Sooo I watched SeiRuiYamaMyu...

[fencer_x]

...and now I have thoughts on it :D A fair few, to be precise. So if you don't want to see me expound on what I did and did not like--as there was plenty of both--and want to wait to be surprised yourself, please don't click the cut :x


So first of all...my seat was pretty horrific. Third floor balcony? I WISH it had been that good. No, I was 4th row...completely off to the side :| My neck hurts from craning to see -_-; But alas, it couldn't be helped, and at least I was there, right?

Before I get started though, I'll touch on the 'special project' going on right now! To remind everyone how awesome Season 1 was, TeniMyu has a special old-casts corner set up (different casts at different points in this show's run) where you can see all kinds of awesome stuff associated with the cast-of-the-week and reminisce. Through today you could view stuff from 1st and 2nd casts (and the rest of Tokyo will be 1st and 3rd casts)--with costumes available for viewing on the 1st balcony floor (TakiEiji was fricking HUGE geez o__o) along with a table of pamphlets you could just go up and flip through, and a ton of pictures and flyers from 1st and 2nd cast shows in the arena lobby. It was fun and nostalgic and I was glad they did it :3

I settled into my spot way off in no-man's land and pouted for a bit, but was definitely cheered up when the announcer delivering the warnings and stuff they do before the show was none other than PedomaruYuuta~! <3333 The, "Oishiiii~ Wait up~!" at the end was nice too :D

As for the show itself, it was about 50% pared-down old songs, 25% remixed/mashup old songs, and 25% new songs this time. And unfortunately, none of them sounded especially good at all really :/ But, I usually feel that way on a first listening, so I'm hoping seeing it a couple more times will make me change my mind ;)

For example, the opening song was no longer the Ichinen Trio song with Aoku Moeru Honoo, but rather a new song (about playing tennis 24-7, 365 days a year or something XD) mashed together with Aoku Moeru Honoo until it was a virtually unrecognizeable mess XD;

The standby songs even--Erabareshi Elite Shuudan, Rival Ijou Teki Miman--were just...meh :/ They lacked heart (they lacked singing talent >_>) and really paled in comparison to their previous versions. I was actually really satisfied with most of the songs last time, but this time...blah :( I dunno. Again--hopefully a second or third listening will change my mind!

Of course, though, the only part I really cared all that much about...was the Golden Pair stuff XD And they put on quite a show IMHO--Jin's serious Oishi face is fsidufhsluidf so sexy. GUH. And Yuuta continues to be a really good Kikumaru considering his age and lack of experience. He's very bouncy and acrobatic, has really good stage presence and does all the little random things Kikumaru would do, like messing around on the sidelines with the Ichinen and overreacting to the Jimmis and whatnot XD Sasuga watashi no ichiban! :DDDD

That being said, it wasn't their fault really that...Golden Pair got kind of shafted :/

I knew they would. I mean, there are 3 GP songs in St. Rudolph alone, and they have another match in Yamabuki--so it was a tall order to ask that all of those scenes be kept, pristine, in this now two-hour-long single show :/

What it wound up as was: Depend on Me and Juuden Kanryou both made the cut, albeit in drastically shortened forms. DoM is a very difficult song to sing well, I think; Tuti didn't manage it, and really, neither did Jin :/ He did okay, not horrible, and he put his heart into it, but I can't call it an amazing performance, sorry :( Yuuta on the other hand I felt kicked JK's ass :D He did Nagayan proud, and even if it wasn't perfect, it was about as good as Nagayan managed, and especially the bit at the end where he belts out super loud "Donna pinch no toki mo futari de genkai wo koete ikou!" I got chills and was reminded--once again!--of Nagayan in Yuuta :3 gj~!

It made me think, too, about the fact that Tuti and Nagayan had had over a year, and three full performance runs already under their belts when they did that musical, so they were a bit more polished, a bit more comfortable with one another--whereas Jin and Yuuta have had probably 6 months at most and only one performance run, plus there's a heck of a generation gap between them. Yuuta just entered high school fer cryin' out loud. They're doing great, all things considered, IMHO, but I don't think they're the next T2 or anything unfortunately :(

Tennis ni Scenario wa Nai has been remixed into something unrecognizeable, but Handy HamHand in Hand is there in all its sappy glory :D One thing I've noticed about Mitsu is that while he may not be as strong and clear and bold a singer as Kime was, he has a lot of traits in common (especially with St.Ru!Kime) like a breathy, smoky voice that's kind of deep and soft. I was kind of disappointed, though, that he didn't do nearly as bitchy a Fuji as Kime did. There just wasn't a lot of that strong hatred emotion that Kime brought to Fuji when he was getting revenge on Mizuki. Black Fuji, where were you?! ;~;

Also absent: any performance of Ore wa Ore no Namae de Yobaretai XD;;; I was not so heartbroken about this, though, as I'm sorry, but Seiya is kind of a crappy singer unfortunately :( (most of SeiRu is, tbh...)

Going back to my GP ranting, you know that most important scene in GP history? The Container Scene? Yah? GONE.

Well, not entirely. No, it's been reduced to little more than background scenery, with Oishi and Eiji sitting on the container and silently miming their conversation under a sepia-toned light for about 15 seconds while Tezuka sings Dream Maker alone in the foreground (it was a random TezuFuji duet in MTL). Yup, that's all you get :/ Disappoint.

Act 2 was, of course, the Yamabuki matches. Honestly, I don't think I've ever watched Yamabuki before...so it was kind of more interesting cause it was new XD The Jimmis match was, honestly, hilarious. I dunno if the original pair were that funny, but these guys really had me cracking up XD Sadly absent from this set, though, was Good Combination :( Maybe it'll make an appearance at DL8? :(

How many Yamabuki matches are there, though? It went by so quickly. The TakaFuji match was pretty much skipped over--they got this totally random love song or something in the middle if Iku Ze (???), and then the next thing you saw they were shuffling off the court after losing. Then the GP match was the GP match.

Possibly the newbie who impressed me the most in this show was Sengoku's actor, Seiya--he is one bouncy sonuvabitch! Like, REALLY bouncy and acrobatic! Shouta-level, Gaku-level bouncy! He showed off at several spots and it made his scenes much more interesting :3 No clue if Sengoku really pulls those moves, but who cares? XD

It's a new experience for me, enjoying Echizen's matches XD Mostly because the early ones never had good singers XD; So I enjoyed the Akutsu match quite a bit more than I was expecting, and the totally spontaneous-seeming Golden Pair flinging-their-bodies-at-each-other hug at the end was appreciated as well XD

Overall, I'd give this show: ★★★☆☆ :D Could've been better, but they're coming along.

However, I have to admit: the frantic pace they're going at now is really starting to wear me down, and it was glaringly obvious in this show just how fast everything was going. The musical numbers were very short and seemed forced, and the teams seem to lack, well, team-ness, if that makes sense. I only know a very small number of non-Seigaku boys at this point, and it's hard to get attached. I really wish I understood what their logic is behind this, *sigh* ShinTeniPuri is still going to be there even if they take another 7 years to redo everything!

Comments

[hitome-bore.livejournal.com]

Sucks to hear that it didn't all go as well as you'd hoped :( Though admittedly it's always hard to immediately love a new show the first time seeing it (even more so with unknown casts) but like you said, I hope they grow on the fans. I'm still a bit peeved that they're deliberately shafting the less popular rival schools. When you sacrifice quality for quantity, where's the redeeming artistry in that? Like I said earlier, it scares sms seeing how much more machine-like the franchise is getting...

[viherkyn.livejournal.com]

However, I have to admit: the frantic pace they're going at now is really starting to wear me down, and it was glaringly obvious in this show just how fast everything was going.

Aaaand this is what I've been fearing (granted I haven't yet seen the first Season 2 Tenimyu but anyway). To an outsider it seems like they're just throwing together these musicals, taking schools left and right and try to make it work. I suppose a big part of the staff was already around during Season 1 but it doesn't matter how great they can do their job if the cast doesn't get the chance to do theirs properly. Though I am surprised to hear that the teams lack team-ness. Or, I mean, I can understand the other teams but Seigaku and Fudoumine had eight months to bond (since rehearsals started in September 2010) and I would have thought they would have that... team-ness.

Am not too happy with reusing so many old songs. :/ This is supposed to be a new season and though some reusing is to be expected and it's acceptable, they should really create some new, epic songs. There's no point redoing Season 1 since it was superb, try to make Season 2 even better!

But I am in complete denial that Jin/Yuuta don't make one kickass GP. :P They're going to be amazing, lalala *blocks out everything else*.

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

It felt really unpolished, tbh. Like they hadn't had enough time to practice. I've never felt that way before, so I don't know if maybe the earthquake shook everyone up (pun not intended XD;) or they really didn't have enough time to practice or what, but ngh :/ They need to fix this stat.

I would be just fine with older songs if they did them as good or better than the previous version, really--I thought they did justice to a lot of the songs from the first myu, after all. But this time, it just wasn't good in general except for a few bits.

They ARE writing some new songs but idk, they just aren't really good ones.

Jin and Yuuta ARE doing a good job as GP, though :3 I critique and all, but I think they're doing a great job, really, and it could be sooo much worse ♥ I would gladly watch them over and over :D Just a few more days til we get to seeeee :D

[zeya.livejournal.com]

Maybe the tectonic plates and all calm down by summer shows... I'm sure the current situation with aftershocks and all has something to do with the atmosphere :/

But indeed, this pace seems kinda..idk, rushed? I'm thinking of going to see Hyoteimyu in summer, and you got me a tiny bit worried here :D

Also aaagh, I had such high hopes for Mitsu tbh still have! I thought he'd be able to pull the dark Fuji :<

Anyway thanks for the report :) (Btw I've been meaning to add you like, forever, but now finally got it done. Hope you don't mind? )

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

I hope so! I have high hopes for the Hyoutei show more because it's JUST Hyoutei :) There's definitely still a tense atmosphere though.

Also, the Hyoutei shows are quite far away, so there will be plenty of time for the boys to breathe and practice between shows, so I'm hopeful!

Maybe Mitsu will get better, or maybe I just prefer a darker Fuji ^^ He wasn't bad, I just preferred the really Black Fuji that Kime was able to bring :D

And feel free to add me ^^

[tonomurajiro.livejournal.com]

I have high hopes in them since I watched The Beginning! <33

and yes, jksahdkfjskdjfksjdgf Yuuta is so damn cute. Even in real life. He actually calls everyone in his agency 'onii-chan' kjshdjkfhskjd Stronzaaaaaaa <33

and I must say that I love Mitsuya, Takuma & Yuuki. Ahe.

Can't wait for the DVD to get released

[rebirthreborn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting up your POV. I'm somehow glad old songs appear but 50% of the show? I think it's a bit too much.

When Season 2 was announced, I'm not too sure if I'll anticipate it or not (I haven't watch THE BEGINNING) so I was hoping they'll do even better. Hopefully after watching the show it'll change my opinion on them.

[kusakunai-desu.livejournal.com]

Maybe they thought that the audience already knows everything or would be bores so there's no harm in rushing idk D:

I can see what you mean about the team-ness, though I think that will get better as time passes~ ^^

[sayac3p0.livejournal.com]

Handy Ham

Don't you know how HARD I had to stop myself from laughing out loud at work when I read it?




Thank you for the review. Ahh, I wish they would not combine the myus.

[sayac3p0.livejournal.com]

WAIT. What about Shizukanaru Toushi, the song before Fuji creamed Mizuki? Was it sung in the new myu?

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

It was there, but it wasn't nearly as good as Kime's version (really, it's impossible to be I think), and Mitsu's general inability to really be a good Black Fuji kind of made it not a very impressive song :( It wasn't horrible, though.

[sayac3p0.livejournal.com]

Ouch, and that is one of my favorite song in Tenimyu.

But you're right, partly it can't be helped. Kime left huge shoes for him to fill in, vocal wise.

Mitsu should seriously learn to be black Fuji before the DL8, otherwise I'd be really disappointed to see no Fuji-scaring-his-teammates-for-life scene.

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really like that scene in the original MTL, so I was looking forward to it--and Mitsu wasn't HORRIBLE, but I really just wanted to see way more Black Fuji going medieval on Mizuki's ass like Kime did. Kime's Black Fuji (in MTL at least) was all elegant fuck-you-uppedness, but Mitsu's kind of fell flat :/

[amyused.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't really say that Yuuta's lacking experience, especially considering some other Kikumarus we've had (like Shouta, for instance XD). He was in FROGS, La Corda d'oro Musical, and Black&White all before Tenimyu. Young, definitely, but not exactly lacking in plays under his belt.

Can't say I wasn't expecting this play to be rushed, though. Trying to get through two schools with some pretty interesting/major matches going on in them in one musical? Really Tenimyu? D: Let's hope it gets better when rewatching it from better seats!