HAROPURO PARTY! 2006 - Maki Goto Captain Koen

Hello! Project put together some marvelous small-scale concerts on occasion and the best ones I've seen so far are the Hello Pro Party Concerts, one in 2005 with Aya Matsuura joined by W and Melon Kinenbi, and this one, from 2006, with Maki Goto, Nozomi "Nono" Tsuji, and V-u-den (Rika Ishikawa, Erika Miyoshi, Yui Okada). Maki may be the headliner here, but Rika and Nono steal the show, setting the pace for the others and keeping things going at a fast-and-furious clip when they're on stage. Rika displays a fierce performing style that's way more intense than anything I saw when she was in Morning Musume. Nono gets to shine on her own and show off her versatility in a way she's almost never had the opportunity to display over the years. Erika and Yui are better than anything I've seen them in before this. Maki is a wonderful singer, as always, but her performing style is better suited to her more intimate solo shows and she tends to get slightly overwhelmed by Rika and Nono at times, in contrast to the way that Aya adapted so skillfully to Aibon and Nono's antics and matched their energy in her Hello Pro Party a year earlier. Still highly recommended, esp. to fans of Nono and Rika.

This is a great concert for Tsuji and Goto fans! I find the pair amazing when performing together. You'll not be dissappointed