#for a start in the manga multiple characters had the same silhouette look before their real designs were revealed

[shoechoe]

hehehehehe. diavolo

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Horikoshi: This will probably not be super popular, but it’ll be fun!

Us: Oh, well that sounds nice!

Us, 290 chapters later: This Isn’t Fun Anymore Horikoshi

Horikoshi: :)

Anyways, welcome to the beginning of - hopefully - a long term and engaging project. I am basically aware of all of canon, and am up to date with the manga, but I haven’t actually read from the beginning of the series, and I’ve only watched the series up to the Deku v Todo fight in the sports festival. However, I’ve been curious as to how the manga portrays stuff that I’ve seen in anime gif form, and so I figured, hey, make this a project!

If you have questions or anything, the ask box is open for now. Meanwhile, I am going to head into the first chapter proper!

[No. 1 - Izuku Midoriya: Origin]

Wow, you’d almost think this kid would grow up to be a villain or something, with that kind of attitude, huh? No way that this kind of attitude would ever come to bite him in the ass and force him to reevaluate his entire character and kickstart his character development.

(Before you say anything, I like Katsuki as a character, but DAMN did he have to do a lot of growing up. I suppose when one is at the bottom, the only way to go is up… unless you have a pickaxe.)

One thing I actually noticed right away, and I dunno how much it’s used in other manga (seeing as I currently am not reading any other manga and the last ones I read were… a long while ago…) is the shape of the text boxes in order to convey emotion! It’s actually hella neat and a little detail I wouldn’t think about adding if I were in his position (not that I can draw all that well, but that’s not my point). You can practically hear the warbling in Izuku’s tone and the rougher edges in Katsuki’s!

(Also, question for the English sub while we’re at it, why the fuck does Katsuki sound like he’s a goddamned adult when he’s fourteen. What the fuck.)

Interesting little thing here, Katsuki not actually using his quirk here against Izuku; his hand is trailing smoke from his explosion, but it’s not a direct burn wound. Not that he should be doing this at all, but with the number of fics I see where Katsuki literally gives Izuku second or third degree burns, I think this is a reminder that canon Katsuki has some modicum of restraint, even this early.

Before I forget, hello winged kid who definitely has no plot significance whatsoever. No siree.

(If you are new to the manga/show and are reading this as among your first introductions to the fandom, first off, I am so sorry. Secondly, expect me to be… definitely making a lot of sarcastic quips to things in the future.)

Onto the second/third page, which is supposed to be a full spread, but is split up into two pages on the online reading site. RIP, but I will not complain about free access to the whole manga. 

Lookit this green bean. I love him so much. I can’t wait for him to suffer.

Izuku: wait, what?

Anyways, a few things to note:

Who the fuck is this guy? I looked into the wiki but he apparently doesn’t warrant a page or even a mention as one of the background faces of the series, but look at that fucking claw, man! And those boots and jets! He’s very obviously themed after a baseball catcher, so I’m going to guess that he has some kind of quirk that deals with either drawing projectiles to him, or perhaps in throwing projectiles… in either case, it’d be something like Snipe’s quirk, so maybe this is his less howdy-happy sibling.

Oh right, the chapter. The other heroes we see on the scene in this two-page spread are Death Arms, Air Jet, and Kamui Woods. 

Also, something I want to point out that I’m sure others have but just struck me while looking at this spread - multiple people are recording / taking pictures of this. I wonder if part of the reason for the villain industry to be as strong as it is is because the villains, even if they know they’ll lose, still get their own sort of fame in being in the news? That… might explain a lot about how there can be enough villains to even run an entire damn industry.

(Well, that and a lot of sociopolitical commentary on BNHA society, but we don’t need to get into that now. Maybe wait two hundred or so chapters first.)

Not gonna lie, I had to double take because I was like ‘wait, what is Ochako doing here?’ but then I realized it was just a random civilian; she doesn’t have those side bangs Ochako does. But now I almost wonder what sort of world we could have had, if they’d met a bit earlier.

Onto the fifth page (fourth is just a filler page, nothing on it), and we get treated to this gem:

Tag yourself I’m the guy who’s slackjawed because his kid is fucking glowing.

The first four examples of quirks shown in this flashback are the luminescence, telekinesis, ice, and that flame-headed(?) mutation. Of them, we actually see hints to the fact that quirks have drawbacks, as the girl with ice is drawn with the same frostbite backlash as Shouto, while the flame-headed kid is… well, I have no idea, but they do not look to be happy.

Also, I love the nod Hori does to the heroes of our era as silhouettes! This is just more evidence to me, along with the fact that the first quirked kid is born and presented in a modern hospital, that this series takes place sometime in the future. I… even calculated the years it could technically be, based on information we get in a few chapters, but I’ll save that for then.

Onto the sixth page! A nice shot of Kamui Woods getting into position, and man is that giant quirk unnerving.

What the fuck is with those feet, Hori. Those aren’t feet.

Next we see how the crowds are reacting, basically with no panic or concern. One guy is just casually letting his boss know he’ll be getting in late. And Backdraft! That is some serious water manipulation, but it seems like it has to be the water they’re in contact with? Also, is it just me or is that a portable pressure hose on their back?

And of course, Izuku being excited over hero stuff, as one does. He’s so babey faced, going back to current chapters after this is gonna be fucking wild.

Onto the seventh page, and here we are with the ‘you’re pure evil’ speech to someone who’s… just a robber. Seriously, dude? I get that you’re still fairly new to the scene (I think he might not be from a hero high school, but a late join program, but that’s another post), but like. You can’t just call random people ‘pure evil’ and correlate petty crime with like, actual mass murderers, or else people might start to see things in black and white and, you know, create the idea of ‘villainous people’ and so push even more innocents down the path of desperation and criminality.

Wait, sociopolitics later. Izuku being a hero fanboy now. Even able to utter Kamui’s attack call as he’s calling it out, with some seriously cool visual effects-

And on the eighth page, we have Mt. Lady crash the scene. Literally. She just fucking shows up outta nowhere and fucking leaps up and delivers a kick right to the villain’s chin, throwing him back through the train bridge wall and sending debris down to the ground below. Sure hope there weren’t civilians there!

Also, hello to that random guy on the roof watching this. I think in Smash they made that guy her manager or something.

I love how Izuku and the other guy are like ‘what the fuck’ while the press just shows up out of nowhere and is like. Hyperfocused on her. (I’ve heard some issues with the portrayal of media/reporters in the series, but since I have no experience with that sort of thing, I can’t say much on it.)

The last panel of this page shows that, fortunately, there were no civilians on that part of the street (even though it being rush hour and the huge crowds on the other side of the bridge should have suggested otherwise… but what do I know?)

With page nine, we get to see our first case of villain apprehension, which to note does not include any sort of quirk suppressors. Because those don’t exist. Otherwise Aizawa and the Eight Precepts’ erasure bullets would not be such huge deals to everyone. I mean yikes, though, the guy is fucking muzzled. And you can see the damage done by Mt. Lady in the background, both physical and emotional. Not to mention…

What the fuck is that face.

But yeah, this notes that performance in heroics determines not only what they’re paid by the government, but also how much fame they get. No way a system like this could backfire in any capacity, right? Right? (cough).

I love how Hori uses Izuku’s muttering habit as the border for the text bubble when the kid zones into his little world. Also, gigantification is noted to be a common and strong quirk, so we really should see more OCs with size altering quirks in fics in the future, you hear me? Honestly, with it being common, I would almost expect there to be entire buildings, or maybe even neighborhoods / blocks dedicated to catering to size shifters… wonder what those places look like.

Also aww, the guy saying good luck on the heroics dream to Izuku and Izuku just sparkling. What a cutie. Can’t wait for him to suffer. :D

Izuku: No seriously, what-

Anyways, I’m cutting off here since we then transition into the next ‘scene’ and this is a long chapter - 55 pages! Besides, this has already surpassed 1700 words, I don’t need to ramble on too long in one post. 

Lemme know what you think, and I’ll be back with more soon!

[bemused-writer]

Vanitas for the character meme

 Ohh, Vanitas is a great choice; such a complex character.

favorite thing about them - My favorite thing about Vanitas is the conflict we see in him, the mystery. He has periods of manic joy (when he first asks Noé to join him for example) and moments where he loses all control (at the Bal Masque when he revealed he was human, how he feels about VotBM, etc).

Between these two extremes we see someone who is more fragile then he lets on and I think that’s fascinating. Most of the time he puts on a mask of confidence and purposefully tries to make people angry with him (usually to gain an advantage of some kind) but with Noé I think we start to see a more honest version of Vanitas. He takes a bit more time to consider his answers to his questions and actually allows for some give and take in their relationship.

In other words, my favorite thing about Vanitas is learning about Vanitas!

least favorite thing about them - His treatment of women leaves something to be desired. However, I can also see how this fits into his background. Why does he have such an issue with them? Why is he so hung up on Jeanne? I may have my own guesses but we don’t know for sure yet and I’m very curious to see how this turns out!

favorite line - “I reject your rejection,” from volume 4. Still one of the funnier exchanges those two have had. XD Of course, I enjoyed his opening speech, “I will save you without fail” quite a bit since it establishes pretty much the entire story.

brOTP - I had a bit of trouble with this at first because Vanitas has a surprisingly limited amount of people he interacts with. XD However, I would definitely say Vanitas & Dante. They have an odd, business-style relationship but the impression I get is they’ve known each other for a long time. Maybe a few years at least? They have quite an amusing back-and-forth established though.

OTP - Vanitas x Noé. I think that Noé is bringing out sides of Vanitas we wouldn’t get to see otherwise. Vanitas acts differently around Noé than he does with other people: he forgives him for all kinds of things, actually listens to him, and treats him like an actual person. The way he treats everyone else is pretty hit-and-miss to put it nicely....

He’s also actively allows himself to care for Noé and, while I think he’s acknowledged it to himself, I don’t think he’s happy about it. He criticized Jeanne mercilessly for allowing herself to form an attachment. Imagine how much he must be getting on his own case for doing the same thing.

nOTP - Vanitas x Dr. Moreau is probably the biggest NOTP I can think of for the series. 8D

Uh, other than that I don’t actively ship Vanitas x Jeanne; I think that’s a “learning relationship” of sorts. It will be interesting, chaotic, but ultimately I think they’ll each be happier when it reaches its conclusion. My main question is how far will their relationship go before that inevitable parting? Will it be on good terms or bad? It’s impossible to say right now.

random headcanon - I’ve wondered if Vanitas might have multiple personalities. Not in a medical sense but from his mark of possession, rather. It seems to act differently from the rest we’ve seen in the series so far (a limited amount, granted but still). At times he almost seems like a different person and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why.

I also think his definition of “salvation” tends toward the negative. He’s killed vampires as a way of bringing salvation and offers death to Jeanne as a kind of salvation if she loses herself as well. “If that time comes, I’ll kill you. I promise... I’ll kill you.” And then he remembers Misha right after, which seems to imply he didn’t grant this final wish to him and he knows he should have. It’s actually a little reminiscent of how Noé couldn’t grant this particular form of salvation for Louis either. It also raises the question of why death would have been an act of kindness for Misha as well.

One more: I think the day we see Vanitas dress differently is the day he’s finally escaped VotBM’s influence. Right now he imitates her style of dress quite a bit and he’s obsessed with her.

unpopular opinion - I’m not sure if I have any particularly unpopular opinions about the character. I suppose my views on some of the ships could be unpopular. :0

song i associate with them - Nothing in particular. Sad, longing, haunting pieces would suit him well, I think.

favorite picture of them - So many! For the sake of brevity, I decided to just pick a few mostly recent ones and leave out panels in the manga:

I really like how vaguely ominous this one is. We see at least two marks of possession (possibly a third depending on how you want to interpret the purple splotch), the book’s chain links him to Noé (which I cropped out but you get the idea), and he’s partially submerged underwater on his left side. He’s grinning but to me this looks like someone who is losing himself piece by piece. His body has been marked as belonging to different people (at least one of which he sort of allowed to do so), he’s not clutching at any particular lifeline (while Noé is holding onto the chain Vanitas, himself, is not), and he’s acting like everything is okay even when it clearly isn’t.

I also really like the extra ones Mochizuki has given us on Twitter. You can see them here, here, and here.

For the first one, it’s just very beautiful. I get the impression it’s probably in their hotel room since he’s dressed in a more relaxed way then he normally is. It also looks, to me, like it’s just after rain has fallen. I don’t know but it’s lovely.

The second one just amuses me. Loosely translated he’s basically saying “Take it.” I’m pretty sure this picture is a response to the February free page where Vanitas wins a crown? I’m forgetting the name of the custom. Regardless, I suppose he knew Noé would be way more excited at receiving such a thing than he would be. XD

And then the third is driving me crazy. 8D It’s a simple silhouette but the writing on it says something like “I’m/you’re alive” (生きてます。） I mean... Mochizuki is just giving us tantalizing foreshadowing now.... At any rate, it’s a haunting piece and I really like it.

Thank you for the ask! ^^

[pamy92]

KnB Stage Play 3: IGNITE-ZONE (Fan Report)

I attended the evening show on April 7th held at Sunshine Theatre Hall, Ikebukuro (Tokyo). Personal & official stage pictures and my report under the cut! And yes, that is my personalised KagaKuro Itabag!

FRONT OF HOUSE 

I applied for the pre-sale lottery a few months back and scored a seat on Row 12 at the theatre. The hall itself is pretty small and cosy (about 850-ish seats in total) so I had a very good and close view of the cast on the stage! 

At the lobby, we had the usual ticket checks and up ahead was a present box table for fans to leave letters and gifts to the cast.

I am a fan of Ono Kensho so I did write a fan letter to him! This is my 2nd letter to him since I have attended two of his live appearances - MBS Anime Fes 2017 and of course this stage play. He visited Singapore a few years back, so I decided to use one of my several Singapore postcards to write him an encouraging message! #singaporerepresent . 

On the right was a pretty long queue for merch and the DVD/Blu-Ray preorders booth. I bought a t-shirt for myself since that is usually the only merch I buy at live shows/events! 

STAGE SETTING & ZONE LIGHTING EFFECTS 

Onwards into the hall and taking my seat, we can immediately see an outdoor basketball court setting with fences and four 3-metre high warped walls at all four corners of the stage. 

Alas no rotating stage floor this time, but I promise you this set is probably one of the nicest sets out of the 3 stage plays! 

The back half of the stage also has a slight incline to create the illusion of height. There are white lines running from the floor (basketball court markings), streaking across the warped walls and curving up towards the ceiling. And yes, they light up to create the effect of the ZONE!

(You can see all the white stripes lighting up and flashing around in red as Kagami entered the ZONE. It’s super cool!The same lights flash around as Kagami executed his Meteor Jam shot too!)

THE CAST 

The cast was perfect and everybody really did their best to deliver their character roles in this super strenuous 2-hour play. I swear they have perfected the squat and have thighs & calves of steel from all that semi-squat poses they have to do! 

In the first two plays, we had the stage-hands/back-up cast in those tacky black raincoats. In the 3rd play, these backup cast (called Igniters) were dressed in black pants and a black hoodie. I guess they have to be in athletic wear because they help the main cast with their stunts (lifting Kagami and Murasakibara, as well as using their bodies as launch-pad for Kuroko to jump off from). 

I want to do a special shout-out to Riko (Asami Tano)! She has the BEST facial expression during the dance number, and she was super energetic! She really really shined on stage! 

Other special mentions go to the three main boys - Ono Kensho (Kuroko), Asato Yuya (Kagami), Onuma Shouta (Aomine), they really breathed life into their characters. 

If you watch each actor close enough, you can see the boys doing something special before every match.

Ono Kensho - He likes to wipe the palm of his hands on the soles of both shoes (i guess to wipe off any sweat from the ground), before a match.

Asato Yuya - He taps the front of his shoes (the toes) with two fingers to ready his feet (or maybe to check his shoelaces).

Kawai Ryunosuke (Kiyoshi) - He likes to hit the sides of his thighs with his fists to relief his thigh muscles before each match.

I am not sure if these are their personal stage rituals or something the real character does in the anime/manga, but it was pretty cool to notice!

THE PLAY 

I won’t be going through the play scene by scene because I honestly cannot remember every single thing. Midori has written a very detailed review so you can check hers out. But I will pick out my favourite scenes from the entire play! 

And yes, we had Tsuchida (Kajimoto Daiki) warn us not to throw the ball back on stage, a staff or himself will come and get it. This announcement did come pretty late because Himuro’s ball rebounded against the curved ceiling structures and flew towards the left of the audience before the warning. Thankfully no one was hurt! 

~  KAGAMI MEETS HIMURO SCENE ~

The play opens with a KagaKuro scene where Kuroko (Ono Kensho) asks about Kagami’s (Asato Yuya) ring necklace, and  Kiyoshi Teppei (Kawai Ryunosuke) interrupts the two lovers boys’ alone time. The three of them decided to play street basketball together. 

Himuro enters the scene as the trio made their way to the ‘basketball court’, which then led to Kagami and Himuro’s beautiful English-only exchange!!!! Saito Hidenori (Himuro’s actor) pronunciation was super spot on! Asato/Kagami, you did your best too! Still a lovely treat to hear them speak English! 

Himuro: Yo, Taiga.

Kagami: Tatsuya! It’s been a while...

Himuro: Why the poker face? Aren’t you glad to see me? 

And of course Kiyoshi Teppei (Kawai Ryunosuke) interrupts their tense exchange, which led to this hilarious moment in that scene:

Kiyoshi: Er...Hello, my name is Kiyoshi Teppei. Nice to meet you. Kiyoshi means Iron..er..flat. Teppei means err, good!

Himuro: 日本語でいいよ。(You can use Japanese.)

Kagami then explained how he met Himuro in America and how they were like brothers. We also had Murasakibara enter the stage from the audience seats and eating a bag of chips (Ayukawa Taiyo really had actual chips that he was eating on stage!! And he is suuuuuuper tall gosh). 

Kuroko and Murasakibara had a tense exchange, with Kuroko smacking off Murasakibara’s hand each time the giant tried to grab his head. 

Kiyoshi went up to reintroduce himself to Murasakibara but the tall giant could not remember him. 

Himuro then demonstrates his Mirage shot with Murasakibara (omiously) looking forward to seeing them at the Winter Cup as they left. 

~  OPENING DANCE ~

The whole cast (save for Akashi because he is too cool to dance) danced to  The Other Self by Granrodeo. Each school ( Seirin High, Touou Gakuen, Shuutoku High, Yosen High) had a few minutes of team dance in the song.

As the song enters the last chorus, the entire cast came back on stage to finish the dance. 

Unfortunately, during my evening show, the huge cloth banner with the play title/logo did not fall properly, one end was still caught in the ceiling. It was left hanging there awkwardly for a few seconds before they blackout the stage, and the Igniters came rushing over, jumping and yanking the banner off from the ceiling. 

The audience was super gracious and applauded really loudly to give the cast huge encouragement for the early mishap. I am a dancer and regularly perform on stage multiple times a year, and I know small things like these can really affect the cast. I was super touched that the audience was understanding and super encouraging with their loud applause. 

~  ONSEN SCENE ~

Ahhh, the infamous onsen scene. IT WAS HILARIOUS!

So while the Igniters were jumping to tear the stuck banner off from the ceiling, the Seirin boys shuffled onto the stage and jokingly rambled...

“Ahhh, our bad　(悪いな）! Got stuck, hahaha, our bad” 

... with only the blue cloth (onsen water) covering their lower half towards the middle of the stage. But the audience was understanding and applauded, and laughed even harder at their entrance and ad-libbed lines. 

The scene began with them relaxing in the water ( we could hear the girls laughing and splashing water from a distance), and suddenly Kuroko pops up from under the cloth, all woozy from the heat. The senpais then told Kagami to take him out from the water to rest outside. And Kagami and Kuroko dived underwater (lmao) to exit the scene. 

Izuki Shun  (Matsui Yuuho) did a super lame pun which made everyone giggle in the audience.

Izuki: Ofuro, all for you.

There was one point in this scene where some boys purposely dropped the cloth which made the audience laugh so hard (we could see them wearing towels around their waist, don’t worry)

Hyuuga: OI! Misdirection up here, not down there!

Then the Touou rival team suddenly popped up like daisies from beneath the water (making the bath really crowded but super funny because everyone is all naked). And Sakurai pulled out the official match sheet from beneath the water. Seirin team was like wtf magic paper while Hyuuga teasingly reached over to touch the magic paper which did not disintegrate under the water (LMAO). 

Everyone then ‘rolled’ their way inside, omg this is so hard to describe but you know how you roll a burrito? The boys rolled themselves inwards so all of them can peer at the match assignments. IT WAS SUPER FUNNY. 

The onsen scene ends with us seeing Kagami slinging Kuroko over his shoulders, and helping him onto a bench to get a sports drink for his bae. Aomine then enters the scene, offering a Pocari Sweat to him. This scene is exactly like the anime/manga!

~  AKASHI SCISSORS SCENE ~

Kuroko goes off to meet Akashi and the GoM outside the stadium, and we had 5 banners fall from the ceiling with Midorima holding a pair of scissors, Kise holding his mobile phone, Aomine with his sneer and Murasakibara with a bar of chocolate. Of course the 4 GoM started arguing through voice-over playback and the middle banner suddenly lit up with Akashi’s silhouette.

Akashi: Sorry to keep you waiting. 

And the banner dramatically falls to show Akashi standing behind it. 

Kuroko and Akashi had some words of exchange, and of course, Kagami had to come barging in to rescue Kuroko. 

Akashi borrowed Midorima’s lucky scissors to attack Kagami, and poor baby fell to the ground in shock. Akashi then started dramatically snipping his hair which was super cool but pretty scary to watch (he had an evil/maniac air to the way he delivered his lines and cut his hair).

It was a really good scene, pretty artistically done too! 

~  TOUOU vs SEIRIN SCENE ~

O.M.G What a match! It was exhilarating to watch! SO much energy and sprinting around! It was really well choreographed! 

Aomine & Kagami went into the ZONE and the white lines running through the floor to the warped walls and ceilings lit up in red and blue flowing lights! It was so beautiful to watch! 

Of course, Touou lost the match and Aomine disappeared to sulk by himself while Momoi ran off to find him. We had the Touou captain Imayoshi (Hayashi Akihiro) make an encouraging speech to his team while many girls in the audience started sobbing. 

The scene with Momoi and Aomine was pretty sad too because Aomine was really depressed after losing the match. 

~ AOKURO TEIKOU FLASHBACK ~

I really love this scene of Aomine’s happier days in Teikou, when he genuinely still loved basketball. He (Onuma Shouta) was smiling so much!

 Momoi said there is a ghost playing in the gym and this innocent baby went to check it out, not minding a match with the unseen entity. 

Of course, when he opened the sliding doors to the gym, it was pitch black and there was no one there. The stage lighting effects was super good for this scene! OnoK/Kuroko then entered the stage and stood close behind Aomine, greeting him. Aomine freaked out and started praying on the ground. It was super cute!

Kuroko then demonstrated his shooting skills (because Aomine didn’t believe he was on the team) - missing entirely (the Igniter purposely shifted the hoop/board so the ball misses) 

But when it came to Aomine’s turn, Onuma really missed the hoop and everyone started laughing so hard.

Kuroko: Aomine-kun is really good.  Audience: *laughs harder* Aomine: *tries not to break character but he did and was biting back his laughter so hard*

We then had had the scene shift to Aomine and Kuroko being all happy practising basketball together until one day Kuroko confided that he wanted to quit and Aomine talked him out of it with some jokes:

Aomine: There is nothing bad about basketball....and (about) myself too.

The GoM and Akashi finally met Kuroko, saying that Kuroko is an interesting character to watch out for. 

~ INTERMISSION BREAK ~

FAN-SERVICE TIME!! I read on Twitter that other people experienced different versions of the intermission ad-lib, but I am so glad mine is the best!!

Kagami: I want a break.

Kuroko: ...120minutes! *runs and falls flat on his face, continues lying on the ground^

Kagami: 20 minutes! *runs over and smacks Kuroko’s ass^ Oi, get up!

(Both runs off)

~  CROSS-DRESSING SCENE ~

So Midorima and Takao cross-dressed at Midorin and Takako joshikoseis lmao (High School girls). OMG IT WAS SO FUNNY I CANNOT!!!! The spoke in falsetto voices, which was super funny! AND THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL OKAY!!!

Midorin: Himuro-san? I am a big fan, can we take a picture together>

Himuro: Sure.

Midorin: Taka-chan~ Hurry~ 

Takako: Mi-chan, wait! (all 3 pose for photos together LMAO)

~  KAGAMI & HIMURO’S RING SCENE ~ 

The sound effect that plays each time they hold up their ring necklaces was super cool. A lot of Kagami x Himuro angst and pining in this play, but it was beautifully executed each time! 

Kagami did give his ring necklace and told Kuroko to throw it away, but Kuroko kept it and returned it to him at the end of the match! It was beautiful to watch! 

~  YOSEN vs SEIRIN SCENE ~

Again, another super intense match! I am so glad the boys managed to catch some rest during the 20-minute intermission because the 2nd match was the toughest (choreographically-speaking) with all the stunts. It was so intense that Izuki (Matsui Yuuho)’s shoe flew off his foot when the team surrounded Murasakibara to mark him. Poor boy had to run and grab his shoe, put it on and deliver his lines immediately without skipping a beat. 

There were tons of jumps, sprinting up the warped walls, dashing from stage left to right! The boys were really sweating hard by then (ooo sparkly skin). This match was also emotionally hard with many intense scenes and all the actors delivered it very well. 

Also...HELLO GORGEOUS BLACK SEIRIN UNIFORMS!!! <3 

Kiyoshi and Murasakibara’s scene was very true to the manga/anime. Murasakibara did hold Kiyoshi up by one hand, and it was heartbreaking to watch! Kudos to both actors! 

A couple of girls also started sobbing at Teppei’s speech - when he had to sit out of the game after injuring himself. 

When Murasakibara entered the zone, he had purple lights swirling around him and the Igniters did a breakdance around him to create this swirling energy effect, it was really cool! 

Asato/Kagami and Ayukawa/ Murasakibara were lifted by the Igniters to make it look like they have jumped really high in the air! The effect looked really good, and it made Murasakibara’s jumps and landing look even more monstrous! 

OnoK/Kuroko also debuted his Misdirection Overflow with the help of the ZONE lights! But poor Kensho had to keep sprinting from stage left to right with the blue lights trailing after him to show his ‘powers’. I think he did it a couple of times, and each time I was praying he doesn’t trip and fall with that inhumanly-fast sprinting.   

Murasakibara’s crying scene (with the towel over his head) was also really sad and many people in the audience cried. I was close enough to the stage to really see the actor crying! It was heartbreaking to watch!

This match was more intense than the Touou match in my opinion, and I found myself holding my breath in anticipation! It was so GOOD!  

~ CURTAIN CALL ~

At the end of the play, the cast did the same opening dance but this time with Akashi finally joining in to dance! 

During curtain call, the cast took their bows to Ono Kensho’s song ‘My Story’, and all of us in the audience clapped along to the beat! 

Ono Kensho then made a speech on behalf of the cast/crew, thanking us for attending the play. He also apologised to the side of the audience where the ball was sent flying. 

He told us that while the cast will do their best in the matches on the stage, he was glad that the audience did their best defence from the seats too (LOL). 

So during their final bow, I decided to wave wildly at Ono Kensho (while everyone else was clapping to the beat of the song). He spotted my waving and actually locked eyes with me and nodded his head in acknowledgement with a smile, as he moved off the stage with the cast. OMG! I was fangirling so hard!!!

~ FINAL THOUGHTS ~  

All in all, I have to say that the play really improved this year as compared to the previous two plays! 

The choreography, stunts, costumes...everything was so beautiful! I really applaud the director for pushing the actors really hard in the 3rd play. It was like seeing the characters come to life on stage! 

 All the boys worked really hard during rehearsals and I read that they do have (very) minor accidents on stage on Twitter in every show.

If you do not know, the supporting cast and the crew in 2.5D stages DO NOT GET PAID during rehearsals.In fact, the entire cast and crew earn their income from ticket and DVD/Blu-Ray sales. 

If you want to support them, please please PLEASE buy a copy of the DVD/Blu-Ray.  Please stop pirating online. The boys really worked their butts off and they go home almost fainting from exhaustion at the end of each performance day. Asato mentioned he was so tired he fell asleep immediately when he got home. 

I believe you can also watch the live-streams and/or download the play through DMM. They should be releasing information on the Grand Finale live-viewing soon! There are tons of ways to support the industry and the boys, so there is no excuse to pirate. 

I will be watching their last third show in May again to support my boys since I will be in Tokyo that weekend. 

I can’t wait to get my hands on the DVD as well. It will be released on September 26th. 

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, I am happy to take any questions! 

——-

Official pictures courtesy of Stage Natalie and Smart Boys