In addition to that, they turned the Zip Spring Festival's second day into a Hinatazaka festival, with an audience that rocked and with a feeling of unity between fans and members and among the fans. Including fans of other performers.
It was the fulfillment of their dreams. I'm sure they are still feeling shell-shocked by the wonder of it all. It would be surprising if they weren't all grinning ear to ear today. Here's Thursday morning's Zip report:
Comments afterwards were immensely positive. Shizuku of the band Polkadot Stingray said she fell in love with them. She was done in by Memi's burikko line: "I want you to fall in love with me, meow." She described the members, particularly Memi, as "amazingly beautiful".
Actress and former idol Kawashima Umika was one of the presenters and described Hinatazaka as "cuteness congestion." She and announcer Tokushima Erika danced with the group in Dare Yori mo Takaku Tobe! as you can see in the video.
For Joyful Love, the fans made their now-traditional penlight rainbow, with each section of the theatre maintaining a single colour. Not so successful as when the whole audience is Hinata fans, or as in a round theatre like Budoukan, but still impressive. Fans of other acts figured out what was going on and joined in.
The group call their fans "Ohisamas." "Ohisama" is what small children call the Sun: "Mr/Ms Sun." This works because the name "Hinatazaka" means a sunny slope.
There are some nice comments about how people's ideas have changed about the song Kyun and about things like "Ohisama." People say things like:
Me before: 'Kyun and that is so tacky.'
Me now: 'Kyun-kyun-kyun-kyun doushite...'
I'm the same. I had to take these things on faith at first, but now, as management knew, I have gotten fully used to them: Kyun-kyun-kyun-kyun doushite! (line early in the song)
Setlist:
Overture
1. Kyun
MC
2. Tokimekisou
3. Joyful Love
MC2 (Kumi praised the Ohisama for their Joyful Love penlight rainbow)
4. Kidai Shiteinai Jibun
5. Dare yori mo Takaku Tobe!
6. No War in the Future
7. Happy Aura
MC3 Nogi members Shiraishi, Matsumura, Takayama were there live by video link.
One of the biggest events of the evening -- for the Hinata-chans and the fans -- was the surprise appearance of the three members of Nogizaka on-screen in a live video feed:
The Nogis asked for a replay of Memi and Manamo's burikko freestyle battle. For the first time, Manamo was declared the winner -- but largely because one of the judges did not like cats. Meow. Memi pouted.
Lots of great comments from fans on Twitter and 5channel:
-- Hiyori was not there for Kyun, but came right after it to the MC session. Her expression was a bit down until she saw the penlight rainbow for Joyful Love.
-- fans kept calling out Hiyori's name, in order to make her feel better
-- "high cultural level" of fans remarked on.
-- the penlight rainbow impressed the members once again. they were looking all around to see it. Kumi even praised the Ohisamas for it
-- the Ohisamas themselves were a bit disappointed, but outsiders were impressed, and people ended up saying it was 80 percent successful.
-- this is good considering that there were fans of lots of other acts there. one ohisama reported that Naoto fans next to them wondered what was going on, but picked it up quickly and switched their penlights to their section's colour. An Ohisama expressed gratitude.
-- "members and fans, fans and other fans -- the atmosphere was wonderful at the Hinata live"
-- one commenter looked forward to seeing the rainbow in its full glory at Tokyo Dome
-- during DareTobe, some of the staff were even dancing
-- a commenter says that DareTobe has a magical power to get people all dancing together
-- Mao-chan was strikingly good in DareTobe. It made one commenter weep to think how much work she had had to do to get there. Mao-chan is a terrible dancer, always losing her place and making the wrong moves. But she is also a very sincere hard worker. As well as hilarious.
I have been a fan of Hiragana/Hinata since their auditions in 2016. The first generation was talented and attractive. The second generation even moreso. And through the years they have been waiting under the shade of the Keyaki tree, they have put in a lot of sweat and tears to improve themselves in every way, so that now they are as strong an idol group as I know, with good dancing, great singing, and outstanding variety performances.
But until this week, they were still in the shadows. Now they have come out into the sun, and the impact they are making is exactly what they deserve.
The amount they have improved in the past year is astonishing. Now they have such a full, strong sound, with many talented voices. And their year with comedy duo Audrey in their TV show Hiragana Oshi has made them fascinating and entertaining variety performers, too.
Now the fun really begins.
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