Review - The Second Yu Yu Hakusho Stage Play
Due to a family member of the cast having COVID-19, the opening day of the second Yu Yu Hakusho stage play was postponed to accommodate the 14 day quarantine period, opening this past weekend.
COVID-19 regulations in the theater included mandatory face masks, temperature checks, hand and shoe disinfection, seat blocking, and a ban on talking within the theater. Stage actors wore clear chin face shields and the first row of the audience was required to use full face shields. The stage was sprayed with disinfectant during intermission. Goods usually sold at the venue were moved to online sales. (More on safety protocols in this TikTok if you are interested!)
ACT 1
The show opened with Botan running onto the stage and reminding everyone of the three main rules for safety: wear your mask, do not speak within the theater (even though she knows you want to talk to your friend– please wait!), and disinfect your hands when you come back from intermission. Her little talk brought us into Hohoemi no Bakudan, during which the main cast showed off their fighting skills, and Koenma slid onto the stage to end it with his remote and a “disinfectant” spray bottle (which he was constantly spraying on stage and accidentally in his own face).
He was about to launch into the Maze Castle footage when Genkai appeared and began to bully him for skipping her tournament. He conceded slightly and offered a 2 minute recap, during which Kuwabara and Yusuke hyper went through the events, with Yusuke’s training with Genkai being acted simultaneously by the main actor and 3 “stage Yusukes” behind him, each doing a different task. When he wanted to balance on his finger, a “stage Yusuke” flipped him upside down and held him up, haha
Then, we moved onto Maze Castle. Because Seiryu and Suzaku were the only 2 mentioned by name in the program, I wasn’t sure if the other fights would be featured– thankfully, they were!
My personal Kurama bias aside, this fight was done INCREDIBLY WELL. Genbu was a 7 piece puppet, with all his parts assigned to different ensemble members. They used the set pieces to hide and “fly” off stairs/ledges and it made for a great effect. The movement was fantastic and the pieces of the puppet looked like real stone under the stage lights.
I’m… so sorry, Kuwabara fans. This scene was certainly an interesting choice. A tiny adorable Bakkyo puppet shouted its threats from the second story of the stage (for the “I can’t believe he’s that big this far away” line) and Kuwabara threw his hat into the arena by saying he could beat him “without a word being said.” So… he pantomied the ENTIRE FIGHT. THE WHOLE THING. ALL BY HIMSELF. It was an awkwardly long, albeit entertaining, game of charades. If you didn’t know the battle already, you’d be completely at a loss to understand what he was doing. In the end, he destroyed Bakkyo, who at that point was a projected image on a backdrop.
Another fantastically done fight, although made comedic by Koenma’s commentary. In the first take, the fight is over in a blink, with Hiei not moving and Seiryu falling to the ground. Koenma jumps on stage to say, “Wait, that was too fast, let’s rewind a watch in slow-mo.” You then get to see the characters fight gracefully in slow motion, with Koenma counting the cuts made by Hiei. In the middle of the slow-mo battle, Hiei makes it a point to punch Kuwabara in the stomach when he passes by him, haha. The last viewing, Koenma plays the fight at “easy viewing” speed, which places Seiryu and Hiei at “normal” speed and the spectators in slow-mo. Overall, very nicely done!
This fight was pretty straight forward and did not have any comedy added into it. It jumps between Yusuke fighting Suzaku and Keiko being attacked in the human world, with the lower stage for the battle and second story for Keiko and Botan’s flee/fight. The choreography was good and their acting spot-on. Suzaku’s clones were video projections. In my opinion, though, they made a tragic mistake by NOT INCLUDING THE SHOES ON THE HANDS. Maybe they decided it wasn’t safe or workable. Either way, it was missed.
The first part of the play ends with Keiko confronting Yusuke and demanding that she is the first one to know next time he has one of these missions.
Act 2 opens with Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan viewing the video from Koenma about Yukina. The “video” Yukina is the actress up on the second floor of the stage while they sit on the bottom, so when the scene ends for them, the lights focus on her and her scene with the birds. (She captures Yukina’s aura perfectly.)
The Toguro brothers look GREAT on stage, which I didn’t expect. Elder Toguro’s actor in particular has such a creepy/slinky way of moving, he really embodies what gives you the heebie jeebies about him.
The choice was made to cut Botan from accompanying them to Tarukane’s estate, although I don’t know why. The initial demons they encounter in the woods were also cut, for obvious comedic purposes, because they were replaced by a sunglasses and suit wearing demon who says, “No one can defeat me except Hiei. He’s so cool. [Insert 1000 compliments about Hiei / jokes about Hiei]” because… it’s Hiei’s actor, who has nothing to do until the end of Act 2.
(They included Kurama’s actor as the young man who tried to save Yukina from Tarukane in a later flashback during the Toguro fight.)
The bottom stage remains the fighting place as the upper stage is turned into Tarukane’s betting room. It goes between reactions to the intruders and them knocking out demons, including Miyuki and that ninja guy.
The fight with the Toguro brothers is also well done and, as I said above, they have serious stage presence. After everyone collapses, Hiei shows up to punch Tarukane and they go on their way. We observe the conversation between Younger Toguro and Sakkyo after the main cast has moved off stage.
We have another brief scene with Yusuke being invited to the Dark Tournament, and then the scene where they are about to get on the boat to Hanging Neck Island and Hiei greets Yusuke by attacking him. As they look off into the distance, Koenma pops up to say that’s all we have time for today, and implies we’ll have a next time to look forward to.
The pacing for this show was heaps better than the first one. It was great they chose 2 stories to follow instead of cramming in as many as possible. George was also included in the random in-betweens when Koenma offered commentary and gave actors time to change. All in all, it was a very enjoyable performance for fans of the show, and I think they did everything they could to make it safe for the people involved on stage and for the audience.
If you can, definitely check out the livestream (there are 9 dates available) or buy the DVD when it comes out in April.
romaincrisis
baratheonpilled
kaledo-art
gummygunk
pixelskylines
ellievsbear
izzy806
annaxmalina
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
2087
