Sunday, 16 March 2003, 10:56 p.m.

NHK Pop Jam 15.03.2003
Tackey & Tsubasa Performance Report

This is what I've been anticipating all week long. I was so nervous and anxious for the whole week waiting for this performance, afraid that something was going to happen that might make me unable to watch the show when it was on air in NHK World. But thankfully, I was able to watch it... accompanied from the Philippines by Terry. ^_^ (Thanks, Ters! So sorry you didn't get to see much of Junno!)

Then of course I felt like I had to write a report. I just have to talk about this because it was such a memorable performance!!!

++ PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK ++
T&T was announced by Yuuke and the announcer... they appeared, saying "Konbanwa" (Takki said this) and "Jaa..." (Tsuba said this with a rather deep voice that sent shivers all over my body).

T&T NO FASHION.
Color theme is white. That seems to be the theme of their performances for this single. Pants (almost hipster! ^^;) with flares that make their legs look longer, inner shirts and jackets. Tsuba dressed more elaborately than Takki; his partner kept it simple as usual (but he did wear a very small corsage on the left chest of his jacket). Tsuba wears his now infamous "SEXY" belt again and also a long scarf around his neck and the same kind around his waist (what do you call these things???? I'm no fashion guru and I'm now at loss for words in English... ^^;;;). Cool.

Ami-chan's little outburst:
TSUBASA IMAI WORE A DEEP-V TOP UNDER HIS JACKET.

He had mercy on me because he wore a jacket and that scarf thingie to cover the deep-V. I wouldn't have survived this night if I saw him wearing that deep-V shirt openly. Ever since I saw Tama from Porno Graffiti wore a V-neck top in one of the group's recent performances, I'm extremely weak when I see guys wearing deep-Vs. I might have abducted him and tell him to wear deep-Vs forever in his life just for me. ^^;;

So Yuuka and the announcer said that they were going to sing "Sotsugyo" and "To be or not to be". Then they talked about the "graduation theme" (i.e. "sotsugyo" means graduation). Yuuka mentioned about Takki's short serifu (dialogue; or rather, monologue --> since it was only him who talked) at the beginning of the song, and Takki said that the message of that monologue was beautiful. From what I could capture (and mind you, my Japanese is not fantastic!!!) he said that graduations usually had "sabishii kimochi" (loneliness) but it also meant bright futures (for the graduates). Yuuka then asked Tsuba's opinion and Tsuba said (something like), "Graduations are indeed lonely but there's also a good side to it." (I'm just translating generally) and according to him these two feelings mixed when it comes to graduations. Beautiful.

They then proceeded to the standby hall... and I noticed how masculine they walked. *drool* Oh and I just have to mention that ever since they appeared on stage for the first time, the camera angle was taken from below them so it made them look twice higher than their original height... but as they were leaving Yuuka and the announcer's post, it turned out to be that Takki's not much taller than Yuuka herself! XD Hahahaha...

++ PERFORMANCE ++
## First they sang "Sotsugyo ~Sayonara wa Ashita no tameni". I was finally able to catch what Takki said in his monologue.
He said: "OUR LOVE IS NEVER GRADUATION, AND FOREVER".
Two things crossed my mind: 1. bad grammar! ^^;; and 2. Whose love? *THEIR* LOVE? XD

## Anyway, they only sang the last chorus part, from "tatoeba bokutachi wa omoide ni naru..." and so on. Nothing really special, in terms of movement, expression and such. I just thought Takki was extremely kakkoii when he sang.

## I wasn't watching the performance here. I was watching THEM. I noticed how Takki's hair looks better combed this time, and how Tsuba's bangs fell into the front of his face, and how shapely their lips were. ^^;; Physical stuff. Since their faces got to be closed-up a lot, there was no other way than to marvel at their beauty 100%. ^_^

## After the first song ended, there was a cut and the camera was shooting the audience as the music intro of "To be or not to be" played. Then the camera returned immediately to the stage and showed T&T and KAT-TUN in-action.

FYI pt. 1: the song is cut. They just didn't go into the second main verse and the second chorus. Just the intro, first main verse and chorus, then in to the last bridge and last chorus.

FYI pt. 1: Kouki Tanaka wasn't there. So there were only five members of KAT-TUN. (Nande Kouki wa inai no?!) ABC (I think) also danced but they appeared later on. KAT-TUN wore their glossy red outfit (the one with animal prints and "wings").

## My opinion of this performance is that the performance was DYNAMIC and HOT yet very NEAT.

## As I expected, there was a lot of dancing. I thought the dancing proportion was appropriate. It's not "over" that you don't get to feel the song at all, but you will definitely enjoy T&T's dancing.

## The choreography was excellent. I call it dynamic because there were many feet/leg and also hand movements. The hips also moved a lot. Oh yeah. THE HIPS. ^_^ There were kicks, particular hand movements (such as a "rub the window" movement --> just imagine how you would clean a window by rubbing it with a towel) and an excellent formation. Not forgetting as well all the handsprings, backflips and side rolls (can't miss these, of course! ;) ) KAT-TUN also did a lot of "breaking" movements (as in like breakdance-like moves) which made the whole performance even more funky!

## During that part where the music was extended in a dance instrumental sound, Takki and Tsuba walked to the back of the stage and danced there. They did a "mirror dance" (I mean, when Takki lifted his left hand, Tsuba lifted his right, and when Tsuba turned to the left, Takki to the right --> you can imagine?) while KAT-TUN and ABC started to spring, roll and flip all around the stage. There was one member of ABC who did a handspring with only one hand supporting his weight and the other hand was placed on his hips. SUGOI!!! I heard ABC members were specialists in acrobatic movements and I was amazed to see that stunt.

## Then at one point, still in the extended dance instrumental part (where the electric guitar sound came in), T&T, KAT-TUN and ABC all walked together to the front and they danced in a perfectly choreographed formation and superb synchronization. The timing was crucial, but they were able to move simultaneously.

## I even noticed that both T&T even turned and did a high kick at the exact same time. Then they also tapped the stage floor with their foot at the same time to then turn to their right/left after they finished singing this part "kurikaesu tsumi sore hodo tsuyoi ningen janai kara...tachitomatte itatte kangaekomu dakede...".

## You might as well know that there were female screams everywhere ever since they entered the stage to talk to Yuuka and the announcer, and the screaming intensified during that extended instrumental part.

## Everyone was so into the dance... even Jin, whom I notice sometimes don't really dance to the max, danced fervently. They were all very passionate. With a song like this, there's just no other way than to dance, dance and dance.

## Finally the song ended and T&T said "arigatou" and waved goodbye... some of the KAT-TUN members also waved. I think it was Kame who was clearly waving his hand.

++ ENDING CREDIT ++
In Pop Jam, when the end-credits were running at the bottom of the screen, they show clips of the artists coming in to wave at the camera, to smile, to say something, to greet, whatever...
T&T just came in to the backstage hall and faced the camera, saying something that wasn't really audible (since Porno Graffiti's "World Saturday Graffiti" as the ending theme song is playing at the background) and then smiled. They both look kakkoii. And happy too. As if they weren't tired at all after that very, very hot performance.

++ OVERALL JUDGMENT/ PERSONAL COMMENTS ++

SUGOI!!! KAKKOII!!!

No kidding. I literally shed tears when I was watching it. I couldn't believe it could be *that* wonderful. Everything was good. I was particularly amazed by the dancing and the harmony of their voices and their movements. Besides, seeing seven very good-looking and talented guys on the same stage, from a very clear picture and audio, singing and dancing to a very well-written song, is just so overwhelming, exciting and EXTREMELY PLEASURABLE.

I was also happy to see the camera closing-up on their faces without missing out on the important scenes like the particular dance moves and stuff. The camera focused on both T&T equally and during those close-ups, I could just see the very appealing expression on their faces (there was one time where Tsuba was taking a very short breather during his dancing and I almost fainted because he looked extremely sexy there). Oh and not long after that, the camera did a close-up on Takki and at that time he just had such a sharp look on his face where his eyes just stared fiercely, straight to the horizon in front of him while he was dancing. It was also very, very SEXY.
Ah! And the close-ups on "Sotsugyo" also took my breath away! I wanted to cry seeing how handsome they were from nearby. Their face, their hair, their lips just looked PERFECT.
T&T die-hard fans should be happy to know that this time the camera didn't wander too much from them, like showing the audience or focusing too much on the backdancers. In fact, KAT-TUN and ABC's members' faces were almost INVISIBLE, hidden in sort of blurry, long shots by the camera. I almost didn't recognize who was there on stage. Thank God I've had training to recognize backdancers by watching performances in K-POP music shows. =P I just recognized KAT-TUN and ABC from the shapes of their figures. =P Hehehe...

Seriously, no wonder Yuuka said to the audience to enjoy a "kakkoii suteeji" (kakkoii stage) from T&T. It was definitely kakkoii. This one beats almost all of their other performances. I haven't seen them all but at this moment I just think that they're really cool.

Oh, I wanted to comment on the costumes. As I said before, T&T wore white, and KAT-TUN in that outfit with wings and animal prints... ABC was wearing white shirt and pants, then towards the end they appeared with black jacket suit and red scarves. Normally I would KAT-TUN's outfit was ridiculous but somehow this time I didn't mind. Maybe because the color combination was right. White-red-black. There were just three costume variations on stage; one to each unit, and three colors only, so it wasn't "confusing" to see them. T&T and ABC also wore "normal" clothes, so that KAT-TUN's usually ridiculous-looking costume didn't seem to awkward. And their red was so contrasting to T&T's white that they gave the impression of a mixture between elegance (white) and passion (red). And that's what T&T are all about.

I'M EVEN MORE OBSSESSED!

While I think it was altogether TOO SHORT!!! and it it would've been so much fun if they just sing the two whole songs, I think right now would have fainted and been in a coma if they showed more than that. ^^;;;