2018.07.15 Bancho Boys Natsu/Summer Event Live 2018 [Report]
I was both worried and excited for this! Excited because it’s Bancho and we can pretty much admit at this point that I’m gunna be dedicated to them for life, or at least until something big/bad happens like they disband. I was worried because it’s a summer festival theme BUT I don’t have a yukata! So I had to rummage my wardrobe for something at least nice and it’s not exactly my first choice of what I wanted to wear but it was good enough... hopefully it was good enough for them too haha
Event Page here
Official Website here
Official Twitter here
☆ The story this time was about three bands battling it out to win the music competition prize of 1 billion yen. They all had different motives for joining the competition and of course Yojiro was our protagonist xD The main part of the story was him and his ex-bandmates getting back together one last time and trying out this competition. Yojiro's motivation for joining the competition is that it's enough money for him to afford to send his sick mother to America to get the surgery she needs. But in true Bancho story-telling style, his mother dies just before he does the live performance in the competition, but (in true Japanese storytelling style) he knows that she would rather he be performing and being happy rather than being by her side in her final moments so he stays positive and sings and performs with her in mind.
☆There were three teams (I do not remember the team names unfortunately):
1. Domoto, Yuhei, Riku and Kazuma
2. Oribe, Shuji, Takuya and Rui (Rui, Oribe and Takuya were brothers in the ‘stage’)
3. Momiki, Yuta, Kensuke and Yojiro = Bancho Boys
The MCs for the event were Dao and Yuu-kun.
☆ During the opening scenes and introductions of the characters and relationships. We clearly had the gangster group which was Domoto and co. Then we had the group and family of brothers which was Oribe and co. Then we had Yojiro and co. who used to be in a band together.
☆In the opening scene, some of the boys brought on a helium can, and Yuhei tried to use it but it didn’t work on him xD I assumed he didn't really inhale it because his voice WOULD change regardless of how high it already is but... CONSPIRACY THEORIES!! xD
☆As expected they were all in Jinbei *dies* I knew they were going to do that! They all looked so good! The three teams had matching Jinbeis so you could see what teams they were in and Dao has this modern-styled jinbei (because he's always gotta be extra xD) and Yuu-kun had a colourful jinbei on -- he looked goooooood xD
☆The games they did:
1. Eating watermelon the fastest game
2. Telling scary stories
3. Balloon-Russian-Roulette Timer game
4. Live performance from each band
☆EATING WATERMELON: The competitors in this one were Yuta, Shuji and Yuhei.
Yuhei was doing it for his team, and somehow it ended up flying to the ground and breaking in half almost immediately after the whistle went. The rest of the boys who weren't doing the challenge, immediately went into cleaning mode and tried their best to clean up the floor and such around the three who were competing.
Then Kazuma tried to hide half behind his back like no one would notice so they could win but obviously YuuKun and Dao saw, as well as the rest of the audience xD
Yuta got mad because they announced Shuji as the winner even though he said he had accidentally eaten some of Shuji’s himself (watch what you’re eating then!!!).
Yuta was absolutely hilarious during this challenge.
☆SCARY STORIES: For the scary stories we had Kazuma, Oribe and Yohiro.
My side died during the scary story of Kazuma's part! But first he tried to start his story and he mispoke and mixed up his words so everyone died laughing and he begged to restart it. When he restarted it, everyone was getting into it but because a staff member opened the right side door during it and we all freaked out! The boys had no idea what was going on and why we were suddenly shitting ourselves. The girls behind me and my friend really did freak out badly xD it was very funny.
Oribe's story was pretty scary; he spoke about how a boy was in hospital and everynight the bed next to him would knock on the wall in communication with him and after a while the boy asked the doctor who was in the bed/room next door and the doctor said there wasn't a room, it was just a solid wall, nothing else. A lot of people freaked out during this one. I actually freaked out a lot during this one but it was because suddenly one of the audience members had come back in from the lobby and was walking pretty damn fast down the aisle that I was surprised when she showed up in the corner of my eye!
Yojiro's story was a true story of how back in Shimane everyone is used to leaving doors and windows and such open adn unlocked that when he first came to Tokyo, he continued to do that. But one day he came home and saw that someone had opened his curtains and had folded his clothing that had originally been on the floor, so he immediately thought of his orecious belongings and ran up to his loft where his bank book and such was, but it had been left as is so he was relieved but when he turned to go down the stairs, he saw someone's shadow in the corner of the room running out. And he said, since then he's locked his windows and doors and properly closed and opened his curtains and stuff.
After Yojiro told his scary story he went ‘RAWR!’ at Dao who absolutely shit himself. He tried to get away but his shoes made him trip and stumble and he went pretty much over half of the stage before he fell down. No one tried to help him as he was falling. We all died laughing at his reaction.
I could totally relate to Yojiro's story cos when I lived in Yamaguchi, we all did the same: windows and doors left open and unlocked all hours of the day, even if we weren't home. But I definitely don't dare do that here! I have more sense than... well Yojiro, clearly xD
☆BALLOON: I think this one was the most fun, purely because they boys themselves were having such a lot of fun playng it! They were originally only going to do one match but YuuKun said 'let's go again' and then they didn't want to stop so they did it another 2 times! But you could tell, they easily all wanted to keep going. And I think the audience wouldn't have minded if they HAD continued. Either that or next time get the audience involved too! Choose a row and go down one by one. Now that would be heaps of fun! Or get a few girls to come up on stage and go in between the boys - I'm sure they'd tried to protect her/them xD BUT having said that, the boys were such scaredy cats!
The rounds that they did were: SOUR FOOD, FRUIT NAMES, Things Futaba Kaname would Say. Some of the answers I remember were:
1. Sour Things: Two of them had said Suppaiman during this game and after the round, YuuKun was like 'what's Suppaiman?!' and everyone was like 'you don't know?! How do you not know what it is?!'. I didn't catch what it was, but after googling, it seems to be dried sour pickled plums or something similar.
2. Fruit: in this round Dai wanted to join in so he did and because he was on an end, he had to give two answers at once so he gave 'Philippine banana' and 'Philippine mango' which were acceptable answers in YuuKun's eyes xD
3. Things that Kaname would say: Yuu was the judge on whether it was something he would say or not. So they gave answers like:
'Yuu! You didn’t do the laundry!'
‘Seiya nee'
'Sou ya nee'
'Natsu ha Aru, aru ha natsu'
And YuuKun was like 'yes... YES!!... HE SAYS THAT!!' xD
But during this final around, on Yuhei’s turn they realised the timer had stopped and YuuKun just stood there like -____- << his reaction was absolutely hilarious and everyone died of laughter. He was SO unamused that the timer had stopped so their answers were all fruitless. In the end, YuuKun made Yojiro sit on the balloon to burst it even though he didn't lose.
The first two rounds, the balloon always popped on poor Takuya xD but each time the one who gave the biggest reaction was Dao, who would fall back onto the floor every time It really amused YuuKun who was dying of laughter next to him xD
After this game, as they were leaving, they all wanted to get some extra points for their team, so they all said something to YuuKun. Here, Domoto just hugged YuuKun and he was like ‘Yup! 50 points!’ xD I love their friendship so much!
☆LIVE PERFORMANCE:
One of the groups (Oribe and co.) sang the ExAid theme song and I got way too excited and hyped when I realised what song it was! It was a really good remix of the song too! I liked their performance of it!
Kazuma forgot the lyrics to the song he was singing, but I don’t remember what it was unfortunately.
The BanchoBoy group came out in swimming rings and singing LocoMoco --- it's not the Madonna song but it is very similar and had English and Japanese mixed in the song, it was a really good song! Let me find it! *googles* I cannot find it!!! ARGH!! One day, I will find it! But they had so much fun during this performance. BUT to continue the story along, just before the Bancho Band performanced, Yojiro got a call from the hospital saying his mother passed away while he was at the event. So there are little moments throughout the song performance where he’s realising and coming to terms with the news. BUT then he realises ‘my mother would’ve wanted me to be here and to perform so I’m going to do my best!’ which was really sweet.
FINALE
☆The plot twist during the story, is that the MCs realise they have over spent on the event, and now there isn't enough for the grand prize!! So they decide to take the prize money and run, so the three groups have to try and find them, and stop them from leaving with the money.
☆While they're searching for the MCs, Yuta pretended to be Yojiro at one point, and Sunahara kept yelling Slam Dunk lines at him.
☆At the end, when they had tracked down the MCs, Dao turned into a crazy powerful villain who could catch bullets. It was amazing. There was a final battle where the Oribe brothers fought and won thanks to their faster than light super human powers.
☆ Right at the very end of the event, they announced their next three events: two in October to Osaka then Nagoya (I went to both), and then a Countdown/Christmas one of December 29th (I was supposed to go but lost my ticket some how?!)! We were all so happy and excited that they were finally going outside of Tokyo and doing events! Also we were very thankful they gave us so much more of a heads-up this time around unlike the last time they did this event and girigiri announced something.
OTHER COMMENTS
☆ I had SUCH a good time at this event! I laughed so much that I cried. It was so funny!! The part that still sticks out to me the most was the accidental ‘staff opening door and everyone shitting themselves because it was in the middle of horror stories’ part xD
☆ Random side note: I was gunna complain this day of ‘why do they all have their legs shaved?!?!’, but then I could see clearly that Domoto’s weren’t and I got so happy xD .... I’m so weird... I know... just... shhh!
☆ Also I’m gunna take the liberty and claim YuuKun and DomotoKun looked over at me a few times ^_^
*
GOODS
*
And that’s another done!! I hope I can get a few more done over the weekend too!
Ochanomizu Rock: Sato Ryuji (Katayama Hajime) with his fellow rivals from The DIE is CAST, Sakiyama Tsubasa (SHO) and Sunahara Kensuke (ARASHI), in the backstage of “Ochanomizu Rock -THE LIVE STAGE-”
