KAT-TUN 2 Me

I wonder if Jin, the resident English speaker, understands what that means. If he does, you can bet he’s laughing his ass off.

Choose your punchline!

a. What, were all the “kiss me, I’m impotent” shirts taken?

b. And you thought Momoko’s “rock like fuck” jacket was surprising

c. Johnny’s has clearly started taking drastic measures to avoid losing their stars to shot-gun weddings

~Celestia~

Sometimes, I don’t really feel qualified to write about the musical quality of my favorite JPop groups. My own experience with performing music is limited to a short stint playing clarinet in high school, and I’ve never taken any kind of singing lessons. That said, I do know a thing or two about dance. I’ve been taking lessons all my life, and I was one of the captains of my high school dance-team which placed 2^nd in the State three out of the four years I was there. The fact that we placed 2^nd rather than first is kind of a sore spot, so we won’t go into that, but my point is that naturally, I find myself very interested in the dancing skills of my favorite idol groups.

Fortunately, there is no lack of dancing skills in Johnny’s. If you look at my two favorite groups, KAT-TUN and Arashi, you’ll find that they’re all good dancers, every last one of them. I’ve made comparisons, and the Johnny’s boys are MUCH better dancers than their American counterparts (BSB, N*Sync, etc) I attribute this to the fact that Johnny’s Jr’s work primarily as back-dancers, so to stand out from the crowd enough to be placed in a unit and debuted, you almost have to be a really good dancer. You might be good at singing, but if you can’t dance, I don’t think they’ll give you enough of a second glance to realize that. This wasn’t so true in the time of, say, SMAP, but with the more recent groups, dancing is at a premium. From preliminary observations of newest debuted group Hey!Say!Jump, I’d say that trend is only becoming stronger. I’ve also read many interviews saying the Johnny’s really don’t do much voice training, but they do A LOT of dance training. Well, they are idols after all, and how they look on stage really is more important than how they sound, isn’t it? Bad singing can be hidden, to a certain extent, by the other members or using lip-syncing, but bad dancing is much harder to disguise. Of course, a group can’t primarily be made up of bad singers, or their music will be disastrous, but, as Matsujun definitively proves, it is not necessary for all the members of a group to be competent singers. I would argue that for the current groups it is necessary for all of the members to be competent dancers.

For fun, a member by member breakdown of dancing styles, ranked by my personal opinion of how good they look.

KAT-TUN

1. Junno- 1st because I think he’s the best technical dancer (as in technique, not technicality). I’ve seen him do a lot of technically difficult moves, kick-spins and triple+ pirouettes for example, and because he looks the most spirited

2. Jin- sexiest at dancing for sure, he makes it look really effortless. Especially good at pop and lock style or anything that involves rolling his hips. Of course, this only applies if he happens to remember his choreography. Lol.

3. Kame- not technically the best, but the smoothest. He reminds me of Michael Jackson (just his dancing, not the creepy/insane pedophile thing), good at twirling

4. Koki- kind of dances like he’s attacking someone, good at break-dancing and aggressive-type stuff. Very energetic.

5. Maru- surprisingly good at dancing, but he never stands out, and his “blah” facial expression detracts from his performance

6. Ueda- is quite graceful, but he’s not very sharp (a bit timid with the moves) and he tends to fade into the background. He is very good at the hip-rolling thing though.

Arashi

1. Matsujun- Natural grace and rhythm combined with lots of flair. He’s probably the most naturally talented out of the bunch when it comes to dancing. With his long limbs, he has the potential to look gangly, but since he’s so well-coordinated, it just makes his moves bigger and his dancing more impressive.

2. Aiba- Very energetic and sharp. He always meshes with the group nicely

3. Ohno- Has less flair, but he’s very precise. If his arm is supposed to be parallel to the floor at a certain point, for example, then it’s going to be exactly parallel to the floor. He practically never makes a mistake or looks awkward, and he gets bonus points for making up a lot of the choreography. Hmm, he probably should be 2nd, but I just like Aiba’s style more really. Ohno’s dancing is almost too perfect.

4. Nino- is a really good dancer, maybe the best…by himself, but his style is quite loose and so it sometimes comes off as sloppy when he’s with the group. Still, he’s always right on beat and never half-does any move, so while he does stand out, it’s not really in a bad way. Also, he can kick really high!

5. Sho- only gets last here because he can be a bit stiff at times, kind of the opposite problem Nino has. He just doesn’t quite flow as well as the rest. The rankings on the other 4 are somewhat debatable, but I’m quite confident that Sho belongs in 5th. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad dancer though! Just that the rest of them are really really good.

The final segment of this entry is video examples of some very nice dancing by these boys.

First, an Arashi performance of “Right Back to You”, possibly my favorite of their album tracks. Arashi never fails to impress me with how much choreographed dancing they incorperate into their concerts. They tend to do more lip-syncing in lives than KT does, but if they didn’t, I’m afraid that with all the dancing they do they would drop dead of exhaustion by the end of the show. Anyway, Arashi dances usually lean towards the cheesy, so this ‘cool’ dance is a nice change of pace. This is no easy dance they’re performing either. It’s full of very quick, precise isolations. If they were doing anything not quite full-out, or they weren’t almost perfectly in sync, this would look like a complete mess! There are a few moments where they’re not quite matching up (sho messes up around 0:22), but overall it’s great. I especially like Aiba’s dancing throughout this, how cool Jun looks at 0:36, and Nino’s move at 2:41. Sexy! Damn. The more I look at this, the more I want to teach myself this dance.

Enough of Arashi though, let’s focus on KAT-TUN.

Here’s their little dance solo-introduction things from KT’s ‘real face’ tour. First there’s a short dance, but it’s kind of lame choreography, so don’t pay attention to that. I chose this clip for the later parts that focus more on each member. Then there’s individual cam-whoring segments (funny how well they all fit their personalities), and lastly short paired dances. Jin and Kame don’t so much dance as sex it up for the camera on their turn (last pair), but I’m perfectly okay with that. I really enjoy their little, “what” pose at the end. The cam-whoring order is kame (sexy), jin (SEXY), ueda (cute but please never do your hair like this again), koki (tough then funny), maru (lame), and junno (dork!).

See what I mean about Junno’s technical dancing skills? I certainly love barrel turns (the jumpy thingys), and those turns at the end are impressive. 6 without his other foot touching the ground, by my count. Sigh. I can do 3 if I’m lucky.

Jin solo that’s full of amazing sexy dancing! *squeals* The most of the actual dancing is toward the end (like 1:05 on). Oh those are some dirty lyrics there JinJin. There’s also a really funny cameo by Kame.

Dancin’ All of the Night

~Celestia~

I posted some of Jin’s brilliant one-liners already, but this time I’d like to focus on a few that are a bit longer as well as one very short audio clip that you MUST listen to. I’ve come to realize that the thing about Bakanishisms is that they’re really best taken in context, because a lot of the humor comes from how the things he pipes in and says often are from way out in left field and barely connected to the current conversation at all. Don’t worry though. I still have plenty of choice moments to share that don’t require me to transcribe ten minutes worth of dialog. They’re not all exactly stupid…per say, but of that special random/dumb/adorable hybrid nature that can only be classified as ‘Bakanishi’. Hard to describe, but watch Jin for a while and you definitely know it when you see it. My comments are in purple.

Interviewer: If the members of KAT-TUN were musical instruments, what would they be?

Jin: Kamenashi would be castanets… no, the director. Tanaka would be the drums, and Taguchi the flute. Ueda is the guitar… wait, no, the piano. Nakamaru is the amp and connecting cord, and I’m the castanets.

1. ‘director’ is not an instrument

2. Neither is ‘amp and cord’

3. WTF castanets??

March 2008, Potato

source

Scene: Shounen club, some Johnnys are telling stories of when they first met. These are great examples of things that aren’t so much dumb as random and out of nowhere.

Nakamaru: The first time I met Jin was on the second day of our audition. He came up to me and asked, “Are my eyes swollen?” And I thought, “How should I know? I’ve never met you, so I don’t know what your eyes looked like in the first place”, so I just said, “Maybe a little bit”

Jin: What? I don’t remember that at all!

Koyama: I remember the first time I met Jin too. We were at a studio recording and he suddenly came up to me and said, “Your eyes are really narrow”

Nakamaru: Eh??? That was what he said to you on your first meeting? That was the first thing he ever said to you? as a greeting??

Jin: I definitely didn’t say that!

Koyama: You did! I didn’t know what to do, but since Akanishi-kun was my sempai I bowed and said, “Thank you very much!”

2007, Shounen Club

Scene: The members have to write little individual messages about their new single “Signal”. Koki is reading Jin’s aloud.

Koki: This time the world’s attention is focused on the 5 of us. (NOTE: kat-tun has 6 members). We have released our 2^nd single. Please listen to it before sleeping! The song name is (various things have been written here and then scratched out)…eh…so please listen to it!

He knows neither the number of members in his group nor the title of their new single? It’s a one-word title! Also, for the record, his handwriting is atrocious. Oh Jin, I do worry about you sometimes.

July 2007, Music Station

Scene: Cartoon KAT-TUN episode with Erica Toda. They’ve prepared her favorite noodle dish using her mom’s recipe. Erica tastes it.

Erica: Ah! This tastes just like my mom’s!

Jin tries it.

Jin (with his mouth full): Mommy!

This earns him a well deserved swat on the head.

January 2008, Cartoon KAT-TUN

Scene: Cartoon KAT-TUN concert MC. The topic is “dramas”

Nakamaru: Speaking of dramas…

Jin:Anou, Dreamboys…

Nakamaru: No!! (Note: Dreamboys is a stage play, NOT a drama.)

2007, Concert MC

And I could go on and on and on…really, you have NO idea how many of these types of things I have. Oh, and don’t feel bad for Jin being shot down by Nakamaru like that, because he’s always taking shots at Nakamaru. Actually, ‘Jin being an ass’ will probably be featured in a future quotation qorner.

And finally, a very short clip from Jin and Junno’s radio show. Apparently Jin is trying to come up with a catch-phrase for himself like Junno’s “iriguchi deguchi taguchi desu!” thing. What he comes up with is just….wow. Just wow. DOWNLOAD ME!!

Another Server

Source

Still here? Okay then, I can’t resist posting another adorable Ohmiya exchange that I just found.

Interviewer: Okay then, were there times in 2007 that you looked at your work partner and thought about how cool he is?
Ohno: Nino’s altogether cool.
Nino: Leader’s also altogether cool.
Ohno: Even when we’re eating, I really don’t know, but he’s cool.
Nino: From the time he comes onto the scene, I think he’s cool. As expected, I think I just respect him.
Ohno: Yeah. I was thinking I feel respected. That’s what I had felt (laugh).
Nino: I adore Ohno-san. Anytime, anywhere.
Ohno: Nino’s profile is really nice when he’s playing games and other such things.
Interviewer: So then, what about points of cuteness?
Nino: Every bit’s cute.
Ohno: Every bit’s cute. I think he’s cute every day

2007 Fan Club Letter, source

Admittedly, the interviewer is baiting them but still… If I heard a normal, straight and openly dating couple say those things I’d think it was kind of nauseating, but coming from Ohmiya I just think, “Awwwwwwwwwwwww”. You know, Ohno and Nino are many wonderful things, but I’m not so sure about ‘cool’. Also, every bit huh?

Celestiafuuuu~

Don’t get the sign-off? Listen to the audio clip then.

High quality versions of the new KAT-TUN calendar photos have surfaced. You’ll have to excuse me for not being able to find a way to properly introduce this, because right now I am having a lot of trouble putting together a coherent sentence. My impulse is to just type aldksfnalneasndfklandsfioaewrouaeiwhrnfaoedfij for a few pages, but I am going to try to control myself in order to share some of the sweetest eyecandy I’ve ever (seen? tasted?) only made sweeter by the fact that it will soon be mine in hardcopy. Out of the 79 calendar pages containing pictures, most of them full page or double page spreads, I’ve picked some of my favorites that I didn’t previously share. It was a difficult task because almost every picture is stunning, and I made myself give the other members a chance instead of just posting all the pictures of Jin.

No reason not to start with a picture of Jin though, is there? He looks a like some kind of young businessman, and since he’s wearing all black he’s most likely the type that’s evil and corrupt and powerful and deceptively charming and sexy andadlfk;neoiwrnafioboidcvuweqdlakneoickl

I’m back. Cap’n Junno here snapped me out of my reverie.

And suddenly he’s blonde again! Seems that the shirtless pics were taken quite a bit earlier than the rest of them. Anyway, Junno might win for best shirtless photo-shoot. Doesn’t he just look positively swishy? Kame’s was good, but you know, those two freckles on his chest are kind of distracting. Junno suffers from no such affliction.

Ueda looks so…Ueda-like in this picture, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Hold up! Why is the driver’s seat on the left side of this car? Japanese people drive on the left side of the road, so the Kame should be sitting on the other side. Was this photo taken outside of Japan, or did they ship in a car that cannot be driven on Japanese roads just for the purpose of this shoot?

I think there’s not enough Maru-love in this blog, so here’s a picture of him with a puppy. Awwww

This man has the sexy pissed-off stare down to an art form.

Holy fucking shirtless KAT-TUN, this picture alone might be worth what ever ridiculous amount I’m paying to have this shipped to me from Japan. I very much want to nibble at their collar bones. Don’t they look delicious?

You thought I could think of a clever sign-off at a time like this? HA!

~Celestia~