Tozai Uta Gassen & Johnny's Countdown 2010-2011 thoughts

Okay, I found a way to watch this year's Countdown concert after Keyhole decided not to work. Which ended up being a good thing as where I found the streaming for it had good video quality so I could see what was happening. But since I didn't want to stop watching to blog I decided to wait for it to end and then write thoughts up for it. And since my Tozai post was just pretty much saying what was happening and not a lot what I thought about the program I'll write those thoughts here to.

Since Tozai aired first I'll write about it first.

I was rather surprised that something for the Juniors ended up focusing quite a bit on the guests who were all debuted Johnny's. Not many of the Juniors got a good deal of screen time outside of Yuma, and he only managed that by being a part of NYC. Though JaPAnese Hi! probably got some decent time on screen, but they kinda needed it as no one knows who they are yet.

I really wonder what's going to happen with this new group as from the January Shounen Club filming reports they weren't there and it can't be easy to fit 52 Juniors on one stage and have people remember who they are. I wonder if they'll end up with their own program or something, as that seems the best way IMHO for people to get to know the members of this massive group.

But other than that I just hope there is more of a Junior focus if they do it next year.


Now on to Countdown.

This really gave me even more hope that Kis-My-Ft2 will be debuting soon. I assumed they would be at Countdown since they weren't a part of Tozai or Tackey's butai and I didn't think they would be left out of the end of year activities completely. But I did not expect to see so much of them at Countdown. In fact they probably got more time on screen than Hey! Say! JUMP. And when they did the highlight of the Johnny's turning 24 in 2011 they had Fujigaya with Tegoshi and Shigeaki. (Their bunny ears were adorable and I love how Shige actually went 'pyon pyon' during his little speech. XD) They seemed to be given as much to do as other debuted groups so I now have a 99.9% feeling they will be debuting.

I know there are people complaining about Arashi not really being there, they did do a performance via satellite for the concert, but honestly after Kouhaku I think that's fine. If you wanted to see them than you have hours of this year's Kouhaku to go through as they were there in abundance. And as they've hosted Countdown for two years in a row I appreciate having someone else host this year, Kinki Kids.

My disappointment was that Hey! Say! JUMP really didn't do much this year. NYC and HSJ got to do quick performances before midnight but Hey! Say! BEST only hung around for about one song after midnight then joined the rest of the group in the stands for the rest of the concert. The only thing that keeps me from being too bummed about that is the fact for the next Countdown only Ryutarou will be under 18 so I'm sure Johnny's will have HSJ perform after midnight if they can do so with Yamada and Chinen with them. Plus Yuma will be under 18 as well so he'll have to be in the stands again next year once more so it will be HSJ and not a NYC/HSJ split for one year at least.

The highlights for me was just Tokio in general, like usual, Kis-My-Ft2 and NEWS (even if they were without Ryo as he was in Osaka with Kanjani8). Of course Kanjani8 with their sushi cosplay was pretty awesome, especially Yoko as the sauce bottle. I kinda wish they were still in cosplay when they covered KAT-TUN's Keep the Faith. XD

And was it just me of did Massu's hair look red-ish to anyone else? And talking to hair it looks like Ryutarou got his cut, and I think it looks nice as it's no longer shaggy looking.

Overall I was glad to have found a way to see it streamed. And that since it was around midnight it wasn't in the middle of the night for me to view it. I already can't wait for the next Countdown.