Event / Concert W-KEYAKI FES. 2021 (2021.07.09 - 2021.07.11)

Ok, between the end of the live stream and the encore/replay(which I just watched the first half of while working) I’ve now seen the entirety of day 1. While my level of analysis and insight could never rival that of heatsignature, I’ll sum up my feelings as eloquently as I can:

Morita good. Inoue good. Endo good. W-Keyaki t-shirts good. Stick balloon battle bad.

 

From what I read on twitter it was also announced the Arena tour.
I don't know what to think. I mean, the more they perform, the more happy I am of course, but at the same time this whole situation with COVID and the way Japan is handling it (and Olympics) makes me worried of the possible outcome.

About what @heatsignature wrote, I think we all need to put aside our ROK feelings. We may get these 3 days with Hinata for more years, but something like ROK is not gonna be back soon.
We need to find a new home lol
But the Arena tour may give more space to the group to try different formations.

 

Yeah, Japan is constantly in and out of their state of emergency… honestly it really isn’t the right time to continue doing these shows (especially indoor arena concerts) but this is really an issue with how Japan as a society is reacting to this… Even most big American artists have delayed their Arena tours until 2022?

I mostly used the RoK as an example, I think even the previous Arena Tours with the Shadow Play, the whole chainlink fence set, etc. All had so much creativity and excitement. Hinata concerts also have have their adorable skits and characters, so I don’t think the detailed showmanship was exclusively Keyaki. RoK is hard to live up to, but even compared to like the first Live Online Keyaki concert, the cool set pieces weren’t there in my opinion. Another example is that I noticed that they didn’t even use the right stage! They performed a whole song on the left stage but no one went to the right, it was bizarre and I really do think the overall planning could have been more thorough.

It wasn’t a bad show by any means, but my expectations were a bit higher for the first all-member concert with an audience. I do think the members performed wonderfully though and enjoyed every minute of it!

 

Isn't it summer in Japan? It was so foggy it was hard to see members' faces at times. Hopefully the weather gets better. Nice seeing the girls back with live audience. Glad to see Ozeki back as well!

 

Thanks for the reviews, everyone. For some reason, I thought Hinatazaka was going to be the first group up, but since they're on tonight and the show starts three hours earlier, I might buy a ticket.

 

The forecast I see for that area is thunderstorms for the next ten days. If this event is to be memorable, it will be memorable in part for the weather. At least the rain is not supposed to be too heavy: 4-6mm/day. Ten days in a row is a lot, but I don't think thunderstorms are unusual for early summer in Japan, especially at the foot of Mt. Fuji. Temps are supposed to be 29 (higher 80s) Saturday and 27 (lower 80s) Sunday.

 

Does anyone know from which song this cool picture is from?
https://ogre.natalie.mu/media/news/music/2021/0709/WKF2021_D1_00003s.jpg?imwidth=750

Regarding the tour, they are going to play in Kitakyushu, the 2nd largest city in Fukuoka prefecture, where the islands of Kyushu and Honshu meet, Aichi, Osaka, and Tokyo, but while they have announced the venues for the first 3 cities, they didn’t do so for Tokyo. Hmmm… Food for thought

 

You know, I feel kind of dumb for asking this, but on the Zaiko site for tonight's show, it doesn't say "Streaming" next to the ticket. We can still watch it, right?

 

I was pleased that the event site even gave us an official list of penlight colours:

Spoiler: penlight colours

Penlight Colours – W-Keyaki Fes July 2021
Endou Hikari -- purple x purple
Fujiyoshi Karin -- white x violet
Habu Mizuho -- pastel blue x sakura pink
Harada Aoi -- white x white
Inoue Rina -- blue x blue
Kobayashi Yui -- yellow x blue
Koike Minami -- white x sakura pink
Kousaka Marino -- pearl green x sakura pink
Masumoto Kira -- emerald green x emerald green
Matsuda Rina -- green x yellow
Morita Hikaru -- "whatever fans think"
Moriya Akane -- red x red
Moriya Rena -- yellow x pink
Oonuma Akiho -- pastel blue x yellow
Oozono Rei -- emerald green x violet
Ozeki Rika -- white x yellow
Saitou Fuyuka -- yellow x yellow
Seki Yumiko -- white x orange
Sugai Yuuka -- yellow x violet
Takemoto Yui -- passion pink x blue
Tamura Hono -- passion pink x passion pink
Uemura Rina -- sakura pink x sakura pink
Watanabe Rika -- pastel blue x pastel blue
Watanabe Risa -- white x blue
Yamasaki Ten -- white x green

I remember searching around and trying to follow the changes in penlight colours in the early days, 2016-18. The colours available seem to change for the penlights sold at various events, and the names do, too. In one recent tweet, I found a list of substitute colours in case your penlight doesn't have the official ones (lower left in this chart of colours as of 16 June).

 

Giant Poka.

 

The Hinata girls that subbed as center were amazing. Especially Miku in Seishun no uma. Nibu-chan and Mei-chan too of course.

 

Those damn HINATAzakas getting the SUNNY weather for their day, lucky oHIsamas...
The SUN is always brighter on the other side, I guess

 

Welcome, Ohisama (お日様)!

Source

 

Hiyotan(w/ a dope hairstyle!), Otake and Miipan getting introduced at the start back-to-back. If I was there I’d have broken my arms due to the force with which I was cheering with the stick balloons.

Opening with “Kimi Shika Katan” in that beautiful weather is such a strong way to kick things off, too. “Wow, yeah” indeed. Probably my favorite Hinata single, to be honest. Not sure whether or not that’s an unpopular take. Following that up with the unveiling of giant Poka is strong. Going to tell my kids this was a religious ceremony to honor Poka.

Not going to clog the thread up with my live thoughts or anything, just really dug the start.

edit: I totally understand I’m being petty here (mostly in a failed attempt to be funny) and I absolutely understand why they’re doing it, but the stick balloon era can’t end soon enough.

 

Further to the penlight colours, Karin says in her blog that the group together decided on colours for certain songs:
BAN -- red
Nobody’s fault -- white
Guuzen no Kotae -- blue
Buddies -- sakura pink x white

This hearkens back to Keyakizaka, especially in the earlier period, when a few songs had colours that fans sometimes used rather than the colours of their oshi. Such as:
Silent Majority, Yamanotesen -- green x green
Parco -- red x red
Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai -- some people used blue x blue
Yuuhi 1/3 -- many people used orange x orange
This system never seemed to be used very consistently. I'm not sure how it went this time. I like the fact that the members actually chose the colours themselves, especially if it was their own idea.

 

Figures. The rest of Japan has bad weather, specially the southern part, with heavy rains.

 

We are used to rain with ROK... it's like tradition lol
Question about today getting ready for tomorrow, did they performed Cage?

 

Summer season in Japan is at the same time always coincide with the rainy season, especially between July-August, so you get hot + humid weather at the same time which is dope...

Latest weather forecast today says it'll be cloudy with some thunderstorm around the Fuji-Q area, but no rain.
Whichever it'll be, I just hope the weather is nice enough for them to pull an all out stage sets and performances today.

 

if the video does not show watch the video here

 

They didn't, no. They have a lot of songs of course, but I was shocked they didn't play "Konna ni suki...".

By the way some interesting comments from twitter: https://twitter.com/OhYeaHzaka46/status/1414066009032466433?s=19
I will try to summarize:
- Marino cried a lot during Tamago, took a photo with her oshimen in Hinata but said it's a secret
- Akiho confessed her love to Katoshi
- Fuyuka praised Tomita's rapping, and talked a lot to Kage
- Mikuni said that Ten and Hinano have a good relationship (they were the two youngest members during the 2018 audition, right?)
- Tomita praised Yuipon's performance in Hanshinhangi, and Yuipon did the same to Tomita for her rapping
- Konoka welcomed Ozeki back and took a lot of photos
- Manamo talked to Akane and confessed that she's a big fan (as if we didn't know )
- Manafi said that Takeyui praised their performance and their variety show. She also talked to MaRina about MC'ing, and she knows that many Sakurazaka members like HinaAi.

I know some people's heads are going to explode learning that the members of the two groups are friends, and that the Sakurazaka girls are not the evil witches they seem to think they are, but as a fan of both groups, this festival has made me really happy and I hope they continue interacting