Waterfall & Wings Version 1

This is bad... I don't know HOW to start writing about the stageplay of Enbujo itself. I am mighty CONFUSED about which scene is for which story... *cough* And i am starting to forget details as well (made worse by Takizawa Zachou who ran in and out 30 over times for his Superman-speed costume changes!! x_x) Iyayaaa~~~!!!! PUH-LESE RELEASE THE DVD YO!!!!! So that everyone can understand how GRAND Enbujo really was. BUT WHO DO WE REQUEST TO YO??!??!???? AVEX??? BUT AVEX WASN'T EVEN INVOLVED IN THIS PRODUCTION DESHO???? Gawd. x_x I need to see Enbujo again... *wails* My report is soooo not going to do it justice... pls bear with it. And the high possibility that i will suddenly digress and branch out in every single direction but forward. Nanitozo, yoroshiku onegai moushi agemasuru. (p/s: Gotta get into the Enbujo mode of language now. LOL~)

Oh, we were wondering about this when we were at Enbujo. There were so many jr grps who were roped in to help. And some of them were maji chibi size. In age as well as size. Enbujo is a 2 months affair. Don't they have to go to school???? This i never understand... They can take leave from school for so long?? Cos I don't rem them taking turns to act. Then again, maybe they did but i cannot remember jrs' faces.... gomen nasai... but i rem there were a few REALLY CHIBI ONES. (Ne, ne Loracyn?? Rem the really chibi one that was standing jus in front of us and you were squealing that he's so cute and i was wondering if he felt shy standing there amongst all of us?? Hahaha~~) Was telling Sylvia that Johnny's has now doubled up as Childcare Centre. Johnny's Childcare Centre. JCC... not bad eh? LMAO~

Soooo, let's get on with the report. Shinbashi Theatre is quite small (seats about 1400+). But it has its own restaurant, cafeteria and gift shop inside. And it is really built kabuki-style, complete with the symbolic hanamichi (an extension stage/walkway mostly on the left of the 1st floor that extends all the way to the end with an exit that goes to the backstage. See map here. This is where the word "hanamichi" originates, before it was used to mean "aisle" at every other concert hall. It was said that the walkway was initially built so that people could present flowers to the actors, hence "hana", meaning flower and "michi", meaning "pathway/road". Oooh, i sure wished we could still use it for what it was meant for!!! End of culture lesson. LOL). There's also the special seats with a table where you can have your meal right there, located on the left and right side on the 1st floor. Think there's only about 40 such seats. Then a restaurant staff will squat at one corner during the performance so that erm, customers can call them to top up their teapots during the show?? So people who got those seats for Enbujo, their more expensive ticket price included some exclusive limited Takki bento set to eat during the 35 min interval. And unlimited tea to drink as they enjoy Takki slogging away on stage. Zeitaku desho? If I am not wrong, if you don't have one of those special seats, you can still pay 3500yen for that exclusive set so during the interval, the restaurant reserves a seat for you to take your meal. Poor people like the rest of us can eat onigiri right at our seats (i'm surprised we are allowed to eat inside but then again, Japanese are very public-conscious people so the place is still amazingly spick and span) or try and find a butt space outside at the crowded corridors. LOL~ Anyway, returning to the actual theatre, because it is small, i feel one can see quite well from anywhere, even from the 2nd floor. We sat at the last row (6th row) on the 2nd floor once but we could still see the stage quite clearly. Never went up to the 3rd floor though so I don't know how much of their view is blocked.

Although my Japanese friend thought we were absolutely crazy to watch the same thing 3 times, i realised one NEED to watch it more than once to really get what was happening cos there were sooo many things going on at one time!!

Frankly speaking, after the 1st show, my mind was in a whirl. I was like "Huh? O_o?? What just happened??" and i don't remembered much details nor really get many of the stories. (Maa, even now i still haven't figure out all the stories...) I only remembered I was very blown away by the aMaZiNg and colourful sets, VERY HAPPY to see Takki again since Countdown and very impressed by his Superman-speed costume changes. And him suddenly re-appearing ALL OVER THE PLACE WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT!!! He really is SUPERMAN to be doing this twice a day... I can only imagine how physically and mentally exhausting it was. So yea, was really in a daze after the first show, i tink i didn't even talk much about it with the rest on our way back to our hotel. Enbujo was like another world. I think they really put a lot of thought into the aesthetic sense of it. Hora, even the zachou is soooo beautiful. How i wish i can stay in his castle forever. *daydreams*

OKOK, i *am* going to start talking about the stageplay itself... But pls note that this may not be an accurate account of Enbujo cos my memory is baad... demo ganbaru kara. Jaa, let's see... *rubs palms together* The program for Act 1 as listed in the official pamplet is as follows.

ACT 1: 日本昔ばな史 (Folklores of Japan)
春の踊り (Spring dance)
少年忠臣蔵　四十七士 (Young Chushingura and the 47 samurais)
山寺の和尚さん (The monk of the mountain temple)
滝沢隊長と白虎隊 (Captain Takizawa and the Byakkotai)
ＭＡＳＫ
滝の白糸 (White threads of the Waterfall)
男の花道 (Man's Hanamichi)
七変化 (Seven changes)
五条大橋 (The Gojo Bridge)

Note: The actual show did not entirely follow the order in the program though...

The main curtain was down and draped with a lot of purple cloth at the very beginning. (Catch a glimpse of it here.) The show started with a junior (obviously i dunno who) who came out playing a violin. Then the lights dimmed and a voiceover by Mori Mitsuko comes on. (This woman is really a patron of JE...) She welcomed the audience into Takki's castle etc etc and a couple more juniors in modern clothes came out and danced. One more came out in Japanese clothes from the back of the hanamichi and did a brief traditional sensu (a Japanese foldable fan, not uchiwa) dance. So you get juniors doing both traditional as well as modern dance at once, which is like one of the themes of Enbujo.

When Mori-san finished her speech, the main screen went up and the music got much much louder and this was where I started really feeling that i was in another world. 入り込んだ、タッキーのお城に。Getting very excited!! The main stage lit up and WOAAAHHH~~~~~~ VERY GRAND!! (I dunno was it at this part or later but there were 4 juniors, 2 on each side who descended onto the 1st floor from the top at very fast speed, sniper-style. LOL~ Loracyn can't rem this part at all thou... am i hallucinating??!?) I liked how they used the back wall of the stage as a screen to make the stage look so much deeper. I don't know how they did it but was it really a huge floor-to-ceiling monitor?? Cos the WHOLE WALL was showing some images and there were no shadows cast. This was unlike in DB, where the characters in front will cast shadows on the screen cos they used a projector that was placed in front of the stage. So anyway, many things happening on the stage!! And the back screen showed some background images (I think it was images of a castle gate) that move in sync with the rotating stage so it really seemed like you were changing pespective. ok, i so cannot explain this properly but it was a VERY NEAT EFFECT!!!! Felt kinda like i was in some 4D theatre. Very surreal!! XDD So there were many many people dancing around as this huge cart thingy ascended slowly onto the stage, which i was so sure Takki was in it. I guessed this is the 「春の踊り」 "Spring Dance" part. Very festive indeed!! They slowly moved the cart to the front and it opened up in the centre to reveal this very big portrait of Takki-Yoshitsune!!!! And ALREADY people were shrieking. Anoo, it's a painting! LMAO~ Then they draped this HUGE piece of red cloth over the portrait and I KNEW IT WAS COMING COS I SAW FOOTAGES OF IT ON THE WS. So it was like a one, Two, THREE!! and the red cloth and cart splitted in the centre and TAKKI COMES FLYING OUT AT US!!!!!! WAAKAKKAAKKAKAKKAKAKAKA~~~!!!!!

Note: The huge cart is missing in this screencap cos it was taken from the 1st show after Enbujo reopens. Which meant that the cart was damaged during the fire. They sure improvised a lot to keep the show going. But rather than cancelling the show altogether, i guess it was better to reopen without some of the props first. Takki did say somewhere then that they would perform twice as hard to make up for the missing props. Sugoi zachou dane? *thumbs up* Notice the image of the castle gate at the back? I didn't notice then but i wonder if the plaque at the top of the gate says 「滝沢演舞城」...

The audience went mad and started yelling and clapping. Chou moriagatta! I was kyahing away!! SUGEEE!!!!! Talk about a BIG ENTRANCE. XDD Takki wore this princely whitish suit with a golden cloak (see above) and flew round and round above the people on 1st floor as he sang the opening number "Inishie Night & Day". (Catch a chibi rendition of it by Ya-ya-yah here. The Enbujo version was much longer and way grander of cos. It's Shinbashi Theatre vs Ya-ya-yah show, duhz. To that person who commented on that clip, erm... i will pretend i DIDN'T see it. =_=) This song is very addictive... the tune is always playing in my head!! And i like the fact that they used many Japanese/Asian instruments. Well here when Takki was flying, it was eye-level with the people on the second floor. (Queue to start waving frantically. XD) He landed on the main stage and continued singing and dancing. *pause* His hair was sooo KANPEKI!! And i LOVED the poses he striked to the rhythms of the song!! *start* They had many dancers on stage and the back screen was also showing images of dancers in the same costumes and setting so it really looked like there were a lot of people dancing on the stage! Hahaha, ok, this is a very lame statement. Basically, they made use of the screen to make it look like double the number of people dancing on stage.

Takki just before he moved back and disappeared into the video.
I didn't notice the phoenix motif on his jacket then.
Was too caught up in the grandeur of the opening number i guess. XD

During the part where there was no singing in the song (what's this called... interlude??), Takki walked to the back of the stage and two big boards from each side were brought in so when they passed each other in the centre and blocked our view of Takki, he kinda merged INTO the video shown on the back screen. So it became a video-Takki dancing on stage. The other real people continued to do many things on stage (drums toka, i forgot...) to distract the audience and suddenly the spotlight shone on the extreme right of the 2nd floor (between seat 6 and 7 on the 1st row) and TADA!!!! Takki with one leg perched kakkoii-ly on the railing and ready to fly again, this time in a red cloak. ^^ I saw many people sitting around there trying to grope him... young girls and obaasans alike. LOL My first show i was sitting just about 5m away from him!! KYAAAHHH!!!!!!! *heart attakku* He flung his cloak back (much like Count Dracula... LOL) and leapt off into the air. UWAAHH!!!!!! *MORE SCREAMING FROM AUDIENCE* Kakkeee!!!!! *goes a bit blurry-eyed* So His Highness continued to sing while flying in the air before finally landing on the hanamichi as the song ended. My goodness, the opening number was maji H.I.G.H... *fans self*

So here, Takki would greet the audience. From fans' reports, sometimes while waiting for the jrs who were helping him to remove his wire, he would cheekily whisper to the okyakusama under him, whom i bet are all GAWKING away, "Sugoi desho?" LMAO~~~ Mou, Takki! Enryou shite yo, enryou!! Hahhaha, but maaa, how can you blame him when you see him flashing his SUPER SUNSHINE smile and that SOLO DIMPLE?? *meltssssss* Yurushimasu!! XDD It was also here, Takki had a tendency of stumbling over his words. Hahahhaa!!!! In my 3rd show, he kept stumbling over this particular one phrase, it was so funny!!! Then he went like "Ahh!!! KAMIMASHITA!!! MOU YAMEMASU!" and pretended to stomp away and the audience burst into laughter. Kawaaiiii~~~ XDD I was trying to observe the obaasans in the audience when Takki did stuff like that. And they were always grinning sooo happily like little girls. I'm glad Takki made them feel young again. =D After the greetings and laughings, Takki would become serious (at least he tried) and ask if we knew anything about Japan's "mukashi banashi" ('history/folklores/old stories'). He then invited us to learn more about it from Enbujo and then exited from left side of stage.

The stage darkened and Yabu appeared. He started talking as some chibi jrs played behind him in front of this screen that was showing videos of olden Japan. It was showing stuff like imperial officials in the palace. Suddenly the spotlight shone on Yoko in an ojiisan costume and Yabu went over to talk to him. It was quite funny here. Hahah, yappari once a Kanjani, always a Kanjani ne?? XDD Yabu was asking him something and Yoko went like "Aho!" ("baka" in Kansai dialect). Their conversation went something like this...

Yabu: "Ara! Ojiichan, don't tell me you were from Kansai?"
Yoko: "Didn't you know, 120 years ago, there was a very popular group from Kansai called the Kanjani 8. Maa, most of them are pretty dead by now except for me." (Audience laughed)

Yoko-jiichan started talking about a lot of things, like how children nowadays only know how to play games and Internet and know little about Japan's history. Then they somehow brought up the topic of Shinbashi Theatre and then the scene changes. Yoko removed his ojiichan costume on stage to become himself and said something. In the background, a huge Japanese mansion set appeared from under the stage. Then all the juniors came out one by one carrying a lantern and introduced themselves. They didn't just gave their names but introduced it in quite a funny way. Just some of those that i can rem...

"The one from Music Station is Tamori, my name is Tamamori. (KMF2's) Tamamori Yuta desu."

"I'm Nikaido (same pronunciation as 'Level 2' in Japanese), the one who's taller than 'ikkaido' (meaning 'Level 1'). (KMF2's) Nikaido Takashi desu."

"People always call me kawaii, kawaii so I am called (ABC's) Kawai Fumito." (LOLz)

Well, their introductions were something in the line of this. I think this is the part for the 「少年忠臣蔵　四十七士」 "Young Chushingura and the 47 samurais"...?

Reference:
"Chushingura" is the name given to this real event in the early 18th century where a young lord was sentenced to ritual suicide for an act of disobedience stemming from corruption in the Shogun's court. Masterless and displaced, his followers came together and swore to avenge their master. Realising that their enemy was on high alert and not wanting to fail in their mission, they bade their time, suffering humiliation and poverty for a couple of years, waiting for the chance to prove their loyalty and adherence to the fading virtues of Bushido. They eventually succeeded in their mission and surrendered to the government, who sentenced them to death for their crime of murder. How truly this event displayed the virtues of Bushido is greatly debated by the academics but to most Japanese, it is a tale of bravery and loyalty. You can find out more details about this event here.
Interestingly, when i was reading up on Chushingura, i found this website and nearly laughed my head off. Apparenly TV Asahi made a special series featuring the Chushingura last year and anooo.. the leader of the 47 ronins (masterless samurais) was acted by Benkei Matsudaira Ken! XDDD

Since in Enbujo, the story is about the *young* Chushingura, i supposed their master was erm.. still alive (and they were not going to die anytime soon). Hahha~~ So after all the juniors were done with their self-introductions, the last junior introduced their leader, Takizawa Hideaki!!! And Takki rose from under the trapdoor onto the hanamichi. He then started to address the audience in chou formal Nihongo!! @_@!! At the end he even knelt down and bowed to the audience!! I know it's a Japanese thing but I was still feeling kinda awkward with Takki bowing so formally at me. (More so on the first night when i was sitting directly in the direction he was facing when he knelt down.) Heheh~ gomen ne... *whacks* What am i apologizing for?? =_=

Loracyn was asking me what those words on his coat meant but i didn't know.
Now i think it is some symbolic thing that the Chushingura wears??
Compare with screencap of TV Asahi's Chushingura below.

When Takki was done with his very formal speech, he removed his outer coat and walked to the main stage where they had this 3-sided structure hung full with drums and stuff that made sounds. IT'S ONE OF MY FAVOURITE PARTS!!! (Thou I have no idea if this part is a continuation of the "Chushingura" story... -_-;;;) 2 guys (was Okura one of them??) then helped Takki put on this hmmm... i dunno what to call it, decorative ribbon kinda thingy that helped to pull up his sleeves so that they wouldn't be of a hindrance to him when he performed the drum sequence. It looked sooo cute on him!! Hahhaha~~ Takki then performed this drum sequence within the structure which looked kinda complicated. At first i thought he did it impromptu but on my 2nd and 3rd shows, i realised there *was* a sequence. *whacks self for being stupid* Waaah, THAT many drums, he needed to have a real good memory... Sugokatta!!! And then and then, my FAVOURITE part out of this sequence!!! *squeals* He would move on to this big drum which was almost the height of his shoulders and jump on it and then start drumming it using his feet!!! The drum was really quite high and it was amazing how he leapt so deftly onto it. Uwaaahh~~~ *clapclap*

They needed to have some jrs stabilizing the drum for Takki.
It was soooo enjoyable seeing him jump on that thing!!

From the official stage pics.
See how sweetly he's laughing!! (Sorry for bad scan...)
And how cute that ribbon looked on him. *KYAH*
His top was black in this pic (taken from earlier shows) but by the time i went to watch,
his top had changed to red. (See above.) I like red better. But both cute!! ^^
Some of the Japanese fans on BBS were kinda obsessed with his big toe during this scene.
(Notice he's wearing this Japanese kinda footwear which separates the big toe from the others.)
It got them very moe apparently. Muahahah~~

OK, i think my post is getting too long that Blogger keeps giving me "error" when i try to save. So i shall break up my report here... Part 3 wo tanoshimi ni shite kudasai. And oh, comments please! And complaints and suggestions are welcomed too, if you find my report too loooong and wandering in every single direction.. But whether i will or am able change or not, is another issue. Hurhur~ Thanks! ^^