Waterfall & Wings Version 1

IYOIYO, the final part to my loooooong-winded Enbujo report. Do i have any surviving readers? *looks high and low* XDD So, the last part... SHOULD be short...

Act 3: Tackey World

Gawd, i really hate calling him "Tackey". (No sound from Dithers now. *wags finger* LOL) Only doing now cos i am following exactly what is printed in the official pamplet. =_= It's "TAKKI" dayo! And it should really be "Takki's World" with the 's. Maa, i'm not going to continue picking on the English. LOL~ Anyway, Act 3 was supposed to be about the current and future Takki. To me, it was really SHOWTIME!!!!! fufufu~~~

The act began with a junior coming in from the hanamichi exit juggling a baton. Must be *that* junior again. (Someone get this boy a Cirque Du Soleil application form already.) Mao something?? Urgh... dun ask me. Ask Ariye or Loracyn. lol~ The curtain of sakura petals went up and revealed the band behind with many dancers and juniors around. They then started to introduce the junior groups one by one. The screen behind would flash the name of each group as they came forward to perform a song. First was ABC, then KMF and KMF2 and lastly Yayayah. (Don't ask me what they sang. I don't know the titles. I don't even remember the songs actually. =_=) AND THEN TAKKI APPEARED AGAIN! FROM THE TOP!!!! He made use of all the time when the junior groups were performing (and distracting the audience) to ready himself on the gondola. (By our 2nd show, cos we already knew he would be coming down from the top and since we were on the 1st floor and unobstructed, we were looking up and staring at him climbing onto the gondola and stuff... i was squealing to Sylvia.. "i can see under his coat!!!" LMAO~~~ Thou he got his shirt properly tucked in so i saw nothing else. HAHAHAHHAHAAA!! And we couldn't help waving to him, thus alerting quite a few other people around us and distracted them from the performance going on on stage too. Gomen ne, junior-tachi. Hahahha... SuMAmisen! XDD) When the final group Yayayah was done with their song, they played the opening of Yume Monogatari and the audience started screaming. Soon enough, everyone discovered Takki who was slowly descending from the top in all princely glory.

Takki descending on the gondola.
The return of that mirror-ball costume from Harucon 2004!
Was it the same one?? Maa, it looked similar enough!

AND THEN THE AUDIENCE WENT INTO A FRENZY! Muahahhahhaaaa!! The gondola paused for a while when eye-level with the 2nd floor people. (So on our 1st and 3rd shows when we *were* on the 2nd level, it was frantic waving... muahahha!) It would then lower somemore just above the heads of the audience on the 1st floor and Takki would get down onto the right aisle and walk up to the stage. On our 2nd show, cos we were on the 12th row on 1st floor BY THE AISLE (where the gondola will eventually deposit Takki), we were soooooooo HOPING that he will end up next to us!! But aiiiii, the gondola ended up further in front of us than we thought, around Row 8 i think. But not being immediately NEXT TO HIM has its advantages. Cos Takki does not look at fans right under his nose!!! Let's just say he has "foresight". Hahhaha, so when the gondola came lower and lower just 4 rows in front of us, Takki looked in our direction!!! AND ALL THREE OF US STARTED WAVING TO HIM SIMULTANEOUSLY LIKE YOUNG LITTLE GIRLS! LMAO~~~~ AND I SWEAR, HE SAW US!!!! THERE WAS EYE CONTACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *meltssssssss* I think we were squeezing each other's arms to reconfirm the eye contact. LOL~ And his expression... how should i put it.. he didn't smile like ^-^ but the ends of his lips curled up. Like he was amused. AHAHHAHAHHA~~~~ We were kyaahing away~ Takki up close, hontouni kirei dane! So of course the entire theatre was singing and dancing to Yumemo with Takki, though he did say before Act 3 wasn't meant to be a concert. Hahahaha, sorry Takki. Can't help doing the furitsuke! XDDD

So after Yumemo, Takki took off his white cloak to reveal some black-red ensemble (if i didn't rem wrongly.. it's been 2 months!!) and started singing Balance!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAH, I LOVE THIS SONG!!!! It reminds me of the hynoptising hip-swaying action.... WOOHOO!!! moe moe moe!!! Though i *THINK* the dance was a little different in Enbujo... there was no hip-swaying. You see, after 2 months, i am not sure if what I remembered was from Enbujo or DB DVD or Shokura!!! Ahaaaa.... sumamisen... but i kinda rem that the dance was a little different. But still, just hearing him sing live to it already bring images of THAT action to mind. Enuff to spew blood from nose.... *splat* XDDD

After a highly energetic Balance, Takki changed into this royal shiny red suit onstage with a matching fedora to perform a acoustic version of Serenade!

He danced a lot in the beginning with a rose before he started singing. Reminded me of Tsubasa and Higashiyama.. hahah.. they're so into this style... which, can i say is inspired from Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal?? i liked this particular move he did with his hands (in black gloves). Very slick, the way he flipped them. Was trying to learn it... ahhaha~~~ (GIVE US THE ENBUJO DVD ALREADY YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And then, and then... the next song... KYAAAHHHHHHHHHH~~~~~~~~~ I SO DIDN'T EXPECT HIM TO SING IT.... when they played the opening, i nearly flipped... DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!! My His guru-guru legssss!!!!!!!! @_@!!!!!!!!! OOOOOHHHH, HOW I MISSED WATCHING A PERFORMANCE OF DIAMOND LIVE!!!!!!!!!!! *droolssssss enuff to flood* I was sooooooooooo hyped up!!! Hahhahaha!!! Me and Syl were slapping each other's arms and I think Loracyn was all caught up with the biceps??!? Was it here??? Was it here where he took off his blazer and was wearing something sleeveless??!? Shucks, i can't rem what he wore.. ahahha, but I remember after the show, we were talking about this one part in Act 3 and how all of us were gawking at different things!! Loracyn with the biceps, me with the guru guru legs and Syl with Takki's intense expression. WOOHOO~~~~~!!! Though nothing can beat the time when we saw T&T perform it up soooo close to us during Thaicon 2004, it still left me... breathless. XDDDDDDDDDD I love Diamond. Period.

After major heart palpitation with Diamond, the stage went dark and Takki exited. The spotlights came on again with the opening of Kanjani8's Sukiyanen Osaka and Yoko and Okura took centrestage!!! They were both holding the mikestands with the sun? himawari? prop and started speaking in their funny Kansai dialect!! It was Kanjani8's medley time!!! Hahhaha, yappari K8 are such FUN and ENERGETIC people... I was sooooooooo happy cos i really like Sukiyanen Osaka. It's such a genki song!!! And the furitsuke is really cute!!! Catch a past MS performance of it here. I particularly like this one cos it's soo funny and even the usually broody Ryo was bright with smiles!! So anyway, the 2 boys introduced themselves and informed the audience of their new album (F.T.O.) and upcoming concert tour (that was then). Then they started singing the chorus of Sukiyanen and everyone joined along!!! Kyaaah, K8 is sooo endearing it's hard not to like them. Hahhaa~~~ I WAS HAVING SOOOO MUCH FUN DOING THE FURITSUKE!!! After one verse, they stopped to talk a little some more and then started singing the chorus of Oh! ENKA. And then a verse of Sukiyanen again and then the chorus of Osaka Romanesque. Okura started singing then Yoko joined in. It was sooo beautiful~~~ I never heard of this song prior to Enbujo but now i loved it loads!!! Catch a concert rendition of it here! There's another clip of K8's medley on MS here which was similar to what they did, just that instead of Mugendai, they sang Osaka Romanesque. LOL~ Youtube can be so useful sometimes. XDDD They finally ended their medley with the chorus of Sukiyanen again before exiting the stage.

The whole stage was empty and dark except for a giant screen illuminated from behind. Takki appeared and started dancing in between the light and the screen such that his silhouette would be magnified and casted on the screen. Again, this reminds me of MJ's Smooth Criminal.. hehe. Cos MJ did the exact same thing in his concert, which i went many many years ago when he came to Singapore. Takki then came out from behind the screen and danced somemore in front of the spotlights, playing with shadow effects. And then it was the illusion/magic show. Kinda hard to explain but he just played with the usual disappearing acts, first making some dancers disappear, then disappearing himself. Nothing overly fascinating, but then again, this ain't no David Blaine show. Heheh~~ XDD But he did surprised a few by suddenly appearing at the right aisle on the 1st floor just seconds after he apparently just disappeared on stage. (Of course, he had some help from his double.) And it was at this part where he knocked into Loracyn's arm or something?? Cos Loracyn was right by the aisle (followed by me, then Syl) and she said she was leaning out cos the person sitting in front of her was too tall. So when Takki rushed in from the back, he kinda knocked into her or something. This was during our 2nd show of cos. I totally forgot that he would be entering from behind us so was really surprised when he dashed past right next to us. Hahhaa... in fact he ran sooo fast there was a gust of wind!! LOL~~~ Loracyn was just going "oh my god, oh my god!!" (and squeezing my arm). XDDD

Takki stopped just short of the stage and the spotlight shone on him. The opening of Venus started playing!! I think this was where Takki would go sit on the laps or armrests of some of the guests who went to watch Enbujo. Cos the guests usually seat at Row 7 by the aisle if I didn't rem wrongly. Unfortunately, none of the 3 days we went had VIP guests... (only some chibikkos but they were up on the 2nd floor) so Takki would usually just continue up to the stage. On all our shows, he wore the shiny pink blazer but I think he did wear other stuff sometimes as you can see from the screencaps from WS below.

The rest of the cast would appear on stage too and perform Venus with Takki. And it's quite funny cos some of them would appear in their costumes. Look at Yoko in his ojiisan costume (upper screencap) yet dancing to Venus!! And without his shoes!! Hahahahha~~~~ Then they would come to this part in the song where Takki would call the name of someone and that person is supposed to do a mini solo dance to the background music of Venus. On the day Tsubasa was guest, I think he went up on stage to perform Venus with Takki. But when Takki called his name for this part, he was too shy and just stood there. Hahahhaha~~ Maa, Tsubasa dakara, yurushite a.ge.ru. *chuu* After Venus, Takki would exit the stage quietly while the rest of the cast took turns to bow to the audience. So they went from the chibikkos to the senior chibikko groups (ABC, Yayayah etc), then the non-JE actors, and finally Okura and Yoko. And while they were doing all these, the crew was assembling a set behind which consisted of the bridge that was used in the Gojo scene. When everyone was done with their bowing, the opening of Epilogue was played. AND YOU WOULD KNOW THIS IS THE END. T-T The cast would move away from the centre of the stage (and exit??) as the bridge was pushed out a little bit more and Takki slowly appeared on the bridge in a black tux but shielding his face with that bright orange cloth thingy like in the Gojo Bridge scene. He then revealed his face and started singing Epilogue with the cloth draped on his shoulders. It was the perfect epitome of the entity which we have come to call as "Takki Yoshitsune". Seriously. And I think they showed video images of Enbujo rehearsals on the back screen of the stage as well. It was like DB. Gawd, Epilogue is such a PERFECT ending song for anything!! Halfway through the song, Takki removed the orange cloth from his shoulders. It was like, shedding the Yoshitsune part of him. By the end of the song, he was at the bottom of the bridge and ok... my memory fades here. I think he sorta thanked the audience and there would always be a standing ovation. XDD The curtain then came down but of course, everyone knew this was not the end and continued clapping. Then the curtain would go up again and the entire cast would reappear on stage together with Takki. Then i think Takki would start introducing all the cast again one by one (or group by group). And finally, someone else would go "Soshite, Takizawa Hideaki!" and Takki himself would step out. Big applause and lotsa screams of course. As the zachou, he would then lead the entire cast to bow to the audience. First right, then left, then centre. Just like how he did in the DB DVD. VERY KAKKOII. I loved this part. And you just want to clap and clap loudly for him. Sugokatta yo, Takki!

With that, the curtain would finally go down admist loud applause. Except for senshuuraku and maybe on his birthday, I think Takki usually only had one curtain call. And that, ladies and gentlemen, marks the end of Enbujo.

TAKKI, OTSUKARE SAMA DESHITA!!

And to me too. Phew!! *wipes sweat* I finally finished this report like 2 months later!!! Gawd, i sure am a procrastinator!! x__x But luckily, i still made it before they release news of new projects. Haaaa... so now what do we do?? REQUEST FOR ENBUJO DVD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ijou desu. Yoropiku.