MOON SAGA
I saw the first MOON SAGA show on Friday. I'm not going to do an in-depth review or synopsis for many reasons, but I'll give a brief overview...
Obviously, there are many, many spoilers.
Also, if you're a little confused about characters, actors and backgrounds I suggest checking this entry over at OGYD.
MOON SAGA 2 follows on quite shortly after the end of MOON SAGA 1. There's a lot of new characters, and they're mainly on the Heike side, who were historically the enemy of the Genji/Minamoto. There is a truce between the Heike and Genji in this though, although it gets tested a few times due to character deaths.
The main plotline sees Nori [Hiro Yumi's character] possessed by En, thanks to the work of Masako who summons En (and has done before). Nori kills some of the Heike generals, including Tomomori [Mayo Kawasaki's character]. The final battle scene is Nori fighting Yoshitsune, and it plays out very similarly to the fight scene in MOON SAGA 1 with Yoshitune fighting Yoshinaka. In this, Yoshitsune is down and almost out as he's only fighting defensively, when Nori brings out Hiyori, kills her in front of Yoshitsune, and then Yoshitsune's demon power gets unleashed and he kills Nori. Nori dies in his arms (yes, just like Yoshinaka did - there was a lot of deja vu in this play).
If you thought that Hiyori's entire purpose was to gaze longingly at Yoshitsune while he mainly ignored her, only for her to die tragically then congrats! You got it right!!
I count that there are 14 members of the main cast. Seven of them die - Satou Tsugunobu, Ginroumaru, Taira no Tomomori, Dennai Noriyoshi, Kikkoumaru, Hiyori and Taira no Noritsune. 50% kill rate!
There was this really cool, but really, really out of place scene that was part of the Nori/Yoshitsune fight and death. It involved a lot of guys in red and blue LED suits dancing around the stage, and the lights would be turned off and on to make it look like people were disappearing and reappearing around the stage. It was very similar to some of the techniques used in performances like this -
and there were lightsaber sounds. I have no idea how it fits into Heian era Japan, even as a dream/psyche/near death scene.
I felt that the projection mapping was used very well. The sides of the stage were just plain wood, and all of the scenery was projected onto it. They could make a wall/screen half way down the stage and again, backdrops were projected onto that. Being front row meant that I couldn't see a lot of the projection mapping though as I was too close to be able to see the entire stage. My friends weren't quite so keen on the projection mapping, but I liked it.
The visual style was very much MOON SAGA meets Bunraku. It looked like some of the artwork was lifted straight from Bunraku at times.
Yoshitsune isn't the innocent and cute Yoshitsune that we saw during parts of the first MOON SAGA. He's very sedate and morose. His hair was tied back for the whole play and the wig didn't cover as much of his face as it does in the promo shots so it didn't look as horrible as expected. Hiyori's wig was far better too.
The fight scenes were all pretty impressive and I'm sure they will only get better as the show progresses. Yoshitsune had a solo fight against 20+ of Nori's soldiers and it was similar to Nemuri vs. the never ending green ninjas from the Nemuri Kyoshiro play, only with more flying around.
The highlight of the play for me was Hiro Yumi. Not only is she beautiful, but she had the best costume and gave the best performance, I thought. In fact, the two best characters were both played by women (although Hiro Yumi plays a male character) as Masako was as evilly insane as ever too.
The soundtrack sounded good. In the pamphlet the music is credited to GACKT, with TAKUMI as producer and YOU doing the arrangement.
All in all, it was enjoyable but still highly flawed. Most of the flaws from the first MOON SAGA have not been addressed. There's still too many characters and not enough development of the important characters, I think. Too many scenes seemed to be copies of previous plays and GACKT still desperately needs an editor to tighten things up.
Thankfully I'm seeing it again on Saturday. It's possible that I'm being overly critical of the play due to having to wait for the damn thing to start for over two and a half hours, so maybe I'll have a better opinion on second viewing. I did enjoy it, don't think that I didn't, but the flaws are very obvious. I felt the same way about MOON SAGA 1 though and many people liked that...
For any FC members that go, make sure to check in as an FC member before the show in the little area next to the goods as you will get a free play on the gacha machines. You'll either win a badge or a special prize.
Obviously, there are many, many spoilers.
Also, if you're a little confused about characters, actors and backgrounds I suggest checking this entry over at OGYD.
MOON SAGA 2 follows on quite shortly after the end of MOON SAGA 1. There's a lot of new characters, and they're mainly on the Heike side, who were historically the enemy of the Genji/Minamoto. There is a truce between the Heike and Genji in this though, although it gets tested a few times due to character deaths.
The main plotline sees Nori [Hiro Yumi's character] possessed by En, thanks to the work of Masako who summons En (and has done before). Nori kills some of the Heike generals, including Tomomori [Mayo Kawasaki's character]. The final battle scene is Nori fighting Yoshitsune, and it plays out very similarly to the fight scene in MOON SAGA 1 with Yoshitune fighting Yoshinaka. In this, Yoshitsune is down and almost out as he's only fighting defensively, when Nori brings out Hiyori, kills her in front of Yoshitsune, and then Yoshitsune's demon power gets unleashed and he kills Nori. Nori dies in his arms (yes, just like Yoshinaka did - there was a lot of deja vu in this play).
If you thought that Hiyori's entire purpose was to gaze longingly at Yoshitsune while he mainly ignored her, only for her to die tragically then congrats! You got it right!!
I count that there are 14 members of the main cast. Seven of them die - Satou Tsugunobu, Ginroumaru, Taira no Tomomori, Dennai Noriyoshi, Kikkoumaru, Hiyori and Taira no Noritsune. 50% kill rate!
There was this really cool, but really, really out of place scene that was part of the Nori/Yoshitsune fight and death. It involved a lot of guys in red and blue LED suits dancing around the stage, and the lights would be turned off and on to make it look like people were disappearing and reappearing around the stage. It was very similar to some of the techniques used in performances like this -
Click to viewand there were lightsaber sounds. I have no idea how it fits into Heian era Japan, even as a dream/psyche/near death scene.
I felt that the projection mapping was used very well. The sides of the stage were just plain wood, and all of the scenery was projected onto it. They could make a wall/screen half way down the stage and again, backdrops were projected onto that. Being front row meant that I couldn't see a lot of the projection mapping though as I was too close to be able to see the entire stage. My friends weren't quite so keen on the projection mapping, but I liked it.
The visual style was very much MOON SAGA meets Bunraku. It looked like some of the artwork was lifted straight from Bunraku at times.
Yoshitsune isn't the innocent and cute Yoshitsune that we saw during parts of the first MOON SAGA. He's very sedate and morose. His hair was tied back for the whole play and the wig didn't cover as much of his face as it does in the promo shots so it didn't look as horrible as expected. Hiyori's wig was far better too.
The fight scenes were all pretty impressive and I'm sure they will only get better as the show progresses. Yoshitsune had a solo fight against 20+ of Nori's soldiers and it was similar to Nemuri vs. the never ending green ninjas from the Nemuri Kyoshiro play, only with more flying around.
The highlight of the play for me was Hiro Yumi. Not only is she beautiful, but she had the best costume and gave the best performance, I thought. In fact, the two best characters were both played by women (although Hiro Yumi plays a male character) as Masako was as evilly insane as ever too.
The soundtrack sounded good. In the pamphlet the music is credited to GACKT, with TAKUMI as producer and YOU doing the arrangement.
All in all, it was enjoyable but still highly flawed. Most of the flaws from the first MOON SAGA have not been addressed. There's still too many characters and not enough development of the important characters, I think. Too many scenes seemed to be copies of previous plays and GACKT still desperately needs an editor to tighten things up.
Thankfully I'm seeing it again on Saturday. It's possible that I'm being overly critical of the play due to having to wait for the damn thing to start for over two and a half hours, so maybe I'll have a better opinion on second viewing. I did enjoy it, don't think that I didn't, but the flaws are very obvious. I felt the same way about MOON SAGA 1 though and many people liked that...
For any FC members that go, make sure to check in as an FC member before the show in the little area next to the goods as you will get a free play on the gacha machines. You'll either win a badge or a special prize.