Third Season - Team Live Seigaku!
For the third season, Tenimyu is trying out a few different things. One of them is that they're having mini lives with the teams separately between the musicals. And last week was the Seigaku team live. I only saw it once, so as always, please forgive me if I forgot anything, remembered it in the wrong order or made some mistakes. This is part summary and part me fangirling for my own memories.
I wasn't able to get a ticket for it through the normal ways so I decided to risk a toujitsuken (day of) ticket. I picked Thursday since it was the second show and a weekday and I figured that would be my best bet. I left from work and headed to the theater, with a slight detour past Meiji Jingu since I was in the area and running a bit fast. I got to the theater by 5:30 to line up and since there were more people than tickets they gave out numbered cards for a lottery. I loitered at Mos Burger for a while before returning to the theater to check out the lotto numbers. I thought mine had been chosen but I was actually the second number of the reserve. This meant I had to wait a further 20 minutes to see if all those selected went to claim their ticket. Also, as a side note, if you are trying for toujitsuken with your friend at Tenimyu, never stand next to your friend. Tenimyu likes to draw every other number for the lottery.
Also, as I was waiting for th 20minutes to pass to see if I could get in, I ran into a friend that I met at the previous musical and her friend. It was really nice to see a friendly face and really amazing luck that I went the day they had tickets for. They wished me luck and headed in and when I met them in later, we had a quick chat before the show.
Anyway, I got called to go in and pay for my ticket. Yay! I was then greeted by Horio who gave me a name card to fill in. See, this wasn't just a normal concert or event, this was the Seigaku school assembly for their tennis team who just won the local tournament. So on the name card we wrote our names and then we could pick what homeroom or club we're in or if we were an OB/OG of a club or graduate of the school. I decided that I was in class 3-1 because that's Tezuka's homeroom.
I went to find my seat, which was actually in the handicap section that they put chairs in on the far left side right in front of the walkway and the door the boys used as an entrance/exit at points. So an amazing seat and well worth the anxiety that goes along with the lottery of day-of tickets. I made sure to put my name tag on in a visible place, got my pen light ready and settled in for a good show.
Horio came in saying he was late and the trio followed and they chatted with the audience for a bit. Horio saw one girl who was in 3-11 and was all 'That's Inui-sempai's homeroom. Don't worry, there will be a lot of data today'. And they moved about the audience chatting a bit before the show started. We had a message from the principal and then it was time to sing the school song. The trio, who were sitting in the handicap seating on the opposite side, stood up and began to sing. I do wonder if everyone in the audience will sing in the later shows as the first time through the words are up on display. As they sing more of it, we have a first person pov shot of a girl interacting with the boys. She just bows at Tezuka as he speaks to Oishi and gets a nod in return. Oishi helps her reach a blackboard brush that was too high up. Momoshiro passes her an eraser. Taka helps us carry all the tennis bags we were struggling with. We meet Echizen napping on the roof... and I forget the rest. But I know a few got reactions from the fans. It was interesting that it was the pov shot of a girl. Made it more fun.
After the school song, the Tennis club is introduced and they come out and sing Victory. And I knew it was going to be a cheeky and fan service filled event when everyone spelled out the V-I-C-T-O-R-Y with their body and then the little clap after it for the first chorus. The boys sounded good and looked good. They're really settling into their characters and I hope everyone falls in love with the new cast once they see them.
They introduced themselves after the song and we called out their names and waved our lights at them. For Momo, who was first, we mostly clapped and only some called out his name but we quickly caught on to call out names instead for the rest of them. After they were done talking, I'm not positive on the order but I believe that Eiji wanted to do something next but Fuji said it was his turn and they got into a little argument where Eiji was all puffer faced and stompy and really cute. Of course this lead into the Dream Pair song, Eiji vs Fuji ~ Rival na Futari, which is always nice to see. They even sang a bit in the audience and Eiji stopped right near my friend who was on an aisle seat further back. Lucky!
Momoshiro then asked Echizen if he remembered when they played doubles and Echizen was all 'no.' Momoshiro was all you know, we did the 'ah...' and Echizen eventually remembered the 'uhn'. But Inui said that according to his data he was actually the best person to play doubles with Echizen. So he starts singing Yappa Otoko wa Doubles Deshou! with Echizen. But then Kikumaru joins in instead. And then those two get pulled back and two other members start sining. All of the regulars, including Tezuka and Fuji take a shot at singing the song. And poor Echizen, he seemed a bit overwhelmed by all his sempai wanting to play doubles with him. I don't even think he got to sing a line in his own song for that part.
Then all of the regulars line up and he has to pick who he wants as his doubles partner. And some of the members try to appeal to him through various methods. In my show he picked Inui but he chooses different members each time. After he chooses, they sing the reprise of it and Echizen actually gets to sing. But instead of Momo-sempai it was Inui sempai. I may not always love manga Echizen but Tenimyu Echizen is always so adorable.
After, we had an Inui Data corner where he proved himself to be a giant creeper. He asked Eiji what he did when he got home and he said he opens the door. And Inui asked what he does next and Eiji answered with take off my shoes. He wanted to know what happened next and then he showed a picture of Eiji greeting his giant teddy bear, Daigoro. Eiji freaked out and wanted to know how he had that photo from inside his house. And Inui told him that his sister gave it to him. He then showed several more of Eiji greeting and cuddling his bear and one of him tossing him into the air to catch him. It was all really super cute. At the end, Inui asked us to wave our lights if we thought it was interesting.
Next was Momo. Who was mostly pictures at school and Inui said he was doing certain things that wasn't very cool and Momo was all no no no I'm actually doing this. I only remember the last picture where he's yelling out the window because he didn't get his ebi katsu burger. We then get a zoomed in shot where there's a single tear running down his face. Poor Momo.
The third person to go was Echizen. We had a picture of him sleeping in his futon and he was all 'how did you get that?' and apparently his cousin gave it to Inui. Echizen's was a sleeping shot collection. Him sleeping at home, in Japanese class, in English class and against a tree after eating an ebi katsu burger. Momo was all 'you got one!' and then wanted to know if it was delicious. It was quite cute.
Obviously these rotate each show and I hope all of them are on the dvd as extras. Apparently Tezuka's involved fishing. I want to see it!
This is when I'm really going to get things even more out of order but I think Momo-chan's song was next. It started off normal enough but then everyone came out to help him sing the last part and do the dance. Watching Tezuka do the Momo-chan dance moves may have broke my brain. I never realized it was something I wanted to see until I was seeing it.
Taka also did his burning song. He entered from the door near me and came quite close to hitting me as he ran by. That's what I get for leaning so far back in my seat. The trio chase after him a bit and he ends up on stage with four of the boys doing back up dancing and also trying to get his racket away from him. At the end, rest of the team joins in for a bit of racket guitar and burning dance moves. Again, really weird to see Tezuka doing that.
They also had a survey corner. We had a survey to fill out when we arrived. We got to vote on various things. The first was who did we want to tutor us. Oishi and Inui had a rivalry going on about who would be number one. Tezuka was in third place and explained how he would tutor us and it was very stict. Inui was in second and he was sure he had defeated Oishi and then Oishi won first place. He was not at all humble about his victory and thanked us a lot.
The second question was who has the most charming hands. Tezuka won third place again and they teased him about that and he mentioned that he uses lotion. Second was... someone but first was Fuji. And they all went to look at his hands and he said it was because he had a certain thing on his hands and didn't the others have it and they ended up getting distracted comparing hands and I'm sure that part was just them being dorks.
They also answered some fan questions. Which I don't remember. But was fun at the time. My cheeks hurt a bit from all the smiling and laughing I did throughout the whole show.
When they sang Makezugirai the boys are in the background doing training but I was definitely distracted by what Eiji and Tezuka were doing. It was the questionable looking one. Where Eiji deos a handstand in front of Tezuka, and drapes his legs over his shoulders and then does vertical sit ups. It just looks so odd... And of course that's the only thing I remember that happened in that song. It wasn't as cracky as the others so perhaps there was just less special things to remember.
I was a bit sad we didn't get a Tezuka song or the bad ass Tezuka vs Echizen number but they did play each other a little as the lead up into Challenge. After hearing the Fudo/Seigaku version so often, it was a bit odd to hear the Seigaku only version. It was still really good though and Seigaku was divided into two so one half did the Seigaku part and the other half did the Fudo part. They also did the divide the team method for the encore since there weren't teams to swap with.
Speaking of the encore, before it started we cheered for the boys and they went off stage and then Echizen came on to thank us for coming and get us ready for the encore. But he walked out and rubbed his nose and was all 'nose bleed?' and then he was all apologetic and all 'I'll be right back. Please wait here and don't worry.' And dashed off stage. So we're just sitting there in the dark saying that he was cute and worried about him. Also, the other boys weren't even off in the wings to fuss over him. They were all waiting at the doors of the theater to come in through the audience.
So Echizen comes back on and explains that he had a bit of a nosebleed earlier from allergies (or something... I admit I forget) and that the energy and heating up from the show just made it start a little again. And that he's okay so don't worry about him. I love how Furuta just overshares and has no filter when it comes to random things going on. In the final thank yous of the FudoMyu shows he was just all I have so much of a runny nose and snot and I don't know what to do about how he was all teary eyed and runny nose. So cute and so too much information. It's adorable.
We then went into the encore, we sang High Touch, New Wave and then back into another song (High touch again?) But because I was in front of the walkway, I got a few high touches this time. Beware the Kikumaru high touches. I was near the door so he was dashing about and had to brake and I'm sure he used my high touch as a brake. It stung! He also collided with Tezuka quite hard as they crossed paths. But Tezuka avoided me. Silly Tezuka. He was also slowly making his way around the audience and was the last one onto the stage and had to dash up to it. He only just made it into his place. I've seen boys hit their marks later than that but he looked extra slow since every one else was on the stage and dancing already and clearly watching him dash to his spot. I also got a high touch from a couple other boys but they didn't leave as much impact as Eiji obviously.
At the end, they told us that they were going to go freshen up, just like we probably all would be, before starting omiokuri (where they all line up and wave goodbye to us). They left through the audience and the door behind us. And they weren't high touching but just waving, so I turned to wave at them, and Fuji (somewhat creepily) gave me a high touch that was slowly running his fingers along my hand... uh thanks, Fuji. He also stopped right there to give his final goodbye and that they'd all be seeing us soon. Thanks Fuji!
So the boys are all lined up behind a little barricade and the line was moving slower than expected so we had the chance to do more than just wave. I did the generic thank you and otsukare-sama that most people do. My English thank yous were sadly not getting any English reciprocation but that's okay. I apparently justdon't have the luck for that unlike my friend. When I saw the people in front of me got a hoi hoi and double peace from Eiji I thought that I wanted to get Eiji to do something for me. And then I panicked. There wasn't time to think. So I was all 'you're cool!' in Japanese and did a heart with my hands. And I got one in return! Yay! But why did I give Reo/Eiji a heart?! I think it was a holdover from too much time tormenting my first year JHS boys that week so it just seemed the most natural thing. orz
Then I got to Tezuka, and I was still wearing my name tag from earlier and he noticed that I was in his homeroom and mentioned it. I would like to put that I said something cool in response but I'm pretty sure I just babbled and smiled. Whoops. But Tezuka noticed I was in his class~ Thank you Tezuka-kun! Also, sharp eyes, Zaiki. My name tag wasn't in the most visible of spots.
After I got through, I picked up goods in the lobby and people watched as I waited for friends to go through omiokuri. It's interesting watching how people react. Some girls smile and laugh, others squee and cling to each other, some seem near tears and others are pretty casual.
I like to think I'm the casual type but considering I panicked when faced with Kikumaru and Tezuka acknowledging my existence I'm not sure that's true. Oh well.
When my friends were finally through the omiokuri line we met up to fangirl together and share experiences and headed to the station. I know they were planning to go again and I can see the appeal. I was really tempted to go again as it was a really fun show and filled with lots of fan interaction and fan service. As well as sections that would obviously change for each show. But at the cost of 4800 yen for only an hour of actual show (the other thirty minutes of the given time was for omiokuri time which is nice to include as it can really add on to the time if you're making plans for after the show) I'm not sure it's worth seeing more than once. Not when you compare this to one of their 3 hour long musicals for 5800yen.
I'm definitely happy I went to the team live once and I'm excited to go to the Fudoumine team live next month. But... I think I prefer the Dream Live concerts. You get a bit more bang for your buck. But I'm sure others will say they enjoy the more intimate atmosphere of the team lives and found the price reasonable. And I can't really disagree with that argument as it was a lot of fun seeing them in different scenarios and interacting with each other and the audience outside of the musical plot. But I still think the pricing could be better. Though I do acknowledge that for how big Tenimyu is, the ticket prices have remained really reasonable and they have yet to introduce premium seat fees for the closer rows that many shows are dong now.
Basically, I found it hard to justify going to twice due to the price to length ratio compared to other Tenimyu events/shows. But it was really fun and I loved every minute of it. So if you're in Japan and have the opportunity to go to one, I can definitely still recommend going. It's a great time and you won't regret going once. And if it's you're only chance to see Tenimyu shows then you probably wouldn't regret paying to go more than once either.
Also, to end on a truly positive note, third season boys are amazing and cute and I love them all. I get just as excited over 8th cast Seigaku as I have done over both the second season ones (and first season, too). I hope everyone gives third season a chance and love the boys and the changes Tenimyu is making this season! They really do show a lot of love to the source material and to he history of Tenimyu while keeping the staging/songs/storytelling methods fresh to keep the interest of long time fans while .
If you want to see more pictures from the show click the links. The last is to the third season blog. Lots of fun photos of the boys.
http://enterstage.jp/news/2015/06/002759.html
http://animeanime.jp/article/img/2015/06/11/23636/63267.html
http://dogatch.jp/news/tx/33427/photo.html#0
http://www.tennimu.com/blog/3rd/