KinKi Kids Concert 2022-2023 Christmas report

Merry Christmas! I spent a wonderful Christmas weekend on the 24th and 25th of December with our beloved boys at KinKi Kids Concert 2022-2023  24451〜The Story of Us〜. It was full of love and laughter in Tokyo Dome as COVID-19 restrictions were slowly lifted, and we could express ourselves more than just clapping and waving.

I was not expecting to go for both shows but miraculously they revived my lost ballot for the 25th show. I was more than happy to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the boys. There is a very good report from BAILA here (Japanese only).

Concert Goods at the Venue

With COVID-19 restrictions slightly lifted, they also resumed selling concert goods at the concert venue. It’s not a walk-in but you have to register an account, and reserve a timeslot on their Johnnys Concert Goods website. I didn’t buy anything on the spot this time, but bought from their online website as usual. It’s good that I can reuse the penlight that they released earlier this year for the summer concerts.

KinKi Kids Concert 2022-2023 Set List

The Story of Us
硝子の少年
スワンソング
愛のかたまり
薄荷キャンディー
MC①
欲望のレイン
Time
10ve in the Φ
MC②
Harmony of December
銀色暗号
高純度Romance
KANZAI BOYA
KinKi Kids Forever (English version)
MC③
シンデレラ・クリスマス
MC④
薔薇と太陽
Secret Code
Kissからはじまるミステリー
愛されるより愛したい
雨のMelody
Anniversary
Amazing Love

Pre-show Highlights

We arrived 1 hour before the show starts on the 24th show and was observing fans around the venue. It’s nice to see the costumes display on stage again, but this time they added the Snow Man costumes that both boys wore while singing Ai no Katamari 2 years ago when they did the online broadcast. I was enjoying the BGM which they played all the major KinKi Kids songs while waiting. One of the songs they played which surprised me was GIRA☆GIRA.

Funny incident on the 25th show

The concert started with KinKi Kids singing The Story of Us, without any visuals. It reminded me of G concert when they sang Bonnie Butterfly in acapella before the spotlights shone on them. The 24th show was all good, but there was this funny incident on the 25th show.

Koichi shared about this incident during the MC. Apparently, the opening stage was so dark that they couldn’t see the lyrics of the song and had to squat down to read the lyrics and sing at the time. It was a super awkward position but when the spotlights were shone on them, they could stand and sing as if nothing has happened. If Koichi hasn’t talked about this, no one will know but he said it affects his performance for the subsequent songs.

This is definitely the best highlight of the show and it sent all the fans laughing so badly. These 2 boys are too hilarious when they were reenacting the scene

Set List Highlights

It was a pleasant surprise to hear them sing Yokubou no Rain again, complete with dance too. We know that it’s a popular number with the other Johnnys’ groups and Johnny’s Jr. To hear it from the original duo was absolutely delightful.

Personally, I felt really touched when I hear them sing Hakka Candy this time, and Koichi was hitting all the high notes on the 24th show perfectly. On the other hand, Tsuyoshi was struggling in some parts, but he did mention that he wanted to challenge himself this time. It was really a surprise to see him doing some dancing along for many performances, and we definitely appreciated his efforts. Apparently, spinning affects his ear condition. He wanted to go with only ear monitors for this concert but had to put on noise-cancelling headphones on top of that. I wish he will take it easy on himself. We are happy enough to see him on stage.

Double Johnny-san

We know that Koichi will dress up as Johnny-san at the end of KANZAI BOYA, and on the 24th show, he was singing KinKi Kids Forever as Johnny-san as well. Koichi said that to dress up as Johnny-san takes up a lot of his energy, and Tsuyoshi made a comment that he has never tried to dress up as Johnny-san so he doesn’t really know. I thought to myself that with this comment, who knows Tsuyoshi may decide to dress up as Johnny-san at one of the shows.

Guess what? On the 25th show, Tsuyoshi really dress up as Johnny-san, so we got this weird scene of seeing doubles when both boys were Johnny-san and singing KinKi Kids Forever. It was funny and heart-warming at the same time since we know how much they respect and adore Johnny-san.

Bread and Butter?

There were several MCs in between the performances this time, and each MC whether long or short, ended up being long MCs because both boys are so good at talking crap. Before they performed Bara to Taiyou (literally Rose and Sun), they got into the position where Tsuyoshi was at the alleviated stage holding his guitar, and Koichi was at the main stage with the female dancers. Koichi asked Tsuyoshi to do the song introduction, and Tsuyoshi mentioned “Okay, let’s listen to 5963” on the 24th show. I was like “Seriously? Please perform this song!” LOL!

On the 25th show, Tsuyoshi gave more options like “Pan to Butter” (Bread and Butter), and other combinations which includes the Japanese word “to” (literally means “and” in English). But he proceeded to improvise to other versions like “Man to hehe” (literally baboon) and “Nan to Ichiman Kyusenhappyakuen” (literally a whopping 19,800 JPY), etc. It sent Koichi and us laughing a lot.

Acrylic Stand issue

We know that recently fans are crazy with their idols’ acrylic stands. KinKi Kids have their own ones too, though we already know that the boys are not keen on such goods. It was too funny when Koichi mentioned during the MC that he happened to see fans taking photos of these stands, with some parfait drinks while he was on the road, and his reaction was “Drink it up!”

Tsuyoshi was then telling him how fans will bring these stands along with their travel trips, and Koichi went “What? That’s kidnapping!” *facepalm* You have to give it to this guy’s imagination. Interestingly, they will be releasing acrylic stands for their single jackets as their 25th-anniversary special item. Say goodbye to 19,500JPY (close to 150USD, 200SGD) if you are purchasing this.

Hand-written lyrics

We all love a little personal touch from the boys, so it was nice to see their hand-written lyrics for the full version of Anniversary close to the end of the concert. They left us with some hand-written messages like キミとボクの心はひとつだよ Our hearts are one (Tsuyoshi) and 素敵なクリスマスをありがとう Thank you for the lovely Christmas (Koichi)

All-time favourites

They sang other all-time favourites like Kiss kara hajimaru mystery, Giniro Angou, etc. I think I never get tired of looping these classics. YouTube was so timely to release the exact piano version of Giniro Angou on Christmas Eve, just after the concert ended.

Thank you!

While I won’t heading to Osaka for the 1st and 2nd concerts, I hope those who can attend will enjoy themselves to the fullest, and celebrate Koichi’s 44th birthday together! It will be a blast! Thank you to the boys, the staff, and others who make this concert a reality! I cannot wait for the next time we can watch them perform again!