Kanjani8 Recital at Fukui, 8/1

Kanjani8’s small summer tour, Recital Omae no Heart wo Tsukandaru, has been on the road for a while. First starting off in Hyogo and then now making it’s third stop here in my bumfuck inaka area of Fukui. I’m from Ishikawa, so for the past three years, I’ve been traveling all over Japan to go to Kanjani8’s concerts in Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. It ends up costing me a shit ton of money in hotel and travel expenses so to actually have K8 come to my own backyard was amazing. I could just wake up in my own bed, get ready in my own apartment, drive my car and get there in 30 minutes, and still be able to get back home and sleep in my own bed.

It felt good, man.

So, Recital. It’s a concert and yet it’s just Kanjani8 bullshitting on stage for about two and a half hours. They opened up the show with a melody, jumped into another melody, bullshitted for an hour, did another melody, band song. Ran away backstage. Two song encore. Ran away for good.

It wasn’t the usual K8 concert fair, but anyway, the set list.

Gamushara Kyoushinkyoku  

K8 come marching stage, and then the music cuts off and Maru literally is screaming on the top of his lungs in this small area without a mic to open up the event. I don’t remember what he said, but in the usual recital fair, it was pretty much the usual we’re about the start the recital, please listen, etc. Then everyone bows and Gamushara Kyoushinkyoku begins. Outfits were, I believe, EJ Coaster? No, they were red. Yeah, they were redish. Anyway, they perform it on stage and we all do the dance and shit.

TWL

They quickly move into TWL and at this point they jump on the carts and make their way around the small arena.  The arena is SMALL. Fukui is SMALL. It can fit roughly around 5,000 people and they’ve actually sandwiched a few arena areas and there were standing only seats in the back. So there wasn’t many places K8 could get around to on those damn carts. They brought the carts into the center of the arena and they did the towel spin thingy. Good thing I bought the towel this time.

Sukiyanen, Osaka

During the end of TWL, they made their way to the back stage on the carts and there was Yoko and Ryo like fucking right there in my face. Like, I don’t know if you could tell but this was my section in the stands:

So the carts would go in between arena and the stands. At the larger Domes, there’s such a huge separation that even though you may have front row in the stands, you’re still separated. Here, it was literally just like bam, Kanjani8 in your goddamn face.

General idea of how the stage was set up. There was no Hanamichi, except roads for the carts to get by around. There was ramps where the carts would get pushed up into the second row of stand. I’ve never seen this happen but at Fukui which is why Fukui is considered one of the best venues to see Kanjani at, the proximity to the members is on insanity levels.

Anyway, they make their way to the back stage and start Sukiyanen, Osaka. Of course, half the members do the choreography like they mean it and the other half just kind of half ass it. I’ll let you imagine who was who (hint, his name starts with an S). During the konto skit for Sukiyanen, Osaka, Maru makes a joke about being in Fukui and that everyone’s outfits are really nice (the pun is that fukui is pronounced in the same way you would say fuku (clothes) ga ii (good)). Also, instead of screaming Osaka, Subaru instead screams Fukui.

Musekinin Hero and Johnny’s Melody

They get back on the carts and make their way to the main stage while singing Musekinin Hero. When they get on the mainstage, it’s time for self introductions. Maru is first batter and makes up a joke, again using the Fukui/Fuku ga ii pun. Subaru hopes all the ladies in the audience are wearing thongs and takes a really long time to get whatever he needs to say… which was mostly he hopes the ladies are wearing thongs. Yasu says some shit but I couldn’t hear because all I kept hearing from the audience was OMFG HE’S SO CUTE. Hina wants all of us to go crazy and also happy birthday to whoever had a birthday even though he didn’t care but someone had a birthday uchiwa and was like dodemo ee waaaaa. Ryo wanted us to know that he is definitely not Matsuzaki Shigeru. Hina wanted us to get crazy and Yoko explained to us that this recital was a way for K8 to get to places that they usually can’t get to and the whole idea was to completely grab all of our hearts and connect us with them and make us feel special and all that business.

So then a bag of costumes are brought on stage and Subaru takes out a fedora and puts on a jacket, with Ryo narrating what he is doing int he background. lulz. Then everyone goes crazy cause Subaru can rock he fuck out of that hat. The camrea is panning on him looking all GQMF and the faces he gives are lulz.

Then someone, forgot who, says they’re going to start the Johnny’s melody.

First was TOKIO’S LOVE YOU ONLY which was sung by everyone, and the whole song, and I sobbed cause Kanjani8xTOKIO is my johnny’s otp. Then it was a bunch of songs I had no fucking clue what they were cause I don’t like Johnny’s beyond TOKIO and Kanjani8 and the Daisenpai. derp, but apparently after google searching they were:

Gingiragin ni Sarigenaku, I believe is a Matchy song. This was a group bit.

Fantastipo. SOBING OH GOD SOBBING. TEARS. I CAN’T BREATH. Ryowhore and Whorekura sung this together on the back stage. Ohkura was Taichi and Ryo was His Holiness Tsuyoshi. Seeing Ohkura do Taichi’s dancing omfg sobbing. NO ONE APPRECIATED FANTASTIPO EXCEPT ME I KNOW THE CHOREOGRAPHY AND I FINALLY GOT TO USE IT OMFG FANTASTIPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO /SOBBING

Ai no Katamari, Maruyasu. Who sang this? IDEFK first time hearing it

Kimi dake ni, Shounentai. LOL Sanbaka. I think Yoko took Higashiyama’s part? Subaru was the good singer and Hina was the other guy.

Aoi Inazuma – I have no fucking clue who’s song this is. Younger groups had this.

Everybody Go – Yoko opened up with a solo on this and I laff’d cause Yoko. He tries though.

Kansha gangeki Ame Otoko – TAKATSUKINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG and kanjani. People went crazy cause Takatsuking is a huge joke on Getsuyou kara Yofukashi.

Itoshi no Napolitan – WHO THE FUCK SANG THIS? IS THIS EVEN A SONG? ALL OF KANJANI SANG THIS FOR LIKE 30 FUCKING MINUTES. I AM NOT JOKING. THESE FUCKERS SANG THIS SONG FOR THIRTY FUCKING MINUTES. CAUSE SUBARU WASN’T SATISFIED ENOUGH AND HE JUST WANTED TO SCREAM NAPOLITAN AND THEN IT WAS LIKE MARU AND THEN RYO AND THEN YASU AND IM JUST LIKE WHY DID I PAY 89 DOLLARS TO SEE KANJANI SING A FUCKING SONG ABOUT SPAGHETTI FOR 30 MINUTES.

The melody ends with She her her She. They run back stage and VTR plays about Kanjani Private High School and the Heart Gatsuri Tsukanda Club. Apparently the whole thing about is that they needed to like grab the hearts or something, IDK. I had to go to the bathroom but when I came back they were dressed in Elementary gym uniforms and Ryo was writing something on the white board against the backdrop of Oekaki.

Then I realized they were just playing the game from Kanpani. Especially when Subaru mentioned the U-ji no Suisou in which someone was like oh god please no.

Ryo was taking ass fucking long to write the lyrics to this shit. Then I think Ohkura was like, ” He’s taking so damn long. Thank god this isn’t TV. ” lol. So then, 10 minutes later, Ryo finally finished his masterpiece and then was like ” play the music again ” so he can be sure that it flows right. Then he’s getting all into it dancing and everyone is like lolloolol. Then he sings it and oh my god… I have no idea….  Ohkura is drawing his and he wonders if this is even okay and thank god this is a concert and not actual TV.

So they start from Hina and his answer is Giraffe. It doesn’t look like one but hey, he tried. lol Then there was Yasu and his answer was kushi, or skewered meat. And Subaru is like, ” YOU TOOK THIS WAY TOO SERIOUSLY “. Because Ryo’s lyrics were all about drawing vegetables, lol. And Yasu was like that’s all I could have thought of. Then they move on to Subaru and he’s like, I have no idea and then he’s like, ” It’s an sex toy. ”

And I swear to god the male fan behind me lost his shit. He love Subaru.

Anyway everyone is like YOU CNA’T SAY THAT and shit lol omfg. But Subaru is like it looks like one! Even though he just wrote a big ??? next to it.

Next is Ohkura and his literally looks like a penis ejaculating on something and Ohkura writes ” Oshikko ” next to it, or “pee pee”. So then K8 is getting all on him and he’s like ” What else could it be?! Look at it ! It looks like a penis!!! ”

They move onto Maru and his answer is Giraffe. They also move to Yoko and his answer is like giraffe. And the correct answer was giraffe and so Yasu, Ohkura, and Subaru have to do a punishment game. Prior to getting electrocuted, they had to do a reaction but Ohkura sucked so he was the only one to actually get electrocuted.

Yoko: You suck. You have the worst personality.
Ohkura: No, I don’t.
Yoko: Put it on your mouth (the electrocution thingies)
Ohkura: Seriously? Are you serious.
Yoko: Yes.
Ohkura: No!

They then nominate Yasu to do the next one since Yasu is good at drawing and writing lyrics and all of that and can’t screw it up but Yasu is like, IDEK. So while Yasu is writing lyrics, Ohkura is off somewhere complaining that he’s going to pass out from heat stroke so they tell him to get the waterbottles but he’s complaining the entire time.

Yasu: Wow.. this is haaaaaaaaarrrddd….. music please…!!!

In typical Yasu-fashion.

So Yoko decides to give Yasu some confidence, ” Yasu, you can do it! ”

Yasu: I wonder~~~

Ohkura: You’re really good at drawing.

Someone: He seriously is!

So while Yasu keeps writing, Ohkura is collecting everyone’s waterbottles but Yoko has drank from his yet so Ohkura is like telling him to drink it but he refuses and then Ohkura’s like, ” You’re just like a baby! ”

Maru, ” Baby!!! Baby!!! Baby!! ”

Yoko, to Maru, ” WTF is up with you?! ”

And Ohkura finally got Yoko to drink his water lol. Then Yasu is finished, a hell of a lot quicker than Ryo.

Yasu: I’m finished! I wonder if you guys can do this….

So Yasu sings his song, “Everyone please imagine this. It’s not that much. It’s a park from the east. Where they have a popular character. What type of animal is it? So quickly draw it! ”

Ohkura is still drawing his picture and some girl in the audience is like, ” You can do it!! Good luck!! ” and Subaru is like, ” wtf. Who needs luck to do this? ”

Hina guesses it’s a mouse, so does Subaru even though it’s creepy as fuck. Then we get to Ryo and he also draws a mouse. But then there’s Ohkura….

” It’s Mickey. ”

Yoko, ” Sure it’s not Snoopy? ”

Ohkura, ” Isn’t it Mickey? ”

Subaru, ” No. ”

Ohkura, ” IT SAYS MICKEY NEXT TO IT SO IT’S MICKEY. ”

Maru draws a Lion and everyone is like where the fuck did you get lion from. Then Maru is like thinking of some park, probs Fuji Safari Park or something and theyre like mou eee wa then they get to Yoko’s.

Yoko, ” Mickey. ”

Ohkura, ” LOOK IT’S MICKEY’S PENIS!! LIKE IT’S TAKING A PISS ”

Apparently the nose Yoko drew looks like a penis, which it kind of did.

Yoko, ” I CAN’T DRAW OKAY. ”

Ohkura, ” LOLOL NO. ”

Yoko, ” NO! IT’S NOT A PENIS! IT’S A NOSE, OKAY! I just wanted to draw the pointy nose, okay! ”

So penis jokes aside, Maru looses and has to do a batsu game but it’s so non-exciting that people just give up and they run back stage and get ready for the local area project. Subaru was the supervisor for the Fukui stop and worked with Fukui’s local Cheerleading squad along with Fukui TV’s announcer to do a dance during Maemuki Scream. Everyone comes out and they look like Ronald McDonald mascots.

Subaru also decides to rock the Pharrell hat.

So K8 decides to talk about Fukui and like Maru’s its all about crabs, dinosaurs, and glasses. So then they wanna know who’s actually from Fukui in the audience and like maybe 20% raise their hands. So then they ask how many are out of prefecture and its like 80% so then someone is like, okay, Ishikawa people? And its about 20 and then Toyama and then Yoko wanted to know who came from Osaka, since it’s pretty close considerably.  Hina is like enough already, we get it XD

So then Subaru is like, since there’s hot cheerleaders and all of that, for the guys to pay really close attention.

The cheerleaders get on stage and they reveal their logo, Fukujani with a crab and a pair of glasses frames making up the infinity mark. So they perform Maemuki Scream with Subaru getting all hot and bothered with the cheerleaders.

They interview the cheerleaders and she’s like TO PERFORM ON SUCH A LARGE SCALE LIKE THIS A DREAM COME TRUE and the band is like DON’T CRY DON’T CRY NEVER GIVE UP and stuff trollololol.

So the dancers leave the stage and Yoko is like, ” The whole purpose of this tour is to get close to the fans that we usually can’t get to ” So they do a ” Tsugandaru Melody ” which made up of It’s My Soul, Aoppana, and Monjai Beat and they travel around the entire area in their carts waving and saying hello to all their fans and stuff. Finally got Maru to notice me yey yey he waaaved, he was like, ” Oh! ” and waved. Yay.

Then they leave, and Canjani appears on screen as a VTR. Just like hey, we’re gonna debut and this. lol im dying idk. Ryo breaks the fourth wall a lot. Ohkura, to Maru, is like shut up ugly, etc. hahahaha it was amusing. They play the VTR to give Kanjani time to set up their instruments. Then Canjani is like, ” HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT? DID U ENJOY IT? WELL BUY OUR SINGLE ” and shit and then they’re like I wonder what Kanjani’s gonna play next and then everyone is like ” Itta jyanai ka? ”

And Canjani becomes Kanjani, screaming, ” Itta jyanai ka?!!!! ”

And band performance. It was amazing. fuck yeah. Then Zukkoke Otoko Michi band performance!! YAAAS.

WHY DOES THE AUDIENCE INSIST ON DOING THE CHEREOGRAPHY DURING A ROCK SONG???

Then Subaru is like, ” WE’RE KANJANI EIGHT!! ” and the gin tape comes flying out and they disappear back stage.

They come back one last time for the encore, which is Mugendai. They mostly have us sing it.  Then they finally thank us and leave.

There was no hand holding or 俺たちは最強の最高で関ジャニ∞ which was REALLY awkward since they’ve ALWAYS done this. That part was kind of like, wow. Awkward.

Other than that, it was fun. I finally accepted, with this concert, that this is the direction they want to go in. This idol squeeky clean Johnny’s bullshit. I have no idea as to why, but if they just wanna be like every other Johnny’s, that’s fine and all… I’m there for the music. Like, there’s more to K8 than pretty faces. I could just be happy watching them bang on their instruments all day than watching them sing about a spaghetti for 30 fucking minutes.

But really, for my last Kanjani8 concert, I enjoyed myself. It was like everything came back around full circle. I attended my first tour, 8EST, at Fukui and I ended my time in Japan with Recital at Fukui. All and all, good times.

I don’t know if I can keep following K8 at this current direction they’re trying to push themselves into. To me, they’re more than just Johnny’s… and I find it unfortunate that musically they don’t want to push the envelope anymore.