Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

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Jei
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Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by Jei » Sat Dec 31, 2016 10:11 pm

(Sorry for the delay, folks...life stuff, you know... -J :) )

I had the great fortune to be able to attend the URAWAN – DREAMS COME TRUE Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 shows on September 24th and 25th at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan. The 'doors' opened at 3:30pm and extravaganza was over sometime the 8 o’clock hour (IIRC). This report is a collection of information, memories and pictures from the two show days I was there and should be taken as such unless otherwise stated... 

Surroundings 

It took place at Osaka-jo Hall in the Kyōbashi area of the Chuo ward in Osaka. 

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Osaka-jo Hall is one of the few non-historically related buildings within Osaka Castle park region. With the famous Osaka Castle so close, it made for beautiful views both coming and going from the hall, especially at night.

Arrival

When I first arrived at the Osaka-jo Park train stations, there was a long pathway to walk to get to the hall. During the walk, musicians of varying styles played their hearts out…

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…and you had chances for pre-concert grub if you so desired…
 
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When I finally did make it to the hall, there were multiple locations to take pictures with Warukuma…

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…as well as the traditional “Pics with DCT” banner poster

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They also showed off all the congratulatory flower displays DCT had receive from famous Osaka people & companies

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Of course, before you actually entered the hall, you had to spend some time at the…

Goods Area 

The goods area was pretty similar to past concerts in terms of length of line, tent configuration and the goods offered, tho some of the specialty goods (like the parka hoodies & yoshio kubo’s) were already sold out before I got there.

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I grabbed three of the light sticks (Attack U, Chance Ra & Warukuma versions)…

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…the black muffler towel…

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…as well as three of the shopping bags (White, Black & Sky-Cloud blue)

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(I’ve used one of them here in Chicago…the confused looks are completely worth it :) )

Swag discovery

When I got to my seat, I discovered that every seat had a small bag full of DCT fliers (related to the concert & various goods), plus this awesome Warukuma mask…

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At a certain part during the show you put it on…and I’ll leave the rest for the video…

Stage Observations

The stage was a series of rotating circles of varying heights
(All these circles rotate at times, sometimes in different directions)
  • - Inner circle: The least wide, but tallest of the circles…the main focus circle
    - Steps leading up to the insider circle
    - (The might be a circle between the steps and the outer circle…I can’t remember)
    - Outer circle: The widest of the circles, but also the least tall
    • - This outer circle has three equidistant platforms rising up even taller than the inner circle. Each platform housed different musicians (Keyboards platform (Koh Otani), Drummer platform, Electronics platform)
    - Steps leading up the outer circle
There are also giant video screens hanging from the ceiling (one for each side).

The floor crowd is split so that there are 6 (IIRC) directions from which people can exit and enter…initially. The crowd is also relatively close to the stage, in comparison to other shows.

Pre-Show Observations

- There was graffiti all throughout the stage area (on beams, amps, etc), supposedly by the evil Warukuma… ;)

- There was a “Warukuma cam” where different audience members got “Warukuma-ed” on the video screens.

- Right before the concert begins, they play a video that explains the backstory for the concert (absolutely gorgeous animation, btw). There a great scene of a giant Warukuma head floating in the dark sky that looks like a DCT Death Star :D

DCT Live

Here are the songs performed at the show (minus the encore songs, IIRC), tho not in this particular order…

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Special Moments

(I’ve been debating how much to write about the show itself; bearing in mind that some readers will be buying the Blu-ray/DVD and wouldn’t want to see too many spoilers. Hopefully you’ll understand if I become cryptic with some these special moments…)

- When members of the show started to come out (including Miwa & Masa), they walked along pathways that put them in very close proximity to the fans on the floor…the crowd LOVED that

- That moment involving the Warukuma mask that I mentioned before…I hope they show what happens on the disc release…that’s all I’ll say

- I loved the crowd’s pop when Rin showed up. Such a great singer and so important to the fans…

- It’s been great watching Masa become such a great master of ceremonies over the years. He doesn’t disappoint!

- Kudos to the guy in charge of the Electronics platform. He climbed up there with many electrically lit wires attached to him. Could have very easily gotten things tangled, but he worked things like a pro

- Along the same lines, kudos to the dancers for performing with similar electrically lit wires near the beginning of the show. The chance of tangle was big, but they pulled it off well

- One word: Romance!

- One word (again): LOVETIDE!

- Really dug hearing a great representation of songs from “Monkey Girl Odyssey” (itsu no ma ni, flowers, kanon)

- The musicianship, as always, continues to be brilliant. My salute to this variation of the DCT horns!

- Near the end of the concert, they play a “story concludes” video that shows that WaruKuma was defeated and the dark & gloomy skies change and Miwa takes off her hood to look up into the beautiful blue skies (think the cover of the “watashi dake” album).

Post Show

- On Sunday night, JUON (lead guitar for the show) was outside one of the exits signing autographs & taking pics with fans

- On the way back to the train station (a different one that I arrived at), I walked by the many DCT trucks and a number of them had Warukuma masks and/or stickers on their windows

DCTJoy Forum-ers meet in Osaka!

It was great to meet and hang out with old school DCTJoy Forum-er ‘lovedct” (aka Victor) from Taiwan after the Sunday concert

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(Jay & Victor (lovedct))

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(Love Vic’s DCT t-shirt!) 

Ending Thoughts

- A great performance through and through! Since I’d seen DCT at both large Wonderlands and cozy small venues, I was curious to see what a mid range show might present. I was definitely not disappointed…the same energy, performances and creativity, just in a smaller setting. Very much looking forward to reliving the experience on video

- Many, many thanks to R & Y for the hookup and V for the fun ^_^
-Jay
DCTJoy.Com - The Joy that is Dreams Come True
http://www.dctjoy.com/

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nogizaka
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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by nogizaka » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:10 pm

Thank-you for the great review, Jei!

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by nakoruru » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:44 pm

Sweet Sweet Sweet was played again FINALLY!!! I gonna die here! :D

I had to log in just to say that. :lol:

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by newrynyuk » Wed Feb 01, 2017 5:15 pm

Good stuff! Thanks for the review, Jei.

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by Jei » Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:51 pm

Thanks everyone! It was great being back :)
-Jay
DCTJoy.Com - The Joy that is Dreams Come True
http://www.dctjoy.com/

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by tokyophoto » Sun Aug 06, 2017 6:52 pm

Jei -- did that mask moment make it into the Blu-ray?

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by Spaceman » Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:07 am

Yes I think so, unless somethning else happened with the masks as well :lol:
It's right at the end though in kind of a extra bits section after the closing credits.

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Re: Jay's Report on Ura Dori Wonderland 2016 Osaka

Post by Jei » Mon Aug 07, 2017 1:40 pm

Spaceman wrote:
Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:07 am
Yes I think so, unless somethning else happened with the masks as well :lol:
It's right at the end though in kind of a extra bits section after the closing credits.
What Spaceman said :)
I'm glad they included it...it was so surreal seeing thousands of us all wearing that mask ^^
-Jay
DCTJoy.Com - The Joy that is Dreams Come True
http://www.dctjoy.com/

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