A.B.C-Z Going with Zephyr Concert Report

Thanks to all of my amazing Ebi fan friends I was lucky enough to be able to see all four of the Makuhari shows AND the Nagoya show of Ebi’s 2019 Going with Zephyr tour. I have never written an Ebi concert report before and I don’t know if there is anyone who will read this but, since I was too busy enjoying the concert to take notes I want to write everything down before I forget! This is going to be a big messy amalgamation of what I remember from all of the shows mashed into one long rambling report! There will probably be a lot of crying, apologies in advance!

If you haven’t read one of my con reports before, sorry! They’re long. I’ve put member coloured hearts throughout so you can skip to bits about your guys. The italicised parts are just me talking about myself and fan service. All the pics are ones I have taken personally or own unless otherwise credited. I’m super Fumi biased as well…. Sorry!

Stage and tickets

I attended the four Makuhari shows: Thursday 15th @ 2pm & 6pm and Friday 16th @ 1pm & 5pm, and the Nagoya show: Monday 19th @ 6pm.

 

Makuhari Event Hall was set up like a tiny arena. There was a big main stage with a walk way out to a smaller central stage. There were also stairs on either side of the stage that led up to the stands. They used the carts to travel around the arena and through the stands during encore. My friends and I got super lucky with our tickets! Especially for the last show when we were right next to the main stage. It was so cool to be able to see the show from so many different angles!

 

For the show in the Nagoya Congress Centre Century Hall they just had a main stage, but they came out and stood on boxes in the first floor audience section and my friend and I were only three rows away from one of them. It was crazy! They felt even closer than our arena seats at Makuhari! Seeing the guys so close was just insane!

 

The main stage for both shows was split into two levels with a set of stairs on either side for access. The top section was divided into three panels; the middle panel could rise up and open, or pop forwards and create two separate smaller spaces on either side of the top stage. The Makuhari stage was also surrounded by a net of twinkle lights.

 

Opening

Before the concert started there was a big sparkling star hanging in the middle of the stage with lights shining off it. Each point of the star was one of the members colours. When the show started the star rose up, the curtains opened and the screens on the main stage started to light up until it looked like an elaborate mansion with red carpets projected on the stair cases etc. Then the middle panel rose up and revealed a red velvet covered room, with a book sitting on a pedestal. The whole room filled with smoke until you couldn’t see anything and then “Welcome to the Night” started playing and as the smoke cleared Ebi appeared standing in the room.

 

Welcome to the Night

The first costumes that Ebi wore were black and white suits with lots of chequered and striped patterns. As each member sang their first solo line the camera would focus on them. ❤️Hasshi was wearing tinted sunglasses. 💙Gocchi was wearing a black eye-patch like in the Ayako play and the entire audience screamed when he had his close-up! He was so cool! In the first MC Tsuka was saying that Gocchi was super excited about wearing the eye-patch and it was the most excited he had seen him before a concert. 💜Fumi was wearing a hat.

 

Crush on You

Moonlight Walker

They did these next two dances down on the main stage. At some point ❤️Hasshi took off his sunglasses and 💙Gocchi took off his eye-patch.

 

Fantastic Ride

They started shouting out their greetings to the audience in this song. ❤️Hasshi started singing his opening part but stopped after “hoshizora” and just screamed “みんな元気ですか？” (How are you everyone?) . 💜Fumi was super excited and energetic (as usual) and screaming out “Are you having fun?” “Do you love A.B.C-Z?” “We love you too!” and stuff. They walked down to the centre stage in the Makuhari shows and danced for a bit. Then there was a big musical break and 💜Fumi got us all to put down our uchiwas and penlights and clap our hands over our heads. They put the house lights on when we did this and it looked so cool when everyone had their hands in the air clapping in time. When I was in the arena, right beside the main stage, 💜Fumi was right in front of me and I freaked out and just stood there staring at the ground, or at Tsuka, or Hasshi. ❤️Hasshi was looking back at me and looked really confused, since Fumi was right there in front of me and I was ignoring him and watching Hasshi, but still holding my Fumi uchiwa. Sorry Hasshi. I was so embarrassed! I couldn’t look at Fumi! Then Fumi didn’t look at me at all for the rest of the concert, even though he was right there in front of me for basically the entire MC; I think we freaked each other out!

 

JOYしたいキモチ

They started this song dancing on the centre stage and then made their way back to the main stage by the end of it.

 

Member intro (I think this was either here…)

There was a small member intro section. Each member had a short dance in the spotlight while their picture and name were shown on the screen. They did lots of cool moves, like 💗Tottsu took his jacket off and slung it over his shoulder and 💜Fumi did a spin and threw his hat off side stage.

 

Saw me tight

The staff had brought bunch of props out onto the main stage while Ebi were down on the centre stage and set up a bunch of little room-like spaces. There was a juke box on the left side, a bed on the right, a leather arm chair in the top right… uh… something in the top left but I can’t remember… and a mannequin in a red dress centre stage. The spot light would come up on whichever member/s were singing and they had put a cool sepia filter over the live video being shown on the big screens. This whole section had a cool, kind of grungy 50’s vibe to it which I loved! All of the members moved around and swapped spaces during the time they weren’t singing. At one point 💜Fumi was sitting on the bed and had a big break before his next singing part so he lay down and had a little nap. So cute!

 

Want You Back

Ebi all moved to the main stage with the red dress mannequin in the middle. ❤️Hasshi started by singing and interacting with the mannequin then as each member had their solo parts a red silhouette of a girl in a dress showed up on the black screen behind them one at a time. They danced and interacted with the red girl and at the end five red girls showed up and they all danced along with the silhouettes. It was so beautiful. They had the sparkle lights lit up in the arena shows and it made the whole stage look like it was surrounded by twinkling stars. It was such a beautiful performance.

 

Move That Body

The staff brought a card table with glasses, bottles and stools out onto the stage. Ebi took their jackets off and gathered around the table. They all had those sleeve bands holding up their shirt sleeves which really added to the like grungy 50’s aesthetic of this performance! They used the glasses and bottles, banging them on the table and clinking them together to make beats and things during the song. In the middle of the song ❤️Hasshi got up on the table and scattered a bunch of gold sparkles down along the front. The other four members stood at the four corners of the table and threw a bunch of gold sparkles up onto Hasshi, then he started tap dancing! Ah! The tap performance was so cool! After Hasshi finished his part then 💛Tsuka and 💙Gocchi jumped up on the table for their turn, and then after that 💜Fumi and 💗Tottsu came to the front of the stage and stood on these special tap platform things for their turn. AH~ Tap dancing Ebi was so cool!!! At the end of the song ❤️Hasshi pretended to scull the drink from one of the bottles.

 

Fumi time 🐴💜

After this song finished all of the members left the stage except Fumi. In the arena show he started walking down the walkway to the main stage, and in the hall show he walked to the left of the main stage. They still had the tap sound turned on his shoes so that each step he took made a “tap” sound. Then about five steps in it suddenly changed to a “clip clop” horse hoof sound! Fumi stopped walking in shock and everyone laughed. He slowly took another step and it made the “clip clop” again, then again, and again, and then he stopped and spun around in a circle and it made a big whinnying sound. He threw his head back and shook his hair and raised his arms up in front of him like a bucking horse. Lol. He got a big round of applause for that. Then he kept his hands in fists, to look like hooves, and kissed one and held it out to the right, and the right side of the audience went “woooo”, he did the same for the left and then down the middle. Then he got embarrassed and did his shy giggle to himself and everyone went “kya~”.

To finish he pretended to pull a coin out of his pocket and flick it across the stage. They played a sound effect and tracked a tiny spotlight across the stage to show the coin as it flew over and clicked down into the juke box that was still on the left side. Then they played a juke box animation on the main screen as it selected a record with the name of two songs on it.

 

Juke Box Shuffle

In this part of the con Ebi split into two groups and sang some of their old songs. The songs on the record changed from Makuhari to Nagoya, and have been changing for each different tour location too. At Makuhari the groups were: Fumi/Gocchi/Tottsu singing 渚のBack in Your Heart and Hasshi/Tsuka singing Naturally. Then at Nagoya it was: Tottsu/Tsuka singing へそのお and Fumi/Gocchi/Hasshi singing Crazy Accel.

 

渚のBack in Your Heart (Makuhari- 💜Fumi/💙Gocchi/💗Tottsu)

I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY SANG NAGISA GUYS I DIED! I cried when they sang it at the first show. This is one of my all-time favourite Ebi songs and I can’t believe I got to see it live! (That’s it, that’s the report….)

 

Naturally (Makuhari- ❤️Hasshi/💛Tsuka)

Hasshi and Tsuka came up on the centre stage. They had changed costumes into white tank tops and pants, with a shimmery pastel coloured long, flowy jacket over the top. These jackets were so beautiful. They had a few different pastel colours mixed through them but were predominantly that member’s colour. Hasshi was super excited and clingy to Tsuka and kept hugging him and bouncing up and down like a cute kid. He was so happy! Tsuka kept trying to brush him off but you could see he was enjoying it too. They changed the lyrics a bit so that instead of saying 彼女の一瞬は Hasshi sang 塚田の一瞬は and Tsuka changed 優しい匂い to ハッシーの匂い So CUTE! They walked back up to the main stage with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

 

へそのお (Nagoya- 💗Tottsukada💛)

This performance felt very… last minute, or ad lib, I’m not sure, it was a bit weird. It started with Tottsu on stage alone with a keyboard. He started by playing へそのお on the keyboard and singing alone, with his new version of the lyrics. I know the first part was the “If I was forgiven to be reborn again” the same as in Rinne but I can’t remember the rest. Then he called out and got Tsuka to come on stage and sing the original as he played. Tsuka was really embarrassed and didn’t look like he knew what was going on. He totally lost his pitch when it got to the tricky flat notes too. He was so embarrassed. Poor Tsuka. Then they got the audience to sing the la la la part but they didn’t really communicate it very well and we all started a bit late after a pause.

 

Crazy Accel (Nagoya- ❤️Hasshi/💜Fumi/💙Gocchi)

This time these three had changed into their white outfits with the pastel jackets first. They were all standing on the stairs on the left side of the stage singing. 💜Fumi got to sing Tottsu’s big “Crazy Accel” part at the start and he nailed it, omg! He said in the MC that he was really nervous coz he’d never had to sing that part before.

 

Medley:

Twinkle Twinkle A.B.C-Z

SPACE TRAVELERS

Reboot!!!

Za A.B.C〜5 Stars〜

For these songs they had a medley remix kind of track and had super bumped up the rhythm and bass. At first I didn’t really like it, especially for Twinkle Twinkle, but by the last show I was in love! At Makuhari they rode around in the arena carts, and in Nagoya they came and walked around in the first floor audience and stood on the boxes to sing. They moved around and switched boxes a few times too. In the arena shows, they did Space Travelers all lined up along the back of the arena. 💜Fumi was the only one that was doing the rocket dance moves, the others were just waving and giving fanservie. Akiyama Taiga and Tatsumi Yudai came to see Fumi at the first Friday show and were sitting up the back and my friend who was in the back stands said that they were singing along and doing the rocket moves with Fumi and they all looked like they were having heaps of fun and Fumi looked really excited and happy. All the members were giving out heaps of fan service during these songs too. When we were in arena 💗Tottsu came by in the cart and he saw my Tottsu fan friend. When she poked her tongue out at him, he poked his tongue out back at her!! Kya~! When we were right near the stage at the final Makuhari show 💜Fumi came up the stairs to our corner too. There were some really cute Jfans up behind us with a “Blow a kiss” fanservice uchiwa and Fumi saw them and blew them a kiss. The girls squealed and giggled, they were so cute! But instead of looking at them, after he blew them the kiss Fumi turned around and looked straight at me and smiled like “Look what I did” and it was so beautiful and cute and the best Fumi smile. Ah, I cried after the concert ended because of that stupid Fumi smile!!!

When we were in Nagoya 💛Tsuka came and stood on the box in front of us first and smiled and waved at everyone, he’s so genki all the time. He is literally the human embodiment of sunshine! Then 💜Fumi came over, aaaaaah! He was even closer than when he was on the centre arena stage! But I was brave and looked at him this time! He was not so brave. He was mostly waving up to the people on the second floor then he started to look straight down, and just as he was just, just going to make eye-contact with me he chickened out and started to wave up to the people on the second floor again. It was like 0.1 second of eye-contact. I laughed! He’s such a dork! 💙 Gocchi also came and stood on our box too but I can’t remember if it was in this part or later? He was mostly waving up to the second floor too, so he didn’t see my Gocchi fan friend and I. 

 

ボクラ〜LOVE&PEACE〜

This part was so amazing! Instead of using some crazy piece of equipment like the hamster wheels or the 5 Box, this year Ebi’s acrobatics were all just with their own bodies. They went back to the main stage and took off their jackets so they were just in their white tank tops and pants. All the lights when out on the main stage so it was completely black except for the white spotlight lighting Ebi. They sang the start of the song, then there was a music break where they did their acrobatics. They had remixed the bgm and filled it with all wubs and subs and synth sounds (Yes, these are the technical terms). They had three rounds of singing/acrobatics. The first round of acrobatics everyone did a cool trick. The four members started by flinging 💙Gocchi around like they do in Reboot and then lifting him up so he’s standing straight, then they literally fling him away of Tsuka’s head!! Then Tsuka lifts 💜Fumi up and he does a cartwheel in the air right over Tottsu’s arms and back to the ground. 💛Tsuka does some awesome flips and things too, omg! Everyone’s acrobatics are amazing but the Tsuka moves in such a smooth, controlled way really is next level. For the second break, THEY DO BALLET! I KID YOU NOT! Lots of spins and jumps and just… wow! Not what I was expecting. Then for the last round all of the members do back flips and forward rolls and things in staggered order. They had spark machines out on stage too that would shoot streams of sparks up into the air. When we had stand seats near the stage, 💛Tsuka did a huge backflip and landed right beside one of the spark machines, like almost on top of it and you could see the sparks falling on his skin! AH! Be careful Tsuka!!! They finish in this big elaborate pose holding 💗Tottsu up in the air.

 

MC

They came down to the centre arena stage for MC, then went back up to the main stage for the second half. The first half was them just talking about the show and stuff. Fumi did a lot of talking! Then they did a scissors-paper-rock style game to decide who would go to costume change and who would stay and talk to the fans. I’m just gonna write dot points coz I can’t remember when and what was said.

 

Makuhari

• 💜Fumi asked if there were any hatsuebi (First time Ebi) at the first show! YES! ME!!
• 💜Fumi saw a Kiriyama uchiwa in the crowd and said that it made him feel calm.
• 💜Fumi said that he’s never done an original pose on an uchiwa, he’s always copied someone else’s. This year he copied Kame’s pose but next year he said he might try a Kawai Fumito original pose.
• They talked about learning all the acrobatics and how difficult it was. 💜Fumi talked about how when 💛Tsuka lifts him up in the air for his cartwheel Tsuka has to put his arm between Fumi’s legs and how in rehearsals he kept “fiddling” with him.

• Yabu from JUMP and Kitayama from KissMai came to the second show to see 💗Tottsu and they talked to them during the MC. Yabu said he was listening to the album in the car on the way there and that he hated 💜Fumi’s voice (Yabu and I are no longer friends……..)
• They talked about doing Za again this year and how thankful they were to have support from Takki and Domoto Tsuyoshi. 💜Fumi said that they wanted to show what they could do to Johnny-san in Heaven. 💗Tottsu said in English “Throwing to Johnny”.
• When they were going back up to the main stage in the first show 💜Fumi draped the concert bag that their drink bottles were in over his shoulder and pretended to be modelling for fashion week, he even turned around and walked back the other way for a bit until one of the others grabbed him and turned him back towards the main stage.
• In the first or second show 💜Fumi said he was excited that MADE would be backing them at Za again this year because “that kid” would be there and some girls in the left stand shouted “TAIGA” and Fumi said “Yes, Akiyama Taiga”.
• In the third show MC 💜Fumi literally just talked the entire time and then when they got up to the main stage he was like “Does anyone else have anything to say… anyone…. Anyone at all… Hasshi! Tell them about your movie!!”
• They talked about the special solo film clips for Crush on You that you got with the DAN DAN DANCE venue pre-order at every show. They had the solo PV cases in the bag with the drinks and they pulled them out and held them all up. At the show Taiga came to watch, ❤️Hasshi was saying that he felt sorry for the poor Juniors that 💜Fumi was going to make watch his solo film clip over and over again. Then he looked out at the arena and said よろしく大河 (Thanks for your help Taiga).
• In the final Makuhari show 💗Tottsu came and stood at the top of the stairs on our side of the stage for some reason and he stood there for most of the first part of the MC. He was looking at the people in our section and waving, and blowing kisses down to the people in the arena. Ah~ He’s cute!
• At the second show 💙Gocchi got left all on his own to do the MC while the others changed. 💛Tsuka offered to stay with him but he said he would be ok. 💙Gocchi walked half way down the walk way and sat down and talked to us. He said that Ebi had a lot of plays and concerts and Za and CD releases this year and that it must be tough on the fans wallets. (He understands!) As he talked some of the fans started turning their penlights to blue and then by the end the entire arena had their penlights turned on blue. 💜Fumi came out first after costume change and was like “This is amazing! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a Johnny’s concert where everyone has their penlights turned on during the MC!”
• At the third show ❤️Hasshi and 💙Gocchi were in a pair for MC. Hasshi sat down and gestured for Gocchi to come and sit next to him. Then he asked if he could tell the story about when he and Gocchi went out to eat together, and Gocchi was like “Yeah, of course” and Hasshi said “Are you sure???” and Gocchi was like “Huh, why? What happened? I don’t remember!” So Hasshi told us a story of how he and Gocchi went out for a meal but they finished early and he didn’t want to go home so they stopped by a bar for some drinks and that Gocchi cried in front of him for like half an hour. Gocchi remembered and got really embarrassed and fell backwards on the stage, lol. Hasshi said that he felt really happy that even though he was the youngest and Gocchi was the eldest, Gocchi felt comfortable enough to cry in front of him. Then he said they ended up staying out talking really late and Gocchi said they didn’t realise how late it was until they stepped outside and it was daylight already! Then at the end Hasshi said Gocchi was his favourite member and asked Gocchi who his favourite member was. Gocchi looked left, then right, then whispered in his microphone “Hasshi”. Then the camera zoomed in on 💜Fumi who was standing in the shadows on the side of the stage looking furious!
• In the final show they got all of the male fans that were there to call out. I had a cute boy sitting beside me. He was about sixteen I reckon. He was there with his mum and he had a Tsuka uchiwa. He called out as loud as he could and there were a few other voices coming from around the arena but not many. 💜Fumi thanked them for calling out with all their might.

 

Nagoya

• At the start of the MC 💜Fumi could only find four drink bottles in the bag and he thought one of the members was playing a trick on him and had hidden his. ❤️Hasshi was like “We don’t care enough about you to play a trick on you!” Turns out it was in the bag the whole time, he just couldn’t find it.
• They talked about the cool goods that ❤️Hasshi helped design. Then they asked us what kind of penlights we liked/didn’t like so they could get ideas for next year. They spent ages bagging out 💜Fumi’s concert goods from previous shows, poor Fumi. He was down on his hands and knees and actually looked a bit put out. They talked about making a penlight that you put your hand inside but 💜Fumi said that would be no good in case we get electrocuted. Then he put his hand in the air like he was holding a penlight and pretended to get electrocuted.
• They were also bagging out 💛Tsuka for messing up his solo. He was like “I haven’t sung it for a long time!” They made him try again but he messed up the flat notes again. Fumi said he should re-release it on next year’s album. Tsuka said ok, and that he would go all the way to LA for the recording.
• ❤️Hasshi had a solo MC this time. He talked about how every member of J.J.Express has debuted now. He started listing all the members and when they debuted. He started with “Yamada debuted with JUMP” and then like three or four Yamada fans just across from us squealed, it was so loud. Hasshi turned around to them and said “Shut-up” Ha ha ha ha. You tell them Hasshi.
• He also talked about going to his friend’s wedding and that he was allowed to go to the actual ceremony but his friend kept messing up his lines and it totally ruined that atmosphere.
• Then when the oniis came back out they kept talking about marriage. 💜Fumi said he didn’t think he would ever get married at this stage and then everyone went all weird and quiet. Fumi!!!!! Then 💛Tsuka said that his dad was older than them when he got married so there was still time, but that 💗Tottsu’s parents got married quite young. 💜Fumi talked about his parents first date when they were ten! (OMG) He said his dad was really cheesy and that on their first date he was talking too much and not looking where he was going and walked smack bang into a traffic pole! And we wonder why Fumi is the way he is!
• When they were talking about the solo film clips 💛Tsuka said they filmed a lot of different scenes; group scenes, solo scenes, scenes with the girl in them, scenes without the girl in them… The way he listed them sounded so funny though. We all laughed.
• ❤️Hasshi and 💛Tsuka talked a bit about Delsata, since they were in Nagoya where the show is filmed and aired. 💜Fumi got bored while they were talking and started running in a circle, lifting his heels up and kicking his bum. 💙Gocchi was beside him and started laughing and then HE JOINED IN and the two of them were just running around in circles goofing off and then 💗Tottsu got mad at them and told them to stop messing around while Hasshi and Tsuka were talking.

 

 

DAN DAN DANCE

They announced the new single at the first Makuhari show and showed the short preview of the film clip at the others. They talked about it at Nagoya but they didn’t show the clip. The costumes they wore for this performance were the ones that Tsuka designed for the Rinne film clip. 💜Fumi explained that people who had been to see the digital live at Joypolis would know the dance moves, and showed us, but that they had made them a bit different for the concert so see if you can follow along, and then showed us all these elaborate moves that we were never going to be able to follow!

 

Chance to Change

They sang this on the main stage with the twinkle lights on. It was beautiful.

 

夜明けのガンスリンガー

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (This is my favourite song, sorry). They sang this on the main stage too. 💜Fumi started right in the middle and sang his opening lines and he’s just so cool! I can’t. Then 💙Gocchi sang his line and they walked off to the right with their arms around each others shoulders. Right before they went into the last chorus they had all gathered at the top of the main stage and there was an extra pause where Hasshi pulled out a revolver and pretended to shoot the audience. When he did there was a breaking glass sound effect and the back screen shattered!

 

リンネ

They sat down along the top of the main stage to sing this. 💜Fumi was swinging his little legs, he’s so cute! They played the film clip in the back ground. At the end they all stood in a line along the front of the main stage each in a spotlight.

 

Shake it! Like it!

When the shaker music started for this song all of the members stood still in their spotlights, except 💜Fumi, who started shaking around like a loon. Lol. They came out in the arena carts for this at Makuhari and back into the audience to stand on the boxes at Nagoya. ❤️Hasshi came and stood on the box in front of my friend and I this time. OMG he’s so beautiful up close. It was also really cool to see his costume up close and try and pick out all of the different fabric patches and things. My friend said that he winked at me… But I honestly don’t remember it happening??? I’m so sorry Hasshi! I don’t know why I didn’t see!

 

SHOWTIME!

All of the members left and they played a video of 💛Kihara-kun from Bokura no Showtime! He was looking for a girl and wanted us to help him find her. He had a list of three things: 1- She was a big A.B.C-Z fan and loves all the members, 2: She was at the venue somewhere cheering energetically, 3: She had some of the concert goods on her. After the video finished all of the members appeared in random places around the venue dressed in their Bokura no Showtime costumes, running around looking for this girl. 💙Aoshima was standing straight up and just waving one hand like the queen. He was so cute. 💛Kihara was carrying the piece of paper with the info about the girl written on it. He came right up our corner of the stand at the first show, and stood on the box in front of us at Nagoya and was shouting out “Where is she? Have you seen her?” and stuff.  The camera at Makuhari was scanning different sections of the crowd and showing the fans on the screen. They also had big search light style spotlights sweeping the audience. At Nagoya, 💜Komurasaki came out on stage with a camera and was actually filming the audience himself! Then they all met on the centre stage and decided to split up and go look for her! All the members ran off and they played another video of them all in their costumes looking for her around different places.

All the members except Tsuka came back out on stage in their white, shimmery suits that they wear at the end of Za, and finished off the song. Then the 💛Tsuka Rika music started to play!!!!!

 

Man and Woman

🌻Rika-chan came out on stage! She was wearing one of concert goods hair ribbons as a head band, and had a five tiered white fluffy skirt with a strip of each members’ colours around each level. She asked if perhaps she was the girl they were looking for? 💛Kihara and the other guys from Bokura no Showtime came up on the big screen and Kihara said that yes, Rika was who he was looking for because he was actually a big fan of hers. The members and other BnS characters all looked shocked and disgusted! Kihara asked Rika if she could please perform together with A.B.C-Z. So she gathered the members round and made them dance with her for Man and Woman. The choreo was super cute and made for the fans to join in as well! After the first chorus Rika shouted “Watch me Kihara-kun!!” and got down and did a break dance and flashed us all her frilly underwear! When she got back up her wig was all crazy. It pretty much came off in the first show but by the last Makuhari show she kept it on perfectly and everyone cheered!

 

After the second chorus 🌻Rika said “This is so fun I’m going to call my friends!!” Then she ran off and they showed a Rika video on the big screen and it was so hilarious! She was pretending to hold a phone and was making all of the sound effects like “beep boop beep boop” when she pressed the buttons and then “bring bring” when it was ringing, then she told all her friends to come and hung up “kachak”. Then she put her hands up like the hands of a clock and said “tick tock tick tock” as she moved them around. Then finally she shouted “AH, Goseko is here!”

They showed 💙Goseko, dressed as a nurse on the big screen and she said “Shut up”.

Then Rika said “Here’s Shoko!”

💗Shoko had long black hair and was wearing a suit. She said in English “My name is Shoko. What’s your name?” and 💜Fumi, who was kneeling on the main stage said in a really cute way “Fumito”.

Then Rika said “❤️Princess Ryoko”. They showed Hasshi dressed in a pink, sleeping beauty style princess gown, with a tiara and long blonde wig. She looked so grumpy! OMG she was so cute!!! The princess said in a grumpy way “I’m Princess Ryoko”. The audience’s screams were so loud though you could barely hear it!

And last Rika said “It’s 🥕Fumipo” and literally the most horrifying thing you will ever see was shown on the main screen…. Fumipo was a ganguro with blonde curly pigtails and a school uniform. She had a pink lei and a necklace of carrots around her neck. Her eyes were shut and she had fake eyes drawn on her eyelids! She said “I’m Fumipo” then showed us all her carrot necklace and said “Carrots”. OMG! FUMIPO NO!

Then 💛Tsuka came back out on stage in his white sparkly suit and Ebi all danced on stage and the girls all danced on the big screen. 🥕Fumipo can’t bloody see though so she was just stumbling around with her arms out in front of her half the time.

At the end they showed a split screen of each member interacting with their girl version on the big screen. 💙Goseko and Gocchi started off having a dance off but by the later concerts it just turned into Gocchi glaring at Goseko’s sweet moves like he was jealous. ❤️Hasshi leant over and gave the princess a kiss on the lips, 💗Shoko and Tottsu struck the same pose, 🌻Rika and 💛Tsuka made big heart together, and 🥕Fumipo……… turned to the back and lifted her skirt and 💜Fumi got down on his knees and peeped up it. JUST……. FUMIPO! (Not dealing…) Once the song was over all the members left the stage.

 

Black Sugar

They started by playing a really cool intro video for Black Sugar, basically what the start of the mv should have been instead of that weird psychedelic eating the black sugar thing that they did. There were lots of smoke scenes, or effects that looked like plunging into water, and in/out of focus close ups of each member. It was so great!

Then the members came out on the main stage to perform. They were wearing these cool red and black sparkly suits. When they struck their final pose at the end a huge bang of fireworks went off along the back of the stage at Makuhari. (No fireworks at Nagoya though). This was the start of the final spurt of the con where they performed a heap of really heavy dance songs.

 

Sweet Addiction

They came back out to the centre stage for this at Makuhari. This was another really cool, dance heavy performance.

 

幸あれ

They made their way back up to the main stage for this. There was also a part during the chorus where they showed a panning view of the audience on the main screen and Ebi turned around and sang to us on the screen. My feels!

 

FORTUNE

This song was so fun! AH! What a way to go out on a high. My friend didn’t really like it as the final song coz she felt like there was still more to come but I loved it! They had an amazing dance that they did down on the main stage. 💜Fumi was super excited and shouting out “JUMP JUMP JUMP”. AH! It’s such a party song, I love it. They started shooting all this glitter and feathers out of cannons across the front of the main stage. It was literally like a snowstorm of sprinkles, it was so thick! I feel sorry for the poor fans right at the front that got completely showered in this stuff, there was sooooo much of it. At the end made their way back up to the centre of the top level of the stage to the box where they had started. As the music faded out the box filled with smoke again. Then as the whoosh sound at the end of the song played Ebi disappeared and a white flag stood alone waving in the breeze on stage. GAH! I really loved this performance.

 

Encore

Walking on Clouds

パイアール

Take a “5” Train

終電をお超えて〜Christmas Night

 

For encore all the members came out wearing their con shirts over the black and red pants from their last performance. At the Makuhari shows ❤️Hasshi came out wearing one of those bunny hats that has little paws attached and ears that move, as well as some chunky yellow sunnies. At Makuhari all of the members did a lap through the stands on the carts before finishing up on the main stage. At Nagoya, all of the members except Tsuka-chan started up in the second and third floor seats and then came back down through the first floor audience to the main stage. 💛Tsuka stayed down with us and walked around giving out high fives and stuff.

We were just below where the member carts went around in the first Makuhari show and all of the members except Gocchi saw us! ❤️Hasshi and 💛Tsuka gave us huge smiles and waves. 💗Tottsu saw my Tottsu fan friend, pointed at her, then shrugged. She was super excited coz it’s the first time she’s ever got Tottsu fan service! Congratulations. Then 💜Fumi came by. He waved to some fans in front of us and gave them double peace, then he looked down further, saw me, and gave me the hugest happiest Fumi smile and gave me a double thumbs up and I just…. I melted. Omg he’s so wonderful. After they had gone past my friend and I just stood there hugging coz we were so happy! 

 

Ending

All the members gathered on stage and said the usual things… Thank-you for coming. Hope you had fun. Travel home safe. At the Nagoya concert ❤️Hasshi asked each of the members one-by-one if they had had fun. 💗Tottsu said “Of course”. 💛Tsuka said “I had fun. Thank-you”. 💙Gocchi said “I had fun”. 💜Fumi started swinging his con towel around in circles above his head but then it sagged a bit and he hit himself in the face. Then at the end ❤️Hasshi said “Hasshi had fun too!”.

Then Hasshi did the call out: 僕たちとみんなが〜and everyone shouted “A.B.C-Z” and they shot the silver tape out of the cannons and left. 💜Fumi always left first (Noooooo Fumi come back!) I didn’t even see him leave at the last Nagoya con because I was giving a piece of silver tape to the nice Japanese lady beside me because I already had some from Makuhari. (Fumi! I’m sorry!) ❤️Hasshi always left last. Before he left he turned back and said to us “I love you nyan” even though it probably should have been “pyon” since he was dressed like a rabbit, not a cat.

 

Double encore

At the final Makuhari con Ebi came back out on stage for a minute or two and thanked us all again for coming but they didn’t perform any more songs.

At the Nagoya show literally every single person stayed in the hall, no-one even left their seats. We stayed there for like five minutes calling “A.B.C-Z” but then the event staff started to shove people out. It was really disappointing. Everyone really wanted Ebi to come back but they made us leave any way.