KAT-TUN's Break The Records Live is amazing!!!!

For Asian Tours, I would also definitely say, watch a KAT-TUN concert. Of course, I do enjoy it because of the music, but the stages are grand. Start with Queen of pirates or Kaizokuban (the one Tom Punks mentioned) They all have a pirate theme in common.

I love you for this. I'm a Take That Fan, I've seen them live as a teenager 3 times and later when they came back in 2007. They are brilliant live. Even the older shows. I saw 2 dates of the Nobody Else Tour 1995 in Londons Earls Court, still one of my favourite concerts ever. They mostly tour stadiums in the UK nowadays. It IS a great entertaining watch and I would recommend it to anyone, but I know that there are people who don't feel that kind of thing, which is a shame really.

I'm watching KAT-TUN's Break the Rules tour now and wow, it really is amazing. And I'm not even really a Kat-tun fan! Every song basically has at least one wow moment. I would say start with Break the Rules if you are going to watch a Kat-tun concert for the first time. I can't believe it if Kamenashi actually did that fall - you could not pay me enough money to do that, lol.

Whoa, man, I really don't like Johnny's but I looked at that Kat-tun concert and HOLY DAMN it is crazy awesome.

^ I know right. I just finished it and its probably one of the best concerts I have seen and I don't really care about Kat-tun. lol. All Johnny's concerts are extremely high level though, not just kat-tun but this one in particular was one of the best I think.

Yes, KAT-TUN concerts are grand. The Concert, people are raving about is called Break the Records, like the corresponding album. ;) It's for breaking the record of having the most concerts in Tokyo Dome (10, 8 consecutive) and KAT-TUN themselves were very involved in the production. They had a planet theme, and every night another member was responsible. Imagine what fun it is to watch such a concert, if you actually like the band. (Like I do with KAT-TUN) They were touring Domes, even before debut, so they got a lot of practice.

I would slowly build it up and watch the concerts in chronological order, though. Much more fun!

About Yumi Matsutoya concerts: I've never seen torrents for them but, a few months ago, someone uploaded them all to Youtube in HQ. Unfortunately, it was already deleted but you can still find 1 or 2 performances there (search for her name in Japanese + Shangrila). As I said, I had high expectations and was sorely disappointed.

Right? I wasn't a fan of them back in the 90s and since I'm kind of prejudiced against boybands, I was like "I can't believe a washed-up boyband from the early 90s reunited and became the best-selling musical act in the UK. What a shame!". And then I watched their concert DVD and was like "uh, duh, now I totally get it". After this, I became a HUGE fanatic, haha. I've seen pretty much all the big acts in concerts (western and Asian), either on DVD or live, and no one can compare to them, they're really AMAZING. And the best part is that, at this point, they're not a "boyband" anymore, they're so big and so respected they transcended this label. Good for them (and it's really neat they don't deny their past and keep the choreography from Pray, haha). I recommend their concerts to anyone who's a fan of huge concerts.

Huge thanks for your suggestions! I know what I should watch now.:D

I'm also watching KAT-TUN Break the Records now and it is pretty impressive (but not the most impressive I've seen, honestly) but OH MY EFFING GOD, I'm almost overdosing on the amount of HIDEOUS haircuts, clothes and choreographies, it's freaking horrible (and did one of them just proudly showed his painted nails? *barf*). They make pretty much anyone look classy in comparison (and I know Johnny's aren't exactly well-known by their fine taste but this is something else). But yes, very nice concert, lots of very eye-catching props and effects, you won't be bored at all (and their music is catchy).

By the way, pirate theme is quite popular in the Jpop world, huh? In the last few years, Yumi Matsutoya, SMAP, Ayumi Hamasaki, Koda Kumi and KAT-TUN all had concerts with this theme.

You could watch Tohoshinki's The Secret Code at Tokyo Dome, or their MIROTIC Tour. The latter would be a little better imo... ^^

Nothing much goes on, but the boys' singing and dancing make up for everything. I think you should check out BEST FICTION tour by Namie Amuro as well... I thought that was pretty awesome

In my humble opinion, Take That were never in that "pretty face-no talent" category Yes, they started out as a boyband aimed at gay guys in the early 90s. But they always had something special in them, talent and a chemistry between them that compares to none. That's why people go crazy over them still. They are not the greatest singers (except for Gary), but they just know how to work it. They did great shows back then and they do it now. After being dead for 10 years. And they don't need Robbie Williams for it. :D The Boyband days are long over for them, it's great to see all kinds of people at their concerts not only women around 30.

Yes, I don't know why they all like Pirates so much. Maybe Pirates of the Caribbean was a huge success in Japan? About the Johnnys: I always thought Johnnys costumes are ridiculous. They are visually not pleasing at all. It's tacky, yes. But if you see them wearing that stuff all the time you get used to it, and suddenly you don't really see it anymore. Same with the hundreds of juniors (the little backdancers) and strange dances they sometimes perform. To be fair, I don't think they choose the costumes. I mean, who would?

^ I also sometimes think that they wear those costumes because the venues they perform in are gargantian size. You need something eye catching if anyone is going to hope to see you. I actually thought the Break the Records costumes were some of the most toned down I've seen though.

Yes, I've seen a few other Johnny's concert and they were all very WTF?! in the wardrobe department. But the thing with KAT-TUN is that, in my opinion, they go EVEN further in the tackiness, which is saying a lot considering how the rest of the boybands dress. In the rest of the show, it actually gets less annoying but the first outfit... yes, I know popstars are supposed to dress flashy and out of ordinary but I could barely focus on anything besides how UGLY they looked. But despite that the show IS really impressive. Particularly, I wasn't very impressed by KAT-TUN themselves (but I can understand why people like them, they do have catchy songs) but the props and effects were very very cool.

And I think the pirate trend was kickstarted by Yumi Matsutoya. Back in 2002, she did the concert Shangrila II and it had a HUGE ship on the stage (I think Koda Kumi's Black Cherry tour was HEAVILY influenced by the stage design and set-up of this tour since there were MANY similarities). I think it was the first time the theme was used. Then SMAP, KAT-TUN and pretty much every other Jpop act there is...

Yes, ever since day 1 they had something that settled them apart: they (well, Gary) wrote their own songs, which means they were responsable for their own hits. That's extremely rare. And it's not like Gary wrote the song with a bunch of other songwriters, he did it himself. I really admire them for it.

OK, since this off-topic I will put the rest of my thoughts into SPOILER tags, haha.

Good Point. That's probably the reason. but now that I think about it they also wear them on TV. Mmmhhh....maybe Johnny just likes it colourful. I think the more flashy costumes don't fit KAT-TUN's image, so Johnny makes them wear the toned down versions and safes the colours for HeySayJump or so. haha.

@andre2907

Omggg, I just watched KAT-TUN's Break The Records concert, and parts of it were AMAZING. Overall I think I liked Real Face live more, but some parts of Break The Records were like the coolest thing I'd ever seen, especially Kame's solo when he (aka his stunt double) falls 500 feet and then Kame comes back and floats through the air and water and fireworks and the scrolls and everythingcrap. <333 But the members themselves were a lot more boring in Break The Records. I'm used to them just... running around and sort of twirling around at the very least, but they mostly just stood there this time. :/

Well... if what you want are huge props, elevators, screens, lighting and effects yeah, you should try artists and bands like KAT-TUN, Koda Kumi, etc.... Yet I personally find their shows not only tacky in costumes and themes, but also vocally poor, predictively choreographed and way too robotic/rehearsed. I mean, you won't find the power of Ayu's ballads, the emotion of her encores, nor the interaction of band, dancers and audience alike

^ lol... Nowadays I'd say that Ayu's concerts are MUCH worse than KAT-TUN's in terms of costume tackiness, bad vocals, and being over-rehearsed. Sure they aren't like all boohoo sad when they're crying like Ayu might be, but I'd rather they didn't act like that than WAY too dramatically fake it like Ayu does nowadays. And the members of KAT-TUN actually do interact with each other quite nicely in their shows, they have a lot of jokes, and interact with the band and dancers a bit too (and unlike Ayu, the emphasis is ALL on the members of the group. They don't get overshadowed by their dancers and band). And KAT-TUN's concerts have like 10x as many cool effects as Ayu's have.

And saying the audience interacts less with KAT-TUN is just silly, since KAT-TUN's audience is just as big and probably a lot bigger, and they get MUCH closer to the audience than Ayu does.

I agree with both: I do think Ayu HAD the most interesting and involving concerts in Jpop. Better than Johnny's, Koda Kumi, MISIA, etc. But recently, she just repeats herself year after year and... yeah... *yawn*

I've seen a few Johnny's concerts and I was not very entertained by most of them (they're TOO LONG) but KAT-TUN concert really did impress me, more so than the last few tours than Ayu did. But then again, what impressed me was not THEM but all of the props. I didn't find them particularly good at anything, honestly...

@Mai28Go
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they cut out a lot from KAT-TUN's Break the Records concert though. UGHHHH, LOL. especially the member corners (though...it's understandable since they changed the tracklist for that section everyday).

i think for the member-audience interaction, it's hard to interact with them since they're at Tokyo Dome. but they did do an Arena leg for Break The Records Tour and many fan-reports i've read said it was better because of the fan interaction and their x-rated MCs that never ever make it on DVD, sadly.

I would say actually that Johnny's concerts have some of the most fan interaction I have seen. Especially considering the size of the venues. It really seems a lot of money goes from JE into these concerts so that even if you are at the back of the Dome or stadium you will still have some opportunities to see the guys close.