Four years since the beginning of “DREAM IsLAND 2020→2025 ~From Our Beloved City~” performed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 at Osaka’s Expo ’70 Commemorative Park, the yearly show continues with KAMIGATA BOYZ. SUPER EIGHT, WEST., Naniwa Danshi, Ae! group, along with a total of 80 STARTO Juniors from Kansai region joined forces to present this year’s “KAMIGATA BOYZ Dream IsLAND 2024” consisting of 2 live shows and an online live stream.
Summer is definitely incomplete without Dream IsLAND. This year features the Kansai debuted groups guised under the name KAMIGATA BOYZ releasing two singles with “Musekinin Eejanaika LOVE“ (無責任でええじゃないかLOVE) and “Sekai wo Akaruku Terashimashou” (世界を明るく照らしましょう).
Graced with the chance of watching the last live show, the stage was enormous covering the whole stadium. The VCR started playing with SUPER EIGHT’s Tadayoshi Ohkura calling and talking about an invitation which each group from the recently debuted—Ae! group—to the most senior group—SUPER EIGHT. Special appearances from former Kansai juniors King & Prince’s Ren Nagase and Snow Man’s Koji Mukai also made the whole stadium excited for the beginning of the show.
Despite the pouring rain earlier before the show, the rain miraculously stopped just as the boys came out with their opening single “Musekini Eejanaika LOVE“ (無責任でええじゃないかLOVE).
Naniwa Danshi’s Shunsuke “Mitchy” Michieda and WEST.‘s Kotaki Nozomu come up opening the song with SUPER EIGHT’s Shingo “Hina” Murakami jumping out on the stage making the whole stadium scream. The rest of the groups came out as the cover was removed, making it a good start.
Fans couldn’t help but also dance and scream to this song not only capturing the excitement for the boys but the anticipation for the whole 3-hour concert. Adlibs were also thrown during the gag segment of the show by SUPER EIGHT’s Ryuhei Maruyama, Naniwa Danshi’s Joichiro Fujiwara and Kazuya Ohashi, and WEST.‘s Takahiro “Hama-chan” Hamada.
Juniors filled the whole stadium standing at the extended pathways. It ends with SUPER EIGHT Tadayoshi‘s line: “You guys are funny,” with a side comment by Naniwa Danshi’s Joichiro, “Thank you Ohkura-kun“.
The show continues as KAMIGATA BOYZ sings Naniwa Danshi’s “Naniwa Lucky Boy!!” (なにわLucky Boy!!) followed by WEST.’s “Zundoko Paradise” (ズンドコパラダイス) and SUPER EIGHT’s “Maemuki Scream” (前向きスクリーム). SUPER EIGHT’s Ryuhei Maruyama does an adlib, catching Hina off guard and causing him to laugh during his line.
The first set ends with the boys lining up and greeting the audience as KAMIGATA BOYZ. During the ment, Naniwa Danshi’s Joichiro showcases that the concert goods were decided by their very own Ryusei “Ryuche” Onishi. As the rain subsides, WEST.’s Daiki Shigeoka makes a happy scream against the rain. The group continues to hype the crowd as they the introduced Ae! group with their debut single “《A》BEGINNING“.
Ae! group hypes up their audience with a fiery performance of their debut single. Topped by their amazing dance break and their passion coming out of the stadium’s screen you could definitely say they’re a group worth looking out for.
Following their set with their member introduction song “Bokura Ae! group tte Iimasu nen” (僕ら Aぇ! groupって言いますねん). Fans also screams their name excitedly as a call-and-response to the song.
Highlight of it is Ae! group‘s Masaya Sano starting the Yoshinori Fever in a higher pitch making everyone else in the group follow.
Following a high-tension performance by Ae! group, WEST. starts their set with “Shouko” (証拠) making everyone automatically raise their hands at the beginning of the song.
A heart-warming moment comes in when the group lets the fans sing the chorus filling the whole stadium with lullaby-like voices. After the first song, a skit suddenly comes up with WEST.’s Daiki screaming around and WEST.’s Junta Nakama “fainted“.
The group asksfor everyone’s participation by shouting “Ei! Ei! Oh!” to “revive” Junta, successfully starting the next song “Chou kitto Daijoubu“ (超きっと大丈夫). Truly, they have expressed their emotions through their songs reminding fans that working hard is enough proof that you’re doing well and that everything will be alright.
In true Kansai summer spirit, they kicked off the Summer Medley with “Ho! Summer” (Ho! サマー) by Tackey & Tsubasa blasting off water from the stage and water guns as WEST. and SUPER EIGHT’s carts passed through the audience. With a lot of things happening with singing, dancing, and looking at all the fans, SUPER EIGHT’s Ryuhei really put all his energy and efforts into looking at all the uchiwas he can read and giving off fantastic fan service.
Not only did he just wave and smile, but he also gave hearts and flying kisses to everyone he could to show off. You can understand why everyone gets attracted by his charms “Jetto kousuta romansu” (ジェットコースター・ロマンス) by Kinki Kids and “Maji SUNSHINE” (真剣SUNSHINE) by Hey! Say! JUMP with some of the boys playing around the other stage.
The spotlight was passed to the juniors as they sang King & Prince’s “OH! Summer KING“ (OH! サマーKING) with Lil Kansai’s Takuya Nishimura starting it off making all the fans be at awe with his visuals.
Ae! group follows up with SMAP’s “BANG! BANG! Bakansu” with Boys be back dancing. Naniwa Danshi’s Mitchy started strong with Hey! Say! JUMP’s “Fanfare!” (ファンファーレ!) backed by Lil Kansai. WEST. calms down the audience with the ballad “Koi wo Shiranai Kimi e” (恋を知らない君へ) by NEWS serenading everyone.
SUPER EIGHT’s Hina started “Sexy Summer ni yuki ga furu” (Sexy Summerに雪が降る) by timlesz sounded constipated as a joke, adding a “gag” line from each member before the end of the song.
Naniwa Danshi and Ae! group makes a collab with “Soda Pop Love” by Naniwa Danshi as it’s their turn for the carts passing by the audience. WEST. continues with their own song “Ole Ole Carnival” walking around the stadium and waving at fans.
Naniwa Danshi’s Daigo Nishihata on his cart feels the song by rubbing his chest jokingly and going back to waving at fans with a bright smile. SUPER EIGHT comes out of the stage for their song “Tsumi to Natsu” (罪と夏). Everyone was having a good time by dancing and jamming with the song, the stadium resonated with KAMIGATA BOYZ and the Juniors energy. One blast of the water marks the end of the summer medley and Naniwa Danshi and Ae! group stands alone on stage.
“Silhouette” holds a special place in both of the group’s hearts as its a song they sang during their Junior days as Naniwa Danshi’s Daigo explained. A mix of nostalgia and proud feeling could be felt as both groups have reached their goals of debuting although they still have a long way to go. WEST. comes out continuing the second verse and joining both groups as they end the song.
SUPER EIGHT’s “Osaka Romanesque” (大阪ロマネスク) continues the set as everyone goes to their raised platform moving closer to fans from the higher seats. The song was followed by the iconic “Bang! Bang! Bang!” making everyone once again dance in excitement for the song. Despite the boys running around, especially WEST.’s Akito Kiriyama, their vocals are still undeniably stable and amazing.
The boys greet the fans again as KAMIGATA BOYZ and try to rest as the ment begins. The fans listen intently as the boys bicker, a rare version of Ae! group‘s Seiya Suezawa comes out as he becomes more kouhai-like as his senior plays around with him.
Despite the chaos that most of the group brings, Naniwa Danshi watches on the sidelines (aside from their very own Joichiro who interacts the most with the seniors). Just like the fans sitting, they just watch the chaos in front of them unfold. Unknowingly, Naniwa Danshi’s 18L (Micchi, Kyohei Takahashi, and Kento Nagao) lines up perfectly by height making it an adorable observation.
In the midst of the ment, WEST.’s Kotaki halts the segment with “I wanted to do something” signaling the fans as they greeted SUPER EIGHT as they celebrate their 20th debut anniversary. AmBitious members Leo Nagaoka, Takeyuki Mayumi, and Ichita Inoue come in with the cake, and Ae! group members with the flowers. In a teasing manner, SUPER EIGHT’s You Yokohama tried his best to avoid Ae! group‘s Ken “Kojiken” Kojima from giving him the flowers. A photo time with KAMIGATA members and the fans was done. The remaining members of AmBitious gathered the bouquets to put backstage.
SUPER EIGHT were asked to make an individual speech in which You jokingly said “…then let’s start with Mitchy [Naniwa Danshi‘]” catching everyone off guard with a response from Mitchy, “Eh, why?” and jokingly started to make a speech while his fellow members stop him.
Their heartfelt speeches started with Tadayoshi followed by his fellow member Shota Yasuda and back to You.
In You‘s speech, he started off by sharing what he and Ryuhei had talked about a day before. “I’ll definitely make a lot of fanservice,” Ryuhei said to You in their conversation. Additionally stating that he would not be defeated by their juniors who give a lot of fan service to their fans. The member in question quickly hid shyly as he was exposed. After You‘s speech, it was followed by Hina and Ryuhei with him doing a 20th year anniversary gag. SUPER EIGHT then went on stand-by for their next performance.
WEST. and Ae! group took the stage and talked amongst themselves as to how it was a historic moment seeing their senior Ryuhei do the 20th-anniversary gag wanting to follow suit and making their own gag with mostly Hama-chan over-extending his joke.
The MC ended with Naniwa Danshi taking the stage with their debut song “UBU Love” (初心LOVE) in a white costume. They give off pure and fresh visuals while singing about the doki-doki [heart-fluttering] feeling of first love. Mitchy whispered, “Hey! It’s right now” making all the fans scream.
An immediate switch happened from the fluffy Naniwa Danshi to a cool and mature vibe as they performed their song “Live in the Moment“. Kazuya and Ryuche living up to expectations. Despite the group not having official positions such as main dancers, both members have been known as exceptional dancers. It was no surprise that they were absolutely owning the whole performance with their dance skills as it was a heavy dance performance. It ended with a heavy breath being heard all around, proof that the group did not joke around with their live performances.
SUPER EIGHT comes out as a band with their “LIFE〜目の前の向こうへ〜” followed by ”“超”勝手に仕上がれ“. Fans equally screamed loudly at their performance especially when most of the members (aside from Tadayoshi being with his drums) ran with their instruments around the stadium. Energetically answering and singing back, giving the same energy as the group performs their songs.
This song’s energy both from the group and the fans is enough to have a full-on flashback of how enjoyable the whole concert was whenever this song plays on Spotify.
Kansai Junior performed “Naniwa Ittoushou,” making sure everyone paid attention to them in their very short performance.
Lil Kansai wearing a very cute and fluffy orange costume, with member Fuga Onishi wearing a fluffy cat-like coat making all of the junior fans squeal “kawaii”.
AmBitious wearing their iconic member colored uniform and Boys be wearing their gold prince uniform.
In this performance also debuts AmBitious newest member Itsuki Yamanaka’s gold member color costume making it a very special performance too.
Running in full energy going back to the main stage. The performance is near its end when the Juniors bow at each side of the stage. AmBitious‘ Taro Yoshikawa caught everyone’s attention when he bows in a very funny manner still his head looking straight at the camera. Mayumi ends the performance by saying, “This has been Kansai Junior” and introducing the next segment: Shuffle Corner.
After a few years, the SUPER ROCKET Unit makes their comeback through the unit shuffle. Naniwa Danshi’s Ryuche, Kyohei, Kento, and Mitchy; alongside with Ae! group’s Masaya with Lil Kansai back dancing for them.
Another unit favorite is Naniwa Danshi’s Daigo, Joichiro, and Kazuya with Ae! group’s Yoshinori “Massan” Masakado and Kojiken with “Midnight Devil.”
Showing contrast after contrast, a performance led by SUPER EIGHT’s Hina of his song “LOVE & KING” with WEST.’s Hama-chan, Ae! group’s Kojiken, Boys be’s Tsukasa Iwakura, and AmBitious‘ Mayumi. Their performance made the stadium high with laughter and excitement as the interaction of Hina and Mayumi alongside the comic performance the unit did with their huge music boxes.
The lights turned off for a few seconds only for the triple red unit, WEST.’s Daiki, Naniwa Danshi’s Daigo, and Boys be’s Atsushi Ito with WEST.’s “Dial Up“, alongside Boys be as back dancers. This performance exudes so much power as they color the stadium with red penlights and Atsushi being happy to perform alongside his admired seniors, might be a short confirmation that he is soon to be Boys be’s red member.
After a smashing performance from the red members, the cute ones make the whole venue scream “Kawaii” with Hey! Say! JUMP’s Yuri Chinen’s “おおきくな〜れ☆ボク!!” with SUPER EIGHT’s Yasu, WEST.s’ Tomohiro “Kami” Kamiyama, Naniwa Danshi’s Ryuche, Ae! group’s Seiya, Boys be’s Aoi Senda, and Junior’s Sukoyaka Okano, with the rest of the chibi juniors being their back dancers. The performance ended with Sukoyaka’s “Eat a lot and grow a lot okay?” with Yasu replying “We didn’t grow [tall] at all” and cute side comments from Ryuche saying “It’s sad“.
Going for the classic kira-kira idol, WEST.’s Junta and Nozomi, Naniwa Danshi’s Kazuya and Kento, and Lil Kansai’s Takuya performing Hey! Say! JUMP’s “DEAR MY LOVER“. Followed by a mellow yet powerful performance of timelesz’s “Natsu no Hydrangea” (夏のハイドレンジア) with notable singers SUPER EIGHT’s Maru, WEST.’s Hama-chan and Akito, Naniwa Danshi’s Kyohei and Kento, and Ae! group’s Masaya. Even from afar, just looking at Kyohei’s back is a surreal moment with how much energy and presence he holds while they perform on the rising platforms.
Another awesome dance performance of King&Prince’s “Ichiban” by another notable unit: WEST.’s Kami, Naniwa Danshi’s Joichiro, Ae! group’s Keita Richard Kusama and Seiya, and AmBitious as their back dancers. It was a mix of lights and summer heat with this performance.
Having two debuted bands, KAMIGATA BOYZ will never pass up the chance to perform with their instruments with their guitarists SUPER EIGHT’s You, and Ae! group’s Massan with “宙船” by TOKIO. Another classic of “Seishun Amigo” performed by SUPER EIGHT’s Tadayoshi, WEST.’s Ryusei, and Naniwa Danshi’s Mitchy reprising his role back in the 8.8 Junior Concert. KAMIGATA BOYZ comes out with their respective uniforms performing ARASHI’s “Monster“.
The members instantly formed a recognizable formation and the tune of the most anticipated “Eejanaika” by WEST. was performed by the whole group. It was another high-tension performance with the audience dancing, screaming, and enjoying the song.
It was probably the most energy I have seen in the whole show. Another round of fanservice by the group as they roam around the stadium and Seiya screams, “Kansai I Love You!“. The Juniors also didn’t around as they gave their all on the main stage, having fun on their own.
They reached the stage towards the end of the stadium with a short ment by SUPER EIGHT’s You, making references from all the previous performances like “UBU Love” and “LOVE&KING.” SUPER EIGHT’s “Zukkoke Otoko Michi” plays as KAMIGATA BOYZ roams back to the main stage.
Another funny moment was the Juniors absolutely being mischievous during the performance with Boys be’s Tsukasa seemingly putting all his energy into pulling looking like he’s about to dislocate his body with it. Final chorus and everyone was literally on the floor with AmBitious doing back flips at the back before lying on the floor, Naniwa Danshi smothering Ryuche with love, and an overall entertaining performance. For a second you will completely just forget that it was a concert and just see a bunch of men and boys enjoying life and youth making the meaning of “Kansai Summer”.
The energy mellows down as they give a heartfelt ment. The sweet feeling became funny again when SUPER EIGHT’s Yasu forgot to check in with SUPER EIGHT as they cheered on their own as a sign that they were ready for the performance. They performed their newly released song “世界を明るく照らしましょう” as KAMIGATA BOYZ. The Juniors came out, the stage rose, and the fireworks popped making it like an amazing closing. In true Japanese fashion, someone screamed, “TAMAYA” after the fireworks.
The screen lit up with the name of KAMIGATA BOYZ, and not long after chants and claps started coming out from the fans calling their name. Although a bit incoherent, the heart is there calling for KAMIGATA BOYZ patiently chanting.
The boys came out in carts wearing the KAMIGATA merch singing Ae! group’s “Aッ!!!!!!” followed by Naniwa Danshi’s “Poppin’ Hoppin’ Lovin’”. It was also a rare occasion to see the established Junior groups like Lil Kansai perform in junior-like uniform as they always wear their own costumes, it really brings such nostalgia.
Is it really a Kansai concert if they do not perform “Kansai Island?” Increasing the energy of the encore with this performance, Naniwa Danshi’s Joichiro, SUPER EIGHT’s Hina, WEST.’s Hama-chan, Naniwa Danshi’s Kyohei, and Ae! group’s Kojiken joining forces for the the iconic Kansai Island “Shiritori”.
Closing the whole concert in full circle with their song “Musekini Eejyanaika LOVE” casually changing the lyrics every now and then making the peak “We are totally enjoying this and making it fun” energy.
Alongside the adlibs is finally someone other than Ryuche winning the One-line Gag Contest with day’s winner WEST.’s Hamachan. Not only the debut groups having fun, but also the Juniors like Boys be playing around in the background childishly pushing or over-extending themselves bumping into one another.
Perfectly closing the whole concert, WEST.’s Daiki did the closing ment and giving high energy from start to finish. Giving the floor to SUPER EIGHT’s You slightly being shy to say “I love you” and leading the ending shout of their name. Even then they’re still in confusion about how to end it with Hina even doing dogeza with the confusion.
“We are KAMIGATA BOYZ” screamed by the fans properly ending the 3-hour concert. Series of shouts like “Thank you for all your smiles” by Naniwa Danshi’s Kazuya, You prompting Kazuya’s “I eat a lot of pudding” line, and several other words of gratitude and laughter. What sets the most confusion is as they get covered by the rising stage someone saying “Mi—” but getting cut off and everyone in the stadium is like “Mi—?!“
It was a bit disappointing there was no gin tape to end the show with a bang but it might be due to a lot of factors considering they have a whole firework show on display.
Overall, the show is what you would have expected from KAMIGATA BOYZ themselves and more. From the high-tension performances and energy, to the enjoyable and humourful vibes they give. There was always something going on not only to the main acts, but even to the Juniors who served as their back dancers.
It truly showed how much work they had put into it and how close everyone was to making the concert more entertaining not only for the audience but for themselves as well. Even if months pass, the energy, the laughter, and the memories of the concert still remain as it was just yesterday. Continuing with their close bonds, the formation of KAMIGATA BOYZ really do be the most iconic thing that happened in 2024 as it brought out more of what the boys have to offer.
KAMIGATA BOYZ Official Site：https://kamigataboyz.com
DREAM IsLAND Official X：https://twitter.com/DREAMIsLANDinfo
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