Misery

Challenge #2: replace your favorite food with your favorite character

a UT

my father

took me into the graveyard

Undertaker: Cookies, Xerx?

Second Kuromyu ask: oh we’re still talking about Kuromyu? good. as we should be 🙂‍↕️

I fully get it :C... I think we're all a little sad that Izumi stepped down from the role of Undertaker, but it's worth remembering just how long he carried that character for!! He first took on the role in 2009 at 31 years old and said goodbye to it at 40. For an entire generation of Kuromyu fans, he was Undertaker. He was the only actor to portray the character for so long and in many ways he helped define and shape the stage version of Undertaker that we know today.

So when Kandai Ueda inherited the role, he wasn't simply replacing a predecessor, he was stepping into the shoes of a literal legend. And let's not forget that, outside of Undertaker, Izumi himself is a highly respected and accomplished performer. He was never "just" the guy who played UT.

His decision to step down wasn't simply a matter of being tired. It was an incredibly professional and self-aware choice. He recognized the physical demands the role had begun to place on his body and chose to leave while he could still deliver the level of performance fans had come to expect. In doing so, he wasn't only protecting himself... he was also protecting his fellow cast members, who had to perform alongside him in complex and physically demanding scenes.

Poor Izumi is just a regular human being bound by the annoying laws of physics and aging! Just like the rest of us. 🥲

If I recall correctly, in interviews, Izumi explained that if the musicals had remained in the territory of the earlier arcs (where Undertaker mostly lurked in the background, laughed mysteriously and acted eccentric) he probably could have continued playing the role indefinitely. But Tango on the Campania changed everything. Suddenly Undertaker was involved in intense, fast-paced fights and physically demanding action sequences. Izumi joked about having to swing that enormous, top-heavy Death Scythe while buried beneath layers of heavy robes and an almost completely vision-obscuring wig, all of which required an incredible amount of stamina.

He also admitted that his body simply didn't recover from consecutive live performances the way it had when he first began playing the role at 31. To him, Tango on the Campania represented the absolute pinnacle of Undertaker's story on stage. It contained the character's long-awaited reveal and some of his most spectacular action scenes in the entire series. Rather than pushing himself until his body made the decision for him, Izumi chose to leave on a high note while he could still give fans the flawless, breathtaking performance they deserved~

And in that sense, it feels fitting. Undertaker's crowning moment became Izumi's final bow, a farewell delivered at the culmination of the character's long journey.

Break annoys Alice in Pandora Hearts musical (part 1)

I used the AO3 Reversi theme as a base. Get it here (GitHub) or here (AO3) 🩸

Mobile previews 👇

Casper x Reader

[synopsis: years after the bet grim and you (sunshine), are living together happy and content with your new lives]

[warning: spoilers for a date with death beyond the bet:]

[a/n: this doesn't portray the actual ending