SUPER☆GiRLS “Summer Battle” Concert Vol. 8
@ Shinjuku BLAZE
Shinjuku, Tokyo
July 29, 2012
I returned to BLAZE on Sunday evening for the final “Summer Battle” concert. I probably should have purchased a ticket for the early show, since I kept seeing the same people attending these, so it’s obviously acceptable behavior. In fact I’ve read some blogs from Japanese fans who went to all eight concerts.
Merchandise was sold at the entrance to BLAZE. The queue wrapped around the entire side of the building.
Before the concert I was still determined to find a battery-powered purple light stick, so I checked the massive electronic store LABI, but couldn’t find one there. 
So I went back to Don Quijote as a last resort and they had restocked purple. Lucky! The glowstick was 2,000 yen, but it’s really high quality.
Because of how hot Tokyo gets in the summer I started to understand why practically every idol group sells muffler towels. So after purchasing the glowstick at Don Quijote I went back to BLAZE and bought a towel and another S☆G glowstick wristband. Now that I think about it, I didn’t see a single person actually use their wristbands. I didn’t activate mine either though, but I plan to use them during TIF. 
For the final concert I had ticket #348. Because the Saturday night concert was so chaotic with security cracking down on troublemakers, I decided to change my strategy for the Sunday concert. Instead of trying to get as close to the stage as possible, I went to the middle of the floor behind one of the barriers. I figured it would be cool to watch without having to hold your ground. I figured wrong unfortunately. In retrospect I definitely prefer getting as close to the stage as possible. The advantages of being closer to the group outweighs the possible annoyance of some of the fans.
For the Sunday concerts, both Idol Street Fukuoka and Sapporo were the opening acts. Both groups only have four members (Nagayo, Tokyo, and Osaka have 7 or more) so each performed only two songs.
Because the Saturday concerts only included about ten songs, I was hoping my favorite songs that hadn’t been performed yet would be on the Sunday setlist (specifically Zetai Jibun Zenshin Sengen and Egao no Hane, and they would have to perform NIJIRO Namida right? Spoiler alert: they didn’t perform any of these, d’oh!)
The Sunday night song list was definitely my least favorite of the three concerts. But let’s focus on the positives: There was a really long “Sexy pose battle”… that actually wasn’t sexy at all, but was still entertaining. The group split into two groups, with the first group being Rino, Miyrai, Ruka, and Ami, with Saori acting as the judge. Rino was supposed to go first but in typical Rino style she kept complaining about how unfair it was to go first. Then she admitted that the night before she researched “sexy poses” online. Amita then complained for a while that she can’t do “sexy” (she’s been doing this same bit since their first concert dvd). Miyari seemed genuinely embarrassed about the whole thing, while Ruka had the most confidence and just did her pose. The audience determined the winner by making the most noise for the girl they thought had the best pose. While Saori was judging who had the loudest reaction, the crowd started yelling for her do a pose too. So she went into the middle of the stage and posed, and honestly it was one of the better “sexy poses” I’ve seen. It was probably a top ten “sexy pose” of all time. Ruka ended up winning the competition though, and was given a frozen treat made from the S☆G frozen treat kit. Another subtle advertisement for SUPER☆GIRLS merchandise.
The second group of contestants was Rika, Hikaru, Gocchan, and Mirei, with both Kaede and Reira acting as judges. This was the second time that Reira didn’t have to participate as a contestant in one of the corners (she didn’t have to do the contest involving a pedometer on Saturday either). I would have thought that Rika or Mirei would be pros at “sexy poses” since all they need to do to be sexy is exist. But Rika’s pose was kind of awkward and Mirei was too shy. Before voting began though, the audience did the same thing they did to Saori and yelled for Kaede and Reira to do a pose also. They collaborated on a pose that went over horribly with the audience, let us never mention it again. Gocchan ended up winning and was also given a frozen treat. She was asked what flavor she got and she replied “I don’t know”…. followed by awkward silence.
During the final MC segment the group reflected on the eight concerts they had done that week and how they feel they had grown together as a group. Miyari then started crying! She is the notorious cry baby of the group, so I guess it wasn’t unexpected. Saori then called each member one by one to the middle of the stage for them to share their last thoughts. They talked about cliche stuff like continuing to improve, work hard, and challenge themselves, the future of the group, thanking the fans, etc. After they left the stage an encore chant immediately started. The previous concerts I went to didn’t have encores, and the crowd never called for one, so I think it was made clear that only this final show would have one. When the group returned to the stage they had changed into the green t-shirts they’ve been selling and were also wearing the glowstick wristbands. They performed Be with you and then waved to the crowd as they left the stage.
Setlist
01.Welcome to S☆G show!
02.Joshi Ryoku Paradise
03.BELIEVER
04.Ganbatte Senshun
－MC－Member Introduction
05.1,000,000☆ SMILE
06.Every Body JUMP!!
－MC－ “Sexy Pose” Battle
07.Puripuri・SUMMER Kiss
08.ＭＡＸ！Otome Gokoro
09.Miracle ga Tomannai！
－MC－
10.Asu he STEP!
〔Encore〕
11.Be with you
Posing on stage after the final show was over.
SUPER GiRL Talk 