MEN'S PANIC 2018 Fan Report | Male Idol Festival in Japan featuring M!LK, SUPER★DRAGON & more

Now, I've been wanting to go to Japan for a while. For almost 10 years actually so you'd imagine I'd have quite a hefty list of things planned for my trip. One thing I definitely wanted to do while I was there was see as many of my favourite male idol groups live as I could o this led me to BOYS NEON LIVE (a monthly event for male idols). While searching their website, I saw that during the month of August (the month I would be in Japan) they would be running an event called MEN'S PANIC and checking the MEN'S PANIC website, I couldn't believe how perfect it was. There was a whole host of male idol groups set to be performing at the event with more and more continously being added. Since we hadn't decided on the exact dates for our trip yet, I then made sure that our holiday would be booked to include the MEN'S PANIC dates.


MEN'S PANIC took place on August 11th (Saturday) and 12th (Sunday) at Makuhari Messe, a huge convetion centre in Chiba. I would've loved to go on both days but the tickets were quite expensive as well as taking into account the fact that I had to buy them via a shopping service before I arrived in Japan and I had to pay for my dad as well so I elected to only attend the Sunday, since M!LK and SUPER★DRAGON were performing on that day.

After arriving at the venue and queuing for a little while, we got into the hall just before 10am which was when the first performance was due to start. The members of some of the lesser-known indie groups like URAGAWA PROJECT and TOONBOYS were waiting by the entrance, eager to give out their flyers (although some of them seemed a little wary of us at first as I assume they wondered whether we could speak Japanese or not). The members of URAGAWA PROJECT were particularly keen; I ended up with about five different copies of their flyer, haha.

We took some time to familliarize ourselves with the set-up of the hall and then we went over to the Platinum Stage which was where the first performance I wanted to see was going to be. 10 o'clock came and then Starmen KiDS came running onto the stage, full of their usual energy. Admittedly I'm not a huge Starmen KiDS fan so I didn't know any of the names of the songs they performed but it was still super cute.

The next performance I wanted to see wasn't until 11:15 so I just hung around by the Platinum Stage after that, watching whichever groups came up next. I saw Milli Melle Holic and Rushx300. During Rushx300's performance there was a girl next to me who literally knew their entire dance routines and was dancing along with the members on stage which I thought was pretty impressive, haha. I really liked one of their songs too but I have no idea what it was called.

After Rushx300's performance, we moved over to the Diamond Stage since M!LK's performance was due to start soon. Zekkou Cho Dan☆LoVe were just finishing up their set then and yet again they had a super catchy song that I have no idea what the name of it was, haha.

There was a few minutes of waiting around then and then M!LK's name appeared on the screen to the sound of hundreds of screaming fangirls. My dad said, "Oh, it's M!LK!" in recognition because they're pretty much the only group I like that he actually remembers, haha. They came out onto the stage then and they opened with a new song that I haven't heard before but I'm still super hyped. I felt the same way as when I saw SUPER★DRAGON for the first time; there's just this special feeling that seeing your favourite Jpop group in person for the first time gives you that I can't really put into words.

After the first song they did their usual introduction. I was probably a bit too energetic joining in with the calls but I was having so much fun, haha. They also asked everyone to join in with the "towel spinning" for the next song.

The next song was "Summer Gamba!!". I didn't have a towel but I joined in with my penlight. They had back-up dancers for this song that came on stage wearing M!LK T-shirts and dancing with pom-poms, much to my dad's confusion. They did that dance -- I don't know the name of it but it's pretty popular right now -- the one that DA PUMP do in the chorus of "U.S.A".


The next song is "Shissou Pendulum" and even though this is normally one of my least favourite M!LK songs there's something exciting about hearing it live. Everyone doing the wotagei routine for the chorus part in unison gave me this weird sense of community almost, as cheesy as that sounds.

The went straight into "Ternero Fighter" then and I'm waving my penlight like mad because this is one of my jams. Everyone (myself included) was so full of energy during the "Ternero, ternero, ternero~" parts. It was during this song though that I became very aware of Haruki's absense. There's that part in the song where each of the members call out their names so they had to do it in a different order since Haruki's not around anymore and I think it was slightly confusing for them as well as the fans, haha.



The last song was another new song that I haven't heard before but it was hella catchy and I got really into it, haha. Then the performance came to a close. They did their usual "Bokutachi wa M!LK deshita" and I joined in with the pose and I could hear my dad laughing at me. They then said their goodbyes and exited the stage.

Since they were on the Diamond Stage M!LK got one of the longer performance times but I still felt like it was over way too quickly. I think I'd definitely like to go to a proper M!LK concert someday, if only to see them a little longer.

There weren't any more performances I wanted to see for a while then so we went to find a place to sit down. At one point two members of TOONBOYS came up to the tables we were sat at, giving flyers and clear files to people who were sat down but they skipped over us (probably worried that we couldn't speak Japanese) but I just stared at them until they felt like they had no choice but to come over, haha.

I thought it was pretty cool as well how the members of some of the groups were literally just walking around the hall, out in the open so fans could just go up to them and talk to them if they wanted. I saw this happen once or twice while I was sat down and thought it was really cute how excited some of the girls were to talk to their idols.

I mostly left my dad sitting down with all the bags after that (He was fine, he had his book haha) while I wandered around to see who was performing on the different stages. I saw MAUVE followed by FEARLESS on the Gold Stage. I remember one of the songs MAUVE performed was "Touch My Heart" which is my favourite song by them and I got a few smiles from Rito who I think as a result has now become my favourite member.

I caught some of Amatou Danshi on the Platinum Stage after that I have to say; they are so cute! With their ridiculously cutesy outfits and over-the-top catchy songs about chocolate and sweets, they're definitely the kind of group that I could really get in, haha. I hope they'll start releasing CDs and the like that are easier for overseas fans to buy. Sella in particular is so sweet (pun unintended) and bubbly and I got quite a few smiles and waves from him.


I went back to the Gold Stage and saw Panda Dragon (Taiga is the cutest!) and after that just decided to rest for a bit while I waited for the next artist I wanted to see to come on which was none other than Satori Shounen Dan, this month's featured group!

Satori Shounen Dan were on the Platinum Stage at around 13:54. They didn't have a huge crowd compared to the other EBiDAN groups so I managed to get pretty close to the stage. They opened with "I wanna say..." which is one of my favourite songs by them. I've mentioned this before but there's just something about Eiku that I really love. He has such a unique voice and this really sweet, friendly face and smile. Seeing him in person gave me a really nice feeling but it wasn't the same excitement I felt when I saw SUPER★DRAGON and M!LK for the first time, it was more he had a gentle and calming kind of aura to him? I don't know how to explain it. But I remember just looking up at him during this song in awe, haha.

The next song was "Help You" which is another one of my jams. Eiku's voice is so infectious that it was really hard not to sing along with him, haha. A lot of people got really excited during Hayato's rap part.

The next song was one I don't know the name of. They then closed with another song I didn't know the name of at the time, but later found out to be "Natsu e Diving". This song was so cute, upbeat, and fun. I joined in with the towel-spinning with my penlight. Hayato was very energetic and got everyone really fired up during this song.

I felt really guilty for it but I didn't get to see the end of Satori Shounen Dan's performance because I heard SUPER★DRAGON's performance starting over on the Diamond Stage so I ran over, not wanting to miss one of my favourite groups. They were only saying their goodbyes and thank yous when I left anyway.

When I arrived at the Diamond Stage, SUPER★DRAGON were in the middle of performing "Monster!" and queue me, frantically looking around the stage for my beloved Jean-Jean. Of course he's there, looking as cool and handsome as ever.

The next song is "Mada' Mada'" and have I mentioned how excited I get when they perform this song live? Probably. I'll mention it again; I get really excited when they perform this song live and this time was no exception, haha. Frantic penlight waving and mad dance moves ensued.

They paused to introduce themselves then and their introductions were pretty much the same as when I saw them in Kashiwa. This time Sougo did his train annoucement (in both Japanese and English) for Kaihin Makuhari, the station that's closest to the venue. Jean introduced himself by saying he was half-Turkish and I remember waving my penlight a bit too madly at this point and I'm sure we made eye contact, if only for a second haha.


After explaining the "devil fingers pose" to us, they then performed "SWEET DEVIL". This song is so fun live too. I think I'm just going to say that about all of their songs.

At this point I got so excited I literally almost fell over. Why? Because I heard the start of "Get Treasure Journey", my absolute favourite song by them, haha. Since it's a coupling song, I really was not expecting them to perform it at an event like MEN'S PANIC so that made it all the more exciting. If I was energetic during all the other songs you wouldn't believe what I was like during this one. Mad penlight waving, singing along (although not too loudly, more like miming along haha), and full on dance moves, guys. Someone probably should've stopped me. My little Jean was super cool as always and they had back-up dancers spinning towels for some of the song.

The final song was "PAYAPAYA", another crowd-pleaser. If you've never seen them perform this song before it has a really fun and easy dance routine that goes along with the chorus so we all eagerly joined in. The members came out onto the sides of the stage for parts of this song and some of them even got lifted up by the other members.

 They said their goodbyes and left then, and again I felt like it was over way too quickly but was grateful I got to see one of my favourite groups twice while I was in Japan.

After that, there weren't really anymore artists that I really wanted to see so we hung around for a bit and I saw a bit of TERCERA TRAPsMOIS and BOYS AND MEN Kenkyuusei but my dad and I were both pretty hungry as well as needing to think about the journey back and everything so we decided to leave. I got very sappy at this point. Seriously, I almost cried. It just suddenly hit me how much male idols mean to me and how lucky I'd been up until that point. Instead of rewriting it all, here's the word vomit I posted on Twitter after the event:

Came back from Men's Panic and just suddenly realized how much I just...love male idols. If you'd have asked me two years ago I never would've thought it would be possible for me to be this happy. It all started with G=AGE back in 2016 and me just starting a blog simply because I loved them and wanted more people to love them too and somehow that's evolved into Dansei Idol Girl and someone actually donated real actual money to the blog yesterday?? Unreal

I'm literally in Japan right now and was lucky enough to be able to attend an event where so many of my favourite male idol groups and more were performing. No doubt being a male idol fan is tough sometimes, like when G=AGE disbanded or Haruki left M!LK but I literally just think about groups like Super Dragon sometimes and my heart just fills with warmth like I'm just so happy that they exist and that I can support them. I'm just overflowing with so much gratitude right now. Thank you to anyone who has ever supported me or DIG in anyway, big or small and to all my idols just for being there


That's all I have to say for now. I do mean it from the bottom of my heart; thank you so much to anyone who has supported this blog in anyway, even just by reading it. DIG and male idols really mean the world to me. Thanks for sticking with me for just over a year now and hopefully I'll be seeing you all for many more years to come! Love you, idol fans <3

4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for this fan report. It's great you were able to see so many awesome groups and it's great reading how super excited you got watching them perform. Hopefully we can one day meet up in Japan and fangirl together. That would be awesome. ^0^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No problem, thank you so much for your comment as always~
      Yes, that would be awesome :D

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  2. I'm happy that you enjoy your trip to Japan!
    And you watched many idol group performances.. so jealous ( ˘ ³˘) <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you!
      I know I was very lucky, haha. I hope you'll be able to see all your favourite Jpop artists too someday x

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