Today was day I could be 99.99(and add bunch more 9's for good measure) I would have chance to see Berryz Koubou whom I saw last year on live. And who have been with me about same time as I have been studying Japanese but more about that later. Why so sure? They are going to "indefinite hiatus" starting next spring. Odd wording since I doubt there's one person who expects them to actually make comeback. 11 years they performed and this is going to be the end. Just say "we retire" and be done with it :D Anyway this tour was labeled as their 10 year memorial tour.
But before concert quick video I took for fun at the morning showing trip from my home to nearest station + bit more. Sorry about shakiness but I did take it while walking. Haven't figured way to do stable shooting while walking!
Picked up about most quiet time possible for the video(more by me sleeping late than by design). Late enough workers have gone work and school kids gone to school but early enough that most of the shops in the shopping street are still closed(some small restaurants are open only later in evening).
Statue at the nearby temple(where I ended the video)
This is btw garbage sorting rules. In Japan trash sorting is extremely important so on specific days we are(and not just us but looks like pretty much every house around here) to take specified types of garbage(burnable, non-burnable, pet bottles etc). In the share house I live everybody has week they do it(though for some reason, likely due to shortness of my trip, I did not have to do it this trip. Last year had twice the duty).
Breakfast. Curry udon. Tasty!
And that's the concert ticket I had got myself. There's more simple ones without picture. I had got myself quite a nice seat on the Nakano sunplaza(where I went twice last year as well. Including this same groups concert) at 1st floor, 5th row(marked in ticket though there was total of 7 rows ahead me. Dunno how first 3 are nunbered then), 26th seat. So far out of concerts closest to the stage and 26th seat was also fairly close to center so my view was best I have ever had. And had they been taking dvd recordings today odds would have been decent I could have find myself there but no such luck. I had one big Shimizu Saki fan right next to me(so we shared at least favourite girl).
Day wasn't quite as pretty as yesterday but at least it wasn't raining. I have been so far pretty damn lucky with weathers while here as rains when I would like outdoor activity have been fairly damn rare while days where I would be doing indoor activity like concerts have been the ones weather been particularly bad. Particularly Kalafina and C-ute whom apart from Kalafina mini live I have yet to go without having pouring rain(so that's 5 times out of 6 going to see them and having rain). Spooky coincidence seeing Kalafina has inside joke of being all "ameonna" and C-ute leader being referred as one as well. Ameonna being Japanese term for women whose presence means rain. Ameotoko is same for men. There was concert where when c-ute came on stage there was rain and when they left and Berryz Koubou came it stopped. Berryz member even referred to that and said roughly "Berryz Koubou beat the ameonna!". Spooky coincidence! If you could control weather I would say that's premeditated but it's not like the production team can control weather :D
Clock outside the Nakano sunplaza. There was ridiculously long waiting line at the concert good store. As usual for me I arrive ridiculously early and wondered why so much other were waiting but guess if you want concert goods before concert begins it's good idea to be early with line that long O_o.
Anyway to the concert. Before performers came in they showed video clip detailing their first concert over 10 years ago and ending with showing their "indefinite hiatus" announcement from summers concert tour. Then with some heavy lights to make us not able see well they sneaked in so first there was nobody on floor, then there was 7 girls in these quite thick(and warm) looking dresses each on member colours with part around shoulder being white. All except Momo had small tiara(Momo instead just had twin tails with pink pieces in them). And I realized I could have similar "problem" as last year with Kumai Yurina(2nd youngest member at now 21 and by far longest of the bunch being same length as average finnish male if wikipedia is to be believed) standing out by her kooks among rest. Though Captain(favourite) didn't look bad either(particularly liked the loose hair strands that look almost like randomly sticking out except too carefully "random" for that to be unintentional :D) except for having cut her hair to short one(again). But Kumai looked like I would have trouble keeping eyes away from her.
Succha ka meccha ka(no bloody idea what the title means except meccha is used in situations like "ridiculously expensive" etc). 3rd song from last spring tour I saw so bit of "meh" to have especially as it's not even my favourite songs.
More dejavu's as this meanwhile was the first song I heard last year and while bit better than last one still not my favourite ones. Start could have been bit better as I would have liked not-yet-heard-live songs but then again I can understand reason why they put these two songs to the start as these kicked up audience up well.
Member introduction came at the end from youngest to oldest so Sugaya Risako(band colour red), Kumai Yurina(green), Natsuyaki Miyabi(purple), Sudou Maasa(blue, 2nd favourite), Tokunaga Chinami(orange), Tsugunaka Momoko(pink), Shimizu Saki(yellow, my favourite) who also performed solo dance at the end.
That's the Captain in the first clothing set. Rest had similar except for the colour that changed according to member colour.
Then came short "thank you" speechesh.
One song from their last single, Romance wo katatte(speaking of romance roughly translated). Worse of the two. I think I can safely say this has been so far weakest of the starts but luckily set list I had with me(though not 100% accurate) meant I wasn't going to lose hope yet.
Okay bit better! And like last one new one for me.
Ai wa itsumo kimi no naka ni(Love is always at your inside). This was song I had actually waited most from the day as apart from a) being new compared to last spring tour(song released this spring) it's also strongest of the last year IMO and ranks fairly high overall anyway.
"koisuru technique"(technique to love). Never heard of this nor do I have good idea on what cd it comes but if the image of video is to believe it's coupling from one of their last years singles. Those couplings I'm about least familiar of their discography.
Then came yet another speech session by Maasa and Chinami(leftmost and center on upper video screen) while rest went to change clothes. New clothes were roughly:
Risako: This somewhat old fashioned shirt with white frilly top. Top coat was red-black quartered with black miniskirt.
Miyabi: Black hat, similar quartered top(and same look miniskirt) with wide belt. Liked the hat very much. Nice touch.
These two sung next song. This was one of the 4 songs setlist I had found(next 2 were 2nd and 3rd) was incorrect. Took me a while to figure what song this was.
Joshikai the night(girl's meeting, the night). About 4 year old song album. Apart from coupling songs least well informed song types(I know best the main singles).
Next came Kumai and Momoko for "onna pride"(women's pride). Kumai had this white shirt and long red&blue quartered skirt. Shirt was again the type that leaves her midrift bare if she raises her hand and this outfit with her hairstyle was pretty enough that I was enjoying the view quite a much thank you very much. Momoko had this red-white quartered dress with frilly socks and bright red shoes and with her twin tails with red pieces looked lot younger than she is(2nd oldest of the bunch. 22 and half plus minus few months I think).
Masshiroi ano kumo(completely white, that cloud). I heard this last year on short solo version by Miyabi last year but this time full length(video is shorter version). Remaining members sang this one.
Captain: White shirt with 2 sort of X shaped pieces at the front, blue-red squared skirt.
Chinami: Hat, white t-shirt with word "hey" at the front, mini jeans and this long coat looking thingie over her t-shirt that extended past her knees as well.
Maasa: Skirt with yellow-red-blue quarters, blue shirt. Somewhat schoolgirl cut though maybe more British than Japanese style.
Clearly a song from the start of the career seeing they are still kids in that video.
Tsukiatteru noni kataomoi(even though we are dating it's one sided) Video is not the full song. They have clothes they used in the music video of the song so I guess late 2007, early 2008(next single that was released spring 2008 is one I can pin point pretty damn well. More of that one later). Always get good chuckle from this song where lines take couple punches at males ;) (even if I make gentle face, boys don't notice it. And later same except lonely faces).
Koishiteru toki wa itsumo(time to love is always...) So only 3 songs I heard last spring so good good. Not sure where this song comes from either.
Sayonara usotsuki no watashi(good bye the lying me). Before song they made very short speech stating this song was specifically for this tour and while song itself wasn't new it was done in new style. They had slllloooooowwwwwweeeeeedddd it down quite a bit. Original one is quite fast(and apart from horribly unbalanced line distribution, basically a duetto, it's one of my favourites). Obviously dance routine was changed to match the slllllllooooooooowwwwwwww tempo and again Kumai was the eye magnet on her dances.
Last year was 50-50 I guess whether I heard this or not(did not). This was second song from single they released shortly after I left Japan. They performed the other song at the last day of the concert so I was among the first 2000 plus change to hear the first public performance of the other song).
Kimi no tomodachi(your friend). Another song I'm not sure from what album/single it comes from so all I can say is that it's not that new song.
Sekai de itchiban taisetsu na hito(most important person in the world). Well from video picture I ASSUME this is coupling from the single they released early last year(the asian celebration that was today's 2nd song).
Okay I have said couple times "more about that later" and here's that later. This song is the one they released at the 2008 and is the song that I ran into this group in the first place in summer 2008. Was purely by accident. This is cover song from another song and at least Finnish people(at least my generation and older) should have fairly easy time to recognize the tune from Finnish cover version of this.
Yep. Dschinghis Khan. As I said I ran into this purely by accident as for reason I have forgotten I had been looking at the original german version when on youtube's "similar videos" was following:
That's the original pv. At first I was like "wtf" and mildly amusement putting this to "japan oddities". Watched their other songs and eventually put them aside until I started studying Japanese and used them among number of other things as a way to work on the Japanese language. Fairly good help in the sense it does help build vocabulary. Particularly since the subject of songs is so same it cuts down vocabulary as there's lots of repeatition(but repeatition is source of learning they say).
After this Berryz members went away for clothing change and 5 hello project kenkyuusei(the trainees) came. Could actually recognize one(Taguchi-san) though she has changed a bit(and isn't shortest of the bunch anymore). Still gave me good chuckle with her performance so that much hasn't changed.
First video is the song they performed, second is one of the kenkyuusei songs. Outfit matched. Was again left wondering don't the females have any bones in their bodies?
Kenkyuusei's gave short thanks and...stayed for another song? Okay this was new. Again in video berryz are still kids so though I have no idea where song comes from clearly old one. If I would have to guess somewhere around 2006-2007 so when they were 12-16 year olds.
Well at least song suited the trainees who are still kids. Mid song then the Berryz came up as well and they alternated turns singing and doing acting.
New songs were these satin(?) long dresses with golden buttons. Momoko had changed the things holding her ponytails from pink to golden as well.
Futsuu, Idol 10nen Yatterannai Desho!(usually you can't be idol 10 years). This years single that was released close to the 10 year anniversary of their debut(in 2004, march 3rd). Odd song as it's made to give impression of them singing about their career. Nice touch on the MV that there's pictures of them thorough their career.
"I'm so cool". Song I have again no idea except guess from single that also had the "koisuru technique" above. One reason I'm least familiar with these coupling songs. The studio has annoying habit of releasing number of versions of each single each with different coupling song so if I would like to have all these I would need to buy like 5 cd's(75euros or so) per release(3 per year). Gee thanks but no thanks. 15 euro's for one song is way more than I'm willing to pay!
Next up. "nanchuu koi wo yatteru YOU KNOW". What sort of love I'm in you know would be my best guess for the translation though been always bit puzzled about that. One of their earlier singles from 2005 I would guess so only about 9 year old song. Kumai, Captain and Chinami had in this concert similar hair ornament as the girl in videos first picture except today it was all black. Nice touch as those look generally good on women.
After this song they quickly took out the green dresses revealing black leather shirt+mini skirt combination with silver necklines. Risako, Miyabi, Captain and Kumai had midrift bared, all had arms bare.
Ai no dangan(love's bullet). This one was familiar from last year though this time bit longer version than from last years medley. Again one of my favourites(except for the clothes used in official PV. Red leather=not so interesting).
Captain and Kumai were eye magnets for me this song.
Cha-cha-sing. Cover version of some thai artist who apparantely(based on wikipedia) promoted his single curiously by going randomly on public places and performing the song there on the spot. Became I read bit of a hit. Above video is(staged though) version of that marketing so idea is same(but not surprise stunt and audience had been taught the dance. There's making of video on the youtube where I remember best of Berryz member commenting on 4 year old kid doing excitedly dance routine. Well young kids are easy to get into dancing :D)
This song had been last song in last spring tour.
Rival. This one involved most involvement from the crowd especially on the counting part where the 2000+ crowd were chanting numbers(girls didn't actually do much of counting themselves :D).
Second song of their last single. "towa no uta"(song of eternity). MV clearly plays on nostalgy when they start to show pieces from their first concert tour 10 years ago. At least better song than the other one from this single though still would have wished better song for the good bye single.
With this came "fake ending" before encore. For encores clothes again changed slightly. All had white dresses with various light coloured(blues, whites, pale greens etc) flowers including solid flower line on necklines. Over the bottom half of dresses were these seethrough second dress with slight colour variation:
Captain, Maasa and Chinami had this bit darker shade of green.
Risako and Momo had pale blue.
Miyabi and Kumai had pale green(notably lighter than the green on above).
Risako, Miyabit, Chinami and Maasa had flowers in hairs as well with Miyabi's forming wreath.
Kumai was stunning. That pale green suits her well and reminded me bit of the eye magnet dress she had last year.
First encore song was marked in set list I had as one of the most boring songs for me so had been bit "bleh" but luckily this was last of the 4 songs that were different. STILL not close to top on list of songs I would have been choosing but better to have 50th than 100th right? (numbers top of my head. Not even sure how many songs they have released? Let's see. 36 singles, make it 2 songs per cd. 9 albums, say 5 new songs. 117. Add in some mini albums and multiple couplings and guess 130-150 would be somewhere on the ballmark?)
yo no naka barairo(rose coloured center of earth). Video seems to be Captain(my favourite) centric clip.
Then one more speech part where they reflected on tour and gave thanks etc the typical.
Last song was bit of surprising. "chotto samishii"(little lonely). Again no bloody idea where this song has been released but if the fan made video where they use shining power MV as a base is to judge I would say it's the shining power coupling song.
Bit surprising song. Usually last songs in these concerts tend to be ones that involve making crowd shout along with towel swinging popular activity thorough last song. This slower saddish song does not fit the typical description.
Overall not bad final concert for me to see from them though. Start was bit "meh" with 2(not even that highly ranked on my list) songs I heard last year followed by the weaker of the last single songs but picked up speed after that. Only 7 songs I had heard last year and of those 2 were longer versions this time and 1 was performed by the kenkyuuseis. Surprisingly many older songs compared to last year but maybe that's been the difference between "spring" and "fall" tours? Spring is where they generally release album so have bunch of songs from there to perform. Fall is more quiet on new releases so can pick up more songs from their older releases. That or it was because this is 10 year aniversary tour.
With this time to head back to home.
Dinner for tonight. Ramen!
Tomorrow will be meeting early up with Japanese so not much "big" activity but should at least get some photos of new park/river I haven't seen before.
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