I went to the final show of the day that started at 1815. As I was able to legally buy the ticket at a Lawson I didn't get a good ticket, as all of those would have gone to fan club members. So I used that fact to take notes so I can have a complete, or near complete, report of the concert as things tend to blur together for me and I'm not always familiar with the songs or the Juniors at these concerts.
As mentioned in the goods post for this concert, this felt more like a concert than the one in June. This one just felt like more thought had been put into it and had less recycled performances, even though they did reuse some things from other Johnny's concerts. Also all the Junior groups got a more equal amount of time on stage, unlike the Nakayama Yuma w/B.I.Shadow heavy June concert.
The stage was set up a bit different. It was mostly clear except in the very back they had a wall of cages they took from KAT-TUN's Tokyo Dome concerts for Juniors to dance/perform in. They still had the small side stages by the front, which were less cluttered this time around so the Juniors didn't have as many issues going back and forth from the sides to the main stage. On the main stage around the cages are little lights that twinkle like stars, which look great in the slower numbers of the concert.
Before the concert began they ran an ad for the Hey! Say! JUMP dome concert which is being called Hey! Say! JUMP Tengoku Dome. With that name it sounds more of a continuation of their current tour, so I suspect that there just might be a big announcement at this. Which makes sense since there needs to be something big to justify a Tokyo Dome concert for a group that is still the new kid on the block.
Onto the concert though. It began with a clip show, showing off Juniors of past, lots of shots of Takizawa Hideaki from his Junior days, then they progress to list debuted groups going from Arashi to NEWS (for some reason Tackey & Tsubasa is skipped, IIRC) to Kanjani8 to KAT-TUN to finally Hey! Say! JUMP. The list ends there and the voice over brings up that the current Juniors are aiming to eventually debut themselves as well. The stage lights up and all the Juniors are now on stage and the cages are filled as they begin the opening number, We can do, We can go. Mis Snow Man, A.B.C.-Z and Question? get introduced, then sing a song, which I don't recognize but they repeat '3AM' quite a bit.
Then Totsuka Shota from A.B.C.-Z is on one of the sides with Hagiya Keigo. Morimoto Shintarou and Tanaka Juri are on the other side stage. It's Totsu doing the MC of course as he introduces Hagiya then Juri as members of Hip Hop Jump. They talk for a bit before introducing a 'guest', Nakayama Yuma. Yuma comes out from the back of the cages and begins singing Akuma na Koi. The members of B.I.Shadow that are there (Nakajima Kento is missing from this concert too) come out and join him, and of course MoriShin sings with them as well. After the song the center area is cleared so YuBIS can do a dance introduction. Starts off with Yuma doing a dance, then to Yuugo who does his soccer ball tricks, then to Hokuto who works in some karate moves and finally to Kikuchi who does a dance.
Yuma then reminds eveyone about the volleyball tournament they are supporting and four volleyballs are brought out for the boys. Both Yuma and Yuugo drop their's before they begin singing NYC. After the song starts the balls are thrown into the audience.
As the song was ending taiko drums are brought on stage for the next segment. This segment is the traditional Japanese music segment as two Juniors that can play the drums, one that can play the koto and the one that does the traditional Japanese singing are all introduced, though I didn't catch their names. Kikuchi is doing the introductions for them though. He then introduces Masuda Ryo who gets his first solo for the night as he sings a cover of Michael Jackson's song They Don't Care About Us with the traditional Japanese instruments. I thought it was a rather interesting performance, as I wouldn't have thought of mixing that song with those sounds.
Masuda then gets to take up MC duty to introduce the next group Hip Hop Jump, starting of course with Tanaka Juri, who does a rap. He is joined by the rest of the group and some additional Juniors to sing a song, which sounded new to me and I'm calling Just keep on fire, as that was repeated a few times.
After that song ends Uekusa Yuta and Kyomoto Taiga come on stage singing KAT-TUN's Shunkashuutou. They are then joined by three other Juniors, I only recognized Morita Myuto and Anderson Casey though. And they sung another KAT-TUN song, but I don't remember what it was and I wrote the name in scribble that I cannot read myself. (EDIT: Just remembered the song, it's Kimimichi, which I wrote in terrible Japanese apparently.)
Then Mis Snow Man come out for their solo corner. I didn't recognize the first song, though it sounded like a cover of an older group. The only English I noticed was the word 'lover' in the chorus. They then sang Genkai Meter, which was a song Sanada and Nozawa used to sing with Hashimoto when they were a trio. And then they finished up with No more wait. During the songs they had one member rap and another beat box, I just couldn't tell which members they were as Sanada and Nozawa are the only two I can always pick out no matter what in that group.
Then YuBIS got to perform again, starting with Dail Up. BIS got to do solo rap lines during the song and got more chances to sing to cover the lines Yamada Ryosuke and Chinen Yuri sing in the song. Then Yuma starts off the next song solo and is joined eventually by BIS. Another song I don't recognize but I would guess the title would be My dream.
The stage is cleared of all Juniors but three keyboards with players remain. The spotlight goes on the middle boy, who I believe is Kishi Takayoshi. He plays a piano piece and just as he ends the spotlight shines on the boy on the right who begins playing the next piece. Don't recognize the Junior at all, but he didn't have the usual Johnny's hair, much too short. When he's done Ishigaki Daisuke from Question? plays a piece to finish it off. Then Goto Hiromi starts a piece with his violin. During Goto's piece there were dancers that came out on stage but didn't really do dancing until near the end when all the keyboardists joined Goto in playing.
The Snow Prince Chorus are then brought out and introduced with MoriShin being the lead, even though he's technically not in the group. They mainly just do back vocals for MoriShin as the lead vocalist but Juri and Otsuka Yuya at least are given some prominence and get to stand next to him as they sing. They sing two songs, both I don't recognize, and going by the English in the chorus, like usual, I'm going with Cry for you and Crime or Love.
It's MC time again, and BIS get MC duties, though it's mainly just Kikuchi doing the talking. They advertise for MoriShin's movie, Snow Prince, and Kikuchi gets to talking about sempai. Honestly I couldn't catch too much for the MCs as the audience would not quiet down much and there would be screams as the boys were trying to say something, so it was too hard for me to follow a good deal of the time with those distractions.
But moving on a Fresh Junior medley is introduced next. It starts off with a song I don't recognize but I'm assuming from the VTR of Junior Tackey it's from those days. It's then followed by A.Ra.Shi, NEWS Nippon, Real Face, Ultra Music Power and ends with everyone on stage for School Kakumei. Like all medleys like this there are a lot of Juniors everywhere, and even though this was meant for the Fresh Juniors, all the Juniors were on the stage at some point during the whole thing.
Most of the Juniors clear off once the medley is done. It's just Kawai Fumito and Totsu from A.B.C.-Z, YuBIS, Juri and Hagiya from HHJ and MoriShin on stage then. Totsu mainly leads the MC with back up from Kawai.
They begin talking with Yuma about his drama. Like I mentioned before I had a bad time following the MCs, but I'm certain I heard Yuma talk about a guest star for his drama from Kanjani8 for next week's episode. Or at least drama and Kanjani8 as that got repeated a couple of times.
MoriShin then talked about the drama SP that was just announced he would be in. In his description he used what sounded like the English word 'wow', which had Totsu and Kawai question his use of the word. But MoriShin stood by it and when they moved on to talk to Juri and Hagiya, Juri decided to use 'wow' too. Juri then performs a couple of comedy skits with Kikuchi and Hokuto's help.
Kawai is then asked to do an imitation which he is goaded into doing. I think he did his Kimura Takuya one as he sung poorly and Totsu joined in, as I'm assuming another member of SMAP, singing just as badly.
I forget when exactly it happened in the MC but Kawai said something to Yuugo and Yuugo was spacing out and so he didn't respond, which lead to some teasing about his spacing out.
At the end of the MC they call Masuda on stage and everyone but Kawai and Totsu leave the stage. Masuda talks with them a little and then it's for him to begin the next song medley he's the lead singer for. The first song is introduced as Colbalt Blue and as he sings he's joined by other Juniors, like the usual other four he is with for photo shoots and Shounen Club (Kishi, Ookawa Keigo, Takada Sho & Nakada Hiroki). The other songs in this medley are Can't Take My Eyes Off You and Dancing Queen. The last song Anderson and Luis Jesse join in and the last two songs are of course all in English so I was happy to hear that Masuda knows how to sing in English not Engrish.
Then Goto gets another violin solo to lead into Question?'s solo time. They sing a song I haven't heard before that I'm assuming is called FROZEN SKY. Then introduce A.B.C.-Z to start a mini MC between the two groups. The topic leads to Dream Boys, since A.B.C.-Z are performing in that. And that also leads to them introducing this concert's guest, Tegoshi Yuya. They talk a little and then Tegoshi is asked to sing a song and he gets to sing Ai Nante solo. Honestly this was just a beautiful performance and I'm so glad I got to see it.
When he's done A.B.C.-Z return to the main stage. Tegoshi is then asked to help Kawai with a Masuda imitation. So Tegoshi begins singing and Kawai picks up Masuda's part and does his imitation. Tegoshi then takes his leave.
It's then time for A.B.C.-Z to have their medley. Start off with Vanilla then move on to InaZuma Venus. They then sing their new song ABC-Z. This song really lets the group show off their moves as most of it is dance, but that's perfect for a group like A.B.C.-Z, IMHO. And it's really a fun song to listen to too.
Then there's a Shounentai Medley. Not a big Shounentai fan, so I don't know all the song titles. But the first song Uekusa, Kyomoto and Yuugo sing together and I believe it's called Only You. Then various MSM members perform the next song. Masuda, Totsu (had soem trouble telling it was him because he was covering half his face with how he was holding his microphone) and Nozawa sing the third song. This sounds beautiful as it's a slower number and all three are good singers. For the performance the three singing are in the cages and there are Juniors on the main stage dancing. Then Hasshi, Sanada and BIS sing Wana. Followed by the young Juniors with MoriShin singing Boogie Woogie Cat.
With that it's the final song, Hitomi o Tojite. All the groups are re-introduced, this time naming each member individually, minus the Snow Prince Chorus. Hip Hop Jump is indeed down to four members with this as only Juri, Hagiya, Morita and Jesse are called. And of course the non-grouped Juniors like Masuda and company all get call outs too. Then the curtain goes down.
The curtain doesn't stay down for long until it goes back up again. I scribbled the name of the first encore badly and I think I wrote I'm no fool, but I could be wrong there. But the next song I did get down and remember well as it was Fever to Future which to me has always been a fun song to listen to. The encore is over after that.
The curtain goes down but the audience keeps calling for an encore. Don't really get a second encore, but the main Juniors of the concert are on stage as the curtain goes up one last time and tell everyone good bye together.
And then it was completely done. I'm glad I went, though it still felt too short. Maybe next time Johnny's does a general Junior concert they will give them two days instead of one so they can have a longer concert.
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