VBB aka " vampāyā rokkā "
VBB or for Japanese Vam Ban Ban or for english speakers VAMB BAMBOO BURN is stage play, actually rock musical which was played im theaters in Japan (to be more specific in Tokio, Osaka, Nagano, Toyama) in 2016(yeaaah I am hella laaate). The script was written by famous Kankuro Kudo-san (yeah it is that same director who disliked Toma's "noisy" face XD and said he cant dance, sing, act XD) and stage play director was Inoue Hidenori. Should I continue? Nah, nobody will read it if I continue like this and I dont want write wikipedia article (but if you want more wiki info go there XD http://www.v-b-b.jp/index.html )...so I will start again...
Imagine old japanese folk story/ legend about Princess Kaguya add modern rock music. But wait, story would in both styles overlapping each other and so would same characters be once in history and once in modern world. Also dont forget to add pretty much gags about modern japanese showbusiness...
Finally as a lead actor imagine Toma Ikuta as a creppy sexy rocker vampire with long blonde hair and better make up than you can do on your face and tadaaa you have complete picture of VBB musical. Got it? For those who can't imagine it well, I will provide pics and my opinion and feelings from this special butai. If you are ok with it, I hope you will enjoy this article. It is gonna be looong journey, so I hope you are ready hehe. Doouzoooo!!!
Lets start with the plot first. I would be honest, I did not get it completelly XD (now you might ask what an idiot I am to write review when I dont understand what I watched right? XD) but I did not get it for 2 reasons...my japanese is less than kindergarden level (but I understood the basics and what was meaningfull in story) but the second reason why I dont understood it fully was that the story itself was STRANGE XD! Strange but in a good way! Yup- strange characters, clothes, the way it was written and also the atmosphere. But I liked it and I enjoyed it. It was my very 1st japanese butai and also first japanese musical. (also my first Toma stage play/musical. I am still amazed how lucky I was to be able to get watch it. Thanks to nice person in Toma fandom. ♥ Thank you if you read this ♥ Without you I would still be trying to broke the password lol XD)
The butai begins just like ancient legend about princess Kaguya (Eiko Koike). Old bamboo cutter finds baby Kaguya in bamboo forest. Soon girl grow up into beautiful young woman and many men are interested to marry her. One of them was Toshiro (Toma Ikuta), he was the most desperate to win princess's heart but she was not interested in him and chosed another prince (Tomohiro Kamiyama). Toshiro could not accept her choice and decided to marry princess no matter what. Strange old man tricks Toshiro that if he lives forever he can get princess Kaguya and turns Toshiro into vampire. Toshiro then lives into modern era and continue to search Kaguya. He tries to hide his inner vampire and became vocalist in rock band. Not so long after he finds reincarnation of princess Kaguya in modern world and again he fights to win her heart which is not easy because it seems that princess changes the person she reincarnated into (I wont spoil more XD).
Let's move to the actors- All cast were really great and talented. Especially the musicians who played amazing rock music and sang supporting vocals to songs.
From supporting actors I want mention JUN HASHIMOTO (he guided audience through musical) and EISUKE SASAI who both nailed their hilarious roles. Especially Sasai-san who did parody on Kyary Pamyu Pamyu XD
TOMOHIRO KAMIYAMA as prince- He played the guy who Princess chosed in the past as her husband. Idk, he was everage? Nothing special and he appeared in few scenes. But he had some funny parts. I think they chosed him because he is also from JE :P
TOMOYA NAKAMURA as reincarnation Princess of Kaguya - I never saw him acting before, but I think he is good actor. He nailed action scenes when he fought with Toma. (*click for fight scene*) It was one of the best parts of the musical. Also I lost it when there were comedy scene when he hugged almost naked Kamiyama XD or when he was in parody about japanese girl bands XD (maybe they reffered to AKB XD)
EIKO KOIKE as Princess Kaguya - Eiko is really great actress and I like her a lot. Her acting was awesome, not afraid to show weird faces and to over
react when it was needed and then suddenly behave like a fragile princess. She can work nicely with her voice and her singing is very good,which surprised me. Keiko had really great natural chemistry with Toma. It was visible that she enjoyed her role. Also wearing that long kimono for hours must be tiring. Big respect! I am glad she was in that musical.
IKUTA TOMA as Toshiro " the vampire rocker "- I dont want to sound biased but OH MY GOOOOD IKUTA NAILEEEED IT AND ROCKEEEED IT AND GOD I AM SO PROOOOUD!!!! was my thougs while watched it and I still think the same as I rewatched it. He put himself fully into his role. He enjoyed himself. His both dreams to be kabuki actor and to be rock singer came true at the same time. And you can see his passion to theater on his face and in all he did on stage, he was goofy, happy, then serious, then creepy, cute, sexy oh everything! He was perfect and I dont exaggerate!!! His dances were amazing (sasuga Johnny's who did not debute XD) and GOD HE SANG! HE SANG SO DAMN COOL AND BEAUTIFULLY I WANTED CRY!!! (I hope peope in JE saw it XD and hit their heads on the wallsXD) Kudo-san THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING TOMA TO BE IN THIS MUSICAL! ♥ I hope Toma will return to his beloved theater family place soon and I wish for another DVD!
Toshiro in ancient times
Toshiro as rock star in modern world
I would like to leave here some scenes where Toma sang because I just love them so much ♥
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
My overall impressions are really great and it surpassed my own expectations. I have to admit I am not used to such stage plays. VBB was so innovative! Like really I have never seen such stage play in my short almost 20 years old life and I go to theater quite a lot for my age! The way live music was involved, the special lighting, lasers, smoke, actors interactions with audience - all of it felt fresh and new! All the special effects helped to create right atmosphere without any coulisse. Look...
Also the idea of creating mini concert during stage play was interesting. They involved audience.
And I really much appreciated the parodies because they are living memes XD and I am meme trash XD There were used parodies about many shows, e.g. ZIP, or magazine Anan XD or simply celebrity life. I enjoyed them. However I dont think person who does not know a lot about Japanese modern culture would get the jokes...
extra af Toshiro escaping paparazzi XD He is big famous star who has swag
Toshiro flirts with Kaguya and shows her "bisual kei karisuma" XD ( I lost it here again becasu it is real Toma's photo in Anan but photoshopped XD )
To be honest I really did not expect this stage play to be this kind of modern one, with strange characters and sometimes too noisy scenes but all in all I enjoyed it a lot and I happy it surprised me. If I had option I would definitelly attend this stage play even twice or three times...Even Toma mentioned each performance was in something special, in something different because actors sometimes improvised. And this is the magic of theater. As I mentioned before the cast was amazing and I enjoyed their acting. Live rock music created the right atmosphere and the story made me interested. I really had great time and I bet watching it live was great experience. The moment when all cast were together with band singing and saying their good byes and Toma went there as the last one and everyone applauded him and he looked sooo happy and satisfied I was very happy and proud of him.That was the best, really. I cant describe the feeling well...I bet I would cry if I was right there in theater. Thank you Gekidan Shinkansen for this butai! ♥I have nice memories.
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
BYE BYE
Thanks everyone for reading. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did while writing it. ♥
Comments really means a lot to me, so if you liked my article let me know. :3
PS: ALL USED PICS AND VIDEOS ARE MINE!!! USE @tomatoliciousheya as credits!!!! (WHICH IS MY TUBLR ACC!!!)