Sakura Taisen 2002 Spring Kayou Show
Sebastien Jarry, Robert DeLoura, Stephen Lee and I got SS tickets (row L, the last row of the SS seats) on the 17:00 sesion on 2002/1/4. Chris Lee got a SS seats in row F. Donny Chan did not get a ticket and had to buy one from some fans who have extra tickets just outside the theater, a S ticket at 5000 yen. We went in at around 16:30, but Sebastien said he need to go to Toranomon to confirm his return air flight before going in. He then cycling from Shibuya to Toranomon, then cycling back, and he only just missed one song! I wonder if he has seen the Golden Boy anime series. ^_^;; As this show is the farewell event of Sumire, who will retire from Sakura Taisen stages after this event, there are quite a few Sumire memorial character goods for sale. However, as the queue for buying the goods was very long, I did not queue up, but went to eat something from the kiosk as I did not have lunch that day. Stephen did buy the Harukoi Shisumireyume Nowakare Memorial Set at 6500 yen, which consists of a "Center Spot" music box (not actually a box), fan, and a tea cup with plate. As usual, Hiroi Ohji (original concept of Sakura Taisen & overall producer of the Kayou Show. In the Kayou Show world, Hiroi is a stage staff working under Oyakata) and Oyakata came out and addressed the audiance. They highlighted the things to note during the show, and gave simple instructions on how to call out at Shunen, the Kabuki actor, in Kabuki theater style. They also informed the kayou show newcomers that the audiance likes to stand up and dance with the performers during the last Gekitei song. ^_^ Opening is the 6 original Hana-gumi members in their battle costum, singing Gekitei. Then came the drama part : Oyakata bumped into Kaneda-sensei in the street, and they talked about the recent event of a thief "Kurayami Kozou" (Darkness Boy) stealing the "Knife of Murasame", and the owner of the knife had sent out his own guards to find the thief. After they left, those guards run around the place to try finding the thief. They ran into a Geisha called Chiyoharu. Chiba, the guard leader, had some arguement with the Geisha and the guards rounded her. She fended off the guards easily. Just then, Sumire, Maria, and Sakura walked by. Sumire had organized a feast of duck hotpot with the Hana-gumi members nearby. They saw those guards rounding a Geisha and naturally they stepped in. Chiyoharu saw them and said "Ah, Sakura-san, Sumire-san", then turned to Maria "Who are you?........Just joking, Maria-san". Sakura then lead Chiyoharu away, while Sumire and Maria took care of the guards. Somewhere else in the street, Kaneda-sensei was forcing Oogami to drink more sake. Oogami exclaimed "this is real sake". Kanna and Kaede was trying to find Maria/Sumire/Sakura for the duck hotpot. When they walked away, Takeda unveal himself from a nearby water storage space. He said that both Dandy Boss and Nishimura are out of town on some business. Just then, Dandy Boss came out from the wall nearby in those ninja style hiding method. And then, Nishimura came out from the same hiding. Both Nishimura and Dandy Boss are not in the cast list in the pamphlet. But from Sakura Taisen fan sites, Dandy Boss appeared in most of the sessions, and Nishimura only appeared in one or two sessions only. Dandy Boss and Nishimura then went away to continue thier own work. Takeda tried to simulate his "accidental" meet up with Sumire and the supposed dialogue between them so that he could also been invited to the duck hotpot. Later, Kohran, Reni, and Iris were walking to meet up with Sumire while discussing Kohran's new invention "Automatic Clapping Hand Machine-kun". ^_^; Instead of duck hotpot, Chiyoharu was treating the Hana-gumi to her working place for a traditional Japanese food feast. Maria and Sumire were sitting in the banquet room. Sumire hinted that Sakura was sufficiently trained to be the top star of the Hana-gumi. Maria was puzzled at her words. Just then, Sakura was running around the banquet room to appreciate all those luxuary decoration of the place, as she was coming from the urual area of Sendai and had never seen those things. She skated with her socks on the wooden corrider and braked precisely just inches from the end of the corrider. ^_^ Sumire scolded Sakura saying that she must learn those Japanese traditions and manners being a top star of the Hana-gumi. Sumire went out to find Kanna and gang. Chiyoharu came back after changing into a all-black kimono. She then talked about watching previous Kayou Show and talked about those male crossdressers. Sakura said "Bara-gumi?" and got a positive respond. Chiyoharu went into imaginary mode : Kotone and Kikunoko came out and sang a few verse of the song "Ucha! Yonokobi no uta" then went backstage. (Matsuno Taiki has some injury preventing him from standing up, so they sang the songs sitting on a long chair) Sumire came back with Kaede and Kanna. However, she was arguing with Kanna, and Kanna was too angry to stay and went out. Just then, Kohran, Iris, and Reni arrived. All three found Chiyoharu very beautiful. Iris said to Chiyoharu "You are very beautiful!" Reni said to Chiyoharu in a small voice "Konnichiha" Reni was very cute then. ^_^ Chiyoharu replied to Iris "you are very pretty". and replied to Reni "you are a cute lady". Kaeda then asked Chiyoharu "what about me ?" There was a pause, then Chiyoharu replied "mature". Iris asked Sumire why she always argue with Kanna, and Sumire replied that Kanna was jealous about her status of top star. Sumire said although Kanna always get male roles, but she is a girl underneth. Maria had cosplayed as Sakura previously, but Kanna did not have the chance. Sumire then went into imaginary mode : Kanna wearing Sumire's cloths and sang the song "Nayamashi Manbo" with Bara-gumi. Takeda arrived and tried talking with Sumire. The first few exchanges were just like his simulation, but then the dialogue went out of hand. Maria and Sakura fetched back Kanna. In their way back, Maria said Kanna was an adult so she should forgave Sumire and went back. In Japanese, the word "adult" consists of 2 kanji : "big" and "human". Kanna then thought "adult meant big human, and I am a big human, OK then" the running joke on Kanna's height surface again. ^_^ Kanna and Iris performed another juggling. Then, a tiger appeared. It turned out the tiger was actually Oogami and Kaneda-sensei. They both were drunk. Kaneda-sensei was shouting something about the Kurayami Kozou. While most of the gang were handling Oogami and Kaneda-sensei, Sumire asked Chiyoharu on her martial art skills and the knife in her kimono belt. Chiyoharu confessed that she was the Kurayama Kozou, and that the knife was originally belongs to her ancestor and the current owner stole it from her ancestor. After Sakura's intervention, Sumire said she would forget Chiyoharu's 'joking statements' about the knife. Just then, the guards bumped into the garden, and of course, the Hana-gumi was more than adequate to handle them. The drama part ended. A voice recording of Orihime was played saying that she was sorry not able to show up. (Maya was still in US and not able to come back to Japan in January) Kotone and Oyakata came out and used Japanese three-string-harp to play the song "Kaijin debeso" Intermission : 15 minutes During the intermission, the lady sitting next to Donny, who was a local English teacher came up and asked our gang on how we knew of the Kayou Show. Afterwards, Sebastien told her about his appearance in TV. ^_^ Sumire and Iris sang the song "Kunshinobu uta". Then then announced that the Hana-gumi would sang all the songs Sumire had sang before. Sumire Medley Part 1:
Sumire and Kanna sang "Ai ha towa ni", the title song of the previous Kayou Show "Beni Tokage" Sumire Medley Part 2:
The last part of the medley, song 12, was sang without music. Kotone, Kaneda-sensei, Takeda, and several dancers came out in high-leg flashy leotard completed with high-heels. ^_^;;; They sang "Hana-gumi Revue". Dnady Boss joint them (in his normal clothes) in the middle. Next was the "Sumire okuri taiko", where Hana-gumi, with Oogami replacing Sumire and Oyakata replacing Orihime, performed the traditional Japanese taiko. Sumire came out to sing the new and the last Sumire song, "Sumire ChaChaCha". Sumire went back stage to change cloths, then re-appeared to sing "Center Spot". That was the last performance of Sumire on stage in the session. The last song was of course, "Gekitei", with most of the audiance standing up and performed the gestures with all the performers. On the session we went, there were quite a number of people did not know what those experienced Kayou Show goers were doing. ^_^;
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