I think about the only thing that could possibly make this better (cue crossover drumroll...) is if the Imperial Flower Combat Troupe performed it!

And Kohran could be Anthy... since Yuriko Fuchizaki voices them both.

But seriously... Utena fighting zombies?  That's awesome!  I see Castlevania crossover potential there too...

The zombies obviously symbolizes corrupted eternity.  I would watch it just for the sake of watching it.

"...That's what will happen!  I call it Operation: Himemiya Anthy is a weirdo who keeps snails in her pencil box!  Oh, Himemiya?  Could I borrow your pencil box for a second?"
"BRAAAAAINS."
"Himemiya, what are you... ACK!  NO!!!  DEAR GOD THE PAIN!!!  ONII-SAMA!  ONII-SAMA!!!!!"
"Aw, that's such an Anthy thing to do!  She's so adorable!"

satyreyes wrote:

"...That's what will happen!  I call it Operation: Himemiya Anthy is a weirdo who keeps snails in her pencil box!  Oh, Himemiya?  Could I borrow your pencil box for a second?"
"BRAAAAAINS."
"Himemiya, what are you... ACK!  NO!!!  DEAR GOD THE PAIN!!!  ONII-SAMA!  ONII-SAMA!!!!!"
"Aw, that's such an Anthy thing to do!  She's so adorable!"

I want to have your babies now.

I'm really curious about Seazer's name here. Is there new duel choruses maybe????????????

Maybe they're using the ones on OST7?

Giovanna wrote:

I'm really curious about Seazer's name here. Is there new duel choruses maybe????????????

Maybe they're using the ones on OST7?

If they're using the ones on OST 7, then they just HAVE TO USE Death by Oceanic Moon Indigo. I swear I have serious EARgasms everytime I hear that song on my iTune

Hm... why wouldn't they have the zombie duelists on the anime? I think the zombie duelists have fought Utena indirectly from using the flesh of actual living people as hosts. But then Mikage ran out of hosts, so he fought as the remaining dead duelists. Didn't he call for the dead duelists to come to him before he starts to duel?

Last edited by Hiraku (07-13-2007 07:16:07 PM)

This has potential.

Of what kind, I'm terrified to find out.  But there is potential none the less...

Raven Nightshade wrote:

Well, clearly either Akio or Mikage is a necromancer....or a voodoo priest.

The ends of the world, I will show, to you...
...
...
...
...
...
...mon.

Hiraku wrote:

But then Mikage ran out of hosts, so he fought as the remaining dead duelists. Didn't he call for the dead duelists to come to him before he starts to duel?

End o' Mikage's confession: "Rose blooming at the end of the world, to me!" By Japanese grammar rules there's no reason it couldn't be multiple roses, supposing that the roses represent the dead boys... Now I'm imagining him getting stabbed by the less-than-100 Black Roses of the Undead.

I'd really like to know more about the music in the show, but nothing I've translated so far gives it more than passing mention. Seazer seems to collaborate with this director frequently, but it looks like the director usually writes the lyrics. If there were high res scans of the OST7 booklet I could see if there was any relation... (puppy-dog eyes)

I have plenty of other material to share, though! Next, I have translated a series of articles from a fan who saw the show that goes by the pseudonym of "hir" - his (?) site is here. http://www.imasy.org/~hir/hir/index.html. He's pretty thorough about describing his theater-going experience, and the fact that he goes in not knowing anything about Gesshoku Kagekidan gives us insight into what makes them different than your usual anime-adaptation musical company (Sailor Moon musicals for example - hir has been to those). He also talks a lot about his day.

Gesshoku Kagekidan 33rd Production

Shoujo Kakumei Utena Makai Tenshou @ Mokushiroku Hen
Rejin Nirvana Raiga

05/29/99 Asagaya - Samsa Asagaya

------

Part 1: Theater-going Entry

This is basically an extended diary entry.

"Ura" Nippon Industry News!! is one of the web diaries I check habitually. It lists news items related to a industrial newspaper reporter's work and interests in a jumble. It's timeliness and breadth (on sub-culture stuff, anyway) could only come from a newspaper reporter, and I haven't seen anything comparable to it.

That's where I found out that that the Gesshoku Kagekidan theatrical group was working on Shoujo Kakumei Utena. Director Ikuhara would be producing, and that increased my hopes that it would be more faithful than the previous Utemyu*.

*When an anime is turned into a musical fans tend to abbreviate the musical as "xxxxmyu".

------

Note: From late 97 until early the next year, an Utena musical was performed at the Ginza Hakuhinkan Theater. The cast had Kimura Sanae (Uranus [Juri in the 1st Utemyu]), Saitou Rei (Touga) and others come over from Seramyu [Sailor Moon Musicals], and that link was considered an issue among some people. The director was Mitsuya Yuuji so there were concerns about the quality, and it seems rushed as far as the special [musical] arrangements are concerned. Covers the Student Council arc.

------

Here's how the day went.

The meeting place this time is Samsa Asagaya in the Asagaya Laputa building. Gesshoku Kagekidan even performed this theater's inaugural show. I saw good assessments of the place all over the internet which increased my expectations.

Around noon I meet with my usual cohorts (A and T) at the station. The show starts at 2:00, doors and ticket sales are 50 min prior. When we get in line about 20 minutes before that there is already a line of about 50 people. The line for the so called friends of the theater is largest, the line for people who bought tickets through Pia and Saison is 3rd largest, other methods (direct phone or email reservations and other means of ticket purchase) is 5th, and same day purchase is 2nd - that was the breakdown.

The building is quite modern in style, as if it had been built recently. There is an art film movie theater on the 2nd floor (next feature: Twenty-Four Eyes [1954 Japanese film]), the 3rd floor is restaurants. The 1st floor lobby has retail shops. The theater that we are concerned with is in the basement. It is managed by ComicBox. I hear that Gesshoku Kagekidan did the theater's first show.

I look over the other patrons. Whenever I scope the crowd that's taking in a musical there ends up being a lot of women. Incidentally, Pink House [clothing brand] stands out. Oh, so that's how it is...

I reserved via direct email to [Gesshoku Kagekidan's] official site this time, and for someone who has difficulty getting to the ticket windows this sort of service is very welcome. After all, you can send off email real quick in a free moment at work.

Commence Ticket Purchase. Assigned tickets are handed out according to the order of the line. When we enter the theater we will be arranged based on ticket number. We are the 3 spots starting from 33. We consider eating lunch in front of the station, but cheap-o Lotteria has a lot of people out with flyers in hand. We avoid them with some effort. Mindful of the time, we eat at a nearby teishokuya and head back. The yakiniku is tough and hard to eat.

Now it's time to take our seats. People mill about in line. It looks to be 200 people. Can we all get in there? We get plastic bags and are told to put our shoes in them. What kind of show is this where you can't have your shoes on? There is a miscalculation - the bag is too small I can't fit my shoes in it.

The theater proper. Unlike the fancy exterior, it gives the impression that it's been standing for 15 years. Simple wooden benches in stepped tiers stretching to the ceiling. Did the building just get an exterior remodel? Two rows of zabuton are lined up on the benches that I originally thought were one row. Clearly, the place is over capacity. Even the zabuton themselves are miniscule 30 cm squares. The patrons hesitate and bunch up one after the other.

The is a door center stage, and inside it a cast member whom I suspect plays Dios is quietly seated, holding a globe.  Coupled with a BGM made up of faint sounds it produces a strange atmosphere. Occasionally she holds the globe up with both hands and dances calmly. Stranger and stranger.

Get too close to the top [back?] and the view is obscured by the ceiling pillars and the rear seats. Nevertheless,  standing around in the areas where there aren't zabuton is no good either. Sitting in the central area in a moment of confusion with get you a "the cast will be passing this way, so you can't sit here," from the theater staff. When we look, we see the foremost row is empty. We hesitate for a moment but   there aren't any other open seats. There's no other choice.

The three of us take our seats.

...

We're right up front!

It can be more than a 3 meter distance to the middle of the stage. We could reach out and touch the stage. Is it really okay for us to be this close? It's revolutionary. There are spots of wax and floor mats left about on the floor in great numbers. I heard that there would be dancing while holding candles, now that I think about it.

For some reason there is a large plastic sheet on the stage. The staff came out to spread it.

"Blood will fly during the performance. Please use this to protect yourselves."

So that's it... the 3 of us are dumbfounded before it sinks in.

At last the theater darkens. Truth (old ending) and Rinbu Revolution (old[?] opening) play, and the curtain goes up.

That much blood???

...moving on, I have gone so far as to look up every reference in this article that I didn't know.

Pia - http://www.pia.co.jp/ (entertainment and ticketing website)
ComicBox - http://www.comicbox.co.jp/ (publishes a magazine about anime and manga; runs theaters in Laputa building)
Laputa Building - http://www.laputa-jp.com/ (where the theater is, looks pretty cool)
Twenty-Four Eyes - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047281/ (movie about wartime and postwar Japan)
Pink House - http://www.gedix.co.jp/pinkhouse/collection.html (sort of lolita fashion of the masses)
Lotteria - http://lotteria.jp/index.html (Fast food chain - ja.wikipedia says there are over 500 stores in Japan)

atolm wrote:

Anthy... with a machine gun.

You're kidding, right?

If not, this just keeps getting better and better.

Well this just got one hundred times more awesome.

Shiva Indis wrote:

Here we go!

Anthy, standing apart from the fighting, gets her hands on a machine gun, mows down the undead and flees with Utena.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I see Anthy splattering zombies all over the place with the same benign expression she wears while watering the roses...

Anybody ever see the end of The Prisoner?