Yu Yu Hakusho Stage Play 2!
On Sunday I went to see the Yu Yu Hakusho stage play in the evening, after seeing my company's anime in the EJ Anime Cinema in Shinjuku in the afternoon. So I pretty much biked all over Tokyo, haha. It wasn't that rushed though - I had a lot of time to kill between the screening and the stage play, so I biked around a bit and did some shopping at the Y's Road bicycle shop in Shinjuku, and got some gyuudon because it appeared in the anime and it had made me hungry xD
Anyway, the stage play... There seems to be something weird going on with tickets. The original price was 13000 yen, which is quite expensive even for a stage play of this caliber, so I had assumed that like with Toumyu, they had only sold 50% of the seats for social distancing purposes... But when I got to my seat in the theater (Stellar Ball in Shinagawa) I found that it was right next to someone else... and then someone sat down on my other side... That's right, there was absolutely no social distancing whatsoever O___O Even though they had guests disinfect their hands and wear masks (and Koenma went and sprayed disinfectant around the stage during each intermission ^^;) it felt very unsafe. The seats were also of the makeshift, folding kind, so my knees were literally up against the seat in front of me ^^;;; The first showing on Friday already had gotten cancelled due to a covid case among the cast (!!!) but it was "just" an ensemble member, not a main actor, so they decided to go ahead and do it without him (but cancelled the first show because more time was required to practice without him). Apparently the other cast members were not defined to have had any "close contact" with the infected person, but still... still... @_@
I can't help but wonder if this is the reason why people are selling their tickets for as little as 3000 yen on resale sites now, and why there were so many empty seats, and why even the regular tickets didn't seem to be sold out - there were especially many empty seats near the back, and they didn't seem to be using the balcony... If it was going to be like this, they might as well have implemented proper social distancing and spaced out the audience over the whole hall?? The cheap ticket resales certainly can't be because of a problem with the quality of the show itself, because it was in fact very good!!!
The performance was mostly carried by the amazing cast - I'm still surprised they managed to get these actors to be available at the same time, because even with corona they seem to be very busy. I'm not entirely convinced by Sakiyama Tsubasa as Yusuke, because the character seems so far removed from his usual character types. He seems to be lacking Yusuke's roughness, but maybe it's also because I can't help but see his face as Ishikirimaru ^^; In his pamphlet interview he did comment on it, but he said he saw it as an opportunity and challenge to expand his abilities as an actor, and he's certainly trying! His fist-fighting scenes were almost as impressive as his sword-fighting scenes in Toumyu, haha
I feel like his stage presence was overshadowed by Gomoto Naoya as Kuwabara though - 40 years old and still playing the roles of high school kids, AND pulling it off perfectly O_O His looks haven't changed a bit since he played Kaido in Tenimyu, and he's such a perfect fit for Kuwabara. His facial expressions are amazing (yeah, my 8th row seat was close enough to see everyone's faces =D ) , and during his fight with Byakko he did a very long part of ad-libbed comedy which was very impressive... Although it carried on a bit too long in my opinion, but that was mostly because the visuals during that fight were rather boring - it was basically just him standing there and describing the fight - including narration and sound effects - with a still image of Byakko displayed in the background ^^; )
Hiei and Kurama were basically just... Hiei and Kurama. They sadly didn't appear much during the second half, but they were so fitting for the roles that I can't think of much to remark on them. Suzuki Hiroki carried himself with perfect grace but without coming across as overly feminine, and he handled the unwieldy and unpractical (at least in reality) rose whip very skillfully =O Hiei is perfectly short and snarky, and I wish he got more lines and scenes >w< His highlight was probably his fight against Seiryuu, which ended within one frame in the manga because it was "too fast to see", but in the play they made Koenma (who was "watching" the fight on video) rewind and re-play it in slow-motion first, and then at "normal speed" so the audience could see Hiei cutting Seiryuu 16 times (and delivering a punch to Kuwabara's gut somewhere along the way too, that was brilliant xD)
Oh, and I can't talk about the story without talking about Koenma... Like the first play, the entire story was framed by Koenma watching his videos and looking back on everything that happened, covering the Saint Beasts arc and the rescue Yukina arc. So there was a LOT of "breaking the 4th wall" and sometimes even the characters seemed aware that they were merely "acting out" their story for Koenma, rather than living it in the moment. On the one hand that kinda ruins the immersive experience, but on the other hand, that's just the kind of silly manga that Yu Yu Hakusho is, and the kind of stage play this is, so it didn't feel jarring or anything. Araki Hirofumi as Koenma was also acting as one of the three stage directors this time, apparently, which is a first for him! But it seemed really fitting from the perspective of his role as Koenma. I'm still not sure about the idea of having 3 directors though - the whole play felt a little incohesive in terms of style, perhaps as a result of that.
Like, the difference in acting/storytelling styles between different scenes was noticeably large). Some battles used real actors to portray characters who only appeared for less than a minute, while longer fights used graphics projected on the wall behind the stage, while I feel like it should be the other way around? Like Rando, Miyuki, Inmaki and Gokumonki all got accurate-ish portrayals by random ensemble cast members? O_O But like I mentioned before, what even was the Kuwabara vs. Byakko fight!? It feels like they just gave up on portraying that "realistically" and relied on Naoyan to just literally tell the story verbally. (Which he did great, but still...!)
The Toguro brothers were also a bit underwhelming, though I suppose that's fine 'cause they didn't really show their true power yet in this arc. I thought they could've at least given the younger Toguro an expanding muscle suit or something, though xD And it almost feels like a waste that they got Nakagauchi Masataka to play the elder Toguro because you could barely see his face under his mop of hair... He did a great job literally creeping around the stage on all fours, though xD
All other characters were pretty good too, like Botan, Keiko, Yukina, etc... Even Sakyo was appropriately hot, lol. And apparently Hiei's actor played Tarukane's lackey Hirue because he didn't have much else to do in the second half, but I didn't even notice until I read it in the pamphlet O___O
I'm still not sure why Genkai had an actress cast because she still didn't really do anything (they pretty much skimmed over the training arc, other than Rando appearing for half a minute), but I suppose her presence is still hinting that they're going to move on to the tournament arc eventually? The story did end with them being on the ship to the tournament, sooo...
Though I can't help but wonder if the disappointing (?) ticket sales this time would impede the production of a sequel... Then again, are they even making any money with this stage play in the first place? It feels more like the kind of pet project that all the big-name actors and staff involved are doing because they WANT to do it, rather than because anyone thinks it will be a big money-making hit... It's such a weird project really, for such an old manga too... =O
Anyway, I hope for the cast and everyone else involved that there won't be a corona cluster due to the lax measures at the theater... (or that nobody caught it from that infected cast member last week...) I already felt bad for the cast seeing so many empty seats, but it would be even worse if something actually happened and made the news x_x I still hope they can successfully finish the run somehow, and I would've totally snatched up some of those 3000-yen tickets to go again next weekend just to support the actors, if only the seating arrangement didn't make me feel so unsafe... x_x
Anyway, the stage play... There seems to be something weird going on with tickets. The original price was 13000 yen, which is quite expensive even for a stage play of this caliber, so I had assumed that like with Toumyu, they had only sold 50% of the seats for social distancing purposes... But when I got to my seat in the theater (Stellar Ball in Shinagawa) I found that it was right next to someone else... and then someone sat down on my other side... That's right, there was absolutely no social distancing whatsoever O___O Even though they had guests disinfect their hands and wear masks (and Koenma went and sprayed disinfectant around the stage during each intermission ^^;) it felt very unsafe. The seats were also of the makeshift, folding kind, so my knees were literally up against the seat in front of me ^^;;; The first showing on Friday already had gotten cancelled due to a covid case among the cast (!!!) but it was "just" an ensemble member, not a main actor, so they decided to go ahead and do it without him (but cancelled the first show because more time was required to practice without him). Apparently the other cast members were not defined to have had any "close contact" with the infected person, but still... still... @_@
I can't help but wonder if this is the reason why people are selling their tickets for as little as 3000 yen on resale sites now, and why there were so many empty seats, and why even the regular tickets didn't seem to be sold out - there were especially many empty seats near the back, and they didn't seem to be using the balcony... If it was going to be like this, they might as well have implemented proper social distancing and spaced out the audience over the whole hall?? The cheap ticket resales certainly can't be because of a problem with the quality of the show itself, because it was in fact very good!!!
The performance was mostly carried by the amazing cast - I'm still surprised they managed to get these actors to be available at the same time, because even with corona they seem to be very busy. I'm not entirely convinced by Sakiyama Tsubasa as Yusuke, because the character seems so far removed from his usual character types. He seems to be lacking Yusuke's roughness, but maybe it's also because I can't help but see his face as Ishikirimaru ^^; In his pamphlet interview he did comment on it, but he said he saw it as an opportunity and challenge to expand his abilities as an actor, and he's certainly trying! His fist-fighting scenes were almost as impressive as his sword-fighting scenes in Toumyu, haha
I feel like his stage presence was overshadowed by Gomoto Naoya as Kuwabara though - 40 years old and still playing the roles of high school kids, AND pulling it off perfectly O_O His looks haven't changed a bit since he played Kaido in Tenimyu, and he's such a perfect fit for Kuwabara. His facial expressions are amazing (yeah, my 8th row seat was close enough to see everyone's faces =D ) , and during his fight with Byakko he did a very long part of ad-libbed comedy which was very impressive... Although it carried on a bit too long in my opinion, but that was mostly because the visuals during that fight were rather boring - it was basically just him standing there and describing the fight - including narration and sound effects - with a still image of Byakko displayed in the background ^^; )
Hiei and Kurama were basically just... Hiei and Kurama. They sadly didn't appear much during the second half, but they were so fitting for the roles that I can't think of much to remark on them. Suzuki Hiroki carried himself with perfect grace but without coming across as overly feminine, and he handled the unwieldy and unpractical (at least in reality) rose whip very skillfully =O Hiei is perfectly short and snarky, and I wish he got more lines and scenes >w< His highlight was probably his fight against Seiryuu, which ended within one frame in the manga because it was "too fast to see", but in the play they made Koenma (who was "watching" the fight on video) rewind and re-play it in slow-motion first, and then at "normal speed" so the audience could see Hiei cutting Seiryuu 16 times (and delivering a punch to Kuwabara's gut somewhere along the way too, that was brilliant xD)
Oh, and I can't talk about the story without talking about Koenma... Like the first play, the entire story was framed by Koenma watching his videos and looking back on everything that happened, covering the Saint Beasts arc and the rescue Yukina arc. So there was a LOT of "breaking the 4th wall" and sometimes even the characters seemed aware that they were merely "acting out" their story for Koenma, rather than living it in the moment. On the one hand that kinda ruins the immersive experience, but on the other hand, that's just the kind of silly manga that Yu Yu Hakusho is, and the kind of stage play this is, so it didn't feel jarring or anything. Araki Hirofumi as Koenma was also acting as one of the three stage directors this time, apparently, which is a first for him! But it seemed really fitting from the perspective of his role as Koenma. I'm still not sure about the idea of having 3 directors though - the whole play felt a little incohesive in terms of style, perhaps as a result of that.
Like, the difference in acting/storytelling styles between different scenes was noticeably large). Some battles used real actors to portray characters who only appeared for less than a minute, while longer fights used graphics projected on the wall behind the stage, while I feel like it should be the other way around? Like Rando, Miyuki, Inmaki and Gokumonki all got accurate-ish portrayals by random ensemble cast members? O_O But like I mentioned before, what even was the Kuwabara vs. Byakko fight!? It feels like they just gave up on portraying that "realistically" and relied on Naoyan to just literally tell the story verbally. (Which he did great, but still...!)
The Toguro brothers were also a bit underwhelming, though I suppose that's fine 'cause they didn't really show their true power yet in this arc. I thought they could've at least given the younger Toguro an expanding muscle suit or something, though xD And it almost feels like a waste that they got Nakagauchi Masataka to play the elder Toguro because you could barely see his face under his mop of hair... He did a great job literally creeping around the stage on all fours, though xD
All other characters were pretty good too, like Botan, Keiko, Yukina, etc... Even Sakyo was appropriately hot, lol. And apparently Hiei's actor played Tarukane's lackey Hirue because he didn't have much else to do in the second half, but I didn't even notice until I read it in the pamphlet O___O
I'm still not sure why Genkai had an actress cast because she still didn't really do anything (they pretty much skimmed over the training arc, other than Rando appearing for half a minute), but I suppose her presence is still hinting that they're going to move on to the tournament arc eventually? The story did end with them being on the ship to the tournament, sooo...
Though I can't help but wonder if the disappointing (?) ticket sales this time would impede the production of a sequel... Then again, are they even making any money with this stage play in the first place? It feels more like the kind of pet project that all the big-name actors and staff involved are doing because they WANT to do it, rather than because anyone thinks it will be a big money-making hit... It's such a weird project really, for such an old manga too... =O
Anyway, I hope for the cast and everyone else involved that there won't be a corona cluster due to the lax measures at the theater... (or that nobody caught it from that infected cast member last week...) I already felt bad for the cast seeing so many empty seats, but it would be even worse if something actually happened and made the news x_x I still hope they can successfully finish the run somehow, and I would've totally snatched up some of those 3000-yen tickets to go again next weekend just to support the actors, if only the seating arrangement didn't make me feel so unsafe... x_x