#kotani yoshikazu

[castial]

them(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)❤️

[wetndwildsstuff]

Boys love 2 / School boy crush ( 2007 ) has ruined me. Fk.

Also i watched it on 480p fr

AND THAT TOO SHORTER VERSION. Can i please find full movie with hd quality. The movie is so great that for the first time i want to actually pay for it

I'm broke

[absolutebl]

Okay, FINE, the shows you should watch for BL's QUEER AF roots

You ready to go hunting?

Many of these are difficult to find. Also many of the images of them and their posters have been block/banned by tumblr, so, no screen grabs for you! (Good times.)

I don't necessarily *like* any of these, but if you are queer and in this fandom and need to dialogue around BL's queerness - these are going to provide a foundation for you. They are important for various industry, reputation, directorial, and cultural reasons. As seeds often are.

Trigger warnings throughout.

The true beginnings:

Boys Love, Japan's 2006 movie is a REALLY rough start featuring a journalist + hot model = murder gay, mild necrophilia, cheating, abuse, rape, and suicide for love. Start as you mean to go on, why don't you, Japan? Is it queer... maybe? Is it BL... honey, I am very sorry to inform you, this started BL.

Note: Yoshikazu Kotani is famous in og BL circles since he acted in 3 early BLs, both Boys Loves and then Same Difference. Also he v tall and hawt.

Eternal Summer, Taiwan 2006 - unlike Japan, Taiwan did NOT start how it would, eventually, go on. But what a messy way to start. A high school story of 3 besties in a love triangle, self discovery, and sexual awakening that fucks it all up.

No Regret, Korea 2006, is a very unhinged queer catastrophe piece about a lost gay man who ends up a host and then almost a murderer because of both his job and his identity.

Note: This is the directorial feature film debut of Lee-Song Hee-il Korea's (so far as I know) first openly gay director who specialized (to this day) in queer content.

The Love of Siam, Thailand 2007, this was Thailand's queer awakening, sure they would backpedal for YEARS after, but in 2022 they began to remember what this movie was (and did) and overtly referenced this quiet little masterpiece. This movie is sad but stunning in that way that the best queer works from Thailand can be (like Present Perfect or ITSAY.) It has Thailand's quintessential softness around theme and character, which you'll understand perfectly when highlighted against the backdrop of the early 2000s works from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Thailand will never lose this soft style and it's one of the most attractive qualities of Thai BL: it's never very harsh with us or its characters. This movie very easily COULD have been quite harsh indeed.

I thought long and hard about including Rice Rhapsody AKA Hainan Chicken Rice (Hainan ji fan) on this list and finally decided it doesn't really qualify. Still let me mention Hong Kong's 2005 movie. It is amazing, fascinating, and very rough going for an ostensible comedy. It wasn't the actual beginning because few saw it and Hong Kong never really picked up or ran with BL let alone QL, but it was hella queer. It's also hella homophobic.

Just Friends? (2009 Korea) - this is Korea's first (kinda) upbeat version of a BL featuring already established boyfriends, one of whom is on military leave, trying to decide on coming out, family life, and the future. All of these are themes Korea will pretty much never tackle again, retreating as they would to their bubble. But what a fun little offering this little show was and is to this day. You should watch it.

Like Love 1 AKA I Love You As A Man: Part 1 - China's 2014 offering is actually pretty classic early form live action yaoi with things like whipping boy, a university setting, rich/poor jock/nerd pairing, hard grumpy/sunshine and a very odd title. It's pre-censorship with an HEA, also explicit, yeah China once did that. This is a lot less queer that it is classic BL and classic Chinese romance, neither of which have any kind of connection to reality. But hey, that's what I'm here for. But it's important to note the drifting away from queerness beginning to occur.

Love Sick - Thailand's 2014 "boys in blues shorts" high school set soapy (in all ways) offering is widely considered the true beginning of Thai BL and by default, eventually, BL as we know it today. (As the biggest producer they somewhat dictate taste and trends in the genre.) This is one of those BLs that owes almost nothing to yaoi, although it started a number of tropes that are now endemic to Thai BL. What it is, instead, is a well scripted story of bisexual self-discovery and the inherent chaos of loving someone of the same gender for the first time, all wrapped up in hormones, existing relationships, and communication issues. It is high school queer angst at its messiest. Nothing is going to be easy for these boys because queer isn’t easy but also because life isn’t easy… welcome to adulthood sweethearts. Is is overtly queer? For 2014 Thailand? Sure is.

Love Next Door 2 a movie from 2014 and one of Thailand’s early very high heat pieces, it’s odd, but sexy I guess? Some unexpectedly decent queer rep including femme characters getting screen time + HEAs. (Part one from 2013 has the same high heat content and features the same lead character (and actor) discovering he is gay with the sex worker next door, but isn't as good nor is it relevant to this installment.)

A few other unknowns, for the queer babies

Wait For Me at Udagawachou AKA Udagawachou de Matteteyo - from Japan in 2015, this is a story about two boys in high school one of whom is a repressed outsider and the other who has a terrible secret (body dysmorphia & cross dressing). When the first boy discovers what's up with the second one, his reaction is very much fetishization. "Oh Japan must you?" kinda started for me with this show. But in this case, Japan, weirdly MUST. This is the ONLY show laboring under (and testing) a pointedly straight lens (or is it?) and identity examination (yes but which boys' identity? that's the question) that I've EVER seen even edge into the BL genre. It is crazy queer, even as it mostly focuses on the fetishization of identity from an outsider's perspective. I WISH more people in fandom would watch it so I could at least talk to someone about it.

The Lover (BL Cut) Korea's 2015 series had multiple couples in an apartment complex, one pair of whom is a BL romance between a Korean man and a visiting Japanese tourist (played by a Kpop idol). It's comedic, slapstick sexy only (no kissing), but basically starts up Korea's bubble and use of idols in BL. It's kinda fascinating to watch them dodge around and still represent gayness in what (is sadly destined to become) a very Chinese way, but which Korea in pursuit of Hallyu and market share would morph into the bubble.

Mr. X and I from China in 2015 is a compilation piece and, I think, the first of this kind of multiple narrative shorter grab bags AKA "Sampler Pack BL." Two of the stories are very queerly sad, but the third is CLASSIC BL of the kind that would become China's best (and last) true BL, Addicted.

Sweet Boy, (Thai 2016) Chimon's first gay role and it is quite sad, oddly sexy, and similar to Dew the movie or My Bromance (just so you know what you are in for) but the acting is on point. When Thailand goes dark, this is how they do it, but this is rough going for baby queers because that's the darkness it is exploring. Our old thematic friends: the pain of self discovery and coming out into a homophobic environment and unfriendly reality, and the cost of being the one able (and willing) to stay in the closet.

Method (Korea 2017) this movie is a May/December actor/idol pairing, that should have been everything I wanted in life but is more about the older character cheating on his wife and their weird “artsy” relationship and frankly, I hated it. And I don’t say that lightly. Is it queer? Who tf knows, but is sure has some interesting things to say about the nature of PERFORMATIVE queerness.

Red Balloon is Taiwan's 2017 precursor BL to their biggest and most famous prestige piece Your Name Engraved Herein. If you're making a choice, choose that instead, but this series certainly paved the way for it to come into existence. Both shows tackle the pressures of culture and social structures on self acceptance and identity and the loneliness inevitably caused by conflict between the two.

(As indeed does Life Love On The Line, Present Perfect, Grey Rainbow, Tropical Night, My Sky, and many other queer meets early BL pieces that revolved around coming out and family acceptance.)

China's 3 2017 "they tried to censor the gay... and it went HORRIBLY wrong":

Beloved Enemy,

The Fairy Fox,

Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him.

Honestly these 3 are basically the uncanny valley of BLs.

The Novelist AKA The Pornographer series (2018-2020). Messy psychological machinations, gaslighting, fetishization, sexual corruption, and more good times from "well, what did you expect?" Japan, but also no holds barred queer, just well and truly fucked in the head (and arse) about it.

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru (Japan 2020) - Drama llama queers so queer and so dramatic it's like Japan is trying to PROVE something: obsession, cheating, break-up, reunion, then break up again, all of it explicit. This show is just SO JAPANESE. I can't even, but you should watch it and you'll know exactly what I mean. Something like My Personal Weatherman owes it's lineage to this kind of BL. If you like Japan naked, boney, emo, and smoking (hot & ciggy) you will love this, and should watch it. It's objectively amazing, I can't stand it, but I NEED people to talk about it more.

More Queer Stuff about BL from moi

BL Linguistics & Queer Identity - I Am Gay versus I Like Men 

Will BL Get More Honestly Queer? 

Actually gay, not BL gay - the idea of “by queers, for queers, about queers,” the BL bubble, sanitized gay, and a queer lens

Queer lens (from the director) and chemistry (from the actors) in BL (A Tale of Thousand Stars)

Touch & Daisy in Secret Crush On You - Queer Coded Language and 3rd Gender Identity

BL in Taiwan & Gay Marriage

Debating Queerbaiting in BL ( + Devil Judge… is it queerbaiting?) 

BL Actors and the Assumption of Queerness - outing actors, coming out, being out, more:  Is that BL actor actually queer?

So is it really fetishization? straight women loving bl 

Some BL fans are sasaengs, and it’s a problem in this fandom 

BLs That Highlight How Society Treats Queers

10 BLs That Are Honest to a Queer Experience 

If you like these kinds of shows try the "Moody Arthouse Smackdoodle" section of this post too.

Happy watching!

(source)

[ineffable-opinions]

Hu Jun and Liu Ye

They played Chen HanDong and Lan Yu in Lan Yu (2001) directed by Stanley Kwan. They also acted in Painting Soul (2003), by the same director, which was not a BL.

Hu Jun had previously acted in East Palace, West Palace (1996). Episode 6 of Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (2024) had Qi Lu and Qin Xiao watching that movie.

.

Stills from Lan Yu and Manifesto.

They appeared together in the Chinese TV Show Where Are We Going, Dad? Season 3 (2015), an event celebrated by their CP fans! They also acted together in Manifesto (2023). This is in line with Chinese government's complicated history with shipping and fu-cultures.

CCP is not always hostile towards BL and shipping. I mean, CCP is the second largest political party in the world with like nearly hundred million members. Some of them are fu-people, who create and consume BL. Some of them engage in shipping - of characters as well as real people including celebrities and senior party members. (I have discussed this in the context of Addicted here.) The appeal of a branded pair, who is not against getting shipped, doing a series like Manifesto is therefore manifold. Hence, JunYe CP is one of the most important branded pair ever.

Watanabe Daisuke and Hamao Kyousuke

They played Saki Giichi and Hayama Takumi in 4 BL movies:

Takumi-kun Series 2: Rainbow Colored Glass (2009)

Takumi-kun Series 3: The Beauty of Detail (2010)

Takumi-kun Series 4: Pure (2010)

Takumi-kun Series 5: That, Sunny Blue Sky (2011)

and acted in an non-BL movie:

Our Kogen Hotel (2013)

All of these movies were directed by Yokoi Takeshi. While I wonder if he's going to repeat it with the new cast of Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa. (2023), I am less sure given Kato Daigo who played Saki Giichi in the new movie is already 24 and he can only play a high schooler for so long. Also, I am not sure how the movie performed on the box office and if it would have a sequel.

This pair started off with The Musical Prince of Tennis#4 where Watanabe Daisuke played Tezuka Kinimitsu with Hamao Kyousuke as Kikumaru for 2 years.

All early 21st century Japanese live action BL had a handful of actors (Saitoh Takumi, Kawai Ryunosuke, Yoshikazu Kotani, Aiba Hiroki, Takahashi Yuta, Saito Yasuka and Namikawa Hajime) who appeared in multiple BL works but with different onscreen partners, so DaiMao branded pair was pretty unique.

Japanese BL doesn't have any branded pair currently.

does anyone remember which bl pair was the first one to be consistantly booked together in multiple projects together??? cause im thinking its OffGun but idk if it could be someone else..?? and which pair do you think was the one that made other bl producers go "hmmm book a duo together = good viewer rating = consistant money making... 💡"

[kyuairyeo]

Guess who made this vid into a meme 😂

[leenaevilin]

[Video] 舞台「CharadeManiacs」(butai charade maniacs)

[leenaevilin-stage-market]

[Video] 舞台「メサイア ―黎明乃刻―」(butai messiah -reimei no toki)

the DVD was released on March 11th, 2020☆ ☆ ☆

☆ DVD         ♪ Amazon ☆ DVD         ♪ CD Japan ☆ DVD         ♪ animate international

[littleragondin]

i hope it's okay to piggy back on it because while I'm no specialist at all, I was really glib when I answered you earlier lol and I feel like if people are interested there may be a little bit more to the Kamen Rider series than that.

Kamen Rider (literally Masked Rider) is a series of shows produced by Toei, that fall under the umbrella term "tokusatsu shows" (at least in english speaking fandoms).

We've had one a year since 2000 (plus 9 that came between 1971 and 1989). The concept is that you have a main hero - with a motorbike and a pretty cool armor (usually activated using some kind of belt) - dedicated to fighting a big organization of villains that involve tons of really cool looking monsters. yes they do look very fake and yes they also look really cool, both can be true As the story progresses, they often get themselves (sometimes reluctant) allies, recurring villains, and they may meet previous incarnations of KR for cameo crossovers. People who watched far more than I have might have a better outlook on where to start, but as I said quite a few of them are easy enough to get into without much knowledge! And there is a huge variety of settings and themes across the board, from space themed (Fourze), to detective/noir (W), or 'vampire' themed (Kiva) shows so I think there is a way to find something to suit your tastes.

A note for lovers of color coded teams (me, that's me, hi): the Power Rangers as we know them in Europe and the US are remakes of the Japanese Super Sentai that use the original fighting scenes/themes/props with reworked stories and completely new out-of-costume scenes. Same as Kamen Rider, Toei produces one a year, with a new team and theme every time, and those also have given us a few of our current BL actors.

If you are interested in the Kamen Rider/Super Sentai/Ultraman to BL pipeline, please first check @stickers-on-a-laptop hilarious poster tweaking post. I'm adding a (certainly non exhaustive) list of tokusatsu shows that I know feature actors who went to make BL - ignoring their cameo in follow up shows (Also not *all* of them are the start of their respective actors' career, either) :

Kamen Rider Agito (Jan. 2001 – Jan. 2002) > Yoshikazu Kotani (Boys Love, Boys Love The Movie, Same Difference)

Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger (Feb. 2003 – Feb. 2004) > Sho Tomita (Same Difference)

GoGo Sentai Boukenger (Feb. 2006 – Feb. 2007) > Saito Yasuka (Ai no Kotodama, Takumi-kun 1 and cameo in 3)

Kamen Rider Kabuto (Jan. 2006 – Jan. 2007) > Tokuyama Hidenori (Ai no kotodama)

Kamen Rider Kiva (Jan. 2008 – Jan. 2009) > Takeda Kohei (Old Fashion Cupcake)

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (Feb. 2009 – Feb. 2010) > Aiba Hiroki (Sukitomo)

Kamen Rider OOO (Sept. 2010 – Aug. 2011) > Watanabe Shu (BL drama no shuen ni narimashita: crank up hen)

Kamen Rider Wizard (Sept. 2012 – Sept. 2013) > Kanno Atsumi (Boys Love the movie)

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters (Feb. 2012 – Feb. 2013) > Baba Ryoma (Takumi-kun, Takumi-kun: Pure especially)

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (Feb. 2013 – Feb. 2014) > Ryo Ryusei (Restart after come back home)

Ultraman Ginga (2013) and Ultraman Ginga S (2014) > Kusakawa Takuya (Minato’s Laundromat, Cherry Magic)

Kamen Rider Drive (Oct. 2014 – Sept. 2015) > Inaba Yu (Sing In Love)

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid (Oct. 2016 – Aug. 2018) > Iijima Hiroki (Bokura no Shokutaku), Seto Toshiki (Senpai Danjite Koidewa, Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu)

Kamen Rider Build (Sept. 2017 – Aug. 2018) > Inukai Atsuhiro (Kei x Yaku, Bokura no Shokutaku), Akaso Eiji (Cherry Magic), Takeda Kohei (Old Fashion Cupcake)

Kamen Rider Saber (Sept. 2020 – Aug. 2021 > Naito Shuchiro (Senpai Danjite Koidewa)

Kamen Rider Revice (Sept. 2021 – Aug. 2022) > Maeda Kentaro (Utsukushii Kare eternal, Kimi ni wa todokanai), Hyuga Wataru (Kimi to nara koi wo shite mite mo), and Oku Tomoya in a smaller role (Minato’s Laundromat) as well as a guest role in ep.7 of Yutaro (Cherry Magic, Zenra Meshi, Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko 1 and 2) - also check this post from @emotionallychargedtowel to make you want to watch it as much as me ^^

Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (Mar. 2022 – Feb. 2023) > Higuchi Kouhei (Taikan Yoho), Hirose Tomoki (Seven Days) and guest appearance of Kyoya Honda (Jack O’Frost and Me, My Husband, and My Husband’s Boyfriend)

Shin Ultraman (2022- movie) > Saito Takumi (Boys Love, Sukitomo, Itsuka no kimi e), Nishijima Hidetoshi (Kinou nani tabeta)

Kamen Rider Black Sun (Oct. 2022) > Nishijima Hidetoshi (Kinou nani tabeta)

what IS kamen rider? something like the power rangers but with jbl actors?

great that you're asking this because I literally asked the lovely @littleragondin three days ago in quite the same manner lol so we're going to use their explanation if you don't mind ❤

"It's a children's show like Power Rangers except that instead of having a colour coded team, you have a Main Dude with Some Friends In Cool Armors and Some Enemies In Cool Armors Too. It's a show produced by toei to sell toys basically and they make a new one every year with a new set of actors and a new theme." (this is an almost exact quote lol)

after I acknowledged the fact there are SO MANY SEASONS:

"Yeah, there are TONS lol though you can mostly dive into one without previous knowledge, it's perfectly fine - that's how I got started and I am not watching them in order. ^^ "

and also it's "a springboard for young actors really" and that's smth I've personally noticed a long time ago while going through jbl actors' mdl pages haha

so this is what I've got for you, if anyone wants to explain smth please feel free to do so in the replies <3

[shinshin-love]

[DDL] 「メサイア-暁乃刻-」- Messiah Akatsuki no Toki

Please follow the simple rules below and then SEND me a MESSAGE or ASK to get the link (HONPEN AND BACKSTAGE) ^^ 

RULES :

1. DO NOT REUPLOAD INTO ANY STREAMING SITES (PARTS OR FULL)

2. DO NOT SHARE THE LINK OPENLY

3. Caps and gifs are completely okay

4.  I’ll remove the link within 2 DAYS, so please import the link into your mega cloud drive to preserve the bandwith

[snow-okki]

Messiah Talk Mission on Sept 1st~

Featuring half of every pairs and messiahs featured recently except Salyut-Souk.

(x)

[save-the-data]

[castial]

themmmm～ ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[sambart93]

2017.09.05 Messiah: Yukyuu no Toki Review!

GUYS! The drinking theme this time is’ drink every time I say ‘I want to punch (insert part of the Messiah cast or staff here)’.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Video Coverage PreOrder DVD here

---

Cast and Characters

Izawa Yuuki as Ariga Ryo Sugie Taishi as Kagami Itsuki Nagae Ryuuki as Miike Mayo Yamaoki Yuuki as Yuugi Kotaru Hashimoto Shinichi as Kogure Jun Yamamoto Ikkei as Hinamori Senju Otsuka Kousuke as Dr.THREE Kotani Yoshikazu as Kuroko Yamada James Takeshi as Salyut Miyagi Koudai as Souk Araki Kentaro as Cheka Nishino Ryuta as Tetsu/Tecchan Toyoshima Kyousuke as Touya Murata Mitsu as Hangedman Nakahara Yuya as Ichijima Harumi Ensemble: Hosokawa Akihiro, Kitamura Kai, Uraei Kenji, Hisada Yuki, Ishigami Ryuya, Sakamoto Kazuki, Takenaka Ryota

*

NON-SPOILER REVIEW

Overall: This was good. I enjoyed it all the way through, I was hooked and entertained. The action as usual doesn’t disappoint and there’s an (Koudai, and Itsuki x Ariga’s fight) amazing step up in the action and fighting scenes and techniques which I loved. I’m glad we got a LOT more info on the new cadets. However, (oh jesus here I go) I am thoroughly pissed off at everything Ichijima did -- I hate this guy with a passion if you didn’t know. I also feel there were too many storylines; we REALLY didn’t need those ‘two young ex(?)-terrorists on the run’ story line... and the second half of the stage with Ariga’s twist plot was a little stupid too. There was a bit too much repetition too; some couples fighting over and over. Also so many fires shot and no one died from them?! Come on! Someone should’ve died! About 4 people get at least two shots into their body and then go ages without seeing a doctor, by reality: someone (or most of them) should’ve died. And I didn’t really cry either -- the only time tears burst out of me was at a Mamiya reference. Rating: 7/10

*

SPOILER REVIEW

Lets get started shall we....

Story

Itsuki has to get a surgery to remove the chip in his brain so that no one can control him again, yet the price would be that he might lose his memory in the process. All the while, their graduation mission ends up being ‘Kill Ichijima Harumi’. While that’s going on two guys have decided to betray their group and flee along with a disc that has a computer programme on it for nuclear(?) bombs, which Sakura end up deciding to protect; especially when it turns out Cheka is back and working with Hanged Man. Part of their mission is to go to an island with a tower named the Tower of Babel and infiltrate and stop the terrorists groups so they can reunite the south and north sides of the island -- especially when so many important natural resources are there. And then we get Salyut and Souk who are there so Salyut can find his father, but also get involved with Sakura once more.

--

As you can tell... there’s quite too many plots lines going on at once.

*

Izawa Yuuki and Sugie Taishi - of course they gave amazing performances, I wouldn’t expect nothing less and they gave nothing less. It was so great seeing them SO freaking close <3 3rd row was a lovely sight! Izawa is so freaking handsome <3 I understand WHY they did it but I think the whole Ariga ‘losing his memory and then working with his best friend (and his childhood friend, wtf?!) Hangedman’ was complete bullshit. They could’ve handled it a different way. It would’ve been ore interesting IF Itsuki had gotten the surgery, lost his memory and HE was the one taken in by HoppouRengo. Makes more sense to me in my opinion.

I didn’t cry at all in this until Ariga was like ‘I’m not alone... I have Itsuki... 間宮はここにいる / and I have Mamiya here (in my heart) too’ and I burst out crying and smacked my hand against my mouth. It was like a 30second burst of massive tears.

And I got VERY angry at Itsuki towards the end, when he walked on with a violin and then later takes the violin out and is like ‘I’ve been practising’ and starts playing it; why they keep trying to ruin Mamiya’s image even more?! I really do feel like the staff (after the stage where they killed Mamiya) got way more complaints than they anticipated and have kind of taken any moment to be like ‘we’re so sorry we pissed so many of you off with the Mamiya story line, so here’s any chance we can to mention him and hopefully you’ll forgive us?’ but it’s just worked the other way for me; just makes me more mad and when Itsuki pulled that move, I was about to get out my chair.

Another moment was that, there’s about 3 or 4 scenes of just Ariga and Itsuki fighting and there’s even a point (I think) where both of them are shot to shit yet they’re still alive while yelling and fighting each other -- wtf?! It got really repetitive.

The main plot itself was kinda of stupid with Itsuki like ‘But if I get the surgery, I might forget you Ariga’ it was OBVIOUS Ariga would stay by his side to help him remember?! SO what was the point of that whole plot line?! Jut get the surgery straight away and stop wasting our time with that plot line. I GET why it had to be in the stage but just... common sense! He’d make you remember and get to know him again! I did kind of like the whole ‘Shirasaki and Yuuri are helping us!’ and it’s thanks to Neocromancer that Itsuki gets control of his brain again but just... that was a WHOLE stage ago; get over it with the Yuuri shit.

I really, really loved this one fight between Itsuki and Ariga where they really go at each other at full power: their fighting seemed SO realistic(!!!). I was actually worried they were going to hit each other; they used such power and at a fast speed, and it was such a good moment for fighting choreography that it really looked real! I can’t explain it.It was an amazing fight sequence though! I was super, super impressed!

Their ending was great too! Their grad outfits are so badass!

And someone sent Izawa flowers with a freaking violin in it!!

Nagae Ryuuki and Yamaoki Yuuki - which dumb fuckers thought these two wouldn’t be Messiahs? It was so fucking obvious. I can’t believe ANYONE would think any different. Yuugi even said in Akatsuki ‘I’d hate you to be my Messiah’ that’s Basic 101 of foreshadowing and storytelling and setting up the obvious plot line of them being Messiahs! It was so predictable my pet dog could’ve predicted it and I don’t even have a dog! That’s how obvious ti was! Anyway, I digress.

It’s actually super strange: I hated the new cadets to begin with but for some reason I really, really liked Miike in this one. I want to know more about him. And I like they were paired together (as obviously predicted!). They definitely set up some interesting plots with these two... First we have the whole ‘not wanting to be Messiahs’ yet by the end of this stage Yuugi is desperately trying to save Miike when he gets heavily injured, and Miike is like ‘I thought you didn’t want to be my Messiah... do you finally accept it?’, and then he next says ‘but unfortunately I’m not someone who dies’ which made me think back to Polar Night when he seemed to have supernatural abilities or something, so something else is going on with him. We also have a conversation of how Yuugi used to be religious but now he knows there is no god and Miike just flat out being ‘there was never a god. How could you believe?!’. We ALSO have Miike going a bit crazy and being like ‘I WANT TO BE KILLED BY YOU YUUGI!’ which to me was like ‘he more crazy than I was anticipating! But also that’s kinda sexy and I’m all about that...’  AND we also have Yuugi going ‘there’s someone I want to kill with these hands’ and Miike is like ‘you’re exactly the same as me funnily enough’ but out of ear shot of Yuugi. So they definitely caught my interest. I might carry on Messiah for them (especially if Koudai, James, Asato and Naoya -- jesus christ give me Naoya back please! - are back for the next stage), that’s how much their relationship interested me. I really, really hope it turns out that the person Yuugi wants to kill IS Miike.

Hashimoto Shinichi and Yamamoto Ikkei - I spent the entire stage going ‘Ask him Kogure! Ask him!! Tell him Ichijima! Tell him!!!’ but in the end Ichijima was like ‘you want to know if I’m your father? ... *whispers something inaudible* You are me’ 

And my reaction was:

Swear to god if he’s a genetically modified clone baby of Ichijima, I’m gunna punch the director in the face.

2017.09.06 Edit: Just realised I kind of didn’t talk about Kogure at all xD we got to see him being less stable and breaking down, after Ichijima kidnaps him and beats the living crap out of him, in this one which was great. I loved towards the end how hes’s like ‘I’m gunna find Ichijima and kill him’ so he’s been completely pissed off by Ichijima which was great to see! There’s also a scene towards the end where Ikkei helps him get to safety, but then both of them have the same thought of ‘fuck it’ and come running back ingot the theatre to help the other cadets. It’s going to be interesting seeing these two bond over their hatred for Ichijima. End Edit

And then we have Ikkei’s character who clearly has hate towards Ichijima and he’s not quite right in the head. He’s got a sadistic side to him; you can tell by the way he smiles when he fights. Unfortunately that’s all I picked up about him. I don’t know how he and Hashimoto will work as a pair BUT since both of them have beef with Ichijima and both hate Ichijima (bet they don’t hate him as much as I do!!!!!), I hope they do a double murder on Ichijima and then become like a badass anti-Sakura group...ooooh that would be fucking awesome! Rather than Terrorist-turns-Sakura (which we’ve seen before) it’d be great to see Sakura-turned-Terrorist group happen! I just really want Ichijima dead okay...

Otsuka Kousuke and Kotani Yoshikazu - this ended up being a pairing I was surprised to see and actually wanted. They were a good combination and Dr. Three just took all the crap and humour and jokes Kuroko had xD he even ended up joining in towards the end of the stage.

Kuroko... my precious Kuroko.... he had so much more comedy in this one! He hit so many of them with his slipper and it made amazing sounds and was very funny every time! He also ended up as acting leader of Sakura for a while which was awesome! I wish he’d stayed as the head... there was also a funny moment when Dr.Three tells him he has to become the boss (bosu) but all Kuroko hears is him being called ugly (busu) which was funny xD He also makes a joke of how tall the Tower of Babel is and says ‘that’s like 9000 Ichijima’s! It’s three times taller than skytree!’ But... I’m surprised we’re just going to ignore that he killed Misu-san though... it hasn’t affected him in Akatsuki OR this stage... I thought he’d be a bit... emotionally unstable but he was more energetic and fun as usual. But I do love Kuroko and he kept everyone entertained ^_^ another time he sniffs Ichijima’s jacket and is immediately like ‘umm... I’ll go wash it’ xD

Yamada James Takeshi and Miyagi Koudai -  Koudai really impressed me this stage. I’ve only ever seen him in Tenimyu and I knew he was playing a rather sexy guy in Brave10 and I knew he was in SSL but I haven’t seen either of those two, so I didn’t really have an opinion of him -- and in ALL honesty, I thought he was the same guy as the one who played Reiji in PuriSute... ANYWAY, I really liked his character in this! There’s any good things about him; he’s a good combination with James, I liked their interactions. His fighting style is both bad ass and sexy. He doesn’t use any weapons, just his fists and body and my oh my, did he use those legs to wrap himself around many of them... he was on top of quite a few of them some times too... it was real sexy... I think there was a part with him and Ikkei wrapped around each other and on the floor and rolled around and I was like ‘please do carry on’. I am very much looking forward to see more of his sexy fighting style xD Another thing about him is even though he’s in loads of layers, you can still see how TINY his waist is and his nice his body is! I knew he was on a diet for Brave10 but that’s finished so surely he’s been eating normally again, but still he has a wonderfully slim waist! I couldn’t not look. 

James was just as pretty as ever with that hair of his. And his face <3 so close, I got such a good look at him ^_^ I was surprised that his motivation this time around was to find his dad who was taken under Specter. I was even MORE surprised when he ends up offering and helping Sakura! WTF?! But we did get a few moments of Izawa and James fighting each other which I enjoyed obviously <3 such a shame we won’t see them two fight each other again =‘[ I’d pay just to have a stage of them fighting each other... I wonder who his dad turns out to be.... I’m sure it’ll get revealed and I’ll be excited to see!

But swear to god, they make Koudai and James the new Misu and Amane pair; I’m gunna punch the director in the face. Same goes for the new purple kids; if they become major roles and something similar to Amane and Misu; I’m gunna punch the scriptwriter in the face.

Araki Kentaro as Cheka - I was surprised how they brought him back! I thought he was going to be a flashback piece but turns out, he didn’t die in Akatsuki. Pretty sure he’s dead this time though, we saw him collapse this time around. He is a very sexy character and a very sexy man.... He did a great job. I can’t praise him enough.

Nishino Ryuta and Toyoshima Kyousuke - can we not? They were super pointless. Their story line was super ridiculous too. Their storyline was something like ‘they decided to run away from their terrorist group while still holding an important computer programme disc and get the protection of Sakura’. What the actual ********. We could just not have this plotline and the stage wouldn’t have suffered. Why.... WHY were they here?! And I almost lost my shit when Ichijima asked them if they wanted to join Sakura - I was like ‘PLEASE NO NEW CADETS!’ but they refused -- thank god. I hope they aren’t back in the next stage but they probs will be -__- they didn’t need to be in this. Them nor their storyline was needed..

Murata Mitsu - this guy is always amazing at whatever role he does. I was so happy to have him back in Messiah. But for GODSAKE. Can Ariga stop killing everyone he’s fucking paired with?!  Ariga killed his Messiah Mamiya. He almost killed Itsuki multiple times in this one. And he ended up killing his old friend Hangedman in this! What the actual fuck. Y’know Ariga, YOU’RE the one who needs to be shot and killed; NONE of the ones you killed! *breathes* sorry... Hangedman’s story ended up being somewhat very human and very real and sad and it kind of touched my heart and ended up liking him.... especially because there’s a cute, funny adlib/comedy scene between him and Ariga which melted my heart towards him (goddammit script writers! We’re supposed to hate him!), it was such a cute and good scene for them. 2017.09.06 EDIT: However, I am a little concerned and feel like this relationship was sloppy writing... Ariga has met Hangedman many times throughout the Messiah series but not once did he really seem to show he knew him nor imply or hint was even childhoods/best friends with him. Have I missed this point in a previous sage or did they really create this random relationship just solely for this stage and storyline? End EDIT

Nakahara Yuya - Ugh look who it is: Ichijima himself! First we get the mission to ‘Kill Ichijima’ came up, I was actually shocked; my mouth dropped down. But then he ended up being on the terrorist side and I was like ‘about FUCKING time this secret came out! I KNEW it!’ but then he does another switch-a-roo and IS actually on Sakura’s side and I was like ‘*flips table* FUCK this bullshit.’ because I have not once, not ever trusted Ichijima; it makes so much fucking sense for him to be on the bad side and for him to get killed by Sakura but oh no ‘hahaha just joking guys, I am really on Sakura’s side’ bullshit really pissed me off. AND THEN to make it worse he did that bullshit move to Kogure and THEN!! Ariga didn’t kill him! I gave the biggest fucking sigh and loads of people around me heard. I fucking want this tosspot dead asap! He should’ve been dead STAGES ago, but ‘due to popular demand’ the fuckers brought him back into Messiah! << I want punch the casting and director who made this decision. I’ve never liked him, he should die, he’s not a nice person, he’s manipulative as fuck, I HATE him. JUST DIE!

*takes a break*

*

EXTRAS

A gun went flying off stage tonight and some of them had to do finger guns because they were down a prop - seriously, how do you NOT have backups?! I’d have a whole stock of guns ready! During curtain call the first thing Sugie talked about was apologising for the gun falling of stage. It sounded like it didn’t hit or hurt anyone but they were very apologetic, but you could feel the whole room like ‘we really don’t care. Please don’t waste your time apologising. We don’t mind what happened,’ but obviously if it had been filming day, people would’ve been annoyed.

Also during curtain call, Izawa and Sugie both looked to the right at the same time and they both looked straight at me for a bit longer than they should’ve.... I was starting to feel the sweat xD

*

On the way home, I saw this guy with really nice hair in a bun and I immediately went “Araki?!... nah it won’t be... it can’t be.... *he turns to go down the stairs* HOLY SHIT IT IS ARAKI!! HE’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!! SHIIIIT I LOOK LIKE A STALKER!!! I LOOK VERY MUCH LIKE A STALKER!! I’M JUST GOING TO THE TRAIN STATION!!! WE’RE GOING TO THE SAME TRAIN STATION! OMG ARAKI!!!! ... be cool... be cool” I freaked the fuck out internally.

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Speaking of idiots I want to punch; I want to punch myself! WHY did I preorder the DVD?! Seriously, I just ant the backstage and extra bonus disc stuff. I really don’t care much for this stage -- I’m sure in time it’ll grown on me and grown in my brain but right now, I’m kinda okay with never seeing this stage again. This one is supposed to be my last Messiah stage anyway so, trying to push those ‘throw away’ feelings to the front xD

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There we go! My rather quick recap of Messiah xD I kinda wanted to get this out fairly quickly because, unlike most of my other reviews, Messiah is one that people actually read and want to know about.

[izawayuuki]

the ame stage staff tweeted a photo as well!

[genkinahito]

The Many Faces of Chika またの日の知華 (2005) Dir: Kazuo Hara, Producer/Writer: Sachiko Kobayashi

The Many Faces of Chika またの日の知華 (2005) Dir: Kazuo Hara, Producer/Writer: Sachiko Kobayashi @js_film_nyc

The Many Faces of Chika    またの日の知華 「Mata no Hi no Chika」 Release Date: January 05th 2005 Duration: 114 mins. Director: Kazuo Hara Producer: Sachiko Kobayashi Writer: Sachiko Kobayashi Starring: Takami Yoshimoto (Chika Chapter 1), Minoru Tanaka, Makiko Watanabe (Chika Chapter 2), Seiichi Tanabe, Kumija Kim (Chika Chapter 3), Yoshikazu Kotani, Kaori Momoi (Chika Chapter 4), Isao Natsuyagi, Toshie…

[melto]

new favorite movie literally go home if you arent docchi mo docchi (2014) starring kotani yoshikazu and tomita sho