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nyxravessnow · 5 years

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2.5D Stage Ranking (Personal Opinion) pt.2

This is the part two, the ranking of enjoyment

Top 10 in Enjoyment

This will simply be how much I enjoyed the stage. Mostly I prefer comedy so for me quite a lot of these will have a lot of funny moments but not all of them do.

This will be extremely opinionated but I will try to be positive. Weirdly even though these are the ten shows I most enjoyed, I don’t think three of them would be in my top ten favourite. Some explanations will be more emotional than others.

I will also not explain about the plot to the shows and will try to spoil as little as possible.

1. Prince of Tennis

This should come as no surprise and I won’t go into this two much but Prince of Tennis is the show that really kickstarted 2.5D in my opinion and is the show that made me absolutely fall in love with the industry. I can sing over 100 of the songs and know most of the actors names and is my absolute addiction. I just think Prince of Tennis is so fun, diverse and it’s so exciting to see all these actors who start in Prince of Tennis grow so much and appear in so many other things

2. Mankai A3

I was so surprised by A3. I didn’t really enjoy the game at first and was so confused as to why it suddenly became so popular. I must admit its popularity was one of the things that held me up watching it until I found I cheap version of Spring and Summer then gave in. I thing watched it every day for a week.This show completely pulled me in with fun songs, a compelling cast of characters and a surprising amount of emotion. (For me who did not play the game, if you did play the game, this would not have been surprising)

The company of actors is split into four groups and I was surprised how individual each group was. My favourite, summer, are the youngest of the company and I absolutely loved their play.

For anyone trying to get into 2.5d plays, this is probably where I would point them first. It is such a fun play with a perfect blend of comedy, emotion, drama and action

3. Yowamushi pedal

Disclaimer: I have only seen up until the end of Ogoe Yuuki’s run as Onoda.

While I didn’t put Yowamushi Pedal on my top 10 for quality, I don’t think it was ever trying to be a high quality show. The showrunners knew there was no way they could show people cycling on stage in a wholly serious manor if they couldn’t use actual bikes. So, they decided to change the tone of the show, which I think wouldn’t have worked in the anime but works perfectly on stage.

If I ever need cheering up Yowamushi Pedal stage is definitely something I would turn to. Every single show has me crying with laughter and it is amazing to see actors having so much fun on stage.

There are so many hilarious moments but the top two for me is when Izumida’s peck Frank, yes his pecks are anthropomorphised on stage, starts touching the other members of Hakogaku and when they are at Toudou’s inn and their cleaner is Harry Potter and he cocks his broom as fires it like a gun at two actors who are pretending to be ducks. Both make absolutely no sense but are amazing to watch and I don’t think I will ever not laugh while even thinking of them.

4. Touken Ranbu Musical

It is strange that I cry in every single musical and yet I still have an image of the musicals not being sad. I think they get the perfect blend of emotion and comedy for what they are trying to achieve. The actors, on the whole, portray their characters so well and the live segments may just be pandering to the fangirls, but I am a fangirl/fanboy and I love it. The songs fit so perfectly and I don’t think I’ve ever loved reasonably minor characters as much as I do the humans in Touken Ranbu. I think all their actors are excellent and I am slightly in love with Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s eye makeup.

The thing that sold me the most on this musical however, was none of that. I am studying Japanese and it amazes me how much actual history and Japanese culture I have learnt from these musicals. To the extent of me being able to have a conversation in Japanese about the Minamoto clan with an actual Japanese History Teacher whose favourite period of Japanese history is that period and him complimenting me on my knowledge.

Touken Ranbu also celebrates Japanese culture so much. The taiko drumming in the live, the actual drinking song included in the show and the time where they put on a festival during a live. I feel like this show is a must see for anyone who likes Japanese culture and Japan would seem to agree with me as it far outranks any other show in the industry for popularity.

While it doesn’t appeal to me in ways that the three above do I love this musical so much I can’t wait until I can see the next one.

5. Bakumatsu Rock

I keep on forgetting I’ve seen this show live as I saw it in 2015 which was a while ago and was only the third show I ever saw and I was also sick before it so I was a little delirious. But I still remember the feeling of utter joy I had leaving the theatre with Crash My Head stuck in my...head. The acting is so good, the songs are amazing and the actors look like they’re having such a good time.

I won’t go into the recast as I already mentioned that in the previous ranking but they didn’t stop me from still enjoying the final two stages. I think it was very sad that the show was so short but I don’t really want to see them bring it back.

I think what we have of the show is perfect and I love it with all m heart.

6. Aoharu Tetsudou

This is a musical I think very few people will have watched. A lot of people like it for the fact it combines a lot of Prince of Tennis actors who haven’t acted with each other in a while but while that is what originally got me into the show it is not at all why I stayed.

This somewhat factual history of different Japanese train lines is utterly insane with the strangest characters, songs and moments. And has led to some of the strangest conversations with Japanese people who know the train lines well

‘So the Rinkai line is a bit ecchi and stalks the Saikyo line’

‘Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense’

‘??? How can a train line be ecchi?’

Also, this show is unabashedly gay. There is a character who continually asks another character to marry him, three different love songs between three different couples and actual other characters saying that they are gay. While it works in a similar way to Hetalia, if countries get married they are uniting, if trains get married they become one train it is still very gay. There are also multiple instances of characters stripping and cosplaying as women.

I love this show to bits but if you are not used to Japanese acting or you want to show a musical to someone who is not used to Japanese acting, absolutely do not watch/show this musical. I love the overacting and find it hilarious but this is the most overacting I think I have ever seen in a show ever and while I think it really works for this show it will be pretty jarring if you are not used to it.

7. Hiragana Danshi

This show in my opinion is the most underrated musical in the 2.5d industry, along with Aoharu Tetsudou but even more so. The show is about letters of the Hiragana alphabet but they are more the sounds than the actual hiragana so they represent the katakana and kanji as well. Everything they like has to start with their hiragana and there are so many puns. The cast is hugely popular and talented and each one portrays their character so well. The show is so funny and you absolutely will leave with a favourite character.

The songs are very clever and, almost, all the actors have very good voices and the songs compliment them well. It’s sad that the show seemed to be such a passion project and was truly beloved by the staff and actors but there were not enough fans to ensure that there could be a second stage.

8. Bungou Stray Dogs

I don’t have very much to add from my previous comments on this show. It is exceptional as I loved the original anime I was so happy to see such a well done adaptation, that slightly made me realise that I am very attracted to Chuuya. I think this show would also be a very good introduction to 2.5d as it shows off the best aspects of the industry.

9. Mob Psycho 100

I didn’t originally enjoy the Mob Psycho anime but after I loved the stage I went back and watched the anime again and I loved it. I thought the stage was so funny and I could not think of someone more perfect than Baba Ryoma to play Reigen and I’m so happy that recently Baba Ryoma has been given more chances to play comedic characters which I really think suits him.

I don’t have very much to say about this play except I loved it and fully recommend it

10. Cells at Work

I have seen both stages as I actually managed to go see the second live last week.

While I do think I preferred the first one overall I did love the second one and I personally think that Kitamura Ryo fits with the image of White blood cell from the anime better.

The shows manage to be so funny but evoke so much emotion with Yamada James Takeshi’s performance of the cancer cell. I think it is the best acting he has ever done and really wish they had a 2.5d version of the tony’s so he could get an award for his role.

There is something about them that feels distinctly different from most other 2.5d productions in my opinion and I love it.

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