I had the pleasure of attending Tomatsu Haruka and Fukuhara Haruka’s release event for Gamers for their collab single 「It’s Show Time!!」today.

Since there are 2 Harukas in this event, I will be calling Tomatsu Haruka by “Tomatsu” and Fukuhara Haruka by “Fukuhara”. I think this will cause the least confusion.

Before the Event

The event is set to start at 12pm but the reception opens 30mins prior to the starting time. When I got there at around 11:15, there was already a small line formed. The event was held on the 6th floor and I was waiting between the 4th and the 5th floor stairs. The line started to move as soon as the clock hits 11:30. We were to show our invitation postcard upon reaching the reception.

Here is what the invitation looks like:

Our seats were actually not decided when we received the notification of invitation for the event. Instead, after we finished with the reception, we drew our seat from a box. I was very fortunate to draw seats for the middle of the 2nd row which is only about 2 arm’s length from the stage and 3 arm’s length from the Harukas! Closest I have even been to Haruka(s)!!

This is what the seating slip I drawn looks like:

Introduction- Harukas

Soon after 12, the event started. The Harukas arrived a couple of minutes before the actual event starts (we can hear rustling noise from behind the curtain and staff going in and out bringing things, etc…). The MC for the event was a Gamers employee I think, and he called both Harukas on stage by calling “double Haruka” instead of their names individually. This caught a lot of people off guard and we all starting laughing!

Both Harukas went on stage and greeted everyone. Two chairs were lined up right in the middle of the mini stage, and Tomatsu sat on the right one while Fukuhara sat on the left one (from the audience’s perspective). They were wearing the exact same clothing (minus the flowerly hat) as they did in their MV as well as the CD jacket. And by exact, I really mean exact. Fukuhara said she left her flowerly hat at home so that’s why she wasn’t wearing it.

The MC started off by commenting how there are lots of Harukas “happening” around today. He mentions there are the 2 Haruka’s right here right now, as well as a Yamazaki Haruka release event later on in the day, and a near by building/ restuarant(?) that also has the “Haruka” on it. For some reason, Tomatsu just couldn’t stop laughing (typical Haru-chan >w<), of course a lot of the audience started to laugh too. Her laugh is too infectious!

With that being said, they went on and rolled with the topic of the name “Haruka”. Tomatsu mentions that it’s really incredible how there are so many Harukas around here today, and she started to wonder if some of the “Haruka” were stage names (instead of their real name). Then at the exact same time, both Fukuhara and Tomatsu turned to face each other with one hand on the mic and the other on hand with one finger pointed at each other and asked “Honmyou desuka?”, which translates to “Is that your real name?”

The crowd loses it and laugher roared.

The timing, face expression, and the execution was just perfect!!!!

One more thing to note from the “Haruka” topic is that Tomatsu said she has always wanted to meet and work with Fukuhara. The reason is that first of all, she thinks Fukuhara is very talented. They also both share the same name, not just pronunciation but also the kanji (which is the chinese character you see in their name). Tomatsu was really glad that she finally got a chance to work with Fukuhara.

Video Segment- While Watching

Before I start talking about this segment, I would recommend at least watching the short version of the MV so you can have a better idea on what I’m talking about. Here is the link to the video.

After the first mini topic ended, we watched a 2 part video, around 5 minutes each. The video is about the making and behind the scenes of the MV. This is the extended version of the one that came with the CD+ DVD copy of the song. The MC said that only people who attended the release event will get to watch it.

Both Harukas were commenting on the video like they were commentators. Tomatsu being her usual self, laughing very loudly whenever she finds anything funny!! Fukuhara on the other hand, was fairly reserved. Could be because Tomatsu is her senpai so she can’t really express herself like Tomatsu; you can also tell that she is also a much shyer person than Tomatsu.

2 moments that were very memorable/ funny that happened while watching the video.

First, after the dance session of the behind the scenes, Tomatsu went to the camera and said “otsukaresama desu.” to the camera as she starts to talk to the camera like an interview. “Otsukaresama desu” translates to “thank you for your hard work”, a very typical phrase in Japanese conversation. What happened is that this whole thing was happening in the video we were watching, and Fukuhara in real time subconsciously decided to say “otsukaresama desu” back to the Tomatsu in the video. In Japanese speech, if someone says “otsukaresama desu” to you, you reply back with the same thing. I think that was the reason she subconsciously replied.

Tomatsu then replied with “Otsukaresama desu.” then followed with a “Otsukaresama desu?” realizing that they just made a fool of themselves. Again the crowd bursts out with laugher and cheers.

The second thing that was interesting with the video is when Fukuhara went to look for food. (Note that this was behind the scenes and Tomatsu was not with Fukuhara at the time so Tomatsu were watching the video as a first timer like all of us). Since they started the recording early in the morning, by noon Fukuhara was hungry and decided to look for food. She kept commenting on being hungry at the time of the recording while we were watching the video. When she finally found a shop, she chooses to ask the shop keeper NOT with “Do you sell food here”, but instead with “Do you sell anything edible here?”

When you think about it, it’s kinda hilarious asking a food shop if they have anything edible they are selling. Tomatsu certainly gets it and couldn’t stop laughing once again!! Unfortunately I believe the shop there was one of those shops where they make food and sell them in bulk, like for company meetings and such. Fukuhara then gave us the saddest look ever after hearing the news. ):

Video Segment- After Watching

After the video ended, they talked more about what happened on the day of the shooting. Then all of the sudden out of no where, Fukuhara’s mic “died”. Well, it turns out the mic didn’t “dye”, but rather she accidentally pressed the button at the butt of the mic, which turns off the mic.

Hearing this information, Tomatsu looked mindblown and surprised for some reason (considering she worked with mics for years now being both a singer and a seiyuu) and started playing with the button. Then out of no where, the MC said to Tomatsu: “Careful, if you hold the button for too long, you will disappear.” The whole room roared with laugher once again. (Of course Tomatsu laughed!)

To finish the video segment out, Fukuhara said she was really impressed by Tomatsu during the shoot. First of all, her dances are very good, and secondly she is super impressed with how well Tomatsu is able to lip sync while shooting the MV. Her facial expression were on point even while lip syncing! We definitely feel lots of respect coming from Fukuhara (kouhai) to Tomatsu (senpai).

Q&A Segment

After the video segements comes a Q&A segment for this event. What’s special about it is that the audience ask the questions live. So yeah, pretty much a 1 on 1 conversation with the Harukas. Unfortunately due to the restrictions on time. We were only able to get 3 questions in.

I personally didn’t raise my hand to ask question cause I thought it would be better for people who are bigger fans of both of them to ask (or I just didn’t prepare any questions for the both of them lol).

I will not be able to provide a detail description on what they said because 1) I didn’t have knowledge on the topic they were being asked on; and 2) Most questions were relating both of them. On top of that I didn’t watch “Koe Girl” which is the Japanese drama that the song 「It’s Show Time!!」came from. I’m just a fan of that song and Tomatsu herself.

The first question was about “Pretty Cure”, an anime I have absolutely 0 knowledge on. Apparently both of the casted in the show but in different “generations” of character.

The second question was about the Nakakawa Daisuke (who is a seiyuu casted as himself in Koe Girl). Both Haruka loved him and thought he was extremely fun and funny to work with.

The third and last question was about Nakamura Yurika (who is a main cast in Koe Girl). Both Haruka has one word to describe her. “Angel”.

Sorry, I really didn’t have any knowledge on the topics of the Q&A section, so this is all I can really comment on >_<

Conclusion

The event was not what I expected. Went in with not much expectation, and came out more than satisfied!

I originally went to see Tomatsu, but left loving both of them! It was also my first time seeing Tomatsu (other then being at Sphere’s live). Seeing her this close up is unreal! She feels super 3D LOL.

The fans seems pretty spread out too; feels like a lot of them are fans of “Koe Girl” though I may be wrong on that.

As we were leaving, I saw many fans started to take pictures of the place (which I don’t think it’s allowed but the staff didn’t say anything so I guess it’s ok) so I took one myself.

Both Harukas made a pretty damn good impression on me. And I had a blast going to this release event! It was a wonderful experience that built my love for them even more!

PS: Since MAL is still broken, I hyperlinked other sites instead of MAL. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you for reading, and until next time~

Salo