JKT48 Theater Review – From Singapore with Love

I’ve posted this article on Stage48 a while ago, but for the sake of archiving , let’s do this one more time

I’d say I’ve been fortunate to be able to see them perform since their first theater in May and there’s many stories with every theater that has taken place.

But maybe I’d just like to share a bit on what happened over the weekend.

Plenty of good things, overall, that is if you’re like me and am just glad to be able to attend and see the girls and your oshi performing again.

Wardrobe Malfunctions

Though this time they’re really having a couple of costume malfunctions. on the second show of day 1 (8th sept), Beby’s buttons (first it was 1.. and then 2) had been unbuttoned during Hissatsu Teleport and she had to go half of the song, both singing and holding on to her blouse just so we don’t get to see some extra fan service. unfortunately though there was one point where she had to fling both her hands and couldn’t cover it no more. luckily though, a white shirt was revealed to be underneath the costume (phew..) Beby didn’t look distressed though and was still smiling much so kudos to that sense of confidence.

On day 2, show 1, though Dhike’s Tenshi no Shippo’s costume (the tube covering the middle body) had somehow managed to get itself undone during a typical Tenshi backwards turn, revealing some back skin and a lucky piece of clothing. she immediately ran off to the back to the stage from that and since I was on the right side and saw it perfectly, I guess half the audience on the center and left did not know what was going on.

Nabilah and Rena were obviously confused but they still performed their best anyway and people forgot it soon after. when Dhike came back during 2 years later, i at first thought she looked quite pissed (or maybe embarrassed? it’s hard to tell), but when i noticed that she too noticed that fans were cheering for her, and had recovered her smiling composure very well.

There was another show where Melody had to go through the first part of Shiroi Shirt singing with one hand while having to (again) try to wear her white outer shirt with Ghaida tagging along and helping her at the back (they had missed the timing again) but this was a rather popular (and common) incidence among the girls…. I guess it’s so popular it had to make another appearance even at their permanent theater.

Safety

In terms of safety, there’s a big ass disco ball right at the top of the stage, and when the Joan of Arc girls were cheering while introducing their song during the unit song MC, Kinal almost knocked the disco ball with her long flagpole. I didn’t see it personally but my friend told me it was a near miss. well, it does look dangerous and could horrible injure the girls if it did happened and fell. I left some feedback about it with one of the senior staff but I hope they already recognized the problem and tell the girls to be careful of it.

Diasta Encore Call

Personally though, I felt the biggest accomplishment of the theater, was for the fans to have had their first ever successful member-call encore call during day 2 show 2. I had understood that fans were beginning to understand that there is an encore ritual, but it hadn’t been executed powerfully to form a strong impression. but this one was different because, this time, a Diasta oshi had stood up, and with that he held a UO lightstick (correct me if I’m wrong) and said something along the lines…. “I’d like to ask for everybody’s permission. Today is Diasta’s birthday and I hope we can do a member call. I ask for everybody to join in together.”

And the beautiful thing is that, unannounced (or rather unplanned), someone on the front center said a strong yes, and there was a growing agreement everywhere. and then, there was 2 others from the back who joined in and requested that everybody else help and join in too. sitting there right in front of the Diasta oshi, you could just know things were going to go well with this one. and it went superbly well.

Granted, a member call is very simple, but i’m more pleased with the fact that now, the JKT theater has had their own taste of a united and successful encore call, and one that was led by one of their own fans.

of course, everybody went with “Diasta, Diasta.” I had been at a lot of stages but that was truly the time when I saw Diasta at her happiest (along with the Diasta call at show 1) and I felt truly touched alongside her among all the love she was receiving. it was really a great experience.

End of Day 1

At the end of day 1, I had hung around with some other fans too just to say goodbye as they were exiting the door of the theater. and it was there we could see that Shania was suffering a limp on the way out. But she was full of smiles and were grateful for the fans that were there. that was when I felt a bit of the pain yet strength the girls had to go through.

I also recalled having talked another Diasta oshi friend I knew, and he shared with me about how he had made a thousand paper crane present for Diasta. I happened to catch a glimpse of Diasta holding that huge ass (wrapped) gift on her way exiting the theater and wow, am I truly impressed by this person’s dedication. he had even said that he had worked from it since JUNE….. wow, really, wow.

Ochi was bed ridden with a chickenpox at that time so they tried to fix Ochi’s “Wasshoi J” part by turning on all the members mics. so when Delima’s turn was up in show 2, all the members sang “DELIMA” to overrule “OCHI!” .

Pillars of Death

And yes, there are 2 pillars of death in the theater, but they are still minor as compared to the ones I’ve seen on TV for the AKB theater. It would also affect the chairs on the right too (because there are more seats on the right than on the left).

Finally, about the seat allocation. yes, there are more green seat allocations and they cover mostly the center and right side of the theater, while the blue seats would be allocated to the left and slightly left-center of the audience.

By the end of the 2nd show, my friends and I realized that it doesn’t matter which color of ticket you wanted but rather which side you wanted to sit on.

Blue seats were situated left, and green seats situated right. if you wanted to sit in the left, try to ask for a blue seat at the counter, which was what we did for our last show.

There’s probably more stories that had accumulated over all these months too. but nonetheless, I am an overseas fan and I do encourage any of our brothers/sisters fans from overseas to spend some time and drop by to catch a show over a weekend. most of the staff will be able to converse in simple English too, and if possible, you can always ask another fan in Indonesia to go with and translate stuff for you along the way. I’d be glad to do it…. but due to school I won’t be going back for a few months.

Cheers all

Japanese Translation by Tokyo Pop

JKT48劇場レビュー　–シンガポールより愛を込めて

この文章は、しばらく前にStage48に投稿したものだが、アーカイブに加えるために再投稿した。
5月のこけら落としを見ることが出来たのは大変幸運だったが、その後の公演にも様々な物語がある。
ここでは私が体験したこけら落としのようすを少し書いてみたいと思う。

＜衣裳トラブル＞
今回はいくつか衣裳のトラブルを目にした。初日1回目のショーの必殺テレボートでは、
ベビーのボタンがはずれて、彼女は曲の半分くらいをブラウスを押えつつ歌う
はめになったが、めげることなく笑顔。

２日目のショーでは、ディクのしっぽの衣裳に不具合。私の位置からは一部始終が
見えたが、一度引っ込んですぐ戻ってきたから、観客の多くは何が起こったか
よく分からなかっただろう。

ユニットのナビラとレナはちょっと動揺したように見えたが持ち直し、観客も
すぐ気にしなくなったが、再登場したディクの表情は最初は引きつってたな。
でも、ファンの声援におされて笑顔が戻った。

「白いシャツ」を着るときに、メロディが片手をなかなか通すことができなかった。
ガイダが手伝ったものの、モタモタ。まあ、これはこれからもよくあることだね。

＜安全＞
ステージの上にはディスコ風の大きなミラーボールがあって、キナルがジャンヌ・ダルク
のMCの時に、旗の先をぶつけそうになった。劇場スタッフに注意喚起しておいたが、危ない。

＜ディアスタのアンコール＞
ファンもアンコールの何たるかを少しづつ分かってきたようだ。今回、一番の成果は、
２日目２回目のショーでファンが行ったあるメンバーへのアンコールだろう。

ハプニングは起こった。一人のファンがスティック・ライトを掲げて立ち上がったかと
思うと客席に向かって次のようなことを叫んだ。「みんなの許しを得たいんだけど、
今日はディアスタの誕生日なんだ。だから、みんなにディスタ・コールをお願いしたいんだ！」

すかさず、前席中央のファンが大声で「了解」と叫んだのを手始めに、会場のあちこちから
賛同の声があがった。アンコールはシンプルなものだったけど、自然発生的に広がったことが
とても良かった。ディアスタも大変嬉しそうに見えたし、最高の瞬間だった。

＜初日の終り＞
初日が終わったあと、僕は何人かのファンと劇場の入口で話をしていた。シャニアが少し
痛そうに足を引き摺りながら出てきたのはその時だった。それでも笑顔を浮かべファンに
挨拶をしていたけれど、シャニアのプロ根性にちょっとジンときた。

もうひとつ、ディアスタ推しの知り合いが、劇場から出てきたディアスタに千羽鶴を
渡した時のこと。彼はなんと6月から鶴を折り続けていたそうだが、たまたまそばにいた私は、
ディスタの息を呑む音を聞いてしまった。

＜柱の死角＞
劇場には2本の柱の死角がある。TVで見たAKB劇場よりはましに見えるけれど、特に柱の
右側の席には影響があるようだ。（以下、席の色分けについての話は略）

私自身も在外インドネシア人だが、海外の皆さんもぜひ週末に劇場を訪れることをお勧
めする。劇場スタッフの多くは簡単な英語は話せるし、ネットでも助けが得られるだろう。