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ld1homepage · 7 years

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The successful jailbreak reward is the next boss's seat! Reports on the stage version of the popular BL game [Lucky Dog 1] with photos

translation of the spice articles @spice.eplus.jp/articles/180042

BL game's golden title also known as [Lucky Dog 1], the stage opens on Saturday, March 24, 2018. Prior to the opening performance, a dress rehearsal with the main cast performed to a selected audience.

The original is a PC adult BL game released by Tennenouji in 2009. While the release of spin-off works and apps continues, new anticipating work was also announced and once again attracts the fans attention. How far are the the so-called "adult" scenes? It raises a big topic at the time of the stage announcement. Fans also worry of which route the stage will play out.

Domoto Shohei as the role of Giancarlo, Gian joins the mafia CR:5 captains with Sugie Masahiro as Bernardo Ortolani, Yamauchi Keisuke as Luchino Gregoretti, Terumi as Giulio di Bondone, and Sato Shinsuke as Ivan Fiore.

Bernardo and Gian who call each other “honey” and “darling”.

A remarkable man, Luchino with an unforgettable past.

"Women are the sea..." Gian observes Ivan's work.

Giulio's secret and problem.

Standing before the CR:5, Maniwa Ryosuke as Bakshi Christensen, Yoshimura Kazuhiro as David Owen, and Fujisawa Yuu as Honus O'Sullivan.

From the left: Bakshi, David, Honus.

The first half depicts the jailbreak from prison, the second half is Gian bonding with the captains after return to their home city. The composition of the lines into two parts gives us the same excitement as if playing a game. We would like you to experience the unique fun of the stage such as the original game lines and Gian's gun battle and the mafia you could only imagine in the game.

[THE STAGE Lucky Dog 1 first luck] will be scheduled to perform for all 10 shows at the Six Row Conference Hall from the 24th to 30th.

Post-dress rehearsal interview

---Please give your impressions and thoughts about the dress rehearsal performance.

Sato Shinsuke as Ivan Fiore: I'm really excited to see the work all the staff and casters created. I would like to do my best so as to not disappoint the original fan's expectations.

Yamauchi Keisuke as Luchino Gregoretti: To be frank, it's a long way everyone has come so far. It's a performance we built together as company, now that we've successfully finished the dress rehearsal, next stop is the stage. I'll give my best from here, I hope to convey the wonderful view of the "Lucky Dog 1" world to the staff, casters, and everyone.

Domoto Shohei as Giancarlo: Dress rehearsal done! It was really fun so I'm thrilled to immediately show our audience! I will do my best.

Sugie Masahiro as Bernardo Ortolani: I was extremely nervous, but I've been thinking how far I've come, all I have to do is perform my best live! Please take a look, thank you.

Terumi as Giulio di Bondone: The stage play is adapted from a very popular original work. I just finished the dress rehearsal but I'm happy to perform in front of the audience in the future. The stage [Lucky Dog 1] is coming out to the public for the first time so I'm looking forward to it very much, I'm full of anticipation.

Maniwa Ryosuke as Bakshi Christensen: I'm very excited. I hope share this excitement to everyone so that each audience member visiting us will return home remembering the experience from a different angle.

---Please tell us what you are most looking forward to seeing.

Sato Shinsuke: To see myself in character, Ivan isn't easily upfront about things but there are many sweet aspects in his work, so I wish you to see it.

Yamauchi Keisuke: Both the CR:5 and GD have strong individual characters along with the cast that play them. The [Lucky Dog 1] world is very condensed, I think there are some member who come to see very performance, because it's a detailed story a play cannot cover everything. I wonder if you can come to see how it plays out.

Domoto Shohei: (while looking in the distance) It is the beauty of humans weakened over time. That's what I would like to see.

Sugie Masahiro: I would not only like to see the CR:5 but also every individuals' interactions with the CR:5... for example seeing the relationship between Bernardo and Gian or someone else with Gian. Since I think it's understood that the CR:5 itself has various ways of showing the personality of the 5 people, I wish you could see the relationships through words, actions, etc.

Terumi: Giulio is not a type with many lines so we have a lot of movement, facial expressions, and actions. I hope that you can come see those expressed.

Maniwa Ryosuke: I think there's a reason Bakshi choose these clothes. If you licked it, I think that surely Bakshi will be pleased. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly.

(Next, Terumi quickly tears off Bakshi's clothes.)

Maniwa Ryosuke: by licking~ (lol)

News, composition, photography by Hiromi Matsumoto (C)WoGa　(C)STAGE CR:5

#lucky dog 1 #translation #ld1 stage

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aonodreamland · 8 years

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youtube

Kamen Rider Amazons season 2 Promotional Video

Cast :

Maejima You

Shiramoto Ayana

Miura Kota

Momiki Yoshito (Gekidan Bancho Boys)

Akaso Eiji (Boys and Men)

Miura Kairi

Domoto Shohei (Gekidan Bancho Boys)

Fujita Tom

Taniguchi Masashi

Takeda Rena

Higashi Ayu

Miyahara Kanon

And Others

Kamen Rider Amazons Official Site

#Kamen Rider Amazons #Kamen Rider #Tokusatsu #Video #Youtube

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.07.15 Bancho Boys Natsu/Summer Event Live 2018 [Report]

I was both worried and excited for this! Excited because it’s Bancho and we can pretty much admit at this point that I’m gunna be dedicated to them for life, or at least until something big/bad happens like they disband. I was worried because it’s a summer festival theme BUT I don’t have a yukata! So I had to rummage my wardrobe for something at least nice and it’s not exactly my first choice of what I wanted to wear but it was good enough... hopefully it was good enough for them too haha

Event Page here Official Website here Official Twitter here

PARTICIPANTS

Itokawa Yojiro Oosumi Yuta Oribe Yoshinari Kikuchi Shuji Kihara Rui Shimura Sadao Sunahara Kensuke Tanaka Riku Chiwata Yuhei Domoto Shohei Futaba Yuu Momiki Yoshito Yashiro Takuya Yasui Kazuma

☆ The story this time was about three bands battling it out to win the music competition prize of 1 billion yen. They all had different motives for joining the competition and of course Yojiro was our protagonist xD The main part of the story was him and his ex-bandmates getting back together one last time and trying out this competition. Yojiro's motivation for joining the competition is that it's enough money for him to afford to send his sick mother to America to get the surgery she needs. But in true Bancho story-telling style, his mother dies just before he does the live performance in the competition, but (in true Japanese storytelling style) he knows that she would rather he be performing and being happy rather than being by her side in her final moments so he stays positive and sings and performs with her in mind.

☆There were three teams (I do not remember the team names unfortunately): 1. Domoto, Yuhei, Riku and Kazuma 2. Oribe, Shuji, Takuya and Rui (Rui, Oribe and Takuya were brothers in the ‘stage’) 3. Momiki, Yuta, Kensuke and Yojiro = Bancho Boys The MCs for the event were Dao and Yuu-kun.

☆ During the opening scenes and introductions of the characters and relationships. We clearly had the gangster group which was Domoto and co. Then we had the group and family of brothers which was Oribe and co. Then we had Yojiro and co. who used to be in a band together.

☆In the opening scene, some of the boys brought on a helium can, and Yuhei tried to use it but it didn’t work on him xD I assumed he didn't really inhale it because his voice WOULD change regardless of how high it already is but... CONSPIRACY THEORIES!! xD

☆As expected they were all in Jinbei *dies* I knew they were going to do that! They all looked so good! The three teams had matching Jinbeis so you could see what teams they were in and Dao has this modern-styled jinbei (because he's always gotta be extra xD) and Yuu-kun had a colourful jinbei on -- he looked goooooood xD

☆The games they did:

1. Eating watermelon the fastest game

2. Telling scary stories

3. Balloon-Russian-Roulette Timer game

4. Live performance from each band

☆EATING WATERMELON: The competitors in this one were Yuta, Shuji and Yuhei.

Yuhei was doing it for his team, and somehow it ended up flying to the ground and breaking in half almost immediately after the whistle went. The rest of the boys who weren't doing the challenge, immediately went into cleaning mode and tried their best to clean up the floor and such around the three who were competing.

Then Kazuma tried to hide half behind his back like no one would notice so they could win but obviously YuuKun and Dao saw, as well as the rest of the audience xD

Yuta got mad because they announced Shuji as the winner even though he said he had accidentally eaten some of Shuji’s himself (watch what you’re eating then!!!).

Yuta was absolutely hilarious during this challenge.

☆SCARY STORIES: For the scary stories we had Kazuma, Oribe and Yohiro.

My side died during the scary story of Kazuma's part! But first he tried to start his story and he mispoke and mixed up his words so everyone died laughing and he begged to restart it. When he restarted it, everyone was getting into it but because a staff member opened the right side door during it and we all freaked out! The boys had no idea what was going on and why we were suddenly shitting ourselves. The girls behind me and my friend really did freak out badly xD it was very funny.

Oribe's story was pretty scary; he spoke about how a boy was in hospital and everynight the bed next to him would knock on the wall in communication with him and after a while the boy asked the doctor who was in the bed/room next door and the doctor said there wasn't a room, it was just a solid wall, nothing else. A lot of people freaked out during this one. I actually freaked out a lot during this one but it was because suddenly one of the audience members had come back in from the lobby and was walking pretty damn fast down the aisle that I was surprised when she showed up in the corner of my eye!

Yojiro's story was a true story of how back in Shimane everyone is used to leaving doors and windows and such open adn unlocked that when he first came to Tokyo, he continued to do that. But one day he came home and saw that someone had opened his curtains and had folded his clothing that had originally been on the floor, so he immediately thought of his orecious belongings and ran up to his loft where his bank book and such was, but it had been left as is so he was relieved but when he turned to go down the stairs, he saw someone's shadow in the corner of the room running out. And he said, since then he's locked his windows and doors and properly closed and opened his curtains and stuff.

After Yojiro told his scary story he went ‘RAWR!’ at Dao who absolutely shit himself. He tried to get away but his shoes made him trip and stumble and he went pretty much over half of the stage before he fell down. No one tried to help him as he was falling. We all died laughing at his reaction.

I could totally relate to Yojiro's story cos when I lived in Yamaguchi, we all did the same: windows and doors left open and unlocked all hours of the day, even if we weren't home. But I definitely don't dare do that here! I have more sense than... well Yojiro, clearly xD

☆BALLOON: I think this one was the most fun, purely because they boys themselves were having such a lot of fun playng it! They were originally only going to do one match but YuuKun said 'let's go again' and then they didn't want to stop so they did it another 2 times! But you could tell, they easily all wanted to keep going. And I think the audience wouldn't have minded if they HAD continued. Either that or next time get the audience involved too! Choose a row and go down one by one. Now that would be heaps of fun! Or get a few girls to come up on stage and go in between the boys - I'm sure they'd tried to protect her/them xD BUT having said that, the boys were such scaredy cats!

The rounds that they did were: SOUR FOOD, FRUIT NAMES, Things Futaba Kaname would Say. Some of the answers I remember were:

1. Sour Things: Two of them had said Suppaiman during this game and after the round, YuuKun was like 'what's Suppaiman?!' and everyone was like 'you don't know?! How do you not know what it is?!'. I didn't catch what it was, but after googling, it seems to be dried sour pickled plums or something similar.

2. Fruit: in this round Dai wanted to join in so he did and because he was on an end, he had to give two answers at once so he gave 'Philippine banana' and 'Philippine mango' which were acceptable answers in YuuKun's eyes xD

3. Things that Kaname would say: Yuu was the judge on whether it was something he would say or not. So they gave answers like:

'Yuu! You didn’t do the laundry!' ‘Seiya nee' 'Sou ya nee' 'Natsu ha Aru, aru ha natsu' And YuuKun was like 'yes... YES!!... HE SAYS THAT!!' xD

But during this final around, on Yuhei’s turn they realised the timer had stopped and YuuKun just stood there like -____- << his reaction was absolutely hilarious and everyone died of laughter. He was SO unamused that the timer had stopped so their answers were all fruitless. In the end, YuuKun made Yojiro sit on the balloon to burst it even though he didn't lose.

The first two rounds, the balloon always popped on poor Takuya xD but each time the one who gave the biggest reaction was Dao, who would fall back onto the floor every time It really amused YuuKun who was dying of laughter next to him xD

After this game, as they were leaving, they all wanted to get some extra points for their team, so they all said something to YuuKun. Here, Domoto just hugged YuuKun and he was like ‘Yup! 50 points!’ xD I love their friendship so much!

☆LIVE PERFORMANCE:

One of the groups (Oribe and co.) sang the ExAid theme song and I got way too excited and hyped when I realised what song it was! It was a really good remix of the song too! I liked their performance of it!

Kazuma forgot the lyrics to the song he was singing, but I don’t remember what it was unfortunately.

The BanchoBoy group came out in swimming rings and singing LocoMoco --- it's not the Madonna song but it is very similar and had English and Japanese mixed in the song, it was a really good song! Let me find it! *googles* I cannot find it!!! ARGH!! One day, I will find it! But they had so much fun during this performance. BUT to continue the story along, just before the Bancho Band performanced, Yojiro got a call from the hospital saying his mother passed away while he was at the event. So there are little moments throughout the song performance where he’s realising and coming to terms with the news. BUT then he realises ‘my mother would’ve wanted me to be here and to perform so I’m going to do my best!’ which was really sweet.

FINALE

☆The plot twist during the story, is that the MCs realise they have over spent on the event, and now there isn't enough for the grand prize!! So they decide to take the prize money and run, so the three groups have to try and find them, and stop them from leaving with the money.

☆While they're searching for the MCs, Yuta pretended to be Yojiro at one point, and Sunahara kept yelling Slam Dunk lines at him.

☆At the end, when they had tracked down the MCs, Dao turned into a crazy powerful villain who could catch bullets. It was amazing. There was a final battle where the Oribe brothers fought and won thanks to their faster than light super human powers.

☆ Right at the very end of the event, they announced their next three events: two in October to Osaka then Nagoya (I went to both), and then a Countdown/Christmas one of December 29th (I was supposed to go but lost my ticket some how?!)! We were all so happy and excited that they were finally going outside of Tokyo and doing events! Also we were very thankful they gave us so much more of a heads-up this time around unlike the last time they did this event and girigiri announced something.

OTHER COMMENTS

☆ I had SUCH a good time at this event! I laughed so much that I cried. It was so funny!! The part that still sticks out to me the most was the accidental ‘staff opening door and everyone shitting themselves because it was in the middle of horror stories’ part xD

☆ Random side note: I was gunna complain this day of ‘why do they all have their legs shaved?!?!’, but then I could see clearly that Domoto’s weren’t and I got so happy xD .... I’m so weird... I know... just... shhh!

☆ Also I’m gunna take the liberty and claim YuuKun and DomotoKun looked over at me a few times ^_^

GOODS

And that’s another done!! I hope I can get a few more done over the weekend too!

#itokawa youjirou #itokawa yojiro #domoto shohei #futaba yu #oosumi yuta #oribe yoshinari #kikuchi shuji #kihara rui #shimura sadao #sunahara kensuke #tanaka riku #momiki yoshito #yashiro takuya #yasui kazuma #bancho boys #番町ボーイズ #report #review

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2019.02.04 and 8th Amakuhanaize 3 [Review]

Official Website here Official Twitter here Official Online Store here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

CAST and CHARACTERS

Itokawa Yojiro as Amami Annojyou Sakata Ryuichiro as Amakusa Tenshiro (10 Jin Actor) Futaba Kaname as Kakao Chiyota Futaba Yuu as Kakao Masubee Domoto Shohei as Sakamushi Manji Magoshi Takumi as Anou Kikai (10 Jin Actor) Matsushima Yunosuke as Haniitera Kazu (10 Jin Actor) Kajihara Hayate as Ogura Kanyou Mitsutake Shinnosuke as Origo Touji (10 Jin Actor) Yashiro Takuya as Kurumi Yuzunosuke Nishihara Kenta as Ameyatsu Nekichi Sekioka Mark as Clotted Scone (10 Jin Actor) Oribe Yoshinari as Shougoin Korekiyo Urashimantarou (Guest Act for Tokyo) Sato Chuuki as Kuzukiri Kuromitsu Nagome Jin as Taffe Natsu Shogun Aoki Shunsuke as Abekara Shinobu

As you can tell a lot of their names are things from dessert or sweet things (that's the whole theme and point xD)

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: This is the first time I’ve been somewhat disappointed in a Bancho stage. It was bound to happen eventually! Every time they’re one-upped, one-upped their performance, their stories, the quality, so we were bound to get to one sooner or later that just doesn’t quite reach the bar. This one is it. Don’t get me wrong!! It’s still: a very good play; lots of good comedy, lots of great acting, lots of really memorable moments, very funny, very enjoyable. But some aspects just weren’t good enough or at the standard of previous stages. I personally felt like there was too much exposition and explanation about the history and time period they were in (I found it unnecessary). I also felt like this was one big advertisement for 10 Jin Actor; I noticed pretty quickly that ALL the scripted comedy and all the major spotlight moments were given to them. Even though Yojiro and Kaname are supposed to be the main leads, I saw more scenes and more moments from the 10 Jin boys than from anyone else. So it definitely felt like this big 2 hour advertisement and push for their popularity. I also felt like it was their least funny play. I still laughed A LOT but you would expect a silly play like this to always be cranking out the laughs. I didn’t really laugh much during the first hour or so, but the final hour to 90 minutes are very funny. However, that first half is just a lot of character and history set up. The Bancho Boys themselves really got to shine during all the adlibbing. They pretty much adlibbed most of the time and of course they were more than capable, and got a lot of laughs not only from the audience but from the rest of the actors on stage which is great -- I personally love when actors break out of character and can’t stop laughing themselves, it just proves how much fun they’re having too! I have to say, seeing them (especially Yuu and Kaname) break into laughter on stage was the biggest reward for me and my favourite moments. Rating: 7/10 - Not their best but definitely not a bad play either.

SPOILER REVIEW

MAIN STORY

So Kaname plays a struggling chocolatier who has many worries as Valentine’s Day gets nearer. He falls asleep at a shrine after praying for his work to go well. When he wakes up, he’s back in the beginning of the Meiji Period (late 19th Century, 1868) in Fukuoka where his ancestors are from. He meets his ancestors and a range of characters who are trying to get through life during this difficult time of Japan’s transition to modern/western styles. In usual Amakuhanaize style, there is a food battle between the two opposing groups.

That’s the basic premise. I’d probably break the characters up into different groups though:

Running/Staying at an Inn and Minding Their Business: Kaname, Yuu, Domoto, NishiKen, and Magoshi.

Modernising Japan Team: Oribe, Hayate, Origo, Mark, Urashimantaro, Chuuki, Nagome, Aoki Shnusuke

Want to Protect Japanese-ness Team: Yojiro, Takuya

Converting Christians: Sakata, Yunosuke.

So there are really four different groups but some band together and that’s how we get two rivaling groups towards the end, a few of them switch sides and such too throughout the play, but this is at least how they start.

GENERAL COMMENTS

Depending on who wins the chocolate battle -- there is a 10 minute break towards the end of the play where we can try the chocolate they 'made' for that show and then vote which we prefer -- the ending is a little different. I was lucky that I got to see each person win between the two shows I went to! So I'll quickly write the difference between them:

1. If Amami/Yojiro Wins: Tenshiro walks off depressed but Kazu/Yunosuke runs after Tenshiro and tells him he'll always be there for him and Tenshiro feels better. 2. If Tenshiro/Sakata Wins: Yojiro comes back on stage and attempts to commit seppuku with an icing knife (is that what they are called? *googles* ... nope it's called an Icing Spatula! Well now we all know don't we ^_^) but obvious he is not serious about it and he tries to be positive about it.

Either way in the end he is able to open a pastry shop and welcomes in customers and has a grand opening. So the very last scene doesn't change just the scene immediately after the Win/Lose moment.

There is one part that is higawari and it's the night before the chocolate battle when all the boys in Yojiro's group have to answer some questions. The two questions are: What to Say When You Get Choco, and Choco You'd Hate to Receive.

My favourite scene without a doubt was the matsuri/festival scene and the opening dance number. In the matsuri they have this super fun dance number which just left me smiling from side to side. They looked to be having so much fun and were smiling too and the song had a great beat and the dance looked so much fun too! It was/is definitely my favourite scene out of this stage!

I have so many feelings about the characters in this. I enjoyed quite a lot of the character (why are we not surprised) so I'd like to just flail about them a little.

Character Break Downs and Comments

*I'll refer to them all with their actual real names though! Sorry if that's confusing.*

☆ Yojiro: Is one of the last remaining Samurai who are trying to hide from the changing political powers in Japan. I honestly don't know what to say about Yojiro... even though he's supposed to be one of the main roles, he had hardly any time on stage. And when he was on stage, he was playing a character I've already seen many times before from him. He didn't play anyone interesting; he didn't play anyone new; he had a very safe character and there was nothing amazing at all about his acting this time around. He was just alright both in terms of character and acting.

☆ Sakata: Catholic/Christian Priest in Japan. I went in really thinking I was gunna fall for this guy, but I ended up not liking his character at all. And just like Yojiro, he's advertised as a main role but was hardly in it! I can only remember about 2 scenes he was properly in. I am upset he ended up being an uninteresting character because Sakata himself has such a fun auro about him. He seems like a really nice and a really fun guy! Also he plays priest who is trying to spread the word of God... I am personally not a religious person and I prefer my stories not to have religion in it so this is just a me thing. His character IS a nice and good person but I just wasn't interested.

However, there is one good moment I liked from Sakata. There is a scene where he is capture and locked up but while talking to the guard, he all so easily opens the jail gates and gets out. But then like the good person he is, at the end of his scene, he gets back in the jail and closes the gate again xD

☆ Kaname: Chocolatier from Present Day Tokyo who Time Slips into 1868 Fukuoka. I really fell for his acting in this!! I really, really enjoyed his acting and his character! Also his dancing is very good! You can tell all that Tenimyu training really paid off! He character was fun and he had some ridiuclous moments and sometimes unfortunate things happen to his character too which was funny! And of course there were some classic moments with him and YuuKun which created hilarity too!

☆ YuuKun: Kaname's Mother and Ancestor, Also an Inn Owner. On my first viewing, I was 99.99% sure he plays a female this entire play but actually he just plays Kaname's mother in the beginning but then in the time slip he's a male ancestor of Kaname's family. But it would totally make sense if he played a woman the entire time. He has his onee-san voice for the entirety of the play! Also his character in the past is obsessed with a male Kabuki actor, his personality is very faint and soft and weak-looking, it would've made sense to have him as a girl the entire time xD SO in my mind he DOES play Kaname's mother and great grandmother the entire time hehe I absolutely loved how he plays a fan. He plays a Kabuki obsessed fan and he said a lot of stuff that the audience could clearly relate to and the way he flailed over stuff and spoke so passionately about his oshi/bias was so relateable and so much fun to watch! He was GREAT!

Once I saw the play, I soon understood why Kaname and YuuKun had both dyed their hair back black. YuuKun had to because he was playing a historical role, and I guess to make to MORE obvious they were playing family relatives xD

☆ Domoto: A Drunkard Who Lives at the Inn. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t ACTING drunk for this role xD his drunk acting was great! I also really loved this one scene bewteen him and Takuya:

- Takuya pretends to be a simpleton passing by when Domoto attacks him and of course Takuya, being a samurai, can dodge the attack and Domoto is super impressed and responds 'oh you not just a normal person at all. No normal person can avoid and react that well' but Takuya thinks Domoto will sell him out to the police but Domoto's character is a good boy so stays quiet and protects him. It was such a simple moment but I really liked this scene.

Also Domoto's eye makeup is so nice up close!!! I got a good look when I took chekis with him and it really is nice! There is one other moment from Domoto that really hit home for me. Lately, I've been having a really rough time mentally but this simple line from Domoto gave me so much strength: "None of my friends made it through the war. They can't drink stupidly. They can't wear flashy over the top clothing. I living their life as well as mine." It really hit home but it gave me strength that I really need right now.

☆ Magoshi: A Crazy Inventor Living in the Inn. His character had two very funny personalities: when his goggles were off he was very confident and very sane. But whenever he wore his goggles, he became geeky as F. He gave everyone many many laughs with his flawless switching between the two roles! He did very well! His name was also a play on words. His name is Anou Kikai which means 'That Chance' but also 'Ano' is what you say when you want to say something, it's the English equivalent of 'ohhh / ahhhh / ummm' when you want to start saying something. So many times Kaname's character wanted to offer to help or wanted to suggest things but he always started with 'Ano = Ummm' and Magoshi would immediately butt in like 'Anou Kikai shall do this task!' and Kaname always looked so sad every time he got shot down xD

☆ Yunosuke: Sakata's Disciple. He has a very interesting story arc and his character development is very fun! I don't quite remember how he ends up like this but Yunosuke very quickly joins the 'money' side of society and gets obsessed with gold and flashy jewelry and he is very ridiculous and very hilarious. He gave me a lot of giggles with his overconfidence and with his loud voice and his ridiculing of others! But then towards the end, he sees Sakata give guidance and attention to someone other than him and he just completely explodes with jealously, which again he does in a very hilarious way. I thoroughly enjoyed his character! And he is beautifully tall and very good looking. It's a shame he's only 19 because he was gorgeous. I really liked his character and how he looked!

☆ Hayate: A Reporter. He was a reporter who turns from a dirty gossip reporter to a report who actually wants to do good for the people. He gives Oribe a run for his money because he's constantly following him and trying to get the true story. Hayate showed off his skills throughout this play with his acrobatics and his flips. He would make an entrance by flipping, or in some fights he got caught up in he would do a flip, or during the dance scenes he did some hiphop spin moves. So he really find many chances to show off what he can do; I assume this is part him personally enjoying doing these stunts and part him showing what he can do incase casting directors turned up to the stage.

☆ Mitsutake: Oribe's Henchman/Guard. I absolutely loved that he got nicknamed 'Beard / Hige' by Sakata in this. It gave everyone giggles everytime he was called xD I also loved his character arc too! At first he's on Oribe's side but thanks to Sakata, he has a change of heart and decides to do the right thing and starts helping us just because he should, because he wants to, and because it's the right thing to do.

☆ Takuya: Yojiro's Disciple/Follower. Takuya is getting so damn good looking as he gets older! I don't know why but as soon as he came on stage in the semi-modern samurai attire and his sword, I was in LOVE! I absolutely adored his look! And with is now longer hair!! OH MY!!! Seriously, he's gunna be dangerous soon. He's still only 19! *cries*

☆ NishiKen: A Neighbour Near the Inn. Luckily there was no black face or racism in his character this time xD he was just a neighbour who is slightly strange. He's dressed like a fox and helps out at a local matsuri/festival. I really liked the opening scene which is just him and wooden blocks and with the blocks he starts a beat and gets everyone in the audience clapping and singing We Will Rock You but then is like 'you're so loud! Shhhh!' which is ironic. He's always the most loud xD

☆ Mark: British Politician. I really really enjoyed his pompousness and the stereotypicalness of his British character. Also loved the American Accented English words he would speak. He was a fun character, he had this funny way of walking too; he would skip or spin in and out of his entrances which were very amusing. I also loved his outfit and his hat.

☆ Oribe: Japanese Politician/Leader. He had a very small role which made me upset but he was still good! I like how he spent most of his time running away from Hayate but then the moment he realises someone else's corruption he runs to Hayate like 'I'll tell you everything! Just please protect me!!' xD he looked very dashing in his suit!! But again, I was like 'damn how are you STILL only 18?!' xD His dancing during the two major dancer parts were wonderful!

Now onto some differences between the two shows!

First Show

☆ There is a scene where Yuu pushes Kaname to the side. But at my first show, Kaname went flying the end of the stage and into the stage light because of Yuu’s push, and Yuu threatened to do it again but Kaname was like 'No it's okay! I learnt my lesson! Just don't do it again!' he was half smiling as he stood up and rubbed his back and butt xD

☆ Akira and Shuji were sat two rows in front of me and during a scene where Hayate runs around the theatre, he spotted them and was like 'you look very familiar... aren't you (enter their Amaku Character's name)?' but both of them got really nervous and shy and denyed it, hoping he would leave quickly xD

☆ For the Higawari scene, I remember Mark having a drawing of Domoto, and YuuKun's answers were always baseball references xD

Second Show

☆ The second show was a hot mess of hilarity! Everyone, the cast AND the audience, were just high on giggles. The entire play there were so many line mess ups and the boys couldn't stop laughing for most of the time. Even when they tried really hard, they ended up breaking halfway through their lines and such. It was so much fun seeing all of them completely break xD I'm glad it was my second viewing and not my only viewing of it. Maybe if it was my only viewing I might've been a little miffed but because it was my second viewing I could just enjoy the ridiculousness that went on!

☆ YuuKun didn't push Kaname as hard this time so when Kaname asked for the chocolate back, YuuKun just gave it back nicely hehe

☆ For the scene where they had to give an answer to: What to Say When You Get Choco, Mark's answer was all in Filipino and everyone was like '????? what did you just say?!'

☆ Because everyone was high on something, during Sakata's very important line of serious, he held it together right well until right at the end of his line and he just broke into a squeal of laughter. Everyone was dying.

NEGATIVES

A lot of these points are just extensions of what mentioned in the non-spoiler section:

☆ I realised very early on that the 10 Jin boys were getting more lines and more moments and more comedy than our Bancho Boys so it really did feel like an advertisement for their acting group.

☆ Also this is the first time I’ve been somewhat disappointed in a Bancho stage. This is a SOLID installment but it was just the weakest one I’ve watched of theirs so far. Especially after the amazingness that was Nemurenai Hitsuji and Saraba Gold Mountain (review) that we got last year.

☆ I was very much expecting for myself to really like Sakata Ryuichiro (especially with the whole blonde look -- we ALL know how I feel about blondes!), but I ended up finding his character really, really boring, and he was playing a heavy Christian believer (side note: I am Agnostic after being brought up in Catholic education for 12 years) so I personally lost all interest in him straight away.

PHOTO & CHEKI TIME

I got chekis with my usuals: YuuKun and Domoto! As usual they're both just so great! Even though it's a small, minute moment, it still means a lot to me.

So first I went to YuuKun and can he get anymore perfect?!?!?!?! He's just the sweetest fucking thing every time! And he always takes the lead and asks me questions and such xD So our conversation was:

Me: Otsukaresama desu / Thanks for the good work Yuu: OH! Thank you! I asked to do the heart pose but just before it's taken, he prods me, 'hold on. let's move over here, it's a better place. Is that okay? Are you ready?' so naturally I was like 'oh, okay. Yes! I'm good!' so then we took the picture. Y: Did you have fun? M: Yes I laughed a lot! Y: Don't forget our lives too! M: I already have tickets! Y: Oh thank you! M: And I'll come back on Friday (to see this) Y: Oh really? Thank you! *hands me the cheki* bye! *waves* M: Bye! *waves*

Then with Domoto...

M: Otsukaresama desu / Thanks for the good work D: Thank you! You too! Do the heart pose and take chekis M: I'm really sorry I was too sick to come to your birthday party. D: Oh don't worry about it! It's fine! Please don't apologise! M: Really? Oh thank god. *hands me cheki* M: get home safely! D: You too! *mutual wave*

I finally got to properly apologise to Domoto which made me feel a lot better xD Also I love how awkward he is in the chekis. He has such an awkward adorableness hehe

At the end of every show too there was a 'Photo Time' so here are some I took:

And that’s that!

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sambart93 · 6 years

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Final 31 [2018 Edition] Day 30: Top Stages of 2018

Ranking my stages was so much harder than ranking my musicals because I just see more of them! This is definitely not ranked but just my top 5. The numbers are unrelated... I think...

5. Lucky Dog

This is BL, of COURSE I’m going to love it! But in actual fact the BL part has a very small part to play. I really love the American/Mafia/Italian setting they have going on, I loved the development and the relationships between all the characters. I am so glad we got a Saien, and a Chrstimas event, so damn fast! If you’ve read my reviews, you’ll know that I feel absolutely in love with Bakshi completely and utterly. I think he is amazing and I desperately need a stage where he and Jan are end game!! PLEASE!! I love the music in this too! And you can tell the cast themselves get on so well! (review 1 and 2)

4. Honoo no Mirage

How could this not be here! This is one of my top stage SERIES so of course the god damn finale is going to make it’s way onto this list. I did, as mentioned in the review, had one major problem with the stage but when it comes down to it, I love this series, I love the story, the performances in this final stage were absolutely phenomenal so it naturally over-rides that problem I had with it (but by no means makes that one problem invalid). (review here - coming soon)

3. KimiSaga

This is was hard! I had to choose between this one and Teito Tantei as my favourite ASSH stage. ASSH consistently produce amazing stages with amazing casts and amazing stories and amazing fighting scenes. I have no been let down by them yet! The reason this one won over Teito is because of several reasons: I prefer the visual look of this one, I prefer the mythical/historical themes of this one, whether intentional or not; I loved the underlying ‘how do we treat an outsider’ question which, as a white foreigner in Japan, really spoke to me personally. Also out of the two I think this is the one I would prefer a sequel too! I need more! (review here)

2. Shakespeare’s R&J

I absolutely blown away by this one! I love how impactful the simple things they did in this play were. I loved the minimal lighting, I loved the acting - seriously the performances!! - and the development and change in their characters, I loved the shocking scenes in, it was gay so yeah gunna be on this list. I am so thankfully I got to see this twice! And also own the DVD. It’s just a solid and an amazingly acted performance. It was great! (review here)

1. Nemurenai Hitsuji

This is another one where I had to choose between this one OR the other Bancho Stage: Saraba Gold Mountain. This one came out on top, again for several reasons: I was so into the story, I loved the mystery, I loved the themes, this one also hit home very hard with it’s themes with the whole: YuuKun’s character breaking down as if it was his father that had died in the story (ugh my heart was completely broken), it was a nice balance of serious and funny, I loved the depth of each and every character and the fact they all had secrets, I loved the setting, the ending scene was such a god damn shocker and such an amazing way to end it! (review here - coming soon)

Honourable mentions: Battle Butler (review), Saraba Gold Mountain (review), and Teito Tantei Kitan Zigomar (review - coming soon).

And that’s another day done! I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

#final 31 days of the year #final 31 days of the year 2018 edition #bancho boys #yanagishita tomo #tanaka hiroki #domoto shohei #futaba yuu #oguri ryo #tomita sho #hiramaki jin

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sambart93 · 6 years

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Final 31 [2018 Edition] Day 11: Updated Top Oshi List!

I also did this last year but was primarily focused on stage actors (see here). But this time, I’m going to put my ULTIMATE oshi list. So every single one of them! Are you ready?!I also did this last year but was primarily focused on stage actors (see here). But this time, I’m going to put my ULTIMATE oshi list. So every single one of them! Are you ready?!

7. Aramaki Yoshihiko

We all know my history and relationship with this boy. Unfortunately he had knee surgery around March this year and took ‘3 months off’ (which actually ended up being 2 weeks) in order to receive rehabilitation and such. He also promised to do less 2.5 this year and he’s done that by doing a serious movie and he tried two straight plays around September/October of this year. He did really great in Heaven's Record (review here) and I am interested in seeing his serious movie but... because of his recovery time, because he's so damn popular now, and because he is still in crazily popular 2.5 shows, I've hardly had any time or chance to see him. He solo event shows are now held at venues that hold THOUSAND people in one go, his randoms are the most sought after so I have to drop hundreds of dollars to just glimpse at a chance of getting his stuff, it's impossible to hit for any of his 2.5 plays now... it's just all very disheartening and because of that, towards the end of the year, I don't even both doing his stage senkous, watch his Live Streams or use my TokiEnta FC account anymore! So it's been a rough year... I'm hoping my massive stack of still unwatched Maki-chan dvds and going through all my goods over new years break will kick my MakiChan spirit back into full gear or else... he might be gone for good from this list this time next year!

6. Tanaka Hiroki

I love Hiroki so much! I can't describe it but out of all my oshis, I fell the most intimate towards him. Maybe it's because we actually talk after events or stages, maybe it's because he clearly pays attention to me during stuff, maybe it's because we reply to each other on twitter, I don't know but I feel like I have a friendship with him rather than a actor-fan relationship. He's so great and I love watching him on stage, he always plays great characters, he chooses amazing stories to be a part of, the friends he has around him are so funny and great too! He makes me so happy ^_^

5. Domoto Shohei

Seeing Domoto change this much has made me so proud of him! He's definitely gained more acting chances, more chances to do what he likes (photobook, events, singing etc.) and you can see his confidence and his positivity really coming through this year! He's had some amazing acting opportunities! Lucky Stage was a HIT and completely sold out every time! He got to do some ODAC stages and even was lead a few times! He did different but great characters in Bancho Stages. I am so looking forward to what he does next! I am super upset I couldn't go to his birthday event but I was smoothered in a cold and I didn't want to infect anyone or ruin the mood *cries* so I'll have to definitely go the next time!

4. Futaba Yuu

Another who I am just so proud of how far he's come this year! I got so emotional at his live back the beginning of the year and every time he as a live, more and more people keep coming! Also I feel like YuuKun genuinely gets happy to see me and makes it really obvious so it makes me feel special (I am a simple being okay!) I seriously cannot wait to see him two more times before the year ends!! I love his music, the acting chances he's had this year have been great, I am so excited to see what happens in the future!

3. Kim HeeChul

This bitch. This BITCH! << Don't worry, it's my pet name for it, no negativity intended ^_^ this bitch has come in, destroyed my life and I am loving EVERY SECOND of it! I'm so glad I discovered and got to love him BEFORE learning/realising he was a SuJu member! I fell for his personality completely thanks to Knowing Bros; he's funny, he's crazy, he's sweet, he's crazy, he's a total nerd, he's crazy, he's very honest, and crazy, he's realistic, he's crazy, and he just brings me so much joy! Actually, my biggest connection to him is: the more I got to know him, the more I realised just how scarily similar we are! So he's pretty much become my big brother! I swear to god we were separated at birth. We swear we were siblings in a past life. I have never met someone so similar to myself, but he is also different enough for me not to be like 'so similar I hate him' situation. Argh he gives me so much joy and I am so thankful I saw him live this year!

2. Yanagishita Tomo

Ahhh Tomo! You shall never leave my heart. Going on 9 years that this boy has been in my life. 9 years of supporting him. I am always excited for the next thing he does. This year I went a little outside the box and started sending him Shikishis (hard paper with a message and/drawing on it) for his birthday and for big events, so hopefully he appreciates it. He has had some amazing acting chances this year! He did two Romeo and Juliettes this year which were different, yet they were both brilliant! Amazing acting! Amazing stages! Loved them both! Then at the end of this year, he got to achieve his dream of being in a Gekidan Shinkansen stage which made me super happy! So now that he got one of his major dreams achieved, I wonder what's in store for him next!

1. Kamenashi Kazuya

Ahhhh my forever husband! Kamenashi Kazuya... I got to see him up close so many times this year! I went to 4 KAT-TUN concerts and every time I was mere meters away from him at several points during each show! He also gave me and my friend serious fanservice so we DIED on that spot! He has a Drama SP 'Tegami' airing soon and I am so looking forward to seeing him act again even though I'm going to cry my heart out. He did brilliant in Final Cut ealier this year too. I love this boy. He is such a great person and he puts so much effort into his job. I love him. That's all that matters! Me and him are reaching a 10 year anniversary next July too!!! WOOO!

So who are your ultimate oshis? Do we have any similar ones? Check back in for tomorrow!

#tanaka hiroki #kanemashi kazuya #kim heechul #heechul #super junior #kat-tun #kattun #futaba yuu #domoto shohei #aramaki yoshihiko #yanagishita tomo #田中宏輝 #二葉勇 #亀梨和也 #堂本翔平 #柳下大 #荒牧慶彦 #final 31 days of the year #final 31 days of the year 2018 edition

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.11.28 BACK COAT〜裏裁判 UraSaiban / Backdoor Trial [Review]

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2

Synopsis: After investigation, witnesses to a murder decide that the perpetrator is Innocent. Because of this, the witnesses are left once again to go back and recount their version of what happened and what of the victim. There are only 3 rules in this scenario: The real perpetrator is within their group; you must choose Guilty or Innocent; you must decide there and then even if it’s not the real perp. What happens next?

CAST and CHARACTERS

Kuranuki Masahiro as Utsunomiya Saku Domoto Shouhei as Tominaga Tatsuya Terumi as Nakano Shouta Arima Ayaka as Hanamura Kasumi Kuramichi Sena as Utsunomiya Ruin Yashima Yakuma as Nikaido Kouki Haneshima Shouta as Ketsushiro Toshiya Hatsuki Nozomi as Endo Kiriko Okabe Naoya as Ichijyo Hikari Nakajima Kazuhiro as Kisu Makoto Chatani Yuho as Terajima Kae Nakagawa Emi as Enjyouji Aya Saikatsu as Koinuma Shun

* Non-Spoiler Overall: This was great! It’s the style and theme of story and stage that I love. I absolutely love; people forced in a room that they can’t escape and they suspect each other and there’s no trust and there’s underlying secrets and motives and people turn on each other and people die - everything I love in my dark, messy stories! And they executed it so well! I enjoyed it so much! I loved the story, the mystery, the twist parts, the punch ending. It was all so good! And at the peak / climax of the play, the acting from all of them was phenomenal. It was so well done. The only thing that stopped me from being so invested and so emotionally into it was the fact that the guy next to me was snorting and sniffing up his snot every 10 seconds throughout the entire play and drove me absolutely mental. Rating: 7/10. If that dick hadn’t been there to ruin my experience, this could’ve easily been a 8 - 9 rating I think.

Spoiler Review

Main Plot - 12 people (9 witnesses, 1 accused and 2 court staff) have been gathered to decide whether the accused, Enjyouji Aya, should be found guilty or innocent of killing Saku’s sister Ruin. However, when the final judgement is made, only 7 people find her guilty, while the actual brother and his childhood friend Tatsuya rule her innocent. Saku pleads for them all to go back to the beginning and to recount everything they witnessed. Because there is non consensus the court staff lock them inside the room and have to start all over again. No one can leave until everyone agrees on one judgement. And there are three guidelines to the lock down which are:

1. The perpetrator IS within their group. 2. You must choose (one) Guilty or Innocent. 3. You must decide there and then even if it’s not the real perp.

So in the story we go through every person’s account and experience that they had with Rui. At first everyone is very positive saying how much they enjoyed her company and how much of a joy she was to be around. But then they get to Aya and she breaks it down. She turns around to Saku in a half-evil-cackle and says ‘do you really think they’re telling the truth? Do you really think this is what they think of your sister? She was evil. She was horrid!’ and she cracks through the rest of the characters’ true personalities. It soon comes to light that she was physically and mentally abusive to everyone around her, and they say the only way she was acting such a way was because Saku himself was being to harsh on her. Apparently he was strict in that: she must go to school, she must eat properly, she mustn’t go and stay out late, she mustn’t have a boyfriend, and she felt that all her freedom had been taken away, and in turn that led her to take her anger out on the neighbours and everyone who cared for her. ‘And that’s why,’ Aya begins, ‘when she asked me to help her fake her suicide so she could shock and knock some sense into you (Saku), I just.... let her die.’ Saku begins to break down; he knows he was strict on her but that was because he didn’t want her to get hurt again, he wanted her to be safe so she didn’t end dying like their parents did. But obviously he was too strict and it made her go strange and mentally unwell. But towards the end of the stage, Ichijo Hikari speaks up ‘it was you that drove her to her death. She was being manipulated. I saw her... I saw her and Tatsuya talking,’ which brings Saku’s childhood friend underfire. Here, Tatsuya goes into manic laughter and completely cracks, he says he wanted to ruin what was left of Saku’s family because he was sick of seeing them (Saku & Rui) making fun of him (Tatsuya) and his situation (his family abandoned him and when he finally refound them, they acted like they didn’t know who he was). He said ‘I know you were laughing at me. Pitying me. There’s no way you were really being kind.’ When Tatsuya was left alone, Saku became his friend and he brought him home and let them have dinner together and everything. But Tatsuya, being hurt too much and too deeply, always thought Saku was just being malicious (which is completely wrong), so he wanted to get revenge: that was manipulating Rui and giving her the idea of ‘pretend to kill yourself. It’ll be the biggest surprise to Saku and it’ll make him stop being so strict on you’ so silly Rui goes through with it and that’s what led to her death. By this point, everyone is crying and emotionally ruined, and the staff of the court ask them to decide who should be held accountable for the death of Rui. Saku puts his hand up. Everyone protests that he’s innocent but he says ‘I found a letter from her. It came through the mail a year after her death. I did her wrong. I just want to go and see my sister.’ so he begs everyone to judge him ‘guilty’ so he can get the death penalty and join his sister. Of course, everyone doesn’t want to do this but it’s either this or they have to choose another among them to be found Guilty. And the stage ends with them judging him ‘guilty’, he gets on a wooden crate, puts the noose rope around his neck and lights out.

I am not giving the story justice. The intricacies and seeing them break down one by one, and seeing the scenes with Rui and the others. It was just phenomenal acting and the way things came to light and revealed were so well done and so great! I really wish I had been able to see this one or two more times. Because I was so invested and I found everyone’s acting to be top notch! There are some specific scenes and things I would like to talk about though:

☆ Domoto Shohei’s acting when he goes from ‘normal childhood friend’ to ‘batshit crazy’ to ‘realising what he’s done and just breaking down completely’ was so amazing to witness. He flowed so effortlessly between these stages and emotions! I was SO impressed! This was definitely his best acting I’ve seen of him so far! I cannot give enough praise to how well he did. I felt so sorry for him too! You should HATE HIM. You should HATE how he manipulated Saku’s sister, but then you learn that he just wasn’t loved and he was abandoned and his parents are more to blame for his messed-up-ness than him. And you pity him for assuming Saku’s actions were through malice rather than Saku genuinely wanted to look after him. And this huge misunderstanding led to him doing something so unforgivable. Yes you should hate him but the character’s story and Domoto’s acting just... you can’t hate him at all!

☆ I really enjoyed Arima Ayaka’s acting too. I love how Kasumi went from ‘oh yeah she was a darling and I loved spending time with her’ to (when everything gets revealed) ‘she was abusive! She found out that me and Toshiya were dating and she threatened to leak the information. She also hit my all the time! She fucking sucked!’ which was great acting. The scene where Rui is hitting Kasumi had some really good acting. The actors themselves would push each other and a lot of parts were physically real so I was impressed with the trust between the actors and such for those moments.

☆ Sena did a great job as the sister. She had very few scenes because she was only really in the flashbacks but she did a great job! She could switch her feelings and emotions very well which was great! I love how her outfit is a white dress which could mean so many things: innocent, death, ghost, haunting etc. Good choice in clothing!

☆ I was super surprised to see Yashima Yakuma in this! I didn’t know he was in the cast! I am bias. I really like his face and his acting and this role of ‘serious’ and part of the court team was great!

☆ I really liked Hikari as a character. At first he just seems like a hungover, irresponsible guy, but then we learn that he’s got the key information to unlocking the mystery of ‘what happened to Rui’. He’s a sweet guy the entire time. He tries to calm people down and tries to stay level-headed and he really is the only character out of them who’s guilty of NOTHING. Also I loved his hair, but that’s irrelevant to the story.

☆ Kudos to Emi who did this dramatic reveal right at the beginning. She’s the one that’s like ‘oh quit the act everyone! We all hated her! Admit it!!’ and her craziness lasts the entire performance. She really does not give a shit and she just lets all the secrets out! I really love how when she’s telling her stories of Rui, she did things like get on the table and prance around and such.

Like I said, I am not doing this story justice and I wish I’d seen it a few more times so I could get more information and find more scenes to love. And as mentioned above, I had the biggest sniffler and snorter next to me the entire time which that took me out of the story SO much. I literally had to watch the stage with one finger in my right ear so I could somewhat block out the idiot’s noises. But alas, I hope this short, short review will suffice.

And that’s all! I have a SHIT TON (I’m not joking) of reviews and reports I am behind on, dating back to like June I think which is BAD. I need to get this shit done asap seriously. I must! xD

#kuranuki masahiro #domoto shohei #terumi #arima ayaka #kuramichi sena #yashima yakuma #haneshima shouta #hatsuki nozomi #okabe naoya #nakajima kazuhiro #chatani yuho #nakagawa emi #saikatsu #review #stage #stage play

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.07.02 Lucky Dog Saien [Review]

Official Site here Official Twitter here Official Online Shop here Other Goods here DVD? Wasn’t announced this time around... Previous DVD here

CAST and CHARACTERS

Domoto Shohei as Gian/Jan Carlo Sugie Masahiro as Bernardo Ortholani Yamauchi Keisuke as Luchino Gregoretti Terumi as Guilio Di Bondone Sato Shinsuke as Ivan Fiore Maniwa Ryosuke as Bakshi Christensen Tsubochi Satoru as Jornese Asakura Yusuke as David Ensemble: Kaku Ryouna, Hashimoto Keita, Funabashi Hiroki, Sendo Yura, Shimoda Junki, Shimizu Hiroki

You can read the ShoEn/First Run Review here. But for the most part of this review, I’m just going to write what was changed and what I enjoyed, rather than a full ‘review’ style post. I think this time around I would change my rating to an 8 or 8.5 out of 10!

PRE-SHOW/SET

☆On my way to theatre, I noticed so many girls with blonde or pink or coloured hair and/or bright outfits and I immediately knew they were all coming to Lucky Stage. I stoodd out so much just because I was the most plain looking and plain dressed xD

☆They added a row Z smack in the middle of the theatre which proves just how sold out this damn stage was! How could you sell out so much that you even magically make an extra, previously non-existent row, and even that sells out and you have no Toujitsuken for most of the days?! I think that is phenominal, especially for a 'smaller' play disregarding huge series' like TouStage and TouMyu and Naruto etc. I am so proud they even sold out SantaMall Theatre!!

☆BUUT I’m annoyed we couldn’t reserve the damn CD! It wasn't being released until the Saturday's performances but I went the Monday... I wanted the CD! Why didn't they let us, who could only go to the Before-Saturday shows, reserve?! It made me sad.

☆The staging and set design is much better and bigger this time around! We have actual doors at the middle and back of the stage, instead of that underground rotating thing we had last time which was super annoying. So with these doors, it made it much easier and much quieter to switch the set behind them. Other than the big door change, it looked like it was set up the same way as last time too! But with there being scene changes, some of the later sets were either slightly different looking, change the set completely from last time or completely got rid of a set (change) for that scene.

THE SHOW

I'll try and be as chronological as I can be! The story and the scenes are all in the same order as the first run of the show was and there wasn't any big changes to the story either. But here are things I loved seeing again or enjoyed more this time around or were new higawaris (daily changes) and such.

☆When Ivan masturbated in the opening scene (again), instead of being lead down in the jail cell, this time he was standing against a wall. When he caught the rest of them watching, he ran towards them and then he wiped his ‘remains’ on Jan and Domoto yelled so loud over the music ‘TSUITA!!!! It’s on me!!!!’. I was absolutely dying of laughter!

☆Ivan did his three skits again towards the beginning of the stage when he's talking alone with Jan (just before a group meeting), and then got Jan involved but Domoto turned it on him and ordered ‘ippatsu gag! (meaning something like 'a one line joke')’ so Ivan shamelessly said ‘Bang bang bang, Ore ni bang! (Bang, bang, bang. Bang me!)’.

☆After the first group meeting, Ivan is hot headed so went to storm out, but Bernardo is like ‘the exit is the other way’ and Ivan yells ‘I KNOW!’ and turned around and went the right way. It was very well timed and very funny -- I don't think this was in the First Run.

☆I think it was also during this first group meeting when Ivan talks about Jan's gayness and how Ivan isn't gay unlike everyone else; suddenly all the Ensemble cast came on stage and into the meeting room, sitting on Bernado and such, and tried to entice Ivan！And one guy slapped his bare butt at Ivan. Oh my, I was dying!!

☆Speaking of the Ensemble cast, they were absolutely GOLD again, doing all the different roles like inmates and polite, gang members, civilians etc.

☆I am super happy that they brought back the Chinese worker character and them pretending not to know Japanese until the end and another member translating his Chinese again!

☆Also we got the Forcing Bernardo to eat scene again. This time he was just like ‘mmmm...mm....mmmm mmmm.....mmmm mmmm’ and Domoto was giggling because Bernado really couldn't talk; he had too much in his mouth xD

☆There was a change in the Lucino and Jan scene. Instead of it being in Lucino's bedroom this time and Jan finding the ring under the pillow and explaining about what happened; this time it took place in the normal meeting room and it's much later in the stage now when the explanation about his wife and child come out. But one thing in this scene that got us all was that towards the end of this scene, Lucino is cleaning up and putting the guns and such away, but Lucino got his bloody tie stuck in the briefcase! It was obviously by accidentally because he just casually commented ‘I’ve trapped my tie!!’ and he took so long to unlock the briefcase, take the tie out and lock it again. Jan had already walked off stage and then realised what had happened and that it was taking longer than it should've, so he came back on stage like ‘are you not ready yet?!?!’ which was a nice touch.

☆I have a note here from a moment of: ‘Just listen to me!’ ‘-Ok’ I'm pretty sure it's after Ivan has another of his hissy fits and Jan yells at him and very (like a child getting told off) just agrees. Shame I can't remember because it clearly stuck with me after the show that night...

☆Another part is just before Jan explains the big and final plan to everyone (that leads to the climax fight of the stage), and Ivan walks out (at the beginning of this scene) on stage, notices the one spotlight on his side of the stage, and is like ‘wtf the fuck?’. He then stands in it and straightens his shirt and tries to look his best. It gave us all giggles.

☆AND it's during this final big meeting, where Jan forgets to tell Ivan his role in the plan, Jan’s like ‘oh.... I forgot about you! So you’ll be.... the Secret leader!’ And Ivan got all happy and was smiling out to the audience. This was also in the First Run but getting to enjoy and like Ivan more this time, I appreciated and loved this scene all the more this time around.

☆Speaking of appreciation, I really really enjoyed and understood the characters all the more this time around! Which led me to crying so many more times this time around too!

I got a lot more attached to Lucino this time so I was crying during all his 'past' scenes and when the story of his wife and child came out etc.

I really really felt like I understood Giulio more this time around; the first time, he just seemed to be cray out of know where which a sprinkle of backstory, but this time around you could see more of him trying to obey his father (or at least I understood and catched on quicker and more this time around with him development and backstory) and stuck between doing back things out of fear of wanting to please his father; wanting to stay a child because that's when he's most happy and feels more safe; and to stay one Jan and co's side because they accept him for who he is, even though he'd tried to hide this abused and cray side from them all this time. I really, really got a lot more upset during the Giulio attacking Jan scene this time and just cried so hard. But then in later scenes I was crying for Giulio because of what he has to deal and put up with etc. I also love how even though he's gone through all this shit, he's still able to have his childish and cute moments -- but that could be due to part-mentalising the bad so he can have an innocent and okay side.

AND, it's clearly obvious how much I love Ivan and ridiculous comedy beause of how much I've written about him here already!

And finally we have Bakshi who I AM IN LOVE WITH!! Absolutely in love! He ended up being my favourite character at the end of the First Run too but seeing him again, really clarified my love for him. I think he's absolutely great! But I did notice and realise this time around that he has a lot less stage time than I had remembered. BUT nevertheless! When he was on stage... it was great!!! I also realise this time around that he says stuff like 'Zokuzoku (translating to: thrilling or feeling creepy or shuddering etc)' which is exactly the same thing that Shiki from Dance with Devils says so it makes total sense as to why I ended up falling for Bakshi in the first place! I think he's great and such a little shit! I really hope that IF they do a second stage, they'll put his route in and we can see him and Jan get together *please!!*

☆For this Re-Run, we had a different ending for each character that is romantically involved with Jan. The day I went, I got Jan x Giulio's ending. It was super cute! It started with Giulio sat on the stairs picking the petals off a flower going 'He likes me... he hates me... he likes me... he hates me... like... like... like, like, like, likelikelikelikelike..' which was very funny and then Jan quietly came on stage asking Giulio what he was doing. It ended with Giulio feeling bad that he hurt Jan but Jan's like, 'it's okay, because I'll protect you,' and ends with them kissing.

☆It’s been a while since I’ve heard such an enthusiastic round of applause that just wouldn’t stop in the flesh. It felt so good hearing it and I bet they felt great hearing it too!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Argh it was so gooooood!!!! I cried so much more this time around!!!! I forgot how much I loved some characters and how funny some moments are!!!! I also got to appreciate some characters much more this time and it really is a good story, great characters, great action. It’s very good and deserves all the sold-outness that it got! Also I love what they added!!!!

I really, really hope we get a second installment, with the same cast and that we get more Bakshi and maybe even a Bakshi route!! PLEASE!!!

GOODS

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sambart93 · 7 years

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2017.05.03 Marker Light Blue Deeper Review!

I got to see my beautiful Hiroki-kun again on stage <3

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3 Other Related (e.g. Opening/Dance) Videos: 1, 2, 3, 4

Cast and Characters (Character’s Actual Name / Japanese Pronounced and Written Version)

CLOUD BLUE GAKKOU/SCHOOL Jyounin Tatsuki as Saphir/Safaia Sugie Masahiro as Verite/Berute Oguri Ryo as Honette / Onetto Furuhata Keisuke as Affection/Afekushion Iwa Yoshito as Tendress/Tandoresu Tanaka Hiroki as Chasete / Shasutate

RED Seto Keita as Rubis / Rubi- Shiokawa Wataru as Dignite / Digunite Hattori Muo as Passion / Pashion Masui Kento as Courage / Kura-jyu Domoto Shouhei as Beaute / Bo-te

CORINDON GROUP Sueno Takuma as Corindon Katou Mao as Walter / Warute-ru Hagiwara Naruya as Guillaume / Gyo-mu Akaba Mio as Thibaud / Chibo- Sugamoto Ikumi as Doudou / DuDu- Yoshizawa Tsubasa as Ghislain / Gisuran

SCHOOL COUNCIL Okita Kouhei as Horace / Orasu Watabe Hiroki as Roro/Roro Sono Kazuki as Nicholas / Nikola Uchino Futo as Anton / Anton

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: This is my second Odd Entertainment production. While it wasn’t as good as Soul Flower (see review here), this play still had a lot of charm. I really enjoyed the world and the action was great and I like how the story came together. The costumes were awesome, the use of the stage was great, all the characters were interesting and I enjoyed it! The only place where it really lagged was that the set up and introduction took quite a long time in my opinion. So getting to the action took time. But it was good! Rating: 7/10

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STORY

We follow students who go to a special magic school BUT have never been to the outside world because it’s too dangerous and because they all have magic powers, they’d probably be killed instantly if they went out. One day, very strangely, they get a transfer student (something that has never happened before) and it appears he doesn’t even have a power, or at least the powers haven’t awoken yet. The boy also doesn’t have any memory of who he is, how he got there nor what he did before he went to the school. On the other hand, the Corindon Group are trying to find a magic thing can Corindon needs and wants in order to become all powerful. This leads his men to the school, but what will happen and who is this new guy?!

Did I make it interesting enough for you? Good!

Onto the SPOILER REVIEW!

So I already stated the tiny negative in the Non-Spoiler section so I don’t need to comment about that at all, so lets get to all the good and juicy stuff!

I was SO freaking excited to see this stage for some reason! Just the fact it’s from the same guys who did Soul Flower - which I freaking loved(!) - and it was Hiroki-kun again and not ONLY Hiroki-kun but past actors that I’ve seen Oguri Ryo and Higawari Naruya! And then the freaking visuals came out and Hiroki-kun was doing a BLONDE role again and he was FREAKING adorable in it! I was so ready for this. So naturally my expectations going in were crazy! I’m glad for the most part I was happy and enjoyed this!

Again Odd Entertainment managed to take a simple story and just make it so much more. Also the characters are all so realistic, none of them are the same, they all have their own traits and personalities and they each have their own charm!

Speaking of the story, I really liked how it all came together. First we have three different groups of people; Blue, Red and Corindon group, and how they so perfectly come together e.g. Corindon group is searching for the magic power while also using and manipulating the Reds to help them and then turns out the magic power is actually TWO people, one from Blue and one from Red so they all end up at the same place together. I am not doing this story justice so I’ll just go full spoiler on the story right now:

So Saphir is the transfer student who doesn't remember who he is or where he came from but he turns up at the school with only a letter on him telling him to go there. So everyone in the school wants to know who he is and why his powers haven't awakened yet regardless of his age. Some are naturally hostile to him but slowly and surely he manages to win everyone over and become everyone's friends. Meanwhile Corindon is ordering Red and his group to find Saphir and only says that Saphir has something that will help them become strong. In reality he wants Saphir because he's magical and he wants him in order to become the ultimate ruler and most powerful man in the world. So Red infiltrate the school and kidnap Saphir who ends up in Corindon's lair. Naturally Blue want to save their friend to try to break in and get him back but on the way, one by one, they get killed. Slowly the Reds realised how evil Corindon is and change sides, well most of them and turns out Rubis is also part of the magic power Corindon wants. A long time ago the power split itself into two so it would be safe from being used for evil, creating Rubis and Saphir and if them two come together with the help/control of Corindon then something very bad could happen. It was originally just Saphir but he saved Rubis as a child and decided to transfer part of his power into him. Neither of them remember their past until they meet back in the present. So in the end it’s most of Blue and Red fighting (and dying) for their life to save both Saphir from being tortured and killed for his power, and to keep Rubis safe also, as well as stop and destroy Corindon and his group.

Sound decent enough?

So the story is technically simple; two powers make an ultimate power, evil lord on the rise. BUT when you add all the friendship and the magic actually being people who have a history and connection and evil guys turning to the good side and such, it becomes so much more and is so much deeper (no pun intended) in story!

Okay now onto the next thing!!

I super, super, super love what the did with the actual stage! They had two massive slabs on either side of the stage that they would rotate when the scene changed. It would be the school gates or the school dorm with sofas, or it could be the back of a building with a bench or it’d be full of chains and show the Corindon den/hide-out; it’s really creative yet the actually assembling and such is so simple!

The action was really good too but like Onigiri (same theatre it was at too) there were a bit too many people and things on stage at once for my worries and anxiety not to be like ‘PLEASE don’t hurt yourself or fall off!’ and luckily no one had any trouble which is a lucky godsend because seriously, anything could’ve easily gone wrong. As expected it wasn’t like Touken Ranbu stage/musical and 2.5 level of choreography and speed but it was still great and the weapons and such were interesting =]

I also really loved the costumes and the hair and the visuals in general were amazing! I wanted EVERYONE’s bromides! I ended up only buying Hiroki-kun’s (and Domoto’s for a friend) BUT if I had had the money I would’ve definitely bought:

And now onto the characters themselves... ready for an essay? If it wasn’t already xD

ACTING/CHARACTERS

CLOUD BLUE GAKKOU/SCHOOL

Jyounin Tatsuki as Saphir/Safaia: I get the feeling this actor is a big deal but I have no idea who he is. Just the way he holds himself and talks, it came off like he’s probably one of the more popular actors and of course as the main character too in this. But in all honesty, his character was the most boring in terms of personality but that’s probably because he spent the entire stage being like who even am I?!’ and ‘hey guys lets all be friends! I have no past or personality so I’m a good neutral for everyone to be friends with’ is the impression I got from him. Also we all know the MC is always the least interesting character xD *google* oh fuck he’s in TsukiUta!!!!... no wonder he felt like he was famously known as a stage actor! Dammit my spidey senses were right that he’s a big deal...

BUT getting away from the air he gave off and his character, during the curtain call when he actually could be himself; he was totally adorable! He kept messing up his speeches and stuff and just so naturally and automatically slapping himself on the cheek when he messed up and everytime everyone cracked up laughing xD

Sugie Masahiro as Verite/Berute: So you see his visuals and you just imagine a stereotypical glasses character right? Like Tezuka (TeniPuri) or William (Kuroshitsuji). And he IS like that and all stoic and such BUT as you get to know him, he can fight and he’s super nice and tries to help Honette out a lot. And his and Honette’s sword fighting practise scene was great! I really enjoyed those scenes with him and Honette, you can tell they’ve been friends for a long time. Also his hair was fabulous xD

Oguri Ryo as Honette / Onetto: I got to see Oguri in action for the third time! He always does amazing with the action scenes and every time he’s played a different character too. This time we got the cool and mysterious, quiet guy who is obviously badass and could woop your butt within seconds if you tried to start a fight with him. I love his solo sword fighting practise around the back of the school before Verite joined him and they then practised together <3 But his and Chasete’s death scene broke my heart... I’ll get to that later... his power was fire if I remember correctly.

Furuhata Keisuke as Affection/Afekushion and Iwa Yoshito as Tendress/Tandoresu: I’m going to put these two together because they’re twins in this, Affection being the younger brother even though Tendress is the ‘’weaker’ one. Their power is super cool! It’s like Kamen Rider W where both of them have to be present in order for the power to work! So what happens is Tendress goes into a sleep state while Affection uses the power to attack. So yeah, exactly like Kamen Rider W xD I love how they always held hands together (of course xD) and Affection always tries to protect his brother. Also their death is sad; they’ll laid against a wall with their hands against each other =[ they were cute!!

Tanaka Hiroki as Chasete / Shasutate: Now to this little cutie! Freaking Hirokikun you guys! (A compuslory bigger photo for him obviously <3)

Once again Hiroki-kun did a somewhat different character. This character is a right queen! He’s very manipulative and gets people to do what he wants. He has poor Orasu under his thumb and when Chasete tells him that he doesn’t like him (because Orasu is in LOVE with Chasete) Orasu just breaks down and finally realises Chasete was just using him! It’s such a good scene! Also before this scene we get Orasu being a bit sexually frustrated and Chasete just pins him down on the sofa and then when Orasu gets really angry he switches it around so he is on top of Chasete and starts to unbutton his vest! =O

Also when Chasete corners in on Saphir and tries to seduce him too! Oh my!! Seriously I am all for this type of Hiroki o_O this is the second time I’ve seen him do a BL role and I loved it xD cannot wait for his scenes to be on DVD!

But oh me, oh my his death scene! So it ends with him and Honette fighting together and they’re both obviously killed and while on their last breathes, they’re back to back while sat on the floor and Chasete just says ‘I want to sleep / Yasumitai’ and Honete is like ‘yeah just sleep here’ and then obviously they both die =[ it was so sad!

Chasete’s power is basically Manipulation (how is that not surprising xD) and so he can like control people like a puppeteer. It’s pretty cool ^_^

Also Chasete is just pretty as all hell!

I love when Saphir kind of sees through Chasete’s evilness and is like ‘you’re just insecure... be MY friend’ and Chasete breaks down and opens up to him <3 such a good scene!

Hiroki-kun as usual entertained me and made me happy that I’m following his career <3

RED

Seto Keita as Rubis / Rubi-: I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t interested in this character all that much until towards the end. For most of the play he’s just following orders and it becomes clear to the rest of the group that he’s been brainwashed and deluded into thinking Corindon is a good person and he truly believes that Corindon is wanting this power for everyone. But when he learns that he’s the other half of the power and finally believes that Corindon is mean THAT’s when he gets interesting! Visually he looks cool anyway but his character development and story wasn't the most interesting for me.

Shiokawa Wataru as Dignite / Digunite: Ahhh I’m sorry! I don’t really remember this guy =S I remember he’s one of the first Reds to turn good and all but I found the rest of the Reds so interesting that he just kind of fell behind =[ I’ll have to wait for the DVD to make an opinion of him. Sorry guys!

Hattori Muo as Passion / Pashion: I LOVED this guy! As soon as he came on stage, I was like YEAH! He’s so energetic and so raring to go and he has a lot of energy and reminds me a lot of those larger/taller roles, for example Momo from Tenimyu or pretty much any role the actor Shouhei (from Tenimyu, Sengoku Musou, and others) -- do you understand what I mean? I really, really liked him! His death was so sad =[

Masui Kento as Courage / Kura-jyu: This baby is adorable!!! I wanted to take him home!! But his storyline is so sad!!! He gets brutally killed off straight away and THEN Beaute uses his appearance as like a facade when he wants to attack the others! Seeing and evil Courage was upsetting! his death guys, his death hit the feels! And he’s so tiny and cute!!! ... oh shit you guys ... I’ve just googled... he’s not much younger than me!! Holy *dead* he was in YowaMushi! He plays Mizuta!!! OH MY GOD!!! I love him in YowaMushi!!! I remember googling him immediately when I saw him in YowaMushi!!!! OH MY!!! Damn now I do wish I’d bought his bromides to support him!!! OOOOO! He did the Alice play with Keito too?!?! DAMN!! *dead* look look look!

Domoto Shouhei as Beaute / Bo-te: This guy... I know my friend Josie follows his acting troupe/group (acting right? not boy band right? xD) and so she told me about him and so naturally my brain was like “focus on him on stage!’ and me oh my I got SUCH a delight from him. Not only do the Reds come in from the side doors at one point, but also he walked down my aisle and do not trust these pictures, they do not do him justice; he’s SO much more prettier in real life!!! I was in love... love at first sight with this character! His character was also super interesting! He ends up just turning on his group and being one of the two TRUE bad guys and his magic is awesome; he can change his appearance and it’s like image magic where he can creative nothing out of thin air so long as he’s seen it before!

When they came in from the theatre doors that one time, one (I think Dignite) was talking to the crowd and saying that one of the audience members was beautiful, and Domoto flicked his hair back and was like 'of course I'm the most beautiful though' and then Passion turned to him and just shook his head at him very slowly xD Beaute paid no attention to it xD And then in another scene on stage he mentioned his beauty xD Seeing him in his usual out of costume self is absolutely hilarious that he would do such a ’beauty’ role because he looks so different and normal out of costume! I mean look at him normally and then relook at his character photo! So different!

No wait, I take it back. He is VERY pretty even normally... But seriously guys as THAT character, he really is beautiful!

CORINDON GROUP

Sueno Takuma as Corindon: This guy was a good decent bad guy! I don’t have much to say about him just because he’s the stereotypical bad guy and he does it very well. But it was great how he managed to get one group to follow his orders without that group finding out his real motive nor that he had another and his own group doing his bidding too. Also the slight torture scene with Saphir being tortured and tied up by the chains and Corindon electrocuting him(?) was very interesting xD

Katou Mao as Walter / Warute-ru: I have a love-hate relationship with this character. On the one hand I thought he was completely badass and his giant sword weapon was awesome and he kicked butt and I love how when he got really serious he would take out his hand from under his cloak and throw his cloak back so both his arms showed as he fought. BUT (I’m going to be really super shallow now) he just wasn’t pretty enough as this character. In fact, I’d say he looks AWFUL in his pictures (so he’s not photogenic BUT) If you google him he looks great normally! Anyway getting away from my shallowness... he was a badass character and was totally cool and I loved his fighting weapon.

Hagiwara Naruya as Guillaume / Gyo-mu: This character kind of fell under the radar. I really like d the actor in Soul Flower and I kind of expected him to play a bigger role but he really only just popped up here and there and didn’t really bring much to the table, I think he was just a mad scientist that could only come in handy once Corindon got his hands on Saphir.

Akaba Mio as Thibaud / Chibo-: This guy reminded me of... someone... I can’t quite place my finger on who but he was very much like a BDSM type military guy. Do you understand? He also had this whip which was his weapon and he had tight clothes on and such so you get me right?! He was fairly interesting but had a much smaller role than the others so also kind of fell under the radar.

Sugamoto Ikumi as Doudou / DuDu-: This guy was the stereotypical big bony guy who’s pretty dumb and brings comic relief and does stupid things. Except his comedy really didn’t hit all that well with half of the audience. I really enjoyed his stupidity but I didn’t really hear anyone laughing at him which is a shame.

Yoshizawa Tsubasa as Ghislain / Gisuran: I LOVED this guy! Everything from his visuals to how his character is mysterious and quiet but very deadly when he fights, he was good! It’s a shame he was easily overpowered when the Blues got serious though. But I did enjoy his ninja-esque feel and his had the part of clothing that covered his mouth to be more ninja and quite like and he only spoke when he absolutely needed to so overall he was pretty dang cool! Also the actor himself is cute xD

SCHOOL COUNCIL

Okita Kouhei as Horace / Orasu: This poor guy, he was so easily manipulated and used by Chasete but then when he got his heart broken and he goes kinda mental was creepy but very well done.

Watabe Hiroki as Roro/Roro, Sono Kazuki as Nicholas / Nikola and Uchino Futo as Anton / Anton: I’m going to put these guys together. They’re all relatively young and they all had not so much time on stage and they were definitely the cutest because of how much younger they were and I have to say the sweetest out of them all was Roro because he got kidnapped and traumatised thanks to Corindon, also Roro is just like Saphir in that his powers haven’t awoken yet so he’s there to support Saphir when he;s like ‘where is my power?!’. These three did a very good job!

And I think I’ve finally done it!

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AFTERSHOW

I went on opening night and at the end, instead of an aftertalk or a handshake, we got to take pictures of the whole cast on our hpones so here’s some shots I took ^_^

The last two shots were of the cut outs in the lobby ^_^

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GOODS

As you can see I stayed Hiroki-kun central BUT as previously mentioned, if I had the money I definitely would’ve bought some other’s bromides <3

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And we’re done! Another down... a billion 8 more to go (seriously I am SO far behind >.<)

#tanaka hiroki #domoto shouhei #domoto shohei #jyounin tatsuki #oguri ryo #iwa yoshito #masui kento #hagiwara naruya #odd entertainment #stage #stage play #review #舞台 #マーカライトブルー #yoshizawa tsubasa #marker light blue #marker light blue deeper

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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.08.23-24 Saraba, Gold Mountain [Review]

I was super excited for this stage because Bancho are consistently churning out great plays, and I've been so impressed every time I've been (and what I’ve seen on DVD), which is actually only twice including this one (see my Amakuhanaize 3 review here and also ALL their event reports can be found here), SO I couldn't wait and see what this one was all about!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Online Website here Press Coverage 1, 2

CAST and CHARACTERS

Futaba Kaname as Katou Sunhara Kensuke as Masuda Nishihara Kenta as Taisho Chiwata Yuhei as Matsumoto Kikuchi Shuji as Okamoto Domoto Shohei as Shacho / Factory Boss Oosumi Yuuta as Okada

Higawari (Daily-Change) Guests: Oribe Yoshinari (8/22 and 8/25) Futaba Yuu (8/23) Yasui Kazuma (8/24) Momiki Yoshito (8/26)

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: As expected, I was NOT disappointed! They made a GOLD stage once again! This one was far more funny than anything I've seen of theirs yet! There was a LOT of room for adlibbing and improv. as well as scripted comedy and all of it landed so well! It was so well timed, so enjoyable. The boys were enjoying it JUST as much as the audience! And what made it even better is that the audience (primarily girls) were DOWN for loud laughter. Usually at 2.5 stages and such, with a predominantly female audience, the audience tends to just giggle, just laugh oh-so femininely and politely. But at this one, I was not the only one bursting out into gigantic laughter. Everyone felt comfortable enough and everyone was tickled enough that they could not hold it in and everyone was laughing so loudly and so hard, and that made the experience even more amazing! I am super thankful that everyone in the room unspokenly agreed and felt comfortable with proper, actually laughing. This stage is absolutely hilarious! I watched this twice and both time I was clutching my stomach because it HURT from laughing so much! I got SUCH a good workout from this show! It's absolutely hilarious. The story is so simple that it's easy to follow and thanks to all the boys' personalities we could get different types of adlibbing and different types of comedy. They all brought their A-game and they were all hilarious - AND charming(!) at the same time! Of course, comedy aside, the story is simple yet charming and great. The characters are very well done, as usual great acting from them all! I enjoyed every aspect of this stage! It was pretty unique too. It had a very realistic theme but they were able to change it into something ridiculous, enjoyable and funny. I give kudos to all the boys! Especially the Higawari cast! Some of them only had like one or two rehearsals before their performance days came and each one of them had their own style and both times (I had Futuba Yu and Yasui Kazuma) they brought great energy to the show and they were such a nice and little addition to the stage! I think even the main cast didn't really know what to expect from their higawari characters xD I went in with high expectations and they gave me what I wanted AND more. They topped it! Once again! Seriously, go watch a god damn Bancho stage (I shamelessly link you to this DL here)! They are amazing! Rating: 9/10 - only loses a mark because it was just a tad short (it’s just under 90s minutes.) I wanted more!

SPOILER REVIEW

Going into this stage I had some pre-thoughts:

It's Bancho! It's Domoto! I'm excited! Domoto said it was going to be European inspired so I’m expecting something LIKE D-Boys' Garantido where it's just their everyday working life, and maybe something comes to disrupt the peace. (<<< which, turns out, I WAS right about!). And because it's Bancho, we're obviously going to have some of the actual members realities thrown in there as themes, and we're going to have some serious and possibly crying moments, but also lots of comedy and higawaris and pure stupidity! I am excited!!

Turns out... I was pretty god damn accurate about it xD

STORY

A manager (Kaname) and his new employee (Sunahara) go out for drinks one night, but when they get the bill, they soon learn that Japan, along with the rest of the worldwide, is suffering from Inflation, and something that once cost 3000yen (about 30USD or 25GBP), now costs 30,000,000yen (300,000USD or 250,0000GBP). So until they pay the entirety of their bill, the owner (Nishihara) will not let them leave his bar. A table over with had another boss (Kikuchi) and employee (Yuhei) who were fully aware and prepared for such a bill and belittle Kaname and Sunahara for their stupidity. But they too couldn’t predict that over the course of the night, the Inflation would get worse and they TOO would be forced to stay til they paid in full. So the entire story takes place at this Outside Food/Drink Stall and a few colourful characters make their way to the bar too. And hilarity and ridiculousness ensues.

Of course, in true Bancho Boys style it goes from funny to absolutely ridiculous in 0.1 seconds. So let’s break it down! I’ll do the main things and stuff that happened in both performances that I saw; and then I’ll go into what was different.

THE STAGE

☆ I love when Sunahara and Kaname are told about the bill that they react in the most manzai (comedian-duets in Japan) way ever and pretend to collapse to the floor. And even after NishiKen tells them 3 times that he's not lying and that the bill really comes to 30,000,000 yen, they still proceeded to fall down comedically xD I love how they also drag Kikuchi and Yuhei's character into joining them in the falling.

☆ I love how part way through, they randomly reveal the back left side of the stage which is a giant, magnified phone screen and it projected the currency and the news about inflation on it. NishiKen's reaction to the reveal of this prop is hilarious. It's funny just purely because they acknowledge it so normally! xD

☆ There's a part of the play where Sunahara gets really angry, and he does his EH?! which we all immediately recognised and was reminiscent of a skit (this one) and we all died laughing. It was even more hilarious by the fact that his reaction was aimed towards Yuhei. It was perfectly pitch and the perfect timing during both shows I saw!

☆ I really loved the buddy action between and the character development for Yuhei and Shuji's characters! They start as very normal, serious Japanese businessmen who are looking down on the foolish Kaname and Sunahara who were too dumb to see the world news going crazy about Inflation. But as the stage progresses, you can slowly seeing their normalness cracking. There are some gold moments where Kikuchi uses Chiwata almost like a body guard or shield sometimes (both physically and metaphorically) from other people. Shinji would use Yuhei as a shield whenever people came over to pummel them. One good example of this is towards the end when they're all starting to argue and fight with one another and Kikuchi says something that pisses off Yuuta and Kikuchi throws Yuhei in the way so Yuuta pushes and corners Yuhei into a corner and has a go at him, while Yuhei is just shriveling up in complete and pure fear; and at that time he had such a squeemy face. It was great slowly seeing their true colours coming out; and seeing just how fucked they were just like everyone else.

☆ At certain point of the play, everyone in the scene would freeze while one point was on in the center. Here, Kaname would step into it and give a narration of the story and it's events. He was the protagonist and the narrator. But there was one moment towards the end of the show where Kaname was doing this narration and Yuta starts moving, eyes the spotlight and Kaname really weirdly, before finally coming over like ‘who the fuck you talking to?!’. So obviously Kaname freaks out and resumes back into the story but Yuta is still staring out into the audience completely puzzled, and obviously we were all cracking up laughing as he tries to figure out WHO Kaname was narrating to xD

☆ SPEAKING of Yuta! Yuta is just the king when it comes to ridiculous comedy!! His character is completely stupid anyway; he's a rich, mafia(?) guy who is just too stupid for his own good. He gets incredibly angry because one of them accidentally scratches his car, so naturally he wants someone to pay (a ridiculous amount) for it, but he very easily gets wrapped up in their talk of Inflation and how they'll survive and then Yuta decides he too won't leave until someone pays for his car, but then he something simple catches his eye and he starts fighting the others for it. He is absolutely pompous! He had some many funny moments and had everyone in hysterics (including himself) and he was just amazing in it!

☆ The story is set in Osaka so naturally the script and their accents were in Kansai-Ben. Hearing them use Kansai Ben was GREAT!! I enjoyed hearing it so much!! Quite a few of them are from the Kansai area (NishiKen and Kaname. Although Sunahara is from Kyoto, he said the Osaka dialect is different to his Kyoto one so NishiKen had to help him xD) so it would've been easy for them!

☆ Kaname plays a superior or boss at his company. He's the narrator of the play, taking moments out to talk directly to the audience and to narrate the story at times. He's oblivious and he can't quite understand what is going on around him. But he is good hearted and tries. Also he's married --- a point that all the cast on stage get shocked about even though he has a ring on xD

☆ Sunahara plays Kaname's kouhai/younger coworker. As he's younger, he's full of energy! I remember him and Kaname had a great comedy duo going on, they worked very well together and their chemistry was great!

☆ NishiKen is the owner of the outdoor bar/food stall where the four businessmen end up stuck because their bills are too expensive. In true NishiKen style he is tsukkomi-ing like hell, has perfect comedic timing and is the perfect balance of going from a pissed/angry owner to insulting others to being scared for him life. His acting was great and he had some many great moment!! The comedy TIMING of this boy never ceases to amaze me!

☆ Kikuchi had the perfect balance of being stoic and acting as if he's from a higher class when he realises Kaname and Sunahara knew nothing about the Inflation, but as the stage progresses, he's able to slowly show cracks in his character until the story becomes absolutely ridiculous and he's just as ridiculous as everyone else xD

☆ Yuhei is Kikuchi's younger coworker and he is kind hearted but he definitely gets thrown into situations he doesn't want to be in. He's sort of weak and kind of a wimp; he definitely freaks in all the scary and tough situations with the most hilarious, squeemish looks on his face.

☆ Domoto plays the owner of a factory; he's your typical factory man who, after he finished work just wants a good beer and some quiet time to himself. Even though he seems dumb, he quickly proves he's just as many parts clever as he is stupid. He is clever enough to figure out a system to get around the Inflation without having to worry about money, but he fights over silly things such as not wanting to share food. It was a different role that we've seen from Domoto so far and I think he did a great job! His body language in his characters is definitely his strong point. From his body language alone he FELT like a factory owner (I don't really know how to explain this but you catch my drift right?), and when he was scared he was able to make himself look very small and timid etc. He did a great job -- course he did! I'm bias as hell! xD

☆ Yuta definitely stole the show in this one. He plays a rich, mafia (I assume) guy who is very hot-headed and pretty stupid, which causes him to start fights with everyone on stage even if it's a miss understanding. Yuta SHINES when it comes to comedy. He is both intentionally and unintentionally funny. He's great with scripted comedy, adlibbing/improvised comedy and he is just naturally amusing to watch. He did amazing in this if you ask me! He was, for me at least, the star of this show, even though he isn't in it for the first half at all!

☆ The Higawari Cast's character was.... odd. I think he was supposed to be the friend of Yuhei/Kikuchi but he is, what's the best word to describe him as, eccentric. At least from what Kazuma and YuuKun did; their character was ridiculous and completely over the top. In true Kazuma style, the character was dramatic and ridiculous. I absolutely loved that during Kazuma's performance, he started reciting who scenes and lines from Death Note and put on this huge act; the audience seemed to get the references straight away which was great so we could all die laughing together. I think the guys on stage too were at a loss as to how to react. In true YuuKun style, he was very funny, ridiculous, and a little stupid. I was so happy that when he first came on stage, he immediately went to Kaname and the two of them looked at each other very puzzled and said 'have I seen you somewhere before? You look familiar.' the audience ADORED this moment for very obvious reasons! <<< if you didn't know Futaba Kaname and Futaba Yuu are twins.

I really, really hope they've learned from past plays and have filmed ALL the higawaris from the boys because I'd really want to see the other performances too!

Now back to some key moments and comedy that I loved! Although this may be very Yuta heavy xD

☆ There is a scene where Domoto, Sunahara, Kikuchi and Yuhei fight over the money that is left on NishiKen's shop counter. This is another scene where everyone slows down, and NishiKen tries to get between them to break up the fight but then they start attacking NishiKen instead (more on this below because it was different every show). In this fight, I’m pretty sure Domoto ended up on the floor in defeat and he stayed there for a long time xD

☆ Another scene is when Yuta is obsessed with this Family Pack of sweets/snacks -- it is actually what gets thrown into Yuta's car, causing him to get angry and to join their madness -- so he fights Domoto for it. They start fighting for it, so there is a scene where they are pulling the family pack away from each other and neither of them will give up. They do it in slow motion so everytime one of them has the upperhand, they did these funny faces, which of course Yuta's were better and were very, very hilarious!

☆ Towards the climax of the story, Yuta gets stabbed accidentally. His reaction is GOLD. He reacts so slowly reacts to it and then yells very loudly 'ITAI!!! / OUCH!!!!!' and then proceeds to mope around the stage, 'this really hurts! It's hurts!! Argh!!!' and he was so comical.

I am NOT doing ANY of this comedy justice. It's hilarious, okay! Just trust me xD

☆ Then right at the end, Yuta loses it and just takes his gun out and shoots everyone! again, we get a slow-mo scene so everyone in the audience is laughing. Also, the way they fall to the floor is very funny. I specifically remember YuuKun's death because he gets shot and, similar to Yuta, his reaction is very late and delayed so he get's shot.... ARGH! And then he proceeded to do this flying wing action as he fell to the floor. It was hysterical!

☆ Another scene I remember is right at the beginning (backtracking a little I apologise. But y'know my reviews are always all over the place xD) when NishiKen explains how much their bill is and why it costs so much, NishiKen lists off the food they had and Kaname is like 'that is not what we had!', and he grabs the yakitori stick/skewer and goes to points at what they ate but he doesn't remember so he asks Sunahara and he slowly labels off types of yakitori (illustration example here) but every show he said something different so Kaname had to quickly get on board and remember what he said, but I remember at the first show he was like 'what? Does that even exist?!' clearly it was a yakitori that's not usually on the menu, or Sunahara made it up completely xD

☆ I love when Yuta first comes into the scene and he sits down next to Domoto at the counter, but Domoto is just full of fear and is slowly trying to turn away from him while Yuta is talking.

☆ The final moment I remember is when Sunahara slaps Yuhei. It was so unexpected and the timing is perfect and just made everyone laugh out loud.

DIFFERENCES

I went to this show twice and there was a LOT of adlib and improvisations, and as you know, one of the characters was a different actor everyday or every performance, and of course each actor has their own sense of humour and comedy style which they brought to the stage. So here are some differences between the two show I saw.

First Show - Thursday 23rd November Night Show

☆ During the scene where Nishiken is being lifted up by Yuhei and Suna were holding Nishi in med-air for ages, but then they finally put him down. Nishi was holding onto them for dear life xD

☆ YuuKun's performance was, as I already mentioned above, GOLD! He had people screaming with laughter. Our stomachs were all hurting from the amount of comedy he threw at us. He was so good! Also, as mentioned, they did the whole 'brothers meeting' and when YuuKun came on Kaname was like ‘hang on... ain’t I seen you somewhere before?!’ these boys know what we want to see!

☆ Yuta completely broke character and was pissing himself laughing when YuuKun came on stage. Yuta tried so hard to keep it together and it keep looking mean, but he had to turn away from the audience, and you could tell he was dying inside of laughter. That's just HOW FUNNY YuuKun is okay! His comedy, even when he speaks normally is GOLD. He is so, so unbelievably funny!

☆ I really have to reiterate how funny YuuKun was doing that flying winged movement when he died. It was like something inspired from a RedBull advert xD

☆ Towards the end of the show, Nishi's character gets really pissed off at the ridiculousness of everything and just wants everyone to stop so he took his shirt off in anger. The audience died naturally. And then sometime after that scene, he just starts flexing his chest/breast muscles which killed the audience even more.

☆ NishiKen is another who is so naturally funny and his timing is great! There was a point where Kaname was talking really seriously about the situation but NishiKen slipped out a really quick but insulting comment causing the entire audience to die of laughter while poor Kaname tried to continue on without cracking up himself.

☆ During the curtain call, YuuKun got to speak and they all commented that he had only had one rehearsal for the show (because he was so busy with Saiyuuki at the time, review here), and they were all so impressed he was able to do such a great performance regardless of that. I figure he probably practise when he had time at home because he lives with his brother so they could've easily done their scenes together in their free time at home.

☆ Sunahara also spoke at the curtain call this night and commented on how even though he's from Kyoto, in the Kanto region, the boys like NishiKen had to help him with the Osaka Kansai accent and dialect because he felt it was different to how Kyoto people speak.

☆ There is a scene where Domoto acts out and gets angry, seriously there are so many ridiculous fights and out-spurts in this show xD and at this show, he ended up really kicking NishiKen who took it like a champ. I think Domoto surprised himself at how well he could do it but NishiKen kept in character and was like 'wtf you doing?!' xD

☆ There were two curtain calls / rounds of applause and when they went off both times, Kaname always took something off stage with him. At this show he took some of the money with him as he walked off.

Second Show - Friday 24th November Night Show

☆ The highlight of this performance was definitely: Yuta forgetting his lines completely. It was during his character was this center monologue scene and he just forgot completely. Yuta forgot then tried to start over (the audience and himself was already cracking up at this point), and Domoto just blurted out 'oh don’t start ALL over!’ which cracked Yuta up even more but he got himself together and when he finally did his moment from start to finish, he got a huge applause from the audience, to which Domoto (in character and according to the script) responded, ‘I don’t get it (= I don't understand what you just said)’, and Yuta (completely out of character) replied ‘I don’t get it either’ and we all lost it again xD Yuta was so OVER it at that moment. Because this stage is suppose to be ridiculous and funny and comedic, it was totally acceptable and okay for Yuta to mess up as much as he did. He's a great guy, he's funny, we all love him, this stage was a comedy; we all accepted his massive mess up and we all joyed in on the fun of it!

☆ For Kazuma's higawari he was essentially himself -- I feel he only ever plays himself if I'm being honest -- and was being overdramatic and ridiculous. Which IS enjoyable and fun! But what made his character amazing was the fact that his moments were completely full of Death Note lines and scenes xD his characters main introduction had him reciting Ryuk lines and then at the climax of the stage he started doing the lines and actions from the final Light vs Near scene in Death Note. It was clear that most of the audience got the reference (BBs audience are pretty young. I'd say like late high school to my age, mid-20s) and loved Death Note too by the fact everyone was laughing at him. Even the boys on stage were like 'who you acting with? Who you talking to?' and either had puzzled or amused expressions on their faces xD

☆ Instead of NishiKen doing the chest flex today, we had Kazuma singing his lines rather than saying them (like a normal person!) and once Kazuma had finished NishiKen's PERFECT comedic timing kicked on and he said 'your arms are so skinny!' xD

☆ Speaking of NishiKen, he wasn't lifted up this time when they were fighting over the money. Instead, Yuhei took off his shoe and shoved it in his face but because it was a scene where we go from slow-motion to everyone freezing and Kaname going into narrator mode, NishiKen had to stay there with the boot in his face and his face didn't not look impressed. It must've been stinky~~~ xD

☆ When Kazuma first appears on stage, Yuhei tries to talk to him but Kazuma immediately said to him 'speak in a lower voice' and everyone died of laughter. So Yuhei said his line again IN a lower tone xD There was another point during the stage also where he asks him to lower his voice xD

☆ Also Kazuma squealing his line out just barely because it was a long line and he was running out of breath, killed everyone too. Especially when Yuhei immediately responded with 'even mine doesn't go that high' xD

☆ The curtain call had Kazuma and Kikuchi do a small speech. Unfortunately I do not remember what they said.

☆ And finally, Kaname took a drink after the first curtain call/applause, and then at the second one took two big wads of money xD

Extras

After the second show, I got Chekis with Domoto and for once I had something to say and a question ALL set up for once! So here's a quick summary of that:

Me: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu Domoto: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu Me: let's do a peace pose! Domoto: Okay! *pose for cheki/polaroid* Me: Thanks for the good work! Domoto: Thank you! Me: Are you sleeping okay now? (He mentioned recently that he was having trouble sleeping) Domoto: Oh yeah! I'm okay now, thanks! *takes cheki and says goodbye

GOODS

This was heavily overdue and my memory is not serving me the best but it is done now! Turns out I have ANOTHER Bancho Stage left to review and upload -- which is absolutely ridiculous, I really shouldn’t be this far behind but... oh well!

#bancho boys #review #stage #stage plays #stage play #futaba kaname #futaba yuu #domoto shohei #yasui kazuma #nishihara kenta #chiwata yuhei #kikuchi shuji #Oosumi Yuuta #二葉勇 #二葉要 #堂本翔平 #舞台

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