JUNE SHOKURAS
First of all, this has nothing to do with anything, but on the way home tonight, I saw two guys, separately, who each rivaled Yara for atrociously bad hair. Both had weird mixed of fried blond and a dark color in weird places. Odd.
Okay, anyways, last night, sourangel, darlita, and I all went to the June Shonen Club tapings. darlita was off sitting somewhere else since you can only go two people together, but we met up afterwards.
What follows is a detailed report, so obviously spoilers. As in, possibly somewhere around 80% of the shows. It's different to watch it than to read it, I know, but if you liked to be surprised, stop here.
Just in case you didn't catch that:
Let's pretend like this might be in order (it probably won't be).
First just about the filming. Seeing the stage set up was interesting. I realized a few things I should have noticed before but never did, like how they don't ever move the benches and background where people sit to talk. It's just off to the side and actually you can see it on TV, I just... never really connected it.
The organ in NHK hall is gorgeous and has a twinkle star like the organ in the chapel at my college. The boys never get nearly as close to the audience as it looks on TV. ^_^ Well, the ones on the stairs do, of course, but not the front row.
We had great seats. 2nd floor, off to the side, down in front. The only thing I couldn't see was Tsuka-chan during the Butoukan talk. Otherwise, it was a great view of everything. The stage is pretty amazing. Like a full theatre, I guess. It can be rearranged in a million ways.
They don't film in order, so it's hard to figure out what's what. Also, the screaming is crazy and continuous and it's hard to hear anything when you're there. We mostly had to go by what Koyama and Nakamaru were wearing. And so-
Honestly I don't remember Nakamaru's outfits much. Normal. Koyama was wearing torn jeans, a white t-shirt, and freakin' ugly, thick, black-rimmed glasses for the first show. Jeans and just a black tee for the second. He's really, really dark right now. Shige wasn't kidding.
Opening medleys:
First was "rock" and featured Obaachan Rock, Yume Monogatari... second had Zukkoke. One also had Arashi. I don't remember the other songs. Some girl in front of us was taking copious notes, but I wanted to just enjoy the experience.
Closing:
(Okay, I AM doing this out of order.)
First was Precious One.
Second was Oh! My Dream! I honestly don't really like that song. Some things about the performance, though. Beforehand, four of Kisumai lined up across the top bridge. Or three of them, with a space. Senga was to the far right, and then there was a space between him and Kitayama, who was over to the left. Senga started frantically waving and making "get over here" gestures and suddenly Taipi came flying across the stage and ran past him to take the mirror position to whoever was on Kitayama's left (I don't remember right now, Yokoo? Tamamori?). Senga stops him and is like, NO. OVER HERE. And points to the spot between himself and Kitayama and Taipi rushes back into place. Man, when Senga is telling you where to go... Oh, Taipi. ♥
Then, during the song, Nika and Goseki were walking down the stairs on the right, with Goseki in front. Once they were on the floor, Goseki turned around to face Nika (back to the audience) and like, danced for him. It was kind of sexy/dorky goofing around and Nika cracked up laughing.
Performances:
ABC - Nakamaru was complaining during their talk that he doesn't get to sing, and when ABC gets up to go to standby, Nakamaru tries to follow them as always. Koyama pulls him back. It's kind of old by now. Then Nakamaru heads off somewhere and Koyama sticks around to watch ABC perform! He was definitely into it, bopping along. ABC did some song by Otokogumi, I think? They talked about them, anyway, mentioning Okamoto Kenichi (Keito's dad). It was a kickass song. BUT. The best part was that, you know how ABC does that accent dance thing? Well, Nakamaru came out beatboxing, and he did all the effects for them. It was really freakin' cool. And then he finished singing the rest of the song with them. ♥
Also, during ABC's talk, Kawai did his Wish impression again. IT NEVER GETS OLD.
Kisumai - Medley. Started with just Fujigaya and Kitayama singing Inori (sadly no Senga rap, though). Then the rest came out and did Ready. I could hear Nika. ♥
THEN TAIPI AND MITSU CAME BACK ON SKATES. They sang Kis-My-Me-Mine and they all ended up in skates in their original red/gold/purple outfits. Omg, so much love! SO MUCH. IT IS THE EPITOME OF KISUMAI. PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT.
Oh, and Nika did a backflip during Ready, I think it was. ♥
Question? - A song I didn't recognize, but that sourangel said she's heard Ryo sing before.
Butoukan - Did two songs.
First during their talk, Bun and Senga were being SO weird. Just watch Senga's reactions when it comes out. Unless they zoom in enough to block him. But he's super exaggerated. I can't tell if he's going it on purpose, or if he's just weird like that. But they whispered to each other the whole time and didn't pay attention at all while Koyama talked to Yara. Until Yara said something about wanting to give Senga to Hey!Say!JUMP. To which Senga gave some cutesy response. You'll see.
They performed Now and Forever, which I LOVE. It was beautiful, and totally, totally live. As far as I could tell, everything was. If it doesn't look like it on TV, it's because the sound and video are obviously recorded separately and someone just did a shit job of syncing. Especially when it looks like EVERYONE is syncing. Because they're NOT. NOT AT ALL. They were totally amazing. Okay, when Kisumai came in on the final song at one point, they weren't all quite together. You could tell. Also, logistically, they're not going to have it prerecorded. There are too many random mixings of people. It'd never work.
Back to Butoukan. Second song was something new. And it was AMAZING. REALLY REALLY AMAZING.
As a side note, Tsuka-chan's hair is back to black, which is so, so much better than the shit he had before. He looks great! And Yara... still bad, except now his streak is reddish.
Other memorable performance bits -
Shoon singing Jetcoaster Romance or whatever that song is called. Again. FAVORITE. OH YES.
Hasshi group singing LIPS. A;SLKDFJA;SKJFL;AJKSDF Let's put it this way. Beforehand, sourangel had no idea who he was, even though I always talk about him and point him out in mags. She just never remembers. But afterwards, she was like, "...wow. Um. WOW. YEAH. THAT WAS KIND OF HOT. YEAH." Because DAMN, HASSHI. O_O
He was just general hotness all around the whole time. Although admittedly the black and red costumes are way better than the yellow ones. They were part of a talk segment about a sample day of theirs or something. I kind of spaced out.
Some group was wearing the old bright orange NEWS jumpers. XD
Letter reading was Bun and Senga. Those two again. XD Their faces were just priceless. Senga doesn't know his own name. ♥
Hey!Say! Mail was... really weird, because it started out as Nakamaru monologue. Then Yasu joined him. Hey!Say!JUMP wasn't there at all. Not a single member. I... think I'm okay with that. I'd love to see them as guests and stuff, but it's nice not to just be THEIR SHOW every week. It does, however, make the Hey!Say! Mail corner a bit odd. They couldn't have gotten other Heisei era juniors to do it? Senga? Nika? Oh god, Nika is heisei ugh ugh ugh. *SKETCH*
Yasu was the guest, so let's see. His first performance was some song I don't know. A gorgeous, soaring ballad. Just him and his guitar and he was amazing. Seriously, unbelievably amazing. I'm not a Yasu fan and I normally don't really care much about him (don't kill me - I LIKE him, just... not more than your average other Johnny), but I was beyond impressed. Totally blown away. He hits high notes incredibly well, and his emotion... yeah. I'm not going to suddenly become a Yasu fan, but he is undeniably very, very talented. Despite his weirdness, I have a lot of respect for him now.
Speaking of weirdness, his outfits were pretty hideous as usual. Neon pinks and greens and blue sneakers with skulls and who knows what else. Just bad. I do think he's look cute if his hair was black, but everyone else says that's heresy.
Yasu's second performance was... MISETEKURE. Omg, I love that song to bits. LOVE IT SO HARD. AND. NIKA AND TAMA-CHAN BACKDANCED. Of course, the second Nika showed up, I was kind of lost. So I'm sorry, I have no idea about Yasu after that. But some other Kisumai members showed up, I think Yokoo and Miyata...? The song is perfect for Nika's style. He looked amazing. Only weird bit is this shimmy choreography they all did and like. Boys, you need boobs for that to work and not look silly. Kisumai was all in white.
Nika cut his hair. I like it, but it makes him look a lot younger. :( His arms are a;slkdfja;lskjfd AMAZING. (Tottsu's arms were NICE TOO.)
Okay, sidetracked. Yasu, right. He was really dark, too. Um, I think that brings us to the games, actually.
The first game was Kanjani8 Mania. It was... REALLY BORING.
Questions and Answers:
1- Who's the best cook in K8? Ryo
2 - Who cries the most? Hina
3 - Who's the manliest? Yasu (none of the juniors got that right, and half the audience went "EH!?!?!")
4 - I don't remember
Yasu talked way too fucking much. The direct kept holding up a sign that said "makide" on it, which we assume (fairly sure about this) means "wrap it up." Ugh, boring.
Dream Bombers won, I think.
Game two was KICKASS. I forget what they call it, but it's when a member from each team comes up and has to do the same thing and the audience (or someone, this time it was the audience) judges who's better.
Everyone was there, but one chair for the Jounetsu Rainbows was empty. Eventually they all started calling out for Senga. He took his sweet time, and then came dashing out from the side, stopped in the middle to twirl around, then threw himself into his seat. Kawai helped him tie his headband on, and was trying to fix his hair for him, but there wasn't time before the cameras started rolling. Watch for that. XD
Round one: something about a dog. Two juniors I forget. Hasshi's friends? Sanada? I'm not sure. Dream Bombers won that.
Round two: Embarrassing series. Some sappy, sweet thing ending in "good night~!" Tama-chan vs. Miyata. Tama's was cute. He said the first bit, then looked to the screen for the cue for the rest, except the screen had changed to a closeup of HIM and there were no words. He had an "oh shit" expression for a split second, but finished smoothly. Miyata did really well, except he ended with "good bye!" and got tsukkomied for it. Idiot. ♥ Tama-chan won it for the Jounestu Rainbows. He got a gold sparkly lei. You know what I mean, right?
Round three: They showed a VTR of Yamapi doing Daite Senorita and told them to copy it. Taipi went first. Looked slightly nervous, but the second the start buzzer when, he snapped into BURNING HOT MODE. Super good impression a;slkfjd;alskjdf YES. OH YES. Senga was next, and like. He doesn't know the dance AT. ALL. He looked like a total idiot and completely made it up and yet somehow WON? Audience, I don't get you. sourangel and I screamed our heads off for Taipi, but... yeah. Rainbows again. *shakes head*
Taipi thought he was totally ripped off and got up to pick a fight with Senga. Pretended to push him and people were separating them. Then they had to shake hands and Senga snubbed him. They did shake in the end, but ahahaha, wow. FUNNY.
Round four: What a woman would say when her husband comes home or something to that effect. Goseki vs. Kawai. Kawai was like, why do I even need to try? Is there any point? He's going to kick my ass. But he got up and did a pretty damn good job anyway. HE collapsed into a ball on the floor this time. Goseki's just used to it by now. XD Goseki was doing well, kind of fumbled a bit, then just went into uber-cute mode and finished. Just guess who won. ;P So that was another for the Dream Bombers and a tie for the game.
As they were clearing off the set and the bright lights weren't on, Koyama smacked Goseki on the ass. Goseki jumped a bit, then turned and looked over his shoulder all coyly. Oh, boys. ♥
The rest of the notes I have are kind of random.
Kitayama messed up at one point, maybe during an opening medley? Or another medley? He and Taipi jump out onto the boxes in front, then they were supposed to jump down and cross each other's paths and go back up on the main stage. They cross paths, then Kitayama jumped up onto Fujigaya's box. He seemed to realize he wasn't supposed to be there, stayed just long enough not to make it really awkward, did a little twirl and dropped to the floor, running back up to where he was supposed to be. It was actually really subtle. When they make mistakes when the cameras aren't rolling, they do big flourishes. But when cameras roll, they make it hardly noticeable at all. Very professional.
One junior also fell on his ass and totally screwed up his breakdancing attempt. Poor kid. He was tiny.
I think Hasshi also sang Hanasanaide Aide (or whatever that is) at some point.
Oh, and Yasu did examples for the first two rounds of the second game. His dog thing was embarrassing to even watch. The second example sucked just as much. Senga's version of "strong" (tsuyoku) was moronic. Oh, Senga, way to fail.
At some point, when they were exiting the stage, ABC was supposed to split into half and two go one way, two go the other. Tottsu started going across, then after he got more than half way, realized he wasn't supposed to go that way, gave a little fluttery wave, and went back in the right direction.
Aaaand that's pretty much all I have for that. :D
Okay, anyways, last night, sourangel, darlita, and I all went to the June Shonen Club tapings. darlita was off sitting somewhere else since you can only go two people together, but we met up afterwards.
What follows is a detailed report, so obviously spoilers. As in, possibly somewhere around 80% of the shows. It's different to watch it than to read it, I know, but if you liked to be surprised, stop here.
Just in case you didn't catch that:
Let's pretend like this might be in order (it probably won't be).
First just about the filming. Seeing the stage set up was interesting. I realized a few things I should have noticed before but never did, like how they don't ever move the benches and background where people sit to talk. It's just off to the side and actually you can see it on TV, I just... never really connected it.
The organ in NHK hall is gorgeous and has a twinkle star like the organ in the chapel at my college. The boys never get nearly as close to the audience as it looks on TV. ^_^ Well, the ones on the stairs do, of course, but not the front row.
We had great seats. 2nd floor, off to the side, down in front. The only thing I couldn't see was Tsuka-chan during the Butoukan talk. Otherwise, it was a great view of everything. The stage is pretty amazing. Like a full theatre, I guess. It can be rearranged in a million ways.
They don't film in order, so it's hard to figure out what's what. Also, the screaming is crazy and continuous and it's hard to hear anything when you're there. We mostly had to go by what Koyama and Nakamaru were wearing. And so-
Honestly I don't remember Nakamaru's outfits much. Normal. Koyama was wearing torn jeans, a white t-shirt, and freakin' ugly, thick, black-rimmed glasses for the first show. Jeans and just a black tee for the second. He's really, really dark right now. Shige wasn't kidding.
Opening medleys:
First was "rock" and featured Obaachan Rock, Yume Monogatari... second had Zukkoke. One also had Arashi. I don't remember the other songs. Some girl in front of us was taking copious notes, but I wanted to just enjoy the experience.
Closing:
(Okay, I AM doing this out of order.)
First was Precious One.
Second was Oh! My Dream! I honestly don't really like that song. Some things about the performance, though. Beforehand, four of Kisumai lined up across the top bridge. Or three of them, with a space. Senga was to the far right, and then there was a space between him and Kitayama, who was over to the left. Senga started frantically waving and making "get over here" gestures and suddenly Taipi came flying across the stage and ran past him to take the mirror position to whoever was on Kitayama's left (I don't remember right now, Yokoo? Tamamori?). Senga stops him and is like, NO. OVER HERE. And points to the spot between himself and Kitayama and Taipi rushes back into place. Man, when Senga is telling you where to go... Oh, Taipi. ♥
Then, during the song, Nika and Goseki were walking down the stairs on the right, with Goseki in front. Once they were on the floor, Goseki turned around to face Nika (back to the audience) and like, danced for him. It was kind of sexy/dorky goofing around and Nika cracked up laughing.
Performances:
ABC - Nakamaru was complaining during their talk that he doesn't get to sing, and when ABC gets up to go to standby, Nakamaru tries to follow them as always. Koyama pulls him back. It's kind of old by now. Then Nakamaru heads off somewhere and Koyama sticks around to watch ABC perform! He was definitely into it, bopping along. ABC did some song by Otokogumi, I think? They talked about them, anyway, mentioning Okamoto Kenichi (Keito's dad). It was a kickass song. BUT. The best part was that, you know how ABC does that accent dance thing? Well, Nakamaru came out beatboxing, and he did all the effects for them. It was really freakin' cool. And then he finished singing the rest of the song with them. ♥
Also, during ABC's talk, Kawai did his Wish impression again. IT NEVER GETS OLD.
Kisumai - Medley. Started with just Fujigaya and Kitayama singing Inori (sadly no Senga rap, though). Then the rest came out and did Ready. I could hear Nika. ♥
THEN TAIPI AND MITSU CAME BACK ON SKATES. They sang Kis-My-Me-Mine and they all ended up in skates in their original red/gold/purple outfits. Omg, so much love! SO MUCH. IT IS THE EPITOME OF KISUMAI. PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT.
Oh, and Nika did a backflip during Ready, I think it was. ♥
Question? - A song I didn't recognize, but that sourangel said she's heard Ryo sing before.
Butoukan - Did two songs.
First during their talk, Bun and Senga were being SO weird. Just watch Senga's reactions when it comes out. Unless they zoom in enough to block him. But he's super exaggerated. I can't tell if he's going it on purpose, or if he's just weird like that. But they whispered to each other the whole time and didn't pay attention at all while Koyama talked to Yara. Until Yara said something about wanting to give Senga to Hey!Say!JUMP. To which Senga gave some cutesy response. You'll see.
They performed Now and Forever, which I LOVE. It was beautiful, and totally, totally live. As far as I could tell, everything was. If it doesn't look like it on TV, it's because the sound and video are obviously recorded separately and someone just did a shit job of syncing. Especially when it looks like EVERYONE is syncing. Because they're NOT. NOT AT ALL. They were totally amazing. Okay, when Kisumai came in on the final song at one point, they weren't all quite together. You could tell. Also, logistically, they're not going to have it prerecorded. There are too many random mixings of people. It'd never work.
Back to Butoukan. Second song was something new. And it was AMAZING. REALLY REALLY AMAZING.
As a side note, Tsuka-chan's hair is back to black, which is so, so much better than the shit he had before. He looks great! And Yara... still bad, except now his streak is reddish.
Other memorable performance bits -
Shoon singing Jetcoaster Romance or whatever that song is called. Again. FAVORITE. OH YES.
Hasshi group singing LIPS. A;SLKDFJA;SKJFL;AJKSDF Let's put it this way. Beforehand, sourangel had no idea who he was, even though I always talk about him and point him out in mags. She just never remembers. But afterwards, she was like, "...wow. Um. WOW. YEAH. THAT WAS KIND OF HOT. YEAH." Because DAMN, HASSHI. O_O
He was just general hotness all around the whole time. Although admittedly the black and red costumes are way better than the yellow ones. They were part of a talk segment about a sample day of theirs or something. I kind of spaced out.
Some group was wearing the old bright orange NEWS jumpers. XD
Letter reading was Bun and Senga. Those two again. XD Their faces were just priceless. Senga doesn't know his own name. ♥
Hey!Say! Mail was... really weird, because it started out as Nakamaru monologue. Then Yasu joined him. Hey!Say!JUMP wasn't there at all. Not a single member. I... think I'm okay with that. I'd love to see them as guests and stuff, but it's nice not to just be THEIR SHOW every week. It does, however, make the Hey!Say! Mail corner a bit odd. They couldn't have gotten other Heisei era juniors to do it? Senga? Nika? Oh god, Nika is heisei ugh ugh ugh. *SKETCH*
Yasu was the guest, so let's see. His first performance was some song I don't know. A gorgeous, soaring ballad. Just him and his guitar and he was amazing. Seriously, unbelievably amazing. I'm not a Yasu fan and I normally don't really care much about him (don't kill me - I LIKE him, just... not more than your average other Johnny), but I was beyond impressed. Totally blown away. He hits high notes incredibly well, and his emotion... yeah. I'm not going to suddenly become a Yasu fan, but he is undeniably very, very talented. Despite his weirdness, I have a lot of respect for him now.
Speaking of weirdness, his outfits were pretty hideous as usual. Neon pinks and greens and blue sneakers with skulls and who knows what else. Just bad. I do think he's look cute if his hair was black, but everyone else says that's heresy.
Yasu's second performance was... MISETEKURE. Omg, I love that song to bits. LOVE IT SO HARD. AND. NIKA AND TAMA-CHAN BACKDANCED. Of course, the second Nika showed up, I was kind of lost. So I'm sorry, I have no idea about Yasu after that. But some other Kisumai members showed up, I think Yokoo and Miyata...? The song is perfect for Nika's style. He looked amazing. Only weird bit is this shimmy choreography they all did and like. Boys, you need boobs for that to work and not look silly. Kisumai was all in white.
Nika cut his hair. I like it, but it makes him look a lot younger. :( His arms are a;slkdfja;lskjfd AMAZING. (Tottsu's arms were NICE TOO.)
Okay, sidetracked. Yasu, right. He was really dark, too. Um, I think that brings us to the games, actually.
The first game was Kanjani8 Mania. It was... REALLY BORING.
Questions and Answers:
1- Who's the best cook in K8? Ryo
2 - Who cries the most? Hina
3 - Who's the manliest? Yasu (none of the juniors got that right, and half the audience went "EH!?!?!")
4 - I don't remember
Yasu talked way too fucking much. The direct kept holding up a sign that said "makide" on it, which we assume (fairly sure about this) means "wrap it up." Ugh, boring.
Dream Bombers won, I think.
Game two was KICKASS. I forget what they call it, but it's when a member from each team comes up and has to do the same thing and the audience (or someone, this time it was the audience) judges who's better.
Everyone was there, but one chair for the Jounetsu Rainbows was empty. Eventually they all started calling out for Senga. He took his sweet time, and then came dashing out from the side, stopped in the middle to twirl around, then threw himself into his seat. Kawai helped him tie his headband on, and was trying to fix his hair for him, but there wasn't time before the cameras started rolling. Watch for that. XD
Round one: something about a dog. Two juniors I forget. Hasshi's friends? Sanada? I'm not sure. Dream Bombers won that.
Round two: Embarrassing series. Some sappy, sweet thing ending in "good night~!" Tama-chan vs. Miyata. Tama's was cute. He said the first bit, then looked to the screen for the cue for the rest, except the screen had changed to a closeup of HIM and there were no words. He had an "oh shit" expression for a split second, but finished smoothly. Miyata did really well, except he ended with "good bye!" and got tsukkomied for it. Idiot. ♥ Tama-chan won it for the Jounestu Rainbows. He got a gold sparkly lei. You know what I mean, right?
Round three: They showed a VTR of Yamapi doing Daite Senorita and told them to copy it. Taipi went first. Looked slightly nervous, but the second the start buzzer when, he snapped into BURNING HOT MODE. Super good impression a;slkfjd;alskjdf YES. OH YES. Senga was next, and like. He doesn't know the dance AT. ALL. He looked like a total idiot and completely made it up and yet somehow WON? Audience, I don't get you. sourangel and I screamed our heads off for Taipi, but... yeah. Rainbows again. *shakes head*
Taipi thought he was totally ripped off and got up to pick a fight with Senga. Pretended to push him and people were separating them. Then they had to shake hands and Senga snubbed him. They did shake in the end, but ahahaha, wow. FUNNY.
Round four: What a woman would say when her husband comes home or something to that effect. Goseki vs. Kawai. Kawai was like, why do I even need to try? Is there any point? He's going to kick my ass. But he got up and did a pretty damn good job anyway. HE collapsed into a ball on the floor this time. Goseki's just used to it by now. XD Goseki was doing well, kind of fumbled a bit, then just went into uber-cute mode and finished. Just guess who won. ;P So that was another for the Dream Bombers and a tie for the game.
As they were clearing off the set and the bright lights weren't on, Koyama smacked Goseki on the ass. Goseki jumped a bit, then turned and looked over his shoulder all coyly. Oh, boys. ♥
The rest of the notes I have are kind of random.
Kitayama messed up at one point, maybe during an opening medley? Or another medley? He and Taipi jump out onto the boxes in front, then they were supposed to jump down and cross each other's paths and go back up on the main stage. They cross paths, then Kitayama jumped up onto Fujigaya's box. He seemed to realize he wasn't supposed to be there, stayed just long enough not to make it really awkward, did a little twirl and dropped to the floor, running back up to where he was supposed to be. It was actually really subtle. When they make mistakes when the cameras aren't rolling, they do big flourishes. But when cameras roll, they make it hardly noticeable at all. Very professional.
One junior also fell on his ass and totally screwed up his breakdancing attempt. Poor kid. He was tiny.
I think Hasshi also sang Hanasanaide Aide (or whatever that is) at some point.
Oh, and Yasu did examples for the first two rounds of the second game. His dog thing was embarrassing to even watch. The second example sucked just as much. Senga's version of "strong" (tsuyoku) was moronic. Oh, Senga, way to fail.
At some point, when they were exiting the stage, ABC was supposed to split into half and two go one way, two go the other. Tottsu started going across, then after he got more than half way, realized he wasn't supposed to go that way, gave a little fluttery wave, and went back in the right direction.
Aaaand that's pretty much all I have for that. :D