Social Idol Group notall Celebrate Miraculous 1st Anniversary at Shinjuku ReNY!

| Idol | Posted by Kai Okudara on Jul.28.2015

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Social idol group notall celebrated their 1st anniversary with their first one-man live “〜Co-Creation Summer party〜” with about 800 of their fans at Shinjuku ReNY on on July 12, 2015.

Making their debut at the The 3rd World Gourmet and Music Festa In Yoyogi Park on June 29, 2014, the group with the concept of being “produced with everyone from all over the world”, everything from the name “notall” to the members’ nicknames, outfit design, logo, and music was created through crowdsourcing over social media. Since that time, they released 2 singles(“Koi no Sumasokura”, “Ready Girl/Boku no Kakera/Mirai Chikyuugi”), a remix single (“Re:notall”), and a mini-album (“Penguin Ningen”), all of which topped the amazon.co.jp digital music rankings, were the subject of a BBC documentary that was also broadcast in Norway, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, and traveled to Thailand to perform at CONNECT JAPAN 2015.

Taking the stage after a video showing the whirlwind year that they had, notall was greeted by their enthusiastic fans inside the ballroom adorned by twin chandeliers and a mirror ball as “notall” scrolled across the LED screen that wrapped around the balcony. The floor area was bathed in the glow of red penlights as notall began their first song, the light dance track “READY GIRL”, smiling cheerfully, waving, and pointing our into the audience. The flirty dance moves and rolling synths gave way to the grinding guitars and galloping drums of “Boku no Kakera”, Chiko Watanabe cooly glancing over her shoulder to whisper her solo line. Lasers flashed and “Bechiko” (Watanabe’s nickname) made a carnivorous declaration at the beginning of notall’s ode to grilled meat “O-Niku de Night☆Sensation”, an EDM number that also pays homage to idol culture with its wotagei-influenced arm movements and bouncy ending pose (Morning Musume “Ren’ai Revolution 21”).

Stopping to introduce themselves and thank the fans for getting together on this warm summer evening, the members of notall were slightly overcome with emotion. Haruka Sato (aka “Satoharu”) was touched that so many people had come so far to be with them (even though Shinjuku ReNY is located relatively close to Shinjuku station). Narumi Katase (aka Naachan), who celebrated her 23rd birthday less than a week earlier, broke into tears, prompting a “Naachan” chant to build her spirits back up. Bechiko vowed that they would “surpass fun” with the live and Reina Tasaki (aka Tasakyon) expressed her thanks with a pun, “Arigachonmage!” (a combination of “arigatou”, thank you and “chonmage”, the hairstyle worn by samurai). Haruka Sato (aka Satoharu) asked the fans to move forward in order to accommodate those that were watching from the lobby area and unable to enter the ballroom. A short video played, showing congratulatory messages from their fans from overseas, including neutrinoP, a Romanian music producer who remixed “Koi No Sumasokura” after discovering notall on Twitter.

The live continued with the genre-hopping “We are notall!!!!” which alternated between electro pop and rock (Satoharu), reggae (Naachan), 90’s J-pop (Tasakyon), and hip-hop (Bechiko), showcasing the members’ personalities. This was followed up by a cover of the Finger 5 classic “Gakuen Tengoku”, the coupling song from their 1st single “Koi No Sumasokura”. Satoharu went around winding up the others like clockwork toys to begin the Perfume-scented electro pop “Tokimeki Latte Art” as the fans chanted energetically while waving their hands back and forth. Striking mannequin poses when the music stopped, the stage went dark and a video explaining the #マイラバ campaign for their 3rd single “my baby, my lover” played on the screen. The floor area lit up as fans picked up their phones to tweet their contributions, the photos being displayed on the screen in real time.

Returning to the stage in new black and white outfits with towels slung over their shoulders and tucked into their belts, notall debuted a new song titled “Kirameki☆tweet girl!!”, a loose and playful rock song. Bechiko and Naachan did a pinky swear with each other while Tasakyon and Satoharu clashed with imaginary hadoken as a pink and black towel tornado whipped up a breeze. With the MV playing on the screen behind them, notall performed “my baby, my lover”, the fans responding with “Ore mo!” every time they sang “I need you, I miss you, I love you!”

After the uptempo “Filter”, the members took a break to drink water and reminisce about the year that they had which brought them to their 1st one-man live. Satoharu mentioned the vast improvement in their dance abilities. Bechiko expressed her doubts about becoming an idol because she wasn’t “the kind of girl who ate strawberries and other cute things”, but vowed to do her best in her own way. Tasakyon was the most emotional, tears rolling down her face as she thanked everyone for contributing to their success, starting a “Tasakyon” call until she responded with a cheerful “yoisho!” and a smile. Satoharu declared that she wanted to be on a bigger stage the next year, leading her to expand the goal to include an Asia tour and a world tour, the fans answering “You can do it!”

With voices shaking, notall performed the “song of their beginning”, their debut single “Koi No Sumasokura” as the fans sang along with them. As a show of their appreciation, the members threw signed plastic balls into the audience. The tempo picked up as notall shuffled and jumped to the uptempo country rock of “Nounai Live!”, reaching out to high-five the fans in the front of the stage. The floor shook and notall flapped their wings during “Penguin Ningen” before they ended the main performance with “Mirai Chikyuugi” as balloons floated down from the 2nd floor balcony and were batted around by the whirling towels.

Almost immediately a “notall” encore call began, increasing in intensity until the group returned to the stage in T-shirts and knee-length skirts, performing “my baby, my lover” for a second time. Naachan’s twintail accidentally whipped across Bechiko’s face as the end of the song. notall talked about how their little retweet campaign that was hatched when they had been at Shinjuku ReNY for a tai-ban event in November of 2014 had grown to the point where they could have had their 1st one-man. Originally, they had set the goal of 300 retweets but as it grew, more and more benefits were added, including the slashing of pre-sale tickets to half-price and their first ever cheki-kai. Even though fans had always been free to take pictures and video of notall, the group had never had a proper cheki-kai before! Right as they were about to start “O-Niku de Night☆Sensation”, Naachan was surprised with a birthday cake and about 800 of notall’s fans singing “Happy Birthday to You”, causing her to burst into tears again.

One of the fans held up a tablet and scrolled through the 21 different meats mentioned in “O-Niku de Night☆Sensation” as wasabi-colored lasers sliced through the air during the second performance of the song. The LEDs on the balcony flashed a rainbow of colors and Tasakyon held her microphone out to one of the cameramen to sing along to “READY GIRL” as the concert ended just as it had begun. As notall stood on the stage at the end of their 1st one-man live, they asked for the house lights to be turned on so they could see that, they had actually managed to win enough fans to pack Shinjuku ReNY. After a commemorative photo, notall left the stage and began preparing for the cheki-kai.

For notall to go from “zero” to maxing out one of Tokyo’s live houses and performing overseas in just 1 year is nothing short of amazing. With their “social idol” concept, cheerful personalities, and use of crowdsourcing to give the fans exactly what they want, it will be exciting to see how high they can go in their second year. Their 3rd single “my baby, my lover” received a #8 daily ranking on the Oricon charts and they will be having another overseas performance when they take the stage at the Taiwan Manga Hakurankai (Expo) on August 6th.

Set List

01 READY GIRL
02 Boku no Kakera
03 O-Niku de Night☆Sensation
04 We are notall!!!!
05 Gakuen Tengoku
06 Tokimeki Latte Art
07 Kirameki☆tweet girl!!
08 my baby, my lover
09 Filter
10 Koi No Sumasokura
11 Nounai Live!
12 Penguin Ningen
13 Mirai Chikyuugi

E1 my baby, my lover
E2 O-Niku de Night☆Sensation
E3 READY GIRL

Related Links

Official Website : http://notall.jp/
Official Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/notall
Official Twitter : https://twitter.com/si_notall

Photo by Yusuke Homma