April 12, 2009

薮くん、光くん・・・ありがとう

山下翔央, Yamashita Shoon, Ya-Ya-yah
I'm slow, I know; sorry. This fandom moves too fast, and probably all of you have seen this already, or read about it already, but I just had to make a post about this because it made me so happy. I even got a little teary-eyed and then I couldn't believe my eyes and couldn't stop smiling. I'm talking about yesterday's Hi!Hey!Say!'s livestage, in which Yabu and Hikaru performed Himawari no Melody, one of my favourite Ya-Ya-yah songs.


2009.04.11 [HHS] Himawari no melody.avi (94MB) [1280x720]

It was beautiful, simply beautiful, and almost perfect (almost, because two people were missing), and moving, and... and now I feel awful for not watching HHS regularly. I'll try to do so from now on. I just needed to say: 薮くん、光くん・・・ありがとう (Yabu, Hikaru... Thank you).

I've wondered many times if Yabu, Hikaru, Taiyô and Shoon were conscious of the significance the four colours (red, blue, yellow/orange, and green) JE had assigned to each of them have for us, their fans. I mean, that combination doesn't seem to be unusual at all in Japan. I've seen it in commercials, manga and anime... and in other groups in JE, other than Ya-Ya-yah. Sometimes JE uses those colours for other occasions as well... like the pamphlet of Full House, the stage play Shoon took part in last year. I'm tempted to get into the subject of ranks according to colours and how this made me happy because of what it meant for Shoon, but it's unrelated to this, so I won't go into it. XD


What I'm trying to say is that, even though for us those colours stand for Yabu, Hikaru, Taiyô and Shoon individually, and for Ya-Ya-yah together, they're not exclusive of them. So sometimes I thought that perhaps they themselves were not so aware of the significance of those colours. In fact, in photoshoots several times two or all of them wore the wrong colour (i.e. Hikaru would wear green instead of blue, etc.). I suppose those days the photographer was a bit careless or felt like humouring Hikaru, whose fave colour, as we all know, is green.

Perhaps they became more aware of the significance of their colours in the last Shounen Club episodes, before uchiwas and signs were banned, when fans used their colours to show their support for them.


Whatever the case, now I'm fully convinced that Shoon wore Taiyô's Sgt. Pepper coat on purpose, and it has made me immensely happy to see that Yabu and Hikaru are so very aware of the colours significance, that they used them on this livestage to show that they haven't forgotten Ya-Ya-yah, and that when they sing Ya-Ya-yah songs, they think of Taiyô and Shoon. I think the song they chose on this occasion was very significant too: "himawari" means "SUNflower" in Japanese, and the lyrics (which you can find translated here by Atarashiiyoake, remind me of what they went through: "I looked back (...) I got the feeling that I couldn't go back (...) saying goodbye like adults (...) Withoug shedding any tears, we might say that we'll be able to meet again somewhere (...) But that time will already be different from now, that's what we both know (...) Today won't come back, it's become our past we both know that without fail". As she says it's at the same time a beautiful song and a sad one. It's the sadness that comes from the realization that things change and you can't turn back time, but you will always cherish the time when you were part of something special.

Back to the colours... there's no way it could be just a coincidence or meaningless. The four colours appear one after another in the lyrics on the screen: first RED (ignore the white), then GREEN, then BLUE, and then YELLOW. The first batch of backdancers is dressed in RED, the second in GREEN, the third in BLUE, and the fourth in YELLOW. Also, Yabu blows a bunch of RED petals from the palm of his hand, then he gets a GREEN cloth out of his jacket (*Yamabu fan squeal*), then we see Hikaru with a BLUE balloon, and then both Yabu and Hikaru hold YELLOW SUNflowers!!! And of course there's no mention of petals, a green cloth, a blue balloon or even sunflowers. *wink-wink, nudge-nudge* I loved the way Yabu opened the green cloth and showed it so close to the camera, and I loved how all the stage ended up filled with yellow. ^_______________^ You know what? Ya-Ya-yah lives~

For the sake of good old times and new fans, here are a couple of old Ya-Ya-yah performances of this song. =)

2005.11.13 Himawari no Melody on Shounen Club:


[VIDEO] [74 MB] (credits: Yungboy) - [MP3]
To watch and download other Ya-Ya-yah performances
on Shounen Club, please visit Never Stop the Music

2005.10.23 Start! + Himawari no Melody on the Ya-Ya-yah show:


][VIDEO] [74 MB] - [MP3]
To watch and download other Ya-Ya-yah performances
on the Ya-Ya-yah show, please visit Singin' For You

And because I love you guys for bearing with me till the end of each entry, here's a little present from me to you. ^__^

2004.08 Kindai - Ya-Ya-yah scans



2005.05 Wink Up - Ya-Ya-yah scans