What songs define the 00s?

The noughties are a funny time.
I was in love with the idea of love, and I was full of love songs, soppy ballads as well as “My heart is completely broken” and full on “I am too good for you and you don’t deserve me” break up songs.

Avril Lavigne falls right into the latter category.
I used to blast Complicated, Skate Boi and Girlfriend at full volume through my headphones and into my ear drums.
Part of me wonders why I am not deaf sometimes.

I was still very much indulging myself in the likes of Boybands (they were everywhere – Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, 98 degrees, Take 5, O-Town, Boyzone, Caught in the Act, LFO, BBMak, No Authority, Westlife, A1…) and songs like Bye Bye Bye was massive.
I have a whole damn list of Boyband songs that define the noughties for me, but these were (and still are) my favourite:

This I promise you.
Shape of my heart.
Straight through my Heart.
All or Nothing.
Flying with out Wings.

It was also the start of the R’n’B era – not the BoyzIIMen stuff, but R’n’B like Nelly and Alicia Keys.
Fallin’ by Alicia Keys is a classic and I slaved myself in front of a piano trying to learn how to play it.

Savage Garden’s I knew I Love you.
Can’t Fight the Moonlight too, was one of my favourite.

Britney and Christina were still on the chart, even though both of them seemed to be going off the rail (just a bit).

And then Busted and McFly turned up.
They were (still are) fun and they sing about absolutely anything and everything.
Busted has Year 3000 – who doesn’t like Year 3000?
Not the Jonas Brothers version – the original.
Year 3000 is probably one of the songs that were covered a bit too early and a bit too quickly.
The original was released in 2002, Jonas Brothers covered in 2006.
(Okay I lied, because Mr. Brightside was released in 2004 and Mcfly covered it in 2005).
The song that was originally titiled as “Crush and Burn” and was re-named “You Said No”.
Busted also Crashed THE wedding (which one, I don’t know), wrote a love letter to an Air Hostess and sang about Thunderbirds, whilst Mcfly released Star Girl and sang about falling in love with Uranus (how juvenile but how funny), and Five Colours in her Hair.
They also gave the middle finger salute to a bunch of paparazzi and radio people with “One For The Radio”.
(I can go on about this for forever)

And hello Enrique Iglesias with Tired Of Being Sorry.
That song rocks.
And Taylor Swift also released “Love Story“, and that song was cute, adorable and just the perfect song to sing at Karaoke (for me).
I don’t want to to call Jason Mraz’ a one hit wanderer but I don’t think you can fault “I’m Yours“.

By mid-noughties, boybands and pop music were faded out by THINGS like Kanye West and things that are similar, so my music collection starts to feature even more heavily on Japanese Pop music, where boybands are still very much a thing.

Arashi debuted in 1999, and even though they were as popular back then as they are now, I still love Sunrise Nippon and Kansa Kangeki Ame Arashi (back then when Sakurai Sho resembled like a member of KAT-TUN than his newscaster-self now).
SMAP had Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana which recently has been voted number one as the most influential song in Japan.
Tackey and Tsubasa debuted, and I was frantically for weeks learning the dance routine to Yume monogatari (and it has stuck in my head for forever).
KanJani8 released Osaka Rainy Blues, which is still very much one of the most beautiful song that I have ever heard and I love it.
With Nobuta wo. Produce (and the adorable Yuto) came Shuji to Akira, and of course Seishun Amigo that was so over played for many many years (and was still popular after all these years and sang at the countdown last year).

And of course – Real Face by KAT-TUN.

Tokio (Who has been announced as the ambassador as Tokyo 2020 Olympics) released a Sono Fune, which is the theme song for the drama My Boss My Hero.
News released Sayaendou as a six piece band, which is the theme song for One Piece.
Arashi becoming the group that they are right now with Love So Sweet and Happiness.

(I have linked the songs that I think defines the noughties for me)

What songs define the 90s

90s is when I grow up, and growing up in Hong Kong means that I get to listen to all sorts of weird stuff.
I wasn’t a fan of Chinese music except for what my cousin listen to, because she was my biggest influence until I grow up (out?).

The Chinese band I mentioned before, Beyond played a really big part of me growing up.
The lead singer died when I was eight – I kind of knew what ‘death’ meant at that point.
My mother’s oldest brother died of cancer when I was six. I remember sitting in church and swaying my feet on the benches and thinking I have pretty shoes on, and why did I get to stay up past my bedtime.

But that’s besides the point.
I found someone on YouTube who’s put a bunch of songs together into one video.
My favourite song is at 1:02:46.
The official record company has put a playlist up, but most of the songs are actually from after he passed away, so I am not going to bother putting it on here.

For English music, nothing can beats the Hammer.
MC Hammer and his “can’t touch this“.
Disney music started to pop out of nowhere, and they also started to enter the charts.
Songs like A Whole New World, Beauty and The Beast and Colour of the Wind.
And also Can You Feel The Love Tonight.
Prince of Egypt, which was not a Disney movie but a Dreamwork movie – won the best Original Song (written by Stephen Schwartz – who did Pocahontas and went on and did Wicked the musical) with “When You Believe” (sang by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston).

And whilst we are on Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston…
My All. I have always loved that song. I don’t know why. It’s a really whiny sounding song, but I love the song.

Whitney Houston’s “I’ll always Love You” is a classic.

Random fact: Lots of people in Japan knows this song, but they don’t speak much English. They thought the song was called “Anya” for years because of the Chorus: “ANNNYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, will always love you”.

Everybody knows the words to Fresh Prince of Bel Air too.
And watch it religiously on TV.
(RIP uncle Phil)

R’n’B vocal groups were also massive.
Groups like BoyzIIMen, All-4-One, who had hits likes “End Of The Road”, “I’ll Make Love To You” and “I Swear” are also a big hit.
I Swear was played so much during the 90s when I was growing up, you couldn’t possibly not know the song – it was EVERYWHERE.
And I mean EVERYWHERE.
All My Life by K-Ci and Jojo.
(I have a story behind this, and I will again, put it under “story for another time” when I have time).

And then, the boybands.
OH THE BOYBANDS.
I never liked any of the English Boybands, and my focus has always been somewhere else.
Step By Step by New Kids on the Block.
Quit Playing Games by the Backstreet Boys.
Everybody Backstreet’s Back by the Backstreet Boys.
I Want It That way by the Backstreet Boys.
98 Degrees and their smooth sound that sits between R’n’B vocal and boybands – I Do Cherish You, a song that back then, was my first choice of my first dance in my wedding (That obviously has changed).
(*NSYNC came later, but they were like the rival of the Backstreet Boys and even though they are really good friends, I still don’t like them as much as I do with the Backstreet Boys).
Another boyband (kind of) that was massive in Asia was Michael Learns To Rock (I think they are Danish? If not, they might be Swedish – somewhere from the Scandinavian countries), and That’s Why You Go Away is another song that was over played.

And who will forget Hanson and their “Mmmbop”?
Savage Garden’s “I want you”, contrasting with “Truly, Madly, Deeply”.

But nothing was over played (and overrated for that matter) as much as “My Heart Will Go On”.
English version, Mandarin Version, Cantonese Version, Japanese Version.
Before “My Heart Will Go On” though, there was “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”.
Celine Dion was massive, but so was Shania Twain.
From this Moment.
Man I feel like a Woman.
And Gloria Estafani’s Music of my heart (sung with *NSYNC).
Toni Brixton, who once was sane, has an amazing song “How Could An Angel Break My Heart”.
The younger generation was popping up at the end of the 90s too, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore.
But Baby One More Time and Genie In A Bottle were the two songs that were everywhere.

And with movie soundtrack, there is also “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” by Aerosmith. The movie was shit (so was Titanic, thinking about it), but the song was great (and I am still not a fan of Ben Affleck).
Another bad movie but good soundtrack, “I Believe I Can Fly” by R Kelly.
Another one: Kiss Me by Six Pence None Richer.

And don’t forget “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt.

Of course, there are songs that I heard cover versions of, and thought was from before the 90s.
Like More Than Words.

90s was the time where I fully engaged myself into Johnny’s Entertainment.
Kinki Kids debuted in 1997, with Garasu no Shounen, a song that I still listen to religiously, knows all the words to (obviously) and knows the dance routine for the chorus.
Two years later they released a song called Flower (and they recently sayid that it’s one the worst songs to sing live, because of the range the song covers… a bit like Dancing Queen by Abba).
Of course, I mentioned Kimi wo omou toki before, and that too, was from the nineties.

I can’t really post the original music videos when it comes to Johnny’s Music because of the very strict copyright law in Japan (I have been lucky with Weekender, Real Face and also Koi wo Shiranai Kimi e – but with Garasu no Shounen and Flower, not so much), but I have a copy of it if anybody wants it.
It’s from the 90s and the quality is bad, and the resolution isn’t that great either.

I also want to mention Ricky Martin “Living La Vida Loca” and Enrique Iglesias’ Bailamos.
Ricky Martin and his hypnotic hip (Hip-notic?) and Enrique Iglesias’ sultry voice.
Cannot get enough of the latter one. Who cares if I don’t understand Spanish?

What song do you play when you’re feeling angry?

There are angry songs where I am angry angry, and there’s angry songs where I am angry but in tears.
There are also angry songs when I am angry at myself and there are angry songs where I am angry at someone else.
To be honest most of the time I just carry on and put on whatever I can find in my library.
But if I have to pin point a song, it’d be Don’t Want you Back by the Backstreet Boys.
There’s always a song by the Backstreet Boys that matches every single one of my feeling and I can probably answer all of these questions just using Backstreet Boys’ song (but not things that are before the mid-90s), but I really think I should expand it a little bit.
However, I came across Wasting all these Tears on You by Cassadee Pope and that kind of become my angry song.

I guess there’s also a bunch of angry Japanese songs that I listen to, but it was more like a rebel type of angry songs – like Real Face (Which I posted on the first day as one of my favourite songs) and to be fair any songs with a heavy base line and if you play it loud enough, it will become angry music.

I refuse to listen to Heavy Metal Music.
Nirvana, Everclear, Silverchair and even Black Sabbath classified themselves as Rock.
They were never Heavy Metal.
Metallica classified themselves as Hard Rock, and not heavy metal.
I have written about it before and I am not going to repeat again.
Anybody who said they take inspiration from the above mentioned band, and turned it into NOISE – that’s angry music that I refuse to listen to.
Just because there is a niche group of people who listen to ‘heavy metal’, it doesn’t make you unique.
It just makes you even more arrogant and ignorant because you have no idea what is out there.
Some of them even refuse to acknowledge music legends like the Beatles, and various musicals that has been through the last 50 years.
I have met two people so far who doesn’t know the Beatles, and has no watched the Sound of Music, because it’s for “suckers”.

That’s my angry rant on “angry music”.

P.S. Happy N album release day
P.P.S. Happy 22nd anniversary Tokio
P.P.P.S. Happy 9th Anniversary Hey! Say! JUMP

What song has the highest playcount on your music player

Well it depends on which one.
Music doesn’t stop in my life.
Music plays on my phone whilst I wander in and out and at my desk in the office.
Music plays the moment I step foot into my home (both in the second city and home-home), unless I have people with me.
Then music don’t tend to play as much unless I am with Curly, which means some sort of background music gets played.

For my music app on my phone, the most played tune is Tokio, Kimi wo omou toki  – which roughly translate to “When Thinking of you”.
It dated back to 2000.
Prior to iPods and iPhones and mp3 players, it was on my MD player.
Yes – I went through one of those nightmares that you have to rip CDs onto an MD (I had the amazing Sony CMT-MD1).
It’s just one of those songs that I am always in the mood to listen to, and because it was one of the first Japanese songs that I wanted to actually learn the words to (and understood most of it), I had it on repeat for practically forever since I got my first iPhone so it has gotten the highest playcount on my music app on my phone. It was also one of the very few songs that I have never deleted off my playlist.

This is my preferred version because I have always loved Akanishi Jin’s voice and he did a beautiful cover version of this song (back in 2004), but this is the original vocal (Ignore what’s on the screen and just listen to the song)
You can make the judgement yourself.

And as for my iTunes on my computer, it’s Bubblewrap by Mcfly.
It’s one of the songs that got me through the dark times when I broke up with CLEB, it was the song that I fell in love with the moment I heard it.
The intro is very simple and the moment you launch into the first line “I wish I could bubble wrap my heart, in case I fall and break apart”, that’s how I feel a lot of the time, because I wear my heart on my sleeves. I really appreciate the lyrics, the melody as much as how the song just flows. It makes me feel safe when I listen to the song.
Recently I have it on repeat as well, because I was going to go to the Mcfly Anthology tour Night 2, which is the Wonderland and Motion in the Ocean album night.
Listening to it live – all the feels.
So emosh.
I just love the song.

Bubblewrap

Hashtag NOT IMPRESSED

It’s an understatement that I love my boys at Johnny’s.
Johnny’s in a massive dark hole.
Then once you’re in the dark hole, there are a lot of little holes that you fall into, and you separate yourself into those little holes and just fall deeper and deeper.

The first time I fell into this black hole is when I watched my first Japanese drama, Kindaichi Shounen No Jikenbo (Kindaichi Case File) with Domoto Tsuyoshi in it. And then it comes the love my life (Asian version, first generation) – Domoto Koichi in Ginrou Kaiki File (File of the Silver Wolf).
I am still very much listening to their songs and singing their songs, watching their dramas and TV shows (recently it’s been Kinki Kids no bun bun bun – absolutely hilarious).

That was the beginning of the end.
Falling head over heels with Johnny’s in a full time job.
Before that of course I have known about the others, like Tokio, SMAP and Shounen tai.
I am well aware of one Mr. Kondo Masahiro, but doesn’t know him well enough (though I actually know a few of his songs without knowing it’s him).

From then on, it was V6 (I used to religiously catch their show and drama and usually binge watch during the holiday whilst I was in boarding school during term times).

Arashi is another one that I fell deeply into the dark hole.
It all started with yet another Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, but it’s Matsumoto Jun this time round. Whilst Tsuyoshi is very similar looking as Kindaichi from the manga, I thought MatsuJun is a better actor without the sleaziness of Kindaichi (I like him better that way) and he is slightly darker. Arashi has some really good songs, and in the beginning I seriously thinks MastusJun is the love of my life (Asian version, second generation).
And he did Gokusen too of course. He was Gokusen 1, the original bad boy with a massive heart, who cares for his friend and would do anything for them… who is also massively verbally abusive.
In a good way.

After Arashi it was Tackey and Tsubasa.
Tackey. The love of my life, third generation, Asian Version. He has always been beautiful looking, absolutely gorgeous and when he did once, flew down from the top of the stage wearing white, I swear to god I thought he was an angel.
Not kidding.
Tsubasa on the other hand, I thought he was just like a big brother. He’s always funny and he doesn’t try too hard. He follows Tackey’s lead and I thought he’s just so nicest guy. Ever.
And we have the same birthday.

I kinda stopped after Tackey and Tsubasa (for a while) round about the time when News and KanJani 8 debut. There were too many people in the group (9 in News, 8 in JanJani 8 – obviously) and I was having difficulties trying to remember them all, especially so many of the juniors are not really ‘outstanding’. I recognise their faces (from watching Hadaka no Shounen – back then when they actually wear pyjamas and do stupid things) but have no idea what there name is. And also to certain extends I was pretty much sure that Toma would be debuting with Yamapi because they were (and still very much are) the perfect dynamic duo.

And no offence to KanJani 8 – the only people I knew where the few that appeared with Tackey when they were Juniors. And even then I don’t remember their names (much).

Now that there are only four of them in News, it is easier to keep track on. Also I really like Tegomass, because they are so adorable and they are just so so cute and sound so amazing, with their harmony and all.
When it comes to KanJani 8, I learnt their names eventually.

KAT-TUN debut in 2006, and they were the reason I got back into the Johnny’s hole.
Technically I never left, I just draw the line at Tackey and Tsubasa – there were more than enough stuff for me to get on with, whilst finishing my final year in uni.
I followed KAT-TUN before they debut.
When they were in Junior.
When Kamenishi and Akanishi were in Gokusen 2 (how can you not love them – they were the epitome of Bromance in Japan for a very long time) and Kamenashi in Nobuta (with Yuto – my baby Yuto) with Yamapi.
And the damn song “Kizuna” that makes me cry every freaking single time.
And Jin’s song “Care”, which very weirdly, resonance the lyrics for “Kizuna”.
Seriously. Google it.
It’s scary.
KAT-TUN were very much the leader of the Junior gang and I thought (personally) that they would have debuted a lot earlier.
I always have had a crush on Akanishi Jin.
He’s just got that sultry look and he resembles Tackey.
A lot.
Even Tackey himself say so.

(I miss those time when Tackey is PAPA to all the Juniors – he might have prank them over and over again and even Tsubasa joined in, but he was there to take care of them when it’s needed)

Kamenashi was the third generation of Kindaichi, unfortunately he was just too pretty and look too much like a girl to be Kindaichi.
He was good though, I still watched it and I still love it.
Akanishi was the love of my life, Asian version, fourth generation.
This year is the 10th anniversary of KAT-TUN.
And there are only half of them left.
Between News and KAT-TUN (Who did Dream Boy together and also Summary – the original Summary), there used to be 15 of them. Now there are 7.
They have lost more than half of the team.

When I started working, I started to put a lot more focus on Sakurai Sho, who is not just massively talented, he is also very intelligent.
He was the first person to graduate university and also the first person who raps in Johnny’s.
He is also completely useless when it comes to acrobatic moves, which is like a prerequisite for being in Johnny’s.
He is the current love of my life.
Asian version, fifth generation.

It’s weird, I know – going backwards.
But the problem is, the new groups are getting younger and younger.
There are currently 1 person in News that was born in the same year as me, the rest of them all younger.
KanJani 8 is slightly better (only one of them is younger at the moment because Uchi has left), but they have a smaller pool and they tend to stay in Junior for a very long time in Kansai branch of Johnny’s.
Back when KAT-TUN is six people, three of them are younger than me, Akanishi was the same age as me and the other two are older. By nearly nothing (well – a year).

So when Hey! Say! 7 was announced and eventually Hey! Say! Jump debut, I felt like a proud older sister that just want to protect them.
Every single one of them.
Even they are all taller than me.
Even Chinen, who only stands at 159cm.
And watching Takaki Yuya in Gokusen 3, looking stupidly like Akanshi, still makes my heart bleed.

My biggest problem is, I never like NYC, even though two thirds of them is Hey! Say! Seven. Nakayama Yuma just never did it for me. Yamada and Chinen belong to Hey! Say! Jump. Even they say so themselves. I am also completely bypassing Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone and A.B.C-Z because Kis-My-Ft2 does not have any impact on me either, and Tamamori Yuta – I just want to punch his face every time I sees him (think it’s because of that stupidly smug face from Gokusen the movie). Same issue with Nakajima Kenji. Comparing this Nakajima to the other Nakajima (Yuto), Yuto is like an angel and he’s like a normal human being. A very annoying one for that matter. He tries to be sultry and sexy but things like that should come naturally.
Look at Akanishi. Look at Yamada.
And look at the completely useless Takaki Yuya.
He doesn’t even have to try because he was born that way.

(Admittedly the moment he opens his mouth it’s a different story – whilst Dai-chan doesn’t age physically and looks like part of Hey! Say! Seven more than Yuto does, Yuya’s mental age has also stopped age and is roughly the same as Hey! Say! Seven)

And my baby Yamada, the fourth generation of Kindaichi (from Kamenashi onward they have completely lost what Kindaichi actually looks like – on the other hand Yama-chan has a pony-tail that resembles Kindaichi’s) who can act and also bring out the naughty side of Kindaichi without sounding and looking sleazy. He is also the Kindaichi that shows the most emotion.

Johnny’s West.
I know Nakama Junta and Kiriyama Akito from Gokusen 3 (The only Gokusen that didn’t really bring any of the Johnny’s to the top but Miura Haruma, who is another beautiful human being that I adore).
And Kotaki Nozomu, my little Non-chan who is a model in Fine Boys with my baby Yuto (Non-chan and Yuto both stands at nearly 6 foot and that’s REALLY tall for Japanese guys).

Anyways, so back to yesterday night, which is what I was meant to write about of course, but without the background of my love for Johnny’s it’s quite difficult to understand why I was not impressed last night.

Yesterday night is the second chapter of Sakurai Sho no janizu-gun VS Ariyoshi Hiroiki no geinin-gun (Sho Sakurai of Johnny’s Army VS Hiroyuki Ariyoshi performer army).
They called it the Zeus Battle.
There are six different battles and each battle is different (very different).
The first chapter was back last year and though I enjoy it very much last year, I am angry with the result this year.
It doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.
I really did. I am just not impressed with the scoring system.

Keito joined this time round, making a full team from Hey! Say! Jump.
Kamenashi is still AWOL, and Non-chan couldn’t make it.

The first battle (3 rounds) has 3 members from each team standing on a pole to avoid being knocked over a bar that is attached to a machine that turns. The bar will go up and down so depending on where it will hit you, you either duck of jump over it.
The first round was Sakurai, Takaki and Hamada.
The lost the first round even though they had 3 man standing.
The fact that Sakurai just got sweep off for no reason at all really made me laugh.
The second round was Koyama, Kamiyama and Shigeoka.
They won that round with 3 men standing.
The last round was Yuto, Ueda and Chinen.
They won.
It was a clean one and it was three men standing too.

(I’d like to point out my Baby Yuto did this impressive massive jump and landed beautifully back on the pole and he was PRAISED by everybody – my geeky ikemen talented not-so-little little nugget)

Johnny’s won this battle.

Then the Johnny’s ate a massive Tuna feast.
It was beautiful (Also watching Dai-chan scoffing down sushi is always ALWAYS entertaining).
Second battle was skipping rope.
12 people have to jump at one time and who ever jumps the most wins.
There are 3 rounds.
The Performer team did 46 jumps, 42 jumps and 60 jumps respectively.
They swapped 3 members after the first round.
Johnny’s did 57, 60 and 46 (the last one they swapped out Nakamaru and put in Ueda).

They called that a draw.

Battle 3 is archery.
Now.
This is one of those where I have been worried about when I saw the advert for it.
I saw a clip of Tegoshi and Yuto and I knew Yuto would be fine.
Yuto looks the part and also he has proven himself to master the art of archery twice before.
Once in Yan Yan Jump (when he was like… little) and another time when they did JUMParty in Hokkaido.
When I saw the line up, I knew they were going to lose.
Dai-chan was the first one, who talked his way through the whole thing.
He got 200 points.
Kato, my talented beautiful Kato (Who has written a book a year since 2012) only managed 100 points, but he did say it’s a beautiful sport and it’s only for aristocrats and beautiful looking people (meaning that the performers aren’t great looking compared to Johnny’s – and I totally agree with that).
Then it was Nakama, who got 200.
Yuto stepped in and got 500 points (and looking like a beautiful human being too of course).
Inoo-chan was the penultimate one, and Sakurai actually asked him if he was awake.
He got 300 points (Which is quite shocking to be honest, counting he was absolutely useless in JUMParty and he did look as if he was half asleep).
Tegoshi, being the last one, also got 500.

The performer team did really well, and I give them that – but they only got 100 points more than Johnny’s. And the fact that they were really arrogant at the beginning, I thought they’d have done better.

The fourth battle is wrestling (6 rounds), and this is the one that opened the game last time. Johnny lost really badly last time, counting only Ueda and Yuto won their battle.
This time they have put a time limit on it, so if you don’t beat the other person in 5 minutes, it is count as a draw (last time Takaki’s match went on for way too long and you can tell the poor baby was getting tired).
Of course, this is also the one that people look forward to the most.
I mean, what’s not to like when you can see them half naked and rolling around in sand and all sweaty?
First round was Yuto, who K.O.’ed the other guy so fast you didn’t even have time to watch (like the first time).
Hikaru managed a win but Yamada only managed to draw. Tegoshi managed a win too (his body was all red at the end), Ueda unfortunately only managed a draw and poor Massu is the only one that lost.

The fifth battle is penalty Kick, and I knew this one they would lost too, I just didn’t realise they were going to lost so badly.
Keito missed.
Sakurai missed.
Tegoshi missed.
Shigeoka is the only one that managed a goal.
Nakamaru missed (he had the golden ball too – which is double point).

For the last battle, it’s like tight rope but only it’s on a rounded tube and you have to first go up a slanty bit and get to the cushion in the middle (two tubes wide).
The second part is an extension out (only one tube wide) and then gets yourself onto the spinny bit (one tube wide).
No one made it.
Everybody only made it to the end of the extension part. The moment they tried to get onto the spinny bit, they fall.

They reveal the score at the end.

150 vs. 290.

Here’s the breakdown:
Battle 1
Sakurai: 60
Ariyoshi: 30

Battle 2
Sakurai: 0
Ariyoshi: 0

Battle 3
Sakurai: 0
Ariyoshi: 110

Battle 4
Sakurai: 90
Ariyoshi: 30

Battle 5
Sakurai: 0
Ariyoshi: 120

Battle 6
Sakurai: 0
Ariyoshi: 0

That was when I got really angry.

Battle 1, Johnny’s won 2 games out of the 3, I have no objection on that points.

Battle 2, they only take the highest score out of the three, which I don’t think is fair. Since they both score 60, I think they should have taken the next highest score. If not, take the average of the other two score.

Battle 3, because everything is being marked at 30 points, I don’t understand how they get 110 at archery. That score is forever going to be a mystery to me (like the QI scoring).

Battle 4, the scoring is similar to the first battle and again, I don’t have anything against this scoring.

Battle 5, surely Johnny’s should get 30 points for the one goal that they score? Why aren’t they getting that? Because Ariyoshi’s team made 4 goals and they got 120 points. That’s not right.

Batlle 6, Ditto. No one made it.

There’s something wrong with the scoring system and from what I can see on Twitter, everybody is upset about that, and I am not the only one.
It does look like there will be a chapter 3 though.
So I am definitely looking forward to that (when or if it happens), and hopefully Non-chan and Kamenashi will be joining this time.
And also bring in the rest of Arashi.

Johnny’s team only had 20 people.
Ariyoshi has 24.
How is that fair?