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faded_laceIn an attempt to avoid letting it join the long list of overdue concert reports that I need to write, here's the report for the first day of NEWS's 2017 Tour, which I saw in Sapporo on Saturday! I had a really good time and tried to capture as much detail as possible here, so I hope it's an enjoyable read!
My friends and I arrived at Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena around 4 pm when the doors were supposed to be opening. Getting to the venue is sort of a pain; you have to take a bus from the station, but luckily, with the concert going on, they were running specific shuttle busses just to the venue. However, when we arrived, the place was packed and it seemed like getting people into the venue was slow-going; the doors were supposed to open at 4, but when we got in line to enter the arena around 4:15, there was a hugely long line, and we didn't get inside until around 4:30. I guess that's pretty typical of small venues, but I'm not hugely used to places so far out in the boonies, so I was a little stressed out XD;
When we arrived, there were large trucks (presumably those used to bring the equipment) lined up around the perimeter of the area. This isn't something I recall experiencing before, but I have walked past the trucks on my way to the arena in Saitama Super Arena (which is super small and apparently there's no real easy way to bring fans into the arena seats besides through the garage area), so I guess if there's not a place to put them inside they put them outside? Unsure. XD; But here are some photos:
On our way in, we passed the usual checkpoint where, at almost every concert I've ever been do, the guards do a halfhearted bag check and/or ask if you have any recording devices with you. However, this time, instead of that, there was an uchiwa size check? You were required to take your uchiwa out of your bag and lay them on top of a printout of the proper uchiwa size to make sure your uchiwa didn't exceed that size. This is something I've never experienced before, and I was pretty surprised.
When we got inside, we were surprised by the unusual arena setup! It was nothing like I've ever seen at any of the concerts I've been to. Fans have posted photos of the seating chart and sketches of the setup as well on twitter, but here's my attempt:
There was a really thick center catwalk, and no outer stages or catwalks whatsoever, which was very unusual. The black boxes in the outer edge of the area were lifting stages (referred to in Japanese as "lifters") that the guys stood in for a few of the numbers. The long rectangles in the catwalk were these sort of diagonally lifting arms. The guys would stand at a stage on one end and be lifter up, and then they swiveled from the point they connected to the catwalk, so the guys could be moved around in a full circle above the fans' heads.
As you can see from my (admittedly janky) sketch, my seat was amazing! These were tickets that I personally hit for from my fanclub account, so I was pretty pleased with myself. XD; We were literally two seats away from the center stage, which meant that all the time that they were performing there, we could see them basically at life size, up close and personal. It was amazing!
The stage setup was really complex compared to Quartetto; there were a lot of set pieces and general atmosphere-making decorations when we got into the arena. Above us, there were these large blown up beachball type clear bubbles with letters inside them (unfortunately, you can't really see them in the photo), and on the stage, there were steampunk-y mechanical looking decorations as well as blowup vines. The word "Neverland" was suspended above the stage, but in pieces that moved freely apart from one another.
The center stage was elevated and covered with a large blue cloth, and at the top, there was the Neverland key at a huge scale. There was also water dripping, which concerned us at the time, but it turned out there was a reason. XD;
While we were waiting for the show to start, there was a video with "Mr. Impossible" (the character from the album) explaining the seven elements (also from the album; sound, love, magic, ray, fire, water, and dance) and then using little weird robots that embodied the elements to teach us a dance. The dance was pretty complicated, to be honest, and I think most people had trouble remembering it. XD;
When it came time for the show to start, the lights went down, and the opening video played. It was the same video from the CD, with the guys making a key, but when it landed in the little girl's room, it extended to her walking to a door and entering "Neverland." Once the video was done, a door in the main stage opened, and juniors came out with the front car of a steam engine, followed by juniors taking some of the steampunk set pieces that turned out to be parts of a train. The juniors created a train and then it "drove" to the center stage, where they broke it apart again and made a circular sort of wall around the outside edge of the center stage, sort of hiding what was inside. We noticed that one of the participating juniors this year was Nozawa Yuki, formerly of Mis Snow Man and then Noon Boyz, which was surprising.
The center stage was raised up to the point that we were too close to see what was going on, but then the juniors disappeared and there was screaming from the stands, which signaled to me that NEWS had appeared and I just couldn't see them. XD; As they moved a little more to the outside edges of the center stage, I was able to see that they were wearing sparkly blue military-type costumes, but of course, with cape-poncho elements, because Massu. XD; Each member was carrying a prop; Tego had some sort of gun-type thing that shot fire, Massu had two swords, Shige was carrying a Neverland flag like the ones from the RE special postcard, and Koyama had a cane. As pretty much everyone expected, they performed Neverland, (though Massu's mic wasn't on for the first lines, oh no!) and during the part where they chanted the element names, there were fire and water/rain effects, which accounted for the water dripping earlier. XD;
At the end of Neverland, the stage came down to the regular level, and they moved into Un Deux Trois next. I really like this song, and I was super tickled when the choreography included doing a little pirouette (I guess French = ballet? XD). It was really super cute. They also did 1, 2, 3 fingers while they said "un deux trois," which was also really cute. During the whole number, Shige was making sort of an unfortunate concentration face, but by the end, he was starting to relax a little, which I was glad about! He has to work hard on his dancing, but I really think he's gotten a lot better. The other members seemed much more relaxed and like they were having a lot of fun already.
During the course of Un Deux Trois, they moved to the main stage, and then after, they called their normal welcome-type stuff to the fans, and then disappeared through the doors of the main stage as the lights went down and there was another VTR. They showed the map of Neverland from the tour pamphlet, and then explained that there were 4 areas, "North, East, West, and South" (to which we were all like ohhhh... duh XD;) and each one corresponded to a member. There was sort of a continuing narrative with the little girl from the first video going through the different areas and Mr. Impossible narrating, similar to the album, which was kind of cool and definitely very... Johnny's.
Then the lights came back up and the guys came out in their costumes for EMMA! I love EMMA more than words can say, so I was pretty stoked. XD; Everything about the choreography and everything was the same as previous TV performances, though seeing it live, I was able to do a side by side comparison of all the member's pelvic thrusting and decided that since Shige does it pretty subtly and like a dance move, with only one leg bent, I'm pretty used to it by now, but since Massu bends both knees and sort of... does the thrusting more like a sex act than a dance move,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yomimashou, who likes Massu, continues to be horrified by it. XD; I also noticed that everyone seemed to be sort of struggling to stay on key, even Tego and Massu, which was probably the result of it being the first day and all that, but it was surprising to me. I can't remember if it was in EMMA or a subsequent song, but there were even some notes that I'm pretty sure they should have held long but they sort of gave up and sang them short.
Up next came Kaguya, which for some reason... seemed like a stark change after EMMA XD; They didn't use umbrellas this time, and instead walked down the catwalk and went to the four arm-type riser things, also carrying towels, to our surprise and confusion. Shige's towel was tucked into his pants pocket. I wasn't watching, butyomimashou reports that Massu very carefully laid his towel over the edge of the railing on the riser, and also that Massu's EMMA armband was falling down. XD Once they were on the arm-type risers, they started swiveling around, so the guys went directly over us at times. The bottoms of the risers started spraying out gold and red glitter, which was a cool effect.
After Kaguya came, surprisingly, Koi Matsuri. The arena seats were so packed in that I was sort of afraid to smack someone in the head while I twirled my towel, but I did my best. Apparently, according toyomimashou, at this point, Massu's shirt was starting to fall off too |D; One of my other friends says that she could see his nipple, it was that far off of him. Near the end of the song, they came off the risers (which sort of shook terrifyingly??) and walked back down the catwalk. When the song ended, Shige tossed his towel into the arena... right at me! I caught it, but unfortunately, so did two other girls, and in the end, it was taken away from me... by a Massu fan, annoyingly. I'm pretty sad about it (I wouldn't really have had a problem if it had been another Shige fan), but at the same time, I like to think that if Shige had still been looking, he'd be happy with me for not getting into a catfight or something like that. The two other girls were fighting pretty viciously trying to rip it out of one another's hands, so I'm just going to be glad I touched it, and that Shige threw it in my direction at all (possibly intentionally at me? I feel like we made eye contact and I was the only Shige fan in the area where he threw it, so that's nice).
Moving on from my somewhat sad experience, next up was D.T.F, which was basically the same as the performance they did on The Shonen Club Premium a while back. There was the same Koyama-Massu and Tego-Shige fanservice, which was cute and silly. Then came 4+fan, which I was really excited about! I really like it when they do songs with a lot of C&R and fan involvement, so I was happy to be able to do the audience parts here. I also really just like this song, so all around, I was excited.
Up next was a VTR showing the little girl going to the "North Gate" which was opened by the little character representing "ray" (which represents hope). Then came Shige's solo, Ayame, which was... literally probably the most amazing performance I've ever seen. He start on the center stage, curled up and laying on his side, wearing a flowing white tunic top with purple iris flowers on it and loosing flowing white pants. The dancing was very contemporary, modern dance (similar to what you might see in the US on a show like "So You Think You Can Dance"), and he started on the floor, doing movements while laying down, and then eventually sitting and standing up, joined by juniors in white tunics and white pants dancing around him. I realized he was singing live the whole time, which really surprised and amazed me! His voice was really good, and he didn't go off-key at all. He did rush the tempo a little at one point, probably out of nervousness, but generally, it was an amazing vocal performance for someone dancing at the same time, particularly Shige, who's struggled with singing in the past. I was so amazed and proud of him that I was already on the verge of tears, but then it got even better. One of the arms on the stage rose up and he ran up it barefoot, and underneath the arm, rainbow-colored lights lit up. Then, the arm next to it also rose up and came around, and Shige stepped onto that one and lifted up a rainbow flag, which he waved proudly while singing. I was amazed and in shock and definitely cried a little... but luckily, after it finished, there was a brief junior dance break, which gave my friends and I (and probably many people in the audience) some time to process our feelings. I'm just so amazed and proud of Shige for doing a solo and feeling so strongly about such an important topic, and I can't wait to see it again.
Up next was Brightest, and the guys came back out on the main stage wearing camouflage-patterned tops and bottoms. The bottoms were either skirts or wide-legged pants that resembled hakama; I'm not totally sure. I didn't love them, but I liked them better than I like many of Massu's costumes (I'm sorry, Massu!) and while they weren't member colored, Shige's did have green sequined panels, which I enjoyed. After that came Sirius, which they performed on the center stage, and either Tego or the staff caused the beginning to be messed up. XD; Unsure if his ear thing wasn't working and they didn't give him the cue, or if he just missed the beginning or what, but he didn't sing the first bit. XD From there, they went on the small carts in the arena, and when they passed one another, Koyama put his arm around Tego's waist and then touched Tego's butt as they switched carts. XD
Then the guys went onto the outer edge risers for Snow Dance. They rose up so that the guys were at a good level for the people in the stands, and they sang there... and then when it was time for them to come down again, Koyama's riser didn't come down! As the opening music for touch started, Massu sang his first line including something about how Koyama couldn't get off the platform. XD; Then, when Koyama's line came, he didn't sing, instead sort of panicking like "Help me! What do I do??" At that point, the riser began to move up, rather than down, and Koyama cried out, "No, I want to get off!!!" Poor Koyama |D But it was pretty funny and cute. At one point, Tego went by on the cart looking maybe a little concerned, but also laughing. |D Once Koyama managed to get off the riser, he disappeared to prepare for his solo. Meanwhile, the guys and juniors made their way to the center catwalk and lined up to do a dance where they put the hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, but the spacing was all off. Massu was trying to direct the juniors to spread out more, while Shige made faces when he couldn't reach the person in front of him at all. XD; He also tried to beckon the surrounding juniors closer, but it was sort of a mess. XD
After a VTR with the "East Gate," opened by the mascot for water, which represents "peace" or "tranquility," then up next came Nyanta... which was Koyama standing on the main stage with a mic, lip syncing and crying, while illustrations and photos of Koyama with Nyanta showed on the screen. It was basically what I expected it to be, but since I'd listened to it before and knew what to expect I was basically able to tune out the words and avoid crying... but I know a couple of my friends cried. XD As a side note, in the album track "7 Elements," Water is explained as "peace" with a word that has the same basis as the Japanese for "rest in peace" said about someone when they die, so that's probably relevant here.
After that came Koi wo Shiranai Kimi e, which started with the remaining three members on the center stage. They had changed into new costumes, which were mostly black and white themed? Tego's shirt said "white" on the back, which amused my friends and I, since that was the name of the album and tour two years ago, and Shige was wearing both a baggy shirt and baggy pants. I was super not a fan of the pants, but the shirt was like a loose long-ish tunic-y T-shirt with pretty wide open arm holes, so you could kind of see the sides of his torso underneath, which was a little exciting. I honestly don't recall Massu's costume at all, I'm sorry T_T;;
Koyama came down off of the main stage to sing his lines wearing the same thing he wore for Nyanta, which was (if I recall) skinny pants and maybe a red plaid jacket? It seemed weirdly like it didn't really match with the others' costumes. He was still full of feelings, so his lines were even more emotional and wavery than usual |D; But then they went to the back of the catwalk where there was an elevating backstage type area for the next song, which was Full Swing. My notes for this say "And then they all screamed their feels in Full Swing," which I think is an accurate description of what happened. XD;
Up next was Koi no ABO... and the guys all got these horrific furry jackets that my friends and I have been referring to as "the pimp coats." It looked like they'd used scraps left over from JUMP's costumes that had been designed by Massu (with parts of Hikaru's, Daiki's, and Yabu's furry elements), as well as animal fur (I recognized the fabric from Inoo's pants, also) and just generally... were patches of furry and flamboyant fabric. I assume they were meant to be goofy and draw a reaction, which they did, but man were they crazy. XD; They goofed around a lot and were generally cute and fun, and in generally, I really like this song in concerts because the dance is easy to do and it's fun to watch the guys goof around with it. They had us sing the "yureru kage mitsumeau" line, which was fun, too. However, they did a lot of it on the elevated center stage, so we sort of had to crane our necks to see what was going on, and sadly, I didn't get a good view of any fanservice or anything that happened.
Up next came NYARO, and at the beginning, I think Tego did something funny (I can't remember what OTL I'm sorry) and Koyama started talking to Massu about it off mic, but then Massu took Koyama's hand and walked around with him while singing. Shige then ran up and "stole" Koyama from Massu, but then Tego grabbed Koyama and made him sit down and then grabbed Shige also so that they could do the heart pose that they do in NYARO. But then, for some reason, during the second heart post, Tego did the PPAP "uhh!" like... smashing noise? for some reason XD;;;
Last up before the MC was Orihime, which I don't remember particularly well, and the Mr. Impossible had a brief explanation that it was time for the MC!
They started the MC with Koyama saying the costumes were really hot, and asking jokingly, "Kato-san, aren't you hot? Who made these hot costumes~" Massu responded something like "I'll tell you who... it was me~" with a smug expression, and then they cutely asked Massu's permission to take off the jackets for the MC. XD; Shige had been taking the coat off his shoulders every few minutes, so I feel like maybe Koyama had been poking fun at that too. But then they commented how because it's an ice arena, they don't have very much heat during rehearsals and it's awful and freezing, but during the show it's really hot, so it doesn't matter that there's no heat. XD;
They also talked about the tour T-shirt, and Massu explained that right now, foreign concert T-shirts are popular with young guys, so he wanted to make something like that, based on shirts from foreign rock bands. Then Shige complained that he was the only one who made a "rock" face, and compared to the others, he looks ridiculous on the shirt, but the others said that his rock face was good. XD;
Somehow, they started talking about the dressing room setup; Koyama was like, can I say something that's changed this year? And Shige was like a lot of things change in a year! XD; But Koyama was like whatever, the dressing room setup changed this year! Then Koyama tried to explain the dressing room situation, that there are 4 couches in the room, with one of them being really close to the door, but Shige suggested they just act it out. He said that the catwalk should be the door, but Tego said that that was difficult to envision, and said that the door in the back of the main stage should be the door of the room. There was a bit of kerfluffle before they finally were able to stand where their couches are located. Shige mentioned that usually, he was where Koyama was, which was the couch right next to the door, but it was the worst seat because you feel really exposed and tons of people walk by. Koyama chimed in like "Oh yeah, it's awful!" and talked more about how tons of people pass by. And Shige was like now you understand my feelings, and Koyama was like yeah, it sucks, and Shige responded that actually... he had gotten there the earliest of all of them and switched his and Koyama's spots. |D; Koyama was very offended by this and flailed a bit.
While they were on the topic of the dressing room, Koyama brought up that Tego was super messy and his stuff was always all over the place. He said that he and Massu are really neat, but Tego and Shige are messy. Shige was offended by being compared to Tego, and responded "Tegoshi is messy, and you guys are neat, but Shige is normal!" Koyama responded, "Why do you always call yourself by your first name?? Stop that!" which sidetracked the conversation. XD; Shige was defensive and was like this is just my quirk! But then when they got back on the topic of messiness, Koyama said Koyama and Tego's table is always super messy with their stuff all over the place, and sometimes he picked up after Tego when it was too messy to deal with, and Tego responded "You pick up Yuya's stuff?" Shige immediately shouted, "Hey!! Talking in the third person is my intellectual property! Don't copy it!" to which Massu trolling popped up with a really weird smile and said "Takahisa 8)" in a strange high pitched voice. |D;;; I don't really know how to explain just what it was like, but it was really funny... especially because I love Shige's quirk of refering to himself in third person XD; After that Koyama tried to say "Keiichiro," but they were like that's too long, and they told him to try "Kei-chan," but he said that was too embarrassing. XD; Which made me laugh because Shige says "Shige-chan" too XD;
But back on the topic of cleaning, Koyama said that maybe it was because Tego and Shige were only children, and no one forced them to clean up. He said he and Massu had older sisters who would clean up for them if they didn't clean up on their own, and they didn't like that, so they learned to clean up themselves. Tego said he never had to clean until he lived by himself, to which Koyama and Massu were like wait... did you and Shige never have to share a room?? And both of them said they'd had their own room since they were a baby, and Massu and Koyama were very upset by this XD; (There are some diagrams of the dressing room layout here XD)
There was also a random appearance of a "bug"? Unsure if it was a joke or if there was actually a bug? XD; But at one point Massu suddenly screamed "AHH IT'S A BUG!" and ran to hide behind Tego XD; Tego was like it's a bee! It's a bee! This guy wants to come to Neverland too! XD; This somehow led to a conversation about Massu's survival show from a while back and about eating bugs, but I forget what was said.
This led into a conversation about Koyama being on the upcoming Dash de Itte Q special (which has since aired). They mentioned how he was going to do the Buruzon Chiemi gag with Yuto, and tried to get him to do it now, but saying "I'm 32." XD; He was very reluctant, but when he did it, the audience screamed, and he admitted "Well... I don't hate it." XD; For his part, Tego was cracking up and leaning on the set. But then someone brought up that Tego and Shige were almost 30, and on the next tour all 4 of them would be over 30. They mentioned how Tego didn't look it at all, and Koyama remarked that it was amazing that he was blonde and 30. XD Tego asked if that was stupid, and Koyama was like (* A *) no, of course not! XD;; They asked Tego what people say when he says he's almost 30, to which Tego was like they say no way, you look 24. XD; Massu added that he also gets told he looks younger, and then they all turned to Shige, asking, "What about Shige-chan?" And Shige was like, "Well, as for Shige-chan..." to which I laughed, after the conversation of "Kei-chan" being embarrassing before. But then Shige said joking that he often gets told he looks 35. And Koyama was like, well you've always looked younger since we were kids, right? To which Shige responded that actually, this whole time he's always looked older, but recently he's finally catching up, and people say he does look about 30. They asked Koyama about how people thought he looked, and Koyama replied that it was good if he looked older, because he's a caster, idk. XD;
Somehow, they got onto the topic of PPAP, and how Tego had done the smashing sound during NYARO. Koyama said that recently they'd been on a lot of music shows with Pikotaro, and that Tego liked doing the "apple pen" move in front of him. Tego agreed that he liked doing it, and then suddenly said, "Guess who this is! 'Hey, Piko!' Who's that?" to which Koyama replied "Isn't it Justin Beiber?" while laughing. (This is a reference to a Softbank commercial that's currently running in Japan.)
Next, Massu started a sentence to Koyama with "Well, omae," which is a sort of rude way of saying "you" in Japanese. Koyama was like "what??" at first, but then decided, "Well, you're my senpai, so I guess it's okay," since Massu was in Johnny's before Koyama. Tego then jumped in, saying, "Well, omae," at Koyama, and Koyama replied, "Aren't you my kohai?!!" Shige was watching on in mild amusement, and commented, "You really like getting into this sort of joke, don't you!" Koyama replied, "Well this guy hasn't gotten tired of it!" and Shige said that they'd been doing it in Quartetto, too. XD;
At that point, there was sort of a loud buzzing noise, and Koyama jumped about a foot into the air in surprise. |D; But then Mr. Impossible came over the sound system telling them that it was time to end the MC. Massu was like, but I was about to make everyone laugh! And then pretended to get sucked off the stage by Mr. Impossible's powers. |D; The other three talked a little bit to give Massu time to change, but then they also left and the lights went down again and we stood up for the second half to begin.
First up was a VTR about the "West Gate," which has the element of sound, the element that has the power to "make people remember their own existence." I'm not totally sure what that means, but, up next, of course, was FOREVER MINE. Massu wore a black and white outfit with a pink vest, and he basically just stood on the stage singing into a mic with a stand, which was nice, but not super interesting XD His singing was, of course, really amazing and sounded great, though! I'm always really amazed by the quality of his voice.
Next came Silent Love, and the other three and the juniors came onto the center stage and catwalk. At first, I couldn't pick Shige out from the juniors (and I was surprised because he hadn't changed his hairstyle!), but when I realized where he was (because he has the first line in that song ♡) I was in awe! I really loved his costume, a long flowing tunic type button up top that had maybe 5 slits, so that it sort of billowed out like streamers, and then white pants and a long pink vest. But the best part was that when he lifted his arms you could see just a tiny bit of his stomach ♡ Silent Love was a good song to come right after Massu's solo since the way the solo lines are divided up is really unique and Massu doesn't sing at all until like the end of the first chorus. XD They danced, though I recall the dance being a bit goofy at times. XD;
Next was Mysteria, and Tego started out the song really close to us, so we were able to see him really well and really up close, and in the leggings he was wearing, I was struck by how thin his legs are, and just how tiny he is in general. He really is little! After that came Sakura Girl, and they went to the back stage, but Tego disappeared, which meant that we were all trying to brace ourselves for what was next. XD;
After Sakura Girl, there was the final VTR announcing that this was the "South Gate," whose element was fire, representing passion. I felt like maybe it shouldn't be allowed for the little girl to watch what was coming next... like, the South Gate needs a parental advisory sticker or something! But like it or not... the lights came up and there was Tego, laying on a bed with a red silky sheet on the main stage. He was wearing tight pants and a white sweater. I think my friends and I were all losing our shit as Tego sang I'm Coming while doing various somewhat obscene positions, such as laying on his back with his hips thrust up in the air, or kneeling on his hands and knees on the bed sort of rocking his body while he sang. XD; At the end, he grabbed the sheet and held it up, and when he said "I'm coming" at the end, he pelvic thrusted into the sheet. Yikes! It was so sexual |D;;
The lights went down for a moment, but when they came up again, Tego was laying on his back on the bed still! He sang the opening lines of Black Fire still laying on the bed, though he had taken off the sweater and replaced it with a vest. XD;; Then the lights came up on Shige on the main stage to sing his lines next, and I noticed that he had changed his hair to the sideways-slicked look... but he no longer has an undercut! After a long time of complaining about how I hated the undercut... I'm kind of sad that it's gone now, lol. T_T;;; Their costumes this time were black and gold. I think Shige was wearing a vest, but I'm not totally sure. I do remember that he was wearing extremely tight pants, ahaha. Also, my friends tell me that Massu was wearing glasses, but I don't recall this at all. XD;
After Black Fire came Bambina, then Chankapaana, which led us to wonder if this was the sex-themed corner. XD; Then came Chumu Chumu, for which they got into the upper carts and went around the upper stands. It took a while because they couldn't use the cats in the back part of the stands, so they had to walk part of the way. I'm not sure if it was a mic issue or what, but at least twice, lines didn't get sung during this part. They also threw balls into the upper stands. This lasted for Chumu Chumu and also the following song, weeeek.
Next they came to the back stage and performed Pokoponpekorya, and moved to the center stage during the song. But when it came to the line about getting sleepy in the song, suddenly the music cut out and the guys were "asleep." The Juniors pretended to panic, and Mr. Impossible told us that we needed to do the dance to help them wake up XD We all struggled since the dance was pretty difficult to remember and also basically impossible to do in a small space, but that "woke them up," and then we did the dance together with them at a slightly slower, easier pace. XD;
Up next it was almost the end, and Koyama gave a short speech about saying thank you for coming to Neverland, and then they sang Nagareboshi. Most of what I remember is that they dropped those damn foam stars from the ceiling-- if you've ever been to a concert with them, you know they're near impossible to catch and take five to ten minutes to fall. So that added a lot of stress to the situation, OTL. As expected, none of my friends or I caught any. I also felt like the end somehow came suddenly; I didn't even really realize it had been the last spurt, and then suddenly they were singing a ballad and it was the end. They all said goodbye, and then left the stage, and Mr. Impossible did a final narration about how we could come back whenever we wanted, and the key to Neverland was in our hearts.
We called for an encore for maybe like one minute max? And then the lights came back up and they came back out on the main stage, this time wearing the camouflage bottoms and the tour T-shirt and/or hoodie. Unfortunately, I honestly don't remember who was wearing what, I'm sorry. They gave brief greetings and thanked us for coming, and then sand U R Not Alone. They had us sing at one point, but because it was the first day, no one really knew what we were supposed to do and it was kind of messy. As my friend9kinds put it, "I felt like, this is the first show, sorry we cant sing it super well like Aikotoba yet, lol" XD; The guys seemed really emotional during this song, and I guess starting a tour and doing work together is really emotional for them, so that was sweet. Then the show just sort of... ended, and the gintape came, and all the timing sort of felt weird to me and possibly everyone else, as well, since people kept calling for an encore, since we were unsure whether U R Not Alone was the encore or not. Most encores aren't new songs and are multiple songs long, so that was pretty baffling. But... we didn't get another encore, and it turned out that that was the end...!
All in all, there were some weird parts or parts that I need to see again to really get, but all in all, it was a really great show and I enjoyed it a lot! It's always fun to see the happenings that go on on the first day, too XD; There were particularly a lot of mic issues this time! But at any rate, I'm really looking forward to going again!
My friends and I arrived at Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena around 4 pm when the doors were supposed to be opening. Getting to the venue is sort of a pain; you have to take a bus from the station, but luckily, with the concert going on, they were running specific shuttle busses just to the venue. However, when we arrived, the place was packed and it seemed like getting people into the venue was slow-going; the doors were supposed to open at 4, but when we got in line to enter the arena around 4:15, there was a hugely long line, and we didn't get inside until around 4:30. I guess that's pretty typical of small venues, but I'm not hugely used to places so far out in the boonies, so I was a little stressed out XD;
When we arrived, there were large trucks (presumably those used to bring the equipment) lined up around the perimeter of the area. This isn't something I recall experiencing before, but I have walked past the trucks on my way to the arena in Saitama Super Arena (which is super small and apparently there's no real easy way to bring fans into the arena seats besides through the garage area), so I guess if there's not a place to put them inside they put them outside? Unsure. XD; But here are some photos:
On our way in, we passed the usual checkpoint where, at almost every concert I've ever been do, the guards do a halfhearted bag check and/or ask if you have any recording devices with you. However, this time, instead of that, there was an uchiwa size check? You were required to take your uchiwa out of your bag and lay them on top of a printout of the proper uchiwa size to make sure your uchiwa didn't exceed that size. This is something I've never experienced before, and I was pretty surprised.
When we got inside, we were surprised by the unusual arena setup! It was nothing like I've ever seen at any of the concerts I've been to. Fans have posted photos of the seating chart and sketches of the setup as well on twitter, but here's my attempt:
There was a really thick center catwalk, and no outer stages or catwalks whatsoever, which was very unusual. The black boxes in the outer edge of the area were lifting stages (referred to in Japanese as "lifters") that the guys stood in for a few of the numbers. The long rectangles in the catwalk were these sort of diagonally lifting arms. The guys would stand at a stage on one end and be lifter up, and then they swiveled from the point they connected to the catwalk, so the guys could be moved around in a full circle above the fans' heads.
As you can see from my (admittedly janky) sketch, my seat was amazing! These were tickets that I personally hit for from my fanclub account, so I was pretty pleased with myself. XD; We were literally two seats away from the center stage, which meant that all the time that they were performing there, we could see them basically at life size, up close and personal. It was amazing!
The stage setup was really complex compared to Quartetto; there were a lot of set pieces and general atmosphere-making decorations when we got into the arena. Above us, there were these large blown up beachball type clear bubbles with letters inside them (unfortunately, you can't really see them in the photo), and on the stage, there were steampunk-y mechanical looking decorations as well as blowup vines. The word "Neverland" was suspended above the stage, but in pieces that moved freely apart from one another.
The center stage was elevated and covered with a large blue cloth, and at the top, there was the Neverland key at a huge scale. There was also water dripping, which concerned us at the time, but it turned out there was a reason. XD;
While we were waiting for the show to start, there was a video with "Mr. Impossible" (the character from the album) explaining the seven elements (also from the album; sound, love, magic, ray, fire, water, and dance) and then using little weird robots that embodied the elements to teach us a dance. The dance was pretty complicated, to be honest, and I think most people had trouble remembering it. XD;
When it came time for the show to start, the lights went down, and the opening video played. It was the same video from the CD, with the guys making a key, but when it landed in the little girl's room, it extended to her walking to a door and entering "Neverland." Once the video was done, a door in the main stage opened, and juniors came out with the front car of a steam engine, followed by juniors taking some of the steampunk set pieces that turned out to be parts of a train. The juniors created a train and then it "drove" to the center stage, where they broke it apart again and made a circular sort of wall around the outside edge of the center stage, sort of hiding what was inside. We noticed that one of the participating juniors this year was Nozawa Yuki, formerly of Mis Snow Man and then Noon Boyz, which was surprising.
The center stage was raised up to the point that we were too close to see what was going on, but then the juniors disappeared and there was screaming from the stands, which signaled to me that NEWS had appeared and I just couldn't see them. XD; As they moved a little more to the outside edges of the center stage, I was able to see that they were wearing sparkly blue military-type costumes, but of course, with cape-poncho elements, because Massu. XD; Each member was carrying a prop; Tego had some sort of gun-type thing that shot fire, Massu had two swords, Shige was carrying a Neverland flag like the ones from the RE special postcard, and Koyama had a cane. As pretty much everyone expected, they performed Neverland, (though Massu's mic wasn't on for the first lines, oh no!) and during the part where they chanted the element names, there were fire and water/rain effects, which accounted for the water dripping earlier. XD;
At the end of Neverland, the stage came down to the regular level, and they moved into Un Deux Trois next. I really like this song, and I was super tickled when the choreography included doing a little pirouette (I guess French = ballet? XD). It was really super cute. They also did 1, 2, 3 fingers while they said "un deux trois," which was also really cute. During the whole number, Shige was making sort of an unfortunate concentration face, but by the end, he was starting to relax a little, which I was glad about! He has to work hard on his dancing, but I really think he's gotten a lot better. The other members seemed much more relaxed and like they were having a lot of fun already.
During the course of Un Deux Trois, they moved to the main stage, and then after, they called their normal welcome-type stuff to the fans, and then disappeared through the doors of the main stage as the lights went down and there was another VTR. They showed the map of Neverland from the tour pamphlet, and then explained that there were 4 areas, "North, East, West, and South" (to which we were all like ohhhh... duh XD;) and each one corresponded to a member. There was sort of a continuing narrative with the little girl from the first video going through the different areas and Mr. Impossible narrating, similar to the album, which was kind of cool and definitely very... Johnny's.
Then the lights came back up and the guys came out in their costumes for EMMA! I love EMMA more than words can say, so I was pretty stoked. XD; Everything about the choreography and everything was the same as previous TV performances, though seeing it live, I was able to do a side by side comparison of all the member's pelvic thrusting and decided that since Shige does it pretty subtly and like a dance move, with only one leg bent, I'm pretty used to it by now, but since Massu bends both knees and sort of... does the thrusting more like a sex act than a dance move,
yomimashou, who likes Massu, continues to be horrified by it. XD; I also noticed that everyone seemed to be sort of struggling to stay on key, even Tego and Massu, which was probably the result of it being the first day and all that, but it was surprising to me. I can't remember if it was in EMMA or a subsequent song, but there were even some notes that I'm pretty sure they should have held long but they sort of gave up and sang them short. Up next came Kaguya, which for some reason... seemed like a stark change after EMMA XD; They didn't use umbrellas this time, and instead walked down the catwalk and went to the four arm-type riser things, also carrying towels, to our surprise and confusion. Shige's towel was tucked into his pants pocket. I wasn't watching, but
yomimashou reports that Massu very carefully laid his towel over the edge of the railing on the riser, and also that Massu's EMMA armband was falling down. XD Once they were on the arm-type risers, they started swiveling around, so the guys went directly over us at times. The bottoms of the risers started spraying out gold and red glitter, which was a cool effect. After Kaguya came, surprisingly, Koi Matsuri. The arena seats were so packed in that I was sort of afraid to smack someone in the head while I twirled my towel, but I did my best. Apparently, according to
yomimashou, at this point, Massu's shirt was starting to fall off too |D; One of my other friends says that she could see his nipple, it was that far off of him. Near the end of the song, they came off the risers (which sort of shook terrifyingly??) and walked back down the catwalk. When the song ended, Shige tossed his towel into the arena... right at me! I caught it, but unfortunately, so did two other girls, and in the end, it was taken away from me... by a Massu fan, annoyingly. I'm pretty sad about it (I wouldn't really have had a problem if it had been another Shige fan), but at the same time, I like to think that if Shige had still been looking, he'd be happy with me for not getting into a catfight or something like that. The two other girls were fighting pretty viciously trying to rip it out of one another's hands, so I'm just going to be glad I touched it, and that Shige threw it in my direction at all (possibly intentionally at me? I feel like we made eye contact and I was the only Shige fan in the area where he threw it, so that's nice). Moving on from my somewhat sad experience, next up was D.T.F, which was basically the same as the performance they did on The Shonen Club Premium a while back. There was the same Koyama-Massu and Tego-Shige fanservice, which was cute and silly. Then came 4+fan, which I was really excited about! I really like it when they do songs with a lot of C&R and fan involvement, so I was happy to be able to do the audience parts here. I also really just like this song, so all around, I was excited.
Up next was a VTR showing the little girl going to the "North Gate" which was opened by the little character representing "ray" (which represents hope). Then came Shige's solo, Ayame, which was... literally probably the most amazing performance I've ever seen. He start on the center stage, curled up and laying on his side, wearing a flowing white tunic top with purple iris flowers on it and loosing flowing white pants. The dancing was very contemporary, modern dance (similar to what you might see in the US on a show like "So You Think You Can Dance"), and he started on the floor, doing movements while laying down, and then eventually sitting and standing up, joined by juniors in white tunics and white pants dancing around him. I realized he was singing live the whole time, which really surprised and amazed me! His voice was really good, and he didn't go off-key at all. He did rush the tempo a little at one point, probably out of nervousness, but generally, it was an amazing vocal performance for someone dancing at the same time, particularly Shige, who's struggled with singing in the past. I was so amazed and proud of him that I was already on the verge of tears, but then it got even better. One of the arms on the stage rose up and he ran up it barefoot, and underneath the arm, rainbow-colored lights lit up. Then, the arm next to it also rose up and came around, and Shige stepped onto that one and lifted up a rainbow flag, which he waved proudly while singing. I was amazed and in shock and definitely cried a little... but luckily, after it finished, there was a brief junior dance break, which gave my friends and I (and probably many people in the audience) some time to process our feelings. I'm just so amazed and proud of Shige for doing a solo and feeling so strongly about such an important topic, and I can't wait to see it again.
Up next was Brightest, and the guys came back out on the main stage wearing camouflage-patterned tops and bottoms. The bottoms were either skirts or wide-legged pants that resembled hakama; I'm not totally sure. I didn't love them, but I liked them better than I like many of Massu's costumes (I'm sorry, Massu!) and while they weren't member colored, Shige's did have green sequined panels, which I enjoyed. After that came Sirius, which they performed on the center stage, and either Tego or the staff caused the beginning to be messed up. XD; Unsure if his ear thing wasn't working and they didn't give him the cue, or if he just missed the beginning or what, but he didn't sing the first bit. XD From there, they went on the small carts in the arena, and when they passed one another, Koyama put his arm around Tego's waist and then touched Tego's butt as they switched carts. XD
Then the guys went onto the outer edge risers for Snow Dance. They rose up so that the guys were at a good level for the people in the stands, and they sang there... and then when it was time for them to come down again, Koyama's riser didn't come down! As the opening music for touch started, Massu sang his first line including something about how Koyama couldn't get off the platform. XD; Then, when Koyama's line came, he didn't sing, instead sort of panicking like "Help me! What do I do??" At that point, the riser began to move up, rather than down, and Koyama cried out, "No, I want to get off!!!" Poor Koyama |D But it was pretty funny and cute. At one point, Tego went by on the cart looking maybe a little concerned, but also laughing. |D Once Koyama managed to get off the riser, he disappeared to prepare for his solo. Meanwhile, the guys and juniors made their way to the center catwalk and lined up to do a dance where they put the hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, but the spacing was all off. Massu was trying to direct the juniors to spread out more, while Shige made faces when he couldn't reach the person in front of him at all. XD; He also tried to beckon the surrounding juniors closer, but it was sort of a mess. XD
After a VTR with the "East Gate," opened by the mascot for water, which represents "peace" or "tranquility," then up next came Nyanta... which was Koyama standing on the main stage with a mic, lip syncing and crying, while illustrations and photos of Koyama with Nyanta showed on the screen. It was basically what I expected it to be, but since I'd listened to it before and knew what to expect I was basically able to tune out the words and avoid crying... but I know a couple of my friends cried. XD As a side note, in the album track "7 Elements," Water is explained as "peace" with a word that has the same basis as the Japanese for "rest in peace" said about someone when they die, so that's probably relevant here.
After that came Koi wo Shiranai Kimi e, which started with the remaining three members on the center stage. They had changed into new costumes, which were mostly black and white themed? Tego's shirt said "white" on the back, which amused my friends and I, since that was the name of the album and tour two years ago, and Shige was wearing both a baggy shirt and baggy pants. I was super not a fan of the pants, but the shirt was like a loose long-ish tunic-y T-shirt with pretty wide open arm holes, so you could kind of see the sides of his torso underneath, which was a little exciting. I honestly don't recall Massu's costume at all, I'm sorry T_T;;
Koyama came down off of the main stage to sing his lines wearing the same thing he wore for Nyanta, which was (if I recall) skinny pants and maybe a red plaid jacket? It seemed weirdly like it didn't really match with the others' costumes. He was still full of feelings, so his lines were even more emotional and wavery than usual |D; But then they went to the back of the catwalk where there was an elevating backstage type area for the next song, which was Full Swing. My notes for this say "And then they all screamed their feels in Full Swing," which I think is an accurate description of what happened. XD;
Up next was Koi no ABO... and the guys all got these horrific furry jackets that my friends and I have been referring to as "the pimp coats." It looked like they'd used scraps left over from JUMP's costumes that had been designed by Massu (with parts of Hikaru's, Daiki's, and Yabu's furry elements), as well as animal fur (I recognized the fabric from Inoo's pants, also) and just generally... were patches of furry and flamboyant fabric. I assume they were meant to be goofy and draw a reaction, which they did, but man were they crazy. XD; They goofed around a lot and were generally cute and fun, and in generally, I really like this song in concerts because the dance is easy to do and it's fun to watch the guys goof around with it. They had us sing the "yureru kage mitsumeau" line, which was fun, too. However, they did a lot of it on the elevated center stage, so we sort of had to crane our necks to see what was going on, and sadly, I didn't get a good view of any fanservice or anything that happened.
Up next came NYARO, and at the beginning, I think Tego did something funny (I can't remember what OTL I'm sorry) and Koyama started talking to Massu about it off mic, but then Massu took Koyama's hand and walked around with him while singing. Shige then ran up and "stole" Koyama from Massu, but then Tego grabbed Koyama and made him sit down and then grabbed Shige also so that they could do the heart pose that they do in NYARO. But then, for some reason, during the second heart post, Tego did the PPAP "uhh!" like... smashing noise? for some reason XD;;;
Last up before the MC was Orihime, which I don't remember particularly well, and the Mr. Impossible had a brief explanation that it was time for the MC!
They started the MC with Koyama saying the costumes were really hot, and asking jokingly, "Kato-san, aren't you hot? Who made these hot costumes~" Massu responded something like "I'll tell you who... it was me~" with a smug expression, and then they cutely asked Massu's permission to take off the jackets for the MC. XD; Shige had been taking the coat off his shoulders every few minutes, so I feel like maybe Koyama had been poking fun at that too. But then they commented how because it's an ice arena, they don't have very much heat during rehearsals and it's awful and freezing, but during the show it's really hot, so it doesn't matter that there's no heat. XD;
They also talked about the tour T-shirt, and Massu explained that right now, foreign concert T-shirts are popular with young guys, so he wanted to make something like that, based on shirts from foreign rock bands. Then Shige complained that he was the only one who made a "rock" face, and compared to the others, he looks ridiculous on the shirt, but the others said that his rock face was good. XD;
Somehow, they started talking about the dressing room setup; Koyama was like, can I say something that's changed this year? And Shige was like a lot of things change in a year! XD; But Koyama was like whatever, the dressing room setup changed this year! Then Koyama tried to explain the dressing room situation, that there are 4 couches in the room, with one of them being really close to the door, but Shige suggested they just act it out. He said that the catwalk should be the door, but Tego said that that was difficult to envision, and said that the door in the back of the main stage should be the door of the room. There was a bit of kerfluffle before they finally were able to stand where their couches are located. Shige mentioned that usually, he was where Koyama was, which was the couch right next to the door, but it was the worst seat because you feel really exposed and tons of people walk by. Koyama chimed in like "Oh yeah, it's awful!" and talked more about how tons of people pass by. And Shige was like now you understand my feelings, and Koyama was like yeah, it sucks, and Shige responded that actually... he had gotten there the earliest of all of them and switched his and Koyama's spots. |D; Koyama was very offended by this and flailed a bit.
While they were on the topic of the dressing room, Koyama brought up that Tego was super messy and his stuff was always all over the place. He said that he and Massu are really neat, but Tego and Shige are messy. Shige was offended by being compared to Tego, and responded "Tegoshi is messy, and you guys are neat, but Shige is normal!" Koyama responded, "Why do you always call yourself by your first name?? Stop that!" which sidetracked the conversation. XD; Shige was defensive and was like this is just my quirk! But then when they got back on the topic of messiness, Koyama said Koyama and Tego's table is always super messy with their stuff all over the place, and sometimes he picked up after Tego when it was too messy to deal with, and Tego responded "You pick up Yuya's stuff?" Shige immediately shouted, "Hey!! Talking in the third person is my intellectual property! Don't copy it!" to which Massu trolling popped up with a really weird smile and said "Takahisa 8)" in a strange high pitched voice. |D;;; I don't really know how to explain just what it was like, but it was really funny... especially because I love Shige's quirk of refering to himself in third person XD; After that Koyama tried to say "Keiichiro," but they were like that's too long, and they told him to try "Kei-chan," but he said that was too embarrassing. XD; Which made me laugh because Shige says "Shige-chan" too XD;
But back on the topic of cleaning, Koyama said that maybe it was because Tego and Shige were only children, and no one forced them to clean up. He said he and Massu had older sisters who would clean up for them if they didn't clean up on their own, and they didn't like that, so they learned to clean up themselves. Tego said he never had to clean until he lived by himself, to which Koyama and Massu were like wait... did you and Shige never have to share a room?? And both of them said they'd had their own room since they were a baby, and Massu and Koyama were very upset by this XD; (There are some diagrams of the dressing room layout here XD)
There was also a random appearance of a "bug"? Unsure if it was a joke or if there was actually a bug? XD; But at one point Massu suddenly screamed "AHH IT'S A BUG!" and ran to hide behind Tego XD; Tego was like it's a bee! It's a bee! This guy wants to come to Neverland too! XD; This somehow led to a conversation about Massu's survival show from a while back and about eating bugs, but I forget what was said.
This led into a conversation about Koyama being on the upcoming Dash de Itte Q special (which has since aired). They mentioned how he was going to do the Buruzon Chiemi gag with Yuto, and tried to get him to do it now, but saying "I'm 32." XD; He was very reluctant, but when he did it, the audience screamed, and he admitted "Well... I don't hate it." XD; For his part, Tego was cracking up and leaning on the set. But then someone brought up that Tego and Shige were almost 30, and on the next tour all 4 of them would be over 30. They mentioned how Tego didn't look it at all, and Koyama remarked that it was amazing that he was blonde and 30. XD Tego asked if that was stupid, and Koyama was like (* A *) no, of course not! XD;; They asked Tego what people say when he says he's almost 30, to which Tego was like they say no way, you look 24. XD; Massu added that he also gets told he looks younger, and then they all turned to Shige, asking, "What about Shige-chan?" And Shige was like, "Well, as for Shige-chan..." to which I laughed, after the conversation of "Kei-chan" being embarrassing before. But then Shige said joking that he often gets told he looks 35. And Koyama was like, well you've always looked younger since we were kids, right? To which Shige responded that actually, this whole time he's always looked older, but recently he's finally catching up, and people say he does look about 30. They asked Koyama about how people thought he looked, and Koyama replied that it was good if he looked older, because he's a caster, idk. XD;
Somehow, they got onto the topic of PPAP, and how Tego had done the smashing sound during NYARO. Koyama said that recently they'd been on a lot of music shows with Pikotaro, and that Tego liked doing the "apple pen" move in front of him. Tego agreed that he liked doing it, and then suddenly said, "Guess who this is! 'Hey, Piko!' Who's that?" to which Koyama replied "Isn't it Justin Beiber?" while laughing. (This is a reference to a Softbank commercial that's currently running in Japan.)
Next, Massu started a sentence to Koyama with "Well, omae," which is a sort of rude way of saying "you" in Japanese. Koyama was like "what??" at first, but then decided, "Well, you're my senpai, so I guess it's okay," since Massu was in Johnny's before Koyama. Tego then jumped in, saying, "Well, omae," at Koyama, and Koyama replied, "Aren't you my kohai?!!" Shige was watching on in mild amusement, and commented, "You really like getting into this sort of joke, don't you!" Koyama replied, "Well this guy hasn't gotten tired of it!" and Shige said that they'd been doing it in Quartetto, too. XD;
At that point, there was sort of a loud buzzing noise, and Koyama jumped about a foot into the air in surprise. |D; But then Mr. Impossible came over the sound system telling them that it was time to end the MC. Massu was like, but I was about to make everyone laugh! And then pretended to get sucked off the stage by Mr. Impossible's powers. |D; The other three talked a little bit to give Massu time to change, but then they also left and the lights went down again and we stood up for the second half to begin.
First up was a VTR about the "West Gate," which has the element of sound, the element that has the power to "make people remember their own existence." I'm not totally sure what that means, but, up next, of course, was FOREVER MINE. Massu wore a black and white outfit with a pink vest, and he basically just stood on the stage singing into a mic with a stand, which was nice, but not super interesting XD His singing was, of course, really amazing and sounded great, though! I'm always really amazed by the quality of his voice.
Next came Silent Love, and the other three and the juniors came onto the center stage and catwalk. At first, I couldn't pick Shige out from the juniors (and I was surprised because he hadn't changed his hairstyle!), but when I realized where he was (because he has the first line in that song ♡) I was in awe! I really loved his costume, a long flowing tunic type button up top that had maybe 5 slits, so that it sort of billowed out like streamers, and then white pants and a long pink vest. But the best part was that when he lifted his arms you could see just a tiny bit of his stomach ♡ Silent Love was a good song to come right after Massu's solo since the way the solo lines are divided up is really unique and Massu doesn't sing at all until like the end of the first chorus. XD They danced, though I recall the dance being a bit goofy at times. XD;
Next was Mysteria, and Tego started out the song really close to us, so we were able to see him really well and really up close, and in the leggings he was wearing, I was struck by how thin his legs are, and just how tiny he is in general. He really is little! After that came Sakura Girl, and they went to the back stage, but Tego disappeared, which meant that we were all trying to brace ourselves for what was next. XD;
After Sakura Girl, there was the final VTR announcing that this was the "South Gate," whose element was fire, representing passion. I felt like maybe it shouldn't be allowed for the little girl to watch what was coming next... like, the South Gate needs a parental advisory sticker or something! But like it or not... the lights came up and there was Tego, laying on a bed with a red silky sheet on the main stage. He was wearing tight pants and a white sweater. I think my friends and I were all losing our shit as Tego sang I'm Coming while doing various somewhat obscene positions, such as laying on his back with his hips thrust up in the air, or kneeling on his hands and knees on the bed sort of rocking his body while he sang. XD; At the end, he grabbed the sheet and held it up, and when he said "I'm coming" at the end, he pelvic thrusted into the sheet. Yikes! It was so sexual |D;;
The lights went down for a moment, but when they came up again, Tego was laying on his back on the bed still! He sang the opening lines of Black Fire still laying on the bed, though he had taken off the sweater and replaced it with a vest. XD;; Then the lights came up on Shige on the main stage to sing his lines next, and I noticed that he had changed his hair to the sideways-slicked look... but he no longer has an undercut! After a long time of complaining about how I hated the undercut... I'm kind of sad that it's gone now, lol. T_T;;; Their costumes this time were black and gold. I think Shige was wearing a vest, but I'm not totally sure. I do remember that he was wearing extremely tight pants, ahaha. Also, my friends tell me that Massu was wearing glasses, but I don't recall this at all. XD;
After Black Fire came Bambina, then Chankapaana, which led us to wonder if this was the sex-themed corner. XD; Then came Chumu Chumu, for which they got into the upper carts and went around the upper stands. It took a while because they couldn't use the cats in the back part of the stands, so they had to walk part of the way. I'm not sure if it was a mic issue or what, but at least twice, lines didn't get sung during this part. They also threw balls into the upper stands. This lasted for Chumu Chumu and also the following song, weeeek.
Next they came to the back stage and performed Pokoponpekorya, and moved to the center stage during the song. But when it came to the line about getting sleepy in the song, suddenly the music cut out and the guys were "asleep." The Juniors pretended to panic, and Mr. Impossible told us that we needed to do the dance to help them wake up XD We all struggled since the dance was pretty difficult to remember and also basically impossible to do in a small space, but that "woke them up," and then we did the dance together with them at a slightly slower, easier pace. XD;
Up next it was almost the end, and Koyama gave a short speech about saying thank you for coming to Neverland, and then they sang Nagareboshi. Most of what I remember is that they dropped those damn foam stars from the ceiling-- if you've ever been to a concert with them, you know they're near impossible to catch and take five to ten minutes to fall. So that added a lot of stress to the situation, OTL. As expected, none of my friends or I caught any. I also felt like the end somehow came suddenly; I didn't even really realize it had been the last spurt, and then suddenly they were singing a ballad and it was the end. They all said goodbye, and then left the stage, and Mr. Impossible did a final narration about how we could come back whenever we wanted, and the key to Neverland was in our hearts.
We called for an encore for maybe like one minute max? And then the lights came back up and they came back out on the main stage, this time wearing the camouflage bottoms and the tour T-shirt and/or hoodie. Unfortunately, I honestly don't remember who was wearing what, I'm sorry. They gave brief greetings and thanked us for coming, and then sand U R Not Alone. They had us sing at one point, but because it was the first day, no one really knew what we were supposed to do and it was kind of messy. As my friend
9kinds put it, "I felt like, this is the first show, sorry we cant sing it super well like Aikotoba yet, lol" XD; The guys seemed really emotional during this song, and I guess starting a tour and doing work together is really emotional for them, so that was sweet. Then the show just sort of... ended, and the gintape came, and all the timing sort of felt weird to me and possibly everyone else, as well, since people kept calling for an encore, since we were unsure whether U R Not Alone was the encore or not. Most encores aren't new songs and are multiple songs long, so that was pretty baffling. But... we didn't get another encore, and it turned out that that was the end...!All in all, there were some weird parts or parts that I need to see again to really get, but all in all, it was a really great show and I enjoyed it a lot! It's always fun to see the happenings that go on on the first day, too XD; There were particularly a lot of mic issues this time! But at any rate, I'm really looking forward to going again!
