After me and my sister arrived in japan, we only had one day to spend in Tokyo before we headed off to Osaka to watch Chanel by the night-bus. We left from Tokyo-Station at 10.40 the night of
March 26th.
I'm sorry that this "report" of Chanel won't be detailed at all; I don't remember much at all since my jetlag was EXTREMELY BAD that single day in Osaka. But I'll try my best and try to tell you at least some of it.
We arrived in Osaka early morning and surprised ourselves by finding our way immediately, to both Shozhikuza and after that, to the hotel. So we watched the day-show on the Saturday - on the 27th. We had really good seats; 8th row in the middle on the first floor. So we really had a nice view!
In all honesty - I hadn't looked forward much to seeing the actual play; the reason I went was to see Tsubasa. So I was surprised I actually DID enjoy it as much as I did. (And I was surprised at how much I actually understood of what they were saying! :O)
Anyway; as I mentioned above, even though I did enjoy the play I was SO insanely jetlagged that I was actually about to fall asleep several times. It was crazily annoying - the only times I was completely and totally awake was when Tsubasa was on stage. XDDD
Anyway, from the beginning! We went to check in at the hotel quite early, and we showered and got ready. We went back to Shochikuza and, of course, I had to have a picture taken of me outside it. ^^;
The girl to the right kept staring at me so much. X_X Probably wondered what this strange gaijin was up to. -_-
Just a few minutes later we met up with my friend, M-san. And we took another picture together, her, me and my little-sister. ^^
M-san is my hero in life, always helping me with my ticket-problems and just being the most awesome person EVER! ♥♥♥
After the little photo-session, we went to the backdoors of Shochi. Even though it was just about an hour left before the show was about to begin, Tsubasa still hadn't arrived yet. O_O There was a small que of girls, all (probably) waiting for Tsubasa to arrive! Every time a car drove by you could feel the small crowds excitement that it might be Tsubasa this time. My heart went doki-doki the whole time, since it's been sooo long since I last saw him in real life and I just... I dunno. It's such a rush, somehow, just seeing him. But then he finally arrived in a big black car and RUSHED inside. He was probably in a hurry since he arrived so late, because he really just rushed past, and M-san said that he usually gives a small wave or something. But even so, from only that short, short second when I saw him rushing out from his car and inside the theatre, I felt like the trip to Osaka had been worth it. LOL. XDDD
But, seriously though. His hair. I don't even know. He had a cap on and... it did look a little odd. XD Like, the shaved sides and then, since the hair that he kept is getting quite long, he's got it sort of curled - like, in Sweden we call it "ducks tail". And well. It's interesting. XD But, as always he's soooooooo adorable omgomg. *__*
We went inside the theatre after having stopped by a takoyaki-place. (My sisters goal with the Osaka-trip was to eat "real Osaka Takoyaki". Sadly she tried to eat them while they were too hot so she burned her tongue. ^^;;;;; But other than that she liked them. XD). I bought another BACKBORN-copy to get the free BB-promo-poster that came with it. I also picked up some of the free flyers for both Chanel and also for his Boku No Rakuen book. The book looks like it will be absolutely AMAZING!!! ♥♥♥
We got to our seats and they really were good; last time I was there was at the Tsubasanta shows where Tsubasa spoke to me loool. I was on row five then, right by the hanamichi... ^^;
As soon as I sat down, though, in the warm theatre after having first spent about 26 hours travelling from Sweden-Japan, and then another whole night at a bus from Tokyo-Osaka... I just felt how tired I was and I thought I'd fall asleep RIGHT AWAY! X_X I felt like such a horrible person. :/
The play begun and it started with an old Gabrielle, alone in a house. She was, I think if I remember correctly, awake despite it being the middle of the night. I think she was lonely and she kept calling out for "Asa", and I thought she was calling out for morning to come until I realized MUCH LATER that it was the japanese way of saying "Arthur"!! I tried to not laugh when I finally realized it because they seriously kept calling out "Aaaasaaaaa, Aaaasaaaa!" all the time and I was like "?". XDDDD
Tsubasa appeared on stage almost immediately. Looking sooo handsome in one of those tailored suits. I think it was one of the lighter coloured suits at the beginning; like beige or sand-colored or off-white or something like that. And it was soooo wonderful to hear his voice again. It was deep and rich; even deeper than usual - probably because he spoke quite slowly and sounded a bit pensive and... loving, I guess? As Arthurs ghost spoke to his Gabrielle.
The play then jumped back and forth in time - from a young Gabrielle working as a singer at a bar with his friend, then to how she got to start making hats at first. And I think she was engaged (at least together?) with another man then, when she made her first own hats. I don't quite remember (as I said, soooo jetlagged!) but Arthur arrived in her life and they seemed to get connected almost immediately and the whole thing was quite sweet. ♥
Arthur was the only one who actually supported her hats; everyone else bashed them and seemed to think them ridiculous. And so the love-story began. If I understood it correctly, he was the one who helped her open her first shop where she sold her hats?
As I've already said a million times, I don't remember much but they did look quite cute together and their scenes together were nice. They had a romantic scene at a beach. (that's when they kissed - and I must say that tsubasa did not look like he enjoyed it at all! My sister actually laughed at it later that Tsubasa looked so unenthused when he was about to dive in for the kiss... ^^;) I don't even know what the songs he sang are called but there were two songs and my goodness, he really did work on his voice. I've always loved his singing voice but he really sounded SO AMAZING here. He sounded so mature and it really really blew me away how much his voice has grown over the years. He still continues to impress me so. ♥
And then, all of a sudden, Arthur dies in a car-crash and I was a bit chocked because I didn't know. Of course I should've known he died somehow since he appeared as a ghost at Chanel's home in the beginning of the play but... well. Chanel was devastated and it was really sad and people kept sniffing around me, trying to control their tears in the audience. ;_;
And, there, at the funeral of Arthur, I think that's when Tsubasa arrived to sing his last song, that beautiful ballad that just BLEV WE AWAY. So so wonderful and beautiful and he really looks so so extremely gorgeous in all these suits and blazers. I didn't even mind the hair or the (fake!?!?) mustache. Damn him for being so beautiful. ;_;
Here are some pictures from the pamphlet. It's from the Tokyo-run of the show, where his hair was still short.
Tsubasa arrived again at the end of the play, since the ending scene was again with the old-lady Chanel alone in her house, talking to ghost!Arthur.
The play ended and the cast came out to bow to the audience. Mao-san came out in a big, big white dress that to me seemed like a wedding-cake. (not wedding-dress, but an actual wedding-cake!) and I remember that as she curtsied in the dress this WAVE of a really sweet-smelling perfuem washed over the whole audience so I imagine the dress must've smelled quite a lot of perfume...
Though, I must give a shout-out to Daichi Mao-san. She really is SO talented. Fantastic actor and singer. I was so impressed and, not counting Tsubasa, she was one big reason I enjoyed this play so much! She made an engaging Chanel and even though I don't know anything at all about the "real" Gabrielle Chanel, I think that Mao-san must'e done her justice. A bit over the-top drama-queen, but also hard-working, loving and badass.
And Tsubasa. Tsubasa. He must've been SO nervous to play with all these big-shot actors, and play in a real play and not some Johnny's-butai which is nothing like this. But he really did so so well. Everone knows that he's not the best actor in the world (!) but he really had improved a lot. Not perfect (yet), but he really did get better these past months while rehearsing/playing Chanel. I couldn't be more proud of him. ♥
And what really, really warmed my heart was to see that he is still the same slightly shy, and dorky Tsubasa that we all know and love. The audience just wouldn't stop giving them standing ovations to them so I think the whole cast came out at least six-seven times? And the first two times they all just came out to wave to us, and they all stood there together waving and bowing and thanking everyone for coming. I think that the third time, the rest of the cast stood back to let Tsubasa and Mao-san walk to the front of the stage alone. I think they held hands then, as they went forward and waved just the two of them and Tsubasa looked sooo shy and adorable and also a little proud of himself. XD So so cuuute!
Then all of them started acting a bit silly - two of the older men of the cast started playing around a bti as the curtain was pulled up/down so much. Like, pretending to drag the curtain down/pushing it up by themselves. And they also started waving in time to the music - Tsubasa joined too and then by the end all of them stood waving together in time to the music and this was when Tsubasa was the most adorable - he just couldn't stop giggling and you could actually hear his "fufufu~" laugh several times through all the appluase and the music! SO SO CUUUTE! You know how when he laughs like that he almost always stands a bit bent forward and his eyes thin like this -> ^_^ and he just looks so so happy!!! I LOVE his "fufufu~" laugh more than anything else! It's so un-idol like and just so him. ♥
And here is the cover of the pamphlet:
And a spread of Arthur and Gabrielle:
And I think this is pretty much everything I have to say about this play... I am sorry that it's so undetailed and that I don't have much to say about anything at all; not even the clothes he wore save for that he looked extremely gorgeous in all those suits and... yeah. I wish I could've written a better report and I wish I had more pictures to show you... :( I'll try to do better next time! (Which will hopefully be a concert report instead... because even if I did think the play was interesting and nice and all that, I'd have much rather seen him in a concert. ^^)
To something else... this Sunday's been so extremely unproductive. The only time I stepped out the doors of my apartment was when I took out the trash. X_X Even though the weather was so nice and sunny earlier this day. I feel so hopeless now but I just didn't have the energy to do anything at all today! I blame PMS. ^^; But at least I got this (crappy) report written up and I also finally installed my printer. So now I might finally start scanning some of my photo's and takitsuba doujinshis! :3333
And now I think it's movie time, or even sleep-time already. This weekend passed by much too quickly... And now I am also getting nervous about having to tell my boss that I got a new job and that I need to quit! I wish this weekend could've been just a little little longer...!