KAT-TUN 2 Me

Warning: Post contains little to no KAT-TUN.

“The Mystery of Ohmiya” might sound like a good title to a Nancy Drew book or perhaps even an Indiana Jones movie, but what I actually want to write about is one of the most unusual and fascinating features of Arashi: the Ohmiya relationship. Ohmiya of course stands for Satoshi Ohno and Kazunari Ninomiya, who are known to be a little bit too comfortable around each other, making a regular habit of holding hands, playing grab-ass, and generally being joined at the hip whenever Arashi is together. Sure, it makes the fangirls squeal, but after watching 8 years of this and hearing the other members say time and time again that, if anything, they’re even worse when they’re not on camera, makes it difficult to believe that what we’re seeing is mere fan-service. So what the hell is going on? Is there some kind of romantic relationship? Are they just doing this, as they claim, because they’re good friends and it amuses them? Do they like each other that way but they’re in denial so they tell themselves they’re just playing around? Have they gotten so used to the fanservice thing that they do it when the fans aren’t watching just out of habit? Does my collection of Ohmiya quotes have the answer? Here are some of the better recent ones, arranged from “aw, they’re good friends” to “have you no shame!?”

Nino: Even if we meet every day, I still always mail leader (note: he’s talking about cell-phone mail)
Sho: Really? You guys sure get along well.
Nino: If we’re counting, I probably mailed him about 6 times yesterday.

Okay, I’ll dedicate one line to KAT-TUN. Remember how I have a student named Tanaka Koki? Well, I was tutoring him today when one of his friends called from across the room, “Oi! Kattun!” and he looked up and said, “What?”. The guy answers to “Kattun” rofl

I had no intention of buying the new KAT-TUN calendar… that is until today when some previews were released. I kind of blacked out for a while, and next thing I knew I was staring at an “order confirmed” e-mail. Look at it though! It’s practically a photobook, because it’s in that spiral-bound form. Instead of only 1 picture a month, there’s pictures dispersed throughout! Lots and lots of smexy KAT-TUN, and yes there is shirtlesness. Unfortunately, the spiral bound style will make it hard to scan, but I promise to do my best when my copy arrives! Here are my favorite previews!

Cover! Uhh, what are you doing Koki? Also, I when I said that Jin’s clothes often resemble robes, i didn’t mean that he should wear an actual bathrobe on the cover of the calendar…*imagines him wearing nothing but the bathrobeish thing* Kyaa! I take it back!!

Bakanishi looks so studious

Moar JinJin!

Group shot. Blonde Junno ought to please somebody

Kame is so much prettier since he’s gained a bit of weight/muscle,isn’t he? I mean, he’s still awfully skinny, but his face looks much nicer now.

And so does his body. *drools* Still has tiny tiny nipples though., lol.

Another group shot. Very nice, though I’m kind of wondering what Ueda’s hand is doing.

Oh, I think I’m going to be verrrrrrrrry happy with this purchase.

Thank’s for stopping by,

~Celestia~

Did I just give this feature the worst title ever? Possibly, but I’m kind of in a weird mood, so just go with it. I have a habit of collecting, amongst other things, translations of interesting things said by my favorite idols in interviews and such. Let’s just say that I have pages and pages and pages of word documents full of them, all sorted by category of course. I think it might be fun to share some of them with whatever readers might stumble upon my humble blog. Even if you’re not a Johnny’s fan, I guarantee that you’ll find at least some of them to be entertaining.

Ah, but what should be the themes for this first set? We’ll have to go with my two favorite types, stupid things Jin says and Arashi being all lovey about their group. Since these are by far my most prolific categories, you may expect more in the future. Where I didn’t do the actual translating, I’ve provided links to where I got them from. Credit where credit is due, right? I can’t promise that the translations I did are 100% accurate, but I think they’re pretty close.

Jin: Such an Adorable Idiot- Probably already known to any fan of KAT-TUN, but worth sharing anyway. I mostly got this particular set from a forum…but I forgot where. Gomen ne!

Jin: (During a concert MC) Thanks to all the fans who gave me a Japanese dictionary with the note ‘please get more intelligent soon’. (he has…problems reading Kanji sometimes, lol)

Koki: I’ve started going to the gym recently
Jin: Ah, but don’t eat too many proteins! It’ll make your eyebrows change color.

Jin: I often see molesters, especially on trains. There’s men and women. Actually… more men than women. *considers* Actually…it’s like 5 or 6 times more men than women.

(Out of nowhere when Nakamaru had been talking about his interest in space)
Jin: There are people living on Mars
Maru: Huh?!?!
Jin (totally serious): No really! It’s true!

Jin: I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop. You can’t blame me though! In my dream, I was also on the train, and when it was my stop, I got out like I was supposed to.

Jin: At the moment I don’t have a bed, so I sleep on a futon. I jumped on the bed I had before and now one of the metal pipes is bent and I can’t use it anymore.

Jin: One of my ancestors was Italian, so Italy is practically my hometown!

Arashi Wuvs Each Other -These are my favorite recent quotes, one per member! +1 more of nino because I love him


Nino: When there are the other four around, I don’t need other friends because it’s enjoyable, and that is enough for me.

Jun: Ah! He said it! He is the person in charge of saying “I love Arashi” *laughs*

May 2007, More Magazine

Source

Sho: There’s a conclusion that I got recently, that for me Arashi are friends, work partners, and family… If asked, for our 10th anniversary how would we want Arashi to be, then the answer is, ‘to not change’ because I keep thinking that our present selves now are the best!

September 2007, Nikkei Entertainment
Source

Question: What do you treasure most?

Aiba: Arashi

2007, Myojo

Interviewer: Do you feel different when you’re working with the five members of Arashi than when you’re working alone?
Ohno: Different hmm? When I’m alone I sometimes think “Ah! The other members aren’t around!” When the five of us are together, I feel safe. They are guys that I really trust and so I really rely on them a lot. ha ha
Interviewer: Of course. It does seem like the relationship between Arashi’s members is always rapidly improving.
Ohno: It is, huh? I feel that way too. It feels like Arashi’s atmosphere has somehow been improving every year. Could this be the best year so far?

February 2007, H Magazine

Jun: The relationship with the members… I can’t really put it into words. I feel like it’s a combination of various things. If someone asks me “are you family?” I don’t think it’s that we’re family, but if someone asks, “Are you friends?” I don’t think it’s that we’re friends. It’s more like friendship and family combined. There are things that we can do because it’s us five. If it wasn’t the five of us, we couldn’t have done it!

2007, Myojo Magazine

Nino: We are able to do anything for each other. It’s because we trust each other that we’re able to go out and do the things we like (solo projects). Because there’s a place to return to. There’s this feeling of “I’ve finished what I wanted to do. Now I’m back”

January 2008, Nikkei Entertainment
Source

Lots of Warm Fuzzies!

~Celestia~

I’d like to congratulate Arashi one of their strongest first week single sales ever! Reported sales for “Step and Go” this week are around 324,223 copies, which blows most of their past singles out of the water in just the first week! I’m not exactly sure what the first week sales figures for their earliest couple singles are, but I think it’s safe to say that this is the highest they’ve been in at least 7 years. I am thoroughly impressed that a group can be around for 8+ years and be steadily gaining popularity. Not just popularity, but increasing in CD sales, even as the the course of Arashi’s existence has seen such a dramatic increase in music downloading. Further evidence : each album that they have produced in the last few years has sold more than the one before it.

Other congratulations include congratulating them on getting a prime time TV show (a huge f’king deal, btw) and the announcement of their new dome tour (May-July) at domes Osaka, Nagoya, Fukouka, Sapporo and Tokyo. So far, only Kinki Kids and SMAP have done that tour route. It’s another BFD, and further supports the theory that Arashi are pretty much SMAP’s heirs.

Finally, I’d also like to congratulate them on producing one of my favorite song lyrics in J-Pop: “WE. ARE. COOL. YEAH!!” It’s not the fact that saying so pretty much negates any possible coolness. No, it’s the way they shout that particular line, with all the same enthusiasm that they had when Matsujun’s hadn’t yet learned to pluck his eyebrows, and Ohno somehow looked older than he does today* There’s nothing like a bunch of 24-27 year-old men wearing the most ridiculous costumes that Johnny’s wardrobe department can come up with shouting “We are cool!!” to a crowd of 50,000 people and having those people enthusiastically agree with them.

If you’re keeping track of releases, next week is NEWS (2/27) (but I hate the song, so it’d better not do better than Arashi or KT, grrr), followed by SMAP(3/05), followed by Kanjani (3/12), followed by a week’s break (gasp!), followed by V6 (3/26). I’m not particularly interested in any of that other than to comment that the other groups need to get through their rotation so KAT-TUN can have a turn again! Oh, and new KT album, please! We are desperately in need of one since the last one was so distressingly Jin-less, and another album would likely mean another tour and another tour means a very happy Celestia.

*really, what’s up with him? He’s the oldest in the group (27), he does the most actual singing and dancing in performances, and yet he still looks and sounds the least tired at the end of concerts. The rest of them are pretty much collapsed on the stage panting when they finally finish the last song, and he’s bouncing around, smiling, and flashing peace-signs. Even the other members comment that he seems to somehow get younger every year. The man has discovered the fountain of youth. It’s the only explanation .

Photo-spreads of KT from April magazines are already starting to come out (April? WTF, it’s still February). Anyway, I found the shots from this one to be particularly interesting. It seems like the theme is household stuff, but then a few don’t fit the motif at all. I’m kind of baffled by them. Baffled, but charmed none the less.

I’m going to save the best for first.

Excuse me for a moment. Apron clad JinJin!!! KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Whew. Okay, but seriously, has he gotten even hotter lately? Is that even possible? The picture on the top left in particular makes me go into paroxysms of fangirly glee.

Ueda does some yoga while Junno contemplates ironing the camera. I guess it only makes sense since there isn’t an ironing board or even any clothes around.

For some reason, it would make me happy if these socks actually belonged to Junno.

Hold up. Don’t Ueda’s lips look unusually bright here? Please tell me it’s just the light and they didn’t actually put hot-pink lipstick on him.
Nakamaru takes a nap. Lol

Here’s where my interpretation of the theme starts to break down. Apparently Koki’s favorite thing to do around the house is sit on the stairs looking kind of stoned.

And Kame? I don’t think he’s even around a house. He’s just out looking dapper somewhere.Also, return of apron-clad Jin. <3

This one is from a different magazine, but it’s full of awesome stuff, including Kame going “Kyaa” and covering his crotch, Ueda shirtlessly proving that he is NOT a girl (and that he has very toned abs despite being far too skinny), and Jin in a tank top, because I really enjoy his bare arms. gawd he’s so pretty. mmmm.

In other news, I recently realized that Taguchi was born exactly 6 days after I was, same year and everything. We should celebrate together! Sorry this entry is more full of me squealing than usual.

TTFN,

~Celestia~

How to Build a KAT-TUN, member by member style breakdown:

Kamenashi:

Performance: Employ lots of creative gestures with free hand, looks like you’re slinking/slithering around the stage, spin frequently, especially at the very end of songs, and raise your eyebrows at the camera a lot. Make sure that every sexy little move you make is carefully planned and controlled. The camera is your girlfriend.

Wardrobe: tight pants, probably jeans, and either a long tank top or something tailored like a button down shirt or blazer. Your clothes should look like they’d probably be a bit too small for most little girls.

Akanishi:

Performance: Make sexy faces for the camera whenever possible. Lick your lips, wink, be sneering one minute and flashing sweet little half-smiles the next. Frequently pull your microphone away from your mouth for effect. Give the general impression that you are too cool for all of this and that we are blessed to even be in your presence (we are!).The camera is the sexiest girl you’ve ever seen, and you are determined to make her yours.

Wardrobe: loose jeans, an overly long coat (possibly lined with fur) or at least an overly long vest, likely showing some chest and maybe wearing a hat. Generally, whatever you’re wearing should resemble a robe in some way

Taguchi:

Performance: Bounce around like crazy, grin, wave, and if the song is serious and doesn’t call for smiling, make sure your ‘serious’ look gives the impression that you’re on the verge of breaking out in a cheesy grin. Hyper energy is key here. Try to look bouncy even while singing the slowest of ballads. The camera is your bestest buddy and also, you are both in kindergarten and it’s popsicle day. YAY!!

Wardrobe: clean-cut outfit possibly including a scarf or turtleneck, or a simple long-sleeved T-shirt if the weather is warm. No doubt looking the most put together of the bunch.

Tanaka:

Performance: Threaten the audience and the camera with aggressive gestures. Flash various hand signs, hold your microphone upside down, exaggerate the angry facial expressions, and maybe stick your tongue out. Occasionally sing without really moving at all and just look bug-eyed at the audience. The camera is seriously pissing you off.

Wardrobe: something casual, either a plain T-shirt or tank top with a backwards baseball cap, baggy pants, and some bling.

Ueda:

Performance: Slouch your shoulders, cast furtive sideways glances at the audience over your microphone, hold your microphone directly in front of you with both hands so the only part of your face the audience can see is whatever portion of your eyes are not being covered by your bangs. You really shouldn’t ever face the camera straight on. Always approach it from the side. You think the camera might like you, but you’re not sure. Don’t look at it directly, because you want it to notice you but you don’t want it to notice that you notice it noticing it you.

Wardrobe: a long, drapey, V-neck shirt that shows some chest (do you even own a shirt that’s not a V-neck Ueda?). You should look like you shop at Charlotte Ruse.

Nakamaru:

Performance: When singing don’t really do much. Just kind of stand there and sing with your facial expression saying, “I am concentrating on singing right now” When beat-boxing repeatedly thrust the backs of your hands forward very quickly and dodge your head around. What camera?

Wardrobe: casual-preppy in either a sweater or something hooded. You should be the only one who wears stuff you’d expect to see any normal guy on the street walking around in

Okay, so this is all just me being dumb, but it does point to something that I think is a very important feature of KAT-TUN, and that is the diversity of the individual members. Each one of them has a distinct role within the group, and that is both part of what makes them interesting to watch and what allows them to appeal to a fan base with a wide variety of tastes in guys. One of the perceived ‘problems’ with Morning Musume’s current incarnation is that the members, for the most part, aren’t really distinguishing themselves from the group with a certain role or personality. No one is really “the ______ one”. They’re all just going with ‘cute’. With KAT-TUN, on the other hand, each member brings something different to the table, something vital for the dynamics group. Even their group name could be considered symbolic of this, as to remove a member is also to remove a letter, and if you remove a letter, you don’t have KAT-TUN anymore, do you? Think about it. Kamenashi leaving would be disastrous for a variety of reasons, the dark period in KT’s history that I prefer not to think about was disastrous and it almost killed Kame trying to pick up the slack, KT’s songs wouldn’t be the same without Koki’s rapping or Nakamaru’s beat-boxing, Ueda is the group’s requisite adorable bishounen, and Taguchi acts as a foil to the others, counterbalancing them perfectly.

It makes me wonder how Johnny’s groups are formed. Do they just take a handful of the most promising juniors, stick them together, and hope for the best? After all, not all Jr. groups are debuted. If a group doesn’t mesh, they can always be reshuffled. Alternatively, do they look for certain members to fulfill a formula? If so, it’s a formula which has proven successful time and time again, and I’m determined to work it out. I’m almost tempted to do research into the other Johnny’s groups to find out who, if anyone, fills each of these rolls. It’s not a good theory when it’s mostly only based on two groups, but as far as I can tell, a group need at least one really good-looking guy (doesn’t matter if he’s a good singer, but it’s a nice bonus if he is) (Jin, Jun, Yamapi), at least one guy who can handle the lead vocals (Jin/Kame, Ohno), one guy to be the somewhat shy, feminine, and reminiscent of a cute little puppy(Ueda, Nino), at least one guy to be hyperactive and dorky (Junno, Aiba), and one guy to be more masculine and possibly handle rapping (Koki/Sho). Not sure where Nakamaru fits in. Maybe there should be a ’special talents’ category?

Jin and Kame are pretty much doubled up on the good looking/good at singing part, which I think is kind of unusual. To have one guy who is both the best singer and the prettiest in the group is a rarity, and to have two is quite unheard of. Johnny’s usually spreads the ’star power’ around a bit more, don’t they? I’d imagine that making two groups popular is more profitable than making one group really popular. This unusual arrangement is both one of KT’s biggest strengths and biggest weaknesses.
Having the two of the most popular male idols (likely the two most popular male idols) in one group obviously draws a lot of fans, but sometimes you’ve got to wonder if there’s room enough in one group for the both of them. I suppose that’s another part of the reason that Johnny’s tends to spread out their stars. One Akame is about all that a group the size of KAT-TUN can handle.

Happy 22nd Birthday Kamenashi Kazuya!

~Celestia~

I know I should update my other blog, but I’m spending far too much time making concert screen-caps, and I can’t post until they’re perfect. In the meantime, please enjoy this media-based post.

Behold picspam! I REALLY like all of these brand-new photos. If anyone can get me an actual copy of this magazine, I might just be indebted to you for life. Look how pretty…

click for big on the 2nd two!

You know what, I’m officially giving myself permission to post things about my other, non-KAT-TUN related Johnny’s interests in this blog when I feel like it. That’s the beauty of it being my blog and me being able to do whatever the hell I want with it, you see? Of course, the majority of my Johnny’s interests lie with KAT-TUN, but you’ve probably figured out by now that Arashi also holds a special place in my heart. Here is further video evidence of the reason why. It’s the encore from their most recent concert DVD. I like posting things that make me happy, in hopes that it might make others happy as well, and if you can watch these and not end up with a smile on your face then I’m afraid you might be dead inside.

I have never seen a group appear to be having as much FUN during a concert as Arashi, and I’ve heard many a music-idol name concerts as their favorite part of the job. They’re clearly exhausted and running on adrenalin, but you can see nothing but pure joy on their faces, especially when they’re singing their debut song/theme song (2nd clip). Matsujun in particular is just reveling in it. There was once a heyheyhey telephone box segment where the telephone asked who loved Arashi the most, and everyone argued that it was themself, but Matsujun was the eventual winner. Ohno claimed 2^nd and gave Nino 3^rd (though Aiba and Sho weren’t very happy about that). It makes me sad that I can’t even imagine an argument among KAT-TUN over who loves their group the most. Sigh. Anyway, that’s even more reason to love Jun despite his horrible nasally singing.

…Jin’s still hotter though. AND he can sing.*returns to staring at the pictures at the beginning of the entry*

Is this too much media stuff for one entry? I have super-fast internet at my school, so it’s hard for me to tell sometimes.

One of the charms of Jpop for the English-speaking audience is that it’s fraught with lines of questionable English. Japanese pronunciation of English words with rather creative grammar choices can lead to lots of misunderstanding on our end of things. I’ve done this with my other blog, but today I’d like to share my most amusing misunderstandings regarding ‘English’ KAT-TUN lyrics. Feel free to share if you have any good ones!

“She Said”-

What they said: if you look back I won’t forgive you

What I heard: if you look back I will hit you

What they said: She said “never look back, whatever you face“

What I heard: She said “never look back”. Whatever, you bitch.

My version is sooooo much better (if a bit more violent), isn’t it?

“Your Side”-

What they said: you kiss so smart

What I heard: your kiss is mine

Again, my version is far superior.

“Real Face”-

What they said: riaru wo te ni ireru n da

What I heard: we are the world, te ni ireru n da

We are the world! We are the children! We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start living…

What he said: sawage hollaback!

What I heard: sawage what the fuck?!

It’s the rap line that occurs in the same place as Jin’s wink/tsk only in the 2^nd half of the song. Apparently I tend to hear profanity where there is none. I guess I’m just conditioned by American rap music. Come on though, I can’t be the only one who thought this at first!

“Never Again”-

What they said: unmei wa no fake

What I heard: unmei wa no fair

Like little kids whining, “no fair!” of course, fate probably isn’t fair, so it fits. On second thought, are we sure it’s not ‘no fair’?

“Gold”-

What they said: All I have wanted was another chance to chat, what was my wish of start to another world that lift me to the sky

What I heard: I ever wanted was another chance to show that my wish was to another word and lift me to the sky

There is no fricking way he said ‘chat’! There’s just no way. Sigh. Moving on with this extended engrish onslaught of a song.

What they said: All I have needed was to get back on the track.

What I heard: All I ever needed was to get back underground

What they said: I can feel, it’s for real, this time I will hit back.

What I heard: I can feel, it’s for real, this time Iwish you there

What they said: I used to be the last man in the luck so long. I gonna be fine it’s too big question makes how big a man come along

What I heard: I used to be I’ll ask you please because they got me so wrong. I’ve got to fight to find that question makes you think I’ll come along

What they said: The end of world crying, the end of world hiding

What I heard: She ends the world early, she ends the world early

And, amazingly, I somehow managed to hear Junno’s lines correctly. Okay, so I thoroughly screwed this up, but my version makes no less sense than the original. Seriously, Kame’s spiel could have been lifted right from one of the poems in “Alice in Wonderland”.

I think that the lesson here for all of us is to make sure you check the actual lyrics before you start singing along to your favorite Jpop song in front of your Japanese friends, or you might learn the embarrassing way that just because you speak English doesn’t mean you can speak Engrish too.

Curiouser and Curiouser,

~Celestia~

-CDTV’s popular ‘most wanted lover’ poll results are in. Guess who won (again)??? Why Akanishi Jin of course! I almost wish it weren’t so… more competition for me, you know? Also congrats to Kame for taking 2nd. Other notable rankings include Yamapi in 4th, and most of Arashi at various placings (8th-matsujun, 11th-sho, 15th-nino, 19th-aiba). Poor ohno. I still love you though!

-So speaking of my two favorite Johnny’s groups, I think I might have figured out the connection. KAT-TUN and Arashi might be on sort of opposite ends of the Johnny’s spectrum in terms of I dunno, coolness? friendliness? toughness? something like that. What they both have in common though, is that those two groups have the most impressive dances out of the current Johnny’s lineup (imho). Well, to be more accurate, KAT-TUN has the most impressive solo dancing where Arashi looks the best dancing together, but the fact that every single one of those boys knows how to move is irrefutable. I did dance all through high school, so I’m really into that sort of thing, and while that’s far from being the entire reason I like those groups, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

-For the record, I have very little interest in NEWS, the 3rd group in Johnny’s pretty twenty-something boyband superfecta (the 4th being Kanjani). I question their singing ability, and more importantly, they seem to lack identity or cohesiveness as a unit. KAT-TUN might not always get along, but they mesh when they perform. NEWS somehow feels more like a random collection idols than a functional unit, so it’s hard for me to care about them as a group.

-I have a part-time job at my school tutoring Japanese exchange students, and on Thursday I met my new students for the semester for the first time. I looked at the sign-up sheet, and noticed that one of the names was ‘T. Koki’. “It couldn’t be..” I thought to myself. Then, he came in and introduced himself as… “Tanaka Koki”. I immediately responded, “Oh! Like from KAT-TUN”, and he laughed and said (in Japanese, so this is a translation), “You know, I wasn’t expecting to hear that anymore once I came to America” Well, that’s one student who’s name I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

-I’m home for the weekend, and my Mom happened to come in my room when I was watching a performance of “Real Face” on my computer. I pointed out Jin, and she watched a bit then said, “Well, I was questioning your taste at first, but I’ll admit, if I was your age that wink would have gotten me too”. My mom pretty much despises all things Japanese, so I’ll consider that high praise.

Catch you Later,

~Celestia~

‘Lips’ has officially sold 351,294 copies in its first week, putting it slightly over KTF’s first week! They’re totally untouchable as far as popularity goes right now, aren’t they?

Having listed and explained my top 5 KAT-TUN songs in my KAT-TUN 101 post at my other blog (link!), I’m going to go ahead discuss numbers 10-6 in this new blog. Since I love links, naturally those are included as well.

10. Butterfly- This song isn’t really my preferred style, but Jin and Ueda just look so damn cool singing it that it makes the list. Also, Spanish is sexy, guitars are sexy, Jin is sexy, and Jin speaking Spanish and playing a guitar at the same time is ridiculously sexy. Of course, the fact that they wrote it earns the song extra points. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-LBNRXUnU

9. Yorokobi no Uta- I’m a bit conflicted over this song. I love the verses, but the chorus seems to kind of drag. It feels like it should be a bit faster, you know? The endless refrains of “Aishiteru” (or “Aishitelu” if you’re Kame) are really catchy though. I also like the slowed down “zutto soba ni iru kara” line at the end, because they always make it sound like they’re really singing it to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5AAOaH4rsc Just a partial clip because you don’t really have to hear the whole thing to get the gist of it. Besides, I like this clip because it’s really funny how they almost start giggling for some reason, especially Kame. Also, I adore Kame’s hair like that, and Ueda is one sexy little minx at the end.

8. Will Be All Right- Yay for this song because it really cheers me up when I’m in a bad mood. It’s simple and B-sideish (since it is one), but it’s something that I can really sing along to and enjoy. I’m happy just writing about it. Lol. I love watching Junno in encores because he bounces around like a happy bunny. The drawback to this clip is that Jin’s bandanna offends me. I demand that he remove it immediately! He should probably lose the shirt too. Come to think about it, I’m not totally crazy about the pants either so…. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1309154qR24EmGf?searchId=4259562333021672189&rank=1

7. Your Side- My second favorite of KAT-TUN’s ballads (after Precious One). It’s a really nice song, and remarkable in that some of the less prominent voices in KAT-TUN get a chance to shine. Koki’s voice is particularly surprising here as he gets many more solo lines than usual, and his voice works very well with the song. My favorite performance of this, though, is the one with just Maru and Ueda. Ueda kind of whispers his first few lines, but his voice becomes stronger as he goes. Maru does an amazing job all the way through. It’s extra cute because these are two of the rare KAT-TUN members who actually are friends and hang out in real life. Let’s take a moment to appreciate Maru and Ueda, who often are the ones making Jin and Kame sound better by singing backup for them. You don’t notice them singing those parts very much since it’s only caught on film very briefly, because it’s Akame, and the camera just isn’t going to pass that up for Maruda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1BC0_FxRE

6. Wilds of My Heart- This is another KAT-TUN song that I can really get into. The beginning is great with the building harmonies, but what really made me fall in love with the song was the performance I have linked here. It’s all kinds of awesome. Jin seems to be having so much fun improvising whenever it suits him. Personally, I like the way he sang his line at 1:40 something much better than the normal version and now whenever I listen to the MP3 I hear it that way. Kame’s kiss at the end timed with the fireworks is also very cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-7DZi_RjFU

And for a recap, my top 5 were…

5. GOLD

4. Keep the Faith

3. Precious One

2. Harukana Yakusoku

1. Real Face

So many good songs that still couldn’t make the list *sob*. I might have to list numbers 15-11 at some point too, even if it is a bit anticlimactic to go in reverse order like that.

Zutto Soba ni Iru,

~Celestia~