HEART STATION

Two days ago, I felt a little Kuu-less, so I decided to go to her Brazilian fansite and take a look at what she’s been up to (I love Brazilian fansites because they have so much stuff, from news on the artists, to exclusive information and media) and I found out that KumiBrasil (The Brazilian website I look at for information on Kuu) had uploaded the television version of the Kingdom tour! I love concerts, especially those by Japanese artists that I love so much. The television version of the tour contained an interview with Kumi (Divided into parts through the show) and the complete concert (Except for the interlude videos, unfortunately, they’re one of my favorite parts, especially Kuu’s).

Yesterday I had a chance to watch it, and it’s fantastic. Koda Kumi was able to pull it all together after causing some controversy due to a public statement that she gave, this tour had been cancelled, her official website was brought down, and nobody knew if Koda Kumi’s career was done for. After some time, the Kingdom tour was back! Even though Kuu didn’t want it to. avex (Kuu’s record label) would lose a lot of money, so the show had to go on! The tour followed a heartfelt apology from Kuu about her previous remarks, and it really wasn’t her fault, she, herself, stated that she had heard about what she had said in television before. The tour continued, and it was so great that 4 more dates were added to the tour. After I watched it, it really was that great, no doubt about that, and Kumi was fantastic. No wonder it was so popular.

I’m huge a fan of her Kingdom era, and this tour was all about her Kingdom album, (Released on January the 30th of this year [2008]) and a few of her previous hits. It really was amazing. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ballads that she sang, some were great, and a few weren’t, but overall, in my opinion she surpassed the amazing Black Cherry tour of 2007.

In the beginning, all her dancers and Kumi are wearing a leopard-print shawl and the dancers are wearing hoods. and the setting is a scary castle, with images of Kumi as a vampire appearing on the screen, and whenever she looked somewhere, (The vampire Kumi) there would be an explosion while everyone danced. The tour kicks off with the song Under, and later on, the shawl is dropped to reveal Kumi wearing an Arabian-like outfit for her dance numbers. The TV version’s (Brought by WOWOW) tracklisting for this segment is the following:

<OPENING VIDEO>
Interview: Part 1
Under
FREAKY
Interview: Part 2
Cutie Honey (キューティーハニー)
Interview: Part 3
Himitsu (秘密)
MORE
LAST ANGEL
Interview: Part 4

Then, after the dances and the haunted house setting, Kuu once agains lures us into her mermaid world by coming out from the ground on top of a beautiful white sea-themed piano while a man plays a beautiful masterpiece. Her mermaid dress changed since the last tour and it’s really beautiful now. This is the ballad segment of her tour, and it’s used to distract us from the stage that’s being changed around for the next segment following this one. Kumi sits on a couch placed on the catwalk of the arena and finds a “Special Invitation” on the couch, or as she cutely pronounces with her awesome Japanese accent, “Specharu Inbitation.” She asks one of her dancers to give the “Specharu Inbitation” to one of her fans in the audience so she can sit next to Koda Kumi and choose a ballad for her to sing and sit with her while she sang it. The fan chose you, a ballad off her you single and BEST ~second session~ album. This segment is a lot more personal than the rest, she sits with all her musicians and they play while she sings with her backing vocalist. The songs she chose have a really warm feeling by the way she sounds with all the acoustic instruments. The tracklisting for the TV version is as follows:

Ai no Uta (愛のうた)
Someday
Interview: Part 5
Futari de… (ふたりで…)
you
Kiseki (奇跡)
Interview: Part 6
WIND
Interview: Part 7

After the ballad segment, Kumi changes clothes once again and the new setting is revealed, the creepy castle turned into a beautiful wonderland-like castle and suddenly, we see a cute, bubbly, rag doll-like Kuu come out of the castle. There are little plushie teddy bears sown to her skirt and at one point, as little gifts for her fans, she takes 3 of them and throws them to the audience! The segment begins with WONDERLAND as the first song, then goes to the widely known It’s a small world (It’s a small world, after all.) sang comepletely in English by Kumi and it’s comepletly the soulmate of the segment, the childish and popular song blends right in to the wonderland setting. But then again, Kumi is quite the remixer, so the song has some remixed additions to it that make it really fun! This part of the concert features my favorite songs and my favorite parts of the concert. When Kuu performs Koi no Mahou (恋の魔法), she interacts with the screen behind her, and you can only believe it if you see it, it’s perfect sync, and through that, she fires a cupid’s arrow at one of her male dancers, she kisses a virtual boy represented in the screen and it’s really cute! She also tug-o-wars with one of her dancers! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s incredible. When she sings girls, it’s amazing how her fans are so committed to her! The trademark of the song it waving a towel, and all her fans were doing that! Kumi then throws her own towel to them when the song ends. This segment is beyond amazing. The tracklisting is as follows:

WONDERLAND
Interview: Part 8
It’s a small world
Rehearsal Scenes
Interview: Part 9
Koi no Mahou (恋の魔法)
anytime
Run For Your Life
Interview: Part 10
Come Over
girls
Interview: Part 11

The next segment has Kumi in a baggy outift, just like like every artist at the end of their concerts. They just love a baggy, comfortable outfit. She looks uber cute with her fashionable pink pumps and her baggy striped blue shirt and overalls and a cute pink hat. Here, she sings dance songs and walks around the catwalk with her dancers greeting her fans and then moves on to a remix of many songs together. After all the remixed goodness of her songs, and a dance-off between boys and girls, she moves on to two sentimental ballads, Moon Crying and walk. She cries in Moon Crying, and it’s really cute, once again, because of the sentimentality of her remarks and controversy. It’s a great ending to a fantastic, beyond words concert. This segment has the following tracklisting:

SHAKE IT UP
BUT
real Emotion
Butterfly
Crazy 4 U
Dance-Off
Dance&Band Member Scenes
Interview: Part 12
Moon Crying
walk
<CLOSING VIDEO>

The outro video includes a behind-the-scenes view of Kumi after the concert and she was crying so much, but it ends when one of the people from her staff cheers her up and she smiles. The concert is amazing, and everything is fantastic. I recommend it to anyone and it’s a concert worthy of 10/10 stars.

If you wish to take a look a it, here it is! Uploaded on D-Addicts, and it’s the torrent download! It’s worth every second of your time!

KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2008 ~Kingdom~ (Torrent Download)