OrePara 2012 Ryogoku
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This past weekend was OrePara in Ryogoku! It was very rainy and cold on Saturday. Sunday was better weather-wise.
OnoD’s outfit for the first day as a black and white checkered suit. The pattern was very… busy… Each square had a silhouette of a man’s profile. ^^; OnoD’s set list included Lunar Maria, Akatsuki no Wadachi, “Arigatou,“ Netsuretsu ANSWER, and Daisuki.
I felt he kind of missed the high notes for Lunar Maria but other than that, it was great. The venue was green for Lunar Maria, red for Akatsuki no Wadachi, and yellow for Netsuretsu ANSWER. After Akatsuki no Wadachi,there was an MC part and OnoD mentioned that he has a lot of people to say “arigatou” to, which caught everyone’s attention. I’m sure many people, including myself, were hoping that he would sing “Arigatou.” In the middle his voice started to shake and you can tell he was getting emotional. Wahhh!! It was so moving to hear him sing the song! The two songs I wanted to hear live the most were Kinmokusei and “Arigatou” so I’m very glad I could hear both of them this year.
After the song, OnoD ran off stage and there was a short instrumental intermission. A minute or so later, dancers came on stage! And then OnoD came back with a mic headset! Team D was introduced and then OnoD declared that the venue was going to be turned into a dance hall. Cue Netsuretsu ANSWER and the whole place was lit up with yellow pen lights. It’s always fun to do the dance and since my seats were in the back of the 2nd floor, I could pretty much see the entire arena dancing too. X3 For the “kageki na shigeki” parts, OnoD did a really sexy movement with his hips, which prompted many screams from the crowd, LoL. During the riff, the dancers carried OnoD around the stage to yells of “wasshoi!” After the song they went directly to Daisuki. Near the end, Iwata came out in a cheer leader uniform, similar to in Kobe, but this time SuzuKen and Morikubo also came out. XD SuzuKen was dressed like a hero in a jean jacket and red bandana, and Morikubo was dressed sort of like a gangster iirc. It was pretty hilarious. They were called “Gekidan Daisuke” (Theatre Troupe Daisuke).
The encore of course included Galaxy Bus and Nemuru Mono tachi he. After Galaxy Bus was the focus corner on one of the members. In Kobe was Morikubo and SuzuKen, so Saturday was OnoD. The first was “OrePara shinka no shouchou” (symbol of OrePara’s evolution) by Morikubo. OnoD talked about how he though Morikubo looked scary at first, and Morikubo went on about how OnoD has a way of reaching out to people and making the entire venue his “home.” OnoD said that next year it’ll be “MosuPara.” XD Next was SuzuKen. I can’t remember the phrase he chose, but he talked about how OnoD is a very honest person, etc. Last was Iwata with “zabuton” (floor cushion). This referred to the first year they held OrePara at Ryogoku. Ryogoku Kokugikan is a sumo arena so in the green room there are huge zabuton for the wrestlers. After OnoD’s performance, he was really tired and dove head first into one of the cushions, basically smothering his face in it. The others thought it was cute at first but then realized that it was a cushion for sumo wrestlers, which means they sit on it with their sweaty butts after a match, so it was like OnoD sticking his face into the butt of a wrestler. XDDD Oops…
Lastly was the singing of Nemuru Mono tachi he. I guess they liked OnoD’s idea of doing requests for who sings the parts where the audience sings. OnoD requested everyone who was wearing a Santa costume or hat, Terashima requested everyone who is glad they are an otaku, Hirakawa requested the people who have attended OrePara all 5 years, Iwata requested all people 40+ years old, SuzuKen requested all the people who have someone named “Daisuke” in their family, and Morikubo requested everyone who will be attending OrePara next year. After the song there were hugs between the members and the event ended.
For the second day, OnoD wore a very, very, very shiny jacket. Let’s just say he was like a walking disco ball. XD I think it was safe to assume that he would be singing DELIGHT and indeed he did. His set list for the second day consisted of Lunar Maria, Akatsuki no Wadachi, DELIGHT, Ride On Funky Night, and Daisuki.
OnoD probably wasn’t in the best condition to sing this day. He totally missed one of the high notes for Lunar Maria because his voice cracked (the “kono kokoro wo” line). It was actually really funny because his voice just suddenly went flat. ^^;;; My friend and I just looked at each other and laughed. It was cute. The dancers came out and everyone danced to DELIGHT. I’m not sure if it was my imagination or not, but I thought I heard the audience sing the background vocals (the “Stand up everybody go go” part). The dance routine was slightly different than last year’s. For Ride On Funky Night, OnoD messed up the lyrics at the beginning. ^^; Oops. Similar to the day before, the other members came out for Daisuki but this time the guests did too and Hirakawa was dressed like a gangster, complete with wig (think of Kuwabara’s hair from Yuu Yuu Hakusho, only black) and bokutou (wooden sword). XD I think most people didn’t realize who it was on stage until OnoD yelled out, “Hirakawa senpai!” ^^;; At the end of the song, Hirakawa exited the stage as if he were riding a motorcycle. OnoD made the bike noises and as Hirakawa passed, one of the girl dancers pretended to hop on and ride off with him, LoL. It was pretty darn funny.
For the encore after the singing of Galaxy Bus, they had the focus corner on Iwata. At the end of that, they said that there was one more phrase that the three of them (Morikubo, OnoD, and SuzuKen) all came up with. It was “Kimi nashi de,” which is the title of one of Iwata’s songs. The title basically means that someone would not have been possible/taken place without you. This referred to that if it weren’t for Iwata, OrePara would not be possible. The three rewrote the lyrics of the song a bit and sang a “Micchan Thanks Vesion” to Iwata. There were some funny lyrics, and overall the song was very moving. At the beginning, they requested that everyone turn off their pen lights and make the place dark until they gave the sign to turn them on. It was pretty amazing how dark it got. After the song, Terashima came out with a tshirt (Iwata’s design shirt for this year) with autographs and messages from all the members. Hirakawa had a box with a present inside. Iwata was on the alert for surprises so he opened the box very slowly. Inside the box was a jack-in-the-box that didn’t quite spring out with the force it was supposed to so it just kind of drooped and fell out of the box. At the end was a face of Orekkuma (the OrePara mascot) sticking out its tongue. The whole thing was very anticlimactic and the cast along with the audience cracked up. ^^;; The audience called out for them to do it one more time so they tried redoing it but again it didn’t really spring out into Iwata’s face or anything. ^^; Oh well.
Of course the event ended with the singing of Nemuru Mono tachi he. They did requests again. First up was Hirakawa who requested all the people who love (“daisuki“) OrePara, then Terashima who took off his glasses and requested everyone who thinks there’s someone on stage they don’t know (referring to Terashima who looks very different without glasses), SuzuKen who requested only guys (and there were quite a few), Morikubo who requested all those born in the Year of the Tiger (both he and SuzuKen are tigers; me too!), and Iwata who requested everyone who was born second in the family. After, OnoD said that this was the last performance so they wanted to continue. They then had arena, the 2nd floor, and 3rd floor sing separately, and lastly one more time with everyone.
Each event was about 5 hours long. Had such a great time and am really looking forward to the DVD. Hopefully they include all the performances otherwise Saturday won’t be included, and OnoD sang both Kinmokusei and “Arigatou” on Saturdays. ;__; Anyway, this event was definitely fitting for a 5th anniversary. The year definitely doesn’t feel like it’s coming to a close until you attend OrePara. They mentioned wanting to perform in Kobe again so from now on there may be two locations for the event each year. Iwata said he wanted to do Kobe in summer and Ryogoku in winter. Hopefully the timing will be so that I can attend both. ^__^
Congratulations to OrePara on their 5th year anniversary! Here’s to many more anniversaries to come!
