Opening Act: Lovelys!!
I feel like I should probably pay attention to this Kansai act some more. I don't remember them being too noteworthy last time, but between the Winter concert and now they seem to have improved a lot. The four girls have a much higher charisma, one of them even has a gimmick where she has this tiny stuffed toy on her shoulder and she introduces him as a part of the group, considering I remember her because of it, it's a pretty effective gimmick. Their singing and dancing has gotten more solid as well.
1.Medley : Taiki Bansei -> Love take it all -> Taiki Bansei / All
This was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The Taiki Bansei parts of the medley are more focused on dance. The groups are all mixed up and intermingled and section of got their own little moment. The choreography on this is so elaborate and complicated. Girls are running off and on stage, they are arranged in patterns that look amazing from above and every girl is on point. It must have taken forever to practice and get it right. When it shifts into Love take it all, it becomes more about singing. Most of of the lines are done in solo and not all the girls are on stage at once so it's like a bunch of mini shuffles going on. Love take it all is my favourite C-ute song so seeing this performed made my day. All the girls gathered back on stage then and the music shifted back to Taiki Bansei for a bit of a grand finale feel to this number. I was left feeling really impressed by H!P and their staff.
2.Oheso no Kuni Kara Konnichiwa / Hello Pro Kenshuusei with Kobushi Factory and Tsubaki Factory
The Factories are only here to fill the chorus out, as all the solos are KSS. I only mention this because Ichioka and Kaga were definitely the focus, they are the only ones to have gotten more than one solo (the rest got only one, though Funakki got the first solo which I feel is important. I do think H!P knows they're sitting on two girls who would be fantastic in groups)
3.17sai / Tsubaki Factory
Tsubaki is doing as much as they can with this song. I don't think the song is a very good... idol group song. It's got such an awkward beat to it. They all sang it strongly though and their dancing was good.
4.Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san no Uta / Kobushi Factory
This dance is mesmerizing. Rei is especially so. When she's not performing she's so... quiet looking that I'm always taken aback by the amount of charisma she has on stage and how natural she is as a dancer. The main note I have about this though is that Rikako was one of the girls sitting on the side and she was rocking out hard core to this song. She was practically head banging, and she was getting Murotan all into it as well.
5.Wakatteiru no ni gomenne / Country Girls
Momochi's got herself a "wig" (it's only a mask type thing on a stick really, it gives her some two-dimensional grandma hair) and a quick cover that looks like a kimono. She wears it for the introduction and her monologue in the middle. It was hilarious to see her throw it on, do the line and then quickly throw it off so she could look all adorable again as they continued the song. Manaka did great with Ozeki's line, but more so than Uta, CG really suffered without Ozeki's presence. All of their performances were a bit too sweet and fluffy. Ozeki had always added a bit of spice and balance to the mix. I was pretty stubborn and had a blue light for all of their performances in honor of her even though she was sick and not there. I was surprised to see that quite a bit of crowd also had blue lights up. Ozeki has gotten pretty popular.
MC - Maimi and Mai with Makoto
The MC was about the girls showing off photos from their cell phones. Mai's was a photo of her finger, I didn't quite catch what was up with it. Maimi's though cracked me up so much. She starts off (before showing it) saying that since this is Osaka, she wanted to show us something within that theme. Up appears a photo of... Takoyaki... but every takoyaki has been replaced with a photo of her cousin's head. She then informs us that this is "Oden Takoyaki"
6.Ima Sugu Tobikomu Yuuki / Morning Musume. '15 (Maachan, Nonaka main)
I'm a bit embarrassed to say I pulled out a pencil and paper when I remembered that this was going to be one of the performances. Out of the three songs I felt like this is the one we knew the least about and I wanted to make sure I caught who the solos were. To quote myself from the single's thread: After MaaChel, Sayashi and Mizuki have the most prominent ones and the other usual suspects have a line as well (Sakura and Ayumi). Other than them, Eripon, Harunan and Maria each have a full line.
I hadn't realized Eripon or Maria had gotten a line from the concert rip at all, and I was most surprised by Maria's. I guess Maria is going to get pushed a lot by staff, or maybe it's to make up for the fact that she doesn't have a monologue in Oh my wish!. Eripon on the other hand, I think, is getting an actual push here (and not just a "special one time" thing). For not only does she get a solo line, she's gets to be in the special dance break dance with Mizuki, Riho and Ayumi, a spot that used to be Sakura's and in this song there is no "Sakura's needed to be a singer and can't be on the dance team" excuse. I'm pretty happy for her.
The dance is nice to watch, it's very flowy and there's a few "flying" gestures incorporated into it. I liked watching it, I think it's become my favourite song out of the three...
7.GIRLS BE AMBITIOUS / Juice=Juice
8.Eighteen Emotion / Angerme
9.Tsugi no Kado wo Magare / C-ute
Out of these, only GIRLS BE AMBITIOUS has something I wanted to note. It is such a rock song. Sayuki's voice is perfect for this song, especially live, but I was really impressed by Yuka who belted out out her lines with a voice I didn't know she had. She sounded amazing @_@
Gymnastics and Ribbons (Rhythmic Gymnastics) Dance Performance (Ikuta, Nonaka, Hashimoto main)
Let's be honest here, the only thing any of us in the crowd was watching were Nonaka, Hashimoto and ESPECIALLY Ikuta. The Ribbons in the background were just entertainment and distraction as they set up things for the three girls to do. Nonaka and Hashimoto were great, but Ikuta's tricks always toppled theirs. It was the Ikuta show and once again I'm happy for Eripon. She might not be getting center in a single, but she's being pushed and rewarded within H!P in many other ways.
10.Heroine ni narou ka! / Tsubaki Factory
11.ROCK Erotic / Kobushi Factory & Tsubaki Factory
12.Ai no Dangan / Kobushi Factory
13.Nen ni wa nen / Kobushi Factory
I haven't listened to the concert rip of Tsubaki Factory's first performance of Heroine ni narou ka! But I was really impressed by them here. Kiki, especially caught my eye, she's got charisma to spare that girl. This song is much better than 17sai and shows their abilities more (they also seemed to enjoy it more). I felt they did the song justice. For ROCK Erotic, the choreography was a bit stilted (almost like they hadn't known where they had wanted to go with it) which is such a shame since the original choreography was so interesting. The singing was great though. Every girl had a solo moment and ability wise you couldn't tell a Tsubaki girl from a Kobushi one. Now I should mention that these Tsubaki performances were Ami-less and I did wonder if maybe that made a bit difference. I hope though that UF* starts pouring all of their pushing into Kiki. Kiki has a glimmer of ace potential to her (the same glimmer I see in Rei in Kobushi).
Ai no Dangan... was... amazing. I think the arrangment might have been different? Maybe a bit harder? All I know is that Kobushi's performace of it was so much more than any Berryz performance of it that I've seen. Kobushi are... amazing live and amazing with a rock song. They have an amount of energy to them that no other H!P act I've seen has or had (maybe one of the older groups that were before my fandom time?). When their performance finished, I was left wishing that that was a song they'd perform often in times to come.
14.Hajimete no Happy Birthday / Country Girls
15.Uwaki na Honey Pie / Country Girls
16.Tamerai Summertime / Country Girls
As mentioned before, without Ozeki, I found CG a bit too sweet to handle. Manaka got a few moments to shine during the "in between" "medley-esque" parts where she got a focus on her dancing. Uwaki na Honey Pie is such a great song, but bittersweet to listen to because it's full of Tsunku's voice.
MC
Dance performance from a newly reorganized/reshuffled Hello! Station Dance club
The MC was so short all I can remember from it is that Sayashi was the focus of it. It seemed like they literally only talked enough to get the first dancers ready and once they were up they were finished. As for the Dance performance... it was even better than Winter's performance. @_@ The choreography is astounding, I can't wait till it comes out on DVD so I can watch it again. Sayashi and Manaka were the ones I couldn't take my eyes of of the most. Sayashi just has such a smoothness to her dancing that it really hypnotizes me. Manaka was given the only solo focus and for good reason, she rocked it out and in general just... wow. I wanted it to last longer than it did. All the newer Dance club girls did really well as well.
17.Ijiwaru Shinaide Dakishimete yo / Juice=Juice
18.Watashi ga iu mae ni dakishimenakya ne / Juice=Juice
19.Erabareshi Watashitachi / Juice=Juice
20.Mystery Night / Angerme
21.Suki yo, Junjou Hankouki / Angerme
22.Gashin Shoutan / Angerme
Watashi ga iu mae was great to see. The difference in ability between when that song came out and now is great to see. As for ANGERME, the choreography for Mystery Night and Suki yo were pretty awesome. Because of the size of the group they've been more "formantion dance'y They don't just stand in a line now. And everyone is just so... leveled up right now. ANGERME has really grown into a powerhouse of a group.
23.Help Me!! / Morning Musume. '15
24.One.Two.Three / Morning Musume. '15
25.Password is 0 / Morning Musume. '15
Help Me!! only did one of it's verses (more medley-esque things happening) and in that verse Zukki picked up Sayu's old solo parts (one of them being the line that was originally Reina's). We of course already knew who picked up Sayu's parts in One Two Three (Oda and Maria mostly). The choreography for Help Me!! with 13 girls is amazing to see. That 'V' has gotten so large and more impactful. Password is 0 on the other hand is a bit hit and miss. I think the 'miss' for me though is because I was on the third floor, viewing them from above and the '0's lose their shape at that angle. Because of that it felt a bit messy. The song itself sounded great though.
26.Tokaikko Junjou (Shinsei naru ver.) / C-ute
27.Crazy Kanzen na Otona / C-ute
28.Iza, Susume! Steady go! / C-ute
C-ute were great, of course. Maimai had a fantastic focus with her introduction to Takaikko Junjou. It's hard to describe, it's definitely a performance to see though. Iza, Susume! was a song I got introduced to from their previous concert. It's a great concert song, but I was so tired by this part it was hard to get my energy back up again, lol.
29.Souda! We're Alive (updated) / All
For the final song, they separated off into their groups. It was great to hear this song with so many singers. When they finished each group got a focus/goodbye and then the show was over.
It's so odd not asking for an encore, but they way H!P concerts are set up, there's no way encores can happen, haha.
