Berryz Musical – Sengoku Jieitai

When making the trip out East, I usually leave home about two and a half days before I have anything planned, to account for flight delays and to give time to settle in and what not. This time however, things would kick off right as I landed in the Land of the Rising Sun. Complicated by the fact that, yes, my flight was delayed (and I didn’t have my tickets to the events in hand), from Narita to Tokyo, I rushed to the theatre and arrived at 7:00 PM on the nose, just in time.

The first for days of my trip would be filled with showings of Berryz Musical, Sengoku Jieitai. This was my first time seeing a Berryz play/musical and I can say that I really enjoyed it, despite not understanding most of the dialog. The story is pretty easy to follow I think, a group from the Japanese Self-Defense Force find themselves mysteriously transported back in time to the Warring States Period, a time of samurai and, war, in Japan. Existing in the past, the JSDF encounter some samurai, who are wowed by their advanced weaponry and are interested in teaming up and using it against their enemy. Reluctant to get involved (the Forces are more interested in getting back home methinks), the eventually do after one of their kin is killed. A final showdown of sorts takes place, more people die.

Now, don’t expect me to remember everyone’s names and stuff, and as noted, the lack of language ability on my part combined with some more complicated language used in the musical hinders my ability to perfectly say much… I’ll continue with some observations and commentary anyway.

A couple of girls from G-Rockets, an acrobatic dance company, start things off by dropping in from the ceiling. That’s pretty cool. The G-Rockets’ performances throughout the musical were pretty good, the choreographed acrobatic pieces expectedly so. Overall the G-Rockets and the three other non-Berryz performers, along with Berryz, worked well together and it was nice watching them all on stage. Of course though, each Berryz gets special mention (sans-Momoko, who did not participate in the musical).

Risako was the star of the show. She did a great job I think. One thing to take note of was that her voice was on point. I was impressed by how she sounded at times as she was singing this or that. Otherwise, not much to say except… This atmosphere is obviously a lot different than a concert, in a serious play and or musical it is imperative not to break character, yeah. I felt like though, Risako at times was about to do so. Not that she wasn’t giving it her all, just that, well, perhaps she is too cute for her own good. At concerts and other events, Risako usually gives me big smiles and such, but as stated, she really couldn’t here, but I got the feeling she really wanted to, and I could just read it all over her face, heh.

Chinami was Risako’s right hand man. My lady was great to watch throughout the musical. I loved her little fight dances (often paired with Risako). What I especially thought was great however, was a little sequence towards the end of the musical. It was a choreographed fight where Chinami’s character, confronted by three samurai, was caught without a functioning weapon and had to engage them in hand to hand combat (the samurai had swords). I was worried about my dear Chii, but in the end, she comes out victorious. It was a relatively short confrontation, but I thought it was really cool. After the first performance (the main reason why I took the chance to rush to see it on my arrival day), was a high-five with a number of Berryz members. In particular, Chinami would be a part of this high-five line up, need I say more? She called out my name as soon as she saw me approach. Chii~ my love. As the high-five events go by super-fast, I hadn’t time to say anything but hi.

Miyabi’s character was the coolest, and she did an awesome job portraying ‘em as such. Her mannerisms, the way she spoke, even when idle she just exuded this cool character. You could tell right from the get-go that she’d be trouble, and at the same time, a tough cookie.

Yurina was the only one of Berryz who did not play a JSDF character. She was a samurai, a beautiful samurai, donned in red. Not sure if any of the other girls could have pulled it off as well as she did, it was a good fit. She was given a nifty sword fight too (perhaps not as cool as Risako’s, unmentioned, or Chii’s), but still cool. There was a brief moment during the musical where she, in the background, was wearing a helmet; the samurai look looked good on her, yeah.

Tank buster, or just straight up tank is the impression I got from Maasa. Appropriate if I do say so. Each time she got up out of the faux tank, she exuded a sense of power about her. That might just me projecting a little bit of that on her though, heh. She was also a little lighthearted, and handled some of the comedic lines of the musical.

Another good fit here I thought was Captain’s character. They were a little emotional, yeah. I feel that plays into her own personality, and there was also sort of an air of sympathy that came along with it (I think too, that her size contributed to that). After Friday’s performance, Captain was a part of the high-five team, and when I got up to her she was very happy to see me. I’ll mention here, I was wearing yellow that day, heh.

Good job by all, and I had a fun time.