April 20-24 葭始生 The First Reeds Grow

Ok, one more theatre review coming up. For the month of April I saw a total of 7 live theatrical productions (2 of those were the Super Kabuki), and I am committed to doing brief reviews for each one, so I can remember these experiences.

The Hakuouki Musical (this original IP was an "Otome" dating simulator game. It then was turned into an anime. I am unfamiliar with either of these.) was actually the first 2.5D musical I was able to obtain a ticket for, and by which I discovered the ticket lottery system for these types of shows. For some reason, I was able to submit 2 entries to try and get a ticket, and I chose a weekend matinée and a weekday matinée. I won the weekday matinée.

This performance happened in Kobe, where I deemed was close enough to take the train to. The Shin Kobe Oriental Theatre was not a giant venue, and despite my seat being on the Mezzanine level,

I did not feel I would have needed binoculars to see the actors' faces. One interesting thing about this venue was that the souvenir goods were sold outside the theatre entrance (in the dead mall), so one didn't need to have a show ticket to purchase the goods.

This production did NOT have a rotating stage.
It did, however, consist of a large flight of stairs with two landings, so there were still plenty of levels available for the imminent sword fights. It did not have a painted backdrop, and the stairs and flys flanking the stage were all black, with gold paint accent splashes. This was a fairly minimalistic set. There were lights aimed out into the audience from underneath the stairs set, so there were moments where audience-blinding happened, even for my seat in the Mezzanine.

Immediately off the top of the show, petals fell onto the stage. In fact,

they would continue to fall throughout, accenting emotional beats, as proxy for blood splatter, and were not cleaned up during the (brief 15 min) intermission. From a practical theatre view, that is a fairly dangerous choice, as the petals are a huge slip hazard for a combat heavy show. However, the majority of the actors wore Tabi shoes with the rubber soles, which would help with traction but not break the illusion that they were in socks and sandals. In fact, the white tabi shoes had geta straps painted on top, so from afar, they looked fairly decent. The only character who wore actual zori was the father figure, as all he needed to do was walk on stage and walk off stage.

One of the characters was dressed as a "typical ninja in black", and constantly leapt from landing to landing in all his entrances and exits.
I was very impressed with the physical prowess off all the performers, as many of the ensemble would do flips and single-hand cartwheels to simulate and enhance their sword battles. This show also had 18+ people sword combats onstage, and the stair set displayed these fights like the display of dolls at Hinamatsuri.

There was constant background music accompaniment throughout the show, and music always enhances the emotional experience. If one can understand the dialogue language. Oddly enough, this was the first performance where I wanted earplugs. That was not (necessarily) a jab at the singing abilities of these ikemen actors-cast-for-their-looks, but it was just a tad too loud for me in that space.

The souvenir show program had all the characters in their costumes from the final act of the show, and since I didn't know who any of these characters were, for most of the show, I had no idea which actor corresponded with which photo from the book. I was surprised to see the photographed costumes in the printed book were the actual stage costumes, evident from the cheaply-made gold accent borders on the jackets, meant for easy maintenance, not for photorealism. In a surprisingly jarring moment for me, the main antagonist had to fight in his kimono, and in order to actually be able to move, he took long enough strides and turns that his kimono had to open up and his legs became visible. Of course he had white shorts on underneath, but it somehow really shocked me to see LEGS.
There was also an odd point where the lead had to travel up and down the stairs, but had to hike up his hakama as to not trip, and it looked more like he was grabbing his crotch.

This production also had the odd honour of being the first to have a female cast member. She was the audience proxy, as once again, the majority if not entirety of the audience was female. There was a

scene where the leads "kissed", and I was pleased to note that he did NOT crank her head back as to snap her neck when he moved her head back to kiss her, unlike the Takarazuka show.

I have already purchased the Live-viewing ticket for this show, as I want to see if this is a production worth my investment in the DVD for future study.