{ boss wins!! }

knowing that this is part one of the last installment in rts, how am I feeling..... pretty emotional honestly. it's hard to imagine that in one more month, the series will be truly over.... i'm truly grateful to all the cast and staff for the wonderful memories. reborn in my eyes really came back to life in the form of a stage adaptation and has truly become my favorite edition of the story, i do love the manga and anime dearly of course. it's just really unfortunate that the pandemic had to cut the run short.... still, i wanted to enjoy it with all my heart without any sad or bitter feelings.

to start this 'review' i guess, i just want to say one thing outright. if you are a die-hard fan, someone whose favorite arc was future arc (which might be a lot of people), you need to leave your expectations at the door. episode of future part 1 does not try to be a completely faithful recreation of future arc from either the manga or anime. there are quite a lot changes in the story, some small, some big. a lot of scenes and even whole characters are occluded, swapped for others, and a lot more. some people might be upset by this. i myself, was surprised by a lot of the changes, but not upset at all, as i continued watching, i understood the direction the play's story needed to go and why they did what they did, it created a cohesive, interesting story. and in general, rts has built it's own continuity separate from source material anyway. there were some strange/confusing stuff though, won't lie. still, i just wanted to say that.

second, the general vibe of the performance, how can i describe it.... it's very different to the other plays. first off, the pacing is EXTREMELY fast. i couldn't believe i was at the 50 minute mark, so much was happening!! the actors never spend more than 10-15 seconds off stage as transitions, almost everyone gets to be in a scene, and scene after scene plays out, there's even acting before the opening song which was also super short! it's understandable since they have a 2 hour window to perform only and there's so much going on, but you really can't be distracted for a little while.

the performance is stripped down, but not watered down (if that makes sense), it's a mostly visual and auditory experience, projection takes the lead for most of the effects in the show (such as flames, box weapons, etc). ensemble and kuroko (people dressed in all black to be 'invisible') are busily moving screens and props (which have been kept very minimal) in between the choreographed fights, it's really busy on stage. lighting and sound is cleverly used to convey character feelings and add to the mood. speaking of lighting, some scenes in the dvd were a bit strange, for example hibari and genkishi's fight, it was quite dark and hard to see hibari well (i think it was intentional, but still). edit: i watched disc 2, there was actually a back up hibari during that fight, so that was why! also couldn't appreciate the music so much since i was focusing on the actors but it is a great sound track as always! (some certain scenes had an unexpected bgm though...) also, super strange to not see anyone with masks on now....

it's strange, it's like watching what i hazily recollect about future arc when i haven't seen it in a long time. i don't want to say too much because i think everyone should get the chance to see it blind, but there are genuinely unexpected and funny moments, uri's reveal being one for example 😂😂😂😭😭😭😭

characters cameo through projection too! it was nice to get a peek at tyl mukuro, bel, squ and xanxus. there were also some cool cinematic-like shots with mukuro vs byakuran, and of course, vongola primo looked super cool too. (interesting how he and timoteo are the only vongola bosses to have an official appearance in rts, i'm not sure if the mafia members on stage with tsuna were supposed to represent other bosses or just vongola members, it didn't seem like other bosses appeared anyway.)

actually, i was quite surprised when i saw how they did projection this time around, i thought they would utilize the top-down screen from secret bullet, but i guess it wouldn't have worked the same, or gotten the same adrenaline rush this way of doing it did. i can only imagine it would've made you hold your breath watching it live...

i want to talk about actors! everyone did really well. i think all the new cast members did a great job! vongola's cast all did really well being both their tyl and present selves, can't imagine how quickly they had to get changed, but they pulled it off!

first, nakada hiroki as byakuran! what a delight to watch. his byakuran is so cute, so cool, so deliciously evil. his laugh is hypnotic and every second he's on stage, you can't ignore him. so gorgeous and a natural villain.... it breaks my heart thinking he was emotional to have the shows cancelled, that's why i adamantly want to support the plays as much as i can, the cast and staff really deserve it. i was hoping i would hear from him on curtain call (which was also cut short 💔) but maybe it would be in disc 2. i really want to get to know him more!

kitamura kento as hibari, and while i miss kishimoto-san from previous plays, kitamura excellently captured tyl hibari's charms! he's so cool. his characterization of tyl hibari to me is a lot more laid back and less openly hostile than tyl hibari in the anime/manga, for me, that's really refreshing and i think emphasizes how hibari has grown even more. he's also a natural at interacting with the other guardians, teru-san (ryohei) and KIMERU (lambo) off the top of my head ahaha! he's super funny as young hibari too. i hope kitamura-san's wish could come true somehow for a EoF re-show, but it could just be a dream.... his many shots with hibird are adorable too.

honestly, i did not expect glo xinia and gingerbread to be given bigger roles, but future arc does have a lot of filler characters, so i'm sure they had to be fair by picking one from black and white spell while also keeping the important members (irie, gamma, genkishi, uni, etc). glo is definitely not a favorite character at all, but miyoshi daiki did a good job making a comic relief character a bit more serious while not downplaying how unsettling he is (i absolutely do not bash miyoshi-san at all, in fact he truly worked the hardest for suddenly needing to play dino as well in part 2 and on such short notice, he deserves all the compliments on his effort and i hope he gets plenty of rest! i appreciate and respect him so much!!!!!) i wonder how there were multiple of him during the first fight with tsuna and co, did they rewrite glo as a mist/rain instead of just rain? hmmm, interesting. i know lots of people like nosaru + tazaru and swapping them for glo seems very strange and a bit sad even but i trust the writing and it worked out pretty well imo. gingerbread's actor also did great, super creepy and into their role.

gamma and genkishi !!!!!!! super super cool, i love gamma and i was pretty happy with takuya-san and miyazawa-san's portrayals. takuya-san's gamma is very ruthless and holds a lot of pain and bitterness in his heart, unlike the suave and cool-headed gamma of the anime/manga. they managed to include gammaria + gamma accepting uni as boss too... ah my heart. miyazawa-san moves like water on the stage, he's so graceful and purposeful in his fights as genkishi, it's a delight to watch and scary how much yamamoto and hibari and tsuna struggle against him. same can be said for when he's the final, phantom knight mode. i wasn't sure about genkishi's loyalties this time around, whether it's to uni or byakuran, but that's just because of the language gap + me needing a reread/rewatch. but they really stood out to me!

i loved everyone else too, irie, spanner, uni, all the ensemble, i loved how much we got of all the girls too, it was really fun!

if my review sounds subdued somehow, it might be because the show is, the previous installments really were punchy and high energy and i feel like because it was all so fast, a lot of emotional impact was removed from some scenes. a little unfortunate but i hope this means all the bars will be set super high on part 2! i still really enjoyed it and want to rewatch it again to appreciate all the little details. if i could still use photoshop, there's lots i would've loved to gif hahaha. (can't take the risk though since it just got released). the dvd booklet is super pretty, so are the bromides (super happy i got xanxus' one, never thought i'd be lucky...) and i love the glitchy/distorted aesthetic they're going for in both the play and the promo material. i can't wait to see disc 2 some time soon and part 2 in january! i can't wait to see varia and real funeral wreaths...

i highly, highly hope lots of people can invest in the dvd/bluray, just to support the cast and staff who worked so hard. the run of the plays might have been cut short but i won't treat it like a loss, i still love rebosute with all my heart!