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.
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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).
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Part 2
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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
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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.
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! 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.
A girl sitting next to me also cried both time.
