2016.10.04 Touken Ranbu Musical: Bakamatsu [Review!]
I promised my friends I wouldn't spoilt his for them on tweet so I'm writing it on here asap because I SERIOUSLY need to talk about this musical! Because OH MY GOD! I think it's won best musical of the year for me seriously! But more of that later!
Pre-Show Antics
It was A LOT quieter and nicer at the theater than I'm usually used to. I think because A. this has SUCH a long run in Tokyo (something like 30 shows!) and it was a week day, that goods and everything were VERY easy and quick to get through this time! ^_^
I had row 9 today and I luckily got an Aisle seat too! <3
About 5 minutes before the play started a guy walks in from the curtain to the right of me and straight away I recognised it was Kuroba Mario! Even though he had a facemask on that covered pretty much his entire face bar his eyes and had this HUGE hat on. I knew straight away! <3 But because I'd already turned my phone off, I immediately thought 'I'm gunna spend the next 2 hours and 10mins wanting to tell twitter' and to be honest, it was in the back of my mind the entire time xD when I saw him my brain went 'MARIOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!' xD
Also once the first part of the show started and we had a little break, I noticed I had a perfectly clear diagonal shot of him and he is gorgeous in real life(!) and out of costume! And his hair was really nice too! Also, it didn't look like he'd cried at the first part either (more on mine and everyone else's tears later).
Mario was in the previous Touken Musical (See my review here) as Mikatsuki aka Jiji!
And then it began!! So now onto the good stuff!
Story
RUN TIME: 2hrs 10
LIVE RUN TIME: 40mins
TOTAL: 2hrs 50mins plus 15 minute break (19:00 ~ 22:00)
We follow the Shinsengumi and Okita Souji. The story begins with Hijikata, Kondo and Okita before the Shinsengumi group forms and then again during the Ikedaya incident and again once Okita is hospitalised, and the end with Kondo. If you've ever seen Hakuouki then that's all you need to remember. I'd researched SO much about the Bakumatsu before watching this so I would be able to understand BUT as soon as it started with the historical scenes, I thought 'Oh! This happened in Hakuouki! And this scene too! And this too!' So just go watch that anime to know what history you're gunna get xD
It could possibly be because I'm much more familiar with the Shinsengumi rather than Yoshitsune (the plot/story line from the previous TouMyu (=Touken Ranbu Musical)), BUT I found this one MUCH easier to follow and understand! I can't think of a moment where I was actually lot or didn't understand what was happening or being said which is great!
The Cast and Characters
Cast (Character then Actor named):
TOUKEN DANSHI
Kashuu Kiyomitsu - Sato Ryuji
Yamatonokami Yasusada - Torigoe Yuki
Izuminokami Kanesada - Arisawa Shotaro
Horikawa Kunihiro - Ogoe Yuuki (also known as Ogotan)
Hachitsuka Kotetsu - Takahashi Kensuke
Nagasone Kotetsu - Imari Yu
SHINSENGUMI
Kondou Isami - Gomoto Naoya
Hijikata Toshizo - Takagi Tomoyuki
Okita Souji - Tochihara Rakuto
+ Ensemble of 18 members
The ensemble this time felt MUCH bigger! I was very impressed with how many there were and how many different roles they had. Also their dance costumes? Freaking gorgeous! And they didn't do as much aragont dancing this time which is nice! But now to the main cast! There's no real order but of course the cast from the previous Musical has to be named first xD
Also, I'm gunna be honest: Before seeing the musical I didn't like ANY of the four new characters (the only new one I liked is Horikawa/Ogotan) because I don't even like the characters in the game(!), so I went into this musical with seriously intending to still hate all four of them by the end, if not hate them more than I previously did... and I kinda still don't like the four of them, BUT I kinda saw somethings I liked about them... maybe... anyway, let's see shall we?
Kashuu Kiyomitsu (Owned by Okita Souji; was taken to Ikedaya) played by Sato Ryuji - Yes Ryuji is back as Kashuu!!! But a different Kashuu to what at least I'm used to. In the first stage he was kind of serious and took on the role of the leader really well. But in this one, he's much more girly and cute and bouncy and positive and playful, which we all know I'm not used to from Ryuji (I prefer Ryuji when he's playing the hard, serious and no smiles guy xD).
I'm assuming he was playing Kashuu more light this time because the pressure of being Group Leader is taken from him so he could relax a bit more? Anyway, it was a new and interesting light for Kashuu and I was happy to see Ryuji was back in heeled shoes although I can't help but feel sorry for his feet xD they must've hurt jumping around and fighting in those every day!
Yamatonokami Yasusada (Owned by Okita Souji; was never taken to the Ikedaya Incident) played by Torigoe Yuki - You'd think with him being Okita Souji's sword that I'd automatically love him boy. Well no. The character in the game never interested me and even in this musical I was 'meh' about him. I was obviously emotional with the whole seeing Okita slowly dying (guys this ain't a spoiler if you know the history so chill!) but as far as caring about this character? Nope sorry! Even during his solos (he has two to three) I just sat there with my eyes closed cos I just didn't care about him. I think it doesn't help that he's been given the same story line as Imanotsurugi in the previous musical a.k.a playing the character who questions why they can't change history, and is the character who goes back to help his master. While the plot doesn't play out exactly like Imanotsurugi's did, a lot was similar and I just didn't care.
I'm happy Kashuu finally had an actual partner and I quite enjoyed seeing Kashuu care for Yasusada, but then again, 50% of the time, Kashuu was also being paired with Horikawa - especially for the singing cos them two (meaning Ryuji and Ogotan) have the best voices <- more on this later - so I was more forcused on Kashuu during those scenes that Yasusada too a back seat even though he's essentially the main character in this stage. Again, sorry! AND, I also agree with my friend Josei and Tina about Torigoe's butt chin xD his face just doesn't work for me. He's like the less attractive version of Kamiki Ryunousuke <- which I've said from day one!
Again, sorry! Many people have said he fits the character perfectly but I still think he and the actual character look very different (see the above picture and make your own opinion of it).
Hachisuka Kotetsu (Owned by the Hachisuka clan) played by Takahashi Kensuke - And here we have this gold bastard arrogant man... Oh my god, I could've killed him, over and over seriously. AT LEAST for the first 100 mins of this play I wanted to kill him (bearing in mind it's a 130 min run xD). He's so serious and arrogant and like 'we must do this' and just a dick. He's definitely a type I hate. Always by the book and being selfricheous and just...ugh! RAGE! He's mean to Nagasone for like NO reason and I don't even like Nagasone and Hachisuka's actions got me feeling for the guy! And then... I dunno. Just this man... I HATE the character in the game too(!), and the only REDEEMING thing about his character in this musical is that he learns to say his feelings outloud to people, and he learns to try and make an effort to understand others but Oh my god.... why is this guy the Party Leader?!?! Ugh! Also, (again) no offense to the actor but his singing? It's rough.
**In fact EVERYONE's singing except Ryuji and Ogotan's is ROUGH and very girigiri for their voices breaking. Maybe I got them on a bad day but I did cringe a little here and there.
Main point; still don't like this guy. Which by all technicallity it means that Takahashi did a brilliant job in bringing the character to life and bringing him out on stage accurately right? xD
Nagasone Kotetsu (Owned by Kondo from Shinsengumi) played by Imari Yu - I dislike this guy in the game too! While I kinda grew to like him a little in the stage thanks to Hachisuka's constant belittling, you can't help but feel sorry for this guy. He's definitely the most pitiful and the story behind him and his name, when it finally comes out, is heartbreaking and I quite like his fighting style BUT he's just.... too big for the stage with those giant boots and that giant attitude - does this make sense? I guess not xD
Unfortunately the actor has no singing power in his voice. His voice definitely broke at least once and he really can't go anything higher than a deeeeeeeep voice. But I was super surprised when he walked past me at how PRETTY the actor actually his.Like his face is VERY feminine, yet he looked very manly and brutish from afar on the stage. That was an interesting thing for me to discover.
[EDIT 1] I understand that I've expressed my hate for these three characters above but I do also want to express that, my opinion of them DID change somewhat. I think my opinion changed the most for Nagasone who I just didn't even know about at all really before this musical and it was really nice to see him TRYING to get along with Hachisuka and making and effort, and he also came to help rescue Hachisuka quite a few times and got himself injured in the proess (to which Kanesada shows up and piggy backs him off stage which was hilarious!) and in reaction to Nagasone's action; Hachisuka is pissed off saying 'you're a fake (Hachisuka thinks Nagasone is/was not a real sword). Why did you try to save me when I didn't need saving?'. As the story progresses we slowly see Hachisuka getting frustrated that he doesn't understand Nagasone and begins to learn (thanks to Horikawa) that he should say what he feels and if he doesn't understand Nagasone then he should ask! There's a beautiful scene with Hachisuka and Kanesada where Hachisuka say's 'Nagasone is so strong. How can he be that strong?' and Kanesada's reply is 'strong people are strong because they're sad. Their sadness is what makes them strong. It's their motivation... why don't you ask him? 'Why are you so strong?!"' and it was a really touching scene. And thus towards the end of the play, when Nagasone is in trouble, Hachisuka runs in to save him and he's like 'now I've paid you back!' and once that's over he finally speaks his mind 'I don't understand you!' and finally at the end of the play when Nagasone's past comes out Hachisuka approaches him and says 'I FINALLY understand you!' and it was great to see that character bridge.
Izuminokami Kanesada (owned by Hijikata from Shinsengumi) played by Arisawa Shotarou - this guy was a surprise for me! I've always liked the character's look but I've never taken time to research him or learn about his character or even listen to his lines during the game, so technically I knew nothing about him. Yet I had this image of him being very perfect, pleasant and someone that keeps a lot to himself and calm. As you can probably tell from the (edited) section above, I really learned to appreciate and like Kanesada! So imagine my surprise when A. He gets paired with Horikawa entirely. B. He's Hijikata's sword?!?! And C. He's hilarious! He was definitely the comedic character in this which I was NOT expecting! The drunk scene? He was hilarious! BUT I think it's got a huge part to do with the actor rather than the character because I've definitely taken an interest in Arisawa now rather than wanting to know about the character more. Also it's SO easy to forget just how YOUNG Arisawa is (he only just turned 21 last week!) because he's been in this business already for at least 2/3 years, and it definitely feels like he's the papa/jiji of the group this time around (last time it was Mikatsuki and Ishikirimaru). When he's not joking I feel this wisdom from him and this 'I'm the eldest so listen to me when I say don't get involved' kind of feeling.
Furthermore, Horikawa definitely looked up to him a lot in this and called him Kanesada-san! Arisawa is definitely going to be one I look out for in the future!!
Horikawa Kunihiro (owned by Hijikata from Shinsengumi) by Ogotan(♡) - my baby!!!! ^_^ not just the actor but also the character! I've been playing the game Touken Ranbu for about 6 months and I've always loved Horikawa as a charatcer and having Ogotan as him? Omg he's perfect!!! And this was my first time seeing Ogotan in person on stage and he did not disappoint! He really is damn good at what he does! He has the voice of an angel.
He smiles like an angle xD He NEVER runs out of energy!! << this was so impressive to watch! He played Horikawa perfectly. I fangirled SO hard when he said Horikawa's famous like '悪い、僕も結構邪道でね！ (Sorry, but I can play dirty too!)' *dead* and he can freaking dance!!! During the live?!?! Omg he was dancing on par with (if not better) than the ensemble! He makes dancing look flawless and easy! I know I shouldn't be surprised because he did Tenimyu (= Prince of Tennis Musical) and that has a lot of dancing in it. But I feel TouMyu offers a different type of dance and a much more difficult type of dancing than what Tenimyu gave him. As he probably has the best voice out of the lot, he got a LOT of singing parts and time! I was so impressed! Again, I've heard him sing in Tenimyu and knew he was decent, but he was holding notes and everything in this and he sounded so good!! I got goosebumps pretty much every time he had a solo singing part! ALSO! His voice matches Horikawa's perfectly! <- something which he also mentioned in his interview in Vol.2's STAMP. It's such a cute, light voice <3 And did I mention how CUTE his Horikawa's?!?! I did? Oh well I'm going to talk alittle bit more! He is so smiley and playful and jumping about and full of energy! Just oh my god. Somehow he's made me love Horikawa even more!! Although I do feel he's playing Horikawa different to how he's supposed to be, or atleast how I originally pictured him as. I imagined Horikawa to be a bit darker, a bit quieter and a bit more serious than Ogoe's performance. But I ain't complaining because damn I'm impressed (as always!) with Ogotan's performance tonight. Let's see some more pictures of this beauty shall we?
Now for the Shinsengumi!!!
First let's get Hijikata out of the way first okay? Because we all know my burning desire of hate for him! In fact Hijikata wasn't all that bad in this version. I could stand him. BUT the very first scene where its the three of them before the Shinsengumi is formed, I felt Hijikata was a little out of character. He was just jokey and playful which is a Hijikata I'm really not used to! But besides that, Hijikata was bareable in this version xD good job Takagi!
And now onto Kondou-san! I love Kondou-san! Even in Hakuouki I have a love and respect for him! And he did not lose this love and respect in this version either! Gomoto played Kondou perfectly!
And lastly we have Okita Souji played by Tochihara Rakuto. Now first things first; you all know who Tochihara is right? If you don't; get out. But in all seriousness, Tochihara was a huge name about 10 years ago - I highly recommend you watch RH Plus - it's not the best made dorama and it definitely won't suit a lot of people's tastes but he was so good in that! And I was so happy and surprised when I heard he'd be in this BUT he looks COMPLETELY different these days! I didn't recognise him! I'm used to this slightly chubby cheeked 19 year old (I've only ever seen him in doramas up until now which he rarely does!) but on stage I got this slim, beautiful looking almos-t27 year old man! =O He was beautiful! And I was very impressed with his Okita Souji! I really wanna know WHERE he hid the blood before he put it on his mouth, hands and clothes xD also his Souji was so good! Seriously, another Okita Souji for me to fall for <3 he also reminded me of Hamao Kyousuke (left the acting world in 2014). Their voices are very similar and from where I was sitting (which was a little bit back from a perfect view) they look similar too! Tochihara played Okita very similar to Horikawa (which makes sense as to why Horikawa is the way he is because perhaps Hijikata was influenced by Okita at times and that seeped into his sword's personality maybe?) in that he was always smiley, always laughing, wanting to have fun with his team members. It really warmed the heart whenever Okita was on stage and being all positive. But then it also ripped you when he was suffering. I was very happy with Tochihara's performance and it was great to see him in the flesh and in such an amazing production! His acting was great!! ^_^
Impressive Scenes
Now it's time to finally talk about the musical in depth and some of it's scenes. I obviously don't wanna tell you too much about the musical and ruin ALL the emotional trauma and giggles (not together by the way!) when the DVD ain't even due out til like next year *googles* yes the are predicting a March 2017 release, so a VERY long way off! But there are some scenes and moments I just HAVE to talk about!!!
Towards the beginning of the play, we had a Party scene that takes place just after the first expedition to the front lines. It's all Kashuu's idea who takes bottles of alcohol from Kanesada's room xD and thus the party begins! Kashuu and Horikawa hand drinks out to everyone and in an attempt to cheer Hachisuka up Horikawa gives him a HUGE glass and fills it up to the top. Yasusada and Kashuu had a drinking competition of who can down a drink the fastest but it stopped by Kanesada who tells them to not do it and then proceeds to lose his balance and is very drunk after only one drink.
Yasusada then turns to Hachisuka and asks "Are you stwong with alcohol? (おさけにつちょい？)' thus they challenge (I think this might be a higawari = a part of the play that changes daily) Hachisuka to down his drink which he does, and naturally the entire audience are impressed (it was a HUGE drink!) and we all clapped! Then Nagasone begins to sing a drinking song and we all clap and join in and drunk Kanesada wakes up and does a little clapping too before falling back asleep xD it was a very Japanese style of song and it's the type of songs I actually quite enjoy.
It was a hilarious scene and it got the audience involved and it was a lot of fun!
All the Shinsengumi scenes! Again, I'm going to be completely honest; I MUCH preferred the Shinsengumi scenes to the Touken Danshi (who are the main characters xD) scenes in this which I wasn't expecting to happen! I feel this time around we got to spend more time in history and so we got to get attatched to the past characters more. Also Shinsengumi are a HUGE thing here and as you can probably tell, I'm pretty familiar with their history and the people in it so it was easy to get attatched to them here. Also as laready mentioned we see scenes of the Shinsengumi beforeit's formed, during it's formed, after Hijikata and Kondou have become proper Samurai (and Okita is hospitalised), and at the end with Kondou-san's sacrifice. These guys are what made the entore musical an crying WRECK. We all know what happens to Okita Souji: he dies of TB. And we all know what happens to Kondou-san: he puts himself in danger to give Hijikata time to escape and be safe and this sacrifice ends up with Kondou-san getting executed. We (well Japan does) all know this history, YET here we are again another stage production about it and another time where the audience AND the Touke Danshi want the Shinsengumi to survive and want to help them survive but ONCE AGAIN we get our hearts ripped out and see them all get killed off either through struggling with a progressive illness or from being captured and executed! And this is where Yasusada's scenes come in; I stated that I didn't care for him but was emotional during his scenes and it's because he's from the year 2205 and therfore there's obviously a cure for TB and he takes it with him and we see him many times almost giving the medicine to Okita and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just me in the audiene who were internally begging Yasusada to give it to him because none of us wanted to see Okita die again... it was heartbreaking! And the two scenes where I REALLY lost it - lost it meaning I was crying SO hard that my nose was running and that had mixed up in my tears so I didn't know what was tears and what was (there's gotta be a better word for) watery snot. << sorry if I grossed you out but I bet I looked gross too! They were:
1. Kondou-san telling Hijikata to leave and Kondou sacrificing himself. As soon as he told Hijikata to go the tears just would not stop!
2. After the Touken Danshi and Kondou-san succesfully stop Okita from going evil, Kondou-san tells him that it's over and he should rest and sleep and Okita agrees and his body weight just drops onto Kondou-san who has him in a tight hug and I'm like 'OKITA'S DEAD!!! HE JUST DIED RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!' endless streams of tears.
Oh and there's one more scene that broke my heart! Just after Okita is hospitalised and after Kondou-san and Hijikata go and greet him. Okita is left on his own and (I think) he tries to wield a sword once again and in the top left corner Kashuu and Yasusada are watching and (of course) Okita drops from being weak and being hit by a coughing fit and Kashuu notices how heart broken Yasusada is and he goes to place a comforting hand on Yasusada's shoulder BUT he stops himself. As soon as I saw that I broke into yet MORE tears << bearing in mind I had like a constantly stream almost from like 45 minutes into the musical until it damn finished xD
One thing that isn't a scene but more of an aspect they added this time and it was the black cat that's always lurking around. It's like this bad omen and I really enjoyed it's prescence and the multiple meanings why it kept popping up. It was rather scary too at one point.
OOOOOO!!! And the final battle scene! The project mapping changing into a raining effect and it was so freaking kool to see!!
And one final scene that remind with me and also broke my heart: Kondou's last moments. Kondou-san's execution ends up not happening in this version because Okita turns evil and makes his way to save Kondou-san and kills the executioners. Once Okita is off stage, the Touken Danshi have to set history back in it's rightful place so Kondou-san sits down and is like 'I'm ready' and everyone is like 'but why do you want to die? Why did you get caught?' and he says that he's done, he's old. And this is where we learn that Nagasone IS Kondou's sword and he's the one that ends up beheading him. BUT it's done really well; just as Nagasone swings the sword towards him, there's this flash of bright light from the top of the stage and everything goes to black. TEARS!!!
**Just remembered something! I was very surprised that we got no Shinken's in this TouMyu! Shinken's are like the final attack from a Touken Danshi and usually they transform before attacking (and by transform I mean they lose most of their clothing xD) so I was surprised we didn't get it! And a little disappointed in all honesty because I spent most of the play guessing who would Shinken at the end and no one did ='[
ALL THE CRYING
It's pretty obvious I cried my heart out to this musical, right? I've already mentioned it a billion times. BUT I still gotta make a section completely dedicated to the CRYING because(!!!) I was SO not expecting this one to be sad! The first TouMyu isn't really that sad but I'm an emotional wreck most of the time, so naturally I cried at all the songs and duos in the first TouMyu. However the actual first TouMyu story (it is sad but) is not cryable. This one however is a freaking water party!! The first 30 mins or so are fine but after the 30min/45minute mark, me and at least half of the audience were crying and sniffling! And then in the final 30 minutes or so, EVERYONE (except Mario obviously xD) was with the towels and wiping eyes. AND! there's a scene (second or third to last) where Kashuu and Yasusada are having a bit of fun but because it's RIGHT after the climax scene (which had broken us all), all you could hear was sniffling and people trying to calm their tears! I know the scene was/is there to make everything light and nice again but we were all broke and upset! So unfortunately the scene didn't quite hit and I assume it hasn't quite hit at ANY of the performances so far. To repeat again; I hink it's because I know the Shinsengumi stories/history a lot better than Yoshitsune (TouMyu1's story) that I was automatically emotionally more involved and I think that's why everyone else was so emotionally involved too. I'll repeat: Shinsengumi is HUGE thing here!
OKAY let's get to a lighter part again shall we?
[EDIT 2] The Staging and Soundrack
The staging for this play was really cool and they had a lot of BIG moving parts which were impressive to see shift. There were these two at the front which normally were at the side and the four doors (you can see in my seating picture from the top of this entry) were open most of the time. And then we had the stairs which could split into 4 individual staircases which were cool when they were singing and usually Kashuu and Horikawa got paired here a lot which made my happy and then there was the upper stage and a pentagon shaped door and that could all be pulled furtherback to reveal an recentangle opening which was using for things like Kondou's end scene and such.
I really enjoyed soundtrack this time and noticed it more than I had in the previous TouMyu. It had a really nice feel to it and overall I enjoyed the battle music and the individual scene music.
The actual songs were really great too; we had more solos this than than pairing songs which was interesting and most of the solo songs were taken by Yasusada. Hachisuksa and Nagasone got a lot of singing time too.
There's one scene where Hachisuka asks Horikawa what his previous master means to him and Horikawa breaks into this beautiful song about it.
Also! The climax/main message song is beautiful '選ばれるのは選べない (We Can't Choose To Be Chosen)' which IS the main theme of this musical; they're all paired swords but only one of them was ever chosen and taken when their masters finally fell and it's them coming to terms and learning that these kind of things just happen; they weren't not picked because of some horrible reason, it's just that that day, their master didn't pick them which is a shame because they wanted to help their masters. It's a beautiful song!
Lastly the projection mapping; I've already spoken about how impressed I was with the rain projection and I've spoken about the cat as well. There were less 'game' settings this time and I really like how we had this cracked lava looking background at the top of the stage which would turn blue or purple when enemies turned up. Also when enemies turned up, the entire stage would 'crack' and the setting would turn dark and disjointed and once the battles were won, they would return back to their original wood looking pieces.
Aruji (the master who owns the Touken Danshi) had a lot more talking time in this stage. The opening scene with Kashuu is about 15 minutes or so and Aruji talks for most of it, which was interesting. Of course, Kashuu was being all cute around Aruji and his compliments xD
After the intital Musical (which is part one), we got the Live (which is part two)!!!
Song List and Live
Before seeing the live, I knew they'd gotten pirate-like costumes for this time and I was constantly like; why pirates?! I understand the sword relantion but I was totally baffled.
Well now I know! Guys... this live is SO sexy!! Like SO sexy!!! The songs are very electro/party like constantly and the dancers are pretty sexy and they're costumes are sexy as hell! Who doesn't find a pirate sexy?!?! Pirates are sexy as faaaaaaaaaaa**.
Seriously...I freaking loved the live!! All the songs were amazing and catchy! The dancing was amazing from EVERYONE! I was obviously impressed with Ogoe here! WHO! There were a few times he nearly ran into the wall or nearly fell over a step (<< during the musical) but he didn't xD and nearly ran into Nagasone's chest during the live cos he was too busy waving to fans and running about xD this boy has TOO much energy!! xD Also look how sexy his Otoko Michi outfit is!!!
Look at it!!! ^^^^ *dead* (Edit 3 >)Also his top is actually quite short so most of the time you can see his belly button and the lower part of his back when he dances which I thought was so cute xD
Also, in the first TouMyu we can all agree that the BEST song was OtokoMichi right? To put into perspective of how THIS TouMyu is bounds better (and why I said right at the beginning it was the best musical of the year for me); OtokoMichi is WEAKEST song in this LIVE! All the songs are THAT good! I waseven impressed with the ensemble! The costumes, the songs, the dancers, everything was amazing! The live came and went SO fast!
If I had to say one (tiny) negative of the Live? I'm a little sad they didn't finish with the Touken Ranbu theme song like they did in the first one. They did start the musical WITH the theme song though.
Also, while I complained that 4 of them can't really sing; for some reason they couldn't sing during the musical but during the live they sounded pretty decent! And obviously Ryuji and Ogotan sounded amazing <3
And once again we got the three secnd leads (Shinsengmi this time) doing a drum performance! It was a little different and seemed more difficult this time and they did amazing and it was so much fun to yell 'KONDOU-SAN! HIJIKATA-SAN! OKITA!!!!" as they performanded <3
An Interesting Observation
The Shinsengumi got a bigger MUCH applause than the Touken Danshi at the end of part one! How interesting is that?! I rememberin TouMyu1 that the two groups of mains and second leads got the same amount of applause at the end of part one but tonight it was CLEARLY obvious who'd won the audience over more. Again, I think it's got something to do with how much influence and inspiration the Shinsengumi have on Japan still today and how many people adore them and the stories/history. I was a little shocked but I could totally understand why they got the bigger applause <<-- I did earlier admit I preferred the Shinsengumi scenes over the Touken Danshi ones...
Final thoughts
Somehow the TouMyu team have managed to improve TouMyu phenominally because this TouMyu (and it's live) is (somehow) bounds better than the first one (and I love TouMyu1!) But this is WHOLE different level! Everything was just much more amazing. The story was amazing. We were all emotionally ripped to shreds. The humour hit perfectly. There was character development from almost everyone. The projection mapping was amazing. The songs were all great and the live was SO much fun! This was just... wow.
I really have nothing else to say except; WHY AM I ONLY SEEING THIS ONCE??!?!? *cries*
Goods!
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Photo credits:
http://enterstage.jp/news/2016/09/005700.html
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201609/24116717.html
https://sumabo.jp/43536
http://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1474857642
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Rating: 9.5/10 (I gotta take some off forsome dodgy singing and hated character xD)
Overall: This is THE best musical of the year for me. I would say best play of the year but remember how much Orphans blew me away? And I've still (hopefully) got Touken STAGE in December which I imagine will win best 2.5 Theater Stage for me this year xD They stepped it up tremendously!
**I've edited in two new parts so just Control F and search 'Edit' (I've added a bit more to justify my thoughts on Nagasone and Hachisuka and I've added a completely new section for the staging and soundtrack!)
Holy crap 5 hours later and I'm done! You better appreciate it!! xD