From the Tennis Court To Outer Space

When I started watching Saitoh Takumi in the Prince of Tennis musicals, there were a couple of other actors that caught my attention for one reason or another. I noticed immediately that Kazuki Kato (Hyotei's Atobe) had a clear—and good—singing voice, which is probably why he was given one of the two roles with the most solo lines. At any rate, I decided to see what other projects he's been involved in, and was surprised at the wide variety in his career. Let's jump right in:

Shigoku Shoujo—Ichimoku Ren

Literally translated, it means “Hell Girl”. A live-action drama based on the supernatural horror anime, it focuses on a young girl who lives in a world of eternal sunset. Named Enma Ai, she exacted vengeance on her village 400 years ago and now serves her punishment by fulfilling the vengeance of others and escorting people to Hell. When humans require her services, she offers them a contract and a warning: “When one is cursed, two graves are dug.” Three companions aid her in her work, carrying out her contracts. Kazuki plays one of Enma Ai's companions, Ichimoku Ren—the spirit of a katana who takes the form of a young man.

Ichimoku has a larger role in the anime, but Kazuki did get some pretty good scenes. For some reason, my absolute favorite scene came about halfway in episode 10; I loved the almost frightening smile on his face when he said “Ja, iko ka?” (“Well, shall we go?”) right before dragging the Victim of the Day out into oncoming traffic. It just seemed so very different from the other roles I've seen him in, which is always a treat from an acting perspective.

Hotaru no Hikari—Teshima Makoto

This show gives a good idea of the Japanese viewpoint regarding single women approaching their 30s, which makes me suspect that the typical Japanese citizen would probably consider me very strange since I'm not much for the dating scene myself. Hotaru works at a famous interior design company, but once at home she lounges about in jerseys with a cat, a can of beer, and a decided lack of interest in men. Her landlord's son, recently separated from his wife, decides to live on his father's property for a while—not realizing Hotaru also lives there. Even worse, it turns out the man is Hotaru's own boss. Kazuki adds fuel to the fire as the young designer Teshima, who's smitten with an increasingly confused Hotaru.

The best way I can describe this series is “a light but screwy comedy, with surprisingly deep moments”. I didn't actually finish the series—not because it was bad, but at times the love triangle plot was almost painful to watch (which may have more to do with my own emotional hangups rather than anything in the actual show.) It's the usual comedy/angst series, although well worth watching if you're interested in Kazuki given the amount of air time he has. You can see the series on Crunchyroll.com; just follow this link.

Kamen Rider Kabuto—Daisuke Kazama/Kamen Rider Drake

The latest Kamen Rider series in a list of many, Kabuto celebrates the franchise's 35^th anniversary. It focuses on a high-minded man named Tendou Souji, who's trained for seven years to use the Rider belt. He makes many enemies in the process, his ego and aloof personality isolating him from everyone but his sister Juka. He meets other Riders, each with vastly different personalities from his own, and often teams up with ZECT member Kagami Arata to fight the growing threat of Worm invaders.

Kazuki enters this series as a famous metrosexual makeup artist who will go out of his way to help any woman in trouble. He travels with a little girl named Gon, who often finishes his sentences when he can't think of the right word. He also happens to possess a Rider belt, allowing him to transform (“Henshin!”) into Kamen Rider Drake.

Um...yeah. Let's just say this series gave me bad flashbacks of the endless fight sequences in Sailor Moon. I'll say upfront I'm not a big fan of the superhero-type shows, where “Henshin!” is a phrase you're guaranteed to hear at least once per episode (although, to be fair, I was warned that the Kamen Rider series is most known for it). That being said, I have to admit the NON-“henshin” portions of the series were very impressive. I was most struck by the rocky friendship between Tendou and Kagami; the producers didn't take the cheap way out by throwing them together and having them become best friends within the first three episodes like too many shows have done. Instead, difficulties of every variety confront them constantly, keeping a barrier of tension between them until the very end. I also enjoyed the sibling-like relationship between Daisuke (Kazuki) and Gon; we don't see much of either of them after episode 28, but the dynamics of their relationship were able to add a refreshing spice to the mix.

A side note: Kazuki also shows up in two Kamen Rider movies. One is a retelling of the series Kamen Rider Kabuto in an alternate universe, taking place in outer space. (Yes, you read that right. No, I don't know what they were thinking either.) I haven't actually seen it yet, but if I can find it online I'll post my opinion. The other movie, Kamen Rider the Next, is a sequel to Kamen Rider the First—and makes about as much sense. Kazuki plays an entirely different character from the Kabuto series, and frankly, not even his acting skills could have saved that flick. It's on YouTube with English subs if, for some unknown reason, you're struck by the impulse to see something that makes stabbing your eyes out with an ice pick sound like more fun.

As it turns out, Kazuki is just as involved in the music world as he is in acting. Along with being featured on disc 002 of the Tenimyu Best Actor's CD series (under his character's name, Atobe Keigo), he's released a number of singles and full CD sets. My favorite songs happen to be “Faith”, “Yume Hikoki” and “Warning”, but he has quite an assortment of songs out—including the strange but catchy “Vampire”. He has music videos for nearly every song, and you can look them up on YouTube.

Next time: Shirota Yu and a show that everyone should see at least once in their lives.

Mada Mada Dane

Warning: way too damn long post ahead. Sorry (truly, I am), but I couldn't break this one up in a way that made sense. Go make your phone calls now and grab a soda—this may take a while.

In my last post I mentioned discovering the work of Saitoh Takumi and Kato Kazuki. While they both have considerably extensive careers for their age (27 and 24 respectively), they co-starred in a few stage musicals based on the Prince of Tennis series from Shonen Jump. (I actually saw Saitoh in other projects first and backtracked to his work in this musical, but I'm mentioning Prince of Tennis first for reasons I'll discuss in my next post.)

Prince of Tennis, simply put, is a manga series that's been adapted into an anime, countless Drama CDs, a movie, and several live musicals/concerts. The main focus, at least originally, was on 12-year-old tennis prodigy Echizen Ryoma and his struggle to rise in the ranks of Seishun Gakuen's (Seigaku for short) prestigious tennis club. Since then, it's grown to encompass a much larger cast of characters from rival schools across Japan: Fudomine, St. Rudolph, Hyotei, Yamabuki, Rokkoku and a slew of others, all of whom regularly have tennis matches against Seigaku and each other.

The truth is I don't even LIKE Prince of Tennis in general. I'm not a fan of sports-related series, and I doubt I ever will be. I never felt the need to read the manga, and I never got past episode 3 of the anime. Even now I'm in no rush to read or watch the series. Nor am I a fan of the anime-turned-musical formula, and I've stayed far away from any musicals connected to Bleach, Naruto and Sailor Moon. (Especially Sailor Moon.)

But there's just something about the Prince of Tennis musicals (nicknamed “Tenimyu” by its fans) and the correlating Dream Live concerts that's quite compelling. It's really embarrassing just how much I've come to enjoy the Tenimyu productions I've seen. The music is actually good, the acting is believable, and the characters are three-dimensional. Seriously, it's addicting.

I came across the subbed version of “Imperial Match in Winter” featuring the characters from Seigaku and Hyotei; at first I resisted watching it, despite the fact Saitoh was in it, just on principle alone. Still, my insatiable curiosity won out and I downloaded it. Saitoh Takumi plays Hyotei's blue-haired, spectacle-wearing genius Oshitari Yuushi, while Kato Kazuki plays Hyotei's talented (and astonishingly arrogant) team captain Atobe Keigo.

My interest in the show itself comes from a few sources. First, each Tenimyu production is truly an “ensemble cast” in every sense of the word, something that's practically unheard of in America these days. Although the hero is technically Echizen Ryoma, the PoT universe is so vast it encompasses many other characters, each with their own unique personality quirks and tennis-related skill. For example, there's Inui, who systematically collects data on his opponents to use against them; Kawamura, whose entire personality suddenly changes whenever he touches a tennis racket; and Atobe, who can almost psychically detect his opponent's weakness just by placing his fingers between his eyes. Each character has a fully fleshed-out personality and background, which makes them more interesting to watch.

For this reason, there are no “filler” characters in the musical—they all have a reason for being there, and some of those reasons are explored onstage. Echizen doesn't even appear for most of the performance. Even the so-called bit parts in each production feature characters who had much larger roles in the other shows. Everyone's role in the show is equally important, truly making it a group effort. While there are ensemble casts in American musicals, rarely will they ever get the chance to stand out in such a way.

Up front, I can honestly say most of the actors weren't hired because they could sing, which seems ironic for a musical. Saitoh certainly can, but by far the most powerful singers were Kato Kazuki and Shirota Yuu (Tezuka)—which is probably why they ended up playing the two team captains and getting the most solo lines in the songs. Many of the others seem to have been cast more because of their acting skills than their voice; at first I actually wondered why Yanagi Kotaroh was cast as Echizen Ryoma since it looked like he couldn't move OR sing, but after reading this article on Wikipedia I'm simply amazed he was alive and well enough to walk, let alone perform onstage.

Still, what the actors lack in singing range, they make up for with an honest, unmitigated passion. They truly valued their roles, and you certainly see that. As someone who's observed a great number of the cookie-cutter musicals on Broadway where many actors phoned in their performances, the raw energy and enthusiasm I see coming from every member of the Tenimyu cast is quite refreshing.

For a musical based on a manga, it surprisingly builds tension at all the right moments. Not every live production is able to have that constant progression to the climax/denouement, although I guess it's easier for a sports-based show that leads to a “final showdown” than for others.

Although the school that PoT mainly focuses on is Seigaku, while I greatly admire Tezuka's steadfast determination and Fuji's unshakable composure, I must admit I'm very much a Hyotei fan at heart. The Hyotei cast had me by the second rendition of “Koori no Emporer”; I'm pretty sure that would have happened even if Saitoh didn't play Oshitari.

Not that anyone is likely to care, but I found my absolute favorite number to be “Ikki uchi”, the duet between Tezuka and Atobe towards the end of Imperial Match in Winter. I've always had a weakness for reprisals of earlier songs that manage to harmonize seamlessly with each other, especially when they're sung by two opposing characters who each have everything on the line. Other favorites include “Do Your Best”, “Data wa uso wo tsukanai yo”, “Yudan sezu ni ikou”, “Koori no Emporer”, and “Katsu no wa Hyotei”.

So why is PoT considered a staple in the BL world? Well, considering the sheer number of male characters alone, it was probably a given from the very beginning. Even though the series itself isn't geared towards BL, a cast like that would certainly invite it.

And supposedly the fans already consider two particular relationships to be canon romances: Oishi/Eiji from Seigaku and Shishido/Choutarou from Hyotei. However, as I've witnessed even in non-slashable shows like MASH, that doesn't stop fans from creating their own pairings. From the info I gleaned from Google, the most popular shippers by far seem to be Tezuka/Fuji, Ryoma/, Oshitari/Gakuto, Oshitari/Atobe, and perhaps most surprisingly, Atobe/Tezuka. (Yes, you read that right.) While the main Tenimyu productions don't entertain these ideas, the actors appear to enjoy giving the audience “fanfic fodder” at the Dream Live concerts. Innuendo flows freely, and at one concert Oshitari even apologizes to Gakuto "about yesterday", saying he meant to call. There's also the reputation Tenimyu has as a launchpad for the careers of many cast members, several of whom have gone on to do BL-related work...

There's quite a few Tenimyu productions out there if you're interested, although the only one I've seen subbed is the “Imperial Match in Winter” featuring Hyotei Gakuen (not to be confused with summertime's non-subbed “Imperial Match” with the same cast.) At the very least, try watching that production along with the subbed Dream Live Third concert to get a good idea of what it's all about. Even if you end up hating anything related to Tenimyu, it's good exposure into the world of Japanese live acting.

The following are links to the subbed Imperial Match in Winter. Note: I DID NOT UPLOAD THESE VIDEOS--they came from a LiveJournal website found here. He has a number of other PoT-related videos as well, along with several other Japanese dramas and anime.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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Now playing: Trapt - Headstrong
via FoxyTunes

A Drama By Any Other Name

I'm not exactly sure how I made the jump from listening to seiyuus in various anime to Japanese dramas (or, as some rather frightening otakus try to insist, “do-rama”...probably the same folks who missed the joke and still insist Hellsing's “Alucard” is misspelled.) The closest tie I can find lies with my attempts at finding a few seiyuus in live-action work. As it turns out, while many of them dub certain English movies that come to Japan, the vast majority stay within the realm of animation.

Oddly enough this makes sense, considering they're completely separate fields of work despite being in the same industry. Even here in America, I can't think of any actors who have managed to maintain a career in both fields at the same time; they usually give one up in favor of the other, or are primarily in one field with occasional work in the other.

At any rate, my venture into the world of Japanese live-action projects led me to a few names in the acting field, and one particularly interesting find: Saitoh Takumi.

Now, let me preface the following by saying that anyone who knows me is well aware how rare it is for anyone to catch my eye. When my friends had magazine photos of the latest “hot actors” on their walls, I had prints of fractals and photoshopped fantasy landscapes. I can be greatly impressed by someone's work, or admire their outlook on life or their humanitarianism, but I don't think I've ever really stopped dead to watch someone since I was about 14.

*ahem* That being said...

Oh. My. God. Saitoh Takumi. I would gladly pay any amount of money to watch him in ANYTHING. (I'm not kidding. Even just reading the phone book onstage. In Japanese. I don't care.) I'm quite proud to say I've never “squee”d once in my life, not even as a teenager, but this is probably the closest I've come to it. He's only two months younger than me, too. (Does this mean I have a thing for younger men? Heh.)

How did I find out about him? Well, the most accurate answer would be to say my friends are perverts (and you know who you are) who were more than happy to point me in the direction of live dramas when I told them what I was doing. They were curious as well to know if any seiyuus had roles in live projects; however, the only references they had on hand were BL dramas.

This means that, yes, Saitoh has been involved in a number of live-action BL movies along with his other “regular” work. Not pornography, mind you—apparently a line is drawn when the actors are actually seen as well as heard, for which I'm eternally grateful. These movies seem to follow the same rules as the games and Drama CDs as far as plot is concerned: they all focus on emotional turmoil over action/adventure (I have yet to see anything catch fire, get riddled with bullets or blow up on the set) and more than one of them have an ending so far from “happy” that driving shards of glass through your arm would actually lighten your mood.

As far as acting ability goes, coming in a close second to Saitoh Takumi is Kato Kazuki. I would explain where I saw him first (and since), but that would completely ruin the semi-chronological order I'm trying to maintain in my posts, so I'll leave that for another time.

Consequently, the fact I'm watching/listening to more Japanese media than American these days has convinced me of the need to actually learn the language—both speaking and writing. Not everything I've seen is subbed, and many of the subtitles I've seen lie somewhere between “awkward” and “completely different from what's being said”. So, in a shockingly rare moment in my life, I'm actually serious about something. God knows I have nothing but time on my hands these days; I might as well use it constructively. To that end:

Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimas. Demo, mada jozu ja arimasen.

Exactly what projects have I seen Saitoh Takumi in, and what does he have in common with Kato Kazuki? That's in my next update.

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Now playing: Kato Kazuki - Solitaire
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