I went to see SHOCK today. I enjoyed it a lot as always!! The show hasn't changed basically but they change details every year. This year Uekusa-san joined the company as the owner, that is the biggest change in the show. Since the owner is older than Koichi this time, some story lines have been changed and Rika is the owner's daughter. I think MAD (Kosshi, Tatsumi, Matsuzaki, Fuku-chan) got more appearances than before to play drums with Ko-chan and MA that was so cool. Ko-chan was amazing as always(^_^) I'm going to see one more show. I can't wait!!

Okonomiyaki was yummy~(^_^)

ごちそうさまでした。

It's been quite a while since I saw Takizawa Kakumei but I'll write about it anyway to keep my memories here. I'm not going into details cos I didn't get the story well and don't remember a lot(^_^;)

I watched the show on January 13th at the Imperial Theater. The show started at 18:00 and Takki flew a lot!! I think he was flying in a white costume in the beginning but not remember well. The story contains several Japanese folk tales such as Urashima Taro and Kaguya Hime, and I think it also has Moby Dick, like earlier SHOCK did. As already mentioned, I'm not gonna write about the story since I didn't understand it well(^_^;) Sen-chan said it took him a while to understand the story so no wonder I didn't get it after seeing it only once(^_^;) In short, Takki fights to make a revolution? I still don't know what the revolution was though... Anyway Takizawa-gun (Takki side) fights against the villains Daishougun (Nikki side). Takizawa-gun consists of Tottsu, Tsuka-chan, Fujigaya, Kitamitsu, Tama, Sen-chan and Hasshi (Goto was also on the same ship playing the violine) while Daishougun consists of Goseki-sama, Fumikyun, Yokoo, Miyacchi, and Nika. In the middle of the story, Fujigaya betrays Takki and goes over to Daishougun.

I think Fujikita had many lines and so did Fumikyun. Hasshi spoke more than I had expected. He danced with Takki and Tottsu and played with the water picture that makes anything with water. Those three went through water pictures such as hearts, clovers, and so on, and Hasshi failed and got soaking wet XD He was so cute then!! I can't wait to see this scene in the DVD!! The show had so many great effects but I think this water effect was the most impressive one in the show. Water creats pictures, characters, or anything and it expressed performers names at the end. When each member was called, their names were shown by water in their back, that was pretty. Hasshi died first and didn't appear for almost the whole Act 2 because of his age problem (the show ended around 21:20). I heard he appeared in the show time for the afternoon performance so I hope it will be included in the DVD. Everyone in Takizawa-gun except for Takki gets killed by Daishougun. I remember Sen-chan was killed by Nika. Aww Nisen~ XD Nika looked so awesome as a villain. He took a sword from someone (Tsuka-chan?) and used two swords to kill Takizawa-gun shouting Kill them all and Take their hearts!! He looked so sadistic and scary and amazing. I giggled when Tama first appeared cos he went down a rope so slowly while Tsuka-chan went down a rope so acrobatically XD Tama was so Tama(^_^;) In Act 1, many things happen (so brief XD) and at the end Takki turns into an old man after he opened the seishun no kobako (box of youth?).

Act 2 started with Takki as an old man and his story was told like his previous show One. Otsuka-kun acted Takki's childhood and was called Hideaki. He was so adorable as Hideaki!! He read a letter from Takki's mom and played with Takki as an old man. Kishimoto-kun also acted as Hideaki when Otsuka-kun didn't act. In Act 2, Takki performed Taste Me with Ebikisu and Non-chan. Why Non-chan in Ebikisu XD I love Taste Me!! Oh Jr.Boys spoke in Act 2!! I don't remember what they said but I think they were kinda complaining about something(^_^;) At the end of Act 2, a big plane appeared on the stage and I didn't get why it was there(^_^;)

In the show time, they performed Yumemonogatari, Serenade, Kamen Butoukai, Venus, Ho! Summer, Real DX, Epilogue, Ai Kakumei and more. Fans got so hyper when the intro of Real DX was played. During Real DX with Ebikisu plus Sanada, there was a Miyatama moment with Takki between them and I got very excited(^_^) They were so cute(^_^) At the very end of the show, they performed Ai Kakumei and Takki flew in the water like he did in the countdown concert and Tsuka-chan was in charge of stopping Takki from flying. Tsuka-chan had to go through the water picture to catch Takki and got wet at the very end(^_^;)

So many juniors performed in the show. I spotted the following juniors: Jr.Boys (no Abeiwa in the show time due to their age), Sanada, Non-chan, Hip Hop Jump, Takada-kun, Masuda, Okawa, Nakata, Kishimoto, Ito Takumi, Kanda, Kyomoto, Uekusa, Noeru, Anderson, Konno (shigin), Muraji (shamisen), Otsuka-kun, Ueda-kun, Yasui-kun, Junpei, Takahiko-sama, and Goto. There must have been some more juniors such as Satoshun, Haruki, Takino, and Inami but I couldn't spot them. Jr.Boys and Sananon were introduced as Mis Snow Man at the end. Goto played something like erhu in the middle of the story. Maybe he was away to learn how to play that instrument? (^_^;)

They filmed the show and will release it on DVD. I can't wait to watch it!! I need to watch it again and again to understand the story(^_^;) Anyway I enjoyed the show very much(^_^) It was just announced Takizawa Enbujo will be held from March 29th to April 25th. Takki and juniors will be busy with butai again!! Wish them all the best!! Ganbare~

More than a week has passed since I watched Takizawa Enbujou but I'll write about it anyway. I saw the afternoon performance starting at 13:00 on the 17th at Shinbashi Enbujou. Before the show started, my friend and I bought the Takikomi gohan bento for lunch(^_^)

They had two kinds of Takikomi gohan bentos and we chose this Japanese bento. We ate it before the second part started. Enbujou has special foods every time, which makes the show even more enjoyable(^_^)

This year's Enbujou consists of two parts, Japanese old tales for the first half and Yoshitsune story for the second half. 

Part 1. にほん昔ばな史 Japanese old tales

春の踊り～いにしえ Spring dance~Inishie
口上 Introduction
白虎隊 Byakkotai
変面～MASK
星のしずく Hoshi no shizuku
安珍清姫 Anchin Kiyohime
滝の白糸 Taki no shiraito
滝沢歌舞伎 Takizawa Kabuki
- 弁天娘女男白浪 Benten musume meono shiranami
- 鷺娘 Sagi musume
- 櫓のお七 Yagura no Oshichi
- 執着獅子 Shuuchaku jishi
忠臣蔵 Chushingura
五条大橋 義経と弁慶 Gojou oohashi, Yoshitsune and Benkei

Part 2. 義経 悲話 Yoshitsune's sad story

The show started with Goto's violin and Takahiko-sama and Fumikyun's dances as usual. The big change from the previous years is that they added Takizawa Kabuki. Takki gets white makeup for kabuki onnagata (female role) by himself on the stage and shows famous kabuki performances such as Sagi musume and Yagura no Oshichi. I really liked it. One chibi junior plays shamisen and another chibi junior sings shigin to the shamisen while Takki dances as onnagata in beautiful kimono. At afternoon shows, Kyomoto sings instead because the shigin junior is at school(^_^;) The recorded shigin was played instead. The shamisen junior was so small and cute!! There are nichibu junior (Takahiko-sama), violin, baton, and now shamisen and shigin juniors?! Sugoi ne(^_^;)

Other stories are not changed so much, I think. For Anchin Kiyohime, Edacchi plays Anchin and flies with Takki. For Yoshitsune, Takki plays Yoshitsune and Yoritomo (mainly Yoshitsune), Fujigaya plays Benkei, Tottsu plays Saburou, Fumikyun plays Togashi, and Kitamitsu plays an unnamed villain (Yoritomo side). Benkei and Saburou are on Yoshitsune's side and Togashi and the villain are on Yoritomo's side. Benkei and Saburou are Yoshitsune's faithful followers, and the story about the loyalty to their master Yoshitsune made me cry. The traveling part with Yoshitsune, Benkei, and Saburou was fun and the last katana fighting in the rain was amazing.

The prettiest part was Benten musume meono shiranami (aka Shiranami five men) played by Kyomoto, Yasui, Ito Junpei, Takahiko-sama, and Yamaryo. In this story, those five men disguise as women. They're actually thieves and try to rob a shop run by M.A.D members (Matsuzaki, Kosshi, Tatsumi, Fuku-chan). Those five thieves as women in pretty kimono were so cute(>_<) And the conversations between the characters were so much fun!! I laughed a lot at this Benten part. Kyomoto was really adorable dressing as a girl. Takahiko-sama was so funny since, you know, he's from a famous traditional Nihon Buyo family Fujima and now he plays a girl and says funny things, which made me lol. Also I really liked Yasui and Ito Junpei a lot. They were doing Dondake~ which was so darn cute. Needless to say, Takki was great. I was really amazed by his performances. Also all those juniors did very well. I was impressed by all of them. 

Enbujou successfully ended today. Omedetou!! I heard Sen-chan, Nika, and Tama came to see the show yesterday and Sen-chan couldn't stop crying during the show(^_^;) How cute. I really enjoyed watching all the Japanese stories played by them wearing beautiful kimono. I hope to watch the show again next year(^_^)