Welcome to the CHUBBINESS HOUSE! Chubbiness’ solo live at Harajuku Astrohall
Announced during Tokyo Ramen Show 2017, Chubbiness held on December 20th what was their second solo live at Harajuku Astrohall, since their very first one-man live on November 30th 2015.
Named “CHUBBINESS HOUSE”, all 9 members of the group had spent the month before living in the same house as a “special training camp”! This included multiple Showroom streaming for all members everyday, with daily 6:30am radio exercise or night-time board games. Showroom also played a part in this live as a number of points to reach was set by the group, to not only give extra meets-and-greets for the top contributors on the streaming platform, but also decide what the girls would be eating on the day of the performance! Thankfully, the fans did not disappoint as Chubbiness reached their top goal, and therefore were able to enjoy yakiniku “bento”, luxury melon and fresh sushi from a high-end restaurant in Ginza.
The show started off with some radio exercise! The girls were introduced in a tutorial video, and the audience was prompted to exercise and sing along, until the doorbell rang… and Chubbiness showed up on stage wearing brand new outfits! They opened the performance with the bubbly “Paricchu♡Puricchu”, wearing the most casual looking of their two new costumes, made of oversized white sweaters and colorful sport jackets. It was then followed by the very anime-like “Let’s BANG!”, the fans targetting their favorite members with their hands.
The girls then disappeared from the stage, just to leave the dance trio – Yaegashi Kotomi, Horikawa Ami and Kawai Akina – to open a special dance number, using brush brooms as an accessory! All members slowly appeared on stage for their group parts: the ‘94 dance trio came first, followed by ‘93 born Morimoto Eri, Nakazaki Erina and Takao Sonoko, the group finally being reunited with oldest members Saihara Marino, Ikeyama Chiaki (‘92) and leader Shima Rika (‘89). The dance number was specially created by Yaegashi Kotomi (in charge of composing the music) and Kawai Akina (choreographer).
The group pursued the live after this cool break with the rest of their CD mini-album songs: their happy anthem “Alleluia Wonderland”, the mellow and sweet “Nijiiro Flavor”, and the cool dance-style “Koi no Emotion”, the crowd getting more and more excited when it came to screaming some passionate “Yeah Tiger”!
The live being partly supported by Showroom, Chubbiness paused for a thirty minutes long talk segment, streamed live on Nakazaki Erina’s channel. They took advantage of this moment to go through their best moments in the CHUBBINESS HOUSE this past month, every one of them sharing their little anecdotes.
Horikawa Ami told how leader and oldest member Shima Rika would stay up every night until everyone came home from their individual jobs, to make sure all of them were safe and sound. The group had divided their house chores pretty evenly; Morimoto Eri was one of the members in charge of cooking, and managed to cook meals for everyone for 300 yen (~3 USD) per person everyday! But this month in the CHUBBINESS HOUSE also had its share of funny incidents, like Ikeyama Chiaki’s repeated bath issues, whether it was the hot water turning off or forgetting her towel in her room…
Living a month with 8 roommates was also a nice occasion for some girls to improve some skills! Yaegashi Kotomi felt motivated to exercise and lost not less than 11cm of waist size by doing daily workouts, and Kawai Akina tried very hard at getting better at drawing (painting the cute Chubbiness Daruma picture on the entrance wall of the venue that day). Saihara Marino told the audience how she wasn’t able to donate blood during their day at Yuki Matsuri because of low blood pressure. She made sure to eat properly while in the house in order to raise it back and get her revenge by finally donating!
The talk session ended in a lottery raffle for the audience, in which they could win… the brush brooms the girls just used for the dance number?! The audience was divided between laughing and staying speechless, as we could hear some fans jokingly protesting: “but what about those who have to take the bullet train home?!” asked a couple of them, laughing, to which Saihara Marino replied “Don’t worry, we will sign them, it is worth it!”, making everyone laugh even more. The raffle went on cheerfully and nine lucky fans went home with a brush broom signed by one of the Chubbiness members!
As Horikawa Ami was promoting the new goodies she designed, the show went on with the high-energy “Dry your Towel ~Kawakase taoru~”, the perfect occasion for the fans to use their brand new Afro-kun towels! The next song was one of the fans’ favorite songs, “Purun♫tto♡Heart”, and the group stopped another time to thank the audience for their support. As the last song of the first part of the show, leader Shima Rika took the microphone. “We performed this last song only once, two years ago in this very same Harajuku Astrohall, for our first one-man live,” she said, hinting towards some events happening in between like Asakawa Misaki’s graduation. Videos and photos were therefore allowed for the whole song, capturing this special and emotional moment.
The room went dark and a screen rolled down. After a few minutes of silence, a video started again, featuring the best behind the scenes and NG shots of this month in the CHUBBINESS HOUSE… before revealing a couple of special announcements!
The first surprise is still quite a mystery, but Chubbiness will be preparing for a brand new entertainment show in 2018. No further details have been disclosed yet, so stay tuned for more information to come soon!
The second announcement was what everyone had been waiting for the past month… as the video revealed brand new profile pictures for the group wearing their new stage costume, it was then time for them to perform Chubbiness’ new song! Titled “Jongara Bushidou” (picnic samurai), this very catchy tune was originally performed by Kosaka Daimaou’s DJ unit New Bushidou Ravers back in 2003. Pikotaro’s now world-famous producer decided to adapt it especially for Chubbiness! The choreography heavily relies on sword fighting and ninja-like moves, and features some intricate formations as well as a beautiful solo part for lead singer Morimoto Eri, and a very serious and intense spoken part for Yaegashi Kotomi.
As a result to fit the vibe of the song, the girls’ were sporting brand new stage costumes, black ninja outfits with short capes and shiny colorful belts and details!
The girls went back to change for the last segment, as they thanked the audience again and explained some of the announcements for the confused fans, and came back wearing the black tee-shirts designed especially for the day by Horikawa Ami, customized with colorful ribbons on the sleeves for each member. They ended the performance with their debut song “Manmadeiya!”, and the fans’ favorite “Odoru Ah!Hooo”, closing the night on an excited note.
Chubbiness has now entered their 5th consecutive year of activities and new opportunities are still awaiting for the 9-people group. We are looking forward to seeing more of their new show and hopefully more music very soon. Chubbiness is definitely not done with making Japan happy!
Setlist
— Introduction: Chubbiness House Morning Radio Exercise —
1. Paricchu♡Puricchu
2. Let’s BANG!
— “Cleaning” Dance number with brush brooms —
3. Alleluia Wonderland
4. Nijiiro Flavor
5. Koi no Emotion
— Talk Session, streamed live on Nakazaki Erina’s channel —
6. Dry your Towel ~Kawakase taoru~
7. Purun♫tto♡Heart
8. Yume, ekaku basho
— VTR: Making of CHUBBINESS HOUSE —
— VTR: Announcement of new entertainment show, new costume, new profile pictures and new song —
9. Jongara Bushidou (new song)
10. Manmadeiya!
11. Odoru Ah!Hooo
Chubbiness Official Website Chubbiness Official Twitter Chubbiness International Fanpage
Photos by Nathan Gey
Article by Melody, translated to French by Bloud