"Scene" Concert Report for Saturday, August 21st
Arashi's Concert Report for Saturday, August 21st
Well the goods line was pretty scary looking today. I'm so glad I went yesterday at 6 AM...
I went with a friend today, and randomly, we got asked by the Pia ex magazine's staff to write down what Arashi meant to us and took our pictures to possibly use in the next edition of their magazine, Soda. I don't know if we'll really be picked, but it was fun anyway. I wrote "everything" (since that's what they are to me) and my friend wrote "fun!"
We waited to go inside and the poor guy in charge of the megaphone had told us he hadn't slept in 2 days. He was pretty amusing.
During the 2 and a half hour wait before the show, they played previews for all the Arashi shows again. Plus, the staff tested out shooting off the flames on the top of the stage and then some mini fireworks went off on the stage, scaring us all half to death.
When the concert started, the huge screen split down the middle and slid apart to reveal an artificial waterfall that opened on the bottom to let Arashi walk out. They started with "Movin' on", "Yurase, Ima wo", and "Troublemaker". During "Troublemaker", Ohno and Sho did their heart. Everyone was really excited during "Happiness" and "Attack it". They did opening greetings during "Attack it." Jun shouted "Kokuritsu, how are you?!" and "We want to share this with all 70,000 of you!" Nino did his traditional "Welcome!", Aiba yelled "Are you excited?!" "This is awesome!" "So much fun!", Ohno did his "Hi!" and "This is another festival! A Kokuritsu festival!", Sho got everyone involved with his "How are you doing?" for each section of the crowd. Then "Everything" had images from the previous Kokuritsu concerts playing on the screens.
I didn't realize it, but Nino had gone missing and came out for his solo "Arigatou" in a red top hat and a funky but cute suit. The best part was when the juniors came out in white outfits with balloons and at the end when they say "I love you", they turned around, making a heart with the red parts on the back of their clothes.
"Rock you", "Kitto Daijoubu", and "Hadashi no Mirai" had everyone in the crowd jumping and dancing with Arashi. During "A day in our life", Jun and Ohno had a cute moment when they played with each other's fingers, kind of sliding them across each other's, and Ohno shivered at the end like he was embarrassed.
"Summer Splash" was really fun! Jun did the "slow motion beach ball" action, Aiba was splayed on the ground, and they had these hugh water spouts shooting out over a hundred feet into the sky.
This time I saw the moment when Ohno disappeared, so I was expecting his solo "Shizuka na yoru ni." I'm still in love with this song. Ohno came out in a black pants and a white shirt with a black vest thing while the dancers were in red and black. Even though the song was slow, he still managed to work in a fair amount of dancing. I'm looking forward to watching it again tomorrow.
The rest of the guys came out in these orange jumpsuits next, but Jun was the only one with his jacket tied around his waist and a blue shirt on underneath. They did "Mukae ni iku yo" and I was interested to see that Jun, Nino, and Sho were singing the "ooh"s at the end of the song.
"Season" had a pretty cherry blossom background. Arashi got on the individual stands that raise them up really high and they sang "Hero" next.
Then came Sho's solo "T.A.B.O.O." For this, they had a video on the screens showing a sexy shirtless Sho singing the beginning of the song, until the real thing came out in this red jacket with a red hat that kind reminding me of a police outfit or something? He did a lot of dancing too. At the end, he and the dancers laid down on the stage, making way for "Let me down." He managed to finish his costume change in time to come back out for his rap part. "Let me down" also had some great dancing. I was very pleased that Ohno and Aiba were on our side for that.
After "Kagerou", they did band introductions before going into "Oh Yeah!", "Lucky Man", and "One Love".
Then came the MC. They thanked everyone for coming and Jun said he'd seen the men in the crowd too, which made several of them shout out loudly. Sho commented on how hot it had been and Jun pointed out that the moon looked pretty tonight. Sho laughed that Aiba had started the concert yelling "I'm already touched!", then he imitated Aiba's usually "Yeah!"s and ended with Aiba's strange "I'm already touched!" shout. Aiba just said that that was how he'd felt.
The talk moved on to getting burned by the sun during their rehearsals. I think that Jun said Aiba had worn the blue hood towel thingy a lot, but Aiba had still gotten a bit burned. Aiba-chan got confused when he tried to think of the sunscreen he'd used, saying "SP... SPM?" (Maybe he meant SPF?) He told us he'd got really sweaty and kinda crispy. On the subject of sunburns, they turned to Ohno and Sho asked him if his face hurt. Oh-chan said "I just got used to it." Then they made Leader walk out of the spot lights, teasing him that he'd fade into the dark background with his tan. Jun said "I can't see you," so Ohno moved over some more, into a section of the stage dowsed in a blue light and his face lit up bright blue, complete with a goofy grin that made him look like a ghost. They asked Nino next and he replied that he'd only wore a hat without really getting burned. They turned back to Ohno and he just told them "I already finished burning." Sho also wore a hat without any problems. There was a short moment of silence, so Aiba took the chance to say "Can I change the topic?"
I really liked the next part. They showed us all what they was written on the back of their jackets, which were all in English. Sho's was "Rock the world", Jun's was "Deeper & Higher", Ohno's made me laugh with "Switch on!" (He said it was because he was always "off" instead), Nino's was "The landscape I'm seeing", but Aiba couldn't read English for landscape so he shouted "Is there anyone who can read this?" Aiba's made everyone crack up with "I love Chiba!" His favorite part was the exclamation point. The reason he'd chosen this phrase was because he doesn't want to forget Chiba. They made a reference to something in Chiba that I didn't know and asked the crowd if they were familiar with it. Some people raised their hands. I'm guessing it was the food that Aiba started to describe next, which was a kind of sweet peanut cream (?? Sounds good though). Nino teased him that he was bad at explaining it, then led them into a story he'd heard about how Aiba and Ohno had gone to eat curry. Apparently, Sho, Aiba, and Ohno had a rehearsal together, but Sho had to leave for News Zero work, which messed up Aiba's plans to go out together. When he asked Ohno what they should do, Leader said "Well, for now, let's go for curry." That had Nino calling the two of them the "curry team" and teasing once again that Aiba had screwed up on his dance moves. All of us were laughing really hard when Aiba "snapped" and advanced slowly on Ninomiya, making Nino back up with a nervous laugh. Aiba told him to stop picking on him on stage and save it for backstage. He tried to change the topic again, but he got stuck on "Recently... yeah, recently..." Aiba turned to Sho for help, but Sho just looked like he was surprised that he'd suddenly got dragged into the conversation again. They'd gotten into a playful argument, when a voice from backstage yelled "Urusai!" (Shut up!).
I was thrilled when Ohno came out in his Kaibutsu-kun costume and preformed "Yukai Tsuukai, Kaibutsu-kun!" He was so adorable! Completely in Kaibutsu mode, he told the crowd, "Wow... There are a lot of humans here. You know, I came here to find Hiroshi and Utako, but I got lost... and I sang... I heard Arashi was here." Jun came out on stage in a white outfit then, pretending he was surprised with "Could you possibly be...?" Kaibutsu-kun pointed at Jun. "Are you Arashi?" Jun nodded and said he'd seen all of the drama "Kaibutsu-kun" and that he'd even appeared in it, but Ohno replied, "You did? Who were you?" Eventually he realized Jun was the "guy who'd given him his curry" in the last episode. Jun told him, "We're in the middle of a concert.," so Kaibutsu-kun asked, "Is it okay that I sang?" This whole conversation was awesome by the way. Jun mentioned, "Leader's missing." Kaibutsu-kun gave him a blank look. "Who?" Jun's reply made us laugh. "He's the one who has really dark skin." Ohno said he didn't know and asked if the guy was in Arashi. Kaibutsu-kun announced he was leaving and Jun told him if he ran into Leader to send him out. The rest of the guys came out on stage with Nino saying, "Amazing. He came all the way from Kaibutsu Land." Aiba wanted to meet Demokin. ^_^
Sudden, Aiba declared they were going to play a game called "Johnny's Intro Quiz", which I found out that they'd played a very similar version on Arashi ni Shiyagare when I got home to watch it tonight. They played a very, very short clip of the beginning of their sempai's songs and they had to run to grab a small flag on a table that Aiba set up. When he was carrying the table and walking down the center stage area, they asked him where he was going, but he ignored them and put the table at the bottom of a little slope that leads off the main stage. Sho commented, "Ah, like beach flag?" Aiba warned them to be careful not to fall off the stage. The first clip's winner was Jun. His answer was Kinki Kids' "Kiss kara hajimaru mystery". I know that song, but the part they played was so~ short, I couldn't tell. Sho was also surprised by how brief the segments were and said, "Cho intro?" (Only the very beginning?) The second one made Sho run out and grab the flag, but he kept walking away saying "Nandake?" (What was that?) and Nino complained he was cheating cuz Sho was thinking as he continued walking. Sho guessed "Made in Japan", but it was wrong. He was embarrassed, but more embarrassing was how far he had to walk back afterwards. Leader returned then, wearing a white outfit like the others and giving the excuse that he went to the bathroom and when he came out, he met some weird guy. The next song made everyone freeze cuz they didn't know. Ohno gave it a try with "People" by V6 (I assume he meant "Music for the people") and he was right. They were all confused on the fourth one too. Aiba guessed Tokio's "Sora fune" , but Sho was the one who got it right with "Love me only" (I don't know who sang this). Nino squatted down, grumbling that he hadn't known any of them. They finished the game there and Aiba passed the little table to a staff person. They leisurely got ready for the second half, putting jackets back on and then Jun confused us all by telling us to stand, even though we all were, and saying it was okay if we wanted to sit down. (Everyone around me was like, "Eh?") Jun introduced the next song, "Refrain." The blue lights on the stage made everything look really nice. "Gift" and "My Girl" were after that, and once again, I missed the moment when Jun disappeared.
Jun always has a lot of fun with his solos. This time he was suspended from the top of the stage and moving back and forth, up and down, to match the little video game scene they had scrolling across. I think the game was called "MJder Game". He started at stage 1, "dodging" flying rocks, until a little circle with Nino's face on it came. When Jun got the circle, it gave him a "level up" and he flipped around. There was a treasure chest at the end, leading to a "Game clear!" message, then "Next Stage: Come Back To Me." Honestly, Jun's outfit was a little funky, like something from a video game, bright blue and yellow with a hat. The dancers kinda looked like astronauts/aliens in their shiny silver suits. It was a fun song with some great dancing though.
Immediately after, Aiba came out on the back stage, wearing a strange casual suit and top hat with leopard print, if I remember right, and sunglasses that had red letters blinking past (according to my friend, it was something like "Aiba Masaki". Aiba's solo was brilliant. Everyone was cheering on the high-pitched "yeah"s. He did some cool dancing, but even better was when the lights went down and his suit lit up on the edges with neon lights. Great! >_<
"Pikanchi Double" had the members in different colored trench coat thingys. Ohno was purple, Nino silver, Sho blue, Jun red, and Aiba came out at last in gold. During "Love So Sweet", Aiba was busy playing with the juniors. "Kotoba Yori" and "Believe" were great, but no dancing for that.
I loved how they led into "Circus". Sho started speaking English, saying something along the lines of "Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls. It's going to be an amazing show from here on," and the screen was flashing the words "Arashi Showtime." Dancers came out with umbrellas, covering Sho for a few seconds, until he popped back out in a rainbow colored costume. On the main stage, Jun came out flying again but with Aiba this time. They had fun flipping around and attempted a few tricks where they made it look like Jun was upside down and Aiba was holding him up with his hands. They flipped around and tried to get their feet together too, but they slipped a bit. ^_^ Also spinning around in the air, Ohno was holding onto a wire with one hand and an umbrella in the other. Nino was inside of a frame of a metal box that was dangling in the air too. Ohno and Aiba got on a similar box, leaving Sho and Jun for the last one. My friend couldn't tell if Sho looked terrified or not. There was a lot going on around the stage, so much that I couldn't take it all in.
We were all blown away by the next part. They did a remix of songs, full of some fantastic dancing. I heard "Truth" and "Ashita no Kioku" in there, but mostly "Remarkable" (complete with their awesome dance when they are lined up and move their hands around). It led right into "Monster". They had flames shooting out of the stage from different places and finally fireworks, like how it was with "Believe" last year.
The members speeches came after that. Roughly translated:
Sho- " Thank you for coming today. Kokuritsu really is a lot of fun with everyone. It kind of feels like it's been a while since we've been here. We got a lot of congratulations from people, but it's not the numbers that's important, it's the people who said it. As long as the staff is happy and the fans are happy, then I'm going to do my best. Please give me the chance to say many more "Thank you"s."
Ohno- "Thank you. It's really amazing. Suddenly... It feels like when we were doing smaller concerts. Every day leaves me happy. I'm always feeling something new all the time. Work is fun. Everyday is fun. Today was fun. I want to keep making fun memories, until when I don't know, but that's what I'd like to do."
Aiba- "Right from the opening, I was touched. The concert was such a great time. Next year and the next, I hope to do more things. Arashi is THIS. Everyone makes Arashi. Thank you."
Nino- (His speech confused me. He was talking about how their group had probably surpasses AKB48, then about how the last dance had been kind of scary to learn) We want to show everyone the same landscape that we can see. I'll be doing my best. We all will. (Looks back at Aiba, who says "Don't pick on me!") Eh? (Feigning ignorance) We'll be trying our best. Because we are touched by all of you. (Aiba- "Oi!") The five of us can see a wonderful picture from here. Thank you."
Jun- "You pretty much finished everything with that..."
Nino- "No, I didn't."
Jun- "The tour this time, we didn't produce it, because it's something that's made from now. I saw a great scenery and I'd like to continue seeing it. Summer concerts are hot, but a lot of fun. I want to have a fun time with all of you again."
"To be free" was nice when the guys were raised up onto their individual stands with colored lights, but "Sora Takaku" was even better when they let off the balloons.
The first encore (the guys changed into their individualized concert shirts) was all the fun songs to dance to. "Still" and "Fight Song" were first, but Sho was still having fun yelling "Summer Splash", which had Jun joining in too. They slowed it down to sing "Beautiful Days" and it had the most amazing timing too, because the baseball stadium next door to Kokuritsu shot off their fireworks during this song and the guys could watch the show too from the back stage. "Sakura Sake" and "Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi" ended safely so that they could thank the dancers and the band.
The second encore started with Sho, Aiba, and Ohno doing a funny dance onto the stage. Jun told us it had been an "extremely, extremely" fun concert. Nino pointed to Aiba. "You can tell if you look at Aiba's shirt. It's all torn up." Aiba's shirt and pants had been cut a ton of times to be "fashionable". Aiba shouted "You're picking on me again!" but Nino just remarked, "No, it really is beat up." Jun explained, "It's because it's Aiba," and said "We'll do one last song." He turned around and pointed to the back of his shirt, which had a rainbow across it.
"Love Rainbow" was a lot of fun. Sho and Aiba took turns sliding down the side stages in the wet parts, Sho sliding while standing up and Aiba on his stomach. When Aiba got up, he shook out his shirt really hard to try and get the water off.
And that ends the first concert for Arashi's new tour "Scene".
It took forever to get home, but I thought ahead to tape Shiyagare, so I watched that tonight too. The intro quizzes were awesome. =^_^=
Now, I need to get some sleep before I do it all again tomorrow...
Pics: (Sorry they're sideways)
<3
Well the goods line was pretty scary looking today. I'm so glad I went yesterday at 6 AM...
I went with a friend today, and randomly, we got asked by the Pia ex magazine's staff to write down what Arashi meant to us and took our pictures to possibly use in the next edition of their magazine, Soda. I don't know if we'll really be picked, but it was fun anyway. I wrote "everything" (since that's what they are to me) and my friend wrote "fun!"
We waited to go inside and the poor guy in charge of the megaphone had told us he hadn't slept in 2 days. He was pretty amusing.
During the 2 and a half hour wait before the show, they played previews for all the Arashi shows again. Plus, the staff tested out shooting off the flames on the top of the stage and then some mini fireworks went off on the stage, scaring us all half to death.
When the concert started, the huge screen split down the middle and slid apart to reveal an artificial waterfall that opened on the bottom to let Arashi walk out. They started with "Movin' on", "Yurase, Ima wo", and "Troublemaker". During "Troublemaker", Ohno and Sho did their heart. Everyone was really excited during "Happiness" and "Attack it". They did opening greetings during "Attack it." Jun shouted "Kokuritsu, how are you?!" and "We want to share this with all 70,000 of you!" Nino did his traditional "Welcome!", Aiba yelled "Are you excited?!" "This is awesome!" "So much fun!", Ohno did his "Hi!" and "This is another festival! A Kokuritsu festival!", Sho got everyone involved with his "How are you doing?" for each section of the crowd. Then "Everything" had images from the previous Kokuritsu concerts playing on the screens.
I didn't realize it, but Nino had gone missing and came out for his solo "Arigatou" in a red top hat and a funky but cute suit. The best part was when the juniors came out in white outfits with balloons and at the end when they say "I love you", they turned around, making a heart with the red parts on the back of their clothes.
"Rock you", "Kitto Daijoubu", and "Hadashi no Mirai" had everyone in the crowd jumping and dancing with Arashi. During "A day in our life", Jun and Ohno had a cute moment when they played with each other's fingers, kind of sliding them across each other's, and Ohno shivered at the end like he was embarrassed.
"Summer Splash" was really fun! Jun did the "slow motion beach ball" action, Aiba was splayed on the ground, and they had these hugh water spouts shooting out over a hundred feet into the sky.
This time I saw the moment when Ohno disappeared, so I was expecting his solo "Shizuka na yoru ni." I'm still in love with this song. Ohno came out in a black pants and a white shirt with a black vest thing while the dancers were in red and black. Even though the song was slow, he still managed to work in a fair amount of dancing. I'm looking forward to watching it again tomorrow.
The rest of the guys came out in these orange jumpsuits next, but Jun was the only one with his jacket tied around his waist and a blue shirt on underneath. They did "Mukae ni iku yo" and I was interested to see that Jun, Nino, and Sho were singing the "ooh"s at the end of the song.
"Season" had a pretty cherry blossom background. Arashi got on the individual stands that raise them up really high and they sang "Hero" next.
Then came Sho's solo "T.A.B.O.O." For this, they had a video on the screens showing a sexy shirtless Sho singing the beginning of the song, until the real thing came out in this red jacket with a red hat that kind reminding me of a police outfit or something? He did a lot of dancing too. At the end, he and the dancers laid down on the stage, making way for "Let me down." He managed to finish his costume change in time to come back out for his rap part. "Let me down" also had some great dancing. I was very pleased that Ohno and Aiba were on our side for that.
After "Kagerou", they did band introductions before going into "Oh Yeah!", "Lucky Man", and "One Love".
Then came the MC. They thanked everyone for coming and Jun said he'd seen the men in the crowd too, which made several of them shout out loudly. Sho commented on how hot it had been and Jun pointed out that the moon looked pretty tonight. Sho laughed that Aiba had started the concert yelling "I'm already touched!", then he imitated Aiba's usually "Yeah!"s and ended with Aiba's strange "I'm already touched!" shout. Aiba just said that that was how he'd felt.
The talk moved on to getting burned by the sun during their rehearsals. I think that Jun said Aiba had worn the blue hood towel thingy a lot, but Aiba had still gotten a bit burned. Aiba-chan got confused when he tried to think of the sunscreen he'd used, saying "SP... SPM?" (Maybe he meant SPF?) He told us he'd got really sweaty and kinda crispy. On the subject of sunburns, they turned to Ohno and Sho asked him if his face hurt. Oh-chan said "I just got used to it." Then they made Leader walk out of the spot lights, teasing him that he'd fade into the dark background with his tan. Jun said "I can't see you," so Ohno moved over some more, into a section of the stage dowsed in a blue light and his face lit up bright blue, complete with a goofy grin that made him look like a ghost. They asked Nino next and he replied that he'd only wore a hat without really getting burned. They turned back to Ohno and he just told them "I already finished burning." Sho also wore a hat without any problems. There was a short moment of silence, so Aiba took the chance to say "Can I change the topic?"
I really liked the next part. They showed us all what they was written on the back of their jackets, which were all in English. Sho's was "Rock the world", Jun's was "Deeper & Higher", Ohno's made me laugh with "Switch on!" (He said it was because he was always "off" instead), Nino's was "The landscape I'm seeing", but Aiba couldn't read English for landscape so he shouted "Is there anyone who can read this?" Aiba's made everyone crack up with "I love Chiba!" His favorite part was the exclamation point. The reason he'd chosen this phrase was because he doesn't want to forget Chiba. They made a reference to something in Chiba that I didn't know and asked the crowd if they were familiar with it. Some people raised their hands. I'm guessing it was the food that Aiba started to describe next, which was a kind of sweet peanut cream (?? Sounds good though). Nino teased him that he was bad at explaining it, then led them into a story he'd heard about how Aiba and Ohno had gone to eat curry. Apparently, Sho, Aiba, and Ohno had a rehearsal together, but Sho had to leave for News Zero work, which messed up Aiba's plans to go out together. When he asked Ohno what they should do, Leader said "Well, for now, let's go for curry." That had Nino calling the two of them the "curry team" and teasing once again that Aiba had screwed up on his dance moves. All of us were laughing really hard when Aiba "snapped" and advanced slowly on Ninomiya, making Nino back up with a nervous laugh. Aiba told him to stop picking on him on stage and save it for backstage. He tried to change the topic again, but he got stuck on "Recently... yeah, recently..." Aiba turned to Sho for help, but Sho just looked like he was surprised that he'd suddenly got dragged into the conversation again. They'd gotten into a playful argument, when a voice from backstage yelled "Urusai!" (Shut up!).
I was thrilled when Ohno came out in his Kaibutsu-kun costume and preformed "Yukai Tsuukai, Kaibutsu-kun!" He was so adorable! Completely in Kaibutsu mode, he told the crowd, "Wow... There are a lot of humans here. You know, I came here to find Hiroshi and Utako, but I got lost... and I sang... I heard Arashi was here." Jun came out on stage in a white outfit then, pretending he was surprised with "Could you possibly be...?" Kaibutsu-kun pointed at Jun. "Are you Arashi?" Jun nodded and said he'd seen all of the drama "Kaibutsu-kun" and that he'd even appeared in it, but Ohno replied, "You did? Who were you?" Eventually he realized Jun was the "guy who'd given him his curry" in the last episode. Jun told him, "We're in the middle of a concert.," so Kaibutsu-kun asked, "Is it okay that I sang?" This whole conversation was awesome by the way. Jun mentioned, "Leader's missing." Kaibutsu-kun gave him a blank look. "Who?" Jun's reply made us laugh. "He's the one who has really dark skin." Ohno said he didn't know and asked if the guy was in Arashi. Kaibutsu-kun announced he was leaving and Jun told him if he ran into Leader to send him out. The rest of the guys came out on stage with Nino saying, "Amazing. He came all the way from Kaibutsu Land." Aiba wanted to meet Demokin. ^_^
Sudden, Aiba declared they were going to play a game called "Johnny's Intro Quiz", which I found out that they'd played a very similar version on Arashi ni Shiyagare when I got home to watch it tonight. They played a very, very short clip of the beginning of their sempai's songs and they had to run to grab a small flag on a table that Aiba set up. When he was carrying the table and walking down the center stage area, they asked him where he was going, but he ignored them and put the table at the bottom of a little slope that leads off the main stage. Sho commented, "Ah, like beach flag?" Aiba warned them to be careful not to fall off the stage. The first clip's winner was Jun. His answer was Kinki Kids' "Kiss kara hajimaru mystery". I know that song, but the part they played was so~ short, I couldn't tell. Sho was also surprised by how brief the segments were and said, "Cho intro?" (Only the very beginning?) The second one made Sho run out and grab the flag, but he kept walking away saying "Nandake?" (What was that?) and Nino complained he was cheating cuz Sho was thinking as he continued walking. Sho guessed "Made in Japan", but it was wrong. He was embarrassed, but more embarrassing was how far he had to walk back afterwards. Leader returned then, wearing a white outfit like the others and giving the excuse that he went to the bathroom and when he came out, he met some weird guy. The next song made everyone freeze cuz they didn't know. Ohno gave it a try with "People" by V6 (I assume he meant "Music for the people") and he was right. They were all confused on the fourth one too. Aiba guessed Tokio's "Sora fune" , but Sho was the one who got it right with "Love me only" (I don't know who sang this). Nino squatted down, grumbling that he hadn't known any of them. They finished the game there and Aiba passed the little table to a staff person. They leisurely got ready for the second half, putting jackets back on and then Jun confused us all by telling us to stand, even though we all were, and saying it was okay if we wanted to sit down. (Everyone around me was like, "Eh?") Jun introduced the next song, "Refrain." The blue lights on the stage made everything look really nice. "Gift" and "My Girl" were after that, and once again, I missed the moment when Jun disappeared.
Jun always has a lot of fun with his solos. This time he was suspended from the top of the stage and moving back and forth, up and down, to match the little video game scene they had scrolling across. I think the game was called "MJder Game". He started at stage 1, "dodging" flying rocks, until a little circle with Nino's face on it came. When Jun got the circle, it gave him a "level up" and he flipped around. There was a treasure chest at the end, leading to a "Game clear!" message, then "Next Stage: Come Back To Me." Honestly, Jun's outfit was a little funky, like something from a video game, bright blue and yellow with a hat. The dancers kinda looked like astronauts/aliens in their shiny silver suits. It was a fun song with some great dancing though.
Immediately after, Aiba came out on the back stage, wearing a strange casual suit and top hat with leopard print, if I remember right, and sunglasses that had red letters blinking past (according to my friend, it was something like "Aiba Masaki". Aiba's solo was brilliant. Everyone was cheering on the high-pitched "yeah"s. He did some cool dancing, but even better was when the lights went down and his suit lit up on the edges with neon lights. Great! >_<
"Pikanchi Double" had the members in different colored trench coat thingys. Ohno was purple, Nino silver, Sho blue, Jun red, and Aiba came out at last in gold. During "Love So Sweet", Aiba was busy playing with the juniors. "Kotoba Yori" and "Believe" were great, but no dancing for that.
I loved how they led into "Circus". Sho started speaking English, saying something along the lines of "Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls. It's going to be an amazing show from here on," and the screen was flashing the words "Arashi Showtime." Dancers came out with umbrellas, covering Sho for a few seconds, until he popped back out in a rainbow colored costume. On the main stage, Jun came out flying again but with Aiba this time. They had fun flipping around and attempted a few tricks where they made it look like Jun was upside down and Aiba was holding him up with his hands. They flipped around and tried to get their feet together too, but they slipped a bit. ^_^ Also spinning around in the air, Ohno was holding onto a wire with one hand and an umbrella in the other. Nino was inside of a frame of a metal box that was dangling in the air too. Ohno and Aiba got on a similar box, leaving Sho and Jun for the last one. My friend couldn't tell if Sho looked terrified or not. There was a lot going on around the stage, so much that I couldn't take it all in.
We were all blown away by the next part. They did a remix of songs, full of some fantastic dancing. I heard "Truth" and "Ashita no Kioku" in there, but mostly "Remarkable" (complete with their awesome dance when they are lined up and move their hands around). It led right into "Monster". They had flames shooting out of the stage from different places and finally fireworks, like how it was with "Believe" last year.
The members speeches came after that. Roughly translated:
Sho- " Thank you for coming today. Kokuritsu really is a lot of fun with everyone. It kind of feels like it's been a while since we've been here. We got a lot of congratulations from people, but it's not the numbers that's important, it's the people who said it. As long as the staff is happy and the fans are happy, then I'm going to do my best. Please give me the chance to say many more "Thank you"s."
Ohno- "Thank you. It's really amazing. Suddenly... It feels like when we were doing smaller concerts. Every day leaves me happy. I'm always feeling something new all the time. Work is fun. Everyday is fun. Today was fun. I want to keep making fun memories, until when I don't know, but that's what I'd like to do."
Aiba- "Right from the opening, I was touched. The concert was such a great time. Next year and the next, I hope to do more things. Arashi is THIS. Everyone makes Arashi. Thank you."
Nino- (His speech confused me. He was talking about how their group had probably surpasses AKB48, then about how the last dance had been kind of scary to learn) We want to show everyone the same landscape that we can see. I'll be doing my best. We all will. (Looks back at Aiba, who says "Don't pick on me!") Eh? (Feigning ignorance) We'll be trying our best. Because we are touched by all of you. (Aiba- "Oi!") The five of us can see a wonderful picture from here. Thank you."
Jun- "You pretty much finished everything with that..."
Nino- "No, I didn't."
Jun- "The tour this time, we didn't produce it, because it's something that's made from now. I saw a great scenery and I'd like to continue seeing it. Summer concerts are hot, but a lot of fun. I want to have a fun time with all of you again."
"To be free" was nice when the guys were raised up onto their individual stands with colored lights, but "Sora Takaku" was even better when they let off the balloons.
The first encore (the guys changed into their individualized concert shirts) was all the fun songs to dance to. "Still" and "Fight Song" were first, but Sho was still having fun yelling "Summer Splash", which had Jun joining in too. They slowed it down to sing "Beautiful Days" and it had the most amazing timing too, because the baseball stadium next door to Kokuritsu shot off their fireworks during this song and the guys could watch the show too from the back stage. "Sakura Sake" and "Kansha Kangeki Ame Arashi" ended safely so that they could thank the dancers and the band.
The second encore started with Sho, Aiba, and Ohno doing a funny dance onto the stage. Jun told us it had been an "extremely, extremely" fun concert. Nino pointed to Aiba. "You can tell if you look at Aiba's shirt. It's all torn up." Aiba's shirt and pants had been cut a ton of times to be "fashionable". Aiba shouted "You're picking on me again!" but Nino just remarked, "No, it really is beat up." Jun explained, "It's because it's Aiba," and said "We'll do one last song." He turned around and pointed to the back of his shirt, which had a rainbow across it.
"Love Rainbow" was a lot of fun. Sho and Aiba took turns sliding down the side stages in the wet parts, Sho sliding while standing up and Aiba on his stomach. When Aiba got up, he shook out his shirt really hard to try and get the water off.
And that ends the first concert for Arashi's new tour "Scene".
It took forever to get home, but I thought ahead to tape Shiyagare, so I watched that tonight too. The intro quizzes were awesome. =^_^=
Now, I need to get some sleep before I do it all again tomorrow...
Pics: (Sorry they're sideways)
<3