Sagawa Danshi - A rambling Review
The two casts of the show. The left side is the 'delivery team' and the right side is the 'receiving team' with the center being in both shows
On May 18th (Wow! Nearly a month already... I fail at timely write-ups), I went and saw the Sagawa Danshi reprise put on by the Naked Boyz agency. I wasn't quite sure what it would be about going into it but the title alone intrigued me. For those of you that don't know, Sagawa is a parcel delivery company and recently, many of their employees seem to be young handsome men. And as I had received a package from Sagawa a few weeks earlier, and it was delivered by a young handsome man, I was hooked on the whole Sagawa thing. So it was quite easy for Jess to talk me into going.
I also was unsure of what to expect because I'd never been to a show put on by Naked Boyz and it was at a small venue. I should know better than to have a negative bias towards shows at small theatres as the DVDs I've seen of these small theatre plays have normally been amazing and quite a high quality story or production for the small stage and room.
The theatre was located in the Tsukiji district, best known for its early morning fish auction, at the Tsukiji Honganji temple grounds on the second floor of a building that housed a soba restaurant. After loitering at a nearby Starbucks for an hour or so and getting our tickets for Gamba 9 (a musical about mice) Jess and I headed up the stairs which were lined with ridiculously large bouquets of flowers and then came to the lobby area that was filled with fans, a goods table and pretty boys who were obviously members of Naked Boyz who were in the other cast. The show was double cast with a receiving team and delivery team. We were going to watch the receiving team so it was the delivery team working in the lobby.
We were greeted enthusiastically by one member just as we reached the top of the stairs and he asked us where we were from in English. But as Jess and I only really knew one member of Naked Boyz and he wasn't in the lobby (Okki was part of the team we were seeing) we suddenly felt a bit awkward. All the Japanese fans were quite excited to be interacting with the boys and knew who they were and were even teasing them. The feeling in general was very relaxed (at least for the fans who weren't trying to figure out who these boys were like us) and everyone was very polite and well behaved which was great. It seems like a show or event put on by a single agency often employs their other members in helping with various aspects from collecting presents, selling goods, serving drinks, directing to seats or anything else that may be required for the show. Ingot put their boys to work for Kanesaki's last birthday event and Boys and Men members help run everything at each other's solo lives and talk shows. And lesser known agency members can even be spotted accepting presents or helping in the lobby at D-Stages. But somehow, Jess and I weren't expecting this at Sagawa Danshi or we would have done our homework before we arrived!
So having done my homework now, here are the list of Naked Boyz in the two teams. Their positions on the list mirror who they played. So the first people in the list played the same character, the second people the same and so on.
Receiving Team (Who we saw on stage):
Yoshiaki Hattori
Enichi Tanno
Toshiki Kawai
Kohei Natsukawa
Teruya Mori
Yuki Kimura
Yuki Yamaoki
Kei Nakazawa
Yuki Matsuoka (He was in both casts as the same character)
Delivery Team (Who we saw in the lobby):
Ryo Sakaguchi (I thought he was really handsome in the lobby. Lovely smile)
Kouji Iwasaki
Keita Kubo
Takayasu Ohya
Hiroki Takaoka
Hiro Natsuki
Gen Sasaki
Asuma
I was impressed with the boys in the lobby though because they were busy. They had just finished their own show and were now in charge of running the lobby. And to their credit they were really friendly and happy to chat with everyone, even Jess and I who were obvious newbies to Naked Boyz. And the fans enjoyed teasing the boys and trying to get them to speak English. Surprisingly, all of them did quite well with simple English, even larger numbers. I was impressed and thought it was rather adorable. Also adorable was how they would introduce themselves to us and then point out their photo sets and try to get us to buy them. Those boys know how to pimp themselves well.
After resisting the boys charms and only leaving the goods table with a pamphlet and Okki photoset, I wandered to the gatcha ball machine and got one of those and the original guy who greeted us was there and chatting again. He asked if we were friends with anyone in the show and I said that my friend was a fan of Yamaoki (and Jess will proceed to tease me about this this along with my other nickname fails forever. Apparently once face to face with a boy I forget nicknames and revert to politeness. This is how Tsune became Aoki-kun orz) and this then led to him saying that one of the Sagawa Danshi magnets looked like Yamaoki and then when I did it, it was of course the one I got. After some random teasing, we decided to head into the theatre.
Which, despite being above a restaurant on temple grounds was a fair bit bigger than we thought it might be and was well set up (not nearly as ghetto as one might think). We put our bags down at our seat and headed to the bathroom where we ran into one of Jess' friends. Surprise meetings are always fun.
But then we had a less fun surprise because there was someone in my D11 seat when we went back to it. I triple checked the seat and my ticket before telling Jess and her friend that someone was in my seat. So we went and told the guy who was in it and he showed us his ticket which was also D11. After telling a staff member, Jess and I reclaimed our bags and stood at the back of the room waiting for things to be sorted. The show was going to start soon and with all the people filing it, it was clear that it was nearly sold out and Jess and I worried that we might end up at the back. (Not that it would be a bad view as the hall is small but it would be disappointing after having a row 4 seat.
In the end the gentleman was moved to the back and we were able to reclaim our seats. I felt bad for the guy, it was no fault of his own and he was probably just as disappointed but I can't say I wasn't happy that we were the ones that got the seat in the end. Jess and I think the confusion may have been caused by us getting our tickets just a few days earlier and that perhaps they hadn't updated their day of ticket lists before then. So they thought those seats were available when we had claimed them. We were also worried because we had bought seats designated to show we were Okki fans since the site we got them from let us do that and we didn't know if they were still the same seats or a special section. They were still the same seats but it did cause some unnecessary panic and make it so that we had no time to study our pamphlet.
If we had had time, we probably would have noticed that the play was in fact a musical... or at least a play with lots of singing and dancing. It was a happy surprise though and perhaps even more pleasant because it was so unexpected.
So, true to their agency name, the boys come onto the stage one by one and strip off their shirt to change into their Sagawa uniform. It was probably for the best they already had their pants on. I'm not sure I could handle 8 or so pretty boys stripping quite that much just a few feet in front of me. Especially since nobody had ended up sitting in either A11 or C11 so I felt quite exposed and in view. I don't need to be caught staring!
Anyway, as they finished changing, they enter the main sorting room of the building and start preparing for the day. When they enter they have an exchange of 'Hairimasu' and 'Douzo' which lead to their first song.
All of the songs were catchy and the boys all sounded good and danced well. And watching Okki dance is a joy since he's just so enthusiastic about it.
The story of Sagawa Danshi itself is a bit small. There's no major conflict that must be solved by the end of the show nor a bad guy that needs to be defeated. It's just a look in at this team of Sagawa workers as they go about their daily work, train some new workers, get results of their weekly performances and overcome a few relatively small errors of judgement.
But it worked. The story never felt sluggish, the characters were interesting enough to be memorable (for the most part) and I felt engaged in the story. And, minus the two dramatic moments near the end where I missed a few details, I was able to easily follow along with the plot and the jokes. Which I'm assuming was more to do with the simplicity of the story and script than my suddenly becoming a Japanese genius.
The first scene after the opening number, we get to see the four older employees (Natsukawa, Mori, Kimura and Okki) going about getting ready for their day at work. Double checking they have all the letters and parcels for their route, enough copies of forms they'll need and even a bento.
Before leaving, their manager (Nakazawa) calls a meeting and they go over the rules/motto of being a Sagawa worker and then head on their way.
The next scene is very similar but then they are introduced to three new workers (Kawai, Tanno and Hattori) who are a bit of a mess. They have quite a way to go until they're ready to be proper Sagawa workers. Their uniforms need adjustments, they can't seem to read out the company motto properly, their keigo (polite speaking) skills are lacking and one guy can't seem to smile.
I am totally on side with the workers who said keigo was hard. But even I know that 'chotto matte kudasai' is not the polite form for 'please wait a moment.' It was a really cute and funny scene. These funny scenes also help us learn quite easily what their personalities are like and what obstacles they'll be facing as new Sagawa workers.
Needless to say, after a rather abysmal start, the three new workers are paired up with three of the more experienced workers to help them learn the ropes and make deliveries together.
Unfortunately for the Sagawa boys it's when the head of their unit comes back, the fearsome Lion of Sagawa! His intro song was all shades of ridiculous and awesome and he was the only boy who was in both shows. Jess and I both left the show adoring him. Apparently his actor, Matsuoka was the original Kaneda in Tenimyu. He definitely grew up! We liked his super polite soft spoken ways that sort of made him even scarier. And then whenever he answered the phone at the company he would turn into this overly nice sounding person which was somehow even more terrifying.
But he's not the bad guy. No matter how intimidating he may be to the staff of Sagawa he's just the boss. And a pretty fair one at that. He just has high standards that he wants everyone to stick to.
The boys finish preparing for their shift and head out. We get a bit of a montage as the new boys, partnered with their more experienced workers go door to door and make deliveries. It was well done the way that each of the trio did a part of the lines. In the end, all the older workers lament that there's still a lot more to do before the new trio are ready to head out on their own.
The new boys go through more training with the original Sagawa members. It includes a bit of role playing where they take on different roles of who is the customer and who is delivering the package. Ad lib scenes are often quite funny and this one did not disappoint.
Okki was chosen to deliver a package to a 'foreigner' and the actor (I forget who) who was pretending to be the foreigner decided to speak Chinese and no English or Japanese. Which was possibly a good thing because Jess and I may have laughed far too loudly if they had been up there trying to speak English (Though Okki did through some in at the start before he realized he was being spoken to in Chinese) and apparently Okki studied Chinese in university and yet still utterly failed to say anything useful. Somehow he got the package delivered and stamped though.
Next was Yuki Kimura delivering a package to Yoshiaki Hattori who was pretending to be a young child. This guy was way too good at acting young. And despite obviously wondering why this had to happen to him, the other guy was pretty good at communicating to the 'child' and getting the stamp.
I feel like there was some more training or various scenes here but I was naughty and didn't take any notes so now, several weeks later, I've forgotten some of the finer details.
I know we have a lunch scene where the trio sit down and talk a little as they eat before being called back to work.
And at another point, we see the trio and their older partners delivering packages again and this time they succeed well enough to start being able to deliver on their own.
Once a week, they hold a meeting to announce those that delivered the most packages. We see the different winners announced and we have a feeling of time passing as they announce several weeks, with different employees being in the top three. On the last one, one of the trio, Hattori, gets the top prize for the most deliveries and they decided to go out drinking and to karaoke to celebrate.
The quiet member of the trio decides not to go and it's not because he doesn't like the others but because of personal reasons. He had a talk earlier in the play about why he wants to work for Sagawa and his own goals and stuff (I think... unless my brain is making things up at this point)
The manager of their section, Nakazawa, is cute because he looks like he wants to be invited but doesn't get an invitation.
The other boys leave to party when the Lion of Sagawa comes and tells the manager that there's some bad news. And he has to go tell Hattori that there's been a complaint against one of his deliveries.
I'll admit that with all the drama of the music and the scene I thought the offence was worse than it was. And from that, I was sure I was misunderstanding what they were talking about. Jess helped to clear up the confusion. And the big sad scene was about him trying so hard to delivery many packages quickly that he was a little careless. A package from a young girl to her uncle/grandfather in the hospital was damaged.
The manager reminders him that it's not packages they're delivering but people's hearts and love.
After the talk and a small reprimand, the manager goes and he's comforted by his friends.
But we're back to business at Sagawa the next day, they enter as usual, check their packages, paperwork and bentos and things seem to be running smoothly once more. But then the Lion of Sagawa appears!
It seems there was more troubles.
One of the older employees made a mistake, but his trainee, Tanno, (the quiet one) who respects him so much took the blame for him. He then left the Sagawa building and somehow got stabbed. You'd think this would be some major plot point but this happens off stage, same with his hospital recovery.
The Sagawa boys are worried but decide to do their best and move around a lot of boxes during the night to help with things.
And then the quiet guy comes back on crutches and everyone is happy and then we finish with a big and fun dance number and again Okki's smile and big happy dance moves are rather infectious. We get curtain call and I admit to being impressed by everyone's character and acting and merrily clapping for them all. At this point, the boys are looking out into the audience and Okki, spotting Jess, was quite blatant with his reaction.
As they were walking off the stage to take their place by the door (we got a handshake as we left) Okki looked out again and gave a smile in our (Jess') direction.
Leaving was a bit confusing as we weren't sure if they were doing it by sections or what, since many of the Japanese fans were fixing their makeup and chatting to each other before going through. And there was also a moment where we weren't sure we could hand over presents to the boys (we could.)
But eventually we went through, Okki was clearly happy to see Jess and get a letter from her and proved that Jess wasn't exaggerating when she said that Okki loves seeing her at the shows. I kept things short and brief as I went through the line as I really didn't know these boys and didn't want to embarrass myself too much in front of them.
Back in the lobby and we were confronted with the other team once more shucking goods. I decided I wanted to know who it was that I was chatting with earlier so once he was free, I went up to the purple sweater, glasses wearing tall guy and asked him in (rather blunt straight forward) Japanese what his name was. And discovered he was Gen-chan. (Sasaki Gen) we spoke a little bit in a mash of Japanese and English (I think at this point I should have just switched full to English as it as clear he understood a fair a bit and would no longer have to subject him to my butchering of Japanese... whoops) and found out that he spent some time in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). I teased him a bit about that because nobody willingly chooses Winnipeg as a destination point. It's cold (very cold) in winter and not well known outside of Canada. Though to be fair to Winnipeg, it has a hockey team and is an upcoming city with many green city initiatives and city I wouldn't mind living in if I had to choose a Canadian city to base myself in. Though his Canada connection does explain why he was rather interested in me being from Canada.
He also told another fan who was nearby when she asked about his English that it was like a switch and it just flipped and he could chat in English again.
I didn't keep him too long as I didn't want to monopolize his time from other fans and to minimize my chances of saying anything to embarrassing.
He was apparently in the same role as Okki in the play and it would have been interesting to see him in that role. Actually, it would have been interesting to compare and contrast both teams against their counterparts. And it also would have given us a chance to poke at the receiving team in the lobby. Oh well. If the timing for another double cast Naked Boyz show ever works out, Jess and I know to go and see it twice.
Though it will probably also be a little weird since after seeing Sagawa Danshi once, I just see the receiving team boys so clearly in the roles I wonder if it would have been weird to see the delivery team as those characters.
Jess's friend and myself, cajoled her into getting another Okki photoset (his Naked Boyz set and not just the Sagawa one) and after loitering a bit more while figuring out what to do, we left.
So, in the end, what are my final thoughts?
The seating mishap could have put us off the show, but thankfully worked out in the end and the staff was nice about it. It also mean that the musical aspect of the show was a fun surprise.
While I do wish the quality of the pamphlet and the photos had been a bit better at 700yen, they priced the pamphlet fairly. And I suspect that one of the reasons the boys looked so plain in the pamphlet photos is because they were dressed to be normal Sagawa workers and not pretty ikemen. I actually had trouble figuring out who the boys were in the lobby because they looked so much better in person then they did in the pamphlet.
I'll also admit the end part with the conflicts felt a bit rushed but at the same time, I'm glad the show didn't get bogged down in the angst and drama. I feel that's always what happens to Tumbling (Though that's also just how Tumbling is, even the drama always had its heavy handed angsty moments and drama before the happy resolution). Most of the first act will be fun and moves at a good pace but then the angst and drama comes in and it takes most of the second act to solve. So it was nice in a way to see the angst and drama mostly skipped so we could stay focused on the fun and hard work that Sagawa boys put in. Though it was a bit jarring at how quickly we went from omg stabbed to happy ending dance number.
My final impressions was that it was a really good show, the cast was great, the story simple but sweet and the music elements fun. The atmosphere in the lobby with the other Naked Boyz and their fans was good and welcoming. I really enjoyed myself and it was well worth the 4500yen ticket price. I would definitely do it again and in fact hope to catch another one of their shows in the future. I'll certainly be more prepared and relaxed about it.
Oh, final fun fact: The boys went through real Sagawa training to learn how to deliver packages, speak politely and basically everything we saw the new recruits doing in the show. They also used real Sagawa uniforms and shipping supplies in the show. Added a nice touch of authenticity to the show.
Second final fun fact: The show is based on a book that the boys were trying to sell us. But my Japanese isn't quite (read as nowhere near) that good.
Apologies for any extra randomness or redundancies. I tried to pick the worst of them out. But I suppose this is what happens when I write something on and off for a month.