Winter 2004: Greatest ending ever told

 

This started as a blog comparing the Hello Project Winter 2004 graduation concert of Abe to the Morning Musume Spring 2007 graduation concert of Yossie, but as the screencaps started materializing for Winter 2004, I had to contain this nuclear reaction  to 2004 – at least for now.

 

Why? Because the Winter 2004 concert had the greatest ending of any performing-arts event ever, and you can go all the way back to the street theater of the Renaissance, the gladiators of Rome, the Thespians of ancient Greece – even to Ice Age cavemen dancing around their campfires.

 

Nono’s legendary meltdown during Abe's graduation was only the start. It is quite possible that Nono’s inability to cope with this event funneled into her premature graduation from Morning Musume, only a few short months later, along with Aibon. But both were otherwise on their “A” game in the Winter 2004 blockbuster.

 

Now I can’t even include ZYX’s unforgettable human-snowflake display with “Shiroi Tokyo,” which has already been dealt with in an earlier blog in an earlier era (though I reserve the right to revisit that gem of a song in a later effort). Suffice it to say, the end of this historic event will forever enshrine the hallowed floors of Yokohama Arena.

 

It was the killer medley at the end that made the magic happen, tumbling the crazed crowd unmercifully into the watery Abe graduation ceremony –  from “Shabondama” right into “The Peace” and finally “We’re Alive!” The stunning gold-leaf unis made the occasion complete.

 

This was the epitome of excellence, the best sequence ever for what was to be the strongest Morning Musume lineup in its history – Aibon and Nono at their peak, Miki and Yossie anchoring with brassy vocals, Yaguchi just out of control, and everyone else just sounding, moving and looking like they owned the place, and they did.

 

A minor side soap-opera was the conspicuous absence of Konno, who ended up being compelled to apologize for the snafu later on national television, saying it was some kind of scheduling hassle with her manager. I never understood this part of the story, but it failed to dampen the intensity of what occurred that memorable evening. Even more eerie is that Konno's picture appears on the DVD cover, in full uniform. Go figure.

 

Another sidelight is that Pony Canyon, not UFA, was distributor of this slice of heaven way back in 2004, so Buono! was far from the first collaboration with PC. Maybe they aren't so bad after all.

 

In any event, I stand by the assertion that this was the greatest ending ever told, by the greatest music group ever to grace a stage – Morning Musume.

 

 This is Radicalipton signing off – for now.