Less than 48 Hours- concert proper report, part 1
Macpherson Stadium looks slick and state-of-the-art, but it's really not much bigger than a high school gym. Not exactly what comes to mind when you think of a venue that hosts international concerts.
My seats were slightly blocked by the lights. Bummer. But at least they were near enough to actually see the girls' facial features and reactions.
I was thinking about bringing and wearing my orange Meru melon juice shirt but I ultimately decided not to, as I wanted to look more fashionable. I wore a light blue striped long sleeve collared shirt, teal cardigan, green scarf, chinos, and air maxes I just bought an hour earlier from nearby Sneaker Street. Macpherson Stadium is probably the perfect place in the world to watch a show if you're the type to buy sneakers an hour before the concert.
I didn't buy the light sticks and scarf. I was worried that the penlight might not be allowed at the airport, and I didn't feel like spending 150hkd for something which I might use only once in my life. As for the scarf, I live in the tropics.
I saw Nishiyama Kyoko-san and her pink hair walking around and checking if everything was ok.
The green arena seats blended well with the teal-and-yellow scarves.
The stadium was still filling up at around 6. The distribution was probably around 80% male, 20% female, with perhaps 75% under the age of 30.
There were announcements in Cantonese. Me being unable to understand either Cantonese and Japanese, a slight worry of mine was to not have a clue as to what the fuck was going on during MCs, or any important announcements made in general.
While waiting, everyone was just fiddling around with their smartphones. No complaining about the delay, at least none that I understood.
Oh, so this is how it is. The streams I've watched, the performances and concerts I've downloaded, and now I got to experience it myself.
The closest thing I experienced to this was seeing Girls' Generation and other K-pop groups perform a couple of years back, but not seated as near as this.
At first I thought, “I'll just be more of a passive observer and mentally take down notes so I can remember the intricacies of what happened in this concert,” but I got carried away by the chants too. Chanting is fun. It really makes you feel like you're involved.
I hear the words, “here in world-famous Hakata...” I let out a slight chuckle. That was funny. World-famous. Yeah, surrrrrre.
“Are... you... ready? Are... you... ready?”
HKT48, Kimi no koto ga sukiyaken, Aitakatta, Sakura minna de tabeta
The smoke clears and the girls come out .. I've seen them in shows, on the HKT stage, on other concerts, in magazines where they may or may not wear revealing outfits- now I got too see them for real. Like, wow, they actually exist. At this point my mind was still processing the reality of what was happening.
From our side came out Anai Chihiro, Miyawaki Sakura, Motomura Aoi, Yamamoto Mao, Tanaka Miku and Moriyasu Madoka. Chihiro was positioned nearest us. Since I was seated at the sides it felt at first that the girls were performing in front of someone else and I was just there observing.
Chihiro then faced us. That was really nice of her! She was all smiles and looked genuinely happy to perform. She also always brings emotion on her face, you don't see her taking a moment off from the script. She wasn't as young-looking as she does in pictures, though.
Next girl I noticed was Madoka. Wow, did she have plenty of blush on her face. She does look mature for her age. Contrary to her image as somewhat of an ice queen, she looked happy to perform in front of us. There was one moment when she was facing another member, I think Aoi, and flashed a smile, as if to say, “we kinda messed up that one.” I thought that was really nice and genuine..
Aoi was as adorable as advertised, a lovable mix of cuteness, pyromania and tears. She makes you want to go up on stage and squeeze her cheeks.
Then I saw Sakura. You know how, in first day of class, you look around and see which girl draws the most attention? That's Sakura. Sometimes, in life, all you need is to have “it”. And Sakura has “it”.
The girls switched around, and I finally saw my oshimen, Matsuoka Natsumi. First thing I noticed- she also has lots of blush on her face. Also, her features- her eyelids, eyes and nose- she looks like a girl with a mix of Spanish/Jewish blood.
Everyone's so energetic. Really passionate, really pumped up to be here- even the ones who have reputations for being bad/disinterested performers. Idol performances are really more about passion and energy than precision and exactness.
I don't remember exactly when, but I do remember Sashihara Rino waving at our vicinity around this time. Sasshi won't wow you with energy or skill, but she knows how to interact with fans. She's good at making eye contact. She's also good at taking a second to do a wink, wave or peace sign while performing without breaking rhythm.
A brief background: Watanabe Mayu is my AKB oshimen, and this song is probably in the top 20 of my favourite AKB songs. So, seeing Mio and her group of rascals perform it in Taiwan, needless to say, did not impress me.
I think they did a decent job overall here, though.
Tomonaga Mio isn't that bad a performer in real action. Her failings just gets magnified when we watch it in a format where we can pause and rewind and break down all her inadequacies. How much of her inadequancy is laziness, how much of it is inherent lack of agility and dexterity? We never can really tell. She moves slower compared to the three younger girls but it's not as jarring to be considered an eyesore. A different way to describe it would be- if the dance move requires 8 arm rotations, Mio will only do 6; if the dance move requires the arms to be extended fully at a 45 degree angle, Mio will only extend them at 80% at a 30 degree angle. Yes, Mio brings out the analytical, observant person in me.
Yabuki Nako and Miku are as different in their performance styles as in their personalities. Nako is more energetic, bubblier. She's lost much of that clueless, deer-in-the-headlights look she had earlier in her career. She has so much spunk now. Miku is more precise, professional. She looks very composed for her age.
Aramaki Misaki is the cutest. She also is now taller than Mio- the blouse she was wearing was unable to anticipate her growth spurt. However, she still needs work in interacting with fans and expressing the proper facial emotion for the song.
Kurihara Sae is beautiful in person. She has a very calm, charming face. Also, she's deceptively thick- thick arms, torso, thighs.
From what I observed, the crowd energy got weaker at around this song. Maybe it's just not an energetic song. It's not a song you can chant along either.
So they dropped the Sasshi solo and changed it with this team B classic, and they got the 2 old Team B members to perform it.
Ota Aika is a craftsmanlike performer. Very savvy veteran. You get the feeling that this song means a lot to her. She's good at expressing with her eyes so you can tell when she's passionate about performing- and it looks like she likes doing songs where she just stands and sings more over ones which make her run around the arena.
While Lovetan is all poise, Sasshi will take liberties and goof around to make the song more enjoyable to watch. Not that she was straight up clowning around, but she was certainly livelier- the boke to Lovetan's tsukkomi.
They replaced Fuchigami Mai with... Madoka, of all people, which is nice to see because Madoka is usuallly typecast into performing serious/cool/fierce/sexy songs. Seeing her perform a lively, bubbly song was refreshing.
Meru is a doll. She just looks adorable in person. Also really pale. Like a Japanese snow princess. And she's also full of energy, always bouncing around, always beaming with that bright smile of hers. She always tries to make eye contact, always waving.
Mao has... improved. She's not as bad as before where she looks lost and fails to give proper emotion to the song.
Kojina Yui was okay, I guess. She was pretty, and didn't stand out in a bad way from a performance standpoint.
This was the song I anticipated the most- I liked all three members, and the concept was equal parts edgy and ridiculous.
Kodama Haruka was first up. Haruppi trying to look sexy can be funny because her lovely brown eyes are doing a good job of being sultry but for some reason her mouth looks awkward while singing.
Not that the Itano Tomomi original was a vocal masterpiece, but the three girls sure sounded squeaky. Haruppi's voice still betrays her lisp, Aoi's was as childlike as you'd expect from her face, and Natsu's wasn't really that far from her speaking voice, which sounds partly nasal, partly tongue rolling and partly words being eaten.
Overall, though, I loved it. There are few things in life better than seeing cute Japanese dancing awkwardly and trying to look fierce.
(part 2 to be posted soon)
