Berryz Mansion

久しぶり～

It’s been a while since I last visited the Land of the Rising Sun; and just about as long that I’ve seen my Berryz, having last met them in New Jersey last June. With no concert tour in the fall, I was going through a little bit of Berryz withdrawal, heh. No worries however, as I’ve got my Japan/Berryz fix just recently, by taking the trip out there last week. There, I got to see Berryz Spring tour in Osaka four times over the weekend. I had a great time of course, and I can’t wait to see them again. As per usual, a few thoughts and highlights…

The album songs from Berryz latest I thought were good, but I wasn’t really impressed until seeing them performed live. Succha ka Meccha ka was a lot of fun and had a lot of energy. Chinami and Maasa were great performing Nandakanda de Ii Kanji!, with the 3 little Eggs (Kenshuusei) as background dancers. The dance was really simple, but I just loved it. Momochi and Yurina were great with Otokomae; and Captain, Miya and Risako were elegant performing Koi Itoshiki Kisetsu – I really enjoyed the slow solo lines, Captain’s in particular was the highlight of the song for me.

Chinami~, ah to see that smiling face again, made me happy. We had as many as little connections as we always do at these concerts with me sitting up close to the front of the stage. She was just looking in my direction at one point during an MC and I flashed a peace sign whilst holding up an orange heart light stick, producing a smile from her in acknowledgement. Little things like that, it’s kind of weird how she makes me feel.

Someone had asked me why Maasa is my number two, and I had a hard time coming up with an answer at the time. In any case, I’m reminded of her Berryz Kamen Red days and all the MCing she has done over the years. As it relates to this concert, just watching her and Chinami interact during their MC was a little reminder of that. I don’t know what it is exactly.

Captain fell during one of her solo performances of Sprinter! Uwaa, I just wanted to rush to help her up or something. I perhaps only mention this, because at a later show, Momochi fell as well. I felt no desire what so ever to rush to her aid, lol. Man that sounds mean, haha, but I’ll say that I’ve got nothing but love for all the Berryz girls. More on the Captain/Momo front, during one of their little mansion skits, Captain was showing some dolls she had got from Disney (eh, don’t trust the summary too much here, my Japanese sucks). Anyway, one of the dolls was wearing an outfit from Berikyuu’s Amazuppai. Captain mistakenly said that it was from Chou HAPPY SONG, which Momochi was quick to correct and scold. It was interesting to see a little friction there.

“Yurushite nyan~” *sound of failure played by the staff* *Chinami raises an arm and cheers* Aw, it seems like I’ve been picking on Momo, but I just find her to be entertaining.

Risako, ugh, she still has me under her spell. She looks at me, I look at her, smile, she smiles back, I run out of the concert hall and jump off a bridge. Ignore that last part, but the spark is still there and every time something like that happens, it makes me want to, I don’t know, hurt myself. Ah, I’m not explaining this very well, haha. Risako is probably the only Berryz who has made me feel, uncomfortable, I guess is what I would say. There’s an expression or something, “so cute, you could die.” Well, maybe cute isn’t the word I’m looking for, but that’s the idea. I’ve written about this before, and she was dancing for me again this time, anyway.

Yurnia was elegant(?), beautiful(?), stunning(?), in her solo outfit. Enough on that. Her MCs were cute and although it does seem she was a bit setup to fail her little challenges, it did kind of remind me of her past displays of airheadedness. She was too cute trying to come up with answers to the challenges, pacing, almost doing a little dance on stage while doing so.

Miya’s voice was on point as per usual, and well, that’s all I have to say I guess. Her voice was just really strong and her performance was top notch.

I really enjoyed the concert, seeing Berryz and friends again. So, until next time.