So as mentioned earlier, after touching down in Osaka and dropping off my luggage at my Airbnb, I headed straight to the concert venue expecting a super long queue due to earlier reports on how the queues for the first 2 days can take up to 2 hours. But to my surprise, there wasn't queue at all! There were 4 counters open, and each had maybe 1 person in line so I didn't have to wait long till I got my goods.
I roamed around the area after that and tried to get a Black Cherry ticket with a reseller around the area but no luck
And no luck with other resellers as well. OH WELL.
Anyway, fast forward to the show. I joined the queue to go for the post-show stage photo but I guess I wasn't as lucky as chocopockymaster hahaha. I went to my seat and was very happy to see that the view was actually really great! I got a nice full view of the stage at a pretty nice angle. It's not like I was looking into her scalp or anything so that's great.
Pre-show
While waiting for the show to start, they played the Rugby World Cup CM every now and then with Eh Yo as the song. And then, the lights dimmed but not completely. The lights on stage turned red and the animation on the curtain started to change - there were more petals flying across the screen. After a few minutes, the hall went dark and the curtains raised.
00. Introduction〜JAPONESQUE〜
Similar animation as the original tour, but instead of a dragon, it's a phoenix. No pyrotechnics though.
01 So Nice feat. Mr.Blistah
Kuu appeared from behind the screen and was slowly moving forward. Outfit wise, yes, it's the same as the promo photo. Because we didn't get the runway, there's a section of the stage that goes up and down just like in the original show, but she moved left to right instead of forwards. Still really beautiful. Towards the final chorus, there were projections of fireworks on the ceiling. Really cool.
02 D.D.D.
03 情熱
04 愛を止めないで
Same as original, D.D.D. had the Japanese arrangement as well. No MC before Ai wo Tomenaide.
05 さよならの向う側
If you saw the stage photos previously, there's a tiny bit that protudes out at the front of the stage with a circle cut out. That's the elevating platform that was used for this song. So she did change into another flowy dress just like in the original show. However, instead of just fabric flying around, it was stretched out to cover the length of the stage. Because the dress then becomes a canvas to do really beautiful projections - similar to you from The Artist. It really sets a very nice mood for the performance.
06 KO-SO-KO-SO
As you may already know from her previous IG story, the lucky boy lucky girl rap got updated. There's still the lucky boy lucky girl bit, but there's also a chant for "gold card gold card". So what they did was to get someone with the regular card and someone with the gold card. It took a while for them to look for the one with the gold card, the dancers were getting kinda tired trying to look for that person
They brought them both up on stage eventually. Both of them were lucky girls for the 10/10 show. Following that, Kuu appeared. Not that much of a fan of the updated outfit for this - it's essentially if they fused the lingerie-looking dress and the flowy outer layer together. It's a deeper blue, and the sleeves are long and more tube like (obviously great at describing it). But I prefer the original. Choreography and staging generally stayed the same. Kuu chose the girl with the gold card, and the curtain was coming down as the song was ending.
Interlude
The dancers came out and there were some really cool projections with the dancers interacting with them - similar to W FACE tour. There was sort of a play on duality on the old and modern along with some Japanese themes.
07 V.I.P. feat. T-Pain
No more horrible neon jelly beans swim suit! It was a stronger more stark white/silvery outfit with a black jacket if I remember correctly. She let her long hair down and pushed her hair back as well. Waaay better than the original. Choreography and staging stayed the same.
08 ピンク スパイダー
No interaction with the LED screen at the back. She went into the cage in the middle of the song openly (instead of in the dark as a surprise). Towards the end, she actually broke free and stood on top of the cage while the cage floated around the set! Really really cool. Loved it.
09 ESCALATE
10 Slow feat. Omarion
Stayed largely the same
There wasn't an interlude video/dance here. The costume change was REALLY fast. It was about a minute or less - the instrumentation of Slow went on a little bit longer and transitioned to Koishikute.
11 恋しくて
12 Brave
13 IN THE AIR
Just stood there to sing or walking around. The outfit I felt wasn't an improvement of the original 90's princess with that horrible wig, but I feel that it's an edited version of the blue mermaid princess dress in the Bon Voyage tour instead. It's like 90% the same
Interlude (STRIP)
Basically the PV that was released recently, but for the full song. It's a pretty cool concept. Forgot how the thing ended though.
14 GET NAKED（※新曲）
It's cool as a hype song but I didn't like it all that much. Kinda forgot the outfit but her hair was similar to the one she had during the dance break in the GOLDFINGER 2019/Livin' La Vida Loca PV. She and her dancers were doing choreography with giant neon light tubes.
15 DO ME（※新曲）
A really fun song live! I think most of the song was lipped.
16 K（※新曲）
It's a cutesy song but with an urban beat. Actually quite a refreshing twist to her usual cutesy songs. I enjoyed it! It's the candy shop song, and at one point the screen was showing a giant gumball machine, and the gumballs of the corresponding colours from the screen popped out from under the screen and then Kuu and the dancers danced with it. The stamina on this woman is amazing because she was basically doing a whole work out while singing and interacting with her other dancers. Super fun.
17 Eh Yo（※新曲）
18.Livin' La Vida Loca~GOLDFINGER 2019（※新曲）
Like what you'd expect. Both songs are really fun live, singing along and all.
19 OMG(※新曲)
So the aerial silks came down, and then a dancer went onto it, and then she went on top of the dancer. And then she did the tissue dance. Amazing to view it irl. Towards the end of the song, there was actually gold confetti falling down. Really really cool. Great hype song to end the main part of the concert. No towel spinning.
ENCORE
The pre-encore sing along for 10/10 was Brave. The lady beside me had a very nice singing voice. The little segment before the encore was fun. It was Kloop talking in a Japanese garden, and then the camera was pointing towards specific audience members while Kloop was giving instructions on what to do (blow a kiss, do a funny face, wave to the camera, etc.) They got a middle-aged man to do a blowing kiss and Kloop went "gross..."
It then transitioned to Kloop asking whether everyone was ready for the encore, and the dancers came out and taught everyone how to do the Put Your Hands Up!!! dance.
20 プチョヘンザッ!!!(※新曲)
Again, really fun live with all the dancing along.
MC
About 10 minutes long. Didn't understand much Japanese, but the beginning section she talked about the typhoon, Osaka, and then addressed some fan messages. One of the fans mentioned that she liked Love Technique and then she quickly sang this bit "Love technique baby love technique/Baby love love love love/Shiage no kiss ne". And then she gave a tear jerker speech, thanking everyone for supporting her and expressing gratitude as she goes into her 20th anniversary. Along with some things that I couldn't understand - probably something about going for your dreams, being yourself, etc.
21 walk
At the end of walk, she walked up to the screen which was all white, and then she strips down and took off her bra, just like the end of the second sessions tour. Then she jumps down into the bottom of the stage, and then they showed mermaid Kuu in the water video. It's a newly filmed video though. And then it ends with SEE YOU NEXT ARENA TOUR.
Overall, really really great show. I think her voice sounded quite tired though. Some of her bad habits were showing like dragging the notes unnecessarily in the ballads and all that stuff. The light sticks that change colour was really great, and it really fit the atmosphere of each of the performances. Loved it. However, the JAPONESQUE fan wasn't very ergonomic - it hurts quite a bit after a while! But overall, solid solid concert. I had so much fun and it was really great. I'm so happy that I managed to go for a show.