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sambart93 · 6 years

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2018.02.09 Neko to Inu to Yakusoku 2018 [Review]

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CAST and CHARACTERS Takashima Yuuki as Koyano Mitsu Matsushima Yunosuke as Iwatani Gunji Kunishima Naoki as Shimoda Kaiji Shinozaki Ayana as Koyano Miki Futaba Yu as Shiroi Ryo Kyo-Hey as Hirose Kouta Karube Ruka as Yodogawa Hana Ota Riona as Yodogawa Hana Nakatsuka Tomomi as Imamiya Yasuko Matsuura Shotaro as Toga Ichiro Azuma Nanae as Yamano Sayumi Iizuka Rie as Kishiba Kou Takamatsu Yuki as Danda Yuzu Ohashi Noriyuki as Matsudaira Yuuki Haru as Shibaki Youji Tatsumi Shina as Sakurai Ann Enoki Tomokazu as Genjo Fumimasa Midorikawa Ryosuke as Kusumi Reito Sakaba Asuka as Yoshikawa Kana Araki Masaya as Ishimine Sho Takahashi Asuka as Daidouji Emi Igarashi Keisuke as Daidouji Kengo Umeta Ayano as Nekoko Sakata Ryuichiro as Kenta Konishi Keita as Tegamiya (lit. Post Man) Izaki Hisato as Sazanami Kurita Yoko as Daidouji Kiyomi Morooka Moro as Daidouji Mutsuo

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: I did not expect to come out of this stage balling in streams of tears, but I damn well did! This was so heartwarming and so touching and so good! It was equals parts funny as it was dramatic, as it was family dynamics, as it was about life, as it was about youth and finding out what you want to do in life. It was such a good balance of everything and every theme this stage wanted to cover! I love how it started off as something small but eventually the story grew into this huge thing connecting everyone and everything slipped into place by the end. ODAC has definitely earned my trust and I'll be keeping an eye on whatever they do in future! Rating: 8.5-9/10 << I pretty much can't fault anything about it!

SPOILER REVIEW

STORY

We follow Mitsu who is basically leading his life and getting through life by jumping part-time job to part-time job and he’s also using methods and ways in order to swindle money out of people rather than going out and finding an actual job. His best friend, who is the same as him, joins him on his many ways of ‘getting money quick’ and one day they hear about a very wealthy business man who just died, so they decide to pretend to know the guy so they can help out at the funeral in order to steal the money (at Funerals and Weddings in Japan, people bring money in envelopes to the family and is all registered and written down when they get there) while everyone else is attending the funeral. This all goes well until he finds out his sister is an employee at the company; also he falls for the daughter of the deceased man; AND someone has just burnt out the deceased’s company part way through the funeral - so what is going on?!

There is so much more to this and I’m barely telling you the main story but I don’t want to spoil it completely until we get to spoilers. Which is right now!!

STORY SPOILERS: So we very quickly find out early one that Mitsu keeps coughing and had been given medicine from the doctor. We also quickly learn that he can see a ghost Postman and his deceased pet cat and dog which he loved so much! The postman tells him the only reason he can see him is because he is going to die soon. Which escalates and becomes hilarious when Mitsu is able to see the damn business man! But turns out, he’s left his family is a massive state; his wife HATES him, his daughter HATES her mother, the son BARELY visits home and is a failing guitar player. So thanks to Mitsu he is able to mend each other of these relationships while trying to not let slip of his condition to any of his friends or family. WHICH eventually comes out because his newest/third friend finds the prescription and, because he’s studying to be a doctor, is able to read what medicine it is and KNOWS what the medicine is used for – we can assume it’s terminal lung cancer because he smokes and he keeps coughing and it’s a terminal disease, but I’m not a doctor, there could be a billion other terminal lung diseases but I assumed this one.

I still haven’t told you anywhere near enough of the story but I hope this is enough to inform you and wet your palate.

OKAY now for some break downs… I’ll have to go back character as I think it’ll be the best way to jog my memory and be able to pick out specific scenes:

Takashima Yuuki as Koyano Mitsu: He's our main character so obviously he's on stage for the majority of the stage. While the story only takes place over about a day or two, his character development is really good! We see him going from this irresponsible guy to realising he only has a short while left to live and we see him conciously making decisions like trying to make the best he can and/or choosing to not tell anyone for more than just one reason. But his story IS super sad. We know pretty much from the beginning that he's dying (or at least has a serious illness) and we see him getting in arguments with his friends and sister who are angry he didn't tell them but he tells them he didn't want to worry them and he definitely doesn't want his parents step in which of course make everything even sadder because while his sister wants to tell their parents, she respects him enough to not tell them but you can see how damn heart broken she is. It's the same with his friends. For the most part he's very calm and cool about the fact he's going to die BUT that final scene right at the end when he opens up to his pets and just wail cries about being scared about dying and not wanting to die is just heart breaking. I really liked the actors performance in this too and he did a great job at making the character feel so normal and down in the dumos. His performance at the end was so good too!

Matsushima Yunosuke as Iwatani Gunji: The main character's best friend since childhood. I really liked this character; you can just tell from the visual he's like my type of guy. I really liked his relationship with Mitsu and you could tell and see they were best friends. OH I also loved how much he liked Emi and he'd always run to her side all the time and try to impress her xD

Kunishima Naoki as Shimoda Kaiji: The new friend Gunji recently introduces our MC to. I liked how even though he was the new friend, he was the one who figured out about Mitsu's disease and I love how it turned out he was/is a Tokyo Uni student but was seriously thinking of dropping out because of the pressure and such which I felt was really accurate, espeically for many Asian families still it seems. I also love the moment where Mitsu finds out he's at Tokyo and wants to quit and even though Mitsu dropped out and stuff he's very passionate about Kaiji understanding how amazing it is that he's in Tokyo Uni and that he shouldn't quit. It was a really nice scene. Also Kaiji discovering the medicine and figuring out what it was for straight away was a really good moment to and he runs off to find Gunji and it's great!

The end scene with these two where they’re doing the Japanese Baseball way of chanting just outside his door and yelling their support to him even though Mitsu is inside just wailing crying to himself about how scared he is about dying and how desperately he’s trying not to get his friends involved. Gunji is an absolute crying wreck at the end of this scene and stage.

Shinozaki Ayana as Koyano Miki: Our MC's younger sister who works at the deceased CEO's company. She had a short role for the most part; up until she learns about her brother's illness. She was a really sweet character though and her support and love for her brother is very evident and totally cute. We do have a minro side story of her and Matsudaira getting together and planning to get married.

Futaba Yu as Shiroi Ryo: Also an employee at the company and in love with the CEO's daughter Emi. Ahhhh he's so small!! That was literally my thought for most of the time he was on stage. I personally never thought he was small but next to people like Takashina and Kyo-hei, he's TINY! It was ADORABLE! He didn't have a big role in this which obviously made me upset but the story ended up being really great that I wasn't too bummed about him not being in it so much. Also he looked great in that dang suit! His character was really adorable too; he's love with Emi and spends most of the time by her side or trying to impress her but it's also clear that he knows Emi really well and that she opens up to him because there's a scene where he faces off with her mother (because she's a bitch to Emo in all honesty) and says 'do you even know what your daughter wants to do?' and then goes running after Emi who's stormed off upset. I think they did end up together in this end. I liked how sweet and supportive his character was ^_^

Kyo-Hei as Hirose Kouta: Employee at the company. He reminded me A LOT of Higashi Keisuke (aka. TonChan); not just because Kyo-hei is damn tall like TonChan but just his overall presents and his slim body and his characters attitude, I just had huge TonChan feels from him. I liked the part of the story where we're supposed to semi-suspect he's the one that set the company on fire and I also loved how Kou really liked him but he was either ignoring it or oblivious to it xD

Karube Ruka and Ota Riona as Yodogawa Hana: Employee at the company. I'm going to be honest, I have no idea which one it was that was in the show I saw. She didn't have a big part anyway, she was kind of like the new employee so was new to everything and wasn't very helpful.

Nakatsuka Tomomi as Imamiya Yasuko: Employee at the company. Turns out she's an ex-AKBer which kind of surprises me because I'm pretty sure I've seen her in other stuff and I find her really funny. She's really good at the ridiculous comedy parts.

Matsuura Shotaro as Toga Ichiro: Senior Manager at the company (now CEO). I think we're supposed to not like this guy and find him ridiculous but I actually quite liked him. He definitely gave me the giggles at times and he's definitely someone the employees don't really listen to xD

Azuma Nanae as Yamano Sayumi: I found her really difficult to handle. I get she's upset that her lover has passed away, I get that she's pissed he promised to buy her the famous Mont Blanc from their favourite cafe but now that he's dead, that promise is broken. I get it BUT... she's the CEO' lover, NOT his wife, he is cheating on his wife with you; I have no sympathy for you and you have no right to mourn MORE than his wife. I found her a little bit too dramatic and VERY inconsiderate and insensitive towards his family. She literally has a massive go at the wife and it's like 'she's just lost her husband of like 50 years. How dare you make a scene and yell that he hated his wife and that he was unhappy with her. It's his WIFE! Regardless of whatever shit was going on between them, you have no damn right to yell at her!,' I am totally fine with this character turning up at the funeral, she does deserve that but just... how dare you have a go at his wife. You have no right. She really rubbed me the wrong way very quickly and I didn't give a shit about her. Am I making any sense about my anger for her?

Iizuka Rie as Kishiba Kou: Neighbourhood worker. She was hilarious! She was the stereotypical funny fat girl and I know I should hate that because it IS such a stereotype (more so in Japan than in other countries now I think), BUT I found her totally charming and a wonderful character and very funny who just happens to have a bit of weight for her. And yes they did make many fat jokes but I assume the actress was consenting and mature enough herself to decide for herself to put those jokes in so I had/have no problem with them being there. And all her jokes and all her humour was great! I found her such a delight of a character. She was very... fresh << probably the best way to describe her. She was such a nice and sweet and fresh, funny character!

Takamatsu Yuki as Danda Yuzu: Neighbourhood worker and Kou's friend. SHe was interesting because she never really spoke. Like she would 'whisper' to Kou and to Haru but she never spoke and a lot of her comedy and such came from her body language. Also it was an interesting dynamic because Kou is really tall compared to her, Danda is TINY, so that made it interesting too.

Ohashi Noriyuki as Matsudaira Yuuki: He is Mitsu's old friend from school; they meet back up again for the first time in a while during this event. Also, we later learn Yuuki is dating Mitsu's sister Miki. His character is really interesting; he's really calm and mature and collected and he really helps Mitsu see the reality of things, but he's also super hopeful because he still hasn't given up his training and his dream to be a pro-boxer even though he's already way past the age to be drafted/scouted (is that the right term when it comes to boxing?). BUT what makes his mysterious is that, like Mitsu, he can see Mustuo, Nekoko and Kenta who are all dead and now ghosts. What makes this point MORE interesting is that at the beginning of the play, the postman explains to Mitsu that he can see them because he's going to die soon; so it's implied that Yuuki is ALSO going to die soon but it's never revealed why or how or what's wrong with him. He's very much a positive, well put together guy so we're left thinking like 'what's wrong with him?!?!?!' so yeah, I found him super interesting.

Haru as Shibaki Youji: Singer, Guitarist, Danda's boyfriend and more of a guest for the stage than anything. I say guest because he's in it for only two parts and he sings live during those parts; so he seemed more like a guest role slash musical insert than an actor and character who was part of the play. He's a really good singer though and I got super emotional when he was singing at the end because it was already sad and he sang a sad song and he sings really well and it was live and with a guitar; it was a GOOD performance!

Tatsumi Shina as Sakurai Ann: She played a very, very minute role so I'm gunna skip her. But she's very pretty.

Enoki Tomokazu as Genjo Fumimasa: Yakuza Boss. I really enjoyed this character! He acts like this tough yakuza/yankee like guy but his henchmen (Midorikawa Ryosuke as Kusumi Reito and Araki Masaya as Ishimine Sho) walk all over him and always speak over him even though they really repsect him. He was a HUGE source of humour. Especially because whenever (Sakaba Asuka as) Yoshikawa Kana was around, he was this HUGE softey and she is just a badass, very outspoken woman; it's great! Especially Sho - he is just this camp but very aggressive Yakuza guy and he is absolutely hilarious! He had the perfect balance of acting tough, being funny and adding a camp sparkle everywhere! I really liked his character and you could tell he was a crowd favoruite too. Sho and Reito constantly saying Genjo's lines before he could say it and just the exhaustion coming out of his mouth every time they did was hilarious xD

Takahashi Asuka as Daidouji Emi: Deceased CEO's daughter. I liked seeing just how 'walking on egg shells' the relationship with her mother was but I also liked how Yuukun's character was always there to support her and kind of set up the scene of 'do you even know your daughter', BUT for the most part she spent the play storming on and off stage with Yuukun running after her and not really opening up and just (like a typical teenagers) assuming her mother understands what the hell is wrong with her.

Igarashi Keisuke as Daidouji Kengo: Eldest Child and Son of CEO.He had an interesting story arc. He originally turns up as this loud kid who quit school, is aiming to be a musician and doesn't really respect his family BUT as the story progresses we see that he's be seriously thinking about his future and has even been considering quitting being a musician. He ends up being a really decent and nice guy.

Umeta Ayano as Nekoko and Sakata Ryuichiro as Kenta: Mitsu's deceased pet Cat and Dog. These two were absolutely adorable! They were the typical cat and dog that don't get along most of the time but they were also at the center of a lot of the comedy. I also loved how that even after death they were loyal to their owner and wanted to keep their promise which was to never let him be alone or die alone. I really enjoyed their dynamic and they were such good characters! ALSO Kenta has a freaking Kansai accent and uses Kansai Dialect which is absolutely LOVED! They did a lot of cat and dog things too like saying Nyaa or licking their paws, making cat and dog barks and meows, and they were always on all paws and walking around. Honestly the scenes that stick out to me the most from this play are the ones they are in. The opening scene where they're being typical pets and fighting. Another scene where the CEO comes through the window and proceeds to do some adlibbing that causes both of them dying laughing; and the end scene where Mitsu is crying his heart to them about how scared he is to cry and they're like 'we promised we'd never leave you' oh the feels...

Konishi Keita as Tegamiya (lit. Post Man): He is the postman of death essentially; he comes to Mitsu and tells him he's going to die. He pops up now and again but he's really just the bearer of bad news.

Izaki Hisato as Sazanami: The real culprit behind the fire. He was a really interesting character! He's very mysterious for the first part of the play and we even see Kyo-hei's character interact with him which is what makes us suspicious of Kyo-hei but in the end, it is Sazanami who did it and he did it because when he first entered the company, he was all hopeful and everything but then they ended up firing him (I think due to a misunderstanding) and because of that, he couldn't find another job and basically fell to the lowest of the low (I think he's homeless too) and he wanted to get his own back. But in good Japanese story style fashion, in the end he hands himself into police and Kiyomi says she'll give him a job a the company when he eventually gets out. The scene where he confronts everyone and is somewhat crazy is a really good scene - kudos on his acting there.

Kurita Yoko as Daidouji Kiyomi: CEO's wife. For the most part I was very in the middle with her. When we're first introduced to her, we get a scene of her hearing her husband's voice yelling at her 'you can't do anything right! You're an awful cook!' so you feel (pretty much all the way until the end) that she HATES her husband so much. But she was very well put together and never got verbal or went yelling on about it so I always felt like that wasn't really the case. BUT the way she treated her daughter and how little she knew about her daughter really gave me a negative image of her somewhat. It was touching when right at the end it turns out that she never doubted her husband and that she didn't hate him; she was just super upset that, on their wedding day, he had promised her that he wouldn't die before her, that he wouldn't leave her alone, but clearly he did die first and that's why this entire time during the funeral and everything she called him a betrayer and stuff. She couldn't care about the bit he had on the side or anything, she was just heartbroken that he broke this one promise to her and now she was all alone without him. I really liked at the end where she decides to take over and become CEO in his place and start the company over again and offers job to Gunji, Sazanami and Mitsu.

Morooka Moro as Daidouji Mutsuo: I didn't like him. We're told these entire time that he's a shit head but as soon as he shows up, he's all jokes and he has a LOT of adlibbing comedy time but it's like 'mate you cheated on your wife. You (inevitably by accident) broke your promise with your wife. Your family is a broken mess because you spent more time with your company and your whore rather than with your family'. I get we're supposed to like him and be like 'oh he's not as bad as what everyone's making him out to be' but I personally just found him to be a shit head that didn't deserve all the apologises and forgiveness that he ended up getting. The actor himself is very sweet and very funny (like I said earlier, he had Nekoko and Kenta's actors dying with laughter one stage).

I really, really enjoyed this stage. I laughed, I cried, I was moved in so many feels, great story, great characters; I really liked all their performances; I’ll definitely be wanting to keep an eye on ODAC from now on. Especially because even Hiramaki Jin has worked with them and Domoto is part of the group and he’ll be in their play in May!

GOODS