SUPER JUNIOR-D&E LIVE TOUR 2024 -DEparture- Arena Edition @ Kobe

Following the Yoyogi edition, please let me write about the two days at Kobe World Memorial Hall on June 25 (TUE) & June 26 (WED), 2024. This is purely for my own satisfaction. When the schedule was first announced, I hesitated about going for both days. Since it was a Kansai performance, I wanted to go, but it was a weekday, so I thought about just going to the final show. But I don't know when I'll be able to go next (though I think that every time, the 'next time' usually comes pretty soon, haha), so I decided to go both days as a reward to myself for working hard every day (I'm super indulgent with myself). As a result, I felt from the bottom of my heart that I was really glad I went! My impressions, overflowing with excitement, will start rambling below.

◆ My first Premium Seat!
At SS9, when I had just started falling into the SJ swamp, I first learned about something called a Premium Seat. I thought, 'No way, this price just for some merch is impossible... Arena seat guarantee doesn't mean a seat where you can see well.' By the time of DElight Party about 9 months later, I had adapted enough to think, 'Yes, I will apply for the ELF seat (the most expensive one)!' but I didn't have any luck with DElight Party, Blue World, or DEparture @ Hall. I also missed out on Yoyogi, but for Kobe, I won both days. It was a weekday, and I had the impression that almost everyone who applied won... As I mentioned before, back at SS9, I thought, 'I can't pay extra just for merch,' but now I feel like I'm paying extra for the merch and the event. I don't particularly expect a good seat just because it's a Premium Seat. I've never had good luck with seats, and while I do have expectations, I'm the type of person who can enjoy it even if I can't see well. Maybe it was good that I didn't expect too much, but the seats for these two days were both really great. The first day was the 5th row center, right in front of the center stage, and the second day, the final show, was the 8th row, right next to the aisle.

The Premium Seat benefits this time were
・Merch (fair-trade cotton pouch, VIP PASS (with neck strap), boarding pass-style paper ticket with date and venue name (not an actual ticket))
・Sound check before doors open
was.

They sang 3 songs each day for the sound check.
I was also happy to see their personal clothes.
<6.25 (TUE)>
You don’t go / Wings / Kiss Kiss Dynamite
It's not my first time seeing the two of them up close by participating in autograph sessions and handshake events, but you never get used to it, so this day too, seeing them up close, my usual impressions were 'Their faces are so small!' and 'They're sparkling!' It was cute that Donghae was wearing sandals. It turned out later that they were UGG sandals, and it seemed he had a matching pair with Hyukjae (maybe a different color). I don't remember the top, but it was a white uniform-style shirt with '10' printed on it that I've seen a few times, and I don't remember the bottoms (it's not in my notes either). Hyukjae was wearing a Balenciaga shirt over a T-shirt, and pants that were about eight-tenths length. I remember being worried because I could see tape on his right ankle, and it seemed his cold from a few days ago hadn't healed yet. During the talk, he explained to Donghae that 'kaze' (wind) and 'kaze' (cold) are pronounced the same but use different kanji, and I was surprised that he understood Japanese to that extent.

<6.26 (WED)>
You don’t go / Wings / Motorcycle
For personal clothes on this day, Donghae wore a yellow T-shirt, black pants, and gray sneakers. If you subscribe to Bubble, I think there was a photo Donghae sent that day. I think that was the outfit. My notes say Hyukjae wore a white T-shirt with a pink shirt over it, black eight-tenths length pants, and beige sneakers, but now I can't remember a single bit of it. I clearly remember he was wearing glasses. I love Hyukjae in glasses. Even though the songs to be sung at the sound check are naturally decided, they asked, 'What do you want to hear?' just in case? And the E.L.F. would request songs not on the setlist, knowing they were already decided, haha. On this day, to the E.L.F. who said 'I want to hear GIFT!', they acted as if they were responding to the request and sang 'You don't go'. But during the subsequent 'Wings', I was moved by how perfect they were, looking at the person who requested 'GIFT' while singing the '🎵 I want to see a gift~' part. Also, since it was right after SPIN OFF, there was a request to sing 'Showtime', and even though they said it's an SJ song..., they danced the chorus a little, and sang a bit of the chorus of 'SPY', as always, they were a bundle of service spirit. Other songs like 'Scary House' and 'Bout you' were also requested. I definitely wanted to hear 'Bout you'. I want to shout 'Hyukjae!'.

Since the seats were good both days this time, I was very satisfied with the Premium Seat, but even if these hadn't been good seats, I think I would have been satisfied with just this merch and the sound check.

◆ Buying a new smartphone
I was the type of person who wouldn't buy a new smartphone unless it broke, but I had decided, 'If there's ever a chance to go to a concert in Korea, I will definitely buy a new one and take high-quality photos and videos!' Then, after the Yoyogi performance, I suddenly realized. 'Wait? I can film GGB, and since Kobe is a Premium Seat, isn't now the time to buy a new one...' So, I got an iPhone 15. Still, smartphones these days are expensive. But thanks to that, I have some really beautiful videos left. There were a total of 4 opportunities to film GGB, including the hall and arena, and I still look back at them even now.

◆ A tentative first day
To be honest, the first day was a bit awkward. Both the two of them and the E.L.F. It had been 3 weeks since Yoyogi, and there was the SPIN-OFF Seoul performance the weekend before the Kobe performance, so it felt like, 'Oh, it's been a while... I'm nervous.' Their Japanese was a bit sparse (though they still spoke enough), and the interaction for ABCD&E Burn! (a rough expression) felt like the 'breathing' that Hyukjae often talks about wasn't quite in sync. I felt like both of them were a bit tired (which is no wonder), and I felt like there were some empty seats that day (which I also think is no wonder). But the performance was as wonderful as ever, and there's no doubt it was a lot of fun.

◆ I WANNA DANCE showdown
The first day was a bread-eating race, and the second day was a giant ball rolling game. The giant ball rolling game used the audience aisle as a course, so the two of them passed right next to me while rolling the giant ball. I was surprised. They were rolling it while saying, 'Boya!? Boya!?' ('What!? What!?'). I wonder if they don't have giant ball rolling in Korea. Hyukjae muttering 'I'm tired...' was super cute. I believe that if it's released on video, they will include all the performances.

◆ The final day surprise
I've watched D&E's Japanese tour Blu-rays many times, and I knew there were surprises on the final day, but when it came to participating myself, I hadn't thought about it at all. After the first day's performance, I went back to the hotel, and after waking up on the morning of the 26th, I realized on Twitter (I still can't call it X) that there was a buzz, and that they seemed to be planning some kind of surprise, but I had no idea where the source of information was. After a while, I found out that an email had arrived from Ticket Board. For the Kobe performance, they had already given us a task song, saying 'We want to include E.L.F.'s voices in the new song, so please memorize it,' and I was struggling to memorize that, but the surprise MASAO-san thought of was that he had added choreography to that song, so please memorize it, and dance while singing when you get the signal. The hurdle was too high...! I tried desperately to memorize it while watching the dancers' model video, but I couldn't memorize it perfectly... I somehow managed to memorize it to some extent and headed to the venue. While waiting for the sound check, MASAO-san suggested, 'Once the doors open, let's practice secretly so the two of them don't find out.' Actually, after the doors opened, the dancers came out to the center stage and practiced with us. A line was added at the end saying, 'Thank you for the fun flight! Take us again!', but I thought everything would be blown away by the fun of the performance. The surprise was carried out at the timing when the last song 'Hello' ended, and I was happy that both of them were moved to the point that we were surprised. I was surprised that they would be this moved, even though they must have experienced such surprises many times before. But thinking about it now, I feel like they remembered various difficult things (Hyukjae's leg injury, Donghae's poor health... and there must have been various other things we didn't know about, and it was their first Japanese tour after becoming independent, so I imagine it was harder than I could imagine). I was also moved that they were this moved.

◆ E.L.F. makes a singer debut
As I wrote earlier, there was a task song for the Kobe performance. They wanted to include E.L.F.'s voices in the new song. Since they are the type of people who praise and encourage, we recorded it nicely both days, but on the second day, compared to the first day, E.L.F. was able to sing with much more confidence, and the two of them were surprised. That's no wonder, because we listened to this song over and over again to memorize the surprise choreography, so it's natural that we could sing with more confidence than on the first day... I watched the two of them saying, 'What's wrong? You're very confident today,' while thinking, 'You'll know the reason later.' But I thought that the fact that they noticed this difference from the first day shows that they really watch E.L.F. well. With that said, I was wondering when the song we recorded would be released, and it turned out it would be distributed in a few hours! To distribute it properly before the fan meeting, they are so professional, I'm falling for them. Although I've already fallen for them long ago.

The tour that started in April ended in the blink of an eye, even though 3 months seemed long. For me, it was my first Japanese tour, and every performance was fun and cool every time, and even with the same setlist, it was different every time, and even now, more than 2 months after the final day, I feel warm when I recall those memories. With the fan meeting in Yokohama and the second waltz already decided, I don't know at all when the next Japanese tour will be, but if the timing works out, I definitely want to go again. Thank you for your hard work for 3 months!!