H!P/Tsunku-Related Acts: Concert & Event Reports

[forgetmenots]

This thread is dedicated to posting concert and event reports of Hello! Project groups and other Tsunku-related acts (such Lovendor, Up Up Girls, etc).

I will try and keep this first post updated as a master post of what reports are where.

Hello! Project
Concert
-Hello! Project Winter Concert Tour 2015 Happy Emotion - Osaka 2/15 Night (Berryz Final H!P Concert)
-Hello! Project Summer Concert Tour 2015 CHALLENGER - Osaka 7/26

C-ute
Concert
-C-ute Spring Concert Tour 2015 ~The Future Departure~ - Osaka 4/18 Night
-C-ute 2015 Concert in Mexico

Morning Musume
Event
-Morning Musume。'14 55th - Egao no Kimi wa Taiyou sa/Kimi no Kawari wa Iyashinai/What is LOVE? - Osaka Serial Card Event (Girls Only)
-Morning Musume。'14 56th single - Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe/Password is 0 - Osaka Serial Card Event
-Morning Musume。'15 58th single - Seishun Kozou ga Naiteiru/Yuugure wa Ameagari/Ima Koko Kara - Osaka Serial Card Event
-Morning Musume。'15 59th single - Oh my wish!/Sukatto My Heart/Ima Sugu Tobikomu Yuuki - Osaka Selcy Mini Live/Handshake Event
-Morning Musume。'15 59th single - Oh my wish!/Sukatto My Heart/Ima Sugu Tobikomu Yuuki - Osaka Serial Card Event

Concert
Morning Musume。Concert Tour Autumn 2013 CHANCE! - Osaka 10/13 Day
-Morning Musume。'14 Concert Tour Autumn 2014 GIVE ME MORE LOVE ~Michishige Sayumi Graduation Special~ - Osaka 11/15 Day
-Morning Musume。'15 Concert Tour Spring 2015 Gradation - Osaka 4/19 Night


ANGERME
Event
-ANGERME 2nd/19th single - Nana Korobi Ya Oki/Gashin Shoutan/Maho Tsukai Sally - Osaka Selcy Mini Live/Handshake Event

Country Girls
Event
-Country Girls Debut Single - Itooshikutte Gomen ne/Koi Dorobou - Osaka Handshake Event
-Country Girls Debut Single - Itooshikutte Gomen ne/Koi Dorobou - Osaka Serial Card Event

-------------------------------------

(I think that's all the reports that I myself posted, if you know of any other reports floating around and can find them/have some you wrote that I can link up here as well please go ahead and post them )

Last edited by forgetmenots on Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.

[forgetmenots]

So... apparently I wrote up a report on the MM'15 CHANCE! concert and never posted/linked it on Jplop ! Just found it in an old blog lol. It's slightly embarrassing to read now and please excuse the way it's written for a blog audience instead of a fan audience lol.

Morning Musume。Concert Tour 2013 Autumn CHANCE!

Today was my big day! My first Morning Musume concert. I was super excited, but a little nervous that I would make mistakes due to the language barrier.
Turns out all worries were for nothing, because everything went better than perfect.

I started out at about 10:30am for the purpose of getting in the goods line. For bigger concerts in Japan, it’s actually more common to buy concert goods pre-concert rather than post-concert (though it is possible). The concert I was going to was at Namikiri Hall and was to open the doors at 2:00pm and start at 3:00pm.

It wasn’t super large, but it was a super nice and fancy building at least. It’s more well-suited for classical concerts, however, in my opinion.

I got there at almost noon (I ended up on the slower train) and immediately noticed one large line near the side entrace with everyone in Morning Musume gear, so I joined in and hoped for the best. Turns out it was 100% the goods line, so everything was going how I planned.

I bought A LOT of stuff, some because it was my first concert, I was getting a present for my little sister, and well I needed that hoodie for real life, okay (cough).

Altogether I got: 1B2 Concert Poster, Sato Masaki’s T-shirt, Michishige Sayumi’s T-shirt, Masaki’s Scrunchie, Michishige’s Scrunchi, 2 Random Pin-ups (Riho and Haruna), DVD Magazines 53&54, the Kingblade pen light, the hoodie (for real life as I don’t have any and it’s getting colder soon) and a bag to put it all in.

I don’t want to talk about how much I spent (laughs).

After I got my goods I went back outside (we weren’t supposed to stick around inside) and noticed a sign with the kanji for standing seats on it. This just happened to be the seats I had been forced to end up with, so I asked a staff member if I should stand there and he said yes.

This is where things got a hundred times better. I ended up making friends with three girls in line with me. They had all gone to college together where they had taken English so they were interested in talking to me, though we ended up almost entirely speaking Japanese. They immediately took me under their wing, especially when they learned it was my first concert. They all had a felted plushie of Sayumi’s Cinnamoroll character, Sayu-usa and their friend who made them gave me one too when he came over and learned it was my first concert.

The girls and I talked a lot and they told me about the special photos that MM personalize for each day (Himawari Photos). So we made plans to get some after the concert.

Those with standing seats were the last ones shuffled in, so we had a lot of time to complain (in good humor) about how much we wanted to go in. When we did get in, my new friends and I ended up at the top floor on the edge, with a fantastic above view of the stage. My friends mentioned how last time they had been in this spot, they had gotten waves from the girls several times, so we were super excited.

The concert itself was lots of fun. The set list was as follows:

01. Wakuteka Take a chance (Updated)(With VTR flashing by in middle of the song)
02. Ai no Gundan
MC
03. Wolf Boy
04. Moonlight night ~Tsukiyo no ban da yo~
05. THE Manpower!!! (Updated)
06. Makeru ki Shinai Konya no Shoubu
07. Help me!! (Updated)
MC – Michishige MC (Ended up being about becoming the longest ever member of Morning Musume).
08. I WISH (Updated) / Fukumura Mizuki, Ikuta Erina, Sayashi Riho, Suzuki Kanon, Iikubo Haruna, Ishida Ayumi, Sato Masaki, Kudou Haruka, Oda Sakura
09. Aruiteru (Ypdated) ~ Lalala no pipipi / Michishige Sayumi
10. A B C D E-cha E-cha Shitai
MC – Erina, Riho, Kanon, Ayumi, Sakura (Various Questions)
11. Bouya / Sayumi, Mizuki, Haruna, Masaki, Haruka
12. Funwari Koibito Ichinensei / Erina, Riho, Kanon, Ayumi, Sakura
13. The☆Peace! (Updated)
14.Medley: Sou da! We’re ALIVE (Updated) ~ Kimi Sae Ireba Nanimo Iranai ~ Aisaresugiru Koto wa Nai no yo ~ Futsuu no Shoujo A /Masaki, Haruka (MaaDuu) ~ Chikyuu ga Naiteiru ~ Aisaretai no ni / Mizuki, Erina, Riho, Kanon → 3, 2, 1 BREAKIN’ OUT! (AHHH This was fantastic!) → Bravo!
15. LOVE Machine (Updated)
16. One, Two, Three (Updated) (Sayumi hurts herself)
17. Brainstorming (Updated) (Sayumi moves off to the side to perform)
MC (Sayumi apologizes for getting a really bad cramp mid-song)
18. Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke (Sayumi is off to the side but does hand movements).
ENCORE
19. Renai revolution 21 (Updated) (Sayumi returns to formation dancing with others)
MC
20. Chance Chance Boogie

The Wolf Boy/Moonlight Night combo was brilliant, and the dancing was highly entertaining! I also really enjoyed the Medley, especially when we got some MaaDuu action with Futsuu no Shojo A (which was pretty much completely split even between the two). Aisaretainoni was also fantastic to watch. The audience loves this song as much as I do and it might be the most involved I’ve seen the audience in a newer song. It does seem like the audience has yet to figure out what kind of stuff they want to do for the new songs (what movements and what noises to makes).

The singing was almost always on point. I only remember one part where someone’s voice broke or went obviously off key and that that during one of the lines Maachan inheirited from Reina which I noticed she’s been having problems with with every performance I’ve heard with her and that line. Riho was strong until the end which was amazing, I was so happy and proud for her.

Sayumi did have to stop dancing at Brainstorming and not dance until the encore due to getting a cramp, but it seems she was fine post encore, as she went back to dancing with the others.

As for the members noticing my new friends and I, this 100% happened (laughs). And it was almost always Oda Sakura doing the noticing. It started in the very beginning when she looked up and saw one of my friends using this ridiculous Mickey binoculars and forgot herself and totally pointed at it before returning our wave. Then about half the time she was on our side she looked up and we waved like crazy and she waved back with this gigantic grin on her face.

Sayumi waved at us a couple of times, and I think one of the other girls as well, and then at the end Fukumura Mizuki saw us, burst into a grin at our frantic waving and gave us this huge wave goodbye. These things pretty much made my night, and Sakura’s adorableness had put her higher in my rankings, so now she’s my number two after Masaki, which is wh y I ended up buying her special today only photo as well as Masaki’s.
After the concert, I did quick purikura with my new friends and exchanged contact information. We might go karaoke-ing tomorrow before or after their third concert.

All in all, this was too much fun and I can’t believe I made friends! Like, I told myself this morning that if I didn’t befriend one Morning Musume fan I would fail, but I wasn’t actually going to hold myself to it, because I’m terribly shy and so are Japanese for the most part (laughs), but it happened! Hopefully I’ll be able to attend more Hello Project things with them in the future, or go visit them in Kobe (where they live).

And I never saw those girls again LOL true story. Man... I was so excited to meet them and exchange contact but I ended up annoying them in the end. Now I know tons of wota of various types. I was so younnnnng~

[forgetmenots]

Since it's a bit after the fact and the Concert page has moved on since then, here are some thoughts I had on the Countdown live, excluding the first third and Sayashi graduation parts.

In the first half the best performances for me were: Tsubaki Factory, Kobushi Factory, ANGERME and MM. (JJ, CG and C-ute just haven't been interesting to me lately for some reason)

In fact ANGERME showed us that even without Kanon, they are still on fire. What was the most interesting to me however, is how group dynamics have changed during MCs. Ayaka either consumed a gallons worth of Mountain Dew before coming on stage or she'd been holding back just how hyper she was, trying to be "first gen". She was absolutely hilarious and with Meimi leaving, has more than secured her place as my new favourite member (Sorry Murotan and Rikako). She was giggly, airheaded and was a perfect combination with Sawayaka Goro--

Wait, I need to address something here.
Sawayaka Goro.
He is almost certainly the best host that H!P has ever had. He's not just a host, it's like the wota have made him an honorary H!P Idol with the way they interact with him. They even have their own special reaction for him. He played with the crowd, and made fun of the girls in a way that said he knew them well enough to know where to give the most entertaining jokes for everyone. The girls also make fun of him in return and it's really nice.

Back to ANGERME. The other stand out was Takechan and Rikako. Rikako confidently talked about how ANGERME really is the noisiest out of all the H!P groups, someone butts in (I think it was Takechan but it's been a while now so I can't be totally trusted on some of these facts) and says that Rikako is just as bad, as she starts defending herself using her usual hand gestures of awesome. Ayaka then starts to act like she is calmly above all this, but is immediately reminded how one time she was one of the worst offenders. Then Meimi starts to talk to try and get them back on track in that motherly way she's been adapting lately and one of the other girls are like: well you're one to talk!

They ended up talking over a bit, I think, because they had to quickly get back on track. But that was the way they were bantering all night. It felt different from before, more relaxed.

Kamiko-chan came out then and she really held her own, it was great. She also did well on her solos, I think she'll do just fine musically.

--

Next came Morning Musume. At this point I was starting to worry about whether the grad ceremony would happen or not. They came out and performed as usual, though I think... I think this was the best they've ever performed these songs to be honest. It really felt like all the girls wanted to give the very best performance they could for their final performance with Riho. I kinda loved that they did a medly of the other two single releases this year. It was really nice hearing Ima Koko Kara again and Sakura mentioned that she was so happy to sing it again. During the MC they remembered being voice actresses in the PreCure movie and it really did feel so long ago.

As Sohee mentioned Lullaby was an entertaining moment. I'd always thought they'd stopped the song before, but maybe it was a pre-recording? As soon as we got to that part, Sayashi turned up her charm to the max, smirked at the crowd and made us work for that note, and then she belted it out and tried to hold it for as long as she could and almost timed it perfectly, but was cut off a bit at the end, which was sad, but still a moment to remember. When they were done, the screen went dark as normal, Sayashi hadn't had a solo song, and I really started to panic inside. Words appeared on the screen then "Sayashi Riho" and the VTR of Sayashi's time in Morning Musume started playing and I relaxed.

When it was over, the girls were standing with red scrunchies on their wrists and Sayashi came out in that red dress. The Ceremony began (sans member messages).

-----

Part 2

-----

All the 18+ H!P girls came out in the beginning and the opening MC began. Goro asked Takechan to describe how she felt about 2015 for ANGERME.

Takechan: Taiki Bansei (Late Bloomer)
Goro: Don't use a phrase like that!
Takechan: Oh then uh... Gashin Shoutan? (Going through hardships to attain ones goals)
Goro: Don't use your four kanji idiom titles!! That's cheating!
Takechan: Nana Korobi Ya Oki? (Fall down seven times, get up eight)



Country Girls were the first to perform. These three together are kind of adorable. Lately, Manaka has adapted into an interesting "conspiratory" character with Momoko. They've also as a group, started touting themselves as the cutest group ever... which is probably not untrue to be honest, lol.

Next were the 3 ANGERME girls. They sang S/mileage songs for the most part (older songs seemed the theme of the second part). They also had the cutest outfits, which were made to resemble wa-lolita dresses (lolita dresses with a kimono/yukata style).

Then were Bitter & Sweet, who as the only non-H!P related act, felt a bit off to have. If there had been two acts it would be different, but only having them just made me feel bad for them.

The clock was getting close to midnight at this point.

The next act was introduced as the "Kenshuusei who are 18+" which gave me a start as I couldn't remember who that might be (too lazy right now to figure that out) but then when I saw who came out I laughed as it was all the 18+ members who had come from being Eggs or Kenshuusei and they sang Ten Made Nobare as a kind of tribute to having been KSS.

After that was the Countdown, which was super fun and exciting to do. I might have to do Countdown Live every year, because doing a countdown when you're not by yourself is so much more fun. Then to celebrate the new year, everyone, including Kumai and Miyabi sang Chou Happy Song, with the lyrics displayed so everyone could sing a long.

When it was finished Goro announced that some OG members had come to sing and when the lights go dark and light again we see the 18+ MM girls on the lower stage and Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa and Mitsui Aika on the upper stage in amazing costumes that reminded me of Kimegure Princess, except better and midriff bearing. They go into How Do you Like Japan and mostly just the OG sang. Resonant Blue also was mostly OG and honestly I felt like Ai and Risa performed better than they'd ever had before. I hate describing it like this, but I don't know a better way to do so, Ai was pure sex up there. She captivated and owned the stage and was 150% giving it. At first it really felt like they made the MM girls seem passion-less. Aika was also the best she's ever been. The pure joy that shined out of her face, no worries about whether the wota like her or not, no worries about her feet, being able to dance as hard as everyone else. It made my night more than anything else.

When they stopped for MC, everyone was out of breath, lol, Mizuki was already sweating, which it's been a while since we've seen and in front of her seniors she went from being MM's Queen, to being just Fukuhime again, but it was adorable, you could really tell that she was so happy she could perform with the women who defined her early MM days.

When they started up again, the line distribution started to shift to being even between OG and current MM. Mizuki began matching Risa and Ai in their fervor, she looked like she was having so much fun, and many of the other girls began to follow as well.

When the next MC came, Ai was dying a little saying that she was not in the same shape that she used to be in, haha. By this point however, and the way she played with the crowd, I was getting the strong feeling that she missed being on stage A LOT, like enough that it wouldn't surprise me if she started a music career again because of this night. (More than likely she won't, but it just wouldn't surprise me). She also went DJ on the crowd at one point, which was amusing, because she lost the wota at one point .

When Mikan was performed it came almost full circle in a way, because most of the lines were for current MC, so the entire show was like the Platinum Queens handing the reins back to Mizuki and the others. The performance was well worth sticking around (I had debated leaving early before that because I was so tired).

And then right after that they had Buono start performing. I'd forgotten how much better Momoko is as a performer when she's in Buono mode. Miyabi had a few moments where it was obvious she wasn't performing all the time anymore, but their chemistry was still there and when they said they had an announcement I almost died in happiness. Buono concert! Yay!

And it being Miyabi's group's debut makes me think that Buono might continue to be a thing for the girls even if they never release anything new (though I wish they would).

Next was an MC talking about how Mai and Tomoko were going to be adults soon and questions involving that.

The next shuffle to come out was interesting because it was filled with the weaker singers. They did really well, there was only one line botched, and that's because it was a very hard line for any of these girls, so they gave it to Ayumi and she couldn't transition to the falsetto cleanly (the best of the lot).

Then we finished off with Juice=Juice (3-nin) and C-ute.

C-ute literally sung enough songs between the first and second half to have sung an entire concert, which was amusing. If you count the part 2 MM stuff as well, they also sang about an entire concert worth of songs. Mai sang really well tonight. She came close a couple of times to losing control, but she sounded good for most of the night and her voice didn't break. The only think about C-ute is that they sang Iron Heart... again... which was kind of annoying. As nice as that song is, they could have ended with a different song since a lot of people had just heard them perform it a few hours before. And unlike CG doing Koi Dorobou again with three people, the line up didn't change at all so I didn't understand the point of that.

Everything aside. The second half really blew the first half away in the way that they had to be more imaginative with what to do with the amount of girls they had. First half was just super new stuff, while second half was older tunes and shuffles.

[aerosuffly]

A short report from Hello! Project Winter Concert. I went to the 1/9 evening show.
- Hello! Project audiences have much wider demographic now. Couples, families, young girls. Yes, many young (and cute) girls.
- Funakki, Yanagawa and Moe are so cute and such good performers. They already blended well with the group and do not look like newbies at all.
- Funakki said the opening dialog in Itooshiikutte Gomenne for this show, and I died.
- Meimi is awesome. She always put lot of emotion into her performance. Her duet with Karin was certainly a show by H!P aces.
- Kishimon's legs might be longer than Hamachan's.
- Tsubaki members are so photogenic and yet even prettier in person. Their goods also sell very well.
- I was not very excited with setlist because it looks just like the "usual" Hello! Con setlist. But it actually worked out great at conveying emotion. The transition from one song to another can really move the audiences. A couple of songs up to Donden Gaeshi was loud, fun and exciting. Then when MM started singing Tsumetai Kaze without Riho, you cried.
- That is to say that Tsumetai Kaze/Endless Sky are very good songs. They placed these two songs at two different point in the setlist, each right after a series of fast pace, head-shaking songs, and it works so well at shifting the atmosphere and making you feel emotional. The members form a heart shape in the choreograph of Endless Sky, and they purposely leave a spot at the tip of the heart open (which was Riho's). A girl sitting next to me also cried both time.
- I had a family seat at the 2nd row on the 2nd floor this time, and I have to say that the wide view of the 2nd floor seating really give MM performance a justice. You can see their choreograph as a whole, and damn, they are so cohesive. Every move they made are precise and have very hight level of details.
- Kobushi is also a very good performer, but they do not have the cohesiveness and precision of MM. Dosugoi is a great song, but Maachan and Airi playing around the the choreograph of the song was the highlight for me.

[Obsidian]

^ It's really good to read this because I was at the same concert and especially the things you said about the MM songs matched what I felt about it. Tsumetai and Endless Sky were real highlights ....and you noticed Airi and Maachan messing around too!
I went to 9 of the Tokyo dates and that Saturday night was the best atmosphere and you could feel the members really feeding it, Ju=Ju's Magic of Love was great everytime but they were truly awesome that night.

Also I certainly agree some of the concerts had very high numbers of girls going, the weekend before there was a really enthuastic Reirei fangirl next me giving some of the old time wota a run for their money. It's great to see H!P is hitting such a wide demographic even for the hard core fans nowadays.

[forgetmenots]

^The demographic thing has been amazing to see on my side. My first concert and events were still heavily male dominated, so I've watched the shift happen to the point that it's almost even I feel like. Release events are at kwast 30% women and the hard core wota who trade and sell stuff outside the concert hall also have a strong female presence.

Guy wota have also stopped stripping/changing shirts in the auditorium as much as well lol.

[Obsidian]

Now I just remembered seeing this one guy walking in from the wing looking up the whole right hand side under the 2nd floor and seeing nearly everyone of them was girl, turn shake his head and mouth "josei".

Actually the shop surprises me even more because that's mostly just photo sets, but the last few times I've been in there it's been a lot busier and the vast majority have been women. It must be a pretty strange time for the old school wota.