モーニング娘。誕生15周年記念コンサートツアー2012秋 ～ カラフルキャラクター ～ =REVIEW=
Morning Musume 15th Anniversary Commemoration Concert Tour 2012 Fall ~Colorful Character~ =REVIEW=
みんあさん！おはよう！こんにちは！こんばんは！
Hello again everybody! Today, I will be reviewing Colorful Character! This was a request from Amy. I will admit, at first I was a little disappointed when I watched this concert for the first time. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't sit well for me and I wasn't too impressed. Looking back on it, I must have been absolutely insane to even think that! As a side note, I'm not really going to factor in the individual singer scores. The concert as a whole focused a lot more on the group effort, so I don't feel like it will be fair. I'll still put out scores for each of them but that's that.
Now the first thing I always like to talk about are the outfits. There were a total of 10 different outfits worn. The first one tends to leave the greatest impression though, and I feel like they did a good job there. Each member wore a simple mono-colored piece that was shiny to represent that particular member's color. They were simple, colorful, shiny and spoke a little about each person's character. Pretty appropriate for the COLORFUL CHARACTER concert. So that was a great start and I totally was digging the design choice. There are only a handful of outfits I want to actually talk about though. The second outfit is the biggest. Honestly amidst the great start, I felt like the second outfit was a little misplaced. I felt like the outfits were a bit too busy, with too many accessories that didn't complement each other and then the leopard print just sealed the deal. It was a bit TOO much of a contrast to the simplicity of the opening outfits, unfortunately. Later on 9th gen came out with the 3rd outfit, which had good color use and an interesting design, but I felt like the outfit could have been a little more streamlined. Enough of outfits I didn't like, what about what I DID like? Well the 9th outfit I think stood out to me the best. They were less restrictive which allowed more intense dancing, really cute and extremely bright. It was about near the end of the medley and they ripped off the outfits they were wearing to reveal the 9th ones. Their final outfit was the Wakuteka Take a Chance outfits, which I always liked anyway. Aside from the two I mentioned, the rest of the outfits were absolutely fantastic. I liked the design choices, always felt appropriate for what was playing. I give the outfits a solid 9.
The next thing I'd like to talk about is the song selection and order. I'm usually more of a fan of set lists that involve showing off the group AND the individuals. This concert focused a lot more the group as a whole. Now while normally I'd be upset about that, the group has also shifted it's focus to this type of attention. I felt like this shift in focus was represented fairly effectively in the choice of songs. It also helps that I actually liked ALL the songs they selected. I didn't feel bored at any point. The only real complaint I have is that there wasn't really any attention given to the classics, not even in the medley. Most of the songs were relatively new, with Sexy Boy being the oldest song if I'm not mistaken. Still, the selection was great, and the order it was presented in was nearly perfect. I liked that the medley was presented near the end, because the shift in energy was immense at that point. It just kept going up at that point and then ended with a nice Be Alive performance. This would be getting a 9.5, except for two issues: focus, and dragging. While I wasn't bored in any of the performances, I felt like the MC sections tended to drag a bit longer than expected. Heck Reina and Sayumi even admitted that they were going over one time. There were some fun conversations, but there needs to be a good amount of singing and dancing in between so the flow remains constant. About halfway through the concert the focus seemed to shift to only Riho, Sayumi and Reina. They seemed to be singing the bulk of the lines, and while I love all three of them, I didn't feel like this was fair to the others, who did well as well. Luckily, once they switched outfits and transitioned to Zero Kara Hajimaru Seishun this changed completely. With that, I'd have to give the set list choice and song order an 9.
Oh boy now to talk about the dances. They were perfect. Simple as that. While there were a handful of extremely minor mishaps here and there, I was THOROUGHLY impressed with the high level of synergy flowing between all the members! They had a surreal connection which made the whole entire concert feel absolutely magical. The dances were very well choreographed, were full of immense energy and also rose in complexity through the concert. This was another thing that showed how the groups focus has shifted when it comes to style. The old Morning Musume relied a lot on unpredictability, chaos and individuality meshed with union. It was a very unique combination that worked perfectly for them. Now the focus is more on synergy, performing as a whole, discipline and precision. It fits the new group perfectly. This concert shows that off really really well. I can't say I had a complaint about ANY of the dances...and I LOVE to complain. I give the dances a perfect 10 for this concert.
While this isn't a factor on the overall score, I'd like to mention how I felt about each individual girl nonetheless. Riho I feel like was one of the most impressive. I feel like she had a complete jump in skill and that was likely why she had a bit of a higher focus this time around. That being said, all of them improved quite a bit. As usual I felt like Sayu got shafted by getting too many synthesized sections, but I don't think she minds too much. She still has the personality and the great energy to back her up, which has been and always will be more than enough. Kanon, Haruna, Masaki, Haruka, Mizuki and Erina also made some pretty decent leaps since their last concert. Reina was impressive as usual. She sings well, I just feel like she needs to work on more tones. She goes with her comfort zone and sticks with it. While it's not bad, it doesn't necessarily fit every song. Last but not least, is Ayumi. I felt like she made the biggest improvement from her audition to this concert. I was really impressed with her and I felt like she worked really hard to get to where she was at this point. She deserves every bit of praise that she gets because of the big jump in quality coming out of her now. I was especially impressed with the performance of Zero Kara Hajimaru Seishun. I mildly enjoy the song usually, but that song let every single person shine in their own way and also let them all shine together. It was a perfect Morning Musume performance and I loved it! Scores will be listed below for each of them.
When it really boils down to it, this was a really good concert. They had a really strong start starting off with One, Two, Three, which also made a really nice use of the stage's color displays. It was a fun introduction to a fun concert. The transition into the introductions on the VTR was absolutely fantastic as well. I was thrilled that Sakura and Lovendor (not called Lovendor at this point) got warm introductions. I was slightly disappointed we didn't get to see Sakura perform but she had barely started so it is understandable.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the fantastic formation dancing, the immensely high amount of energy and enthusiasm they all brought and ESPECIALLY the great synergy between each of the girls. I was also impressed with the big jump in quality coming out of 9th and 10th gen. This is definitely a concert I will be coming back to watch time and time again. The 'Colorful Era' has been and continues to be awesome...this concert only solidifies that claim.
Haruka: 8.0
Haruna: 7.5
Ayumi: 9.0
Masaki: 8.0
Riho: 9.5
Kanon: 8.0
Erina: 7.0
Mizuki: 8.0
Reina: 9.0
Sayumi: 8.0
Outfits: 9.0
Set List/Songs: 9.0
Dances: 10.0
OVERALL: 9.3/10.0