NMB Team BII: Makuhari Aeon Mall Theater Performance 01/04/2014

Team BII comes out swinging with a performance at the new Makuhari Aeon Mall in Chiba!

Now, unfortunately, I don’t know enough about malls in Japan. I went to an Aeon Mall, but it felt like going to Sears, so maybe this one is bigger? The only other mall I’ve seen was actually right next to a Costco, which was funny because Costco was virtually the same as the US. I was so tripped out that they carried almost all the same products. Even the food court was the same with the hot dog combo deal and the pizza!

But I digress.

After attending the Osaka Jou Hall concert and reflecting on all the past concert experiences I’ve had, I’ve resolved to only go to performances in small settings. At first I was thinking, “Man, they’re just performing in the mall,” but on the other hand, this is the kind of performance I should enjoy.

So… to be honest, Team BII has become my favorite team as a whole. The reason I like them is because they have the underdog angle, that it feels like they all have to work super hard if they have any hope of breaking out. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Team N, but I don’t think of them as girls that need my support. They are amazing talented and it’s a joy to see them perform. BII, however, has a lot of fantastic girls with potential, and I really enjoy watching them grow their personalities and find new ways to stand out, not just individually, but also as a team.

So the twist with this performance?

There’s a lot of live singing! (No way!)

And with that, we have two big winners.

Renacchi and Yuuri came out big. I really enjoyed this performance, which is funny because I’ve always skipped watching this. Renacchi has a great singing voice. Prior to this, she hadn’t really grown on me and I didn’t know why she was considered highly in BII… but this performance opened my eyes. Yuuri did pretty well too, looking adorbs as usual. This is why I love live singing, because then you get great moments like this.

The Faint unit has easily become my favorite. Uuka looks sizzling and has great chemistry with Konomin, and Anchu surprisingly looks like an idol. Look how cool she looks in that shot! Uuka’s been impressing me more and more performance wise, though her talk character has been pretty one dimensional to me. I hope she gets more opportunities to strut her stuff. I really hope they keep this unit together, it’s sooooo strong.

Of course live singing isn’t kind to everyone, and you can tell some people weren’t used to it. The Junai Cresecendo unit in particular seemed like at the end they were all tired and just started yelling instead of singing, mostly evident with Emichi because her voice is so distinctive.

When I think about it, not everyone on the team necessarily has to be a good talker as long as they have a couple great ones to bring out the rest of them… and Makopon is absolutely fantastic at it. And that totally surprises me, given that she’s only 14. This might not be the best example, given that her voice was cracking (due to puberty? Man, I am terrible and old) but her MCs always bring such interesting topics and she hosts them like a pro. Very impressive.

I don’t know why, but I like watching Emichi paired up with Hako. It might be the fact that they both possess infectious smiles, and Hako’s smile is absolutely hilarious to me. Emichi’s push has gotten me to like her smile and her laughter; if I can be frank, her physical appearance isn’t that attractive, but then she smiles and laughs and I can’t help but like her.

Anyway, it gets to the singles and the group singing, and it does kinda hurt the ears… honestly, those songs were not really composed for singing live, heh. Especially Kamonegix, or Kamonegics, or whatever you want to call it. Come to think of it, if I write “Kamonegics”, it reminds me of Abenomics…