2017.02.21 Kanbotsu [Review]
Last Tuesday I watched Seto Koji’s Kanbotsu and I’m tell you know, I am going to be a neutral as possible about this stage.
CAST and CHARACTERS
Inoue Yoshio as Kinouchi Sadaharu
Koike Eiko as Daimon Hitomi
Seto Kouji as Kinouchi Kiyoharu
Matsuo Mayu as Oohigashi Musubi
Yamanishi Atsushi as Yakumo Hamaji
Inuyama Inuko as Kinouchi Hato
Yamauchi Takaya as Funabashi
Kondou Kouen as Shimokura Wataru
Shuri as Michishita Yukari
Odawa Tamaki as Maruyama Madoko
Yamazaki Hajime as Moroboshi Kousaku
Takahashi Keiko as Kamitsuma Tsumako
Namase Katsuhisa as Daimon Makoto
Before I go into the review - and there will be no ‘spoiler’ section this time. I feel like I need to express what was going on with me around the time I watched the play:
Backstory and Personal Issues
If you’ve been following my reviews and/or my twitter then you’ll know that in the week prior to this stage I had already: Seen Messiah twice, gone to MakiChan’s Birthday Event twice, watched Toei Hero Next the day before AND watched Soul Flower the Thursday before. Also the Monday night my train was delayed for about 2 hours so I was stood that entire time and ended up getting home 12am rather than 10:30pm. The show for Seto was at 14:00 SO I didn’t get to sleep in either... so naturally; I was exhausted before I even got on the train to GO to Shibuya. Also I had plans (which I don’t normally) to meet a friend back in Yokohama at 5pm for dinner.
THEN I get to the theatre and the show starts... I feel the first half is a little long but it wasn’t too bad. At the intermission, I check the run time for the play:
FIRST HALF: 1 hour 50 minutes
INTERMISSION: 15 minutes
SECOND HALF: 1 hour 15 minutes
This play was 3 hours and 20 fucking minutes long. I went in assuming it was a normal 2 to 2hrs30mins play hence why I’d made plans for 5pm but clearly I wasn’t going to be getting OUT of that theatre until at least 4:30 which mean I was going to be late meeting my friend. And, lets all remember, I was tired as hell before the play even started, and we’d already done 2 hours of it but still had over an hour still to go?!
So that’s the backstory; you can imagine what my personal feelings on this play is right? ... now lets get down to it
REVIEW
I had a 4th row seat which is great! The staging was really cool and very fabulous and looked expensive and there were giant stairs and old furniture. The opening credit sequence was done on a screen like projection mapping and the graphics were amazing. I really enjoyed the opening credit video but why they used the wedding theme song I have no idea xD however, the theatre got cold VERY quickly so I suffered a little there.
The story itself is absolutely fine and interesting enough. It was about a divorced couple learning that they should never have been divorced and that they still have feelings for each other. It also has a splash of fantasy because Daimon Hitomi’s father (who had previously died) comes back as a ghost to see if she’s happy and with the help of his two spirit friends (who possess other people’s bodies) he gets involved and plays tricks and using magic so that Hitomi and Sadaharu can finally make a mends and say what they truly think and feel.
The comedy is mainly aimed at older people because the cast is much older (than me). Only the three younger actor’s comedy appealed to the young demographic and I could definitely see other girls around my age who just weren’t laughing (same as me) when all the old folks were. Also there definitely was some ‘back in the day racism towards white people’ jokes because it is set in the 1960ish which I admit stung me for a second, but I quickly was like ‘remember this is supposed to be the 60s’. But it was cool seeing this renown TV and Movie actors in the flesh on stage like Yamauchi and Namase and Koike.
We have a range of interesting characters; we have a random stranger who suddenly helps out the family and we have a flamboyant mother who’s being persuade by a silly old man and we have the main couple who act like they’re still married and they act like best friends yet they’re off marrying other people. We has a jealous fiance, we have the spirits possessing lots of people’s bodies which creates a lot of comedy. We have an Idol who falls in love with her Manager after he gets super mad at her, meaning he’s masochistic.
More fantasy parts: we have love potions and truth salt forcing people to fall in love at first sight with characters they’re not supposed to and forcing people to suddenly get really angry and say everything they truly feel.
But I personally and in all honesty was so bored. It was so long. As you already know, this play is over 3 hours long which is way too long for me. I can just about handle 3 hours of TouStage but that’s INCLUDING curtain calls(!).
I only really paid attention to Seto’s character and when Seto was on stage. Unfortunately, I feel like Seto’s character actually had autism rather than just being a dumb character, so I couldn’t really laugh at his stuff even if I wanted to, because it felt like ‘why are you laughing and verbally abusing and make fun of someone who has autism or at least some form of mental disability’ I just couldn’t enjoy it. If you've seen Seto's Rinne no Ame, I felt and seemed like his character in this stage was exactly the same as his character in Rinne except trying to crack a few jokes while he's at it, so if you know the Rinne character then you'll understand why I felt like he character here was a mental disability.
But more so I think I just wached this at the wrong time; if I’d watched it after not going to a stage for like 2 weeks and if I hadn’t had plans for after the play and if I hadn’t spent the previous night stood up on a delay train, then I think I would have enjoyed it more.
Like I said; the story itself isn’t bad, the comedy itself isn’t bad, the ending is even satisfactory (but predictable) and the characters are interesting and the stage is very big and fancy and the opening credits were amazing and the projection mapping was used well, but me and this day just didn’t work. It was all just bad timing for me and just thinking about this stage now I feel sick and want to through it to the other end of the universe. But that;s me, not the actual play itself.
There is a DVD if you’re interested.
Rating: If I stay neutral 7/10. If we go off how I was and still feel from that day: 3/10
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I hope I was neutral enough to give a somewhat decent review and I’m sorry to those who were expecting a great review about Seto Koji’s performance. It’s really all my fault that I had such a bad time.