guitar so please pay attention to my neck..." then, he sings "YEAAAHHH!!! YEAAH!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!" and says "Don't you think his neck vein pops up like crazy?" LOL Sho-chan could be funny, too!!! The whole place erupted with laughter at that one, haha.
Sorezore no Kimi to was seriously a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL song... I have a feeling that he might sing it at the upcoming spring concert because he kept on saying "If you hear this somewhere again, please think 'Oh! This must be the song from the show!'" during the mini MCs after the shows. I wish it were on CD... I'm starting to forget how the song went :-( The lyrics are written on the pamphlet, but the melody is definitely getting out of my head...!!! Noooo!!!!
7) The Art Performer was a super crazy hyper okama (=Drag Queen) that looooves men, haha. She loves to draw and paint and gets so excited when people become happy because of the things she drew, but she is not sure if she's drawing things that she really wants to from the bottom of her heart.
She was the most interactive with the crowd out of the four... well, five characters. She blasted music, splattered paint all over the wall (and herself) and yelled frantically at the crowd that their clapping was fading... all the while being able to draw a perfect picture of LOPPY-chan (stands for LOve and haPPY... very Shota-ish, eh?) on the wall. Seriously, this was sooooo out-of-character for Shota but it was GREAT. She started looking cuter and cuter as I got used to the avant-garde of it all.
She explained the drawing as she drew it, so I listened to her carefully... even I, who honestly suck at drawing, was able to draw a LOPPY-chan!!
The cutest thing was that she made us count with her as she drew the hearts at the end... she's like "Heart ga Hitotsu (one) ~~ <3 Heart ga Futatsu (two) ~~ <3 ..." all the way up to, of course, EIGHT :-)
After the wall painting, she walked around the crowd with "Lucky Ikeda chan"... how do I explain this, haha. Lucky Ikeda was a comedian who had this elephant water pot on top of his head... Shota had this elephant water pot that had a camera inside and took the crowd. The Art Performer was a "Do-S" (meaning extremely "S") so she kept on picking on the audience... she would put the camera right in people's faces so that the big screen shows them, and also put it on top of people's heads to check out their pores. "Embarrassing isn't it!? HAHAHAHA" she would say, lol.
Also, this is when she showed the Johnny's guests present at that time (at least that's what she did in the four Osaka shows I went to). She says, "....Hold on a minute... I smell MEN!!!" and puts the camera in the faces of the Juniors, K8 members or whoever was watching that day. Many excited but kinda rude fans reached out to touch her butt, back, arms, etc., but her response was always, "I love men... I don't feel ANYTHING when a woman touches me!!!" lol.
Some guests that came to the shows I went to:
2/23 (1) - BOYS' Daichi and Hamada
2/23 (2) - BOYS' Muro, some other Juniors like Satake and Uemura... and Maruyama Ryuhei, although Shota didn't show him on the screen.
2/24 (1) - OSSaN's Oota and Nagao
2/24 (2) - BAD's Kiriyama
I think the Art Performer was my favorite character... she was just TOO ADORABLE!!!!!
8) The Boy met the Dancer after his encounter with the Art Performer. Since the Art Performer was so LOUD and eccentric, it was a sharp contrast between her and the Dancer because he acted all tough and cool. The Dancer came out from the right side of the stage and without saying a single word, he started taping his wrist, stretched and put the music on for his SUPER AWESOME DANCE.
I think many K8 fans think that Hina is the best dancer of the group... while I agree that he is a great dancer, I still stand firm to my opinion that Shota is the best one. He doesn't have the longest arms and legs (actually, he has the shortest arms and legs, lol) but he moves so dynamically that he doesn't look small at all when he dances.
On the pamphlet, it said that the dance teacher knew that Shota was a good dancer so he prepared him a very difficult dance. Shota did pretty well in his first few practices, so the teacher was like "Maybe I should make it even harder!"
[ ICHI - PERFORMER ]
1) This show made me fall in love with Yasuda Shota all over again, haha. It was way beyond my expectations! The thought and effort he has put into this show are simply too amazing.
Here are some things that he did for this show:
- 15 and 5 minutes before the show started, he read out the rules for watching the show and told people what not to do. He did this all live, not pre-recorded.
- He designed all his goods: background drawing of the poster (this was not a part of the goods, but it is the one they had outside the Tokyo venue)/clear file, pamphlet (cover and inside drawings), underwear, tank top, legwarmers, towel handkerchief and shopping bag.
He also did many interviews for the inside of the pamphlet as he had fake interviews for each of the four characters plus a super long interview for himself.
- His usual rehearsal/practice days went like this: went in the studio at around noon and started discussing things about the set, costumes, and overall stage-related stuff with the staff for an hour to two hours... practiced wall painting for three to four hours... then practiced his dance for two hours. He practiced his guitar during the few minutes he had in between all these practices.
- He wrote and composed the theme song of the show, Sorezore no Kimi to, which sings about how people's encounters are important and how we keep on sharing happiness to each other. Another beautiful piece of music by Sho-chan <3
- On top of all this, he had to spend days after days to shoot the VTR used in the show. They use the VTR and the actual acting on stage effectively to tell the story, so the VTR part was quite important to the show as well. All the scenes were at night (I think they made it night because they wouldn't have to worry about where the sun is when they take little bits of the scene at a time) and they shot this in late January, so it was windy and looked super cold. They did rehearsals during the day and did the actual filming well past midnight... plus he had to act out four characters in total so it took them a long time to finish this... but, as the pamphlet said, it always had a heart-warming atmosphere because of the trust that Shota and the staff had for each other. :-)
- He made sure that he had a say for the smallest detail for each item that the characters had, too: the knit caps that the Boy and the Dancer wore, the hat the Musician wore, the sunglasses and the cans and brushes for the paints that the Art Performer had, the bag full of underwear that the Boy held and the boom box for the Dancer... he selected all these things to suit each character!! Not only does he have a great idea of what he wants to make out of each character, but also this kid is really good at choosing things that match!!
[ HACHI - GOODS AND MESSAGES ]
1) The PAMPHLET is probably the best concert/show goods that I have ever purchased. I am not even exaggerating. It had a whopping 56 PAGES and it was ALL Shota!! (How would I NOT like it!? lol) Not only was it very informative but it was also full of colorful drawings and SO MANY pictures. The cover is just too cute... it had pink rings drawn on it that "binds" the book... then there's the cute ribbon that keeps the pamphlet shut. Inside is just... "Shota World" galore! It's like a mixture of a pamphlet, art book, photo book and... I don't know, a magazine??
It was soooooooo full of pictures... and it's hard to choose one over the other, but I will choose my Top 3 pictures in the pamphlet:
#3 Gotta love the thigh/ass and shiny purple leggings!!
#2 Natural Sho-chan answering the long interview!!
#1 Shota during dance practice.... KAKKOII <3
2) The underwear... well, I'm going to call it PANTSU (I put the "U" at the end to distinguish it from the "pants" we think of in English, haha) since that just fits it so much better. The pantsu had a pivotal role in the whole show... it's what the Boy eventually comes down to; he found his dream by meeting those three street performers and he decided to become a pantsu designer. There's a whole story behind it that I would hopefully be able to write in the show report... if I ever get down to it, lol.
Shota was especially picky about the pantsu during the designing phase... he went as far as asking for pink threads on the outside and green on the inside of the pantsu! He also said that he asked a few of his female friends and family for their advice on what kind of pantsu they would like to wear. Since it gets itchy if it was too stuck to the skin, he chose a material that has good ventilation. Also, since girls face some "problems," he made a certain part of the pantsu double-layered... I'll let you imagine which part of the pantsu it is, haha.
3) The other goods were adorable as well...
The back of the shopping bag was a pleasant surprise; I didn't think there would be a cute message on it!
*NOTE* These goods were really hard to get because you have to line up for hours in the goods line and some of them like the pantsu and the tank top (and temporarily the leg warmers as well) were limited to one per person. I am not going to sell any of these goods so please don't ask!
4) As you can see on the pantsu and the poster/clear file (picture below), he used the Star, Heart and Lightning for his designs. Just shows you how consistent everything throughout this show was!!!
5) This was definitely an entertaining show to watch and be a part of, but it also made me think a lot about the messages it was trying to convey. The first big key word was "Something that makes you happy." This was what the Musician told the Boy. After the Boy tells the Musician that he has this wild ambition to take over the world but doesn't really know what to do about it, the Musician tells him off by saying that maybe he doesn't have anything that he wants to do and that it's such a waste of time to chase "nothing." He added that he should look for something that makes him truly happy...
6) The next key word was "Something original... the one and only thing in the world." The Art Performer tells this to the Boy. She says that it's important to be original and to pursue the one and only thing in the world... but this time, it was actually the Boy who tells her off saying that maybe her drawings weren't too original; they looked like copies of other people's work. The Boy showed the Art Performer a few drawings that he had drawn, and those really impressed her because they were so pure and unique. She didn't dare tell him, but she was jealous of his free-thinking mind and talent.
7) The last key word was "Something that expresses yourself," coming from the Dancer. He says that rhythm and music is not something visible to the eyes; therefore, he says that it'll be cool if he were able to express something not visible through his dance. The Boy takes a hint, and when he put all these three key words together, he finally found the one and only dream that would make him happy and what would express himself really well... yes, "Pantsu." (lol)
8) The greatest thing of this entire show is that those three key words, "something that makes you happy," "something original... the one and only thing in the world," and "something that expresses yourself," are EXACTLY what Shota has displayed through his performance. He was very lively on stage and had the greatest smile of any human kind (I know I'm not exaggerating much when I say this, either!!). You can just FEEL that this is what he wants to express and it is what makes him the happiest... Needless to say, it's most likely that no other person in this entire WORLD would have been able to create this "Shota World" besides him. It was something only he could come up with and be able to display so well.
I didn't think that this post would be THIS long, but I just wanted to share how AWESOME Shota's solo entertainment show was. This kind of ended up being a report already (haha, oops) but I will be working on a separate report of the story itself... someday when I have the time!
Sho-chan, thank you very much for being who you are <3
P.S. Pretty good PV, eh? :-D
I am definitely going to write a report on 818, but I just don't know when I could work on it. I am thinking of writing the report focusing on the show itself because it had such a good message behind it. So, that means that all my personal thoughts (OMG Shota's so cute! etc.) should not be included in the report... and this is why I want to organize my thoughts in this particular post before I write an objective report. Do you know what I mean??
Anyway, I just thought that listing some great things about 818 will be a fun thing to do, that's all, haha.
Before I go on, here is a brief summary of the show for those who don't know much about it yet:
The main character is a Boy that came out to Tokyo from Osaka in search for a dream. He has a wild ambition to "take over the world," but he doesn't know what it is that he really wants to do. He has no money, no contacts, no fabulous academic background and no dream...
One night, he meets three street performers: the Musician, the Art Performer and the Dancer. Each of these street performers were also facing individual problems, and through their encounters with the Boy, they all start to realize what it is that they are missing and what they really want...
Now, here are my thoughts from the show:
[ HACHI - STAGE/STORY ]
1) The show averaged an hour and 45 minutes in length, but it was neither too short nor too long; it was about the perfect length. The story itself had such a clear plot that it was easy to understand and follow despite the fact that one person was acting out five (strictly speaking it was four, but in a way it was five) different characters. There were no breaks in between scenes to move the stage around or something, so no time was wasted. The set was simple and yet had all the necessary equipments out there.
To the left was the section for the Musician, where they placed his guitar case, guitar and a music arch to hold his musical scores. Toward the center was the dance floor for the Dancer and a few steps that led up to the big screen, which had an important role in the show. To the right was the wall where the Art Performer painted a picture with multiple colors of paint. In between the big screen and the wall was the door where the Storyteller often came in and out of. The other characters have used it occasionally as well. Here's what the stage looked like (the pamphlet had the image of the stage):
The stage depicted the "street" that the Boy was walking around on in the VTR very well.
2) The use of sound effects/BGM and lighting was outstanding. The BGM used for each of the five characters fit them so perfectly: the one for the Storyteller was somewhat mysterious and fairy-tale-like; the Boy had a casual sounding music, the Dancer a heavy hip-hop tune, the Art Performer a wacky tune and the Musician... well, I don't think he really had a BGM for himself since he is the "musician" after all, haha. The song that could really be associated with the Musician is Sorezore no Kimi to, which is the main theme song and what Shota had written and composed particularly for this show... it was a BEAUTIFUL song; I was tearing up the first time I heard it!
I thought it was pretty cool in between the time when the Storyteller (who is actually the Boy when he is a lot older) left through the door and the Boy showed up from the side just a few seconds later (Shota quickly changed into the Boy in a matter of a few seconds)... they had a warping-kinda sound as well as bright, rainbow-colored lighting going right to left. To me, it had a time-warping effect that showed that the story was moving from the Storyteller's time back to when he was the Boy.
The lighting work was also magnificent for the Dancer's dance. The dance itself was just W.O.W. but the lighting made it even better.
3) Each character stood out so much and Shota acted them all out extremely well. I thought it was fantastic that they associated each character with symbols and colors consistently throughout the show and they had distinct characteristics...
The image color for the Musician (the narcissist) was red and his symbol was a star:
The color for the Art Performer (the okama - drag queen) was green and his (her? lol) symbol was a heart:
The image color for the cool Dancer was blue and his symbol was lightning:
Whenever the story mentioned a character, the stage light lit the color red to the left side (the Musician side), blue to the center (the Dancer area) and green to the right (the Art Performer side).
Since I don't want to leave out the adorable Boy... :
Unfortunately, the Storyteller didn't make the cut on the pamphlet, haha. Awww. But here's what he looked like on Oricon Style (thanks Annie for the scan!)
4) The big screen had an important role in the entire show. It linked with what was going on on the stage. The story progressed using the screen effectively. The very first introductory VTR they showed was the coolest video ever!!!! It starts off right when the Boy on stage screams "WHAT SHOULD I DO!!!!"; the screen shows a pouty Boy (see picture below) and it pans to show the sky where the logo for 818 comes up with the words "Shota Yasuda Entertainment Show" (or something like that... I forgot, oops) in English.
Then they go on to introduce the four characters, in the order of the Musician, the Art Performer, the Dancer and the Boy.
The Musician is at the train station waiting to get on the train. When it comes, he picks up his guitar case and stands by the door. The drawing of stars (which quite obviously were drawn by Shota) are twirling around and they turn into a guitar pick, which slides into the Musician's jeans pocket. --- MUSICIAN - SHOTA YASUDA
The music changes and we see the Art Performer's fancy leggings... she (I'm going to call her a "she") is pulling her little wagon full of paints and pens. She is wearing sunglasses and is walking around the street. She stops to see a postcard, takes off her sunglasses and smiles sweetly (LOVED that smile!). --- ART PERFORMER - SHOTA YASUDA
The heavy hip-hop tune indicates that the scene has now changed to the Dancer. He's tying his shoelaces at the door of his apartment. He looks down at his boom box that has a skull face on the speakers, smiles, and puts his hood on and walks out the door carrying the b-box in his hand. --- DANCER - SHOTA YASUDA
The casual BGM for the Boy plays and we see question marks (also drawn by Shota) shooting out from the Boy's head. He looks like he is lost in his thoughts. --- A BOY - SHOTA YASUDA
The four faces appear in each corner and they start to slowly move toward each other... until the right (to the left when looking from the audience) eye of the Boy, left eye of the Musician, the right mouth of the Dancer and the left mouth of the Art Performer (I might be wrong about this... I was too focused on the left eye of the Musician because it was just too beautiful, lol) form one face and BAM! The number 818 appears and that was the end of the intro VTR. Super cool VTR for sure!!!! The music that went along with it was just fantastic!!!
5) Shota made sure that everybody in the audience had fun no matter where their seats were. The venue in Tokyo had three floors and the one in Osaka had two. The Art Performer came into the audience and drew pictures for lucky fans who sat at the front row center and some random row/seat number she chose that day... this all happened on the first floor. But, when the Musician asked for song requests from the audience and when the Art Performer asked the crowd where they were from and what they think humans were made of, he/she made sure to point to the people on the upper-level as well. Shota made sure that everyone was a part of it all.
During one of the shows I went to, I was lucky enough to have the Art Performer point at me and ask me where I was from. I was in the fourth row of the second floor on the far left (right from Shota), but he asked me anyway. Since I was with a friend from Canada and I wanted him to know that he had fans from overseas, I yelled "CANADA!!" At first, he didn't hear me correctly so he said "Kanagawa? Oh I know they're famous for noodles..." so I was like "Chigau! (= No!)", then he went "Saga?" I said "CA-NA-DA!!" and he TOTALLY freaked out, haha. "EHHHHHHHH!" he said, as he put both of his hands out in surprise. "You came all the way from Canada just for me!? That is quite a far away land... That's where maple syrup is famous for!!"
A memorable moment for me for sure <3 It was pretty cool to have that moment where he was responding to things I was saying instead of me just yelling at him over the TV screen or something, lol.
6) The Musician was a narcissist, who had a great guitar and awesome fingers... but he knew he was missing something. He could sing other people's songs quite well, but he can't come up with lyrics to his own songs. He has the melody, but he can't put any words to it...
This character was a pure representation of how much Shota practices the guitar with zeal. He doesn't know what songs the crowd would throw at him, but somehow he always found a way to pull it off. Not only was his guitar impressive but his VOICE. ........MAN!!!!!!!!! This boy could really sing.
He usually asks the crowd for two songs and chooses one song he wants to sing. He sang Magic Word (yes, Maru's solo song) and Sorezore no Kimi to in every single show since it was part of the story. Here are the songs he sang at the shows I went to:
2/23 (1) - Watashi Kagami, Kimi to Boku, Real Face (KAT-TUN)
2/23 (2) - Heavenly Psycho, Anniversary (Kinki Kids), Hoshi ga Kirei (The Little Monstars Family)
2/24 (1) - Ai no Katamari (Kinki Kids), Kimi to Boku, Tsubomi (Kobukuro)
2/24 (2) - Watashi Kagami, code, Real Face (KAT-TUN)
Note that all these songs were played by his guitar only; no background music whatsoever. Just shows you how talented this boy is!!
It was HILARIOUS when he "sang" code (Ryo's solo) though. Since he's supposed to be the "Musician" and not "Shota", he said, "Hmm... that's the song by the scary dude in Kanjani8, right? I unfortunately don't know that song too well... but it was on DVD and stuff right? Okay, I'm going to do air-guitar so please pay attention to my neck..." then, he sings "YEAAAHHH!!! YEAAH!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!" and says "Don't you think his neck vein pops up like crazy?" LOL Sho-chan could be funny, too!!! The whole place erupted with laughter at that one, haha.
Sorezore no Kimi to was seriously a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL song... I have a feeling that he might sing it at the upcoming spring concert because he kept on saying "If you hear this somewhere again, please think 'Oh! This must be the song from the show!'" during the mini MCs after the shows. I wish it were on CD... I'm starting to forget how the song went :-( The lyrics are written on the pamphlet, but the melody is definitely getting out of my head...!!! Noooo!!!!
7) The Art Performer was a super crazy hyper okama (=Drag Queen) that looooves men, haha. She loves to draw and paint and gets so excited when people become happy because of the things she drew, but she is not sure if she's drawing things that she really wants to from the bottom of her heart.
She was the most interactive with the crowd out of the four... well, five characters. She blasted music, splattered paint all over the wall (and herself) and yelled frantically at the crowd that their clapping was fading... all the while being able to draw a perfect picture of LOPPY-chan (stands for LOve and haPPY... very Shota-ish, eh?) on the wall. Seriously, this was sooooo out-of-character for Shota but it was GREAT. She started looking cuter and cuter as I got used to the avant-garde of it all.
She explained the drawing as she drew it, so I listened to her carefully... even I, who honestly suck at drawing, was able to draw a LOPPY-chan!!
The cutest thing was that she made us count with her as she drew the hearts at the end... she's like "Heart ga Hitotsu (one) ~~ <3 Heart ga Futatsu (two) ~~ <3 ..." all the way up to, of course, EIGHT :-)
After the wall painting, she walked around the crowd with "Lucky Ikeda chan"... how do I explain this, haha. Lucky Ikeda was a comedian who had this elephant water pot on top of his head... Shota had this elephant water pot that had a camera inside and took the crowd. The Art Performer was a "Do-S" (meaning extremely "S") so she kept on picking on the audience... she would put the camera right in people's faces so that the big screen shows them, and also put it on top of people's heads to check out their pores. "Embarrassing isn't it!? HAHAHAHA" she would say, lol.
Also, this is when she showed the Johnny's guests present at that time (at least that's what she did in the four Osaka shows I went to). She says, "....Hold on a minute... I smell MEN!!!" and puts the camera in the faces of the Juniors, K8 members or whoever was watching that day. Many excited but kinda rude fans reached out to touch her butt, back, arms, etc., but her response was always, "I love men... I don't feel ANYTHING when a woman touches me!!!" lol.
Some guests that came to the shows I went to:
2/23 (1) - BOYS' Daichi and Hamada
2/23 (2) - BOYS' Muro, some other Juniors like Satake and Uemura... and Maruyama Ryuhei, although Shota didn't show him on the screen.
2/24 (1) - OSSaN's Oota and Nagao
2/24 (2) - BAD's Kiriyama
I think the Art Performer was my favorite character... she was just TOO ADORABLE!!!!!
8) The Boy met the Dancer after his encounter with the Art Performer. Since the Art Performer was so LOUD and eccentric, it was a sharp contrast between her and the Dancer because he acted all tough and cool. The Dancer came out from the right side of the stage and without saying a single word, he started taping his wrist, stretched and put the music on for his SUPER AWESOME DANCE.
I think many K8 fans think that Hina is the best dancer of the group... while I agree that he is a great dancer, I still stand firm to my opinion that Shota is the best one. He doesn't have the longest arms and legs (actually, he has the shortest arms and legs, lol) but he moves so dynamically that he doesn't look small at all when he dances.
On the pamphlet, it said that the dance teacher knew that Shota was a good dancer so he prepared him a very difficult dance. Shota did pretty well in his first few practices, so the teacher was like "Maybe I should make it even harder!"
[ ICHI - PERFORMER ]
1) This show made me fall in love with Yasuda Shota all over again, haha. It was way beyond my expectations! The thought and effort he has put into this show are simply too amazing.
Here are some things that he did for this show:
- 15 and 5 minutes before the show started, he read out the rules for watching the show and told people what not to do. He did this all live, not pre-recorded.
- He designed all his goods: background drawing of the poster (this was not a part of the goods, but it is the one they had outside the Tokyo venue)/clear file, pamphlet (cover and inside drawings), underwear, tank top, legwarmers, towel handkerchief and shopping bag.
He also did many interviews for the inside of the pamphlet as he had fake interviews for each of the four characters plus a super long interview for himself.
- His usual rehearsal/practice days went like this: went in the studio at around noon and started discussing things about the set, costumes, and overall stage-related stuff with the staff for an hour to two hours... practiced wall painting for three to four hours... then practiced his dance for two hours. He practiced his guitar during the few minutes he had in between all these practices.
- He wrote and composed the theme song of the show, Sorezore no Kimi to, which sings about how people's encounters are important and how we keep on sharing happiness to each other. Another beautiful piece of music by Sho-chan <3
- On top of all this, he had to spend days after days to shoot the VTR used in the show. They use the VTR and the actual acting on stage effectively to tell the story, so the VTR part was quite important to the show as well. All the scenes were at night (I think they made it night because they wouldn't have to worry about where the sun is when they take little bits of the scene at a time) and they shot this in late January, so it was windy and looked super cold. They did rehearsals during the day and did the actual filming well past midnight... plus he had to act out four characters in total so it took them a long time to finish this... but, as the pamphlet said, it always had a heart-warming atmosphere because of the trust that Shota and the staff had for each other. :-)
- He made sure that he had a say for the smallest detail for each item that the characters had, too: the knit caps that the Boy and the Dancer wore, the hat the Musician wore, the sunglasses and the cans and brushes for the paints that the Art Performer had, the bag full of underwear that the Boy held and the boom box for the Dancer... he selected all these things to suit each character!! Not only does he have a great idea of what he wants to make out of each character, but also this kid is really good at choosing things that match!!
[ HACHI - GOODS AND MESSAGES ]
1) The PAMPHLET is probably the best concert/show goods that I have ever purchased. I am not even exaggerating. It had a whopping 56 PAGES and it was ALL Shota!! (How would I NOT like it!? lol) Not only was it very informative but it was also full of colorful drawings and SO MANY pictures. The cover is just too cute... it had pink rings drawn on it that "binds" the book... then there's the cute ribbon that keeps the pamphlet shut. Inside is just... "Shota World" galore! It's like a mixture of a pamphlet, art book, photo book and... I don't know, a magazine??
It was soooooooo full of pictures... and it's hard to choose one over the other, but I will choose my Top 3 pictures in the pamphlet:
#3 Gotta love the thigh/ass and shiny purple leggings!!
#2 Natural Sho-chan answering the long interview!!
#1 Shota during dance practice.... KAKKOII <3
2) The underwear... well, I'm going to call it PANTSU (I put the "U" at the end to distinguish it from the "pants" we think of in English, haha) since that just fits it so much better. The pantsu had a pivotal role in the whole show... it's what the Boy eventually comes down to; he found his dream by meeting those three street performers and he decided to become a pantsu designer. There's a whole story behind it that I would hopefully be able to write in the show report... if I ever get down to it, lol.
Shota was especially picky about the pantsu during the designing phase... he went as far as asking for pink threads on the outside and green on the inside of the pantsu! He also said that he asked a few of his female friends and family for their advice on what kind of pantsu they would like to wear. Since it gets itchy if it was too stuck to the skin, he chose a material that has good ventilation. Also, since girls face some "problems," he made a certain part of the pantsu double-layered... I'll let you imagine which part of the pantsu it is, haha.
3) The other goods were adorable as well...
The back of the shopping bag was a pleasant surprise; I didn't think there would be a cute message on it!
*NOTE* These goods were really hard to get because you have to line up for hours in the goods line and some of them like the pantsu and the tank top (and temporarily the leg warmers as well) were limited to one per person. I am not going to sell any of these goods so please don't ask!
4) As you can see on the pantsu and the poster/clear file (picture below), he used the Star, Heart and Lightning for his designs. Just shows you how consistent everything throughout this show was!!!
5) This was definitely an entertaining show to watch and be a part of, but it also made me think a lot about the messages it was trying to convey. The first big key word was "Something that makes you happy." This was what the Musician told the Boy. After the Boy tells the Musician that he has this wild ambition to take over the world but doesn't really know what to do about it, the Musician tells him off by saying that maybe he doesn't have anything that he wants to do and that it's such a waste of time to chase "nothing." He added that he should look for something that makes him truly happy...
6) The next key word was "Something original... the one and only thing in the world." The Art Performer tells this to the Boy. She says that it's important to be original and to pursue the one and only thing in the world... but this time, it was actually the Boy who tells her off saying that maybe her drawings weren't too original; they looked like copies of other people's work. The Boy showed the Art Performer a few drawings that he had drawn, and those really impressed her because they were so pure and unique. She didn't dare tell him, but she was jealous of his free-thinking mind and talent.
7) The last key word was "Something that expresses yourself," coming from the Dancer. He says that rhythm and music is not something visible to the eyes; therefore, he says that it'll be cool if he were able to express something not visible through his dance. The Boy takes a hint, and when he put all these three key words together, he finally found the one and only dream that would make him happy and what would express himself really well... yes, "Pantsu." (lol)
8) The greatest thing of this entire show is that those three key words, "something that makes you happy," "something original... the one and only thing in the world," and "something that expresses yourself," are EXACTLY what Shota has displayed through his performance. He was very lively on stage and had the greatest smile of any human kind (I know I'm not exaggerating much when I say this, either!!). You can just FEEL that this is what he wants to express and it is what makes him the happiest... Needless to say, it's most likely that no other person in this entire WORLD would have been able to create this "Shota World" besides him. It was something only he could come up with and be able to display so well.
I didn't think that this post would be THIS long, but I just wanted to share how AWESOME Shota's solo entertainment show was. This kind of ended up being a report already (haha, oops) but I will be working on a separate report of the story itself... someday when I have the time!
Sho-chan, thank you very much for being who you are <3
P.S. Pretty good PV, eh? :-D