Event / Concert Sakurazaka46 BACKS LIVE!! [2021.06.16-18]

I'm so hyped today my coworkers were ready to kill me two hours ago lol

One thing I wanted say before I forgot it, is how much I'm appreciating the lack of complicated scenography for this event.
I guess one of the reasons is the audience coming back, which take away the excess of empty space, but I don't mind.
I think it's a good contrast with what we get usually, and it gives more time to focus just on members.
After all, this is all for the girls.

Happy 3rd day everyone!

 

No scenery, no distractions, everything at point-blank range, in a circle like in an ancient Greek theater... This is war with no enemies, the girls need to conquer and capture our minds and souls!

20 minutes to go and time flows so slowly...

 

1. Nobofa - Inori
2. Plastic regret - Harada
Dance track
3. Hanshinhangi - Matsuri
MC
4. Microscope - Kosaka Marino
5. Guuzen - Seki
6. Kimi to boku to sentakumono - Berika
MC2 (Seki and Takemoto still struggling with saying Aoi-chan and Rina-chan / Talking about the training period. Remembering the choreo even in their sleep etc.) // Apparently we (as in fans) are Buddies now, if you haven't heard it already
Dance track 2 (new members performing solo parts)
7. Blue moon - Moriya Rena (Gonna say it again, Rena is too good in this)
8. Saishuu no chikatetsu - Uemuu
9. Omotta yori - Akanen (new ad-lib choreo parts in the middle)
MC3 (Shin 2ki reading letters of gratitude to Fuyuka and Akanen / Also from senpais to Kira, Marino, Akiho and Hikari) Good job on ALMOST holding these tears
Clapping game and ass shaking game (Can't say no to Matsuri's direct request, I'm sitting here clapping as well)
10. Sore ga ai - Habu-chaaan
11. Naze koi - Reirei
12. Buddies - Kira
13. BAN -Takeyui
Encore
14 - Sakurazaka no uta
DOUBLE ENCORE
15. BAN -Takeyui

 

They are all so beautiful!
Loved Inori Nobofa... there it goes her solo lol

Marina will be a great captain someday, already an amazing Mc



Edit:
It has been so good!!!
I need time to process everything and go back to work too after the encore but... there's no part I didn't love.
We are finally, finally, starting for real.

@turbogig thank you for the set lists and yeah.. I was clapping too... and dancing Buddies like the fool I am, but that is another story lol

Well... we are officially Buddies now lol

 

Glad to get the ChuukeBAN encore. Missed the first half of the first two shows, but what I saw was fantastic. Was able to catch all of the last one. I’m just happy for everyone. I think this should instill more pride and confidence in members who don’t typically get a ton of chances. It should also, of course, raise their stock.

Also happy that Hikari gets to be the final image of all three of the shows.

 

Third day is over and it was really good!

Things I learned today:

• I understand now why some girls are in 3rd row.
• I do not understand why Takemoto is 3rd row and was not included in BAN at all. She was gorgeous. Are her handshake sales so bad?
• Renaa Blue Moon Kiss, Ozono Naze Koi and Masumoto Buddies make me incredibly happy and I want to see that again, please
• Whatever Habu does, no matter what song and choreography, it suddenly looks super graceful >D

Overall, I hope they will someday shuffle Sakura8 more than they did between 1st and 2nd single. I understand why they stick to the formation for the first few songs, but there are some hidden gems in the 3rd row and I would love to see them shine one day.

 

I talked about it on Twitter already, but Inori really killed her Nobofa. The wait for 2 days was worth it.
Also, she gave the honest answer with no more than necessary lip service during MC-time when asked why she chose the song

 

A nice article about the event with a lot of pictures: https://www.crank-in.net/news/90967

So Inori said that she chose Nobody's Fault because she was upset she was left out of the senbatsu for that song, and then Yui Takemoto said something similar about why she chose BAN.

 

I loved the intensity in Inori's eyes during Nobody's Fault. She did a great job with it.

 

I loved Inori too... I just wishes she blinked more during Nobofa lol
B-sides are finally going to be part of my playlist, but in this live version. Some members just suits them perfectly and it would be a shame to not enjoy them. Even Sakura no Uta is growing on me... again, who would have thought?

Mcs and dance tracks have been great, I smiled a lot, clapped a lot, danced a lot and really loved this new 2ki-1ki unity. Step by step, little by little, differences will be set aside and Sakura will go on as whole. And Akane-Kira dynamics is the cutest thing EVER.

I'm glad many members grabbed people attention more then they ever did or in different ways they did before.
There's a lot of potential there and I truly hope mngmnt is gonna give it more chance to develop and fans a bit more recognition when it comes to M&G and HS.

I don't wanna make a rank of who did it better and so on, because all the girls worked hard and it shows; but Marina has been an exceptional MC for 3 days, and that is not a easy work like it seems.
While distances are being destroyed, there's still a palpable friendship between the 1st batch of 2kisei that comes out from time to time. It's there, it's obvious, it's growing and it's truly beautiful to witness in any form.
Closing this, even though there should be so much more to say, my MVP for this 3rd day is absolutely TakeYui.
She has been my very first fave from 2ki and she never disappoint. Her BAN version put together Akiho energy and Fuuchan skills... a perfect closure for last day, yet, her variety skills are as much as good.... and did you see her in Blue Moon Kiss? Marina saw her too lol

But the best of the best thing for me has been to see the girls have fun and to be happy to be there. Together.
Their smiles are everything. They should be proud of what they created in these last three days.

Now I really wish we could see the W-Keyaki-thing

 

Unfortunately yes, her meguri results weren't that great over the last two singles, and we know for BAN the senbatsu members were made up of the members who sold out the fastest for Nobafa. Here were the results.

-

Aside from that, I was extremely pleased at the whole show. During the MCs the members spoke about how much they were practicing on their own for the live, until the early hours of the morning. Giving the members this opportunity to shine in the center was truly a great idea and gave them the drive that was probably lacking from being excluded from Sakura Eight. I would honestly love for this to be a yearly thing, a show were we can see new members take on the challenge of new songs and new centers.

But not only was it great for the members' individual growth, but you could see the increased buzz and new interest among fans. Renaa's BMK was a huge hit, "ChuukeBAN" was trending in Japan, and even the author of Borderless was tweeting praises for Hikari! Renaa's towel also sold out on Day 2, showing how many fans she gained from the show.

As @Dill mentioned, Marina hard-carried the MC portions and kept the energy up with her leadership and confidence on that front. I hope those who were criticizing her personality on SokoSaku realize what an important presence she is to keep morale up.

It wasn't a flawless show (it killed me that we got ZERO costume changes!) but it was what the members needed. Especially for the 2.5ki who hadn't had the opportunity to perform in front of an audience as Keyakizaka/Sakurazaka before.

 

Oh man! Yeah! The lack of costumes change was almost painful. Those poor girls in the same costume for 3 days with 1 change for 1 song more or less...
and since we are saying what we didn't particularly liked.. camera work has been fine most of the time, and then they would miss the girl singing lol Not an easy task when it comes to our choreos live, but it could have been better.

Also, did I said how much Rei broke my heart with every single smile? No? Well that too happened lol

About senbatsu, I'd take out my very old suggestion (Hiragana-time old):
discard Saku8, there isn't a single fan who like it anyway; divide the group into 2 balanced senbatsu and give a single each rotating the center.
...Too complicated?

 

Not gonna comment for the live, I've said too much already from the videos you all collected after the first two days (and yes I'm mad they're gone but Sony has all rights to do so). For me, it was my first time byuing a ticket and attending an online live and the whole experience will remain forever in my mind as an unforgettable event. I've never felt so CLOSE to the girls I know and love for over 4 years now and yes, I won't miss any future event from now on as long as we can have access to tickets.

My most important conclusion is that, whatever this event may have been, it was ALSO and experiment from the part of the management. No way it couldn't have been so, the opportunity to test all girls except the "8 queens that sell so well and fast at M&G" was so tempting... I hope they reached their conclusions and I hope that they realize they should treat all girls (more or less) equally. Because opportunities that are well-received and exploited from the members' part will affect M&G results. Yes, I expect my dear Akipo or Marino or Fuu-chan or Aoi-chan to do better, and I expect that what Dill says above:

...is NOT too complicated for S&F. They are smart people and they should see what kind of gold they have in their hands. I should point out that Dill implies that this "splitting" in two groups will not be permanent (as that would create two competing groups within Sakurazaka) but be randomized every time.

I like to close this optimistically (as we all ALL happy and optimistic after these 3 days) by saying that this event by itself shows that management is showing signs of determination to experiment, not stick too much time to specific patterns / solutions and give all girls the "wake-up" call that opportunities are given. And from the part of the members, we see that all girls got the message.

 

Two more things I wanted to bring up after reading some comments here, first, I appreciated TakeYui thanking Matsuri for carrying the MCs for the shows during last night's show. I don't know if anyone else would have voiced it, but I'm glad she did. Matsuri did a great job with it.

Agree with @Dill regarding the camera work, it was a little bit sketch the first night, but it seemed to have improved a bit after seeing last night's show. It makes me wonder if the camera crew was on hand during rehearsals to at least do some test shooting. That might've cut down on some of the issues with some of the more focused shots of the members.

 

I believe the camera crew was there during the rehearsals, as they used some pre-established camera angles throughout the 3 days. For example, Takeyui's funky head bobbing in Hanshinhagi was highlighted since the very first day or the trio dance parts in Buddies, which were shot in exactly the same way every time.

@heatsignature
Having multiple costumes for this budget event must have been too much for the poor chaps at S&F, but hey we got this special combo for the second day's encore so it's all good to me

 

You'd love it even more if you are there in person. The feeling of attending a live is amazing. Part of the experience watching a live performance is doing it with other fans*. I know it's really expensive to fly to Japan (even post COVID) for a concert from Europe but it's a worthwhile thing, especially if you pair it with a sightseeing trip.

*FWIW, some people do synchronized watching (eg. with Discord) of live shows or replays. There you can be as yakkai as you want and scream your oshi's names.

 

@Maeda_Toshiie I am sure that attending a live would be awesome. The specific one being on a small venue as it apparently was, would amplify the feeling. A trip to Japan my friend is the dream of my life! It has to be at least 20 days and apart from crossing north to south (or vise versa), it would definitely include a Sakurazaka event.

Now that everything seems to cool down, the specific live (and I refer to all 3 days, as I had the chance to watch a lot of videos for the first two) had an impact to me similar to RoK 2017 (the very first live I watched - on Youtube - from beginning to end). I liked it even more than Tokyo Dome. The reason is simple: it gave me the chance to focus on each and every girl and not only on just a few. It had such a strong element of discovery! During the online live last year most of us (re)-discovered Mii-chan when she centered Ambivalent (for me the very best Ambivalent). That was a moment of exhilaration. These three days I have the feeling that the oshi-system was shaken. Maybe not enough to make fans change their oshis but at least to the degree that one fan would find hard not to add more girls to their preferred list.

A special reference has to be for Chukemon: That girl was pushed during the first couple of months after thew arrival of 2nd gen. I don't know exactly what happened and that push stopped and now it looks as if they are trying to build a different persona (the girl to be teased and then she reacts with sad face etc.). She was - and still is - a particular genki person and one of the top dancers, yet she was pushed back (similarities with Fuu-chan, anyone?). That live indicated how unfair it was for that girl to be out of senbatsu, to say the least. On the other hand, being in the senbatsu only to be hidden in ther third row maybe equally bad. That validates even more suggestions like that @Dill made yesterday.

For the case of Sakurazaka, why relying only on a few girls when there are so many girls available to support all the new production of songs, moods and styles?

 

I don't usually write a lot (it's hard for me to write in English, it's not my native language), but I read everything that is posted on the Sakurazaka46 forum. But the truth is that this event has excited me enough to encourage me to do it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't buy a ticket for the concert online because I live in the European zone and the schedule coincides with work.
But if I bought and saw the previous ones live (Keyakizaka the last live, the best concert I've seen, and I hope they keep doing it because I'll keep buying them, if they don't put them on during working hours)

What was coming.
I am super excited watching the videos that are uploaded to youtube, and reading what you are writing. I love the idea of this concert. All the girls have been wonderful. It has been a great opportunity to verify that there are girls with talent to be CENTERS, among their 3rd row. I think a little competition between them will do them good, that they have to earn their position and that there are changes.

Of course I have seen that girls like Rena, Takeyui, Rei, Endou are up to the task to be fronts of the group.
From the 1st generation I highlight Habu, Aoi and Akane, just like the previous ones, in my opinion they have control of the stage and the camera, which a front should have. (I say front and not center, it is not a topic to end up arguing with)

They were all a rediscovery, I don't want anyone to be offended if I don't name their favorite. But without a doubt these are the ones that in my opinion should be taken into account in the Staff.
Special mention to Kira, I love it. I mean ... she doesn't dance the best, or anything. But she has something that she made me enjoy Buddies, that I smile just seeing her happy on stage, it is very important to convey happiness to the fans and Kira has a gift of making people smile.

I also take advantage of the fact that I read that she was commenting on Saku8. As you said, it is complicated (I would say that these are the front of the group), Yuipon, Risa and Yuka I would dare to say that they are untouchable, the one with the best sales statistics is Hono, which leaves Miichan, that if I Questions I would tell you is the one that has the most potential of real CENTER, its performances are another level (personal opinion) and the 3 centers Hikari, Ten and Karin (Ten and Karin the ones that sell the least of the Saku8) ... who will you take away? ? It is complicated for the Staff unless they eliminate this system. I don't think they do.

 

I'm so glad they gave them this live. It brought hope to them seeing all those fans come out to support them. Every day had a new set of lucky fans going to see them. As for the new2ki, this was their first ever live with audience and they really grew into it already by day 3.
I loved every second of all the lives. Yesterday, I was so scared for the worse when the letters were read lol. Thank God they were just live letters from both sides.
For me, all of them did well. They came out of their comfort zones to give us such great performances. Who would have known that Kira could be this serious with her songs given how we know her character lol. Also it was relaxing and fun to see how the relationship between 1ki and 2ki has solidified. Shared experiences bring ppl together truly. I can see how close they've become, teasing each other but you can still see the respect they have for eachother.

MatsuRi really did very well with the MCing. The members have become quite good at it. I'm also glad to know that all saku8 members went to see at least one of the days. I could go on and on but there is actually no words that could describe how much fun I had.

Also it seems the author of borderless couldn't help himself too. He wrote about each member. Glad to know he still loves the group, unlike another author lol.

https://twitter.com/T_Honda_E3/status/1406053190433263619?s=19

 

They were all the Saku8?I think I read that Yuka, Hikaru, Ten and Karin had been there on the 2nd day.Shiori and Yone were also seen.