#as i’m sure is pretty visible by now—my askbox is always open for anything. might take a while but i’ll get there promise

[padfootastic]

hmmmmm i’ve seemed to have hit another ~follower milestone~ and i just—

why

[engekihaikyuu]

View from the Top 2 - Review

Check out the Read More if you’d like to hear about this show!  Askbox is open as well if you’d like me to elaborate on anything out of this.

Before I begin my review of the final show, I do want to start with some caveats:

So as I mentioned previously, the production once again went with PIA for their live streaming platform, which means that live streaming this show is very inaccessible for anyone living outside of Japan.

PIA is a ticketing platform that requires a working Japanese phone number in order to finish activating/registering a new account because you must call the number provided to finish account verification. So without a Japanese contact or a Japanese phone number, this platform is basically impossible.

I have a generous friend in Japan who was willing to share her account information with me, which is how I was able to pay for a show and use her log-in to watch the stream. I did not see this show in-person; I do not live in Japan and obviously travel is off-limits. Even if I did live in Japan, I would have qualms about going to the theater.

There are some logistical issues with this show because of the current pandemic, with the most visually obvious one being the small face shields the actors wear on-stage. They basically serve as protection against direct spittle, but obviously they do nothing to guard against aerosol spread; putting on the play is still an incredible risk to the performers and staff. Another difficulty they face is the fact that Tokyo is still continuing to maintain a nightly curfew. Every evening Tokyo performance needed to be bumped earlier so that spectators can leave the theater in time to make it home for that curfew. Keeping that in mind, the show is a surprisingly condensed 2.5 hours long, where I would have expected 3 hours given the amount of content it covered. This does affect the pacing in Act 2 noticeably, and I get the feeling that were it not for covid and the current curfew restrictions, it would feel a little less rushed at the end.

So, with all that said, here are my thoughts on Engeki Haikyuu’s final play, The View from the Top 2!!!  This is absolutely not spoiler-free, for both the play’s content and everything that happened in the manga finale, so if you have not finished the series, this is your last chance to turn back.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t written a full review on a show since Fly High, so I’m a bit rusty at this, and I’ll probably leave out a lot so as always, my askbox is open for people’s additional questions!

The absolute main theme of this play (and really of the entire Haikyuu story) is the friendship and rivalry between Hinata and Kageyama, and the theme: I’m not alone. Engeki really did right by our dual protagonists by framing the final show as showing both of their journeys from beginning to end. Act 1 begins with that familiar sequence from the very first show: Hinata seeing the little giant on TV, being inspired to start playing volleyball, his struggle to find a team in middle school, losing to Kageyama in his one and only middle school tournament, and finding him again at Karasuno. They repeated the scene almost exactly as it was in the first show, and I think it was very smart of them to show us Daigo’s version of it, so to speak. That way we have a more cohesive vision of Hinata from the beginning of his journey to the end. Then they absolutely FLOOD the stage with a montage of projections with footage from all of the shows from the past five-and-a-half years. So already it’s pretty emotional for me, seeing how far the play had come as well as how far Hinata had come in the story.

To parallel this, the beginning of Act 2 actually begins with baby Kageyama. Yes, the baby Kageyama flashback with his sister and grandfather and how he started volleyball. We see Kageyama’s volleyball journey from childhood (for this they used a small doll similar to the dolls they used for young Kuroo and Kenma from Revival) to playing at Kitagawa Daiichi, to losing his grandfather, to being labeled the King of the Court, to defeating Hinata, and then having Hinata find him at Karasuno. And then they once again, they flood the stage with projections with past show footage, but this time they are more Kageyama-centric in the way that the previous ones were often Hinata-centric. And it just really highlights how much these two are meant to share the stage as the two main characters.

To see this framework and to know what’s going to come at the end, with the two of them reuniting in the pro-volleyball arena… just the beginning of Act 2 alone had me in tears. Another way they paralleled their respective journeys was to show us who have influenced them. In Act 1, there’s a dance with Hinata, Hoshiumi, and Udai (all little giants… well, Tsukishima’s in there too because he’s feeling a particular competitiveness with Hinata in this part of the match). In Act 2, there’s a dance with Kageyama, Atsumu, and Oikawa, because Atsumu and Oikawa are the setters who have had the most influence on Kageyama, and he’s drawing on what he’s learned from them for this match. They are not alone in their journeys, they have had people inspire them and be inspired by them in addition to having the support of their teammates.

The Karasuno vs Kamomedai match is interspersed with bits of action from the Fukurodani vs Mujinazaka match, so the stage was pretty busy for basically the entire time. The wires are back for some sequences so that both Hinata and Hoshiumi have a chance to fly, and there are plenty of acrobatics and lifts, and the same incredible soundtrack we love. Ryuu’s Hoshiumi is the obvious standout on Kamomedai for how many lifts he had, and they definitely tried to have him running around on the stage about as much as Hinata. It was notable how much they drew on past techniques and music for various parts of this match, since this is meant to be Karasuno at their peak. When Asahi was feeling particularly stuck/trapped against Kamomedai’s defense, they incorporated the tying-up visual they had previously used in Winners and Losers, with Kamomedai basically tying up and holding Asahi in place with ribbon. There was Summer of Evolution music when Karasuno does a great synchro attack, and the extras-wearing-Hinata-masks reappeared to show us Hinata’s “afterimage” as he flashes around the stage. If you’ve seen all the plays, you can’t miss these call-backs.

The flow of the match was fast. They hit the highlight plays and the highlight emotional moments, but we are clearly past the point where they need to narrate the actual volleyball to us. There was more dancing/acrobatics than attempting to place the two teams on either sides of a physical net with more overt volleyball moves. Everything was more intertwined and fluid than that. And actually now that I think about it, they have been sparse with their usage of a physical net in the past few shows, because everything has been a little more fast-paced overall.

They definitely wanted to highlight Karasuno’s rise throughout the game, to show that they were absolutely a formidable team, that they deserved to be at Nationals, and to show us all the ways that Hinata and Kageyama had grown. For most of Act 2 leading up to Hinata’s collapse, it really feels like they could win this. And I think it makes it that much harder for Hinata to accept being benched, because the team is riding this high and doing so well, and even Kageyama’s more visibly having fun. I think Takeda-sensei easily has a third of the best lines in the series. His speech to Hinata during the Kamomedai match is one that was really gut-wrenching to read when those chapters came out, and it was great to hear it said aloud.

And here is something I’ve never been able to point out because I didn’t do reviews for the past two tours, but I think Daigo’s voice is one of the strongest aspects of his Hinata. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with the work he’s done as a voice actor, but when he cries or whimpers, it is genuinely the most pitiful noise. A lot of Kenta’s portrayal of Hinata’s frustrations throughout the story had an undercurrent of anger and frustration. He’s upset, but there’s always something behind it that says, “well next time, it’ll be different.” And I think Daigo replaces most of that with pure sadness, especially for this scene. After Takeda-sensei lectures him good and proper, and he accepts that he needs to leave, he just sounds so broken. It doesn’t have that anger and drive underneath, he’s just in despair. And why wouldn’t he be? A part of him understands this is the last match he’ll ever play with this team, his first real team.

We then see Hinata bundled up in a coat and scarf, watching the rest of the match from the tablet that Kenma gives him. Snow begins to fall on the stage as he slowly wanders through it, with Karasuno and Kamomedai finishing out the rest of the match around him. Engeki Haikyuu has always allowed for the losing team in a match to line up at the edge of the stage, say thank you to the audience, bow, and take their leave. It’s so symbolic, and it’s so emotional for the actors and for the audience who are in the theater. It’s a moment that just barely breaks the fourth wall, when they turn to us, the spectators, to say, “Thank you for your support.” And they mean it both in and out of character. And I was so so so sad when I realized that Karasuno would take their final bow as a team without Hinata in the lineup. He’s in the back of the stage, separated from his team, and he does take a bow, but it’s very lonely.

Now, I’m sure people are very curious about the timeskip material, and mostly I just have to preface with: it’s fast. It does not take up as much of Act 2 as you might think. It’s boom, boom, boom, cameo here, pre-recorded projections there, patissier Tendou interview, Kuroo in a suit doing a promotional commercial for the V-League, Kageyama’s curry commercial, a projected Osamu selling his rice balls, get the old team together, fateful encounters in front of the bathroom, GO! The only thing we see of the Brazil arc is Hinata having a brief flashback to tell Kageyama that he met Oikawa while he was in Brazil. It’s very short, and that’s all we get for his time in Brazil. Basically, the play is not the place to see Hinata’s journey and growth from those chapters because he goes through so much of it alone, and there’s just no time. The Brazil arc also brings back a lot of technical details about volleyball itself, especially as Hinata is learning the beach version, and that’s an area where the manga is the best medium to examine the finer details of the sport. I can see why a play version would gloss over the technical details to focus on the emotional arc, which is in this case, Hinata and Kageyama.

Because of how fast the ending is, it definitely feels made for the people who already read the manga; Previous Engeki Haikyuu shows have always presented the story in a way that was very friendly to those who may not have read the manga or watched the anime. You could watch just Engeki Haikyuu and not feel like you were missing out on references/jokes for the most part, but this ending would be way harder to follow for those not familiar with what’s already happened.  

It’s difficult because I do feel like Act 2 was overly condensed to wrap up this story, but I also don’t think the timeskip material is enough for a whole play on its own. If we had stopped at the end of the Kamomedai match, and had a whole separate play to cover Brazil and the Jackals vs Adlers match… the pacing would’ve been slow and low energy especially in the first half, and it would be an odd choice for the final show of a series like this. My preference would have been for this play to have been three acts, three hours, so that we could linger on some of those timeskip moments a little more, slow it down, and let them land emotionally. But clearly the covid situation prevents that in this case. That being said, I don’t think any of those timeskip moments could really hit as hard as when I first read them in the manga. Narratively, that Haikyuu timeskip was so unexpected and so outside the normal sports anime formula, that the initial shock is extremely hard to top. It was fun to see how they presented everyone in the future (seeing Noya on that boat catching a giant swordfish, or seeing Ennoshita almost break a patient’s back) in stage form, but it’s unreasonable to expect them to give us the same feeling of ?!?!?!? when we first read that Noya was in Italy of all places after waiting weeks and weeks for him to show up.

I still cried in several places, it’s still a great ending to one of the best 2.5D franchises in existence, and it still feels like the culmination of their legacy. I don’t know how it would be possible for anyone to watch that ending sequence with all of the team flags and the chanting of their names, and NOT cry.

There are no more live streams until they complete the rest of their tour and then there will be a live-stream of the very last show, which I will be watching with a towel in hand for my tears. Feel free to send in any questions if you’d like, and if you would like some Strongest Challengers or Trash Heap merch, I have a sales post that I recently made.

[hamilficsfordays]

Drive (Alexander/Reader)

Prompt: “Okay fine, I’m in love with you! Is that what you wanted me to say?” “I literally haven’t spoken for the past hour.” maybe lin/reader or alex/reader ?

Author’s Note: I really wanted to make this a lin/reader on an impulse, but the prompt felt really Alex-y. Hence the Alex/reader pairing.

Pairing:

Alexander Hamilton/Reader

Summary:  You and Alex have just graduated law school and are headed to Vegas to celebrate. It’s a three day trip from New York to Nevada... what could go wrong?

Rating: PG I guess, unless you think that saying “nazis are bad” warrants a T rating?

Warnings: If you have emetophobia (fear of vomiting), you might be pretty uncomfortable as the reader gets really sick at one point.

Words: 2123 (This is literally my shortest work. These are the numbers of the unemployed, people.)

Askbox / Masterlist / What I Write

You slowly typed in the address of your destination on the GPS. Alexander climbed into the driver’s seat, tossing a blanket over his shoulder into the back before he turned the car on.

“You ready, Y/N?” he asked, adjusting the rearview mirror.

“If we can graduate from Columbia law, we sure as hell can drive to Vegas.” you quipped, getting a chuckle from him in response.

Hardly twenty-four hours after your graduation from law school, you and Alex were headed on a road trip from New York City to Las Vegas in celebration.

“How long until we get to Chicago?” you asked, glancing at the clock on the dashboard that read 9:25.

“We should get there around six.” he confirmed. “You’re driving us to Denver tomorrow, right?”

“If there are as many corn fields in the midwest as my stepmom claims there is, it should be a breeze. I might stop to take a ton of corn though.”

Alex laughed out loud this time. “Are you gonna represent yourself in court when you get charged for corn theft or am I going to have to step in?”

“You’ll be too busy lying on my behalf as a witness.” you teased, nudging him gently.

“Maybe I should let you go to jail. They probably serve corn there.”

“But then I wouldn’t have you.” you pointed out. He glanced at you, a smirk on his face. You blushed, realizing what you’d said had blurred your friendship line a bit.

“I’d come visit you.” he insisted.

“Yeah because you’d be insanely bored without me.”

“That’s absolutely true. I’d have no one to talk to. You’re the only person who’s willing to listen to me.”

“Ugh, I know right?” you faked a disappointed look. “This is such a one-sided friendship. I listen to you talk for hours at a time and you don’t offer anything in response.”

“You get to listen to me for hours at a time.” he teased. “Is that not reward enough?”

A few hours passed on your car trip. You had pulled out your laptop and turned on a movie while Alex turned on a radio talk show and listened intently.

By the end of the film, you noticed Alex looked visibly annoyed. His hands were gripping the steering wheel a little too hard, his face a light shade of red.

“Are you okay?” you asked, pulling your headphones out.

“Why is this up for debate?” he demanded, confusing you.

“Why is what—”

“All nazis are terrible!” he shouted, directing at the radio. “This should NOT be up for debate!”

“No one’s debating it—” you tried.

“This stupid radio show is having two correspondents on debating whether or not all nazi’s are bad. Like, this isn’t a question! Why are they questioning this?! Who decided that it was okay to be a nazi?!”

You rolled your eyes, unable to hold back a smile. “You’re gonna spend an hour going off about this, aren’t you?”

“I’m just saying it’s ridiculous!”

You tuned him out for a moment, staring out the window. Alex had a habit of doing this, getting really frustrated about something and talking about it for hours on end. It was a regular occurrence in law school. Most of the students and professors found it really annoying, but you thought it was cute.

You could listen to him talk all day (and he probably would).

This likely had a lot to do with the huge crush you’d had on him since the day you met, but you were sure he was better off not knowing.

After all, you didn’t want to ruin your friendship.

He went on for a while, discussing the validity of such an argument (and the social consequences of having it in the first place), before you cut him off.

“Alex, you’re going to mess up your vocal chords from talking so much and won’t have the health insurance to fix it if you don’t chill.”

He huffed, still visibly upset. “Whatever.”

It was a long ride to Chicago, but you’d finally arrived in the city and checked into your hotel that evening.

You had both agreed on sharing a room to save money, separate beds for obvious reasons.

Alex had calmed down by this point, offering to move your bags to the hotel room once you’d settled in.

Once he returned from the car however, you were nowhere to be found.

You came back a few minutes later with a large hot dog covered in toppings in one hand.

“What is that?” he asked, glancing at the comically large pile of toppings as soon as you walked back in.

“I’ve always wanted to try a Chicago-style hot dog in Chicago.” You carefully took a bite, pulling a plate from the cabinet in the kitchenette to make sure it didn’t spill.

“You don’t even like hot dogs.” he reminded her. “I used to live off of those things and everytime I offered you one, you refused. You always thought they were gross.”

You shrugged, pulling out a fork and knife and sitting at the desk on the far end of the room to continue eating. “It’s a new experience. Why not? Besides, there’s so many toppings on here that you can barely taste the actual hot dog.”

“If you say so.”

You and Alex both went to bed early that night. The next morning, you felt really nauseous; a feeling that you could only attribute to one thing—the hot dog.

“My stomach is killing me.” you’d told him that morning as you were checking out.

“Are you okay? Do you want me to drive?”

You felt bad that he offered, but felt worse that you wanted to say yes.

“I mean you drove all day yesterday—”

“Y/N, please. If you’re not feeling well, driving isn’t going to help. I’ll drive. It’s no problem.”

You were back on the road again then, en route to Colorado, your next night stop.

You made every attempt to settle your stomach, drinking a ton of gatorade before you eventually tried to sleep it off. This only worked for so long until you were up, begging Alex to pull over.

This happened multiple times that day, slowing the course of your trip significantly.

Every time you pulled over Alex tried to help, offering you water or food, but you politely refused.

By the time you arrived in Denver, it was well after midnight. Once you and Alex checked in, it was a rush to the room while he followed close behind.

“I should take you to a hospital.” he insisted once you’d run straight to the bathroom. “I’m afraid that you’re going to get dehydrated.”

“Alex, I’m fine.” you insisted between retches. “It’s just a little food poisoning. It’s not worth going to the hospital for.

“Y/N, you’ve been getting sick all day. I’m really worried.”

“Don’t be.” you managed back. “It’s okay.”

An hour went by that you spent on the floor in the bathroom, trying to shake the nausea. Alex came in again with a few bottles of water, hoping to coax you out.

“Seriously, Y/N, I think I should take you to the ER.”

“That would be a waste of time.” You took a swig from one of the bottles. “See? I’m hydrating. It’s all good.”

Frustrated, Alex groaned and left the bathroom, leaving you to your own devices.

When you got sick again, you could hear his footsteps as he stormed back into the bathroom.

“That’s it.” he insisted. “I’m taking you to the ER.”

“No, you’re not.”

Alex tried to help you up, but you pushed him away, annoyed with his constant attempts. “Seriously, Alex, don’t.”

“Y/N, we have to go! You need medical attention! I can’t stand seeing you in so much pain. It’s killing me.”

“Why?” you finally demanded, glancing up at him. “You are not my father, and you’re not my brother so why do you care so much?”

“Because…” he started. He seemed to be on the verge of saying a million things all at once, but all he managed was: “You’re my friend.”

Though it wasn’t surprising that he’d respond like that, it wasn’t the answer you were kind of hoping for. You carefully stood up, leading him past the bathroom door.

“Can you please be my friend from somewhere else right now?” Before he could respond, you closed the door leaving him outside.

When your stomach had eventually started to settle, you came out of the bathroom to find Alex already asleep in his own bed. You crawled into your own, hoping to get a few hours of sleep before leaving in the morning.

“How are you feeling?” Alex asked, not looking as you as you both headed to the front desk to check out.

“Better, thanks.”

It was silent as you started the final ten hour stretch to Las Vegas. You had curled up in a blanket, sitting in the passenger’s seat and waiting for him to say something.

He didn’t. The radio was off and cell service was hard to find, leaving only the sound of the car to break the silence between you.

Alex seemed to get increasingly tense as time went on, though he still remained silent. You could see him tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, mouthing words silently to himself, slowly turning a bright shade of red.

He went on like this for a considerable amount of time.

“Okay fine, I’m in love with you! Is that what you wanted me to say?”

You glanced at him, shocked. “I-I literally haven’t spoken for the past hour.”

With his initial feelings finally out in the open, Alex pressed on. “I’m in love with you so much that seeing you hunched over the toilet in pain last night got me so frustrated… and when you refused to let me take you to the hospital I got even more frustrated because I just didn’t want to see you suffer anymore. I-I didn’t know what to do.”

“Alex…” you tried, sensing he was about to go on for a while.

“I’m in love with you so much that I listen to the playlists that my mac picks up from your mac’s library because even though I hate indie music, it reminds me of you. I’m so in love with you that the smell of your shampoo is my favorite scent. I don’t even know what it is, I just know it as Y/N’s shampoo. I’ve been in love with it—and you—since we met. I’m in love with you so much that I willingly went on a three day road trip with you knowing very well that if I did that with anyone else I would’ve bitten their head off before it was over. But not you—”

“Oh my god Alex, STOP!”

You managed to get him to calm down, his eyes still focused on the road.

You took a deep breath, covering your face with the blanket. All of his words came rushing back in your mind. He was in love with you. Three years of what you assumed was a mindless crush on a friend turned out to be feelings that were reciprocated.

You couldn’t help but smile under the safety of the blanket, almost shaking with bliss.

You pulled the blanket off of your face. “I love you too.” you almost screamed, hardly able to hold back.

He turned to you, his eyes barely focused on the road. “You do?”

“Oh my god, of course I do. Do you honestly think I would’ve spend all of those all-nighters studying bullshit defense theories with just anyone if I hadn’t completely fallen for them?”

Alex considered this for a moment. He remembered spending countless all-nighters with her while they were in school, but he never recalled her doing that with anyone else.

“No?” he guessed.

“No. It was you. It was always you.”

“Oh.” he refocused on the road, occasionally glancing back at you.

There was a pause. You wondered what came next.

“Why didn’t you say this three years ago when we met?” he asked. “I mean, if you were in love with me then.

“I could ask you the same question.” you shot back, reaching out to hold his hand.

He watched your fingers interlace with his, a sensation that nearly caused him to swerve out of the lane with excitement.

“Pull over.” you finally said.

“I—wait, why?”

“Pull over.” You repeated in a far more serious tone. Afraid you were going to get sick, Alex did as he was told, pulling off to the far right lane out of traffic before slowing to a stop. He pulled a water bottle from the cup holder, offering it to you.

“What?” You asked, confused by his gesture.

“Aren’t you feeling sick?” he pondered, equally as confused.

“What? No.”

“Then why did you ask me to pull over?”

You shifted, leaning into the driver’s seat before you grabbed his face, pressing your lips against his.

He seemed shocked, but made no effort to pull away.

“Because I needed to do that.” You admitted with a small smile.

He smiled back, turning bright red again.

“Oh.” was all he could manage. For the first time in his life, Alexander was speechless.