Sunday, February 24, 2013

Japan Day 3 - Mano Erina ~Otome Legend~ For the Best Friends


Hana no zubora meshi.

Look who's 3 year old picture is hanging around at the hostel entrance.

Pepper Lunch for lunch. Not that overly expensive, crappy store we have in Melbourne pretending to be some gourmet food.

Nakano Sun Plaza.

Getting in line for goods at 12.30 for the 3.30 show.

Stupid Mano Erina t-shirts always look crap. Why cant they design better looking shirts.

Staff member taking videos to be used at the end of the show.

Unfortunately, my seat was on the last row. Not as bad as Scandal in Budokan but not as good as being 8 seats away from Erina two years ago. Should have had the foresight to bring binoculars like the dude next to me.

Set list wise, this is the perfect Mano Erina show. All the crappy songs were relegated to the medley section. I bloody lost my voice cause every song was chantable. So happy she did the full Sekai wa Summer Party.

I hated Banzai when it came out cause it sounded like it was trying to hard to be a sing along but man, is it fun to do so. Only in Japan can you get away with a chorus that goes Banzai, Banzai, Lucky, Lucky!

OMFG. Why are the Jpop gods this cruel???!! Fujimoto Miki concert on the same day as the Nipponbashi Street Festival???!!! I've always wondered how it would be like to hear Mikitty sing Romantic Ukare Mode live and chant along and this is my chance. I could just go to the ticket reseller in Harajuku today.


Seriously, it would be very fun. On the other hand, she's only got an album with like 5 good songs. I`m betting shes going to sing it twice. Plus I`ve got a few more concerts to go and Nipponbashi SF would be something different and something I`ve always wanted to do as well. The best alternative to Comicket. Counter argument is that I can always go Nipponbashi Street Festa another year. What are the chances of me singing along with Mikitty, `Miki-sama, Miki-sama, oshioki kibonnu` which means Miki-sama please punish me? Decisions, decision....


I really love the part in Next Myself when the audience sings the Next Myself part Mano-chan sings the next line. She brought up that the staff members wanted the whole Datenshi Eri skit but in that time they could have done 3 songs. I whole heartedly agree. More songs please which is why I just adore the set list.

Plenty of fuck ups in this concert which I love. Mano-chan misplayed a key during the first song though hardly noticeable. She stuffed up the start of the second song which was LaLaLaSoSoSo and made fun of herself. Live and stuff ups is great. I don`t want bloody perfect pre-recorded performance. There were some problems with the sound where the speakers lost connection three times during the concert.

Erina really spiced up the songs by changing keys and variations to them which I really like instead of trying to sound like the record. I want to hear her play her piano without a background track though.

She started crying a bit during the Arigatou song which I don`t like. Just find it a bit boring for the second last song.


Last song was of course, her best song, My Days for you.

Can`t wait to watch the concert on my PC.

My ticket. Thanks as always to bframe for acquiring it for me!

Roast katsu plus cheese. Should have went for regular katsu instead. Instantly fell asleep when I got back. I must have been way more tired than I realised. Lesson for the day, spending more money on seats is worth it. Got a whole day of Street Fighter today while I ponder Mikitty vs Nipponbashi Street Festa.




My favourite Mano Erina song.

Addenum

Lot more female fans compared to two yeats ago. Probably cause only two shows for whole country. There was a cute female fan holding a sign asking for tickets and she was still there when I got out.

Erina said that she got cast as a regular in a Fuji TV esper dorama as a regular.

I'm guessing graduation means more tv related work.

Tsunku, Berryz, Smileage and C-ute appeared via prerecorded video. I was expecting Tsunku to show up for the 2nd show.

If I find out that Matsuura Aya showed up at the 2nd show, I'm going to jump off Tokyo Tower.

What are the chances Ayaya shows up at Mikitty's concert?



15 comments:

Antspace said...

It's fun to see your day has started on the other side of the globe : )
Mine is just finishing.
Wishing you a pleasant stay and looking forward to your posts : )

Anonymous said...

I usually enjoy visiting your blog after work when I have the time. These days not so much.

I need to win tattslotto. Or help a few people buy it and accidentally purchase an extra one thats a winning ticket. sigh.

Jung said...

omg thank you for getting yourself a decent camera this time. we can now variously live at 720P =3=3=3

Enjoy your stay...

So jealous!

Nyasha said...

Wow! Looks like you had a great time!

I wish her the best of luck in the future! Her change to an actress seems like a good decision.

Wewi said...

Ahh nice clear photos!
makes me so hungry.. need to try the real pepper lunch now :(
have lots of fun! take millions of photos!

Slack said...

Before the concert I was afraid I'd be the only person in the audience that wasn't Japanese. I knew Mano Erina doesn't have a huge international following, but there was a notable lack of internet chatter about going to see her graduation concert. Meanwhile I was making her graduation the main point of my trip.

When I got there, I met two others from Europe, one whom I met a couple years ago during a Dream Morning Musume concert. At that point, I thought it was just us three. Now I know that since you were present, there were at least four.

Akiramike said...

Did you go first or second show?

Slack said...

As a die-hard Mano Friend, I went to both. First show was 11th row right, second show was 15th row center.

Akiramike said...

Damn, you had good seats. Did she stuff up again during the second show?

Slack said...

The trick to getting good seats at idol concerts and events is going to Gorakudoh, which is on Takeshita Doori in Harajuku.

The second show went smoother than the first one. I don't remember any problems such as messing up her piano playing or the audio cutting out like in the first show. The MCs basically hit the same points, but when Maimi and Momoko came on to surprise her. I'm also told that most of S/mileage was present in the audience, except for Fukuda who was sick.

Oh, and getting a seat that close for the first show meant I got to take home some of the metallic streamers they fired into the audience. They all had her name and the tour title written on them.

Akiramike said...

Can I ask how much you paid for the tickets? Bframe found a ticket for the second show on yahoo for $25000 and I should have gone for that. Dunno about the seating though.

Slack said...

There were at least a couple dozen tickets for resale at one point. They were going for something like ¥10000 on the low end up to around ¥40000, with an average around ¥20000. They list off the row and a general range of seat numbers for each ticket they have for sale, so you can pick the general location you want.

According to my receipt, I paid ¥10900 for the afternoon show (11th row) and ¥20000 for the evening show (15th row).

I believe the most expensive one I saw listed was front row right in the center, which they were asking ¥160000 for at the start. Since that's a ridiculous price, it was marked down to ¥98000 by the time of the concert. To my knowledge, no one bought it.

I'm sure there were quite a few on the first floor that weren't resold. In fact, the seat next to mine was empty for the evening show.

Almost all of the tickets you can find at Gorakudoh are put up for sale by fan club members, who can advance-order tickets for the best seats directly from Up-Front. They're often printed with special designs, and come printed with the name of the fan club member that ordered them.

Here is a photo of the tickets I bought.

Akiramike said...

Decent price. I paid 15000 for mine. How long before the show did you get your tickets? Reason I ask is there was a girl standing outside the venue with a sign asking for someone to sell her a ticket.

Slack said...

I bought mine on the 22nd, just a day before the concert. As I said before, I think there were still quite a few left on the 23rd. When I bought mine, there must have been at least 20 or 30 left.

I saw that girl too, right before it was time to go inside. It's sad that fans who wanted to go just couldn't, but not everyone knows about that shop I guess. I considered telling her about the place, but it was already too close to showtime for her to benefit from that knowledge.

Akiramike said...

20 or 30 left the day before the concert? Wow. Either they were all sold out or the girl could not afford the tickets.

I should have gone and checked for Mikitty concert tickets to see the prices.