#gosh takuya is so so beautiful……..

[sunlightfeeling]

｡ﾟ･ (>﹏<) ･ﾟ｡

smapxsmap: 2009.6.1

[chibimyumi]

Blooper Reel~!

Theatre is beautiful because everything happens in the moment; all the successes, all the failures. As Furukawa himself puts it: “a mistake in a movie is just a mistake that can be fixed, but a mistake in theatre is the revelation of the risks performers take in front of thousands of people, every day.”

For “perfect” roles such as Sebastian however, any mistake is basically unforgivable. Now allow me to be a bad fan-mom and list a few of such ‘risks’ that went wrong (*´▽｀*)ノ

Disclaimer: these are only the things I happen to know of. These are probably not all that ever happened.

Furukawa Era Kuromyu Stories!

1. PHOEnnniiiiIiIixXXxx!

During a few performances in ‘Tango on the Campania’ Sebastyun lost his balance, and once he even keeled over ( ´艸｀)

2. January 28th 2018  -  A disastrous day

Furukawa hit his head real hard into a stage prop during the scene where the iceberg got into sight. He couldn’t help but rub his head in pain, so Shunly (Aberline) and Tera (Hanks) stayed in character, asking “you alright bro?” while trying to hide their worry.

Furukawa also stepped on his swallowtail for the first time and almost slipped... only to then keel over during the curtain call.

My poor son (｡•́︿•̀｡)

3. Add insult to injury

In the grand final performance when Sebastyun handed his master his jacket, the boy took the thing but accidentally slapped the poor demon in the face with it. Oofff ₍₍₍( ≽艸⋞。)⁾⁾⁾ talk about adding insult to injury.

4. Death of the Death Scythe

In Academy Night G (click here for the subbed fragment) Uehara Takuya shared how during a brawl between Sebas and Grell he accidentally broke the chainsaw. He had used too much force onto the handle and broke it off, so he had to pretend to be holding the handle while the other arm carried all the weight of the prop itself.

5. BOUNCE

For the scene in Lycoris 2015 where Sebas removes his mask, Furukawa originally rehearsed to “drop the mask and scoop the mask coolly from the air at mid-stomach height.” During the first performance however, he dropped the mask and sent it bouncing on stage. From that moment on Furukawa decided to play it safe and “be a noob and catch the mask at chin height.”

【Click here for more about Furukawa’s anxieties.】

6. Leeeeegs

One time when Sebastyun was supposed to drop on the chair behind him during this ↓ scene he miscalculated the distance of the chair and ended up on the floor behind it.

His leeeegs are too long for him to accurately interpret depth huh.

【Click here for how Furukawa’s leeeeegs are so long he literally broke formation in Kuromyu.】

【Click here, here , here and here for more about leeeeeegs】

TOHO Theatre Reel!

1. Der Noodlearms

In the performance of ‘Elisabeth’ on July 19th 2019, Furukawa was supposed to carry Elisabeth bridal style and put her in her bed. As Prince Noodlearms however, he needed to first wrap Manaki’s (Elisabeth) arm around his neck to let her support some of her own weight... As he trudged the few metres towards the bed however, he still managed to almost dropped her ( ´艸｀)

In an earlier performance (which I sadly did not attend) he did actually drop her... poor Manaki, poor Furukawa... I love you both.

【Click here, here and here for more on Prince Noodlearms. 】

2. Don’t puke

In one performance of ‘M.A.’ Furukawa was supposed to sing ‘don’t cry’ (nakanaide), but he misspoke and ended up singing ‘hakanaide’ meaning “don’t puke”.

3. Leeeeegs II

They just had to put Furukawa on high heels for ‘Mozart!’... and poor, poor Furukawa tumbled off the stairs as many as FIVE times throughout the run of the show (;; ＞艸＜;;)

4. The Notorious Balcony

The infamous balcony scene of ‘Romeo & Juliette’ became the notorious balcony scene for Furukawa once he fell off the balcony once.

His Romeo is a goof-ball anyway so it’s still in-character though! ^ω^

Matsushita Era Kuromyu

This is not a Matsushita Era Kuromyu blog, but bloopers are always funny, so BONUS SECTION!!!

1. "AAAAAGHHH, I’m calling for you!!!!”

Once during the prologue of Lycoris 2014 when Matsushita Sebas was supposed to come out of the horse as the OMINOUS MUSIC SWELLED!!!!........the horse didn’t open and he was stuck inside... leaving Matsushita bonking against the horse calling for help.

｡・ﾟ・(｡つ∀≦｡)・ﾟ・｡ Gosh imagine the anti-climax!!!

2. Contract sign?

In one of the performances of MBD the contract sign screen that was supposed drop got stuck. Oh well, unlike the one above this is not the end of the day I guess.

3. Death of the Death Scythe II

Though also not as hilarious as the first one from the Matsushita Era, this one sure was quite disastrous! During a brawl between Sebas and Grell the entire blade of Grell’s chainsaw came off! Matsushita was supposed to be scythed a bit later, so they couldn’t drop the scythe altogether. I don’t know how they fixed that problem... alas.

Well, these were all the Kuromyu and Furukawa related bloopers I know of off the top of my head. I hope you had a good time giggling!

[ochazukeland]

Pocket Monsters EP 52: Fierce Fight! Pokemon Hinamatsuri

Now I know why nobody wanted to sub this particular episode... I imagine it was very hard to localize this one to other languages hahaha. Took me a loooong time to prepare this because real life is kicking my butt lol sorry about that, I hope you enjoy this anyway!

This episode needs tons of translation notes due to the dozen of Japanese culture references. Long long post below the cut, together with the download link, translation notes and comments about this particular episode:

So… I’m not really allowed to tell you where to get that specific Japanese video without having access to Amazon Japan, but if you google… idk, something like [RAW] Pokemon 7 TV series, on a website that sounds like a cat meowing… who knows what you might find there?

DOWNLOAD LINK (ENG subs in .ass format): https://www.dropbox.com/s/jtrdu8vr7roglxt/%5BRAW%5D%20Pokemon%20-%2052%20%5B480p%5D.ass?dl=0

How to watch this: save both the video and the .ass subtitle file in the same folder, keeping the same name in both files (for instance, ep2015.mkv and ep2015.ass), open VLC and have fun.

——————————

Translation notes:

- Satoshi/Ash, Kasumi/Misty, Takeshi/Brock, Musashi/Jessie, Kojirō/James, Nyarth/Meowth, Takuya/Fiorello Cappuccino.

- Beroringa/Licktung, Fushigidane/Bulbasaur, Rokon/Vulpix, Hitodeman/Staryu, Okorizaru/Primeape (their trainer calls it "Oko-chan"), Weezing/Matadogas. Pikachu is Pikachu, Kingler is also Kingler and Arbok is also Arbok. 

- About location names... Hanada Gym = Cerulean Gym. This episode's city is called "Ohina-Town", I don't think there was a name for it in the English version, though.

- Move game-wise, I tried to keep their respective ENG names.

- In order to understand better this episode, you should be familiar with Hinamatsuri, a special festive day in Japan on March 3rd - if not, the Wikipedia article should help you a lot to get the context and some of the jokes included in this episode. 

- Sorry, I had to omit one detail in the subs: the shop announcer specifically says "優勝商品は、キュウクツの豪華三段飾り特製ポケモンひな人形です。" about the challenge prize - "The winner's prize is Kyūkutsu's gorgeous three-tiered display with specially made Hina-Pokemon dolls"... Kyūkutsu it is supposed to be the doll maker's company name and a reference to the irl Kyūgetsu - a very famous hina doll maker. I included it briefly in a later scene but without the details to avoid cluttering the screen.

- About Meowth's "salaryman sadness" comment ("サラリーマンの哀愁だニャ"), it's supposed to be a jab at how Jessie's super "consideration" for her boss is... a souvenir given out of duty/obligation that she got for a very cheap price, some random fancy-looking goods from a department store that was obviosuly just an excuse to her personal massive shopping spree. It's a quite... 'Japanese society joke' that I'm not sure if has the same effect when translated? 

- The competition announcer is parodying a kotowaza (a kind of Japanese proverb) when he morphs into different types of pokemon. "(...)Tateba Rūjura | Suwareba Purin | Aruku sugata wa Nazonokusa" (立てばルージュラ座ればプリン歩く姿はナゾノクサ) sounds like "Tateba Shakuyaku | Suwareba Botan | Aruku sugata wa Yuri no hana" (立てば芍薬座れば牡丹歩く姿は百合の花) - aka "the ideal behavior of a beautiful lady".

- It's not really explicitly explained, but you get Hina dolls and display them on Hinamatsuri to wish your daughters happiness and growth/health. It's not bad to inherit them from your family, but it's easy to understand Misty's frustration when all of her older sisters got luxurious sets of their own and only later on she was gifted... those exact same Ohina-sama sets.

- Misty's violent outburst around the 10min mark is an answer to Ash's comment when he muttered "ハナダ美人３姉妹とその出がらしだったっけー". In this sentence, he was recalling how Misty sisters were the three beautiful sisters of Cerulean, while Misty herself.... the 'dagarashi' - aka used tea leaves. That's so mean after that dramatic flashback, he just called her insipid/second-handed/leftovers lol!

- Had to include Japanese honorifics again this time because it's one of this episode's gags: the announcer calls the contestants "-chan", except one participant, Musashi"-san"... where the first is an endearing/cute diminutive honorific, the latter is the general most commonplace polite honorific, of course that blatant differentiation makes her furious lol.

- About Psyduck... "Yes, his head seems to hurt" - Fiorello said はい、彼は頭が痛そうです。, so instead of "their head seems to hurt" I kept the pronoun the character used.

- Talking about Fiorello, you don't necessarily translate "yes" when someone says "hai" but I kind of wanted to highlight how weird he sounds just answering it to pretty much everything the announcer says lol. 

Other random notes:

- Characters in OS used to be so intense sometimes, Misty was on fire this episode, hahaha! If Ash was a turbo brat in the previous episode I subbed, she's the one unstoppable this time lol. James and Meowth are also not very subtle offering help to Jessie by erasing Misty off the world hahaha

- Jessie and Misty were fighting for a size number 9 blue dress, in Japan that should be for 163cm~170cm people and usually tagged as M size for female-style clothing (around B83-85W63-64H89-91cm) as far as I know. 

- Fiorello/Takuya is surprisingly... weird. Considering the context and the decade when the episode aired in Japan, his name is probably a reference to ex-SMAP Kimura Takuya.

- Ugh, Satoshi's DO WANT when he see the Hina set with the Pikachu Odairi-sama, sooo cute ><. Kojiro and Nyarth are so, ah the feels, that episode conclusion is so precious, I love it so much.

- The ED song, Pocket ni Fantasy, always slays my feelings. It only gets worse as I get older. 

- Ugh, I know, it's inconsistent, I have just noticed I am translating "ゲット" (getto) as both 'catch' and 'get' @_@; Please let me know if there's any huge errors that I need to fix (typos, not synched dialogue and so on), I'll see what I can do, hehe.

[trashexplorer]

BLCD 2020: April Releases

Legends:

✓ - have      

💡 - interested

✘ - not interested (but will probably still listen to)    

🙏 - dying for

1. Shuuchuu ni Otoshite Ii desu ka? ✘ *fuck outta here with yo rape bs

Release Date: 2020/04/03

Cast: Yusa Koji x Kawanishi Kengo *sigh

Synopsis: Adaptation of the second volume of the series.

2. Danshi Koukousei no Hajimete no vol. 13 Mayonaka wa Ochikobore ✘

Release Date: 2020/04/10

Cast: Nakajima Yoshiki x Horie Shun *good luck, boy

Synopsis: Juuzou is Tama’s only friend. Juuzou has a bad temper, but he always treats Tama differently and helps him out in class. Even when it’s spring break and Tama has to go to supplementary classes alone, Juuzou comes to school just to visit him.

Comment: That’s it. That’s the synopsis.

3. Osananajimi o Mesuiki Choukyou ~ Sukidakara NTR (netori)masu ~ ✘    

Release Date: 2020/04/10

Cast: Yamanaka Masahiro x Nakazawa Masatomo *what waste of talent

Synopsis: This is basically your run-of-the mill osananajimi story where the sadistic seme teases the spineless uke by helping him train to have sex with his girlfriend while having ulterior motives. Gosh, it’s already 2020. 🙄

4. Therapy Game 2 🙏 *postponed from January

Release Date: 2020/04/10

Cast:

Shingaki Tarusuke x Ono Yuuki

Hirakawa Daisuke + Shimono Hiro

Synopsis: Part two of the BLCD of the adaptation of the series of the same name.

5. Kobutsu wa Mayonaka no Uchi ni Hara no Naka 💡

Releases: 2020/04/14

Cast: Tomohito Takatsuka x Maeno Tomoaki WHAT

Synopsis: Adaptation of the third installment of the series of the same name.

6. Metro ✘ *extreme diskust 🤮🤮🤮

Releases: 2020/04/15

Cast: Satou Takuya x Amasaki Kouhei

Synopsis: Shiroiwa Mizuki, who has been repressed by his mother for any sexual acts, has his body being molested by a stranger on the same train while attending school. Mizuki accepted the act even though he was able to avoid it. One day, Mizuki finds the man-Shinobu Kurose and offers a deal. "... I want you to violate me more." Shinobu responds to the "command" of a masochistic Mizuki. However, in the days of indulging in immorality and drowning in desire, Shinobu, who was emotionless, gradually began to change. A fresh and beautiful Immorality Boys Love for a man with a dark past and a boy who suffers from sexual repression.

7. Dakaretai Otoko Ichii ni Odosareteimasu vol. 6 💡

Release Date: 2020/04/20

Cast: 

Ono Yuuki x Takahashi Hiroki

Toriumi Kousuke

Hatano Wataru

Synopsis: Adaptation of the sixth volume of the series of the same name.

8. Sanzen Sekai no Karasu wo Koroshi Mini vol. 17 ✘ 

Release Date: 2020/04/22

Cast:

Suwabe Junichi

Kanna Nobutoshi 

Miyake Kenta

Chiba Susumu

Ichijou Kazuya

Morikawa Toshiyuki

Nakata Jouji

Synopsis: Adaption of the sequel of the same name.

9. Rikai Funou Kuso Cutie ✘ *that title is me translating the synopsis w/o the cutie part

Release Date: 2020/04/23

Cast: Maeno Tomoaki x Murase Ayumu *what a waste of fucking talent

Synopsis: Nakahara, a gay designer, decides to work part-time as a teacher at a high-paying fashion school for a short period of time. Initially resentful towards his incomprehensible students, Nakahara becomes drawn to party boy Hirose. The two later develop a relationship and soon Nakahara faces the probability of him losing his job because of it.

Comment: Tell me if that’s wrong because I’m 90% sure it is so that I can change it immediately.

10. Fuck Buddy ✘

Release Date: 2020/04/24

Cast: Shirai Yuusuke x Satou Takuya

Synopsis: Ever since Ryou, who has an insatiable libido, encountered his school's #1 playboy, Akanishi, during their senior year, the two have become inseparable as "threesome partners" who go out on the town every night to pick up girls together. When one such three-way goes wrong and leaves Ryou with an injured penis, Akanishi nonchalantly offers to help him masturbate... Using a method that Ryou never expected but which he soon becomes hooked on.

Comment: I actually do keep myself updated with this series and that’s surprising bc I really don’t go for plot’s like this normally. However, that casting is a little... I think this would be better reversed, but Satou does suit Ryou.

11. Hidoku Shinaide 5 & Takanashi Akira-hen ✘ *sorry, Naoya-san and Akira-san

Release Date: 2020/04/24

Pairings:

Terashima Takuma x Nakajima Yoshiki

Takeuchi Ryouta x Hatano Wataru

Eguchi Takuya + Hirakawa Daisuke + Hatano Wataru *lol, good luck with that Eguchi

Synopsis: Adaptation of both volume five and Akira-san’s story.

12. Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai Vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko 💡  

Release Date: 2020/04/24

Cast: 

Nakajima Yoshiki

Tsuchida Reo

Eguchi Takuya

Taniyama Kishou WHAT

Shimono Hiro WHAT WHY IS NATSUKISHO HERE

Sugita Tomokazu WHHAAAAAATTTTT VETERANS

Synopsis: A plain looking young man lives in a world that runs on the conventions of BL manga. He doesn't want any part of it, but he can't help but comment on the trends he sees.

Well, looks like I won’t be going back to Tokyo soon because of the travel bans, but at least I’ll be able to save up further. Not like I go out of the house anyway. Anyway, Therapy Game, Love Nest, and Saezuru are my only priorities so far. I’m not sure if they’ll impose delays for the releases bc of the situation, but who knows. Keep safe, everyone! Remember to wash your hands! 

[tawneybel]

Note: Top ten hottest cartoon characters, part two. Previous part. I haven’t been watching a lot of cartoons or reading comics lately, and I’ve realized there’s a scarcity of guys I like in animated movies. 

10. Rob from Black Hole 

Boy, what that extra mouth do? 

9. Nod (Josh Hutcherson) from Epic 

Not a huge fan of his personality but, gosh, is he cute. 

8. Mysterious Stranger (Michele Mariana and Wilbur Vincent) from The Adventures of Mark Twain 

Masks are hot. Distorted voices are hot. Possessing a morality beyond human comprehension is hot. “I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is.” Gah. 

7. Sammy Lawrence (Aaron Landon) from Bendy and the Ink Machine 

Dorky mask but he is an ink-encased fanatical cult member. So that cancels out.  

6. Hierophant (Paul Williams) from Stakes 

Yes, you may come in. 

5. Deckard Wizard (Kent Osborne) from Bee & PuppyCat 

He has a crush on a womanchild and can cook? THERE’S HOPE FOR ME US AFTER ALL! 

4. David Kawena (Jason Scott Lee) from Lilo & Stitch 

I also like his butt and fancy hair. 

3. Phillip (Bill Shirley) from Sleeping Beauty 

Sure, he’s a little handsy and quick to fall in love but, like, how many men would go to that length for a woman they just met? Also, he gets tied up. 

2. Howl Pendragon (Takuya Kimura) from Howl’s Moving Castle 

Show me the preen. 

1. Little Creek (Daniel Studi) from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron 

Where’s his spinoff?? 

Note: Apparently Myster. Stranger’s part gets cut in TV broadcasts, which is a shame ‘cause it’s the only part of the movie I like. Sammy also has a sexy voice and I should get around to watching a let’s play of the third chapter. Howl’s avian form is arguably sexier than Little Creek but his human form isn’t.

[thewriterofkpop]

How Y/ N would (have) support(ed) Takuya during his leave from CG

I‘m one of the Takuya Terada International on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. After we found out that Takuya decided to leave the group we decided to form this group to inform other CandYs and Takuya biased how he‘s doing. So, now I thought about it-how would we support him during that time? Please enjoy the story! 

You were a CandY since ever, you just loved the group. When you then got the chance to meet the boys in a fan meeting, you were the most happiest girl.  But you didn’t expect Takuya to fall in love with you! And now the two of you were a happy couple for almost four years.  You quickly noticed that the boys got nervous after Casper left but you did your best to support them and cheer them up.  ,,Guys! I will cook for you! So stop being so sad! Let’s be happy for Casper and hope that he will be well in the future!“ you smiled.  Takuya looked at you and you sent him an air kiss.  His lips formed a little smile which made your heart jump. 

After this their Comeback was there in 2018. You were so happy and couldn’t wait to hear their beautiful voice because even through you were Takuya’s girlfriend, you never asked them for a personal concert or to listen to the music before it went out and they didn’t offer you either.  But you soon noticed that Takuya was somehow down. You observed it for a long time. His smiles seemed fake, he sometimes didn’t laugh at all. He didn’t even talk much.  Was he unhappy because of the relationship or was it the band? Were the boys bad with him? But it seemed fine.... This troubled you a lot until you asked him someday.  ,,Takuya anata...~“ you called his name and looked at him.  ,,Hai?“ he asked you. Gosh you loved his Japanese accent.  ,,Would you tell me what’s wrong with you?“ you asked him.  His eyes grew bigger as he looked at you with a shocked expression.  ,,N....nothing....“ he mumbled.  This was your confirmation that something was wrong.  ,,Well. I won’t force you to tell me but I would be happy if you would. I want to be able to help you and support you. Not only as your girlfriend but also as your fan.“ you told him.  His lips began to tremble, your heart was crushing at the sight, what was wrong?!  ,,Takuya?!“ you snapped and immediately hugged him, pressing his body against yours.  ,,Don’t...!“ you mumbled.  ,,I cannot take it anymore...“ he mumbled which scared you. What couldn’t he take anymore?!  But before you could even ask him he answered your unspoken question.  ,,I love the boys and the fans but I cannot stand it anymore...if feel so empty....I feel like this isn’t what I really want to do. But I don’t know what to say to them....I don’t want to disappoint everyone....“ he confessed, his head still pressed against you.

,,Takuya...you feel like that for a long time, right?“ you asked him.  He nodded and you stroked his trembling back.  ,,Please don’t cry...don‘t be upset please...“ you begged.  You wanted him to feel happy again...why didn’t you see it sooner?  That day the boys had a practice but you called them, begging them to do a break. Shin was on the phone.  ,,Why, Y/N?“ he asked you.  You looked at Takuya who was on the couch in your apartment.  ,,I‘m coming up with a flue and you know, I‘m also about to have my period oh oh oh my cramps-"  ,,Oh Y/N! Please get better soon!!"  You had to chuckle in your mind. You knew that he was embarrassed.  But right now you couldn’t laugh.  You cut the call and approached Takuya again. You hugged him and let him tell everything. Everything he wanted to tell you, you tried to figure out his feelings and tried to support him.  Te two of you talked until evening. Then you decided to cook something good and afterwards you talked more.  ,,Takuya...“ you mumbled after you sobbed for three hours together with him.  ,,I think you should leave the band...“ you mumbled.  He looked at you, his eyes were red, you thought you could hear his heart breaking apart.  ,,Your contract....don’t do it. Stop it if it doesn’t make you happy....real fans will keep supporting you and the members will stay by your side for sure.“ you told him.  And that’s what he did.  He didn’t sign the new contract, told the other members about how he felt and made a Vlive. The notice of his Vlive was a happy notice for the fans. Unfortunately they soon found out that this was his last Vlive. At least his last as Cross Gene‘s Takuya. 

,,Thank you for your support, Y/N...“ he mumbled after you gave him a spam like on his new Instagram Page.  ,,I love you, Takuya. I‘m happy that you feel better and that we could overcome this crisis together.“ you confessed and kissed him once more. 

Masterlist

[sambart93]

2018.06.01 PuriStage Episode 5 [Review]

This is the final one, I think, I hope. And of course I went! Because I am trash and have an addiction problem that I can’t get over xD I really shouldn’t have but, I got a ticket so might as well go!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1 PreOrder DVD here Online Store here Previous Reviews of the Series: Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three, Episode Four

CAST and CHARACTERS

Hounan Izaki Ryuujirou as Yagami Riku Aoki Jin as Fujiwara Takeru Matsunaga Arisa as Sakurai Nana Kumagai Kaito as Hozumi Kohinata Kishimoto Takuya as Hasekura Heath Shiraishi Kosuke as Kadowaki Ayumu Ayukawa Taiyou as Kuga Kyousuke Arai Yusuke as Dan Yujiro Mizukoshi Ayumi as Kawarazaki Riko

Saisei Hiramaki Jin as Suwa Reiji Kobayashi Ryo as Mayuzumi Shizuma

Mihashi Kanegae Kou as Kamoda Kei Sawada Takurou as Eifuku Takeshi Yokoyama Masafumi as Nagatsuka Nobuhiko

Ichijyoukan Murata Hisashi as Himemiya Yuri Tanabe Ken as Shishibara Kaoru Asegawa Kenta as Samejima Arata Matsumoto Yui as Hachiya Tetsu

Ichiba Murakami Wataru as Izumi Shinobu Taguchi Ryo as Tomaru Kansuke Iwase Koki as Masunari Ikki

Tsubakimachi Suga Masanori as Minato Shugo Nakamura Tarou as Sata Kazuki Kurosaki Reon as Shizuno Makoto

Kakyouin Kitamura Kento as Yagami Tomoe Harano Masaki as Natsunagi Toya Maruyama Nao as Izumino Hajime Ohashi Noryuki as Izumino Ryo Masuda Yuki as Sakurai Joe

OTHER Kobayashi Shuuji as Piece of shit DJ Stride HAYATE as Isurugi Isamu

*

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was so much better than (at least) the last one (Episode 4)! This was so much more enjoyable and interesting and just a lot of fun to watch! I almost didn’t go this time because while I love the anime and I was super hyped for the stage series, it’s always been pretty forgettable to me. So I nearly didn’t go because whats the point when I keep getting disappointed and none of my oshis are in it but... my fav character was back, Himemiya, I have this huge crush on Hiramaki Jin still, and he’s back this time around by some miracle(!), and we knew it was going to be a completely different story so I was interested in seeing something I couldn’t have expectations for but was with a cast/characters I liked. So I went... 

Also every time I’ve had freaking amazing seats. Episode 1: row 5, Episode 2: 10th row, aisle, Episode 3: 11th row aisle, 4th row: 11th row left side and this time: 7th row aisle. You can’t give up luck like that, can you?! And the seat alone is a big enough reason to say this time was so much better! Because of my seat, I had Hiramaki Jin RIGHT behind me. I had Kanegae’s butt right in my face. I have Aoki Jin run past me so fast. I had Izaki run past me and my hair just blew back. During curtain call I’m pretty sure KishiTaku spotted and remembered me and he got this amused smile on his face and wouldn’t look away (I was in my seat WISHING a kankeisha was behind me but I knew there wasn’t). Everyone outside of the stage/story itself was such a good experience. And can I just remind everyone how amazing the pre-show music is?! I freaking love it! Just let me sit in that theatre for 2 hours listening to that pre-show music please!! Or give me a gosh darn CD! xD Then the story itself; it was so interesting! I LOVE what they did and the character dynamics! It was sooooooo good! This stage allowed the lesser ‘important’ characters to develop and show their personalities which was nice. And then the stunts!! Again, please like Aoki Jin just stood out. It was a LOT more obvious this time who had kept up with their training and who hadn’t which made those that had carried on, stand out and look even more amazing -- although I was relieved to see Izaki’s knee muscles had softened a little. And we had freaking Hayate who did (what I think) is the most dangerous stunt of them all and you literally heard the entirety of the audience shit themselves and gasp. It was amazing. OH! The length this time was just right! It’s 2 hours and 20 minutes! I remember being so pissed when episode 4 came about and it was like less than 2 hours (turns out it was supposed to be 2 hours and 10 minutes) and no break. HOW CAN A FINALE BE THE SHORTEST ONE?! Anyway... this was the perfect length for them this time I think - especially because this one is a stand alone story. The character development was really good too! Especially Riku and his brother. And the other school’s members development too was great! I was so emotionally involved this time around that I was crying at the end at a few parts! This was just SO MUCH BETTER! If they’re gunna keep doing PuriStage like THIS one then please, bring out 5 more and I’ll definitely go! My literally only one (new) complaint is the ending. But that’s spoilers so I’ll talk about that later. My complaints about DJ Stride and Nana still stand though. OH! And the AfterTalk was so much fun too! Rating: 7.5/10

SPOILER REVIEW

STORY

So certain members of each school have been selected to join the EAST JAPAN national(?) team, obviously this causes the not-selected team members to either be pissed, get hurt, feel jealous or feel left out, which leads them to create their own rival team: vs East Japan. And so these two teams compete to see who really deserves to be given professional Stride opportunities. Meanwhile, Tomoe gives up Stride so he can take over and continue the family bakery, stating he doesn’t want to do Stride anymore.

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That’s the bare basics of this story and that is all you really need to know about the story because it focuses very heavily on everyone’s relationships. Suddenly teams are getting broken apart because one or two of them have been picked for this national team which means they can’t go to their school’s training etc. On top of that, because of the rival team, old team mates are now competing against each other so it’s like “I want to beat you but I still want to be your friend after all this” which causes tension. There’s also tension WITHIN the groups themselves. They ALL used to be rivals and now they have to start working together as a team?! Course that ain’t gunna go so smoothly! The story is just SO damn good! I absolutely loved that the teams mixed and they had to start working together and the conflicts and problems that arised within and between the two groups/teams were so great!!! It got even more juicy when the school members would be AGAINST each other in the races! My favourite was definitely Himemiya versus Hachiya! Oh my emotions... they kept/keep ALL the ‘versus’ pairings a secret until you actually see the stage so they were all surprises to us, which I loved! Although I know my friend said she would’ve preferred it if she’d known about who was racing who BEFORE the show. But personally I think that would’ve ruined a few things such as who’s on who’s team and things. Other pairings like Riku vs Takeru were blatantly obvious they were going to happen so I still stand by that I agree with Trifle for not revealing the teams and rival pairings beforehand.

A huge plus this time around, as stated above, was the fact it was an original story. So while we all knew these characters and we liked them, we were getting something different, something exciting, something we didn’t technically know (maybe this story is part of the game? But from the way they kept the pairing and the pairing bromides a secret makes me think it was an original story for the stage), and because of the story splitting the teams up, we could get some less known characters or less popular characters into the spotlight, or we could get more character development from others. It definitely felt like Hounan was the less interesting and less main this time around which was great and we could focus on others. Even though Riku and Hounan are technically still the main focus, I felt this stage gave them less time and more time to others. Which, me being bias towards others, was a godsend! We like how we spent more time with Takeru rather than Riku this time too and we got to see more of his development and his struggle and I felt he was more relate-able this time around.

The main character development I was happy about was the rift that occurs within Ichijyoukan. We have Himemiya and Shishibara being picked for the EAST JAPAN team while Samejima and Hachiya have been left behind and join the Versus team. And then, as said before, it gets even more juicy when Hachiya and Himemiya go head-to-head; you can see how much Hachiya respects and loves Himemiya and I love how no matter what happens in the race, it isn’t going to cause bad blood between them. And there’s this BEAUTIFUL scene towards the end when Himemiya has been chosen to go further in the EAST JAPAN selection series while the other three are being left behind and they got him a signed Ichijyoukan towel and it seems like he isn’t interest but then (I’m going to tear up thinking about it!) he swings the towel behind him and wears it almost like a flag around him and I just got so emotional - Himemiya is a little shit but you can tell he cares for his teammates, he appreciates them, he supports them even though it looks like all he focuses on is winning.... ahhh my heart!!

Also, with this shift in character/team focus, some lesser appreciated characters got more love. The three that caught my eye were Natsunagi Toya, Tomaru Kansuke and Kamoda Kei. And what got me cracking up part way through about these characters/cast most of all was that I couldn’t help they all felt like my friends’-oshis and when I spoke to my friends after they were like ‘yup that’s one of mine’ xD BUT I love how much more time they got! I’ve always liked Natsunagi and his actor - I’ve always thought he was totally adorable in the anime and the actor himself looks totally adorable, in fact he reminds me of someone.... the Yamanaka twins maybe? -- and he got more time in this which was so nice! Then we had Taguchi/Tomaru (by the way, his picture on the PuriStage site does not do him justice, he looks MUCH cuter in real life) and he has some issues to work through this time around and he takes his anger out on people and for quite a while he has a lot of frustration and he’s upset about the whole EAST JAPAN and not being chosen for it etc. I think his yelling scene was very well done and it shows just how little hope he has even though he’s good enough to be in the Versus group. And then we had Kamoda; it DID help I got that moment where he butt was right in front of my face but this time around he just seemed much more interesting to me and he’s cute so can you blame me?!

As for the new people... there were 5:

Matsunaga Arisa as Sakurai Nana Team Tsubakimachi: Suga Masanori as Minato Shugo, Nakamura Tarou as Sata Kazuki and Kurosaki Reon as Shizuno Makoto. HAYATE as Isurugi Isamu

We all know, I don’t give a shit about Nana, you can take her out completely and I’d be more satisfied. I GET why she is so predominate in the main story, I GET IT but I just don’t want her in it. She annoys me, she’s not exactly interesting, she’s only in it because of her father (yes I went there), just no thank you. Don’t care how many times you change the actress. Just leave. Yes the actresses are very nice and very sweet and I like actresses who’ve played her. I just don’t like Nana. MOVE ALONG.

Ah man Tsubakimachi.... I HATED these guys!! Well two of them. As soon as they came onstage I fucking hated Shizuno Makoto - this bratty arrogant cock head. And just UGH go die Minato Shugo; his hair is TOO anime and annoying as fuck and oh my god, don’t get me started on his voice. Maybe like 10 years ago I would’ve like the stereotypical ‘hair covering eyes and a soft voice’ character but now they just ANNOY me. UGH....

BUT SATA KAZUKI! OH MY! I LOVED THIS BOY STRAIGHT AWAY!!! And the actor Tarou too! His so tall and lean and he’s a good mixture of competitive and devoted but also a little shit. I love how we have the backstory of Kata and Takeru used to be in the same Stride group and Kata bullied him because naturally my brain goes ‘SEXUAL TENSION!!!’ and just... Kata is sexy and mean and great okay!! He doesn’t go overboard like Izumi-mean (if you catch my EnStar/EnStage reference there) in terms of bullying but OH! Did I mention he’s sexy?! I looooooooooved him and he has the whole jacket falling off one shoulder that just so sexy.... ohmyyyyy. But his two team mates are fuckheads okay.

I really want to see Kata and Takeru go head to head. Can we have a spin off which them in middle school and see what it was like? Or should I just go and doujinshi that shit?

So lets just have some appreciation for ALL the non-Hounan guys that entertained me and that I loved in Episode 5

HAYATE! Oh my Hayate is the BOMB! We all know people like Aoki Jin are really talented and good at the stuff in PuriStage but holy fuck, this old man is LEAGUES above everyone else. It never registered with me before but he did ALL the choreography and parcour training for these boys in PuriStage! He did it ALL! And you can tell why! Holy shit... he was doing his own stunts! He was JUMPING OFF the top platforms and onto the floor and it was so flawless and so freaking amazing and he’d doing it while HOLDING ONTO HIS HAT! Like straight away the ability level is way above everyone else. And then he has one scene where he’s training EAST JAPAN team (he’s in charge of them) and he asks what would be the best way to get over this one course; so three of the boys give three different ways and he’s like ‘you’re all right but slow so y’all wrong’ and he proceeds to show them the right way and he literally jumps ONTO A BAR! THE BAR IS LIKE 7+ FEET IN THE AIR. HE JUMPS ON THIS BAR WITH ONE FOOT and has enough power to jump onto a different platform! WHAT THE FUCK?!!? This was the moment that audience absolutely SHIT themselves. There were actual gasps during this moment and the entire room got tense and it was crazy. I’ll be replaying the SHIT out of that scene when it’s on DVD. Seriously, MY explanation is not giving it justice. He JUMPED from a 7+ ft platform onto a SINGLE BAR and onto another 5 ft high platform... WTF?!?!?!? Aoki Jin, you’re good but Hayate clearly showed how superior he is to everyone there for this sport that isn’t even real xD

Can you clearly see how much more I enjoyed this episode?! It took 4 stages (like 8 hours of wasted time... more like 13 if you include goods lines and stuff haha) but we got to a part that was just soooo juicy and gooooddd!! Seriously, PuriStage can continue their series so long as they continue doing things like this; original plot lines, other school focuses, mixed up competitions etc. YES!

And how could I forget to talk about my beloved Hiramaki Jin <3 I was a little worried partway through the show because in the beginning in the opening he was running around the stage just like everyone else but then in the actual play himself, he and Kobayashi were in their uniforms. BUT in the second half they turn up in EAST JAPAN and Jin runs in the final EAST JAPAN versus VS EAST JAPAN match. Kobayashi explains that Jin/Reiji does actually want this and so they cancelled their live for Reiji -- which is the sweetest thing ever!!! So Jin ran in the last race and of course looked great! But before the match he came into the audience area and he was right behind me and I just couldn’t stop looking. He’s so pretty and I’m so glad he was back this time around *cries* I understand why these two spent so much time out of the main story and why they were in it this time; one is to create mystery ‘why they in it if they ain’t going to race?’, another is because they’re damn popular characters you have to have them, another is the actors themselves almost always work with Trifle now so clearly they have a good relationship with the cast, staff and crew so they probably got asked if they wanted to return and did so, another reason is that these guys are much older than the other cast so in order to keep them safe and not over-worked they didn’t give them big whole chunks of Stride-ing. We don’t want wonderful actors like Jin and Kobayashi and KishiTaku getting hurt do we! We leads me actually TO KishiTaku! He also spent a lot of time NOT Stride-ing this time around and again I get it’s because of his age; he still did a damn good job when he DID Stride, just like Jin did, but they convenietly brought back in ‘Heath your injury is bad again isn’t it?’ in order to keep KishiTaku from stretching himself too far. I get all these reasons why they did what they did.

PS. No way am I complaining, I just felt the need to explain to those who maybe see the DVD and love one of these actors or characters and question ‘well what’s the point if they ain’t doing Stride?’ so here you go.

Ahhh Jin....

But Alex, what about the main guys?! Okay... I guess I’ll talk about them...

So the main part of the main characters/school this time is Riku and Tomoe’s relationship, and Riku’s character development (because isn’t it always *yawn* he’s so immature and I feel he never really develops). Riku is obviously hurt that Takeru got picked over him to be in EAST JAPAN so he has some hurt feelings towards the team and towards himself rather than Takeru - which is good - and he wonders why he was not good enough. Then we have the Tomoe plot line; he gives up Stride in order to help at the bakery because their father is ill. While Tomoe explains that he’s in his final year, he can’t do Stride forever and he always planned on taking over the store anyway, so might as well leave now before he gets scouted for EAST JAPAN or something. And stupid Riku takes it from face value and believes Tomoe!! What an idiot! But slowly, people like Heath go to his shop and ask ‘is this really what you want?’ and we also have Taiyou’s voice as NAME HERE calling from America (which is why he isn’t here this time) and telling him ‘the three of us should race together again’ so Tomoe starts to face his real feelings again. There is this beautiful moment towards the end where he gets back into his Stride gear and he’s racing and he finally admits and yells ‘I WANT TO DO STRIDE’ and I was so emotionally involved with him by that point that I was just streaming!

Some other scenes that I love were just so ridiculous and cracked me up. I love how the banana joked carried on from the previous stages in this one and we had one of the PURPLE GUYS taking the banana and eating a massive chunk of it in one go xD Also we had the twins from THE OHTER SCHOOL who had the weirdest warming up stretches and stuff and 50% of the audience were too busy watching and laughing at them rather than paying attention to the slightly serious topics going on between the rest of the EAST JAPAN members xD and sometimes one of the characters would point out and go ‘what the fuck are they doing?! Do you see this?!’ which was hilarious!

I loved the ending when GLASSES GUY was crying and acting like a mother watching her son go to war with the whole handkerchief in hand and waving pose xD speaking of the ending; I didn’t like it. I really like how Takeru is the only one to get picked to go the international races and he’s about to go and Nana and Riku are like ‘don’t worry, we’ll see you there next year’ which was beautiful BUT THEN THEY HAD TO RUIN IT and Dan-sensei gets a call and they’re requesting at Riku and Nana join the team too so they don’t have to wait a year and I thought it completely ruined it. WHY?! WHY?!?!? It was perfect and mature of them being okay with Takeru going off on his own, WHY did you have to.... anime-cliche it and allow the others to go too?! OHHHH I really hate this ending. WHY?!

Unfortunately we’re finishing on a negative here ^^^^ but in general I really, really enjoyed this installment! So much better then episode 4 for definite, so much better than the main story. I really loved this one! I kinda of hope we will get another but judging from tweets and stuff, it sounds like this really was the last one -- at least with this cast... but time will tell.

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I am sooooooooo behind as usual, even though I only had two plays this month! I had an entire month to catch up and I just didn’t! I SUCK! I’m sorry. And July... holy shit July is fucking crazy.... prepare yourselves for THAT schedule.

[rainbowskittleparadise]

Hello dear ! I recently found your tumblr and gosh, I love it. So, I was wondering if you could do some avatars of Hwiyoung (SF9) and/or Terada Takuya (Cross Gene). Thanks and have a nice day <3

Hello ♥

Thank you so much for your beautiful words :33 And yes, sure!

Here are avatars of Hwiyoung: http://rainbowskittleparadise.tumblr.com/tagged/hwiyoung

And here of Takuya: http://rainbowskittleparadise.tumblr.com/tagged/takuya

thank you, hope you will like them! Have a good day ♥