Nakano Sunplaza - October 7th Afternoon
After seeing the set list and partially listening to a concert rip from earlier in the tour I knew this concert was going to be amazing, and it didn't disappoint! Course, it probably helped that I was second row to the side so could see everything perfectly. We had row 2 seats for the Summer Concert as well but those were dead center so with row O ended up being row 5. Off to the side, row 2 is row 2 and afforded us an excellent view.
However, before the concert it was goods-getting time. And there were so many amazing things this time that it was hard to choose. Even leaving off a few things I might order online later I spent 24000 on goods and another 2000 on gatcha. I'm really impressed with the variety of goods H!P has been putting out lately. Not just pictures and useless giant badges but attractive hoodies and goods that can be used in daily life. Trust me, once you've been a fan long enough you stop buying goods just because they are there and have your member on them, because you simply don't have the space for anymore large goods. Cell phone straps,uchiwa, and tour books are my thing. Sometime I'll post pictures of my various goods.
After getting goods, it was back in another line for the handshake with Sakura. Now, there's a lot of negative stuff being said about her on the net, but seriously give the girl a break. Ugly? She's 13 and one of the pictures of her was done in horrendous lighting making her look 30. She doesn't look anything like that in the other pictures, though I will admit I think long hair suited her more. She's really sweet when you talk to her. And you did get to kinda talk as the handshake was slow paced, they didn't seem to be pushing people along unless they were trying to hog her all to themselves. So you could easily have a dialogue back and forth before moving on on your own time. And so that's what I did. I didn't say much though, just told her "There will be some tough situations but do your best!" and she thanked me and I moved on.
I was allowed in early because I had gotten into the Sakura fanclub handshake, so my boyfriend was in a separate line outside. He ended up walking right after I finished my handshake though, perfect timing. We headed down to our seats and waited for the show to start.
If you want to see the full set list you can find it here. As it states at the top of the chart 14 of the songs performed were performed for the first time, so the girls put a lot of work into this concert. It was an album-song heavy concert with a Platinum-era heavy medley.
First off, the concert promo outfits look much better in person than in photos. In photos I thought they looked like the girls were just wearing a formless lampshade. Turns out that is not the case. The back has a cape that lists 1-10th gen and has the generation of the girl wearing it circled. The outfits also move quite well with the dances.
The concert started off strong with One Two Three followed by The Matenro Show. I have heard these songs SO many times that I basically sing along with them in their entirety. I like One Two Three better than Matenro but both are good songs and look well when performed by the whole group. Kanon was on the right side of the stage alot so I got to watch her up close quite frequently. Though, not as frequently as I would have liked since she was often on the back raised stage x_x
What's Up? is a great audience-involving song. It's listed as the first performance being during this tour though from reports of the Hawaii FC tour it was actually performed there. This was the first time that anyone could see it though. Sound-wise it seemed out of place for Musume when I first saw the dance rehearsal footage, but as I've listened to it more it seems to go along with the fun-loving youth theme of the current Musume. And it really makes me love the Colorful Era even more.
Waratte You has been a hit for me since first hearing the radio rip, probably because it is a 9th/10th gen song so Kanon is in it. Now I am a reasonable enough fan / wota that I am not "OMG AMAZING VOICE, JUST LISTEN TO THIS SONG!!!" But, Kanon's solo lines in the song do sound quite powerful and allow her to really let lose on stage. She is still working on gaining control over her range so this song is a good one for her because she can just belt it all out. Everyone else performed well also. The outfits for it were well... kinda special.
Watashi no Jidai is a great song live, much better than just listening to it on the CD. When they do the "100 colors for 100 people" part and spell out 1 0 0 with their hands the whole audience does it as well, making for a powerful experience.
Chikyuu ga Naiteru was very fun just as it is when you listen to it and Bravo was a completely new experience with the current line up. Yes, I know the 9th and 10th gen performed it before but the past few months have seen a lot of growth for both groups so it has a completely different feel than it had before. Everyone on stage had a lot of energy and well, how can you not love a song that basically has the chicken dance built into it.
Next up were the 9th and 10th gen songs. I actually am not a big fan of the 10th gen song just because it is too cutesy for me and seems out of place for Haruna and Daishi. Performed live it is a really fun song though and the candy striper/60s waitress style outfits were adorable. The 9th gen song was one of the highlights of the concert for me. I have loved the cool dance sound of the song ever since I first heard it and since it wasn't performed at the version of the summer concerts I went to this was my first time seeing it live. It did not disappoint. All four looked great and pulled off the cool look well. Well, besides Eripon. But that was her outfit designers fault. Her outfit was just... weird.
Seriously, how does Eripon's outfit fit with the style of the song at all? An argument could be made against Riho's too since it barely has any of the pattern the rest of the 9ki's outfit has but it at least fits the cool dance floor style of the song.
Reina's song Namida Hito Shizuku is simply gorgeous live. The melody, her voice, her outfit; everything fit perfectly with this touching ballad. And let me say, as I said on my Tumblr, I'm not really a fan of Reina NOR a fan of ballads. But this song is so beautiful and touching that it had me singing along and almost crying with the lyrics. If you're not a fan of it I recommend looking at translated lyrics and listening again, the story behind it is really well written.
Sayu's song is, well it's Sayu's song. La la la no Pi pi pi is exactly what you would expect from the title and Sayu's more mature dress seemed at first out of place. Until the two eggs, who were dressed as rabbits, came out in order to worship Sayu for the whole of the song. It was a very fun performance to watch and although I'm glad I got to see Eggs I had never seen perform before do it I do have to wonder how it looks when performed with Riho and Masaki as back up.
Kare to issho ni ... well I didn't really like it as it was performed in this concert. It's a fun song that I understand Sayu is the lead in but the whole song was so focused on Sayu and Reina that even watching the other girls for their silliness during the song wasn't all that fun. It was a better choice than singing Kono Chikyuu though as this song has more of a Sayu feel.
The rotating song sung at my concert was Shinnen dake ha tsurinuki toose which is probably my favorite B-side on the latest single. I love the pace of the song and it makes for a very poweful performance. Plus gorgeous blue outfits looked well on all the girls. Next was the medley, which featured a great mix of Platinum era songs and 12 Smart songs that really captured the image of the current lineup well. Sexy Boy and Kimagure were mixed in throughout the medley as a way to transition between songs and they worked great. Plus the crowd really gets into the dances for both songs and I was no exception, "ue ue"ing with the best of them. The song I was most waiting for in the medley was I'm Lucky Girl as this is probably my favorite song from Fantasy 11. I am still disappointed that they featured none of the new album songs in JunLinEri's graduation concert, never allowing them to perform the songs they performed in.
Resonant Blue is another favorite song of mine for the rhythm though probably not the best song for showing off the whole group since it's a song that from the get-go had only three singers. Still, always a good song for the crowd so in the future I'd love to see it adapted to at least allow the rest of the group to harmonize more. Renai Hunter, no complaints there as it's an excellent song. Then came the craziest song from the new album Dokkan Cappricio. It is such an amazing song that really features all the girls. A little awkward to look at Do and hear her asking you if she's sexy though. Of course I was more focused on Kanon who was gyrating with the best of them.
Now, yes Kanon has some fat on her. She does have a bit of a pooch on her. You will also notice if you see her live that she has boobs. Barring unnatural circumstances, body fat tends to come with having boobs. They just could've made her outfit a little bit looser so it didn't show that she had a pooch so much. Still the girl is beautiful and I honestly think a lot of Westerners forget that for a 14 year old with boobs comes a tummy too. Her thighs though, gorgeous, the dancing is really paying off and she does it really well now.
Poor Kanon though, after they came out in the white outfits pictures above her headband kept trying to fall out so every 30 seconds or so in a song you would see her try to subtly push the headband back into her hair but it was really fighting staying on top of her head. Luckily the last song before encore was the semi choral ballad Zero kara hajimaru seishun so she didn't have to flail around so much while trying not to worry about her headband going flying onto the stage.
For the encore Sakura once again came on stage for a few seconds for greetings before going back off. Before that though we got to see Wakuteka performed in all its glory. I LOVE that song. I often skip through songs on my iPod randomly until I find one I want to listen to at the moment but Wakuteka is one of the few songs that as of now I have not been able to skip through. Be Alive might be the uptempo ballad that they will choose for this era as their ending theme, just like Namidacchi was the ballad for the last group. It does seem a good theme though maybe something a little more danceable for the last song would be better in the future.
Overall thoughts: This concert had an excellent set list. Being the 15th anniversary concert, or one of them at least, they did mix in older songs, but not TOO old. Let's face it, no one wants to see Love Machine anymore, no matter HOW iconic of a song it is. They could have pulled off a couple of older songs but seemed to stick with 2007 on to be safe. They did do a couple of random Hello Project songs in the rotating song section but non during the setlist I saw. I would have liked to see the variations and hope that they are released on the DVD/blu-ray.
Daishi and Haruka did have wraps on their injuries. Haruka's was the most obvious because the wrap went a few inches above and below her knee. You could see that she was in pain a couple of times when she wasn't talking during the MCs but she is a professional and didn't let it inhibit her dancing one bit. Daishi's foot seems to be mostly healed though you could see the wrap sticking out at the end of the concert when she was wearing short boots. From her dancing, and Haruka's too, you would never be able to tell they were injured. I hope the two of them don't overdo it but am glad they are professionals who give their all no matter what.
Masaki... well the girl is adorable and does well when doing pre-planned things but apparently cannot handle doing anything spontaneous. Reina threw her a line a couple of times that was supposed to be improvised and she just bursts into giggles and goes into panic mode. So she has a bit of a ways to go before she is a real performer, but does great otherwise. Haruna's dancing is on par with most of the other girls now and she doesn't seem to have the Konkon syndrome. What I mean by that is that Konkon could not up til the point she graduated from Elder club and beyond dance unless she was fully concentrating on it. So she almost never made eye contact or waved at the audience all the times I saw her. You could tell she was completely focused inward to make sure she got the moves right. Haruna on the other hand may not have every move perfect but waves and smiles at the audience whenever she has the chance. I prefer that over zombie faced dancing, though Konkon is also adorable.
I can't wait to see the 11-person Musume in January!
