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faded_laceAfter spending the night in Sendai, I headed back to Sekisui Heim Super Arena on April 8th to see the show a second time! My seat this time was in the stands in the back of the venue (the Arena B side), but only row 6, so the view was fairly good, and also opposite of what I'd had the previous day, which I appreciated! While I'll give details of the things that differed from the previous show, this report will rely on information given in my report of the April 7th show, so please read that one first!
The opening was the same; they played the safety video several times before the show started, and then the opening video was the safety video plus the extra video of them preparing for takeoff in the Epcotia liner. The intro music to Epcotia played, but at the point where they were still hidden by the cyllinder of the screens, we were at an angle such that we could see them through the sliver of space where the sides of two screens met. I know we weren't really supposed to be able to see them, but it was sort of fun to see them hanging there XD;
Next, during twinkle star, this time we were near Koyama, and watching him do the dance was truly wonderful. XD; I have to confess that I haven't spent a ton of time watching Koyama dance live, as I'm the type of person to watch my favorite member through binoculars for the most part, but I'm so glad I did this time. XD His dancing is so over the top and ridiculous in a really great way (the only word I can think of to describe it is "charai" in Japanese, which is a word that I find difficult to translate, but it basically means over-the-top showy or fancy in a way that actually seems low-quality or cheap? I'm not doing a good job of explaining it, but). It seriously reminded me of his dancing in the really early episodes of Shonen Club, while he was still in K.K.Kitty, and it was just... so cute and silly.
Up next was Akaku Moyuru Taiyo, and when the guys switched what stage they were on, Shige came to the back stage, in our direction! He was really cute, and sort of making "come on!" type movements with both hands, as if to get people more excited, and the crowd cheered in response. I was again moved by how good his dancing had gotten, and he also seemed really high energy and into the dance. Last year, it seemed like he was at a really difficult point in writing Tuberose de Matteru, and he often seemed exhausted during the Neverland shows, so I was really glad to see him in such good spirits!
After that was Live, and I was again surprised and a little scared by how crazy Shige was while on the wire. He kept throwing his body around and doing flips in ways that made me worried he was going to hurt himself (though of course I know the set is rigged to be safe and keep the members from colliding with one another, etc). While he was standing on the stage having his wire switched out and reattached, I noticed that Nozawa Yuki was the one changing his harness, and he patted Shige's butt when he was ready to go |D; Meanwhile, Massu looked very unhappy about the whole thing, and just curled up in a ball while in the air like nope, I'm not flipping upside down. XD;
Live was once again followed by the alien interlude, and then came LPS. The guys were on the opposite side of the arena from us for the start of the song, but since we were in the 6th row, when they came around, they were really RIGHT in front of us. They tend to look a few rows back, rather at the front row where the girls are so close then can practically touch them, so we were at the ideal place to make eye contact. Shige saw me at this point, so I was really happy!
Once they made it back around to the other side, they were lowered back down to the stage again to begin Koi Suru Wakusei! I really, really love this song, so I was looking forward to being able to see it from above (a better angle than below), and it didn't disappoint. The retro dance really is super, super cute, especially when they make hearts with their hands while swaying back and forth (it's hard to explain, but presumably there will eventually be a DVD, so please look forward to it XD;) At the very end of the song, Massu trolled Tego by coming up really close to him while he was trying to sing his line, and then Koyama trolled Shige by changing the lyrics to include Shige's name in them, which was really cute. XD;
After Koi Suru Wakusei came Koyama's solo again, which was mostly the same, and then Sweet Martini, though sadly, I was on the wrong side of the stage to see Shige when he sat down by the bar. Then they went to the back side of the stage again for Madoromi, but that was near us this time, so we got a much better view than the previous day! It was really cute to watch Shige mouth (lip sync? XD) along with the other members' lines, and make a cute dramatic face to go with the sad nature of the lyrics. I was also really impressed with Massu's singing ablities; he really does sound just like the recorded version live, and it's pretty crazy. He's such a good singer!
Up next was the docking video, and then it was time for Chankapaana! This time, there was still a bit of rushed, fast spinning and panic, but they succeeded at using the spinning selfie camera much, much more than they had the previous day XD; It was nice to get to see what they had intended it to be like, but I actually enjoyed it more when the guys were struggling and being goofy. XD;
As in the previous show, Chankapaana was followed by Jump Around, Black Hole, and then Massu and Shige's solos. Most of these were very similar to the day previous; Shige was able to get the high heels on with slightly more success than he had the previous day, but it still seemed like a little bit of a struggle for him to put his already sweaty feet into the shoes quickly XD;
After the juniors danced a bit as a transition from Hyouon, next was Avalon. I was excited this time, because Shige was very close to us! I got to watch him dance, and also watch him react to the flower petals, but he seemed to deal with them much more gracefully than Massu. XD Some of them got stuck to his cloths, hair, and sweaty face, but unlike Massu, Shige doesn't really seem to care about that sort of thing.
Next came It's You, which was basically the same as before, but I got to see the opposite view. Since they face back first and then front for the end of the song, this time, I got to enjoy the cute/silly part where Massu is dancing and the other three are singing from the front view. Up last before the MC again was Hoshi ni Negai wo, which was sadly farther away from us this time. The guys were really goofy this time; first Koyama leaned on Tego's shoulder, and turned so that his back was to Tego and he was leaning on Tego as if Tego was the back rest of a chair. Shige then also turned to sit in Koyama's lap and lean on him... but then Tego decided that he had had enough of that and didn't want the others to lean on him, so he stood up abruptly, causing Koyama to fall flat on his back. XD; Tego walked around to face Shige and then got on top of him and straddled his chest, sitting so that he was basically facing Shige straddled across his chest. XD; Shige looked like he was really suffering |D; And Koyama was also sort of being crushed by Tego sitting on top of Shige, so he tried to ask Massu to save him, but Massu ignored him |D;; Eventually, Shige got Tego to get off of him, and Tego went over and did cute fanservice with Massu, cuddling all close to him and stuff. XD; Koyama looked very upset and called out, "Hey! It's not like that!!" at Tego and Massu, but they ignored him. XD;
Then it was time for the MC! Once the guys all piled off one another, they came back to the main stage, but Massu immediately noticed that a lot of people were running out to go to the bathroom. He started teasing the, saying things like, "Aren't you interested in the MC?" and such. Koyama scolded him, saying that most of them seemed to be people taking their kids to the bathroom, at which point Tego started using a ridiculous "kid" voice and saying "mama!" and being generally obnoxious. XD; Shige just laughed and sighed exasperatedly and commented, "This is probably an MC that you could miss after all!"
They ended up talking about the goods, and how starting from this tour, there was a lane to buy them with a credit card. Tego trollingly added, "or a T-point card!" (one of the major point cards where customers can gain points with each purchase at a variety of stores and chain restaurants, most notably the major convenience store chain Lawson) He joked that he was saving up his T-points so that he could buy NEWS goods XD;
The conversation then moved to how Massu had designed some of the goods, and Massu talked about how the T-shirt and hat were intended to look like souveniers from space. He compared it to the little vendors that try to sell cheap souvenirs right when you're about the leave the zoo, and said he had put extra effort into designing the goods to look like no effort was put into designinig the goods. XD;;; He also was really excited about the compass-- apparently he really wanted to have a compass be included the goods for the past three years, since the group's name is taken from the cardinal directions, but the idea was vetoed each time because it wasn't relevant to the tour. Massu talked about how he really wanted them to become an item that's just naturally included in the goods each year, just like a T-shirt or a clearfile, but the other members were skeptical. XD;
They talked about the temporary tattoos next, and how all of them were wearing them for the show. They said they were hoping that more fans would come with the temporary tattoos on their faces, but unfortunately, they hadn't seen many people so far. They showed off where each of them were currently wearing the tattoos, but mentioned that as much as they enjoyed wearing them, it was hard because they sweat them off so quickly. Shige lifted up his hair to show that he had a tattoo behind his ear (which was really cute and it suited him well ♥), and Massu pointed out that he'd had one on his wrist, but it was mostly gone now because he sweat it off. He had also put the "uchuu ryokou" (space travel) one on his neck. Then, they really wanted Koyama to show off his, so he showed that he had one on his neck. (During his solo, he also had one on his chest, but sadly he didn't show this one off XD;) However, Shige really wanted him to show his stomach as well, so he embarrassedly lifted his shirt up to show that he had "ginga" (Milky Way) and "uchuu ryokou" (space travel) on his stomach, one on top of the other, slightly staggereg so that they weren't aligned. Shige got really excited and told us, "Look! It's a crossword. If you read it down, it says "bank"! And sure enough, he had lined up the kanji "gin" from "ginga" and "kou" from "uchuu ryokou" to make "ginkou," which means bank. XD;; He was really proud of himself and talked about how he had wanted to draw boxes around the kanji to really make it a crossword. XD Apparently Koyama had been struggling to put them on himself shortly before going onstage, so he had asked Shige to help him, and Shige had gotten the crossword puzzle idea XD; Koyama referred to it as a "cross puzzle" and Shige corrected him that it was a "crossword" XDl Shige was just very giggly and proud of himself for his great idea. XD;
Next, they congratulated Massu for becoming a regular on Pon. Massu apologized to the crowd that it's only shown on Kanto local TV (so the audience from Miyagi wouldn't be able to watch), but said that to make up for it he wanted to take a picture with the fans from Miyagi to show on Pon the following morning. Massu then proceeded to take out his iPhone and just take a selfie of his own face, sort of jokingly. XD; He went to take a selfie of the four of them together, but Tego started saying, "Show Shige's QR code, show Shige's QR code!" (this was probably a reference to the previous day, when the other three members had joked about how they would give the fans access to Shige's phone and personal information, though Tego didn't explain it or anything). Shige replied, "Oi! What the heck do you even mean by 'Shige's QR code'???" XD;
But eventually they got around to trying to take a selfie... but without a selfie stick, taking a selfie of four people AND trying to get some view of the fans in the background was basically impossible, so in the end they called out some juniors to help. When Akiyama Taiga appeared, Tego kept saying, "Tiger! Tiger!" in a really obnoxious "American" accent, and literally kept saying it at 30-second to 1-minute interviews for the remainder of the time Akiyama was onstage. XD; They tried taking several photos, but eventually made Koyama lift up his shirt and show the "ginkou! crossword puzzle tattoo. XD; Then, they zoomed in on each of the member's faces with the camera linked to the big screens, and also zoomed in on the tattoo XD; Tego yelled, "Bank!" in English |D; But finally they took a photo (including Koyama's temporary tattoo), and Massu said he would show it on Pon XD;
Before the juniors left, the NEWS members told them to make a comment, but then kept obnoxiously walking in-between the juniors and the camera (so that they briefly blocked the view of the juniors) except for Tego. Since NEWS has a good relationship with the juniors who back for them, the juniors were laughing along and it seemed like everyone was having a good time, so the juniors asked Tego why he wasn't joining in, and commented, "at this point, we actually want you to bother us." XD;
But then the voice over came on and chose Shige as the member who would have to do the batsu-game type challenge. XD Shige fell to the ground and moaned "It's been Shige, Shige, Tego, Tego, Shige!" The others laughed at his suffering, and then it was announced that his task was, "Why is the sky blue? Please answer this question asked by a child." When they heard that it was phrased as a child's question, the other three members started doing a small child voice and saying "Shige-papa!" to harrass him XD; Shige groaned for a bit, but then responded, "Because your heart is clear," (as in, not cloudy/free of worries). I'm not sure if this is a reference to something or just a literary comment, but the voice told him, "That was a lovely answer." XD;
Then the announcement came that someone had pushed the "call" button, so Tego needed to go attend to that. Once he had left, the remaining three guys talked about the CDTV special that had happened the day previous, where NEWS had been included but obviously had not been live at the actual filming venue, since they were in Miyagi. Koyama mentioned that his mom was surprised to see them "in Makuhari," because she had thought they were in Miyagi. Shige replied that since Koyama's mom watches Koyama's cat while Koyama was away, she ought to have known that he was in Miyagi. Massu added, "Is your mom an idiot?" XD;; Koyama looked offended, but just replied, "You can't call people's moms idiots, even if they are!" XD;
Then the conversation turned to how all the guys are on live TV shows, and Massu mentioned that he and Koyama were both on live shows on Nihon TV. Massu said that even though they're not there at the same time, his dressing room was next to Koyama's... but then it came out that actually, it's about 6 dressing rooms away from Koyama's. XD;; But then it was time for them to wrap up the MC, and they left the stage.
After the MC came Platonic again, but on this day, Tego was on the opposite side of the arena as he had been the day previous... which was sad for me, because he would have been very near me if he had been on my side! Besides being on the opposite side of the arena, however, it was mostly the same. It was followed by the same interlude with the aliens and the UFO, and then NEWS reappeared to perform UFO.
And then, once again, next came Emma! I was really excited to be able to see it from the front view this time, and I really enjoyed getting to watch them perform the choreography live again. I still hold that while Massu and Koyama's pelvic thrusts are way too much (for me personally) and I don't usually see Tego's because he's not close to Shige, Shige's are subtle and small enough that they're a good balance of a dance move with sexy, not crazy sexual. That's just my opinion, but... >__>; Massu wasn't dancing as sharply as usual, and some girls were hypothesizing that he was sick; I hope he felt better after that! He was also wearing a ton of baggy clothes, so it was a little sad not to get to see his really sharp dancing as usual.
After Emma came Erotica again, and I really enjoyed the dance. Sadly, Shige was on the exact opposite side of the stage, so I didn't really get to see him, but I just really like the choreography for that number. There's a part at the beginning when they separate from where they were on the center stage for Emma to move more towards the little individual side stages, and Tego came to the back which was closest to us. He got there sooner than the other members, so he had some time before the choreography started, and just started jamming out to the music on his own and doing some sexy hip rolls and what have you XD; Sometimes I find Tego to be too much, but I thought this was really cute, and I really enjoyed it.
Similar to the previous day, next came Megalomania, and then the medley of Mr. White, Quartetto, Neverland, and Epcotia. I still really enjoyed the medley; it was both nostalgic to see the old choreography and cool to see how they reimagined it on the center stage! After the medley came the bit where we had to do various things like clap and whistle to try to fix the space-time continuum, but then the clapping rhythm led into the intro to 4+fan~
As they had the previous day, NEWS reappeared on the small carts for 4+fan, and we were lucky enough to have Shige right in front of us at first! He was really cute interacting with the fans during the call and response parts of that song. Next up was DTF, where Shige/Tego and Koyama/Massu did the usual fanservice again, and then weeeek. Tego was in front of us during this part, and he threw two of his balls into our section, but neither were near us. Still, it's always exciting to see girls get to catch them!
The carts went all the way up and down the arena, so each guy came past us, but when Massu went by, he seemed to busy looking self-satisfied to wave or interact with the fans. |D;; But then the guys each went to one of the risers at the four corners for U R not alone, and Koyama was in front of us. He was really cute, and got really excited trying to get people to sing along. I'm generally of the opinion that Koyama is too pure for us all, so I really enjoyed him doing his silly little dances and like, posing as he did the clapping part during that song, and such. I always enjoy singing along with U R not alone, and it definitely made Koyama happy to see people singing along with him, so it was a really fun experience all together.
After U R not alone ended, Koyama moved back down to the cart, and as he went by, he waved to all the people in the front row of the stands closest to the cart, which made me laugh. In my experience, generally, the guys don't give fanservice or wave or generally interact with the fans in the first row; usually, they're so close that it seems a little uncomfortable for the guys themselves. They often aim their waving and fanservice more at the girls in about the 5th row, so that there's a little distance between themselves and the fans. But of course Koyama wouldn't be bothered by being so close, which just struck me as so... Koyama. XD; It was cute.
The concert then closed with Innocence, which was much the same as the day previous. While the guys were sitting on the boxes and waving at the fans, it was cute to watch Massu try really hard not to let the bubbles being blown around them get into his hair or on his clothes XD; And then the concert ended once again with the alien skit leading into Happy Ending, where the guys came back out in the tour goods (Shige looked super cute in the hat again!), and then they ended hinting with the next album beginning witha "W" again.
All in all, it was quite similar to the day previous, but I was glad to have a chance to see it from another angle! I'm looking forward to seeing more and more of this show over the course of the tour!
Sorry this is over a month late! I'm heading to Nagoya this weekend to see the show in Gaishi, but I'll do my best to get my Ecopa report done sometime in the near future, and hopefully I'll be able to finish my reports through the end of the tour in a reasonable amount of time.
Also, I want to take this chance to once again promote my comprehensive venue guide! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about going to concerts or the venues themselves, but if it's a question about a specific location, it might be helpful to check there first. ^^;
The opening was the same; they played the safety video several times before the show started, and then the opening video was the safety video plus the extra video of them preparing for takeoff in the Epcotia liner. The intro music to Epcotia played, but at the point where they were still hidden by the cyllinder of the screens, we were at an angle such that we could see them through the sliver of space where the sides of two screens met. I know we weren't really supposed to be able to see them, but it was sort of fun to see them hanging there XD;
Next, during twinkle star, this time we were near Koyama, and watching him do the dance was truly wonderful. XD; I have to confess that I haven't spent a ton of time watching Koyama dance live, as I'm the type of person to watch my favorite member through binoculars for the most part, but I'm so glad I did this time. XD His dancing is so over the top and ridiculous in a really great way (the only word I can think of to describe it is "charai" in Japanese, which is a word that I find difficult to translate, but it basically means over-the-top showy or fancy in a way that actually seems low-quality or cheap? I'm not doing a good job of explaining it, but). It seriously reminded me of his dancing in the really early episodes of Shonen Club, while he was still in K.K.Kitty, and it was just... so cute and silly.
Up next was Akaku Moyuru Taiyo, and when the guys switched what stage they were on, Shige came to the back stage, in our direction! He was really cute, and sort of making "come on!" type movements with both hands, as if to get people more excited, and the crowd cheered in response. I was again moved by how good his dancing had gotten, and he also seemed really high energy and into the dance. Last year, it seemed like he was at a really difficult point in writing Tuberose de Matteru, and he often seemed exhausted during the Neverland shows, so I was really glad to see him in such good spirits!
After that was Live, and I was again surprised and a little scared by how crazy Shige was while on the wire. He kept throwing his body around and doing flips in ways that made me worried he was going to hurt himself (though of course I know the set is rigged to be safe and keep the members from colliding with one another, etc). While he was standing on the stage having his wire switched out and reattached, I noticed that Nozawa Yuki was the one changing his harness, and he patted Shige's butt when he was ready to go |D; Meanwhile, Massu looked very unhappy about the whole thing, and just curled up in a ball while in the air like nope, I'm not flipping upside down. XD;
Live was once again followed by the alien interlude, and then came LPS. The guys were on the opposite side of the arena from us for the start of the song, but since we were in the 6th row, when they came around, they were really RIGHT in front of us. They tend to look a few rows back, rather at the front row where the girls are so close then can practically touch them, so we were at the ideal place to make eye contact. Shige saw me at this point, so I was really happy!
Once they made it back around to the other side, they were lowered back down to the stage again to begin Koi Suru Wakusei! I really, really love this song, so I was looking forward to being able to see it from above (a better angle than below), and it didn't disappoint. The retro dance really is super, super cute, especially when they make hearts with their hands while swaying back and forth (it's hard to explain, but presumably there will eventually be a DVD, so please look forward to it XD;) At the very end of the song, Massu trolled Tego by coming up really close to him while he was trying to sing his line, and then Koyama trolled Shige by changing the lyrics to include Shige's name in them, which was really cute. XD;
After Koi Suru Wakusei came Koyama's solo again, which was mostly the same, and then Sweet Martini, though sadly, I was on the wrong side of the stage to see Shige when he sat down by the bar. Then they went to the back side of the stage again for Madoromi, but that was near us this time, so we got a much better view than the previous day! It was really cute to watch Shige mouth (lip sync? XD) along with the other members' lines, and make a cute dramatic face to go with the sad nature of the lyrics. I was also really impressed with Massu's singing ablities; he really does sound just like the recorded version live, and it's pretty crazy. He's such a good singer!
Up next was the docking video, and then it was time for Chankapaana! This time, there was still a bit of rushed, fast spinning and panic, but they succeeded at using the spinning selfie camera much, much more than they had the previous day XD; It was nice to get to see what they had intended it to be like, but I actually enjoyed it more when the guys were struggling and being goofy. XD;
As in the previous show, Chankapaana was followed by Jump Around, Black Hole, and then Massu and Shige's solos. Most of these were very similar to the day previous; Shige was able to get the high heels on with slightly more success than he had the previous day, but it still seemed like a little bit of a struggle for him to put his already sweaty feet into the shoes quickly XD;
After the juniors danced a bit as a transition from Hyouon, next was Avalon. I was excited this time, because Shige was very close to us! I got to watch him dance, and also watch him react to the flower petals, but he seemed to deal with them much more gracefully than Massu. XD Some of them got stuck to his cloths, hair, and sweaty face, but unlike Massu, Shige doesn't really seem to care about that sort of thing.
Next came It's You, which was basically the same as before, but I got to see the opposite view. Since they face back first and then front for the end of the song, this time, I got to enjoy the cute/silly part where Massu is dancing and the other three are singing from the front view. Up last before the MC again was Hoshi ni Negai wo, which was sadly farther away from us this time. The guys were really goofy this time; first Koyama leaned on Tego's shoulder, and turned so that his back was to Tego and he was leaning on Tego as if Tego was the back rest of a chair. Shige then also turned to sit in Koyama's lap and lean on him... but then Tego decided that he had had enough of that and didn't want the others to lean on him, so he stood up abruptly, causing Koyama to fall flat on his back. XD; Tego walked around to face Shige and then got on top of him and straddled his chest, sitting so that he was basically facing Shige straddled across his chest. XD; Shige looked like he was really suffering |D; And Koyama was also sort of being crushed by Tego sitting on top of Shige, so he tried to ask Massu to save him, but Massu ignored him |D;; Eventually, Shige got Tego to get off of him, and Tego went over and did cute fanservice with Massu, cuddling all close to him and stuff. XD; Koyama looked very upset and called out, "Hey! It's not like that!!" at Tego and Massu, but they ignored him. XD;
Then it was time for the MC! Once the guys all piled off one another, they came back to the main stage, but Massu immediately noticed that a lot of people were running out to go to the bathroom. He started teasing the, saying things like, "Aren't you interested in the MC?" and such. Koyama scolded him, saying that most of them seemed to be people taking their kids to the bathroom, at which point Tego started using a ridiculous "kid" voice and saying "mama!" and being generally obnoxious. XD; Shige just laughed and sighed exasperatedly and commented, "This is probably an MC that you could miss after all!"
They ended up talking about the goods, and how starting from this tour, there was a lane to buy them with a credit card. Tego trollingly added, "or a T-point card!" (one of the major point cards where customers can gain points with each purchase at a variety of stores and chain restaurants, most notably the major convenience store chain Lawson) He joked that he was saving up his T-points so that he could buy NEWS goods XD;
The conversation then moved to how Massu had designed some of the goods, and Massu talked about how the T-shirt and hat were intended to look like souveniers from space. He compared it to the little vendors that try to sell cheap souvenirs right when you're about the leave the zoo, and said he had put extra effort into designing the goods to look like no effort was put into designinig the goods. XD;;; He also was really excited about the compass-- apparently he really wanted to have a compass be included the goods for the past three years, since the group's name is taken from the cardinal directions, but the idea was vetoed each time because it wasn't relevant to the tour. Massu talked about how he really wanted them to become an item that's just naturally included in the goods each year, just like a T-shirt or a clearfile, but the other members were skeptical. XD;
They talked about the temporary tattoos next, and how all of them were wearing them for the show. They said they were hoping that more fans would come with the temporary tattoos on their faces, but unfortunately, they hadn't seen many people so far. They showed off where each of them were currently wearing the tattoos, but mentioned that as much as they enjoyed wearing them, it was hard because they sweat them off so quickly. Shige lifted up his hair to show that he had a tattoo behind his ear (which was really cute and it suited him well ♥), and Massu pointed out that he'd had one on his wrist, but it was mostly gone now because he sweat it off. He had also put the "uchuu ryokou" (space travel) one on his neck. Then, they really wanted Koyama to show off his, so he showed that he had one on his neck. (During his solo, he also had one on his chest, but sadly he didn't show this one off XD;) However, Shige really wanted him to show his stomach as well, so he embarrassedly lifted his shirt up to show that he had "ginga" (Milky Way) and "uchuu ryokou" (space travel) on his stomach, one on top of the other, slightly staggereg so that they weren't aligned. Shige got really excited and told us, "Look! It's a crossword. If you read it down, it says "bank"! And sure enough, he had lined up the kanji "gin" from "ginga" and "kou" from "uchuu ryokou" to make "ginkou," which means bank. XD;; He was really proud of himself and talked about how he had wanted to draw boxes around the kanji to really make it a crossword. XD Apparently Koyama had been struggling to put them on himself shortly before going onstage, so he had asked Shige to help him, and Shige had gotten the crossword puzzle idea XD; Koyama referred to it as a "cross puzzle" and Shige corrected him that it was a "crossword" XDl Shige was just very giggly and proud of himself for his great idea. XD;
Next, they congratulated Massu for becoming a regular on Pon. Massu apologized to the crowd that it's only shown on Kanto local TV (so the audience from Miyagi wouldn't be able to watch), but said that to make up for it he wanted to take a picture with the fans from Miyagi to show on Pon the following morning. Massu then proceeded to take out his iPhone and just take a selfie of his own face, sort of jokingly. XD; He went to take a selfie of the four of them together, but Tego started saying, "Show Shige's QR code, show Shige's QR code!" (this was probably a reference to the previous day, when the other three members had joked about how they would give the fans access to Shige's phone and personal information, though Tego didn't explain it or anything). Shige replied, "Oi! What the heck do you even mean by 'Shige's QR code'???" XD;
But eventually they got around to trying to take a selfie... but without a selfie stick, taking a selfie of four people AND trying to get some view of the fans in the background was basically impossible, so in the end they called out some juniors to help. When Akiyama Taiga appeared, Tego kept saying, "Tiger! Tiger!" in a really obnoxious "American" accent, and literally kept saying it at 30-second to 1-minute interviews for the remainder of the time Akiyama was onstage. XD; They tried taking several photos, but eventually made Koyama lift up his shirt and show the "ginkou! crossword puzzle tattoo. XD; Then, they zoomed in on each of the member's faces with the camera linked to the big screens, and also zoomed in on the tattoo XD; Tego yelled, "Bank!" in English |D; But finally they took a photo (including Koyama's temporary tattoo), and Massu said he would show it on Pon XD;
Before the juniors left, the NEWS members told them to make a comment, but then kept obnoxiously walking in-between the juniors and the camera (so that they briefly blocked the view of the juniors) except for Tego. Since NEWS has a good relationship with the juniors who back for them, the juniors were laughing along and it seemed like everyone was having a good time, so the juniors asked Tego why he wasn't joining in, and commented, "at this point, we actually want you to bother us." XD;
But then the voice over came on and chose Shige as the member who would have to do the batsu-game type challenge. XD Shige fell to the ground and moaned "It's been Shige, Shige, Tego, Tego, Shige!" The others laughed at his suffering, and then it was announced that his task was, "Why is the sky blue? Please answer this question asked by a child." When they heard that it was phrased as a child's question, the other three members started doing a small child voice and saying "Shige-papa!" to harrass him XD; Shige groaned for a bit, but then responded, "Because your heart is clear," (as in, not cloudy/free of worries). I'm not sure if this is a reference to something or just a literary comment, but the voice told him, "That was a lovely answer." XD;
Then the announcement came that someone had pushed the "call" button, so Tego needed to go attend to that. Once he had left, the remaining three guys talked about the CDTV special that had happened the day previous, where NEWS had been included but obviously had not been live at the actual filming venue, since they were in Miyagi. Koyama mentioned that his mom was surprised to see them "in Makuhari," because she had thought they were in Miyagi. Shige replied that since Koyama's mom watches Koyama's cat while Koyama was away, she ought to have known that he was in Miyagi. Massu added, "Is your mom an idiot?" XD;; Koyama looked offended, but just replied, "You can't call people's moms idiots, even if they are!" XD;
Then the conversation turned to how all the guys are on live TV shows, and Massu mentioned that he and Koyama were both on live shows on Nihon TV. Massu said that even though they're not there at the same time, his dressing room was next to Koyama's... but then it came out that actually, it's about 6 dressing rooms away from Koyama's. XD;; But then it was time for them to wrap up the MC, and they left the stage.
After the MC came Platonic again, but on this day, Tego was on the opposite side of the arena as he had been the day previous... which was sad for me, because he would have been very near me if he had been on my side! Besides being on the opposite side of the arena, however, it was mostly the same. It was followed by the same interlude with the aliens and the UFO, and then NEWS reappeared to perform UFO.
And then, once again, next came Emma! I was really excited to be able to see it from the front view this time, and I really enjoyed getting to watch them perform the choreography live again. I still hold that while Massu and Koyama's pelvic thrusts are way too much (for me personally) and I don't usually see Tego's because he's not close to Shige, Shige's are subtle and small enough that they're a good balance of a dance move with sexy, not crazy sexual. That's just my opinion, but... >__>; Massu wasn't dancing as sharply as usual, and some girls were hypothesizing that he was sick; I hope he felt better after that! He was also wearing a ton of baggy clothes, so it was a little sad not to get to see his really sharp dancing as usual.
After Emma came Erotica again, and I really enjoyed the dance. Sadly, Shige was on the exact opposite side of the stage, so I didn't really get to see him, but I just really like the choreography for that number. There's a part at the beginning when they separate from where they were on the center stage for Emma to move more towards the little individual side stages, and Tego came to the back which was closest to us. He got there sooner than the other members, so he had some time before the choreography started, and just started jamming out to the music on his own and doing some sexy hip rolls and what have you XD; Sometimes I find Tego to be too much, but I thought this was really cute, and I really enjoyed it.
Similar to the previous day, next came Megalomania, and then the medley of Mr. White, Quartetto, Neverland, and Epcotia. I still really enjoyed the medley; it was both nostalgic to see the old choreography and cool to see how they reimagined it on the center stage! After the medley came the bit where we had to do various things like clap and whistle to try to fix the space-time continuum, but then the clapping rhythm led into the intro to 4+fan~
As they had the previous day, NEWS reappeared on the small carts for 4+fan, and we were lucky enough to have Shige right in front of us at first! He was really cute interacting with the fans during the call and response parts of that song. Next up was DTF, where Shige/Tego and Koyama/Massu did the usual fanservice again, and then weeeek. Tego was in front of us during this part, and he threw two of his balls into our section, but neither were near us. Still, it's always exciting to see girls get to catch them!
The carts went all the way up and down the arena, so each guy came past us, but when Massu went by, he seemed to busy looking self-satisfied to wave or interact with the fans. |D;; But then the guys each went to one of the risers at the four corners for U R not alone, and Koyama was in front of us. He was really cute, and got really excited trying to get people to sing along. I'm generally of the opinion that Koyama is too pure for us all, so I really enjoyed him doing his silly little dances and like, posing as he did the clapping part during that song, and such. I always enjoy singing along with U R not alone, and it definitely made Koyama happy to see people singing along with him, so it was a really fun experience all together.
After U R not alone ended, Koyama moved back down to the cart, and as he went by, he waved to all the people in the front row of the stands closest to the cart, which made me laugh. In my experience, generally, the guys don't give fanservice or wave or generally interact with the fans in the first row; usually, they're so close that it seems a little uncomfortable for the guys themselves. They often aim their waving and fanservice more at the girls in about the 5th row, so that there's a little distance between themselves and the fans. But of course Koyama wouldn't be bothered by being so close, which just struck me as so... Koyama. XD; It was cute.
The concert then closed with Innocence, which was much the same as the day previous. While the guys were sitting on the boxes and waving at the fans, it was cute to watch Massu try really hard not to let the bubbles being blown around them get into his hair or on his clothes XD; And then the concert ended once again with the alien skit leading into Happy Ending, where the guys came back out in the tour goods (Shige looked super cute in the hat again!), and then they ended hinting with the next album beginning witha "W" again.
All in all, it was quite similar to the day previous, but I was glad to have a chance to see it from another angle! I'm looking forward to seeing more and more of this show over the course of the tour!
Sorry this is over a month late! I'm heading to Nagoya this weekend to see the show in Gaishi, but I'll do my best to get my Ecopa report done sometime in the near future, and hopefully I'll be able to finish my reports through the end of the tour in a reasonable amount of time.
Also, I want to take this chance to once again promote my comprehensive venue guide! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have about going to concerts or the venues themselves, but if it's a question about a specific location, it might be helpful to check there first. ^^;
