Belated Rikkai Nationals Thoughts/Rambles
As always some disclaimers. First, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the Nationals Rikkai story arc. This is of course not Tenimyu’s fault but Konomi’s so I’ll try not to pick on weird plot devices or holes in the story too much and just stick to if Tenimyu did a good job with it and if it's enjoyable to watch.
Having said that, I also wasn’t a big fan of Rikkai Nationals Part 1 in Season 1 so I was looking forward to it being combined with part 2 and seeing what season 2 could make of it. I know some people worried about the time of the two musicals combined, but if you watch the two first season musicals, you can see where they can save time by not having to recap the first part or having as many opening/closing numbers. So while the time did clock in at near 4 hours (including two 10-15 minute intermissions) it wasn’t that far off of the Kanto Rikkai musical and it moved at a good pace so it never felt that long. Also, because they were going between Echizen and the match it did give the boys some small breaks.
Some non-spoilery general thoughts.
They did add some new songs, take out some and update others. I think all of them worked quite well and unless you know that a song has been cut/changed, it doesn’t feel like it. So it’s a nicely cohesive musical. It’s also bursting with songs with around 40 of them in total. It’s nearly at opera level at parts. Why talk for exposition when you can sing? Though it does create some oddly short song or songs cut up by several long talking parts. I do not envy the people who have to turn this musical into a listenable soundtrack.
The acting was at top level. Which is to be expected seeing as all of the characters (except new Atobe) are returning to their roles. Kaminaga’s Yukimura has matured nicely into the badass Yukimura we expect in Nationals. And Hide’s Niou does an amazing job of making every dance move he does into a Niou styled move. He’s really upped his game. Even Ken’s Sanada has improved his dancing… in his own way. (I enjoy teasing him but he’s not that bad)
The pacing of the musical moves quickly but never feels like it’s being rushed. There are still plenty of silly moments that will make you laugh and those serious moments that will make you want to cheer the boys on or wipe back some tears.
So overall, if you can’t tell yet, I really enjoyed it. From the first time I saw it, I enjoyed it. It didn’t blow me away after the first viewing but I walked out smiling. And after seeing it several more times and seeing how the boys improved through the length of the run, I found more and more to like until there’s very few things I don’t love.
If you’re debating whether it’s worth buying/watching/etc let me tell you that in my opinion, it is. I’ve already started saving up my pennies to buy it. I’m sure all the behind the scenes extra will make the price even more worth it.
*Warning. In depth report and spoilers ahead*
Our opening song is a new one likely called Guts get Guts (Guts and Guts?) as they say it over and over again during the song. It starts off with a great intro and good harmonies. The boys sound good, the choreography is fun but right near the end after they do the big sing together at the front of the stage they do the last part of the song and it’s a bit growly and just guts guts guts guts. Okay, there is more than that as the other half of the group is singing properly. But by then they’re tired, breathing a bit harder and their words are a bit growly and guts get guts overpowers everything else. In the final show, the sound mix was better but it still seems like a waste of boys who have proven that they are amazing at building harmonies.
So it’s a song I enjoy, but it took a few listens to grow on me properly. Not likely to replace Brand New Seigaku or Must Be Strong from top opening songs but still good.
Next we shift tone completely as Nanjirou wanders the audience or uh the woods of Karuizawa and calls for Echizen to join them. They find a waterfall to practice near and this scene mostly plays the same way as first season. I found Shinnosuke and MoriEiji’s Nanjirou to be equal to the task of being Ryoma’s father. MoriEiji’s seems a bit more teasing and silly but not overly so.
Of course Echizen is hit by a log and falls into the water… why they try to battle it with tennis instead of running will never cease to baffle me.
We see Seigaku getting ready to head to the stadium for the final match. Momoshiro is trying to pump air into his tires and count in English. For most of the shows I saw he struggled greatly at the counting often failing to get past 8. But in the final show he totally nailed the English. Him failing at English makes sense when he laters tries to read Atobe on the side of the helicopter and does so very slowly. Fuji and his cactus continue to have a love hate relationship and everyone else was generally the same from first season and didn’t change.
Then Tezuka comes out and we get Winning Road. I think the arrangement is a little different from before. But either way, I love it. High energy, lots of great singing and dancing and just a little bit out of control sounding (in the good way). Though for some reason, after singing it fine all the other times I heard it, Kaminaga struts out as Yukimura looking all badass and sings Winningk road in all it’s K sounding glory…. oh Kaminaga
Click to viewIt ends with all the set pieces coming in and all three teams getting into place for the final Nationals match. Rikkai and Seigaku meet at the match where Horio!Echizen almost blows the whole charade before it gets started.
Sanada and Tezuka then start their match of stubbornness umm I mean singles one match. And there may be a new Seigaku song in there but it’s not long before Sanada is breaking out his new moves and his own song. In the first act, there is very little time between songs after Winning Road is sung so it can be hard to keep track of them all.
Furinkainzanrai seems like it’s had a bit of updating but maybe it’s just the (mostly) improved choreography that helps with it. Either way, I enjoyed it much more in this version than the previous one.
Sanada’s new moves force Tezuka to think about his talk with Echizen in a little flashback about a reverse Tezuka Zone and how hard it would be. But after thinking that he decides to try it anyway.
But Shitenhouji doesn’t think it’s a good idea and sing an a capella and very haunting song about how ridiculous Tezuka is being and how dangerous it is. It doesn’t seem to fit Shitenhouji’s personality but maybe that’s what makes it all the more haunting.
We then get the new Tezuka Phantom song from Seigaku and when Ikkei is on the ball with his Oishi part that sings desperately overtop of the other Seigaku members the song gives me chills. I just wish it was longer. There may be a ton of songs in this musical but so many of them are so short. Still a brilliant song and gets the feeling of the moment across really well.
There’s a bit more tennis playing and then Tezuka sings Yudan Sezu ni Ikou (2014?) and for the shows I saw, Tawada either seemed to nail the first half or the second half of the song but not both. Fortunately for the final one, he seemed to be on form for both of them. He has a pretty and mature voice and he can really express emotion through his songs singing.
I think somewhere in here they find out about Echizen being in Karuizawa and Momoshiro runs off to try and find a way to get him and runs into Atobe waiting for his helicopter. I thought Shouta did a good job of Atobe and he grew as the run went on. When I first saw him he still seemed a little unsure of how things would go but by the end he was a very confident presence on stage. The fans seem to have embraced him, too. Which is great considering how popular Tsune and his Atobe are.
The match wraps up quickly from there and then we we get the usual talking of Seigaku fussing over Tezuka and the doubles teams preparing. But I doubt many people in the audience were paying attention to them. Because without fail, what was happening on the Rikkai bench was way more interesting. Through the end of the singles 3 match and start of doubles 2 Niou is being a little troublemaker on the benches.
In Osaka, he seemed to be enjoying his gum. He’d chat with Bunta on the back of the bench, pop some gum in his mouth and when Yagyuu moved from the bench, he’d offer Yukimura some who politely declined. And sometimes Yagyuu would notice and want some which Niou may or may not give him. Niou’s not very nice to Yagyuu. But typically Niou and Bunta would chat and then Niou would poke at Yukimura who didn’t seem all that bothered by Niou bugging him.
I have to admit, the first Osaka show where Niou was chewing on gum as he moved onto the stage to sing made me a bit nervous. I know Bunta has mastered the whole dancing and singing with gum in his mouth but how would Hide’s Niou do? Apparently my fears were unfounded. He did fine both times in Osaka.
In Nagoya, Niou took it up to the next level. Instead of gum, he seemed to be in the mood to annoy Sanada. So he’s chat with Bunta, then slide down onto the bench beside Yukimura to chat with him when Yagyuu stood up. When Yagyuu returned, he’d slink over to the other side of Yukimura which is Sanada’s spot. At this point, Sanada is off stage, probably be toweled off by the staff but when he comes back on he’s not amused to see Niou in his spot. They have a bit of a glaring match and Niou finally moved off the bench and onto the upper part but his legs were hanging over still. So Sanada slapped his legs… quite audibly. Ummm Sanada, Niou, you do realize that D2 has started, right?
Anyway, Niou, the drama queen that he is grabbed the ice pack that Sanada declined to use from earlier and used it to ice his sore leg.
There were variations on these and the one I saw in Tokyo was different to but they were all very entertaining, a little flirty and a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately they tend to tone it down a little for the DVD so even if the camera was on them, it probably wouldn’t pick up anything as exciting as gum sharing and leg slapping. But I do enjoy watching live and seeing some of the fun bench work adlibs.
So D2 gets underway now that the benchwork distractions are done and we have a new D2 Rikkai Song. The Rikkai boys (minus Sanada and Yukimura) take turns moving out onto the stage from the bench and singing about D2 and the awesomeness of Rikkai. I’ll admit that I liked the song and the choreography of it but can’t remember much of it now. I do think that Sanada and Yukimura joined in for the main chorusy part but just didn’t take part in the versus and choreography as they tend to do being the awesome powerful ones.
Now I’m not a big fan of Yanagi Renji and Atom’s version of him didn’t blow me away during Kanto Rikkai but he’s grown a lot since then and his movements and look really seems to capture more of Yanagi’s personality than before. He looks quite convincing doing the closed/small eyed look that Yanagi does. And during D2 his interactions with Kirihara, especially at the start of the match are really cute. I never got tired of seeing him force Kirihara to bow or taking away his racket and making Kirihara jump and fail to reach it.
But not even Yanagi can help Kirihara with his manners for long… as he sends a ball right to Inui’s face.
If I remember the order right, I think this knocks off Inui’s glases. And Koharu, being the fan of Kaidoh/Seigaku he is, jumps down from the top of the stands he was in (much to Yuuji’s panic) to give Inui his glasses. Which causes him to wander around a little blindly. Of course the glasses don’t work and Inui goes to his case where there’s a long strip of glasses (and a pair of sunglasses?) to replace them with. In the final show, Yagyuu also stood up and was prepared to offer his own glasses I think.
I’m pretty sure we head into a new Kaidoh and Inui song possibly called Masaka na futari (or that’s the Japanese fans guess) after this. It’s a sweet song with some harmonies going on which is always nice to hear.
But sweet and nice isn’t what D2 is about and after a ball in the face and a flashback of Niou calling him names, Kirihara goes into devil mode. I already gave my compliments to Atom for Yanagi and I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t do the same for Motohisa’s Kirihara. He was great in Kanto and he’s only become more awesome. He does happy puppy Kirihara just as well as he does demon mode Kirihara. And the transition is terrifying. For rest of the match he moves in such a creepy fashion and laughs wildly. It’s impressive.
After Kirihara has been beating up Inui in devil mode for a while - by the way, I think Inui does an impressive job of falling to the floor numerous times. He’s a tall guy, that’s a long way to fall - Kaidou starts to go into his own devil mode but is stopped by Inui. They then reprise their song from early and it’s really emotional and desperate sounding. Though even nearly dead, Inui can still bring the harmonies.
The match ends shortly after with Inui passing out and Seigaku rushing to restrain Kaidou.
So we end act one with Rikkai up 2-0 and that means that Rikkai is feeling very smug and in need of a power song.
Their new team song - Joushou Rikkai - is amazing with great harmonies and power to it. It will get stuck in your head for days and make you want to cheer for Rikkai. (Though I still don’t want to meet them down a dark alley… that orange/red lighting they always have doesn’t help).
So the curtain goes down and I’m stuck humming Joushou Rikkai to myself for the 10 minute intermission.
The second act begins with Shitenhouji. One of the boys would come out in a long green coat and start selling ice cream, ramen, etc from the box hung around his neck. They would then be joined by two other boys and would do a comedy routine before rest of Shitenhouji would come out. I’m sure a lot of them will make it on the DVD so I’ll just share my favourite which was also the first one I saw.
Zaizen was the first one out and he was all ‘shaved ice, ramen, ice cream… oh what’s the point. I’m going to go home’ about it all and then Chitose comes out with a bit more energy ready to sell things and he sees Zaizen. Zaizen says it’s pointless and they should just go home and Chitose, being a bit of a slacker himself, agrees and they’re just about to dash off when Shiraishi comes out and tells them that they need to work harder.
I just liked how quick and eager Zaizen and Chitose were to give up and leave.
So all of Shitenhouji is on stage in long green coats and they want to cheer for tennis and Seigaku. So they strip off their coats and underneath is their normal shorts but cropped sparkly cheerleader tops with their names/nicknames on the back. They run off stage to ditch the coats and get pom poms to wear on their arms as they perform Uchira no Heart wa Percussion. It’s upbeat, it’s fun, we get to clap the whole time and tennis makes me happy. What’s not to love? While I didn’t adore Shitenhouji in their own musical, they definitely won me over more in Rikkai Nationals.
Inui then has a creepy nightmare where Fuji is attacked by Niou who is actually Kirihara and we get more creepy laughing. Also, why is Inui having dreams about Fuji? Anyway, Kaidou is there to catch him up on things and we head back to the courts for the start of S2.
Niou starts doing his illusions after a while and Fuji sings a short song about Tezuka. And later after more illusion tricks, goes into Kokoro no HItomi - Closed Eye. Yata sounded amazing as usual and looked great as Fuji, too. Hide as Niou also did a fabulous job. They kept the choreography from the first season including that backward roll. Most of the time he did it well but there was once when it was a bit awkward looking. But I think it’s amazing how hard he worked to master the dance routine for this one and Illusion.
Speaking of Illusion, it was great. Tezuka and Shiraishi’s dancing were also superb and the three of them working together in the song is a treat to watch. I found Hide’s singing to be quite strong but once and a while by the time he got to the end of the song he’d run out of steam to be able to hit those final notes. Unfortunately the final show was one of those times so it’s likely to be on the DVD. Which is disappointing because that is the only version many people will see and not any of the times he nailed it. But ignoring that last note, the rest of it was amazing. I was not left disappointed and S2 was one of my favourite parts of the show.
Momoshiro then decides that Echizen needs to get his memory back and he’ll help him relearn tennis. Ogoe’s memory loss Echizen is really cute and noticeably different from his usual cocky Echizen. So he’s dragged off stage and the trio follow leaving the Seigaku bench looking a bit lonely as D1 start.
We’re right into the Platinum Pair song which is updated and done extremely well. But we don’t stay with D1 for long as we switch to Momo trying to teach Echizen to serve. Again, I like Ogoe’s cuteness of Echizen here and his enjoyment over learning tennis is really clear. Momo however is finding this new version of Echizen tough to handle and sounds emotionally raw and near a break down as he starts the first of many versions of Omoidase Echizen.
We then flip back to D1 and Momoshiro runs in to update Seigaku on how things are going with Echizen and while Rikkai says S1 won’t be needed, Eiji and Oishi know better and go into Synchro. Since Golden Pair got a new song during the Hyoutei Nationals, it’s that song that starts of the Golden Pair medley and it works great to kick off the number that’s been updated to reflect the 2nd season of Golden Pair.
Back with Echizen, Kaidou and Inui have also joined in the training and the singing of Omoidase Echizen, along with Echizen himself. Great number that I liked in first season and still like in second season. At the end of the song, the rivals, including Sanada who left shortly after Momoshiro reported his update appear at the back of the stage as the curtain lowers.
Intermission 2
Act Three then starts rather like Rikkai Nationals 2 started in first season with Seigau singing Match Point this time with Echizen coming out to sing his Boku wa Dare song overtop of a verse part way through. I can’t say I’m a big fan of it. I love both songs separately but mashed together never quite sat right with me. It might just be a personal preference thing but before and after that part was great.
We then get Nanjirou on the train slowly making his way back to Tokyo and trying to listen on the radio while wave down the bento lady. In all the other shows, he fails to get the bento. But in the last show, the lady ran up as the train was leaving and got Nanjirou his bento. He was amazed and happy.
We’re back with Echizen and the rivals have appeared. Echizen has no idea who they are despite prompting from the rivals and fellow Seigaku members. The best is probably Hiyoshi as all the Seigaku boys and Trio speak over each other to introduce things about Hiyoshi. The trio ends by asking Echizen what his favourite saying is and Echizen is just clueless.
In the first season, all the rivals play Echizen and then sing their songs but in second season to save time, they play against Echizen and sing a rivals song at the same time. Also due to Yuuta not really having a proper solo song it was inevitable that they would get a new song for this part. Instead of different songs put together, we have one new song that all the rivals (minus Atobe and Sanada who come in later) and Seigaku sing. I’m not quite sure how they’ll put it on the CD though as it’s one long song but it has several speaking breaks within it, too.
One being them asking what Hiyoshi’s favourite saying is again and Echizen just goes Ge Ge Ge which sounds like he’s about to start to break into the Gay gay gay tennis song from Shitenhouji. All the rivals do a great job even if they don’t have a large part in the show. They sounded good, they moved well and it’s weird to watch Yuuta be friendly with everyone.
To help delay Singles 1 back at the main court, Kintarou has volunteered to play Yukimura and Yukimura agrees. I think in first season we had a song here but we only see the very start of the match and then the end with none of the game itself.
Back with Echizen (I’m not exactly sure when the Kintarou interlude takes place) but back with Echizen, Sanada and Atobe appears. Sanada sings a very short like two line reprise of one of his songs as Echizen baits him to use all his moves in a very adorable and bratty way.
Atobe then struts out and does his Koori no Sekai song and it is great. You’ll think that he’s always been an Atobe and it’s not his first outing as one.
I’m pretty sure we then get a Rivals reprise of sorts before going back to Yukimura for Dead End. I’m a bit disappointed that they cut Kami no Ko but Dead End is amazing and done well and they changed the arrangement for the intro I believe.
Back to Echizen and we see him ready to play tennis for SEigaku and he starts his new Ore wa Iku song before running off stage and singing live to a video of him at the real courts and stadiums that are used in the manga. We also get Atobe laughing crazily and see the rivals on the court seeing him off. Echizen runs and sings as he reaches the doors that will lead him out onto the courts to play Yukimura.
After some banter, Yukimura and Echizen start singles one and I never fail to love the snarky exchange after Echizen makes Yukimura’s coat fall of and Yukimura points out that it’s not the coat that matters for the game. Kaminaga has grown a lot since Kanto Yukimura and has become more of a strong slightly demonic presence on stage. He’s quite good at giving scary looks and giving off a powerful aura now. I’m impressed with the transformation and I think anyone who watches will be, too. This Yukimura is at Nationals to win and means business.
Yukimura no Tennis has been updated and it’s fun and makes him look suitably powerful and badass as he smacks down Echizen and gives him the yips. We’re then inside Echizen’s mind I suppose as he wanders around and tries to fight before giving up and we get the boku wa dare reprise before he sits down and Nanajirou comes out to ask him if tennis fun.
And yes! Tennis is fun and we get a new Tenimuhou no Kiwami despite Ogoe singing the original since the start of second season he doesn’t get to sing it in the musical. The new one is a super happy and bright song and the amount of smiling Echizen does almost becomes disturbing. Part way through the song we get a desperate and angry sounding Yukimura solo and while he was a bit wobbly at it near the start of the run he definitely nailed it the final show.
Also, it’s really hard to be annoyed at Echizen winning the match when he has such happy awesome songs and everyone is singing and looking pleased (minus Yukimura, of course)
They then go into Omae wa Prince which I feel is similar to first season even in choreography. I always made the mistake of watching Oishi in that moment when they make a semi circle around Echizen put their hands on their hips and look over their shoulder. I don’t know why someone decided that was a good dance move but Oishi cracks me up everytime he does it.
And then Echizen wins and there is much cheering and tossing of Echizen and even a small Tezuka smile… well, I’ll trust Fuji that Tezuka smiled, I still don’t see it. RIkkai is a bit more solemn but handle defeat graciously enough.
But once they leave it’s time to party. But instead of Bonzai we have Wasshoi! It really has the same feeling of Bonzai and the team takes turns throwing Echizen into the air then Oishi (Tezuka is mean and pushed him towards it - probably so he wouldn’t have to do it) and then Kawamura who is so heavy that they have trouble catching and often drop on themselves. It’s a cute happy song.
The trio then get an adlib moment with Nanjiroh and they ask him how to play great tennis. His help goes from dubiously useful to full on crack.The final show his help was fairly good I believe. I’m sure a lot of them will make it to the dvd but I like his evolution of man poses by having them pose like different characters doing things like Inui looking for his glasses. Or when he compares speciality tennis moves to simple things. Like gold fish scooping is similar to one of Fuji’s moves. There was random dancing and trying to find out if they had crushes or sisters too. Because Nanjirou is totally a perv at heart. This scene, besides being a little bit of comedy before the epilogue mostly is there to give the boys time to change into their school uniforms.
Because next is the Graduation song and then actual Graduation followed by Momoshiro back at the new tennis club happily teaching us all how swing his racket and Kaidoh coming out to lecture the trio and make everyone run laps. Zaizen, Shinji, Hiyoshi and Kintarou then come out to chat with Momo and Kaidoh and they have a little bonding moment. Kintarou wants to do karaoke and other things with them and Zaizen keeps threatening to leave him behind. Shinji tries to say things but nobody ever listens to his ramblings… poor guy.
And then Momo and Kaidoh mention Echizen before leaving and Echizen comes out on stage with his bags and is about to head off stage when he pauses and sings a beautiful thank you song probably called Arigatou. He thanks everyone for supporting him on his journey and it’s just him on the empty stage and it’s really sweet. I thought for sure that Tenimyu would play video of Ogoe from audition to now in the background during the final show or something but they resisted the urge and kept it simple. The first show I saw which was the second show of the run, I heard people sniffling throughout the song. I thought for sure that Ogoe would cry during it but he held on and so we’ll have a nice CD version.
But his teammates and rivals aren’t going to let him go off just like that. Tezuka comes out at the end followed by rest of the cast (slightly terrifying how fast they just appear) with their rackets and Fuji tosses Echizen’s his before they go into the final medley.
The medley is pretty similar to first season. It has This is the Prince of Tennis Uchira no heart wa percussion, Shinogi wo Kezuru monotachi (The musical really could have used the full version of this! Come on Dream live!) , Wasshoi finished up with omae wa Prince again.
And then for most of the run it went into the curtain call followed by the encore. But in the final show we had the curtain call followed by a new song(I think it was curtain call first then the new song). Seigaku got to sing their ‘graduation’ song Egao Miseyou which will be one of the songs included in the new PV collection along with Joushou Rikkai. It’s sweet and reminds me a bit of a campfire song for some reason. But it’s really good and I look forward to hearing it again and the boys did a good job with it though there were definitely some teary eyes.
After, instead of the typical all in a line speeches the teams came out individually and in front of the curtains would huddle around in a circle and the captain gave a brief little ‘thanks for everything I love you guys’ type pep talk before they did their team cheer. They then walked off through the audience (I believe). It was certainly faster than their usual speeches but it did seem a bit odd to have something so informal for the final show. But to be fair, the show was long enough without needing a half hour or more of speech time so that’s also understandable.
And finally there’s the encore. For the final musical of the season we got a new encore song. It’s catchy and has chanting and overall I like it. Though it took a couple listens to get into. They all have pompoms like Shitenhouji used earlier though only one and they wear it on their wrist. And they come out in teams to sing certain parts at the start and then everyone comes out to chant.
And I would tell you what they said but as I was typing it up, I realized that I forgot a good deal of the. Whoops >.<
Also, I want to point out that during a Nagoya show I saw with Jess, we’re watching Rikkai do their part in the song and Sanada is in the back right corner (this is where you tend to stick Sanada and his questionable dance skills) and we’re both watching in that area and as he does one movement where they stick their hand out, his pompom flew right off and onto the ground. Goodbye poker face. He watched it and was all ‘uh-oh’ and during one of the windmilly arm dance moves he managed to lean down and grabbed it and just had to hold it in his hand for rest of the dancing. And when he was moving up in line with the others (I believe he was between Jackal and Niou) you could totally tell he was all ‘did you guys just see what I did? I’m so going to get teased aren’t I?’ type look on his face. It was really entertaining. Poor Ken.
So I think that about wraps up the rambliness. I’m sure I missed things or remembered a couple things incorrectly but with around 40 songs and 4 hours to remember, I’m sure it’s a forgivable offence. Also sorry for taking so long to post this. It’s been hectic lately and my motivation to sit down and type has been lacking.
If you’re able to, I encourage you all to buy the musical, I know I’m planning on doing so this time despite the higher price. I’m sure the extra disc will be filled with goodies to make up for the higher price. And I have a feeling that this is one musical I’ll watch just as much as my Hyoutei Nationals dvd.
Most pictures taken from News Lounge and Theater Guide Please visit them to see the original larger versions and ones not included. Also, you can find more great photos here that weren’t included because I was too lazy to print screen to capture them