On September 29, 2011, at Nippon Budoukan, a new era of Musume history began...
But first I must apologize for how ridiculously late this post is. Had no time at all (or energy when I did have time) outside of work to work on this. Luckily tomorrow is a National Holiday (Sports Day) so I have a bit of breathing time.
The picture you see above was the first indication that Musume performing at Budoukan was a big deal. They haven't performed there in a few years, and since it was my first time to be there EVER I was happy and moved to see such a large banner outside.
I was also surprised at just what Budoukan looked like. I mean I knew it was a traditional Judo arena often used for concerts now. And I also knew as I got off the train that it was the next stop after the station which you can get off at to walk to the Imperial Gardens. But I still was not expecting this...
or this...
I was stunned by the absolute beauty of it. As someone who dislikes doing touristy things I have never been to the Imperial Gardens, but now I am thinking I might need to head over there sometime just to relax in such a peaceful atmosphere.
Today however, Budoukan was far from peaceful. As soon as I crossed through the gates, I saw this...
... a scarily long goods line. Ah, well that was to be expected what with it being Ai's last two concerts and at Budoukan. Still, goods had opened up over 2 hours prior to me getting there, you would expect them to die down sometime.
Since I actually didn't have goods as my main motive for going early, I continued on around to the front of the venue where I found my friend, Ken. Ken was one of the friends I made on the Hawaii tour so we had planned to meet up for lunch. He's a huge Ai-chan fan and has been ever since her debut, so he swears that he will move away from Musume though still follow Ai. But we all know how difficult it is to graduate from Musume once you have formed a connection. I thought I could with JJ leaving but it just didn't happen. We both laughed at the length of the line, looked at the Ladies' Only line and I said I would wait til later (bad idea btw) and headed off to a cafe by the station for lunch.
Over lunch we talked a lot about the future of Musume, who we thought would get in, what Konkon and Makoto might do at the concert today, as well as just talking in general about what we had been doing since the tour. I really find it amazing that I made such great friends in Hawaii, and look forward to seeing a couple more of the guys again when we all go on the 9th gen tour. (Not Ken, the 9th gen haven't pulled him in yet.)
After lunch, I figured, OK now I need to go wait in line for goods. The Ladies' Only line should be quickest right? Yeah... not. Unfortunately I didn't realize just how slow it was moving (only 4 workers for a ton of girls at a very large venue) until I had already been in line for 30 minutes and you figure at that point you might as well just wait it out. And wait I did, for 3 hours...
The funny part is that I wasn't really waiting for myself, as lately I have become the type of wota who would rather go to more events instead of spend money on goods that I have too many of anyways, I had promised a friend to get goods. Ah well, got out of the line eventually, was able to grab a copy of the Alo! Hello 5 photobook because one of the things my friend wanted was sold out and then headed back over with my friends. We all just laughed because it was very obvious by that point that waiting in what looked to be the longer General line would have been a LOT shorter. Ah well, now it was just off to the bathroom for me to throw on concert T-shirt and put in contacts.
And then we all headed inside. After looking up my seat online, I figured from the layouts I had found that I was probably second row (since I was 10 and most rows went to 8 on the patterns I found online), but I was wrong. I was FRONT ROW!!! At Budoukan!!! And not only that, I was Off-center Right. I actually did a little dance when I saw where I was before wandering back to chat with my friends more, with them jokingly asking to trade and me firmly replying no. We all laughed at my luck, I had been getting pretty bad tickets for the past few events but now my time had come. \A couple of minutes before start, I said goodbye and headed up to my spot. One note here is that front row at Budoukan is actually more like 5-6th row at any concert hall distance-wise, except that you have no one in front of you so I could see everything and everyone on stage very clearly.
The Concert
As anyone who has looked at the setlist (easily google findable) can see this was very much an Ai-centered concert tour. She talked a lot on radio shows she went on about how much input she had; everything from set list decisions to costume decisions. And from the first show's recording that I listened to, I was impressed.
They started off with Mr. Moonlight. Minus Yossi this song hasn't been done too often, but I figured they would still go with two male characters; perhaps Ai and Risa. Instead, they chose to have it set up as a ballroom dance with only Ai as the sought after male lead.
Hot, that is really all you can say. I mean sure the all-white dresses are just a bit too frilly (at least when you are front row, they are SUPER frilly) but they look great in motion and all of the girls played up their roles of being in love with Prince Ai to the max.
After the opening VTR they came out and performed in the Kare to Issho Ni outfits. One thing noticed is that they don't seem to perform in the Kono Chikyu outfits very often. Maybe they are afraid of shiny bangles flying everywhere. I dunno. The two Double A songs go together really well so they are a great pair to see. After that, arriving on stage to the sound of Kono Chikyuu (Tsunku version) in the backround, Tsunku announced the four winners. I am sure everyone has seen them, but here is a picture of all four. I love all of them and am sure they will do great. If I had to pick a favorite I would pick Haruka just because she is so adorable and I love her husky voice.
It was hilarious watching Zukki during the announcement. Her and the rest of the kyukkies were flipping out and jumping around like idiots when everyone was announced. Zukki went especially crazy and started jumping around when Haruka was announced. It was adorable. Clearly the girls really had been watching Hello Pro Time and cheering on their favorites. I have no problem with the girls' ages myself because it really does seem like an 11-12 year old now is so much different then ten years ago when I was that age. My 10 year old students are probably more mature than most 15-16 year olds when I was in high school. But the ages did make for funny responses from the four older members on stage. I mean 2 of the girls were born the year Love Machine came out. Wow, just really shows Musume's history.
In the concert they performed several of the new album songs, varying day to day. The ones I saw were "My Way Joshikou Hanamichi", a great upbeat and powerful song that really gets the crowd going. I love the rhythm and the girls seem to have a great time performing it. "Kono ai wo kasanete" a great ballad for two of the strongest singers, though Gaki's voice is actually quite unique and not perfect like people presume, it does match her singing style and fits this moving ballad. "Give me Love" I like this song because it is somewhere in the middle between being a slow song and an upbeat pop song. A good filler for concerts though it really needs to be matched to the songs around it to sound best. "Jounetsu no Kiss wo hitotsu" a great R&B number in my mind. AixGakixReina may be overused in this concert but they are definitely good at what they do. Oh wait, checking now it seems this is not a new song but was on Platinum 9 Disco, did sound familiar. Oh well, love the name and sounded great.
"OK Yeah!" another great album song that provides a high tension and fun feeling. And I love the parapara frogger sounding background music. "Suki da na kimi ga" I never would have thought to pair Sayumi and Mizuki but they actually work really well together." I don't think "Silver no udedoke" was performed, well actually I do as I remember hearing it but it doesn't seem to be on the set list for the time I went so maybe I am just imagining it x_x Not sure. I know I at least heard a radio rip and enjoyed it.
The other songs performed, such as Songs and Take Off is Now ~ Breakin Out and Bravo, were again numbers that I am sure Ai picked to allow the current Musume a chance to show off how powerful they are. All the dances looked well, though of course there were times when you noticed one girl being a little off from the others. But overall there was no time to not enjoy the concert (especially being front row) and it was over almost as soon as it began.
Two highlights: the reunion of the 5th gen and the last MC. Everyone was looking forward to seeing Konkon and Makoto and we weren't disappointed. Between Ai teasing Konkon for talking "too much like an announcer" and Makoto stumbling over her Japanese just like she always has, it felt as if the four had never been separated. And though they originally sat down for Suki na Sempai, in the end they stood up and hummed along with Ai and Gaki during the last chorus.
As for the last MC, the reason I picked it because it was very obvious they were getting dangerously close to 9pm. Why is that such a big deal you ask? Because anyone under 18 MUST be finished working by 9pm, which in an idol's case means they must at least be off stage. They got away with it last year at JunLinEri grad with Aika (it was almost 10 when they finished) because she was 17 (though Tsunku and staff probably did get a talking to) but with an 11 year old as the youngest member on stage (the 10th gen joined Musume on stage for the last MC and they performed Tomo together) they couldn't let it hit 9. So instead of the normal paced thanking the audience, commenting on the day, etc. It was super high speed, must get everything out as quickly as possible last message. And it was very obvious they were being told to do so in their earpieces because a couple of the new members slowed down a bit but then sped up halfway through. They ended up finishing Tomo and leaving the stage at about 8:57, so yep they cut it really close.
I like how Tsunku does things now, not letting the current members know who or how many winners there are until they come on stage. That sort of surprise makes for really good reactions, always good for the audience.
In closing, Ai may be gone, but Musume will live on. Every day they grow and change and I will keep following them until the end.
Although there may be a post beforehand, my next definite report will be on the 9th Gen Bus Tour coming up the first weekend of November. So, now I leave you with a picture of all of Musume backstage after the show, including the new members.
