Idols Assemble! High Tension and Hijinks at Akasaka Halloween 2015!

| Idol | Posted by Kai Okudara on Nov.10.2015

STARMARIE

The dark fantasy unit won the privilege of opening festivities due to ranking #1 on the idol support app CHEERZ and were looking to win enough new fans to receive the treat of having their first sell out at Shinjuku BLAZE on November 3rd. A noticeable contingent of “Marists” (STARMARIE name for fans) in red shirts came alive as the group that looks and sounds as if it’s Halloween everyday began with the creepy and heavy “Circus wo Koroshita no wa Dare da” (Who Killed Circus).

Swaying like cursed puppets, they continued with “Teiou no Kirei na Alibi” (Splendid Alibi of the Emperor) before cleaning things up with the tumultuous “Mitsuboshi Resutoran Paul Kara no Shoutaijou” (The Three-starred Restaurant -Paul’s invitation). Having earned an anime theme song, selling out Shinjuku BLAZE, and increasing international appearances, it may not be long until STARMARIE’s fantasies become reality.

PASSPO☆

Hitting the stage unusually early because they had to take off in order to make their next live of the day “Yappari PASSPO☆ ga Number1!” at Meiji University, the high-flying PASSPO☆ eschewed their usual entrance for a dramatic one befitting the alter egos they had assumed as the PAvengers (and John McClane from Die Hard)! Ai Negishi (Captain America), Yukimi Fujimoto (Black Widow), Anna Tamai (Thor), Naomi Anzai (Hawkeye), Mio Masui (Iron Man), Natsumi Iwamura (The Hulk), and Shiori Mori (John McClane) struck (mostly) heroic poses as a spotlight took turns shining on them.

Despite Iron Man and The Hulk probably being two of the most feared characters in the Marvel Universe, because they were played by Mio and Nachu (Iwamura’s nickname), they ended up getting no special respect during the live. Mio ended up being “shot” by everyone at the end of “Itazura Rock’n’Roll” and Nachu had one of her green pectorals “ripped” off and thrown into the audience by Thor. With Tamai being Thor, her usual onstage mischievousness made her seem more like Loki, bumping Yukimi Fujimoto in the backside with Captain America’s shield and her hammer. The combination of the costumes that were definitely more than the 2,000 yen Wally (known in the United States and Canada as Waldo) outfits from the 2014 event and the hard-hitting set list, it was unfortunate that PASSPO☆ did not have a solo Halloween live planned.

01 BABY JUMP〜Tengoku he no Toujou-bin〜
02 Itazura Rock’n’Roll
03 Street Fighter
04 BEAST IN YOU
05 WANTED!!
06 HONEY DISH
07 Material Girl

Wasuta

Next up was Wasuta, the iDOL Street group looking to reach the world with their cute looks, eclectic sound, and social media. The glow of LED screens filled Akasaka BLITZ from beginning to end, making it feel like a live in the United States. The only theme for their outfits seemed to be “kawaii” and that was more than enough for one of the must-watch groups that debuted in 2015. The killing blow was dealt when they finished off their set with the inescapably adorable “Inu-Neko. Seishun Massakari” that had fans (those not preoccupied with documenting the performance with their cameras) barking and meowing along.

For more pictures or videos taken by audience members, search #tws_live or #わーすた

01 Wonderful World
02 Doki Doki♡today
03 Zili Zili Love
04 Lan Lan Jidai
05 Inu-Neko. Seishun Massakari

hy4_4yh

Opening with a cover of the Rhymester classic “B-BOY-izm” from their upcoming cover album “HypaYo no Seishun J-rap” (release date: November 11), hy4_4yh got the audience warmed up before jumping into the abyss with the frantic “YAVAY PARTY ANTHEM” (“yavai” hy4_4yh’s way of saying “yabai” which is Japanese slang for bad, which also means really good) and “Tickee On The Beach”.

Slowing things down with a cover of Orange Range’s “Hana”, hands waved back and forth to the old school beat. Even though “LOVE GENOME” brought things back to the world of pulsing electronic beats, the pace remained steady. hy4_4yh finished out their set with another cover, “Unbalance” by KICK THE CAN CREW and two lucky fans got a special souvenir when the fake right hands poking out from Yumiko and yukarin’s sweatsuits popped off!

01 B-BOY-izm (Rhymester cover)
02 YAVAY PARTY ANTHEM
03 Tickee On The Beach
04 Hana (Orange Range cover)
05 LOVE GENOME
06 Unbalance (KICK THE CAN CREW)

predia

The sounds of a creaking pipe organ rang out through Akasaka BLITZ as sexy adult group predia took the stage dressed as the undead brides of Akane Minato, who played up her handsome cool looks by transforming into Count Dracula! It was like some kind of Halloween danso twist on Kiyoshi Ryujin 25! Starting off with the cool “Utsukushiki kodoku tachi” before blasting the audience with a wall of vocals in the fist-pumping dance rock of “Yosoukyoku〜Akai Nokoriga no Sasoi”.

Rumina Murakami declared herself to be the main wife of Akane, which made sense since they share the main vocal responsibilities. The harem mood heated up during “Wedding Story” as the members of predia crowded around Akane and took turns kissing her on the cheek. This lead to Rumina fighting off the other wives during “Tokyo Love Affair” before predia ended their set with their major debut single “Kowareta Ai no Hate ni”.

01 Utsukushiki kodoku tachi
02 Yosoukyoku〜Akai Nokoriga no Sasoi
03 Wedding Story
04 Tokyo Love Affair
05 Kowareta Ai no Hate ni

palet

palet got the audience rocking when they broke out onto the stage in matching prison outfits and got things started with “All for One”. Things got even more hectic as palet stomped on the gas with the fast-paced rocker “Shake My Soul”. Midway through the song, Yumi Nakano thought it would be funny if she tried to rip at a hole in Yui Fujimoto’s pants!

After a short explanation about their outfits, which were a nice change from 2014 when they didn’t dress up at all, palet jumped into a non-stop 4-song set which had its share of “Trick or Treat” moments on stage. Riona Igusa and Mayu Watanabe started messing with each other and Yumi during “Itsudatte I LOVE YOU !!!”. Yui rushed around the stage flipping up skirts during “Ichigo Kibun” and carried Yumi around on her back while singing. Finishing up with “Believe in Yourself!”, the members of palet reminded the audience about their regular lives in Akihabara, and more importantly, leader Miyuki Hiraguchi had brought handcuffs for anyone who wanted to make their special Halloween 2-shot photo extra special!

01 All for One
02 Shake My Soul
03 Kimi no Koto
04 Itsudatte I LOVE YOU !!!
05 Ichigo Kibun
06 Believe in Yourself!

Cheeky Parade

Cheeky Parade traded in their zombie makeup from 2014 and roared across the stage in tokkofuku, making them “Yankii Parade”? It was a power-packed set that got things jumping from the start with “Cheeky Fighter” and didn’t let up until they finished with “Colorful Starlight” 5 songs later!

Having landed in New York in 2014 for the CBGB Music & Film Festival, and expanding their international reach with expeditions to Los Angeles, California (USA) and Moshi Moshi Nippon Paris in 2015, Cheeky Parade gave yet another strong consistent performance that backs up their declarations to become the #1 idols in the land!

01 Cheeky Fighter
02 C.P.U.!?
03 BUNBUN NINE9′
04 Challenger
05 Mugendai Shojo ∀
06 Colorful Starlight

UPUPGIRLS (KARI)

UPUPGIRLS (KARI) continued their mission to become a group that could appear at the Ultra Japan EDM festival by transforming into Ultra Festival Girls! Trading in their fearsome military outfits from 2014, the 7-members or “Upga” (abbreviation for their name) were even more brightly colored than usual! Azusa Sekine, Saki Mori, and Manami Arai flapped their butterfly/fairy wings across the stage, Ayano Sato and Konatsu Furukawa dressed like twins, Minami Sengoku wore an elaborate Native American feather headdress, and the long-limbed Akari Saho showed off what she imagined a model would look like if she went to such an event. The floor area became like an all-night rave during “Zenryoku Pump Up!! -ULTRA Mix-“, setting the tone for their set.

The selfie sticks came out during “ENJOY!! ENJO(Y)!!” and candies were tossed into the audience. Upga seemed to be improving at dancing more freely as they moved into the summer party song “Appaare”, Ayano blew kisses at Saki and slammed an “air kabe-don” on Minami. The audience did a wave and rocked back and forth, causing it to feel like summer never ended even though it was the 1st of November. The final treat of the night from Upga came in the form of their new song, “Seishun no Namida”, a hard-edged electronic dance song similar to capsule. For the second year in a row, UPUPGIRLS (KARI) came, saw, and conquered Akasaka Halloween with a unified costume theme and a setlist to match.

01 Zenryoku Pump Up!! -ULTRA Mix-
02 ENJOY!! ENJO(Y)!!
03 Respect Tokyo
04 Appaare
05 Seishun no Namida

drop

The sound of an old grandfather clock ticking signaled the start of drop’s fearsome Halloween-themed set with “Iroha ni Hoheto de Vampire”. Haruka Oba cackled like a witch in front of a bubbling cauldron and Misaki Misato invited her fans to drink all of her blood for the sake of true love. The song is only 5 and a half minutes long and it’s still a better love story than Twilight. Next was one of drop’s newer songs, the chiptune-esque “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Chu”, a play on the spell used by Cinderella’s fairy godmother, that had the audience whirling their penlights and spinning along with the trio onstage.

The eerie mood returned with “Hocus Pocus”, this time Misaki showing off her evil laugh and screaming skills alongside Haruka. As enthusiastic as drop’s fans usually are, since this was still a new song, there was little they could do but take in the spectacle. After mentioning that their new single “Whatcha gonna do?” (わちゃごなどぅ) just went on sale on Halloween, despite being a summer tune complete with them in swimsuits on the cover, drop ended on a high note with the hyperactive “Joudan Janai” and head-banging “Hashire”.

01 Iroha ni Hoheto de Vampire
02 Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Chu
03 Hocus Pocus
04 Joudan Janai
05 Hashire

Hime Kyun Fruit Can

The audience began bouncing in anticipation of Ehime’s Hime Kyun Fruit Can, who took the stage as a set of coffins, rising from the floor as the guitars for “Crime Clown” kicked in. The crowd shifted into high gear as Hime Kyun Fruit Can continued with the popular “Andante”, which had them moshing and lifting each other up as well as pumping their fists and chanting. During “Strawberry Kiss”, the lid of Sakurako Tanio’s coffin flew open to reveal a skeleton! Unfazed, she grabbed the lid and playfully flashed another glimpse to the audience. Shortly after, Honoka Kouno’s lid also flapped open as the two spun past each other on the stage.

After 3 songs in a row, they decided that it was too hot to continue the live while wearing the coffin costumes, revealing the usual skeleton-themed outfits that Hime Kyun Fruit Can always wears when performing. The light mood continued with “May Proof” before reverting to the heaviness of “Paradigm” and “Killer Tune”. It would have been interesting to see what it would have looked like if Hime Kyun Fruit Can did the choreography for it while wearing the coffins.　Hime Kyun Fruit Can slowed things down with their last song, the relaxed slow song “Ao no Shonen” before their customary joining of hands and bowing while the Back to the Future 3 theme song played in the background with the fans in the audience bowing back to them.

01 Crime Clown
02 Andante
03 Strawberry Kiss
04 May Proof
05 Paradigm
06 Killer Tune
07 Ao no Shonen

Ciao Bella Cinquetti

Veterans of Akasaka Halloween, Ciao Bella Cinquetti (formerly known as THE Possible) returned for the 3rd year in the row and decided to go with a group costume inspired by Minions. The floor lit up with penlights as they began with their ode to the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo, “Omotesando”, which is only 2 stops away from Akasaka. From there, Ciao Bella Cinquetti erupted into a high energy set, starting with “Otome! Be Ambitious!” as the fans fell into a fist-pumping, chanting frenzy.

Kanami Morozuka was celebrating her birthday on stage and coyly tried to hide her age, which worked for a few seconds until second eldest member Aina Hashimoto quipped, “26!”. Ciao Bella Cinquetti brought a treat in the form of a new song titled “Ichigo Ichie”, a heavy rock song that had the 4 members moving sharply, the audience quickly adapting to the unfamiliar yet simple furicopy. The rocking continued with the high-octane “Saa Koi Happiness!”. Kanami was caught up in a group hug and candies were thrown out to the audience. However, it was kind of sad that Yurika Akiyama was no longer in the group when it came to the part where the fans chant the members names in the middle of the song. Hopefully, she’s in a much happier place now. Robin Shoko Okada showed off that she had a Minion in the front pocket of her overalls during their final song “Zenryoku Banzai! My Glory!”. A minion in a minion? Minion-ception? Waving their arms like an ouendan, Ciao Bella Cinquetti lead a singalong to end the song, Robin encouraging those who didn’t know the words to just go along with it.

01 Omotesando
02 Otome! Be Ambitious!
03 Ichigo Ichie
04 Saa Koi Happiness!
05 Zenryoku Banzai! My Glory!

lyrical school

As the final act of the evening, lyrical school hit the stage in matching Wally outfits (known in the United States and Canada as Waldo) and their DJ lurked behind the turntables with a Scream mask and black robes on. Waving their hands from side to side, they got things going with “brand new day”. A 4-song medley starting with “Oide yo” had the “heads” (lyrical school name for fans) chanting along and clapping to “Ribbon wo Kyutto” and “PARADE” as well as getting hot under the collar to the heart-pounding “Put Your Hands Up!”.

Switching from cute to fierce, lyrical school unleashed a wall of rhymes and beats with “I.D.O.L.R.A.P”, scatting away to the chunky wah-wah guitar groove. Turning back the clock, they continued with the retro-disco summer tune “Wonderground”, bumping hips as the audience jumped along. Because rapping is fun, lyrical school brought Akasaka Halloween to a close with their classic “FRESH!!!”, mei scratching away at an imaginary turntable. The other members ran in circles around minan sang her solo lines. Perhaps, it’s time that lyrical school gets a Halloween song? How about “Pumpkins Jump Up” (a nod to “Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down” by Brand Nubian)?

01 brand new day
02 Medley: Oide yo, Ribbon wo Kyutto, PARADE, Put Your Hands Up!
03 I.D.O.L.R.A.P
04 Wonderground
05 FRESH!!!

Stay tuned for our Akasaka Halloween gallery for our premium members filled with hundreds of pictures from this exciting event, including close-ups of your favorite idols!

Photos by Ken’ichi Takagi

Related Links

Cheeky Parade Official site: http://www.cheekyparade.jp/

Ciao Bella Cinquetti Official site: http://ciao-bella-cinquetti.com/

drop Official site: http://www.drop-collet.com/

Hime Kyun Fruit Can Official site: http://himekyun.jp/

hy4_4yh Official site: http://www.thelabel.jp/hy4_4yh/

lyrical school Official site: http://lyricalschool.com/

palet Official site: http://palet7.jp/

PASSPO☆ Official site: http://passpo.jp/

predia Official site: http://predia-party.jp/

STARMARIE Official site: http://starmarie.com/