日本のファンドーム、私の人生の一部

A very long overdue review post!

Cast List [December 17 Matinee]:

Death – Yamaguchi Yuuchirou
Elisabeth – Asami Hikaru
Franz Joseph – Ishikawa Zen
Lucheni – Takashima Masahiro
Rudolf – Urai Kenji
Sophie – Kotobuki Hizuru
Young Rudolf – Ota Rikito

Yamaguchi Yuuchirou
His voice… his voice is as every bit as awesome as I heard it on the cast recording. Hell, it’s even better in real life. The impression I got from his Death is that he’s a really imposing character – and I kind of felt that his Death was somehow present in all the scenes. Yamaguchi kinds of ‘strolls’ across the stage, and unfortunately, that really slow movement cannot be translated into dancing. Massive fail for his dancing. Yamaguchi should not dance. Even his ‘Der Letzte Tanz’ was just deliberate movements. Very much in stark contrast as compared to the Death played by Takeda Shinji (next post).

Asami Hikaru
I’ll get this off my chest first, I don’t like her voice. I read lots of good reviews about her before I chose my cast lists, so I was really expecting a strong trio from Yamaguchi, Asami and Urai Kenji [Rudolf]. My expectations of her fell flat. I was wondering as I watched the TV preview whether her voice was going to sound that way in the theatre… Alas, to me, it sounded worse. Her Elisabeth is fine. Although she doesn’t match Yamaguchi the way Ichiro Maki did – they don’t sound the same. She did win me over as young, carefree Elisabeth though. Plus, she’s really pretty. =/

Ishikawa Zen
My sister loves him, that has to count for something? I really enjoyed his Franz Joseph though. I did biasedly pick him when I watched the preview (although it’s just coincidence that I got him for both casts, I wasn’t too concerned about Franz Joseph – he’s a character that’s like, just there). He played off Asami really well though, and like my sister insists, the Franz Joseph/Elisabeth pairing as certainly more heartwarming than the Death/Elisabeth pairing. I liked him, anyway! Love his voice. It’s really nice to listen to.

Takashima Masahiro
I LOVE THIS LUCHENI. First, he opened the show by showing the ‘Judge’ his middle finger. A million points in my book, that was awesome! My sister thinks he plays Lucheni as a bit of a jerk, and I can see how so. But it does not stop him from being really fun on stage. Lucheni also has the coolest songs (Milch, Kitsch etc), and it’s fun to watch him play on stage. \o/ Personally, he played off Takeda Shinji better, but that’ll come in another post.

Urai Kenji
When I first heard Urai Kenji sing, it as in Seramyu. That was an absolute disaster. The next time I heard him sing, it was in a 5 second preview of Schatten with Yamaguchi. After that, I had to book them. I was initially only going to book one show, and I had a severe headache trying to choose which Death/Rudolf pair to watch, thank goodness the buying of cheaper tickets allowed me to watch 2 different pairs. No regrets there.

I love Urai’s Rudolf, really. He doesn’t play him as strong as Jesper Tyden plays Rudolf, but you can sort of tell that his Rudolf does have a bit of say in what he wants. He understands that what he does will have consequences, but he still does it, anyway! His Rudolf his very aloof towards Death, which brings me to the next point, Schatten between Yamaguchi and Urai was absolutely flat. Which is sad, seeing that Death/Rudolf is my favorite ship. =/ They sound gorgeous together, but that’s about all. It might be that Yamaguchi hardly gave Urai any moves to act on (Yamaguchi even skipped the nice gropy movement after the twirl in that Uchino did), and Urai did not act on his own. But that was how he interpreted Rudolf – Death only gave him the idea to work on, his Rudolf did not need Death.

I’m skipping Sophie because she was just Sophie. It was nice to watch her. But clearly, can’t you tell that my attention was solely for Urai Kenji who only had like, 20 minutes of stage time. Apart from the clear lack of chemistry between Yamaguchi and Urai (disappointing, really), this cast was an absolute pleasure to listen to. Yamaguchi’s godly voice backs up everyone’s, especially Asami and Urai. Schatten was amazing to listen to.