Koichi Domoto Live Tour 2021 PLAYFUL 7/25 show

Today is the last day of the long weekend which started on 22 July 2021. I was lucky to win the ballot for the additional 13:00 show of Koichi Domoto Live Tour 2021 PLAYFUL. It’s been 6 years since the last solo concert of Koichi Domoto.

I already read spoilers of the first show and was ready for the show today. The show ended at 14:53, a little under 2 hours, with a 30-40 minute MC.

COVID-19 precautionary measures

Similar to the oneST concert I went to last month, there is one seat left empty in between each group of audience, no cheering, only clapping. In addition, for Koichi Domoto Live Tour 2021 PLAYFUL, we were asked to be seated at all times. Frankly speaking, it gets a little tiring after an hour remaining to be seated. I wish we had the extravagant exercise routine from YOSHIE-san like what they did in the 7/24 18:00 show. LOL!

My digital ticket required me to enter the venue at 12:30 but the staff instructed everyone to start entering at 12:20. Once we are in the concert venue, they were playing songs from Koichi’s past and present albums. There were some songs that I didn’t listen to for a long time so it was a nice wait until the start of the concert.

We had a couple of surprise announcements today including filming cameras for both Yokohama Arena shows today. Initially, I thought it was for the wide shows tomorrow morning but it seems like we have the overhead “drone” camera too, so fingers crossed for the Blu-ray/DVD release too!

Stage Layout

Also because of COVID-19, Koichi tried to keep the stage layout simple this time with only a main stage, making it more like a musical stage in theatres than a concert stage. He mentioned he realised his fans are so used to watching his musicals, so it should be fine for us to remain seated throughout, but it must be painful for the butt too. I’m glad he knows! I wish we could have the choice to stand at certain performances.

During the MC, he also mentioned that even though he has to keep social distance with us, he assured us that the concert contents are very “dense” as in 密 which is one of the keywords we keep seeing during this pandemic.

Concert Set List

1. INTERACTIONAL
2. Bad Desire
3. 妖 ～あやかし～
4. Danger Zone
5. LOVE CRIES
6. V Short Movie
7. V -Last Forever- (NEW!)
8. Tik Tik Tik
9. I Want Your Love
10. Foxy Dominator
11. Animal
MC (Long)
12. 追憶の雨
MC (Short)
13. Mutual
14. Deep in your heart
15. FAME
16. absolute love
17. Back to you
18. Way To Dark
19. Rewind
20. Slave Maker
21. Time to go

Some Highlights

It was great that Koichi gave us a nice warm-up of his older hit songs from previous singles and albums before going to the V short movie.

After a full viewing of the short movie, the stage re-enacted the scene from the short movie, and we have Koichi appearing like a King on his throne, singing a new song which has the melody of V, full of English lyrics going like “We last forever, We last forever”. Later during the MC, if I didn’t catch it wrongly, Koichi mentioned the title of this song as V -Last forever-.

Come to think of it, because we are not allowed to cheer, there was silence during that famous move during Danger Zone, which felt really weird. He did this move really subtly this time too. We love to tease Koichi when he does that “open leg, butt sliding move” (sounds wrong…)

愛してるよ

I think we were all waiting to hear this line from I Want Your Love live from the guy himself. It’s funny how during MC, he mentioned he’s been saying more softly with each show, but the PA staff managed to pick up the words without any issue. Kudos to the staff for dealing with the cheeky guy! Koichi even mentioned if the fans enjoy this kind of cheesy lines because it sounds like a gag when he says this. Like how Nakajima Kento can say “Sexy thank you” with no issue but if it’s him, it will be sexual harassment. LOL! I know right!!! But Koichi underestimated himself, fans love him when he’s cheesy too.

But seriously this guy likes to talk dirty sometimes. At the beginning of the MC, he went to take a sip of water with the fans clapping in the meantime, and the cameraman was aiming the camera at his crotch. He shouted “Where are you focusing at? What are you looking at?” Excuse me, please remember we can only clap, please don’t make us laugh out loud.

Instagram!!!

One of the surprise announcements during the MC time from Koichi is about starting his own Instagram account. Apparently, there were talks to open this account on the same day he released his latest album PLAYFUL. Also, there were some discussions to hold an exhibition with Square Enix for the CG stuff they did for his album, but because of COVID-19, they had to cancel the idea.

It was funny how the staff showed the account name on the stage display, and I was reaching for my phone then wonder if I can do that during the MC. Who knows we got the official approval from the man himself to take out our phones, search for his account and follow immediately.

It’s so funny seeing a blank account with only 9 followers, no posts, no account picture, no official Instagram tick mark. At the end of the MC time, I think we have around 3,000 followers, and then at the end of the concert, there are already 64K followers. The power of social media! We ended up so engrossed in following his Instagram, that Koichi complained everyone is looking at our phones, and no one is looking or listening to him anymore.

Instagram beginner, Koichi Domoto

I think he spent a good 10-15 minutes freaking out at taking his own selfie using his manager’s phone, and also trying to upload the selfie correctly on Instagram. It’s funny how he had to retake because his first selfie shows his long chin, and also he freaked out when trying to upload the photo, seeing his manager’s daughter’s photos in the camera roll.

Because it’s not his own phone, I think the keypad settings are different from what he is used to. He was going “I cannot type in kana, I’m going to type in romaji… hell with it… I’m going to share now… omg… is it okay? I’m going to share…” like an insecure kid. And then later on, he freaked out again when he clicked on the “magnifying glass icon” and saw a lot of cute dog photos.

First post in Instagram

I’m very happy we get to witness this historical moment and also participated in his first post which got this puzzling word “tyumen” in his post saying “Ima masani live tyumen” and then I think the post got edited later to add “what is tyumen?” I think that’s the question all the readers have. But I think it may be “ima masani live tyunen“. It’s a typo for sure, he meant to say “I’m right in the middle of a live concert”. Thanks to this typo, this puzzling “tyumen” got into the trending words. LOL!

He also tried to ask who in the audience are still using feature phone, and it seems like only 1 person was waving his/her penlight. Koichi tried to diss the fans saying we are the generation who does not know how to use social media or smartphones. Super rude but that’s the communication style between Koichi and the fans. He mentioned that Matsuoka (from TOKIO) has upgraded his feature phone to a smartphone recently. Apparently, Matsuoka was amazed at the Airdrop feature, which he couldn’t recall the word, and said “Good luck“. WHAT?!

Online Broadcast on 12 August

Another surprise announcement we received during the MC time was the decision to go with an online broadcast of the last show in Fukuoka. It was something suggested by the staff to Koichi. They already decided to go with it until a few days ago when Koichi started having second thoughts about it. This sent the staff into a frozen panic and they asked him to decide during the concert itself today. Koichi obviously has his reasons for having second thoughts.

I empathise with that because a concert isn’t complete without the audience. But in times like this, fans who cannot travel really hope to get to enjoy concerts too even if it’s via the Internet. Koichi was trying to reason with himself, and getting opinions from the fans during this discussion(?) We can only clap really loud for him to show our support to go with it.

He also said that by looking at the stage, we can tell that the company really spent a lot of time and money to build this gorgeous stage and invest in this concert tour this time. To recoup some of the losses, the online broadcast will also alleviate some of the deficit. He was laughing and saying the staff are really people who love to make the fans smile through entertainment too.

In the end, he decided that he will go with the online broadcast, and he asked us all to watch it for sure! I checked the calendar after the concert and realised it’s a Thursday and starts at 17:00. It means that I have to take a half-day leave from work. OMG.

Other Highlights

Koichi mentioned the song 追憶の雨 which he used the tune for Endless SHOCK but has never sung the main melody himself. It reminds him of Johnny-san when he sings it now. (Aww…) We can tell that he really misses Johnny-san. He mentioned how Johnny-san came to his solo concert 6 years ago. Now that he’s gone physically, he still lives in Koichi’s heart.

Koichi also reminded us how his songs are now available on online music subscription apps, i.e. Spotify. He said that it’s very convenient for him, and the way he uses the app may be different from us. It’s more like he will play the song and then recall that he has this song and see how he can put it in the concert setlist. I think this is how he got reminded of 追憶の雨, one of the album songs from his first solo album “Mirror“. I think he sang all of his PLAYFUL album songs except for Melody and Day by Day, and also the extra track Loving You Slowly in the normal edition.

Video collaboration

He did the number Mutual with only YOSHIE-san as the dancer. I was too busy looking at the whole stage design for this performance to notice the dance. For his solo debut song Deep in your heart, they played his MV on the stage screen. Koichi was also dancing to the same choreography, so it looks like the present Koichi dancing with the 2006-version Koichi. I thought this was a nice concept, and I was going gaga over how young Koichi looked.

Superb lighting

I genuinely think that one of the great treats we get from Koichi’s live concert is the exaggerating display of lighting. This guy is such a lighting maniac. FAME was such a show stealer with the dangling light panels moving around like light drones. I wish I have the centre view so that we can see how it’s transforming into different shapes during the performance. Slave Maker was also one of the concert songs in which we can get high together, and Koichi asked us to put our hands up while remaining seated. After the last song Time to go, Koichi exited the stage while seated on his “throne”.

OVERALL

Although the 2-hour show is really a blink of an eye, it’s really full of entertaining content. Like what Koichi said, he thinks he’s one of the few 42-year-old who is moving about so much. I think so too. I’m so happy that we will get to watch the last show even if it’s not in person, and hope we also get the Blu-ray/DVD release!

A BIG THANK YOU to all the staff, crew, cast (dancers and band members), and of course Koichi for making this concert tour happen. I wish him and the team all the best until the last show!