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sambart93 · 7 years ago

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2017.10.26-27 K: Missing Kings Stage - Review!

I was super duper lucky enough to go to this three times! As you may know, Hide got injured the second day of K Stage in Kyoto so for Tokyo his had a body-double, but that didn’t stop me from being any less excited as fuck for this! I was a little unsure of how the next cast would fair beforehand, - especially Natsuki and Kido (UGH KIDO...) - but anyway lets start going in order...

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Video Coverage 1, 2 PreOrder DVD/BR here, here and here

CAST and CHARACTERS

Aramaki Yoshihiko as Kuro Shiba Konona as Neko Ueda Kandai as Suo Mikoto Isobe Karin as Anna Juri as Kusanaga Izumo Ueda Keisuke as Yata Misaki Maeyama Takahisa as Totsuka Tatara Nakao Kenya as Kamamoto Rikio Ono Kento as Munakata Reiji Marimura Kaoru as Awashima Seri Kido Yuya as Fushimi Saruhiko Osaki Natsuki as Shiro Koyama Momoyo as Kukuri Sasaki Yoshihide / Moritoki as Mishakuji Yukari Ensemble: Hinata Akihisa, Yoshida Yuuki, Murakami Wataru, Ayagiri Takuya, Kakoi Ryota, Shinzawa Tensho, Takashi Yukiya and Masuda Tomohiko

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: If we ignore how bad of an actor Kido is, and how damn short this play is (even though it’s 8000yen a ticket), and the fact that the first 30 minutes is a damn boring waste of a digest of the first two stages; this play is so good! The project mapping was spectacular, the music - as always - superb, the choreography and the fight scenes were so, so good and complex and so fast paced; I fell in LOVE with Moritoki (Hide’s body double) straight away; badass as fuuuck. He did AMAZING! I cried at this stage at least two or three different times throughout one showing; I LOVE the new Shiro!! The new Neko is adorable too! They were so faithful to the movie also, and the scenes they did extend were done very well! It’s a shame they didn’t bring back Idol K for this stage though (it was in the third one). Rating: 8/10

SPOILER REVIEW

My tickets were weird. I went from bad seat to alright seat to the best seat. Even though my best seat was my biggest gamble - it was a MiKire seat which means there’s a chance you’ll get a seat which blocks part of the stage but it ended up being 4th fucking row! It was SUCH a good seat! My seating went: 26th: 3rd Floor, First row, center right. 27th: First Floor, 2nd to last row, first seat on the left. AND First floor, 4th Row, First seat on the left. I had amazing views every single time! I am so happy with how well I got to see everything, as well as the fact I got to see it three damn time ^_^

Anyway you’re all here to hear about the play right?! Lets go!

As I said previously in the non-spoiler section; the stage follows the film faithfully; it’s almost an exact copy of the movie. But to make the time longer, they extended a few scenes and/or added higawari scenes too. They extended the Yukari/Kuro flashback scene a little more with Kuro and their master actually talking to Yukari in the flashback.

They also extended the Yata birthday flashback and added a higawari into it where Yata has to flip his skateboard. So here’s that information:

26th - Night Show: UeChan failed the first flip but succeeded on the second one. But after the first one, the skateboard almost slipped off-stage which was a little scary. 27th - Afternoon Show: Took him two attempts again, but before he tried it the second time, the rest of Red Gang were egging him on like ‘you can do it! You can do it!’ and UeChan was like ‘SHUT UP! I can’t concentrate!’. 27th - Evening Show: UeChan got really nervous before even his first flip and Kusanaga was like ‘calm down. It’s okay!’ and UeChan went ‘shhh! .. If I do this.. it’ll be sunny tomorrow,’ and then he managed to do the flip perfectly the first time and yelled ‘TOMORROW THERE WILL BE SUN!’ xD so cute.

I really love this scene because we get really involved, both audience and cast. We get to clap when Yata gets his skateboard present and we all clapped when he succeeded in the flip, then we all clapped and sang when they did Happy Birthday for Yata - it was so good!

Also, before the show began, two of the Spector guys would do the Rules and Welcome message. But every time it was a little different. The first show one of them dropped his sword, perfectly timed, and Awashima and Fushimi walked on stage and looked at him in disgust before leaving xD And then the third show I saw he went ‘there is no Idol K... let me repeat... No Idol K...’ so clearly fans had been complaining in the anketto/questionnaire about there being no Idol K -- glad I’m not alone with that.

I want to split this review into good and bad things about this stage and then go in-depth on some points...

GOODS POINTS: Lighting, projection mapping, music, action scenes, action choreography, higawaris, comedy scenes, the body double, the new cast, the costumes, the serious/comedy balance, they extended the Kuro/Yukari and the Yata flashback scenes a little.

For some reason - maybe because it was my first time seeing K in real life - but I felt the lighting this time was so on-point and so great! We had all these flashes and some really funky lighting sequences going on; I also love the red/purple/blue they have going on when characters are on stage - they’ve had that in previous stages too - but I fell like this time, the lighting was so much more of an apparent character! I wonder how well it’ll show up on DVD though...

While the fight scenes are technically rather short - shorter than what I was expecting -, the choreography is actually phenomenal. I didn’t realise the first time around but upon my second and third, I realised just how FAST PACED the fight scenes are; especially the final one between Kuro and Yukari; it’s a short scene (technically) but the pace at which they fight and twirl and run up and down steps.

Seriously, I can totally understand HOW Hide got injured when the pacing of the fight is THAT fast, it’s so easy to miss the stairs and fall up them or land wrong as you spin around, or accidentally clashing into MakiChan because you lost your balance a little; I totally get HOW Hide could’ve gotten injured in this stage - the speed is just out of this world for most of the fight scenes. A lot of jumping up steps too during the fight scenes! Even with UeChan’s fight scenes he jumped up and down stairs! So he could’ve been easily injured too!

Lets ignore the unfortunate outcomes of the fight scenes for a moment to go back and being more positive: The fight scenes are SO good in this one! I really, really, really love the big fight scene between Kuro and Yukari so much and how they incorporated the projection mapping to make it look like they jumping between buildings and flying through the air and Kuro trying to hang onto the edge of a windowsill and stuff! So great! Also freaking MakiChan doing a one handed cartwheel in the middle of one of his fight scenes! I didn’t realise the first time but the second time I realised he used only one hand! I don’t think even I can do that anymore!! I didn’t think he was any-acrobatically-inclined but clearly he can do some basics which really impressed me! I kinda want to challenge him during his next fan event now; try a cartwheel, try the splits, can you do a handstand etc. xD

Technically not a fight scene but when Neko uses her Trick Magic and we have the projection mapping which shows the giant cats she created attacking the bad guys and barging through the halls - so good!

Sticking to the Project Mapping: I love how they introduced Anna’s dream scene! They have a short clip of Anna waking up in this pristine white bed and then getting up and walking towards the camera; which we then go back to what’s actually happening on stage. Karin (Anna) is so beautiful in that clip <3 is that creepy? I like seeing her wake up face? xD

Going onto some comedy scenes: the comedy in this is SO up my street! I was giggling and laughing so hard at times! A few scenes that stick out to me are:

1. The Ninja Scene between Muna (Ono) and Saru (Kido): they have video evidence of someone who can go through walls stealing Anna and Muna’s automatic response is ‘this is a ninja!’, about three or four times Saru tries to correct him and tell him it’s not a ninja but Muna is so set on calling this guy a ninja that Saru gives up. It was so well done and the fact that Ono keeps a straight face and all calm as he’s like ‘this ninja is something! NINJA!’ is what makes it even more hilarious.

2. Another scene is between Kuro and Yata when they meet inside the infiltrated, Green Clan over-taken building and they started aruging and end up rubbing and pushing their heads against each other’s - I thought it was funny every single time. I can just imagine MakiChan and UeChan having so much fun internally with this scene**

3. I also loved the main fighting scene for Yata but he grabs one of the Green Clan members by the jacket and it unzips and reveals a woman’s chest and bra and he freaks out and runs to the other end of the stage going ‘ARGH! WOMAN!!!’ xD Also later in the stage when it’s revealed that the “ninja” is actually a woman too, he freaks out again and almost hides behind Kuro and grabs onto Kuro’s arm! It’s totally amusing AND adorable at the same time! I wonder why Yata is ‘afraid’ of girls xD or he just doesn’t like the thought of fighting a woman? We’ll see xD

4. We get a SUPER hilarious moment from Kuro after he and Yata stop fighting and Kuro plays a recording of his master and he gets SUPER fangirly and actually full on squeals - literally like a ‘KYAAA!!’ type squeal - it’s fucking hilarious! I legit think UeChan does partially crack up laughing every time MakiChan does that moment! It’s so good! Cannot wait to plaster it ALL OVER THE INTERNET when the DVD comes out! xD

So there’s some comedy teasers for you to look forward to!

Now onto:

BAD POINTS: Kido, 30 mins digest is a waste of time, too short, the flashback scenes still could’ve been extended, Kandai’s voice.

I don’t want to spend too much on the negative points so I’ll get through them quickly. Kido keeps being cast as if Marvelous has decided ‘guys this is Suzuki Hiroki’s replacement’ which really pisses me off. I’ve never been impressed with his acting; I don’t think he’s particularly good. And Marv isn’t helping him by giving him shoes he very clearly cannot fill. He’s an atrocious Arakita (Yowamushi Pedal) - he just looks like he’s trying way too hard to match the version of Arakita Suzuki made -, and he’s the exact same here; he’s not made Saruhiko his own; it just looks like he’s watched Suzuki (and Anzai)’s performances as Saruhiko and copied those. It’s so cringey. Please get him replaced asap and start giving him roles he can actually do instead of hiring him for every role Suzuki USED to do. That 30 minute digest at the beginning of the stage man - what a waste of time. When the two Scepter guys explained at the opening that there’s a 30 minute digest, I legit automatically blurted out ‘30 MINUTES?!’ seriously, it’s boring as fuck. No real fan in their right mind would go to the 4TH STAGE of a stage series without A. watching the previous stages, or B. watching the anime or original format of the story, or C. researching what the hell it’s all about beforehand. Any fan who DOES go into a stage series that’s well into it’s counts without researching or spending a little time to get to know it is stupid as fuck and doesn’t deserve to be at that stage! I think it’s actually insulting to fans (and a waste of time) that they thought it was a good idea to ‘explain what happened in the previous stage’ -- we’re 2.5 fans! WE ALL BLOODY REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED! Hell some of us rewatched the stages AND the Missing Kings movie the day BEFORE we went to the freaking show! I cannot express enough what a boring 30 minutes it was every. damn. time. Such a waste of 30 minutes. Which leads to my next point: TOO SHORT! Take the 30 minutes out and you’ve got a 1hr15 play! What the actual fuck?! You’re telling me you couldn’t extend the movie past it’s original runtime?! Fuck off. You could’ve done so much with this stage! You could’ve EVEN , instead of a digest, thrown in flashbacks WITHIN and THROUGHOUT the stage itself - you did it easily with Yata’s birthday flashback/video so why not do it a further 2 or 3 times too?! It’s not difficult! You could've brought Idol K back - which clearly fans were annoyed was NOT back after the third stage. You could’ve extended the fight scenes (instead of making them so fast paced and technically). You could’ve added extra scenes, made scenes up, made some more character development scenes - like scenes of Kuro and Neko searching more for Shiro before Anna turns up, or showed more of Yata struggling to get by in life now that the Red Clan has broken up, or made a really good reuinion scene between Yata and Fushimi, you literally could’ve just added a bit more information that the movie doesn’t - K Project is well known for not fully explaining and/or being confusing, but the stages have done a damn good job of making things much clearer, so you could’ve done that! Maybe show more flashbacks between Kuro and Yukari to show just how deep their ‘brotherly’ love went. Hell, even extend the Anna finally seeing Totsuka and Mikoto again because that was way too short in the stage. It would’ve been so easy to extend this stage and stuff have it fun, enjoyable, meaningful and not feel like a massive waste of time. This stage is 8000yen a ticket and you’re not going to give me AT LEAST 2 hours of stage time? What a rip off! I am so very much pissed about how damn short this stage is. Final one is Kandai’s voice as Mikoto; it really grated on it; it was like this ‘I’m so lazy I can’t even be arsed talking’ mumble and it was super annoying and super difficult to hear; it almost sounded like his mic was HALF the volume of everyone else’s because it was so difficult to understand what he was lazily mumbling out most of the time.

OKAY BACK TO FUN STUFF!

Scenes I Want to Mention/Comment

There was only one good thing about the digest: all the hugging and holding. We had Fushimi holding a collapsed Yata, Muna holding a dead Mikoto and I think we had Kuro holding Shiro. Also when I was on the third balcony, the re-enacted the whole Muna getting ontop of Mikoto scene and from my seat, it looked like they were kissing which made me excited xD silly brain >.<

I think I already lightly mentioned but, I cried so hard at Anna’s dream scene every single time! She’s just so adorable and when she sees Mikoto, she runs into his arms and he hugs her and it’s just so beautiful *cries* also I love Karin so freaking much!

Moritoki always got the biggest applause every damn time and he bloody deserves it! The audience had so much love and respect for him!

Acting Points

I’ll mainly be commenting on the new cast.

Shiba Konona as Neko: I’m going to be honest, Neko is a character who, if ever given the one in a billion chance, I would love to actually play her on stage. I’ve always liked Neko and I love her relationship with Shiro and Kuro and I love her mysterious and strange powers and just how much she pisse Kuro off in an adorable way, as well as her positivity even when the world is going to shit around them. Having said that, I really like the new actress they got for Neko this time so I expect to see her next time around! But yes,Marv, if you want a legit WHITE cat -- pick me! I’m not cute but I certainly want the role >.<

Nakao Kenya as Kamamoto Rikio: I really liked him as Rikio and I hope he continues in this series. He had a few higawaris which were great! There’s one scene where Rikio explains how he used to be fat but down he’s lost his appetite as well as weight since Mikoto was killed and at the end he always has thi little change in his words. I don’t remember what he said the first show but on the 27th (when I realised it was an higawari/adlibs) shows; the afternoon he said ‘sexy’ which people were too busy laughing from the previous joke to really hear, but in the night show he did this huge ‘WAOH!’ and even MakiChan cracked up laughing along with the rest of the crowd; it got a huge result! His clumsy, cute fight scene was nice too!

Osaki Natsuki as Shiro: He was/is totally Shiro! I was watching him and was like ‘I actually don’t remember Ryo’s Shiro at all.’ I sat there racking my brain trying to remember Ryo’s Shiro and I literally couldn’t imagine it. I just imagined ‘well he’d just look like..Ryo’, but Natsuki actually makes me think ‘hey there’s Shiro!’ rather than ‘oh that’s Ryo playing Shiro.’ And to be honest, Ryo only played Shiro once right (we don’t include the video he had in Lost Small World)?! And I don’t think any of us remember the first Shiro at all - I certainly don’t. But I am SO down for Natsuki as Shiro! I can’t wait for him in the next stage where we get to see Shiro much more! Natsuki did so good at being evil and being crazy, and then able to shift to this ‘omg what is happening! I’m scared of myself’ Shiro. He had a scale of emotions to work with in this one - especially because of the digest - and he did brilliant! Sometimes I was reminded of Nazuna (his character in Ensemble Stars) but that’s only natural because he’s using his natural voice in both stages. really liked his final scene in this stage too! And his outfit in the final stage is gorgeous.

More Show Differences and Curtain Calls

I already mentioned the Yata Birthday scene differences but now here are some other, either scene differences or mistakes that I noticed/remembered:

26th

During the curtain call both Moritoki and Hide did greetings. Moritoki cried during his speech and explained how he’s not an actor and when he came on-board he would work from like 5am til midnight learning the lines and learning the fight scenes. MakiChan spent a lot of his time with Moritoki too which Moritoki said he was super thankful for that MakiChan spent so much time and late nights with him.

Towards the end MakiChan just had to lighten the mood by messing up his ending speech and UeChan next to him just cracked up laughing.

27th Afternoon

Unfortunately, Moritoki slipped a little during one of his fight scenes but very quickly recovered.

Also TokiEntertainment’s (MakiChan’s Ent Biz) Shachou was there! he was about 10 seats down from me! I freaked. Of course me and Shachou would go on the same day! xD

There’s another higawari where Kusanaga and Awashima are in the foreground and are on ‘pause’ while Muna and Fushimi talk; at the end of this conversation Muna asks Fushimi to join him in a doing his puzzle but Fushimi rejects him and walks off, and every time when we went back to Awa/Kusa’s scene, Kusa would start by commenting on Fushimi. During this show he said ‘I think he’s bad at puzzles (that’s why he doesn’t want to do them)’ xD

No greeting during the curtain call, but at the end UeChan and Kido were laughing hard because MakiChan messed up like three times during curtain call and even though UeChan was alughing harder, MakiChan slapped Kido against his chest and Kido looked shocked and asssaulted >.< everyone was laughing at him xD such a good moment!

27th Night

The reply from Kusa this show was ‘BUT puzzles are good!’ xD

No greeting again from anyone, but during the curtain call, MakiChan didn’t mess up this time! UeChan was so shocked which caused us all to laugh at MakiChan yet again.

GOODS

Everyone wanted freaking MakiChan/Kuro again which was a total pain -__- but getting Shiro was so freaking easy >.<

Also the pamphlet has some freaking GORGEOUS pics! Lets appreciate them for a moment:

MISC

K-Stage had some really bad luck this year; first we had Hide’s accident and then it turns out; apparently on the last day; MakiChan almost collapsed from either low blood-sugar or anemia. Also UeChan got injured and apparently he had to have two stitches near/next to his eye; he’s been wearing an eye patch too the past couple of days. I hope he feels better soon! Also MakiChan spent the Monday after K-Stage finished in bed all day with a fever >.< I keep telling these boys to take some fucking time off but they just won’t! -_- *sigh*

BUT Ending on a positive:

Both MakiChan and UeChan had streams the Monday/Tuesday after K-Stage properly finished and both of them talked about how they ended up kissing each other twice! Apparently the conversation was something like ‘if I have to kiss someone for a stage. No problem. Doesn’t mean anything’ and then the other was like ‘well I can do it too!’ hence all the kisses between them. ALL the fans went freaking wild! xD MakiChan was super drunk when he told us and after he finished the story he went ‘what the hell am I talking about?! Let’s move on!’ xD also UeChan apparently (I only watched MakiChan’s stream) said at the end of the story something like ‘what is with the TokiEnta Boys and kissing?!’ because last year TakaChan (Takasaki Shouta) got drunk and kissed UeChan on video xD It’s a pretty easy video/screenshot to find.**

And that’s all! I really wanted this stage DVD ASAP! XD It was so good!