Kamen no Otoko: Impressions
I'm trying to keep the spoilers vague this time, because especially Kamen no Otoko has stuff that one must see to believe. Plus, I'm writing this in a hurry before I catch the night bus back to Kumamoto. Royal Straight Flush will follow tomorrow.
Now THAT is a play with multiple personality disorder. >____>
I don't know, I guess the producers decided just a straight retelling of the story would be too boring? So, there was comic relief. ALL OVER THE PLACE. You wouldn't think it from the poster, right? You wouldn't think it from the program, either. But the WTF moments start right from the first scene and then continued straight up until near the end. Since a good amount of them happen in the palace, one could probably argue that it was an... inventive way to depict the happenings so over the top as to be grotesque, but... the three musketeers weren't much better, if relatively more sane... But I wouldn't say it's a comedy, either. There are too many normal, serious scenes in there, too. Sad scenes, romantic scenes, badass fighting scenes, beautiful costumes, giving off the atmosphere that one expected from the story and the promotional footage.
But still, you know there's something seriously fishy going on when you go WTF over a line dance and a GIANT HUMAN DISCO BALL in the play instead of the revue.
But I won't go into detail about that, because people should seriously watch it for themselves.
So, about the mostly normal parts.
I have to say, I was looking forward to seeing Kimu's Deliciously Evil Twin. What she turned out to be was Standard Villainous Royal #5. :/ Instead, Philippe was terribly adorable, in a shy, ernest kind of way (in contrast to the charismatic, the sun shines out of my butt kind of adorable that Romeo was). Moreover, I really liked the romance developing between him and Louise. Which was mostly because it actually slowly developed. I love that, when couples don't fall in love on first sight but actually get to know each other.
Louise turned out to be a pretty cool character all by herself. I had expected her to be the typical damsel in distress, but instead she tried to take things into her own hands at one point, and as I said, the romanctic scenes were pretty awesome, too, with intelligent dialogue going on.
I LOVED the three (former) musketeers! They were cool and funny at the same time. They were responsible for the... not as whacky comic relief of the show, but still got to wear awesome musketeer outfits and get badass fighting scenes. Especially Kitarou. ZOMG I LOVED KITAROU. (AND HER WIG. HER WIG WAS LOVE. <3<3<3 ) I'm amazed at how she managed to be hilarious and hot as all hell at the same time, and THEN got a touching, beautifully ernest scene with Chigi. Just... yeah. She was awesome. *__*
Mattsu, as the leader, and Raoul's older brother, not only got a sad, sad ginkyo solo but was also very cool for most of the time. That is, when she and the other two weren't getting drunk or trying to "Succeed In Eating And Then Leaving Without Paying". Or swimming for their lives while still hung over. Yeah. XD
Um... Renjou Makoto was more of the same? :"D
I liked Chigi's D'Artagnan. She got backstory, and her conflict between doing her duty by serving the King and sticking to her companions was very tangible. And I thought the moment when she decided to switch sides was timed well and logical in regard to the story.
At this point I admit two things: First, that I have a thing for Ayanagi Shou since RomiJuri even though she basically was not much more than a background dancer, which means that I was shallow and just decided I liked her because of her face. She was cute, ok? But, now I saw her Raoul, and it turns out that she can also act and sing! :D YAY!
Second, that sometime during the revue, I stopped for a moment and thought "Wait... where the heck was Cecil during the play? D:". I have absolutely no memory of her in Kamen no Otoko. Which either means that I was just simply blind, OR that she was wearing facial hair, OR that she was somewhere in the background. I couldn't really focus on background people as much as I would have liked, because I was sitting too far away to really pick out people's faces without the opera glasses, but I didn't really want to focus on the background WITH the opera glasses and miss what was going on in the front (and therefore in the story) either. :/ Damn you, limited range of vision.
Hiromi, thankfully, I still recognised even with facial hair. Which looked good on her, I thought. Her part wasn't too big, but she still got interesting stuff to do. Among them a fighting scene with Chigi. And yes, I thought SHE was indeed deliciously evil, in a backstabbing sort of way. XD
And then there's Koma. Um. X"D
I can't say too much about her, because she was responsible for one of the big WTF moments. What I CAN say, is that she was a pure, completely shameless sadist. And her scenes weren't very frequent, but the WTF scene went on for quite a while, and she OWNED it. X3
Apart from all the wonderful actresses, all in all, even though the play sometimes didn't really know what it wanted to be, it was pretty fun, and the story was still well told. I can't recall any specific melodies right now, but the music was definitely fun while it lasted, too. The staging was also pretty inventive and interesting in places. Especially one of the romantic scenes that Kimu and Mimi had was definitely something new, and the audience was captivated.
Also, I HAVE A NIJINSKY POSTER NOW! YESSSSS. *_______*
Now THAT is a play with multiple personality disorder. >____>
I don't know, I guess the producers decided just a straight retelling of the story would be too boring? So, there was comic relief. ALL OVER THE PLACE. You wouldn't think it from the poster, right? You wouldn't think it from the program, either. But the WTF moments start right from the first scene and then continued straight up until near the end. Since a good amount of them happen in the palace, one could probably argue that it was an... inventive way to depict the happenings so over the top as to be grotesque, but... the three musketeers weren't much better, if relatively more sane... But I wouldn't say it's a comedy, either. There are too many normal, serious scenes in there, too. Sad scenes, romantic scenes, badass fighting scenes, beautiful costumes, giving off the atmosphere that one expected from the story and the promotional footage.
But still, you know there's something seriously fishy going on when you go WTF over a line dance and a GIANT HUMAN DISCO BALL in the play instead of the revue.
But I won't go into detail about that, because people should seriously watch it for themselves.
So, about the mostly normal parts.
I have to say, I was looking forward to seeing Kimu's Deliciously Evil Twin. What she turned out to be was Standard Villainous Royal #5. :/ Instead, Philippe was terribly adorable, in a shy, ernest kind of way (in contrast to the charismatic, the sun shines out of my butt kind of adorable that Romeo was). Moreover, I really liked the romance developing between him and Louise. Which was mostly because it actually slowly developed. I love that, when couples don't fall in love on first sight but actually get to know each other.
Louise turned out to be a pretty cool character all by herself. I had expected her to be the typical damsel in distress, but instead she tried to take things into her own hands at one point, and as I said, the romanctic scenes were pretty awesome, too, with intelligent dialogue going on.
I LOVED the three (former) musketeers! They were cool and funny at the same time. They were responsible for the... not as whacky comic relief of the show, but still got to wear awesome musketeer outfits and get badass fighting scenes. Especially Kitarou. ZOMG I LOVED KITAROU. (AND HER WIG. HER WIG WAS LOVE. <3<3<3 ) I'm amazed at how she managed to be hilarious and hot as all hell at the same time, and THEN got a touching, beautifully ernest scene with Chigi. Just... yeah. She was awesome. *__*
Mattsu, as the leader, and Raoul's older brother, not only got a sad, sad ginkyo solo but was also very cool for most of the time. That is, when she and the other two weren't getting drunk or trying to "Succeed In Eating And Then Leaving Without Paying". Or swimming for their lives while still hung over. Yeah. XD
Um... Renjou Makoto was more of the same? :"D
I liked Chigi's D'Artagnan. She got backstory, and her conflict between doing her duty by serving the King and sticking to her companions was very tangible. And I thought the moment when she decided to switch sides was timed well and logical in regard to the story.
At this point I admit two things: First, that I have a thing for Ayanagi Shou since RomiJuri even though she basically was not much more than a background dancer, which means that I was shallow and just decided I liked her because of her face. She was cute, ok? But, now I saw her Raoul, and it turns out that she can also act and sing! :D YAY!
Second, that sometime during the revue, I stopped for a moment and thought "Wait... where the heck was Cecil during the play? D:". I have absolutely no memory of her in Kamen no Otoko. Which either means that I was just simply blind, OR that she was wearing facial hair, OR that she was somewhere in the background. I couldn't really focus on background people as much as I would have liked, because I was sitting too far away to really pick out people's faces without the opera glasses, but I didn't really want to focus on the background WITH the opera glasses and miss what was going on in the front (and therefore in the story) either. :/ Damn you, limited range of vision.
Hiromi, thankfully, I still recognised even with facial hair. Which looked good on her, I thought. Her part wasn't too big, but she still got interesting stuff to do. Among them a fighting scene with Chigi. And yes, I thought SHE was indeed deliciously evil, in a backstabbing sort of way. XD
And then there's Koma. Um. X"D
I can't say too much about her, because she was responsible for one of the big WTF moments. What I CAN say, is that she was a pure, completely shameless sadist. And her scenes weren't very frequent, but the WTF scene went on for quite a while, and she OWNED it. X3
Apart from all the wonderful actresses, all in all, even though the play sometimes didn't really know what it wanted to be, it was pretty fun, and the story was still well told. I can't recall any specific melodies right now, but the music was definitely fun while it lasted, too. The staging was also pretty inventive and interesting in places. Especially one of the romantic scenes that Kimu and Mimi had was definitely something new, and the audience was captivated.
Also, I HAVE A NIJINSKY POSTER NOW! YESSSSS. *_______*