TBS has announced the cast of the drama adaption of the Yamato Nadesico Shichi Henge manga and it's quite Johnny's filled. Kamenashi Kazuya will have the lead and joining him from Johnny's to fill in two of the other four main male roles are Tegoshi Yuya and Uchi Hiroki.
Sanspo article.
I'm definitely happy to see Tegoshi in a drama again. He's not my favorite actor but just seeing the members of NEWS actively doing something is enough for me to be happy. And I've read some of the manga before and I really like he's a good fit for it.
With Kame in the lead it makes me wonder if KAT-TUN will be getting a group single early in 2010, as doing the theme song for this drama is the usual kind of tie-in the group gets.
I'm not sure about how I feel about Uchi being in the drama. I think it's mainly because I think the role could have easily gone to one of the older Hey! Say! JUMP members instead of him so I feel a bit bitter about that. I mean this is a series set in high school and I really do believe it's time for Hey! Say! BEST to start getting the high school roles over the older groups, but I guess that still might be some time coming for that change to take place.
29 November 2009
24 November 2009
Johnny's at 2009's Kouhaku
Well midterms are still sucking most of my free time away but I'll try to finish my report in the next day or two as I will have a bit more free time. But until then to keep up with the news...
The official list for the Kouhaku program, which is a New Year's Countdown music program, has been announced recently. Like usual SMAP and TOKIO, who have been on the program for over ten years are of course returning but there are two other Johnny's groups joining the line up this year, Arashi and NYC Boys all for the white team. And for those not familiar with the program all the acts are devided into two teams, the female artists are the red team and the male are the white team and whoever gets the highest ratings collectively are the winners of the program. And I honestly can't remember the last time the red team won.
Official Kouhaku list. (Japanese only)
As many I was quite shocked to see NYC Boys on the list, as they are meant to be just a temporary unit but the more I thought about it the choice did not seem so strange. Kouhaku picks some of the top selling acts of the year to perform, so Arashi seems to be a no brainer there, and NYC Boys did sell over 200K copies of their single, which even some of the big acts in Japan don't do anymore these days. Unlike Hey! Say! JUMP, who have released nothing this year. Because I'm sure Johnny's would have had them there instead of NYC Boys if they were eligible but even if they were to release a new single in December it would be too late to have them invited. So they had to go with the closest thing, NYC Boys, IMHO.
Also this year has been a good year for Juniors, especially the younger ones and I think this is also a continuation of this. Especially in one of the articles it mentions that Juniors will be joining the group for there performance and hinted it would be the younger ones that won't be able to participate in Johnny's Countdown, so I would not be surprised at all to see Morimoto Shintarou get some screen time for this.
And then looking at the program itself, there's no denying the fact it is no longer the popular program it once was. For years the viewer numbers have been declining and less and less of the younger generation are watching, so groups that are hits with Japan's youth like Arashi, who's a hit with everyone these days, and NYC Boys who are targetted for the younger generation of the population are good choices for the program to pick to try again to reverse the declining ratings trend.
And that's about all I've come up with about this decision. I think keeping these factors in mind the decision makes more sense, but personally I think I'll be looking more forward to seeing Hey! Say! BEST all together on the Johnny's Countdown stage for the first time this year. And I hope they have a bit more of a presence at this year's Countdown than they did at the last one.
The official list for the Kouhaku program, which is a New Year's Countdown music program, has been announced recently. Like usual SMAP and TOKIO, who have been on the program for over ten years are of course returning but there are two other Johnny's groups joining the line up this year, Arashi and NYC Boys all for the white team. And for those not familiar with the program all the acts are devided into two teams, the female artists are the red team and the male are the white team and whoever gets the highest ratings collectively are the winners of the program. And I honestly can't remember the last time the red team won.
Official Kouhaku list. (Japanese only)
As many I was quite shocked to see NYC Boys on the list, as they are meant to be just a temporary unit but the more I thought about it the choice did not seem so strange. Kouhaku picks some of the top selling acts of the year to perform, so Arashi seems to be a no brainer there, and NYC Boys did sell over 200K copies of their single, which even some of the big acts in Japan don't do anymore these days. Unlike Hey! Say! JUMP, who have released nothing this year. Because I'm sure Johnny's would have had them there instead of NYC Boys if they were eligible but even if they were to release a new single in December it would be too late to have them invited. So they had to go with the closest thing, NYC Boys, IMHO.
Also this year has been a good year for Juniors, especially the younger ones and I think this is also a continuation of this. Especially in one of the articles it mentions that Juniors will be joining the group for there performance and hinted it would be the younger ones that won't be able to participate in Johnny's Countdown, so I would not be surprised at all to see Morimoto Shintarou get some screen time for this.
And then looking at the program itself, there's no denying the fact it is no longer the popular program it once was. For years the viewer numbers have been declining and less and less of the younger generation are watching, so groups that are hits with Japan's youth like Arashi, who's a hit with everyone these days, and NYC Boys who are targetted for the younger generation of the population are good choices for the program to pick to try again to reverse the declining ratings trend.
And that's about all I've come up with about this decision. I think keeping these factors in mind the decision makes more sense, but personally I think I'll be looking more forward to seeing Hey! Say! BEST all together on the Johnny's Countdown stage for the first time this year. And I hope they have a bit more of a presence at this year's Countdown than they did at the last one.
22 November 2009
Yamapi Short But Sweet concert report 21NOV2009
Because I am in the middle of mid-terms I've had to dedicate most of today to study so I just haven't had the time to write a full report. But I feel bad about making people wait (I know I need to respond to comments as well, but I have read them all and appreciate every one of them) so I've decided to do what I've done in the past and write a report in parts, updating the one post every time I finish the next piece of it. Hopefully I'll finish before I go to bed tonight.
As I ended up with standing tickets I didn't get into the venue until about 20-15 minutes before the concert began. But I did find a good spot behind all the seats on the 1st floor of seats (the arena section for Yokohama Arena) that gave me a view of the stage with the big stage area for the band the farthest away from me being on the direct other side of where I was. And as this was right next to the cameras at the arena there was no hope of taking a quick photo of the stage with my cell phone.
I think I did a pretty job with describing the stage with the highlights report, but as there are a couple things I want to add I'm going to copy and paste it and just add those things in to it.
First off, the staging for the concert had the arena full all 360 degrees in the arena (1st floor) and 2nd floor levels and then the center area around the actual stage had seats in four sections with stage tracks dividing them. So the stage was more or less cross shaped, with a big circle stage area in the middle and one of the sides had an another stage where the band (FiVe) and back singers were. On the ceiling there were four large disco balls with some kind of cone-ish looking decoration piece above them and around the rope/chord the balls were hanging from. Each was above a section of the center seating area. There was a huge piece that sat on the middle stage section that could be moved up and down. It had a large screen on each of its four sides, though at one point you could see into it, as the center was hollow. Lots of other moving set pieces on the stage, usually a floor panel that went up or down. And then there were two carts, one for each side, that were used to go around and through the crowd in the center area. Also there were four big screens near the ceiling that for the most part were reserved for the live footage of the concert for those, like me, who couldn't see Yamapi close up. And of course those also has the song lyrics as well.
When the concert started up there was an intro music piece and pretty much a mini laser light show. That center piece that was sitting in the center stage was raised up and so did a ring of the middle stage. Out from that ring came Yamapi going up on the center floor piece that was risen. Then Yamapi began his first number, Gomen ne, Juliet, and I believe the Juniors back dancing for him came out for this song as they were there for the first few songs. During the song he rode the carts in the center area once each. The song was followed by Yubiwa which I actually don't remember much about other than I began to recognize that it was Mis Snow Man back dancing for him at this point.
For MOLA the Juniors went off stage as the non-Johnny's dancers came on. On the screens of the center piece the PV from the NEWS DVD for the song played on it and the performance on stage pretty much mirrored the dance moves of the PV. It also kicked off the run of dance songs that didn't stop until his short MC.
The next song was I love you baby, which I didn't recognize and it didn't help that it was the only song that did not have subtitles on the screen for it. But at least I could tell he was singing in English for the song, though I couldn't understand all of the words.
Run From You had a part where he was dancing on the middle stage and what looked like colored flames (green for the most part) came out from around the stage. I say looked like because I didn't feel any heat, though later when it was definitely fire coming out around the stage I could feel the heat from those. So I'm not sure if it was a different kind of flame or some other effect but it looked great.
Also by this song I began to notice he was sweating, which wasn't too surprising as it was a surprisingly warm day that day compared to the colder weather it has been. (It was about 16C that day but most days recently it's been 8C.) I also happened to glance up on the screens with the lyric subtitles (different songs had different colored subtitles, BTW) and noticed a misspelling with 'finding' as 'fiending' so I payed a bit more attention and of course noticed the 'Its the way you still infect' and couldn't help but think the one writing the subtitles must have messed up the words. But I checked the lyric booklet when I got home and those mistakes are in there, which makes this song rather unintentionally humorous for me to think that Yamapi is singing a song about being obsessed with a girl that is giving him diseases. Though it definitely gives him a good reason to be running from her. XD
He also decided to skip a couple lines of the song, and since there was no voice when he did so I believe it's safe to assume he wasn't lip synching this song at least.
Crush on you rounded out the final dance heavy songs for this part of the concert. I don't think much about it stood out from the other songs he performed though it came off as another solid performance from him like all the songs had been so far. Though I want to say that a couple members of FiVe walked down to the center stage for this song, though it could have been Run From You instead, but either case it happened during either one of these songs.
After he finished with Crush on you he took a quick MC break. Didn't say much but sounded winded as he made his way to the stage with the band. He introduced his next song, Aoi, and all the lights turned blue as he sung the song. Honestly I think he should have taken a bit more time with the MC as I thought he didn't sound so good vocally on this song. It wasn't horrid but it felt like he was struggling a bit through it, which I blame on being short of breath from all the dancing before.
I can't believe I didn't recognize Love Song, though I knew it was a familiar song, but I just don't like how it sounds on the Touch album so I don't listen to it much. That being said, even though he was still struggling a bit vocally (there was a high note he tried to slid up to but it didn't sound like he made it at one point) I enjoyed the live, solo version of the song better. Durning this song he went from one side of the band stage to the other, walking on the sides of the seating area there.
After that he introduced FiVe and left the stage as they sang their song. I used to have mp3s of a few of their songs from when they performed still on Shounen Club and the song was defintiely one of those songs, so while I don't know the name myself I believe I can safely say it was one of their older songs. But I thought it was really nice that they got to be featured a bit at the concert and even got some lighting effects for their number. The four screen center piece even had special visuals for them with the lyrics being shown and special font.
After the performance there is a long introduction for the next song SNOW EXPRESS, with the screens showing graphics of snowflakes. Those disco balls I was talking about were moving up and down during this intro and what looked like one huge disco ball (the lights weren't on the stage yet) descended. Then as the song started up the spotlight lit up that ball and Yamapi was seen standing in it. It kinda looked like a cage ball, but there was a camera inside that gave us shots of Yamapi in it from a top angle. During the song the outside of the ball began spinning, about the same time rainbow colored lights shown around it, and then a bit later the middle part Yamapi was descended on its own. All through this there was fake snow that fell from the ceiling onto the stage and at the end of the number Yamapi was back on the stage.
As I ended up with standing tickets I didn't get into the venue until about 20-15 minutes before the concert began. But I did find a good spot behind all the seats on the 1st floor of seats (the arena section for Yokohama Arena) that gave me a view of the stage with the big stage area for the band the farthest away from me being on the direct other side of where I was. And as this was right next to the cameras at the arena there was no hope of taking a quick photo of the stage with my cell phone.
I think I did a pretty job with describing the stage with the highlights report, but as there are a couple things I want to add I'm going to copy and paste it and just add those things in to it.
First off, the staging for the concert had the arena full all 360 degrees in the arena (1st floor) and 2nd floor levels and then the center area around the actual stage had seats in four sections with stage tracks dividing them. So the stage was more or less cross shaped, with a big circle stage area in the middle and one of the sides had an another stage where the band (FiVe) and back singers were. On the ceiling there were four large disco balls with some kind of cone-ish looking decoration piece above them and around the rope/chord the balls were hanging from. Each was above a section of the center seating area. There was a huge piece that sat on the middle stage section that could be moved up and down. It had a large screen on each of its four sides, though at one point you could see into it, as the center was hollow. Lots of other moving set pieces on the stage, usually a floor panel that went up or down. And then there were two carts, one for each side, that were used to go around and through the crowd in the center area. Also there were four big screens near the ceiling that for the most part were reserved for the live footage of the concert for those, like me, who couldn't see Yamapi close up. And of course those also has the song lyrics as well.
When the concert started up there was an intro music piece and pretty much a mini laser light show. That center piece that was sitting in the center stage was raised up and so did a ring of the middle stage. Out from that ring came Yamapi going up on the center floor piece that was risen. Then Yamapi began his first number, Gomen ne, Juliet, and I believe the Juniors back dancing for him came out for this song as they were there for the first few songs. During the song he rode the carts in the center area once each. The song was followed by Yubiwa which I actually don't remember much about other than I began to recognize that it was Mis Snow Man back dancing for him at this point.
For MOLA the Juniors went off stage as the non-Johnny's dancers came on. On the screens of the center piece the PV from the NEWS DVD for the song played on it and the performance on stage pretty much mirrored the dance moves of the PV. It also kicked off the run of dance songs that didn't stop until his short MC.
The next song was I love you baby, which I didn't recognize and it didn't help that it was the only song that did not have subtitles on the screen for it. But at least I could tell he was singing in English for the song, though I couldn't understand all of the words.
Run From You had a part where he was dancing on the middle stage and what looked like colored flames (green for the most part) came out from around the stage. I say looked like because I didn't feel any heat, though later when it was definitely fire coming out around the stage I could feel the heat from those. So I'm not sure if it was a different kind of flame or some other effect but it looked great.
Also by this song I began to notice he was sweating, which wasn't too surprising as it was a surprisingly warm day that day compared to the colder weather it has been. (It was about 16C that day but most days recently it's been 8C.) I also happened to glance up on the screens with the lyric subtitles (different songs had different colored subtitles, BTW) and noticed a misspelling with 'finding' as 'fiending' so I payed a bit more attention and of course noticed the 'Its the way you still infect' and couldn't help but think the one writing the subtitles must have messed up the words. But I checked the lyric booklet when I got home and those mistakes are in there, which makes this song rather unintentionally humorous for me to think that Yamapi is singing a song about being obsessed with a girl that is giving him diseases. Though it definitely gives him a good reason to be running from her. XD
He also decided to skip a couple lines of the song, and since there was no voice when he did so I believe it's safe to assume he wasn't lip synching this song at least.
Crush on you rounded out the final dance heavy songs for this part of the concert. I don't think much about it stood out from the other songs he performed though it came off as another solid performance from him like all the songs had been so far. Though I want to say that a couple members of FiVe walked down to the center stage for this song, though it could have been Run From You instead, but either case it happened during either one of these songs.
After he finished with Crush on you he took a quick MC break. Didn't say much but sounded winded as he made his way to the stage with the band. He introduced his next song, Aoi, and all the lights turned blue as he sung the song. Honestly I think he should have taken a bit more time with the MC as I thought he didn't sound so good vocally on this song. It wasn't horrid but it felt like he was struggling a bit through it, which I blame on being short of breath from all the dancing before.
I can't believe I didn't recognize Love Song, though I knew it was a familiar song, but I just don't like how it sounds on the Touch album so I don't listen to it much. That being said, even though he was still struggling a bit vocally (there was a high note he tried to slid up to but it didn't sound like he made it at one point) I enjoyed the live, solo version of the song better. Durning this song he went from one side of the band stage to the other, walking on the sides of the seating area there.
After that he introduced FiVe and left the stage as they sang their song. I used to have mp3s of a few of their songs from when they performed still on Shounen Club and the song was defintiely one of those songs, so while I don't know the name myself I believe I can safely say it was one of their older songs. But I thought it was really nice that they got to be featured a bit at the concert and even got some lighting effects for their number. The four screen center piece even had special visuals for them with the lyrics being shown and special font.
After the performance there is a long introduction for the next song SNOW EXPRESS, with the screens showing graphics of snowflakes. Those disco balls I was talking about were moving up and down during this intro and what looked like one huge disco ball (the lights weren't on the stage yet) descended. Then as the song started up the spotlight lit up that ball and Yamapi was seen standing in it. It kinda looked like a cage ball, but there was a camera inside that gave us shots of Yamapi in it from a top angle. During the song the outside of the ball began spinning, about the same time rainbow colored lights shown around it, and then a bit later the middle part Yamapi was descended on its own. All through this there was fake snow that fell from the ceiling onto the stage and at the end of the number Yamapi was back on the stage.
21 November 2009
Yamapi Short But Sweet concert goods
As I'm dead tired and want to get some sleep this will be my last entry for today. The full concert report is going to have to wait for tomorrow.
I ended up buying at least one of everything as I was buying items for other people. I personally only bought an uchiwa and the photo set. So the only thing I have opened to take pictures of is the photo set, as I'm not going to be opening other people's things. So with that in mind here are photos of all the goods.
I actually thought they all looked rather nice. Well except for the pen light, that to me looks lame and I'm glad I just used my general Johnny's penlight that I bought at the Johnny's Shop.
I think the way they did the uchiwa was just wonderful. As you can see it's actually a mosaic of Yamapi photos to make up his head. Though they did go the cheap way for getting the colors and shadows right by putting the photos through color filters, but I think that's partly because it looks like they only wanted to use the photos taken on Yamapi's NYC visit for everything.
While you can't always judge a book by its cover I think this pamphlet probably will look as nice as most of the other goods. It's hard cover and as you can see has a simple cover design, but at the merchandise booth they had a sample picture and it looks like they have some really nice photos in it.
The clear file is a bit plain, though I guess it does have a certain asthetic to it.
The T-shirt is rather interesting with Yamapi actually featured on it. It looked rather small to me at the goods booth and I wish Johnny's would sell T-shirts in different sizes, as one size does not fit all.
While the pen light does look a little better close up, I still think it looks like a glorified electric glow stick. It even only has one setting from what I saw at the concert. But at least they got the concert title in the see through part of the stick, as it doesn't look so cheap that way at least.
I'm rather happy with the photo set. You get serious Pi with some silly and he isn't pulling the dead emotionless face in all of them. In fact I think this is one of the better photo sets I've seen for Yamapi, IMHO.
I ended up buying at least one of everything as I was buying items for other people. I personally only bought an uchiwa and the photo set. So the only thing I have opened to take pictures of is the photo set, as I'm not going to be opening other people's things. So with that in mind here are photos of all the goods.
I actually thought they all looked rather nice. Well except for the pen light, that to me looks lame and I'm glad I just used my general Johnny's penlight that I bought at the Johnny's Shop.
I think the way they did the uchiwa was just wonderful. As you can see it's actually a mosaic of Yamapi photos to make up his head. Though they did go the cheap way for getting the colors and shadows right by putting the photos through color filters, but I think that's partly because it looks like they only wanted to use the photos taken on Yamapi's NYC visit for everything.
While you can't always judge a book by its cover I think this pamphlet probably will look as nice as most of the other goods. It's hard cover and as you can see has a simple cover design, but at the merchandise booth they had a sample picture and it looks like they have some really nice photos in it.
The clear file is a bit plain, though I guess it does have a certain asthetic to it.
The T-shirt is rather interesting with Yamapi actually featured on it. It looked rather small to me at the goods booth and I wish Johnny's would sell T-shirts in different sizes, as one size does not fit all.
While the pen light does look a little better close up, I still think it looks like a glorified electric glow stick. It even only has one setting from what I saw at the concert. But at least they got the concert title in the see through part of the stick, as it doesn't look so cheap that way at least.
I'm rather happy with the photo set. You get serious Pi with some silly and he isn't pulling the dead emotionless face in all of them. In fact I think this is one of the better photo sets I've seen for Yamapi, IMHO.
Yamapi Short But Sweet concert highlight report
Ok, just walked in the door a few minutes ago and I figure I'll be making three posts about the concert. This first one will be just highlighting the things that really stood out to me about the concert, the next will be for the goods (I picked up goods for otherwise so I have pictures of everything sold though I only got a photo set so it's the only thing I could open to take a photo of.) and the final will be a full report, as I want to check and verify the set list as he sung a few songs I'm not familiar with.
First off, the staging for the concert had the arena full all 360 degrees in the arena and 2nd floor levels and then the center area around the actual stage had seats in four sections with stage tracks dividing them. So the stage was more or less cross shaped, with a big circle area in the middle and one of the sides had an actual stage were the band (FiVe) and back singers were. On the ceiling there were four large disco balls with some kind of cone-ish looking decoration piece above them and around the rope/chord the balls were hanging from. Each was above a section of the center seating area. There was a huge piece that sat on the middle stage section that could be moved up and down. It had a large screen on each side, though at one point you could see into it, as the center was hollow. Lots of other moving set pieces on the stage, usually a panel that went up or down. And then there were two carts, one for each side, that were used to go around and through the crowd in the center area.
The lighting and effects were amazing. They put a lot of money into these concerts but I would say it was money well spent as it looked amazing throughout the whole thing. Lots of lighting effects throughout the whole thing, even FiVe got some for the one song they performed during the concert. But that middle stage piece I was talking about was used a lot and had a special graphic pretty much for every song.
For back dancers they used a mix of Juniors and non-Johnny's dancers. The Juniors used were M.A.D. and Mis Snow Man and I recognized a few of the non-Johnny's as the dancers that Yamapi used for his Music Station performance last night.
The song that probably had the most effects for it probably was SNOW EXPRESS (which was the only NEWS song Yamapi sung). It started after a FiVe did their song so Yamapi wasn't seen on stage as it had a long intro, with the theme of winter and snow being shown on the screens. Those disco balls I was talking about were moving up and down during this intro and what looked like one huge disco ball (the lights weren't on the stage yet) descended. Then as the song started up the spotlight lit up that ball and Yamapi was seen standing in it. It kinda looked like a cage, but there was a camera inside that gave us shots of Yamapi in it. During the song the outside of the ball began spinning and then the middle part Yamapi was descended on its own. Really, I can't think of any other words to describe it than amazing and wonderful. Oh, and there was even fake snow for this song too.
Another performance that really stood out was for Moonlight. Mainly because Yamapi gave a fan an experience of a lifetime. Midway through the song Yamapi stops singing and a fan from the center section is brought on stage. The girl looked completely shocked and bewildered, and I don't blame her as I don't think anyone in the audience knew what exactly was going on. But she was led up onto the stage by one of the back dancers and got to sit on a chair at the end of one of the stage tracks and then Yamapi continued with the song, singing it to her. He made his way over to where she was while singing and at the end handed her a handkerchief from his pocket while thanking her. By then she just looked completely ecstatic, and I can't blame her. I mean she had Yamapi personally serenading her.
After a dance interlude where Yamapi changes off stage into an extremely shiny suit with red jacket and black pants, he appears on stage again but inside the movable screen thing. You can see him through the side panels and he has a gun that he just starts shooting off and the screens show 'bullet holes'. The device lifts up (at sometime he discards the gun) and he and his back dancers do a short routine and then Yamapi picks up a semi-automatic rifle that's been placed on the stage. He then mows down the back dancers with it and they all 'fall' off the stage areas that they were on. He then begins to walk to the stage were the band is and familiar music begins to play. The screens show the title of the song, which you could tell what it was by then anyway, as Thriller. The 'killed' back dancers climb back on stage as zombies and the performance starts in full. The entire stage is given a Halloween look for the song. There are ghosts that are pulled up from somewhere in the center section at various parts of the song and of course everyone is dancing the infamous zombie dance on the stage. It was it bit surreal to see Yamapi having a tribute like that to Micheal Jackson, but it was a fun performance and worth seeing.
For the main MC Yamapi did rather well on his own, IMHO. He mainly just rambled from story to story but not with a lot of pauses and while there wasn't any combined theme or true order in what he was saying it was actually interesting to just hear him talk. He spoke about his time as a Junior, mostly about performing at his first concert as a Junior (Kinki Kids) and of course Tackey. He complained about Jin and Tegoshi, but mainly Jin as he went into to talking about the new NEWS DVD when he brought Tegoshi up.
He then sung a song from what I'm assuming is from his Junior days as I didn't recognize it at all. I'm guessing it's called Koi wa Mystery as the phrase was rather prominent in the chorus. Then as that ended a figure came up from the moving stage section were FiVe was. I couldn't tell who it was from were I was, but didn't have to wonder long as Yamapi introduced his guest, Ikuta Toma. Lots of cheering at his introduction. He joined Yamapi and they sung a song together, which I've found is called Yokubou no rain. They both used the ramps down in the center area, and both have the crowd there a lot of love with reaching down to touch their hands. After they both met on the stage to switch ramps they hugged each other for a long hug. Toma left after three songs, though he only really sang the one.
For the encore the center screen device began playing clips from all the dramas Yamapi had a major role in. It began with Buzzer Beat and moved its way backwards from there. Then it began showed a clip of Yamapi with Tackey from their Junior days before continuing to play clips from his Junior days as Yamapi returned but not anywhere near the stage. He instead showed up on the 2nd floor on a moving ramp. He went all around the arena on that floor as he sung two songs. Half way through the second and final song of the concert (Seishun Amigo) he made his way to the main stage by going through sections of the audience.
Then after the song was done and it was time to end it he went to the end of each point of the stage to say arigatou (thank you) to the audience. He left the stage by using the moving piece that Toma came up on.
Honestly I'm not a big Yamapi fan. NEWS is my favorite group and I like all of the members but he's one of the members that I don't follow very much and didn't really interest me too much. But I am so glad I decided in the end to go to this concert even though I seriously thought about not going. I have so much respect for Yamapi now as without a doubt you could tell he really loves his fans. From the way the stage was set up so the most people could get a chance to have him come by, to having the stages that rise so the audience in the higher seats can see him a bit closer, to having the carts go through the audience so he can reach out and touch the audience reaching to him and to making sure when he sang he looked up at the audience members in the seats on the other levels rather than just the ones in the center. Really, I just have so much respect for a performer that does their best to make sure everybody is enjoying their performance no matter where they are seated, and Yamapi did that in spades at the concert.
Seriously, reflecting on the concert I can't help but feel like this is Yamapi celebrating his career with Johnny's and doing so by giving his fans who support him these amazing concerts as his gift to them. It was truly very moving for me to see him shower everyone with so much love. I wish there was a way every Yamapi fan could come and see one of these concerts, as if a more casual fan like me could be so moved by it then I can only imagine how wonderful it would be for a big fan to experience it. But since I don't think it's going to happen I'm seriously praying for a DVD. I mean if Tegomass will be getting one they might as well let Yamapi have one too, as this is a concert truly worth seeing, IMHO.
First off, the staging for the concert had the arena full all 360 degrees in the arena and 2nd floor levels and then the center area around the actual stage had seats in four sections with stage tracks dividing them. So the stage was more or less cross shaped, with a big circle area in the middle and one of the sides had an actual stage were the band (FiVe) and back singers were. On the ceiling there were four large disco balls with some kind of cone-ish looking decoration piece above them and around the rope/chord the balls were hanging from. Each was above a section of the center seating area. There was a huge piece that sat on the middle stage section that could be moved up and down. It had a large screen on each side, though at one point you could see into it, as the center was hollow. Lots of other moving set pieces on the stage, usually a panel that went up or down. And then there were two carts, one for each side, that were used to go around and through the crowd in the center area.
The lighting and effects were amazing. They put a lot of money into these concerts but I would say it was money well spent as it looked amazing throughout the whole thing. Lots of lighting effects throughout the whole thing, even FiVe got some for the one song they performed during the concert. But that middle stage piece I was talking about was used a lot and had a special graphic pretty much for every song.
For back dancers they used a mix of Juniors and non-Johnny's dancers. The Juniors used were M.A.D. and Mis Snow Man and I recognized a few of the non-Johnny's as the dancers that Yamapi used for his Music Station performance last night.
The song that probably had the most effects for it probably was SNOW EXPRESS (which was the only NEWS song Yamapi sung). It started after a FiVe did their song so Yamapi wasn't seen on stage as it had a long intro, with the theme of winter and snow being shown on the screens. Those disco balls I was talking about were moving up and down during this intro and what looked like one huge disco ball (the lights weren't on the stage yet) descended. Then as the song started up the spotlight lit up that ball and Yamapi was seen standing in it. It kinda looked like a cage, but there was a camera inside that gave us shots of Yamapi in it. During the song the outside of the ball began spinning and then the middle part Yamapi was descended on its own. Really, I can't think of any other words to describe it than amazing and wonderful. Oh, and there was even fake snow for this song too.
Another performance that really stood out was for Moonlight. Mainly because Yamapi gave a fan an experience of a lifetime. Midway through the song Yamapi stops singing and a fan from the center section is brought on stage. The girl looked completely shocked and bewildered, and I don't blame her as I don't think anyone in the audience knew what exactly was going on. But she was led up onto the stage by one of the back dancers and got to sit on a chair at the end of one of the stage tracks and then Yamapi continued with the song, singing it to her. He made his way over to where she was while singing and at the end handed her a handkerchief from his pocket while thanking her. By then she just looked completely ecstatic, and I can't blame her. I mean she had Yamapi personally serenading her.
After a dance interlude where Yamapi changes off stage into an extremely shiny suit with red jacket and black pants, he appears on stage again but inside the movable screen thing. You can see him through the side panels and he has a gun that he just starts shooting off and the screens show 'bullet holes'. The device lifts up (at sometime he discards the gun) and he and his back dancers do a short routine and then Yamapi picks up a semi-automatic rifle that's been placed on the stage. He then mows down the back dancers with it and they all 'fall' off the stage areas that they were on. He then begins to walk to the stage were the band is and familiar music begins to play. The screens show the title of the song, which you could tell what it was by then anyway, as Thriller. The 'killed' back dancers climb back on stage as zombies and the performance starts in full. The entire stage is given a Halloween look for the song. There are ghosts that are pulled up from somewhere in the center section at various parts of the song and of course everyone is dancing the infamous zombie dance on the stage. It was it bit surreal to see Yamapi having a tribute like that to Micheal Jackson, but it was a fun performance and worth seeing.
For the main MC Yamapi did rather well on his own, IMHO. He mainly just rambled from story to story but not with a lot of pauses and while there wasn't any combined theme or true order in what he was saying it was actually interesting to just hear him talk. He spoke about his time as a Junior, mostly about performing at his first concert as a Junior (Kinki Kids) and of course Tackey. He complained about Jin and Tegoshi, but mainly Jin as he went into to talking about the new NEWS DVD when he brought Tegoshi up.
He then sung a song from what I'm assuming is from his Junior days as I didn't recognize it at all. I'm guessing it's called Koi wa Mystery as the phrase was rather prominent in the chorus. Then as that ended a figure came up from the moving stage section were FiVe was. I couldn't tell who it was from were I was, but didn't have to wonder long as Yamapi introduced his guest, Ikuta Toma. Lots of cheering at his introduction. He joined Yamapi and they sung a song together, which I've found is called Yokubou no rain. They both used the ramps down in the center area, and both have the crowd there a lot of love with reaching down to touch their hands. After they both met on the stage to switch ramps they hugged each other for a long hug. Toma left after three songs, though he only really sang the one.
For the encore the center screen device began playing clips from all the dramas Yamapi had a major role in. It began with Buzzer Beat and moved its way backwards from there. Then it began showed a clip of Yamapi with Tackey from their Junior days before continuing to play clips from his Junior days as Yamapi returned but not anywhere near the stage. He instead showed up on the 2nd floor on a moving ramp. He went all around the arena on that floor as he sung two songs. Half way through the second and final song of the concert (Seishun Amigo) he made his way to the main stage by going through sections of the audience.
Then after the song was done and it was time to end it he went to the end of each point of the stage to say arigatou (thank you) to the audience. He left the stage by using the moving piece that Toma came up on.
Honestly I'm not a big Yamapi fan. NEWS is my favorite group and I like all of the members but he's one of the members that I don't follow very much and didn't really interest me too much. But I am so glad I decided in the end to go to this concert even though I seriously thought about not going. I have so much respect for Yamapi now as without a doubt you could tell he really loves his fans. From the way the stage was set up so the most people could get a chance to have him come by, to having the stages that rise so the audience in the higher seats can see him a bit closer, to having the carts go through the audience so he can reach out and touch the audience reaching to him and to making sure when he sang he looked up at the audience members in the seats on the other levels rather than just the ones in the center. Really, I just have so much respect for a performer that does their best to make sure everybody is enjoying their performance no matter where they are seated, and Yamapi did that in spades at the concert.
Seriously, reflecting on the concert I can't help but feel like this is Yamapi celebrating his career with Johnny's and doing so by giving his fans who support him these amazing concerts as his gift to them. It was truly very moving for me to see him shower everyone with so much love. I wish there was a way every Yamapi fan could come and see one of these concerts, as if a more casual fan like me could be so moved by it then I can only imagine how wonderful it would be for a big fan to experience it. But since I don't think it's going to happen I'm seriously praying for a DVD. I mean if Tegomass will be getting one they might as well let Yamapi have one too, as this is a concert truly worth seeing, IMHO.
20 November 2009
Jin's solo concert, and various other Johnny's tidbits
Because Johnny's seems like it's willing to go all out for Akanishi Jin's promotion with his movie coming out soon he will be getting his own solo concert. Or something that will be concert like at least, as it's described as a concert yet it's under the butai section at Johnny's net. Either way Jin will be singing at some point, both new and old songs from what was said in the news reports.
The concerts will be held throughout February at a hefty 11000Yen (about 120USD) ticket price. So I think that kills my liklihood of going, as I definitely do not like Jin enough to pay that much to see him, even though he seems to be more enjoyable to watch solo than when he is with KAT-TUN.
Of course I watched Music Station like usual tonight. I think if Jin was around people he liked, like Yamapi, more often I might like him a bit more. He was actually a bit cute as Yamapi was picking on him and of course his flailing after Yamapi touched his sensitive spot was pretty epic. And Yamapi needs to let this cute, devilish side of him out more as I found him rather cute as well as he goofed off with his friend.
Also there was a commercial for the Snow Prince single which had what looked like a couple of clips from what is most likely the PV for the song. It's the boys singing as the sit in chairs on a winter themed set, so nothing too exciting and hopefully the full PV will have more going on in it than that.
Also Yamapi will be returning to Music Station next week. I would have though Jin would be the one back, as his single actually releases that week but I guess not.
And I went looking for the Hey! Say! JUMP photo book today and in the three bookshops I checked I didn't find a single copy. The closest I got to finding one was one of the stores had a sign saying they were taking pre-orders for it, so I guess today isn't the release date afterall.
And tomorrow I'll be heading down to Yokohama Arena for the first concert of Yamapi's solo concerts. So expect my twitter to be active tomorrow and at least photos of the concert goods, followed by a concert report at some point afterwards. And since I don't have a good seat (in fact no seat at all, as it's a standing ticket) I'll probably go ahead and take notes, so hopefully I'll get as much as I can down.
The concerts will be held throughout February at a hefty 11000Yen (about 120USD) ticket price. So I think that kills my liklihood of going, as I definitely do not like Jin enough to pay that much to see him, even though he seems to be more enjoyable to watch solo than when he is with KAT-TUN.
Of course I watched Music Station like usual tonight. I think if Jin was around people he liked, like Yamapi, more often I might like him a bit more. He was actually a bit cute as Yamapi was picking on him and of course his flailing after Yamapi touched his sensitive spot was pretty epic. And Yamapi needs to let this cute, devilish side of him out more as I found him rather cute as well as he goofed off with his friend.
Also there was a commercial for the Snow Prince single which had what looked like a couple of clips from what is most likely the PV for the song. It's the boys singing as the sit in chairs on a winter themed set, so nothing too exciting and hopefully the full PV will have more going on in it than that.
Also Yamapi will be returning to Music Station next week. I would have though Jin would be the one back, as his single actually releases that week but I guess not.
And I went looking for the Hey! Say! JUMP photo book today and in the three bookshops I checked I didn't find a single copy. The closest I got to finding one was one of the stores had a sign saying they were taking pre-orders for it, so I guess today isn't the release date afterall.
And tomorrow I'll be heading down to Yokohama Arena for the first concert of Yamapi's solo concerts. So expect my twitter to be active tomorrow and at least photos of the concert goods, followed by a concert report at some point afterwards. And since I don't have a good seat (in fact no seat at all, as it's a standing ticket) I'll probably go ahead and take notes, so hopefully I'll get as much as I can down.
18 November 2009
Hidarime Tantei EYE weekly drama!
The rumors have proven true again and Hidarime Tantei EYE has been announced on NTV's official site for the drama that it will continue as a weekly drama for the winter season beginning in January. It will air on Saturdays at 9PM, and the main cast of Yamada Ryosuke, Ishihara Satomi and Yokoyama Yu will be returning to reprise their roles. This is also Yamada's first time starring in a drama as the solo lead.
I'm personally really excited about this news, especially as I've been waiting for the rumors to be confirmed. But I really felt when watching the SP that the story would work well as a weekly drama. Plus I love the Yamada and Yokoyama scenes (I will be calling them the Yama Kyoudai/Yama Brothers from now on when it comes to talking about this drama.) and can't wait to see more of those. *spoiler* Especially with the twist of the SP being that Yokoyama's character is very much alive and actually one of the villians of the series. *spoiler*
And of course I hope that like with the SP Hey! Say! JUMP will be doing the theme song for the weekly series so we can finally get a new single from the group. And they can announce it soon or at least at the winter concerts, or even perform the song at the concerts. *____* Oh please Johnny's, be kind and let this happen. I think you've made HSJ fans wait long enough and it's time another J-Storm group that isn't Arashi get a release with some promotion.
I'm personally really excited about this news, especially as I've been waiting for the rumors to be confirmed. But I really felt when watching the SP that the story would work well as a weekly drama. Plus I love the Yamada and Yokoyama scenes (I will be calling them the Yama Kyoudai/Yama Brothers from now on when it comes to talking about this drama.) and can't wait to see more of those. *spoiler* Especially with the twist of the SP being that Yokoyama's character is very much alive and actually one of the villians of the series. *spoiler*
And of course I hope that like with the SP Hey! Say! JUMP will be doing the theme song for the weekly series so we can finally get a new single from the group. And they can announce it soon or at least at the winter concerts, or even perform the song at the concerts. *____* Oh please Johnny's, be kind and let this happen. I think you've made HSJ fans wait long enough and it's time another J-Storm group that isn't Arashi get a release with some promotion.
17 November 2009
Code Blue season 2 officially confirmed & buying cds in Japan before the release date
The Fuji TV website has updated its Code Blue page to announce that the series will indeed be getting a 2nd season that will air for the winter drama season. It also confirms that most of the cast will be returning, which includes Yamapi, and mentions that it will on Monday nights instead of Thursday nights like the first season did.
Fuji TV Code Blue website. (Japanese only)
Also as a quick note, Yamapi's solo concerts have been expanded to now include shows in Osaka on January 6th & 7th. Johnny's net has the information up.
Now onto the other not so Yamapi related topic of this post. I've seen it mentioned every now and again in various conversations when it comes to new releases and I figured I would weigh in about the actual day releases come out. Now this is only for cds and DVDs for what I've seen, other media like books and magazines from what I've seen come out on the day they are posted to come out.
As most can figure out by looking at release dates officially Japanese cds & DVDs come out on Wednesday unless it's a special release of some sort. But if you follow the Oricon chart you see that the first day of sales that's counted is Tuesday. These sales numbers come from two things, pre-orders and people buying the cd/DVD that day. Because even though the official release date is on a Wednesday most stores will have the new releases out on Tuesday. And in the case of holidays they can be put out much sooner than that. In fact the releases for the week long holidays in Japan tend to get put out on store shelves almost a week before their release date.
So some of the 'early' leaks that you find on the internet sometimes are just from people who had picked up the cd/DVD the day the stores put it out to sell. And in that sense I have a bit of an early look at a release that doesn't officially come out until tomorrow...
I was able to pick up Yamapi's new single (just the LE cd with photo for now) today. I took a quick photo of one of my favorite pictures from the booklet, the photo that was included and the cd itself with obi. And I haven't gotten around to listening to it all, but I find myself liking the title track now that I've heard the full version with cd quality sound so I'm looking forward to listening to the other tracks.
Fuji TV Code Blue website. (Japanese only)
Also as a quick note, Yamapi's solo concerts have been expanded to now include shows in Osaka on January 6th & 7th. Johnny's net has the information up.
Now onto the other not so Yamapi related topic of this post. I've seen it mentioned every now and again in various conversations when it comes to new releases and I figured I would weigh in about the actual day releases come out. Now this is only for cds and DVDs for what I've seen, other media like books and magazines from what I've seen come out on the day they are posted to come out.
As most can figure out by looking at release dates officially Japanese cds & DVDs come out on Wednesday unless it's a special release of some sort. But if you follow the Oricon chart you see that the first day of sales that's counted is Tuesday. These sales numbers come from two things, pre-orders and people buying the cd/DVD that day. Because even though the official release date is on a Wednesday most stores will have the new releases out on Tuesday. And in the case of holidays they can be put out much sooner than that. In fact the releases for the week long holidays in Japan tend to get put out on store shelves almost a week before their release date.
So some of the 'early' leaks that you find on the internet sometimes are just from people who had picked up the cd/DVD the day the stores put it out to sell. And in that sense I have a bit of an early look at a release that doesn't officially come out until tomorrow...
I was able to pick up Yamapi's new single (just the LE cd with photo for now) today. I took a quick photo of one of my favorite pictures from the booklet, the photo that was included and the cd itself with obi. And I haven't gotten around to listening to it all, but I find myself liking the title track now that I've heard the full version with cd quality sound so I'm looking forward to listening to the other tracks.
16 November 2009
Kanjani8 New Year's concert & Christmas singles release, also the return of Code Blue?
It has been announced that this year Kanjani8 will be at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka for three nights, December 30-January 1st, and so will be having their countdown concert there this year. It looks like they will be doing the same thing they did last year with Kinki Kids for Johnny's Countdown, where they will try to splice the two concerts together.
Also over a three day span, December 23rd-25th, they will be releasing three singles, Gift ~Shiro~, Gift ~Aka~ and Gift ~Midori~. (I kinda like how each represents one of the traditional Christmas colors, with shiro = white, aka = red and midori = green.)
Sanspo.com article. (Japanese only)
I'm kinda sad that this means that NEWS won't be able to perform as a group, as whenever it comes to NEWS and Kanjani8 having conflicting schedules Ryo almost always is with Kanjani8. But at the same time I think I can understand why they are dividing the venues for Countdown, with so many groups participating, some with rather big fan clubs, it makes sense to ease the demand a bit by having one of the groups perform elsewhere. It kinda makes me wonder if eventually Countdown will end up split up between Tokyo and Osaka with multiple groups at each dome. Though it may not need to come to that if some of the groups start breaking up, though I don't see that happening for any of them, outside of Tackey & Tsubasa, but it looks like they'll just become solo artists afterall.
Also some news I don't want to claim as 100% official, though from where it was leaked it looks like it's most likely true, but Code Blue is said to be returning for another season. Of course with no official announcement there isn't much else known at this point other than it will of course be on Fuji TV once more and Yamapi will be a part of the cast.
I guess Yamapi is on a roll right now, with Buzzer Beat being a hit, his solo single and concert and now another drama lined up for him to star in. Hopefully this means that there will be some good news for NEWS soon. Though from the looks of things it'll probably have to wait until 2010 when Kanjani8 has finished doing their activity blitz.
And of course one other thing that has me rather anxious about is that this second season of Code Blue was on a rumor list for winter dramas, and also on that list was Hidarime Tantei EYE. So if the Code Blue prediction was right I'm praying HTEYE's prediction is correct too.
Also over a three day span, December 23rd-25th, they will be releasing three singles, Gift ~Shiro~, Gift ~Aka~ and Gift ~Midori~. (I kinda like how each represents one of the traditional Christmas colors, with shiro = white, aka = red and midori = green.)
Sanspo.com article. (Japanese only)
I'm kinda sad that this means that NEWS won't be able to perform as a group, as whenever it comes to NEWS and Kanjani8 having conflicting schedules Ryo almost always is with Kanjani8. But at the same time I think I can understand why they are dividing the venues for Countdown, with so many groups participating, some with rather big fan clubs, it makes sense to ease the demand a bit by having one of the groups perform elsewhere. It kinda makes me wonder if eventually Countdown will end up split up between Tokyo and Osaka with multiple groups at each dome. Though it may not need to come to that if some of the groups start breaking up, though I don't see that happening for any of them, outside of Tackey & Tsubasa, but it looks like they'll just become solo artists afterall.
Also some news I don't want to claim as 100% official, though from where it was leaked it looks like it's most likely true, but Code Blue is said to be returning for another season. Of course with no official announcement there isn't much else known at this point other than it will of course be on Fuji TV once more and Yamapi will be a part of the cast.
I guess Yamapi is on a roll right now, with Buzzer Beat being a hit, his solo single and concert and now another drama lined up for him to star in. Hopefully this means that there will be some good news for NEWS soon. Though from the looks of things it'll probably have to wait until 2010 when Kanjani8 has finished doing their activity blitz.
And of course one other thing that has me rather anxious about is that this second season of Code Blue was on a rumor list for winter dramas, and also on that list was Hidarime Tantei EYE. So if the Code Blue prediction was right I'm praying HTEYE's prediction is correct too.
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