KAT-TUN 2 Me

I wish I could upload these on youtube… I’m sure I would get a lot more viewers, but since Johnny’s is so paranoid that they won’t even let pictures of their guys appear on the official website for the drama they’re staring in (true story, they usually use a drawing instead), there’s not much hope with youtube. If it’s not automatically censored, it’s taken down within a day or so.

But enough moping. Here’s the veoh version of part 6 of my 100 favorite Johnny’s songs. By the last few on this we’re moving out of the songs I merely “like” and into songs I “really like”!

Watch Top 100 Johnny’s Jimusho Songs: Part 6 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
50. Young Arashi trying to be “tough” is so cute. Scrawny as hell Jun and horribly blond Nino in particular probably couldn’t intimidate a nervous puppy. They’ve gotten better at the “serious” thing, but still nowhere near KAT-TUN’s level.

49. Can’t help it. The parody still sticks in my head. “We’ll each become….. a ho!!!!!!!!!”

47. I know, the sound is a tiny bit off from the video. Sorry if that distracts from your enjoyment of the marching and hip thrusting.

46. So, the day the costume designers brought in those robes for fittings, I imagine this conversation took place.

Jin: I am NOT wearing that thing.

Designers: But… you have to, it’s the costume.

Jin: Hell no.

Designers: Please? Can you at least like carry it over your shoulder or something?

Jin: Sigh. Whatever.

Junno:*twirls* Look at me!! I’m a wizard!!!

*rest of group beats up Junno*

I admit that they’re pretty ugly, but he never did wear that robe once in the entire concert tour.

45. Holds the dubious honor of being the gayest Arashi PV, and not for lack of competition.

43. I know they’re saying “Cherry”, but to me it sounds exactly like they’re singing about some dude named “Jerry”. Even when I try to hear it as “Cherry”, I just can’t. “Jelly” maybe, but never “Cherry”.

42. Creepy moving painting Arashi is creepy.

41. I ended the video on the end of a song so you wouldn’t be left feeling unfulfilled.

~Celestia~

Earlier, I incorrectly reported that Arashi had all 4 top spots in single rankings this year. It turns out that they have 1-3 as well as 5, with 4 going to enka hit “Ai no Mamade”. My mistake. They do, however, have a whole slew of other records, which I just copied from their wikipedia entry in order to shock and amaze you.

On December 18, 2009, Oricon announced that Arashi topped the annual singles, albums and music DVD rankings for 2009 in Japan.^[4] All of the group’s 2009 singles ranked within the top five placings on the Oricon singles charts: “Believe/Kumorinochi, Kaisei” at number one, “Ashita no Kioku/Crazy Moon: Kimi wa Muteki” at number two, “My Girl” at number three and “Everything” at number five.^[4][91] With monopolization of the top three spots on the singles chart, Arashi became the first artist in twenty-one years and the third artist in history—after Pink Lady in 1978 and Hikaru Genji in 1988—to do so.^[4] Furthermore, the group became the first artist in history to monopolize the top two spots on the singles charts for two consecutive years and to have four releases in the top five.^[4] On the Oricon album charts, All the Best! 1999-2009 became the best-selling album of 2009 in Japan by selling over 1.43 million copies, making it the first time Arashi has topped annual album charts^[92] As for their music video collection DVD 5×10 All the Best! Clips 1999-2009 and live concert DVD Arashi Around Asia 2008 in Tokyo, both claimed the number one and two spots on the annual music DVD charts respectively, making it the first time they have also topped annual music DVD charts. Due to their high sales for 2009, Oricon declared Arashi the best-selling artist of the year and awarded them the “Artist Top Sales” (ATS) award with 14.46 billion Japanese yen (approx. US$161.25792 million) worth of total sales in the singles, album, music DVD and music Blu-ray categories.^[3][4] As a result of having dominated three separate charts and emerge as the best-selling artist of the year, the group became the first artist in the forty-two years of Oricon’s history to have such a record in the same year.

Seriously, what can they possibly do that would be an improvement from this?

~Celestia~

Updating from America! (I’m home for Christmas). If you are a Kamenashi fan, you’re going to like this installment.

Watch Johnny’s Jimusho Top 100 Songs: Part 5 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
60. Yes, I may have intentionally timed when I posted my videos so this song would fall right before Christmas.

57. I can has umbrella??

56. Jin looks unusually hot in that shirt.

54. LOVE the little scoopy dance move on the “darling” parts. It’s the cutest thing ever.

53. I always kind of feel bad for Jin and Kame having to wail, “Peaceful daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays!!!” over and over again when the rest of them just chant. Ueda sure is bouncy in this one. Does Jin have that squirt bottle specifically for attacking Taguchi? No one else seems to have one.

52. Again, Arashi album ballads almost always way better than singles as ballads. Seems like it should be the other way around, doesn’t it?

51. Spot the future HSJ members!

Lastly, I thought THIS translated interview with Nino was really cute.

Merry Christmas!

~Celestia~

So, I already posted about how well Arashi’s singles did this year, but wait! There’s more!
Turns out that Arashi has not only the top (4) singles of the year, they also have the top selling album, the top selling DVD, AND the top overall sales.

It’s a clean sweep. That’s fricking fantastic!

~Celestia~

Just watched the new KT DVD! I think my cat has a crush on Nakamaru. He (yes, it’s a male cat), was napping in my lap while I watched it, but during Maru’s beat boxing and later during his solo, he was intensely staring at the screen the whole time. Out of the whole concerts, those were the only two parts he was awake for. Lol.

Overall… there are some great parts, but I prefer the Queen of Pirates DVD. How could they not include any of the “member choice” corner footage??? I was kind of hoping that they would include all of them as a bonus thing, but instead, they didn’t even include one. Lame. Anyway, more about the concert DVD later. Maybe some GIFS if I feel like it.

Here is video number 4, with commentary of course!

Watch Johnny’s Jimusho Top 100 Songs: Part 4 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
70. You know, Kanjani is really more of a comedy troupe than a singing group.

69. Nino and I don’t approve of little Chinen trying to steal Ohno, but I have to admit, he’s a very very talented kid. And I suppose he gets points for liking Ohno before it was cool to like Ohno (aka, before he started staring in dramas). BTW, how long has it been now since hsj released a single? (the nyc thing doesn’t count). Almost a year and two months!? Good Lord. Did one of them get pregnant or something?

68. So cute when Jin pretends he can play the guitar. I mean, he knows a few chords, sure, but playing and singing at the same time is mostly beyond him.

67. Also, I sort of want this song to be a remix of Morning Musume’s “Kanashimi Twilight” and “Resonant Blue”

66. NewS dances are SO lame compared to KT or even Arashi. I understand that a couple of them are dance-impaired so they have to nerf the dances for them?

65. See, there really wasn’t anything this emotional on the new DVD.

64. Riida is having way WAY too much fun here (7:25) (7:41). I mean, they all are, but Riida especially.  One of the best Arashi PVs ever. It’s even got Omiya hand holding (and whatever is going on at 7:10-7:12. Watch their faces.)

63.Pretty song, but the unfortunate-looking one is looking particularly unfortunate.

62. Nooo Kame! Leave your hair pulled back! He had the worst hairstyle he’s ever sported in all his life during that concert. Hey, that’s one point for the new concert DVD. Better hair.

61. Cut out right before the saxophone that ruins the song. This is a song that has really grown on me the more I listen to it.

~Celestia~

Here’s the third part! This has numbers 80-71.

80. Ug. The way the camera keeps shifting around makes me feel nauseous.

79. He can sing better now that he could back then… Still, it’s a really cute song.

78. Encores are by far the best part of any Arashi concert.

77. I have to admit, a lot of the reason I like this song/PV is due to THIS really excellent parody.

76. I wonder whose face looks the most different now? It’s got to be either Sho or Jun. The other 3 basically look the same except for hairstyle. Jun’s gone from a gangly feminine-looking boy to a gangly feminine-looking man!

75. Whenever I see the Kinki Kids, I can’t help but marvel at how much more attractive one of them is than the other…

74. Oh, never mind.

73. It’s a PV and a screen saver all in one! I like how instead of the usual chorus-verse-chorus thing, the song just builds as it goes along. Oh! And I figured out what you’re supposed to shout as an audience member. It’s “Way!”, “Ue!”, “Ne!”, and “Someday!”. I had the “ue” and “someday” part, but I never knew what the other two were. Maybe I should have broken my “use PVs when possible” rule and used a live performance, because the live version really is better.

72. The parts with the real couples are too cute.

71. And that’s what happens to uppity Juniors.

~Celestia~

What? KAT-TUN’s Break the Records concert DVD is coming out next Wednesday?!? How did I not know that?

I’m so excited! Concert DVDs are the next best thing to concerts.

Speaking of which, where would put the odds of KAT-TUN having another concert in Tokyo before mid-july? It’d be nice if I could see them one more time before I leave Japan.

~Celestia~

So…. guess who, according to Oricon, has the number 1, 2, 3, and 4 best selling single this year?

Arashi of course!!! Can you believe it? EVERY SINGLE ARASHI RELEASED THIS YEAR SOLD BETTER THAN ANY SINGLE RELEASED BY ANYONE ELSE. Ya know, I thought they had hit a peak last year, but things just keep going up and up for them.

I’m curious to know where KAT-TUN’s songs ranked. Probably in the top 10, but the whole list hasn’t been released yet. It was just an article about Arashi’s success. Also on the KAT-TUN side of things, well, not much has been going on with the group lately, has it. Two singles in quick succession at the beginning of the year (which was great) and then…nothing. I mean, there’s a lot of Jin stuff right now what with the movie and solo debut song, but not a lot of KT stuff. I’m hoping that will change soon. Not that I don’t love Jin, but all this solo stuff makes me nervous. This isn’t a sign that he’s getting ready to quit the group is it?

Anyway, when I told some of my classes that I went to their concert on Sunday, my students were insanely jealous. Like, half of the girls class got out of their seats in the middle of class and ran up to me to press me for information.

When I go back to this blog, I go back with a vengeance, don’t I?

~Celestia~

I realized that, with regards to last night’s concert, I forgot to mention the audience. One thing that really struck me was the wide age range present. KAT-TUN’s concerts are like 95% girls in their teens or early twenties. At this concert, I had a girl around my age (early to mid twenties) on my left, two little girls around 10 years old or so with their mothers next to them, a pair of women in their late forties to early fifties on my right, and a crowd to teenagers behind me. It is pretty cool how Arashi’s popularity spans everywhere from toddlers to grandmas (I saw both at the concert). And let me just say that all of those different sorts of people (okay, mostly female people) were totally united in their support of Arashi. The energy level in the dome was INSANE. Everyone waving their pen lights like crazy, doing all the hand motions and singing along loudly to every song. During “Fight Song” you could hardly hear anything over the crowd chanting. We were even drowning out the band. The guys even seemed impressed. They kept commenting on how great the audience was tonight. Last Tokyo stop of the tour effect I guess.

And the realization that there is a slim to none chance that I am ever going to be able to see another Arashi concert seriously makes me want to cry. I don’t suppose they could be talked into doing another one in Tokyo before, say, mid-July when I have to go back to America? Would I actually be crazy enough to take a three hour trip out to Nagoya to go to one of the concerts there? I’d have to stay in a hotel for the night…miss a day of work…. Um, I’ll have to think about it.

And now for part 2 of the top 100 series! If you don’t like the songs so far much, just stick with it. Naturally, it gets better and better as it goes along.

Watch Top 100 Johnny’s Jimusho Songs: Part 2 in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
90. Nagase Tomomya has such a great “raw” style of singing. One of the best voices to ever grace Johnny’s for sure.

89. I’ve made fun of this before, but seriously Kame…why are you eating a small tree branch?

88. I likes Aiba’s blonde-ish hair. He should go back to this style.

87. POWAAA ballad! If there is one thing KAT-TUN is not lacking, it’s power.

86. I’d complain about how ugly these clothes are, but I’ve seen them wear worse. Much MUCH worse.

85. V6 is rather likable, aren’t they? (as in easy to like. get your mind out of the gutter)

84. Why can’t you hear the song in the PV to this? Can someone explain the logic to me of having a promotional video that only barely includes the song you’re trying to promote?

83. Love the end of this PV!

82. Those are some crazy hairstyles they were sporting back then.

81. Um. Nice try Nino, but I’d leave that sort of thing to Sho.

~Celestia~

Just got back from the Arashi concert at Tokyo Dome tonight. WOW!!! Is all I can say at first. I don’t even know where to start. There’s so much I want to tell you! The whole way back on the train I was all impatient to get home and update my blog. Lol. Wait! I know exactly where to start.

THERE WAS OMIYA ASS GRABBING. Very important point that. And we’re not talking a quick grab and go. More like a relatively long period of fondling during “Hitomi no Naka no Galaxy” of all songs.

Okay. Back to the beginning. The tickets were indeed marked down somewhat. I got my seat some 15 rows down from the top (read: still really f*ing high up) for about $500. In hindsight, I really wish I had paid more for a better seat. It would have been worth it.

There were several songs on the setlist that I wasn’t very fond of. Then again, there were also pretty much all the songs that I like. I think, and correct me if I’m wrong here, that they sang every one of their singles (some of them twice!) plus like a dozen other songs. Crazy! The whole concert went for nearly 4 hours (3 hours 45 minutes) with three encores. Not to diss on KAT-TUN, but if at one of their concerts you get 2 encores you feel lucky. If you get only 2 encores at an Arashi concert you feel kind of cheated. And now some highlights.

-When the show started, the music starts and some girls are screaming, and I’m like “What? There’s no one on stage? What is going on…oh” for they were all suspended from a giant balloon at the very back of the arena. Pretty cool.

-Aiba seemed determined to dislocate his shoulder by enthusiastically waving at every single member of the audience at every opportunity. Bless his heart.

-Sho loves to do some sort of arm movements and try to get the audience to follow along.

-During his introduction, Jun accidentally said that it was November 6th. He made sure to get the date right on his outro though.

-Nino’s solo was the coolest thing EVER. He played the guitar and sang a sort of rock version of “Kotoba yori taisetsuna mono”.

-Ohno messed up on a line in his solo and said, “Ah! Machigatta!” (Ah! I messed up!) in a really funny way. He must have been flustered, because when tried to leap off stage at the end he lead with the wrong foot and did this really weird kicking jump thing. Both of these mistakes would come back to haunt him in the MC.

-The other solos were Aiba doing Pikanchi (accompanied by the Junior drum line), Jun with a swing/jazz version of Wish that was pretty cool, and Sho with Tomadoi Nagara.

-There were cool fireballs during “Truth”. Lots of other special effects throughout the concert. Water, lasers, fireworks, confetti, you name it.

-Ashita no Kioku was really nice because they showed baby pictures of all the guys. Not just the baby pictures you always see circulating on the internet/japanese magazines. There were a bunch I had never seen before and they were all super cute! Then, as the song went on their pictures started getting older until they were current. Then all the pictures sort of zoomed in together to form the Arashi kanji. That description might suck, but you’ll just have to trust me that it was cool.

-I also really enjoyed the medley of songs, one single from each year. Arashi in the plastic costumes was hilarious. Sakura Sake and Happiness are favorites. Believe is a BIG favorite.

-Speaking of Happiness. I swear Aiba and Sho were having a contest to see who could do the highest spinning jumps.

-I don’t remember when, but at one point, Nino and Sho spent a while running in circles around each other and sort of..flapping like birds? There were a lot of silly dance moments, but that one stood out to me.

-Sometimes they were on personal little float things with a camera-man. Jun spent most of this time shoving his face in the camera to the point where I can say with some confidence that he flossed his teeth today. Nino’s camera man had to dodge around because Nino kept trying to kick him.

MC

-I couldn’t understand all of it, but one of the first things that happened was Ohno taking Jun’s shirt off, much to the crowd’s delight. He unbuttoned it and everything and then handed Jun one of the concert staff’s shirts to wear.

-Sho made Aiba redo one of the pikanchi lines. It had an audience response part, so on the second run through, Sho said he wanted to hear the “manly version” with guys doing the audience response. Aiba said the line and…silence. LOLOL

-Nino called Ohno out on his mistake during the solo. Then everyone made him redo his little leap off stage over and over again. “Okay, do the normal version! Now today’s version! Now the normal version again!” and so on. Very funny.

-And there was the expected talk about Kohaku, Aiba’s drama, Aiba and Ohno’s recent birthdays (Nino said Aiba just turned 42), and a bunch of other stuff that was apparently funny but I couldn’t understand.

ENCORE

-Fight Song happened during the second encore. I think they set a new record for “fewest lines actually sung” Many were spoken, but Ohno sang one of his lines and Jun sang one…and I think that’s it. Of course, the chorus dissolved into a everyone jumping all over the place, with lots of fist pumping and “Oi!”s. Fight Song at it’s best!

-Gori Muchuu was great!  Jun grabbed one of the sparkly streamers that had been shot into the audience and tied it around his head. Then he jumped up on the stand in front of the crowd so those lucky bitches in the front of that row could actually touch him. Sho was waving his red concert towel like a matador flagging a bull.

-At the end of Gori Muchuu, there’s the “3,2,1 Jump!” part, but the band kept doing the drumroll and holding the last note so they had to do the “3,2,1 Jump!” thing like 7 times.

-They sang my girl at the end of that encore.

-After the second encore, there was no way the crowd was moving until we got another song. We started hearing their voices, “Hey? What’s wrong? Why don’t you go home?” teasing us. Then they showed up on the screen from back stage and pretended that they weren’t going to come out again. They said “goodbye and thankyou” again and then walked off camera (Nino leaving last with a sudden super-cute smile), but the crowd just wasn’t having it. So they performed A.Ra.Shi! Kyaaa! I will never ever get sick of that song. Ever.

And now, my feet are killing me, getting up for work tomorrow is going to be awful, and I’m a good deal poorer than when I started out. But going to this concert was such an amazing experience it’s way more than worth it. There’s something really magical about seeing a group you love in person for the first time. Until you do it, there’s a part of you that just doesn’t quite believe they’re really real people. I was in the same room, singing to the same songs with the members of Arashi tonight. How dumb of me to think I could even put a price on that experience.

~Celestia~