aikokanzaki
11 January 2017 @ 12:37 am
I literally finished Kamen Rider Gaim 5 minutes ago! And so here I am with my top 5 characters! I’ll try and not been actor-persuaded because Gaim is full of stage actors who I love! So here goes!! Btw, I freaking loved Gaim if you wanted a quick review from me xD


1. Jonouchi - this guy... he’s SO funny and always there with the comic relief! I love how he tried to manipulate people at first and Pierre was just like ‘nah you ain’t’ and how he tries to act tough and pretending like he doesn’t wanna help. He’s such a sweetie <3 his growth as a character is great too! And omg my heart broke when he did the  “looking for Hase’ sign </3 I was always amused and laughing when he was on the scene. OMG remember when he broke out dancing even though he’d originally refused to?! xD


2. Zack - this guy GREW on me so hard (trying not to be actor bias but Zack has REALLY made me wanna evaluate my feels and opinion on Matsuda Gaku). To be honest I can’t really tell you Zack’s personality xD because I was way too interested in being attracted to him physically. And some of his reactions when Pierre would put a hand on his shoulder and stuff were hilarious! And those long legs!! Damn... he’s soooo cute!! He got cuter and cuter as the series went on <3 I do remember him being very faithful to his friends and what’s right though ^_^ can I have a Zack please?!


3. Micchi - He ALMOST didn’t make it on the list. When he first started to go dark, I did not like it, but when he was mentally broken and completely crazy; I was totally back on board with him! I much prefer him as the cute and innocent and happy Micchi but I definitely welcomed him when he was haywire too xD he character arc and development is so deep and it’s such a good development! But, I honestly thought he’d be a character death in this series and I’m still trying to decide if his ending was right or not. Nevertheless, this cutie should always be smiling! <3 also amazing actiing on Mahiro’s part.


4. Kaitou - This is another guy who grew on me! When I first started the series I wasn’t into him because I know that Kobayashi (the actor) in real life is SUPER genki and super... (am I allowed to say?) camp. But DAMN I soon forgot about Kobayashi’s real personality because DAMN Kaitou is DARK and power thirsty and I loved seeing him getting darker and darker and in the begining he’s just a normal dick but throughout the series we see his motives and we see him helping others and he has a real good story going on. And OMG his end and the end!!! Broke my heart!!! I definitely shed a few tears throughout his story arc.


5. Ryoma - I’m going to be honest, fifth place was hard to decide... to be honest I am partially disappointed in Ryoma because I know what to expect when I see Aoki perform and I didn’t get what I wanted from him for a LONG time in this series BUT (getting off the actor biasness) from about the second half, we start to really be able to see Ryoma’s true personality and his craziness and how badstabbing he is and he’s a juicy character! Especially episodes 38 - 40, his scenes are seriously my favourite!! And can we talked about his amazing style! MINUS those damn shorts! Seriouslym can I get his jacket (HIS JACKET!! <3) and shirt from his later episodes?! I love them!! And those tiny skinny legs he got going on are cute too! <3


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I tried to be unactorbias but obviously I was influenced by them! Who’s everyone’s favourite characters? Do you agree/disagree? Let me know ^_^
 
 
aikokanzaki
I'm sorry I've fallen behind YET again on reviews! I have this one, and at least a Nikoniko Live report left and then on Sunday I'm at another play so that makes it 3 reviews and hopefully I'll get them ALL done before I go on holiday next Monday! ^_^ So here we go; HAKUMYU LIVE 2!

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The Basics

So if you don't know what Hakuouki is; fix that straigh away! The anime is only 26 episodes long and I've heard the games are pretty easy to get through but they are Otome games so they might not be your cup of team. If you don't wanna waste that time the basics are; A girl joins the Shinsengumi in hopes of finding her father and depending on which stage or game you're watching/playing the Shinsengumi guy who ends up with her in the end changes and the story is tweaked and changed a little each version too. HakuMyu Live 2 is the second live from the musical series (it's like the... 9th installment?) and it's essentially a two hour concert where they sing their songs from the musical and have some fun and games in between too. This is the first live to first the Second and Third (4th Gen Hijikata too) gens of the actors/characters.


The Live Viewing Experience

Now I went and watched this as an LV which means Live Viewing. This is essentially, paying for a ticket half the price to watch it live from a theatre rather than going and seeing it in person. I had NO chance of getting tickets for this so I ended up doing the LV instead and it was my first LV.

Long story short: I wouldn't recommend doing LV but I think maybe I got a bad crowd. Before the LV began, we got a lovely message from the cinema which was like 'please have fun, it's okay to clap, make sure you have your pen light on and act like you're really there' so I was raring to go, thinking 'yeah everyone's gunna be so on board!' I was WRONG! There were only like three people will lights, it was completely silence unless someone was crying, or something comical happened on stage, or something funny was said by the actors, and hardly anyone clapped during the curtain call which personally I think is fucking rude as hell cos I even clap when I'm watching the freaking DVD! Have some respect for the actor busting their ass on there! What the hell?! Other bad things I wanna cover:

1. Doesn't feel real. Feels like you're just watching a DVD.
2. There's the fear (and warning that they put up) that the connection might be lost in parts.
3. I think you lose some emotion and tenseness by not being there actually in person because (as I said) just feels like you're watching a DVD.
4. You have no control over who you can watch cos the camera will choose the focus and close ups for you which sucks cos it meant my MakiChan stalking time was completely shot down.
5. I hated the crowd I was with and kinda ruined MY enjoyment of it - already explained.
6. The performance will be the same as the one on the DVD which is a shame so I'll only have seen one version rather than two different ones...
7. The sound quality at my cinema sucked! Could hardly hear Hashimoto and MakiChan at some points, especially when they were singing! I know they have delicate and soft voices but come on! -_-

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But I will say some good things:

1. Half the price of a normal ticket so you're saving money there
2. No bad seating
3. Camera close ups so you don't need glasses and you'll be able to see everything better than if you went in person
4. If you seriously do wanna see a play badly and you don't wanna wait for the DVD. Then it's worth it.

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So it does have good points but overall either just get the DVD or see it live in person.

Now onto the actual live!

What Shenanigans Went On?!

Luckily I managed to find someone who wrote up the entire set list so I'll put that here first ^_^

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Let me know if you want the English list! Though it might take me sometime to 'translate' it depending on the kanji and if I can remember the performance xD


Now the cast list:

Hijikata - Matsuda Gaku
Okita - Aramaki Yoshihiko [usually referred to as MakiChan]
Saito - Hashimoto Shohei
Chizuru - Fujikoso Yumi
Heisuke - Kizu Tsubasa*
Harada - Higashi Keisuke [usually referred to as TonChan]
Shinpachi - Fukuyama Shouta*
Yamazaki - Takasaki Shouta [usually referred to as TakaChan]
Kondou - Imata Taira
Ibuki - Shiramata Atsushi [sometimes referred to as MataChan]
Serizawa - Kubodera Akira
Shiranui - Kashiwagi Yusuke
Yukimura - Edogawa Manji
Kazama - Suzuki Shougo/Shogo

*These were the two new guys to the cast for this so now we're on 3rd Gen Heisuke and Shinpachi

This is (possibly) gunna be a very all about type of review (and as usual I'll switch between actor name and character name) because I don't actually remember a lot and it's probably because I felt like I was watching a DVD so I didn't pay as much attention as I would've been if I'd been in person. But I'll try and go down the list. I'll mark my paragraphs and sections matching the Set List numbers.

( Yaisa! Yaisa! Yaisa! ) )

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Holy moly i finally wrote it!!

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Overall: This was SO good! I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with all the songs and I'm SO happy that I got to finally see MakiChan sing Paint It Blood because it's my favourite song! I'm very happy with the new Heisuke too but not too sure on new Shinpachi. I am excited for the next installment but very worried about whether Suzuki Shogo will be continuing as Kazama or not =S

Rating: 9/10

I'm done! Now let me eat!! This took me like 4 hours to write!