Back in Tokyo!
More fun notes from yesterday's maeraku and senshuuraku in Kobe!
Maeraku
--Nice seat: 9th row on an aisle :D
--1st cast's segment had everyone in stitches XD For some reason they all got stuck on why Tuti makes the karakarakara before his moon volley, which he defensively explained was...because it was written that way. They tried to explain that it was SFX, there was no need to say it out loud, to which he replied, "Well no one else was going to say it for me!" So, apparently still stuck in fuku-Leader mode, Eiji stepped in here and offered to do the sound for Tuti, so they asked him to do the move, which he did...except Eiji kept on going with his karakarakara XDDD So Tuti had to keep going. The whole thing eventually culminated in Tuti doing some weird karakarakara dance down the hanamichi (long runway in the middle of the arena) and hamming it up big time XDDDD A+, Tsuchiya-san.
--The guests today were Hyoutei members...so Kubobe and Hosogai came out to chat during the corner :D They even sang a verse from Remember, Hyoutei and riled up the audience with a rousing chorus of "Katsu no wa HYOUTEI, makeru no SEIGAKU!"
--The ballad at the end for DL7th, rather than being a new song, is Season, sung by the entire cast, and during it, when the whole cast is on the main stage, there's one part where Tsuji's up on the stairs and Shouta's stuck on the other side of the stage. I dunno if he's done this every time, but I only started noticing it at maeraku (and he did it again at SSR), but Shouta at one point SPRINTS across the stage, takes the stairs two at a time, and plants himself firmly beside Tsuji with a hand on his shoulder :D Yeeeaaaah :D
Senshuuraku
--I only picked up my ticket about an hour before the show, as I'd won it on auction and was to pick it up the day of, since there wasn't time to get it mailed. So while I knew the general area, I didn't know the specifics. I learned, however, when I got into the theater.............that I was flush up against one of the fences railing the center stage, which means I was separated from these boys up close and personal by a mere few feet of air and nothing else, which was FUCKING AWESOME. Better than my 2nd row seat center from yesterday? UMM, YEAH. MUCH. Because I got to not only be around the center stage guys (who are always more fun for some reason), but I got to see a few really fun things! Such as...
1) So, there's one scene where Ryuuki flies around on a pulley, just like in ShitenhoujiMyu and DL6th (well, it was Shougo then) and it's awesome and all...but you never really SEE how they do it. WELL I GOT TO! Because the system was right beside me--I could literally reach over the rail and pat the guys doing it on the back XD It was two guy working on a pulley: one pulling down, the other pushing up on the other rope, all in an effort to shoot little Ryuuki up into the air at crazy speeds and make him fly around. The best part of it, though, was watching how they made him get serious air the few times when he took running leaps into the air: one of the guys got up on a step stool, grabbed as high up on the rope as he could, and then jumped off, using his full weight (he was a pretty hefty older dude) to launch Ryuuki into the air like some rope-made teeter-totter XD It was actually really fun to watch :D
2) I don't think I ever noticed how they got around from the main stage to the center and substages before...but there is actually a curtained off walkway under the hanamichi I had never seen! So throughout the whole show, unseen, there are boys running back and forth in a relatively low-ceilinged tunnel :P And they get in and out via little holes in the curtain...which, I'm sure you can imagine, are oftentimes hard to find unless you make sure you remember where they are. Unfortunately for a few of the guys...sometimes they forgot XD Such as poor Mako-chan who jumped off the center stage and was supposed to scramble under it into the curtained off area...but tried to go through a place that didn't have an opening. Quickly realizing it was wrong, he scrambled off to the other side, still getting confused as to where the hole was before finally finding it XD;;; Poor baby :D These holes also served to scare the crap out of us as well, though, when--for example--SHIRAISHI would just launch himself out of one and give us all heart attacks :P
3) FGKS and On My Way from way the hell close as I was? UMM, KINDA AWESOMECAKES. The guys come super close and interact particularly often with those of us lucky enough to be right on the railing, so we got "personal time" with: Hosogai, Kubobe, Toshi, Baba, Sasaki!Shiraishi, Akaba (Marui), Maru (Horio), Niou (mmmm Nakagauchi is SO PRETTY), and OF COURSE: T2 :DDDDDD It was kind of a shock for me, as I wasn't paying attention to Tsuji at the time, instead watching Akaba because he'd been interacting with us but had wandered to another corner of the stage. So I had my eye following him, and then saw this hand waving flailingly at me out of the corner of my eye, and I glanced back over and HOLYSHITTSUJIRIGHTTHEREINMYFACE waving the crap out of me and the few others in our little corner and sldiufhslfds gooooood he was adorable :P And then Shouta came over later and popped a squat to give us some much-loved attention. Funnier still was when he looked just past us and started cracking up so hard he couldn't even keep singing, so we all glanced to where he was looking and there not 2 feet away was TOSHI making these stupid faces and skduhfsdf I couldn't figure out who I wanted to look at XD;
(also during On My Way, in the background on the main stage, when 1st cast came back out, they totally started tossing Yanagi up in the air ;__; ffffffuck)
--Shitenhouji for this show were Shitenhouji B, which included Mako-chan and SEXTASY!Shiraishi :D Before the show, Meg actually found a girl in the break area (the goods hall is a huge warehouse like place, half of which is set aside for the goods area, and the other half of which is full of benches and rest areas to pass the time between shows, with TeniMyu music playing over speakers. Last time there were even big-screen TVs with old Myus being shown *___* TeniMyu knows how to keep its customers distracted :P But I digress!) Anyways, in this break area between shows, Meg actually found a girl who was collecting messages on a message board to give to Sasaki (B!Shiraishi) so she left him a note XD Lots of girls were doing that for their favorite actors, and now I wish I'd maybe done something like that for 1st cast guys (or at least found someone...if they even accepted them >_>) But yeah, Shitenhouji B this time? Most definitely more fun for me than A! For a number of reasons:
1) SEXTASY -- seriously. Halu had NOTHING on Sasaki during the Shiraishi scenes, and not just for his voice. Boy danced the SHIT out of that stage and was the sexiest I've ever seen Shiraishi *____* And I've seen Shiraishi be pretty damn sexy, mind you! But, for example, during Ecstasy, Shiraishi picks up a rose on the main stage and then saunters down the hanamichi to the center stage, tossing it into the audience along the way. Halu!Shiraishi tucked the rose into the collar of his shirt, wandered about halfway down the stage, and then tossed it (always to the left). Sasaki!Shiraishi, though.........at both maeraku and senshuuraku, PUT THE FUCKING FLOWER IN HIS PANTS. Then at maeraku, he got almost to center stage before tossing it into the audience to his right (literally THREE ROWS behind where I was >_>), and at senshuuraku he got all the way to center stage, did a bunch of sextasy dancing with the thing still stuck in his pants, then pulled it out slowly and tossed it straight ahead. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
2) Bakappuru!Mako-chan and Izumi -- I really like the bakappuru and think they're great comedic relief and cute on a number of levels, so I was happy they got a little scene all to themselves in the show. But Shitenhouji A's boys, at least in this instance, definitely didn't Bring It, whereas Mako-chan and Izumi totally did!
For example, there's a video segment of rehearsal hall bloopers (which I'll go into more detail later XD), and part of it involves the Shitenhouji boys practicing, and then Koharu's actor (Takeyan or Izumi, depending on which Shitenhouji was performing that show) is seen wandering off alone to sulk because he feels his dancing is bad. Yuuji's actor (Hirano or Mako-chan) then wanders over to comfort him, giving some cutesy bakappuru fanservice. For the A boys, though, it was more...comedic, than fanservice, with Yuuji telling Koharu (in English) "I love me!", unable to get out the proper "I love you" despite practicing XD; With the B boys, though, Izumi is seen moping in a corner, ignoring Mako-chan's comforting reassurance and saying, "Takeyan's funnier, he can perform instead!" and Mako-chan saying it has to be Izumi because, "Zumi's cuter, though." :PPPPPP (I don't ship them but gah they're really cute and asiudhalsd XD) After this, they wander off holding hands XD
The other big part where the B bakappuru showed off their shippy powers was in a short little corner where they're both on the center stage together (about to introduce the rest of Shitenhouji after ~1 min of adlibbing). The A boys' corner was funny and all, but maaaaan did Izumi and Mako-chan pull out the stops at senshuuraku XD They got up on the stage and started flirting the heeeeelll out of their time together :P Izumi started off skipping around the stage calling back, "Yuu-kun~~ try and catch me~~~" and Mako-chan got this evil sexy grin on and started singing, "Oitsumeta ze...mou ato wa nai..." ("I've got you cornered now...there's nowhere left to run..." <--lyrics from the Rikkai song that'd just ended) and then they started getting really close to each other both singing, "giri giri...giri giri...giri giri...!" ("closer...closer...closer!" <--more lyrics from the same Rikkai song) and and and yeeeaaaah LOTS of screaming from the crowd XD
--A frowny point but one I guess I can kind of understand now: Tuti's and Nagayan's part in Saigo no Golden Pair has been shortened! At first they were out all the way from the start of the song to, "Omae ga minus nara, ore wa purasu ijou ni naru", because I remember Tuti pulling Nagayan up from sitting on the ground and thinking, "Sheesh, take it easy on him, you almost pulled his arm out of its socket..." but...for both maeraku and senshuuraku, they left before that part and were only present for the first few lines, being subsequently replaced by two of the ichinen trio ;_; Maybe they switching it up to allow more doubles pairs presence on stage? Guess I'll have to wait and see other shows!
BUT OH SPEAKING OF TXN DURING THIS SONG. It just kind of amazed me that for the first few lines when Tuti and Nagayan are out there, they're PERFECTLY SYNCHRONIZED mimicing T2's dance moves! It's really eerie almost. Like, none of the other pairs do Oishi's and Eiji's moves, but when both Oishi and Eiji teams are out there alone, the Oishis are doing the same moves, and the Eijis are doing the same moves, and they're doing them at the same time so...it's really cool 8D And it makes me wonder if they practiced together to get that kind of synchronization *_____* Must...restrain...urge to fic.
--MoriEiji totally made a boob joke. He said something implicative IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE OF 6000. WTF. When 1st cast are introducing themselves and all, they ask if everyone's having fun, as usual, and at senshuuraku, Eiji asked if everyone was "perky and close together"...but like, made implicative gestures, and the Japanese sounded more like, "upright and pushed together" and..........YEAH XD It was even better, because after he said that, everyone kind of laughed nervously in the audience, confused, and the entire rest of 1st cast was all, "..........the hell?" with Tuti voicing what everyone was wondering, "....the fuck does that even mean?!" Eiji tried to save face by explaining he was talking about his hair--how it stands up straight and is really hard and pushed together. Riiiiiiiiight :P
--Wondering if anything special happened at senshuuraku? Well, there was no special talk or anything, but during certain ballads, particularly near the end, they started streaming footage from auditions and all (like for 5th cast during their ballad), which totally started getting everyone choked up ;_; They also included shots of the 5th cast guys more recently as their characters, and I loved this because: everyone got solo shots from previous performances EXCEPT for T2. Who got a shot together as Golden Pair :D
Have I mentioned how much I love this show yet??? BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SHOW.
I broke down and purchased the full Seigaku set this time, and still need to go back and get other random photos. And gdi I swore to dislike Rikkai forever because their fans annoy the shit out of me, but TeniMyu makes me do things I never thought I would, like ship Shiraishi and Kin-chan or wish for more Atobe-Hiyoshi interaction just so I can see Kubota and Hosogai making hate-sex eyes at each other, and so I am falling kinda in lustlove with Kane-chan and Masuda and Nakagauchi and Yamaoki (not enough probably to go see another of their shows...but possibly enough to at least buy some of their photosets or download their stuff >_>) and get giddy when they happen to be close to where I am during the final songs (which happens a lot, particularly with Yamaoki for some reason o_O)
On that note: it's really surreal seeing Tuti talking about "the Rikkai team" and being all in that TeniMyu mode that I normally associate with 5th cast and guys half his age and still heavily involved in the franchise, yanno?
Surreal...but nice :) Maybe this means there'll be even more TeniMyu guys in *pnish* stuff in the future!!
Random: heeeeeeey! Look who's a model for this random Rakuten shop (ah fuckit, too many pics, just check the main page XD) And look who else! (apparently Hirata's in there too...)
Maeraku
--Nice seat: 9th row on an aisle :D
--1st cast's segment had everyone in stitches XD For some reason they all got stuck on why Tuti makes the karakarakara before his moon volley, which he defensively explained was...because it was written that way. They tried to explain that it was SFX, there was no need to say it out loud, to which he replied, "Well no one else was going to say it for me!" So, apparently still stuck in fuku-Leader mode, Eiji stepped in here and offered to do the sound for Tuti, so they asked him to do the move, which he did...except Eiji kept on going with his karakarakara XDDD So Tuti had to keep going. The whole thing eventually culminated in Tuti doing some weird karakarakara dance down the hanamichi (long runway in the middle of the arena) and hamming it up big time XDDDD A+, Tsuchiya-san.
--The guests today were Hyoutei members...so Kubobe and Hosogai came out to chat during the corner :D They even sang a verse from Remember, Hyoutei and riled up the audience with a rousing chorus of "Katsu no wa HYOUTEI, makeru no SEIGAKU!"
--The ballad at the end for DL7th, rather than being a new song, is Season, sung by the entire cast, and during it, when the whole cast is on the main stage, there's one part where Tsuji's up on the stairs and Shouta's stuck on the other side of the stage. I dunno if he's done this every time, but I only started noticing it at maeraku (and he did it again at SSR), but Shouta at one point SPRINTS across the stage, takes the stairs two at a time, and plants himself firmly beside Tsuji with a hand on his shoulder :D Yeeeaaaah :D
Senshuuraku
--I only picked up my ticket about an hour before the show, as I'd won it on auction and was to pick it up the day of, since there wasn't time to get it mailed. So while I knew the general area, I didn't know the specifics. I learned, however, when I got into the theater.............that I was flush up against one of the fences railing the center stage, which means I was separated from these boys up close and personal by a mere few feet of air and nothing else, which was FUCKING AWESOME. Better than my 2nd row seat center from yesterday? UMM, YEAH. MUCH. Because I got to not only be around the center stage guys (who are always more fun for some reason), but I got to see a few really fun things! Such as...
1) So, there's one scene where Ryuuki flies around on a pulley, just like in ShitenhoujiMyu and DL6th (well, it was Shougo then) and it's awesome and all...but you never really SEE how they do it. WELL I GOT TO! Because the system was right beside me--I could literally reach over the rail and pat the guys doing it on the back XD It was two guy working on a pulley: one pulling down, the other pushing up on the other rope, all in an effort to shoot little Ryuuki up into the air at crazy speeds and make him fly around. The best part of it, though, was watching how they made him get serious air the few times when he took running leaps into the air: one of the guys got up on a step stool, grabbed as high up on the rope as he could, and then jumped off, using his full weight (he was a pretty hefty older dude) to launch Ryuuki into the air like some rope-made teeter-totter XD It was actually really fun to watch :D
2) I don't think I ever noticed how they got around from the main stage to the center and substages before...but there is actually a curtained off walkway under the hanamichi I had never seen! So throughout the whole show, unseen, there are boys running back and forth in a relatively low-ceilinged tunnel :P And they get in and out via little holes in the curtain...which, I'm sure you can imagine, are oftentimes hard to find unless you make sure you remember where they are. Unfortunately for a few of the guys...sometimes they forgot XD Such as poor Mako-chan who jumped off the center stage and was supposed to scramble under it into the curtained off area...but tried to go through a place that didn't have an opening. Quickly realizing it was wrong, he scrambled off to the other side, still getting confused as to where the hole was before finally finding it XD;;; Poor baby :D These holes also served to scare the crap out of us as well, though, when--for example--SHIRAISHI would just launch himself out of one and give us all heart attacks :P
3) FGKS and On My Way from way the hell close as I was? UMM, KINDA AWESOMECAKES. The guys come super close and interact particularly often with those of us lucky enough to be right on the railing, so we got "personal time" with: Hosogai, Kubobe, Toshi, Baba, Sasaki!Shiraishi, Akaba (Marui), Maru (Horio), Niou (mmmm Nakagauchi is SO PRETTY), and OF COURSE: T2 :DDDDDD It was kind of a shock for me, as I wasn't paying attention to Tsuji at the time, instead watching Akaba because he'd been interacting with us but had wandered to another corner of the stage. So I had my eye following him, and then saw this hand waving flailingly at me out of the corner of my eye, and I glanced back over and HOLYSHITTSUJIRIGHTTHEREINMYFACE waving the crap out of me and the few others in our little corner and sldiufhslfds gooooood he was adorable :P And then Shouta came over later and popped a squat to give us some much-loved attention. Funnier still was when he looked just past us and started cracking up so hard he couldn't even keep singing, so we all glanced to where he was looking and there not 2 feet away was TOSHI making these stupid faces and skduhfsdf I couldn't figure out who I wanted to look at XD;
(also during On My Way, in the background on the main stage, when 1st cast came back out, they totally started tossing Yanagi up in the air ;__; ffffffuck)
--Shitenhouji for this show were Shitenhouji B, which included Mako-chan and SEXTASY!Shiraishi :D Before the show, Meg actually found a girl in the break area (the goods hall is a huge warehouse like place, half of which is set aside for the goods area, and the other half of which is full of benches and rest areas to pass the time between shows, with TeniMyu music playing over speakers. Last time there were even big-screen TVs with old Myus being shown *___* TeniMyu knows how to keep its customers distracted :P But I digress!) Anyways, in this break area between shows, Meg actually found a girl who was collecting messages on a message board to give to Sasaki (B!Shiraishi) so she left him a note XD Lots of girls were doing that for their favorite actors, and now I wish I'd maybe done something like that for 1st cast guys (or at least found someone...if they even accepted them >_>) But yeah, Shitenhouji B this time? Most definitely more fun for me than A! For a number of reasons:
1) SEXTASY -- seriously. Halu had NOTHING on Sasaki during the Shiraishi scenes, and not just for his voice. Boy danced the SHIT out of that stage and was the sexiest I've ever seen Shiraishi *____* And I've seen Shiraishi be pretty damn sexy, mind you! But, for example, during Ecstasy, Shiraishi picks up a rose on the main stage and then saunters down the hanamichi to the center stage, tossing it into the audience along the way. Halu!Shiraishi tucked the rose into the collar of his shirt, wandered about halfway down the stage, and then tossed it (always to the left). Sasaki!Shiraishi, though.........at both maeraku and senshuuraku, PUT THE FUCKING FLOWER IN HIS PANTS. Then at maeraku, he got almost to center stage before tossing it into the audience to his right (literally THREE ROWS behind where I was >_>), and at senshuuraku he got all the way to center stage, did a bunch of sextasy dancing with the thing still stuck in his pants, then pulled it out slowly and tossed it straight ahead. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.
2) Bakappuru!Mako-chan and Izumi -- I really like the bakappuru and think they're great comedic relief and cute on a number of levels, so I was happy they got a little scene all to themselves in the show. But Shitenhouji A's boys, at least in this instance, definitely didn't Bring It, whereas Mako-chan and Izumi totally did!
For example, there's a video segment of rehearsal hall bloopers (which I'll go into more detail later XD), and part of it involves the Shitenhouji boys practicing, and then Koharu's actor (Takeyan or Izumi, depending on which Shitenhouji was performing that show) is seen wandering off alone to sulk because he feels his dancing is bad. Yuuji's actor (Hirano or Mako-chan) then wanders over to comfort him, giving some cutesy bakappuru fanservice. For the A boys, though, it was more...comedic, than fanservice, with Yuuji telling Koharu (in English) "I love me!", unable to get out the proper "I love you" despite practicing XD; With the B boys, though, Izumi is seen moping in a corner, ignoring Mako-chan's comforting reassurance and saying, "Takeyan's funnier, he can perform instead!" and Mako-chan saying it has to be Izumi because, "Zumi's cuter, though." :PPPPPP (I don't ship them but gah they're really cute and asiudhalsd XD) After this, they wander off holding hands XD
The other big part where the B bakappuru showed off their shippy powers was in a short little corner where they're both on the center stage together (about to introduce the rest of Shitenhouji after ~1 min of adlibbing). The A boys' corner was funny and all, but maaaaan did Izumi and Mako-chan pull out the stops at senshuuraku XD They got up on the stage and started flirting the heeeeelll out of their time together :P Izumi started off skipping around the stage calling back, "Yuu-kun~~ try and catch me~~~" and Mako-chan got this evil sexy grin on and started singing, "Oitsumeta ze...mou ato wa nai..." ("I've got you cornered now...there's nowhere left to run..." <--lyrics from the Rikkai song that'd just ended) and then they started getting really close to each other both singing, "giri giri...giri giri...giri giri...!" ("closer...closer...closer!" <--more lyrics from the same Rikkai song) and and and yeeeaaaah LOTS of screaming from the crowd XD
--A frowny point but one I guess I can kind of understand now: Tuti's and Nagayan's part in Saigo no Golden Pair has been shortened! At first they were out all the way from the start of the song to, "Omae ga minus nara, ore wa purasu ijou ni naru", because I remember Tuti pulling Nagayan up from sitting on the ground and thinking, "Sheesh, take it easy on him, you almost pulled his arm out of its socket..." but...for both maeraku and senshuuraku, they left before that part and were only present for the first few lines, being subsequently replaced by two of the ichinen trio ;_; Maybe they switching it up to allow more doubles pairs presence on stage? Guess I'll have to wait and see other shows!
BUT OH SPEAKING OF TXN DURING THIS SONG. It just kind of amazed me that for the first few lines when Tuti and Nagayan are out there, they're PERFECTLY SYNCHRONIZED mimicing T2's dance moves! It's really eerie almost. Like, none of the other pairs do Oishi's and Eiji's moves, but when both Oishi and Eiji teams are out there alone, the Oishis are doing the same moves, and the Eijis are doing the same moves, and they're doing them at the same time so...it's really cool 8D And it makes me wonder if they practiced together to get that kind of synchronization *_____* Must...restrain...urge to fic.
--MoriEiji totally made a boob joke. He said something implicative IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE OF 6000. WTF. When 1st cast are introducing themselves and all, they ask if everyone's having fun, as usual, and at senshuuraku, Eiji asked if everyone was "perky and close together"...but like, made implicative gestures, and the Japanese sounded more like, "upright and pushed together" and..........YEAH XD It was even better, because after he said that, everyone kind of laughed nervously in the audience, confused, and the entire rest of 1st cast was all, "..........the hell?" with Tuti voicing what everyone was wondering, "....the fuck does that even mean?!" Eiji tried to save face by explaining he was talking about his hair--how it stands up straight and is really hard and pushed together. Riiiiiiiiight :P
--Wondering if anything special happened at senshuuraku? Well, there was no special talk or anything, but during certain ballads, particularly near the end, they started streaming footage from auditions and all (like for 5th cast during their ballad), which totally started getting everyone choked up ;_; They also included shots of the 5th cast guys more recently as their characters, and I loved this because: everyone got solo shots from previous performances EXCEPT for T2. Who got a shot together as Golden Pair :D
Have I mentioned how much I love this show yet??? BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SHOW.
I broke down and purchased the full Seigaku set this time, and still need to go back and get other random photos. And gdi I swore to dislike Rikkai forever because their fans annoy the shit out of me, but TeniMyu makes me do things I never thought I would, like ship Shiraishi and Kin-chan or wish for more Atobe-Hiyoshi interaction just so I can see Kubota and Hosogai making hate-sex eyes at each other, and so I am falling kinda in lustlove with Kane-chan and Masuda and Nakagauchi and Yamaoki (not enough probably to go see another of their shows...but possibly enough to at least buy some of their photosets or download their stuff >_>) and get giddy when they happen to be close to where I am during the final songs (which happens a lot, particularly with Yamaoki for some reason o_O)
On that note: it's really surreal seeing Tuti talking about "the Rikkai team" and being all in that TeniMyu mode that I normally associate with 5th cast and guys half his age and still heavily involved in the franchise, yanno?
Surreal...but nice :) Maybe this means there'll be even more TeniMyu guys in *pnish* stuff in the future!!
Random: heeeeeeey! Look who's a model for this random Rakuten shop (ah fuckit, too many pics, just check the main page XD) And look who else! (apparently Hirata's in there too...)