#Speaking of freaking Ueda!

[rosesapphire2323]

All I can say regarding ch. 123 of the manga is, I cannot BELIEVE that Dazai's plan of "fixing the mess I made of Akutagawa and turning him into a functional Homo sapiens and not just a weapon of mass destruction by using this random orphan I found by the river" ACTUALLY WORKED.

[noviceaoiryusei]

FAN REPORT 「 Stunned 」

Hello! It has been a while.

Yesterday, Originally posted on my livejournal on February 25th was the last day of the musical Koihana Bakumeiroku starring Kihara Rui, Ueda Kandai among others AND I WATCHED IT via livestreaming of course. Lol. Honestly, I was hesitant of buying a ticket because of common problems like "is the live streaming available worldwide?" or "can I pay via cc?" and things like that. I'm glad that it was available for overseas livestreaming so this makes my FIRST LIVE MUSICAL. Don't get me wrong, okay? I watched two others last year (my firsts) but they are already archived ones SO TECHNICALLY THIS SHOW IS MY FIRST TO WATCH LIVE. ASDFGHJKL :(((((

Oh well anyway, sorry for the extra story so without a further ado, here's my fan report about Koihana Bakumeiroku musical.

「 Stunned 」

So fast forward to yesterday, I was nervous and at the same time with overflowing excitement watching my first live musical.

Opening act, Rui opened the scene with his monologue as he walked down the aisle going to the stage. As for the game connection, I think the script writer made a befitting act for the monologue. In the game, it wasn't really stated how Saito is thinking of his former master (Katamori-sama) so having it acted out at the opening was really a nice touch, I'd say. ✨✨

"Saito, you are bad at lying" -- Katsu said.

Enomoto is out of the prison with Mori sensei... for some reason a.k.a well-being. lol I loooooooove that Mori's actor is so playful and FAR MORE PLAYFUL THAN THE GAME ONES (for now, okay). Just fair judgment since I'm not playing Mori's route (blehhh).

As he was reminiscing his former days, Mori gave him sheets of paper to write about his memories.

AND THEN!!!! THE OPENING SONG!!!! IT SERIOUSLY GAVE ME CHILLS If I were at the venue, I would be sobbing hard for real. That's the power of Kihara Rui to me.

Now we travel to the past... Although it's not really time travelling but more of story telling. (I reconfirmed it with another fan) It's how Saito wrote the story and now it's executed at the stage.

Not to mention that I love the rivalry between Enomoto and Kido.

For the ensemble men, one of them appeared to Enomoto and he proceeded with his monologue. TO MY SURPRISE, as we go deep in the story, some of the ensemble men have lines!! They speak!! Oh my God!! It was actually something I wasn't expecting actually since the previous stages that I've watched, they usually speaks in chorus like AHHHHH IKUZOOOO WOOOOO something like that.

Speaking of ensemble men, I've got an eye candy amongst them. His name is JUN SATO. There's this one particular scene that I'd like to commend his acting with. It's the part with he and Kondo. His facial expression at that very moment was marked in my memory. The horror in his face mixed with sadness like damn! He really caught my attention at that very moment. I do wish he improves more in the upcoming productions and I hope I can watch him again.

Continuing, a new character was introduced and his name was JOHN. Fret not, I did my assignment on researching about Edward Snell which is also hard if you aren't searching the name in katakana. 🙄 Before that, when I saw the photos from official twitter I thought maybe this guy beside Edward is his older brother. Back then I still don't know who is the actor (it's not on official HP, okay). Two days before the final show, Fujita Rei posted a photo of him and John and I kept on zooming it because he looked familiar. 😅 And yes, to my surprise, HE'S THE SAME FREAKING PERSON AS THAT GUY PORTRAYING MORI WTF!? It like "oh, let's just cost reduct by hiring the same actor" production-wise. Lol.

And this is the fiction part of the story. History-wise, Mori and John are not the same person. As much as I would love to tell more about it, I'll end up spoiling it. orz

Oh well anyway, another thing that I love was Kondo and Hijikata relationship. uwu Kondo is the only person who can tame Hijikata like a puppy. :((( He becomes incredibly cute when Kondo is around. :((( Saito became like some sort of chaperone between the two (yeah, not a third party lol).

Moreover, they had depicted why Kirino was smitten to Saigo... in a most adorable way. :((( I just can't help but comment with Kirino's actor BECAUSE HE WAS GOOD LOOKING. Don't get me wrong, the Kirino is game is good looking too but I don't find him appealing... unfortunately. Following Kirino's profession of admiration, Kido also shared his. Kirino was amazed and even asked Kido about the man's whereabouts but unfortunately... he's already dead. 🥲 I think I forgot to run over spi. It's my first time watching him and I was... yes, smitten. His voice, his modulation, it was so amazing when he sang!

And also, I said that I like Enomoto and Kido's rivalry. Enomoto has more deep relationship with Katsu, I guess? I still have to do an assignment on their relationship.

Script-wise, I also happened to read the tweets of the script writer and how he commented on the casts too. Edward's twisted personality just originated with him yearning for a family. John really worn as grief looking face althrough out, it's as if he didn't really wish for this to happen.

*slams fist* I ENDED UP FOLLOWING KYOTEN WAKU FOR THIS!! FUUUUUCK *sighs in disbelief*

The last part is really full of action. The casts and the ensemble men really gave them all. Yes, there are camera angles that I can see all of them catching their breath lying down. Good job everyone. 👏👏👏👏

The last time that Saito and Hijikata meet, he was trying to recruit Saito to come along with him. Saito sticked to his belief and refused him. And!!!! The pop-ish song. I really like it. But heck, I cried hard over that song. I had a breakdown when he patted Saito's head.

"EVEN IF WE CROSS PATHS SOMEDAY, YOU GONNA SEARCH FOR YOUR OWN PATH"

HOW THE HECK I WOULD NOT BREAKDOWN, TELL ME!!!! :((((( --- And that wraps up my thoughts. There's still a lot to learn historical-wise. I was stunned with the production. The actors and the ensemble men we're all amazing. If I was at the venue, I would literally breakdown and cry. :(((( I'm glad to have bought the ticket. I'll treasure this forever.

[icology]

I think it’s pretty well established in many Team ICO fan circles, and there’s even a great post about it here on Tumblr by @frabjousvonniche, but for those unaware, the NTSC-U copy of ICO for the PS2 is a little undercooked. It was released in September of 2001 as the result of a shipping deadline that Ueda’s team couldn’t afford to miss. But frankly, ICO was not finished by that time and would not be sold to the Japanese market until December of that year.

For this reason, one can consider the NTSC-U copy to be a beta version of the title. But what it lacks in polish, it makes up for by providing insights. Rare is the opportunity for fans to have easy access to a completed game at different phases of development. And seeing the differences between these versions can show a lot about both the design process and what order the game may have been coded in.

But the strangest and smallest detail of differences, which really freaks me out on some level, becomes apparent when Yorda is taken into the void by Shadows. In the final game, Shadow Creatures are eliminated all at once by the same magic wave that turns you to stone and initiates the Game Over. This is already a little unsettling as a form of their dismissal, but they disappear like smoke, like you would expect of them.

This is not quite the case in the US version. When Shadows are eliminated by this magic wave, their disappearance is marked by a sudden, blurry red particle effect.

And this only occurs in this one specific scenario. No other means of defeating the Shadows can reproduce this.

I have a clip from ICO Speedrunner, Sanchopanda, to help demonstrate. It probably won’t work in the Tumblr ask format, but having the link should be enough. It occurs around 22 seconds in:

I’m all for interpreting this red particle effect in whatever way you want, but I can’t really shake from my mind the potential that it’s blood. And even further, I can’t shake questions of why that would only appear in this instance, and for what reason.

Maybe the confusion of the matter is the very reason this didn’t make it to the final release but it was clearly intentional and meant to signify something that at least one dev had in mind.

It’s intriguing, to say the least.

Tumblr ate your link but I went for a dive and I think this might be the clip you're talking about! The little red particles are visible and they do look like blood! Funny that when you defeat the armored soldiers in The Last Guardian, you can also observe a similar thing if you knock them down and rip off their helmets (which we can observe in this clip, for example). For both types of enemies, the sight of it is a bit bizarre, because they're supposed to be almost intangible little creatures, but that makes it feel like you actually hurt them.

It feels strange, almost like when you defeat the shadow kids that were sacrificed before Ico. I wonder if every shadow in the games is sentient or if there's some sort of robot/zombie like quality for the enemies where they just follow orders and don't feel any real pain.

Speaking of things that ended up being undercooked on the NTSC-U version due to the deadline... we also have the infamous Ico North American cover art. The one we all know and love was hand painted by Ueda himself, based on a Giorgio de Chirico piece titled "The Nostalgia of the Infinite". Much like the game, it wasn't ready when it came out in the US, so they were stuck with this eye sore that's odd enough to make you question whether you just picked up a bootleg copy. Who the heck is that kid?

The team actually talked about this in the bonus interview for the Ico/SOTC PS3 remaster and it made for a pretty funny moment which you can watch here.

(also... the Megaman cover they talk about is WAY worse. At least Ico's doesn't look like nightmare fuel and wow, how did I end up rambling this much? I'm gonna shut up now hahaha)

[fuck-yeah-gruvia]

Gray loves Juvia.

Well, we knew that already. 

Besides the mirrored actions (showcasing mutual feelings) between Gray and Juvia in chapter 499, the raw text placed Juvia above comrade level for Gray at that time, confirming his feelings for her. During the finale, Gray explicitly stated Juvia (and her body) was his, making the couple even more canon. Oh, a little bonus if you count Mashima-sensei actually telling fans that met him in person, that Gruvia is an official couple. Do we dare count his Gruvia day 2018 twitter drawing or family art of Gray, Juvia, and their son (that he drew of his own accord at a public event in France, without a fan request)?  We now have something that is undeniable from the official FT sequel, 100 years quest, chapter 25.

Team Natsu ends up at a guild called “Fairy Nail”, similar to Edolas, except it’s a guild where they are celebrities. Gray (Glen) is a pole dancer, meanwhile Juvia (Juvina) is a topless dancer. Naturally, Gray does not want Natsu thinking about Juvia topless, hence the scolding. Similar to the final chapter where Gray tried to stop Juvia from stripping, and dragged her out of the party, scolding her too. Her body is his after all. His eyes only. It was pretty fun seeing alternate versions of Gray and Juvia speaking highly of each other and getting along well. Gray didn’t freak out or anything upon hearing Glen and Juvina call each other “-sama”.

After the chaos when the team finally makes it on the train, with a smile/smirk Gray mentions he saw Juvia for the first time in awhile, and wonders if she’s doing alright (even though it was really “Juvina” he saw). This is nice, because it shows he didn’t just carelessly “leave Juvia behind”. A small reminder was enough to trigger his thoughts. That brings us to this...

The English translation is correct because it specified the type of love. The raw is important.  Gray: (Romantic) love, huh... *thinks of Juvia* 恋愛 = specifically ROMANTIC love. The same words that are on the autumn of (romantic) love postcard Mashima-sensei did in 2016. The chapter mentions romance multiple times, but it is still surprising to see Gray REALLY pondering about it. Moreover, while uttering the words “romantic love, huh...” he has a soft smile on his face, and a blush while thinking fondly of Juvia calling his name lovingly. This once again proves that Gray does not find Juvia’s fangirl antics annoying; he is grateful she’s by his side and always sees her as a beautiful woman. Also interesting how Charle commented that none of these characters have much experience with romance, because that just goes to show why Gray sometimes has no clue how to act around Juvia and her PDA. He is still new at the romance thing, and falls under the tsundere character troupe. But he is learning. Gray admitting his feelings to himself is a big step for him; admitting Juvia is his was also and even that had a hint of tsundere. However, Gray in this chapter was the furthest thing from tsundere. Gray loves Juvia. He has for a long time, and always will. Thank you Hiro Mashima and Ueda Atsuo for really solidifying it in the canon sequel. Can’t wait for their reunion! EDIT: The next chapter confirms that Gray loves Juvia again!!!!

[shsldepressedlesbian]

Jesus Christ please tell me mORE about these characters I only know three things about them but I’m invested

hahhshahha im glad people wanna hear about them,, ok here we go, character info dump:

like i mentioned in a previous ask, the characters were created using sets of nine images, and thus they went through a certain degree of changes, though not all of them

if anyone wants to see me make the fic,, then i just might do it-

heres funfacts about the characters, cause as i noted before, i lovv them all very much:

Yuuki Mori, Ultimate Wedding Planner

Likes: bubblegum, streamers

Dislikes: wooly sweaters, dodgeball

D.O.B: October 12

Height: 5'1" 

- the protag girl,,

- for the most part, a very friendly and hyperactive gurl

- always carries around bubblegum with her

- her interesting in wedding planning stems from her grandmothers encouragement, as well as having many relatives, and thus shes attended a lot of weddings in her life

- neat freak

- surprisingly athletic

- social!! but shes a little judgemental of people

- would never intentionally insult anyone outloud

- incredibly persistent

- also has a very sharp memory and eye due to her job as a wedding planner, which helps with investigating

- avoids conflict if she can

- not hard to convince

- trans and bi, like all dangan protags are suppose to be

- smells like bubblegum flavored cake and lavender

Emica Abiko, Ultimate Student Council

Likes: blank paper, lavender

Dislikes: deadlines in general, decaf

D.O.B: May 25

Height: 5'5"

- the mom friend

- tries to be as friendly as possible but shes this close to snapping

- is surviving on pure will and caffeine

- orderly

- has a strong sense of responsibility and leadership

- her dad is actually the principal of the school, which is the whole reason why shes student president in the first place. because of this, she doesnt really believe she deserves a spot in the school

- ambivert

- 'takahashi PLEASE put that down-'

- smells like vanilla coffee and stress

Arata Abe, Ultimate Historian

Likes: globes, sunshine

Dislikes: tiny dogs, flat earthers

D.O.B: June 14

Height: 5'7"

- a classy man

- very curious

- and nosey

- writes everything down in his trusty notebook, which helps with investigations

- doesnt just study japanese history. hes interested in the past of almost all countries

- very neutral on almost everything, doesnt have many opinions of his own

- but one thing he does have a strong opinion on is hating hetalia (who doesnt?)

- dresses like a victorian

- acts like he hasnt had a social interaction with a human being in years

- smells like old books and cats

Mitsuo Nakashima, Ultimate ???

Likes: dark rooms, wifi

Dislikes: confusing websites, superstitions

D.O.B: December 25

Height: 5’6”

- has not slept in a week but its fine

- very insistent on keeping secrets

- not even his classmates know who he or his talent is

- chooses not to tell anyone his talent (for some reason)

- does not believe in luck. at all

- for a tired guy who has no sense of left or right, hes pretty cocky

- probably has a tragic backstory

- spends most time locked in a dark room

- will fall asleep in a random hallway

- it might be the fatigue and coffee talking, but hes surprisingly intelligent

- smells like dirty laundry and ramen

Asuka Ando, Ultimate Student Council Treasurer

Likes: jewelry, mythology

Dislikes: delinquents, air horns

D.O.B: January 11

Height: 5’8”

- that one blonde chick in every slasher

- very cocky because of her position

- convincing and manipulative

- also good with management as you would expect from a treasurer

- was a math whiz in middle school

- despite acting in control, shes very reliant on emica telling her what to do

- hides behind bigger people

- collector of jewelry

- smells like chokingly sweet perfume and bleach

Manabu Ueda, Ultimate Astrogeologist

Likes: tea, stargazing

Dislikes: broken glass, slime

D.O.B: October 25

Height: 5’8”

- a polite boi, admirable

- more or less on the quiet side, tho he can and does step in to say stuff, and he does enjoy conversation

- his talent is something he grew from his own ambitions, but rather, it was more of a family line thing. he still does enjoy astrogeology though, which is why he chose to continue it even when he got a chance to study something different

- as you would expect from the ultimate astrogeologist, he contains many facts about space hes willing to share

- compliments others pretty often if we’re being real here, overall more of an optimistic realist

- however, even then, hes more of a ‘act first ask questions later’ type of guy as well

- a bit on the vain side?? very proud of his looks

- is very attracted to women who can beat him up-

- smells like expensive perfume and moondust

Seiichi Miyamoto, Ultimate Slam Poet

Likes: ink, protests

Dislikes: alcohol, peer pressure

D.O.B: August 26

Height: 5’5”

- best boy

- despite having the public image of a very loud and passionate young man, in person hes a lot more quiet and polite

- very good with voice shifting

- pulls at his tie when hes nervous; because of this, its always loose around his neck

- was the rep of his class

- slam poetry is a form of venting for him

- has strong opinions

- cares more about others health then his own

- not shy, just very nervous

- smells like nature and scented markers

Tamotsu Fujimoto, Ultimate Tomb Guide

Likes: sand, the heat

Dislikes: slippery ice, pens

D.O.B: November 19

Height: 6’4”

- the dad friend

- has known masa since they were kids(they met in a hospital), and thus they are very close friends

- mature but also laid back

- gives good hugs

- muscular

- wasnt actually born in japan, but grew up in it for the most part

- his parents were archaeologists, and they traveled alot. he was always particularly interested in the history of egypt, rather than becoming an archaeologist like his parents originally wanted him to be

- strong sense of justice

- usually believes in redemption

- acts as a form of transportation for the others when their tired, especially masa and satoru

- smells like tropical drinks and stuffy places

Kamiko Yamasaki, Ultimate Tapestry Seamstress

Likes: luck charms, quiet

Dislikes: being the main subject of attention, jumpscares

D.O.B: March 13

Height: 5’3”

- babey

- grew up in a superstitious household

- believes that she has terrible luck and uses everything bad that has ever happened to her as proof

- because of her supposed bad luck, she spent a lot of time locked in her house, sewing tapestries as a way of keeping busy, before being invited to sailing integrity

- has a good eye and knowledge of fabrics

- has a whole collection of sunhats. sadly, she only brought two different ones for the cruise trip(not like she was expecting more than a weeks stay hhshshs)

- has a large family

- has many bandaids on her fingers due to accidentally pricking herself on sewing needles multiple times

- interested in folklore

- very apologetic

- has a low sense of self esteem

- because of her ‘bad luck’, she blames a lot of bad stuff on herself, even if it doesnt even involve her

- sensitive

- grows quickly attached to others

- likes to stay close to anything that she believes would bring her ‘good luck’

- smells like sunflowers and dirt

Kenta Inoue, Ultimate Parkourer

Likes: sneakers, tetris

Dislikes: being told what to do, stuck up people

D.O.B: February 17

Height: 6’3”

- angrey boy

- incredibly short tempered

- no one remembers seeing him ever smile

- healthy parent relationships? whats that??

- will stomp curb you

- easy to get flustered up, though he wouldnt admit it

- will not stop until hes defied gravity

- defining feature is his allstar sneakers

- smells like varying cologne and sexual frustration

Chieko Endo, Ultimate Chemist

Likes: friendly gambling, working out

Dislikes: romance stories, people coming up from behind her

D.O.B: January 2

Height: 6’0”

- the intelligent one

- serious and calm, keeps a clear head

- a true neutral

- has mastered the art of poker faces

- apathetic

- has a strong dislike of romantic things

- sharp minded

- surprisingly agile and athletic

- can recite the periodic table from the top of her head

- is always looking above the tip of her glasses

- no one: chieko: *anime glasses gleam*

- chieko, to seiichi: ‘ah, so your the twink’

- so edge, such cool

- smells like roses and melted wax

Masa Shibata, Ultimate Dream Interpreter

Likes: fiction, horoscopes

Dislikes: spiky rocks, flashlights

D.O.B: December 31

Height: 5’11”

- mythic bab

- tries to act all mysterious and wise but sometimes accidently slips and reveals she really is just a normal teenager who spends way too much time on tumblr

- has known tamotsu since they were kids(they met in a hospital), and thus they are very close friends

- actually spent a lot of time in the hospital as a kid 

- very blunt

- not good with human emotions at ALL

- not good at picturing stuff, will draw and whatever ends up on the page will -genuinely either impress or surprise her

- a little lazy if you will

- very interested in horoscopes

- holds grudges

- tamotsu translates her weird way of speaking a lot

- knows like fifty ways to get to sleep immediately

- instead of saying ‘good morning’, she asks ‘how was your dreams?’ to people

- keeps a dream journal, not for herself, but for everyone else

- smells like clean warm laundry and sheep

Fumiko Ogawa, Ultimate Lucky Student (or Blackjack Player)

Likes: the color red, praise

Dislikes: trivia facts, strip poker

D.O.B: July 3

Height: 5’9”

- has more of a gambler aura rather then a lucky student aura

- very proud of herself

- soaks up praise and compliments like a sponge

- a family girl, especially looks up to her older brother

- an attention seeker

- knows how to get what she wants

- doesnt really like the title of ultimate lucky student which is why she goes by ultimate blackjack player

- is actually not even a fan of talent schools??

- dresses like a 1940s stage dancer

- smells like raspberries and cash

Kohaku Ono, Ultimate Murder Mystery Novelist

Likes: horror movies, plot twists

Dislikes: overdone tropes, being looked up to

D.O.B: May 9

Height: 6'3"

- a polite bab

- very honest

- handy in investigating due to their knowledge and imagination

- has very low self esteem

- considers themself a borderline 'villan', despite doing their hardest to be nice to everyone

- warns everyone about themself, but characters who were in the same class as them have just gotten use to it

- very uncomfortable with praise and being called a 'role model'

- helps others to their best ability

- compares many situations to varying books, including their own

- unintentionally ominous

- writes using a typewriter rather then a computer or laptop

- smells like peppermint and typewriter ink

Aika Kouki, Ultimate Vintage Collector

Likes: buttons, dial up phones

Dislikes: being ignored, boredom

D.O.B: August 10

Height: 5'5"

- would and will add 'chan' to the end of everyones names

- grew up in a family that was very about keeping things 'old fashioned'

- resents the term 'boomer'

- talks like a 2000s teen

- very energetic and cheerful

- uses old fashioned slang often

- 'thats wack, brosiki'

- expresses interest in being other people

- very praising of others, often talking how 'jealous' she is of them

- overall very positive

- she and yuuki have known each other since grade school, even though they arent paticularly super close friends

- watched a lot of sailor moon as a kid

- modern tech impresses her more then it should

- smells like 1950 perfume and the outdoors

Satoru Takahashi, Ultimate Marine Biologist

Likes: sea otters, the water

Dislikes: his height, fish nets

D.O.B: December 5

Height: 4'8"

- its the tiny boi

- would unironically threaten your kneecaps

- is very sad about not seeing any marine animals during their cruise

- is insecure about his height but wont admit it

- often asks taller, stronger people to carry him on their shoulders(kenta refuses, but tamotsu is fine with it)

- very bold

- says whatever comes to his mind

- it started out as a joke, but he probably has a tentacle kink-

- adventurous young lad

- usually very friendly, but not hesitant to call out what he feels is bullshit

- calls kenta, mitsuo, and chieko 'edgelords'

- spaces out a lot

- smells like salt water and wet fur

Usagi Shimizu, Ultimate Runaway/Explorer

Likes: the forest, music

Dislikes: closed in spaces, car lights

D.O.B: September 1

Height: 5'4"

- very quiet

- has had many foster parents

- technically, shes listed as the ultimate explorer in the academy, but everyone refers to her talent as 'ultimate runaway' due to her reputation

- shy, but can be loud if she wants to

- surprisingly smart when asked questions

- usually calm, but it isnt hard to get her riled up

- everyone expects her to be some sort of delinquent due to her history of running away from her many homes, but really shes basically the opposite

- usually goes with whatever everyone agrees to

- takes many pictures of nature, and posts them to social media

- blushy

- smells like bushes and granola bars

[saizoswifey]

I was just wondering about the entirety of it itself, I read it and my Japanese is bad so I hardly knew what was happening. Did Saizo's past get explained? Was there any excuse behind his actions?

Oh okay! I see, I see. I can give you a summary of the route under the cut. It’s been a bit since I’ve read it so hopefully I don’t forget too much or jumble anything lol. 

Basically, we start off with Yukkins giving Saizo and MC both an omamori to show how much he loves them both. However, Iga is still pissed at Saizo and he and MC decide to leave Ueda. Yukimura is totally okay with this, telling Saizo as long as he doesn’t ditch MC he doesn’t care where they go. They just need to stay together. 

However, there’s an upcoming battle Yukimura will be in. 

They leave anyway and continue to travel but MC can see that Saizo is trying to hide how worried he is. They get to a town and they’re all in a panic about the battle approaching, saying that Sanada is losing so badly they’ve been pushed all the way back to the outskirts of this village. And they can hear sounds of battle in the distance. Saizo tries to act like he doesn’t care but MC catches him gripping the omamori Yukimura gave him. 

MC confronts Saizo and tells him to just go already, Yukimura needs him. So he thanks MC, goes off and he saves Yukimura. 

They all go back to Ueda and decide to stay. MC and everyone plans to go view the cherry blossoms together, even Saizo agrees to go. However, Iga isn’t letting up and Saizo isn’t even getting sleep because of the constant attacks, he’s just out fighting the constant mass of ninjas they send. Then pretending like nothing is going on in front of MC and everyone. 

They finally tell him that Momochi is willing to forgive Saizo and stop the attacks if Saizo returns to the village. Thinking it over he realizes its for the best so he agrees. 

MC and Yukimura, meanwhile, end up meeting in the middle of the night as they both worriedly walk in search of Saizo. They both admit they feel like Saizo is about to take off and run on them so they make a pact to meet up at the gate early in the morning and stop him together. 

Early that morning Saizo sees them standing there at the gate and for a moment he’s happy they care that much about him. They both confront him and tell him he’s not allowed to leave, but Saizo tells them they’re stupid. If he stays, they’re all going to die. It makes no sense and they shouldn’t be so dumb to give up their lives. MC says she will die for Saizo if that’s what it takes to stay with him but in the end, he ends up leaving. Yukimura tells MC to go after him, and that it’s up to her to bring him home, he has a battle coming up and can’t go with her. MC promises Yukimura she will bring Saizo home and then she sets off after him. 

After a long while of walking she finally spots him in another village. He tells her to go home and leave him alone but she just tells him she isn’t going home unless he comes with her. She keeps following him for a long while and she notes that while he doesn’t speak to her, he always keeps his pace slow and lets her know where he’s going even though he could easily just ditch her if he wanted to. 

She sets up shop in a cave for the night and Saizo shows up to tell her that she needs to turn back, and this is the last time he’s going to speak to her. That he’s for real going to lose her now and he won’t be showing himself again. In the middle of their talking Momochi comes to the cave. He introduces himself as basically being Saizo’s father. Saizo protectively hides MC behind him right away. Momochi laughs and asks if this is the person responsible for the way Saizos been acting etc. 

He taunts MC and asks if she even knows what Saizo did to his best friend. Saizo tells him to shut up, that she knows everything about him so he shouldn’t waste his time trying to scare her away from him. Momochi laughs and then says that even Saizo does not know. So Saizo is like what? And then Momochi laughs more and reveals that he was behind everything that happened in Saizos life, including the fact that he fabricated his friend betraying the village so that Saizo would kill him. That it was all to kill Saizos heart. At this point Saizo has a breakdown and MC is horrified. Momochi tells him theres no winning and no point to keeping people like MC and Yukimura around they’ll end up dead and tells Saizo to return then disappears into the night. 

Saizo is basically shattered at this point and MC pleads with him not to go. Saizo puts MC to sleep and takes off. 

When MC finally wakes up she’s groggy and Saizo is gone. She hurries after him in the woods but after a long while she starts to feel hopeless, she had no idea where the hell Iga is. Suddenly Kiyohiro shows up MC pleads with him, asking him to show her where the village is. He says that its basically walking into her grave to go there but she says she doesn’t care if she dies she has to get him back. Kiyohiro sighs and whispers to himself that if its her, she might be able to save him. He agrees to show her. 

They get to the village and Kiyohiro tells her he can’t go any further, shes on her own. He’s a Hattori Hanzo village ninja and this is Momochi village, so its against the rules for him to enter. He points her where to go. 

She walks through and is fucking creeped out because there are houses but no signs of life anywhere. Its absolutely quiet and empty looking. She gets to the mansion and enters. Finally finds a room where Momochi is sitting and Saizo is kneeling in front of him. When they spot MC peeking Saizo freaks out and asks how she got there and why she came. Momochi mentions it was Kiyohiro and then tells Saizo he needs to kill her just like he killed his friend. Because as long as she lives he will be weak. 

There’s a flashback of Momochi telling young Saizo he needs to kill his friend. Saizo obeys and cuts his friend down in the rain. He stands over his friends bloody body and cries, asking why, and if this happened because he found a precious person he loved, saying “I don’t have anyone like that.” 

Saizo refuses and then Momochi starts to attack. Saizo does his best to protect MC but he’s no match at all and MC watches as Saizo is slowly torn to shreds by kunai. Finally they get a chance and Saizo tells her they’re going to run. 

They make it out of the village but Saizo is bleeding so badly and very injured, Momochi still chasing them. They’re both getting tired and MC tells Saizo to just leave her and go, she’s slowing him down. Saizo calls her dumb and says he will never leave her. They reach a steep cliff and Momochi corners them, Saizo tells MC to wait by a big tree. 

Momochi and Saizo continue to fight, but Momochi is far, far stronger than Saizo. He laments how weak Saizo has become and says its because of his heart, still trying to convince him to kill MC and be done with it all. Saizo still refuses and MC can see that with all of the blood loss and exhaustion Saizo is moving much slower, there’s no way for him to win. Momochi laughs at how slow Saizo has become and then mentions that the poison is working.  

Out of nowhere, they hear a familiar yell. Yukimura comes up fast through the forest in his battle gear, wielding his spear. All heroic and “sorry im late” LOL. Momochi says this is even better, Saizo can kill them both and be rid of everything tying him to his heart and emotions. Yukimura gets next to Saizo to fight. Even with both of them fighting, they take a lot of hits from the extremely strong Momochi. But in the end, Momochi ends up going over the cliff. 

They get back to Ueda and they all view the cherry blossoms like they promised. Seeing Yukimura and MC happy among the blossoms Saizo thinks they are so blindingly bright and how they give him warmth and comfort. 

Later, Saizo and MC are in the room together getting intimate and Saizo mentions that he isn’t a ninja anymore, he’s just a regular person now and he wants a family with MC if she’s okay with it. She says yes and they...ya know >.>....LOL. 

The end. 

(Oh this was the light end btw. In the shadow end, the poison from Momochi is about to kill Saizo and after they send him off of the cliff, Saizo tells them he’s going to die. There’s no cure and by the time they get anywhere to figure it out he will be dead. Yukimura says there must be a way. And after a moment Saizo looks at Yukimura and says ‘you need to cut off my arm right now.’ Yukimura is shook and obviously afraid and uncomfortable but steels himself and cuts off Saizos arm.) 

[sambart93]

2018.09.15 KAT-TUN CAST in Yokohama Arena [Report]

SET LIST

01. New Genesis 02. FIRE STORM 03. ONE DROP 04. UNLOCK 05. 喜びの歌 06. 願い 07. READY FOR THIS! 08. DIRTY, SEXY, NIGHT 09. Ask Yourself 10. Don’t wait 11. Sweet Birthday 12. GREATEST JOURNEY MC Segment 13. vivid LOVE 14. UNIVERSE (宇宙Six) 15. Marionation (中丸雄一) 16. World’s End. (上田竜也) 17. One way love (亀梨和也) 18. Real Face #2 19. ツイテオイデ 20. BIRTH 21. Love yourself ～君が嫌いな君が好き～ 22. DON’T U EVER STOP 23  KISS KISS KISS 24. Will Be All Right 25. アイノオカゲ 26. 薫 27. Unstoppable

-アンコール- 28. Peacefuldays 29. ノーマター・マター 30. FUNtastic

*

REPORT UNDER THE CUT

Can we talk about how much I fucking LOVE these boys? I love them with ALL my heart!!! 

At YokoAri there really isn’t a bad seat. But I was super happy with me! I got the first row in the stands (2nd floor) and it was amazing!! And we got the best surprise ever when we were allowed and able to stand up! Usually the first row of stands are NOT allowed to stand and must stay sat for the entire performance but not for KAT-TUN because KT were of course like ‘fuck that rule! Our fans won’t stand for that’ <<< AHAHA GET MY JOKE?! So we stood the entire time! I think it was just over 2 and a half hours which is GREAT!!

I’ll try and split up the songs and such into their sections and costume changes -- but I could be VERY wrong:

New Genesis FIRE STORM ONE DROP UNLOCK 喜びの歌

願い READY FOR THIS! DIRTY, SEXY, NIGHT Ask Yourself Don’t wait Sweet Birthday GREATEST JOURNEY

MC vivid LOVE UNIVERSE (宇宙Six)

Marionation (中丸雄一) World’s End. (上田竜也) One way love (亀梨和也)

Real Face #2 ツイテオイデ BIRTH Love yourself ～君が嫌いな君が好き～ DON’T U EVER STOP KISS KISS KISS Will Be All Right アイノオカゲ

薫 Unstoppable

-アンコール- Peacefuldays ノーマター・マター FUNtastic

*

The opening is great! They enter and come down from a massive hanging chandelier thing in the air! It is amazing!! An amazing opening! When I watch it the second time, I’ll keep and eye on that big hanger and try and see them slip into place just before the show starts xD

READY FOR THIS and Dirty, Sexy Night was so great! I loved this coupling of songs! The first one get everyone hyped up and I love the individual dances the boys having during the instrumental/dance part in RFT! And DSN is just a great song all around where Kame can be a little shit xD

Ueda ripped his shirt open and kept it like that after ONE DROP xD everyone went mental and he kept it undone ALL the way until after the MC when he got changed xD

I died laughing when UchuuSix were first introduced because, I had already spoiled myself for the SetList so knew which Juniors were going to be there, but my friend didn’t. So when the boys came on stage and the ‘SIX’ showed first, my friend was like ‘AH HELLA NAH! NOT SIXTONES!!!!!’ but then went to UchuuSix and she was like “OH THANK GODDD’, and I was on the floor laughing because her react was so comical. No offence to SixTones fans >.<

UchuuSix were actually very good! I really enjoyed their song! I was bopping along and it was so interesting to see who stayed standing during their solo song because then you could see who the Junior fans were and their uchiwas, whereas all the KT fans just sat down and took it as a short break xD

*

The MC was THE BEST! So they had their usual talk which was just ridiculous of course because Maru was like ‘so..... what did you do recently?’ and everyone commented that they hate that phrases and question but then Maru paused ‘....so what did you do recently?’ and we all died laughing. And so Kame replied ‘well I went to the beach (Ueda/Maru: and you didn’t get discovered (by fans/press)?!), it was really nice and relaxing’, but then he was like ‘I’m always the one that talks the most and I have NO IDEA what you two do on your days off! WHAT DO YOU DO?! I know you box and you draw but... WHAT DO YOU DO?!’ so Ueda replied that recently he’d been going to smaller shops and there was one specific one in Ginza (Maru and Kame: IN GINZA?!) where an old man gave him some on the house tempura and how delicious it was. Kame asked ‘why didn’t you say no to his offer?’ and Ueda responded something like ‘what am I supposed to say? ‘*in a really rude way* I don’t need it old man! (Iranee yo Jiji!)’’ and everyone was dying. Then Ueda started saying ‘y’know if this audience was all guys--’ and Kame and Maru jumped in like ‘he’s spoken about this several times during this tour!’ and Ueda said ‘but it’s true! If this was all guys, I wouldn’t work as hard as I am! Are you telling me you’d work just as hard if our audience was all guys?!’ and neither of them specifically answered but everyone understood that they agreed with Ueda who’s all like ‘the audience is so full of women and they’re all so beautiful so I must do my best!’ xD whatta idiot. Adorable but oh god he’s funny. Towards the end of the MC, Kame picked up the towel basket and as he was leaving with Ueda he said ‘when we get backstage, tell me the name of that tempura place’ xD and then Maru stayed on stage and did his DJ Maru part on the top stage!

They also talked about the TachiMi/Standing part of the audience and Ueda was saying they should make those tickets cheaper ‘they should sell for 6500 yen!’. And then Maru was telling joking ‘even though it’s the MC... STAND!’ we’re allowed to sit during the MC, except for TachiMi.

They announced during this MC (I’m not sure about previous ones) that their TV show (Tame ni Naru Tabi +) was going to be a weekly show (thanks to hyphens’ support) from October! So naturally we all got super excited!

Just after the MC (which is shorter than we’re used to, but for good reason; coming up now!), Kame and Ueda go backstage while Nakamaru goes to the top stage, and there is his beautiful DJ set. So he does his Nakamaru DJ section with making sounds with his voice, recording them and pressing them in a certain order to make a song. 

At the end of this segment, Nakamaru addresses the boys and gives them a request. At this show we had:

Nakamaru: Could you two do an impersonation from the game, Metal Gear Solid? Ueda: *Comes on stage* Snake! SNAKE!!!! Nakamaru: That was the best! Then Kame came on stage and he was like ‘I don’t know any other lines from the game!’ so then they suggested he do something from ‘King of Fighters’ and Kame replied ‘King of Fighters? ........ KING OF FIGHTERS?!?!?!’ and everyone died laughing. Kame: What’s King of Fighters? Ueda: It was a one-on-one fighting game. Maru: Ahhh so nostalgic... Kame: I dunno. Maybe because we’re from different generations. Ueda: THAT’S IRRELEVANT! Everyone laughed again xD

*

We got our usual Nakamaru TV Shopping skit but we had Ueda’s new character Yankee-kun join in! So we had the three of them being ridiculous about the bath products xD At the end of the Nakamaru TV Shopping skit, Kame walked off screen saying ‘say chuuka.... say renga...’ and I absolutely died. Because (BACKSTORY TIME!) a long time ago when they did their first Yokohama concert as KAT-TUN in 2005, Kame asked the crowd to do a call and response of ‘Say Chuuka! Say Renga!’, but at the time KT fans had no fucking clue what he was doing (Chuuka = Chinese Food and Renga = Red Brick Warehouse which are two super famous things in Yokohama), so he got super embarrassed (he talked about the embarrassment on Cartoon KAT-TUN and another Variety show MANY years ago). I spent most of this show waiting and hoping for him to do this C&R again, so I freaked and got SO HAPPY when it appeared in this segment instead xD I felt like something on my Check List had been ticked off at that moment hehe

*

I love, love, love the screen visuals for Vivid Love and Marionation! They are so gorgeous! And I love the props and the dance for Marionation too! And lets talk about how epic World’s End is! So we have an opening VTR of a snake and I just guessed ‘ooh he’s gunna cut it with a sword’ and there is a slash motion across the snake who dies as he’s cut in half and then Uepi came out on stage with a sword in his hand and I freaked! I was like ‘I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT!!’. It’s such a good performance and the visuals of the ticking timer on the screen too is great! My friend said she was disappointed in the ‘One Way Love’ performance and concept and to an extent I am BUT I totally understand why he did his performance this way. We had a prerecorded VTR of him singing the song, and then in the white or black parts of that VTR, the camera that’s following Kame on stage is shown in those parts. It is visually pleasing and great concept and looks good but I, like my friend, wanted him to do something really sexy for this song or just him actually singing it -- he did sing it a little but you could tell there was no point of him having a mic during it because he was putting his all into the modern dance he did.

Kame messed up for his line for Kun and said ‘MY DREAM’ instead of ‘My Friend’, and when he realised, he stopped singing and just smiled like a child at the camera and we all squealed obviously. It was the cutest reaction!

For the encore they came around in the trolley stand things and Ueda definitely saw us! We were only a few feet away from him so makes sense xD also the woman behind us was hilarious when Kame came along xD He pretty much pushed her small son out of the way so she could get Kame’s attention instead of her son. Me and my friend were cracking up laughing.

During the final greeting from them, we started getting really loud and clapping and woo-ing when Maru was trying to speak and he was like ‘be quiet! it’s late and other’s will hear you!’, but we did it again and got even louder and he just lipsynced ‘quit it! you’re loud!’, but you could tell him and all 3 of them loved how we just got louder and louder for them! xD During Ueda’s greeting he commented that there are some children in the audience and he was like ‘please don’t copy me! (his bad language and attitude)’.

*

Reports came out later that Massu had gone to watch this show too! My friend who came with me is a huge NEWS fan so was super happy to know Massu went the same time she did ^_^

*

And that’s all! Hopefully my second report will be up pretty quickly after this one!

[recentanimenews]

Happy 20th to PlayStation 2, the Only System I Waited Overnight in Line to Buy

  PlayStation 2 may not have launched in North America until October 26, but it made its debut in Japan on March 4, 2000. That means it's been exactly 20 years since the launch of PS2, so there's no better time than today to celebrate one hell of a successful home console. Not only did it end up becoming the best-selling console hardware of all time, it also has the honor of being the only one I ever waited in an overnight line to buy.

  The time was, by the measure of anniversaries, about seven months in the future from our current celebration. On a brisk late October night in Louisville, KY, I made the impulse decision to pull up to our local K-Mart at around 3:00am and… sit there on the sidewalk until the store opened at 8:00am. I wasn't alone, of course; that would just be weird. At first there were a handful of people hanging out, but by the time the sun rose there were at least 20 behind me, most of which wouldn't get the golden ticket that guaranteed you a console upon entry.

  Thankfully, I was one of those lucky dozen or so—seriously, K-Mart, up your stock game!—and I proceeded to pick up a PS2 with as many launch titles as I could afford on top of the $299+ asking price (which was one). There were actually a bunch of games to choose from, but I ended up leaving the store with a fresh copy of SSX, which I kind of liked? It definitely impressed me at the time, and it was at least more substantial than the glorified tech demo known as FantaVision. 

Perhaps even more importantly, PS2 was my very first DVD player, which opened my world to paychecks that were spent at Best Buy within literal minutes of receiving them. I even got my first taste of anime on DVD thanks to my PS2—I know for a fact it was the Bandai release of Betterman, to which I can confidently say, I've seen better, man. I used my PS2 to play a lot of games, but I used it to play a loooooot of movies and anime. 

    Those games were no joke. The sheer number of incredible experiences released on PS2 throughout its long lifespan is kind of mind-blowing at even the slightest of glances. There was the legendary Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty demo disc that came with a free copy of Zone of the Enders! Silent Hill 2, AKA one of the best survival horror games of all time! Two of Fumito Ueda's most celebrated games—ICO and Shadow of the Colossus—started their lives here. Hideki Kamiya kicked off the Devil May Cry franchise with a bang in 2001, changing character action games forever. Speaking of changing games forever… Grand Theft Auto III! 

  I'm seriously just going through major games in order at this point, and I haven't even made it to 2002. This could easily just be a list of everything I remember off the top of my head and it would elicit a ton of "Oh yeah, wow!" responses. It's taking all I have not to just shout Gitaroo Man into the rafters and trade my keyboard in for an acoustic guitar primed and tuned to play "Legendary Theme" until my fingers fall off. 

  Look, I didn't have nostalgia for PS2 until this very second. 

    Even the anime games were pretty solid. If you ask features writer Daniel Dockery about 2006's One Piece: Grand Adventure, he'll probably talk your entire body into pieces. As for myself, I was all about developer New Corporation's take on Hajime no Ippo, which somehow managed to sneak its way to the west as Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory. It's hard to believe, but this is legitimately a good boxing video game! 

  If you somehow ran out of PS2 games to play at any given moment, this was one of the few major consoles to debut with solid backwards compatibility with the previous generation. You could play most PSone games without any issues, which is a concept that's fleeting today, to say the least. You can read more about PS2's backwards compatibility straight from the engineer who built it. 

Finally, how many other consoles can boast a series of commercials directed by David Lynch?

  Obviously, I just couldn't wait until freaking October to talk about how great of a system PlayStation 2 was. I have no doubt many of you reading this have similarly fond memories, so please, without further ado, let them loose upon our eyeballs. 

  Tell us all about the PS2 moments and games you'll never forget in the comments! 

    -------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his webcomic, BIG DUMB FIGHTING IDIOTS at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox. 

    Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

  By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[shining-brat-blog]

The Pinkest Gays You Know| Katherine & Saiyuri | Chapter one

@shsl-songstress​

A shower was exactly what Katherine needed right now. With the cold pond water making all her clothes cling to her body, she had little time to process what was really going on in this freaky little town, she'll think about that later. Once the Fool was gone she grabbed her bag, the tablet, and the key and sprinted off as fast as she could. The cabin room was very cozy, but Katherine has no time to study it. She grabbed her personal towel, a change of clothes, then tossed her bag onto the top bunk before claiming the shower for a couple of minutes. It wasn't long, maybe twenty minutes. Katherine would walk out of the bathroom in her pj, which was just a white sweater with the words 'fuck off' across the chest (a sweater she stole from a certain friend in high school) and some pink shorts. Her hair was down and makeup off, this was the plainest anyone would be able to see her, speaking of someone seeing her... "Oh, Hello." Her roommate was there, a girl she didn't recognize 

Saiyuri hadn't made much of The Fool's speech. Sounded like one's standard pre-vacation briefing, like when they gather you at the start of a cruise and teach you how not to die should something tragic happen. Feeling tired and slightly grimy from her unexpected bus nap, she would also head off to her room moments after The Fool's warm welcome. And of course, she would not get distracted by the fast food that her stomach longed for. Absolutely not. No way. She made a quick detour to McNaldo's before fully committing to going to her shared cabin. Of course, it would be rude of her not to pick up something for her roommate as well. With a bag full of burgers and fries (and all of her luggage, obviously), she sauntered into the bedroom with a bright smile on her face, prepared to greet her roommate in the best possible way: with food and friendliness. However, this only would have worked had her roommate actually been in the room. Now that Yuri thought about it, she did notice the sound of the shower running across the hall. Well, no point in waiting to chow down. After hefting her suitcase onto the bottom bunk (the top had already been claimed, darn), she settled next to it and retrieved the burger her stomach had been longing for. It was such a shame that the first sight her roommate was greeted with was Saiyuri going through her unmentionables with a mouthful of burger. Hurriedly swallowing, she shut her suitcase and stood up, wiping her hands with the cheap paper napkin they provided. "Hi! Sorry you had to see me like that, I'm starved. Have we met?"

"It's okay. I can understand, it was a long time before any of us got food." She looked down at herself, "And I'm not really presentable right now myself so... Even?" Katherine put her towel on her head and started drying her hair, "I don't think we have." Once most of the water was gone she just draped the towel over one shoulder, "Katherine Ueda. It's nice to meet my roommate..." She held out her hand.

Saiyuri mentally berated herself for never taking notice of this girl before, as she was absolutely adorable. Super tall too. Long legs, adorable features, lovely hair... She was staring. It took her a moment to come to her senses enough to realize that she had, indeed, introduced herself. Katherine Ueda... The name certainly sounded familiar. Not one to keep people waiting longer than they need to, Yuri shook Kathy's hand lightly, delicately. "Saiyuri Horiuchi! I'm a singer! What would your talent be?"

There was a small look of curiosity on Katherine's face when she noticed Saiyuri's eyes drifting to different parts of her, was she... No! Of course not, Katherine is just being silly. "Saiyuri Horiuchi. That name sounds sort of familiar... Oh! Me, I'm just... My title is Child Star." Her hand pulls away. Yuri was dressed in a lot of pink, that is one thing they sort of have in common. "I like your hair. You pull of pink very well. I'm glad I'm not the only pink girl here."

Yuri smiled brightly. Now that she thought of it, Katherine had been in a lovely dress earlier as well... "I'd say you look absolutely stunning in pink. You'd look gorgeous in any color actually. Perhaps we should trade beauty secrets! But first, are you hungry?" She steps back over to her bedside table to retrieve the bag of food. Can't flirt on an empty stomach. "I got enough for both of us!"

Saiyuri sure was laying it on thick, "Well, I-I don't know about any color..." That just made her play with her hair a little, thick but nice compliments. "Actually, I am really hungry." She took the bag from her room mate and opened it up, it smells so good, "Burgers and fries... I haven't had this sort of junk food in forever." She takes out a burger and hands the bag back before sitting on Yuri's bed, hopeing that she won't mind. "My mother has always had me on a strict diet. I figured I could give myself a little break since I'm here. Thank you, Saiyuri. This was really nice!" She gave the other a small smile before taking a bite into it. It looks like the child star was really enjoying the cheap food. "Oh-" She suddenly remembered. Katherine put a hand over her mouth to cover the food that was still in there, "I took top bunk just because I figured it'll be easier to get up since I'm tall, but if you want top bunk we can trade. I dont mind at all."

Yuri moved her suitcase to the floor. There'd be time to go through it later, for sure. For now, facetime with a gorgeous actress was much more important than arranging her underwear by style and color. Sitting across from the other girl, she happily took another couple bites out of her own burger as she listened to Kathy's anecdote. "Sounds awful, but mine gets the same way. My mom and my voice coach and my agent are all against happiness in the form of food. No rabbit food for as long as I'm on vacation, I say! Also, I don't mind bottom at all." Did Yuri even realize the implications behind what she had said? The world will never know. Swallowing, she smiled at Katherine. "And hey, this vacation is the perfect time to detox! Like a sleepover every night! Our host person is weird, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy ourselves, right?"

She swallowed her food before nodding to Saiyuri's words, "Exactly, I don't even want to see a single piece of lettuce while I'm here. I can go work out and diet once I'm back home. I'm going to enjoy myself since I'm here." Katherine was liking how smilely she was, Katherine has met people who smiled too much and they always seemed way too childish or really fake but Saiyuri seemed so real. "Okay, I'm happy to hear. I've... actually never had bunk beds before so I'm a little excited." A sleepover every night, it wasn't a bad idea to think of it like that. "I've... never had a sleepover before. I've seen shows and movies where there are sleepovers... You want to paint our nails and talk about boys every night? I'm down for anything but..."

"Weeeeell, nails yes, boys no." She gives Kathy a little wink for good measure. "And like, listen, sleepovers are awesome and not at all like they are in the movies. Believe it or not, pillow fights in our underwear are not required. Personally, karaoke has always been my favorite but I don't think they have any karaoke machines here, which sucks, but oh well."

"I think you would have an unfair advantage with karaoke. You'd just show off your voice." Katherine took another bite of the burger, "Mm, I have some bottles of nail polish we can use. I think that part will be fun..." If not boys, then... oh.  There was a little blush on her face, "Well, I'm glad underwear pillow fights aren't required because those scenes always looked way too force... Um, then you want to talk about... the girls?" Katherine always entertained the thought of liking girls but she just hasn't really gone through it. "There's a lot of pretty girls here, don't you think? We should invite them to a sleepover. That sounds fun."

"Hey, showing off isn't ever bad! We're like the most ultra-talented people in the country, we should get to show off a little bit." She took another bite as she considered talking about the other girls. Certainly, they were all very cute in their own rights... It wouldn't be too bad to gossip a little bit, maybe invite them over one night. "There are absolutely a lot of pretty girls here and a sleepover with all of them is the literal best idea I've ever heard. Except, maybe we should leave the girl with the tattoos out... If we're being honest, she kinda freaks me out a bit."

"Yeah... I guess we are..." Katherine got quiet until the conversation carried onto the sleepover once more. "The tattoo girl?... I think- Well... I guess it doesn't matter if we leave her out. I don't think she'd want to come." The actress shrugged her shoulders, "Having a big group party with the other girls would be fun... I'm glad my roommate is you, you seem really nice, Saiyuri."

"Awww, I'm just being my own sweet self. I'm pretty glad you're my roommate too! One performer to another, it's nice to let down my public image for a bit. People always expect me to be like weirdly sultry and enigmatic since I'm a lounge singer. You know, like that mysterious girl in the back of a cab that you catch a glimpse of and fall in love with at first sight. It can get pretty annoying, especially when almost all of that attention comes from boys." She grimaces as if to prove her disgust. "But anyway, I need to try on your pink clothes and give that hair color a shot. It looks so good on you!"

It sounded hard to keep up that sort of public image, but Katherine completely understands. She has to go through the same thing every day. "Heh, my clothes are pretty revealing... My mother thinks being sexy will make me more of an attractive choice for movie parts, that's why I wear such bright colors, it's very eye-catching, don't you think? ... I think your clothes fit you just fine... You can try my hair color if you want. I have some dyes in my bag I can spare."

"Being sexy has its merits but like really only if you want to. Your mom sounds terrible and I'll fight her myself." With that, she finishes her burger and reaches into the bag for a few fries. "Also, hair dying sounds like a perfect activity for a sleepover! We should make a list of stuff we wanna do at this thing, right? Gotta keep our guests entertained!"

"I... Thank you?" She's never had someone say that they will fight her mother? The idea was tempting though." Katherine was only half way through the burger, a habit of eating slowly. "Activities... Um, painting nails, hair dyes, ghost stories, food... Uh, spin the bottle is a party game..." Secretly, Katherine loved the shit out of Spin the bottle, she side-eyed Saiyuri, "If you don't mind kissing girls."

"What have you learned about me in the last fifteen minutes that indicates that I wouldn't be completely, 100% down with kissing girls?" She put on a false expression of indignation. The very thought! "Spin the bottle is absolutely going on the list. How abooooouuut... Shoot, I don't even know if we're allowed to have movies in here. Oh, but we can absolutely raid the restaurants and pig out. That sounds super fun."

"...Pff-" Katherine held back a laugh, her reaction was so cute. Yuri really wasn't holding back at all, "You're not shy at all about liking girls, are you! What a bold singer... I guess you have to be bold to keep up that smokey lounge singer image you have going on." She was very interesting, to say the least. "I think we need just a TV and a dvd player for the movies. Would a horror movie be good? I think it will make everyone a little paranoid with the current situtation."

Oh, that laugh shot Cupid's arrow right through Yuri's heart. This was totally and utterly unfair. She couldn't help the blush that spread slightly over her cheeks "Not shy at all! Though, my mom gets mad if I flirt with girls in the audience so I have to restrain myself there. Girls are awesome though, you gotta admit. But to be honest, I'm a baby about horror movies. I'll be shaking in my boots just during the opening credits, but if all the others are cool with it then I'll just cling to someone's arm or hide in a blanket the whole time."

She finally finished the burger. Katherine politely grabbed the bag from where it sat and took out the fries, "It's heart breaking that your mom didn't allow you to flirt with the girls, girls need some love too from attractive lounge singers." The actress popped the fries into her mouth, "Mm, well if we watch a scary movie, my arm is open for you, Saiyuri." This girl was flirting with her, and Katherine found herself flirting back. It was... different from the times she's been around boys. It was nice.

Saiyuri almost choked on the fries she'd just put in her mouth. Oh my god. Oh my god. She had to regain her composure and fast. It wasn't often that girls would be receptive to her advances, and while she never pushed those who clearly weren't interested, she couldn't help but feel disappointed when that happened. That didn't seem to be the case here, however, which was shocking. "Attractive? You think?" She was sounding eager, she noticed. Why wouldn't she be? "That's so sweet... You sure know how to make a girl feel special, huh?"

"I, I hope so? If I'm being honest I don't... flirt?" Kather shrugged her shoulders and took more fries, "I'm really use to guys taking control of all the flirting and me just going along but... I'm surprise you seem so shocked, Saiyuri. I thought someone like you would be use to flirting?" Honestly, Katherine was! Saiyuri was very attractive, how was she not use to this already, "And yes, You are very cute."

"Listen, do you know how many times I've been rejected by straight girls? This is a one-in-one hundred occurrence! Especially with someone as gorgeous as yourself! Don't think I didn't notice how pretty you are before, because I absolutely did. Flirting is like breathing for me but the only people who flirt back are guys which is very non-ideal, you know? And like, the whole point of a lounge singer is while we're all dark and mysterious and sexy, we're like supposed to be unattainable right? You want to talk to us but we just slip away into the night. That's sorta what I've had to do so even if a girl in the audience showed interest, I couldn't do a thing about it!"

"..." Katherine just stared at her for a moment, her face hot red from being called gorgeous, but then there was a slight frown, then Kathy brought it back to a smile, "Saiyuri, calm down..." One hand patted the singer's shoulder, "I think I can get the surprise now but luckily for you... This isn't a lounge so you don't have to go disappearing into the night. In fact I don't think you'd want to slip away... All your stuff is here... and you'll be sleeping here. Slipping away isn't a good idea." She was so happy that Katherine was flirting back, so eager! "If I'm honest I've never really flirted with a girl. It seemed like only men were interested in me... Thanks for giving me more interesting options..." Her eyes drifted over Saiyuri for a moment, "I think this is more fun. This roomate thing will be a lot easier I think."

"Oh, no, trust me, this is definitely more fun." Saiyuri smiled warmly at Kathy, happy that she seemed as excited as she was. "This is gonna be an awesome vacation and I'm super excited. But like, promise me you'll give me your phone number when we leave? We gotta stay in contact!" To emphasize this, Yuri pulled her phone from her pocket (no reception still, weird) and set it to add a new contact. "Pleeeeaaaase?" She holds the phone out to Kathy.

"..." There was a small smile on Katherine's face. She happily took Saiyuri's phone and put her number down, naming the contact <3 Kathy <3 before handing it back to her. "We should hang out once we're done with the vacation. I mean, we can hang out here, of course, but I think I'd really like to go out shopping with you at a small or something. I can't believe we were at the same school the whole time and we never got to meet... That's sort of sad."

"Shopping with you would be so fun! We could do one of those fun trying-things-on montages from the movies! You know the ones..." Yuri leaned back against the wall behind the bed. "Also, I really hope there are more things to do in this place. I saw a few places weren't open yet, but maybe we'll get some fun stuff in the next couple days. I wonder if there'll be a spa... Imagine how nice a spa day would be."

She giggled, unbridled this time, "A shopping montage? So we try on different clothes and shake our heads yes and no to outfits? Why not, sounds like a fun time. I'm dying to try clothes that aren't bright pinks or blue anyways." Some duller colors might be a little easier on the eyes. "A spa day sounds really good." Steam rooms, back rubs, and foot care. Sounded so very relaxing. "I normally go with my mother. It's probably the most relaxing times I spend with her.

"Aww, but you do brights so well! Ah, I suppose it reminds you of your mom though, huh? In any case, I still think you could pull off anything." Yuri smiled. She meant everything she said. "See, lucky for you, you found your new spa partner! We can just forget about our moms and have a day just for us. Sounds fun, right?"

"Just us. I think that sounds like a great idea." Right, don't think about what's back home. Just focus on fun. This whole trip is all about fun. "Forget all problems and just let loose. I think we'll have a lot of fun here together. I hope they open up new areas to us soon. There aren't a whole lot of entertainment spots in this little village area."

"Man, I at least hope the store opens soon. And that they have my brand of shampoo. I only brought a little bit, you know, filled up one of those travel bottles." Yuri chewed a fry thoughtfully for a moment before remembering something very important. "Ah! Shoot, I still need to shower. I'm all nasty from the bus nap. What was up with that anyway?"

"Y'know, I have no idea... Everyone fell asleep. Maybe there was something on the bus?" A number of things could have happened that caused them to go to sleep. It doesn't matter anymore, at least not to Katherine. "Either way, We're here. Better make the best of it." Katherine pushes herself off the bed, "Better go take your shower. Who knows what could have been on that bus."

"Will do! I'll be fresh as a daisy when I get back!" Saiyuri got up from the bed, handing the bag and what fries were left in it to Kathy. She quickly retrieved her own pajamas and various toiletries from her luggage "Try not to miss me too much, kay?" With that, she left the room, already excited to get back.

She took the bag of fries that her shoved into her hands and gave her a smile, "It'll be hard not too." Katherine said as her roommate busted out the door. After putting the fries in the fridge, Katherine sat down at the table, soaking up everything that just happened... She blushed horribly, holding her face.

[sambart93]

2017.09.18 Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine Review!

I was able to go to the Live Viewing of this stage! Which I am thankful for because tickets were impossible! I watched the anime when it first came out and loved the anime and fell in love with Haine and the fact that it's UeChan and Haine himself is adorable just made it all the more 'I must watch this!'

If you want more details about the overall story and plot of this stage then you can go to this blog post I just found here.

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Video Coverage 1, 2, 3 PreOrder DVD/BR here, and here

However, my expectations for this musical did drop somewhat when on the Friday, I was outside the theatre (waiting for a trade) when I noticed, everyone that walked out were deadly silent and not smiling or speaking really. I’ve never seen that happen with a stage before! So it really worried me; did people not like it? Was it bad? What went wrong? Did something happen on stage? Did an actor get hurt? All these things went through my mind and ultimately it really pulled down my expectations for it. And then my friend went and was also like ‘before I went in for the night show, none of the afternoon audience were very waiwai (hyper, happy, fangirling) when they left.. and then I saw it; I understand why they weren’t waiwai but I think I’m not waiwai for different reasons’ so then I really had like minus expectations going into this. Which is a shame because thy anime is a amazing, the cast for this is solid, it has a lot of potential and room to grow and have fun and be a really enjoyable stage. But from what me and my friend had seen... it wasn’t promising =/

Anyway lets get down to it:

CAST and CHARACTERS

Ueda Keisuke as Haine Hirose Daisuke as Leonhart/Leonhard Asato Yuya as Kai Aoi Shouta as Rihito / Richi Adachi Yuto as Bruno Tatsuma Hoshi as Maximilian Udagawa Tsukasa as Lugwig Kimisawa Yuki as Rosenberg Nobuo Kyo as Victor Ensemble

NON SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This is going to be really stupid, and I know it, BUT... there was too much singing. I felt like 70% of this is just song after song after song (according to one press release, this musical has over 40 songs) with no plot or scenes of dialogue. Especially the beginning. The first 30 minutes are absolute torture of song after song and I got very agitated and bored of it very easily and felt like ‘get to the story already!’. Luckily the singing simmers down once we get past Leonhart’s arc and get into Kai and Rihito’s story; there’s definitely less singing and actual acting and scenes once that beginning is over. Asato Yuya as Kai was absolute perfection; he couldn’t have done a better job. Rihito’s arc in the stage is VERY good and very enjoyable. I absolutely adored Aoi’s performance  as Rihito in this part of the stage and his song in the climax of the arc actually made me cry pretty hard. Kimisawa really surprised me with his singing; his singing is absolutely amazing. I was so impressed! But after a while, what with apparently there being 40 songs in this stage, all his song started to sound the same and repetitive. But his voice is gold. I really enjoyed Nobuo Kyo’s performance and thought he fit Victor pretty well. UeChan was obviously a great Haine and his performance always fascinated and entices me. Although I will say; this musical version of Haine lacked in comedy and lightheartedness which is a shame because they could’ve done so many cute and adorable moments with UeChan as Haine but they didn’t do it so much; only now and again would there be cute Haine moments which I'm sad about. And because of the lack of comedy and lightheartedness, the musical feels very down and dark and it’s actually tiring to watch after about the first 110minutes. I noticed the audience around me in the cinema started to get really fidgety and restless after about 100 minutes, and I started to lose it after the 130 minute mark. I think that’s why so much of the audience is/was so neutral after coming out of the show. Finally, the show ran a bit too long; if they’d cut out some of the musical numbers, this play could’ve been shorter but also much more enjoyable in my opinion. I appreciated the ending change (from the anime to the stage) though - the rest of the stage is a carbon copy of the anime. Although it kind of ends suddenly without any real... climax song.... which also leads to the audience being very ‘ah okay... *walks home*’. The best part of the stage was, in all honesty, the curtain call. Seeing the cast interact with one another and having this massive laugh and fun together as themselves in front of the audience was so much fun xD Rating: 6/10

Now to the nittygritty.

SPOILER REVIEW

To reiterate the non-spoiler section: The first part of this play is just not good. I got very bored straight away because it was just song after song after song and it really bogged me down and I was just like 'hurry up and get to the story already!'. I know it's stupid to complain because this IS a musical but.... there really are TOO many songs in this - 40!... so many songs would've been better as just scenes of dialogue. I really don’t like when a song is put in just for performances sake rather than to help the plot along and I feel this happened a lot. For example, you don’t need to sing to me how many fucking points the princes got on their test; just fucking tell me! What a waste of time. So they really irked me. Also there was one female singer who was just a note too high for my liking in almost every song and it really made me cringe. If you wanna sing that high, go do fucking opera! It really took you out of the story with quite a few of the songs in my opinion. It also felt like it was trying to be ‘west end’ with all the ensemble dancing and the singing and such. It was too much for me. There’s a reason why I hate and avoid west end musicals, and Haine unfortunately was somewhat reminiscent of those musicals so I did not enjoy it. The overall balance in the group singing though was really nice and I fell like almost everyone balanced and bounced off each other well in the singing parts. I get it's a musical so there should be lots of songs, but it just feel the balance between music numbers and scenes with dialogue and actual acting, especially in the beginning, was way off.

This musical is REALLY long too! I think we got about 60% through and people were really starting to shuffle or going to the bathroom without really caring. And at about 80% through, I started to feel 'if we go to the council scene right now I'm gunna fucking scream! I am ready for this to be done', but luckily they changed the ending which made it so much more bearable and worked much better for stage rather than it would've in the anime but I'll get to that later.

It wasn't until we got to Kai's arc that it started to be less about the songs and actually whole scenes of dialogue and acting that I started to enjoy it. Unfortunately this means that I pretty much blocked out Leonhart’s arc because that too was just song after song in my opinion. They even cut out the scene of Haine reading his diary! I love that scene! And we didn’t have any ridiculous Haine chasing Leonhart on a horse while standing ON the horse! I was hoping for some Touken Ranbu Stage horse ridiculousness for that one scene but they cut it out completely =[ Apparently the ensemble in this one are too professional to do something that silly - seriously, I hated the ensemble (most likely the directors fault though), but I just hated them. I feel like all their constant singing and dancing didn’t add anything to the stage either. Just be normal ensemble and do your roles! BUT I will say, their costumes were very, very creative and I liked them xD

As expected, Kai's arc was adorable! Especially as soon as he grabbed UeChan's hand and was like 'funi funi.... your hand... is funi funi...... suki / I like you' and Haine freaked like 'it's still a little too early for that?!-- oh, you mean my hand because it’s soft,' which was so funny! Especially because during that moment Haine was brought to his knees from Kai really locking in on his hand and playing with it >_< Asato was just perfection as Kai; he was absolutely perfect. Seeing him completely switch back to himself at the curtain call was just a great transformation to witness. His acting was so good as Kai! He had some golden moments during Rihito’s arc too.

Rihito's arc was probably the best part in terms of acting and performance. Also it had a hilarious adlib in it! Kai comes in from a side door and into the crowd and is like 'I have to be able to give greetings just like Sensei said... *faces camera, but there’s no spotlight so it’s just this black silhouette of him facing the camera, so we all cracked up laughing* are you my father?! I'll do my best!' And then he tries to talk to a girl but fails so he's like 'I wonder what Haine would do in my situation', and UeChan is just in his seat trying not to crack up. So Kai repeats himself 'I WONDER WHAT HAINE WOULD DO IN MY SITUATION,' so UeChan gave in because the crowd clapped for him to join in. He 'jumped' through the 4th wall and approached a girl 'good evening... your kimono is beautiful.... who do you like in Haine? Oh me? Thank you! ... excluding me who do you like? .... she said only me'. Then he went back on stage and 'jumped' back into the Haine world. So Kai tries 'good evening! Who do you like in Haine? ...... LEOHARTO..... WHO’S NEXT? Me? Oh thank you!' And the adlib scene ends. When Rihito came back into that scene, he's like 'Haine you disappeared for a moment' xD

I really, really loved Rihito's arc. I think Aoi did absolutely amazing in his acting and performance. Especially the music number towards the end of his story where he's crying and he's like 'father doesn't care! He never did!' then his father accepts him and he's crying and breaking down like 'you really do care! And I didn't notice because I was just a stupid kid'. I legit couldn't stop my tears! The performance was amazing and I was so impressed with this part of the stage. Also there's a part where Rihito smacks the cafe owner in the face with the metal serving plate and I burst out into laughter. I thought it was hilarious!

OH! The girl next to me was SO funny! Everytime there was a close up of Aoi or DaiChan, she would smack her hand over her nose and mouth because she’d just cry xD she was adorable and kept me entertained during the less interesting parts of the play.

Then we got to Bruno’s arc. I feel like this one was probably the shortest and most simple to get through. I don’t really remember anything note worthy or different to the anime for this arc. Bruno’s actor is probably the weakest singer. You could tell he was trying but he didn’t have much of a range; it definitely seemed like his voice was going to crack at some points due to being strained. The actor himself is cute though, and I feel like I preferred stage Bruno over anime Bruno.

OH! There was one point! When he decides to call Haine ‘Shisou’ and he starts flailing and shaking his arms around, then Leonhart comes in and joins in on the flailing; that part was funny.

Which reminds me; a lot of the comedy and jokes that should’ve hit and made the audience laugh just didn’t; either the timing was off or they just didn’t express it as a comical moment but it totally should’ve been. Like THIS scene where he decides to call Haine ‘Shisou’ -- it’s hilarious in the anime -- but in the stage he’s just like ‘Ah! I will call you Shisou’ and Haine just walks away ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.’ It SHOULD’VE a funny scene! We should’ve had a funny moment of Haine reacting to being called Shisou like ‘ararara?! Shisou?! *cough* I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.’ but nothing! I think A LOT of my problems for this stage musical from the LACK of comedy in it. There were some hilarious parts don’t get me wrong! Such as the adlib with Kai -- but it’s an adlib, not a planned comedy scene --- and we had some cute Haine moments.

Planned Comedy moments we had:

1. Haine being lifted up when he was captured 2. Maximilian giving Haine brides lift so he can’t enter the kingdom at the beginning. 3. Haine  rolling around the floor at and onto Rihito’s feet going ‘goro goro goro’ 4. Haine pulling pufferfish faces and pouting when a Prince is being childish. 5. Rihito smacking the cafe owner in the face with a silver serving plate. 6. Victor joining the cafe and having his butt smacked by the owner after doing a good job. 7. Haine jumping to his knees when he gets called a child. 8. Girls pretending to fall off their chair in the cafe so Rihito can help them up but he ignores them. 9. Haine curled up on the sofa and rocking side to side as he waits for his moment to talk.

But a LOT of this is just ‘story story, oh this prince has troubles, oh now they’re fixed, music number three billion times, story arc done, begin next arc’ without any comedy in it at all! This is HAINE!! The anime was hilarious (AND ADORABLE!)! The manga looks very funny too! But this musical just didn’t have it. Touken Ranbu is MORE funny than this stage! WTF?! That doesn’t add up does it?!

Now that I’ve gone down the road of negatives, I may as well carry on:

I did not like the 'Young Haine' and 'Young Victor' roles. It worked when the two actresses were just acting the scene out while the spotlights were mainly on Victor and Haine. BUT the LV cameraman kept the close ups on the two actresses, and I was like 'you're ruining the magic here!!! Keep the camera on Uechan or Nobuo OR stick to the wide shot you had going on with all 4 of them in shot because that looked FINE!' I did not like the close ups of the Young roles because they weren't even lip-syncing to what UeChan and Nobuo were saying so it just looked stupid in the cinema. Swear to god, these close ups are on the DVD and I'm gunna flip my shit. It just did not work. Continuing my ensemble hate; I HATED the fact that they used the SAME guy to play all the 'Young (insert the prince's name here)' every time,and they didn't even bother to put a wig on him to make him look more like the prince he was supposed to be at the time. Ugh..... that really got on my shit.

Final bad point: I feel like this stage ends really weird... I feel like the climax song was about 3 songs before the actual final song and it’s like ‘Haine please come back!’ and he goes ‘hello I’m your new teacher’ and it just ends, and they suddenly start bowing and I just think it’s really weird and abrupt how the stage ends. Why didn’t they end with like the boys running over to him ‘hey Haine I’m so glad you’re bad! Lets go do this! Let’s try this! Lets--’ and Haine going ‘wait! It’s time for class to start!’ and them all raising their hands and going ‘okay!!’ and then either happy clappy music starts blasting out, or lights cutting out to black before the clapping and bowing starts. That would’ve been a better ending.

BACK to the positives!

UeChan really is the cutest thing to walk this Earth xD whenever he did the little pouty faces or whenever he did something to make himself smaller was just so adorable! I was super surprised to hear that he can actually sing and that he sings so softly compared to his normal, very powerful voice! It's so adorable!! He also made me cry; it was during the Victor and Haine flashback scene and when it got to the Haine going on a fighting rampage, the Young role jumped out of the way and it was UeChan that did all the action and the fighting when he attacked the royal guards and my heart just hurt so much for Haine at that point <3 UeChan’s action choreography and movements were great! I was surprised how high he could kick his leg and everything! I also loved that they did the iconic gun scene when he and Kai are captured and the ‘bang’ sign comes out of the gun rather than a bullet xD UeChan’s action in that scene is good too!

To say it was Tatsuma’s first play, I thought he did great! His Maximilian was adorable! But, I think he needs to eat more; those pants and large jackets weren’t hide the tiny body he obviously has.

Just to reiterate the Non-spoiler section again: Kimisawa really surprised me with his singing; his singing is absolutely amazing. I was so impressed! I also thought he did a great job as Rosenberg and was happy with his performance. I think he made Rosenberg more mischievous. I really liked the scene where he throws the papers on the streets of the town so everyone can hear about Kai’s past. It was a nice moment. But like I said his songs started to sound the same and repetitive after a while. But his voice is gold and was amazing to listen to. AND I really enjoyed Nobuo Kyo’s performance and thought he fit Victor pretty well. Especially the cafe scene where he tries to act cute and does all these cute poses and then gets his butt slapped by the cafe owner and he feels and looks so violated xD I thought he and UeChan bounced off each other very well.

I'm glad they changed the ending. It was getting towards the end, I was getting agitated and thought 'if they go into the council scene, it's gunna be another 20 or 30 minutes, and I am so ready to be done!' But they changed it in that Rosenberg and Haine go back to Haine's old teaching church and Rosenberg tempts him to do something (I didn't catch what) but just before he accepts, the boys turn up and tell him 'you taught us that everyone has a few scars... you taught us we should do what we want' etc and in the end he decides to stay as their teacher. In the anime, the whole council scene works but for Stage I think the council scene would've been too much and I'm glad they changed it to make it all this more simpler and more 'just about Haine and his boys' rather than in the anime where 'the kingdom gets to decide and the boys have to prove their mature enough' etc. I am thankful for this change!

AFTERSHOW

The curtain call was adorable. Everyone did their greetings and UeChan asked them all to hurry up but didn't explain until later that it's because they might get cut off in the LV of they go to long xD Bruno's actor was adorable! He was like 'playing Bruno and a Professor it was so--- wait what did I just say?' And then everyone had a go at him and he was like 'I'm okay' in like the cutest way ever and I absolutely died of laughter. During DaiChan's turn he said nothing mean about Aoi and Aoi ran for him but Bruno held him back while DaiChan just laughed his ass off and UeChan like 'behave!!' XD Nobuo was adorable too; ‘I'm not a father in real life buy I think I now know how fathers feel... look at my sons! I’m so proud of them!’. UeChan's parents were there tonight and he was like 'don't search for them! 探さないで！' to the audience >.<

EDIT: also during the second curtain call Ueda was like ‘thank you all for standing up, but we’re all going to say something so *switches to English* sit down please’ and it was such good pronunciation <3

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I’m kinda regretting the fact that I preordered the BluRay (especially because you had to pay 1000yen at the venue just to preorder it) because of how much I ended up not enjoying the musical BUT hopefully on the BluRay they’ll be good backstage stuff which’ll make it worth it, plus it comes with a possible DVD release event ticket so if I hit for that then it’ll make the purchase worth it. If not, I’ll just sell it off to someone. Any takers? xD

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GOODS

I’m defo buying his randoms from this stage in the near future; last week they were super cheap at KBooks.

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And that’s all! Sorry it wasn’t all happy and smiles like you were probably expecting.. but to be honest; I LOVE complaining, when do I never not complain about a stage?