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MM15's Gradation tour live in Fukuoka♡
Posted by 洋hiromi水,
28 April 2015
·
1811 views
morning musume 15 concert report
Hey guys! 
So, I'm back from Japan and I've been trying to find time to write this entry before I forget everything I wanted to write. Since many H!O members can't go to concerts and I myself like reading about other people's experiences too, I thought I'd share my own here and also add some pictures.
The concert I went to was part MM15's Gradation tour and was in Fukuoka. I went together with my friend Sophie during our 3 weeks trip in Japan. Fukuoka wasn't part of our plan in the beginning, but we thought we'd take the chance to go to Kyushu AND see MM. It's a very nice city by the way, lots of good food and the Canal City (huge shopping center) offers enough things to do even when it's rainy.
We decided to go to the noon performance because we had plans for the evening. The concert was in Fukuoka's City Hall, and the venue was smaller than the ones I had been to before (Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, NHK Hall in Osaka). I personally like small venues because even if you're in the back row, the girls on the stage aren't that far away. For those of you wondering how I got the tickets, since I'm a noob when it comes to that, I asked one of my Japanese friends to get them for us. He bought them on a website before they were officially sold, so the downside was that we didn't know which seats we'd get until we actually get them. That was fine though, because we didn't care too much about the seats anyways. Being in the front is awesome because you can see the girls, but from the back you can see the fans and the whole stage. I enjoy seeing the fans and their chanting and dancing. We ended up in the very back of the hall.
The doors for the concert opened at 13:30, the concert started at 14:30. We got there around 13:00 o'clock, which was just the right time. We finished to get the goods we wanted ten minutes before the concert started. Here's what it looked like with all the fans gathering:
You can see it on the pictures too, but I really wanna emphasize it: There were SO MANY GIRLS. Like seriously, half of the fans at the concert were girls. I'm not kidding. Most of them were probably between high school - late twenties, but there were older and younger ones as well. I even saw a Mom with her daughter who was all dressed in Riho's goods, they were adorable. Many of the people wore normal clothes, but some of them probably only waited to get some goods. I was pleasantly surprised by the fans, everyone really just wanted to go there and have a good time. We did get some weird looks though, being the only (white) foreigners there.
So we waited from 13:00h until around 14:15h before we FINALLY got to the goods stands. In between, I left Sophie to go to the next combini and get some snacks, and on my way back to the hall I heard something that made me really happy. When I waited at a crossing for the lights to turn green, a mom and her son were standing next to me, waiting as well. You could see the hall and the people gathering from there. The boy asked why there were so many people, and the mom answered: "Oh, it must be the Morning Musume concert!" She explained that MM was this famous girl group and stuff. Considering that on the same day, Momoiro Clover held a concert at the huge Fukuoka Dome, I was happy that people in Fukuoka seemed to take notice of MM's concert, as well.
At the goods stands, we made sure to buy penlights because we forgot about that last time we went to a concert. My friend got a green one for Zukki, and I wanted to get two orange ones, but they told me that there was only one orange one left (don't know if they only brought few or if Haruka was so popular.). So I got an orange and a red one.
When we entered the concert hall, we noticed that all the people next to us were girls. We were in the second row from the back. This is what it looked like:
The concert started. The first song was Seishun Kozou ga naiteiru, and I was already impressed by the girls. You didn't notice that 12th gen were new at all. They blended in really well. The next songs were One Two Three and Brainstorming, and those two songs got the crowd really pumped up. It was fun seeing everyone jump at the "1! 2! 3!" parts.
The VTR was also really cool, it was different from the usual ones; you got to see videos of the girls rehearsing and they zoomed in at one after another. They showed them practicing and working. It wasn't the typical "photo - name" thing they usually do.
Yuugure was very beautiful to watch. The girls looked like butterflies on the stage. I love the song, so I got goosebumps when I heard it live. I remember that I was impressed by Mizuki's voice and presence on stage. She's really on her way to becoming a wonderful leader. In Joshi Kashimashi Monotagari, everyone got really pumped up for Eripon's part of course, since it was her hometown concert. Other than that, I felt that they cheered on every girl equally. Haruna stood out a bit as she got a "woo~" at the end of her part because of the scary lyrics, and Miki's part made everyone laugh and she got a big cheer when she finished, as well.
Here's another picture of the stage during the concert:
When Suki na Senpai came up, it was really cute and everyone did a good job, but it felt like the new gen still doesn't own the stage when they are alone. They blend in well with the others, but when it's just the four of them, they look a bit small on the stage. I'm sure they'll improve during the tour, though. It's more a feeling of them not being comfortable with the stage yet, not so much a feeling of them not being able to do their parts.
Other songs that got the crowd quite pumped were Maji desu ka ska, Password is 0 and Wagamama. I LOVE Wagamama live. I love it when everyone is shouting "aisaretai".
Other general impressions of mine were: Haruka (whom I mainly looked at) dances really well. Haruna seemed to kind of take over Sayu's job of leading conversations - while Mizuki leads them as a leader, Haruna is the one who makes them coherent with her comments and who helps members out when they don't know/forgot what to say (at least that was my impression). Zukki is very present on stage, as well, and she managed to make the fans laugh during the MCs. None of the members voices sounded bad, only Ayumi hit the wrong tone every now and then. Sakura sounded good no matter what she did. I also liked the Sakura/Maa-chan performance of Memory Seishun no Hikari. I'm sure by the end of the tour they'll harmonize even better than they did when I saw them live.
When the group left the stage, the Encore was actually a "Eripon"-call. The hall turned green and I felt kind of out of place with my orange and red lights. My friend fit right in with her green light for Zukki. (If you don't buy the MM penlight that switches colors, but the normal penlights, there is only one shade for green)
They came back on stage and performed Ima Koko Kara. The dance looks really cool when all the fans do it as well with the lights in their hand. For the last MC, every member got to talk a bit. I remember two things. Haruna said that she wanted to go to this really famous Ramen shop in Fukuoka together with Eripon, but they didn't have time when they arrived here, so maybe they'd go later. Everyone was like "wooooh!" and I'm sure some of the fans waited in front of that shop. The other thing was between Haruka and Eripon. Haruka spoke before Eripon, and she did that new thing she mentioned in her blog that I haven't quite understood yet. The fans did it together with her, but you could tell that it was new because some people didn't participate. Later on when it got to Eripon, she did her KY thing, and as you can imagine in her hometown the crowd got really pumped up for it and it was really loud. She then said to Haruka: "See, that's how it's done!" And Haruka answered with a: "Hai, sumimasen. Sumimasen." And bowed slightly. Everyone laughed. Eripon sure knows how to entertain the fans.
When they left the stage again, Mizuki was the last to leave and before she disappeared, she turned around again and started the Eripon call one more time. I don't know if she always does that, but since we had already done an Eripon call, maybe she was afraid there wouldn't be another one. So we called Eripon again and she came out and talked some more before the concert ended.
That's it with the concert! It was the only concert we attended because we also traveled a lot and met many friends. We did get to be in Tokyo on MM's release date, however we missed the release event. But we went to Shibuya's Tower Records to buy the CD and were happy when we saw the huge billboard in Shibuya, heard the song playing in the street, saw 12th gen's close up versions on a big screen, and saw lots of posters at the Tower Records. After we were in Shibuya, we got to Shinjuku, walked down a corridor and suddenly saw the huuuuuge poster and the individual members' posters on the pillars there. The song also played. I was soooo surprised when I looked up and suddenly saw Mizuki on the pillar right next to me. We weren't the only ones though, while we were standing there we noticed people stopping and taking pictures.
That's all from me today. I hope you enjoyed the read. Feel free to leave comments, share your experiences or ask questions. Thanks for reading!
So, I'm back from Japan and I've been trying to find time to write this entry before I forget everything I wanted to write. Since many H!O members can't go to concerts and I myself like reading about other people's experiences too, I thought I'd share my own here and also add some pictures.
The concert I went to was part MM15's Gradation tour and was in Fukuoka. I went together with my friend Sophie during our 3 weeks trip in Japan. Fukuoka wasn't part of our plan in the beginning, but we thought we'd take the chance to go to Kyushu AND see MM. It's a very nice city by the way, lots of good food and the Canal City (huge shopping center) offers enough things to do even when it's rainy.
We decided to go to the noon performance because we had plans for the evening. The concert was in Fukuoka's City Hall, and the venue was smaller than the ones I had been to before (Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, NHK Hall in Osaka). I personally like small venues because even if you're in the back row, the girls on the stage aren't that far away. For those of you wondering how I got the tickets, since I'm a noob when it comes to that, I asked one of my Japanese friends to get them for us. He bought them on a website before they were officially sold, so the downside was that we didn't know which seats we'd get until we actually get them. That was fine though, because we didn't care too much about the seats anyways. Being in the front is awesome because you can see the girls, but from the back you can see the fans and the whole stage. I enjoy seeing the fans and their chanting and dancing. We ended up in the very back of the hall.
The doors for the concert opened at 13:30, the concert started at 14:30. We got there around 13:00 o'clock, which was just the right time. We finished to get the goods we wanted ten minutes before the concert started. Here's what it looked like with all the fans gathering:
You can see it on the pictures too, but I really wanna emphasize it: There were SO MANY GIRLS. Like seriously, half of the fans at the concert were girls. I'm not kidding. Most of them were probably between high school - late twenties, but there were older and younger ones as well. I even saw a Mom with her daughter who was all dressed in Riho's goods, they were adorable. Many of the people wore normal clothes, but some of them probably only waited to get some goods. I was pleasantly surprised by the fans, everyone really just wanted to go there and have a good time. We did get some weird looks though, being the only (white) foreigners there.
So we waited from 13:00h until around 14:15h before we FINALLY got to the goods stands. In between, I left Sophie to go to the next combini and get some snacks, and on my way back to the hall I heard something that made me really happy. When I waited at a crossing for the lights to turn green, a mom and her son were standing next to me, waiting as well. You could see the hall and the people gathering from there. The boy asked why there were so many people, and the mom answered: "Oh, it must be the Morning Musume concert!" She explained that MM was this famous girl group and stuff. Considering that on the same day, Momoiro Clover held a concert at the huge Fukuoka Dome, I was happy that people in Fukuoka seemed to take notice of MM's concert, as well.
At the goods stands, we made sure to buy penlights because we forgot about that last time we went to a concert. My friend got a green one for Zukki, and I wanted to get two orange ones, but they told me that there was only one orange one left (don't know if they only brought few or if Haruka was so popular.). So I got an orange and a red one.
When we entered the concert hall, we noticed that all the people next to us were girls. We were in the second row from the back. This is what it looked like:
The concert started. The first song was Seishun Kozou ga naiteiru, and I was already impressed by the girls. You didn't notice that 12th gen were new at all. They blended in really well. The next songs were One Two Three and Brainstorming, and those two songs got the crowd really pumped up. It was fun seeing everyone jump at the "1! 2! 3!" parts.
The VTR was also really cool, it was different from the usual ones; you got to see videos of the girls rehearsing and they zoomed in at one after another. They showed them practicing and working. It wasn't the typical "photo - name" thing they usually do. Yuugure was very beautiful to watch. The girls looked like butterflies on the stage. I love the song, so I got goosebumps when I heard it live. I remember that I was impressed by Mizuki's voice and presence on stage. She's really on her way to becoming a wonderful leader.
In Joshi Kashimashi Monotagari, everyone got really pumped up for Eripon's part of course, since it was her hometown concert. Other than that, I felt that they cheered on every girl equally. Haruna stood out a bit as she got a "woo~" at the end of her part because of the scary lyrics, and Miki's part made everyone laugh and she got a big cheer when she finished, as well. Here's another picture of the stage during the concert:
When Suki na Senpai came up, it was really cute and everyone did a good job, but it felt like the new gen still doesn't own the stage when they are alone. They blend in well with the others, but when it's just the four of them, they look a bit small on the stage. I'm sure they'll improve during the tour, though. It's more a feeling of them not being comfortable with the stage yet, not so much a feeling of them not being able to do their parts.
Other songs that got the crowd quite pumped were Maji desu ka ska, Password is 0 and Wagamama. I LOVE Wagamama live. I love it when everyone is shouting "aisaretai".
Other general impressions of mine were: Haruka (whom I mainly looked at) dances really well. Haruna seemed to kind of take over Sayu's job of leading conversations - while Mizuki leads them as a leader, Haruna is the one who makes them coherent with her comments and who helps members out when they don't know/forgot what to say (at least that was my impression). Zukki is very present on stage, as well, and she managed to make the fans laugh during the MCs. None of the members voices sounded bad, only Ayumi hit the wrong tone every now and then. Sakura sounded good no matter what she did. I also liked the Sakura/Maa-chan performance of Memory Seishun no Hikari. I'm sure by the end of the tour they'll harmonize even better than they did when I saw them live. When the group left the stage, the Encore was actually a "Eripon"-call. The hall turned green and I felt kind of out of place with my orange and red lights. My friend fit right in with her green light for Zukki. (If you don't buy the MM penlight that switches colors, but the normal penlights, there is only one shade for green)
They came back on stage and performed Ima Koko Kara. The dance looks really cool when all the fans do it as well with the lights in their hand.
For the last MC, every member got to talk a bit. I remember two things. Haruna said that she wanted to go to this really famous Ramen shop in Fukuoka together with Eripon, but they didn't have time when they arrived here, so maybe they'd go later. Everyone was like "wooooh!" and I'm sure some of the fans waited in front of that shop. The other thing was between Haruka and Eripon. Haruka spoke before Eripon, and she did that new thing she mentioned in her blog that I haven't quite understood yet. The fans did it together with her, but you could tell that it was new because some people didn't participate. Later on when it got to Eripon, she did her KY thing, and as you can imagine in her hometown the crowd got really pumped up for it and it was really loud. She then said to Haruka: "See, that's how it's done!" And Haruka answered with a: "Hai, sumimasen. Sumimasen." And bowed slightly. Everyone laughed. Eripon sure knows how to entertain the fans. When they left the stage again, Mizuki was the last to leave and before she disappeared, she turned around again and started the Eripon call one more time. I don't know if she always does that, but since we had already done an Eripon call, maybe she was afraid there wouldn't be another one. So we called Eripon again and she came out and talked some more before the concert ended.
That's it with the concert! It was the only concert we attended because we also traveled a lot and met many friends. We did get to be in Tokyo on MM's release date, however we missed the release event. But we went to Shibuya's Tower Records to buy the CD and were happy when we saw the huge billboard in Shibuya, heard the song playing in the street, saw 12th gen's close up versions on a big screen, and saw lots of posters at the Tower Records. After we were in Shibuya, we got to Shinjuku, walked down a corridor and suddenly saw the huuuuuge poster and the individual members' posters on the pillars there. The song also played. I was soooo surprised when I looked up and suddenly saw Mizuki on the pillar right next to me. We weren't the only ones though, while we were standing there we noticed people stopping and taking pictures.
That's all from me today. I hope you enjoyed the read. Feel free to leave comments, share your experiences or ask questions. Thanks for reading!
You know that you arent really allowed to take photos inside right?