Musical Tennis no Oujisama - Second Season: Seigaku vs. St. Rudolph and Yamabuki
Cast
Echizen Ryoma - Ogoe Yuki
Tezuka Kunimitsu - Wada Takuma
Oishi Syuichiroh - Hiramaki Jin
Fuji Syusuke - Mitsuya Ryo
Kikumaru Eiji - Koseki Yuta
Inui Sadaharu - Teruma
Kawamura Takashi - Tsurumi Tomohiro
Momoshiro Takeshi - Kamitsuru Toru
Kaidoh Kaoru - Ikeoka Ryosuke
Horio Satoshi - Masui Kento
Katoh Kachiroh - Ohhira Shunya
Mizuno Katsuo - Ohno Mizuki
Echizen Nanjiroh - Motoyama Shinnosuke
Mizuki Hajime - Kobayashi Yutaka
Fuji Yuta - Konishi Seiya
Akazawa Yoshiroh - Izuka Kenta
Kaneda Ichiroh - Ookubo Syotaro
Kisarazu Atsushi - Hirose Daisuke
Yanagisawa Shinya - Jinnai Syo
Sengoku Kiyosumi - Seiya
Minami Kentaroh - Saotome Jyoji
Higashikata Masami - Terayama Takeshi
Dan Taichi - Masaki Reiya
Muromachi Toji - Ono Kensho
Akutsu Jin - Kishimoto Takuya
Generally speaking, rehearsals are one thing, but I feel like each Seigaku cast needs a full show run to grow into their roles. Since Sixth Stage Seigaku has a full run under their belt, no more handicaps for their critiques. (Not that they needed much. If I was ranking first runs, they had one of the strongest of all their predecessors.)
ACT ONE
Before the lights even come up on stage, my interest is already piqued by the notation that this was performed in Tokyo Dome City Hall. I see stuff advertised for Tokyo Dome City all the time, and it’s kind of cool that TeniMyu is performed there too.
The overwhelming majority of these shows start with the Ichinen Trio, don’t they? Nice to see that tradition continued.
Ryuki is an adorable Echizen. Very cute how he tries to downplay how excited he is to play tennis when the Ichinen hand him his racket.
Sengoku! Looking good. Geez, he should have been Eiji. Nice flips. Haha...does Echizen hit Sengoku with a tennis ball in the manga? Now that I’ve seen it in action, I seem to remember something like that happening.
24 / 365
Cast role call during the opening instrumental - Yuta, Jimmies, Akutsu, Dane-boy, Dan (!), and finally all of Seigaku.
Fast change note - Ryoma had 27 seconds to change from school uniform to tennis uniform. Little more time than his fast change from last show, but this one was higher stakes to ensure he was on stage to join the choreography.
This is a great song. Good beat, good pace, interesting choreography with Rudolph and Yamabuki playing off each other.
Nanjiroh dance solo. I still miss Ueshima-sensei, but I really am a sucker for tradition, so it feels right that new!Nanjiroh still has dance solos.
Speaking of nostalgic, the Aoko Moero Honoo remix was very cool sounding. Nice to see them incorporating the old songs into the new ones.
Eiji flipped! Good boy.
Ah, back to Sengoku, so that we get to see Mizuki stalking Seigaku. This new actor for Mizuki does a good job portraying the character, but he lacks the comic edge that softened the ruthlessness of the character in previous musicals.
The rest of Rudolph look very good in their roles. Height-wise, facially, speaking voices...all very appropriate. Kanade is adorable. Ha...was that a joke about Nomura (who still isn’t cast) being mysterious?
Erabareshi Elite shuudan
Very nice. New choreography is very interesting - a few places with a little sexier-than-necessary posing and come-hither looks were kinda strange, but then again this is TeniMyu.
Wow. Dane-boy has a pretty smooth voice. The rest of the solos were satisfactory. Unfortunately, Rudolph’s first sign of weakness is with Yuta’s voice. Definitely a losing battle with those low notes. He sounded rather raspy, so I’m not sure if it’s out of his range or if his voice is sore after so many performances.
Fuji’s bright smile when Inui first mentions that Yuta plays singles for Rudolph was adorable.
“Doubles?!” Momo and Kaidoh do a good job with repeating that over and over, but the real action is behind them, with Inui consoling a sobbing Taka.
Rivals ijou teki miman
This is another old song? Yeah, it has to be. It’s not quite folk dancing, but the two of the do still have silly hand-holding choreography.
Holding out hopes again that this Seigaku cast gets to perform all the way through Nationals Finals. I think this Momo/Kaidoh pairing would do a great job with the Shitenhoji match.
Rofl - Taka glomping Fuji in response to Akazawa’s stress-relieving scream took me by surprise. I half-expected Taka to jump back on the bench after Kanade got his shot to yell.
Medley - Depend on me ~ Jyuuden kanryou
I’m glad they kept both of these songs in. They’re classic songs for any of the doubles pairs, but I especially can’t imagine this scene without them.
Oishi has a great determined expression on his face when the instrumental for Depend on Me is starting up. And Eiji’s voice is wonderfully strong at the end of Jyuuden Kanryou.
Scenario wo buchi kowase!
Another new song, right? It does a good job of setting the mood. Wow, nice harmony between Inui and Echizen. And I still can’t get over how good Dane-boy’s singing voice is.
One thing I love about the end of the Momo/Kaidoh and Yanagisawa/Kisarazu match is how upset Momo is by the match ending in Rudolph’s forefeit.
Medley - Hand in Hand ~ Marionette
In the original production Hand in Hand felt like a gratuitous Kimeru solo, but the staging here helps give it the proper context to make it fit as a Fuji song. Fuji brothers song, actually. Yeah, Yuta’s voice is much better there. Still can’t tell if the earlier notes were too low for him, he was sick, or a combination.
“Marionette” as the title of Mizuki’s solo? Very appropriate. The snarky looks he keeps shooting at Fuji also help.
We break off from one near-violent confrontation to a violent confrontation between the Ichinen and Akutsu. Every Akutsu has done a good job of being intimidating, and our new Akutsu is no exception.
Ore ni sashizu suru na!
I’m not fond of the character or this song, but he’s doing a good job with it.
...Mizuki’s laugh still cracks me up. The hair-twirling only makes it that much more amusing.
Ore wa ue ni iku yo
Another oldie! Yeah, this is Echizen can definitely sing. I was pretty surprised to see that Yuta sang one verse (half a verse?) of one of Echizen’s signature songs. I guess he sang part of Hand in Hand and Ore wa ue ni iku yo in exchange for not getting to sing Yuta’s signature song.
Ah! The voiceover checking in with Fudomine defeating Hyotei, and we even have check-in with some of Yamabuki momentarily. Shame that joke went way over my head.
Fans tend to fall into one of two camps when it comes to the Fuji-Mizuki match - they love the way that Fuji humiliates Mizuki in exchange for training Yuta to use a harmful technique, or they hate the arrogant way that Fuji manipulates the match. I see the point that people in the latter group make, but I fall in the first group. I wouldn’t have any tolerance for someone that pulled a stunt like Mizuki did.
Marionette (reprise)
I just realized that this song’s melody reminds me a bit of the Rudolph theme. Nice tie-in.
Shizuka naru toushi
This Fuji isn’t quite as over-the-top as his predecessors, but the way he flips back and forth between cheerful and vengeful is very effective.
I really like the lyrics to this song (at least, what I can catch). I’m surprised that this match didn’t have any songs in the original production. This, paired with Marionette, really make this match more fulfilling.
More riser-tennis. Cool.
Wow. This Mizuki is quite creepy. That laughter... And Dane-boy’s impressions of his entire team is very deserving of its applause.
Jimmies! And the lights go off on them. Some gags never get old.
Dream Maker
Beautiful. It’s really great to have a Tezuka that is a triple threat.
Ah, we get the Fuji-Echizen partial match in the background. And we get a quick recap of the Momo-Tezuka match to an instrumental of Tsuyoko Nare? Very nice.
Ooh, and a nice bit of foreshadowing there with the pointed glance at his left elbow before the curtain close.
ACT TWO
Fuji brother phone call! I was giggling from just the Rudolph theme, before anyone even appeared on stage. The way Rudolph teased Yuta was pretty cute. I missed the joke with Dane-boy’s notepad, partly because I was so distracted by Mizuki’s shirt. Oh, the roses. Again, Mizuki came off rather mean.
Da-da-da-Dan! Poor boy did not do a good job faking that his headband fell down.
Medley - ikuze ~100% no kokoro
The Yamabuki vs. Seigaku showdown at the top of Ikuze made me laugh. Yamabuki had half the number of players, and is nowhere near as threatening the other teams that have the same number disparity.
Interesting choice to have Rudolph lead off the song. I like that they’re trying to emphasize that Rudolph is playing the consolation match at the same time that the Seigaku/Yamabuki match is going on.
Karupin cameo!
Looks like we’re skipping the Fuji/Kawamura match again. That shouldn’t surprise me since I don’t think they showed much of the match in any Tenipuri medium, nor did they cast their opponents.
Cheers! Yamabuki finally has a theme of their own. It has a very cheerful feel, which reminds me of another green-and-yellow team’s theme. (Namely, Shitenhoji.)
I’m not sure if Oishi dropping his racket was on purpose or not.
Oretachi jimiis
Wow, just jumped into that song, didn’t they? More light stealing. It’s pretty cute how Eiji doesn’t seem to be the least worried about the Jimmies.
Wow, Jimmies are already dripping. Eiji’s flipping around a bit more.
Ah! Rudolph singing to Good Combination was awesome.
Momo, I don’t know what is up with that jacket thing.
The way Sengoku gives Momo the serve, because he wants to see Momo’s specialty move, is actually very similar to what Momo does in his first match against Echizen. It’s a nice parallel, since Sengoku thought that he was playing Echizen.
Lucky Sengoku
I wonder how many times Sengoku started his song off by dropping his racket. Then again, he is “lucky”. Nice flip though. I wonder if he had auditioned for Seigaku Sixth Cast. I want to see his height compared to Eiji, because I would have thought he’d do a good job with the role.
Riser tennis again. Nice use of the spotlights to simulate the Kouhou. The brief glimpse of Dane-boy and Kisarazu’s match was neat.
Taka dragging the injured Momo around was amusing. It worked out nicely, for the staging, that those were the two that had final pieces of advice before Echizen faced Akutsu.
I don’t really have much to say about the Akustu/Echizen match. It’s one of my least favorite matches from the series. They do a good job portraying the match. The double laughter moment...Echizen has a lot of them, doesn’t he?
Yuuki VS Iji
Wow, jumped into this song quickly again. I’m not sure if shortening the parts of the match not tied to the song improves the match or not. Nice trick with the lighting to show Echizen and Samurai Nanjiroh.
And we finally enter the familiar portion of the song, complete with Echizen shoving his racket in Akutsu’s dace, Akustsu grabbing Echizen’s shirt, and the teams circling their respective players.
I think they did something strange to the makeup around this Akutsu’s eyes which distracted me during all his scenes, but he did a great job with portraying the character.
Wow, is Dan actually crying? I swear I just saw tears rolling down his face. Is Muromachi an honorary Jimmie?
Kagayake, motto
Ah, another good ol’ song. Wow, Dan’s got a good voice. And now we check in with the twice-defeated Rudolph.
Another Fuji brothers moment, leading into Fuji calling out Tezuka for having his match with Echizen. Taka... gosh, I really like this Seigaku cast. I’m looking forward to see their match against Hyotei.
And the other teams, plus Nanjiroh, admire Echizen. Kind of nice, I guess.
24 / 365 (Reprise)
Time for the reprise of the show’s theme. Hey, it’s the Run Run Run choreography! I think. Kind of. This is really a great song. Eh, why weren’t Mizuki and Yuta on stage with the rest of Rudolph? Oh, because it would have thrown off the number agreement of the choreography. Darn Yamabuki with their annoyingly small team.
CURTAIN CALL
Yuta and Mizuki’s poses were cute. Yeah, Sengoku really can flip. Didn’t look like he stuck the landing on the last attempt, but he gets credit for the effort.
Seigaku looks so much more comfortable on stage compared to the previous show. I think it’s very obvious how much they’ve grown into their role and responsibilities.
Rudolph is sobbing. Welcome to the Tenimyu tradition, boys. How cute, Akazawa screaming to overcome his tears. Ha, and they managed to get Kaidoh sobbing just from listening to them! Just like his character, Kaidoh’s actor is the secret softie of the team.
It’s Yamabuki’s turn to sob Look like the Jimmies are are the only ones with a dry face - make that half of the Jimmies. Kaidoh’s still struggling to keep it together. Seigaku did remarkably well. Looked like a few of them had tears in their eyes, but nowhere near the tear levels in the previous show. Good job!
...why did Taka just do the weird choreography from Rudolph’s theme?
Nanjiroh, thank you for asking why Akutsu is standing with Rudolph instead of his team. Although, as the choreographer/director, wasn’t that your decision? Cute how Akustu refused to do Sengoku’s choreography by breaking into his song.
Jumping up! High touch!
That was a very nice formation for the “Game Set!” line. I’m a little surprised they showed you a couple actors running out the doors at the back of the theater, presumably to head up to the balconies.
Akutsu losing at JanKen. Aw, were Fuji brothers on the balcony together? Cute.
And we finish with an adorable Akutsu & Dan moment. Nice.
BACKSTAGE
I’m always amazed at how acrobatic the Tenimyu cast members are. Eiji, you’ve improved, but why do you not flip more on stage like some of your castmates?
It’s kind of sad that I can’t tell the Yamabuki players apart without their hairstyles. Gosh, I would never have guessed that that was Sengoku.
Those T-shirts are pretty cool. I wonder how hard it is to get a hold of the various show t-shirts that the cast members always seem to wear to practice and backstage.
Momo looks like he’s a step behind everyone in these clips of the opening number from opening night.
Aw, Ryoma’s birthday was opening night. 17, eh? I remember when he was the victim-of-the-week in Den-O. Hard to believe that was five whole years ago.
...Was Yanagisawa’s polo pink? Wow. St. Rudolph fashion show. Or rather a fashion walk-off? Oh my gosh, Mizuki’s shirt. There are still NO WORDS to describe my reaction to that.
There are also no words to describe Yamabuki. Sha-sha. And more amazing acrobatics.
Haha...Dan supposedly mistaking Tezuka for Inui in the pre-show announcement. The audience sounds like they enjoyed it.
I can’t believe they let the Jimmie give the pre-show announcement with everyone around him laughing.
Yamabuki is jamming backstage.
Wow, the harmony between Ryoma, Inui and Yanagisawa sounds great backstage too. No doubt that they can sing.
Mitsuya Ryo sounds amazing practicing his song. Horio’s reactions are pretty funny.
So, Seigaku went to visit everyone on visiting night. Now is everyone visiting Seigaku on the night of the final show? Seems like it.
Ah, first tears. Many are sniffling. It happens every show, but I’m always amazed at just how openly emotional the cast members are for the final performance. On to Hyotei!