愛へと昇る…

The concert opens with some juniors flailing about in completely ridiculous costumes as KinKi Kids Forever plays in the background. This is not the greatest first impression, but let’s see where it goes, hahaha.

Much like the last full dome concert I watched, KinKi first appear in airborne cages of some sort. Their opening song is Hey!Wa, which is one of my favorite D Album songs despite its slightly silly rap segments. For the record that’s not saying much, since the D-F span of albums is at the bottom of my list. I’m not very familiar with many of the songs on them tbh.

In the very brief opening greetings, Koichi asks for an excellent start to the 21st century (wow, that takes me back) and Tsuyoshi asks the audience to give Koichi an excellent birthday. <3

After using KinKi Kids Forever again to transition briefly between songs, KinKi move on to Natsu no Ousama, which is a little surreal to hear in this context. It’s strange to hear them singing it during a winter concert, for one thing, though since the single was released during the previous year it’s not that surprising. But regardless of the time of year, I’m simply not used to hearing it done in concert – they’ve talked a number of times about how much they dislike singing this song because the key is so high, so I think once this year was out they avoided it as much as possible, lol.

There’s a very smooth transition into Kiss Kara Hajimaru Mystery/Natural Thang. KisuMisu has been one of the most consistent concert fixtures over the years, so it’s not too surprising to see it pop up here, but it’s good to hear Natural Thang for the first time! This song was written by Yonekura Toshinori, a fairly prolific artist who’s been active since the early ‘90s. He was also responsible for since 1997 on the Phi Album, hence why KinKi combined the two songs during the KinKiYou tour.

I think this is the clearest example of a quick-change outfit I’ve ever seen from KinKi. It’s not entirely clear given the video quality, but whatever mechanism they have for removing the top layer of their pants is very smooth. It think they managed to remove their entire outer layer in about six seconds. I am usually a big proponent of wearing fewer layers, but I have to admit that watching this process in action was pretty cool.

There’s a quick introductory bit here where Tsuyoshi just crouches down in different directions and pretends to shoot beams out of his hands? Or something? It’s very clearly a substitute for the backflip he can’t do, lol, but it ends up being pretty cute because Koichi plays along with it and acts like Tsuyoshi hit him when Tsuyoshi points in his direction. Then, as expected, Koichi does a proper backflip once it’s his turn. 

KinKi no Yarukimanman Song is next in what has so far appeared to be a medley of sorts. Each of the songs I’ve listed so far (with the possible exception of Hey!Wa) has been shortened quite a bit, and they’ve all been connected in between by the KinKi Kids Forever chorus. I don’t know if it’s worked for me across the board, but overall I think it’s a cute idea, and it’s nice to get a variety of songs without any of them starting to drag, though in some cases I wouldn’t mind hearing a little more.

Kono mama te wo tsunaide is the last song before there’s another quick costume change. Though this song is a KinKi con staple, it’s strange to hear it near the start of a concert. I think this is the last time this will happen until 2008.

KinKi shift gears a bit here and do a full performance of Yokubou no Rain. Not one of my favorites I’ll admit, but it does allow for some dancing. This song was composed by Miyazaki Ayumi, who apparently has also done a bunch of Digimon themes, some other songs for KinKi including To Heart, and a number of Koichi’s recent solo songs, including Show Me UR Monster and Slave Maker.

Suppin Girl comes next. I like the see-through shirts they’re wearing. …I’m just waiting for the person who filmed this to realize how much nicer it is to watch if you just film one of the monitors, lol. My apologies for all the fuzzy screencaps so far.

It’s looking like, as with most fancams, the MC segments are going to be the real star of this video, so I’m thrilled to have reached the first one. Koichi starts out making fun of the concert title. This is one that’s really stuck with them – I feel like whenever they’ve had to pull out an example of a ridiculous concert name in subsequent interviews, it’s always been, “Domoto Dome de Daininki.” There are a lot of fans yelling out, “Ko-chan, happy birthday!” while he talks, and it’s a little frustrating since it makes it harder to hear what he’s saying, but it’s also pretty cute.

Koichi thanks everyone for taking time out on New Year’s to come see them and makes special mention of the families in the audience as well as the male fans, which earns a “Tsuyoshi!” shout from one of them, hahaha. Tsuyoshi’s pretty low-key here – he’s practically mumbling whenever he talks – but he seems to be in good humor nevertheless.

Koichi mentions that they’ve written solo songs again, and Tsuyoshi points out that he’ll be singing Juuinigatsu (December) even though it’s now January. He also says he feels bad because the same thing will be happening at V6’s concerts with the song he wrote for Okada, Kimi ni Aeta Juunigatsu (I’ll be talking some more about that one in an upcoming post.) In the middle of this conversation, the fans suddenly start singing. They’re incomprehensible at first, and you can see KinKi straining to figure out what’s going on, but eventually they become a little more united and it becomes clear that they’re singing Happy Happy Greeting. The timing is a little bit awkward, but it’s mostly impressive. I always find it amazing when KinKi fans manage to unite so quickly like this. Tsuyoshi’s the first to figure out what’s going on, and Koichi’s face when Tsuyoshi tells him they’re singing for him is absolutely darling.

Koichi says that this is a first out of all the New Year’s concerts they’ve had so far, which is strange to hear now since substantial celebrations of his birthday have become a tradition, but come to think of it in all the previous concerts his birthday has only been mentioned here and there. Tsuyoshi jokes that he had a meeting with the fans beforehand to arrange this, and then the band plays the introduction to Happy Birthday to You, prompting both Tsuyoshi and the audience to sing to Koichi together. …and then right when they finish Koichi dashes over to Tsuyoshi and starts blowing air in his face pretending that he’s blowing out candles, lol. I guess it’s a good thing they’ve started bringing cakes onstage as well.

Koichi’s delighted surprise through all of this is super cute, and I have to say I’m really grateful that Tsuyoshi thinks up new things to do for each birthday because it means Koichi never knows what to expect so we get to see him make these faces every year. <3

Tsuyoshi talks a bit about his own birthday and how he usually ends up celebrating it in the middle of drama filming. On his last birthday he received congratulations from Hirosue Ryoko and Imai Tsubasa, but Okada sent his a little late. Then he suddenly says to Koichi, “Yesterday I was really torn on whether to send you a message or not!” He was worried that it would look like he was angling for Koichi to mention it on stage to boost his image, so in the end he decided not to send one. Koichi’s like, “I wouldn’t think that!!” Tsuyoshi had decided that maybe he’d wait until the concert was over and then do it, but Koichi assures him that if he’d thought Tsuyoshi was sending him messages to make himself look good he wouldn’t talk about it onstage, lol.

Koichi mentions very happily that Nagase sent him a birthday greeting after the Countdown concert. <3 And apparently Tsuyoshi sent New Year’s greetings to everyone in his phone, aww. There’s a little more talk on Countdown – Tsuyoshi helping to choose Higashiyama’s outfit! – but if I’m not careful I’m just going to end up sitting here summarizing everything and that’s really not what I’m here for? It’s all a lot of fun to listen to, but I’m going to try to restrain myself. …just a little, at least. I’ll stick to the highlights as best as I can.

Koichi starts speculating about what Tsuyoshi’s going to give him for his birthday, and Tsuyoshi’s like, “I thought about that quite a bit. Mmm probably, what I’m going to give you is… gold pants?” Koichi seems very amused but skeptical, so Tsuyoshi tries to argue for the merits of gold fashion. It’s cool, he says! Today among his private wardrobe were a gold belt, a gold watch, and gold shoes. Koichi’s like, “I wore sweats today! :D :D” Tsuyoshi: “Please hire a stylist! To use at home!”

Koichi suddenly realizes that he and Tsuyoshi didn’t see each other before the concert started, so they wish each other a happy new year right there on stage, hahaha. Tsuyoshi reveals that he was the only one who did the sound check that day, and then when he passed by Koichi’s dressing room he saw the lights were out and realized Koichi was sleeping so he decided to leave him alone.

Tsuyoshi mentions that he and Koichi got “garlic” shots before Countdown because they both felt like they might be coming down with something. It’s a little disturbing but not at all surprising that KinKi have to turn to artificial methods of fighting off exhaustion – this is one of the necessities of the idol world, it seems. I’d never heard of these specific shots before, though. Apparently they’re energy-boosting injections that mostly consist of vitamin B and leave a garlic smell in the mouth of whoever they’re given to. Tsuyoshi said he hated it and I can’t blame him – it doesn’t sound at all pleasant.

Eventually the Countdown talk leads to a Nagase impersonation from Tsuyoshi. He’s done these in a number of different settings, but I never get tired of seeing them – he’s just so good at it. Once Tsuyoshi finishes, Koichi asks, “Are you making fun of him?” (defending Nagase’s honor, aww), but Tsuyoshi says, “No, I was just surprised!” Koichi tries to convince him that Nagase’s performance level is normal, and it quickly descends into an argument over whether which member of KinKi was more energetic during Countdown.

Ultimately, Koichi calls Tsuyoshi lame and Tsuyoshi claims to be offended but then breaks character and cracks what I believe is his first smile of the evening. Honestly. I hadn’t thought about it much because Koichi’s been laughing and smiling all over the place, but deadpan Tsuyoshi has been going full-swing so far. It’s like the sun just emerged from behind the clouds. *_*

There are a couple more stories about Leader and Higashiyama, and now that the ice has broken there’s a lot of laughter happening on both sides. It’s kind of infectious – I can’t stop smiling just watching this.

We return to the singing portion of the concert with KinKi Kids Forever, this time sung in full. As Koichi mentions in his introduction here, the lyrics to this song were originally written in English before they were translated to Japanese to be recorded. They sing the English version here, and while I personally would prefer to hear the Japanese lyrics a little more often, I think it’s kind of cute that the English ones have become the norm. This is one of those songs that I hate myself a little for enjoying as much as I do just because it’s so cheesy, but honestly as a KinKi fan I feel like it’s impossible not to feel a lot of affection for it.

…I just noticed past the blurry video quality that the usual closed-shirt/open-shirt pattern is in operation once again. Somehow it felt less obvious during the MC.

The juniors show up next and start singing Shounentai’s Be Cool, which I have zero interest in since I can’t even tell who any of them are, but Koichi joins them partway through! I’d completely forgotten about this song – it reminds me a little of So Young Blues actually, hahaha. Koichi’s also sounding pretty nice here – singing with a lot of power and in a lower register than he was in his late teens, so it’s closer to what I’m used to hearing from him. I think it’ll still take a tiny bit longer for this to become consistent, but we’re almost there.

Tsuyoshi rejoins Koichi on stage to perform Misty. I don’t actively dislike this song, but I don’t particularly care for it either so I’ve always been a little bewildered by its widespread popularity. What’s most notable for me about Misty though is that it’s the first song Dojima Kohei offered to KinKi (along with another D Album song called Kotae wa kitto kokoro no naka ni, which has left no impression on me whatsoever, lol. It should come up later in this concert though.) I tend to just assume that everyone in KinKi fandom knows who Dojima-kun is, especially given recent events, but in case anybody needs a refresher, here are the basics.

Dojima Kohei is a singer-songwriter who has been active since the mid ‘90s, and aside from his own music has written a number of songs for other artists. His most significant early contributions to KinKi were Kanashimi Blue and the music for Eien no Bloods. He also appeared as a regular on Domoto Kyoudai for about a year from 2002 to 2003, and he can be seen playing guitar in the music video for Secret Code, which he helped to arrange. He’s become heavily involved with KinKi’s recent activities; he appeared in the music video for Bara to Taiyou, he had some part in writing and/or arranging half the songs on N Album, and he essentially acted as the album’s co-producer. He’s said some really lovely things about Koichi and Tsuyoshi’s history together, and it’s clear that he put a lot of thought and love into the project. Likewise, given that it’s the first time KinKi have allowed a single songwriter to dominate one of their albums this way, I think it’s obvious that they have a great deal of trust in him and respect for him as a musician. He also joined KinKi for their latest tour and played guitar in their band – according to concert reports they’ve been teasing him a lot. <3

Misty is followed by Ame no Melody, in an arrangement that allows for some dancing at the beginning and the end. After the chorus is over Koichi leaves the stage to prepare for his first major solo song and Tsuyoshi does some popping to fill in the time until he’s ready. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s a lot of fun to watch Tsuyoshi in this dance style – he really holds his own.

Koichi’s first solo is Jealous Train, another never-recorded solo, though he had no part in writing this one. The music for this song was written by Iida Takehiko, who I’ve brought up before as the composer of Gekkou and Suppin Girl among others. It’s a shame this one didn’t make it onto an album – it’s got a nice strong beat and a catchy melody. I’ll be glad to see it in better quality when I move on to the Taiwan concert after this, but there is something nice about being able to see the full-body choreography through the whole song, however blurry it might be. It’s always a delight to watch Koichi dance.

Next up is Tsuyoshi performing Juunigatsu, and I can’t help giggling at the start after the “Even though it’s January” jokes they were making earlier. This song is a little slow and Tsuyoshi looks like a bit of a mess while he’s singing it here, but the melody and the arrangement are lovely. Somehow I keep forgetting that this song exists, but it’s definitely one of my favorite pre-solo-debut Tsuyoshi compositions. I’m also entertained by the fake snow they have falling during the second half of the song, lol.

The section of the concert after these solos is kind of fabulous. KinKi alternate back and forth doing a series of short covers bookended by Koichi singing Tayori ni shitemasse, and it all feels ridiculous but super entertaining. My personal favorite is Tsuyoshi doing Yoshida Takuro’s Kekkon shiyou yo, while wearing a giant afro wig and imitating Takuro-san’s singing style. Koichi waving and going, “Takuro-san~!” at the start of the performance is the cherry on top. (The other two covers they do here are Koichi singing Yamashita Tatsuro’s Christmas Eve, interrupted partway through by Tsuyoshi coming in with a rock arrangement of Yamamoto Joji’s Michinoku Hitoritabi, which Koichi eventually joins in on.)

They break here for another MC segment, and Koichi mentions that a bunch of reporters have come to the concert so they’re going to have a little press conference on stage. There’s a break in this recording at that point, and when it comes back it’s focused briefly on a whole bunch of cameras that have been brought onto the stage and Koichi and Tsuyoshi are in the middle of being interviewed. I’m not sure how I’d feel about this if it happened at a concert I’d come to see. I think I might be kind of pissed because it takes time away from seeing Koichi and Tsuyoshi just screwing around with each other, but it might still be entertaining so let’s see…

After Koichi insists that he doesn’t need any presents from Tsuyoshi, the interviewer asks if he received a lot of “Happy Birthday” messages from his friends and he’s just like, “Nope.” Tsuyoshi then explains that Koichi almost never replies to the messages people send to his phone so they’ve given up on him, lol. Tsuyoshi only sends Koichi about two messages a year. Koichi suddenly puts a hand on Tsuyoshi’s shoulder and says, “We didn’t talk on the phone at all last year!” HE SOUNDS SO HAPPY ABOUT IT, WTF. And then Tsuyoshi’s about to agree with him, but he’s suddenly like, “Hang on, we did talk on the phone – I called you after practice.” Koichi: “…eh?” THESE TWO ARE RIDICULOUS. I’m beginning to wonder now when they first started claiming(?) not to know each other’s phone numbers.

When the interviewer asks for a concrete goal for the year, Tsuyoshi replies, “I’ve been talking with Koichi about this for a while, but just for fun I’d like to make an album together, just the two of us.” I WANT TO WEEP. I can’t believe he’d been considering this for so long. As the years go by it’s starting to feel less and less likely, to be honest, though I continue to hold out hope. It’s something Tsuyoshi’s still interested in doing for sure, but for the past few years Koichi keeps saying he doesn’t have the inspiration to write music. It’s totally fair that he doesn’t want to force it if he’s not feeling it, but looking at this situation from the perspective of someone who came down with a bad case of writer’s block about ten years ago and hasn’t written anything seriously since, I can’t help feeling concerned about how long this might last, not only because I’d like to see a KinKi composed album, but also because I miss hearing new songs from Koichi in any context.

I also can’t help wondering if maybe a KinKi album would have been realized a lot sooner if Tsuyoshi’s solo debut hadn’t happened, or if it had at least been postponed a few years. The period from around 1997-2002 was probably Koichi’s most consistently prolific – he was writing at least one new solo song for every major concert series, and seemed to have fewer qualms about writing lyrics. I think if Tsuyoshi had pitched this idea seriously enough and with the right timing, without anything getting in the way, they might actually have been able to pull it off. Ah well, we can still dream…

As the press conference finishes there’s another cut in the recording, so I’m not sure what happened in between, but when it starts up again the MC segment is carrying on. Some juniors have joined KinKi on stage, most notably MA’s Akiyama Jun, who was clearly already a favorite of KinKi’s to play around with, but was probably getting even more attention during this period since he was in the middle of filming a drama with Tsuyoshi. They spend about ten minutes having Akiyama play the voice of a “Higashiyama” mannequin they’ve brought on stage – it’s all pretty dumb but still entertaining, and seeing Tsuyoshi practically collapsing from laughter is well worth it.

There’s another cut in the footage past what seems to be a junior introduction section, and this time when it comes back it’s just Koichi and Tsuyoshi. Tsuyoshi talks about interacting with the juniors more and tries to encourage Koichi to talk to them because he’s apparently so intimidating off-stage that he’s too difficult for them to approach. Koichi’s like, “In that case, you try talking to Fukada Kyoko!” and Tsuyoshi starts laughing. He’s like, “No, we did talk to each other, it just never went anywhere!” He gives some examples of conversations he’s attempted with her and they all trail off after two or three lines. Kind of sad but really funny. In the end they both resolve to try to come forward more in the new year. Hahaha good luck with that one.

Koichi decides it’s time to move on with the concert, so he leaves the closing of the MC up to Tsuyoshi, which is never a very good idea if you actually want to get something done, lol. Tsuyoshi starts giving a drawn-out, deliberately overdramatic speech about love (what else is new?) I think the audience is starting to get restless here – random fans keep calling out, “Ko-chan!” “Tsuyoshi!,” a practice which I will never understand and find distracting and rude outside of very specific situations. What is it meant to accomplish? In any case, this is something they’ve been doing through the whole concert but it’s feeling particularly prominent in this section, presumably because Tsuyoshi’s talking soooo slowly.

Then one of my favorite things – the camera focuses on Koichi during a pause, and he’s not doing much beyond standing around looking a bit awkward, but of course the fans start laughing, leading Koichi to realize that he’s being filmed and start playing it up. Soon after he grabs his bottle of water and very deliberately sits down on the stage, then gives a “Kanpai!” to the audience. This is going to become a common pattern for the birthday concerts in particular, and it’s always fun to watch. Eventually Koichi crouches down below stage and sends Ikuta Toma out to say to Tsuyoshi, “It’s getting long!”

Tsuyoshi sends Toma back to stand-by with the promise that he’ll be done very shortly… and then he starts singing. This bit and the exchanges between Koichi and Tsuyoshi afterwards were so entertaining (and kind of… historic?) that I gave in and decided to subtitle the whole thing (see the video at the top of the post.) Please forgive me for the few bits I either couldn’t catch at all or may have gotten wrong – it’s a little tough to hear in places. But in any case, it’s incredible to be seeing the first time a KinKi MC has passed the one hour mark. It feels a little like an entry into a new era, appropriate for the start of a new millennium, hahaha.

The next song up is Burning Love, another one that hasn’t left much of an impression on me. I don’t even know it well enough to recognize it. The composer for this song is Ooyagi Hiroo, who has written a few other album or B-side songs for KinKi and seems to do a lot of his composing for Johnny’s groups, but nothing he’s done is jumping out at me. It looks like a pretty unremarkable career, sadly. There’s a little bit of spinny dancing in this number, but the biggest stand-out is probably Koichi doing yet another backflip off a platform at the end of it.

I’ve been working off a setlist that has Rocketman and Ano ko wa So Fine up next but this recording doesn’t have them, so either they didn’t get filmed or they were cut because the MC went so long, hahaha. I suspect it’s the former though, since there was a significant jump forward in the video. Then again, Tsuyoshi did seem to run off a little early before Koichi did his backflip, so that could easily have served as a segue into Tsuyoshi’s next solo section.

Tsuyoshi sings Panic Disorder here. The performance itself is in line with what I assume fans would have come to expect from Tsuyoshi over the last few years, if with a little more messing around on the electric guitar than he’s done in previous performances (and at this point it’s still pretty rough, hahaha.) I’d like to talk about this song though, because it’s a pretty big deal. In retrospect, with the knowledge that Tsuyoshi legitimately has struggled with panic disorder, it’s clear that this song served as a confession of sorts, and I have to admire the courage it must have taken to perform it. I don’t think many fans recognized that at the time though – a lot of them seemed unsure of what the title even was, let alone what it meant and that it applied to Tsuyoshi literally and personally.

I have a feeling that this lack of clarity was precisely what allowed Tsuyoshi to get away with singing this song in the first place. I know he was pulled aside and given a talking to when he submitted the lyrics for Machi, but I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen sooner. For the first few years post-debut Tsuyoshi stuck to writing love songs, albeit often gloomy ones, but Purity (followed soon after by Panic Disorder) marked a major turning point in content. It’s possible these songs were able to fly under the radar because he wasn’t recording them at the time so they wouldn’t get as much circulation and would have less of an impact on his public image. I can’t imagine what the fans must have thought when Tsuyoshi first started writing lyrics like this though. Anyone keeping up with his interviews where he talked about wanting to be more honest with the fans and was very open about the personal nature of his music must have realized there was something wrong.

Now we have Koichi’s Melting Snow to lighten the mood a little! …hahaha just kidding, this song is slightly more upbeat musically but the lyrics are super depressing. I feel like both Koichi and Tsuyoshi have a tendency to write lyrics you wouldn’t expect to see from idols – Koichi’s are actually more consistently dark than Tsuyoshi’s, IMO. But I think everyone’s learned by now not to expect KinKi to fit the idol mold – the fact that they’re writing music at all is testament to that. It’s great to see Koichi playing the guitar for this one. I do really love to see him dance and I can understand why he chooses to do so for most of his solos, but precisely because he does it so rarely it always feels really refreshing to see him just stand on stage with a guitar and a microphone stand.

We return to joint performances with Kotae wa kitto kokoro no naka ni, the Dojima Kohei song I mentioned earlier. The first thing that struck me here was Tsuyoshi’s outfit – the coordination (or lack thereof) is kind of awful but also inexplicably adorable, hahaha. The sleeveless look is cute on Koichi too. The song itself, despite never being a stand-out for me, is actually pretty nice! It has some long continuous solo sections in the beginning, which gives a good opportunity for hearing what stage Koichi and Tsuyoshi’s voices are at. IDK if it’s the key of the song or if this has been happening in other places and I just haven’t noticed, but Tsuyoshi is definitely singing quite a bit higher on this one than he has been in earlier concerts. It felt a little jarring at first – it took me a second to even realize it was him when he started – and it’s a little more nasally than I’d prefer, but otherwise he still sounds good. As for Koichi, I am again impressed by the power behind his voice here – it’s something I take for granted with Tsuyoshi but early Koichi is often pretty shaky, so I’m pleased to see him beginning to come into his own. He’s got a season of Mask and a season of Shock under his belt at this point and I imagine those must have played a large role in his vocal development.

Here it looks like they have the prototype for the giant descending staircase they used in KinKiYou! This one is far less impressive, but I was surprised to see it. (They were definitely using it earlier in the concert as well, I just managed to miss it somehow.)

Next up are Garasu no shounen, Suki ni natteku aishiteku, and Flower. Suki ni natteku aishiteku gets the shortest rendition out of the three, which I find a little odd given that it was their first and only joint composition at this point, but maybe they figured people were already hearing enough of it on Love Love Aishiteru, hahaha. While it’s not a bad song, I do think it’s one of their weakest collaborations, possibly in part because they were forced into writing it.

I’m a bit relieved to see Tsuyoshi taking off his hat as they head into Angel (another song that I… don’t really remember, whoops.) As cute as I thought it was, I like his hair this concert and it’s nice to be able to see his face better.

After another impressively quick change into new outfits while the juniors pile on stage as a distraction, KinKi reappear to give their closing remarks and sing Happy Happy Greeting, which Koichi introduces but then was largely cut from this recording. ;_; We do get to see Koichi thanking their band at the end though, who for this concert are FiVe, a junior group created in 1999 to play for KinKi. We should be seeing quite a bit of them prior to the Font con.

There are a couple encore songs in here that also seem to have been cut (Zenbu Dakishimete and Flying People ’99 according to this setlist), though there is a brief clip of KinKi waving goodbye to the audience. They come back out for a double encore performance of Ame no Melody, minus most of their clothing. There’s a whole lot of screaming going on in the audience, lol. At some point Tsuyoshi changes into rollerskates? I don’t even know.

Is this not the cutest thing ever? HELP.

At the very end Koichi thanks everyone for an amazing birthday. <3 And on that note, we’re done!

Concluding thoughts: Despite the shaky fancam quality, the press conference during the MC, and my lack of enthusiasm for D Album, I liked this concert quite a lot! What impressed me most was the pacing and the variety of performances. While I can find it a little disappointing when songs I love get short shrift, I’m a big fan of the medley performance style – it keeps things from dragging or getting boring at any point, and it allows for a greater number of songs in the setlist. It’s also extremely refreshing to watch a concert with minimal to no lip-syncing – finally I can really hear Koichi and Tsuyoshi’s voices and it feels like there’s a point to listening to them. I’m even tempted to go back and listen to D Album again to potentially reevaluate my opinion on some of its songs. Overall, very nicely done.

Things should be mostly uphill from here! Until next time~

First up is a small documentary that was aired on Pop Jam. It’s largely Koichi-focused since, as I’m sure most of you are aware, this was a show that Koichi hosted for two years starting in April of 2000. (Also notable the birthplace of KAT-TUN, and overall a great learning experience and growth opportunity for Koichi as a TV host, a performer, and a stage director.)

After a performance of Jetcoaster Romance under a dramatic-looking sky, the video cuts to Sapporo rehearsal footage, which features Koichi with stubble! This is a look we very rarely see on him, though it seems to be his default for off days. At the time this was filmed I might go so far as to say this would have been the first time fans were seeing him like this. This is one part of his public image that Koichi has been habitually conscientious about, particularly in contrast to Tsuyoshi, so I can’t help wondering a little how he felt about having this broadcast.

As usual, these two seem slightly hellish to interview, lol. The announcer who’s been following KinKi over the course of this documentary remarks on the size of the venue, but Koichi tells her it’s small compared to the domes. To Tsuyoshi she asks if there’s anything he’d like to try specially for this stage, but he says there isn’t really – he just does what he wants on each day. If he were to decide too concretely then that would become the only option. When she asks for an expression of enthusiasm Koichi won’t give one because he says those don’t suit them. Ultimately he just says, very casually, “It’ll be fine!” Then he talks about the importance of the audience in sharing their excitement and creating the atmosphere of the concert – it’s something they can’t replicate in the rehearsal, so even if parts of the rehearsals don’t seem to be going well he has faith that the real thing will be better.

Now we go back in time a bit to the July 19th rehearsal one week before the start of the tour. Apparently KinKi aren’t able to make it to the studio until evening. D:

As Koichi works on his solo choreography, there is some more butt touching. The announcer remarks that the serious expression Koichi had on earlier has completely disappeared all of a sudden, and I am reminded once again of the backstage footage from that very first concert they did. This seems to be a theme in their relationship, hahaha. <3 

It’s interesting to see Koichi interact with this announcer, because even though this footage is being filmed for his own TV show he seems to have very little patience for the whole thing – understandable, since they’re only a week away from holding concerts and the planning isn’t complete yet. There’s a bluntness to some of his responses that feels much more natural than the DoS personality he puts on sometimes for TV shows and concerts. I don’t think he has any intention of being rude or hurtful here, but watching this helps me to understand why a lot of people have talked about being intimidated by him or hesitant to talk to him in private.

I always find it interesting to see Koichi wearing rings and bracelets in his late teens and early twenties – he doesn’t do it nearly as often now, but he used to wear them a lot, apparently of his own will.

Omg I love that they have a little model of their set - it’s adorable. KinKi get asked if they ever have different opinions when it comes to concert planning, and Koichi says that Tsuyoshi doesn’t have much to say. Tsuyoshi adds that Koichi comes up with the initial plans and then Tsuyoshi looks those over along with the staff and they give their opinions on anything that seems like it might be a problem.

They throw a couple jokes in about spending their entire Sendai concert talking, and about the lighting person’s cell phone ring tone being the theme for a different TV station, and it’s a lot of fun to watch because they’re so in sync with each other. Tsuyoshi will start a joke and Koichi will pick up on it immediately and expand it. It’s all very smoothly done.

Then we skip forward a few days to the July 22nd rehearsal, when things seem to be coming together a little more (see the video at the top of the post.) Just look at how cute these two are, it’s killing me.

Of major note is that we see a fair bit of Sanche in this documentary, a man who has worked for Johnny’s as both dance instructor and choreographer for years. I believe he’s been credited as the primary choreographer for all of KinKi’s concerts up until the last few, for which the baton seems to have been passed on.

There are apparently ten outfit changes in this concert. Yeesh. Koichi says the fastest he’s changed everything has been about ten seconds. And that’s a little slow. What the actual fuck.

Koichi says he’s best able to express himself in concerts. Everything on TV is LIES, lol. Because he’s at his most honest during rehearsal, he says they really shouldn’t be filming him – he doesn’t like having people see him like this. I am starting to feel a little uncomfortable hearing this tbh. As much as I enjoy seeing rehearsal footage, I’m suddenly like, “Just leave him alone already!” hahaha. It is kind of interesting that Tsuyoshi has talked so much about wanting to share himself honestly with the fans, whereas Koichi seems to feel the exact opposite.

And then Koichi talks about how even though he does get tired during concerts he refuses to show it. “I do it with the sense of, ‘I can collapse once it’s over.’ … I’m so cool!” Bless.

The documentary finishes with some more clips of the finished product, and they’re fun to watch if only for the novelty of seeing KinKi perform outdoors. While Tsuyoshi has been holding outdoor shrine concerts since 2009, KinKi haven’t held one of the their own concerts outside in many years, as far as I’m aware. I think the closest they came to it was the Hanabi Taikai with Takki and Matchy in 2013, and the reports of that were gorgeous. There’s something really special about the outdoor concert atmosphere, and I’d love to see some more of it in KinKi’s future.

After the documentary, I decided to translate some bits of concert reports - mostly dialogue transcripts, but some other little things as well. All the reports I worked off of were from this site, since I liked its format best, but I’ve seen the information in them backed up in other places so I know they’re reliable. I only translated the bits that I personally found most entertaining or interesting (so... lots of gross flirting - I’m revealing my priorities, hahaha), but I’ve barely scratched the surface. There were a lot of other fun interactions that I simply didn’t have the time to cover, so if you know Japanese and you’re curious, please do check it out!

7/27 (Osaka Dome) – 11:30 

Koichi says that he wanted to have a coke but the refrigerator in his hotel room was locked so he ended up drinking tap water instead.

Tsuyoshi: Be careful – we’re starting to wear out. If germs enter your body, whether you’ll be able to cope with them… That’s something to worry about, in a duo.

Koichi: Oh? You’ve been worrying about me?

Tsuyoshi: In Hong Kong too, we were told to be careful of the ice, but you went and drank it didn’t you? That was extremely worrying for me.

Koichi: I was pretty nonchalant about it though. I mean, if they hadn’t said anything about it we wouldn’t notice.

-

Apparently at this point in time Tsuyoshi wrote his song lyrics in a blue notebook with a blue pen, whereas Koichi wrote his on hotel notepads. *weeping*

-

Re: A kiss scene in Koichi’s drama (Tenshi ga Kieta Machi)

Koichi: There’s a scene where I push down a woman, but…

Tsuyoshi: EEEH!!

Koichi: Why are you overreacting to that?

Tsuyoshi: You’re having an affair… That’s what it is…

Koichi: You-! Hang on, stand up! Haven’t you realized you’re having an even bigger affair? Oi?

Tsuyoshi: That’s not true~

It turns out that Tsuyoshi had cut out a picture of Inocchi and stuck it on his wristband.

Koichi: You’re not just having an affair, you’re serious, aren’t you?!

-

Upon asking what time their audience members woke up and discovering that one of them got up at 3am:

Koichi: What are you doing?

Tsuyoshi: What are you doing, waking up at three? Your makeup?

Koichi: You put on makeup? Don’t worry, nobody’s looking at you!

(Some things never change, lol.)

7/27 (Osaka Dome) – 17:30

Re: Koichi’s solo number, Falling

Tsuyoshi: It’s cool, so you might fall in love with him all over again…

Koichi: Thank you. I didn’t expect you to call it cool!

Tsuyoshi: Really, I honestly think it’s cool.

Koichi: Th-thank you~

-

As a regular part of this concert tour’s lineup, Koichi comes out dressed as Pikaichi and plays around with a forklift for a little while.

Koichi: Oka~y, I’m Pikaichi. Oka~y I’m intimidating.

Tsuyoshi: What do you mean, you’re intimidating?

Koichi: Oka~y, I intimidated.

Tsuyoshi: You’re intimidating me?

Koichi points the forklift towards Tsuyoshi.

Tsuyoshi: It’s like a peacock’s feathers… Owah! Look out! Look out!

Koichi starts moving forward.

Koichi: Oka~y. Tsuyoshi-kun, get on.

Tsuyoshi climbs on, Koichi lifts him up, and he starts to sing.

Tsuyoshi: “Akiyama~ Used to be fat~ He wore pantaloons~”

Koichi starts singing too.

Koichi: “He used to be fat~ Tsuyoshi too~ Used to be fat~ He’s still fat~”

They finish with the forklift, and Tsuyoshi stands still next to it.

Koichi: Hm? What’s wrong? Tsuyoshi-kun.

Tsuyoshi: What am I supposed to do?

Koichi: Ah, that’s enough. Bye bye!

Tsuyoshi: (Laughs and starts speaking in feminine language) Fine. I’ll leave! I won’t have any regrets over a man like you… Never come back here again!

Koichi: Hahaha… (To the audience) But actually, you know, Tsuyoshi, he’s having an affair right now. Tsuyoshi~ Tsuyoshi, come here a sec.

Tsuyoshi: What?

Koichi: Show them your arm.

Tsuyoshi: You’re saying this is my affair (uwaki), or my life buoy (ukiwa) or something?

Koichi: You’re having an affair right now, aren’t you! Camera-san, please film Tsuyoshi’s arm.

Koichi shows the audience the photograph of Inocchi again.

Koichi: Why are you wearing Inocchi? You should wear me~

Tsuyoshi: But I mean, you’re right here.

7/30 (Yamagata-shi Sougou Sports Center) – 18:00

Re: Tsuyoshi’s drama (Summer Snow)

Koichi: Did you pull Hirosue Ryoko by the hand during your drama?

Tsuyoshi: Yeah. Like this…

Tsuyoshi takes Koichi’s hand and the audience flips out. Then, while singing Summer Snow, he puts his arms around Koichi’s waist and they sway back and forth for a little while like they’re dancing. Koichi pulls away eventually with a slightly embarrassed smile. <3

-

Later, they get on the topic of the will-they-won’t-they near kiss scenes in the drama.

Audience: Try it~!

Tsuyoshi: Try it?

Koichi: Who’s he going to do it with?

Audience: Both of you!

Tsuyoshi: No, no. If we do that, some strange tastes are going to develop.

Koichi: In which of us?

Tsuyoshi: You.

Koichi: What the hell?

Tsuyoshi: Don’t you have some romantic feelings for me?

Koichi: It’s possible~

Tsuyoshi: Don’t say that!

7/31 (Yamagatashi Sougou Sports Center) – 13:00

Tsuyoshi has been sunbathing outside the concert venue.

Koichi: In only his underwear~

Audience: EEEH?!

Koichi: What’s that about? Does the, “Eeeh?” mean you want to see?

Audience: We want to see!

Koichi: In that case, he’d better show you~

Tsuyoshi: If you want me to show you, I will.

Koichi: I don’t want to see it though.

Tsuyoshi: You get to see it as much as you like.

Koichi: I do. In the past when we were sharing a hotel room I started tossing and turning in the middle of the night and I woke up to see Tsuyoshi sleeping in just his underwear with a huuuuge wedgie. It was like, “Uwaaah, I really didn’t need to see that when I’ve just woken up!”

Tsuyoshi: You shouldn’t have been tossing and turning then!

Koichi: Like, “Uwaaah, I’ve been done in!”

Apparently Koichi came across Tsuyoshi while he was sunbathing and when he asked what he was doing Tsuyoshi immediately started patting the ground next to him and saying, “Here! Here!” so Koichi ended up joining him for about five minutes.

-

Koichi and Tsuyoshi start teasing the audience members.

Koichi: Are you all in love?

Tsuyoshi: Is there someone you have feelings for?

Koichi: Aah, looks like there isn’t, I see…

Tsuyoshi: Ah, the same goes for me.

Koichi: You!! You should fall in love with me~!

Tsuyoshi: I can’t do that~

Koichi: I don’t feel any love from you lately!

Tsuyoshi: Oi, hang on. I’ve been giving you lots of love! I might not give it to you onstage, but. When we’re onstage it’s all I can do to handle myself. I’m floundering…. You know, when you weren’t feeling well I told you, “This is what you should do,” didn’t I?

Koichi: But that was just you repeating things you heard from Mino Monta-san. But lately this guy’s put a sticker of Inocchi on his suitcase… Make that a picture of me!

Tsuyoshi: Why do I have to use your picture~?

Koichi: See! He doesn’t like me!

Tsuyoshi: Fine. Then stick a picture of me on your car.

Koichi: That’s the one thing you’ll have to let me off on. (Laughs)

8/2 (Sendai Gymnasium) – 18:00

Koichi mentions that there was a data leak reported on the news recently and that his data was apparently part of it. He says he’s going to laugh it off, but the person who wrote this report mentions that he seemed pretty angry.

Koichi: You know, for me!! When something makes me sigh, I’m the type of person who spits that sigh out!! … So cool~! Before I can go, “Haaah,” I go, “Hah!!”

Tsuyoshi: Ah, I see~

Koichi: …that’s what I wrote the song “Change” about a little while back.

Tsuyoshi: (Sings) “You gonna change a mind, woo~”

Koichi: That’s it! Speaking of which, you know that song is meant for you?

Audience: Oooh~

Tsuyoshi: No no, that’s a lie, isn’t it?

Koichi: No, not at all.

Tsuyoshi: It’s meant for people LIKE me, right?

Koichi: Well… I guess so. (Laughs)

Tsuyoshi: (Laughs)

Koichi: Mm, anyway. You’re included too~

Tsuyoshi: In that case, I’ll write a song for you next time.

Koichi: No, it’s fine!

Tsuyoshi: I will, I will.

Koichi: It’s fine!

 8/20 (Nagoya Dome) – 11:30

Tsuyoshi wasn’t in good shape for this concert, so during the MCs he was very quiet and low energy and mostly looked at the ground. To make up for this, Koichi was extra energetic and went into TV host mode – lots of fast talking and standard Japanese.

Koichi struggles along for a while accompanied by some minimal responses and off-beat boke attempts from Tsuyoshi, before he finally asks,

Koichi: Tsuyoshi, are you okay?!

Koichi puts a hand on Tsuyoshi’s shoulder but Tsuyoshi brushes him off.

Tsuyoshi: Don’t touch me…

Koichi keeps trying and Tsuyoshi keeps avoiding him.

Koichi: Lately… You won’t let me lay a finger on you… (Sighs)

Tsuyoshi: Let’s just move along.

Koichi: Lately… You’ve even started doing love scenes in dramas…

Tsuyoshi: I don’t want to hear that from you. You’ve been doing them all over the place!!

Koichi continues trying to touch Tsuyoshi and Tsuyoshi brushes him away.

Koichi: Even that instant when we touched as you brushed me away makes me happy.

Next, Tsuyoshi adds in a kick.

Koichi: I’m happy that the foot you kicked me with touched me for an instant.

Tsuyoshi: Any time!

Koichi: You’ll hit me any time?

Tsuyoshi: Yeah.

9/15 (Yokohama Stadium)

Koichi: Since this is an outdoor concert and there are lots of buildings around, over there!! (Points) There are people watching for free! Oi!!

Tsuyoshi: Oi~!

Koichi: You shouldn’t be doing that~!

Tsuyoshi: Hey!

They talk about how nice the venue is and how close they are to the audience.

Koichi: Right? The people in the arena of course, but the people in the stands too…

Tsuyoshi: And of course the people on the building over there!

Koichi: You know, they can hear us, so if we tell them to they’ll wave to us! (Laughs)

Tsuyoshi: Are you fired u~p?!

Tsuyoshi waves and the people on the building wave back.

Tsuyoshi: Ahaha, they are, they are.

Koichi: That’s not fair~!

Re: Their latest album release

Koichi: Did you go out and buy it everyone?

Audience: Yeeees!

Koichi: (To the people on the building) Did you buy it? Ah. They’re not interested in this conversation at all.

Tsuyoshi: Right.

Koichi: They’re just watching because they can.

Tsuyoshi: Right. Thinking, “They’re surprisingly small!”

-

Tsuyoshi mentions that Imai Tsubasa came to his house recently to show him a video of one of the juniors’ concerts and it turned out that a bunch of the juniors were wearing KinKi’s old outfits.

Tsuyoshi: I was like, “Oi, those are our outfits!” “That one’s mine!” “That one’s Koichi’s!” “Those are from Tell Me!”

Koichi: Oh well. We used to wear Hikaru Genji’s outfits too.

Tsuyoshi: Right, right. But you know Tsubasa, we was wearing my outfit and singing like, “This is mine!” (Laughs)

Koichi: We were like that too.

Tsuyoshi: Ehehehe.

Koichi: Anyway, Tsubasa and I are going to be on stage together.

Tsubasa: Aah, Mask.

Koichi: No! Mask was the year before… last? No, last year?

Tsuyoshi: Sho… Sho, Shock!! George Shock. “Mm, George Shock~”

Audience: ??

Koichi: Who’s that? (Laughs) It’s mildly funny.

Tsuyoshi: So apparently it’ll be Captain Tsubasa’s first stageplay.

Koichi: Ah, Tsubasa-kun, right?

Tsuyoshi: He said he’s nervous about it.

Koichi: (Starts singing the theme song to the Captain Tsubasa anime)

Tsuyoshi: …That’s “mildly funny” too~

The two of them start making Captain Tsubasa references for a little while.

Koichi: (To the audience) Sorry~ Only the two of us are having fun~

Tsuyoshi: (Re: Shock) Right? You’ll be doing it right? In the midst of everything, you’re going to be the Zachou (troupe leader)!

Koichi: No, no!

Tsuyoshi: Right. You’re basically the boss!

Koichi: No, no…

Tsuyoshi: If it were a company you’d be the boss!!

Koichi: I’d rather say, well… All of us are one.

Tsuyoshi: But I mean, the other day, you said you were the Zachou…

Koichi: No no! All of us are one!

Tsuyoshi: But seriously…

Koichi: No!! All of us are one!!

Tsuyoshi: At our concert, you said you were the Zachou…

Koichi: All of us are as one!!

Tsuyoshi: But you said… (Muttering)

Koichi: Aah, enough! You should come see it too!

Tsuyoshi: I’m going! I’m going to go with Ken-san and Takebe-san and Toriyama-san and Takuro-san…

Koichi: Oh! The Love Love All Stars.

Tsuyoshi: And if she’s free, with Shinohara~. I’ll bring everybody there with me! We’ve all decided to watch wearing sunglasses.

Koichi: When I was doing Mask as well, all the Love Love members came to watch, but when I came out on stage I was startled – they were all wearing sunglasses.

Tsuyoshi: It’ll be scary~. And then as you look down the line they’ll get bigger and bigger until the last person looks like Finger Five’s Akira!

Koichi: (To the audience.) Please come and watch. Ah, but the theater isn’t very large, so tickets will be difficult to get.

Tsuyoshi: (To the people watching from the building) It’s at the Imperial Theater! (To Koichi) You know, I’m seriously going to go see it.

Koichi: Oh, please do!

- 

Apparently there’s a section after the second MC where Koichi rides a motorbike around the stage, and since the stage was slippery from rain he ended up having an accident during this concert and falling off the stage along with the bike. He came back and carried on like nothing had happened, but reading this report it’s obvious how shaken the person writing it was, along with a lot of the other fans I’m sure. Everyone knows Koichi carries on performing and doesn’t let on to any injuries unless he truly has no other choice, and while that’s extremely impressive, it can also have the unintended effect of making the audience even more worried. It sounds like he came out of this one all right, though, as far as anybody knows at least.

9/16 (Yokohama Stadium)

On the second to last day of the tour, the concert had to be stopped partway through due to a typhoon. They had to cut a number of songs and hold back on certain performance elements in order to reduce any risk of accident. I’m sure this was really frustrating for everyone involved, but to be fair, it looks like they put up a good fight. It’s at times like this that you can really see the love between KinKi and their fans. 

The audience members filled the arena despite heavy rain, knowing they’d be getting soaked. Koichi and Tsuyoshi were both very high-energy to combat the elements. They expressed a lot of gratitude to everyone who showed up and warned them to watch out for their health and take proper precautions against catching cold. Partway through the middle section of the concert Koichi spent a good deal of time backstage before his first solo song while Tsuyoshi did his best to entertain the audience on his own – the writer of these reports speculates that Koichi was probably negotiating with the staff on how they should proceed. Then, when Tsuyoshi’s microphone started cutting in and out during his first solo section, the audience members who knew the lyrics sang for him. 

Even after repeated announcements that the concert had to be cancelled due to potential danger and requests to leave the venue (Koichi asked the audience not to blame the staff member giving the announcements, since it wasn’t his fault <3), KinKi were reluctant to cut things off so abruptly and fought to be allowed to perform a little longer. Eventually, without any apparent confirmation from the staff, Koichi and Tsuyoshi agreed between themselves to do their second set of solo songs at the very least, and Tsuyoshi asked Koichi to take care of the audience while he ran off to prepare. In the end, they not only did their solo songs but managed to pull off a two-song encore as well.

And then, at the very end, KinKi came out onto stage one more time to see everyone off, claiming that it wasn’t right if their audience was still getting wet but they weren’t. At one point the staff tried to give Koichi an umbrella, but he said, “I don’t need it!”

The audience members were eventually given their money back, but the fan who wrote this report was so moved by the whole experience that she didn’t feel it was necessary.

Two solo performances from this concert were recorded and released with the KinKi KISS Single Selection, Koichi’s Falling from halfway through the concert, and Tsuyoshi’s Purity from close to the end. I’d seen these videos before with a vague idea of what the situation was, but this was my first time watching them with full knowledge of what was going on and it makes them really moving tbh. I wish I could post them here but youtube’s copyright restrictions are determined to thwart me at every turn, so screencaps it is.

According to the report, Koichi asked the audience to forgive him if he slipped and fell while dancing for this song, and while I’m sure he said it lightly, it’s no small concern. The sheer volume of rain both on the stage and coming from the sky is incredible. It’s not always apparent on this recording, but you can see it very clearly when the lights are on it. It visibly flies off of Koichi whenever he spins around and by the end of the performance he’s completely soaked. I’m slightly appalled to see that he even included the backflip at the end, but that’s his “Show must go on” spirit for you.

Tsuyoshi’s solo is even more appalling to me though, because playing electric guitar in a thunderstorm seems HUGELY ill-advised. He didn’t even have to do this one! They already knew the concert would be cut short! It does make for a hell of a performance – both he and Koichi have thunder and lightning in the background, and it suits the raw emotion of this song very well. But still. The lengths these two went to trying to put on a good show despite the weather are unbelievable.

9/17 (Yokohama Stadium – last concert of the tour)

Near the start of the concert, KinKi mention that their staff pulled an all-nighter fixing up the stage so it would be operational after all the rain. ;_;

-

Koichi: Ah! You know, this guy, he sent me phone mail yesterday~

Audience: Hyuuu~

Koichi: Honestly~, I was shocked~ I thought maybe there’d been some kind of incident!

Tsuyoshi: No, no, that was… (mumbles)

Koichi: Eh?

Tsuyoshi: (in a small voice) I said I wonder if that was okay…

Koichi: Hahahaha, seriously, I really was shocked. But, well, I did send a reply, right?

Tsuyoshi: Yeah.

Koichi: Did it reach you okay?

Tsuyoshi: It did!

Koichi: Ah, thank goodness! You hadn’t changed your number…

-

This happens to be the infamous concert during which Tsuyoshi announced that his blood type was not type B, as previously believed, but actually type AB. I remember him mentioning years later how some of the fans were really upset because they were worried he was going to announce that he was leaving KinKi or something similar, and reading this report it’s easy to see why. Koichi and Tsuyoshi tell the fans in their first MC section that they have a grave announcement to make regarding Tsuyoshi, and while Koichi was mostly excited and kept saying what a big deal it was, Tsuyoshi did his deadpan thing and treated it all very seriously. …and naturally they then carried on with the concert without saying what the announcement would be. The author of this report said the only things she could think of were retirement, disbanding, and marriage, and I imagine a lot of the other audience members were thinking along the same lines.

And then the announcement itself is BRUTAL. Like… holy shit, I am so glad I didn’t have to sit through this. They both have waaay too much fun torturing their fans, lol.

Koichi: Well then, isn’t it about time we made the grave announcement?

Audience: Nooooo!

Koichi: ….

Tsuyoshi: …. Eh….

Koichi: This is, honestly, it’s inexcusable!

Audience: Eeeeh?!

Koichi: This is… It’s about Tsuyoshi but… I’m going to apologize with him.

Tsuyoshi: Eh, I… Eh… Since around the time I was in sixth grade I entered this agency called Johnny’s Jimusho… Then the group called KinKi Kids was formed… Before that there was also some talk that we’d form a four-person group called “Jipang” with Inocchi and Nagase….

Koichi: Jipang… Right, I remember that rumor.

Tsuyoshi: Without becoming Jipang, as KinKi Kids, this person called Domoto Koichi… (looks over at Koichi) …. Are you okay? You were dancing a two-step just now.

Koichi: Eh? Hehehe. I’m fine….

Tsuyoshi: …. I met this person called Domoto Koichi, along with many other people, and many fans… Eh, I’ve made it to age 21. And then, for all of you, there’s one thing… Honestly, this is… It’s something that can’t be helped, but….

Koichi: You’ve been a huge liar!!

Tsuyoshi: Well, I…

Koichi: You have an illegitimate child, right?

Tsuyoshi: What the hell?!

Koichi: That’s not it! If that was it, you’d be really shocked right? (laughs)

Tsuyoshi: (sighs and wipes some sweat from his forehead)

Koichi: Oh! You wiped off some sweat just now!! Have you been found out~?

Tsuyoshi: Nfufufu.

Koichi: There’s nooo way!!

Tsuyoshi: Well, certainly! I certainly have aged, but…

Koichi: No, not at all!

Tsuyoshi: It’s not like I’m getting worn out from raising a child.

Koichi: But it seems like there really are rumors about you having girlfriends in various regions.

Tsuyoshi: That’s right.

Koichi: There’s no way~

Tsuyoshi: In Nagoya too…

Koichi: There was a rumor you had a child in Nagoya right? Tsuyoshi-kun!! Hahahaha!

Tsuyoshi: Um~, due to certain circumstances I sang Ozaki Yutaka-san’s ‘I Love You’ only in Nagoya. So then people were saying, ‘He sang it because he has a wife and child in Nagoya.’

Koichi: But what you’re going to announce now is the truth!

Tsuyoshi: It’s the truth… Eh, for all this time… Thank you for everything.

The audience starts freaking out. Tsuyoshi looks behind him to see that Koichi has taken off his shoes and knelt in front of them with his head bowed. For anyone who isn’t aware, at the end of Hikaru Genji’s final TV appearance before splitting up they all took off their roller skates and left them in the middle of the stage.

Tsuyoshi: Oi. (Laughs) That’s Hikaru Genji. That’s Osawa-kun. That’s wrong, wrong, wrong. We don’t use roller skates. Those are just normal shoes. You can’t do it without the, what do you call them, tools of the trade?

Koichi: Ah… So they’re normal…

Tsuyoshi: Fufufu. We don’t have anything, for times like this~

Koichi: Sorry, sorry. I made a mistake.

Tsuyoshi: Mmm… As I was saying, for all this time, thank you all so much for supporting this person called Domoto Tsuyoshi. Eh, Domoto Tsuyoshi, as of today…. Eh…. I’d like to be reborn!

Audience: ???

Tsuyoshi: Eh… I… Am actually… Type AB, I’m so sorry!!

Koichi: He wasn’t actually Type B~! (Laughs)

Audience: Eeeeeh?! 

Then Tsuyoshi explains that when he heard he was AB he called up his dad because he’d always thought his mom was type B and his dad was type O, but apparently his dad discovered during a surgery a while back that he was type A and just didn’t tell anyone about it, lol. Tsuyoshi also mentions that his mother often said how similar he was to his grandmother, who is also type AB, and that he’s always gotten along well with type AB people. 

As he’s explaining all this, Koichi comes up from behind him and suddenly takes his hand and lifts it in the air. 

Koichi: With that said, please keep supporting this KinKi Kids!!

Audience: (Cheers and claps)

Finally, I decided to include some bits from the section on this concert in the Domoto Mode book (summarized because I’ve spent too long on this already, haha… ha.)

Koichi says he’s been interested in stage production from the time he was backdancing for his senpai, and having learned a lot over the years, he’s become able to get involved with it himself. He decides on a loose song order first (trying to keep a good mix of fast and slow but in a way that doesn’t feel disconnected or random) and then as they enter rehearsals the order will get shifted around if anything doesn’t seem to work. This concert was particularly difficult because it’s centered on their past singles so it’s hard to make things seem fresh. If Tsuyoshi has any suggestions he’ll speak up, but there are times when he waits a little too late to say them, hahaha.

Tsuyoshi says that he lets Koichi take care of the planning because Koichi likes to do things himself, but if he left it at that it wouldn’t match his own style so he suggests changes once things have been decided. If the staff members agree with Tsuyoshi’s suggestions then they’ll go through with the changes. Tsuyoshi describes their roles in this planning method as “seme and uke,” lolol, helllp, I am weeping.

This goes without saying, but they have to adapt their concert structure to whatever venue they’re in. The methods they use to move closer to the audience, the positions they need to stand in for various numbers, etc. are all things that might change depending on where they’re performing.

For the outfits, Koichi first looks at sample drawings and chooses whatever best fits the tone of the concert, then to make the final choices he considers whether they can be changed quickly and/or in parts. He says that the approximately ten outfit changes they have in this concert are a lot less than in past concerts, and they now won’t go beyond wearing three layers at a time because they’re heavy and make it difficult to dance. Tsuyoshi says he doesn’t have much of a preference regarding what they wear – he used to not like outfits like this but he’s come to see the value in them. Even so, he doesn’t think the princely stuff fits his character and he doesn’t like wearing things that are so heavy, so he’s been moving in a simpler direction, particularly for his solo performances.

Regarding the MC sections, Koichi says that aside from a couple topics they want to touch on every concert, they don’t decide what to talk about beforehand – they just try to match the mood and go with the flow for each individual day. Because they talk so much, it’s very important for them to able to read their audience well and figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Depending on what region and what type of venue they’re in, the responses can be completely different – if they’re in a large venue it’s difficult because the audience reactions always come a couple seconds late. He says that Tsuyoshi is easily influenced by the atmosphere of each venue; the place they performed in Hiroshima was on the small side so it was easy to get direct reactions from the audience, and Tsuyoshi ended up talking so much that the concert went for almost three hours even though they cut two of the songs.

Tsuyoshi talks about the different reactions to the MC portions in each region. He says Nagoya is difficult to judge, because things that are too clichéd don’t work, but things that are too surreal don’t work either. Anything goes in Kansai. Tokyo has started to follow a little better than they used to, but they still have a ways to go. Tsuyoshi likes when he can make the audience laugh, but lately he also really enjoys when they think he’s weird and are kind of put off, lol.

Regarding the solo songs, Koichi says that he wrote his pretty last minute – it’s easier for him when he’s running out of time. He wanted to have a lot of English in the lyrics for Falling so he didn’t write those himself. He finds lyrics more difficult to write than music – he doesn’t really want people to know his feelings, so he always chooses his words very carefully.

As in many other things, Tsuyoshi is the opposite of Koichi here. He really doesn’t like being driven into a corner and he much prefers to prepare things far in advance, so he completed his songs in the spring during some downtime in drama filming. Purity was meant to express the frustration Tsuyoshi feels over finding that lies have become a necessary part of his life, and the disappointment he imagines his younger and more idealistic self would feel looking at the way he is now. He has a lot of moments when he’ll end up crying for no apparent reason and he thinks this might be why. (This is tough to read, geez.)

According to Koichi, Johnny-san scolds them a lot when he sees them lounging around in their dressing room(s) before the concert starts because their attitude is so different from what you’d expect of performers, but Koichi likes being able to switch completely off when he’s not on stage. He says the difference between his “off” and “on” states is clearest when he’s doing concerts.

Finally, Koichi and Tsuyoshi each have a section in which they reflect on the tour as a whole.

Koichi talks about how he doesn’t want to show any exhaustion on stage or bring his own personal affairs into the performance. He thinks it would be rude to the fans, who may have had trouble acquiring tickets or may be seeing them for the first time, and who in any case want to see a good show, if he’s inconsistent with the quality of his performance. He doesn’t mind if he gets hurt on stage or if he falls from one of the cranes, and he thinks he’d probably stay on stage even if he broke a bone.

We all know by this point that these are not idle words. Koichi’s work ethic is certainly admirable and beyond impressive, if perhaps verging on too extreme. I’m sure Koichi didn’t intend to make any subtle digs at Tsuyoshi in this interview, but it is hard to read it without thinking of the difficulties Tsuyoshi had during their first concert in Nagoya this tour, and in other concerts since. For better or for worse, Tsuyoshi is habitually more open with his feelings and he has had a number of times when he can’t help bringing his health issues and his personal life on stage. While at this point it’s easier to accept this as simply a different approach, back in 2000 I would imagine it was still a point of contention.

None of this is new information though. Funnily, what I find most interesting in this interview is what Koichi has to say about their time as juniors. He explains that he sees concerts as KinKi’s origin, because while juniors today will participate in interviews and TV shows, in their era all they did was dance behind their senpai. I find this statement HILARIOUS, given that KinKi had more pre-debut coverage (this includes appearances in magazines, talk shows, and dramas, as well as a massive volume of regular TV shows ) than I have seen for any other junior group. This comes back to my perpetual question of whether KinKi can really be considered juniors past 1993 or so, and Koichi’s answer seems to be a pretty clear no.

In Tsuyoshi’s interview he explains that while he enjoys making people happy, he’s not good at being in front of an audience and prefers being in the background rather than being the center of attention. It’s difficult for him to run around and dance in concerts because he gets nervous and has trouble breathing. Some concerts are worse than others, and he never knows what it’s going to be like until he’s already up on stage. He brings up their first concert in Nagoya, and apologizes a couple of times for not being able to fully perform, and for receiving courage and power from the audience rather than giving it to them.

Tsuyoshi mentions that he knows there are a lot of fans who want him to dance during his solo sections, but he’s more into guitar, and he feels like if he writes songs just to please those fans then he won’t feel satisfied or confident, and he’ll feel like he’s lying to the audience. He knows the professional thing to do is to preserve the fans’ dreams regardless, but his personality won’t allow him to fully embrace that – he’d rather show the fans who he really is. 

Again, I doubt it was done on purpose, but this reads almost as if Tsuyoshi is rejecting Koichi’s performance style. The two interviews are in direct contrast with each other. It’s remarkable that Koichi and Tsuyoshi have been able to avoid arguments and work together as smoothly as they do, given such huge differences in philosophy. I think it speaks a lot to the love and respect they’ve maintained for each other over the years – actions are louder than words, in the end. KinKi really is something special. <3

街の灯りが灯る　小さな窓

寄り添いながら　ぶつかりながら

君と過ごしてたね

Machi no akari ga tomoru chiisana mado

Yorisoinagara, butsukarinagara

Kimi to sogoshiteta ne

A small window illuminated by the lights of the town

While cuddling together, while colliding together

I spent that time with you

苦しい時はいつも　君がいてくれたね

奇跡の出逢い　あれから　どれくらい　経ったんだろう

Kurushii toki wa itsumo kimi ga itekureta ne

Kiseki no deai are kara dore kurai tattan darou

When times got hard you were always there for me

Our miraculous meeting, I wonder how much time has passed since then

そう　思い出した　あの時の　君の優しい顔

Sou omoidashita ano toki no kimi no yasashii kao

Yes, I remember your gentle face from back then

もう君だけは離さない

ずっとそばにいて欲しい

君に 「ありがとう」いまなら　伝えられる

Mou kimi dake wa hanasanai

Zutto soba ni ite hoshii

Kimi ni “Arigatou” ima nara tsutaerareru

You are the one thing I won’t let go of anymore

I want you to always stay by my side

After all this time, I can finally tell you, “Thank you”

仕事に追われてた　僕の生きる人生(みち)は

家族のために　笑顔のために

自分　見失って

Shigoto ni owareteta boku no ikiru michi wa

Kazoku no tame ni egao no tame ni

Jibun miushinatte

Driven by work, the path I walk in life

For the sake of my family, for the sake of their smiles

I lost sight of myself

温かい手料理　君のその笑顔で

「頑張らなくてもいいよ。」 そう言って　僕を見てた

Atatakai teryouri kimi no sono egao de

“Ganbaranakutemo ii yo” sou itte boku wo miteta

With your warm home-cooking and that smile of yours

You looked at me and said, “It’s okay not to try so hard”

あぁ　振り返ると君とずっと歩き続けていた

Aa furikaeru to kimi to zutto arukitsuzuketeita

Ah, looking back, I’ve been walking with you all this time

いま　君だけを見つめてる

いつもそばにいてくれた

君は僕の全てだから　感謝してる

Ima kimi dake wo mitsumeteru

Itsumo soba ni itekureta

Kimi wa boku no subete dakara kansha shiteru

Now you’re the only thing I’ve fixed my eyes on

You’ve always stayed by my side

Because you are everything to me, I thank you

ふたつ並んだ陰が伸びる　明日へ

手を取りこれからも

Futatsu naranda kage ga nobiru ashita e

te wo tori kore kara mo

Two shadows stretch out to the future side by side

Taking hands from now on…

もう君だけは離さない

ずっとそばにいて欲しい

君だけを見つめてる

いつもそばにいて欲しい

Mou kimi dake wa hanasanai

Zutto soba ni ite hoshii

Kimi dake wo mitsumeteru

Itsumo soba ni ite hoshii

You are the one thing I won’t let go of anymore.

I want you to always stay by my side.

You’re the only thing I’ve fixed my eyes on.

I want you to stay by my side forever. 

いつか　年を重ねて行っても

愛してくよ

愛してくよ

Itsuka toshi wo kasaneteittemo

Aishiteku yo

Aishiteku yo

In time, even once we’ve grown older

I’ll keep loving you

I find it hilarious that this title screen looks far more retro than any of the others did. WHY.

The concert opens with hordes of juniors circling the area around the stage, some of them in cars, while VERY cheesy music plays. Bringing cars into Tokyo Dome is a practice I had completely forgotten about since it’s disappeared from KinKi cons. It’s always struck me as strange, but I suppose it is a good way to cover all that ground. You can see Kanjani8′s Subaru and Yokoyama here with Takki.

And now here they are, KinKi Kids in FULL IDOL MODE, lol. They come out singing Cinderella Christmas, which is definitely one of their most idol-typical singles, and they’re in these flying cages wearing sparkly capes, clearly lip syncing (or singing to a very strong backing track) while doing their very best to appeal to the audience as much as possible. I feel a little like my soul is dying here tbh, but I have seen this concert before so I had an idea of what I was getting myself into. None of these things are all that surprising given that it’s their first Dome con and they’re still pretty far from developing the performance style they have today.

I’d hoped their outfits would be better once the capes were off but nooope, no luck there. Though I am a little fond of the snowflakes at their collars – they’re cute. They transition straight into Suppin Girl, which is even more soppy than Cinderella Christmas lyrically (plus bad English to boot) but I find it nicer to listen to just because it’s suuuuper catchy, hahaha.

Both Koichi and Tsuyoshi are in top form on the idol front here, but it’s particularly noticeable with Tsuyoshi simply because of the contrast with the last video release I watched where he seemed so worn out. He’s much more energetic here – lots of waving to the fans and smiling and his eyes are SPARKLING. I know that a lot of this must be an act, but he’s very very good at it. Tsuyoshi is still good at this, actually, but I get the impression he only does it when he’s in the mood to. There’s something reassuring about seeing him this way now since I can believe that he’s legitimately having fun, whereas here… not so much.

The next song is Happy Happy Greeting. I already talked a little about how much I’ve come to enjoy this song in the context of Koichi’s birthday, but why not, I’ll say it again. I think it’s great that KinKi were given a song that celebrates both New Year’s and birthdays, especially since they started completely cutting out the wedding and Valentine’s bits shortly after its release, transforming it from an incredibly cheesy song about holidays to a slightly less cheesy song that actually fits the occasion on which they sing it. Of course for this concert they’re still doing the original.

I am faced with a very unusual situation here in that Koichi’s shirt is actually buttoned for once whereas Tsuyoshi’s is not! I’m sure Koichi’s will come undone before long though, it’s only a matter of time.

I know I beat up on the juniors a lot but I can’t help it. Watching them flail around on rollerskates while swamped in giant orange jackets is aesthetically so terrible I can’t imagine why anyone would approve it.

KinKi hop into a pair of cars to sing Zenbu Dakishimete. The first verse is very obviously sung fully live (Koichi has the audience sing a bit of his part and Tsuyoshi changes the lyrics of his a little) which is refreshing in the midst of a concert where most of the songs sound identical to their CD recordings, lol. This song was, of course, composed by Yoshida Takuro, one of the largest influences on Koichi and Tsuyoshi’s growth as both people and musicians. It started out as the theme song for Love Love Aishiteru back in 1996, and since Takuro-san released it on an album of his a year before KinKi released it as a single, KinKi’s version is technically a cover! I never realized until now that he didn’t do the lyrics, though. Those were written by Kan Chinfa, who also wrote the lyrics for Ame no Melody and Natsu no Ousama (as well as Shounentai’s Kimi Dake ni, among other things.)

Suddenly, Takki! There’s a break for Koichi and Tsuyoshi to get ready for the next number, so the juniors have appeared to fill in, but rather than a junior performance interlude it mostly looks like a Takki solo interlude. You can tell what a huuuuge deal he was becoming at this point.

KinKi come back on stage to reveal that the music the juniors were dancing to was part of a new arrangement for Distance. It’s kind of fun to hear a new take on one of their older songs this early in the game. This version is darker than the original and has a harder beat, plus some breaks for dance interludes.

They transition from Distance into Aisareru Yori Aishitai, and I believe there have been a few dance segments added in to this arrangement as well. You get to see Koichi and Tsuyoshi do some flipping around, though of course Koichi’s the only one doing actual flips.

Tsuyoshi’s shirt just came open again. WHAT IS HAPPENING? IT’S LIKE I’VE SLIPPED INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION. Ah, but here he fixes it almost immediately, okay.

The firework finish is pretty cool. I have to add that even though I find this stage setup a bit gaudy, it’s still impressive. Lots and lots of moving lights!

Next up is Garasu no Shounen. Koichi finally gets to have his shirt open (I’m surprised he lasted this long!) and they’re both wearing something I can accept a lot more easily than everything else we’ve seen so far. For the first time I can hear both Koichi and Tsuyoshi (though mostly Tsuyoshi) singing underneath the backing track, but it’s mostly drowned out. This feels like such a waste, tbh; they’re clearly giving it their all and while I can understand why they’d need recorded vocals for the more dance heavy songs, for this one and a lot of the others I just don’t see the point.

While Tsuyoshi prepares for the first of his solo songs, we see Koichi at a piano playing (?) the introduction to it. I really enjoy this trend of Koichi opening Tsuyoshi’s solo bits. I’ve always had a lot of questions about this though because… Koichi playing piano??? It’s filmed so that we don’t see his hands and I can’t help thinking this is deliberate and he’s just miming it, but I also would like to believe that he’s actually playing. It’s simple enough that he could be so I’m torn. Since I don’t recall him ever so much as touching a piano after this concert though I’m very skeptical. In any case, it’s still a sweet introduction.

The song Tsuyoshi performs here is Shiroi Sekai e, which is one that Tsuyoshi wrote himself but never recorded anywhere. There’s a simplicity to the melody that’s characteristic of a lot of Tsuyoshi’s early work and that I’m actually pretty fond of. It’s a lovely song and I think it’s a shame he didn’t do anything more with it. The performance itself is a little bit cheesy tbh – the whole angelic thing going on and the spread-armed gesturing that both Koichi and Tsuyoshi seemed to be fond of during this period. Some children’s voices come in at the end and those are really starting to cross the line, but it turns out they’re actually a transition into Koichi’s solo song. Since this is the only format Shiroi Sekai e exists in that means it’s permanently linked to Koichi’s Peaceful World in that ending. A cheesy link, sure, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Koichi’s performance of Peaceful World is very over the top, but there’s a theatricality to both the performance and the song itself that is characteristic of some of Koichi’s songwriting and fits in nicely with his entry into major stage acting during this time period. There are certain songs of Koichi’s – and I’ll try to point them out as they come up – that feel like they’d be most at home in either musical theater or a Disney movie, and this is one of them. Unfortunately everything’s too melodramatic and heavy-handed for me on this one, especially coming from a twenty year old. I don’t intend to rag on Koichi here though, because there are a number of aspects of this song that I like a lot, and I’m fond of the part of his personality that produces work like this. There’s something unexpected about it, in a good way. It’s also worth noting that while this performance may not fit my tastes, Koichi is going at it full throttle and executing it magnificently for what it is.

There’s a very odd transition in here where Koichi pretends to get into a fight with the juniors who are onstage and then gets surrounded by a biker gang?? I can’t help wondering how these juniors felt about the situation – were they excited to be more in the spotlight or were they slightly terrified to be fake-fighting Koichi? Everyone likes to talk about what scary senpai KinKi are so I’d assume there was at least a little of the latter, hahaha.

Koichi then takes one of the bikes for himself and they have a bike chase around the Dome. I’m not even kidding. It should be utterly ridiculous but Koichi actually makes it work somehow. He’s going at a good clip and it honestly seems a bit dangerous but he looks very cool. It ends with an impressive jump and faked fall from the bike, after which there’s a siren. Then the lights go up and they very briefly play the cliched pre-show sound of instruments tuning. I’m laughing so much right now, I didn’t remember any of this. Whoever planned this part of the concert is a huge troll. I’m willing to bet Koichi had a hand in it somewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just an excuse to get him on a motorbike tbh.

The next song up is Nemuranai Yoru and I’m just like… this again? Really? Of all the senpai songs you could have kept around? …okay. This is also the first appearance of the large floats (?? IDK if this is the right terminology) that usually get used at some point during Johnny’s concerts. These ones seem more stable than a lot of the others they’ve had, so Koichi and Tsuyoshi are able to do legit choreography on them. Tsuyoshi does a fair amount of popping in this section which is really what he excels at when it comes to dance IMO – I keep forgetting until I see him do it and I’m like… OH. RIGHT. YES THIS IS GOOD.

After that they sing Baby Love, a song whose existence I tend to forget about because it was the B side for Yamenaide Pure and B sides almost never get any attention in concerts (or anywhere else really.) [Edit: I just discovered that this is not actually a B side but part of a double A side! WHO KNEW.] This is another one that’s kind of silly and very idol-like, but it’s disgustingly catchy so I do enjoy it to a certain extent. It turns out that the person who wrote the music for this song was Iida Takehiko, who was also responsible for Suppin Girl, go figure. His more well-known contributions to KinKi are Gekkou and KinKi no Yarukimanman Song.

Tsuyoshi playing up to the cameras is one thing that hasn’t changed a bit over the years, lol.

The question is… Why are there juniors skating around the stage holding flags from different countries? What precisely is the theme here? JOHNNY’S I guess, hahaha.

WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS.

I’m trying to let this super cute high five heal my soul but I don’t know if I’ll ever fully recover from what I’ve just seen… and am still seeing. HELP.

The next number is Innocent Wars, which Koichi and Tsuyoshi sing while dressed in new terrible outfits. At one point they’re waving green pieces of cloth around and I just… I don’t know what the intended effect was but it’s all just bad. I am beyond ready to escape from the 90s. Also I could have sworn this song had something to do with Miman City because the lyrics are super appropriate for it (and not in a way I enjoy very much) but it looks like it wasn’t actually used for the drama? Hang on, I am turning to google for help.

Innocent Wars was composed and arranged by Sakamoto Ryuichi (HOLY SHIT!!!) and I’m seeing rumors that it was originally intended to be Miman City’s opening song and KinKi’s second single but Koichi spoke out so strongly in favor of Aisareru Yori Aishitai that they went with that one instead. I don’t have a solid source on this information so please take it with a grain of salt (or possibly an entire shaker) - I’m always very wary of believing in rumors. With that said, if this story is true then I’m really impressed. I know KinKi have a lot of input in the music they release now and it’s been that way for a number of years, but I’m sure it took them a while to reach that point. To argue against the release of an intended single - especially one written by a big name composer - at such an early stage in their careers would have taken a lot of balls. But it was also 100 percent the right choice to make. If this really was Koichi’s call then I have nothing but gratitude towards him because I feel like Aisareru Yori Aishitai is far more marketable and has a much wider appeal than Innocent Wars would have had.

Oh no, now we have really awkward chair dancing for Kebyou wo Tsukaou. This song had never stood out to me in the past, but I’m finding that I don’t dislike the melody. It’s kind of difficult to listen to these two sing it though because the lyrics are all about not working yourself too hard and I’m just like… THE IRONY.

Truly, truly, I am in a different dimension. How does this keep happening? I feel like I’ve lost the right to make fun of Koichi for having his shirt open all the time because he’s really doing very well in this concert. They’re performing Tell Me here, by the way, and there’s a very nice dramatic pause they added in to the middle that I liked a lot, but for the most part I’m still extremely ready to put the 90s behind me.

Koichi emerges for another solo performance next, and he’s doing Dou Nattemo Ii, the same Higashiyama song he covered back in the 1994 con. I decided to rewatch that performance before watching this one to see what kind of effect it would have, and let me tell you it was a little bit painful to sit through again but it was an EXCELLENT choice. Koichi has grown so much in the four years between these two concerts, and he’s so much better and easier to watch here that I can’t stop smiling. Sure, between the outfit and choreography I still find it kind of hammy and embarrassing, but I honestly don’t care at this point – he’s doing great and I’m having fun.

As a shallow side note, can I just mention that I LOVE Koichi’s hair in this concert? It looks so soft and pretty. *_*

And of course, the big finish – a backflip off a raised platform. Is this a signature Higashiyama move? I’ve always had the impression it is but I think that’s just because he and Koichi did it together in the 2003-2004 Countdown concert, lol.

Tsuyoshi comes on after to sing Samazama na Ai. He gets slightly obscene with the microphone in a couple places, but I am in love with this song. This is probably my favorite out of all the solo songs Tsuyoshi’s released on KinKi albums. I enjoy the way it builds on itself gradually to a really satisfying conclusion, and I especially love how the lyrics feel 100 percent pure Tsuyoshi. He’s spoken so many times over the years about love and self-identity and his general life philosophy, and while I know that his current world view and view of himself is something that took a long time to settle, I feel like this song is an amalgam of all of it. He was still struggling with a lot at this point, but he clearly had the pieces already there in his head, even if he couldn’t fully embrace them until later on.

Koichi opens Ano Ko wa So Fine by doing some call and response with the audience. I was groaning a little inside when the intro started up because I’m feeling very done with A Album songs at this point, but I’m actually enjoying this. It’s cute to see some audience participation going on, the singing is unquestionably live (Koichi’s voice is finally starting to get deeper for real!!), and Koichi’s exposing his chest again, which is not yet something I can appreciate aesthetically (give it a few more years), but it just makes me feel like balance has been restored to the universe. Plus I know Koichi and Tsuyoshi will be wearing outfits I actually enjoy for the rest of the concert, so I’m very pleased about that (PRIORITIES.)

I’m impressed by how energetic Koichi and Tsuyoshi are after all the dancing they’ve been doing. They’re both running around all over the place and they look like they’re having a lot of fun with it. This is exactly the kind of energy level you need when there aren’t any other real performance elements going on.

Kiss Kara Hajimaru Mystery is next, and I found it really enjoyable. The choreography is nice and suits Koichi in particular very well, though they both do well with it. Overall it’s super cute? IDEK, it’s incredible how much happier I am watching this stuff when they’re wearing adorable color-coded clothing lol.

Now they transition into Kono Mama Te wo Tsunaide (see the video at the top of the post.) This has always been the most memorable performance from this concert for me and I knew right from the start that it’s the one I’d be uploading. The song has become an end-of-concert classic, and this version in particular not only has the cute outfits but THE HANDHOLDING!!! It’s brief but it’s beautiful. I love the way Koichi just takes off while still holding Tsuyoshi’s hand and kind of pulling him a little before letting go. Granted I could do without the masses of juniors on stage, but handholding is all it takes. When it comes to some things I am very easy.

This is one of the least convincing goodbyes I’ve ever seen though, omg. I can’t stop laughing. It’s like, “Oh yeah, the concert’s totally over we swear - we’re just going to hop into our little sky carriage that serves no other purpose than for us to float away in it. BYE~”

They come back of course. But not before pretending the carriage blew up and Koichi and Tsuyoshi fell to their deaths. THIS IS BECOMING A PATTERN. WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT? I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THIS STUFF UP. WAS IT KOICHI??? I bet it was Koichi. He is the one who voluntarily flings himself down a flight of stairs every year after all.

They’re singing Jetcoaster Romance now, which is never terribly appropriate for winter concerts, but what the hell, it’s fun. I’ve become particularly fond of this song after Koichi and Tsuyoshi turned it into a running joke on Donnamonya by playing it every episode for days on end. And at some point they just started referring to it as, “Nami waaaa~” instead of using its proper name, lol.

The last song is Cinderella Christmas, and as much as I was complaining about it before, I do enjoy the circularity of having the same song at both the beginning and end of the concert. They’re also bringing down a big “1999” banner from the ceiling and it suddenly reminded me that we have now officially entered the J-Friends era. I am going to cover J-Friends and the Countdown cons when we reach the appropriate time of year for it (when I said I was planning to do all the concerts, I really did mean ALL the concerts!), but for now I’ll just mention that Countdown as we know it today began as a J-Friends event. The first official Johnny’s Countdown concert was the 1998-1999 one and it took place on KinKi’s stage, setting up the tradition for the years to follow.

There’s a montage of clips over some parts of this performance and they’re mostly made up of MC bits, which I find FRUSTRATING AS HELL. As I went along I’d kind of forgotten that the MC sections are completely absent from this recording, but now it’s being shoved in my face and I’m angry about it. THERE WAS HANDHOLDING. LET US SEE THE HANDHOLDING. I’m dying to know the context.

What is this, some kind of consolation prize? ...okay fine, I’ll take it.

I swear there is an entire portion of this montage dedicated to Koichi taking his clothes off. I am weeping.

And one final handhold for the bow. This is one thing that I really miss. I understand that the older they get the more silly it might seem, but I love the handholding so much I can’t help it. I don’t think they’ve done this since... 2008? 2009? It’s just not the same. ;_;

Look at the difference in bowing posture here omg this is too cute.

They hop into their cars again to do one last round of goodbyes, which is probably a good idea at this point because I’m sure they’re tired of running around. Tsuyoshi’s not even bothering to stay upright, lol.

Ooo credits! This is something I’d like to try to remember to keep an eye on for all the upcoming concerts. I’ll be curious to see if changes in staff correspond to any significant changes in staging and choreography.

They’re setting off legit fireworks on stage now. The scale of Tokyo Dome is really something else.

Concluding thoughts: As I mentioned towards the beginning of this post, Koichi and Tsuyoshi are playing perfect idols for all they’re worth here, through nearly the entire concert. This is the closest to a traditional idol concert I think I’ve ever seen (and ever will see) from KinKi – it’s far more about putting on a flashy show and wooing the audience than it is about the music, and there’s very little about it that feels honest or personal. The lack of any real MC footage in this recording makes it even more generic. There were definitely aspects to it that I enjoyed though! I don’t think I have ever seen Koichi and Tsuyoshi make sweeter faces all through a concert than they do in this one, and while they’re certainly manufactured to a certain extent, they’re also convincing enough that they’re fun to watch. Plus Koichi is gorgeous at this age and Tsuyoshi is adorable, so as long as they don’t look like they’ve been put through a bad fashion blender they make for a lovely picture.

I’m feeling very shallow right now because all I’m talking about is aesthetics, but that’s what it boils down to because that’s almost entirely what this concert was about. I did find it interesting to see all the methods they used to fill up the massive space they were in. It’s something all Johnny’s groups have to take into consideration for Dome cons, but KinKi are a special case since there are only two of them so they’re left with more responsibility and fewer options. They handle it admirably here though, and they’ll continue to do so - the image of them coming together or moving apart across that vast space is always striking.

Suppin Girl

Right from the start, I can see that Koichi is really milking his “princely” image - the way he waves at the audience was making me laugh a lot.

Jetcoaster Romance

Ano Ko wa So Fine

MC (8 minutes)

What struck me here was how little the tone and content of this MC differed from their more recent ones. I’m going to translate/summarize a few bits and you’ll see what I mean.

Koichi: “There are a lot of people coming to these concerts and seeing us for the first time. People seeing us for the first time, raise your hands!”

Audience: Lots of screaming, hand-waving, etc

Koichi: “People who feel like they’ve seen us so many times they’re tired of us, raise your hands.”

Audience: Slightly less screaming and hand-waving, but still a lot.

Koichi: “Then why don’t you go to a V6 concert instead?”

They do a little bit of album/single sales talk, which is a relatively new topic for them given they’re only a year out from debut.

Koichi: “In another 10 days [B Album] is predicted to surpass 1 million. So if you each buy one more copy on your way home it’ll go up by 15,000!”

Koichi has trouble pronouncing “B Album” and Tsuyoshi makes fun of him.

Koichi teases the audience for being late to cheer when he and Tsuyoshi announce they’ve written new solo songs.

Koichi makes at least one pun.

Then Koichi announces that they’re going to introduce the juniors and the crowd cheers.

Tsuyoshi: “This is Johnny’s Junior, not Johnny Kitagawa.”

Koichi: “What if that actually happened and we were like, ‘Now then, here he is…”

K&T: “‘Johnny Kitagawa!’”

*audience laughs*

Tsuyoshi: “And then he comes out doing some kind of guitar solo.”

Koichi: “You idiot, if you say stuff like that we’re going to get scolded later! Don’t be stupid.” (to audience) “Besides, you guys are at fault too for laughing at this!”

Tsuyoshi: “Why do you start laughing when we say the president’s name?”

Tell Me/Zutto Dakishimetai/Kebyou wo Tsukaou

Hana (Tsuyoshi Solo)

Koichi came out first as the beginning of this song played and he did a nice dance introduction before Tsuyoshi appeared on stage. This is such a lovely song and of course it did eventually get released on Tsuyoshi’s Rosso E Azzurro album along with several other songs Tsuyoshi wrote in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, but it’s kind of amazing to me that both Tsuyoshi and Koichi composed a number of solo songs for these early concerts that never actually got released anywhere. It’s a bit of a tragedy IMO.

Crazy Funky Down (Koichi solo - Hayashida Kenji cover)

Yukiguni (Tsuyoshi solo – Yoshi Ikuzo parody cover)

Uchuu Keiji Gavan (Koichi solo – Kushida Akira parody cover)

Tsuyoshi comes on partway through with a broom and plays air guitar on it while Koichi sings. Somehow I feel like I’ve seen this in better quality… No idea where though. I could just be imagining it.

MC (18+ minutes)

Tsuyoshi uses his broom to sweep up the confetti left on the stage floor from his Yukiguni performance, lol.

Koichi: “Why are you singing Yukiguni (snow country) even though it’s summer?”

Koichi got too fired up and his contacts slipped so now he can’t see anything. He asks for five minutes to fix them and dashes off stage (these days he'd just fix them on stage ahahaha.) Tsuyoshi suggests that the audience members sit down because it’s going to be a while.

Koichi comes running back on and hugs him?!?! This is too cute, helllp.

Tsuyoshi does a fake guitar solo on his broom while Koichi picks up the confetti left on the ground on throws it over him.

Koichi takes a turn on the broom guitar next and the music changes from the electric guitar Tsuyoshi had to what sounds like a ukulele, hahaha omg.

Koichi: “Why have I been becoming the punchline lately? It feels so weird! But I guess times change, right?”

Then Tsuyoshi brings out an actual electric guitar.

Koichi: “What are you bringing out the real thing for?”

Tsuyoshi strums a little bit on the guitar and then there’s a pause.

Koichi: “You know, you’re standing there talking to yourself but you don’t have a mic so no one can hear you.”

Koichi puts his microphone stand in front of Tsuyoshi so he can use it. Tsuyoshi starts talking in a funny voice while Koichi screws around on the side – Tsuyoshi pretends to be a teacher and calls him “Domoto” while scolding him (“I’m going to have to call your mother.”)

Tsuyoshi says he’s going to sing a song that’s very optimistic – there’s nothing depressing about it – so he hopes everyone will listen to it while they’re having lunchtime (I think we’re still in the school setting here?) The song he plays is one I recognize but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. In any case, he just plays the guitar for a bit and then sings a single note at the end, while laughing. And Koichi’s just like, “THAT WAS DEPRESSING.”

Tsuyoshi puts the guitar away again and Koichi says, “You’re putting it away already?” Tsuyoshi: “You want to do more?” Koichi: “No, I don’t.” (Lol.)

Tsuyoshi says he’s got a theme in mind now so he’s going to make up a song on the spot. This is monumental for me, because Tsuyoshi’s improvised songs are one of my favorite things and I think this is the earliest recording I’ve seen of one, so I’m super excited about it.

The guitar gets passed over to Koichi so he can play while Tsuyoshi sings. (See the video at the top of the post.) Tsuyoshi opens by saying that the song is going to be about an incident that occurred before the concert started, and he gives it the title of “Sessa Takuma” (Diligent Application.) And then he ends up singing about having bowel problems, omg. (“My partner said to our manager, ‘Do you have any Seirogan?’”) I love that he can’t sing the punchline without laughing a little – it’s really cute. After it’s over Koichi’s like, “Stop using me in your jokes!” Lol good luck with that one.

There’s a break in the recording here so I don’t know how much time passed, but when it comes back Koichi and Tsuyoshi have three juniors lined up on stage and they’re thanking them for acting in a drama with them and asking the fans to give them support. I would assume this means the juniors are Kohara Yuki, Aiba Masaki, and Matsumoto Jun, who all played roles in Miman City. I can’t help being reminded of the story Koichi and Tsuyoshi have told a few times about watching SMAP on the monitor from backstage and hearing Nakai ask the fans to support KinKi. It seems like that had a really large impact on them, so I’m sure they knew here just how important it was to do the same for their own kouhai.

Memories(?? I have no idea where this song came from – google is turning up nothing helpful)/Innocent Wars/Distance

Nukumori (Koichi solo)

This is one of the lost songs I mentioned above – it was written by Koichi but never officially recorded anywhere. It didn’t leave much of an impression on me, tbh (I’m sure the quality of the recording isn’t helping any), but I’ve uploaded it here because songs with both music and lyrics by Koichi are rare enough as it is and I’m sure most people haven’t heard this one before.

Konna ni Boku wo Setsunaku Saseru no ni (Tsuyoshi solo – SMAP cover)

Rocks

Aisareru Yori Aishitai

Garasu no Shounen

Ao no Jidai & Farewell Speeches/Bows

There’s something I’ve forgotten to point out until now - the fans sing along to most of the songs performed in this concert. You can hear it faintly in some of the official video releases as well, but in this fancam it’s very blatant. From what I’ve gathered, this sort of concert culture has disappeared over the years, at least when it comes to KinKi cons. I get the feeling it was largely a ‘90s (and probably earlier) phenomenon, but in terms of KinKi cons specifically it makes a lot of sense to me. In these early concerts they were still lipsyncing or singing with a backing track for a lot of the songs, so there wasn’t anything new the fans could get out of listening to them. I can imagine having everyone sing along made it a more fun experience in general. (Tbh, I can’t actually tell whether they’re lipsyncing in this recording or not because the fans are so loud, lol.) Once KinKi started doing everything live, though, it became a lot more worthwhile to actually listen to them, not to mention their amazing band.

Zenbu Dakishimete (Encore)

Title screen~ Just look at that video quality! Nice.

The first thing they come on stage wearing are these terrible zebra coats OH NO. Their opening song is Rocks, which was written for A Album and is notable for being one of the few songs KinKi chose to self cover and release on their M album. It didn’t show up much in the years in between, though, and it never left much of an impression on me tbh.

There are some very abrupt cuts that go back and forth between concert footage and interview footage, and the editing isn’t really working for me, but I appreciate the interviews regardless. Koichi mentions that the only things he tends to remember from concerts are things that bother him, which he’ll later mention to the staff and suggest changes for. He says he likes being a part of the production process, which isn’t surprising. I seem to recall that Koichi took charge of a lot of the stage management and concert planning on his own until F Con, when Tsuyoshi started getting more involved as well. I’ll be curious to see if that’s something that I can track just through these concert videos, or if I’ll have to find more information somewhere else. I have the impression that Tsuyoshi’s involvement in concert planning has fluctuated over the years, but I don’t recall where I’ve picked this up from so if anyone knows more and/or has some sources they can throw at me I’d be very grateful for the help.

Tsuyoshi talks about how when he’s singing he has to have a similar mindset to when he’s acting because they’re singing about a lot of things he hasn’t actually experienced. He also mentions how long it’s been, and I have no idea if he’s talking about their latest series of concerts, everything they’ve done since debut, or the entire span of their career, but in any case he seems really tired.

Next up is Garasu no Shounen, and both Koichi and Tsuyoshi talk about the song a little before we get to see the performance. Tsuyoshi mentions his weak stomach (which we know he was taking loads of medication for since Koichi kept mentioning it in interviews) and apparently Yamashita Tatsurou, who wrote the music for Garasu no Shounen, had the same problem, so he said Tsuyoshi reminded him of his past self, aww. Tsuyoshi also expresses his gratitude to the people who bought the single and says he was really happy to learn that older people were singing it at karaoke, which I think is cute. Koichi says that rather than trying to sing well, he focused more on capturing the atmosphere of the song. I’m not entirely sure what to think of that, but it’s an interesting sentiment. Obviously the ideal is to do both, but in terms of priorities it does seem more considerate to the songwriters to put the mood of the song first.

The importance of this song to the development of KinKi’s image cannot be underestimated. They’ve talked about it time and again, so I don’t feel the need to go into too much detail here, but the fact that their debut single was a song in the minor key with depressing lyrics was career-defining. All Johnny’s artists seem to have a strong attachment to their debut singles, but KinKi are one of the few that have a debut song that can stand on its own as a quality piece of music and that they’ve been able to continue to perform seriously into adulthood. As for the actual performance (see above video – there was no question of what I’d put up this time), it’s decent. I like their shirts a lot (they’re far better than some of the atrocities these two are shown wearing in their other numbers), but they both look soooo skinny that it’s a little painful. These poor children were working way too hard.

You can see TakiTsuba in the background again – they seem to be the lead backdancers here.

Tsuyoshi talks about his first impression of Koichi and he gives a little more information here than he did last time. He says that even though Koichi seemed really fragile at first and he thought they wouldn’t get along at all, as time went by he realized that Koichi actually had a lot of determination. Koichi talks about how natural it was for him and Tsuyoshi to be together, and how he’d thought it would be nice to form a group with just the two of them. They both talk about how much they hated their group name at first, lol, though they’re used to it now. It’s cute how they end up saying almost exactly the same thing even though these are separate interviews.

There’s some off stage footage now, and omg, between Koichi’s sweatshirt (what on earth) and Tsuyoshi’s hair, they make quite the pair. There’s also a bit where it looks like Koichi’s discussing concert plans while Tsuyoshi stays to the side and plays his guitar, which backs up my speculation about their respective involvement in the planning process.

A small cut of Setsunai Koi ni Kizuite is next. These outfits are a bit much for me, but I do like the reversed color schemes on them - it makes for a nice sort of yin/yang effect.

Then they do a song called Nemuranai Yoru, and apparently this was originally performed by a Hikaru Genji subunit named “SAY’S”? IDK, I’d never heard of it before. This song has a pretty brisk rap intro, which is awkward to watch because I feel like the lipsyncing is most obvious when they’re doing rap, but for the record they both do surprisingly well with it, pre-recorded or not. (Also please note: Yet again Koichi is the only one with his shirt open, lolol.)

Next up is My Wish, the first song Koichi ever wrote. :D I have plans to talk about each of their first compositions in detail a few weeks from now, so I’m going to save my extended thoughts on this song for that post. Regarding this performance specifically, it’s definitely not one of my favorites. Koichi’s guitar playing is very rough – he’s clearly still getting used to it – and there are a bunch of juniors flailing around in the background, which just feels out of place and distracting (I usually tend to feel that way about the presence of very young juniors in concerts, no offense intended – I understand the logic behind it but I don’t have to like it.) I do have some fondness for this performance though, which comes from the same place as my love for Koichi covering Holiday. It’s kind of a rarity to see Koichi singing solo with just an acoustic guitar so there’s something refreshing and satisfying about it every time it happens.

Koichi talks a bit about his song-writing process, and how the chord progression often won’t come together naturally the way he wants it to so he ends up throwing a lot of stuff out. This wouldn’t be surprising to hear from him now, but at this point in time it feels strange to hear Koichi talking this way because as far as I know the only song he’d released was My Wish. It makes me wonder just how many potential songs he’s ended up trashing over the years. Tsuyoshi is a lot more prolific than Koichi, but Koichi is definitely more selective with his compositions.

Koichi mentions the bit in the lyrics about frolicking on the bed and he’s like, “What kind of frolicking could that be? I’ll leave that up to your imagination~” Ahahaha, wow. He’s a nineteen year old boy all right.

Kohara Yuki opens the next number with some very dramatic dancing. Moments like this are interesting because it’s clear he was one of the favorites and it seems like he’d be a shoe-in for debut, but his career never took off. Does anyone know what actually happened to him? I could just look it up I guess, but I’m doing enough research as it is.

The song KinKi are performing now is a cover of Otokogumi’s Mihari. I discovered this song through this cover, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. The juniors are distracting again and the performance is a bit overdramatic for my tastes (Koichi I am looking at you), but they sound good at least!

I really shouldn’t be too hard on Koichi here since I’ve been heaping praise on his skill as a performer and a lot of that involves dramatic staging, but at this age he is still learning and I am feeling slightly embarrassed. But mostly really amused. I actually kind of love this. At the end of the song they have some firework-style sparks shoot up and Koichi points at each one as it goes off so it very effectively looks like he’s directing them. Then there’s a bunch of smoke and naturally his jacket comes open. OF COURSE. You can actually see the moment when he pulls it open. I am just sitting here snickering – it’s fabulous and terrible at the same time. It doesn’t help that he just looks vaguely confused while all of this is happening.

Next is Aisareru Yori Aishitai. This song has never suited my personal tastes, but I know it was super popular at the time and is still very well-loved now, so I’ve developed a lot of appreciation for it (plus I enjoy its choreography.) I’m sure that the release of another dark minor key song as their second single was a huge factor in developing their image and setting the tone for the rest of their musical career. BUT MORE IMPORTANT. Please look at Koichi, his goddamn jacket is open again. (Not that any of his fans minded I’m sure. I am just too old to appreciate this. He is a skinny teenage boy, come on.)

There’s Aiba Masaki in the background! It’s cute to see him backdancing for this song since he appeared in Miman City, which this was the theme song for.

There’s some more behind the scenes footage of a photoshoot while Koichi and Tsuyoshi talk about the nature of their relationship in voiceover. This has always been one of my favorite parts of this DVD, because the photoshoot atmosphere feels really sweet and the things they say are also very telling. Tsuyoshi says that they don’t really interfere with each other - their personalities are completely opposite and they each have their own merits so it’s not a big deal. Koichi says they eventually run out of things to talk about because it’s just the two of them, so when they’re together they each do their own things and it feels very natural, like being in the same room with a sibling. It’s really just a lot of what I’ve been saying in other posts (It’s possible that about half my thoughts on KinKi Kids are repetitions of things they’ve already said themselves, tbh. I don’t like to make too many assumptions.)

This signboard for the fans to write on is really cute. I love the giant HAPPY BIRTHDAY on there, presumably for Koichi.

IT BEGINS. The elevator groping is something that’s apparently been going on for years, and they’ve both talked about it a number of times (Though I guess usually it happens inside the elevator when it’s just the two of them? Lol.) Koichi just goes for it very casually, though tbh it looks a lot like Tsuyoshi was waiting for it too. Bold, very bold.

This set of clips is from Tokyo’s Takarazuka Theater and these performances are a little different from the others because they’re part of a large Johnny’s event in which KinKi appeared alongside other artists, and they seem to be largely a reprise of the numbers they performed in the Kyo to Kyo musical. Kyo to Kyo lasted for a couple of years, and from what I can gather it largely featured juniors, with sporadic appearances from members of debuted groups. Please correct me if I’m wrong though – it’s difficult to find detailed information about it. KinKi only participated in Kyo to Kyo for a week in August of 1997, but it would have been a very intense week because they were doing five shows a day. FIVE SHOWS A DAY. Whoever made that decision should have been fired, tbh.

Koichi does Sennen Medley again here, but this time we get to see him come out in a mask at the beginning. IIRC this is something that he did in the early days of Shock as well, but my memory of early Shock is veeeery rusty so I’m not 100 percent sure. The different versions of Shock will be a part of this rewatch though, so I’m going to remedy that eventually. Sennen Medley fits in perfectly with Koichi’s image at this time, open shirt and all, hahaha.

Then there’s Tsuyoshi with Aishiteru Aishitenai. The opening staging for this again feels very Koichi, reminiscent of the graveyard scene in Shock. The rest of the performance continues with this theme – it’s possibly the most Koichi-style performance I’ve ever seen Tsuyoshi do. It’s become clear that this really isn’t his style but it has to be said that he is good at it. Over the years Koichi has become known as the dancer in the group, and he fully deserves that reputation, but Tsuyoshi is also a talented dancer in his own way, and that’s particularly easy to see when they were younger.

Koichi and Tsuyoshi do some screwing around in the middle of Tayori ni Shitemasse in lieu of the intense dance portion, which was definitely a wise decision to give them a bit of a break. You can also see Tsuyoshi’s deadpan comedic style emerging here, and though it’s become a trademark of his now, I can’t help wondering if maybe it came about because he simply didn’t have the energy for anything else. D:

Next is a performance of Tell Me, another song from their A Album that’s managed to stick around for a number of years afterwards. It’s not one of my personal favorites, so the most notable thing about this for me is that Tsuyoshi’s jacket comes open partway through so he and Koichi finally match now, lol. There’s also a bit where Koichi at least (he’s the only one on camera but I would assume they both do it) tosses his microphone in the air and catches it again, and it looks extremely smooth but I’m wincing while it happens because they’ve talked about how ridiculously expensive their microphones are so this really doesn’t seem wise.

Speaking of microphones, I completely forgot to mention this in any of my previous posts (I forgot to even look for it when I was watching the concerts), but their microphones are color coded! Tsuyoshi always has blue on the end of his and Koichi always has red. This has stayed consistent over the years, so I’m sure everyone already knows about it by now, but I wanted to mention that I just went back to check the earlier concerts and it looks like they’ve been marked that way from the very beginning.

Hearing the opening notes of Slowly comes as a bit of a relief for me after that last performance, hahaha. This is a Tsuyoshi solo and it’s one of his earliest compositions. It’s a little interesting that Koichi sang My Wish and released it on their B Album, whereas Tsuyoshi left his first composition unrecorded and put this song on B Album instead. It seems fair to me though, because I’ve always felt like My Wish was quite a bit more advanced than Yasashisa wo Mune ni Daite, and part of that might be a natural difference in songwriting styles or Koichi’s selectiveness that I mentioned earlier, but I’m sure Koichi also learned a few things from witnessing Tsuyoshi’s first composition before unveiling his own. In some ways the melody of this song reminds me of Samazama na Ai, Tsuyoshi’s song from C Album, and since I like that one better I haven’t paid much attention to Slowly, but it’s still a nice song and very well written for an early composition. I also find it interesting that Tsuyoshi chose to play the electric guitar for this performance rather than acoustic, even though KinKi had very little experience playing electric at this point.

Tsuyoshi’s thoughts on the song-writing process are: it’s easy to write break-up songs. Lol, oh honey… It gets a little sad though - he mentions that he has no experience with asking someone out or spending time walking around with someone he likes because he’s not allowed to do those sorts of things, so they’re really difficult to write about.

Then there’s Kiss Kara Hajimaru Mystery. Some more, uh, interesting costuming choices here.

I looooove Happy Happy Greeting, but this performance…. HELP. Please never again. This reminds me of what they did with J-Friends’ People All Over the World and I didn’t like it there either. The hordes of small children thing never works for me, honestly. This is one of the cheesiest things I’ve ever seen. Tsuyoshi does ask everyone to celebrate Koichi’s birthday during a break in the song though, which is kind of cute, since that’s one of the main reasons I love this song in the first place. It’s also really cute to see Koichi mouthing along to Tsuyoshi’s solo parts.

Next there are some clips of Koichi and Tsuyoshi recording for KinKira KinKi World, a radio show that ran from 1995 to 2007. I love seeing radio recording clips because I’ve always felt like the radio is the closest we ever get to Koichi and Tsuyoshi in true off-mode. They’re much more casual about what they say and how they act when they’re on the radio than when they’re anywhere else. (You have not had the true KinKi radio experience until you’ve heard the Donnamonya episode were Koichi is drunk off his ass and getting his hair cut at the same time. Or, one of my personal favorites, the one where Koichi starts eating in the middle of the recording and talking with his mouth full, and then Tsuyoshi decides to read a message from a listener about dog poop and emphasizes the word “poop” every time it comes up to screw with him.)

Koichi is adorable here, but there’s something about Tsuyoshi I find very striking. He had a lot of boyish attractiveness in his teens, and with the right hairstyle he comes off as extremely handsome and charming. I know there are a number of “fans” (mostly Koichi-only people) who will refer back to this period and talk about how Tsuyoshi has completely ruined himself and what a waste it is. Even if these opinions weren’t phrased as cruelly as they usually are, it’s 100 percent impossible to support them knowing how miserable Tsuyoshi was at this age and how much happier he is now, but to a certain extent I can understand where they’re coming from. Young Tsuyoshi had a more universal, if more shallow, appeal and a tremendous amount of potential, whereas in later years he has a niche appeal but with much greater substance behind it. I can’t start talking about this in too much detail though, because if I end up going off on the KO people things are going to get scary soooo ~moving on~

I feel like I always end up losing steam towards the end of these posts and then all I have the brainpower to comment on are the terrible outfits, but HOW CAN I NOT?? Just look at these things. THE GIANT BLUE POCKETS ON THE SLEEVES OH MY GOD.

Ah, this is something I don’t recall seeing in any of the earlier concert recordings, but it could just be that I’m so used to it I didn’t notice. Koichi and Tsuyoshi are throwing signed boards out to the audience members, and while it always looks a bit silly, I’m sure it’s super exciting for the few people who manage to catch one.

Awww, and right after that there’s an interview with Tsuyoshi where he mentions that he can’t help favoring young children when he’s waving and throwing signboards because he remembers going to a couple of Hikaru Genji concerts with his family as a kid and getting super excited whenever they waved in his direction, even if they weren’t waving at him specifically. (I remember another interview where he said that he and his sister used to get into fights over which of them was being waved at, lol.)

Coincidentally, the next song is a Hikaru Genji number, Mikazuki no Yori ni. It’s a really fun song and Koichi in particular seems to be having a good time with it, playing around with the mic stand. There’s another cute bit where he’s kind of singing along to one of Tsuyoshi’s sections and he makes the sweetest, grossest face. <3 This song also gets Koichi singing in a lower tone than he has been in other performances, which is nice to hear.

Ahaha oh wow, I’d heard about this but never really noticed it before. There’s Tsubasa right behind Tsuyoshi and he has a giant TSUBASA written on his back, which apparently is a strategy juniors would use to try to gain more recognition and build up a fanbase. They have a little junior performance section in the middle of the song, and you can see that they’re all doing it. This makes my junior-spotting a whole lot easier!

There are a couple more clips here of Koichi and Tsuyoshi talking about each other and they’re super cute. Koichi says that he thinks Tsuyoshi is skillful, but he’s worn out a lot during their concerts so Koichi worries about him. Then Tsuyoshi mentions that Koichi wasn’t interested in comedy at first so Tsuyoshi had to play the fool on his own for a while, but lately Koichi’s been getting more involved with it and his natural airheadedness is a lot funnier than anything Tsuyoshi does himself. (This is true - Tsuyoshi has a very quick comedic mind and his execution is amazing, but there’s something about Koichi’s general attitude and the spontaneity and naturalness of his boke moments that makes him the most hilarious person to watch.)

Next KinKi sing Shounentai’s Boogie Woogie Cat, which I’ve become very familiar with from various Countdown cons. This is another song that’s easy to have fun with, and this performance of it is kind of a mess, but that’s all right because they’re in encore mode now so anything goes. Messy performances are also a lot more watchable now that they’re a bit older.

Back to some interview here, in which Koichi says he’d like to do a musical with Tsuyoshi. This is something Koichi will bring up again a couple times over the next few years, before I assume he completely gave up on it because Tsuyoshi was very much against it. This may be telling of the different experiences they probably had doing Kyo to Kyo. This is before Koichi had done Mask or Shock, so Kyo to Kyo would have been his main stageplay experience, and he came away from it wanting to do more. I think to a certain extent Koichi thrives under pressure – I’m sure it’s still difficult for him, but he throws himself into work a lot more intently than Tsuyoshi and seems to get more out of it, especially in these early years. Tsuyoshi on the other hand was asked to do a musical before he was given the proposal for a solo singing career and he turned it down because being on stage in that capacity was something he didn’t think he would enjoy or handle well. I do feel kind of bad that a KinKi musical never happened – there are times when I look at the rival role in Shock and think wow, wouldn’t it be something if Tsuyoshi played this part, even just once? But of course if it’s something he’s not comfortable with then I’m glad he never pushed himself to do it.

The last song is Ano Ko wa So Fine, which is kind of a ridiculous song, but it’s upbeat and makes for another good encore number. For this release, they’ve edited together a whole bunch of clips from various concerts to create a montage of sorts. There are a lot of fast cuts in there, but they’re done so smoothly it ends up working really well.

Parting words from Tsuyoshi: He says he doesn’t want to become too idol-like, and while in retrospect I know that this is true, the way he says it makes it sound like a joke. He does say he hopes people will keep supporting KinKi into their 30s and 40s and I’m getting a little emotional over that. ;_;

Parting words from Koichi: …confused silence, followed by pantomime. I found this completely bewildering, if in line with teenage Koichi’s usual method of expressing himself, but Tsuyoshi somehow manages to interpret it correctly from the sidelines (“Don’t let your muscles get too stiff from cheering us on too much.”)

Koichi’s smile after he’s done with the interview is too cute. I kind of get the impression he just wanted to make Tsuyoshi laugh at the end here, and in any case he succeeded, so job well done.

I’ll start off with the MC sections, since those were the main event for me. Unfortunately I can’t be much help in summarizing the contents because I could barely hear anything but I’ll do my best.

The first MC segment starts about fifteen minutes into the concert, and it is sooo much smoother than what they did three years ago. There’s a flow to the conversation and they bounce it back and forth with no trouble. Their way of speaking feels professional, which I’m sure is largely thanks to all those regular TV shows they’d started. It’s definitely not scripted, though they probably planned out what to talk about in general terms; it feels more guided than a lot of what they do now, but it’s still natural enough that it works.

They talk a bit about Koichi’s birthday since he just turned eighteen, and Tsuyoshi leads the fans in singing happy birthday to him. According to my very official source of wikipedia (hahaha) this was the start of the tradition of celebrating Koichi’s birthdays during concerts. After that Tsuyoshi plays around a bit inventing “proper” ways for the audience to show their support rather than just screaming, which involves him coming up with ridiculous dance moves for them to do for himself, Koichi, and various members of V6. They talk about a couple of the dramas they’ve done, notably Ginrou and Kindaichi. At the end they segue into a Junior performance segment and run off stage.

The total length was about seventeen minutes.

From what I’ve seen, this is about the amount of time that most debuted groups spend on their MCs. I don’t want to call it an ideal length because KinKi’s ridiculously long MCs are my favorite thing about their concerts, but in practical terms it’s great – it allows enough time for substantial and varied conversation to take place, but it doesn’t go on so long that they’ll run out of things to talk about, the audience will get bored, or the concert will run into overtime.

I find it very impressive that they’ve reached this point already. I think it’s worth pointing out that neither of these kids were natural talkers and that there are only two of them. With the larger groups, chances are there will be at least a couple of outgoing members who can carry the conversation, and they always have a larger number of people to chime in and keep things moving, whereas with Koichi and Tsuyoshi they can truly only rely on each other. If one of them can’t come up with something to say, the conversation is going to stall.

I was almost hoping they’d be a little more rough here. I wanted to really see the growth happening on this front, but it feels like they’re already complete. It’s so hard to believe that this recording is from before their debut – they really do seem to have it together, even moreso with the talking than with their performances.

There’s a second MC section closer to the end of the concert. KinKi open it by coming out on stage in their bean costumes from Daihousou, but that doesn’t last very long, lol. Miyake Ken was visiting so he comes up on stage to talk with them for a little while, but funnily they seem to do better once he leaves. Koichi actually does a run-down of all the shows they’ve started at one point, and they talk about their guitar lessons. There’s some kind of fuss in there over something but honestly I have no idea what anyone is saying. If anyone else has seen this fancam and knows what was going on, please tell me. Otherwise I’ll see if my new headphones will help me decipher it a few days from now.

MC number two is about fifteen minutes long.

The rest of the concert is largely the same as what was in the Lawson Presents video, though there were a few notable additions to the setlist that I’d like to mention.

Midnight Shuffle is in there, and aside from it being a great song and an eventual staple of Johnny’s Countdown, it’s also always fun to hear KinKi sing it because it was the theme song to Ginrou Kaiki File, so it feels like Koichi has a special right to it.

They also perform Hana ni Mizu Yaru Love Song. This was my first time hearing this song and I enjoy it a lot. It turns out that the original performer of this song is Hayashida Kenji, who would later compose a number of songs for KinKi, most notably Biroodo no Yami and Natsumoyou, plus some of my favorite non-single songs (Parental Advisory Explicit Content, Yume Hajime Hana, Houseki wo Chiribamete.)

The final song I’d like to mention is Zenbu Dakishimete. I’m going to talk about this one some more once it pops up in an official concert recording, but I enjoy seeing it here because it serves as a reminder that this is one of their oldest songs. It’s easy to forget since they didn’t release it as a single until a couple of years later, but it has been with them since before debut.

Oh! Also, I finally got to see a full version of Koichi’s Holiday in this fancam, so I’m going to be predictable and post that here to finish off. If all goes well I should be back with my thoughts on the Us DVD very soon. :)