Make way for the protagonists!

Donghae and Eunhyuk made a bright, colourful entrance with one of their latest Japanese songs, You & Me. They wore a casual long-sleeved layer underneath a T-shirt and loose, baggy pants. They immediately jumped to their speech segment by greeting the fans on all three floors. One fan rushed to the washroom, and the boys told her to run. 😆 They then mentioned that the Annies were the main characters of their story tonight. "We are in a love triangle: You, me and Donghae." Eunhyuk said, "Donghae and I will compete in several games to steal your hearts. And in the end, you can vote who you want to be with tonight."

D&E asked the audience to call out the host's name, Furuya Masayuki. A man with glasses and cue cards came to the stage. Donghae hugged him from the back while saying, "I'm sorry," several times with a giggly smile. I wondered what the host said that made Donghae act all cute. 😅 Eunhyuk said he'll always look like the main hero, whether the main or sub-character. Even when Eunhyuk was kissing a girl, Donghae wanted to be the sub-character next to the main character. He wanted to be a sidekick and a creeper to the main romantic guy. 😂😂

D&E and Furuya Masayuki

Let the games begin!

The boys made themselves comfortable sitting on their chairs as Masayuki-san reviewed the rules of the first activity, a character-pose challenge. The members had to choose a genre and act as main characters. Donghae went for an action-hero type. He rolled on the floor and looked at the camera while saying aggressively, "What are you looking at?" 😂😂 Eunhyuk chose a love story protagonist. He pouted as if he was about to kiss and licked his lips, which caused the whole arena to scream. He then explained that he was trying to express his love for Abura Soba. 😑😂 Geez...this brat!

The second game was a basketball match inspired by the iconic basketball anime Slam Dunk. The members had ten balls each to shoot hoops. Eunhyuk scored four goals, and Donghad scored 5! Eunhyuk was about to distract Donghae by kicking his butt (literally) at one point, but Donghae didn't falter. 🤭😂

The popular Detective Conan was behind the inspiration for the third game, Guess the Anime. The boys wore Conan's signature red bowties and cute animal headbands with an anime title glued on top. Both members gave clues about their animes. Donghae's first guess was Pokemon, but he got it wrong. After his buddy left him a hint, he thought of something: "Boys usually like to watch this anime." He stood up and raised his hands above his head. He shouted, 'Genkidama!" and answered, "Dragon Ball!" Donghae won the game! Eunhyuk couldn't think of his anime, which was Crayon Shin Chan. Even when Donghae revealed a big hint: Siwon, Eunhyuk couldn't say the anime. Donghae reminded him about Siwon's meme in Super Junior's Return of the King fan meeting in early 2022. Siwon is dressed in a trench coat and stylish work clothes as if he were Shin Chan's father admiring spring. The photos were turned into a favourite joke/ meme among the Japanese ELFs. 😆

The card-flipping fame was inspired by my favourite anime of all time, Cardcaptor Sakura. The boys flipped as many cards as they could while blocking the other person's attack. The battle was wild till it got out of hand. They threw cards onto the floor, and suddenly, Donghae flipped the table. The two kept on flipping the remaining cards on the overturned furniture. 🤣 Donghae won the challenge with two "D" cards and one "E" card successfully facing up.

The last game for this segment was inspired by the famous Makoto Shinkai movie Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa). The members shouted as loud as possible to get the highest decibels. Eunhyuk yelled, "ANNIEEEE!!!" and got 103.7 decibels. His second attempt, however, dropped to 97.2 decibels! 😂😂😂 Donghae's first time was 100.9 decibels, even though he didn't finish his sentence with "Annie" and tumbled on the floor. And his second try, believe it or not, went up to 104.1 decibels! 😯👏

Donghae was the winner of all five games. He won a Suica card, a Japanese multi-purpose card for transit fares and convenience store purchases, with a generous value of 10,000 yen, equivalent to 100 USD! The MC had also saved a Suica card for Eunhyuk, but he asked him to do some aegyo, cute poses, for the fans first. The cute bunny trapped in a human body did some, and he got rewarded in the end. Donghae also proudly showed his name engraved on the card to the camera. 🥺

Lights, camera, roleplay!

The next segment was a roleplay challenge. D&E got dressed in bulletproof vests and goggles that made them look like cops out of a drama. They were also given a toy rifle. Masayuki-san was requested to act as Annie. The actors were assigned a scenario of hunting Annie, the fugitive. The cops shot him with an imaginary bullet, and he pretended to be dead. D&E ran down the stage victoriously. 😆 The second roleplay genre was high school romance. The members wore school uniforms. Masayuki-san was sandwiched between them while playing a girl. Donghae made some gestures while Eunhyuk sang the chorus of Kimi Ga Naitara (If You Cry). He replaced the Japanese word "Kimi" (you) with "Annie"! His serenade won Masayuki-san's heart as he received a hug. 🥰

D&E as manga characters

The members went backstage to change outfits. We watched a manga-style VCR about a female student witnessing a couple of male transfer students in her class. She noticed their star-studded appearance, bright hair colours, and sparkly outfits underneath their PE uniforms. She also recognized their odd behaviour, such as signing autographs, dancing cooly in front of a music class, flirting and doing cute poses, and photobombing in a girl's selfie and taking their own selfie with the girl's phone as a present. They even protected the girl from getting hurt during volleyball practice. The girl grew more suspicious seeing them around. At the end of the day, she spotted them riding kickboards with balloons dangling from behind. The boys said goodbye to Annie as they rode their kickboards away. She saw a flyer floating in the wind and found a concert picture of D&E's "&mation" poster. She realized that the transfer students are idols! The two boys laughed carefreely as they made their way to Yokohama Arena for their next performance.

Annies getting closer to D&E!

D&E returned to the stage, wearing gold and black suits as the instrumental of Like That played. They rode their kickboards down the aisles and waved to the lucky fans in the front rows. They also walked and gave the lucky audience high fives. One little girl handed Eunhyuk a phone, and he understood the assignment instantly. A few older Annies gathered behind the kid as Eunhyuk took a selfie with them! So sweet!! 😍😭

They went on with their next song, Kimi Ga Naitara. They continued giving high five to the Annies. The screaming and giggling audience were whipped by their dazzling looks and charms. Donghae and Eunhyuk made sure to go through the entire walkway to say hello to the fans of all sides. Eunhyuk stopped at a spot where the director, Masao-san, was standing and offered him his microphone to sing the following line of the song. 😆😆 The boys rode back to the stage while finished singing the song.

D&E fooled Annies with their Circus pose! 😒🤣

"Are there any kids here? I think the kids had to follow their moms who like Super Junior D&E." the boys commented during their speech. 😂 They were probably impressed by the little girl who requested Eunhyuk for a selfie.

The boys raised a fist in the air, signalling they'd perform the intense, action-packed song Circus next. However, the speakers played a sentimental guitar melody. 😮 They fooled us! 😂😂 They performed Growing Pains and 24 Lovers. Eunhyuk's nightingale vocals shone through, especially in the bridge of 24 Lovers! The duo's harmony at the end was beautiful, too. 😍

They took a short break and shared their appreciation on social media about their new Japanese album, You & Me. They spilled that their cute album concept would be their last time. The fans, of course, whined in protest. Donghae reenacted his response to his cute photocard with a shocked expression. 😂 They also briefly mentioned the pop-up store in Haneda Airport. By the time this recap is up, the pop-up store is probably over. 🙁

The audience rehearsed the Circus chant while the performers prepared for subsequent songs. We were fooled again! They did GGB and Oppa Oppa instead. 😐😑😆

Sweet wrap-up

After several minutes of Annies chanting "Encore," D&E appeared in white shirts from the concert merch line. They did the Circus joke for the third and last time. The viewers went along with it, singing the "Oh whoa, oh oh" part. "Okay! That's it! You're very good! You all are singers! Did you monitor your visuals well?" D&E praised.

They then shared some spoilers about their upcoming Korean album. They've shot their music video, and Eunhyuk revealed his reaction that the polished product looked super cool, and the artists couldn't wait to launch it to the world. 😀😁 (Psst...speaking of their comeback, please help stream Go High and the whole Inevitable album! 🙏🙏🙏) Donghae gave a major spoiler. He'll have a solo concert in November! And it's probably going to be in Japan! 🤩 He, at first, looked like he was in trouble because the ODE staff seemed to have not announced it. He looked like a pure, innocent puppy! 😆 The boys added that they'll prepare something really special for Japanese Annies since Super Junior didn't go to Japan for their Spin-Off tour. I look forward to it! 😃😄💙

They took photos with the dancers and the fans before wrapping up the night with a final song, Bokurano Story (Our Story). The Annies sang the beginning part wonderfully, and then the singers had their turn to swoon the fans' hearts with their smiles and voices one last time. At one point, Donghae held his microphone at a girl's mouth to hear her sing. 😂 There wasn't any sound coming out of her, though. She must be shy. 🤣 Confetti rained down the arena as they completed their last performance.

D&E took their farewell bow and waved to the audience. The song's instrumental remained playing in the background, and the boys sang the "oh yeah oh" lines with the Annies again until they left the stage.

Final thoughts

I love how creative the theme of this fan meeting was: D&E pulled their main character's energy off very well in the Japanese animation-inspired games and their performances. Whoever animated them in the VCR and poster did an outstanding job, too! I'm also surprised that they still had the energy to do a concert literally a day after their second last Super Show Spin-Off show in Hong Kong. They kept working very hard on every schedule, and of course, I worried about their health. However, I also, still am to this day, admire their perseverance and enthusiasm in making their stardom even more shiny than ever since they became an independent company. I wish more people could see how versatile and hardworking this duo is! They genuinely are iconic, and they deserve to be recognized by all K-Pop fans. I swear to the heavens!

Also, I saw somewhere on Twitter/ X that there might not be a SuJu 19th anniversary event this November because the members seemed occupied by their solo and subunit schedules. 🙁It's a bit of a bummer, but that's not big of a deal. They're preparing for a full marathon on their two-decade-anniversary next year. And I look forward to every gift they have in store for all of us ELFs! 😃😄😊😍🥰💕D&E and Super Junior fighting! 💪💙

Until then, see you in my next blog post!