To be Free

So... I was supposed to be doing confocal this morning... But thanks to the news of Japonism concert DVD release... I ended up doing *some* lab, then spending my time pre-ordering my LE DVD, and of course, making my NM post.

So click here for more information (and pre-order links)!

I was a little late to order I guess... The CDJapan server was already laggy... And I had to refresh a lot... Loads of errors, timeouts and what not.... I didn't even manage to see my order confirmation page lol! But yeah I got the confirmation email (thank goodness that is not delayed!) and later on it showed up properly on my account info so that's good. Forgot to use up my CDJapan points though. Oh wells... :X

Sad that there's no extra footage and stuff. Nope, of course there's no arena footage either. Way too early for that. JE will probably come out with a separate DVD for arena and rip us of our $$$ next year. *shrugs* Can't wait to finally see the Japonism concert though! Ohno's solo and his umbrella magic... Now that'll be interesting.

Okays. I should head down to the lab for some confocal now. Ciao!

Crazy crazy crazy! It started with a tweet...

I didn't believe it at first because what... 1st Jan? It's way too soon, on a public holiday, and it's not a Wednesday. But JE/Arashi keeps surprising us eh?

Miyagi BLAST DVD (And Bluray) is out!!! And will be released on the 1st of Jan next year! Maybe it'll come with the new year greeting post cards thing or whatever, since the first press edition says it coems with a 'letter set'. We'll see. Already pre-ordered my DVD copy on CDJapan... goodbye money!

I'll be updating my post on NM as more info comes out!

So I was checking out the set list post that I made previously...

Cos well... there's a set list on the back of the DVD, but see it doesn't write where the video inserts are.

And I finally realised why the concert video is so freaking weird

Not only were the MC parts removed... the encore greetings and well their ending speech is gone. Thus the feeling that 'where's my encore?', when I was watching. No glamorous heli exit either.

Sigh.

Oh and...

The bad English subs are freaking hardsubbed onto the video. And really big. Gosh. So troublesome. Gahhhhhhh.

Yes! It's here! I came home last night to see a huge box from CDJapan on my table. My LE DVD BLAST is here! I'll try and post some photos... tmr or something. Just finished watching disc 1... and I'll post my comments on it tmr/later this week too.

Just wanted to say... ITS FREAKING HERE! The first ever thing I ordered from CDJapan! Whoohooo!

So I did it! Watched VSA, and a few CMs I downloaded previously, as well as the Kenshin 2nd movie promotion... and finally, LOVE DVD, followed by the 1st Kenshin movie.

Let's talk about the Kenshin movie since I've just watched it, and there is less to frail about...

I loved it! So much action! Of course there was some parts that was changed from the anime/manga, but that's to be expected though and the movie was done really really nicely. I love the actors they found/make up used, they really look similar to the manga/anime character! Like the Jin-e guy. And the police officer... not Saitou... but the bespectacled guy who barely had any scenes and is such an unimportant character that he's name is not in the wiki. And well I can't remember this name from the anime/manga already cos its been about a year since i last watched the anime, and even longer since I read the manga... (that and I have a bad memory for names). Ahhh Kyoto fire next... that part is really exciting! Can't wait to watch it in the cinema! But its split into twoooo! Ahhhh! More waiting :( Hmm that guy with the 'evil' kanji on his back... what's his name again? I keep forgetting his name! Ah yes Sanosuke. I don't like that character that much though, he kinda looked a bit too different from the anime. Quite a waste haha. They kinda rushed his introduction too... Well guess they just didn't have time for a longer intro like it is in the anime. That's why Yahiko's intro was cut out too... maa it can't be helped. The movie isn't as long as the anime after all. But yay! I'm now ready to watch the next movie in the cinema! Hahaha! XD

Now on to LOVE DVD. Finally finally watched it... watched the DVD followed by the funky dance instructions too. Now i finally have a better idea what the funky dance is like, though I can't remember it hahaha! But the concert... ahhhh. Love it! The starting... ai wo utau... wished that intro was a little longer though. I was kinda surprise their first proper song was breathless - yes I can't remember their set list. It didn't fit that puffy, feathery outfit at all to me! Well I'm not that fond of them dancing in such puffy outfits anyway. I know it's the cover the other outfit below but still... Its fine if they are just... standing there and you watch them not too closely from afar... but then they started dancing and naturally I'd pay more attention to each of them but... all I can see is how the are 'shrunken' in that huge outfit, they are totally 'neckless'! They do look grand and princely in those puffy feathery stuff, hence the reason they were wearing those in the opening... but meh, I prefer the outfit underneath more! Hahaha! Well I think feathery stuff can work at times, like it did for one love in a particular concert. But breathless? No no no!

Hmm... confusion came on pretty early, and I love the dance choreo, it made me like the song more for sure. Intergalatic was just pure love. Love the outfit, love the 'dance'. If you even call standing still like robots dance. Hahaha! But I still loved it anyway! I love the slow motion stepping out part that they only filmed for a very short while, and I especially loved it when the 5 of them were just standing still and those back dancers marched through and pass them. Loved that so much! (yes, sorry for my lack of vocab.) That was just too cool. The rest of the formation marching/dance was very cool too, very nicely thought out.

The next highlight had to be monochrome-paradox-calling for sure. You know, I never particularly liked the song, didn't listen to that song much, and so much so that I couldn't remember the name of the song when watching the perf. I had to ask J for the name and only then I realized that it’s the much fussed about monochrome. Yeah, before that I was wondering, is it really that good? I didn't really like the song THAT much in the album. But gosh. It just killed me! That and the dance segment in between. Ahhhhhhhh! It was crazy good! Love how they linked from J's solo to monochrome, using the same chair. Ohhhhhh the shiny gold and black outfits and the dance moves. Ahhh so full of dance! Feels like they danced the most in that portion of the entire concert. And when they rip off the outer jackets to reveal the sleeveless outfits underneath while doing paradox... ah that was so hot! Love sho and his badass rapper hoodie with gold trimmings. Well everybody except for Nino that is. And seeing the recent AnShi, I can guess why they let him off the hook and gave him an outfit with the mesh net sleeve. He's just waaaay too skinny! Hahaha! The intergalactic outfit was cool in a spacey, futuristic way, but gosh monochrome/paradox was the real kakkoii one! Esp the dance in between ahhhhhhh that was just too cool!

Ohno's solo, he sure danced a lot this time! I only watched it once though, gotta watch it more times maybe... but a lot of details in his dance, yes it certainly did make me like that solo more! Nino's solo was... he looked pretty comical to me haha. Maybe it was the yellow outfit as well. Sho's was... ok... well tbh I'm not that fond of that song in the first place (oh wells, let's just face it, I only love fast tempo, upbeat, catchy songs)... and sadly that solo left the least impression in my mind. They did use that 'last man left dancing' thing again though, in the pre-paradox dance segment. Yeah that part was pretty cool. Oh Nino's falling down thing when he disappeared for his solo was cute XD As was the whole rock tonight song. Jun stroking Ohno's face, Sakuraiba butt slapping. They were just so playful! XD Aiba's solo was sad. He sang it beautifully and it achieved that sadness that he intended to convey. And it fitted him somehow. It didn't feel awkward like I felt with some on his other solos... like janakute? I didn’t really like that so much, after his upbeat magical song, I felt that janakute was like... neither here nor there? Maybe its cos I've been listening to more Aiba solos ever since I did the mixlr broadcast, like hello goodbye and friendship. Idk... but I think he did well for this solo. Despite his usual very cheerful self, he was able to pull off this sad song perfectly. Then again, he's always been the emotional one and the crybaby amongst Arashi. Plus, he wrote this song for his granddad who passed away so it is no wonder why he was so emotional when singing it. Okay, he didn't actually write the song himself, but he said that he was quite involved with the song writing/creation process. The song is supposed to be his letter/message to his granddad after all. I didn't know about that happening during his filming for last hope till much later... and only then did I learn about the meaning of his solo even though i've been listening to it for a while...

Funky dance, it was nice to see the audience all dancing together... pretty amazing really. Everyone in the audience, putting in the time and effort before hand to learn the dance moves... and then cooperating to make the performance a success. The waves part were really nice! Hmm what else...? Ah. The ending song. Ai wo utau with the globe. That was just so grand, so grand. It totally fits the 'grandness' of the song. Loved that song, and loved the concert perf. I was pretty amused to see the flowers all lined up in the center of the stage when they came out for the encore XD That was a nice touch. And they could not have done that if not for the globe. I guess they probably thought 'ok, since we got the globe covering the stage, let's do something on stage since we won't get such a chance otherwise. And POOF, the stage was covered in flowers! Hahaha. Hmm pity they didn't like... personalize their concert tees this time. Oh I love sho's jeans though. With the two big sparkly arashi logo behind. So cute! XD But for the tees... they didn’t really personalize it for last year's arafes either. I wonder why hahaha. Maybe they've outgrown the 'cut your own tee' phase? Or did they decide to ban cutting your own tee after Aiba cut his holes too big hahaha! Somehow I especially loved their concert tee outfits this time. Like after all the fanciful outfits, it felt nice to see arashi just like that, stripped of all the costumes and in just what they could probably be wearing at home... Like... the bare arashi. Somehow I'd never had that feeling before. But i really liked them in the concert tee this time. Well I do love the tee shirt too. Maybe it's precisely because it's not been decorated that's why I feel that way? All five of them wearing the same tee shirt, that you could well be wearing at home. Nothing fanciful. It's like seeing the sugao of arashi. I can't find a proper word for that in English. The dictionary meaning is just 'face with no make up', but it means more than just not putting on cosmetics, its like stripping a person down, pulling away all the masks, and what not. Doesn't really mean 'honesty or frankness' either, its more of a showing their real self rather than being honest. Honest is more like saying the truth. Sugao can just mean showing your real self. Without speaking anything. just showing people the real you. Yeah, somehow I reeally liked that part of the concert a lot. Seeing the real Arashi.

Mamaa... about Japanese... I was watching the kenshin movie I downloaded from torrent, and the file came with English soft subs, so I just left the subs as it is - it auto plays anyway... but alas. Idk who did the subs, but its not the official subs for sure... but it was atorcious. Feels like as much as half of the subs were wrong. And by wrong the meaning was greatly off! Totally off! Not like the conan movie where it was just a little off, this was terrible! I downloaded another subs by someone on LJ originally, I think that would be way better quality. But no matter, I understood pretty much everything without the subs anyway (else I would not know that the subs are wrong!)

Hmm well. So two words.
素顔 (すがお, sugao) - As I tried to explain earlier... it can be used in a more... broad? sense to mean showing a person's true/real self. And that's how it is often used when you watch their variety shows. Like seeing the real self of XXX guest on AnShi etc...

阿片 (アヘン, ahen) - Opium
Well this was from Kenshin movie. It's not the first time I came across this word. Well the first would be when I watched Kenshin anime hahaha! XD But yup, if you watch either the movie or anime, you'll hear them say this word like... a million times XD

Saw the links to fanvid of beautiful world performances being posted on youtube...! Not sure how long they will stay up so watch them asap XD Thanks to Masakibaby1224 for sharing these!!! <3 you!

Opening Greetings


Nino's Solo


Aiba's Solo


Sakurai's Solo


Matsumoto's Solo


Ohno's Solo


Energy Song

Thanks to Masakibaby1224 for sharing this!