Because the staff were out in force at the venue I didn't even try to sneak a picture of the stage. While I didn't get a photo of the stage I did take a picture of the big sign inside the venue for the concert. It had congratulatory notes all over it from the various magazines and shows the boys were in.
For the stage though, it was the kind of stage that encompasses the entire ground floor area in a circle and has a walkway across the center. There were multiple moving stages, a main one that went from the main stage to across the circle to the other end, the section I was sitting in. I ended up with a seat near the back of the 1st floor of stadium seating, which turned out fine as I could see everyone well when they were at that end of the stage and Yokohama Arena isn't that big, or at least not compared to the Tokyo Dome. But back to the moving stages. That main moving stage could split in two as well. There was a smaller stage that lifted higher and had straps for the boys to hook on to as well as hand rails for them because of the height. I consider this the 'flying stage'. And then they had the small stage ramps that the stage crew pushed around for them. A couple in the ground area and even some up on the second floor of the stadium seats for one song.
The main stage was made to look like a castle or fortress a bit. At the very top there were a bunch of arches like an ancient coliseum. Then the next level down had a screen that went the full length of the level. It also had four wide staircases for the boys to get up and down it. The next level down is the main stage area. In the middle there is a mock castle, with arched portals on the main floor level.
The concert begins with a video clip, it shows a lot of famous places from all around the world, with the focus on the more ancient, like the Pyramids. Then on the top two levels there are Juniors in between the arches (for the second floor I believe the arches are from the screen). Then from the inside the mock castle Hey! Say! JUMP arises to kick off the concert with Born in The Earth.
They keep it going with the songs and Juniors line up around the outer stage to dance. Most of the time whenever this happened and HSJ where on the main stage the members of B.I.Shadow that were there, Kikuchi Fuma, Matsumura Hokuto and Kouchi Yugo and Morimoto Shintarou would be at the other end, the area my seat was. So I got to see Yugo completely fail during one of the first songs, completely forget dance moves and having to keep looking over to the rest of BIS to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. Which earned him some silently teasing from them, as they laughed at him.
But yes, the songs they sing before they take a break are, Ultra Music Power, Jounetsu JUMP, To The Top (one of the few songs that had its title shown) and Endless Dream.
I noticed rather quickly how short Keito's hair was. For some reason I just didn't notice this until seeing him in person, even though it's been rather short for a while going by the magazine photos I double checked. Inoo's hair has gotten rather long, as like with Keito I just found it much more noticable seeing him in person. Hikaru had his bangs tied up for I believe the entire concert. And that's it for what I noticed about hair.
When it came time to do the introductions, Yabu took up MC duties. I believe he mentioned something about the theme for the concerts was about the various things ten people could do. He introduces Yamada Ryosuke first, who comes out with a bo staff, like the one he had from Summary. I can't exactly remember the order from there but the rest are, Arioka Daiki with twin blades, Yaotome Hikaru with a sword, Takaki Yuya with a metal claw on one of his hands, Chinen Yuri with a whip, Morimoto Ryutarou with a sword (a different type than Hikaru's though), Nakajima Yuto with a giant metal hammer/mallet, Okamoto Keito with a futuristic sword and Yabu Kota with a giant axe.
Then their 'enemies' appear (Mis Snow Man and I believe members from Junior Boys but they could be M.A.D.E., I'm not sure). Sanada Yuma leads the groups and throws down the challenge, which the HSJ boys take up and a 'battle' begins. Each boy gets to show off their moves. Chinen even has acrobatics worked into to his, but he's also the one that lands into to trouble. But Ryutarou shows up and helps him out so he can run off stage. As Ryutarou is left to fight Shintarou shows up with a mace. He proceeds to help out his older brother by beating the 'enemy' though he just ends up using his fists instead of his weapon. Ryutarou scolds him about it and then they leave the stage as their battle is over.
Then Yamada emerges on stage, surrounded by 'enemies' and he begins his solo, Yoru no Asia. There is an interlude worked in early on in the song so he can 'fight' but shortly after that he no longer has his weapon and the 'enemies' are replaced with back dancers. Near the end of the song he opens up his shirt part of the way at first and then later when he can the full way. And of course the crowd goes wild at this.
After his song is done Yamada yells out to Hikaru who appears on the flying stage. After a short exchange Yamada leaves the stage as Hikaru begins his solo. There's quite a bit of Engrish in the song lyrics and I couldn't figure out what the title would be. Though he brings up 'light' enough I wouldn't be surprised if the title ends up being amoung those lines and be hikari or something. But by the end of the song he's on the center walkway.
The rest of the group appears then, being lead by Inoo, who is wearing a yukata while the rest are dressed in their traditional Japanese style costumes. After some banter Inoo leads them in a matsuri-style song that takes them to the far end of the stage. There they play a game where they have to name things that are hot. They get to Inoo who messes up and repeats an answer and loses the game. He then has to do a batsu game for losing. I'm not exactly sure what he was doing for it though, as he was doing something with his arm and saying something I didn't quite understand.
During this though, Keito had left the group and appeared on stage again, using the flying stage to take him back to the main stage. He's wearing something akin to a ring master costume, or maybe I'm making that association as he then begins off his solo with 'Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen'. But he has a brimmed black hat and black jacket over a white shirt. He does his introduction and when he's at the mainstage his solo begins. The music is pretty loud and drowns out his voice from time to time but it's a fun rockish song and he has other members from the group be his back up vocals. Babylon is a good guess for the song name considering that it's the word that every line of the chorus ends with.
At the end of the song he enters a cage with plants attached to it. The smoke machines blow smoke into it so you can't see inside well. Then when they stop and the smoke clears Keito has been replaced by Takaki, which signals his turn for a solo.
Before he begins his song though Takaki introduces the members that will be his band, Yuto on drums, Inoo on keyboard, Hikaru on bass, Yabu on guitar and Keito (who has come back on stage minus the jacket and hat but with a guitar) on guitar.
Takaki's solo is another rock song. I personally think his voice fits this genre well. There's not a lot of English in the lyrics but I think I figured out the line in the song that would most likely be the song's name but I can't remember the full thing, though it is in Japanese. Either way I hope the concert reports come out soon so the new songs can get definite titles. But yea, this performance ends up using a lot of fire.
Then the rest of Hey! Say! 7 take the stage as the members of Hey! Say! BEST depart it. They sing a new song, which seems to be called Brain Dance. It's a pretty cute song. Near the end of the song all the members of 7 go to the spots on the stage that have the hoops with cloth hanging from them that they can raise and hide themselves with. They use these to switch places with the Hey! Say! BEST members. BEST then sings School Days.
For Chance to Change, 7 reappear up on the top floor of the arena on individual platforms that are moved among the audience up there. From my spot I'm actually able to get a good view of whoever is in the area above me.
But they disappear from that floor near the end of the song so they can appear again with the rest of the group for the next song, Yuuki 100%.
After this song the music stops and the boys ask everyone to sit down for the MC. They start off talking about their concert goods, as they all have a tumbler to drink out of. Yabu has some trouble finding his, and Chinen ends up finding it for him. Yabu then brings out the uchiwa and makes sure to mainly display BEST's.
It seems today's the day to pick on Inoo as he quickly becomes the next topic of the MC. Though he does impress the other members by being able to remember the birthdays of Daiki and Takaki. They eventually move on to talk about Yamada, Daiki and then Keito. BEST are the most talkative of the group by far.
Though when they were not part of the conversation Inoo and Takaki began doing something else that resulted in Takaki beginning to play kick at Inoo. Later they're both play kicking at each other until Yuto decides to get between them to make them stop.
A little before that though they have everyone talk about their recent projects. For Hikaru and Yabu it's the dramas they are in. Takaki talks about Gokusen the Movie and then Yamada talks about the drama SP he will be in next month. They then call some Juniors on stage. It's first Shintarou who gets to talk about his upcoming movie, Snow Prince. They then have Sanada talk a bit about Hyakushiki-Ou before changing topics to the upcoming Junior concert. They also have Masuda Ryo up there on stage to talk about the concert and bring up his solo. They also bring up Mis Snow Man with Sanada, so he does confirm they will be there at the concert, but I think that was a given.
They then depart the stage as Hikaru and Yabu make it to the main stage where it's been set up for them to sit down to sing Smile & Tears. They introduce the Junior playing violin for them. I didn't catch his full name but his given name is Kazuki.
After they finish NYC boys, with Shintarou, come out to perform. They confirm that Nakayama Yuma and Nakajima Kento are busy filming for the drama and so couldn't make it to the concert. They then proceed to sing Akuma na Koi then NYC.
They then leave the stage and Daiki with Ryutarou appear on it, at the top of the mock castle that now has a sailing wheel, as Daiki is dressed up as a sailor. Ryutarou is holding a spear, for resons that are still unclear to me as he doesn't really use it for anything. But anyway, Daiki's solo is cute. It uses the main screen on the stage to show a wheel with four sections. The first section that lights up has a big fish on it and then Yabu appears on stage carrying a stuffed animal version of the fish. The next is an octopus that Takaki shows up with and puts on his head. Then it's a shark for Hikaru and a kappa for Inoo. They get rid of the stuffed animals once they are on the main stage and join Daiki on the main moving platform, which slowly makes its way across the arena.
As Daiki's solo ends Ryutarou's dance solo begins and BEST become his back dancers. Eventually BEST pick up buckets to dance with and at the end of Ryutarou's dance dump
Then Chinen and Yuto call to the group from the main stage and they have a short exchange before Chinen and Yuto's duet begins. There's a lot of dancing for this song, with Yuto doing his usual tap dancing, and Chinen just dancing. It's then I realized that the main moving stage was split in two as Chinen had made his way to the half to the far end of the stage, as Yuto was on the piece still on the main stage. They two pieces are brought together in the center, above the center walkway so they can dance together. There's a move that has Chinen jumping into Yuto's arms before jumping out again, which just looks adorable.
It's then time for the next fight scene. Again everyone gets to show off, but Yuto ends up needing saving, which Takaki does. Then Chinen gets in trouble. He's on the second floor so Keito uses his sword, and the LED screen to send a 'beam' from his sword to save him. Then everyone but Yabu and Inoo gather on the center stage, as it's revealed that Yabu has been captured on the main stage. So to save him they blast something off in the direction he's in and from the screens they manage to burn everything to the ground. So I don't think I'm going to be asking HSJ to save me anytime soon. (laugh)
But they rush up to the main stage and Inoo reappears, having done a costume change, with his keyboard. Yabu shows up, apparently he had to save a flower from the destruction on his way out of the 'enemies' hands. With that established he starts his solo song, My Everything. Yamada shows up during the song and does a dance, which ends up showing just how shiny their gold costumes are.
Then it's everyone on stage to sing Mayonaka no Shadow Boy. They then end as they began with one song after another, Dreams Come True, Fly, Born in The Earth and Our Future. It's then Bouken Rider followed by School Kakumei, and I believe that's were it ended after thanking all the Juniors that were back dancing for them. And to note, Mis Snow Man got the loudest cheers at this part. And Yabu messed up Takada Sho's name when he was intoducing him to be thanked. My memory is a bit hazy for this part. But they shortly come out again for the first encore which I believe was Your Seed.
Then after that they go off stage again before coming out for a second encore, this time singing Ultra Music Power. They all gather on the center stage in a circle, with everyone facing out towards the audience. They ask everyone to quiet down and then when everyone does they shout together 'Minna daisuke!' (We love you!). Then at the end of this encore Yabu announces that they will be having a fall concert tour as well. And everyone says their final goodbyes to the audience.
And that is the end of the concert, as it was made quite clear it was time for everyone to leave as they had to get ready for the next show of the day.
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