2016.09.04 Inferno Review!
After 11 days of solid work, I finally started my holiday off by going to a play! Which was my first one in about 2 weeks! Seriously, stage-withdrawal-symptoms are real! I was having dreams of going to stages like EVERY night it was that bad xD
Stage Site here.
Dress Rehearsal video here.
I had speed read the manga in English and only volume one of it in Japanese before seeing the play. I was super excited because it was by a writer I love (she's also written MESSIAH! and we all know how much I love the Messiah series!) so I had high hopes for both the play and the manga; I was disappointed!
Synopsis (for the manga)
Japan, Year 2055, Old Tokyo. As the population continues drop due to a mysterious disease, through a certain incident, the fates of two youths, the orphan Noel, and Rikka, the heir of a distinguished Russian Mafia family, will cross… A thriller, depicting the tale of their "Bond of Blood"…
Cast
Rikka - Ueda Keisuke (known as UeChan)
Noel - Hirano Ryo
Sasha - Fujita Rei (known as Fajita Rei)
Cloud - Yamauchi Keisuke
Snake - Kuwano Kosuke
Olive - Fujiawara Yuuki
Wiwi - Karahashi Mitsuru
Black Santa - Nakamura Ryusuke
Pre-Play
I watched this at Tokyo Dome and because I'd finished work so early, I actually took time (for the first time ever) to properly look at and around Tokyo Dome City. Normally I'm too busy running to get KAT-TUN goods or I'm too busy running to Tenimyu to actually look at the place and it's actually a really nice location!
Once again beautiful flowers everywhere! xD During the run of Inferno it wasn't only UeChan's 27th birthday (September 5th) but it was also (either September 3rd or 4th) his 10th anniversary since his debut! So lots of flowers were around celebrating that ^_^
I was very surprised to find how BIG the theatre was! I knew Super Sentai performed here but it's like.... probably one of the biggest (in terms of seating availability) theatres I've been to! I was really shocked.
It also worried me that the place wouldn't fill up but I shouldn't have doubted cos the guys in this play are VERY well known and the theatre was pretty much full! ^_^ phew! I was sat behind two girls who were fangirling over Kuwano's bromides before the start of the play which made me happy. I've seen Kuwano pop up in quite a few things but I'm not his fan and I wasn't sure if he was one of the popular ones, so I was glad to see he had some love from the audience ^_^
The staging was very interesting. The audience seats went up while the stage had placed a chair on the bottom floor and then had staging and background on the stage. I was so curious about that chair... and I was shocked how much time they did end up on that bottom floor.
The Play Itself
First and foremost; if you enjoy Messiah (I still need to make a Series group post about it on here) then you're gunna enjoy Inferno! It has a lot of similar themes and tropes. There's a lot of action in both, there's a lot of mafianess in both, the music in both is very similar and to pull even more similarities; we have Fajita and Nakamura who star in both of them <3 the whole Rikka x Noel thing is very Messiah like also in that they live to protect each other and care deeply for each other on a slightly homo-implied level <3 it so cute!!! But we'll get to more of that later. It kind of reminded me of Makai Ouji as well for some reason... maybe because the stage set up is similar and Rikka and Noel remind me a lot of Dantalion and Wiliam; both relationships are very similar. Same could be said for Kuro and Ciel in Kuroshitsuji and some people has said Inferno is similar to Kuroshitsuji also. So yes Inferno is Messiah meets Kuroshitsuji meets Makai Ouji, okay? Okay! xD
This play straight away opens (and closes) with an action scene; it's very action packed and you can see those stairs in the picture; they were jumping DOWN the stairs rather than using them! So naturally my anxiety was going through the roof! But the action was so good and very well choreographed and I like how they threw in comedy in parts of the action scenes too. But there is one part during the climatic action scene where (you can't see it in the picture above very well but) two of the ensemble jump from the balcony (that's near the moon) and I hadn't noticed at the time that they'd removed the floor from UNDER them so my heart for a minute was like 'holy crap he's gunna hit the floor!' and was so relieved when he didn't... phew!
The story for this is half from the manga and half either future story for the manga or original story made for the stage. All the characters introductions and backgrounds are exactly the same as the manga but the main plot itself is different. In the play we see Sasha wanting to take over as the Mafia head and therefore decides to get all his brothers together to play Russian Roulette together and whoever is left standing will take the seat as the next boss in the mafia. Crazy right? It then slowly turns into a murder mystery where Noel is pinned as the murderer so the rest of the brother (especially Cloud) try to assassinate and kill Noel. Absolutely crazy right? But I really like how things developed and how secrets came out and the truth and everything. But there is one part right at the very end which I wasn't very comfortable about. We're told which one of the brothers has the Doll Disease and I was uncomfortable hearing this cos it feels like they've just given away a huge secret that will come up LATER in the manga. It was interesting to know WHO it was (and it wasn't who I suspected!) but I can't help but think I've been spoiled for future chapters of the manga... I hope it's different. But we shall see!
Now the story is somewhat out of the way, lets get to the characters!
Character Performances
First UeChan as Rikka <333 A lot of people say Suzuki Hiroki and Sasaki Yoshihide (see pic below mwahaha) are the kings of 2.5 Theatre but I very much disagree and am very strongely all for UeChan as the king of 2.5 Theatre <3 he is amazing everytime. Although I do think this was his weakest role that I've seen of his so far, he did a great job none-the-less.
Rikka is a character who's usually very serious and bad tempered and he has a lame (is that the right word?) leg so has to walk with a walking stick. I was very impressed at how UeChan kept in character the entire time and never rushed to get off the stage even if he was still walking off when other scenes were starting. It must be difficult to remember that you're leg isn't supposed to work for a 2hour play so I was impressed, even during the curtain call(!), he would walk with his limp. Also there's a moment when Noel goes to challenge the Russian Roulette and even from 16 rows back I could see UeChan's face of horror as he's begging Noel not to take part in it. His face showed how broken his charatcer was! Hence I was impressed once again! UeChan definitely played Rikka more on the cute side rather than the moody brat side which I didn't mind much because come on both he and Rikka are 5ft4ish adorable human beings <3 I was upset at the lack of stage time he got though to say he's supposed to be the main lead ='[ he needed more stage time in my opinion (I'm pretty sure I've said this for everyone of his stages that I've seen him in xD).
Hirano Ryo is someone I don't really know of but he seems to have a decent following. Anyway, I really liked his Noel. I felt he captured the characters personality really well and seriously big props to him because the amount of action scenes and stunts he had to do! I was impressed with his choreography and how perfect he did during the action scenes! I also really enjoyed his and Rikka's back and forth joke; there's running joke where Olive is convinced Rikka adopted Noel because they're actually lovers (seemingly this actually happens in Japan; because gay couples can't get married legally, one will adopt the other so they can share the same last name and 'be' together legally) and it's always hilarious seeing how oblivious Rikka and Noel are to Olive's thinking and they're like:
Olive: What are you two?!
Rikka: He's my son.
Noel: He's my father.
Olive: No, what are you really?
Rikka: My son.
Noel: My father.
Olive: Seriously?!
Rikka: Son!
Noel: Father!
Olive: Seriously... I don't get it.
The last time they did this little skit it was absolutely HILARIOUS! xD Cos Olive is like 'do you not see how this (points to both of them) looks?! Can you not?! (they still look at him blank) Oh forget it...' and walks off xD Rikka and Noel's relationship is even questioned in the manga but both in the manga and onstage it's obvious it really is just a family relationship they have but it was great to have that gay joke running through, especially cos one of the actually characters was picking up on it xD
Ohhh! I have to talk about this scene quickly! It's after all the crazy events happen and it's just such a beautiful moment where they realise they need each other and the only reason either of them are still alive and breathing and finding the will to live is because they're living only to protect each other (this is SO Messiah btw!) and clearly Rikka is relieved his son is safe and so gets close to Noel and it's like this release of stress when this moment happens <3 it was so cute and touching!
Another scene at the very made me cry too. And it's when Rikka and Noel are doing their family vows (in this Mafia Family the newest member had to say vows before being allowed into the family and so after all the crazy events they decide to do it again together) and Noel says 'no matter what happens. Even if one of us gets the Doll Disease, we'll be there for each other.' and Rikka is like 'whatever happens I'm there' and I started crying but the OLIVE goes and ruins the moment a second later with his 'you sure you're not actually gay together?' moment.
Fajita Rei... this boy. I ALWAYS forget just how high his voice is until I see him again. Every time I'm always like 'you sound like that?!' cos I'm so used to his GARO Ray deep voiceness. It's a nice voice none-the-less. I feel like this was an easy role for him to play. He's played characters like this countless times and I'm sure he enjoys playing the michevious, medalling and possibly crazy and suicidal characters xD That wig though is nothing to be proud of xD
Now for the power couple; Cloud (played by Yamauchi Keisuke) and Snake (played by Kuwano Kosuke)!!! Before I explain why they are the power couple, I'll talk about their characters and the actors...
Firstly Yamauchi as Cloud. It took me about a good hour before I sat there and thought 'I recognise this guy.... why am I so attracted to him?... Why am I so attracted to his Cloud when Cloud is supposed to be the skum of the earth.... oh my god.... it's the guy from Midsummer right?! Oh my god?!?!?!' and low and behold it IS the guy from Midsummer! He played Demitrius in Midsummer (review here)!!! So it kinda made sense. For the second time I was seriously attracted to him AND his character even though he's totally not my type! It must be his acting and presence because I fell in love with Cloud just as much as I fell in love with his Demitrius!! And THEN after finishing Inferno, I was looking through the pamphlet and I saw: 'YAMAUCHI KEISUKE Past Work: Tenimyu Second Season - Shitenhouji'. And my mind was blown!!
If you don't know Shitenhouji from Second Season of Tenimyu are my FAVOURITE team!!! I gotta get this out of the way now... Over the past 8 or so months I've been into stage, I've slowly I've been learning that I not only love the Shitenhouji characters but I've also being falling for the actors in other stages and only AFTER seeing them in a different stage have I learnt they were in my beloved Shitenhouji! These cast members seriously have had some amazing careers and will continue too...
Look! There's my beautiful Ryuji/Zaisen in both Shitenhouji AND Touken Musical!! And There's TonChan/Senri in Shitenhouji AND my beloved HakuMyu!! And I saw Saki/Oshitani in Makai Ouji earlier this year! And Anzai was Fushimi in K Stage and I fell for his Fushimi (sorry Suzuki Hiroki, but Anzai beats you with this character xP). And beautiful Sugie was/is in the Messiah series. And look!! Kodai and Ryuji have done Naruto stage together which is this HUGE thing even in the stage world (not only in the anime world)! Fukishima/Koharu is in Chack Up which is this adorable Planet singing group <3 See it all adds up!! They've all done amazing things and there's only ONE *tweet from friend* NOPE turns out I've seen him too! Kimisawa/Osamu has been in Tokyo Ghoul which I've seen AND he's also with Ryuji and Kodai in Naruto stage! =O oh my... so I've seen and been impressed with ALL of them both as Shitenhouji characters AND as actually people/actors! =OO ... ANYWAY... enough of my love for Shitenhouji and let's go back to Yamauchi. But yes, this man... I don't know what it is! He makes me fall for characters I should hate and despise! xD
And now to Kuwano! He played Snake who's had like 4 lines in the entirety of the manga so far but I really liked his Snake too! I've always been interested in Kuwano (as I think I've already said) and I'm glad I got to see him on stage! And seeing his pics with the cast backstage as well have been so adorable! Now onto their relationship!
Now these guys are the power couple cos they freaking ship themselves I swear!! The amount of touching and holding to protect one another and everything was WAY overboard! xD It was so obvious to see how close these two characters were in the stage by the way the actors played them and their interactions! Even in the manga I only saw them as professionally boss and minion and that was it, so seeing them behaving this way in the stage?! I was like 'oh hell yes! These are the Cloud and Snake I could get behind!' they're relationship is MUCH deeper in the stage! For example; during the Russian Roulette, Cloud goes to take the gun and Snake grabs onto him and yells 'don't do this! I'll go for you! I'll do it instead of you!' to which Sasha says 'you've already done your turn, you can't do it for him,' and he just watches in fear and obviously Cloud gets lucky and the relief on Snake's face and how they like hold onto each other after they've both passed the trial. It's beautiful relationship xD
Oh and also going back to the action; I personally really love it when they do 'slow motion' scenes on stage and there was a slow mo fight scene between Yamauchi and Ryo which was happening while Uechan was doing his scene at the front of the stage and now and again the hitting sounds would occur and I loved watching the slow motion fighting ^_^ they did a really great job. Their fight must've been like 10+ minutes long!
Olive is probably my least favourite character in the manga or at least the least interesting. I feel Fujiawara Yuuki brought some personality to the character which was nice and I liked how he was more laid back and comedic than what I felt in the manga. Olive definitely played the role of 'I am going to convey the audience's feelings' because he would do the whole 'you sure you two aren't gay for each other?' which is obviously what the audience (especially the manga readers) thought many times. I really liked how he had this diary segments where it was only him on stage writing in a diary to (I assume) his wife or girlfriend who had already passed away and it was always this sombre and dark moment when he was writing in it. Particuarly in the last diary scene where he reveals a BIG secret about the doll disease! =O
And now we get to Wiwi who I love in the manga - he's absolutely crazy and I was not let down in this stage! I feel Karahashi Mitsuru played Wiwi perfectly and in fact added onto the characters original craziness and humour. He and his henchman Ankh were a comedy duo with Ankh obviously trying to be the more serious of the two. Wiwi was so funny and I loved how he ended up using his floor cleaning robots (which he's packed with explosives and explode if stood on! xD) as rocks and THREW them at the enemies xD I really enjoyed whenever he was on stage. He definitely did justice to the character and just like everyone else, he seems to have developed the character more than the manga version has done so far.
Finally we have Black Santa played by Nakamura Ryusuke. I was SO excited to see Nakamura in this!! If you don't know I am freaking in LOVE with him thanks to his performances in Messiah! I love him and his character in Messiah and finally being able to see him in the flesh?! OMG!!! I was naturally fangirling!
*^^ In Messiah <3
And I was impressed (as I always am) at his action scenes. His hair was so nice too xD And there's a scene right at the end where (you don't mind spoilers right? >>) it's revealed that he's working for the rival mafia group and his minions come at the end to collect him and take him back and he's like 'I'll go back when I want to!' and (I can't remember how it came about) but the minions all dropped to the floor and did these funny or impressive acrobatics and he's like 'Oh! oh! do you work! Get to work! GET TO WORK! OI! You're falling by the way (one of the stuntmen couldn't keep in his pose) and you're mic is showing.' it was so funny! I hope it's on the DVD but I get the feeling it was probably different ever performance so maybe it's Higawari? So it might be put on the DVD... anyway! Yes I was very happy finally seeing Nakamura in the flesh and I loved his character and his action was great and yes I overall enjoyed his performance thoroughly and definitely want to see more of him! He's like Yamauchi; they're both people I'm not usually attracted to but something about their performances and how they hold themselves and their characters makes me seriously attracted to them...
And that's all the actors done really! Obviously HUGE props to the ensemble/stuntment who had to throw themselves down stairs and off balconies for like 12 performances and at least 2 weeks of rehearsals! They did an amazing job not getting hurt and doing some amazing choreography! ^_^
The visuals
Two quick notes about the visuals and the staging. I was SO impressed by the projecting mapping quality in this theatre! It's definitely the best quality I've seen of projection mapping so far! And I really like when and how they used the projection mapping. For example they use it for the character introductions/opening and they used it to explain how Rikka and Noel became family among/amongst (which is correct here?) other things.
And of course I want to mention the staging again. I like how we had the front stage and then stairs up to a much higher leveled staging and THEM we even had a balcony to the top left which was rarely used but when it was it was definitely had meaning as to why it was being used.
I think I'm done explaining the stage now...
Goods
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**Credit to those who took the stage pictures! They are not mine.
Rating: 7/10 (<< I keep giving this rating a lot recently... am I geting harsh in my reviewing?!)
Overall: Inferno is a cross between Messiah (similar music score, lots of actions, guns etc.), Kuroshitsuji and Makai Ouji (due to Rikka and Noel's relationship being very similar to Kuro/Ciel and Dantalion/William). I was very impressed with the character development in this stage and feel they developed the characters a lot more than what's currently in the manga. I was impressed by the amount and difficulty of choreography and I was thorough entertained by the comedic moments. Ueda Keisuke is definitely my king in the 2.5 theatre world!
Stage Site here.
Dress Rehearsal video here.
I had speed read the manga in English and only volume one of it in Japanese before seeing the play. I was super excited because it was by a writer I love (she's also written MESSIAH! and we all know how much I love the Messiah series!) so I had high hopes for both the play and the manga; I was disappointed!
Synopsis (for the manga)
Japan, Year 2055, Old Tokyo. As the population continues drop due to a mysterious disease, through a certain incident, the fates of two youths, the orphan Noel, and Rikka, the heir of a distinguished Russian Mafia family, will cross… A thriller, depicting the tale of their "Bond of Blood"…
Cast
Rikka - Ueda Keisuke (known as UeChan)
Noel - Hirano Ryo
Sasha - Fujita Rei (known as Fajita Rei)
Cloud - Yamauchi Keisuke
Snake - Kuwano Kosuke
Olive - Fujiawara Yuuki
Wiwi - Karahashi Mitsuru
Black Santa - Nakamura Ryusuke
Pre-Play
I watched this at Tokyo Dome and because I'd finished work so early, I actually took time (for the first time ever) to properly look at and around Tokyo Dome City. Normally I'm too busy running to get KAT-TUN goods or I'm too busy running to Tenimyu to actually look at the place and it's actually a really nice location!
Once again beautiful flowers everywhere! xD During the run of Inferno it wasn't only UeChan's 27th birthday (September 5th) but it was also (either September 3rd or 4th) his 10th anniversary since his debut! So lots of flowers were around celebrating that ^_^
I was very surprised to find how BIG the theatre was! I knew Super Sentai performed here but it's like.... probably one of the biggest (in terms of seating availability) theatres I've been to! I was really shocked.
It also worried me that the place wouldn't fill up but I shouldn't have doubted cos the guys in this play are VERY well known and the theatre was pretty much full! ^_^ phew! I was sat behind two girls who were fangirling over Kuwano's bromides before the start of the play which made me happy. I've seen Kuwano pop up in quite a few things but I'm not his fan and I wasn't sure if he was one of the popular ones, so I was glad to see he had some love from the audience ^_^
The staging was very interesting. The audience seats went up while the stage had placed a chair on the bottom floor and then had staging and background on the stage. I was so curious about that chair... and I was shocked how much time they did end up on that bottom floor.
The Play Itself
First and foremost; if you enjoy Messiah (I still need to make a Series group post about it on here) then you're gunna enjoy Inferno! It has a lot of similar themes and tropes. There's a lot of action in both, there's a lot of mafianess in both, the music in both is very similar and to pull even more similarities; we have Fajita and Nakamura who star in both of them <3 the whole Rikka x Noel thing is very Messiah like also in that they live to protect each other and care deeply for each other on a slightly homo-implied level <3 it so cute!!! But we'll get to more of that later. It kind of reminded me of Makai Ouji as well for some reason... maybe because the stage set up is similar and Rikka and Noel remind me a lot of Dantalion and Wiliam; both relationships are very similar. Same could be said for Kuro and Ciel in Kuroshitsuji and some people has said Inferno is similar to Kuroshitsuji also. So yes Inferno is Messiah meets Kuroshitsuji meets Makai Ouji, okay? Okay! xD
This play straight away opens (and closes) with an action scene; it's very action packed and you can see those stairs in the picture; they were jumping DOWN the stairs rather than using them! So naturally my anxiety was going through the roof! But the action was so good and very well choreographed and I like how they threw in comedy in parts of the action scenes too. But there is one part during the climatic action scene where (you can't see it in the picture above very well but) two of the ensemble jump from the balcony (that's near the moon) and I hadn't noticed at the time that they'd removed the floor from UNDER them so my heart for a minute was like 'holy crap he's gunna hit the floor!' and was so relieved when he didn't... phew!
The story for this is half from the manga and half either future story for the manga or original story made for the stage. All the characters introductions and backgrounds are exactly the same as the manga but the main plot itself is different. In the play we see Sasha wanting to take over as the Mafia head and therefore decides to get all his brothers together to play Russian Roulette together and whoever is left standing will take the seat as the next boss in the mafia. Crazy right? It then slowly turns into a murder mystery where Noel is pinned as the murderer so the rest of the brother (especially Cloud) try to assassinate and kill Noel. Absolutely crazy right? But I really like how things developed and how secrets came out and the truth and everything. But there is one part right at the very end which I wasn't very comfortable about. We're told which one of the brothers has the Doll Disease and I was uncomfortable hearing this cos it feels like they've just given away a huge secret that will come up LATER in the manga. It was interesting to know WHO it was (and it wasn't who I suspected!) but I can't help but think I've been spoiled for future chapters of the manga... I hope it's different. But we shall see!
Now the story is somewhat out of the way, lets get to the characters!
Character Performances
First UeChan as Rikka <333 A lot of people say Suzuki Hiroki and Sasaki Yoshihide (see pic below mwahaha) are the kings of 2.5 Theatre but I very much disagree and am very strongely all for UeChan as the king of 2.5 Theatre <3 he is amazing everytime. Although I do think this was his weakest role that I've seen of his so far, he did a great job none-the-less.
Rikka is a character who's usually very serious and bad tempered and he has a lame (is that the right word?) leg so has to walk with a walking stick. I was very impressed at how UeChan kept in character the entire time and never rushed to get off the stage even if he was still walking off when other scenes were starting. It must be difficult to remember that you're leg isn't supposed to work for a 2hour play so I was impressed, even during the curtain call(!), he would walk with his limp. Also there's a moment when Noel goes to challenge the Russian Roulette and even from 16 rows back I could see UeChan's face of horror as he's begging Noel not to take part in it. His face showed how broken his charatcer was! Hence I was impressed once again! UeChan definitely played Rikka more on the cute side rather than the moody brat side which I didn't mind much because come on both he and Rikka are 5ft4ish adorable human beings <3 I was upset at the lack of stage time he got though to say he's supposed to be the main lead ='[ he needed more stage time in my opinion (I'm pretty sure I've said this for everyone of his stages that I've seen him in xD).
Hirano Ryo is someone I don't really know of but he seems to have a decent following. Anyway, I really liked his Noel. I felt he captured the characters personality really well and seriously big props to him because the amount of action scenes and stunts he had to do! I was impressed with his choreography and how perfect he did during the action scenes! I also really enjoyed his and Rikka's back and forth joke; there's running joke where Olive is convinced Rikka adopted Noel because they're actually lovers (seemingly this actually happens in Japan; because gay couples can't get married legally, one will adopt the other so they can share the same last name and 'be' together legally) and it's always hilarious seeing how oblivious Rikka and Noel are to Olive's thinking and they're like:
Olive: What are you two?!
Rikka: He's my son.
Noel: He's my father.
Olive: No, what are you really?
Rikka: My son.
Noel: My father.
Olive: Seriously?!
Rikka: Son!
Noel: Father!
Olive: Seriously... I don't get it.
The last time they did this little skit it was absolutely HILARIOUS! xD Cos Olive is like 'do you not see how this (points to both of them) looks?! Can you not?! (they still look at him blank) Oh forget it...' and walks off xD Rikka and Noel's relationship is even questioned in the manga but both in the manga and onstage it's obvious it really is just a family relationship they have but it was great to have that gay joke running through, especially cos one of the actually characters was picking up on it xD
Ohhh! I have to talk about this scene quickly! It's after all the crazy events happen and it's just such a beautiful moment where they realise they need each other and the only reason either of them are still alive and breathing and finding the will to live is because they're living only to protect each other (this is SO Messiah btw!) and clearly Rikka is relieved his son is safe and so gets close to Noel and it's like this release of stress when this moment happens <3 it was so cute and touching!
Another scene at the very made me cry too. And it's when Rikka and Noel are doing their family vows (in this Mafia Family the newest member had to say vows before being allowed into the family and so after all the crazy events they decide to do it again together) and Noel says 'no matter what happens. Even if one of us gets the Doll Disease, we'll be there for each other.' and Rikka is like 'whatever happens I'm there' and I started crying but the OLIVE goes and ruins the moment a second later with his 'you sure you're not actually gay together?' moment.
Fajita Rei... this boy. I ALWAYS forget just how high his voice is until I see him again. Every time I'm always like 'you sound like that?!' cos I'm so used to his GARO Ray deep voiceness. It's a nice voice none-the-less. I feel like this was an easy role for him to play. He's played characters like this countless times and I'm sure he enjoys playing the michevious, medalling and possibly crazy and suicidal characters xD That wig though is nothing to be proud of xD
Now for the power couple; Cloud (played by Yamauchi Keisuke) and Snake (played by Kuwano Kosuke)!!! Before I explain why they are the power couple, I'll talk about their characters and the actors...
Firstly Yamauchi as Cloud. It took me about a good hour before I sat there and thought 'I recognise this guy.... why am I so attracted to him?... Why am I so attracted to his Cloud when Cloud is supposed to be the skum of the earth.... oh my god.... it's the guy from Midsummer right?! Oh my god?!?!?!' and low and behold it IS the guy from Midsummer! He played Demitrius in Midsummer (review here)!!! So it kinda made sense. For the second time I was seriously attracted to him AND his character even though he's totally not my type! It must be his acting and presence because I fell in love with Cloud just as much as I fell in love with his Demitrius!! And THEN after finishing Inferno, I was looking through the pamphlet and I saw: 'YAMAUCHI KEISUKE Past Work: Tenimyu Second Season - Shitenhouji'. And my mind was blown!!
If you don't know Shitenhouji from Second Season of Tenimyu are my FAVOURITE team!!! I gotta get this out of the way now... Over the past 8 or so months I've been into stage, I've slowly I've been learning that I not only love the Shitenhouji characters but I've also being falling for the actors in other stages and only AFTER seeing them in a different stage have I learnt they were in my beloved Shitenhouji! These cast members seriously have had some amazing careers and will continue too...
Look! There's my beautiful Ryuji/Zaisen in both Shitenhouji AND Touken Musical!! And There's TonChan/Senri in Shitenhouji AND my beloved HakuMyu!! And I saw Saki/Oshitani in Makai Ouji earlier this year! And Anzai was Fushimi in K Stage and I fell for his Fushimi (sorry Suzuki Hiroki, but Anzai beats you with this character xP). And beautiful Sugie was/is in the Messiah series. And look!! Kodai and Ryuji have done Naruto stage together which is this HUGE thing even in the stage world (not only in the anime world)! Fukishima/Koharu is in Chack Up which is this adorable Planet singing group <3 See it all adds up!! They've all done amazing things and there's only ONE *tweet from friend* NOPE turns out I've seen him too! Kimisawa/Osamu has been in Tokyo Ghoul which I've seen AND he's also with Ryuji and Kodai in Naruto stage! =O oh my... so I've seen and been impressed with ALL of them both as Shitenhouji characters AND as actually people/actors! =OO ... ANYWAY... enough of my love for Shitenhouji and let's go back to Yamauchi. But yes, this man... I don't know what it is! He makes me fall for characters I should hate and despise! xD
And now to Kuwano! He played Snake who's had like 4 lines in the entirety of the manga so far but I really liked his Snake too! I've always been interested in Kuwano (as I think I've already said) and I'm glad I got to see him on stage! And seeing his pics with the cast backstage as well have been so adorable! Now onto their relationship!
Now these guys are the power couple cos they freaking ship themselves I swear!! The amount of touching and holding to protect one another and everything was WAY overboard! xD It was so obvious to see how close these two characters were in the stage by the way the actors played them and their interactions! Even in the manga I only saw them as professionally boss and minion and that was it, so seeing them behaving this way in the stage?! I was like 'oh hell yes! These are the Cloud and Snake I could get behind!' they're relationship is MUCH deeper in the stage! For example; during the Russian Roulette, Cloud goes to take the gun and Snake grabs onto him and yells 'don't do this! I'll go for you! I'll do it instead of you!' to which Sasha says 'you've already done your turn, you can't do it for him,' and he just watches in fear and obviously Cloud gets lucky and the relief on Snake's face and how they like hold onto each other after they've both passed the trial. It's beautiful relationship xD
Oh and also going back to the action; I personally really love it when they do 'slow motion' scenes on stage and there was a slow mo fight scene between Yamauchi and Ryo which was happening while Uechan was doing his scene at the front of the stage and now and again the hitting sounds would occur and I loved watching the slow motion fighting ^_^ they did a really great job. Their fight must've been like 10+ minutes long!
Olive is probably my least favourite character in the manga or at least the least interesting. I feel Fujiawara Yuuki brought some personality to the character which was nice and I liked how he was more laid back and comedic than what I felt in the manga. Olive definitely played the role of 'I am going to convey the audience's feelings' because he would do the whole 'you sure you two aren't gay for each other?' which is obviously what the audience (especially the manga readers) thought many times. I really liked how he had this diary segments where it was only him on stage writing in a diary to (I assume) his wife or girlfriend who had already passed away and it was always this sombre and dark moment when he was writing in it. Particuarly in the last diary scene where he reveals a BIG secret about the doll disease! =O
And now we get to Wiwi who I love in the manga - he's absolutely crazy and I was not let down in this stage! I feel Karahashi Mitsuru played Wiwi perfectly and in fact added onto the characters original craziness and humour. He and his henchman Ankh were a comedy duo with Ankh obviously trying to be the more serious of the two. Wiwi was so funny and I loved how he ended up using his floor cleaning robots (which he's packed with explosives and explode if stood on! xD) as rocks and THREW them at the enemies xD I really enjoyed whenever he was on stage. He definitely did justice to the character and just like everyone else, he seems to have developed the character more than the manga version has done so far.
Finally we have Black Santa played by Nakamura Ryusuke. I was SO excited to see Nakamura in this!! If you don't know I am freaking in LOVE with him thanks to his performances in Messiah! I love him and his character in Messiah and finally being able to see him in the flesh?! OMG!!! I was naturally fangirling!
*^^ In Messiah <3
And I was impressed (as I always am) at his action scenes. His hair was so nice too xD And there's a scene right at the end where (you don't mind spoilers right? >>) it's revealed that he's working for the rival mafia group and his minions come at the end to collect him and take him back and he's like 'I'll go back when I want to!' and (I can't remember how it came about) but the minions all dropped to the floor and did these funny or impressive acrobatics and he's like 'Oh! oh! do you work! Get to work! GET TO WORK! OI! You're falling by the way (one of the stuntmen couldn't keep in his pose) and you're mic is showing.' it was so funny! I hope it's on the DVD but I get the feeling it was probably different ever performance so maybe it's Higawari? So it might be put on the DVD... anyway! Yes I was very happy finally seeing Nakamura in the flesh and I loved his character and his action was great and yes I overall enjoyed his performance thoroughly and definitely want to see more of him! He's like Yamauchi; they're both people I'm not usually attracted to but something about their performances and how they hold themselves and their characters makes me seriously attracted to them...
And that's all the actors done really! Obviously HUGE props to the ensemble/stuntment who had to throw themselves down stairs and off balconies for like 12 performances and at least 2 weeks of rehearsals! They did an amazing job not getting hurt and doing some amazing choreography! ^_^
The visuals
Two quick notes about the visuals and the staging. I was SO impressed by the projecting mapping quality in this theatre! It's definitely the best quality I've seen of projection mapping so far! And I really like when and how they used the projection mapping. For example they use it for the character introductions/opening and they used it to explain how Rikka and Noel became family among/amongst (which is correct here?) other things.
And of course I want to mention the staging again. I like how we had the front stage and then stairs up to a much higher leveled staging and THEM we even had a balcony to the top left which was rarely used but when it was it was definitely had meaning as to why it was being used.
I think I'm done explaining the stage now...
Goods
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**Credit to those who took the stage pictures! They are not mine.
Rating: 7/10 (<< I keep giving this rating a lot recently... am I geting harsh in my reviewing?!)
Overall: Inferno is a cross between Messiah (similar music score, lots of actions, guns etc.), Kuroshitsuji and Makai Ouji (due to Rikka and Noel's relationship being very similar to Kuro/Ciel and Dantalion/William). I was very impressed with the character development in this stage and feel they developed the characters a lot more than what's currently in the manga. I was impressed by the amount and difficulty of choreography and I was thorough entertained by the comedic moments. Ueda Keisuke is definitely my king in the 2.5 theatre world!