I never got the chance of talking of Moshi Moshi Nippon Paris, but let me do a small recap. Fake edit: Fuck, this ended up being quite lengthy :/
This is the introductory part with zero talk about music (jump to the next section if you are not interested about this rant)
So, to start, the organization of the event was a bit messy. the event was announced in February or so, but we didn't get any specifics of the event until a couple of days before that weekend.
We discovered 2 days before what included the "VIP" [citation needed] tickets. That was the chance of getting into meet&greets with the artists limited to 20 people and distributed with a first arrived = first served system at 11am.
So, I arrived to Paris the day before the event and met with two hardcore Capsule friends that I met in last year's Perfume concert in London. We were so hype and scared of the possibility of not getting VIP tickets if we weren't there soon enough (we had as a reference the Perfume concert, where people were queing a lot of time, just to access the theater, with numbered tickets). We also thought of the possibility of hardcore japanese fans camping there or whatever. The paranoia was gradually increasing until we decided wew were going to be at the place at 5am to secure the Capsule meet&greet spots.
So yeah, I ended up being the first one in the venue, and we were only the three of us until 8am or so. The we were joined by a couple of Capsule fans (one german and one french) and we stayed there seeing how people were casually arriving. We were told at that moment that the event was a complete failure in terms of sales, and that the staff had been giving out invitations like crazy to fill the theater. We still have no idea how is this possible with the really solid lineup.
Anyway, when the doors opened, we were around 30 people there, so anyone that wanted could end up getting 2 or even 3 ut of the 3 meet & greet events that day (Capsule, Charisma.com and Tempura Kidz). I got Capsule and Charisma.com without a doubt and decided to let Tempura Kidz pass because I felt that would have been really selfish, since I barely know them or their music. The only thing going on between 11:00 and 20:00 was the really short meet&greets and one place to buy cosplay props and 2 food mini shops. So anyone, I was super HYPE for the meet&greets, I bought some capsule and charisma.com goods before them.
First it was the
charisma.com one. I was completely star struck whe I saw them. I greeted them, we streched hands and took a picture (I'm with the biggest smile I've ever been on a photograph). Both of them were really adorable. Gonchi (the DJ) is just supercute, and Itsuka (the MC) is hilarious, pulling weird faces in all the pictures. Both (and his manager) were really thankful that I had a charisma.com towel around my neck (I was the only one that had it at the meet&greet). They gave each of us a signed poster (being framed as I write this) and that was pretty much it. Super short, but so good.
Before the Capsule meet&greet,
Cheeky Parade (generic idol group that I had no idea of their existance before this event) were writing the names of people in, I think it was, kanji, but could be wrong. We just had to pick one member of the group and they'd would make it for you. I did some quick google/tumblr research while I was in the queue, and decided to go with Yamamoto Marin (the criteria was that she like KARA, lol). She was quite boring, but the girls were playing around constantly when they weren't signing, doing some random dramatic acts and giving some fanservice to the surprisingly coordinated french fans.
But the big event was there, just around the corner:
Capsule's meet&greet. There was a hugeee amount of security compared to the familiar vibe the charimsa.com had. We were told a lot of times that we weren't allow to use the phone/camera/anything while we were in the room. We were all frozen on the spot when they appeared. As expected, they looked so damn cool and perfect, their presence was just unbelievable. We were rushed to shake hands and get our poster as fast as possible. M contact with them was just seconds, but it was great. Both of them were super smiley. Toshiko made fun of me because I was shaking my hand and holding it with the other. I just shaked one hand with god Tanaka that was unexpectedly super smiley. Me and my friends could barely speak for the next couple of hours, it was an unique experience that we were sure it isn't going to happen ever again.
Concerts
Then, for the concert, we had to queue again, and VIP people didn't had any priority, which kind of sucked. Oh well. we ended up being really close to the stage for some reason.
The order of performances was Charisma.com, Tempura Kidz and Capsule.
Charisma.com logo was just in front of us, while Capsule's Caps lock music was playing in the background, waiting for the thing to start. Gonchi showed up setting something in her DJ set and I was already screaming. Then they opened up with Itsuka spitting some verses with a sample of their
GOAT SONG with Tempura Kidz in the background (
you can briefly listen to it here), it quickly transtioned to
HATE. Their set was really good, there were some songs missing, but overall a really good selection taking into account it was a 30min set. there wasn't a time to breathe, and both of them had really prepared their performances, interacting with the crowd that was maybe a bit cold at first, but quickly got into it, with spontaneou fanchants that were quickly adopted by everyone. Really really solid performances but that felt super short. So suddenly they say this is their last song and I'm expecting to perform next to Tempura Kidz... but that didn't happen. They went out of the stage with the crowd chanting "charisma, charisma".
Tempura Kidz was next after a couple of minutes, performing with some random DJ that was randomly using the typical chep horn sounds that just didn't belong there, but anyway. The first song they perfromed was stupid cutesy dumb song that doesn't do it for me. I was still salty because of the lack of Charima.com and Tempura Kidz performance. Luckily, they switched up gears for the 2nd song, which I'm assuming is their most popular song,
Cider, Cider, which unfortunately is not as good in the studio version. I was into it just the second that beat started. The boy of the group (P), was so damn crazy, pulling random faces during the whole thin, I really couldn't take my eyes from his face. They were doing some hardcore energetic dancing which just got everyone quickly into it. In general, they weren't as good as charisma.com, but I was pleasently surprised.
And when they were about to end, out of nowhere Charisma.com reappear and perform THE SONG ;_; So good ;_; I was screaming so hard. Really really fun performance. Itsuka was hilariously carrying a baguette and Gonchi some french flags.
Capsule.com was THE MAIN EVENT, and you could tell. People jumping a singing along during the 90min glorious set. There were some Nakata "solos" in the middle, but everything was great. hit after hit after hit, non stop. Opening with More more more, and following with Striker, Sugarless girl, World of Fantasy, Jumper, etc. Just all their damn hits, non stop. Even a random Chocolate Disco remix. Really really good. There were some songs from the last album of course, but the setlist was just incredible. I lost my voice on the second song already.
Toshiko looked flawless with her outfit with cape from their last tour. She was smiling during the whole thing and enjoying every second of it. We managed to get Toshiko to wave at us when we were shaking our capsule banners like maniacs. What a damn experience overall.
2nd day
Learned our lesson, and we were there at 9:00am or so. There was a huge amount of Cheeky Parade fans already, doing the manchants and cheering, which was just really unexpected. Also some really dedicated japanese World Order fans, that were really cool, doing their dances and everything. There was Meet&Greets for Charisma.com, Tempura Kidz, Cheeky Parade and World Order. I went with charisma.com, again. They were really thankful that I was there again, and had another set of pictures in which I have, again, one huge grin on my face and Itsuka has a baguette in her hands.
The opener of the 2nd day was
Cheeky Parade featuring the fanboy fanchants. They were cute and everything, but everything sounded so monotone. They had a couple of good vocalist, but the song were so damn generic and safe that it's a complete waste. The highlight was probably their first song,
C.P.U., which had an amazing video in the background with some
Star Fox, F-zero, Maga Man and Street Fighter knock offs.
Then it was
Charisma.com and Tempura Kidz doing a carbon copy of the previous night, but I'm not even complaining, because it was really good and it meant I could enjoy again their collab.
Last but not least was
World Order that just made everyone stand there in awe during the whole thing. The performances were really good, and there was this long interlude were the singer was intoducing all the members that was hilarious from top to bottom. It was a completely different vibe from all the energetic, high BPM that were all the other acts, which made it really stand out the second day, with the amazing atmosphere building and intrigue.
Overall, the show was kind of a failure, since not a lot of people attended, but I have mixed feelings about this, since that helped us to get a lot of meet&greets and nice spots in the theater. I would definitely go if something similar happens again. Really worth it and interesting.
