Because I have work on Saturday I knwe I was going to be arriving to the venue with no time to spare, so as soon as my last class was finished I rushed out to jump on trains and hope there were no delays. Well, even with no delays in my just under an hour of traveling, I entered into the venue as the opening VTR was rolling. Phew, I had made it. With absolutely no glowsticks and exhausted from a long day at work I found my seat and collapsed in it to await the start of the event.
The only ever Smileage Fanclub Event I have attended was Megabank Volume 2 which took place about a month after their major debut, so I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one. I just knew that in both the first and second they had done challenges which involved the audience and were a lot of fun, and that the fourth one was when they held Yuuka's graduation.
This one, turned out to be completely different. Usually a FC event is a bunch of activities and talk with a mini concert at the end. This time, the activities and songs were intermixed. The theme was a school setting. During Homeroom we learn that Take-chan's father is being transferred overseas so this will be her last day in the school. Ayacho is the standoff classmate who doesn't really care about the others but even she gets up and gives Take-chan a present when the others do. However, none of the presents are actually useful items, used scrunchies, something lying around the girl's room, etc.
Homeroom finishes and if I remember they moved on to Social Studies next, asking them various questions related to different areas in Japan. Was quite amusing to hear some of the answers. I am no good at the geography of Japan myself though so I could sympathize. They also did a "cooking" class where they used pots and pans to make music (think Stomp!) to the rhythm of the food they wanted to make. It was really well rehearsed and fun to clap along to. The third (though maybe not in that order) class... well I actually forgot which class they were mimicking, but I remember what happened hehe.
Need to do these reports closer to the event date but the last two weeks have been crazy.
The third class involved them doing "3-sided box game". Now, for those of you unfamiliar, this involves having the open side of the box facing the audience and the other three sides closed so that the participants have to put their arms in through holes in the sides or top and try to guess what the object is by feeling it. This might seem simple and non-threatening, but I'm sure it's not when you are the one doing it. And on top of that, the audience is supposed to act like the thing in the box is something gross/frightening no matter what it is.
In this case, the object was cauliflower, cut in half, with one piece hanging and one laying on the bottom of the box. After each girl had her turn of touching the object, including Kanana (who barely touched the object without freaking out and running across the stage then back to her seat) they took their guesses. The closest guess was broccoli but that was not considered good enough. The bravest of the six is Take-chan, she broke off a piece of the object to try and feel it better. Kanyon was also feeling the object quite a bit, so her and Take were the ones who guessed broccoli. I think they should have taken that as correct because I don't think broccoli and cauliflower feel all that different myself. Ah well.
At the end of their three classes the final school bell rings and then Take-chan gets an email from her father. Turns out she doesn't have to move after all! So all the girls take back their gifts (except for Kanana who offers to let Take keep it, but Take doesn't want it) and return to their seats.
In between each class period they sang a different song, which I thought was a good way to mix the songs into the activities. Songs included Chotto Matte Kudasai, Suki-chan (with extended cheering time for all six girls), Dot Bikini and two or 3 others that I am blanking out on.
At the end of the event they talked about how they felt (the one I went to was the last of all six time-slots). One thing Ayacho said stood out to a lot of people and kind of hinted that she might not be completely happy with Smileage as it is. She talked about how relieved she was there were no sudden VTRs to spoil the moment and how the Smileage she was standing there with was nothing like what she imagined it would be from one year before. Nothing she said was really negative, but you could tell that there have been a lot of things going through her head this past year.
The six members do seem to work well now though they still have a long way to go. Kanyon seems to get along with the 2nd gen just fine, but she was the one who took the announcement the best from the beginning. Ayacho is just getting there but I think she has finally really grasped what it means to be a leader and is doing her best to push Smileage higher.
With the announcement of the first Smileage Bus Tour, it seems like this is a step in the right direction. ^^
I leave you with a cute picture of Kanyon I found online. It's her card from the mobile card battle game.
