Samurai 7 stage play - Review & Summary
Alright, here is the summary of the play and some brief thoughts from me about it. The summary is very long, I warn you, and it contains SPOILERS for the entire series. Please don't complain if you haven't seen the whole series yet.
In-depth Play Summary:
Before the play started, Moriyama Eiji (Hyougo) came out to greet the audience and tell us the whole "no cameras, turn off your cell phones, etc" deal. He also told us that because it was the senshuuraku (final show), we the audience would have some special tasks, particularly in one scene where we were to yell out the character's names.
*Act 1*
He ran off stage and the curtain rose to show the previous war, with Kirara explaining it to the side. This was the first and only time we saw the nobuseri as robots (the rest of the time they were just men/women in black costumes with masks on).
The next scene was at the village, with the villagers running around getting beat up by the nobuseri. After the attack, the villager elder decided they should hire samurai to save them and Kirara, Komachi, & Rikichi volunteered to go to the city. Kirara's entrance in this scene was pretty cool - she stood on the villager's arms and walked down them while singing until they eventually lowered her to the floor.
Cut to the city. Kirara & the others are walking through the city when they stumble upon a man going crazy. At some point during this Katsushirou (Shinotani Hijiri) arrives, as well as Kikuchiyo (Razor Ramon) and they try to beat the guy. Eventually, it's up to Kanbei (Katou Masaya) to take the guy down, which he does with a couple very stylish slices, thus winning the heart of Kirara.
I think this is where Hyougo arrives with a bunch of guys carrying one of those noblemen cart things (*failure*) on their shoulders. After talking to the samurai group (and debating over who is the audience favorite - this is where we came in with our cheering), Ukyou pulls up the curtain in his cart thing, much to the amusement of the audience, to address everyone & then closes it again. As the merchants walk away, Ukyou slides open a window (again, the audience found this hilarious) and says that he thinks Kirara is cute...
At this point, they cut to a rest period where they talk about who will join the "seven samurai" to save the village. Kanbei tells Katsushirou no, and then they all get attacked. Kirara drops her crystal and is taken. Katsushirou picks the crystal up and he & everyone else run after to save her while Kanbei stays behind.
Kirara is now held captive in Ukyou's place, where he proceeds to try to woo her with Louis Vuitton & Chanel merchandise (I kid you not). She wants none of this, and throws the bags away (the harem girls scrambled to grab them & Ukyou lectured one of them). Kirara tries to run away and the guards hold her back. Ukyou freaks out at them. Finally, Kirara escapes.
Cue battles on the way to the rescue. During Kanbei's battle scene, Kyuuzou (Nakagauchi Masataka) appears. He & Kanbei fight. (...and I forget what happened to end the fight because I was too busy ogling Masa. XD;;)
The next scene is them trying to recruit samurai. Kikuchiyo brings in 3 guys, who looking promising but are really sucky. One guy can't get his sword out, the second had a knife instead of a sword, and the 3rd had flowers instead of a sword. Finally, Kikuchiyo brought out one final recruit (this was a senshuuraku-only event, I think)... It was Kyuuzou, in a bright orange Dragonball jumpsuit. XDDDD Kyuuzou didn't speak, so everyone kept asking if he could talk & then got all excited when he said something. Kikuchiyo asked him to demonstrate his skills & Kyuuzou did a 'Kamehameha' (right at me! :D). They finally told him no, and he was sent off with the other flunkies.
Scene-change back to the city streets where we see Gorobei (Takahashi Hiroki) pwning some random samurai at a gambling game. Kanbei & the rest find him and invite him to join them. They also invite Heihachi (Kida Tsuyoshi) to join them after they see his cool wood-chopping skills at a restaurant.
I think I may be forgetting a scene in here, but let's just say that here is where there is yet another battle. At this point, the "good guys" are trying to escape to the pleasure city, but Kyuuzou appears again. Kyuuzou & Kanbei fight, Kirara tells them not to fight because it's more important to live, and Kyuuzou suddenly decides he wants to fight with them instead of with Hyougo, who just goes "wtf Kyuuzou?!" Kyuuzou joins the group as they jump into the machine to escape. Kanbei holds off the bad guys for a bit & then jumps into the hole in the stage.
While the others are busy escaping, we get to be introduced to the final member of the 7 (in the play, at least)... Shichirouji. He gets a cool dance scene, complete with his prositute girlfriend, Yukino, and some very scantily clad harem members guys & girls who work at their place. Kanbei & everyone show up and everyone freaks out when he introduces Shichirouji as his spouse until he says "dude, we were comrades. comrades." Everyone sits down to a nice meal served by men in happi coats but no pants, and Kikuchiyo spazzs & throws trays around. All of them stare at Kikuchiyo during his monologue, except for Gorobei & Heihachi who protect their food & eat while no one else is looking.
Kanbei & Shichirouji have a nice reunion on their own after the dinner. Kanbei asks Shichirouji to join them and Shichirouji sings a little song before agreeing.
...maybe there's another scene here too, but all I remember is them suddenly appearing at the village & going "where are all the people? O_o" The villagers are scared, until Kikuchiyo talks to them & then they fawn all over the samurai. Preparations for the battle commence.
Each samurai gets a quick scene that shows how they helped prepare the village/villagers.
We get the Manzou betraying everyone scene here, and another Kikuchiyo monologue. Kikuchiyo makes a baby cry with all of his ranting and then holds it & tries to make it stop crying. Very touching.
The battle begins. The giant nobuseri robots are shown on the screen behind the stage. The battle is like all other battles in the play, spectacularly choreographed & wonderful to watch. As the villagers prepare to fire their giant crossbow at the giant nobuseri robot on the screen, Gorobei takes a hit for Rikichi, propelling him into a very long death scene which ends with him being shot along with the crossbow(?). Cue crying.
Sometime around here, Hyougo shows up & takes Kirara (she volunteered to go to save ...someone) and Kanbei prisoner, while guards hold back everyone else. Curtain fall.
*Intermission*
Moriyama Eiji (Hyougo) comes back out in front of the curtain to pimp himself several times welcome us back to Act 2. He & Tessai's actor give us more cues for audience participation & have us practice (we're meant to be the city crowd cheering for Ukyou). One of the coolest parts of the night (not in the play itself) was right as the curtain rose - Eiji does a weird pose, says "henshin" & transforms into Hyougo, starting Act 2. It was creepy how he changed personalities like that, the skills of an actor, I suppose.
*Act 2*
Hyougo & Tessai talk to Kanbei, who is held behind bars. Kirara comes to speak to him also, but she is soon taken away. Kanbei escapes with only his awesomeness to help him. He finds Kirara, and they run around trying to convince Sanae to come with them (while Ukyou upsets her by killing the previous amanushi) until Kanbei is held captive again.
From each of the 4 theater doors (behind me), one of the samurai ran through, yelling for Kanbei. I had turned around to see who was closest to me (Shichirouji & Kikuchiyo), and when I turned back Kyuuzou was magically on stage & fighting already. Everyone is reunited.
From here on, everything was like "omg, what is happening now???" so I don't remember exactly what order it all happened. (>__<) At some point, Katsushirou turned evil(?); I believe this happened when Kanbei wasn't around, but Kirara was. Hmm... Anyway, he was training nobuseri & encountered Heihachi. They fought until Heihachi disarmed him & said the fight ended there. Heihachi got shot, many times, & hacked up by swords while Katsushirou watched & freaked out. During his extended death scene, we had flashbacks to Heihachi's past as a parachuter in the previous war. He blew something up when he finally died.
...there were random attack scenes featuring Kanbei, Kikuchiyo, and everyone between these two scenes, but as the next one was my absolute favorite in the entire play, I think I unknowingly forgot them. XD;; Oops? (I hope you guys are Kyuuzou fans, because the next scene will be in depth.)
Katsushirou finds Kyuuzou fighting a large number of bad guys (or was it the other way around? anyway, somehow they get put in the scene together). Kyuuzou gets shot while trying to protect Katsushirou (and my inner Kyuuzou/Katsushirou fangirl rejoiced) from Hyougo & the nobuseri. Katsushirou goes into shock while Kyuuzou is being attacked by everyone & their mom. When Kyuuzou finally "dies," Hyougo goes over to kill Katsushirou, but surprise! Kyuuzou stands up again to stab Hyougo in the back, and then recovers enough to very awesomely destroy every other bad guy on the stage while monologuing about wanting to live & other stuff (Masa's hotness during the fighting distracted me from paying attentiong to what he actually said ^^;; Also of note is that Kyuuzou spoke more in this one scene than he did in the entire play until here). Ok, now Kyuuzou is dying for real, and it's very sad (this is the one part I almost cried at). He falls and Katsushirou catches him & holds him in his arms while crying out his name. During his last moments alive, he gives Katsushirou one of his swords and then dies in Katsushirou's arms (and my inner fangirl rejoiced again).
Katsushirou is still crying over Kyuuzou's body in his arms when Kanbei, Shichirouji & Kikuchiyo (was he there?) show up (was Kirara there too?). Kanbei pulls Katsushirou away from the body & puts Kyuuzou's hands on his stomach. Kanbei tells Katsushirou to take Kirara and they all run to find Ukyou.
The first to fall behind is Kikuchiyo, who fights off a ton of bad guys. Then Shichirouji falls back to fight his own group. Kanbei is next, and then finally Katsushirou (who has Kirara run off somewhere safe).
Everyone (the final 4, at least) is on stage, each surrounded by their own group of nobuseri. Ukyou is in the middle with Kirara. Ukyou has a monologue in which he gets Kirara to admit she's in love with Kanbei, and is stabbed through the back by Kirara (who had picked up someone's dropped sword). He was shocked and then walked himself into the sword again to die. The other's defeat their bad guys and reunite in the center.
They won! Except, now someone has to stop the capital once & for all, and Kikuchiyo volunteers. He grabs ahold of the thing and slides across the stage while Komachi cries out for him. Finally, he is dragged under by it & is assumed dead. Komachi cries hysterically and Kirara holds her & cries too.
Cut to the future. The villagers (including Kirara, Komachi, Rikichi, & the restored Sanae) sing while planting rice. Kanbei & Shichirouji watch them. Above the villagers are the graves of the 4 samurai who died and the banner. Katsushirou walks to Kyuuzou's grave & puts the sword Kyuuzou gave him with its partner. He then walks down to meet the other two. Kanbei gives him his sword and Katsushirou starts to leave. The 4 dead samurai walk out to stand behind their graves, everyone looks at the audience and the curtain falls.
*The end*
Please note that there were many of additional parts to the play that I have forgotten where they were placed in the storyline. Also, there are most definitely mistakes in here because of it being so involved (the play covered the ENTIRE anime series, after all) and from my being distracted every time Masa was on stage.
My thoughts on the play:
*The choreographed fights were absolutely amazing to watch, even if you knew the swords didn't even make contact with each other half the time.
*The extras for senshuuraku were hilarious - audience participation, Dragonball!Kyuuzou, etc
*Gorobei & his puns were amusing, especially since he was only around for part of the first act
*Kirara firmly turning down all attempts at Katsushirou trying to hit on her (no ambiguity here, thank you play)
*Freaking awesome stage - it spun in circles, rose & fell, did all kinds of tricks that made each scene's location unique & easily believable
*Smoke machines... (>___<)
*Looooooooooong death scenes... beautifully played out, despite the desire to say "why aren't you dead yet???"
*Perfectly cast actors
*The differences between the anime & the play only served to make the storyline flow better, in my opinion (and some of the changes *coughKyuuzoudeathscenecough* were for the better)
*The little Komachi actress was just adorable, even if she didn't have a big part
*All the side characters & the ensemble cast did a great job - I definitely didn't give them the credit they deserve
*Everything about the play was awesome! ^_______^
If you haven't seen it already, Report #1 (written just hours after the play) can be found here. There are also pictures of the items I bought at the play in that entry as well.
In-depth Play Summary:
Before the play started, Moriyama Eiji (Hyougo) came out to greet the audience and tell us the whole "no cameras, turn off your cell phones, etc" deal. He also told us that because it was the senshuuraku (final show), we the audience would have some special tasks, particularly in one scene where we were to yell out the character's names.
*Act 1*
He ran off stage and the curtain rose to show the previous war, with Kirara explaining it to the side. This was the first and only time we saw the nobuseri as robots (the rest of the time they were just men/women in black costumes with masks on).
The next scene was at the village, with the villagers running around getting beat up by the nobuseri. After the attack, the villager elder decided they should hire samurai to save them and Kirara, Komachi, & Rikichi volunteered to go to the city. Kirara's entrance in this scene was pretty cool - she stood on the villager's arms and walked down them while singing until they eventually lowered her to the floor.
Cut to the city. Kirara & the others are walking through the city when they stumble upon a man going crazy. At some point during this Katsushirou (Shinotani Hijiri) arrives, as well as Kikuchiyo (Razor Ramon) and they try to beat the guy. Eventually, it's up to Kanbei (Katou Masaya) to take the guy down, which he does with a couple very stylish slices, thus winning the heart of Kirara.
I think this is where Hyougo arrives with a bunch of guys carrying one of those noblemen cart things (*failure*) on their shoulders. After talking to the samurai group (and debating over who is the audience favorite - this is where we came in with our cheering), Ukyou pulls up the curtain in his cart thing, much to the amusement of the audience, to address everyone & then closes it again. As the merchants walk away, Ukyou slides open a window (again, the audience found this hilarious) and says that he thinks Kirara is cute...
At this point, they cut to a rest period where they talk about who will join the "seven samurai" to save the village. Kanbei tells Katsushirou no, and then they all get attacked. Kirara drops her crystal and is taken. Katsushirou picks the crystal up and he & everyone else run after to save her while Kanbei stays behind.
Kirara is now held captive in Ukyou's place, where he proceeds to try to woo her with Louis Vuitton & Chanel merchandise (I kid you not). She wants none of this, and throws the bags away (the harem girls scrambled to grab them & Ukyou lectured one of them). Kirara tries to run away and the guards hold her back. Ukyou freaks out at them. Finally, Kirara escapes.
Cue battles on the way to the rescue. During Kanbei's battle scene, Kyuuzou (Nakagauchi Masataka) appears. He & Kanbei fight. (...and I forget what happened to end the fight because I was too busy ogling Masa. XD;;)
The next scene is them trying to recruit samurai. Kikuchiyo brings in 3 guys, who looking promising but are really sucky. One guy can't get his sword out, the second had a knife instead of a sword, and the 3rd had flowers instead of a sword. Finally, Kikuchiyo brought out one final recruit (this was a senshuuraku-only event, I think)... It was Kyuuzou, in a bright orange Dragonball jumpsuit. XDDDD Kyuuzou didn't speak, so everyone kept asking if he could talk & then got all excited when he said something. Kikuchiyo asked him to demonstrate his skills & Kyuuzou did a 'Kamehameha' (right at me! :D). They finally told him no, and he was sent off with the other flunkies.
Scene-change back to the city streets where we see Gorobei (Takahashi Hiroki) pwning some random samurai at a gambling game. Kanbei & the rest find him and invite him to join them. They also invite Heihachi (Kida Tsuyoshi) to join them after they see his cool wood-chopping skills at a restaurant.
I think I may be forgetting a scene in here, but let's just say that here is where there is yet another battle. At this point, the "good guys" are trying to escape to the pleasure city, but Kyuuzou appears again. Kyuuzou & Kanbei fight, Kirara tells them not to fight because it's more important to live, and Kyuuzou suddenly decides he wants to fight with them instead of with Hyougo, who just goes "wtf Kyuuzou?!" Kyuuzou joins the group as they jump into the machine to escape. Kanbei holds off the bad guys for a bit & then jumps into the hole in the stage.
While the others are busy escaping, we get to be introduced to the final member of the 7 (in the play, at least)... Shichirouji. He gets a cool dance scene, complete with his prositute girlfriend, Yukino, and some very scantily clad harem members guys & girls who work at their place. Kanbei & everyone show up and everyone freaks out when he introduces Shichirouji as his spouse until he says "dude, we were comrades. comrades." Everyone sits down to a nice meal served by men in happi coats but no pants, and Kikuchiyo spazzs & throws trays around. All of them stare at Kikuchiyo during his monologue, except for Gorobei & Heihachi who protect their food & eat while no one else is looking.
Kanbei & Shichirouji have a nice reunion on their own after the dinner. Kanbei asks Shichirouji to join them and Shichirouji sings a little song before agreeing.
...maybe there's another scene here too, but all I remember is them suddenly appearing at the village & going "where are all the people? O_o" The villagers are scared, until Kikuchiyo talks to them & then they fawn all over the samurai. Preparations for the battle commence.
Each samurai gets a quick scene that shows how they helped prepare the village/villagers.
We get the Manzou betraying everyone scene here, and another Kikuchiyo monologue. Kikuchiyo makes a baby cry with all of his ranting and then holds it & tries to make it stop crying. Very touching.
The battle begins. The giant nobuseri robots are shown on the screen behind the stage. The battle is like all other battles in the play, spectacularly choreographed & wonderful to watch. As the villagers prepare to fire their giant crossbow at the giant nobuseri robot on the screen, Gorobei takes a hit for Rikichi, propelling him into a very long death scene which ends with him being shot along with the crossbow(?). Cue crying.
Sometime around here, Hyougo shows up & takes Kirara (she volunteered to go to save ...someone) and Kanbei prisoner, while guards hold back everyone else. Curtain fall.
*Intermission*
Moriyama Eiji (Hyougo) comes back out in front of the curtain to pimp himself several times welcome us back to Act 2. He & Tessai's actor give us more cues for audience participation & have us practice (we're meant to be the city crowd cheering for Ukyou). One of the coolest parts of the night (not in the play itself) was right as the curtain rose - Eiji does a weird pose, says "henshin" & transforms into Hyougo, starting Act 2. It was creepy how he changed personalities like that, the skills of an actor, I suppose.
*Act 2*
Hyougo & Tessai talk to Kanbei, who is held behind bars. Kirara comes to speak to him also, but she is soon taken away. Kanbei escapes with only his awesomeness to help him. He finds Kirara, and they run around trying to convince Sanae to come with them (while Ukyou upsets her by killing the previous amanushi) until Kanbei is held captive again.
From each of the 4 theater doors (behind me), one of the samurai ran through, yelling for Kanbei. I had turned around to see who was closest to me (Shichirouji & Kikuchiyo), and when I turned back Kyuuzou was magically on stage & fighting already. Everyone is reunited.
From here on, everything was like "omg, what is happening now???" so I don't remember exactly what order it all happened. (>__<) At some point, Katsushirou turned evil(?); I believe this happened when Kanbei wasn't around, but Kirara was. Hmm... Anyway, he was training nobuseri & encountered Heihachi. They fought until Heihachi disarmed him & said the fight ended there. Heihachi got shot, many times, & hacked up by swords while Katsushirou watched & freaked out. During his extended death scene, we had flashbacks to Heihachi's past as a parachuter in the previous war. He blew something up when he finally died.
...there were random attack scenes featuring Kanbei, Kikuchiyo, and everyone between these two scenes, but as the next one was my absolute favorite in the entire play, I think I unknowingly forgot them. XD;; Oops? (I hope you guys are Kyuuzou fans, because the next scene will be in depth.)
Katsushirou finds Kyuuzou fighting a large number of bad guys (or was it the other way around? anyway, somehow they get put in the scene together). Kyuuzou gets shot while trying to protect Katsushirou (and my inner Kyuuzou/Katsushirou fangirl rejoiced) from Hyougo & the nobuseri. Katsushirou goes into shock while Kyuuzou is being attacked by everyone & their mom. When Kyuuzou finally "dies," Hyougo goes over to kill Katsushirou, but surprise! Kyuuzou stands up again to stab Hyougo in the back, and then recovers enough to very awesomely destroy every other bad guy on the stage while monologuing about wanting to live & other stuff (Masa's hotness during the fighting distracted me from paying attentiong to what he actually said ^^;; Also of note is that Kyuuzou spoke more in this one scene than he did in the entire play until here). Ok, now Kyuuzou is dying for real, and it's very sad (this is the one part I almost cried at). He falls and Katsushirou catches him & holds him in his arms while crying out his name. During his last moments alive, he gives Katsushirou one of his swords and then dies in Katsushirou's arms (and my inner fangirl rejoiced again).
Katsushirou is still crying over Kyuuzou's body in his arms when Kanbei, Shichirouji & Kikuchiyo (was he there?) show up (was Kirara there too?). Kanbei pulls Katsushirou away from the body & puts Kyuuzou's hands on his stomach. Kanbei tells Katsushirou to take Kirara and they all run to find Ukyou.
The first to fall behind is Kikuchiyo, who fights off a ton of bad guys. Then Shichirouji falls back to fight his own group. Kanbei is next, and then finally Katsushirou (who has Kirara run off somewhere safe).
Everyone (the final 4, at least) is on stage, each surrounded by their own group of nobuseri. Ukyou is in the middle with Kirara. Ukyou has a monologue in which he gets Kirara to admit she's in love with Kanbei, and is stabbed through the back by Kirara (who had picked up someone's dropped sword). He was shocked and then walked himself into the sword again to die. The other's defeat their bad guys and reunite in the center.
They won! Except, now someone has to stop the capital once & for all, and Kikuchiyo volunteers. He grabs ahold of the thing and slides across the stage while Komachi cries out for him. Finally, he is dragged under by it & is assumed dead. Komachi cries hysterically and Kirara holds her & cries too.
Cut to the future. The villagers (including Kirara, Komachi, Rikichi, & the restored Sanae) sing while planting rice. Kanbei & Shichirouji watch them. Above the villagers are the graves of the 4 samurai who died and the banner. Katsushirou walks to Kyuuzou's grave & puts the sword Kyuuzou gave him with its partner. He then walks down to meet the other two. Kanbei gives him his sword and Katsushirou starts to leave. The 4 dead samurai walk out to stand behind their graves, everyone looks at the audience and the curtain falls.
*The end*
Please note that there were many of additional parts to the play that I have forgotten where they were placed in the storyline. Also, there are most definitely mistakes in here because of it being so involved (the play covered the ENTIRE anime series, after all) and from my being distracted every time Masa was on stage.
My thoughts on the play:
*The choreographed fights were absolutely amazing to watch, even if you knew the swords didn't even make contact with each other half the time.
*The extras for senshuuraku were hilarious - audience participation, Dragonball!Kyuuzou, etc
*Gorobei & his puns were amusing, especially since he was only around for part of the first act
*Kirara firmly turning down all attempts at Katsushirou trying to hit on her (no ambiguity here, thank you play)
*Freaking awesome stage - it spun in circles, rose & fell, did all kinds of tricks that made each scene's location unique & easily believable
*Smoke machines... (>___<)
*Looooooooooong death scenes... beautifully played out, despite the desire to say "why aren't you dead yet???"
*Perfectly cast actors
*The differences between the anime & the play only served to make the storyline flow better, in my opinion (and some of the changes *coughKyuuzoudeathscenecough* were for the better)
*The little Komachi actress was just adorable, even if she didn't have a big part
*All the side characters & the ensemble cast did a great job - I definitely didn't give them the credit they deserve
*Everything about the play was awesome! ^_______^
If you haven't seen it already, Report #1 (written just hours after the play) can be found here. There are also pictures of the items I bought at the play in that entry as well.