Tomita as the One-Eyed Dragon
Ever since I saw the Sengoku Basara anime, I've had a strong interest in the historical Date Masamune as well as his brotherly bond with Katakura Kojuurou, one of his chief retainers. Masamune's fearsome reputation on the battlefield gave rise to the nickname "One-eyed Dragon" (Dokuganryuu) and Kojuurou was known as the "Right Eye of the Dragon", a reflection of his importance to the Date clan during Masamune's reign. I'm a fan of this lord-retainer pair. Pretty much every incarnation of Date Masamune I've seen has a Kojuurou, kind of like how you can't have Oda Nobunaga without a Ranmaru somewhere. So I was pretty excited to watch Touken Ranbu Giden Akatsuki no Dokuganryuu (2017) in which Tomita plays Date Masamune in a supporting role.
And OMG does he slay in this role. In my dream world, he would be in a NHK Taiga drama but realistically speaking, I really want to see him lead a purely historical Sengoku play.
Touken Ranbu - Giden Akatsuki no Dokuganryuu review
This play is part of the huge Touken Ranbu franchise and it's the biggest production (46 shows in total) Tomita has been a part of so far. The only thing I know about Touken Ranbu is that the source material is an online game so I tried to keep my expectations reasonable. But to be quite honest, I found the play overly long and was bored at many parts. The production values of the play are excellent, namely the costuming, lighting, the original music, projection mapping, etc. but the main problem for me is that there are far too many leads and insufficient character building to make me really care for any of them, which really shouldn't have been an issue given that the play is over three hours long. Among the leads, Sayo Samonji and Ookurikara were the only ones who piqued my interest but Sayo's sad demeanor and backstory were so harped upon that he kind of lost me by the end of the play and Kara just didn't get enough focus to get a real handle on his character. I suspect viewers more familiar with the source material would appreciate the play more but I didn't understand why certain scenes had to be in the play (like the kitchen scene) and found them to be a waste of time. The fights are impressively choreographed and performed but there were so many instances of the main characters just fighting random opponents that it became tedious to watch after a while. On a side note, Aramaki is one of the leads in the play but he didn't do anything to improve my opinion of him as an actor.
Of course, one of the bright spots of the play is the supporting historical characters. From what I understood in the play, Touken is about swords of famous historical figures that have come to life and they can jump to particular periods in time to stop any disruptions to history. In this installment, they focus on Date Masamune, Katakura Kojuurou and Hosokawa Tadaoki and the lead characters travel to the time of the Battle of Sekigahara to protect Date Masamune from dying a premature death.
To begin on a superficial note, Tomita is gorgeous as Date Masamune! He has all the bearing of a 16th century samurai warlord and I love the way he speaks in this play. He punctuates his lines with so much authority and when combined with his excellent vocal clarity makes for a seriously commanding presence. He knows how to carry himself in a period piece and has a somewhat larger-than-life persona in this production. Also, his sword skills are remarkable here. He has excellent speed and precision which becomes even more impressive when you consider the amount of armor he's wearing during his fight scenes.
What I also really liked was the way they presented the relationship between Masamune and Kojuurou. Kojuurou is very protective of Masamune and this is sometimes used to comedic effect. Their scenes were my favorite especially when Kojuurou was desperately trying to save Masamune from being (literally) possessed by his desire to rule Japan which would result in his death in the Battle of Sekigahara. Tomita had such a crazed look in some of the scenes where he's overwhelmed by the influence of the black armor. In the climax to their conflict, Masamune's need for Kojuurou to be present in his life is revealed by the line, "I don't want to lose my right eye again." For Masamune, there was no meaning in ruling Japan if Kojuurou was dead and this is what frees him the grasp of the black armor. Also kudos to Takamatsu Jun, who plays Kojuurou with a kind of desperation.that I found interesting.
*
And while we're still on the subject of Date Masamune, how could I not talk about this other play that he did: Nobunyaga no Yabou Yukimura to Gorin no Ken (2016)! Touken Ranbu was actually Tomita's second outing as the Date warlord. :)
Nobunyaga no Yabou Yukimura to Gorin no Ken review
I wasn't going to buy the DVD initially after deciding that the premise was too silly for me - samurai warlords re-imagined as cats - but seeing that Tomita was billed second, I gave in and purchased it. And I'm kind of glad I did because I found the play pretty entertaining. The story is very much in the same vein as Sengoku Basara - heck, they even have a Sanada-Date alliance/rivalry thing - which is over-the-top Sengoku Jidai warfare and like Sengoku Basara it doesn't take itself seriously. What I found really fun about the cat theme was the way they 'cat-ified' all the clan crests and the way the actors spoke. Every "na" な has been replaced with "nya" にゃ (meaning "meow"). I'm impressed the entire cast remembered to "nya" every "na"! The names of the historical characters were also slightly modified to suit the overall cat theme..
So Tomita plays Date Mashamune (not a typo) who has two amusing quirks: he can't seem to land on his feet after a high leap and he gets flustered when other characters play with his tail. Despite this, Tomita plays the character with absolute seriousness which makes him even more hilarious to watch as Mashamune seems oblivious to how ridiculous some of his antics are. When Mashamune is first formally introduced in the play, what I found more hilarious with the entrance wasn't the fact that he crash-landed after jumping but his look of absolute bewilderment after that, as if he couldn't understand what just happened.
Mashamune in this play has two main retainers: Sukojuurou (Kojuurou) and Tsunenyaga (Hasekura Tsunenaga). Sukojuurou in this play seems to admire Mashamune more than protect him to the point of emulating his disastrous landings. I thought the small crescent moon in Sukojuurou's headgear was a cute touch.
I also really liked the action choreography in this play. The multiple-opponent battles are very neatly-paced and drive the story instead of just being an action piece for the sake of action. Like in Touken, Tomita's swordplay here is pretty impressive to watch.
*
Seeing how good Tomita is in a historical setting (even as a cat LOL) really makes me want to see him as Kagetora in the Kaikou-hen prequels. I guess I can still hope for it.
And OMG does he slay in this role. In my dream world, he would be in a NHK Taiga drama but realistically speaking, I really want to see him lead a purely historical Sengoku play.
Touken Ranbu - Giden Akatsuki no Dokuganryuu review
This play is part of the huge Touken Ranbu franchise and it's the biggest production (46 shows in total) Tomita has been a part of so far. The only thing I know about Touken Ranbu is that the source material is an online game so I tried to keep my expectations reasonable. But to be quite honest, I found the play overly long and was bored at many parts. The production values of the play are excellent, namely the costuming, lighting, the original music, projection mapping, etc. but the main problem for me is that there are far too many leads and insufficient character building to make me really care for any of them, which really shouldn't have been an issue given that the play is over three hours long. Among the leads, Sayo Samonji and Ookurikara were the only ones who piqued my interest but Sayo's sad demeanor and backstory were so harped upon that he kind of lost me by the end of the play and Kara just didn't get enough focus to get a real handle on his character. I suspect viewers more familiar with the source material would appreciate the play more but I didn't understand why certain scenes had to be in the play (like the kitchen scene) and found them to be a waste of time. The fights are impressively choreographed and performed but there were so many instances of the main characters just fighting random opponents that it became tedious to watch after a while. On a side note, Aramaki is one of the leads in the play but he didn't do anything to improve my opinion of him as an actor.
Of course, one of the bright spots of the play is the supporting historical characters. From what I understood in the play, Touken is about swords of famous historical figures that have come to life and they can jump to particular periods in time to stop any disruptions to history. In this installment, they focus on Date Masamune, Katakura Kojuurou and Hosokawa Tadaoki and the lead characters travel to the time of the Battle of Sekigahara to protect Date Masamune from dying a premature death.
To begin on a superficial note, Tomita is gorgeous as Date Masamune! He has all the bearing of a 16th century samurai warlord and I love the way he speaks in this play. He punctuates his lines with so much authority and when combined with his excellent vocal clarity makes for a seriously commanding presence. He knows how to carry himself in a period piece and has a somewhat larger-than-life persona in this production. Also, his sword skills are remarkable here. He has excellent speed and precision which becomes even more impressive when you consider the amount of armor he's wearing during his fight scenes.
What I also really liked was the way they presented the relationship between Masamune and Kojuurou. Kojuurou is very protective of Masamune and this is sometimes used to comedic effect. Their scenes were my favorite especially when Kojuurou was desperately trying to save Masamune from being (literally) possessed by his desire to rule Japan which would result in his death in the Battle of Sekigahara. Tomita had such a crazed look in some of the scenes where he's overwhelmed by the influence of the black armor. In the climax to their conflict, Masamune's need for Kojuurou to be present in his life is revealed by the line, "I don't want to lose my right eye again." For Masamune, there was no meaning in ruling Japan if Kojuurou was dead and this is what frees him the grasp of the black armor. Also kudos to Takamatsu Jun, who plays Kojuurou with a kind of desperation.that I found interesting.
*
And while we're still on the subject of Date Masamune, how could I not talk about this other play that he did: Nobunyaga no Yabou Yukimura to Gorin no Ken (2016)! Touken Ranbu was actually Tomita's second outing as the Date warlord. :)
Nobunyaga no Yabou Yukimura to Gorin no Ken review
I wasn't going to buy the DVD initially after deciding that the premise was too silly for me - samurai warlords re-imagined as cats - but seeing that Tomita was billed second, I gave in and purchased it. And I'm kind of glad I did because I found the play pretty entertaining. The story is very much in the same vein as Sengoku Basara - heck, they even have a Sanada-Date alliance/rivalry thing - which is over-the-top Sengoku Jidai warfare and like Sengoku Basara it doesn't take itself seriously. What I found really fun about the cat theme was the way they 'cat-ified' all the clan crests and the way the actors spoke. Every "na" な has been replaced with "nya" にゃ (meaning "meow"). I'm impressed the entire cast remembered to "nya" every "na"! The names of the historical characters were also slightly modified to suit the overall cat theme..
So Tomita plays Date Mashamune (not a typo) who has two amusing quirks: he can't seem to land on his feet after a high leap and he gets flustered when other characters play with his tail. Despite this, Tomita plays the character with absolute seriousness which makes him even more hilarious to watch as Mashamune seems oblivious to how ridiculous some of his antics are. When Mashamune is first formally introduced in the play, what I found more hilarious with the entrance wasn't the fact that he crash-landed after jumping but his look of absolute bewilderment after that, as if he couldn't understand what just happened.
Mashamune in this play has two main retainers: Sukojuurou (Kojuurou) and Tsunenyaga (Hasekura Tsunenaga). Sukojuurou in this play seems to admire Mashamune more than protect him to the point of emulating his disastrous landings. I thought the small crescent moon in Sukojuurou's headgear was a cute touch.
I also really liked the action choreography in this play. The multiple-opponent battles are very neatly-paced and drive the story instead of just being an action piece for the sake of action. Like in Touken, Tomita's swordplay here is pretty impressive to watch.
*
Seeing how good Tomita is in a historical setting (even as a cat LOL) really makes me want to see him as Kagetora in the Kaikou-hen prequels. I guess I can still hope for it.