Kouhaku & JCD 2016-2017
Jan. 1st, 2017 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spsnAnother year passed by. After a really shitty 2016, I trully wish for a better 2017. Anybody making new year resolution? I'm just hoping that I'll be healthy and happier this year :).
Staying at home watching Kouhaku and JCD has been a New Year's Eve routine as there's no way I'm going to be a part of the sea of humans watching fireworks outside. The hassle of going back afterwards is more than a nightmare than a festive feels.
So the main question is whether the year end shows is better than last year's? Yes and No.
Kouhaku
They're pulling more stunts this year. But the festivity is kind of lackluster, maybe it's the theme or just the overall budget cuts. It's not as glittery as previous years. On the bright side, they're having more of outside studio's live, and even Utada Hikaru live, and some of those outside lives like Shina Ringo and TOKIO were using projection mapping (I'm pretty sure TOKIO was, but not so sure about Shina Ringo's one, but definitely the background was cool!). This time, the enka's performances were doning those gloomy dark ala contemporary dance art exhibition stage, which I find, while it's beautiful and artsy, but is it suitable for a year end theme? Shouldn't we be cheering and be merry for the year end? Other performances that I like was Perfume (the performance feels so futuristic and... cool), Hoshino Gen's Koi song (still think the dance is one of the cutest things in 2016) and RADWIMPS (their stage seems to be more glam somehow, probably Your Name movie major success was taken into consideration). They squeezed in all the trendy stuffs in 2016, from PPAP, shin-godzilla (which is a bit extra and super awkward, and definitely could be done better *side eyeing the production team*) to Perfect Human. Tamori & Matsuko Deluxe side drama was so-so, I'd rather they're inside the studio and hyping the show rather making a separate side story.
What about Johnny's? Aiba-chan did a fantastic job (well done!!!) as an MC. We know how hard he worked and it paid off. But Arashi performance as last performer? I was expecting more tbh, in a very serious note. My recollection of Arashi in Kouhaku is latest stage technology, the cool stuff, the surprise, and none of that happened in the last 2 years of Kouhaku. This year we have the recycled obligation songs medley, A.RA.SHI, Happiness, and One Love. Nice stuff (the background panel show for A.RA.SHI was rather cool, the forest background for One Love was pretty but nothing new), but come on, shouldn't they come out with a bang being a last performer the first time? Did Matsujun even involve in the idea brainstorming?
Having said that, I'm just happy that V6 still show up in Kouhaku, though they sang the recycle song medley too, even more recycled than Arashi's.
JCD
Not having Kinki Kids on the same stage seems to make a difference :(. Guess Andalucia routine has been passed to the next generation of group? It won't be the same anymore :(, but there's always the past years performances to fall back to ;).
Kamen Butoukai with Tonisen and Higashiyama's backflip, was the main highlight, seriously! No wonder they put Higashiyama as MVP.
Yamapi looked damn good in 2016, felt bad that I didn't make extra effort to go Japan and see his concert (spent too much in July Japan trip, there's no self grown money tree).
The rest? the usual fun & full of glitter of JCD.
Arashi was back in JCD w/o Aiba-chan, while having members wearing Jacket with Aiba-chan's face on their back was a cute gesture and symbolize their solidarity, I find that it's a desperate attempt on Johnny's to bring in audience coz you know how much Arashi pull factor is. They didn't bother to pull this kind of stunt years before, why bother now especially when one of them being an MC and they performed the last? They hustled around Arashi from 1 place to another. You can see how much a rush and hardwork they need to pull to be able to fit in all those time constraint, and I hope they get a good rest on New Year's day. *sideeyeing the bloody management*.
Staying at home watching Kouhaku and JCD has been a New Year's Eve routine as there's no way I'm going to be a part of the sea of humans watching fireworks outside. The hassle of going back afterwards is more than a nightmare than a festive feels.
So the main question is whether the year end shows is better than last year's? Yes and No.
Kouhaku
They're pulling more stunts this year. But the festivity is kind of lackluster, maybe it's the theme or just the overall budget cuts. It's not as glittery as previous years. On the bright side, they're having more of outside studio's live, and even Utada Hikaru live, and some of those outside lives like Shina Ringo and TOKIO were using projection mapping (I'm pretty sure TOKIO was, but not so sure about Shina Ringo's one, but definitely the background was cool!). This time, the enka's performances were doning those gloomy dark ala contemporary dance art exhibition stage, which I find, while it's beautiful and artsy, but is it suitable for a year end theme? Shouldn't we be cheering and be merry for the year end? Other performances that I like was Perfume (the performance feels so futuristic and... cool), Hoshino Gen's Koi song (still think the dance is one of the cutest things in 2016) and RADWIMPS (their stage seems to be more glam somehow, probably Your Name movie major success was taken into consideration). They squeezed in all the trendy stuffs in 2016, from PPAP, shin-godzilla (which is a bit extra and super awkward, and definitely could be done better *side eyeing the production team*) to Perfect Human. Tamori & Matsuko Deluxe side drama was so-so, I'd rather they're inside the studio and hyping the show rather making a separate side story.
What about Johnny's? Aiba-chan did a fantastic job (well done!!!) as an MC. We know how hard he worked and it paid off. But Arashi performance as last performer? I was expecting more tbh, in a very serious note. My recollection of Arashi in Kouhaku is latest stage technology, the cool stuff, the surprise, and none of that happened in the last 2 years of Kouhaku. This year we have the recycled obligation songs medley, A.RA.SHI, Happiness, and One Love. Nice stuff (the background panel show for A.RA.SHI was rather cool, the forest background for One Love was pretty but nothing new), but come on, shouldn't they come out with a bang being a last performer the first time? Did Matsujun even involve in the idea brainstorming?
Having said that, I'm just happy that V6 still show up in Kouhaku, though they sang the recycle song medley too, even more recycled than Arashi's.
JCD
Not having Kinki Kids on the same stage seems to make a difference :(. Guess Andalucia routine has been passed to the next generation of group? It won't be the same anymore :(, but there's always the past years performances to fall back to ;).
Kamen Butoukai with Tonisen and Higashiyama's backflip, was the main highlight, seriously! No wonder they put Higashiyama as MVP.
Yamapi looked damn good in 2016, felt bad that I didn't make extra effort to go Japan and see his concert (spent too much in July Japan trip, there's no self grown money tree).
The rest? the usual fun & full of glitter of JCD.
Arashi was back in JCD w/o Aiba-chan, while having members wearing Jacket with Aiba-chan's face on their back was a cute gesture and symbolize their solidarity, I find that it's a desperate attempt on Johnny's to bring in audience coz you know how much Arashi pull factor is. They didn't bother to pull this kind of stunt years before, why bother now especially when one of them being an MC and they performed the last? They hustled around Arashi from 1 place to another. You can see how much a rush and hardwork they need to pull to be able to fit in all those time constraint, and I hope they get a good rest on New Year's day. *sideeyeing the bloody management*.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-01-02 03:01 am (UTC)While they did recycle the medley, and I was expecting more, seeing them sing the re-hashed songs was still lovely and Aiba cried and at the end even Ohno had some tears. (so my daughter said) AIBA- he did sucha brilliant job, and even when there were moments where he was slightly nervous, he made everything work, and he was very natural about it and I think that endeared him to the audience a lot! (ahahaha - even though it wasn't much ... I always love seing Tamori (with so many people we lost this year, and he's not young - well... ) and Matsuko always lovely and funny, if a little bit sad.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Yes healthier in general all round too! We need to keep going neh? Love and hugs you wonderful person you! Look after yourself well ok! - Much love, - Zan.
no subject
Date: 2017-01-02 03:24 am (UTC)Yep, cannot be anymore proud of Aiba-chan!!!
I actually can see why White didn't win this time, read somewhere that the weighing of judge voting is much bigger than the viewer's. Can't really describe it in words, but this year White looks very lackluster, lukewarm, especially if you watch the whole thing together. To me, the most impactful is the last Red's performance, Amagi Goe enka song, I had goosebumps when I watch that, couldn't take myself from looking at the screen. And after that it's Arashi with the recycled songs, tbh, I already lost interest, but if the order is reversed it may not be so. But this is just my 2 cents LOL.
Hope you have a good week ahead, brand new year, hopefully bring better things overall!