I admit, there were actually quite a few news updates on KOTOKO in BUDOKAN 2010, now officially entitled “thank you” and “from now” KOTOKO LIVE IN BUDOKAN 2010『Pleasure×Pleasure=Pleasure!!!』. The live now has its official webpage on I’ve Official Website.

The second news. According to Anime News Network, I’ve USA created a special package tour for KOTOKO’s fans in America who want to watch KOTOKO live in BUDOKAN. $1700 for KOTOKO in BUDOKAN 2010, anyone?

The last… The attendances of the live will be given a special pamphlet CD which will contain a brand new song composed by the I’ve Sound King, Kazuya Takase.

So… will anyone here attend KOTOKO in BUDOKAN ??

Today I’m reviewing the first Budokan concert!  I’m going to take these one at a time and pick them apart a little bit.  Since there are a few repeat songs near the end, I may shorten my thoughts on them in the next couple reviews.

Please note that this review does not include any pictures.  That’s right, none whatsoever.  That means you can read it wherever you see fit and no one is going to make fun of you!  You could even print it out and act as though you’re reading some scholarly text, even when you’re just reading about Nacchi.

And I’m totally too lazy to tag this.

Budokan Tour Concert Series

Part I – Team K Concert in Osaka (with SKE48)

Part II – Team B Concert in Nagoya (with SKE48)

Part III – Team A Concert in Fukuoka

Part IV – AKB48 Shuffle Concert at Budokan (with SKE48 and SDN48) - THIS POST

Part V – AKB48 Graduation Concert at Budokan (with SKE48)

Part VI 0 AKB48 Televised Concert at Budokan (with SKE48)

(Note, I’m aware that the first three parts have yet to be posted.  I’m reviewing them in non-chronological order, but naming them in chronological order, if that makes sense.)

Overture

As usual, the concert begins with their overture.  Since (luckily) there wasn’t that casual walking of the girls onto the stage, I’ll just talk about the set-up.  This is their first arena concert that I know of, and so the big new addition is the catwalk and center stage jutting into the floor section.  I try to watch or at least skim through as many J-pop and idol concerts that I can, and I’ve found that I very rarely like stages that use these components: they almost always kill any sort of dramatics that are used throughout the concert.  Let me explain the negative aspects of AKB’s rendition of these pieces:

The audience is too far away.  For whatever reason in this concert, they decided to keep the audience about ten feet from the stage.  Now, this makes sense, as there are so many cameras, but this ten feet is kept throughout the entire perimeter of the stage.  Making matters worse, the catwalk, which is thinner than the rest of the stage, is even farther from the audience than the stage.  The catwalk and the center stage concepts were made to allow fans to feel closer to the performer and make the performer more life-like.  Here, this doesn’t work out since the girls are so far away.  It just doesn’t give off the same effect.  Besides, the fans can feel and actually be closer to the girls at the theater, so why use these if they’re not up to (my) standards?

The stage is of a lazy design.  From what I can tell, it’s just about the same size as the stage at the theater (if anyone can tell me those measurements, I’d be delighted), but it lacks the moving platforms, so it doesn’t really even live up to their daily shows.  At least it has pretty lights around it.  That counts for something, but now I just wish that the AKB48 Theater had those lights.  Also, I dislike the fact that the stage is a rectangle.  Instead of changing up choreography and the placement of the girls for the new stage, this means that they can do exactly the same thing as they would if they were performing it on any given day, albeit shortened.  Stages are rectangular so the audience can see more performers closer than they would if the stage were deeper than the width.  If you put this rectangular stage in the middle of the audience, no one is going to complain about not seeing the girl in the back.  Why not change it up a bit with an always-cool circular stage, a square, or even tilt a square to make a diamond.

The catwalk is too thick.  The connecting branch of the stages should be thin, again, so the audience can be closer to the performers.  Also, this allows more seats closer to the center.  Here it basically works out to be another (rectangular) stage rotated ninety degrees that the girls just use to run back and forth.  In concerts by different groups, I’ve seen the catwalk work as an effective way to energize a crowd, but here it sees to be mostly for transportation.  A thinner catwalk would make sense even if they weren’t going to change anything and just use it for the girls to run back and forth on.

Lastly, let me rant about the actual stage for a bit.  While I do like how they made it extra wide, so it has those out-croppings like those in the theater (Japanese word, please?) the majority of the stage is way too flat.  The semi-circle of risers looks kind of tacked-on, and plain.  With most of AKB’s concerts, we see rather elaborate and complete staircases (Aitakatta, NHK07, NHK08/JCB08), or multiple stages (NHK09).  Here, it’s mostly a plain stage with a few steps in the back, which approaches the ‘novelty concert’ standards (Natsumatsuri, AX08, AX09).  While there are a few hidden features of the stage, which I’ll mention later, it’s pretty bland.

Nagisa no CHERRY

‘Nagisa no CHERRY’ with Mariko?  Is this some sort of hand-off from the original most popular member to the current one?  (I use Mixi ratings when I think of popularity.  Also, Kojiharu has definitely topped the rankings before.)  For a moment I was thinking, ‘Wow.  It’s kind of funny that Mariko has short hair.  It makes it kind of like Acchan in the Aitakatta concert.  Then I realized that short hair for the yellow girl really isn’t a big thing: the lead position has been performed half-and-half by short- (Atsuko, Mayu, CinDy, Mariko) and long-haired (Erena, Reina, Jurina, Manatsu (?)) girls.  As far as the blue girls go, they seem to be getting into it.  Ohori seems to be making fun of the choreography and being overly cute, Nonti is doing the same, but in a more obvious fashion, and Sayaka is having the time of her life.  She just really loves being sweet.

The dance break begins as usual with the standard choreography.  The backing girls seem to go all out and give off their Team K-rocking roots.  Just before the build-up before the final chorus, these three pose… weirdly?  I’m not quite sure what they’re going for.  Sayaka flexes, Noro is silly, and Meetan acts as though she forgot to use the restroom backstage… or something.

When I first heard that this was the opening performance I was kind of angry.  They already did a comedic performance of this at the beginning of the second day of NHK09.  Why re-use it?  As the song continued, I decided that it was kind of a ‘bleh’ performance, with the only interesting part being Mariko’s voice.  All the while I was hoping that a certain something was done differently to achieve a hilarious effect.  And you know what?  My hopes were answered.

The magic happens near the end of that last chorus.  All of a sudden, mid-way through, the lights lower, the remaining lights turn red and violent, and the blue girls sing the nostalgic line of ‘CHERRY CHERRY BOY, CHERRY CHERRY GIRL’ in their raw lower registers.  Next, Mariko sings her next solo line in her husky voice so often used when telling a joke.  Perfect.  My eyes widened the first time I saw/heard all of this, as I was so glad they did something so revolutionary for AKB.  Very, very rarely do songs in AKB48’s large catalog get changed from their original form.  The only exceptions to this rule I can think of are ‘Medley,’ ‘Team K 2nd Stage Medley,’ the medley in NHK07, ‘Aozora no Soba ni Ite’ in NHK08, and, soon, ‘Aitakatta’ later on in the Budokan concerts.

To top it all off, the final pose was of the four flexing their non-existent arm muscles.  (Except for Sayaka.  She was flexing her existent arm muscles.)

Blue Rose

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say about this performance.  I’ve never really been a huge fan of the song, and now it just seems like they want to cycle all of the possible front girls into it.  This, I believe, is its third time in a shuffle concert, and now 4/6 of the ‘Acchans’ have performed it.  For completion, I’ll mention each girl in comparison to the original.  Jurina might dance pretty well for a tween, but I’d still say that even K2 Sayaka could win in a dance-off.  I won’t mention vocals.  Takamina is often a great dancer, and may trump Yuka, but I think Yuka’s voice is much better suited for ‘Blue Rose.’  Mayu constantly impresses me with her focused energy, while Erena… doesn’t, so I guess Team K’s Meshibe and Genking win this round.  Wow, I really do make sure to consider performances a game, don’t I?

Ame no Doubutsuen

I love how the audience erupts in excitement when they see Acchan is on stage.  Considering the cast here (Maeda, Kojima, Minegishi, Itano, Kasai, Sato Y, Kashiwagi, Miyazaki) this is just a big old senbatsu performance.  I think they were lazy and just thought, ”Ame no Doubutsuen’ is a classic.  And we can put eight girls in.  Doesn’t matter if it’s interesting, let’s just lump all of the rest of the popular girls in to get them on stage for an MC.  Oh, and let’s put Yukari in because we’re kicking her out.’  Yup, I’m sure that’s what was going on in the boardroom.

Miichan and Itano have even already performed this one.  Minegishi kept the penguin, while Itano dropped from co-leading the unit to the lion costume.  Miho got stuck with Imai’s mute-till-the-chorus camel, too.  Sucks for all of them.  On the bright side, Harunyan’s legs look mighty nice in her costume, and after this performance, Kashiwagi and Kasai can say that they’ve performed all of K2’s units (‘Blue Rose,’ ‘Kinjirareta Futari,’ ‘Ame no Doubutsuen,’ and ‘Fushidara na Natsu.’)

Anyway, it was fairly uninteresting.  And then they did an MC.

Mushi no Ballad

Something we’ve all been waiting for, a Takamina-version of a solo song.  Sure, now that Infinity happened, we’ll get more, but this happened first.  We’ve all heard ‘Mushi no Ballad,’ some of us have heard ‘Yuka no Ballad,’ and I’m still waiting for ‘N no Ballad.’  Anytime now…

Complete with a brand new costume for her very non-Sayaka body, Takahashi gets to christen the use of the center stage.  We’re treated to an amazing performance that really shows off this girls’ vocals.  Some girls only have voices that sound good in songs made for them, but Takamina’s is very versatile and usable in most situations without getting too awkward.  And that’s why she should be the main vocalist of AKB48 again.  I mean, she was the lead in all of the singles (barring ‘Sakura no Hanabiratachi’ and ‘Aitakatta’) up till ‘BINGO!’  Then, she got pushed back in favor of Haruna till King Records took charge.  In ‘Oogoe Diamond,’ she kind of tied with Haruna, but her lines were mostly solo, while Haruna’s were paired with Acchan’s to make Atsuko sound less like… whatever you want to think she sounds like.  Takahashi was a main component in ‘10 nen Zakura’ and Kojiharu the same in ‘Namida Surprise!,’ but they both got pushed down in favor of Acchan solo lines only in ‘Iiwake Maybe’ and ‘RIVER.’  So, basically: more Takamina, please.

On the topic of her actual performance, the theatrics really picked up at the last chorus.  She kicks down the microphone stand and falls to her knees.  This is especially breathtaking when the camera angle is from the back, so you can see her nearly-weeping body, smoke-y floor, and thousands of fans waving their glowsticks to the beat of the music in that well-wishing manner.  She leaves the stage from a staircase off the center stage into the catwalk’s foundation with only a glance and a sorrowful smirk at the fans.  Great ‘TakaMushi no Ballad.’

Heart Gata Virus

Out from the main stage pops three Team K members with their own microphone stands.  Super-cool for them, most likely because it’s Yuko’s unit, is that they get to use the brand new elevators.  From what I can tell, there are possibly five of them in all, and I absolutely adore them.  In tonight’s performance of ‘N Gata Virus,’ Oshima Y takes up Oshima M’s role, Sae grabs Haruna’s, and Natsuki gets Nozofisu’s.  Costume-wise, Yuko and Nacchi switch and Sae keeps the one meant for her position.  I have always felt that Yuko could fill Mai’s spots and vice versa, so this was one unit that I thought was just waiting to happen.  Now it’ll be interesting if Yuko ever gets cast in ‘Temodemo no Namida,’ as Mai took Kashiyuki’s spot in NHK08.

Considering the other two girls shuffled into this unit, I wouldn’t be surprised if Natsuki is actually subbing in for another girl, namely Asuka.  Mocchi was out with the (swine?) flu, along with a bunch of other AKB48 members and RS, and she’s definitely popular enough to get in a unit like this.  I have no evidence to state anything either way, but I’m pretty positive that this was originally, Asuka’s shuffle unit.  I’m glad that Natsuki got in here, though.  Did you hear her voice in her first solo line?  That sounds way amazing.  And almost like sophisticated or something.  I don’t know, but it sounded great.

Each girl sounds as though she’s really enjoying herself performing this song.  As mentioned, Natsuki sounds incredible.  I love her even more.  Yuko sounds pretty good with her ‘new’ voice since the surgery in April.  I think these are her first solo lines recorded since then.  Lastly, Sae sounds much better than usual.  Just listen to the end of her second line.  Similar to Nacchi’s, it sounds really complex.  I’m impressed.  This is one of my favorite newer units, and I think that many AKB members might enjoy it because it is so idol-like, yet retains a very mature young woman’s image.  It’s like a Maimai party, I’d say.

Kimi wa Pegasus

Speaking of ‘very mature young women,’ this next song does not feature them.  It features ‘Rena and the Lolis.’  (Oh my god.  New sub-unit name.  Now.)  Now, with custom-made costumes, they perform ‘Kimi wa Pegasus’… eight octaves higher.

Rena does not sound at all like Sayaka, but that’s okay since she’s not really supposed to.  I feel like she should have had Nonti’s spot, as when you’re listening to those lines, you don’t expect a voice that was meant to be the powerhouse.  Sayuki’s lines were rather innocent sounding, and while again, that’s all fine and good, I prefer it to sound a bit more direct.  (One thing I’m glad about is that her costume doesn’t feature that brooch on the neck that Nacchi’s does.)  Kumi was actually a great pick for Sae’s position.  They have similar voices and kind-of-sort-of matching personalities.  She also has short-ish hair like Sae, which, of course, means a lot when I think about shuffles.  I actually don’t think they could have found someone without resorting to SKE48 to get such as close match for Sae’s voice.  Tsukina does not go in this unit.  I think they just wanted the whole ‘Wimbledon’ unit to be placed here (along with Rena), since their song is being used next.

Oh, cool pattern I noticed about the unit order.  Much of the time in this concert, the girls featured in a shuffle unit have their original (or shuffle) unit right after the one they perform.  This works for ‘Blue Rose’ – (Erena, Mayu, Matsui (NHK08)) – ‘Ame no Doubutsuen;’ ‘Heart Gata Virus’ – (Miyazaki, Natsuki) – ‘Kimi wa Pegasus’ (Kumi, Takai, Mori) – ‘Wimbledon he Tsureteitte (Ono, Miyazaki, Fujie (G-Rosso)) – ‘Tonari no Banana’ (Sasshi) – ‘Itoshiki Natassha;’ ‘End Roll’ (Itano) – ‘Tsundere!’ (Watanabe, Nakatsuka) – ‘Zannen Shoujo’ (Maeda, Takajo) – ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ (Kashiwagi) – ‘Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate.’  It also works in reverse for ‘Ame no Doubutsuen’ (Kojima (Aitakatta), Minegishi (Aitakatta), Maeda (Aitakatta), Kashiwagi (Natsumatsuri), Kasai (JCB08)) – ‘Blue Rose’ (Ono (Aitakatta), Watanabe, Matsui (NHK08)).  If anyone understood that, you get massive points.  For a hint, the format is: ‘Tonight’s shuffle unit song name’ (tonight’s shuffle unit participants’) – ‘those participants’ (/ that participant’s) original unit song that was performed next.’

Pretty cool, huh?

Wimbledon he Tsureteitte

Aww… Fujie went down the stairs too early!  It took me forever to figure out exactly what happened.  I doubted that she was supposed to be on the lower riser when the other two were up top, but I wasn’t sure if maybe Erena just forgot to go down.  Since Erena walks down the stairs a few counts later with music backing her up, I think it must be Fujie that is wrong here.  I don’t care though, still cute.

As far as voices go, this shuffle sounds better than the original.  Ono seems to be using the vocal skills she learned when doing ‘FIRST LOVE,’ as she sounds more consistent than she used to.  Reinyan sounds lovely.  I love her slightly lower voice that still is able to pull off being cute.  I’m so used to seeing her in ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ that I forgot how she gained popularity as a Kenkyuusei using her power of being so adorable.  Miho sounds fine, too.  Well, the little of her that we get to hear in this weirdly-distributed song of solo lines, anyway.

I still love how all three of these costumes are different, yet so similar.  It’s a shame that Miho doesn’t really fit hers.  Why doesn’t she get a brand new costume like the ‘Pegasus’ girls got?

Tonari no Banana

This next unit starts out with a mystery: Who are the two banana girls?  They use the out-croppings on either side to read their little newspapers and the camera angle really shows how odd of a stage their on.  They have railings and everything to get under the stage.  I know that this is an arena concert, but that seems a little too out of place.  Just put the backdrop over those areas, please.

The duo performing turns out to be Nito and Sasshi… who are like always paired up together.  The funny part is that they really aren’t; it’s just me who thinks they are.  I still group them with Kithara Rie since they were promoted at about the same time and at the time, they looked just about the same as each other.  Now they don’t, but I haven’t stopped thinking of that trio as the same girl.

‘Tonari no Banana’ prides itself in being one of the cutest AKB48 songs.  I however am not a big fan of it and reserve that place for ‘Tenshi no Shippo,’ which has yet to be truly shuffled.  That one also has three slightly different costumes, which as I said about ‘Wimbledon’ is great.  Here, the only difference in the girls’ costumes is that one has her purse over her top and the other has it under.  I’ve yet to figure out the reasoning behind that, but I think it’s present in every show.

During the bridge, the two make fun of each other’s supposed stupidity, concluding with a rising Mix.  I feel like Sasshi does that a bit too often now… she’s turning into a one-trick pony.  Come on, Sasshi!  You’re great at MCs: just stick with talking.  Chanting is for perverted old men.  (And RSL.)

Itoshiki Natasha

Another Team K unit.  Yay!  And another Team K unit with Natsuki!  Super yay!  (Also, it’s kind of fun to watch Sasshi do the dance that leads into her own unit.)

Similar to ‘Heart Gata Virus,’ I think that maybe Natsuki is taking another girl’s position.  This time, I’m pretty sure it would be Yuka.  Sure, that’d make Chikano really out of place, but hey, Fujie’s in two units (gasp, I just thought about it, and now I think that maybe Aika was supposed to be in ‘Wimbledon’) and so she needed to be in at least one, too.  Regardless, Natsuki’s in this one, and that’s what matters, doesn’t it?  Oh, and Sayaka’s leading.

From the pictures I’d seen and everything, I was prepared for Natsuki to take Tanamin’s position with one solo line, as she was wearing that costume.  While I was excited to hear this, I kind of totally forgot about it and put finding out what spot Nacchi got in ‘Virus’ as first priority.  This means that I didn’t even preview the song before watching the concert, so it was a complete surprise when I heard her totally take over Haachan’s spot.  Again, this was one of my gasping moments.  I used to think gasping was one of those fake things people do, but thanks to N, I’ve found I do it, too.

Sayaka sounds like Sayaka, which I know sounds mean, but that’s what she sounds like.  I’ve never really been a fan of her voice, as it’s a little too powerful for my taste.  Sometimes she seems to put a little too much effort into singing, and I like a bit of relaxation.  Chikano sounds good, though.  This is great promotion for her as she’s usually stuck at the bottom of rankings, so maybe she earned some more fans?  She deserves them.

Back to my favorite:  She totally took Haachan’s lines, and totally embellished them.  I mean, she drew them out and added her own spin on them.  And that look with her eyes was just fantastic.  The world needs more units like this with Natsuki in them.  And can you see how good those fur shorts look on her?  She needs to wear short shorts throughout the entirety of B5.  Seriously.  (And hey, she gets to in K5 for half of her costumes, so why stop there?)

Sayaka totally lost her hat mid-way through the song.  I don’t think she noticed, though, as she definitely would have picked it up due to her character… and the fact that the next song was done on the center stage, so the main stage was blacked out.  They should have done the usual after-unit song MC where the ‘Itoshiki’ girls run around picking up all of the dropped accessories.  And that way there’d be even more Nacchi to go around!

Endroll

Here we have the two girls who are switching to Team K and two of the best dancers in SKE48’s Team S performing the K5 dance unit on the center stage.  Itano and Miichan have always been renowned for their dancing and I for one have always wanted them to share a unit that shows off their skills, so I guess this kind of counts.

I’m glad that they put Jurina in here rather than a unit would make her sing solo lines.  So far, her vocals really don’t impress me and I’d rather listen to just about anyone else instead of her.  While her dancing is very, very good, especially for her age, her singing could take some work.  Also, by using ‘End Roll,’ she isn’t the only girl in center, as Itano gets some screen time in Umechan’s place.  But still, lots of Jurina.  At least it’s focused on something she’s good at.  Also, I’m happy Kuwabara is being used.  As much as I don’t like SKE48 getting placed into AKB48’s everything, it’s good that they’re using talented girls.

Tsundere

And the super random assortment of Team B girls appears on the main stage.  I really don’t like the line-up here.  Mayuyu should have been shuffled into a different unit, and CinDy is too old and too out of place to be paired with Chris.  I think Mayu might fit ‘Renai Kinshi Jourei’ more than ‘Tsundere!’  I know what you’re thinking: she can’t sing well!  Don’t worry, she’d fit right in given the correct back-up girls.  For instance, CinDy and Rumi.  Besides, Watanabe was often placed in Takamina’s positions during Team B’s run of A2, so it would match prior choices.  True, she might not have the same vocal abilities as Takahashi, but similar to Amina, she can often have a powerful voice.  Oh, and Mayu is totally wearing heels.  I didn’t think they would let her.  Usually the heels are for Itano only and anyone who subs for her wears boots.

On Sato Amina’s solo lines, CinDy did a good job trying to hit the same notes as the original did, but her voice just isn’t nearly as bouncy.  I use the word bouncy because I can’t say that Amina has a larger range of notes, she tends to just kind of tries to get as many as possible at a time, and so she hits one at least close to the one she was aiming for.  But I still like her voice when it’s in the right songs.  And yes, CinDy sounded good, too.  I kind of miss how when they build up their voices one by one there isn’t that high pitched squeak at the end that I’m so used to.

Nakatsuka is fine for her part, even though I’m not a big fan of her at all.  Since Rie is singing in Heart Gata Virus so often, I’m used to Uchida (who I adore) performing her place, so really, any deeper voice is fine here.

This is one of those random units that I want shuffled specifically.  Kasai subs in for Amina, Miichan subs in for Itano, and Natsuki subs in for Rie.  I think it would sound splendid.

Zannen Shoujo

Before I watched B4 for the very first time, I did something that has become one of my favorite things to do: an AKB48 Black-Out.  (I know, my favorite thing is to stop doing anything involving AKB… how ironic.)  B4 was my first trial of it and K5 was my second.  I really recommend trying it sometime.  What usually happens is you just stop checking anything AKB-related the moment the new Stage starts (generally 18:00 Japan time), and don’t check anything again until you finish watching the entire Stage in one sitting.  For B4, I relied on people e-mailing me links straight to whatever download service was used, and for K5, I set up a Facebook event for the festivities.  Anyway, the whole fun of this concept is that you get to see the Stage without any kind of spoilers whatsoever.  This means that the whole show is new and exciting.  For B4, that meant confusion when a marching band was on stage after the lights rose, a gasp at the strip change, and so on.  For K5, that included confused looks during the opening skit, excitement when you realized that there were two units left and only four girls (one of which is your favorite), and joy when you saw the ballad’s costume.  Anyway, I enjoy the fun an AKB Black-Out brings.  Try it.

On the topic of unfortunate girls, when I first saw B4, I immediately thought that this unit was completely made so Acchan could be shuffled into it.  I still feel that way, and now I feel like I was right.  Tonight, Acchan brings to the song something I feel like Mayu will never do: a care-free attitude.  No, I don’t mean that she’s just going to skip around and whistle whilst playing with butterflies; she’s going to perform her own way in whatever lacadazical fashion she wants.  The thing about Acchan is that yes, she’s not a great singer, yes, she’s not a great dancer, and yes, she’s not all that interesting, but she uses her problem areas to create a ‘girl next door’ vibe.  That’s why she’s the center of AKB48.  She’s gorgeous and light-hearted, but doesn’t have that determination or will power that other idols have.  That’s why she could probably never get into Hello! Project.  She just isn’t ’shiny’ enough, but she’s perfect for an idol group that’s supposed to be a nearly realistic classroom of teenage (and pre-teens… and 20-somethings… and children) girls.  She’s not there to competitions on talent, she’s there to get famous, most young peoples’ dream.

And that’s it for my Acchan monologue.  Lastly for her, she had a pretty darn awesome solo line at the very end of the song.  She nailed it (in the studio) perfectly.

As for the girls on the sides, it seems like they stuck with the idea of keeping one girl on the side who in the center girl’s original unit, as Takajo is performing along with Acchan.  Rie is on the other side and so the trio rounds out to be a group of increasingly popular members with one in each tier of popularity: upper senbatsu, lower senbatsu, and near-senbatsu.  I never really figured out when they started pushing Rie, but I guess that since she subs for Mai, she got lots of time to promote herself.  Takajo has been pushed since about the time of Natsumatsuri Hibiyayaon.  Good performance by those girls.

Oh, and notice the lack of microphone stands?  I’m not sure, but I think I may like it better this way, although that thought might just be because it’s different.

Kuroi Tenshi

Okay, I don’t really understand this: ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ has never ever been performed in a shortened format.  Does Akimoto just not have the rights for it, or is he just super proud of it?

In this performance we have a group of older Team B girls, Kashiwagi, Haachan, and Nakayan.  All three have great voices, but I think that if popularity weren’t an issue, they should be shuffled around.  Haachan could sing the Acchan part with a low voice similar to Fujie, Nakayan could take Fujie’s usual place and sing like Chiichan does when she subs in, and Kashiwagi can take Takajo’s place and sing however she feels fit.

My one irk is that Nakayan’s line doesn’t sound too hot.  I’m guessing that she was going for the Ishida route and tried to hit all of those notes, but similar to CinDy in ‘Tsundere!’ just couldn’t.  She could have went the Takajo route and basically just whispered, but I’d prefer she stick with one where you could tell that she was actually trying.

I feel like this collection of leading girl shuffles really shows how AKB’s current set of Stages is lacking in the diversity department.  Maybe the next three will be a bit more random?  At the moment it seems like they’re determined to just not make another cute song ever again.

Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate

Taking the center of K5’s sexy unit and putting her into B4’s sexy unit makes a lot of (predictable) sense, but I’m unhappy with this shuffle.  Kasai does much better than I expected with the oodles and oodles of solo lines included for her here.  This is the opposite of her current unit where she gets just one more duet line than the others in her unit.  So, she does fine, and in all reality, this is a great shuffle for her considering they perform the shortened version.

My problem lies in the other two, Nonti and Ohori.  It seems as though they were just picked because they are in SDN48 (and then gave them new costumes).  They totally could have put them in better units to show off their skills for one last shuffle.  I almost want to think that this is another comedic shuffle routine like they started the concert out with.  If they have as talented girls as Kayo and as specialized girls as Ohori, they should use them.

What makes matters worse is that while Ohori was totally into her performance (which is generally pretty consistent), Nonti seemed almost bored: something I’ve seen very, very rarely from any performance I’ve seen featuring her (and I’ve seen quite a few LODs).

I really want to see/hear Natsuki sub for Kashiwagi for this unit.  I say ’sub’ because if it’s during a shuffle concert, we won’t hear her sing the second verse’s lines, which would sound incredible coming from her.

Wagamama na Nagareboshi

I love this.  It seems like Mariko always gets into the super-duper awesome shuffle units that get new costumes.  ‘Temodemo no Namida’ and ‘Wagamama na Nagareboshi’ are two of my favorite units, and Mariko has gotten in both shuffles.

Paired with Haruna, a member who she often is grouped with for lines in verses, the song sounds phenomenal.  I like it with younger girls/voices since the lyrics are about hoping, wishing, and dreaming for the future, but it gives off a slightly different aura with older girls that I might like more.

The MC typically at the end of the song usually features Erena and Kana remarking on what they wish for.  In this version, the two seem to be talking in a manner almost like they would be if they had just gotten off stage.  Mariko says something about the dresses making them look young,  Haruna says something about SDN48, and Mariko jokes that she’s not graduating for quite a while.  Unlike Acchan, these two are ’shiny,’ that quality that Hello! Project members have.  They’re ambitious and not as humble as others.  They’re special and they know it, and that works well for this unit.

Oh, and yeah, the stage: incredible.  I have to admit that I previewed this on YouTube (along with ‘Heart Gata Virus’) and then stopped watching any Budokan vidoes after getting a few seconds in because I wanted to quit spoiling the surprises.  I don’t like the fact that the parts of the stage that elevate are rectangular (for my reasoning, see my thoughts on the center stage), but still it’s pretty gosh darn cool.  And it was so surprising since I was thinking that the elevators were the only moving addition to the stage.

Oshibe to Meshibe to Yoru no Chouchou

One of the big surprises of the night: Maimai came back!  I really woudn’t think this was alright, but the reasoning makes it okay for me.  If an AKB48 member graduates from AKB48, does it make sense to have her come back to perform songs that weren’t ever performed by her?  I don’t know, but I think this is kind of cheating: Mai only performs in a single song for the whole show and it’s pretty much all about how awesome she is.  I feel like every one of the girls would prefer that lifestyle.  I guess I’m just old school and prefer when they just come back for Shibuya AX.

The cute part of this performance is that it’s using one of AKB’s many real life relationships.  Mai was an older sister figure for Fujie, who plays Kasai’s part tonight, and after leaving the group, she comes back to visit Fujie.  Cue swooning here.

The MC during the bridge is terrible.  Fujie says ‘Aitakatta,’ which is funny because it represents her past wish, and is also the title to one of AKB’s more famous singles.  Then they talk a bit and Fujie reveals that the reason she likes Mai so much is because Mai doesn’t just act like an idiot, she really is one.  I think Fujie was just really nervous for this concert because she screwed up earlier and then was really awkward in this song.  Or at least in the talking part.  The rest was great.

Cute performance overall, I think I’m just reading into it a bit much.

Tobenai Agehachou

‘Iiwake Maybe’’s coupling song is debuted in concert for the first time on the center stage.  These girls all ‘earned’ (read: bought) their positions from the thirteenth single selected member cabinet election.  The only girl missing is Masuda Yuka who was out with swine flu, and so Kashiyuki took her place… and her screen time.

As common with many B-Sides, the entirety of the song was sung instead of a shortened version.  I liked this especially because we could get a better look at the Rumi-centered choreography.  Also, it looks like they changed-up some of the placement of the girls so they could entertain the whole audience while on the center stage.

At some point, I want to take note of all of the girls’ costumes so I can tell how many different versions or parts there are.  I love when AKB’s costumes seem random… but then I’m disappointed when they aren’t.  (Good examples of randomness are the ‘Romance, Irane!’ costume sets and the H2 encore costumes.)

After the song ended, I was freaking out trying to figure out who would perform next since each Team had at least one girl on stage.  For a moment, I was thinking KII would sing ‘Aitakatta’ or something, since they were all missing, but then I remembered that they were stuck in Nagoya at the time doing their version of A2.  Moments later, Nachu took the stage and I realized who was next.

Black Boy

(Splendid MC before this, by the way.  I love how Mai is completely lost and has this ‘What has AKB come to since I’ve been gone?’ look on her face the entire time.)

(Oh, and I’m still trying to figure out if Nachu’s outfit is hers or if it was supplied to her.  And is that purse from ‘Tonari no Banana?’  Did she steal it?)

Now it’s time to be racist!  I just love the song title.  I really want to read the lyrics just to see if they say something that might not be politically correct in the US.  SDN48’s ‘Black Boy’ seems to be their ’single’ of sorts, kind of like how SKE48 had a few songs they pimped out before coming out with their first single.  On the topic of SDN48 and singles, I really hope they get one.  I think I’d even be okay with SDN members being in an AKB48 single even though I hate SKE48 members in AKB48 singles, just because they perform in the same theater and it seems like they will stay with only one Team.

The song starts with the women sauntering on to the center stage with some industrial background sounds.  I don’t remember hearing this intro from the fan recordings I’ve heard, but I might have just forgotten that section.  Once the actual song starts up, we’re treated with some smoke while the seventeenth and eighteenth members do a bit of intense dancing while wearing (gasp) pants.

I don’t want to summarize the whole performance, so I’ll just say that I loved it.  The group brings fresh energy that is substantially different from what AKB provides.  I don’t know many of their names, so it was kind of enjoyable to see the camera give lots of them close-ups and not just focus on a few of them.  In general, the only ones I can tell apart are the AKB48 members and Kondo Sayaka, but I also know which ones are Chinese.  As usual I refuse to memorize names without lots of media… and that might end up taking a while.  (LOD please!  I will show you my driver’s license for proof that I’m over eighteen!)

Another thing I love about SDN48 is that they’re too old for school uniforms, which is an aspect of AKB that I don’t really like.  I mean, once you’re out of school, you can’t really relate with the songs unless you’re looking back at them as memories.  Sadly, the on-going school theme is one of AKB’s main draws, so I doubt it’ll go away… but maybe someday.  (Also, I don’t like it when songs make lots of references to the season, since those have similar not-everyday lyrics.  That means you ‘Manatsu no Christmas Rose’ and the majority of H1!)

Lastly, I have to note that it’s weird for the most popular member of the group to have so little screen time.  The other AKB48-to-SDN48 members had more.  And on that topic, Yukari seemed to be really enjoying this song.  I wonder if she feels like SDN’s a better fit for her now because there’s much less of a shadow over her like there always has been in Team A.  Nonti on the other hand seemed to be back to her usual amazing performing after her so-so units earlier.  And CinDy was CinDy.

So yeah, more SDN48, please.  And bring your sparkly costumes.  Or the mini-kimonos.

Tsuyokimonoyo

Now it’s time for Team S to perform their single.  For whatever reason they chose to wear the SKE48 first concert costumes, which I’m kind of disappointed in.  I love those costumes, but I wish they would wear the costumes made for the song.

I’m so glad that I know all of their names now.  When they were at the AKB theater in June they kept on wearing similar hair styles, but here I was able to recognize each of them.

The lighting and the camera people made the performance look ridiculously epic, which really shouldn’t be all that hard, but they did a great job regardless.  (Again, for completion, I’ll note that they performed the full song… but that’s okay because it’s a single.)

Chime wa Love Song

I’ve recently read the lyrics to this song and they weren’t exactly what I was hoping for them to be, so naturally I don’t like this song as much as I did.  I had always been hoping that it was more singing about how the chimes in love songs meant something and the lyrics were literally about chimes in love songs, which I think would fit with how Akimoto often writes his lyrics.  Sadly, it’s more about love songs.  Boo.

At the break down in the middle of the song, the girls go from the main stage to the catwalk and split up half-and-half to sing to the audience on either side.  If the seats were closer and/or the catwalk was slimmer, this would be nice, but with this set-up, it feels like half the girls disappeared.  And the catwalk was too short so some of the girls got stuck on the center stage.  Lame.  They finish by clapping around, and then the focus goes to the main stage.

Shounichi

Team B shuffles onto the Stage for their prayer, and guess what?  They sing ‘Shounichi’ like they do at every concert.  Oh well…

This time is a little bit different, though, since their wearing the new Team B costumes.  I’m not a fan of them at all, but truth be told: they look like a collection of every AKB48 costume made.  Maybe they would look better if there were more variations?  Right now there are only two.  Also, it’s kind of weird to see that these were used as the end of the old Team’s last costumes and are the new Team’s first costumes.  Not cool.

I think they should have performed this song on the raised section in the back of the stage, because while on the main section, the choreography looks rather stunted as it was originally made to be done on the risers at the theater.

Two Years Later

I don’t get why they keep using this song.  They used it at the JCB Hall concert, too.  I mean, it’s an okay song, but it never fits with songs other than the ones it was placed with in B3.  I understand that they like to have two songs from each Team that are very different from each other, but why don’t they just use ‘Inochi no Tsukaimichi’ for once?  It’s way better than this one.  They could even use Mikachi since there isn’t all that much moving around.

‘Two Years Later’ just doesn’t seem to really fit in if Team B is only going to perform two songs.  Maybe Akimoto really likes this one or something?  And the costume is way too bright.

Regardless of how much I didn’t like the song represented here, it otherwise was nice.  The red and light lighting used mid-way through the song was a pleasant edition and the width of the stage proved to look nice.

Ki ni Naru Tenkousei

Next is a super awesome performance of a true Team K song!  I love Team K when they’re cool, but I love them even more when they actually have a fun song.  Luckily, we’re given more of these songs in K5, so I don’t have to worry about running out anytime soon.

Another great thing about this song is that N is featured within the first verse!  That’s always important because that way she not only gets to sing more, but also get a heck of a lot more close-ups.  In this song she’s paired up with her good friend Sae and they’re opposite Kana and Erena, who seem to be eternally stuck together in Akimoto’s mind.  At one point before the chorus, the
‘Ame no Doubutsuen’/'Tonari no Banana’/'Wagamama na Nagareboshi’ duo are on stage left looking kind of bored, while Sae and Nacchi are having a blast on stage left.  Oh, the differences.

Team K also is wearing new costumes, but theirs are actually attractive.  There are four different versions which vary by color (blue or yellow) and whether or not the vest is opened or closed.  Personally, I think that none of them can be considered the best option, but instead I think they should shuffle around the skirts so instead of it being the vest and skirt match and the tie is different, it would be the tie and skirt match and the vest is different.  I think they’d look much better that way.

Saishuu Bell ga Naru

Whenever people think of Team K, they think of it as the Team that can really rock out.  In reality, they are the Team that’s capable of such versatile performances.  Before ‘Korogaru Ishi ni Nare,’ there was always ‘Seishun Girls,’ and like tonight, before ‘Saishuu Bell ga Naru,’ there was always ‘Ki ni Naru Tenkousei.’

(I know, I’m just so clever.)

This is a great (first verse only) performance of the title K4 song.  It has such a good tune and choreography, and the lyrics match it’s mood.  It’s kind of like ‘Shounichi’ but just a little rougher around the edges.  I wonder if the words are specific to any of the members’ journeys to Team K.  Not much else to say about this one other than I liked it and there was some nice subbing done by RS.

JK Nemurihime

See what I mean about lyrics about schools?  They’re singing about how they want to wear their school uniform forever, but their wearing marching band costumes!  What’s with that? (At least it’s not the ‘Romance, Irane!’ costumes they wore for the song in the Team A concert in Fukuoka, though.)

This is a good song to show off voices in as there are so many duet lines, but it seems as though Team A is kind of lacking in the vocal department right now, so it can’t show off too much.

One nice looking thing done here is how they split the Team into two to walk down the catwalk in two single file lines with the most popular two in front.  Then, they got to use the catwalks in a similar manner to Team S, but this time it feels a little more normal since it matches the original choreography of making parallel straight lines.  Afterwards, instead of having half the Team to face the back wall with the mirror side out, they just walk onto the center stage to finish the song and pose.  Kind of anti-climatic, but at least they’re using all of the components of the stage now.

Seishun no Inazuma

Team A continues their domination of any and all Himawari-gumi songs with ‘Seishun no Inazuma.’  It’s interesting to see Nacchinon’s places taken by Shihori and Nonaka since they now get to be in the front during the chorus, even though they’re not even Team A members.  Another notable RS performance was Sakiko who got to share her line with Haruna.  I heard a lot of Haruna in that line, but it sounded fine, so it’s not like her voice stuck out badly or anything.

On the topic of costumes, Team A’s marching band attire seems to have two main differences, one’s more masculine and the other more feminine, and the girlier one seems to have three possibilities of of sleeves on its bolero: puffy short sleeves, fringe, or bare.  Who designed these costumes?  They need to go away.  Also, please note the shoes.  Those are totally used in the next costumes, too.  There didn’t used to be so much boot re-using, but recently there has been a ton.  The silver ‘Stand Up’ and black ‘Tenohira’ boots have been used so often it’s scary.  Maybe since they’re always so expensive they’ve started to try and save money?

I’m so used to hearing the next song from H2 pop on next that I was excited because it would finally be a song that would match their costumes… but no.

Next is an MC, and then a non-senbatsu performance of my favorite single!

Romance, Irane!

Walking out on stage in brand new costumes are a bunch of less popular members… and Mariko.  When I first saw this, I was confused why they did this, but then I realized that it was so they didn’t have to set anything differently for the last performance in their Budokan series.  It’ll make more sense later.

I love these costumes.  In reality, they’re actually pretty cheap looking, but at the same time, they’re well thought out.  Everyone shares the same materials: the white fabric with ‘AKB’ printed in rainbow colors and multi-color tulle accents.  These combined with a hair accessory, brooch, and single-color ruffled shorts makes each costume look kind of unique.  They’re all summery, enough for now, but they could look kind of winter-y if you thought about them hard enough, and they are uniform yet individual.  Great thinking, costume designer.

‘Romance’ uses the H2R substitute system for its performance, so we get a pretty random set of girls performing on the main stage.  Also, now they get to spread out a little bit more, so visually it looks a lot cleaner.  If you watch during the break between the first chorus and the second verse, Nacchi is totally in the center and looks amazing rolling her neck.  During the bridge, the double set of lines looked nice with the back one on the risers behind the group of girls who sang the verses.

BINGO!

The senbatsu come back to perform the second full song in a row.  This is getting to seem like a kind of long concert, isn’t it?  We’re not even at the encore yet.  And to think, the Natsumatsuri only had like thirty songs total.

Judging by some of the accessories these girls have on, it looks like the senbatsu election even allowed them to get an extra frill on their head piece or, in Acchan’s place, a completely different, feathery bouquet of prettiness as well as a second brooch.  Her costume seems to be the most complete.

Here they sing their summer hit, ‘BINGO!’ as the first song with all (or at least most of) AKB48 on stage.  I find it kind of funny how rare it is to have the full group doing the same thing at the same time.  In AKB48’s first concerts, Team A and Team K would perform tons of songs together, regardless of who’s song it was originally, but now it seems like AKB is only allowed to sing singles, ballads, and old songs as a full group.

Of course, when they are performing in their entirety, nowadays not everyone gets to sing during the verses.  Again, luckily for me, Natsuki was in Team 1 during the Himawari Stages, so she always gets to sing her lines in the verse along with Sae and Sayaka.  Granted, now there are other girls singing along with them… and now Sae is super tan and wearing the same thing as Nacchi, so she looks kind bland.  But that doesn’t mean I want her to tan.  Skin cancer is bad.

Oogoe Diamond

And now we start the medley of King Records singles.  At some point during the last song, Jurina jumped up to the front and center and it really irritates me that I can’t find when that happened.  I enjoy knowing when things like that happen.

Now that ‘everybody’ is on stage, I feel like it’s an encore.  That is not a feeling that should be happening.  See, this is what not getting all of AKB together at the same time does to me!  In terms of the performance, it seems to be much like any other version we’ve seen of the single, shortened and in pretty new costumes.  The lighting seems to have been especially amped up, but that’s pretty much the only difference.

One big gripe of mine about ‘Oogoe’ is that it signaled the true dropping of Nacchi from near-popularity.  ‘Romance, Irane!’ was a time period when she was so, so close to being senbatsu for her second single, as she even was in the PV for it… sort of.  Next, in ‘Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008,’ she wasn’t senbatsu, but she was part of the group of girls who were featured a bunch running around and the like.  She did however get to be selected for the B-Side, ‘Saigo no Seifuku.’  Then came ‘Baby! Baby! Baby!’ and moved Kashiyuki into senbatsu, brought back Rina, re-introduced Meetan just for fun, and Umechan came back so they through her in, too.  Since then, RS-to-Team members have suddenly gained control of all of the new spots and the un-popular old girls have been stuck waiting outside.  Boo.

10nen Zakura

I feel sorry for this single.  This is the second concert it’s been in, yet neither time was it performed in an appropriate outfit.  In NHK09, the girls wore their NHK08 party dresses, and here they’re wearing what looks to be swim wear cover-ups.  ‘10nen’ needs school uniforms or something to make sense.  I’m not a big fan of the single, but my dream performance of it includes having all of AKB48 wear different school uniforms.  They almost have enough that each girl could wear a different one… which is kind of scary if you think about it.  (New blog post idea: favorite costumes)  Maybe after these New Team Stages and the new TV show come out they’ll have enough.

The lighting in the stairwell looks really nice here.  They made a moving rainbow of colors throughout the performance and I think I finally figured out what’s going on with the open-ness of those steps:  The idea was that they could make that entire piece turn a specific color.  I don’t think it ended up working out too well, but it’s fine as it is.  Now, I much prefer the NHK09 set…

Namida Surprise!

Again, this is the second time this single has been performed, and again, this is the second time the girls aren’t wearing school uniforms.  This is a school-themed song and deserves real costumes that fit with it.  (Actually, it’s not a very good song, so I wouldn’t say that it ‘deserves’ anything.)

At least the costumes look like something birthday-related: cake!  Vanilla with sprinkles, maybe.  When I showed the ‘Romance, Irane!’ PV to a friend of mine, she mentioned how they all looked like cupcakes.  Ever since then, I’ve found that if a costume looks like a baked dessert, I like it.  Especially if food coloring was used.

I like how they integrated the non-senbatsu members in this performance.  There’s much less of a divide compared to just minutes ago when the girls who weren’t selected for the single were stuck dancing about the whole time.

The bridge would have been ten times better if Acchan’s feathered headpiece suddenly turned into a giant candle like a birthday cake.

Actually, they should have put Acchan in the very back on the highest riser and just had her twirl around while the rest of the girls were on the lower ones.  It would be reminiscent of that newspaper commercial or even the PV.

And you know how I mentioned that I liked how the non-senbatsu got to kind of merge with the senbatsu, by the end of the song, the senbatsu got to go to the center stage.

To the encore!

Iiwake Maybe

This is the first concert performance of ‘Iiwake Maybe’  I hate how the stage seems so bland for its premier.  Remember in the Aitakatta concert for ‘Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru’’s performance how it looked so nice?  Or all of the fog for ‘Keitbetsu Shiteita Aijou’ in the NHK07 performance?  Much trendier.  (Now that I think about it, I have to wonder if the Aitakatta concert was filmed at NHK Hall.  It would be handy if I could just call it ‘NHK06.’

I love how the camera keeps trying to spot Jurina but continuously fails.  She got a really low spot in the election, so she got a pretty bad position for the dance formation, yet the camera people know that she’s important.  I wonder if the camera people know all of the members of AKB.  That could prove to be an interesting job.

Anyway, cute performance.

Aitakatta

All of a sudden, the rest of AKB48 and SKE48 stream on to the stage to sing the trademark AKB48 single.  I feel sorry for SDN48, they must feel un-invited.  I see no reason for them not to get in on the encore.

I’m always at a loss on what my opinion an encore costume should be.  There’s either the traditional t-shirt, like the one used here, or there’s always the possibility of some ridiculously elaborate costume.  I think that of the AKB48 Stages, K2 and A3 have the best idea: start basic, and then get specific.  I wish the current Stages would have more costume changes like those did.  Of the AKB concerts, the Aitakatta one wins as they start with the ‘Mirror’ (backwards) t-shirts, and then wear the ‘Aitakatta’ and ‘Seishun Girls’ costumes.

I really like how for this performance, they really split everybody up instead of put each Team in a different spot.  It’s nice seeing everyone all shuffled together.

They do the full song in this concert and Nacchi gets to be on the center stage for the second verse.  I feel sorry for all of the girls stuck on the risers in the back.  You can really tell how much they want off them.  Once the bridge starts, they finally are relieved of their stair-standing duties and spread out along with the now-arriving senbatsu.  Finally, the entire stage is used, including the out-croppings on the sides.  Also, the big balloons of balloons similar to the ones in the Aitakatta concert are unleashed.  Yay.

And you know what’s really cool?  They extended the bridge.  Instead of going straight into the chorus, they added a section that just had the voice track and a minimal amount of percussion!  I was so happy they did this, as it’s one of those little things that really add to the song and performance.  The camera switching to the beat of the drums was a nice touch by those crafty video editors, too.

Looking back on it, that new section is only twenty seconds long, but it’s definitely one of the highlights of the concert for me.

Hikoukigumo

And to finish of the concert we have one of the pushed songs from A5 and one of the the B-Sides of ‘RIVER,’ ‘Hikouki Gumo.’

As with the usual line distribution, each Team gets a set of lines, but this time Team S is included, too.  They seem to be really getting lots of attention now.

Another thing I find interesting is that they’re using those concert towels as rags again.  They’re really complementing other idol groups with the use of their commercially-available concert pieces.  I kind of wish AKB would just release new rags for fun… that look nicer than towels.

And the first night of Budokan is complete!

In the Galaxy Tour Final concert, May’n is wearing the fold crystal earring that Sheryl Nome wears!

On November 5th, 2008, May’n and Megumi Nakajima performed the “Galaxy Final Tour” in the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.  This concert was beautifully recorded, and spans 2 DVD’s.

The first disc contains the main concert, and has 167 minutes of footage.  The second disc contains the encore presentation, plus footage of a rehearsal and excerpts on the concert day, and has 63 minutes of Macross goodness.  Here’s the track listing:

Not only did I enjoy Megumi and May’n’s performances, but the crowd was amazing too–so much energy!  Watching this DVD is almost like being there..

May'n (sings Sheryl Nome's songs)

May'n

Megumi Nakajima (sings Ranka Lee's songs)

Megumi sings Minmay's hit song, Ai Oboete Imasu ka

There’s even a guest appearance by the voice actors who played Alto, Michael/Michel, and Bobby!

Alto's voice actor, Yuichi Nakamura

Michael/Michel voice actor, Hiroshi Kamiya

Voice actor for Bobby (Macross Quarter guy with big hair), Kenta Miyake

At the end of the concert, the entire cast of Macross Frontier, including director/writer/creator Shoji Kawamori, appear on the stage!

Cast of Macross Frontier

Shoji also gives a bouquet of flowers to Megumi and May’n.

The high-energy crowd is amazing, as I mentioned before!

The cheering crowd!

If you’re a die-hard Macross fan, you have to see this concert!  It’s amazing to see the songs being sung/performed by the actual artists.

From Budokan… (YouTube will probably take this down. Credit to the uploader.)

From Budokan… (YouTube will probably take this down.  Credit to the uploader.)

Have you order either the Bluray or DVD of LIVE Diamond x Fever? if you have not CDjapan gives you more the reason to buy / pre-order it, with every purchase of the Bluray or DVD, you will get a Free POSTER! though they did not mention how many posters they would be giving.. hopefully with each order they will give 1 LIVE Diamond Poster and 1 LIVE Fever poster but if thats not the case you will still get a poster of nana still great ya? Pre-order it fast to avoid disappointment.

Here’s the track list of LIVE FEVER 2009
*footage will be from the 3rd day of performace on 25 Jan 2009 @ Budokan

・DISCOTHEQUE
・chronicle of sky
・PRIDE OF GLORY
・JET PARK
・POWER GATE
・Take a chance
・ETERNAL BLAZE
・Trinity Cross
・innocent starter
・深愛
・Trickster
・SECRET AMBITION
・It’s in the bag
・ラストシーン
・Crystal Letter
・Tears’ Night
・Orchestral Fantasia
・残光のガイア
・Astrogation
・MASSIVE WONDERS
・BE READY！
・WILD EYES
・SUPER GENERATION

Highlights for FEVER 2009:
I attended the LIVE FEVER and would just like to share my fav moments from the LIVE, the Opening Video is amazing how amazing is it? well i would not wanna spoil it by telling you. I do know that is my Fav OP video of nana’s LIVE till date and i watch 3 times LIVE! wohoooo.
I am sure you will fall in love with the first song DISCOTHEQUE, the crowd goes chu-ru-chu-ru-chu-ru pa-ya-pa here’s the how it sounds like:

Discotheque LIVE Fever:

Track List for LIVE DIAMOND 2009
*@ Seibu Dome 05 July 2009

・ミラクル☆フライト
・アオイイロ
・アノネ～まみむめ☆もがちょ～
・the place of happiness
・蒼き光の果て-ULTIMATE MODE-
・Nostalgia
・沈黙の果実
・残光のガイア
・STAND
・少年
・二人のMEMORY
・PERFECT SMILE
・innocent starter（アコースティックVer.）
・NAKED FEELS（アコースティックVer.）
・深愛（アコースティックVer.）
・Gimmick Game
・still in the groove
・Take a shot
・BRAVE PHOENIX
・MARIA&JOKER
・Justice to Believe
・ETERNAL BLAZE
・悦楽カメリア
・Bring it on !
・Trickster
・夢の続き
・POWER GATE
・Brand New Tops
・DISCOTHEQUE

Highlights for LIVE Diamond:
The water fountain which surrounds nana in the middle of seibu dome are one of the main highlights in LIVE Diamond in which Himeka makes a comment about that the water fountains are for godly ranked singers oh ok maybe himeka is abit exaggerated about the godly rank thingy. Do see it for yourself when the bluray / DVD is out.

For quick access you may pre-order on our right side bar – >>
Thank you for supporting nana mizuki

Great!

Just found out Polysics will be playing @ Nippon Budokan

on May 15th, 2 days before the return flight.

Will get my tickets on January.

They will probably play songs from We Ate The Machine and Absolute Polysics.

Looking forward to that.

Hey There,

We had the morning free so I used the time to fulfill a lifelong dream to visit the Budokan.  Though primarily used for Martial Arts competitions, the Budokan is one of the most famous concert halls in all of Japan.  All of the very best bands have played there and many live albums were recorded there.  Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, the Beatles, Kiss, Bob Dylan, and others have played there.

I had expressed my interest in visiting the Budokan a few days before, but no one on the tour seemed to know where it was.  In fact, many people on the tour had never even heard of it.  The way I found it was that the Budokan appeared on a semi-detailed map of the Yasukuni Shrine, which I visited next.

Anyway, when I went to the Budokan, they were preparing for a concert that night by 9MM Parabellum Bullet, a rock band that is popular in Japan- they sing in Japanese.  You can check them out on iTunes.

I would have gone to the concert, but we had a game that night.

My next stop was the Yasukuni Shrine, which is a shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of the Japanese who died during World War 2.  There are over 2 million spirits enshrined at Yasukuni, including some that are considered war criminals.

In the same park are a number of statues and a war museum called the Yushukan.  This war museum paints Japan as the liberator of Asia and shows that the US and Europe provoked Japan into war.  Thinking back on what I had learned about the Pacific part of World War 2 in school, there was a lot of stuff that was ignored.  Even dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (which we were taught were the catalysts to ending the war) were given very little coverage in my history lessons.  Seeing the war from the Japanese perspective was very interesting.

They didn’t let me take pictures inside the museum, but I got some pictures of the statues outside.

Statue of the War Widow

Faithful reader, Sekka, pointed this out in the forum. According to KOTOKO’s official website Mutant Dwarf, KOTOKO is going to have her One-man-live in NIPPON BUDOKAN.

So… KOTOKO’s solo Budokan live? What does this mean?

Marctensia has confirmed to be the organizer for Korea’s popular idol group SS501’s Malaysia concert with a 7-figure high price!

SS501 who visited Malaysia on a whirlwind stop for a press conference and fan sign session, had previously prominently announced to be coming to Malaysia for a concert either this December or next January. According to a reliable source, since SS501’s plans to come to Malaysia for a concert was spread, 3 organizers from Singapore and Malaysia were snatching for the organizing rights,, but finally Marctensia obtained the rights to organize “SS501 Asia Tour Persona 2009″ Malaysia with a 7-figure price.

Marctensia had previousl organized Sandy Lam’s and Akon’s concert in Malaysia. Rumors are, on the 3rd, after SS501’s maanger sent SS501 back to Korea, the next day he visited Malaysia again to discuss details about the concert with Marctensia.

Equal to the price for Jay Chou
It is said in that the initial discussions, Marctensia will buy SS501’s Malaysia concert with a similar price to top Chinese singers. “Its rumored that the price is close to the price for Jay Chou, just the price for SS501 alone is close to 1 million RM!” (Note: 1 million RM = 284,600 USD)

Following a successful concert on the 1st August at Seoul Olympic Park, SS501, who’ve debut for 4 years, also officially announced the launch of their Asia Tour, including the 2 concert that was held on 13th August at Budokan, Tokyo, subsequently they’ll be holding their concert at Taipei Arena and in Singapore.

As the production company just received the stage layout for SS501’s concert tour, hence there is no set date and venue yet, but generally its expected to be in mid-December, to be held before or after their Singapore concert.

SS501, who’s currently extremely popular in Asia, its rumored that the management company has said that there’ll be more than 100 people coming over, including SS501’s assistants, make-up artists, hairstylists, concert technicians etc.

Credits: Guang Ming Daily + TripleS Malaysia + (English translation) SS5014ever @ WS501|quainte501

Chello Friends, hier kommt mal wieder eine Empfehlung für ein wirklich lesenswertes Buch:

Kurz die Fakten: Das Buch hat 188 Seiten und ist auf Englisch. Das schwarze sind die Buchstaben.

Forrest Griffin ist ein Kämpfer in der UFC und Gewinner der ersten Staffel von TUF (The ultimate fighter). Das ist eine Art reality soap, bei der der Gewinner einen Vertrag mit der UFC bekommt.

Ich habe inzwischen schon einige Kämpfer-Biographien gelesen, aber die hier ist der Hammer. Ehrlich gesagt habe ich Forrest (ich nenne ihn ab hier nur noch beim Vornamen, weil ich mich ihm so nahe fühle ) vorher kaum gekannt. Klar, den Namen hatte ich schon gehört, aber ich hatte vor der Buchbestellung weder TUF 1 noch einen seiner Kämpfe gesehen. Während ich auf das Buch gewartet habe, kam Forrest gegen Anderson Silva. Das war für ihn nicht so wirklich glorreich, aber das Buch ist, habe ich es schon erwähnt, der Hammer.

Kurzer Einwurf an meine Lutadores: Ich hab beim Lesen ständig gedacht: Das ist Rojhaz, nein ehrlich, der Typ ist (fast) so verdreht genial wie Rojhaz.

Back to business: Der Untertitel des Buches lautet:” The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face-Combat”. Im Umschlagtext wird geschrieben, dass dieses Buch ein Manifest ist, strategischer als Sun Tzus “Kunst des Krieges”, philosophischer als Bruce Lees “Tao of Jeet Kune Do”. (Nur am Rand für die Kampfsportler/-künstler unter Euch, falls Ihr die erwähnten Bücher nicht in Eurem Regal stehen habt, besorgt sie Euch!!!)

Ich habe eine kleine freakige Angewohnheit, dass ich Dinge die ich interessant finde besonders genau ansehe (Fred kann Euch dazu eventuell eine kleine Geschichte erzählen, Stichwort “Obscure” ) Jedenfalls wird im Buch auf den Seiten bevor der Text eigentlich beginnt darauf hingewiesen, dass beim Erstellen des Buches nur sehr wenige kleine Tiere zu Schaden kamen. Und diese sind auch nicht in die “niedlich” Kategorie gefallen, also war es ok Schon klar, viele von Euch werden bei einem Buch auch die “acknowledgments” überspringen. Ich nicht Mitten drin fragt Forrest auch, welche Idioten diesen Teil überhaupt lesen, Ihr solltet es aber trotzdem tun, is sisch kongred lusdisch.

Als nächstes eine Sache die unter uns bleiben sollte. (Aber hey, das ist das Internet, wer außer den 3 Leuten die ich anspreche wird schon davon erfahren?). Ganz am Anfang gibt es einen Männlichkeitstest. Wer über 40 Punkte hat, darf das Buch stolz lesen. Zwischen 30 und 40 Punkten darf man das Buch zwar lesen, falls man aber gefragt wird, ob man es getan hat muss man sagen: “Nein, ich habe es versucht, es war aber viel zu männlich für mich um es zu verstehen”. Unter 20 Punkten muss man das Buch direkt auf den Boden legen und sich langsam rückwärtsgehend entfernen. Unter uns, ich hatte 35 Punkte, sagt es bitte nicht Forrest:-)

Zum Inhalt will ich gar nicht so viel sagen. Ganz kurz: es werden alle wichtigen Dinge angesprochen, darunter auch einiges, das man sonst nicht unbedingt hört. Ganz erfrischend ist es mal, dass hier nicht in der typisch chronologischen Erzählform vorgegangen wird. Dazwischen wird das ganze immer wieder durch die “dick in a box” Passagen aufgefrischt, in denen Forrest’s Kumpels aus seinem Leben erzählen. Zuuuuuu geil. Das Teil hat jedenfalls den Manuelito-Witzigkeitstest bestanden. D.h., ich wache mitten in der Nacht auf weil jemand lacht nur um nach einigen Augenblicken festzustellen, dass ich das selber bin

Am Ende gibt es noch einen schönen Technikteil, in dem neben der korrekten Kampfhaltung auch auf die Wahl seiner Socken eingegangen wird. Hier lernt man auch (unüblich für ein MMA-Buch) die Verteidigung gegen einen Schwertangriff und weitere sehr nützliche Sachen.

Zusammenfassend möchte ich erwähnen, dass hier mal wieder deutlich wird, dass Genie und Wahnsinn sehr eng beieinander liegen. Für den uneingeschränkten Lesegenuss ist ein mittlerer Hirnschaden bestimmt nicht schädlich Wie schon gesagt, meine Lutadores brauchen das Buch nicht unbedingt zu lesen, Ihr habt ja Rojhaz, für alle anderen: Holt Euch das Buch oder kommt zum LL Training nach Bad Rappenau !!!

La banda BREAKERZ formada por DAIGO, AKIHIDE y SHINPEI celebran su segundo año déspues de tocar por primera vez en el Budokan con un nuevo lanzamiento. En este nuevo lanzamiento nos presentaran su dvd de concierto que vendrá con 2 dvds más un documento del Budokan. Este nuevo lanzamiento saldrá el próximo 14 de Octubre:

Tracklist
＜DISC 1＞
01.SUMMER PARTY
02.NO SEX NO LIFE
03.Angelic Smile
04.Kimi no Koe ga Kikoeru
～AKIHIDE SOLO～
05.Faraway so Close.
06.EMILY
07.IN THE SKY
08.THE TRAIN’S GONE…
09.Re:born
10.Sekai wa Odoru
～SHINPEI SOLO～Gt.BATTLE～
11.BIG BANG!
12.AO NO MIRAI
13.Crystal Night
14.Everlasting Luv
15.REAL LOVE
16.FAKE LOVE
17.BUZZER BEATER
18.Shakunetsu

＜DISC 2＞
E1.B.R.Z～Ashita He no Kakehashi～ Acoustic Version
E2.BAMBINO～バンビーノ～
E3.Hikari
E4.GRAND FINALE

＋「El documento del Budokan」

Idol group SS501 member Kim HyunJoong and Heo YeongSang have came out to clarify about a recent paparazzi.

on 17th August, one of the media in HongKong reported, “Kim HyunJoong and Heo YeongSaeng has flew in to HongKong secretly and enjoyed vacation with a female.”

With that DSP Media said, “The boys went over to HongKong after their Japanese Budokan performance and went on a vacation trip with 8 other friends they have known since elementary school. The media has only caught and reported the scene where YeongSaeng and one of the female friends going into a cab.”

“The company knows about them going on a vacation with their close friends. The paparazzi reports are not real. The boys will be flying back to Korea soon.”

SS501 previously opened their first Asia concert tour in Seoul on 1st and 2nd August.

source: kbites

Leader Kim Hyun Joong’s half-naked upper body sents Japanese fans into a daze

For Japanese singers, there are 2 dream stages. One is the famous “Budokan”, this is an indoor martial arts hall in Japan, the other dream is Tokyo Dome, which can hold 50,000 people at once.

Korea’s famous group Dong Bang Shin Ki had previously held a concert in Tokyo Dome, back then it created much talk, because being able to successfully hold a concert at the Dome, not only is news-worthy, but also means this group or singer can attract 50,000 audience at once, this is a shiny dream for singers. On the other hand, as compared to Tokyo Dome, Budokan’s seating capacity is lesser, having roughly 14,471 seats, but this is also a dream stage for Japanese singers, because it holds a special significance to the Japanese.

Budokan was opened in 1964, back then in order for Tokyo to host the Olympics, the CEO back then worked hard to prepare for this building, after it was completed it was an awe and source of pride for the Japanese. During the Olympics, it was the venue for Judo, Aikido, Kendo, etc, various Japanese martial arts competition. Subsequently, wrestling matches were also held here, and after that, it became a venue for large-scale concerts and musical performances etc.

Budokan is named as such because the Japanese had looked upon it as “Japan’s sacred place for martial arts and Judo”, based on this concept, one can imagine how the Japanese feel towards Budokan. And in 1966, in an unprecedented move, Beatles became the first to be allowed to sing at Budokan, opening the path for other singers to sing at this sacred ground. After that, many famous artistes targeted Budokan when they came to Japan for concerts, the late Michael Jackson was another who had performed here before. Local Japanese singers look upon singing at Budokan as a lifelong goal, and its also an indicator of becoming a top singer approved by everyone, so its not wrong to name Budokan as a “dream stage” for singers.

Therefore, most Korean singers hope to either perform at Budokan or Tokyo Dome when having concerts in Japan. This is an understandable reality, and also a path that one must go through to prove one’s popularity in Japan.

Up till now, only a few Korean singers have successfully stepped into this sacred place, for example, a top Korean Hallyu star in Japan, Rhu Shi-won, Park Yong-ha, Rain and Dong Bang Shin Ki etc, but now, on the 13th, these lively boys of ours, SS501, have successfully entered the sacred place – Budokan.

SS501 had entered the Japan market and released Japanese albums from 2007, slowly letting Japanese fans know about them, even though they didn’t shoot to fame overnight, but they’ve finally completed the blueprint of their dreams. And the concert in Budokan this time round had 2 sessions, one in the afternoon and one at night, all the tickets were sold out. Starting from 13th noon, we arrived there and prepared for the interview, the sun was hot that day, the heat was stifling, but the fans we saw queuing remained enthusiastic, their faces were full of expectation and we could feel their love for these 5 grown-up boys. From the subway station till outside the venue, it was full of Japanese women, they had only one aim, to quickly see the SS501 that they support.

Within and outside of the venue were full of crowds, and of course the stalls that were selling concert merchandise were crowded as well, everyone enthusiastically discussed about which product to buy, from photobook to posters, everything was available. SS501’s fans, regardless of what product it was, as long as it had the faces of the members they supported, they’d want to bring it home, as long as they liked it, they were willing to buy it, this also led to many opportunities for sellers.

It was also this reporter’s first time to Budokan, feeling very nervous yet full of anticipation. As I slowly walked towards the sacred grounds for local and overseas singers, my anticipation doubled. The view outside the venue is really beautiful, letting visitors to fully understand Japanese culture, quiet, ancient and very Japanese.

Budokan’s interior is full of history, the whole architecture is very authoritative, a very high ceiling and the huge national flag of Japan, first floor seats are leveled, starting from the second floor it feels like a building that was made of one piece, its a rather impressive building, causing one to feel in awe while standing inside.

On this very humid and hot day, the people who love SS501 gathered together to support them, after entering, due to the large amount of people, the air within was very stifling, but everyone’s already in their seats, and the seats on the 2nd floor actually don’t have cushioning, everyone must have felt very uncomfortable, but they all sat and anxiously waited for the concert to start. As the venue wasn’t built for concerts, many seats within weren’t suitable, but everyone didn’t care, because its a form of approval to be able to enter and watch the idol you like performing.

Finally, Korean singers have once again successfully entered Japan, this is a very satisfying. This concert started 15 minutes later than it was supposed to, at 1:15pm, the lights suddenly switched off, everyone’s nerves were pulled tight, after a series of cheers, SS501’s first show in Budokan officially opened.

On 1st and 2nd August (Seoul time), SS501 had already shown their magnificent and wonderful performance to their Korean fans. Their stage for this tour is T-shaped, great attention was paid to the lighting on stage, and the videos that were played on the big screens etc, the dazzling stage effects once again proved how much the organizers invested, and also showed that the abilities of Korean megastars are worth investing in.

SS501 were dressed in black with gold ornaments, opening with fast songs and hot dances, using the familiar “Deja Vu” to heat up the atmosphere. The strong and powerful dance not only displayed strength and beauty, but also caused the 10,000 odd female fans to be immersed in it, the following songs were increasingly beautiful, SS501 totally grabbed the hearts of their fans.

“Hi, we’re SS501″. After the 5 of them sang together, it was time to chat, once the members said their greetings the screams from the fans were deafening. “We’ve actually been waiting for this chance, we wanted to try standing on this stage, now that we’ve done it, we want to share this satisfaction with everyone!!” But it was a pity that, perhaps the members hadn’t performed in Japan for a long time, so they weren’t very familiar with their Japanese, but the enthusiasm of the fans didn’t decrease because of this.

Actually SS501 really worked hard, with no translator present, the 5 of them were singers as well as translators, they really made a great effort. And of course, the most talkative was Park Jung Min, who’s ability to speak Japanese is the best, he can already converse in Japanese, but the other members can only carry on a simple conversation, leader Hyun Joong was his usually quiet self, its not clear if he had almost forgotten his Japanese, many times using expressions to express himself.

The whole concert lasted 2 1/2 hours, singing around 20 songs, and amongst them, almost 70% of the songs were fast dance songs, we never saw expressions of tiredness on their faces, only satisfaction, and the different charms they exuded. During the 2 1/2 hours performance, they changed about 6, 7 different sets of clothes, and rest of the time was spent performing hard for their fans, the fans who were fully immersed in it all felt that the time passed too quickly, and were reluctant to part.

Songs like “Deja Vu”, “Warning”, “4chance”, “A Song Calling for You”, “Hey G”, “Wassup”, “Never Again”, “Because I’m Stupid”, “U R Man”, “Fighter”, “Nameless Memory”, “Crazy” etc, along with the songs from their 2nd official album that’s to be released in September, SS501 sang it all for the fans, including a song that SS501 wrote the lyrics for, a song for the fans “Fan Song”, it talks about how they thank the fans that’s been by their side and supporting them all along, they’re grateful for everyone’s support that led to the SS501 of today.

The songs were linked together by the members’ solo songs, there was acapella singing, amazing dances, and also sexy elements full of masculine beauty within. But the most shocking is definitely Hyun Joong’s performance that came towards the later half of the concert. Dressed in a black, tight wifebeater, Kim Hyun Joong tore his wifebeater going along with the ups-and-downs of the song, showing his muscular chest and stomach, subsequently he even tore it off fully, and was half-naked, and a disturbance was created when he threw it towards the audience.

Although Kim Hyun Joong is famous as a small-faced pretty boy, but the shape of his body is very manly, so when he was half-naked we saw a muscular chest line and a beautiful stomach muscles, this caused the 10,000 odd audience to continually scream. The Yoon Ji Hoo in “Boys over Flower” that’s currently airing in Japan is this man on-stage that is full of masculine beauty, different from the gentle and quiet Yoon Ji Hoo in BOF, everyone is won over by Kim Hyun Joong’s sexiness and manliness on stage.

There was almost no chance for the fans to rest in the 2 1/2 hours, SS501, in the final encore songs, expressed their gratitude and love to the fans, enthusiasm and reluctance to leave interweaved throughout the whole concert, and SS501’s Asia Tour Japan stop also came to a close as the curtains fell.

Even though these 5 boys haven’t had much activities in Japan in the past year, but in this past year void they’ve never stopped being concerned about their fans. Singing at Budokan with the enthusiastic support of their fans, and unimaginably, under the circumstances where almost 99% of the songs were Korean, the fans remained supportive and immersed in the concert, it really is rare and touching.

Actually there were little accidents as the concert progressed, like the microphone being problematic, and the screen at the back not displaying the proper visual during intense dances, and also the little drops in atmosphere due to the members’ poor Japanese, even though there are still many areas for improvement, and the five of them don’t dare to say it was a perfect performance, but after seeing it, it’s not to point out what they lack, instead, what we see is seriousness and being responsible for the performance. SS501 had no rest in the 2 1/2 hours, their faces were full of enthusiasm and satisfaction, even though there was areas for improvement, they remained smiling, humbly and slowly expressing, everyone can see their hard work. This natural and loveable looks is the SS501 that we love, and their mistakes are also their right and privilege, everyone will only love them more.

Korean idols officially entering the Japanese market, they are our SS501. The next step, we hope they’ll be back with more fluent Japanese (?), the next time we want to see these 5 boys stepping onto the other dream stage – Tokyo Dome.

Credits: JPNnews + (Chinese translation) julieann@ hyunjoongchina.com + (English translation) SS5014ever @ WS501|quainte501

SS501 swept off some 30,000 audience off their feet at Budokan, Tokyo Japan.

SS501 successfully held their ‘PERSONA IN JAPAN’ as part of their Asia Tour on 13-Aug at 1pm and 7pm.

All of SS501 albums which are released in Japan had been ranked high on Oricon charts, establishing themselves in Japan. SS501’s position were further confirmed with the sell-out of 2 performances on this day.

SS501 postponed their official album release from August to mid-September. This was done so that they can prepare their album even more perfectly and proceed with their Asia Tour.

SS501 representative expressed “They left for Japan on 9-Aug to prepare for their Japan concert. It was great that the response in Japan was good. We seek for everyone’s attention and anticipation.”

SS501 will be going to various Asia countries to hold their concert such as Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, HongKong, BeiJing, etc, from October onwards.

Credits : tarophine@asiae.co.kr + ss601.com + (English Translation) xiaochu @ Quainte501.com

Kim HyunJoong tearing apart his top is so-called ‘JjitJoong’ performance
Copyright @ KBS 2TV Yunyega Relay Capture

Group SS501’s fans are troubled over member Kim HyunJoong. This was because of the ‘JjitJoong’ performance shown during the Asia Tour performance in Seoul on 1~2 Aug.

On that day, Kim HyunJoong appeared in a black wife beater during his solo performance and showed a sexy dance, tearing his top. Towards the end of his song, he tore away his top totally showing his muscular upper body.

Fans’ response to this unexpected performance was overwhelming. Thereafter, words like ‘JjitJoong (HyunJoong Tearing Clothes)’ or ‘JjitJoongeh Nan’ are widely used by fans online. In correspondence to this, videos of ‘JjitJoong’ are also uploaded in various community boards and blogs, gaining huge popularity.

However, fans expressed their disappointment when they heard the news of the success of SS501 concert in Budokan, Japan on 13-Aug, with 30,000 enthusiastic fans. Reason being that ‘JjitJoong’ was also shown without fail during the Japan concert too.

Fans discussed their mixed feelings of disappointment and joy “Would JjitJoong be shown for all of their Tour concerts?”, “It’s a pity that we have to share this with fans from other countries”, “Seems like JjitJoong’s tsunami is a big hit in Japan”.

In this Japan concert, SS501 wore masks and performed dynamic dance, singing a total of over 20 songs including their debut song ‘Warning, ‘Boys over flowers’ drama theme song ‘Because I am stupid’, etc. In Budokan where the usual audience capacity is 15,000, they sold out all the tickets to their 2 concerts, proving their popularity as a Hallyu Star.

SS501 will be releasing their official 2nd album mid of next month. Coming October, they will continue with their Asia Tour concerts in Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, HongKong, China, etc.

Credits : starnews + ss601.com + (English Translation) xiaochu @ Quainte501.com

Big Bang will be performing at Japan’s Budokan this November, having just debuted in Japan 4 months ago.

According to YG Entertainment, Big Bang will be holding a concert on 4th November at Japan’s Budokan. Performing at Budokan is the dream of many Japanese singers and this remarkable achievement by Big Bang (1st Korean singer/artist to do so in the short period of 4 months) attest to their growing popularity in Japan. Prior to Budokan, Big Bang will also embark on a Japan concert tour which will span 6 cities and attract more than 50,000 fans, starting with Nagoya on 26th October.

Although Big Bang’s Daesung is currently recuperating from multiple injuries suffered in an accident, YG Entertainment is optimistic that with the Budokan date still a few months away, Daesung should recover in time to rejoin Big Bang and their fans for the concert. To build up momentum, Big Bang will also release their 1st Japanese album and Asia Best 2006-2009 album at the same time on 19th August.

source: oolsmurf

I’ve finally managed to upload my photos from my trip to Tokyo, so they’re all viewable online at Picasa now. Hit up the link to check them out and leave me any fun comments you might have. I’ve got a few personal favourites in my collection, but considering I cut my batch of photos from 1,500 to just about 190 for this gallery, I’d say these are the near and dear ones to me.

Picasa Web Albums Japan Gallery.