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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.06.01 PuriStage Episode 5 [Review]

This is the final one, I think, I hope. And of course I went! Because I am trash and have an addiction problem that I can’t get over xD I really shouldn’t have but, I got a ticket so might as well go!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1 PreOrder DVD here Online Store here Previous Reviews of the Series: Episode One, Episode Two, Episode Three, Episode Four

CAST and CHARACTERS

Hounan Izaki Ryuujirou as Yagami Riku Aoki Jin as Fujiwara Takeru Matsunaga Arisa as Sakurai Nana Kumagai Kaito as Hozumi Kohinata Kishimoto Takuya as Hasekura Heath Shiraishi Kosuke as Kadowaki Ayumu Ayukawa Taiyou as Kuga Kyousuke Arai Yusuke as Dan Yujiro Mizukoshi Ayumi as Kawarazaki Riko

Saisei Hiramaki Jin as Suwa Reiji Kobayashi Ryo as Mayuzumi Shizuma

Mihashi Kanegae Kou as Kamoda Kei Sawada Takurou as Eifuku Takeshi Yokoyama Masafumi as Nagatsuka Nobuhiko

Ichijyoukan Murata Hisashi as Himemiya Yuri Tanabe Ken as Shishibara Kaoru Asegawa Kenta as Samejima Arata Matsumoto Yui as Hachiya Tetsu

Ichiba Murakami Wataru as Izumi Shinobu Taguchi Ryo as Tomaru Kansuke Iwase Koki as Masunari Ikki

Tsubakimachi Suga Masanori as Minato Shugo Nakamura Tarou as Sata Kazuki Kurosaki Reon as Shizuno Makoto

Kakyouin Kitamura Kento as Yagami Tomoe Harano Masaki as Natsunagi Toya Maruyama Nao as Izumino Hajime Ohashi Noryuki as Izumino Ryo Masuda Yuki as Sakurai Joe

OTHER Kobayashi Shuuji as Piece of shit DJ Stride HAYATE as Isurugi Isamu

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was so much better than (at least) the last one (Episode 4)! This was so much more enjoyable and interesting and just a lot of fun to watch! I almost didn’t go this time because while I love the anime and I was super hyped for the stage series, it’s always been pretty forgettable to me. So I nearly didn’t go because whats the point when I keep getting disappointed and none of my oshis are in it but... my fav character was back, Himemiya, I have this huge crush on Hiramaki Jin still, and he’s back this time around by some miracle(!), and we knew it was going to be a completely different story so I was interested in seeing something I couldn’t have expectations for but was with a cast/characters I liked. So I went...

Also every time I’ve had freaking amazing seats. Episode 1: row 5, Episode 2: 10th row, aisle, Episode 3: 11th row aisle, 4th row: 11th row left side and this time: 7th row aisle. You can’t give up luck like that, can you?! And the seat alone is a big enough reason to say this time was so much better! Because of my seat, I had Hiramaki Jin RIGHT behind me. I had Kanegae’s butt right in my face. I have Aoki Jin run past me so fast. I had Izaki run past me and my hair just blew back. During curtain call I’m pretty sure KishiTaku spotted and remembered me and he got this amused smile on his face and wouldn’t look away (I was in my seat WISHING a kankeisha was behind me but I knew there wasn’t). Everyone outside of the stage/story itself was such a good experience. And can I just remind everyone how amazing the pre-show music is?! I freaking love it! Just let me sit in that theatre for 2 hours listening to that pre-show music please!! Or give me a gosh darn CD! xD Then the story itself; it was so interesting! I LOVE what they did and the character dynamics! It was sooooooo good! This stage allowed the lesser ‘important’ characters to develop and show their personalities which was nice. And then the stunts!! Again, please like Aoki Jin just stood out. It was a LOT more obvious this time who had kept up with their training and who hadn’t which made those that had carried on, stand out and look even more amazing -- although I was relieved to see Izaki’s knee muscles had softened a little. And we had freaking Hayate who did (what I think) is the most dangerous stunt of them all and you literally heard the entirety of the audience shit themselves and gasp. It was amazing. OH! The length this time was just right! It’s 2 hours and 20 minutes! I remember being so pissed when episode 4 came about and it was like less than 2 hours (turns out it was supposed to be 2 hours and 10 minutes) and no break. HOW CAN A FINALE BE THE SHORTEST ONE?! Anyway... this was the perfect length for them this time I think - especially because this one is a stand alone story. The character development was really good too! Especially Riku and his brother. And the other school’s members development too was great! I was so emotionally involved this time around that I was crying at the end at a few parts! This was just SO MUCH BETTER! If they’re gunna keep doing PuriStage like THIS one then please, bring out 5 more and I’ll definitely go! My literally only one (new) complaint is the ending. But that’s spoilers so I’ll talk about that later. My complaints about DJ Stride and Nana still stand though. OH! And the AfterTalk was so much fun too! Rating: 7.5/10

SPOILER REVIEW

STORY

So certain members of each school have been selected to join the EAST JAPAN national(?) team, obviously this causes the not-selected team members to either be pissed, get hurt, feel jealous or feel left out, which leads them to create their own rival team: vs East Japan. And so these two teams compete to see who really deserves to be given professional Stride opportunities. Meanwhile, Tomoe gives up Stride so he can take over and continue the family bakery, stating he doesn’t want to do Stride anymore.

That’s the bare basics of this story and that is all you really need to know about the story because it focuses very heavily on everyone’s relationships. Suddenly teams are getting broken apart because one or two of them have been picked for this national team which means they can’t go to their school’s training etc. On top of that, because of the rival team, old team mates are now competing against each other so it’s like “I want to beat you but I still want to be your friend after all this” which causes tension. There’s also tension WITHIN the groups themselves. They ALL used to be rivals and now they have to start working together as a team?! Course that ain’t gunna go so smoothly! The story is just SO damn good! I absolutely loved that the teams mixed and they had to start working together and the conflicts and problems that arised within and between the two groups/teams were so great!!! It got even more juicy when the school members would be AGAINST each other in the races! My favourite was definitely Himemiya versus Hachiya! Oh my emotions... they kept/keep ALL the ‘versus’ pairings a secret until you actually see the stage so they were all surprises to us, which I loved! Although I know my friend said she would’ve preferred it if she’d known about who was racing who BEFORE the show. But personally I think that would’ve ruined a few things such as who’s on who’s team and things. Other pairings like Riku vs Takeru were blatantly obvious they were going to happen so I still stand by that I agree with Trifle for not revealing the teams and rival pairings beforehand.

A huge plus this time around, as stated above, was the fact it was an original story. So while we all knew these characters and we liked them, we were getting something different, something exciting, something we didn’t technically know (maybe this story is part of the game? But from the way they kept the pairing and the pairing bromides a secret makes me think it was an original story for the stage), and because of the story splitting the teams up, we could get some less known characters or less popular characters into the spotlight, or we could get more character development from others. It definitely felt like Hounan was the less interesting and less main this time around which was great and we could focus on others. Even though Riku and Hounan are technically still the main focus, I felt this stage gave them less time and more time to others. Which, me being bias towards others, was a godsend! We like how we spent more time with Takeru rather than Riku this time too and we got to see more of his development and his struggle and I felt he was more relate-able this time around.

The main character development I was happy about was the rift that occurs within Ichijyoukan. We have Himemiya and Shishibara being picked for the EAST JAPAN team while Samejima and Hachiya have been left behind and join the Versus team. And then, as said before, it gets even more juicy when Hachiya and Himemiya go head-to-head; you can see how much Hachiya respects and loves Himemiya and I love how no matter what happens in the race, it isn’t going to cause bad blood between them. And there’s this BEAUTIFUL scene towards the end when Himemiya has been chosen to go further in the EAST JAPAN selection series while the other three are being left behind and they got him a signed Ichijyoukan towel and it seems like he isn’t interest but then (I’m going to tear up thinking about it!) he swings the towel behind him and wears it almost like a flag around him and I just got so emotional - Himemiya is a little shit but you can tell he cares for his teammates, he appreciates them, he supports them even though it looks like all he focuses on is winning.... ahhh my heart!!

Also, with this shift in character/team focus, some lesser appreciated characters got more love. The three that caught my eye were Natsunagi Toya, Tomaru Kansuke and Kamoda Kei. And what got me cracking up part way through about these characters/cast most of all was that I couldn’t help they all felt like my friends’-oshis and when I spoke to my friends after they were like ‘yup that’s one of mine’ xD BUT I love how much more time they got! I’ve always liked Natsunagi and his actor - I’ve always thought he was totally adorable in the anime and the actor himself looks totally adorable, in fact he reminds me of someone.... the Yamanaka twins maybe? -- and he got more time in this which was so nice! Then we had Taguchi/Tomaru (by the way, his picture on the PuriStage site does not do him justice, he looks MUCH cuter in real life) and he has some issues to work through this time around and he takes his anger out on people and for quite a while he has a lot of frustration and he’s upset about the whole EAST JAPAN and not being chosen for it etc. I think his yelling scene was very well done and it shows just how little hope he has even though he’s good enough to be in the Versus group. And then we had Kamoda; it DID help I got that moment where he butt was right in front of my face but this time around he just seemed much more interesting to me and he’s cute so can you blame me?!

As for the new people... there were 5:

Matsunaga Arisa as Sakurai Nana Team Tsubakimachi: Suga Masanori as Minato Shugo, Nakamura Tarou as Sata Kazuki and Kurosaki Reon as Shizuno Makoto. HAYATE as Isurugi Isamu

We all know, I don’t give a shit about Nana, you can take her out completely and I’d be more satisfied. I GET why she is so predominate in the main story, I GET IT but I just don’t want her in it. She annoys me, she’s not exactly interesting, she’s only in it because of her father (yes I went there), just no thank you. Don’t care how many times you change the actress. Just leave. Yes the actresses are very nice and very sweet and I like actresses who’ve played her. I just don’t like Nana. MOVE ALONG.

Ah man Tsubakimachi.... I HATED these guys!! Well two of them. As soon as they came onstage I fucking hated Shizuno Makoto - this bratty arrogant cock head. And just UGH go die Minato Shugo; his hair is TOO anime and annoying as fuck and oh my god, don’t get me started on his voice. Maybe like 10 years ago I would’ve like the stereotypical ‘hair covering eyes and a soft voice’ character but now they just ANNOY me. UGH....

BUT SATA KAZUKI! OH MY! I LOVED THIS BOY STRAIGHT AWAY!!! And the actor Tarou too! His so tall and lean and he’s a good mixture of competitive and devoted but also a little shit. I love how we have the backstory of Kata and Takeru used to be in the same Stride group and Kata bullied him because naturally my brain goes ‘SEXUAL TENSION!!!’ and just... Kata is sexy and mean and great okay!! He doesn’t go overboard like Izumi-mean (if you catch my EnStar/EnStage reference there) in terms of bullying but OH! Did I mention he’s sexy?! I looooooooooved him and he has the whole jacket falling off one shoulder that just so sexy.... ohmyyyyy. But his two team mates are fuckheads okay.

I really want to see Kata and Takeru go head to head. Can we have a spin off which them in middle school and see what it was like? Or should I just go and doujinshi that shit?

So lets just have some appreciation for ALL the non-Hounan guys that entertained me and that I loved in Episode 5

HAYATE! Oh my Hayate is the BOMB! We all know people like Aoki Jin are really talented and good at the stuff in PuriStage but holy fuck, this old man is LEAGUES above everyone else. It never registered with me before but he did ALL the choreography and parcour training for these boys in PuriStage! He did it ALL! And you can tell why! Holy shit... he was doing his own stunts! He was JUMPING OFF the top platforms and onto the floor and it was so flawless and so freaking amazing and he’d doing it while HOLDING ONTO HIS HAT! Like straight away the ability level is way above everyone else. And then he has one scene where he’s training EAST JAPAN team (he’s in charge of them) and he asks what would be the best way to get over this one course; so three of the boys give three different ways and he’s like ‘you’re all right but slow so y’all wrong’ and he proceeds to show them the right way and he literally jumps ONTO A BAR! THE BAR IS LIKE 7+ FEET IN THE AIR. HE JUMPS ON THIS BAR WITH ONE FOOT and has enough power to jump onto a different platform! WHAT THE FUCK?!!? This was the moment that audience absolutely SHIT themselves. There were actual gasps during this moment and the entire room got tense and it was crazy. I’ll be replaying the SHIT out of that scene when it’s on DVD. Seriously, MY explanation is not giving it justice. He JUMPED from a 7+ ft platform onto a SINGLE BAR and onto another 5 ft high platform... WTF?!?!?!? Aoki Jin, you’re good but Hayate clearly showed how superior he is to everyone there for this sport that isn’t even real xD

Can you clearly see how much more I enjoyed this episode?! It took 4 stages (like 8 hours of wasted time... more like 13 if you include goods lines and stuff haha) but we got to a part that was just soooo juicy and gooooddd!! Seriously, PuriStage can continue their series so long as they continue doing things like this; original plot lines, other school focuses, mixed up competitions etc. YES!

And how could I forget to talk about my beloved Hiramaki Jin <3 I was a little worried partway through the show because in the beginning in the opening he was running around the stage just like everyone else but then in the actual play himself, he and Kobayashi were in their uniforms. BUT in the second half they turn up in EAST JAPAN and Jin runs in the final EAST JAPAN versus VS EAST JAPAN match. Kobayashi explains that Jin/Reiji does actually want this and so they cancelled their live for Reiji -- which is the sweetest thing ever!!! So Jin ran in the last race and of course looked great! But before the match he came into the audience area and he was right behind me and I just couldn’t stop looking. He’s so pretty and I’m so glad he was back this time around *cries* I understand why these two spent so much time out of the main story and why they were in it this time; one is to create mystery ‘why they in it if they ain’t going to race?’, another is because they’re damn popular characters you have to have them, another is the actors themselves almost always work with Trifle now so clearly they have a good relationship with the cast, staff and crew so they probably got asked if they wanted to return and did so, another reason is that these guys are much older than the other cast so in order to keep them safe and not over-worked they didn’t give them big whole chunks of Stride-ing. We don’t want wonderful actors like Jin and Kobayashi and KishiTaku getting hurt do we! We leads me actually TO KishiTaku! He also spent a lot of time NOT Stride-ing this time around and again I get it’s because of his age; he still did a damn good job when he DID Stride, just like Jin did, but they convenietly brought back in ‘Heath your injury is bad again isn’t it?’ in order to keep KishiTaku from stretching himself too far. I get all these reasons why they did what they did.

PS. No way am I complaining, I just felt the need to explain to those who maybe see the DVD and love one of these actors or characters and question ‘well what’s the point if they ain’t doing Stride?’ so here you go.

Ahhh Jin....

But Alex, what about the main guys?! Okay... I guess I’ll talk about them...

So the main part of the main characters/school this time is Riku and Tomoe’s relationship, and Riku’s character development (because isn’t it always *yawn* he’s so immature and I feel he never really develops). Riku is obviously hurt that Takeru got picked over him to be in EAST JAPAN so he has some hurt feelings towards the team and towards himself rather than Takeru - which is good - and he wonders why he was not good enough. Then we have the Tomoe plot line; he gives up Stride in order to help at the bakery because their father is ill. While Tomoe explains that he’s in his final year, he can’t do Stride forever and he always planned on taking over the store anyway, so might as well leave now before he gets scouted for EAST JAPAN or something. And stupid Riku takes it from face value and believes Tomoe!! What an idiot! But slowly, people like Heath go to his shop and ask ‘is this really what you want?’ and we also have Taiyou’s voice as NAME HERE calling from America (which is why he isn’t here this time) and telling him ‘the three of us should race together again’ so Tomoe starts to face his real feelings again. There is this beautiful moment towards the end where he gets back into his Stride gear and he’s racing and he finally admits and yells ‘I WANT TO DO STRIDE’ and I was so emotionally involved with him by that point that I was just streaming!

Some other scenes that I love were just so ridiculous and cracked me up. I love how the banana joked carried on from the previous stages in this one and we had one of the PURPLE GUYS taking the banana and eating a massive chunk of it in one go xD Also we had the twins from THE OHTER SCHOOL who had the weirdest warming up stretches and stuff and 50% of the audience were too busy watching and laughing at them rather than paying attention to the slightly serious topics going on between the rest of the EAST JAPAN members xD and sometimes one of the characters would point out and go ‘what the fuck are they doing?! Do you see this?!’ which was hilarious!

I loved the ending when GLASSES GUY was crying and acting like a mother watching her son go to war with the whole handkerchief in hand and waving pose xD speaking of the ending; I didn’t like it. I really like how Takeru is the only one to get picked to go the international races and he’s about to go and Nana and Riku are like ‘don’t worry, we’ll see you there next year’ which was beautiful BUT THEN THEY HAD TO RUIN IT and Dan-sensei gets a call and they’re requesting at Riku and Nana join the team too so they don’t have to wait a year and I thought it completely ruined it. WHY?! WHY?!?!? It was perfect and mature of them being okay with Takeru going off on his own, WHY did you have to.... anime-cliche it and allow the others to go too?! OHHHH I really hate this ending. WHY?!

Unfortunately we’re finishing on a negative here ^^^^ but in general I really, really enjoyed this installment! So much better then episode 4 for definite, so much better than the main story. I really loved this one! I kinda of hope we will get another but judging from tweets and stuff, it sounds like this really was the last one -- at least with this cast... but time will tell.

I am sooooooooo behind as usual, even though I only had two plays this month! I had an entire month to catch up and I just didn’t! I SUCK! I’m sorry. And July... holy shit July is fucking crazy.... prepare yourselves for THAT schedule.

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