Sentimental Graffiti summer concert
The final Sentimental Graffiti concert was held at the Nakano Sun Plaza on August 16, 1998. This hall holds a little over 2000, and this concert sold out the day the tickets went on sale. (Most of the tickets were already sold to the SG Fan Club members.) I had 24th row seats for the first session, and 4th row (dead center) seats for the second session. It was GREAT being so close for the second session. Of course everyone had "seats" but we were standing throughout the entire concert. A video and LD of this concert will be coming out in October.
Before the concert, at 14:40, Kubota Masayoshi, and a couple people from Craftec (the company that makes the SG Omoide no Album software) came and gave awards to the winners of the date scene contest. Watanabe Kaoru came as a special guest and sang two songs, Tenshi ni Aitakute (the OP to Sentimental Journey) and Shine (an image song for Sentimental Journey). Kaoru was wearing a yellow tank top (with a flower on it), and jeans. She came out in front of the curtain and sang there.
Then the real concert began.. The lights were dim, and the silhouette of
the twelve girls could be seen on the stage.
Each one of them said, "Anata ni aitai.."
Then the curtains opened, and everyone was in one of three types of school wear (see below)! SUPER CUTE! They opened by singing Senti na Natsuyasumi. It was just like an idol group from the late 80's. VERY CUTE!! Great movements and dance too. [I was watching Junko 90% of the time, and only saw a little bit of the others (^_^;), but I think Junko, Ai, and Urarako are the best dancers.] There were three types of outfits. One was a school girl outfit with a white top, tie, and red checkered skirt. The red skirt was a tight skirt, like OL (office lady) style. Another one was a school girl outfit with a white top, ribbon tie, and green checkered skirt. The green skirt was a flare skirt, like high school girls. The other uniform was a boy's uniform, with shirt, vest, and long pants. Some of the girls were wearing matching color hats too. Machiko was wearing the red skirt. Chizu was wearing pants. Yuka was wearing the green skirt. Mariko was wearing pants. Michiko was wearing the red skirt, and hat a red hat. Ai was wearing the green skirt, and had ribbons in her hair. Urarako was wearing the green skirt, and had a green hat. Yuki was wearing the green skirt, and had a green hat. Yukiko was wearing pants. Asami was wearing the green skirt, and had a green hat. Junko was wearing the green skirt. Hiromi was wearing the red skirt. After the song, Hiromi went off stage to get ready for her solo song. Everyone else stayed on the stage, and they made some announcements about the recent SG CDs. Then the solo portion of the concert began. For these duet songs, the male parts were recorded on the tape.. but it was mostly sung by the crowd. (^_^;) The first batter was Konno Hiromi, and she sang Sky Tower de Aimashou. Hiromi was wearing a cow girl outfit, with boots and hat. The second singer was Suzuki Urarako, and she sang Stained Glass no Mukou Gawa. Urarako was wearing a white blouse, and a pink flower skirt. There were two white flowers in her hair, and she had purple ear rings. The next singer was Nishiguchi Yuka, and she sang Kare to Kanojo to Sunglass. For the first half of the song, Yuka sat on a park bench. She was wearing school girl clothes, and a detective hat. Then there was a short talk session with Hiromi, Urarako, and Yuka. The fourth singer was Oda Michiko, and she sang Gekka Bijin. Michiko was wearing a long blue one piece. The next singer was Suzuki Mariko, and she sang White Calendar. Mariko was wearing a purple long dress. The sixth singer was Mannaka Yukiko, and she sang Billiken-san ga Iru. Yukiko was wearing a yellow shirt, camouflage tank top over it, khaki skirt, black socks, boots, and had her hair in big pig tails off to the sides. Then for the last part of her song, Yukiko called everyone else onto the stage, and they all danced and sang together. (Everyone except Chizu, as Chizu was on deck.) Everyone was wearing their "normal" clothes. Machiko was wearing a yellow miffy T-shirt and jeans. Junko was wearing a navy blue polo shirt and long pants. After the song, they talked for a while. The second half of the concert began with Yonemoto Chizu's song, Shout!. Chizu was wearing a white suit, and there were also two guitarists on stage. The eighth singer was Okada Junko, and she sang La Bridge. Junko was wearing a white short sleeve shirt, maroon vest, and a long, colorful layered skirt. She also had two pink ribbons in her hair, with teddy bears on them. Junko sat on a swing for part of the song. The next singer was Okamoto Asami, and she sang Namida no Side Seat. Asami was wearing an orange tank top with a flower design, and an orange and yellow checkered skirt. There was also a yellow ornament in her hair. After the song, Chizu, Junko, and Asami talked for a while. The tenth singer was Makishima Yuki, and she sang Yuuzen Nagashi. Yuki was wearing a long, light blue one piece dress. The eleventh singer was Maeda Ai, and she sang Ultra Esper. Ai was wearing a pink shirt, black skirt (knee length, flare out), had a bandana type thing around her head, and had the mike sticking out from the head piece. She also had a black tie, black socks, and pink shoes. Near the end of the song, a panda and chipmunk kigurumi came out and danced with Ai-chan. The final singer was Toyoshima Machiko, and she sang Olive no Kaze. Machiko was wearing a red one piece, very short (above the knees). She had red high heel shoes, and had a flower on her choker. Machiko's hair was tied up too. During her song, there were clouds (dry ice smoke) all over the stage. Then everyone came out to sing the final song, Senti na Natsuyasumi. All the girls were wearing the SG girls T-shirt. The positions and dance/movements looked to be the same as when they sang this song the first time. Then after the song, all the girls gathered at the center of the stage, and they had photographers and cameramen take pictures. Since the girls faced the back of the stage, the background of the picture had the crowd. Then all the girls went off stage. The music to Senti na Natsuyasumi was still playing. Then the girls came back out in pairs, carrying large flags, with their respective character colors. Then they all moved to their positions on stage and waved the flags. The concert ended, but of course there was an encore call. After a couple minutes, the curtains opened, and all of the girls were wearing white dresses (non-matching dresses). Then they sang 1 Daasu no Memory. After the song, all of the girls gave their good-bye messages, one by one, with most of them crying while talking. As of this moment, this is the best concert I have ever been to.
HD's performance checksheet (^_^;)The following is my (very biased and opinionated) ratings of the performances during the concert. It ranks how I LIKED the performance, not how GOOD it was. It does NOT factor in the singing ability that much.. (^_^;)
As you noticed, the overall score is not an addition of the other scores. All the girls sang better at this concert than last year.
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