After one after another depressing announcement of show cancellation or postponement, everyone was hoping for something to brighten up their “stay-at-home” lives. After a very powerful TV presentation of Endless SHOCK on FujiTV on 21 March, fans are in for another treat from the Endless SHOCK company.
Instagram Live
There was an official notice on Endless SHOCK Instagram will do an IG Live on 22 March, at 18:00 JST. Previously, they have done something similar like a talk show + uploading a couple of stories and videos.
Many were waiting for something like a talk show but who knows the IG Live actually started like what you will experience if you watch the show at the theatre!!! No way!!!
Act 1
Though the first 30 minutes were troubled by poor connectivity, with a lot of help from the viewers to turn off comments, etc. the show resumed with fewer disruptions. We were basically “shouting” virtually at Saito-san to do this and that because our dear Saito-san is not exactly a tech-savvy person.
It’s amazing how they were trying to do this via a smartphone with a selfie stick. There is a lot of personal feel to this video, which fans really enjoyed, especially when you get Koichi to do his own selfie videos like below.
Basically, they covered almost the whole show, mainly featuring the singing/dancing performances. It’s too bad Team USA has to return to America, and couldn’t join this IG Live show, but Koichi made it up by asking Matsuzaki to cover Team USA part for the Broadway opening which is too amazing! Zaki-san did such a good imitation job!!! I was too surprised when they even decided to do the battle scene complete with Koichi rolling down that long flight of stairs covered in blood but smiling at the end. 😀 I love how Koichi was teasing the taiko drummer, Hino-san when they were preparing for the battle scene.
Half-time!
It’s too funny right after Act 1 ended with that bloody scene, Koichi had to take 15 minutes to shower and prepare for Act 2. Usually, if you are watching the actual show, we get a 30-minute break, so now we know Koichi can shower and prepare faster. LOL!
Unfortunately, they had to skip showing “Higher”, as this dance number is too energy-draining, but they did a nice performance of “One Day (Reprise)” to compensate for the disrupted version in Act 1.
Remember this was all filmed with a smartphone, but they still manage to show us the famous red ribbon flying! Koichi still managed to pull off this part, cutting some scenes that involved more of Team USA performances.
HIGHLIGHT: FLYING WITH KOICHI!
For the ladder flying scene, Saito-san decided to go to the 2nd floor to film this, so the poor guy guided by Matsuzaki and Teranishi went to the 2nd floor. (You can seriously hear Saito-san panting when he arrived at the 2nd floor.)
This is exactly the perfect seat to enjoy this scene because you get Koichi flying towards you, and then landing in front of you to greet the audience.
But this time, Koichi topped it off and emerged as your perfect Peter Pan boyfriend, even better than Aladdin on the magic carpet. Basically, he just grabbed the selfie stick and flew away together with “us”. Isn’t this the perfect Disney ride? All fangirl dreams come true at this instance! LOL!
Yoru no Umi
I still cannot believe I got to watch “Yoru no Umi” for 2 consecutive nights, once on the show for FujiTV, and then online via this IG Live. Such a precious and classic scene to be shown to the audience on national TV + online worldwide!!!
Before moving onto the last scene, they gathered all the cast on stage and had some rounds of talk. It’s funny how Koichi was introducing the last song “CONTINUE” and asked who wrote the song, and Koshioka went “You! It’s almost always YOU!” I love how the company is always so cute together.
“CONTINUE”
The performance started with Beverly-san’s lines, and she changed it this time to thank everyone and also wish to see everyone again soon. So so so sad…!!! She actually teared up after this performance when Koichi was saying some last words. The IG live ended abruptly which later everyone was saying on Twitter that maybe the smartphone battery went flat. LOL!
It’s really unbelievable how the SHOCK company and staff pulled off this 2.5 hours IG live, with some interruptions due to poor connectivity and restrictions of IG (apparently IG live can only broadcast for 1 hour at each time?). In the end, I think around 60,000 viewers were watching together at one point. Imagine that this is more than the capacity of the Tokyo Dome!
THANK YOU KOICHI and SHOCK company!
No words can express how touched I was to see such efforts put in to make fans happy. It really made us believe the power of entertainment can “save” people to a certain extent. At least for the 2.5 hours, we were really enjoying ourselves, and that leads to more motivation to endure the upcoming days.
I hope that the next time we can have Endless SHOCK, it will be the same company. Till then, please take care and stay safe!!!