[Report] Takizawa Kabuki 2012 – Act 1

Iya~ Many things about this trip were unexpected! First of all, Mich and I live far from each other, so we didn’t expect to meet again so soon after Kakumei. Then, somehow “the Takki stars aligned” and we ended up with some unbelievable seats for the opening show! Some of our other seats paled in comparison, but they were still nice considering that they were from Jticket International and we got to watch the show from various angles.

It’s the last year of Takizawa Kabuki, so this was definitely a nice way to end it before the return of Enbujou next year ^^

08 April (18:00) – 1F, left sajiki box seats, front row!!
09 April (18:00) – 1F, E row, center block, left
10 April (13:00) – 1F, F row, center block, left
10 April (18:00) – 1F, K row, center block, right
14 April (13:00) – 1F, G row, right *
14 April (18:00) – 1F, K row, left *

(* Bon’s shows after Mich went back)

☆ Pre-Opening

Two clowns appeared and went around waving to the audience. A ball bounced onto the stage from the left. The clowns caught it and tossed it to an audience member in the first row of the left sajiki box seats. One clown carried the other one upside down and whoever caught the ball had to toss it back to the clown who was upside down. Then they did the same thing on the right side of the stage, except this time, one clown climbed on top of the other one’s shoulders.

4/8 : The clown wanted to throw the ball to us, but we were just getting settled in our seats. Maybe he could tell that we weren’t ready, so he threw it to the girl beside Bon.

4/10 afternoon show : Lady on the right side kept tossing the ball before the clown could even climb up on top of the other clown. Eventually, he threw the ball to another lady and signalled for her to wait, but she also threw the ball back before he could climb up… lol. In the end, both the clowns just gave up…. It was funny, but also KY at the same time ne ^^;

4/10 evening show : The lady on the right side tossed the ball back to the clown and he caught it. It was the first time we saw it being done properly (previous days, it all ended up in misses somehow).

They continued this game with the audience in the middle section until the time buzzer sounded and they had to leave. They stood at the middle of the “mini stage” (the smaller stage that protruded out from the front of the main stage) and jumped down a hole. The white-gloved hand of one of the clowns appeared from the hole and with a snap of its fingers, it made the “stars” appear on the ceiling above us. Then the Enbujo theme song began playing in the background, followed by an English narration (by Dominic and Jeremiah; same as previous years).

☆ Overture

The red stage curtains parted in the center, revealing a white screen. Then, the Japanese narration by Tono began. On the white screen was Tono’s silhouette playing the piano. Flashback images from past Enbujos & Kabukis began appearing around his silhouette. At the end, the words “Takizawa Kabuki” appeared with the silhouette of Tono standing in the center and the Jrs walking out from behind him.

Goto Hiromi came out from the left side and began playing the violin. Suddenly, Jrs dressed in white suits ran in from all the 1st floor exits and down the main aisles. They stood alongside the aisle seats and first row seats. Tono’s voiceover began introducing the Jrs (starting from Goto Hiromi). In orderly lines, the Jrs walked up to the main stage and disappeared into the “backstage wings”, leaving only the chibi Jrs on the mini stage. When Tono introduced the Kansai Jrs, the chibi Jrs walked off and the 4 Kansai Jrs took their place on the mini stage. Kiriyama shouted “Haru no odori wa~” and all 4 of them continued “yoiyasaaaa!” as the red curtains fluttered into the treasure chest at the back of the main stage.

☆ Opening

~ Haru no Odori ~

A bunch of Jrs in traditional clothes danced onto the stage. The background screen showed a picture of a bridge and a huge cart was pushed to the front of the main stage. The 4 kansai jrs reappeared in purple and danced in front of the cart. Then Tono (in his red costume) stood up at the top of the cart and flew out towards us!

~ Inishie ~ night and day ~

The first thing we noticed was that his hair was short!! Kakkoii~!! And he was so kira kira too! Our heads were following him as he flew above the audience. Sakura petals were flying everywhere and some landed on our legs. On 4/8, we could see up his pants when he flew over us! XD

Tono landed on stage and danced with the Jrs until the end of the song. The stage went black but we could still see a little bit of Tono (thanks to his gold cape) as he was running off stage… our eyes were glued to him until he disappeared behind the curtains on the left.

⇒ Jrs Introduction

A spotlight was on Kiriyama as he suddenly appeared at the front of the GC box seats on the far left of the theatre. He introduced himself, then Shigeoka did the same in the GC box seats on the far right. Hamada appeared, standing on top of a stool on the left main aisle of the 1st floor (near Row D) and Kamiyama did the same on the right side.

Then the chibi Jrs did their intros on the main stage. After they ran off, in came Theybudou in the front and MSM in the back. Theybudou joked about their height and etc… MSM only said their names.

4/10 evening : Yamamoto talked about his shinchou (height) and Eda Tsuyoshi did too… Then MSM’s (Iwamoto Hikaru?) said “I’d like to give part of my height to someone else…”

Then the Kansai Jrs came on stage and Kiriyama said “And lastly, the lead role of Takizawa Kabuki here at Nissay Theatre… Takizawa Hideaki!” The Jrs stepped aside, forming a path in the middle. The staff rolled out the red carpet and the group of Jrs at the back of the main stage stepped aside to reveal Tono in a kira kira black suit. We all applauded non stop as Tono walked down the red carpet towards the front of the stage.

Tono thanked everyone for coming and hoped that we would enjoy the show until the very end.

4/10 evening: The moment Tono reached the front of the main stage, he said (in response to Hikaru’s height comment earlier) “Please give that height to me!” LOL!!

On a sidenote, I think he wasn’t standing at the center of the red carpet… he was standing a bit closer to the left side… Anyway, after Tono’s introduction, all Jrs did traditional bows and Tono did a modern one. Then everyone dispersed and disappeared backstage, leaving Tono by himself on stage.

⇒ Shadow

The nice music intro began to play and Tono walked to the left side of the stage. He took off his jacket (left sleeve first, then the right), revealing a white shirt. He rolled up his shirt sleeves (as he was doing this, we couldn’t help but stare… The shape of his body was so nice!!!) then he put his hands into his pant pockets and started singing the English song.

“Hold onto your dream, you can find the way if you look inside your heart. Don’t be afraid in the dark, together we can keep moving on through the winding road…” (I really love this intro… And his English pronunciation in this song was much better than Let Me Be in Kakumei! I was kinda surprised and proud at the same time lol)

Shige walked out onto the stage from the left and Kiriyama from the right with some chibi Jrs. Kiriyama and Tono met at the front of the main stage to perform the shadows segment. The rest continued singing the song till the end.

It was a beautiful shadows segment… Can’t wait to see it on DVD!!

First, Tono’s hand made the shape of a rabbit’s body. Kiriyama brushed his hands against Tono’s, slowly making the rabbit’s hands and legs appear. The ears appeared last. Then Kiriyama became a rabbit too and the two rabbits played with each other. The rabbits kissed and Kiriyama changed into a dog that scared Tono’s rabbit… Then Tono changed into an even larger dog and scared off Kiriyama’s dog.

Kiriyama’s hand reached over to feed Tono’s dog. The dog ate and licked the food. Kiriyama changed into a cat. The dog disappeared and Tono’s hand reached over to stroke the cat. (After the first few shows, I wasn’t really looking at the screen anymore. Instead, I focused my binoculars on Tono’s hand and facial expressions… and we saw Tono actually stroking Kiriyama’s hand!)

Tono changed into a tree branch and Kiriyama was a flying bird that landed on the branch. With a swift wave of Kiriyama’s hand, Tono became the bird! It had a cute little beak too~ It flapped its wings and Tono leaned in to kiss it! (chou kawaii!! but I think he didn’t actually kiss his own hand? haha) At the end, Tono and Kiriyama turned into two flying doves. When the music ended, Tono and Kiriyama turned to face the audience and bowed. They stage went black and they exited from the left.

☆ Ran ~ 10 roles ~

The instrumental version of With Love came on as four chibi Jrs stood at the middle of the main stage. Two went to the left side of the stage and stood beside Hamada, while the other two went to Kamiyama on the right. Kamiyama introduced the story and characters; Hamada said that Tono will act as all of these characters…”Try not to lose sight of him!” Then Kamiyama said, “So without further ado… Takizawa Hideaki! Ran~ 10 roles!”

Most of the performance was similar to last year’s, so we’d like to focus mainly on the differences. Please refer to last year’s Kabuki report for more details :

Yoshitsune

Like last year, Tono first appeared as Yoritomo before changing into Ushiwaka, Benkei, and then Ushiwaka again. This year, Saburo was played by Kiriyama (which I thought suited him well).

From where we were sitting on 4/8, we could see everything that was going on from inside the right backstage wing. At one point, I saw someone in an Ushiwaka costume on standby and I thought it was Tono! But yappari, it was only a Jr who was acting as Tono’s double. ^^;

Honnoji no Hen

Tono appeared as Akechi Mitsuhide and then changed to Oda Nobunaga.

The first time I watched this, I was quite shocked by how fast Tono was when he appeared as Nobunaga! He just came out of nowhere! Well… by “nowhere,” I mean from under the bridge that was at the middle of the stage. But he did it so fast, my binoculars couldn’t catch up! lol

This year, Mori Ranmaru was played by Shigeoka. At the end of the story, Akechi’s men all slashed at Nobunaga and he disappeared into the darkness (whereas last year, Nobunaga disappeared into the fire).

Battle of Yamazaki

(This part was new!)

It was dark and blue smoke crept onto the stage. Tono appeared in the middle of the stage as Hashiba Hideyoshi. The background screen behind him showed an army of followers. He killed off Mitsuhide and then Tono’s voice over (as Tokugawa Ieyasu) began playing in the background.

A bridge appeared in the middle of the stage and Hideyoshi walked onto it. He stood at the top, facing the audience. Hideyoshi held his arms out as two Jrs walked up to him. They “straightened out” his long sleeves before they jumped over the sides of bridge. From our binoculars, we could see that strings were attached to the sleeves and the headgear.

Hideyoshi was lifted into the air before he shouted “Yodohime!!!” The Jrs below him yanked on the strings, tearing the Hideyoshi costume in half (revealing a pink kimono) and pulling off the headgear at the same time (revealing Yodohime’s long hair). Tono became Yodohime and “dangled” in the air for a few seconds before he (literally) dropped down onto the main stage. Then everything went black.

Shinsengumi

In Shinsengumi, the music and background effects from last year were better (in my opinion). Tono appeared Okita Souji (in blue) and walked onto the bridge from the right. Then he did a quick change to Serizawa Kamo (in red).

The quick change was so fast, it always made me nervous. I was always worried that the sleeves would get caught or something. But luckily, that never happened ne!

Chushingura

This year, Asano Takuminokami was played by Abe of MSM and Kira Kouzukenosuke was played by Iwamoto Hikaru of MSM. Like last year, the “breaking into the house from the roof” scene (where Tono stood on top of the “TT” boards) was done at stage level. Originally, it was done on an elevated platform on the stage. But perhaps due to the earthquake, it was brought down to stage level.

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole segment was when Tono finished all the stunts and stood at the front of the mini stage, holding his sword in front of him and flexing the biceps on his right arm… CHOU KAKKOII~

After that, Tono ran up a wooden board to the bridge. All the other characters followed, also disappearing from the bridge. Then, a line of Jrs in white kimonos walked onto the main stage and began dancing with sensu.

☆ NEW MASK

4/9 : A staff in black came running down our aisle with a black folding chair and placed it right in front of Bon. We were kinda confused… wondering why they suddenly put a chair there… Then, all of the sudden, Tono walked past us and sat in the chair!!! Akirashock!!! Mich held a hand over her heart to keep it from beating out of her chest and Bon grabbed Mich’s other hand in order to contain herself from screaming “OHMYGOD” XD

Tono was looking straight at the main stage, even though all the people around him were gasping, having cardiac arrests and holding their hands to their mouths and chests lol… His eyes were very kirakira and his face was also kirakira with sweat ^^;

He was in the kira kira black suit again (the one that he wore in the Jrs Intro) and he was holding a red mask in his hand.

Whenever we see him up close, it’s usually from the front or the side… but rarely from the back? All we can say is… he looks good from every angle! lol~ From the back, his hair was shiny and spiky and he had such nice, strong shoulders!!

He sat there for about 5 seconds before he got up and walked down the main aisle. The spotlight was shining on him as he walked up to the mini stage. He gave a short epilogue to “Ran,” saying that the heros in Japanese history and their legacies will continue to live on. Then he placed the red mask over his face and sank down the stage.

☆ Jrs Mask

After a Jr dance intro (where the Jrs danced, walked on stilts, and flew through the air in neon costumes…), the stage went black.

Spotlights suddenly came on and there were Jrs standing in two vertical lines… one line was on the far left side of the main stage and the other was on the far right. They were all wearing red masks, black suits, black hats, red gloves and red shoes. When the music paused for a second, we heard hurried footsteps and the screeching of sneakers against the stage floor as a bunch of Jrs (all dressed in the same outfit) came running onto the stage. They quickly got into position and the music started again. It had a nice beat to it and the rest of the performance was quite kakkoii… like Mich mentioned, very PLAYZONE-ppoi.

☆ Face Change

At the end of the performance, the Jrs took off their hats and masks, revealing their faces. The Jrs stepped aside, forming a wide path in the middle. They all turned to look towards the back of the stage where a weeping cherry blossom tree began to rise up from the stage floor. Standing on both sides of the tree were two Jrs dressed in white suits.

Biwa (Japanese lute) music began to play in the background. The stage lights turned to an intense purple (kind of like purple UV lights?), giving everything a blurry 3D effect. The two Jrs in white suits pulled the cherry blossom tree towards the front of the stage, then to the right. At the end of the music, the Jrs in white suits disappeared off stage and Tono rose up from the mini stage in his white mask changing costume.

The instrumental version of Sotsugyou began to play as Tono slowly walked to the left side of the tree. He walked around it and brushed his fingers against the “flowers” at the end of a branch. He did a few mask changes before dancing over to the front left side of the stage (near the left sajiki seats).

4/8 : Tono was facing our direction and was looking down as he moved quickly towards us. He stretched out his right hand and did this “come to me~” sort of gesture with his fingers… Needless to say, we melted into a puddle of lovestruck goo… lol.

He was wearing a mask so it was hard to tell if he really saw us, but he was looking down (not up at some focus point), so it certainly FELT as though he was looking at us!! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip hehehe~

After swooning us (lol), he danced over to the center of the stage and finished the rest of the mask changes. He was standing on the mini stage when he swiped away the last mask, took off the headpiece and revealed his face. The trap door lowered him down and he slowly disappeared.

☆ Taiko

By the end of our applause, we heard “so~re!” and hadaka Jrs began beating on taiko drums at the far right and left ends of the main stage (there were two on each side). Then, more hadaka Jrs came marching down the two main aisles and in front of Row A on the 1st floor. They were beating their drumsticks together as they repeatedly yelled “ha! ha! ha!” after each beat.

Meanwhile, as the Jrs made their way on stage to their proper positions, Tono reappeared in “all his hadaka glory” as he rose up from the mini stage! This part was really KAKKOII!! He turned and walked towards his drum set and picked up his drum sticks.

All the Jrs yelled “Soriya!” and Tono began his solo drum performance. This part was completely new! It started with a slow beat that accelerated into a rapid one. He yelled “Ha!” after every last beat… his mic was turned off, so he was using his “namagoe” (raw voice)! He did this several times before the end of his solo. It was really kakkoii and it was also quite cute because after his final “Ha!” at the end, he gave out a little “ahem…” like he was clearing his throat? lol

This didn’t happen in the opening show, so we were giggling when he did it for the first time during the second show. But then he kept doing it in almost every show after that, so yappari… yelling with his raw voice must be a little taihen for his throat ^^;

Once Tono’s solo was over, the Jrs yelled “so~re!” and began the second part, which was a group performance. This was also new. Then the last part was the same “solo & group mix” performance from previous years. But we noticed that this year, Tono used thicker wooden drumsticks for the first and second parts and neon drumsticks for the last part.

After watching the DVD, I didn’t think that Tono could look any more kakkoii… But maybe it was the short hair? Or maybe the tight white pants? Somehow, someway, he just looked even more kakkoii this year!! And the lights reflected off of the sweat on his body, so he was (literally) glowing hahaha

After the taiko performance, the stage went black and Tono exited from the left.

☆ DANCE

Some Jrs appeared near Row A and did the intro dance. The stage was still dark when Tono entered from the left and walked towards center stage. He was still wearing the white pants, but on top, he was wearing a new metallic jacket (different from the Revenger outfit from previous years). Another thing we noticed was that he was already wearing his hat when he came out.

~ REVENGER ~

The performance was the same as previous years… except this year, the main backdancers were Kansai Jrs. Like usual, as soon as Tono sat down on his “throne,” he began taking the protective tape (from the taiko performance) off his hands. I think he unwrapped his right hand first, then his left. Then he rolled the tape into a ball and tucked it somewhere on the right side of his seat.

Sometimes, when we looked through our binocs, we saw him fixing his mic, wiping sweat off his nose and also touching the scalp (from the blister) on his right hand. Other than that, most of our attention was focused on those abs… and the Takizawa Happy Trail XD

☆ Takizawa Troupe

After Revenger, Tono and the Jrs ran off stage. The instrumental for With Love came on and Hamada and Kamiyama appeared from the 1st floor side exits and walked over to Row A. They asked the audience what their favorite part of Kabuki was so far and etc. Then they formally introduced  themselves… Hamada was acting as the “Jimusho zachou” and Kamiyama as “the manager of Takizawa Kabuki” lol.

⇒ White Face Painting & Shounen WITH LOVE

Zachou and Manager-san continued to joke around… Meanwhile on the main stage, Tono appeared from the left (half naked) and hurried over to his “dressing room” / vanity station in the middle of the stage. As Tono started doing his white makeup, Kiriyama and Shigeoka also appeared and joined in on the skit, making jokes and doing monomanes.

It was funny when Zachou referred to Tono as “Takizawa” (without the -san or -kun suffix). Manager-san was shocked and dared him to do it again inside Tono’s “dressing room”. But the moment Zachou went into the “dressing room,” he called Tono “Takizawa-kun” instead and Manager-san fell to the ground.

We weren’t really paying attention to anything else because our binoculars were focused on Tono and his interaction with Watanabe (from MSM) who was his helper this year.

4/10 afternoon : Watanabe was fanning Tono with an uchiwa, but then he suddenly stopped and started fanning himself. Tono whacked him in the head before he picked up his brush and put a stroke of white paint on Watanabe’s nose!! Then Tono picked up the big sponge and started patting Watanabe’s nose with it! KAWAII~~~

It was also really cute when they both sang along to With Love. Well, they weren’t really singing… More like “lovingly” mouthing the lyrics and swaying to the music? lol

4/10 evening : Tono pulled the black veil down over Watanabe’s face, as though he was saying “no one needs to see that face” lol~ When Watanabe pulled the black veil back over his head, Tono snatched the uchiwa from Watanabe’s hand, placed it in front of Watanabe’s face and whacked it.

4/14 afternoon : Tono had a big pimple on his left cheek (right below his cheek bone) and it was really visible even under all the white paint ^^;

Kansai Jrs also had a little competition where they each went up to Tono and tried to “win him over” with their charisma and jokes. Tono didn’t really laugh, but it was cute when Shigeoka-kun went up to say “Ohayo~” and Tono replied with a silent “ohayo~” while bashing his eyelashes.

Before With Love, Watanabe put his face next to Tono’s and looked into his vanity mirror (practically taking up half the mirror). Tono blew on his right hand and slapped Watanabe’s head XD Then Watanabe did it again but this time, he daringly covered Tono’s face with the uchiwa! Tono blew on his hand again, turned it into a fist and gave the Kansai Jrs an “Is it okay to punch him? Okay!” expression before he bopped Watanabe on the head! LOL

4/14 evening : Forgot who it was, but one of the Kansai Jrs went up to Tono and said “Tono~ Yappari, you’re so kakkoii.” Tono smiled and did an “aw shucks~” kind of hand gesture. It was so cute!!! Then Shigeoka-kun went up to Tono and presented him with a fake plastic crab that he pulled out from a paper bag. Tono gave out a silent “Oh!!” reaction and Shigeoka-kun jumped up and ecstatically said “He said Oh! He said Oh!!” lol

Then one of the Kansai Jrs said something about Watanabe. Watanabe acted as though he was going to get up and start a fight, but Tono put out his left hand in front of Watanabe and mouthed the words, “Ma~ ma~ ma~ let it go~”

After that, Kiriyama-kun went up to Tono and took out a single slipper from the paper bag. With his left hand, Tono pushed Watanabe’s head forward and Kiriyama whacked Watanabe in the head with the slipper! XD

Before With Love, Watanabe inched close to Tono’s face and looked into his vanity mirror. Tono whacked him in the head and when Watanabe did it again, Tono “white nose’d” him, just like he did in the 4/10 afternoon show! Except this time, he didn’t use his sponge on Watanabe.

During With Love, Tono put on a little too much pink powder over his eyes, so he had to use a white towel to wipe some of it off. Near the end of the song, Tono stuck out both his wrists and waited for Watanabe to give him a spray of perfume. But Watanabe was distracted by something? and didn’t notice that Tono was waiting for him. Tono stared at his wrists for a second, then at Watanabe and gave him an “Omae… I’m ready yo! Perfume please!” kind of look XD

This was my last show, so I was really happy that there were so many cute moments!

⇒ Comedy Skit

Story-wise, the onnagata comedy skit hadn’t changed at all. This year, the store owner and clerks were played by Kansai Jr. The onnagatas were played by chibi Jrs like Inoue Mizuki, Hashimoto Ryo, and etc (they were replaced by older Jrs like Ootsuka in the afternoon shows when the chibi Jrs had to be in school).

Although nothing was really new, it was still entertaining! My favorite part was where the onnagata chibis called the store owner and manager “Ossan!” (a ruder way of calling someone oji-san) and Kiriyama’s “Dare ga ossan ya!” or “Who are you calling an old man?!” reaction was quite funny! Maybe it’s the Kansai-ben intonation? ^^;

It was also funny when they found out the onnagata were actually men… everyone acted surprised and said “(They are) otoko??” Everyone except Kiriyama, who said “Mens?!” in Kansai-ben Engrish XD

☆ Takizawa Kabuki

⇒ Monks

Very similar to previous years, just that the Jrs were different. At the beginning, the smallest Jr, Aoi Chino, always turned to the Kansai Jrs and said “Hey you guys are from Kansai, right? So do something funny!”

So as expected, the Kansai Jrs were the main ones who carried out all the jokes. The chibi monks also asked questions like “Why is it called Kabuki?” and “Why are their faces painted white?” and Shigeoka always told someone else in Kansai Jrs (other than himself) to explain the answer lol. Then after that, one of the Kansai Jrs would do a monomane and wait for Chino’s evaluation of whether it was “omoshiroi” (funny) or “tsumannai” (boring) lol.

We noticed that the afternoon shows were generally not that cute because during the weekday, many of the chibi Jrs had to be in school and could only perform in the evening shows. There were so few monks in the afternoon show on 4/10. Practically no chibis at all? lol…

⇒ Musume Doujouji

When the monks left and the curtains lifted, Tono appeared in his glamorous red and gold kimono. The performance itself was the same as always.

4/8 : During the first part of the kabuki dance, Tono slowly walked over to the left side of the stage. There was a part of the dance where he stood on his tiptoes, leaned his whole body forward (as though he was going to fall), took a few quick steps forward and stood still in a half-crouching position. Somehow, seeing that part so up-close gave me a better appreciation of the dance itself (which is something we sometimes forget when we watch the scene too many times on DVD…). We also got a good look at the details on the kimono and headpiece and they were quite beautiful!

As a sidenote (not really related to Tono), something happened during “the round tambourine” dance… This was the part where a chibi Jr handed Tono a round tambourine, but the other handed him a handkerchief / pouch of some sort? Tono shook his head like “No, this is not a tambourine” before he gently pat the pouch against his face and threw it into the audience.

Well, during the 30 minute intermission, we noticed that a young staff guy was always in charge of retrieving the pouch from the audience. But in the 4/10 afternoon show, he searched and searched and he just couldn’t find it! Whoever caught it was also pretending like she had nothing to do with it… and we don’t blame her…. but the poor staff-san had such a concerned look on his face! Luckily in the end, (I think 5 minutes before Act 2 began) he and another staff-san was able to find the pouch ^^;

⇒ Yagura no Oshichi

This year, the Oshichi doll was controlled by two Jrs from MSM and the song was sung by Konno Takayuki… which surprised me because his voice has changed, but yet it hasn’t at the same time? It’s much lower but still has the “shigin quality” to it ne~

The rest of the performance remained the same, but there was an “accident” during the 4/10 afternoon show (if we remember correctly)? The red cloth from Tono’s kimono was perhaps released a little too early, so instead of falling over the railing, it fell onto the platform and pooled around Tono’s feet. It looked slightly awkward, but like the professional he is, Tono ignored the mistake and nonchalantly continued the rest of the performance ^^

⇒ Spider’s Dance

Goto Hiromi appeared on the left side stage and began playing the kokyu. Sakuma and Ryouta came out and performed a sword dance duet. Then, from behind the translucent screen, a spotlight was shining on Takihime as he played the koto. This year, his “lover” was played by Shigeoka (lol) who was sitting on the stairs, just a few steps away from Takihime. As the translucent screen lifted, Shigeoka walked up to Takihime, helped her up and led her down the steps to the main stage.

When they danced together, Shigeoka looked so young…  I couldn’t help but think “Takihime is a little too old for you…” hahaha (But at least he’s taller than Takihime so it didn’t look too weird… gomen, Tono… and gomen, Yara-kun LOL!)

Their “kiss scene” was interrupted by a loud boom sound. Takihime threw threads of spiderwebs towards the direction from where the sound came from (not towards her lover like she did in previous years). It was as though she was trying to protect the both of them… Then, the two of them ran away together and I saw Shigeoka’s hand on Takihime’s back as they exited from the left haha~

Jrs came out and did a sword dance. The back of the main stage was dark, but we could still see Takispider walking in from the left. He sat down on top of a platform that began to rise up. No need to get into details as the performance was the same as it was last year… but I do want to mention that in addition to his four spider subordinates (played by the four Kansai Jrs), he also had four other chibi “spider babies” following him around this year!! They were so cute!! Unfortunately, they weren’t present during the afternoon shows ne…

As the curtains fell, we kept our eyes on Tono until we couldn’t see him anymore. In front of the curtains, a clown appeared with two chibi Jrs, who were inside a futon. The clown was holding up a scroll with the words “intermission” on it. The chibis turned off the lamp that was beside their heads before they were lowered down beneath the stage.

⇒ End of Act 1