Yugiri's Word Corner

Overall, the plot is solid and captures the highlights of the early chapters of the novel effectively and with great visual impact. Characters are static for the most part as this is a story-driven show where the audience is expected to already be familiar with the source material and enjoy the epic highlights at face value. To summarize, the story takes place during the Spring-Autumn Period of Han China when central power has collapsed, and remnants of the royal family are scattered. Old vassals have turned warlord and carving up the once great empire. The royal family is now a joke, and he who has the child emperor can claim legitimacy and use him as a puppet. In short, Three Kingdoms is Chinese monarchist propaganda so the characters and factions who are trying to restore the Han are portrayed as the undisputed good guys, everyone else sucks and you are not meant to like them. That has never stopped any Japanese IP from making team Cao Cao or any controversial figure in Chinese history look cool.

Enter Lu Bu, an unmatched warrior of great strength, making him a highly effective general on the dueling scene. Legend is his idea of a fair fight is himself against three opponents, at once. His martial prowess was what brought him great fame in his lifetime and cemented his place in history and popular imagination. He was not, however, as effective in the tactical scene. Lu Bu is remembered for his many faults – arrogance, violence, messing with other people’s wives, and unreliability. The man practically betrayed everyone he knew, rendering him a less-than-ideal retainer despite being a beast in combat. Often perceived as a simpleton and brute of a man, he plowed through life as a self-serving asshole with zero foresight. He spat in the face of Confucian societal expectations and moral values as his favorite approach to contracts when entering into a lord’s service was getting adopted as a foster son and swearing double filial piety as a vassal to master and son to father. Except loyalty evidently meant nothing to him since he would drop one father for another if it suited him, sometimes offering up the head of the previous father to another potential father. If anything, Lu Bu was a controversial man.

He was also the strongest element of the musical. That would be expected seeing the title of the show is his namesake. The entire musical captured all these complicated facets of his character. Houzuki An presents a troubled man of violent temper and arrogance with great passion. Together with Haon Mika dance-galloping across the battlefield as Lu Bu’s fiery steed, the Red Hare, they bring to life the warmongering general with unquenchable ambitions. Between Houzuki’s performance and the costume department’s amazing armor design, Lu Bu stands on the stage as a legendary and memorable figure. This is the Flying General the world knows. We also get to see him grow into a more reflective and gentler person in private due to his beloved Diaochan’s influence though he struggles with peacetime concepts and some more complex ideas are beyond him. But he is given some depth rarely seen in the character. However, Lu Bu is only one half of a pair.

Takarazuka’s bread and butter has always revolved around romance. Therefore, it is baffling that they managed to fumble a famous romance already written for them. Now I understand changes are necessary when adapting stories across various media. But of all the things Takarazuka could mess with in their adaptation of a renowned epic romance, my main complaint is…

Lu Bu married who now?

Historically, we know Lu Bu was a married man to one known wife, but no one cares about her. The novel decided to triple his love life and recenter it on his fabled romance with Diaochan, one of the Four Great Beauties of China. Now Three Kingdoms is a sausage fest, so there is not much we can glean about Diaochan the character. She is more of a plot device that informs us about characters surrounding her and supplies commentary. Her foster father pimping her out demonstrates societal decay, regardless if you interpret him as a scheming social climber or misguided patriot driven by desperation to save his nation. Aforementioned father betrothing her to two men at once to instigate backstabbing drama shows us usurper Dong Zhuo is a morally bankrupt disgusting pervert of a tyrant, and Lu Bu is a morally bankrupt brute who can’t keep his anger and dick in check. As for Diaochan, when she is not a femme fatale assassin she is a representee of the brutalities of war – even beauty is not spared in the face of destruction. Chaos reigns supreme and chivalry is dead. Or is it?

What makes Lu Bu interesting in the novel is his individualistic personality. His disregard for societal conventions and morays does cause him to chafe with his contemporaries and is to his detriment on the political scene. But to his credit, maybe because he lived so against the norm, he was quite chivalrous in regard to Diaochan. Regardless who she really was and her ill circumstances, Lu Bu accepted all of her. In some retellings, Diaochan confesses she is an assassin sent to seduce Lu Bu right in the bedroom with Dong Zhuo’s corpse still warm between them. Lu Bu doesn’t mind and still agrees to marry if she wishes it. If Diaochan is a victim married against her will and attempts suicide in the name of honor and to remain faithful to her true love, white knight Lu Bu happily makes her a honest and living woman. Regardless, this marriage costs Lu Bu his own reputation as everyone remembers clearly the betrayal and assassination of his own foster father and technical claiming of someone else’s woman. It is hard to say how clearly Lu Bu was thinking at the time or if he fully understood the consequences of his actions, but ultimately he willingly shouldered the stain to his name. Furthermore, where lesser men would not be able to take their woman back after sexual assault, being deemed damaged goods, Lu Bu overlooks that and accepts Diaochan for all that she is. Were it not for the greater intrigues of the world and Lu Bu’s ambitions, they could have lived a content, simple life together.

I don’t think the original authors of various renditions of this romance thought that far about their relationship outside of an extraordinary hero should be paired with an extraordinary beauty. But from the text, we can glean novel Lu Bu is a generous and open-minded lover in some respects. Though this little love story is straightforward, both lovers are given depth and there are a lot of challenging concepts about chivalry and defining integrity for men and women that can be explored in this epic romance. But none of this was to Takarazuka’s liking. It appeared they wanted some spice for their musical but the main story was too controversial.  Perhaps the original heroine was not “pure” enough for company values and too passive for modern women to relate to. Not to mention patricide is a bad look for an already contentious protagonist.

But the fix Takarazuka employed did not help much at all. In fact, it made have made the characters look worse. Instead of Diaochan, Lu Bu’s great love of his life has been swapped out for some chick named Xuelian. This is not a simple name change. She was outright switched with another character all together. While Diaochan is largely believed to be a fictional character, there are limits to hhow much you can change her without her losing her identity.

Xuelian is the daughter of Lu Bu’s first lord Ding Yuan. You know, the guy he betrayed and murdered for Dong Zhuo. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a major change given Lu Bu’s track record. But Ding Yuan never pimped out his daughter. There was no need to. He was just warlording his merry way in his corner of China and made the wise political maneuver of betrothing his daughter to his star general to put a leash on the man. Since we are no longer following the original plot, the original conflicts are sterilized so Takarazuka needed to fabricate more lest the marriage to Xuelian devolve into a mundane political alliance where the main couple just needs to get to know each other better. To spice things up, Lu Bu is convinced by team Dong Zhuo to murder the entire Ding clan right before tricking Xuelian into marriage. This new scandal does drive home Lu Bu’s more negative traits, but he unfortunately never redeems himself to Xielian, making both of them look incredibly unforgivable for Takarazuka protagonists.

Lu Bu is irredeemably a dastardly traitor, murderer, and liar – as far from a gentleman as one can be. Also, their whole marriage and love is built on lies and familicide. He is allegedly moved by Xuelian’s virtuous and noble nature, yet he dies a selfish despot with anger issues. I take no issue with static characters, as mentioned earlier that was the approach with this musical. Problem is they framed the story to give Lu Bu room to grow. There is a pivotal scene where Xuelian rescues an orphan, interrupting her own wedding. The concept of mercy and grace to the downtrodden is seeded in Lu Bu, made clear by the blocking of the scene. Yet we do not get the payoff in Act II. All his actions after this is just in service of what he wants, it never pivots towards consideration for the common folk or soldiers under his care in reflection of the alleged love of his life. So now Lu Bu has been reduced from a man who attempts to make honorable choices under impossible circumstances to a brute who just never learns.

They also did “Diaochan’s” character dirty as well. Xuelian marrying under false pretenses is a great disservice to her character. She is rendered a less than stellar heroine for forgiving the man who murdered her family for no reason (being Chinatsu hot only gets you so far, Lu Bu…) despite her preaching righteousness. While there is no problem having problematic female characters or toxic themes, it seems to run contrary to Takarazuka’s initial intent in this production. They don’t even know which “Diaochan” they want her to be. Sometimes portrayed as just another victim of a cruel world, other times a femme fatale who is an active player in her father’s schemes; I suspect they tried to merge both. Now we have a woman who is simultaneously too pure for this world but also a sultry assassin-seductress who is half-assed at her job because Takarazuka heroines cannot be too competent in this department. The character’s inconsistency can be quite jarring to watch despite Amashi Juri’s best efforts. A woman who is anti-war decides violence will solve the conflict at hand. A proper lady raised in a respectable household with love somehow thinks she can be so scandalous as dance in public and seduce a dirty old man. The discrepancy between the character’s gentle personality and ruthless decisions is simply too wide a leap of logic.

Another problem is Diaochan still exists in this timeline as Wang Yun’s daughter, who is still being set up to marry Dong Zhuo. Neither woman can even claim the reputation of empire-ending beauty to her name as Xuelian easily impersonates the other woman anyways. Diaochan is just a meek little girl swept up in her father’s politics. But as she is no longer the female lead, she does not matter. Xuelian offering to take her place in marriage is meant to give her some agency and strength of character but much like her acts of kindness and charity in front of Lu Bu, the impact of her actions is inconsequential. She, a married woman, deciding to take someone else’s place in their marriage to personally assassinate a tyrant is a naïve plan and her husband has to bail her out halfway anyways. She makes decisions, but they aren’t meaningful. She is a great beauty with a twin. Strangely, the real Diaochan somewhat diminishes the fake Diaochan’s spotlight, causing confused mutterings in the audience during intermission.

Third Prince Nezha in irl is the Chinese god of children and family values. Immortal, he is forever under 20 years old. Blessed with the pretty face and stature of a healthy divine teen or as cute as a babe with rosy cheeks, you can pray to him for anything no matter how silly or selfish it is. But do not come to him for adult problems, especially about divorce. He doesn’t like it when mom and dad are fighting. You don’t want him to smite you. Omnipotent and armed to the teeth by his shifu, Taiyi Zhenren, with all sorts of divine instruments and weapons, he is equal to the Monkey King Wukong in a duel. Legend has it he only lost because the Monkey King is his bro and bros don’t kill their bros. Also, he may have been in a rebellious phase when his father ordered him into combat. Couple such power with the temper of an angsty teen who will throw tantrums like a toddler, it is not only acceptable but advisable you offer him sweets, meats, and toys for his pleasure. Though naughty and temperamental like all children ever, he is of course a good kid at heart. He is a god after all, the most perfect and worst son one can have. He obeys his mother and always respectfully asks her permission to play, tells her where he’s going, and comes home on time. Though there was an incident where he quarreled with the neighbors during play time, ripped out the dragon neighbor’s spine and wore it like a trophy before running home to hide when the dragon’s father flew over to tell his parents he was taking them to heavenly court. Naturally, his parents were angry, but he is a good and filial son, so honor killed himself to protect them and the good people of the city from the wrath of the dragons. Boys will be boys.

In fiction and popular imagination, he is often portrayed as an overpowered mama’s boy with daddy issues. Even though his old man Li Jing is a respectable general of heaven and god in his own right, clearly no one is afraid of getting smited for less-than-ideal portrayals of the man. We all know he got his promotions through his OPed sons, specifically Nezha. And still he had the audacity to burn down his own boy’s temple because the Third Prince was better at being a deity than him. Compared to his Master who revived him with an indestructible lotus body and spoiled him with some really leet divine weapons, it’s not hard to tell who the preferred father figure is. But childhood is very dynamic, so Nezha’s portrayal can become incredibly diverse.

Chinese people apparently like their Third Prince explosive and angry, regardless of age. The old adaptations of Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods from post-war to 1980s when the budget was in hell didn’t try anything interesting with his character. They’re just animated or live action retellings of his original legend with a healthy smattering of proper family values (listen to your parents’ absolute word, even if your dad is a dick, etc).

But in live action series after that, there was more run time to tell in-depth stories. We begin to enjoy arcs where Nezha goes off to make friends with the wrong crowd like troublemaking monkey kings because he thinks someone is cool if they can last more than five minutes in fisticuffs. He’s less than the good little soldier under his father’s command, flopping down on a cloud in protest and making nasty faces until dad threatens to give him a good spanking. When he goes full asura mode and stretches out his 4-8 arms and two heads/faces, he sometimes banters with his other faces and cracks some juvenile jokes. But I digress, his contentious relationship with his father is often played for laughs. They just have normal family arguments that are power scaled up and dad getting beat and needing to beg other deities for help managing his own household is comedy. Nezha is disobedient because that’s just how boys are, but he will ultimately begrudgingly obey like a good kid. How a father who is weaker than his son can even threaten to discipline him is never explained but Nezha is filial because…cosmic order. His relationship with his teacher, the societal father, can border on rude as some directors just do the bare minimum and hit the plot beats of the source material. The lad goes and makes a fuss at his Master’s whenever he loses a fight demanding more power and gets his way, not because anyone condones such behavior but because Heaven is in a state of emergency and someone needs to beat that monkey king ASAP. Overall, character dynamics can be a little weak and relies heavily on canon for characterization.

Modern audiences are probably more familiar with the recent animated films such as Ne Zha (2019) and New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021). In the films centered around him, he is a gremlin who can’t control his strength and is prone to anger. When in asura or teen mode, he is edgier and no less rebellious or destructive.  All within the realm of expectation. But his relationship with his family is more humanizing and the dynamic is reasonable, exploring nature and nurture. His father is given some dignity for once and his troubles with raising an overly powerful son are explored. In fact, the parents enjoy a modern and egalitarian relationship where they work together to raise their family, though each have their own way of reaching out to their son. The same can be said of his Master, who is given more to do than just playing at deux de machina. However, the first film at least is focused on the mother-son bond so all the fathers, godfathers, and their daddy issues take a back seat. Within this cinematic universe, Nezha’s relationships with his family and other characters are generally modernized and the most normal.

Japanese Nezha, romanized Nataku, is often in his sulky teens – an emotionally checked-out, robotic killing machine. If he is obedient, it is because he initially lacks a soul or free will. Evidently, Japanese creators are as enamored by his rebirth into an artificial shell of a lotus body as they are by his raw power. To them, Nataku is exclusively a fictional character from novels brought over during the Edo era. While a few Taoist deities have crossed the sea, I have yet to see a temple dedicated to Nataku in Japan. Perhaps for this reason, more artistic licenses have been taken. A major part of his character development in Japanese media is gaining that light in his eyes, then he goes through a emo phase as he finds himself and place in the world. His daddy issues, if dad is in the picture at all, by far the most abusive overseas. In Saiyuki (1996) his father is a shameless social climber using his son as a tool. Nataku, in contrast to his Chinese counterpart, is stoic and aloof due to being raised in a strict household and groomed for formal court life. While he has his own views, he ultimately suppresses his true self to remain loyal to his father, gaslighting himself to believe they have a loving relationship. It is when he is away from his father, we see the carefree and playful boy he actually is. Ultimately, the relationship is toxic and irredeemable. Nataku’s characterization is much the same in Houshin Engi (1996). His daddy issues are pretty straight forward. In his first life, he is just picking favorites between his parents so ignores his father in favor of his mother like a punk. What really tips the scales against his father is when dad destroys his grave that mom built, pissing his reincarnation off. But while he had many chances to avenge the desecration and actually kill his father, he never follows through. One can say he is just being a brat and holding a grudge but doesn’t actually hate his father. Therefore, while the father-son dynamic is not so abusive as in Saiyuki, it is still violent and tense. In this series, the teacher is a much more prominent character and has a similarly violent relationship with Nataku but is actually able to communicate because he took the time to understand his disciple. Points in his favor for being that teacher who goes the extra mile and guides his students towards their goals by talking at their level along with some gentle parenting, in a manner of speaking. He is the cool uncle that lets you do whatever you want that everyone wished they had while bio-dad is being clowned on back down on Earth. Following killer puppet tradition, CLAMP’s X/1999 (1992) features Nataku as an androgynous, emotionless clone created to fulfill their destiny in the apocalypse. As a clone, they have no particular family outside their ties to their donor. They are related to their creator, Chairman Tojo, as their genetic material is derived from Tojo’s granddaughter, Kazuki. But they don’t have any emotional bond as Nataku is perceived as a tool. As the series progresses, they inherit their host’s memories, implying a form of reincarnation, and gain their own will. This culminates in them forming a final wish, which is to both die by and protect the person they love most. This wish is fulfilled by proxies of Kazuki’s parents. This is the closest we get to parent-child relationships in this universe, mostly symbolic.

Videogame Nezha sometimes gets a sex change! This is not offensive or unusual at all. He is canonically said to be as pretty as a girl in contrast to his raw martial power. Think of Inosuke from Kimetsu no Yaiba (2016). Fun fact, sometimes the Lotus Prince is portrayed as a woman and most likely a professional gymnast in C-dramas because only a girl can pull off the splits and backflips needed for his energetic fight style. I may be biased but when it comes to live action, actresses tend to be more fun and charming as Nezha than their male counterparts. One can even argue his portrayal as a girl serves gender parity. While usually depicted as a boy, he is still god of all children – not exclusively sons. However, as the games are not so attached to any source material and Nezha is sometimes just a summons, there are no daddy issues to unpack.

Ironically, Nezha’s characterization and relationships in Big Brother/My Senior Brother is Too Steady (2023)* is the most unconventional compared to other adaptations, even the Japanese ones. Nezha does not lack father figures here, which may explain why he is such a sweet, golden child. His biological father is not a loser but an upstanding citizen and present family man who Nezha actually respects. This is no small feat seeing that poor Li Jing is surrounded by OPed immortals, gods, and demons. Despite knowing he is way out of his league and having an all-powerful son at his disposal he still bravely stands his ground and opts to protect his underaged son, willing to sacrifice his own life as penance for Nezha accidentally killing the dragon prince Ao Bing. Nezha undergoes his asura puberty early of his own volition to save his father rather than being compelled by any adult. Fair to say father and son are on good terms and the Li family are very much a boring, typical family. Taiyi Zenren is also a very present cool uncle since Nezha’s birth along with the series’ protagonist. As they both have some foresight about the great war brewing in the future, the former spoils the boy while the later covers his butt so his childhood can be as smooth as possible. Most of Nezha’s negative traits are also attributed to being cursed with a literal inner demon but after explosive asura puberty, he is able to harness it, all thanks to the good influence of his great father. The worst he gets is getting bratty for celestial weapons like a kid at a candy shop. Even as a teen he is still the most well-mannered of his fictional counterparts. He bothers to apologize after he draws the Qiankun Bow right after his father explicitly tells him not to touch it. He is even remorseful for piercing the fabric of reality when other renditions of the boy would probably have him jumping in excitement about how far the bow can shoot. Somehow, the most recent Nezha and Li family buck the trend by being the most mundanely wholesome and well-adjusted of the bunch.

Conclusion: post-2000s Chinese Nezha media is the most wholesome when it comes to family dynamics and he carries the least amount of daddy issues.

As the political intrigue features heavily in the story, the show is a bit of a sausage fest so there isn’t much for musumeyaku to do.  There are only three named female roles of note so it makes sense that Eri would take the biggest female role.  Shouki is a fun character in her own right and has no romantic subplot as a shrewd businesswoman and an equal member of our intrepid trio.  She is the ingenious friend who provides the resources to make Michizane’s plans a reality.  It is a refreshing role for a musumeyaku, who usually get stuck as love interests.  Of course, there is star-crossed romance on the side in case seinen is not your genre.  Narihira and Takako were lovers who tried to elope in their youth but circumstances of birth have rendered their relationship forbidden.  They resolve this the mature, Japanese way (those of you who watch Japanese historical dramas know what I’m talking about).  For a side character and love interest, Takako is a complex character with her own personality and drive despite her vulnerable social circumstances that Amashi Juri brought to life.  Generally, the female characters were well-developed and interesting even if sparse.

Kazama Yuno as Fujiwara no Mototsune is practically a lead character and a complicated antagonist.  He doesn’t have much depth to him as cold and calculating Fujiwara Jr who does most of foster dad’s dirty work.  However, his relationship with everyone else makes him interesting.  He had a not-negative acquaintance with Kisshoumaru, Michizane’s deceased older brother.  However, his younger brothers were responsible for Kisshoumaru’s death.  Thus, Mototsune and Michizane’s relationship is awkward to say the least.  If his solo number is any indication, he really did consider the Sugawara brothers as friends and misses their childhood romps while regretful about the harm his dick younger brothers inflicted.  Mototsune hasn’t completely gone to the dark side yet, perhaps due to him being a distant relative adopted into the main branch of the Fujiwaras or his youth.  Him and Takako are on the same boat as adoptees from a lesser branch of the family so he is more sympathetic and softer towards her.  He’s also willing to give respect when it is due, even if it is for the opposition.

Those are the characters worth mentioning.  The supporting cast do their jobs.  The two child characters are comic relief running around to sing the praises of Michizane’s genius.  Groups of women serve to showcase how corruption has disenfranchised the poor or as fangirls to promote Narihira’s star stud status.  The Sugawara household are a wholesome and supportive family who are scholarly and down to earth.  The Fujiwara household is…evil.  I joke but they portray a toxic and strained family.  Half are spoiled, despotic fools hiding behind the family name while the other half are miserable, calculating souls forced to make sacrifices and make up the slack of the former.  The emperor is young, naïve, and weak.  But he is always that way in any media featuring the corrupt Fujiwara puppeteering the throne (an actual stretch of history Japanese media love to defer to).  Overall, a strong cast from Tsukigumi!

Plot:

Story wise, it was a good opening but as the manga is ongoing and probably quite lengthy, it feels like we just completed an arc.  The arc is specifically about a demon parade harassing the streets of Heian-kyo that kills hapless citizens caught in its path.  By imperial decree among other circumstances, our main characters find themselves working together to stop the murders and uncover the truth of the matter.  The mystery of murder-ghosts was resolved but a lot of the interpersonal conflicts remained open-ended.  And what I mean by resolution is the streets are safe again now that the murderers are arrested but we never learn the motive or discover the mastermind.  In this respect, the musical did end a bit abruptly.  Regardless, I enjoyed the pacing, intrigue, and story immensely.

The plot was quite rich.  There is the main plot of why there’s a demon parade abducting people at night.  Michizane deduces this is a more earthly problem and together with his crew they catch the culprits.  Additionally, we are given lots of political intrigue with a naïve young Emperor being controlled by the Fujiwara clan.  Papa-Fujiwara is such a social climber he’s adopting all his country bumpkin relatives to be his pawns in court.  His heir is an adopted son and now he’s acquired a new daughter he’s trying to shove into the emperor’s harem.  Someone wants the emperor dead and someone is using the emperor for their own ends, all fingers point to the Fujiwaras but they are untouchable.  There are many layers to this show.

The character relationships are also complicated and the conflicts hit in the feels.  The main character is disenchanted with the Japanese court and is struck with wanderlust so strong he wants to go abroad and explore broader horizons.  He has big dreams and genius to match but is hampered by politics and domestic issues.  Reiko explains all of this in song form!  You have hard-working and practical Shouki who may be doing some shady business but the economy is bad and the system is against her.  Narihira and Takako are pining for each other, but are unable to reconcile their duty to family and their own pride.  Theirs is a bittersweet ending.  Mototsune has a lot of internal conflict to sort through but being a corrupt politician is hard work.  The list goes on.  I wasn’t moved to tears but was invested in the characters.

The musical is definitely plot driven.  I had more of an impression of that and the character development than I did of the musical numbers, which informed the story rather than serve as earworms.  The diegetic dance sequence in the imperial court was the only memorable number.  This was a grand dance number where Takako was meant to perform and seduce the emperor.  Then it transitions to the investigating trio being forced to duet together while they try to protect the emperor from assassination without ruining the banquet.  Lots of flashy bird costumes in this scene.  The court ladies are doing some sort of crane or heron dance with not-Takako at the center in a silver crane costume equipped with anachronistically showgirl style headdress.  Then Michizane and Shouki perform what appears to be a mandarin duck dance (based on the costume) but are interrupted due to Murphy’s law and lots of plots so Narihira has no choice but to take Shouki’s place.  Read into that what you will.  While the emperor has his attention on the stage within the stage, the audience is focused on the surrounding intrigue.

Overall, I quite liked it.  Now I will go read the manga and see how it compares.

The Carnival of the Sea Gods

After such an amazing show, I was underwhelmed by the revue.  Deep Sea?  More like “Glitter Cabaret.”  The theme was very subtle, which can be creative genius or WTF.  It was leaning towards the latter for me.  There were some ideas I liked such as the jellyfish tailcoats and personified pearls representing inspiration, courage, and hope.  The Mariana Trench episode was an interesting direction… Not all the ideas hit.  There were some snappy tunes but nothing memorable.  Lots of spicy Latin flavor such as tango, frills, spurned lovers, etc as advertised.  This revue was very shiny.  Blindingly so at times.  That is my biggest impression of it.

Thus, we start with team Kanesada finding themselves escorting a lady-in-waiting who explains that everyone around her has been suddenly larping Tale of Genji and she’s the only sane person left in court.  They realize they are trapped in the book and reenact all the early chapters as they figure out how to undo the curse.  Some of the more hot-tempered swords try to brute force their way out only to realize that book characters have protagonist halos to protect them from getting KOed.  At the center of this vortex, the titular character Hikaru Genji is effectively an NPC who has gained sentience a la RE:  Creators.  We learn he functions similarly to the sword boys as the embodiment of the book.  Not being a weapon, he can’t do much by way of fighting but he is unkillable and can act as dungeon master in his own story by transferring protagonist status to his victims.  In other words, Genji can possess targets to simulate his story as a substitute while he dicks off.  He uses this power to go OOC and try to retcon his own story.  This is all quite convenient for him since he has a complicated relationship with his author.  He is half reverential of her and half resentful.  This culminates in Genji ultimately killing his own author.  In the merged universe, Murasaki Shikibu and her readership have merged with the female leads of The Tale of Genji with Murasaki taking the role of the unobtainable Fujitsubo no Nyogo, Genji’s true love.  In breaking the story with literal death of the author, all hell breaks loose with Genji going rogue.

As the touken danshi dig deeper, they learn the source of this chaos was a result of toxic fan culture!  While many people enjoy Murasaki’s book and come away from it positively, a stalker fan voices his concerns that this is all vapid fiction with no value nor contribution to reality (the “wake up, loser” argument).  They debate about the point of writing “fake” stories.  While Murasaki understands the man’s point of view, she disagrees and refuses to put down her brush as this work is her passion.  The man becomes so upset he is taken over by the evil powers to cause the time rift and alter history.  His reasoning is if everyone is so obsessed with the book, they may as well live in it rather than face the real world. 

Back in the present, the touken danshi are having a bad time resolving the timeline.  They complain about needing grandpa Mikazuki’s help and keep getting possessed by Genji to reenact chapters while he escapes to cause trouble elsewhere.  However, during the final boss battle with evil Genji, the isekai-ed fangirls come to the rescue!  As they reminisce about their love of the novel (well, it would be equivalent of a serialized magazine at time of publication) and how it was therapeutic or inspiring for their real lives, they begin to return to themselves.  Now it’s important to note that Murasaki’s contemporaries did write derivative works or helped her transcribe chapters to share.  Therefore, these fangirls are effectively ancient Japanese fanfiction authors and thus have power to end Genji as much as the original author does.  But they love him as a character too much so are unable to strike the finishing blow and basically toss the responsibility to young Murasaki, Genji’s second wife who he had kidnapped as a child to groom into the perfect woman.  Unable to bear the suffering and moved by the women in his life both as characters and as his fans, Genji lowers his protagonist’s halo and accepts death.  The touken danshi are able to finally fix history and complete their mission.  When they return to modern day, they hear news that archeologists have found physical evidence that Genji existed as a historical figure and thus a conspiracy theory is born!  The touken danshi take this information with mixed emotions.

What an amazing story.  The theme was deep without being too obtuse.  The climax got meta and opened a lot of discussion about the value of fiction, derivative works, the dangers of escapism, censorship, and even spirituality.  Definitely worth a second viewing to digest all this.