Shrine Maidens! Shuffle Units! Study Abroad? iDOL Street Carnival 2016 Report

| Idol | Posted by Kai Okudara on Feb.01.2016

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iDOL Street welcomed the Year of the Monkey during their iDOL Street Carnival 2016 at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall on January 17, 2016. SUPER☆GiRLS, Cheeky Parade, GEM, Wasuta, and iDOL Street Street-sei got together for some exciting collaborations but also shared the shocking news that Cheeky Parade’s Marin Yamamoto and Mariya Suzuki, and GEM’s Maaya Takeda would be leaving to study abroad in Los Angeles for 2 years.

Opening with an animated video full of New Year’s imagery, fireworks exploding and the sun rising over Mt. Fuji, the fans cheered as the groups appeared on the screen. SUPER☆GiRLS ace Ami Maeshima took her place at the center of the stage to deliver her pledge at the beginning of “Hanamichi!! Ambitious” to start the show. GEM was up next, sparkling and shaking across the stage with “Baby, Love me!”. Cheeky Parade delivered a moving performance of “M.O.N.ST@R”, the audience raising their hands and jumping along with them. The glow of penlights was joined by those of smartphones and cameras as Wasuta took the stage for the heart-pounding “DokiDoki♡ Today”. If you search for #tws_live or #わーすた on Twitter, you should be able to find a lot more pictures and videos from any of the times that Wasuta was on stage for iDOL Street Carnival or just about any event that they do.

Welcoming the fans to Nakano Sun Plaza Hall, the members of SUPER☆GiRLS talked about how they were trying to get more attention for themselves. Ami Maeshima delivered a wicked front kick developed through years of Kyokushin karate. Nana Asakawa talked about her body which had become a hot topic when she was given the title “once in 1,000 years ‘baby-faced huge breasts’ (dougan kyonyuu)”, causing the more modestly endowed Rika Shimura to grab her chest in an outburst of playful anger. Streamers exploded from the rafters as the rest of iDOL Street began the Street-sei classic “Koi Shite YES! ~Kore ga Watashi no Idol-do!~” which had the lyrics modified to introduce all of the groups on the stage.

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The previous day had been a solo live for SUPER☆GiRLS at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall so the members talked about how iDOL Street Carnival was different. Rino Katsuta thought it was nice to see fans from the different groups all gathered together. Nana lamented that she would often think she saw someone with her color (mint green) but it would actually be a fan of a different member with a similar color like GEM’s Rana Murakami (emerald) or Wa→Suta’s Nanase Hirokawa (pastel green) instead. Moving on, SUPER☆GiRLS got the audience jumping with “Gira Gira Revolution”, Rika holding her microphone to the members of Cheeky Parade to sing along with her; Nana doing the same to Nanase. Maeshima and Risa Uchimura took a short break to sit with Cheeky Parade before running back into formation to continue the song.

The rest of iDOL Street did their best to keep up with the fans when Cheeky Parade turned up the heat with “BUNBUN NINE9’”, throwing out kechas from their seats on the stage. GEM transitioned almost seamlessly into “Star Shine Story” jumping out from their positions behind Cheeky Parade and moving their arms sharply though the air. Wa→Suta slowed things down with the sentimental fingerpicking country guitar of “Chiisana Chiisana”. The volume of the audience blipped up several notches as the Street-sei performed “Kimi Koi Telepathy”.

Cheeky Parade returned to the stage, wearing cool silver and black outfits to perform their futuristic upcoming single “SKY GATE” with a slower than usual tempo and separate singing and dancing roles for the members. Things returned to normal as they kicked things into overdrive with “C.P.U !?” and the fans erupted into a MIX and moved around as much as they could in spite of the theater-style seating. Yuriya Suzuki commented that she thought that “SKY GATE” showed off Cheeky Parade’s sexy side, saying it was like a new challenge for them as a group.

Ratcheting their arms like lawn sprinklers and bobbing like penguins waddling their way across an ice shelf, SUPER☆GiRLS showed off their glittery new outfits and various dance moves for their new song “Karei Naru V!CTORY” from their 4th album “SUPER★CASTLE”. This was followed up by “MAX! Otome Gokoro”. Naapon attempted to explain about the new song but ended up rambling off on a tangent and eventually kneeling in apology for her incoherence. Ruka Mizote revealed that the members had petitioned for some of the songs that would be on the album.

GEM showed off their flowing all-white dresses for their new single “Fine! ~fly for the future~ (GEM)”. The wardrobe change didn’t present a problem as they shook their legs in the air during “Just! Call Me”. Maaya Takeda exclaimed that it was GEM’s first time to be wearing high heels, Sara Hirano adding that the new outfits were so girly and cute compared to what they had worn in the past.

Wasuta reappeared in seifuku with color-coordinated accents, heating things up with “Wonderful World” but, one the highlights of the evening had to be when they were joined by GEM, Cheeky Parade, and SUPER☆GiRLS for the contagiously cute “Inu-Neko. Seishun Massakari”! Although it was rumored that Yuki Kanazawa (GEM) and Hikaru Watanabe (SUPER☆GiRLS) seemed like they would be the least optimistic about doing the cat and dog movements, they flatly denied such claims.

The special Girls Street 2020 unit featuring Shinju Kutsukake (Sendai Twinkle☆Moon), Yumeri Abe (Tokyo YumePiyo Gumi), Sakurako Kidoguchi (Tokyo YumePiyo Gumi), Hanano Iyanagi (Nagoya Chuubu), Mayu Kitajima (Nagoya Chuubu), Nano Kinoshita (FUKUOKA Hakata Minion Sweet), and Nene Matsunaga (Girls Street 2015 Audition Winner) showed off the results of their hard work with an impressive performance of “Speed up”. The Ido-ryu☆Collab unit of Koume Watanabe (SUPER☆GiRLS), Rana Murakami (GEM), Maaya Takeda (GEM), and Nanase Hirokawa (Wa→Suta) turned back the clock with SPEED’s classic “Steady”.

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A series of shuffle unit performances brought the live to an exciting conclusion. The SUPER☆GiRLS classic “Akai Jounetsu” was performed by Kako Oguri, Rana Murakami, Maho Iyama, Sara Hirano from GEM, Nanase Hirokawa and Miri Matsuda from Wasuta and Street-sei Yumeri Abe. Rika Shimura, Rino Katsuta, Nana Asakawa, Mirei Tanaka, Risa Uchimura from SUPER☆GiRLS, Hazuki Sakamoto from Wasuta, and Street-sei Nano Kinoshita received the approval of GEM in the form of hilariously exaggerated kechas thrown their way during their rendition of “We’re GEM”. Sirens blared and Hikaru Watanabe, Rina Miyazaki from SUPER☆GiRLS, Chisami Ito, Yu Morioka from GEM, Ririka Kodama from Wasuta, and Street-sei Rio Morikawa charged across the stage during “Cheeky Fighter”. Chisami admited that she had reservations about delivering some of the lines that were so different than her usual personality but, Yuriya Suzuki assured her that they did well. SUPER☆GiRLS, Cheeky Parade, and GEM made announcements about their upcoming releases and big lives and Wasuta revealed that they would be having their first one-man live. A drawing was held and a lucky SUPER☆GiRLS won a 1-year pass to all events that their “oshi” (favorite member) is in.

Mariya Suzuki appeared on the stage with a boombox and wearing a shrine maiden (miko) outfit to start off “DANCE NUMBER 2016”. The mix of traditional Japanese instruments and hard beats matched the visual anachronism as the rest of iDOL Street made their way to the stage in similar outfits to show off their dance skills. After a rousing performance of “Together” by all of the members, the mystery of iDOL Street Reload was revealed. The venue grew quiet as the fans learned that Maaya Takeda, Mariya Suzuki, and Marin Yamamoto would be leaving Japan to level up their skills in Los Angeles for 2 years. Marin explained that her love of singing and dancing was exactly why she had to go, expressing her dissatisfaction with the way things were currently. Maaya talked about always having had a dream of going overseas, promising to add extra to GEM when she returned. Mariya said that she made her decision after taking some lessons in Los Angeles and discussing the matter with her sister Yuriya. After their last performance with their groups on June 25th, SUPER☆GiRLS, Cheeky Parade, and GEM would undergo new formations.

Determined to end things on a happy note, the final song of the evening was “Happy Circle Street” which was accompanied by the blasts of hand-held cannons firing presents into the audience. In reverse order of seniority, the groups took their final bows and thanked the fans for coming out to support iDOL Street before leaving the stage. Rika Shimura promised that they would keep working hard to grow up and asked for their continued support. Change is never easy to accept but it is a necessary part of experiencing growth, Mariya, Marin, and Maaya may be going away for 2 years but, that is still months away and it is with the expectation of the end results that has lead them to their decision.

Set List

01 Hanamichi!! Ambitious (SUPER☆GiRLS)
02 Baby, Love me! (GEM)
03 M.O.N.ST@R (Cheeky Parade)
04 DokiDoki♡ Today (Wasuta)
05 Koi Shite YES! ~Kore ga Watashi no Idol-do!~ (All)
06 Gira Gira Revolution (SUPER☆GiRLS)
07 BUNBUN NINE9’ (Cheeky Parade)
08 Star Shine Story (GEM)
09 Chiisana Chiisana (Wasuta)
10 Kimi Koi Telepathy (Street-sei)
11 SKY GATE (Cheeky Parade)
12 C.P.U !? (Cheeky Parade)
13 Karei Naru V!CTORY (SUPER☆GiRLS)
14 MAX! Otome Gokoro (SUPER☆GiRLS)
15 Fine! ~fly for the future~ (GEM)
16 Just! Call Me (GEM)
17 Wonderful World (Wasuta)
18 Inu-Neko. Seishun Massakari (Wasuta)
19 Speed up (Girls Street 2020)
20 Steady (Ido-ryu☆Collab)
21 Akai Jounetsu (Shuffle 1)
22 We’re GEM! (Shuffle 2)
23 Cheeky Fighter (Shuffle 3)
24 Dance Number 2016 (Dance Members → All)
25 Together (All)
26 Happy Circle Street (All)