This is the THIRD Tegami stage, the first one in 2008, then the musical in 2016 and now this one is the rerun of the 2016 musical... Also it is originally a book written by Higashino Keigo (a hugely popular mystery/thriller/crime author here in Japan so explains why it’s gotten so many adaptations) in 2003 and there is movie adaptation of it too from 2006 (available on UK Netflix at least!). So safe to say this story is popular.

Official Site here.
Official Twitter here.
Dress Rehearsal Video here and here and here.
Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

This was my first Tomo play since, well his last one, September so it was great to see him again! I'll admit I was nervous because it's technically the first time I've heard him sing (Tenimyu and the D-DATE CD doesn’t count!), and it's definitely the first time I've heard him sing in person and live. But more on that later! First let’s get the cast list out of the way:

CAST

Yanagishita Tomo / Ota Motohiro (Double Cast) as Takashima Naoki (Younger Brother)
Yoshihara Mitsuo as Takeshima Kouji (Older Brother)
Fujita Rei as Terao Yuusuke
Kato Ryousuke
Kawaguchi Tatsuya
Someya Kouta
GOH IRIS WATANABE
Igarashi Kae
Wada Kiyoka
Okonogo Mari
Yamamoto Sayaka

Some PreShow Stuff:

I was in the first row and my seat was the FIRST one!! I was Row A-1!!! How weird is that!! I still needed my glasses but not much. I was a little nervous when I first showed but because the first 30 minutes loads of kankeishas turned up and were picking up their tickets so I definitely felt out of place. And then the guy ROLLS into the theatre with this loud rolling suitcase and tight jeans and sunglasses and he takes them off and it was so actor-like that I almost laughed right in front of his face. I didn't think actors who acted like they're actors and all actually exist! It was hilarious to witness xD

Anyway, so there was I was in the front row and one of the first in and obviously everyone's looking but I've learnt to deal with it but this I felt like it was more than usual.

Ooooooh! Before I go on I must talk about the very angry moment I had before the play started. So I put all my stuff on my seat, grabbed my letter for Tomo and instead of looking around embarrassingly for the 'Present' section, I decided it was safe to just go to staff and ask 'where do we give stuff in for actors?' and he's like 'you want a blanket?' um... 'No, which staff person do I hand stuff into for the actors?' 'The goods are here' seriously... 'no! I WROTE a LETTER, WHO do I give this to?' 'Oh, over there' 'Thank you....' and so I made more of an embarrassment of myself that way anyway! Seriously though, my Japanese ISN’T that bad and I KNOW it. Maybe it's because I speak SUPER fast (even in English people can’t catch what I say sometimes) but like, it really was a blow to my confidence that I had to say the same thing about 4 times and in 3 different ways and even had to slow down to a ridiculous level and emphasis before he understood me. I get that you don't expect me to speak Japanese and at first hearing me speak Japanese when you expect English is jolting but come on!! It made me super pissed. I obviously bowed a thank you to him but the last 15 or so minutes before the stage started, I was just sat in my seat super pissed and embarrassed and filled with not nice feels.

ANYWAY!!

Now to the set:

The stage is set out in sections thanks to the use of box platforms and they used these platforms to look either like rooms or like cages/cells, as well as there being a flight of stairs and then there's two high platforms at the top just under a cloudy sky backdrop. It's a good set up.

Now to THE STORY: I’m going to try and be as concise as possible because, as I said, this is like the 3rd/4th adaptation of this story so you can easily watch the movie (available with subs on the UK Netflix btw! So I assume other netflixs have access to it and I doubt the story has changed much.)

One day Naoki gets a call and it’s from the police; his older brother has killed someone will breaking and entering the victim’s house; he now faces life in prison. This affects Naoki’s life multiple times and in negative ways over the next 10 or so years, and the only thing that keeps Naoki and his brother, Kouji, connected is through writing letters to each other, that Kouji can only receive and send once a month.

Simple enough plot line right?

NON-SPOILER:

Overall: I cried my heart out. And it wasn’t just me. The entire crowd were balling tears from about 10 minutes into the stage until it finished. I could even hear whimpers some were crying that hard. This was a touching story and it hits you in the feels. I am very pleasantly happy with Tomo’s singing ability and I did enjoy myself. But I feel the first half was much more engaging, interesting and more enjoyable (enjoyable isn’t the right word when it’s something this sad but you get the jist). The second half I personally didn’t like because I’m personally very tired and bored of ‘Japanese salaryman having a hard time’ story lines. The story was very predictable too when it comes to the friendship and romance plotlines in this, and again I personally don’t like being able to predict stuff correctly. My only serious negative is the constant repetition of songs in the second half/part of this play. Nevertheless I enjoyed it, I cried my heart out completely, I’m definitely getting the DVD, and I feel bad not having the money to go and see it again for Tomo’s sake and so I could see it from further back.

Rating: 7/10

SPOILERS:

Entering spoiler and all details territory so you’ve been warned.

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I DID promised Tomo I'd come and see it again this week but unfortunately I'm way too broke to spend 8000 yen on a ticket I don't necessarily need although I'd love to see it again but I financially can't. I'm defo preordering the DVD though!! Damn...

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And I’m done! I hope you enjoyed that review and apologies if it’s long!

As you all know I got the 10th Anniversary DVD Box Set of D-Stage for Christmas last year and now I've FINALLY gotten around to reviewing them all even though I watched them all almost a year ago and I feel like I should rewatch them at the beginning of January... So I think I'll do all my reviews here anyway BUT if I wanna add something or talk about a stage in more detail once I've rewatched them during the new year, I'll do another post then, sound good? Okay lets get on with these FOURTEEN stages! *dead already*


**Btw all their stages info can be found here. Cannot believe we're on Stage 20 next February!



D-Stage 1: Konbai Onrei [2007] 6/10
Starring: Endo Yuya, Yanagi Kotarou, Nakamura Yuichi, Kaji Masaki, Kumai Kouhei, Seto Koji, Nakagawa Shingo, Yanagishita Tomo, and Daily-Change Cast of; Shirota Yu, Wada Masato, Igarashi Shunji and Araki Hirofumi

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And that's stage one done!

**(For some reason I thought either the website or the booklet had stated how many people went to watch each stage, but I can't find that info in either of them! I know I didn't imagine it... where the hell did I see that info... it's gunna drive me mad not knowing...)

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D-Stage 2: Last Game [2008] 7/10
Starring: Yanagi Kotarou, Shirota yu, Wada Masato, Suzuki Hiroki, Araki Hirofumi, Kaji Masaki, Nakagawa Shingo, Yanagishita Tomo, Makita Tetsuya, Nakamura Masaya, Mikami Masashi, Adachi Osamu and W-Cast of: Endo Yuya and Nakamura Yuichi, OR Igarashi Shunji, Seto Koji and Usui Masahiro

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***I apologise for all the Tomo fangirling but this was bound to happen right? I just didn't expect it to start so soon into the stages xD

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D-Stage 3 and 4: Karasu 4 / Karasu 10 [2009] 8/10 and 7/10
Karasu 4 Starring: Suzuki Hiroki, Igarashi Shunji, Kaji Masaki, Yanagi Kotarou, Yanagishita Tomo, Adachi Osamu, Nakamura Masaya, Takahashi Ryuki, Hashimto Taito
Karasu 10 Starring: Endo Yuya, Araki Hirofumi Nakagawa Shingo, Wada Masato, Nakamura Yuichi, Seto Koji, Mikami Masashi, Usui Masahiro, Makita Tetsuya
Apparently Uncredited (mainly pre-D2Boys): Jinnai Sho, Mitsuya Ryo, Yamaguchi Kenki, Yamada Yusuke,

I don't know why they called it 4 and 10, maybe they tried of 10 or more different combinations of the boys before they decided the two best groups? Also I don't know why they did it twice BUT I'm glad they did because even though the story is the exact same, each of the boys makes the character their own! This is basically a historical stage (as you can tell from the pictures) and I can't quite remember when it's set but it's like 1600s and basically the karasu (= crows) are against the main emperor army and it's about how they formed and they go against the army towards the end.

First let me talk about Karasu 4 which I preferred the most out of the two (but this could be simply down to seeing that version first or because I'm more Tomo biased than Seto biased xD):

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And my notes stop there. Did that make any sense?! I'm slowly starting to see a pattern with my notes. Because I was super new to stage at the time, I was more fixated on how everything looked but now that I've been watching and paying attention to stages for over a year now, I now focus more on the story and pace and other aesthetics like the staging etc. which at the time of writing these notes I didn't know much about hence why it's so 'this moment was good!' and appearance based.

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Now for Karasu 10! The rating for this one is a little lower because, as stated, I prefer the Vol.4 one.

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**In 2010, D-Stage tried something different; they split the boys into three groups and produced three very different plays between them.

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D-Stage 5: NOW LOADING [2010] 6/10
Starring: Endo Yuya, Igarashi Shunji, Wada Masato, Yamada Yusuke, Jinnai Sho / Ookuma Shaka, Imaizumi Minoru, Fujita Hideyo

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D-Stage 6: Last Game [ReRun- 2010] 7/10
Starring: Seto Koji, Araki Hirofumi, Yanagi Kotarou, Adachi Osamu, Nakamura Masaya, Takahashi Ryuki, Mikami Masashi, Mikata Tetsuya, Hashimoto Taito, Nakagawa Shingo, Usui Masahiro, Yamaguchi Kenki, Kamitsuru Toru, and Special Appearances: Yamazaki Ikusaburo, Arai Atsushi

It's safe to assume that Last Game was super popular the first time and that's why they wanted to redo it and retry it. Naturally the mains have changed over the 2 years since it was last performed and Seto is now the main lead. I won't need to go into too much detail this time, only mention the differences.

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D-Stage 7: America [2010] 8/10
Starring: Yanagishita Tomo, Kaji Masaki, Suzuki Hiroki / Uematsu Shunsuke, Yamada Yusuke, Kuroda Taishi, Osada Nao, Takizawa Megumi, Bu Fujiwara, Hirokawa Mitsunori / Araki Hirofumi.

Now this one I actually watched for the first time YEARS ago. Just after Merchant of Venice came out on DVD (late-2012), this was the second ever D-Stage I eer watched and even though at the time my Japanese was piss-poor, I still ended up crying at the end... watching it this time and actually understanding it - and I NEVER have forgotten how I felt the first time I ever watched this - I was a wreck. I never want to watch this again but oh my this is one hell of a good stage!

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D-Stage 8: Merchant of Venice [2011] 8-9/10
Starring: Usui Masahiro, Wada Masato, Kaji Masaki, Suzuki Hiroki, Yanagi Kotarou / Mikami Masashi, Adachi Osamu, Takahashi Ryuki, Makita Tetsuya, Yamaguchi Kenki, Yukimasa Natori, Toshiya Sakai

This was the first D-Stage I ever saw! I first watched it.... over 4 years ago and loved it straight away! Rewatching it this time gave me so many feels and nostalgia and it made me remember how much I love Kaji and how great Usui is as an actor and I love how they did the modern/historical theme mix! This is the first Shakespeare play D-Stage ever did and their Shakespeare series is probably one of their strongest production series that they've ever done.

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D-Stage 9: The Witness for the Prosecution [2011]
Starring: Seto Koji, Igarashi Shunji, Yanagishita Tomo, Araki Hirofumi, Hashimoto Taito, Arata Horii, Hirata Atsuko, Arifuku Masashi, Wakasugi Kouji, Takahashi Aimi, Mabuchi Erika

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D-Stage 10: Sabishii Magnet [2011] 8.5/10 for both.
Red Team Starring: Yanagishita Tomo, Seto Koji, Endo Yuya, Araki Hirofumi
Blue Team Starring: Jinnai Sho, Usui Masahiro, Hashimoto Taito, Akutsu Shintarou

There was actually four teams; Red, White, Blue and (I think) Green, so they shuffled the 8 main actors about a bit. I was lucky enough, and crazy enough, to go and see this the first time I went to Japan. I kinda bought the ticket on a whim, bought my flight and went to Japan and watched this and omg it's still one of the best moments of my life and I remember Kaji Masaki came the day I went and he was like 2 rows behind me! I wonder if I wrote a review for that time... *searches* Holy crap I did write a review for that time! =O I'm so surprised at how well I understood that play all those years ago! I saw the White team which was Seto, Tomo, Usui and Taito! Now onto the Red and Blue versions:

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D-Stage 11: Cool no Tanjyou [2012] 5/10
Starring: Yanagi Kotarou, Suzuki Hiroki, Kaji Masaki, Makita Tetsuya, Mikami Masashi, Yamada Yusuke, Horii Arata, Tawaragi Touta, Mikamo Eriko, Hironaka Maki, Nagai Hideki

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D-Stage 12: TRUMP Truth and Reverse [2012] 8.5 for Truth and 7 for Reverse
Starring: Nishi Yukito, Mitsuya Ryo, Jinnai Sho, Yamada Yuki, Yamaguchi Kenki, Omi Youichirou, Akutsu Shintarou, Shison Jun, Tsuchiya Shion, Ikeoke Ryousuke, Arai Atsushi, Shiramata Atsushi, Negishi Takuya, Okubo Shoutarou, Maeyama Takahisa, Kamitsuru Toru

This was the first D-Stage the D2Boys did officially as D2Boys and at the time it got a LOT of hate but also a LOT of support. It still goes on now but there is/were this HUGE divide between D-Boys fans and D2Boys fans and D-Boys fans wouldn't recognise the fans or the D2Boys as D-Boys and stuff. It was a crazy time and it still sometimes happens. ESPECIALLY because yesterday (yesterday now being December 13th) I learnt that when Tomo did the after talk for this stage, apparently (I'm hearing two types of stories) he only commented on how visually good it looked and/or he only had criticisms for the boys. Looking and searching for past tweets, it's clear he did mention that the set looked really good but also he talks about Claus and how he'd like to do that role and IkeP mentioned that he thinks he'd suit Petro's role and stuff. SO I'm not really sure what went down but according to me friend 'because of his comments, it became a blood bath' so I can only really rely on my friend's recaption. Unless anyone can point me to fan blogs and fan reviews from that time. It doesn't change my opinion of Tomo if he was a dick and did just sit there criticsing the boys because I'm in it for the long run with Tomo; the good and the bad so I'm not going to just abandon him because of some dick move he possibly pulled - that's just not how a relationship works right? xD

Anyway I've reviewed these two before so check these out TRUTH and Reverse << holy crap it's been like exactly a month since I first watched this!! WAAAH?!?! xD

I love Trump, we all know this xD and I have actually watched the 2015 re-produced (not D-Boys) version and I much prefer the D-Stage version.

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D-Stage 13: Chonganne [2012] 8/10
Starring: Wada Masato, Makita Tetsuya, Hashimoto Taito, Mitsuya Ryo, Omi Yuichirou, Maihane Mimi, Kurosaki Junko and Niira Etsuko

This is the first musical D-Stage did! This was originally a Korean dorama and they took the script, translated it and made it into a stage so that's why the title is so strange and I'm pretty sure they keep all the korean names too. This is about ikemen in a vegetable shop pretty much. I honestly do no remember much else xD

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We are finally at the last one!!! This took me like two days to write xD

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D-Stage 14: Twelth Night [2013] 8-9/10
Starring: Arai Atsushi, Mikami Tetsuya, Ikeoke Ryousuke, Arai Atsushi, Kaji Masaki, Suzuki Hiroki, Jinnai Sho, Yamada Yusuke, Omi Youichiro, Yamaguchi Kenki, Tsubokura Yoshiyuki and Mickey Kachisu

This is their second Shakespeare play and just like the first one it was hilarious, enjoyable, did not disappoint and I could easily watch it over and over. It's very similar to the first one too, but that could just be Shakespeare uses the same elements over and over again such as 'male actors crossdressing as females who then pretend to be males' as well as 'love at first sight' and hyperbole.

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Holy moly I did it!! I hope you enjoyed the reviews that you did read and I'll be thoroughly surprised if you sat and read every single one of them!

**Seriously take a shot everytime I say enjoy, enjoyable, hilarious, also, and funny in these reviews. I need to expand my vocabulary right?!

Like I said I wanna rewatch them all and hopefully be a bit more analytical and more coherent with everything except how great they all look xD

It might be obvious from the ratings BUT if you would like to see a D-Stage ranking from me then please let me know below! I'm off to eat lunch now.

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And there we have it! This review took longer than expected but it definitely didn't take a much time as it normally does. I hope it was coherent enough to be understood, especially in the parts where I try to explain the story dynamics.

Have a good day! ^_^

Original Post here.

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Acting Troupe D-BOYS' Direct Hit on Dramatic Dream Life
Dramas, Movies, Theater and the like, they're working on multi-platforms. Watanabe Entertaint's Acting Troupe D-BOYS.
This is the guys' direct hit projects and dramatic dream lives serialisation!
This time; Opening from October 14th is D-Stage's 19th 'As You Like It' which these three will appear in ♪

✰ Tomo-san (Yanagishita) is an  ill-tempered, hot/cold guy usually but that's just a spur of his love *laugh*

--D-Stage 19th 'As You Like It' has a long rehearsal period but, at this current stage what's the reaction been like?

Makita Tetsuya: Maechan (Maeyama) who is performing as Rosalind has a lot of lines and is someone who drives the story forward. However, it's a female role and half way through she dresses as a man which is a complicated role to attempt/challenge, but he was able to unlayer the character, right?
Maeyama Takahisa: You're right. I feel I got it right.
Yanagishita Tomo: *imitating Maeyama's tiny voice* Thanks to who?!
Maeyama: It's all thanks to Tomo-san *laughs*
Yanagishita: What? Me? I didn't really do anything though!?
Makita: You guys are annoying! *laughs*

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Enjoy! Sorry if some of it is dodgy! I’m still rusty as I slowly get back into translating again.

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That’s me out! Jesus this took a long time to do xD

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And there we have it! I finally freaking wrote it and it still makes me cry thinking about it now!!! I freaking loved this play and it's still the best one of the year for me. My current feels:




Overall: Oh the feel,s the emotions, the violence, the struggle, the comedy. All three of the characters are amazing and have their own journey and omg Tomo's acting is phenominal in this and that ending hits me hard every DAMN time. Omg... why no dvd *cries*
Rating: 10/10