080516 大阪初日

Ok... just came back from today's concert + arashi-kai dinner.

WARNING

This post is full of spoilers..

I don't know what to say about this tour. Perhaps TIME was too good, but things are in a total mess for this concert. The opening is very good and kakkoii - all dressed in black. Each member does their own dance in their section, and I thought it was very *cool*

The *PARADE* is a disaster. WHAT HAPPENED?? It this a colaboration of Johnnys and Universal Stadio (USJ)??? Their costumes are super duper clown-ish. I think Ohchan's is the most acceptable, and Sho-kun's being the worst. Sho-kun's collars are segmented and up in the air. Nino looks like he is wearing grass with flowers popping out everywhere. Aiba-chan looks like he is drowning in his costume, especially the blue cloth around his neck @_@ Jun.... let's just say he looks good in anything. They appeared after a circus performance by female dancers, M.A.D, and Juniors, in the order of Jun, Nino, Aiba-chan, Ohchan and Sho-kun. They even sang Everybody zenshin in those costumes... (without dancing), which I felt spoilt the really good song : ( 

After the parade and a few songs was the MC. Omiya disappeared and re-appeared as Omiya SK. I thought Jun-kun and Sho-kun were just about to do a Hanadan Conto.... Omiya suddenly appeared and did their usual taka being centrifuged conto and danced to the wasshoi wasshoi omikoshi/omiya sukoshi theme. It was great seeing Omiya LIVE (as I didn't go to Osaka for April dome last year which was the last time they appeared/VTR) The audience also stood up for Omiya, which Jun-kun commented about later (He was watching the audience's reactions backstage) It was sort of like testing out how the audience would react to Omiya SK. Nino talked about how they've been told so many times to STOP doing Omiya SK. He also uttered... most new Arashi fans who got Hana yori dango -baited into liking Arashi don't know about Omiya SK. Anyway, when they disappeared, there was a big 'EHHHHH' from the audience. Ohchan told Nino that they could possibly return on stage to do another conto, but switched his mind the next moment.

Apparently Sho-kun has finished filming Yatta-man. It's ready to be edited/CG-ed. I have to say.. Sho-kun really gained a lot of weight. I don't know at which stage he filmed Yatta-man, but he could be already quite chubby in there XD He talked about how the opening for VB Yosen is tomorrow, and members teased him asking whether he's practiced enough (vb) for tomorrow.. lols He did an air spike and fell.

Okay.. getting quite late, so I will skim through the rest.

Ohchan solo - he's not dancing much this time. He has already taped the dancing scenes and have them on the monitor... : ( That was quite unfortunate.

Nino solo - it's pretty nice. I think I like the performance the most out of all the solos. He was wearing a black suit with some red and white patterned shirt inside. I don't quite understand what that licking his finger and pushing it on his neck is all about XD

Aiba-chan solo - extremely cute! It's Aiba-chan style, and very himitsu-like. His costume was cute too - Pink x Black checked, hoddie, shorts.

Sho-chan solo - Uh.. costume =_=;;; not too appealing (to me) The dance was quite nice though. He didn't seem to have a problem with his injured foot.

Jun solo - we all knew he was going to strip. But I wish he had only taken off his outjacket and not everything.... He's slightly more chubbier than kakushitoride era. The dance was modern dance.

The confusing theme ECO - Ohchan starts talking about how the tote bag is ECO. We are all confused. I would understand if the profit for the bag or goods were going to contribute in saving the environment or something, but it was lead to the song Green, made by Arashi. It wasn't a very catchy song. It was just the most awkward thing for the theme ECO to suddenly appear.

The concert ended very early (2.5 hrs), and it was most probably because they had planned a long encore. But the first thing that is shown to us during the first encore is a caterpillar/bug (character for this tour) VTR. Yes.. it's cute, and it's Aiba-chan's idea, but ... it doesn't really fit into the tour.

For the next encore (after a few songs) Arashi appeared hung down from an air balloon... Sho-kun stayed still for the entire time while the others rotated around and around. Jun was talking about there is something that will exceed MJ walk in this tour - I wonder if he's talking about this air balloon... They did fight song while hung from the air balloon too.

So all in all, my buddies and I are all a little unsatisfied about this tour : ( Maybe beacuse it's the first concert for the tour, things haven't been made concrete yet... but how much more can a tour change when it's so short and all in domes. I'm quite sure the parade will happen in all venues... X 0  Omiya SK may not appear anymore as that was what they were saying today. What a pitty! Members, especially Sho-kun and Jun-kun must have been very very busy prior to this tour, so perhaps their opinions were not included? Anyway, we shall see :) I hope to see improvements!!

Good night!