Cute Concert Tour 2012 Haru Natsu - Utsukushikutte Gomenne -

One of the pleasant surprises of this concert is the fact that it contains dance sequences where we can actually SEE THE GIRLS DANCE!!! I've been complaining for years about Hello! Project concert DVDs in which the choreographed dance routines are ruined for home viewers by bad photography, poor angles and quick cuts. In this concert, the girls break into dance segments in three of the first four songs and the camera manages to keep them all in frame for the duration of the dances, letting us see them head-to-toe, rather than cut to extreme closeups or blurry side angles. There are still too many cuts, but the angles are all good. I wonder if the producers of these concerts have been reading my reviews and blog entries. The song selection is very good here. There were a lot of songs that were unfamiliar to me. There are very few older songs and few numbers that have been done to death in concert after concert, i.e., no "Massara Blue Jeans" for the umpteenth time, thank God. They do one of my favorites of recent years, "Midnight Temptation," but add an enjoyable flag baton twirling routine that evidently required hours of rehearsal. There's even a "Flag Baton Trainer" listed in the credits. All the girls get solos, always a good thing in my book. Mai Hagiwara comes out with a guitar to do her delightful single, "Yuke! Genki-kun," but she doesn't play it. Still, it's a cute touch. My only complaint is that Airi's solo is too short. The encore leads off with a "matsuri" (festival) song called "Zuntaka March ~Hitorashiku Ikiyou~" and it's the kind of thing Chisato really excels at. All the girls are in peak form. Highly recommended.