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
( ( DS1 ) )
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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
( ( DS2 ) )
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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):
( ( DS4 ) )
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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.
( ( DS5 ) )
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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
( ( DS5 ) )
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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.
( ( DS6 ) )
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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!
( ( DS7 ) )
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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.
( ( DS8 ) )
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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
( ( DS9 ) )
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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:
( ( DS10 ) )
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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
( ( DS11 ) )
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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
( ( DS13 ) )
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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.
( ( DS14 ) )
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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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