Setlist
- OPENING
- 夏 LOVE ロマンス (Natsu LOVE Romance)
- 真夏の光線 (Manatsu no Kousen)
- VTR – Member Introduction
- MC1
- 江戸の手毬歌Ⅱ (Edo no Temari Uta II) – °C-ute
- 涙の色 (Namida no Iro) – °C-ute
- パパンケーキ (Papancake) – Tsukishima Kirari starring Kusumi Koharu
- アナタボシ (Anataboshi) – MilkyWay
- 行け 行け モンキーダンス (Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance) – Berryz Koubou
- ジンギスカン (Dschinghis Khan) – Berryz Koubou
- MC2 – Berryz Koubou
- リゾナント ブルー (Resonant Blue) – Morning Musume
- みかん (Mikan) – Morning Musume
- MC3 – Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi
- 恋ING (KoiING) – Takahashi Ai
- 初めて唇を重ねた夜 (Hajimete Kuchibiru wo Kasaneta Yoru) – Linlin, Suzuki Airi, Ogawa Saki
- チュッ！夏パ～ティ (Chu! Natsu Party) – Michishige Sayumi, Sugaya Risako
- MC4 – Umeda Erika, Hagiwara Mai
- CC (シンデレラ＼コンプレックス) (CC (CinderellaComplex)) – High-King
- 記憶の迷路 (Kioku no Meiro) – High-King
- MC5 – High-King / Mano Erina Debut
- マノピアノ (Manopiano) – Mano Erina
- 常夏娘 (Tokonatsu Musume) – Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Mitsui Aika
- トロピカ～ル恋して～る (Tropica~l Koishite~ru) – Junjun, Sudou Maasa, Kumai Yurina, Okai Chisato, Hagiwara Mai, Arihara Kanna
- 香水 (Kousui) – Tanaka Reina, Shimizu Saki, Tokunaga Chinami, Umeda Erika, Nakajima Saki
- ガチンコでいこう！ (Gachinko de Ikou!) – Buono!
- Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! – Buono!
- MC6 – Buono!
- 笑顔YESヌード (Egao YES Nude) – Morning Musume
- まっさらブルージーンズ (Massara Blue Jeans) – Berryz Koubou, °C-ute
- スッペシャル ジェネレ～ション (Special Generation) – Berryz Koubou, °C-ute
- ラヴ&ピィ～ス！HEROがやって来たっ。 (Love & Peace! HERO ga Yattekita.)
- MC7
- 雨の降らない星では愛せないだろう？ (Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?)
This concert is glimpse of what things will be like once the Elder Club graduates & based on this show the outlook for future large H!P shows is favorable. This concert has a running time of just over 2 hours & it goes by fairly quickly. I didn’t even notice I was near the end of the show until I checked the remaining time left on my DVD player, so I’d say the pacing of the show was just about perfect.
The MC’s for this show were Makoto & Inaba Atsuko. For some strange reason she’s called a Navigator which is kind of silly I think. But what do I know? Whatever, she looked pretty damn good anyway.
The set list has of a lot of the newer H!P releases with some older tracks thrown in every once in a while. Most of the time the songs are peformed live. There are the obvious lip syncing offenders such as the Kusumi Koharu / Milky Way set. Papancake live would have been awful knowing that the recorded version is fairly bad already. So maybe the decision to fake it is a blessing. Due to the dance routine for Anataboshi I can see why it was decided to not give the group live mics. Kitahara & Kikkawa were wearing those plastic headsets from the video so it was pretty obvious that they weren’t going to actually sing.
There was also the predictable outcome of the C-ute / Berryz Koubou set. I knew Special Generation was coming once I saw those 2 groups hit the stage. That song sure gets done a lot during these kind of shows.
Anyway, stuff like that was the only thing I really didn’t like about this concert. The rest was great. I liked that Manatsu no Kousen was part of this show. Not only is it a kick ass track, but it’s nice to hear the layered harmonies sung by so many people. The Tennis outfits were also a nice touch. =)
I liked the Berryz Koubou set but was disappointed with 3 things from their performance.
1. There was no giant banana hanging in the background during Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance.
2. They didn’t perform in the monkey suits.
3. Sudou wasn’t wearing a cape during the Dschingis Khan performance.
Yes, those are 3 very stupid things to be disappointed about but it’s just stuff I personally wanted to see. But their set was otherwise great (especially Dschingis Khan) outside of those complaints.
The other highlight performances for me were from High-King, Mano Erina, Buono! & the last song sung by everyone.
I liked the High-King set because it’s kind of rare to hear a song like CC (CinderellaComplex) from H!P these days. Plus Shimizu & Yajima rocked the dance for that song. Kioku no Meiro was also some good stuff. The intro music sounded like it was changed a little bit but otherwise the track was the same. Maeda sounded kind of shaky during her solo but she still did a good job. I liked how the group’s voices blended together on this song, much stronger than on CC.
Mano Piano was great just because there was an actual instrument on the stage & someone was playing it. It’s also the only song that sounded almost identical to the studio version in every way. By the way, I have a hard time believing that Mano Erina is 17, she looks so much younger.
Buono! is just awesome. Enough said.
The Last song was Ame no Furanai Hoshi de wa Aisenai Darou?, a song that I never heard before. It started out with everyone singing together over a simple piano & string instrumental. Then the Chinese girls (Jun Jun & Lin Lin) got their solo’s. They sung their verses in Chinese & of the 2 Lin Lin impressed me the most. That girl has got one hell of a voice.
The song overall was an example of a power ballad done right. No unnecessary vocal gymnastics outside of the Lin Lin solo. It was a strange way to end a show, but great stuff anyway.
I usually end up skipping the MC segments but for the sake of a complete review I decided to watch them. Most were okay. I believe Inaba’s impersonations of Michishige & Kusumi were the best of all those MC things. That was some funny stuff.
In the end this was an extremely enjoyable concert & it gives hope that H!P will be okay once the Elders graduate.
