Thursday, September 25, 2014

Dareka no Tame ni 24092014: Clash of the Silent Aces

"Let your game speak" - Michael Jordan

Holla.

I'm back for one final review before taking a month break from JKT48 Theater and Activities haha. I will still be monitoring news around them when I can but I won't be around for Theater shows, Gingham Check Handshake (maybe even Kokoro no Placard's should JOT decides to hold the event in October, though that seems unlikely). Therefore, this blog maybe full of dust for the next month because the rest of the members of the Light team are just too lazy to maintain this blog hihihi.

Either way, the quote at the top is a perfect fit for the two members that I will be reviewing after they had battled in the latest Dareka no Tame ni show (24092014)

The first, of course, Her Majesty, Jessica Veranda. It goes without saying how much I admire her performance despite the fact she may not be the best joker in team J and (recently) becomes bullying material for her teammates. haha

The second, the rising star of trainee who is quickly gaining attention for her amazing streak performances in difficult songs, Shani Indira Natio. During MCs she never jump in like some of the joker JKT has (probably why she gets the nickname as the "Jaga Image" girl), but during performances, she can easily outshine anyone.

From the brief descriptions above, it is up for debate that these two share the same trait. They don't talk much, but let their performance do the talking.

In this show, Shani, as expected, cannot match Veranda in terms of dance. She did do a good job after Natsu ga Icchatta (as she did in her DnT shonichi), so we may say she is a slow starter, meaning it takes time for her to get hot and .

That being said, when we talk about getting the feel of the song, both of them displays a high level performance throughout the entire selist.

For example, in Shinkirou, which has an up and down emotion, Veranda nailed the expression roller coaster perfectly. As for Shani, she finally learned the true feel of Rider and actually became the best performer of Rider despite Ghaida, Sendy, and Dena being there.

Overall though, Veranda still hold the edge over Shani because her dance is much more attractive. However, if Shani can be a little more explosive, she can match Veranda. Also, she can use her "Jaimness" to her advantage because her style suits DnT's song pretty well.

Well, that is it for my final review. If this is to be my last DnT, I am Happy to know that I had witness Veranda-Shani going at it one on one. Also, I want to thank both of them for giving my possibly last DnT as it is nearing Senshuuraku, one of the best DnT so far.

Thank you, Shani and Veranda. See you when I get back

-Radit-

PS: Manda also performed but I think she was holding back. Maybe she really needed Tya to be the performer I know. haha

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Dareka no Tame ni 18092014 19:00 : @veJKT48 duels @K_TyaJKT48

Holla!

I am back with another Team J 2nd Stage review. This time, the focus is on the duel between Queen of the Sky: Jessica Veranda and Goddess of Fire: Triarona Kusuma. This would likely be a short review lol.

For the first time ever, the ace of team J was able to share the Dareka no Tame ni stage with one of the top performing Trainee. I've been waiting for this duel since the debut of Tya in Dareka no Tame ni 09092014. I was so hyped when I know Tya would perform today. After that 9-9 performance which Tya was able to 'fill' the hole left by Veranda, I was wondering how she would do if they were at the same stage.

Jessica Veranda vs. Triarona Kusuma
Of course, being the ace of Team J today, Veranda didn't just bow down despite not having the support she usually gets (Kinal and Melody did not perform). It was an exciting battle. Neither may not know they were actually fighting for the audience's attention. hahahaha.

The battle itself pretty much happened in every song with the peaks happening during Warning and Tsuki no Katachi. Veranda, with her usual calm and smooth moves was able to, in my eyes, prevail and get the audience to focus on her despite Tya's explosiveness and energy. Maybe experience came into play here as Veranda knows the setlist better. I was focused on her the entire time in Tsuki no Katachi even though the blue seats were so far away from Veranda's blocking in that song. It was a good fight from Tya, but Veranda still came out on top.

Too bad both of them got wasted during the main part and declined during the encore. Veranda is usually good at managing her stamina, but not today, she looks exhausted at the end. Tya, with the way she dances, I kinda expect she would ran out of gas before the end. Still good, but both of them got owned by Shani during Namida uri no Shojo.

Extra note: today's performance is kinda overshadowed by the arrival of cowcow at the end. Pretty funny to note that the applause for cowcow is better than for the members lol

Thanks for reading this short rant. Until next time!

-Radit-

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

How @K_TyaJKT48 and co. Dominated Dareka no Tame ni 090914 19:00

Hello! Finally we're back to our original post of JKT48. This time, -Radit- had the honor of doing a review of Team J's Dareka no Tame ni setlist which features 5 Trainees from the 3rd generation. The five trainees are Sisca (2nd appearance), Tya, Manda, Shani, and Desy (all four had their 1st appearance today). Because of one thing and another, this show does not feature the three aces of team J and the top 3 of JKT48 (Melody, Haruka, and Veranda). Despite that, Team J should have no problem dominating the setlist because of their experience, right?

WRONG!

Having already watched how team J perform without their three aces on April 17th 2014, I already know what to expect. A very good Adyth and Shinkirou, but nothing else. I've blogged that review in "Why @veJKT48 is the true soul of Team J". Go ahead and read that if you're curious. For those who are tl;dr, here's the extract of that article:

For one thing, I expected the problem would be on Shinkirou and Koike. That wasn't the case though. The problem was on other songs, especially Warning, Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru, Natsu ga Ichatta.

For this particular show, Shinkirou was performed by Rica and Sendy who already have the 'chemistry', so this Shinkirou was beautiful in its own way. As for Koike, Sendy again became the Tsundere girl that she is and made the monologue so funny that I cannot stop laughing, so Adyth was not really an issue.

I noted from M01 that Dhike is not herself, kinda spaced out and not really engaged in the performance. So, this review may be a little harsh because team J was 3 member short because Jeje and Dena were also not feeling well.

The difference in this show and the April 17th show was the trainees. back then, Novinta, Saktia, Sisil, Shafa, and Dena were really just performing as substitutes and did not really try to outperform team J. Saktia had the potential as the spark of the performance, but she did not really try to burn the audience. As a result, the show was not really that satisfactory. It just didn't feel like they tried, or maybe they were just comfortable serving as backups. I don't know. It just did not feel as exciting as it should be

This time, however, the Trainees were more daring (or should I say, really impolite to team J hahaha) and they perform to the fullest. Maybe they realize that this was a great chance to show their seniors and the fans of their abilities. Several things to note

1. In the first article I mentioned about no one on the April 17th performance was able to replace the hole that Veranda left. In the 9-9 performance, Tya, assisted by Manda, was able to do that. She created 'the spark'. It's a different from Veranda's calm, but intense spark. Hers was very explosive and burning. Just like her Jikoshokai which implicates that she was the goddess of Fire. I would love to see her Duel Veranda who is the master of the wind (Miss Badai). In Warning, or in Tsuki no Katachi. hahaha

2. Desy and Sisca both showed their amazing MC skills. Granted their performance were not really that dazzling as Tya and Manda, but their MC were successful. I even read one of the audience's tweet about how the Trainee's MC (after Rider) were better than Team J's

3. Shani, the very "Jaga Image" girl. She was rather nervous in the first three song, but since Natsu ga Icchatta, she was on such a groove, performed beautifully, and eventually reached her peak in the very last song, Namida Uri No Shojou. Given this song is a little about 'galau' and sadness, she utilizes the skill she learned from her unit in Pajama Drive, Temodemo no Namida, which has similar feel to Namida Uri no Shojou.

4. All trainees seems to be full of energy while team J looks wasted. They did have a week full of nothing so that is kinda of an unfair advantage considering team J just got done with Pajama Drive Week. Also, Trainees were built to perform Pajama Drive which is, in my opinion, the most tiring setlist JKT48 has ever perform.

Even though the unit the trainee's perform is the easiest unit, still kudos to them because they have short time to learn the unit and the blocking for other songs. I mean, learning Tsukimisou and Warning is not exactly easy because everyone has its own moves and blocking. It's not like learning songs in Pajama Drive which some blocking has the same moves.

Overall, the trainees are quite good in performing Dareka no Tame ni. If there is one thing to be addressed is the fact that they have yet to embrace the true feel of Rider (the feel of losing someone important as opposed to the feel they perform today, the feeling of seeing someone left on a journey). If they can manage that, they may, no, they WILL outperform the original Riders.

To conclude, I am a little disappointed that they were all stacked up to Rider. Tya and Manda would do well in Bird and Shani would shine in Shinkirou. Maybe next time. Maybe Andela and Elaine would get a chance to perform. Also, I like how JOT selects members that suits well with the dark theme of Dareka no Tame ni.

As usual, you can leave a comment, rebuttal, argument down below or mention us Directly @Light_Unit or even directly to @Radityo_Utomo. Feel free to attack because this article is a direct sarcasm on how team J couldn't control their own setlist :)

-radit-