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! -_-



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.



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 ^_^


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:


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! ) )

--

Holy moly i finally wrote it!!

--

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!

Yes I have skipped over Orphans! I am bit by bit writing that review but I can't let it stop me from getting anymore behind! SO here is the play I saw next after Orphans on March 1st = Paranoia Circus! So turns out I did make ANY notes of Paranois Circus on my phone - eek! So let's hope I remember what the hell happened and it turns out I didn't tweet about it at all! Which makes it seem like I didn' enjoy it - I did!! < spoiler! but now to remember... *opens up pamphlet*


I remember before the show that the line for the goods was MASSIVE and the even had to open a little 'no extrance' stairwell so more people could line up xD AND there were loads of people preordering the DVD before the show even started! I understand that there's some huge stars and names in the show but I was like, it can't be that good can it... and I underestimated this play!




The play itself ended up being a great story with amazing acting, VERY funny and I enjoyed the plot and the twists and omg the beginning and ending were amazing!
About 5 minutes before the show was set to start Takeuchi Naofumi came out and started walking along the rows at the front. He was completely in character, doing the odd walk and everything and he was telling jokes and smiling at people and then he started a game where he started at the beginning side of one row, gave his clock (yes cLock!) to the person in the first seat and the had to pass it down to the end of the row before he got to the other side. He lost each time xD He was like 'you're doing it too fast!' xD eventually the light darkened and a chair came out explaining the rules and such (yes a talking chair!) and he asked a guy on the front row to come on stage and sit on it - at first we all thought he was just a normal audience viewer - but once he was in the chair, they pulled the chair with him in it behind the curtain and he never returned to his seat - SO he must have been in the cast and I'm convinced it was Ozawa Ryota's butler who was played by Horiike Naotaka.
They opened up with a song, which they also redid right at the end as an encore and it's very enjoyable! <3

( ( Review and pictures ) )



---


Overall: I can understand why people were preordering this BEFORE we even went it! It had a great story with mystery, suspense and some shockers. The casting was starclass, full of Tokusatsu actors and everyone did an amazing job. The characters themselves were all very different and interesting! I loved the staging and I loved whenever Suzuki/Lupin and Ozawa/Edogawa were fighting xD I wish the DVD weren't so expensive (I think it's 9000 yen!) cos I'd love to see this again and drool all over Lupin again hehe
Rating: 7/10