(Musical)「Majisuka Gakuen~Kyoto・chifu shugakuryokou」 (15/05/14 to 15/05/19)

I went to see the performance today and it was really amazing!! Glad I've been able to see it before leaving Japan tomorrow.
I finished my notes so I don't forget anything and I'll probably write the complete report in the plane.
I'll use spoil balise for the story so you don't have to worry about that.

Rena is simply incredible, her acting in the scenes about Gekikara's past are simply impressive. And the writers did a great job explaining how her character came to be the way she is (her habits too, the things she say) and really took the serious road with it.

Dying to talk about it, did anyone else on the forum see the show ?

 

not yet, mine is tmr. How was ur seating?

 

Not great, row 15/21, would have killed to be first row! But I still saw great.

 

yeah, for sure. small venues are great.

 

if they continue, i think Sakura can fill Ricchan spot as new rapapa lol

but after see MG musical cast/character, i really want them to make MG5 based on stageplay

 

I was looking at this photo and thinking "damn that's one amazing/cool picture of Gekikara!!"
...until I took a look at the background XD Way to ruin a picture haha Mikichan, seriously... XD

Rena/Gekikara still the most flawless Majisuka character ever ;_______;
Look at that expression and her outfit and everything... She's amazing!! I can't wait for this!!

 

Maidigitv uploaded parts 2 and 3 of the press conference for Majisuka musical -


if the video does not show watch the video here


if the video does not show watch the video here

 

Majisuka report :

I went to the 13:00 performance on the 15th at the Aiea theater in Harajuku. The theater holds 900 seats and it was sold out.
That was the queue for the goods, could get them before the performance.


The play is 2h20 long and composed of 2acts separated by a break of 15mn. I was at 15th row.



My japanese isn't that good so I didn't get 100% of the story so take what I say with a grain of salt.
The play is part of the Majisuka Gakuen universe, and that universe is complicated so not everything makes sense (more details on the story later)...
The story takes takes place at the end of the second season of Maji with Gekikara and (season 2)Otabe as lead. If I had to choose I'd say Gekikara is real lead cause a large part of the play focuses on her past.
So we have Otabe as leader of Majijo and Gekikara 'on control'.

From here on, I'll use the spoiler balise for people that don't want to be spoiled on the story. I've forgotten half of the songs so I won't even try to do a listing and focus on the story.
If I had to compare to AKB49, the ratio of acting/singing are pretty much the same, maybe more acting for Majisuka.

Spoiler

The play begins by seeing Gekikara in prison. Not sure what the guard was saying to her and we didn't have a closure on that at the end...

The story begins with Majijo, leaded by Otabe going on a trip to Kyoto, Otabe's old town. Majijo is composed of Otabe, Gekikara, Tano, Juri, Ryoka and Sayaya.

We meet Kyoto's gang that's also a band with the top 3 : NGO at bass, Naachan at guitar and Chori at drums. Miki is also in this gang.

Majijo meets with the Kyoto gang. Otabe's role is quickly clear as she's here to make sure the younger kids don't fight.
The Kyoto gang seems to know Otabe, that's actually something I didn't really get entirely during the play. Maybe they're the gang of OTabe's ex school.
During the meet, Gekikara begins to act strange for no reason and goes into 'crazy Gekikara' mode. Otabe is here to restrain and calm her.

That's where the Majisuka universe gets even weirder cause we have Kamisori and Zombie of season 4 in the play. They're exactly as they was at the beginning of season 4.
Otabe season 2 and KamiZombie shouldn't coexist in the same universe but eh~ whatever...
They're in some kind of trip too and meet the Kyoto gang. They beat them up and took their money. That's where I was surprised to see that the Kyoto gang is actually weak so I was curious as to who the big vilain would be when Majijo has Gekikara and Otabe.

We see that Otabe has enrolled Majijo to help out at a buddhist temple lol, sasuga. That's why Otabe has the green pants in some scenes.

After that is an amazing scene out of nowhere with Juri and Ryoka at night. They're bickering at first but turns out, they're actually lovers!!
They then do a performance of Meshibe!! I nearly fell of my chair at this moment, really funny moment! Onee-sama!

Kyoto interrupts them and beat on them (NO!! YURI!!), only to be interrupted by the rest of Majijo.
During the meet, Gekikara goes crazy again and Otabe has great difficulty to stop her.

In the next scene, we see Otabe asking Gekikara why she's being weird all of a sudden and Geki begins to tell her about her past.

We see young Gekikara (can't be sure how old she was at this time) greeting her mother home. Her mom is an abusive, alcoholic guitarist player with serious problems...
We can see assume that her mom is not often home and that Gekikara is a gloomy, quiet girl who still idolizes her mom.
Her mom actually gets mad at her for not smiling so Geki forces herself to smile (which comes off as creepy, a thing she does in Majisuka Gakuen).

The mom gets really physical with her and at some point, Gekikara begins to do her creepy laugh she does in Majisuka. Really chilly!
Mom has big mood swings and at one point goes super nice on Geki and says she'll taugh her guitar. That's when you see that she still loves her mom a lot and smiles happily like a little girl.

Of course things get bad quickly as her mom begins to freak out that Geki can't do guitar with hands like hers and begins to bit of her fingers and fingernails. It's the origin of Gekikara always biting her fingernails in Majisuka Gakuen.
Things then get really dark and she begins to try and chocke her out. She stops herself at the end and leaves. That's probably the last time Geki saw her mom.

This scene may be my favorite all the play, Rena's acting is just incredible. The scene was really tragic and the writers did an amazing job of explaining the origin of Gekikara's weird habits and trademark gestures.

So the thing Gekikara reacts to is the sound of the guitar of Naachan, which reminds her of her mother.
Otabe goes to comfort Gekikara by taking her hands.
She says that Otabe's hands are warm but as we saw in the past, that's what her mom did too and then proceded to bite her hands so she gets scared and runs from Otabe.

KamiZombie meets Geki and try to take her money. She ignores them, reminded that she can't get violent so she gives them her money (like 300 yen lol).

We see Majijo at the temple doing chores. Otabe receives a message from the Kyoto gang and she goes to meet them by herself.

Kyoto's gang tells Otabe that they're going to go to the police and tell them that Gekikara beat them so she goes to prison.
Of course Otabe wants to protect Geki so she says she'd do anything for them. That's when I didn't get everything with the relation between Otabe and the gang.
They want to humiliate Otabe by making her beg on her knees and be their dog. For the sake of Geki, Otabe does it. The gang then put a chain around her neck and the whole gang beats on her.
The scene finishes with Otabe standing up in front of the audience after the beat up, crying, humiliated.

That is definitively Otabe's best scene. Yui was incredible in it cause she really showed great emotions as Otabe is often very quiet and composed.
As a Yuihan oshi, the scene was almost a bit much for me, the last image of Otabe, such a prideful, elegant person being humiliated was very powerful!!
I still remember her last crying expression as the lights goes out for the end of Act1. Got goosebumps like crazy, the atmosphere in the theater for the entract was no joke! Everyone was shocked by the violence of the scene!

Act 2 :
We see Majijo at the temple asking themselves where Otabe is.
Gekikara comes out beating on Miki. Miki scared out of her mind was super funny, biggest laugh of the play. Majijo asks her where Otabe is so Miki says she's Kyoto gang's dog now.

There's some conflict between Tano and Gekikara at this point and I'm not sure why. Tano begins to doubt Geki cause she's been acting weird so they go without her.

We have a solo by Geki, it begins as a balad (amazing with Rena's weak/frail voice) and it turns in a rock ballad with the memory of her mother.
This scene was amazing as well and the song extremely good, I don't think I knew it too. Would like to know more.

Thanks to the song, Gekikara gets her mind back. Tano recognizes her as leader and for the first time, Geki calls Tano by her name. So they go to fight Kyoto together to get Otabe back.

At this point KamiZombie joined up with the Kyoto gang because they promised them money lol.
Kyoto's plan is to use Otabe to fight Gekikara. So we have a Otabe/Gekikara fight and Geki wins.
KamiZombie goes next on a weakened Geki with tasers but it's still not enough and they retreat cause they feel they're going to lose lol (and they hate to lose).

As a last resort, Kyoto uses the guitar against Geki but after her 'duo' with her mother, it doesn't have any impact and she actually takes the guitar to do a solo too!

Kyoto call backup and everyone beats on Majijo. Otabe interrupts and we have the big final scene! Of course the good guys win a the end!
The final scene is OTabe and Gekikara talking and doing a duo.

Thoughts :
This play was really great!! If the TV writers could be half as good, we'd have great Majisuka seasons!
Yuihan and Rena are both fantastic with scenes I frankly wouldn't expect from a show with idols, really violent and shocking.
Other thant that, Tano has definitively presence on scene, you see she has experience. Miki is absolutely hilarious, the girl just goes all-out, has to respect that!
Can't wait to watch it gain on Blu-Ray with close-ups for the facial expressions (damn 15th row tickets!).

 

a massive thank you @Jeff86!!! now i know gekikara's past it was so stragic. i juct cant wait for the dvd.

reading at rena's latest tweets it seems rena got angry about those who watched the play and disnt turn their celpphones into manner mode or answering their phones while the play is going on

 

^ ^ Good gawd... that Gekikara backstory is dark as hell... kinda reminds me of in the movie The Dark Knight when the Joker starts talking about how he got his smile. Thanks for that rundown.

Hahaha... still a nice pic though.

 

Thanks a lot for the brief rundown @Jeff86
They still left open that plot hole which could have led to the setting of MJ4.
The story of the play is very much like an OVA or Gaiden. The only thing I can piece together is that maybe the events in the play led to KamiSori joining MJ in the future. Also the reason as to why Otabe's character slightly "changed" in MJ4.

Randomly found this:

 

Oh shit they sang Kodoku na Runner...does anyone have a full setlist of the play? I'm curious what other songs they were able to incorporate.

 

that really makes me want to watch the play!

Rena forever in my heart as the melancholic idol

 

M01 マジスカロックンロール
M02 クロス
M03 天国野郎
M04 おしべとめしべと夜の蝶々
M05 マジすかFight
M06 てっぺんとったんで
M07 パンキッシュ

------second half--------

M08 花と散れ
M09 Next Heaven
M10 命の意味
M11 Birth
M12 転がる石になれ
M13 強き者よ
M14 孤独なランナー
M15 桜の木になろう
M16 前しか向かねえ

not 100% sure

 

it's weird that a lot of people think that the Maji4 wasn't the same universe with Maji1st and 2nd. The producer never state that it's the different universe, heck, even Mako and Nana state that their character in the musical are when they're still middle school student before they will enroll in Majisuka. And it wasn't show in the series at all the Kamisori/Zombie never know Otabe before.

 

^ There's no scene in MG4 that I remember would imply that Otabe knew Kamisori/Zombie. Also, Otabe never mentioned any past member in the show. I don't know if it was intentional or not but she was acting differently in MG4 than in MG2. She was supposed to tie the installments (except MG3) together but something's missing.

 

Thanks for your report Jeff. You did a much better job than I could have. Good thing we saw the show on different days, or I might have been killed...



Seeing it from the first row was incredible! A Japanese fan even asked to switch seats with me, so I was even closer to the center in seat 18. So much action literally 10ft (3m) in front of my face! Stunning.

Rena Matsui totally stole the show as Gekikara. Her performance was without fault.
and I have a new appreciation for Yui Yokoyama, Maria Nagao, and Nana Owada. They looked great in their roles.
Tanochan and Makochan delighted as expected. Tano definitely gets my vote for best supporting actress.

Naachan looked delightfully silly in her "naachan meets Elvis impersonator" costume. I don't think the role gave her as much opportunity to shine as her AKB49 part did, but she is always a pleasure to watch.

Poor Miki-chan, they made her look totally dumb as she served as the comic relief. She did play her part well, though.

Overall, a great show. I really hope they keep these musicals coming.

 

@Seven42

yeah me too.

I made custom cards for all the members here some of:





I found magazine photos here: http://fujienyan.tumblr.com/search/majisuka+gakuen

 

Oh man!! You're so lucky, can't imagine what it would be like to be first row for the show.

There was a lot of discussion to determine if Otabe season 2 and 4 were the same character.
In season 4, it's known that Otabe has been held back some years, so it's possible time-wise but I think Yui herself put the question to rest when she posted on her blog or Twitter that the characters were indeed different.

And thanks to the amazing writers of season 4, they didn't explain why Otabe was held back so...