plays (Page 2)

Ghost in the Shell in costume as producers reveal cast photos, reason for no DVD plans

The recent boom in live-action movie, TV, and stage adaptations of hit anime has to be a headache for producers. Most anime start out as manga, where the only limits on outlandish character and costume design is the imagination of the original artist, and we imagine it’s an exhaustive search to find real-life actors and actresses who look the part.

But Japan’s casting directors are proving themselves up to the challenge. Hot on the heels of the recently revealed Prison School TV drama come photos of the cast of the stage adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, and not only are there some uncanny resemblances, we now know why there won’t be a DVD or live streaming of the performance.

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Japan’s all-female Takarazuka theater has enlightened 31.5:1 female to male bathroom stall ratio

In Japan, you’ll sometimes find extremely classy restrooms in surprising places, like sparkling-clean highway rest stops. But does that same metric apply to locations that you would expect to have swanky bathroom facilities?

It does in the case of the Takarazuka Grand Theater, home of the famous all-female Takarazuka Revue, which not only has an opulent restroom waiting for its guests, but also an extremely enlightened ratio of male to female bathroom stalls.

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One Piece kabuki adaptation officially opens in Tokyo, cast photos begin to surface online

Even 18 years after its initial publication, One Piece continues to enjoy unprecedented popularity around the world, no doubt thanks to the grueling efforts of series’ creator Eiichiro Oda. Since July, fans have been waiting with bated breath after new details emerged regarding a kabuki stage version of the beloved franchise, but that wait is now over–October 7 marked the opening performance of the play, and we’ve finally been treated to some pictures of the cast!

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Seijiro Nakamura as Chris Redfield? Resident Evil stage play’s cast is entirely Japanese

I’m never really sure what I should call the zombie action series that began as a hit PlayStation game in 1996. Resident Evil, its internationally used name, is a lot more colorful than Biohazard, its Japanese one, but only the first of the many games takes place primarily in a home. What’s more, the source of the trouble is science run amok, not dark magic, so the “evil” part seems a touch melodramatic.

On the other hand, there are now five films in the franchise, with a sixth on the way, all of which are produced in English and usually come to Japan only after already premiering overseas, so score one point for Resident Evil.

But in the case of its upcoming stage adaptation, set to open in two months, I really think Biohazard is the most appropriate name, because it looks like every single member of the cast is Japanese.

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Countries become anime characters, anime characters become real men in Hetalia musical

Anime featuring anthropomorphized battleships or samurai swords seem like no-brainers, given that they have a certain cool factor among young otaku and by their very nature make it easy to develop action scenes. Filling your cast with personifications of sovereign nations, though, sounds like a harder hill to climb.

Nevertheless, Hetalia, which started as a webcomic starring anthropomorphized versions of World War II’s Axis powers, succeeded, thanks to its non-stop winks to historical events, willingness to skewer every country on the planet (Japan included), and undercurrent of homoeroticism. The franchise has since spread to print manga and animated TV and movie forms, and now it’s invading new territory with the Hetalia stage musical.

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Ghost in the Shell is about to become Ghost on the Stage with Tokyo theatre adaptation

Similar to how some of Ghost in the Shell’s characters can slip their consciousness into new bodies, the enduring science fiction franchise has gone through many incarnations. Starting with the manga by creator Masamune Shirow, the enduring science fiction hit has been an animated theatrical feature, TV anime, and series of direct-to-video anime shorts, plus has served the basis for a handful of video games.

The franchise might even end up with a Hollywood live-action version with Scarlett Johansson playing the lead role. Before that, though, Ghost in the Shell is getting a stage adaptation scheduled to be performed in Tokyo.

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Hit anime Hana Yori Dango getting stage musical starring…maybe you?!?

You’d be hard-pressed to find a girls’ manga with a broader or more international fanbase than Hana Yori Dango. Also known as Boys Over Flowers, Hana Yori Dango ran as a serialized comic for more than a decade in addition to having a popular anime version that aired in the late 1990s. That was just the beginning of its multimedia franchise, though, as the series was later remade as a live-action TV and film series in Japan, with separate, locally produced versions for Taiwan and Korea as well.

One place Hana Yori Dango hasn’t gone yet, though, is the stage. That’s changing next year, though, with a Hana Yori Dango musical that’s holding open auditions to cast its female lead.

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Fushigi Yugi stage adaptation gets cast and schedule as Mysterious Play becomes a real one

Over the past few months, there’s been a string of stage adaptations of hit anime and manga announced. But while we’re sure plenty of fans are psyched about the upcoming Naruto play and One Piece kabuki performance, fans of girls’ comics, or anime series with fewer than 600 episodes to wade through, might be feeling a little left out.

Luckily for them, there’s a more female-oriented, reasonably concise franchise about to become live performance theater, with the opening in March of a stage version of the Mysterious Play, or as it’s better known, Fushigi Yugi.

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One Piece becoming a kabuki play with the Straw Hat Pirates taking the stage in Tokyo

Between the huge success the One Piece franchise has found in comics, animation, video games, and associated merchandising, you wouldn’t think there’d be too many more avenues for it to expand into. And honestly, it doesn’t have to, as Eiichiro Oda’s manga, the starting point of the tales of pirates, treasure hunting, and friendship, is still going strong, with its 76th collected volume being released later this month.

But just like the Straw Hat Pirates don’t have to embark on grand adventures, but choose to do so anyway, One Piece is about to head into uncharted waters, as the anime and manga franchise is set to become a kabuki play.

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