Arashi: Japonism Show in Arena, 8/10/16 at Yokohama Arena (Final Show)

[nyonyo]

+ I got through goods early and was reading the pamphlet. Sho's interview is incredible, really. The story about the junior who entered the jimusho because of Sho handing him his autograph ball at Yokoari years ago made me tear up. Him discussing the final cancelled Yokoari show from 9 years ago was also incredibly touching.

On the other end of the spectrum: Nino devotes 1/3 of his interview petitioning the jimusho to make his birthday overlap with a tour.

+ I was very close to the stage but at a hard angle for the screens. I actually think I kind of missed a fair amount of things going on when they left the main stage (them goofing around on trucks and the like). They spent a huge amount of time on the main stage so I was mostly just watching them that way, but whenever they broke off individually I definitely was missing cute happenings, but it was recorded so I'll see it eventually, lol.

+ About the recording... There were WOWOW trucks parked outside, with a bunch of cameras in front of the arena, and someone operating a crane cam near the stage as well. Everyone's guessing that this will air on WOWOW in the future rather than be a regular DVD release, but if that’s the case, I'm sure they won't announce it for a looong time given the Dome DVD is just coming out.

Other people have already given plenty of detailed reports of the contents in general so I won't get too far into it since everyone will see this show at some point anyway. I put most of my effort into the MC report, given the chance that'll be cut for release.

+ Presumably because this is probably going to be televised to a wider audience, the staff was super stressed about the penlights before the show. There were loads and loads of staff members rushing around personally helping people to set their penlights, and multiple people walking around yelling announcements to each section: "If you don't know how to set your light, a staff member will help you! Once you set it, it should remain set for the duration of the show! That said, if something goes wrong, you can reset it again at any time! If you think your penlight is not behaving correctly in accordance with the people around you, please reset it as quickly as possible!"

+ I was so, so shocked at how tiny the stage was. From where I was situated I thought it was maybe only 30 feet long - watching the wideshow footage, it clearly has to be bigger than that, but I swear that venue bends space and time. I was really surprised at how cozy the whole venue felt in person; I've watched plenty of DVD performances for Yokoari from different groups, but it appears SO much bigger on film than it really is.

+ The call began about five minutes beforehand. <3

+ Tadaima was so, so beautiful. I was crying right away, thinking, “I’m really in Yokohama Arena...” As soon as I heard it from the CD, I couldn't stop being so excited that someday my voice would be in the audience, singing out the, "Okaeri..."

The one thing I was a little worried about was how this tour is something you can't attend multiple times... In Dome, shows are often more shaky on the first night in a city, but because of repeat attendees, it tends to improve steadily as the audience adjusts and knows what to do from the previous night. But this audience hit the ground running right away and was amazing as we were all singing "Okaeri..." back at full volume :')

+ As they transitioned into A.RA.SHI, they were all giving goofy little reactions to the audience as if to say, "I know, we're so close! You can't believe it, can you?" Jun was acting super OTT and strutting around the stage near my section like a total goof, I felt like I hadn't seen that in a while from him. Cute. :3

I know "Oh Yeah!" and "Happiness" both got cut from the setlist to offset the time for Sho's updated version of his corner; I heard "Oh Yeah!" had gotten put back earlier this week but it was gone again this time. I remember people had said that A.RA.SHI was a short edit of the song earlier on, but here they did the whole thing.

+ Nino's corner was a little hard to follow because at my angle I couldn't see his feet, only his face. I couldn't watch the screen unless I turned away from the stage and kept going back and forth as he moved around the stairs, and in the end I felt like I missed a lot of it by not making up my mind...

+ In The Room was similarly staged as Dome but the stage was so small that it seemed kinda underwhelming in comparison. Once it ended, they shifted into a dance break that took place at the top portion of the stage with a very cute retro background with neon signs that formed English lyrics from Fukkatsu. Throughout the dance break, the whole stage was lit up solid yellow, in an extremely stark lighting effect that they'd never done before. This transitioned into Fukkatsu. The music transition was very strange and sounded kind of garbled, I remember wondering if there was something wrong with the sound. If there was they didn't react to it at all, but what a weird choice if it was on purpose...

+ They did a super short little talk section where they greeted the audience, and did a little bit where they praised Aiba's "okaeri." Then the other four filed offstage and left Sho behind.

+ Sho's corner was SO!!!! cute!!!! He kicked it off by freestyling a quick little rap self-introduction which was AMAZING. ("Saisoku de taitoru ubaitoru daisotsu aidoru, zattsurai sassurai no Cat's Eye no Bambi, Sakurai Sho deeeesu, yoroshikuuuu~!" <--- something like this??)

A junior came out to move his drum on the stage and they did a little back-and-forth together that was super adorable.

Then the penlights lit up with one side of the audience in red, and the other half in blue. Sho, in kindergarten teacher mode: "Please check your penlight for your color. If you're curious why we chose to do it this way, the reasoning was... (he pointed to the middle of the center block of the arena) ...it's impossible for these people to figure out which side they belong to otherwise. (someone in the center block called out something to him, and he adopted an even more kindergarten teacher tone) Yes, yes. As you can see, you belong to the red side... (playfully) Which color side should I practice with first, then~? (both sides scream in response) ...that would be the response, wouldn't it? Oh well. Let's start with red."

He went over to his drum: "I want to teach you guys a beat to clap out, and then we'll collaborate together. I'm hoping you guys pick it up quickly.....but not TOO quickly, because this corner is my time to shine and I don't want it to be over too fast!" He paused and said, "Ah, wait, it might be better if you put your penlights down first...OH CRAP, THE SCREEN INSTRUCTIONS ALREADY STARTED! QUICK, HURRY!!!" He tapped out a simple beat on his drum and directed our side to clap along, while the screens kept us on point. We got it right away and he praised us, "You're good! You got it right away..." and then made a show of pouting about his stagetime being reduced. Same followed for the blue side, with him looking even more lonely about the time passing too quickly. SO cute. Then he started drumming out a beat and the juniors rose up out of the top of the stage platform on their own drums, while the audience rhythms were shown DDR-style on the screens.

The beat continued and then the rest of the members joined him onstage, and the drumming beat transitioned into Lucky Man. Sho kept on drumming, and Aiba took over the intro rap. :) They moved down out into the arena from there, went into Troublemaker (where they did the gag where they wouldn't let Ohno into the lineup), then did Daylight on the moving stage. Daylight's performance had gorgeous screen animation of glowing lights, and there were blue lights tracking over the audience's head in the arena, different from anything I'd seen them use before. They were sort of like moving strips of light and different from the beams or laser lines you usually see? The audience all gasped and exclaimed over the lights when they started up; I'm curious if they’ll end up looking as unique on film, but it was really impressive in person.

+ In general, the whole show was extremely dance-heavy, maybe moreso than any other tour to date, and I felt like they stuck to the main stage quite a lot as a result. There was no catwalk at all either, just the main stage, the moving stage, and the truck tracks. The stage was quite small so if all of Arashi was on the stage, generally there were no juniors. The juniors were usually just backdancing from the main stage when Arashi was on the moving one.

There was kind of a tenser atmosphere to the first half. I think Jun was probably keyed up about getting this one right for the filming, and the huge amount of dancing meant there wasn't much room for error or improvisation. He always is serious when they're dancing in formation, but this felt even more than usual. I was kind of amused that he seemed to be front and center in dance formation waaaay more than is typical for non-single songs - I'm guessing no one wanted to be the person in front who fucked up the choreo on filming day, lol. That said, once the first half went off without a hitch, he visibly relaxed and just started having fun with it in the second half. :')

MC:

+ Jun immediately addressed the fans in standing seats and asked how they were doing. They cheered in response, and Jun exclaimed, "Don't forget, we're standing up the whole time right along with you! Let's both hang in there!!"

+ Sho immediately started excitedly gushing about how amazing and loud the call had been before the concert: "You see, the call is totally out of our control. It's not like we ask you to do it. Whether you choose to is up to you. But I couldn't believe how loud it was. To be honest, in the case of the group who was in here before you, we were all wondering if there was even an audience out there at all! They were so silent..."

Jun hurriedly tried to smooth this over and make excuses for the previous audience, clearly trying to avoid a twitter kerfluffle, lol. "No, no, there were definitely people calling last time, we just couldn't hear them!!" Apparently they had mentioned to the earlier group that it was hard to hear them, and Jun and Sho commented that our group must have been reading the reports from earlier in the day on our phones, and decided to try harder. Jun polled the audience and asked how many people had been reading about it online, and a bunch of people chorused in the affirmative.

+ The topic moved to everyone's solo corners and they remarked today was going to be the last time ever for the corners, even though some of them had been training over the past year. Nino said he was going to be sad for it to be over, and he wanted to keep doing it, but he felt he shouldn't continue doing it for concerts unless he could become seriously good at it and more than just an amateur trying it out.

"When I'm doing it, it's like... [he imitates tapping out the rhythm at a mid-tempo pace, glancing hesitantly down at his own feet every once in a while as if to check if he's on-point] ...you see, I have to count the rhythm out inside my head. But while I've been training for this, I've been watching tapes of pros. And when THEY do it, it's like... [he plasters a huge smile across his face and begins imitating tapping at a frantic intense speed, never looking down]"

Jun exclaimed, "But the song you picked this time was slow tempo, so of course you're not even aiming to go that fast! You can't compare. I think you should stick with it!"

They all repeated, "Wow, today's the last time though..."

AIBA: "No more Sho-chan rehearsing around the clock, I guess!"

NINO: "Seriously. I would walk around backstage, hear a crazy amount of noise, and think he was setting off fireworks in the dressing room..."

SHO: "I think I might try to stick with it too... It's really hard, though. I only do the snare drum, it's not like I can do a drum set or anything, but...oh, sorry to anyone in the audience who plays snare drum seriously, maybe it's not true if you're serious about it, this is just my personal experience! But it's really difficult for me, physically! I feel like I'm doing a workout the whole time, like I've just done a lifting session... It's hard."

OHNO: "Yeah, it's hard."

AIBA: "How do you know??"

OHNO: "I used to do it a long time ago..."

They all reminisced about how the tour was ending and commented on how when the tour started, Ohno's drama was just beginning, and now it's over. Ohno was amazed at this revelation once it was commented on. "Whoa!!! It's been so long!!"

Speaking of dramas...

SHO: [looking at Nino] "Oh, I have a question!!"

NINO: "Shoot."

SHO: "Oh, um, sorry. Sorry, it's not for you, it's for Matsujun..."

NINO: "Not me??"

SHO: "Sorry, sorry!" [to Jun] "I've been wanting to ask something for a long time but kept forgetting until just now. It's about..." [to the audience] "You know the part where we're dancing, right before Fukkatsu Love begins, and there's that yellow lighting effect? The truth is, he's actually been talking about wanting to do that lighting effect for years."

JUN: "Yeah. I came up with the idea maybe two or three years ago, and we kept trying to make it work in the Domes, but it was impossible. The space is just too big, and it's not possible to concentrate the lighting in that fashion on such a large scale. It's something we could only do here in the arena because of the small stage."

SHO: "Right, right. But the thing is... Well, I was given the scripts for 99.9 in order to write the rap lyrics. And I was sitting there reading it, and when it got to the part in the script where it described the lighting changing to yellow, I thought, '...omg DID MATSUJUN WRITE THIS INTO HIS SHOW????? Has he moved into scriptwriting as well? What ISN'T he doing nowadays?' I'm curious - did you, like, request that to be put in?"

JUN: "No. Total coincidence. I was actually kind of put out about it, now that you mention it, because I've had this idea for so many years and then the drama happened to do something similar at the same time. And I was thinking, 'Damn it, now people are going to think I stole this idea from the drama when I've been planning this forever!!' But, I mean, we began production on this tour months before the drama began shooting, so it should be obvious that mine came first!!"

+ Jun wandered off at some point (maybe during the start of the PR corner), disappeared backstage, and reemerged with a banana.

AIBA: "EXCUSE ME, SIR. SIR! FOOD IS NOT PERMITTED INSIDE THIS VENUE."

JUN: [giggling and peeling the banana] "Yeah, yeah." [apologetically, to the audience] "Sorry, but I didn't get a chance to eat between shows, and I'm absolutely starving..."

AIBA: [horrified at the bad manners] "DON'T EAT WHILE STANDING AROUND."

JUN: [walks over to the side and parks himself on the stage steps] "All right, I'm settling in over here. My expectations for this MC are high, you guys better entertain me."

Everyone just stood and watched him eat for a moment and commented on how natural he looked sitting there with his banana.

AIBA: "It's true, it's so natural. Is it Matsujun eating that banana, or is it a chimpanzee? We just don't know!"

JUN: "HEY!!!!"

AIBA: "Learn to take a compliment!!!"

(Jun finished the banana, walked backstage to toss the peel, and then returned back to his spot near the stairs and started doing lunges and stretches in the background while everyone else talked.)

+ PR corner.

NINO: "My movie's about an incredible chef-"

SHO: "Are YOU the chef???"

NINO: "Yes. And my special talent is recreating old dishes from long ago, that recipes no longer exist for."

AIBA: "......what for????"

NINO: "'What for?'???? ...because it's my JOB and people are ASKING ME..."

Nino said a kouhai was also in it but they never interact in the movie. Aiba exclaimed that it was a waste and they should make sure to interact properly, and Nino was like, "Um, our storylines are on completely different tracks so there's nothing that can really be done...??"

Ohno continued his running trend of revealing absolutely nothing about his movie. They noted it was a ninja movie and asked if there were a lot of other ninjas or if Ohno was the only one. Ohno said there were lots, "too many to count." They asked who else was in it and Ohno said it wasn't announced yet so he couldn't talk about it. Jun remarked, "No matter how many questions we ask you about this movie, we never come out learning a single thing about it..."

Then it was Jun's turn, which I had been looking forward to as the running gag of the other members mocking the shit out of his movie has been the highlight of every report to date.

I realized... HE IS SO EMBARRASSED ABOUT THIS MOVIE...

When he was asked to talk about it, he said with emphasis, "It's a project from DIRECTOR ISAO!!! ...DIRECTOR ISAO!!!!!!!" like if he kept repeating the director's name it would somehow justify things.

This is entirely my personal interpretation, but I was like: "Ooookay, now after watching you talk about it in person, I'm starting to see how this all happened. You've probably spent the last 12 years weeping yourself to sleep at night over the impossibly pure pure love of Sekachuu. And then someone told you, 'Director Isao wants you to star in a ROMANCE MOVIE!' and of course you said yes without asking any questions whatsoever, bc you've probably thought for 12 years that doing a pure love movie directed by Isao was your ultimate career goal and your dream was finally coming true. And now you're stuck shooting sex scenes opposite your former baby sister, wondering how you fell into this hell of your own making. Seems about right." He’s done loads of romance projects but never anything that’s provoked this sort of miserable reaction...

Anyway, Jun was like, "Yeah...anyway, it's a love story..." and the audience started up with the wolf whistle type reactions.

SHO: [absolutely delighted at this reaction, to audience] "Do you guys all do that in the movie theater when there are scenes that apply??? Like, are you guys all, 'WOOOOOOO! MATSUJUN!' when that kind of stuff happens?" [to Jun] "Are there scenes in this movie that will make them do that???"

JUN: [looking like he wishes a hole would open up underneath him and swallow him up]

SHO: "I mean, is it going to be like, you know...?" [he covers his eyes, SCANDALIZED! then peeks through his fingers excitedly]

OHNO: [chimes in] "Yeah!!! Tell us if we're gonna be like THIS the whole time!" [mimicks Sho, covers his eyes and peeks too]

JUN: [slowly dying inside] "...........um, I mean.....where exactly do you draw the line at for needing to cover your eyes?"

NINO: "We should ask Ohno-san where the line is."

OHNO: [solemnly] "All right. This is how it works. If I see the guy and the girl holding hands, then I'm like..." [he holds his hand up right below his chin]

EVERYONE ELSE: "Already?? What's next?"

OHNO: "Then, once he puts his arm around the girl's shoulder...I'm there. That's it!!" [covers his eyes and peeks through fingers]

EVERYONE ELSE: "......but then what do you do once they actually kiss???"

OHNO: "Ah, when they kiss? Then it's like..." [puts hands down, leans forward, gives the impression of excitedly being on the edge of his seat] !!!!!!!!OwO!!!!!! <---this is my best approximation of the face

JUN: [mortified] ".......um, well, I think the lesson we can take away from this, is that everyone has their own line in the sand..."

OHNO: "But there's kissing, right??? WHAT WAS IT LIKE???"

JUN: [embarrassed and clearly trying to change the subject] "There's kissing and things, yeah, but..."

OHNO: [pouts] "COME ONNNNN. YOU CAN TELL US."

+ They shifted into talking about the Olympics but I’m not following it so I couldn’t really follow the conversation much. Sho asked each member which sport they were following. Sho talked about how they were watching an event in the dressing room where someone won, and he moved close to the screen so no one else was sitting in front of him: "I was hiding it well with my back to the rest of you, but I was weeping! WEEPING!"

Jun said he was interested in Fukuhara Ai and made some reference, and Sho looked surprised and pleased, exclaiming, "You watched my interview!!!" (Really sweet.)

Jun said he'd turned on the TV and had seen Sho talking to one of the athletes on Zero, and was like, "???? Who's that guy, I've never seen him before? He's so good-looking! He looks like a celebrity but I've never seen him in anything! Is he one of ours??? Some junior I've never taken notice of all this time????"

They went down the line with Aiba, Jun, and Nino each listing events and particular athletes they were rooting for (a fair amount of this hit the wideshows), and finally hit Ohno who mournfully said, "This always happens..." He struggled to think of something Olympics-related he had any interest in, and then said "Oh wait! There's that one event I like watching, but I dunno what it's called!" They told him to mime it - something boat-related? "Yeah, I'm looking forward to watching that!!"

Sho: "Ohno-san...that event finished yesterday. We got the bronze."

"SHUT UP. NO WAY! ...REALLY???"

+ Sho said he was leaving to #gotobrazil and asked what everyone wanted for omiyage this time. Aiba said they wanted something Brazilian and Sho suggested soccer balls for everybody. Jun: "WE CAN BUY THOSE IN JAPAN! We want something that's only in Brazil!!"

Sho wailed that his schedule was beyond packed and he wasn't going to have any free time, so it was going to be hard to shop around. "Anyway, for reference, what have I gotten you guys for the last few Olympics I've gone to?"

He started listing off presents from the past, and then paused and said, "What did I get you guys for London...?" All of them went silent. Sho asked again, like he was hoping the audience would chime in, but no one said anything. Awkward silence. Sho: "Forget it. I'll google it after the show." Screaming that he doesn't remember his own life and RESORTS TO GOOGLING FAN REPORTS OF IT.

+ MC ended and then, the triumphant return of Everybody Zenshin!!!! It was the first song I ever saw them perform live :')

+ I've been OBSESSED with those costumes they wore in the I Seek set ever since I saw the first pics. The different colored sneakers for each member were the perfect touch!!!!!!

+ At I Seek, I started to notice Jun was getting super giddy and laughing a lot; he was really adorable throughout the second half...

+ The DJMJ corner was one of the best things he's ever created, period. I read so many reports for this and none of them did it justice, I won't go too far into the details since other people have, and everyone will end up seeing this at some point in the future anyhow. I kept being torn between laughing and crying throughout. I loved all the prerecorded dialogue, his ability to command the stage without ever really speaking a word was amazing. His facial expressions for the prerecorded greeting at the beginning were so, so adorable.

The transition from Pikanchi into Michi was really splendid. Was thrilled at how many songs made an appearance; I was so happy about Love Rainbow and Crazy Moon.

The screen footage was so well-done. Now that I've been a fan about a decade, I kept tearing up at so much of that old footage, because I was there myself for some of those, and I have memories of my own...

+ For Disco Star, I'd heard Nino fell down the previous day. I'm not totally sure what happened here since I missed the actual moment it happened - Ohno/Jun were backdancing on one side to Aiba, while Sho/Nino were on the other. Nino and Sho both appeared to fall down to the floor, but then Nino was giggling really hard after it happened. I'm not sure if this was a gag they came up with and I just couldn't see, or if Nino really slipped and Sho followed him to the ground to make it seem like it was on purpose?? Either way it was cute <3

+ Even though the other members are "backdancing" for Rain, they're copying Ohno's choreo throughout the chorus and I was so impressed at how well they managed to keep pace with him!! The juniors can't keep up with him a lot of the time, so this was a treat...

+ Seriously, all the transitions throughout the solo corner bleeding into DJMJ were amazing. Similar to Arafes but better...

+ I think it was before Mikazuki - the stage was empty for a bit as they went to go change, and the penlights began doing a wave effect around the stands to keep us all entertained during the transition period. It ended in my section, and it was so beautiful watching that column of light heading for us the whole time.

+ The costumes for Mikazuki were so silly looking when everyone came onstage wearing them, but then once the LEDs started to glow in the darkness I literally gasped. It was so, so beautiful.

+ The Masquerade LED costumes don't look quite as interesting in closeup when I checked the wideshow footage, but watching from the other end of the venue they looked unbelievable. Seeing their silhouettes glowing in that expanse of darkness is amazing.

+ I got so sad thinking this is probably the last performance for Bolero!, but it was AMAZING. The song just lends itself so well to bringing the audience together perfectly, and the addition of Aiba's corner was super rad. Also, I saw Ohno and Nino were swordfighting with lightsabers on the moving stage again in accordance with previous reports, but they were so far away I couldn't really see (aside from that it was definitely hilarious).

+ Mask magic corner was fun in that it went on longer than Dome. I could watch him do that all day long.

+ Bokura ga Tsunaideiku was extremely simple with them just standing on the stage. Man, can we just talk about how killer this song is? After eight years they never did ever come up with an album ballad that could even touch "Be with you" level of quality. Until now. This song is so incredible. I did kind of miss the cool Dome zoom effect on the screen (I can't listen to the song without envisioning it anymore!)

Jun was positioned in front of me, and when he wasn't singing he was gazing over the audience, brimming over with pride. While Ohno was singing, "Yasashii komoriuta, kienai inochi no kotoba..." Jun sweetly mouthed, "Thank you," to the audience, looking overcome; I don't think the camera was on him tho so you wouldn't have seen unless you were looking...

But, oh, this song was already splendid on its own, but for it to be sung in this place after nine years, in the first place they performed, is really something else...

“Jidai ga meguri, toki ga nagarete
Chigau ashita wo oikaketemo
Kitto itsuka, kono michi ni modoru yo
Bokura zutto hitotsu
We’re walking on the road...”

+ The screen animation for this is still so amazing. They all moved up to the top of the stage platform and it began to descend. On the screen I could see someone flashing a peace sign to the audience when only their hand was visible above the stage, but I'm not sure who it was.

Encore:

+ For Ai wo Sakebe, according to reports, they've apparently been developing different start gags throughout the tour. As the song started, Nino, Aiba, and Sho all started wailing and panicking as Jun took aim. The three of them all collapsed as Jun shot the arrow, but Ohno wouldn't go down. Jun then held up his microphone like it was a poison dart shooter, and blew a dart into Ohno's neck, who clutched at his neck and fell to the ground. Jun: "Got you, ninja!! You may be a ninja but you can't hide from me!!!" Sho scolded him and said attacking the throat should be off-limits, since Ohno needed to be screaming his love. :3

Then there was the final bow and Power of the Paradise.

+ Jun said thank you to the audience and then: "This is the last song."

The audience screamed in protest and he looked a bit frustrated and repeated, "This is the last song." The protest screams only got louder. "This is the last song...!!!" Even louder protests. He stood there for a few seconds in silence, generally projecting the aura of "Don't make me turn this car around!!" and the audience was chastened, lol.

JUN: [dryly, to the audience] "Do you even WANT the last song?? Or should we just wrap it up with doing sanbonjime instead?"

SHO: "Are those our only two choices????"

+ As Kansha played, the moving stage went back to the front and Jun sat on the edge with his legs hanging over. They all walked off the stage casually without any fanfare, which made me think they would definitely come back out, but...

+ This made me feel like maybe the days of double encores could be gone for good. I've been there when the audience has been killer and kept up the call for 5+ minutes, it happened in Osaka and of course they still didn't come back out then either, but this was on another level of anything I've experienced before. After the call was praised so much at the MC, everyone was sure they'd return. The smaller venue (more reverb) coupled with the raw determination made this the loudest encore call I've ever experienced. We completely drowned out the announcers. You couldn't hear them at all. No one was budging from their seats. It kept going for over ten minutes...

If they have reasons for not doing it anymore, then it can't be helped (I thought maybe they had stopped doing them during Dome because Jun physically couldn’t keep going), but I do miss them rewarding good audiences the way they used to... :( Double encores used to be NORMAL; triples were their way of letting you know how happy they were with the crowd. If they won't come back out for the last show in Yokoari, with an audience who was screaming that loudly and that long, an audience they'd already praised for being good at the call, then what on earth would it take nowadays...?

Their casual exit did kinda make me think it's unlikely it'll be nine more years until the next arena tour, tho. I wonder if we'll start seeing tours being structured this way more regularly? Nino said in the pamphlet that they had tried to do an arena tour for 5x10, but the scheduling just couldn't fall into place.

+ That said... This was different from every other concert I’ve attended in the past. I’d never felt this way before walking out. Like if this were the last concert I ever got to see then I would actually be okay with that, because it was so perfectly executed - but at the same time I was also more excited for the future and what it holds, more than I’d ever been before.

Their tours have always been structured carefully so that they’re always challenging themselves. Sometimes the challenges are a bit much and they’re honestly not always the most fun thing for the audience (like Jun’s concern about fan-favorite songs being a crutch they rely too heavily on, and leaving them off setlists on purpose, for example), but I know they’re necessary for the group to feel like they’re always growing and progressing, and so they don’t get bored doing the same things year after year.

Jun is always pushing himself to the absolute limit and coming up with new things. The concerts are always magnificent. But because “struggle” and “difficulty” is built into the planning stage on purpose, there’s also kind of a tiny sense of insecurity in them? I’m not talking about small things going wrong, someone tripping and falling one night, but rather about how since their concerts are always aiming for such a huge big-picture ideal, there’s some level of worry built in that maybe it will not all fall together correctly. Because they’re always reaching for the stars, trying to combine technology, do things that have never been seen before, showcase a really tight production value, and communicate their sense of history and love for the fans. It’s a difficult balancing act - they’ve always done it well overall which is why their concerts are so exceptional, but there have definitely been tours where they have not struck the correct balance between all these things, or have focused too hard on one specific item to the neglect of others.

I kept watching this show and tearing up because it was absolutely perfectly executed and projected such an aura of confidence I’d never seen in their shows before. And the aisatsu for this show is practically nonexistent; aside from Sho’s corner, outside of the MC they barely speak to the audience at all. They didn’t need to rely on words for this to communicate their feelings; they put them on the stage.

I’m hesitant to say this was my favorite show I’ve ever been to, it probably still wasn’t quite, but this was objectively the most well-done, ever. I thought Dome was truly splendid in its execution, but personally, Jun’s dumbass solo corner put a total damper on the whole affair for me (it was probably the most beautiful tour he’d ever worked on and he couldn’t even enjoy it since he was physically wrecking himself every night; if you spend the whole tour unable to participate in the MC then you’ve made a huge mistake). All the beautiful production from Dome was still present here plus some new things, and because he had to admit defeat for his solo corner, he attacked DJMJ with such obvious determination to create something truly exceptional. And that made the whole concert tie together even more flawlessly with that extra sense of history...

Watching them nail this and create something this perfect... It was only possible because this tour is a sequel to Dome and it adjusted accordingly. The setbacks for Dome were revised here. And Japonism era was also only the way it was, because of Digitalian era being the polar opposite... And Digitalian happened the way it did because they didn’t want to do a best-of album for the anniversary... And so on, and so forth, back into the past, with each era feeding off the preceding one, each tour changing and evolving into the future. All their eras led up to this one and I felt so overcome seeing all their struggles for so many years to express their feelings on the stage, culminating in something so exceptional. They’ve worked so hard for so many years and this felt like such a magnificent result.

If you showed this to someone as their first Arashi concert ever, I’m sure they’d be impressed objectively, but while they created something truly special in this arena tour, it’s only really valuable because of watching them struggle so long to reach this moment. So many times the balance hasn’t been quite right, so many times with them stumbling and adjusting and learning. All of those stumbling blocks went into building something this amazing.

I thought, “Almost 17 years and they are only just hitting their stride in making concerts... What is a concert even going to look like ten years from now, if Jun is able to keep coming up with ideas like this and they keep on growing as a group the way they have been?”

I was just so touched seeing how they knew they were nailing this performance for the recording, it was really beautiful. Jun was so proud, and him mouthing “thank you” to the audience like that made my heart feel so full. I was so happy I got to be part of this particular audience that got to be a part of creating something so amazing, and that this show was filmed and it’s something everyone will get to see. Even if I’ve only followed them seriously for nine years, this really made me feel the value of that time of being a fan and getting to watch them evolve. Their determination, their love for the fans and for each other as a group, the weight of sixteen years - all of it was displayed so beautifully on that stage, and I’m so excited to see what the following years bring as their history keeps continuing...