[Performance Report] Seo In Guk, ”SEO IN GUK JAPAN FAN CONCERT TOUR 2024 Heart ”UTOPIA” ends with great success ”For me, Utopia is here with all my fans!”

Singer and actor Seo In Guk held the ‘SEO IN GUK JAPAN FAN CONCERT TOUR 2024 [Heart UTOPIA]’, touring Nagoya, Kobe and Yokohama, where he spent special time with HEARTRIDER (name of fans). This article brings you the details of the Pacifico Yokohama concert on the 7th November.

On this final day of the tour, the venue was filled with anticipation from the fans even before the show started. The venue was darkened and the opening video showed Seo In-guk travelling alone. As the audience watched him relaxing and travelling freely, he suddenly looked at the camera and asked, "Who wants to go on a trip with me?" The fans raised their hands and said ‘Yes!' After the video ended, a white circle appeared on the vision at the centre of the stage and Seo In Guk appeared while singing ‘Right Now’, he excited the fans by showing his finger hearts and throwing kisses.

After he finished singing, he said "Good evening, everyone in Yokohama. I'm Seo In Guk. I'm happy to meet you." When the presenter said, "You look cool", he made a joyful peace and his innocent appearance made fans' cheeks loose. Fans also shouted ‘Cool!’ and hearing those words, he made an L-shape with his hands under his chin and struck a decisive pose. The presenter asked, "Does that mean you have to take care of yourself on a regular basis to keep looking cool?" He replied "No, I don't manage anything in particular. I just come as I am," he said coolly, to the delight of the audience.

When asked if he had eaten anything since arriving in Japan, he replied "Yesterday evening I ate cabbage from a convenience store. It's very tasty. I like vegetables." His answer was met with suspicion from fans, who responded, "What?" But he retorted in Japanese, "I'm not lying!" He continued "I love cabbage. Yesterday I ate cabbage and chicken breast. Then I drank a protein drink." He talks about how he eats completely to stay in shape, and his initial statement that he doesn't manage his diet is met with suspicion. Despite this atmosphere, he kept a cool face and made his fans laugh by saying, "I don't manage it."
In fact, apart from the healthy meals, he enjoyed "eel, mackerel sushi, miso katsu, ramen" and other dishes, ‘Chooo yummy!’ he exclaimed in Japanese.

The topic of conversation turned to the latest drama series. He is currently filming Twelve Heroes, a Korean-style hero series featuring the twelve Chinese zodiac gods, and explained his role "I am a monkey among the Chinese zodiac signs." Just before coming to Japan, he stayed up all night filming action scenes and inhaled so much dust that he lost his back voice at the Nagoya performance. However, at the Yokohama concert, he had a firm voice and played beautiful harmonies on the spot, making the fans' ears happy.

This year marked the 11th anniversary of his debut in Japan, and fans said "Congratulations!" and when congratulatory words were sent, Seo In Guk rejoiced and said, "Thank you very much." He said "Looking back, I think it was quick. But the next 10 years seem too far away. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who sent me their unchanging love during the 11 years I was active in Japan, which gave me the opportunity to share the stage with you. Also, I think we will celebrate our 20th anniversary in the future, so please do me a favour then as well." When the audience applauded loudly, he responded to the fans' applause by making a heart too.

Regarding the tour title ‘Heart UTOPIA’ given by Seo In Guk, he said, "The reason is that I directed the music video for Sora no Kaori and created a story of living in a dystopia, a world in which the world is dying. I wanted to share that worldview on stage. But I thought dystopia was a bit too much, so I came up with utopia. I named it ‘utopia’ in the sense of creating a better world. I wanted to create a better world with everyone who is sharing this stage with me and everyone in HEARTRIDER, and I wanted this moment to be such a time, so I decided on Heart Utopia", he explained. "This is the utopia for me", to which the audience gave a big round of applause.

The first corner was ‘HEARTVOTE’, a time for Seo In-guk to show the figure he wants to show and the figure his fans want to see by voting on the two choices. The first was a choice between 1. ‘Sexy, charming (aikyo) face set of three’ or 2. ‘Dance, sing and rap’. In these two options, he chose 1 because he is not confident in his dancing. He had captivated fans with his various facial expressions from the opening to the start of this corner, but here he made fans' hearts swoon even more with his sexiness and cuteness. 2. He said he was not confident in dancing, but decided to try the challenge dance Takenoko Dance. It was a simple dance where you extend your hands above your head and move them up and down in a mountain-like shape, so he performed it smiling and saying how easy it was. The fans were so cute that they called for ‘one more time’, and he asked them to ‘dance with me’. and the fans got involved in the ‘Takenoko Dance’! Seo In Guk saw the audience all doing the ‘bamboo shoot dance’ together and said, "It's wonderful! Thank you for doing it with me."

"Which line would you like me to say?" The two choices were ‘Mannajimaka (Shall I refuse?)’ from the drama ‘Answer Me 1997’ or the famous line ‘Kalchojo (Tell me)’ from ‘100 Million Stars Falling from the Stars’. Fans voted for ‘100 Million Stars Falling Down from the Stars’, but as this was the final performance, they decided to perform both. When the spotlights came on and the serious faces of the audience were brought into close-up, the audience fell silent. Then, after saying ‘Mannajimaka’ in Korean, he also performed it in Japanese, saying ‘You shouldn't go out with me’, to which the fans went wild. He also said ‘Tell me’ from ‘100 Million Stars Falling Down from the Stars’ in Japanese, which further excited the audience.
When the fans were delighted by the Japanese dialogue, he said "Then I have to appear in a Japanese drama. If I get the chance, I would like to appear in a Japanese drama", which drew expectant applause and cheers from the audience.

At the end of the show, there were two choices: ‘Eddie smile’ or ‘Kejugi smile’, and he decided to do ‘Kejugi’, saying, "I tried both, but Kejugi was less embarrassing (laughs)." Here, there was also a photo time where this cute appearance could be captured.

A gift corner was also held, where goods could be won by drawing lots from the voting boxes voted for in this corner. As he put his hand in the lottery box and stirred it round and round, he suddenly said in Japanese ‘Moe moe kyun, oishiku nare’ and even during the lottery time he was charming and delighted the fans.

Next, a corner called ‘HEART BINGO’ started. In this, the audience had to do the missions written on the back of the nine works, and if they succeeded in all three missions, horizontally, vertically and diagonally, like in bingo, six fans would be selected by lottery to receive a present. Fans shouted ‘Fightin!’ Do your best!’ in Japanese, and then they were off to the missions. First, select ‘Shopping King Louis’ in the bottom right-hand corner. On the back of the piece was ‘Crocodile Crocodile Panic’. The game was to press the teeth of the crocodile and succeed if the crocodile did not bite him, but he was afraid of being bitten and tried with a frown on his face. He succeeded the first time, and before selecting the second tooth, he blew on his index finger, put his finger on the crocodile's tooth and slowly pushed it while turning his face away from the crocodile, a great success. He was happy to show off his upper arm muscles with a gut-punch, amidst loud applause from the fans.

For the second piece, he chose ‘100 million stars falling from the sky’. The audience and presenter were thrilled when the first one succeeded. The first one succeeded, and the audience and presenter were thrilled. In the meantime, Seo In-guk used ‘magic’ to put a ping pong ball into a glass by hand while the presenter was not looking. While the fans giggled, Seo In-guk managed to fool the presenter. He also succeeded with the last one and completed the second mission.

For the third film, he chose ‘Can I fall in love in secret? was selected. This involved catching stars falling from the sky with chopsticks. In Nagoya, the challenge was to use rape chopsticks, but the difficulty level was too high, so they changed to normal-sized chopsticks. The host was going to practise once, and at the moment he scattered the petals, Seo In Guk held out his chopsticks and successfully caught a large number of them! He was so confident that he had the hang of it that he went on to perform. When the presenter scatters the petals, he tries desperately to grab them with his chopsticks, but miserably all the petals fall to the floor. However, as Seo In-guk can use ‘magic’, the presenter collects the petals and scatters them further into the air. Then, he succeeded in placing one petal on top of the chopstick held as an X! Somehow, they managed to clear the bingo and give it to six people.

On this day, Lee Sion from the drama ‘Answer Me 1997’ also made a surprise appearance. Lee Sion, who was watching from the audience, was even invited on stage by Seo In Guk to celebrate his 11th anniversary.
The presenter took out a red bracelet from his pocket, gave it to Seo In-guk to put on and performed ‘Thread of Destiny’. The red bracelet was even offered to be given away by lottery at short notice, much to the delight of the fans.

Next, Seo In-guk appeared in a pure white costume as the Count of Monte Cristo from the Korean musical. Surrounded by bright red lighting, he sang ‘The Hell I Give to You’ with great power. In a lower voice than usual, he greeted the audience with the words ‘Nice to meet you, I am Montecristo’. When asked about his musical experience, he replied "I really learnt a lot while doing musicals. I keenly felt that there is no end to acting and singing. I felt the joy of acting on stage. I would love to do a musical again. I actually told my representative backstage that I wanted to do a musical. I practise musical singing on a daily basis. I will definitely perform in a musical again, so please come and see me" he said, raising the expectations of his fans.

When talking about the mini-album SIGnature, he said of the title "I participated a lot from producing it. I have participated in the past, but for this album in particular I participated a lot. The album contains my ideas and I also directed the music video. SIG is the first letter of my name, so it has the meaning of Seo In-guk's signature, Seo In-guk's music, and Seo In-guk's work." When asked when he would like people to listen to the album, he replied, "When you wake up in the morning, start by listening to “Right Now”, and when you go to school or to work, open the door and start by listening to Sora no Kaori, and when I feel I need to be lively, listen to Galaxy. After that, listen to ‘You Are a Flower’ on the way home after the day is over. At night, listen to ‘Thread of Destiny’ on a moody, atmospheric night. I hope that this album will be an album that you can share in your daily life."

In the second half of the event, the audience could fully enjoy Seo In Guk's singing voice during the live performance.
He continued with ‘Out of time’, a song that oozed adult sexiness, ‘Sora no Kaori’, with its fresh guitar sound and smooth voice, and ‘Galaxy’, which raised the tension in the audience. He also covered Seiko Matsuda's ‘Blue Coral Reef’, a song he had long been fond of. He stepped cutely like the idols of those days, moving one foot to the left and one foot to the right, and pointed his index finger at the audience and smiled broadly when he sang the chorus part of the song, ‘Ah - to that island’. He made hearts and made the hearts of the fans melt.

He says he loves Japanese songs from the 1990s. He sang Yutaka Ozaki's I LOVE YOU and Ken Hirai's Hitomi wo toshite (Close your eyes) a cappella. He said "There are many great songs. I work with the hope that my songs will also remain as masterpieces after time has passed."
When he told the audience in a calm atmosphere that this was his last song, the audience shouted, ‘Oh no! He also regretted this reaction in Japanese, saying ‘Choo-ya-da, choo-ya-da’, but performed ‘Kimi ¡ÈKimi ¡È Hana (Flower Called You)’ at the end. He sang softly with a warm guitar sound, and when he finished singing, he gave a mini heart and a kiss with both hands and left the stage, receiving a big round of applause. The applause he received soon turned into clapping for an encore and ‘Seo In Guk’ calls.

When the passion of the fans reached Seo In-guk, "Are you ready?" was the only voice heard, and a smiling Seo In Guk appeared in the vision at the centre of the stage. As he moved from backstage to the stage, he appeared on stage singing ‘My Baby U’ on live TV. Fans were also excited, shouting ‘Egiya!’ and they got really excited. The excitement of the audience only increased when Seo In Guk showed his charm to the camera with a kiss.

After having a good time with fans, he said "It's been 11 years. I was really filled with gratitude while I was active in Japan. When I think about it now, I've done so many things with you all. It's strange that I'm here on this amazing stage in Yokohama with all of you. I think it is thanks to all of you that I have been able to be active for 11 years. Thank you for always welcoming me with happy faces and loving my works and music. I also thank you for thinking of the places where you can meet me, such as my related fan meetings and album promotions, as precious memories."

He continued "I wanted to show you guys how cool I am until the end while working like this in Japan, and I think this is the first time I've gone back without gaining weight during my 11 years of activity (laughs). I think I'm losing weight. I don't think I've ever had a cabbage, or a chicken breast (laughs). There are so many delicious things in Japan. But what was tasty was tasty (laughs). I wanted to look nice until the end, but you might not see me well, but I want to tell you about today's TMI. I have a pimple of all things," he revealed honestly, making his fans laugh.

He concluded by saying, "Everyone who is spending time with me today is very important to me. I hope you will continue to be as good to me as you are now", and then went on to perform All for You. Here, he went down to the audience and got up close to the fans! The audience was full of smiles and showed the most excitement of the day. After returning to the stage, Seo In Guk said "Let's meet again. Thank you to all the fans in Yokohama. I promise to see you next time, Bye!" Waving his hands, he went down and out of sight, and when his head was out of sight, we thought it was the end, but he even surprised us by crawling up again and showing only his face.
The fan concert, which lasted for about two and a half hours, featured heartfelt singing, friendly and cute smiles, and small talks that kept the audience laughing, and the last and final.