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[bleachbleachbleach]

What do the Hanbantai Players think of Soul SocieTV? Do they jump on the bandwagon, or are they devoted to the ephemerality of improvisational theater? Or is there, like, a schism? In the true spirit of NPR, I'll take my question off the air.

They are very against SoulSocieTV, and especially against the single-camera "History of Soul Society" puppet show program, which they've decried as "soulless and derivative" ("soulless" traditionally being the worst insult one might offer in Soul Society, though the conventions of rhetoric suggest that here "derivative" is even worse).

There are two primary reasons for this:

1. They are devoted to the ephemerality of improvisational theater. More specifically, they believe that a story belongs to the actor, the audience, and the moment. For instance, there's a popular tale called the Fishgourd Princess, which is about a fishgourd princess. But what a fishgourd even is depends a lot on who's telling it and where, and what feedback the audience has offered. The details of the princess's life are entirely up for grabs. The unifying feature of all the fishgourd tales, in their many variations, is that the ending must always affirm 1) the divine rights of monarchy, and 2) the importance of watersheds.

There are stories where the facts are a bit more important ("a bit" doing a lot of legwork), such as the historical play descriptively titled "A Society of Souls," but even these vary tremendously in terms of length and emphasis, depending on which facets of the history are most relevant to all involved parties.

The most important thing to remember here is that the Hanbantai Players manage to have all the descriptive features of high art and long folkloric tradition while simultaneously being the worst band of thespians and dramaturges unknown to man and gods alike.

2. The second reason, simply put, is that they've seen the Soul SocieTV puppet show, and it looked bad. A bunch of weirdos in costumes, fumbling the movements of their arms and feet? Muffled voices shouting lines past each other? Meandering, hokey deluges masquerading as epic??

That is, they see themselves in the Soul SocieTV puppet show, even if they don't realize that's what they're seeing. Because that's not what it feels like, when they're devising these plays--it's real and embodied, almost like you have become your puppet. That's not what the stage looks like, from behind those masks. It's like hearing your own voice on a recording and hating it, because that's not what you sound like to you. And that can't possibly be how they look to their own audiences, can it? It can't, can it? At the very least, it's different in that no TV can breathe so close to a distrustful young child that is bangs flutter, can loom in ways that make art from shadows on his face, because his sister has made him home to the stupid puppet festival AGAIN.

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For those thinking, 'god, why is this blog always so deep in its own sauce?' here is the original jar: the Junrinan New Years' puppet festival, frequented by the Gotei's very own artistic propaganda troupe, the Hanbantai (Half Division) Players! Also known as 'Hinamori bildungsroman fanfic, set deep in the throes of her Academy graduation anxiety as she thinks about her changing relationships to Hitsugaya/Junrinan and Aizen/Seireitei. also puppets.'

They're a real act! Look, they have a poster!