Arashi: Japonism, 11/26/15 at Kyocera Dome
It's been so long, lol. I went to Blast last year, but my feelings on the experience were kinda weird so I didn't do reports for it... So this is my first report since Scene... Wild.
Our seats were at the back of the second floor, and we were probably about 20 seats away from the screen at the side of the stage. It was really hard to see a lot of the time since we were behind the center stage, and the main screen on the stage was almost totally out of view. Watching the side screen meant turning your back to everything else, lol. So a lot of the time I was really just enjoying the penlight show tbh, since in a sense our seats were the best view you could possibly have of that. It was really amazing. But I was always conflicted about which way I should face and I'm sure I missed a lot.
A lot of the stuff where they were messing around and I noticed, seemed to be repeats of little gags they've been doing previously and people have already mentioned them in other reports (like Nino imitating Sho during his rap and such). I don't feel like this tour has a lot of room for spontaneity with the staging, which is unfortunate but I love this album so much I can deal with it.
The audience tonight was sorta blah, I thought... I really love this album and was thrilled they were performing almost every song, but I thought going in, "Unless the audience is REALLY good, it's going to be impossible to keep the energy up since there aren't the typical standard songs to anchor the energy as usual." That was pretty accurate, but our seats were also in the corner and the weird angle made it almost impossible for members to see us when they were waving to the stands, so our area might have been particularly low-energy for that reason. Hoping tomorrow will improve somewhat. I feel like Ohno fans are more lowkey in general tho so that ratio may have contributed to the mood. I guess I shouldn't be that shocked but it seemed a bit mundane for a birthday show in terms of audience reaction?
Anyway, in terms of energy, even most of the recent singles don't have a lot of participation involved, so it's a challenge. A.RA.SHI and Believe were both really really fun, though!! The seats were really cramped and it was pretty much impossible to properly dance Funky (I also accidentally hit the girl in front of me in the head with my penlight, I felt awful).
Most ppl have covered the basics of the show in their reports already so I won't get into it much tonight since I feel like I missed so many details with the weird angle we were at... In general though, I really love the concept and the whole "back to basics" idea. Aside from the penlights spectacle, this concert really feels old-school in a good way. There's something about it that feels so nostalgic and like the early years' staging - it felt like they were plucked out of How's or Iza! era and just happened to be set down in the Dome. I'm not sure what specifically struck me as so nostalgic in that sense, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's obviously their intention given how they keep talking about it...
-
I was surprised when other people mentioned in reports how easily they could hear Arashi doing the huddle this year - it must be some weird quirk of the stage construction this time, I couldn't believe how clearly we heard it when I'd never heard it before even once. Audience didn't do the call at the beginning tho...
I think the greetings were all pretty standard, except Jun's was really unintentionally funny and cute. I think someone else said at Sapporo that he'd clearly forgotten how many people the Dome held, and the same thing happened here. He kind of stalled for a moment and was like, "The five of are are going to........make....every.....single....one of you....happy, I guess!" After that, he glanced away from the camera for just a second and then looked back, but the camera angle on the screen had already switched over when he'd looked away. He wasn't expecting that, and had to search for the new camera so he could finish out and say yoroshiku. It was cute seeing him so flustered during greetings, it's kinda unusual. I'm a bit amused since for such a long time I was always so impressed with how Jun never made those sorts of missteps, and Sho never seemed to make mistakes when yelling the names of the cities, but they're both messing these things up in recent years! lol...
The solos were really good. Ohno's was as exceptional as everyone said - our angle was so weird that I kinda regret not paying more attention to the stage trickery. Since we were facing the side of the stage so directly, we were potentially in a position to see how they were pulling off the swaps and disappearing acts, but because it was my first time watching it I was mostly concentrating on the screen...
Sho dropped his drumstick during his solo and made this face like, "Oops, fucked up." Jun's wasn't as scary as I expected, but maybe I missed some of the scarier jumps due to parts of the stage being obscured from view. Aiba's is really scary to watch though...
I absolutely loved Nino's - I've seen people complaining they found it underwhelming, but it feels like it was intended purely for the people high up in the stands! The center stage setup looked absolutely incredible with the DDR-style dance concept and the patterns looking unbelievable. LOVED it.
The penlights are truly amazing - I can't say how many times I kept watching them go and thinking how Jun is really a genius. Especially the constant ripple effects coming off the center stage were totally incredible.
The only thing that bugs is that I'm just not used to it yet, so when my light kept blinking off when they were being hijacked, I kept pausing and thinking that it had broken, and it was throwing off my rhythm a lot... =w=
-
MC: Jun was completely winded again at the MC. I'm surprised he didn't shuffle the setlist to try to fix this problem over the break. It's obviously not working very well, but I guess the problem is the solo itself and he'd be winded no matter where he put it... The transition from his solo into In The Room works well and looks great so I understand why he wouldn't want to change that, but it seems like it might work out better if Jun's solo were first, then Nino, so that Jun could have a chance to breathe before the next song. :/
The others teased him for being sweaty and out of breath, and he asked, "Are you sure this isn't the encore?" Everyone assured him it was the halfway point. Jun jumped off the center stage and quickly changed his shirt since he was so sweaty, then jumped back on.
They started talking about dancing Ai wo Sakebe, and Sho accused Aiba of messing up the dance. Sho said Aiba had been standing still at a point, Sho had seen Aiba standing still, and Sho and Jun locked eyes and both shot each other an "AIBA JUST FUCKED IT UP" look while dancing. Aiba was surprised and asked, "What could I have gotten wrong? I was totally perfect tonight!" They started counting off and dancing parts to explain the point they were talking about.
Aiba was like, "No, I'm supposed to just be standing still at that part!"
Sho: "Are you?!"
Aiba: "If I'm wrong about this, then I never learned it correctly in the first place and have been doing it wrong every time from the beginning. But I'm sure I'm not wrong."
They began walking up the center catwalk and then a spotlight hit the front of the stage where a cake had been placed in front of them. Jun: "OH? WHAT COULD THIS BE~?" The cake was white with pink hearts.
Everyone sang happy birthday and they told Ohno to grab a bite of the cake after he blew out the candle. He took a bite but at first it was obviously only frosting, lol. He went back for one with legit cake and was surprised at how sweet it was.
Someone asked him to recap his birthday emails from the members. He thought about it and said only two members had sent emails. The audience "ehhhh-ed" at that and Sho was like, "THIS HAPPENS SOMETIMES! ALL OF US ARE VERY VERY BUSY, YOU KNOW!"
Jun said, "Well, I was going to see him in person so I decided I wouldn't send one since I could say it directly."
Ohno said Aiba had probably sent his mail first but he hadn't seen it until this morning. Nino had technically already emailed him previously - when Ohno got in the car to go home for Best Artist, he got into the back of the car and there was a huge wrapped present sitting on the seat beside him. The driver told him it had been left for him by Nino - it was an air humidifier. An email series came from Nino first apologizing for not giving him the present in person, then explaining that Ohno had said that his throat had been hurting a lot lately and so this was intended to help him out, then requesting him to use it. Ohno said he'd gone straight home to turn it on and mimed standing with his face about a foot above it, and everyone told him he didn't have to stand that close.
Ohno said Sho had actually gotten him a present a month ago but I don't remember what it was (or if it was said). Sho was cutely smug about being ahead of the game by being a month early. Then Ohno had come into the backstage area today, sat down on the couch, and then his phone started buzzing with an email notification. He picked it up and it was a birthday email from Sho...who was sitting RIGHT ACROSS FROM HIM, grinning and looking super proud of himself. Dork.
Jun explained that before they start the show, all the members shake hands, so today when he went to shake Ohno's hand, he wished him a happy birthday... Then Jun shook Nino's hand and wished him a happy birthday, then Aiba's hand and wished him a happy birthday, then Sho's hand and wished him a happy birthday. Each of the other members imitated him in turn, continuing to shake one another's hands while wishing every single person happy birthday, lol. Presh.
Ohno thanked the audience and said he was a bit embarrassed at all the attention, but it was exciting since this was the first time that they'd ever celebrated his birthday at a concert on the actual correct date. Everyone was surprised and asked if that was true, and Ohno said it was. The audience started yelling in denial and Sho was like, "Audience is telling you that you're wrong tho..."
Jun was obviously exhausted and excused himself. The others janken'ed to decide who would stay, and it was Aiba and Nino. Aiba asked Nino promo questions about his project and then said he'd gotten to see a sneak preview of Haha to Kuraseba ahead of the public.
Aiba: "I'm gonna do a monomane from the movie! (to the audience) I mean, none of you will get it, because none of you have seen it yet. But I'm doing it!"
Nino: "You still have to see the movie even though he's giving you a preview like this! You still have to go!"
Aiba yelled out a line reaaally overdramatically (I didn't catch it) and Nino dropped to his knees and was dying laughing. Then Aiba said he wanted to continue the quiz section from the previous concert and redid his firework sound effect quiz. Everyone in the audience guessed it since it was a repeat, and then he said he had a new one to debut. I don't know what it was and I didn't catch the answer...
But as he was doing the sound effects for the second one, the other three came out. Nino was sitting seiza-style on the floor of the stage in front of Aiba, and Sho and Ohno both sat seiza beside Nino. They looked like little kids and it was really, really cute as the three of them stared at Aiba from the floor as he kept doing the sound effects over and over again, with the three of them looking increasingly baffled. (Jun was sitting on the stage steps off to the side from the rest.)
They began talking about Best Artist and Sho said that he was MC'ing for four hours, and so he wanted to know what they had been doing with those four hours backstage without him. The others were like, "We were watching YOU!" They had all been watching the live show on television in their dressing room backstage. Aiba chimed in saying the dressing room was super packed, and they'd been up front sitting RIGHT in front of the TV screen. Sho was clearly expecting this topic to yield more interesting material, and asked if they hadn't been practicing their dancing during the downtime. The rest reiterated that there were 5-6 groups to a dressing room, so there was absolutely no room to move around, and they couldn't have practiced if they'd wanted to. Someone commented that V6 had been in the dressing room next door, and had sounded like they were having a lot of fun.
(I'm guessing they must have been sharing the room with KAT-TUN. How fucking awkward for everyone else in that dressing room... I can't imagine...)
Sho asked which performances everyone else had liked. I think Sho said he enjoyed watching T&T? And Jun said TOKIO, and Nino said V6, maybe? I think those were the three who were mentioned but I may be mixing up who said which one...
-
Aisatsu: Sho talked about how the tour was about going back to the beginning, but in their concept of "going back to the beginning," they were also still keeping their overall goal in mind of moving forward. "Sometimes when you're trying to move forward, taking a moment to pause is the best thing you can do."
Aiba was really giddy and cute but pretty short, I don't remember exactly what he said.
Ohno thanked everyone for coming out on his birthday and choosing to spend their time together with him on this day. He said looking at the child photo montage, he was thinking back to when he was little and wanting to return to how he looked then, lol.
Nino's was really really cute and went on forever! He was being a total brat. "It's Leader's birthday. Which is great. For him, I mean. But I do get kinda jealous. Today it's Leader. Soon we'll be doing Aiba-kun's. If we stretched the tour far enough, we could totally hit Sho-kun's. We've done J's so many times. ...and yet there's nothing in June. Never anything in June. I have to go so far back to remember that one time we did it in June. We love doing these concerts so much. Why should we only do one tour a year? Why don't we have two next year and do one of them in June? Right, jimusho-san? Are you hearing this? I mean, don't get me wrong. I have to BELIEVE that even though we're never together on that day in June, all of you are spending that day thinking of me, celebrating my special day in the privacy of your own homes! (The audience screamed in response that we were.) But we should be doing it together! Right?!"
Jun's face following Nino was hilarious, like, "what the fuck was THAT, dude?" He laughed and was like, "Yeah, I think he's right, we should totally do June next year - not Wakuwaku, but concerts. (The audience screamed in delight.) Yeah, I hear you, but the scheduling decisions are out of our control, so please don't hold us to it, okay?"
Jun got quite serious for the rest of it and was talking about the standard things about going back to the beginning, what is Johnny's, what is entertainment. "I want us to meet here again next year with all of you again. I want us to communicate with all of you directly like this. Of course we know not everyone who wants to come to our shows can get inside, and we want to keep that in mind as well... We want to treasure this time with each of you, and continue doing this. Always. As five. With these same members..."
At the end he bowed very low, three times, in each direction of the audience. It was really moving. I got a little teary at the end with him saying with such determination that it would be the five of them always, and thought anew about how happy I am to be an Arashi fan and how lucky we all are... With everything happening with KAT-TUN this week it was already on my mind, but the way Jun was talking, it was obvious that it was on his as well...
The end encore was really cute and when they left, everyone started picking up the sakura confetti from the stage and pouring it over Ohno as he kept on waving to the audience.
I thought the call at the end was decent but after a bit, I think our penlights sort of...blipped? The audience paused and clearly thought the blipping meant they were going to come back out, but then nothing happened, and then the rhythm of the call had been broken and there was no getting it back. Oh well =w=
Will return with another installment tomorrow...
Our seats were at the back of the second floor, and we were probably about 20 seats away from the screen at the side of the stage. It was really hard to see a lot of the time since we were behind the center stage, and the main screen on the stage was almost totally out of view. Watching the side screen meant turning your back to everything else, lol. So a lot of the time I was really just enjoying the penlight show tbh, since in a sense our seats were the best view you could possibly have of that. It was really amazing. But I was always conflicted about which way I should face and I'm sure I missed a lot.
A lot of the stuff where they were messing around and I noticed, seemed to be repeats of little gags they've been doing previously and people have already mentioned them in other reports (like Nino imitating Sho during his rap and such). I don't feel like this tour has a lot of room for spontaneity with the staging, which is unfortunate but I love this album so much I can deal with it.
The audience tonight was sorta blah, I thought... I really love this album and was thrilled they were performing almost every song, but I thought going in, "Unless the audience is REALLY good, it's going to be impossible to keep the energy up since there aren't the typical standard songs to anchor the energy as usual." That was pretty accurate, but our seats were also in the corner and the weird angle made it almost impossible for members to see us when they were waving to the stands, so our area might have been particularly low-energy for that reason. Hoping tomorrow will improve somewhat. I feel like Ohno fans are more lowkey in general tho so that ratio may have contributed to the mood. I guess I shouldn't be that shocked but it seemed a bit mundane for a birthday show in terms of audience reaction?
Anyway, in terms of energy, even most of the recent singles don't have a lot of participation involved, so it's a challenge. A.RA.SHI and Believe were both really really fun, though!! The seats were really cramped and it was pretty much impossible to properly dance Funky (I also accidentally hit the girl in front of me in the head with my penlight, I felt awful).
Most ppl have covered the basics of the show in their reports already so I won't get into it much tonight since I feel like I missed so many details with the weird angle we were at... In general though, I really love the concept and the whole "back to basics" idea. Aside from the penlights spectacle, this concert really feels old-school in a good way. There's something about it that feels so nostalgic and like the early years' staging - it felt like they were plucked out of How's or Iza! era and just happened to be set down in the Dome. I'm not sure what specifically struck me as so nostalgic in that sense, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's obviously their intention given how they keep talking about it...
-
I was surprised when other people mentioned in reports how easily they could hear Arashi doing the huddle this year - it must be some weird quirk of the stage construction this time, I couldn't believe how clearly we heard it when I'd never heard it before even once. Audience didn't do the call at the beginning tho...
I think the greetings were all pretty standard, except Jun's was really unintentionally funny and cute. I think someone else said at Sapporo that he'd clearly forgotten how many people the Dome held, and the same thing happened here. He kind of stalled for a moment and was like, "The five of are are going to........make....every.....single....one of you....happy, I guess!" After that, he glanced away from the camera for just a second and then looked back, but the camera angle on the screen had already switched over when he'd looked away. He wasn't expecting that, and had to search for the new camera so he could finish out and say yoroshiku. It was cute seeing him so flustered during greetings, it's kinda unusual. I'm a bit amused since for such a long time I was always so impressed with how Jun never made those sorts of missteps, and Sho never seemed to make mistakes when yelling the names of the cities, but they're both messing these things up in recent years! lol...
The solos were really good. Ohno's was as exceptional as everyone said - our angle was so weird that I kinda regret not paying more attention to the stage trickery. Since we were facing the side of the stage so directly, we were potentially in a position to see how they were pulling off the swaps and disappearing acts, but because it was my first time watching it I was mostly concentrating on the screen...
Sho dropped his drumstick during his solo and made this face like, "Oops, fucked up." Jun's wasn't as scary as I expected, but maybe I missed some of the scarier jumps due to parts of the stage being obscured from view. Aiba's is really scary to watch though...
I absolutely loved Nino's - I've seen people complaining they found it underwhelming, but it feels like it was intended purely for the people high up in the stands! The center stage setup looked absolutely incredible with the DDR-style dance concept and the patterns looking unbelievable. LOVED it.
The penlights are truly amazing - I can't say how many times I kept watching them go and thinking how Jun is really a genius. Especially the constant ripple effects coming off the center stage were totally incredible.
The only thing that bugs is that I'm just not used to it yet, so when my light kept blinking off when they were being hijacked, I kept pausing and thinking that it had broken, and it was throwing off my rhythm a lot... =w=
-
MC: Jun was completely winded again at the MC. I'm surprised he didn't shuffle the setlist to try to fix this problem over the break. It's obviously not working very well, but I guess the problem is the solo itself and he'd be winded no matter where he put it... The transition from his solo into In The Room works well and looks great so I understand why he wouldn't want to change that, but it seems like it might work out better if Jun's solo were first, then Nino, so that Jun could have a chance to breathe before the next song. :/
The others teased him for being sweaty and out of breath, and he asked, "Are you sure this isn't the encore?" Everyone assured him it was the halfway point. Jun jumped off the center stage and quickly changed his shirt since he was so sweaty, then jumped back on.
They started talking about dancing Ai wo Sakebe, and Sho accused Aiba of messing up the dance. Sho said Aiba had been standing still at a point, Sho had seen Aiba standing still, and Sho and Jun locked eyes and both shot each other an "AIBA JUST FUCKED IT UP" look while dancing. Aiba was surprised and asked, "What could I have gotten wrong? I was totally perfect tonight!" They started counting off and dancing parts to explain the point they were talking about.
Aiba was like, "No, I'm supposed to just be standing still at that part!"
Sho: "Are you?!"
Aiba: "If I'm wrong about this, then I never learned it correctly in the first place and have been doing it wrong every time from the beginning. But I'm sure I'm not wrong."
They began walking up the center catwalk and then a spotlight hit the front of the stage where a cake had been placed in front of them. Jun: "OH? WHAT COULD THIS BE~?" The cake was white with pink hearts.
Everyone sang happy birthday and they told Ohno to grab a bite of the cake after he blew out the candle. He took a bite but at first it was obviously only frosting, lol. He went back for one with legit cake and was surprised at how sweet it was.
Someone asked him to recap his birthday emails from the members. He thought about it and said only two members had sent emails. The audience "ehhhh-ed" at that and Sho was like, "THIS HAPPENS SOMETIMES! ALL OF US ARE VERY VERY BUSY, YOU KNOW!"
Jun said, "Well, I was going to see him in person so I decided I wouldn't send one since I could say it directly."
Ohno said Aiba had probably sent his mail first but he hadn't seen it until this morning. Nino had technically already emailed him previously - when Ohno got in the car to go home for Best Artist, he got into the back of the car and there was a huge wrapped present sitting on the seat beside him. The driver told him it had been left for him by Nino - it was an air humidifier. An email series came from Nino first apologizing for not giving him the present in person, then explaining that Ohno had said that his throat had been hurting a lot lately and so this was intended to help him out, then requesting him to use it. Ohno said he'd gone straight home to turn it on and mimed standing with his face about a foot above it, and everyone told him he didn't have to stand that close.
Ohno said Sho had actually gotten him a present a month ago but I don't remember what it was (or if it was said). Sho was cutely smug about being ahead of the game by being a month early. Then Ohno had come into the backstage area today, sat down on the couch, and then his phone started buzzing with an email notification. He picked it up and it was a birthday email from Sho...who was sitting RIGHT ACROSS FROM HIM, grinning and looking super proud of himself. Dork.
Jun explained that before they start the show, all the members shake hands, so today when he went to shake Ohno's hand, he wished him a happy birthday... Then Jun shook Nino's hand and wished him a happy birthday, then Aiba's hand and wished him a happy birthday, then Sho's hand and wished him a happy birthday. Each of the other members imitated him in turn, continuing to shake one another's hands while wishing every single person happy birthday, lol. Presh.
Ohno thanked the audience and said he was a bit embarrassed at all the attention, but it was exciting since this was the first time that they'd ever celebrated his birthday at a concert on the actual correct date. Everyone was surprised and asked if that was true, and Ohno said it was. The audience started yelling in denial and Sho was like, "Audience is telling you that you're wrong tho..."
Jun was obviously exhausted and excused himself. The others janken'ed to decide who would stay, and it was Aiba and Nino. Aiba asked Nino promo questions about his project and then said he'd gotten to see a sneak preview of Haha to Kuraseba ahead of the public.
Aiba: "I'm gonna do a monomane from the movie! (to the audience) I mean, none of you will get it, because none of you have seen it yet. But I'm doing it!"
Nino: "You still have to see the movie even though he's giving you a preview like this! You still have to go!"
Aiba yelled out a line reaaally overdramatically (I didn't catch it) and Nino dropped to his knees and was dying laughing. Then Aiba said he wanted to continue the quiz section from the previous concert and redid his firework sound effect quiz. Everyone in the audience guessed it since it was a repeat, and then he said he had a new one to debut. I don't know what it was and I didn't catch the answer...
But as he was doing the sound effects for the second one, the other three came out. Nino was sitting seiza-style on the floor of the stage in front of Aiba, and Sho and Ohno both sat seiza beside Nino. They looked like little kids and it was really, really cute as the three of them stared at Aiba from the floor as he kept doing the sound effects over and over again, with the three of them looking increasingly baffled. (Jun was sitting on the stage steps off to the side from the rest.)
They began talking about Best Artist and Sho said that he was MC'ing for four hours, and so he wanted to know what they had been doing with those four hours backstage without him. The others were like, "We were watching YOU!" They had all been watching the live show on television in their dressing room backstage. Aiba chimed in saying the dressing room was super packed, and they'd been up front sitting RIGHT in front of the TV screen. Sho was clearly expecting this topic to yield more interesting material, and asked if they hadn't been practicing their dancing during the downtime. The rest reiterated that there were 5-6 groups to a dressing room, so there was absolutely no room to move around, and they couldn't have practiced if they'd wanted to. Someone commented that V6 had been in the dressing room next door, and had sounded like they were having a lot of fun.
(I'm guessing they must have been sharing the room with KAT-TUN. How fucking awkward for everyone else in that dressing room... I can't imagine...)
Sho asked which performances everyone else had liked. I think Sho said he enjoyed watching T&T? And Jun said TOKIO, and Nino said V6, maybe? I think those were the three who were mentioned but I may be mixing up who said which one...
-
Aisatsu: Sho talked about how the tour was about going back to the beginning, but in their concept of "going back to the beginning," they were also still keeping their overall goal in mind of moving forward. "Sometimes when you're trying to move forward, taking a moment to pause is the best thing you can do."
Aiba was really giddy and cute but pretty short, I don't remember exactly what he said.
Ohno thanked everyone for coming out on his birthday and choosing to spend their time together with him on this day. He said looking at the child photo montage, he was thinking back to when he was little and wanting to return to how he looked then, lol.
Nino's was really really cute and went on forever! He was being a total brat. "It's Leader's birthday. Which is great. For him, I mean. But I do get kinda jealous. Today it's Leader. Soon we'll be doing Aiba-kun's. If we stretched the tour far enough, we could totally hit Sho-kun's. We've done J's so many times. ...and yet there's nothing in June. Never anything in June. I have to go so far back to remember that one time we did it in June. We love doing these concerts so much. Why should we only do one tour a year? Why don't we have two next year and do one of them in June? Right, jimusho-san? Are you hearing this? I mean, don't get me wrong. I have to BELIEVE that even though we're never together on that day in June, all of you are spending that day thinking of me, celebrating my special day in the privacy of your own homes! (The audience screamed in response that we were.) But we should be doing it together! Right?!"
Jun's face following Nino was hilarious, like, "what the fuck was THAT, dude?" He laughed and was like, "Yeah, I think he's right, we should totally do June next year - not Wakuwaku, but concerts. (The audience screamed in delight.) Yeah, I hear you, but the scheduling decisions are out of our control, so please don't hold us to it, okay?"
Jun got quite serious for the rest of it and was talking about the standard things about going back to the beginning, what is Johnny's, what is entertainment. "I want us to meet here again next year with all of you again. I want us to communicate with all of you directly like this. Of course we know not everyone who wants to come to our shows can get inside, and we want to keep that in mind as well... We want to treasure this time with each of you, and continue doing this. Always. As five. With these same members..."
At the end he bowed very low, three times, in each direction of the audience. It was really moving. I got a little teary at the end with him saying with such determination that it would be the five of them always, and thought anew about how happy I am to be an Arashi fan and how lucky we all are... With everything happening with KAT-TUN this week it was already on my mind, but the way Jun was talking, it was obvious that it was on his as well...
The end encore was really cute and when they left, everyone started picking up the sakura confetti from the stage and pouring it over Ohno as he kept on waving to the audience.
I thought the call at the end was decent but after a bit, I think our penlights sort of...blipped? The audience paused and clearly thought the blipping meant they were going to come back out, but then nothing happened, and then the rhythm of the call had been broken and there was no getting it back. Oh well =w=
Will return with another installment tomorrow...