Bikkuri Project

Here is the promised review of C-ute’s latest concert tour “Aki Houkago no Essence”. If it seems like I’m focusing on some parts more than others, it’s because I am.

The concert opens with a nice performance of “Tokaikko Junjou”, though I have yet to see a bad performance of that song. Kanna mouthing “are you ready” at the beginning is the best part, but what I’m more inclined to pay attention to are their awesome costumes. Seriously, they’re wearing some of the best costumes I’ve seen from Hello Project in years! I especially like Nakki’s. Speaking of Saki, she gets the award for “most enthusiastic” this concert. I love watching that girl dance, because even if Maimi is technically better, Saki always looks like she’s having a blast out there.

http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1193989294qa4.jpg

I question the wisdom of putting “Meguru Koi no Kisetsu” next, because that’s putting two very demanding dances back to back, and you can tell they’re out of breath. Next is “Sakura Chirari”. All 3 of their major singles in a row in reverse order?? Anyway, C-ute’s first single bores me, and it probably always will. Shuffling in place on stage does NOT count as a dance.

The transition to “Endless Love” is nice. Fortunately, this song does have an enjoyable dance, and I am impressed by how Mai handled her lines, though I remain confused by her having so many of them in a song this mature-sounding. I kind of dislike the song itself though, since it’s recycled T&C Bomber material. Good thing C-ute’s getting a new album so they can have more songs of their own to perform.

The next number, “Time Capsule” is a Maimi/Saki duet. Bring on the only song in C-ute’s arsenal that bores me more than “Sakura Chirari”! It doesn’t help that Miss Saki is not sounding her best here. So, overall, this section is not my favorite part of the concert, but don’t worry; it gets better.

It’s Buono time! <3 Momoko and her speaking voice. I'm quite tickled by the thought of Berryz leads as guests at a C-ute concert. I do like Berryz, but I think C-ute deserves a bit of revenge for playing 2^nd string to the Berryz for so long. It broke my heart a little bit when C-ute was being interviewed, and they talked about how they all attended Berryz Kobou’s first concert and cried the whole time. I doubt Momoko and Miyabi are humiliated or anything, but I do wonder if it stings a little for them to be dancing backup for C-ute during the encore.

Coincidentally, shortly before I watched this I had viewed another C-ute concert DVD. It was their first full concert DVD in fact: Hajimette yo Cutie Show. I couldn’t help but compare the C-ute of today to the C-ute of about one year ago and marvel at how far some of them have come both in stage presence and vocal ability. I can see noticeable improvement in everyone except maybe Airi, and she was already ahead of most of the others anyway, so it’s more like they’ve caught up to her a bit than that she’s fallen behind. I’m going to go ahead and give the “Most Improved” award to Kanna, with Erika in a close second. In their first concert, Kanna can be easily picked out as the worst singer in the bunch and the least confident on stage, but in the more recent show she’s finally holding her own with the other girls. She still looks bit..worried…sometimes, but she’s definitely doing better. Erika has also shown noticeable improvement in vocals. I imagine she’s been working pretty hard on improving her voice. Let’s look at the perfect example from this concert, Erika and Kanna’s duet of “Tsuugaku Vector”. Yeah, Airi did it better, but I’m still going to give these two kudos for doing as well as they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h0xZqFSPeU

Next is “Everyday Yeah Kataomoi”. Aren’t they a little old to be singing this song anymore? Oh well. Just goes to show that you can’t totally take the cute out of C-ute. I like that everyone is wearing a costume of “their” color. It helps you to figure out who is cheering for who when you look out at the glowsticks in the audience. Lots o’ green out there…

Following that, it’s a full group rendition of “Disco Queen”. Awesome! Talk about a song that’s really grown on me. It seems a bit strange to have everyone out there singing what was originally a duet, but I like the look of everyone doing the dance together, so I’m going to give this one a thumbs up.

Bishoujo Shinri is an awesome song, and a nice followup to “Disco Queen”. It’s like they took the dance style and kicked it up a notch. I like how everyone gets lines in the verses, and they all do very well with them. C-ute really is the group with no weak link. They’re not all spectacular, but none of them are bad singers. Airi, of course, does most of the work here vocally, handling all of the difficult chorus lines. Surprisingly, she struggles a little on her first section, though she does seem to get it together by the end, it looks like she’s working really hard to hit those notes. I almost feel sorry for her. Couldn’t they give someone else a line of the chorus to give Airi a chance to catch her breath?

“Massara Blue Jeans” is one of my favorite performances of the concert. The energy goes up another notch from Bishoujo Shinri. I love it when sets build on themselves like this. Maimi stood out the most to me in this number, as she seemed to have energy to spare despite having every right to be exhausted. From watching her, I get the feeling that she really enjoys performing this song. I was rather impressed with her vocals as well, but then it was brought to my attention that she may well be lip-syncing her way though this concert due to having a sore throat. Hmm. Her voice sounded fine while she was talking, but come to think of it, she really should sound more out of breath than she does. It’s kind of sad if she is lip-syncing. I hope she doesn’t have any kind of chronic condition.

Can’t seem to find Massara by itself, so here it is with Bishoujo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y5pgyw5eIk&feature=related

After shedding a layer of costume, Mai and Chisato emerge to sing “Futari wa NS” with Chisato taking Koharu’s lines. This might just be the best thing ever. Attention to whoever makes the setlists for concerts: LET OTHER PEOPLE SING MORE OF KOHARU’S SONGS. I can’t believe how much more I like the song with Chisa singing it instead of “Kirari”. It makes me wonder how many of Koharu’s songs really are good, but I can’t appreciate them with her grating voice smeared all over the music. It makes this performance all the cuter that Chisato and Mai are friends in real life. Wait a minute… is Mai taller than Chisa now?

I’ve already mentioned Maimi’s solo, but to recap: Maimi= too hot to be only 15.

Everyone’s back on stage for the last set. The costumes look suspiciously like they have feathery bustles, but I’m going to let this one go since they aren’t large enough to make the girls resemble exotic fowl. “That’s the Power” is usually a song that I’m fond of, but Erika decided to spice things up a bit by yelling something about towels all the time. I’m not sure if it’s some kind of Japanese cultural thing that I don’t understand, but I found it to be really annoying.

“As One” was good. I had never noticed before, but Maimi and Erika are harmonizing with Airi while she sings the lead chorus part. Is it sad that it’s a novelty for an h!p group to do their own harmonizing on stage? It does seem that some of them are capable, and it really does add something to the show. I don’t see why they don’t do it more often. Also, LoL at Airi always singing “as wow” instead of “as one”.

“Yes Shiawase” is also recycled T&C Bomber fare, so meh. The galloping across the stage is cute I guess. Oh, and Chisato grabbed and kissed Maimi when they were supposed to only be pretending to kiss in a move that will go down in both C-ute history and a plethora of animated GIFs.

I was deeply disappointed that they gave Chisato’s opening lines in “Bokura no Kagayaki” to Airi. The girl has so few lines as it is! Why oh why did you give away some the best lines that do belong to her!?! It’s not that Airi sang them badly, but I was so angry that it ruined the whole song for me.

By the time they get to “Jump” the girls are clearly tired, so it’s not the best performance of the song I’ve ever seen. It really is mean to put a song that requires you to jump up and down at the end of a long set. They give it their all though. I believe that Saki was jumping the highest (which is why she’s the “most enthusiastic”)

Encore! First is “Ookina Ai de Motenashite” with the aforementioned Berryz leads as background dancers. Of course, being “Ookina Ai de Motenashite” it’s adorable, and the addition of Momoko makes it even more so. It’s a Momo kind of song.The final number was “Wakkanai Z”. Not much to say about that one. It’s a good closer.

Whew. That was tiring. Don’t expect any more entries from me for a few days. I need a vacation after this.