Naruto: Live Spectacle
Welcome back Naruto fans!
Now most of you should have heard about Naruto: Live Spectacle, or N:LS as I'm going to call it. It took place just this weekend, and if you didn't manage to catch it, you really missed out! It was amazeballs.
No worries though! I'll try my best to describe the out of body experience I had throughout the show. Although if I were to be honest, this post is most likely going to end up with me gushing about everything. I apologise in advance for that. Photos credited to respective owners!
Now without future ado, let me present to you, Naruto: Live Spectacle!
I purchased the third category tickets, which cost me $78. I was originally planning to perhaps get the better category tickets, but since most good seats were already taken (and my wallet was furiously protesting), I settled for Cat3.
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| that's the left of the stage, those flags |
The seating was not as bad as I'd imagined it to be. I sat on the right side of the theatre, about six rows up from the stage, and my initial thought was that I wasn't going to be able to see much. Well, I was wrong. I was close enough to see the actors quite clearly, and yet also far enough for me to view the entire stage. Being on the right side of the theatre didn't quite matter much as well, just that events happening on the left was slightly harder to see.
So yes, enough about boring details, and down to the important details. What's this whole show about?
"The Boy lives in the Village of Konoha-Gakure, just like other boys until..
One day, at dawn, the mischievous boy called Naruto gets suspected of the missing book full of Ninja’s prohibited alchemy. The thing is that he was trapped to know the secrets of his birth. When he was delivered, the legendary demon fox with nine tails was sealed up in his body. Naruto gets terribly shocked with the fact, however, he was encouraged and supported by Iruka, one of the teachers at Ninja Academy, so that he managed to graduate from the school. Now that Naruto and his classmates start their duty as fresh-man Ninja, it means the beginning of a journey where they are forced to face challenges and fatalities as well as Naruto’s personal struggle and friendship with his fatal friend Sasuke."
That was the atrocious synopsis from Sistic, and let me just let you know that that entire chunk basically meant the beginning part of the Naruto series, up till when SasuNaru has that fight at Valley of the End (??). You know, the one where Naru-chan is trying to stop Sasu-kun from going to find Orochi-san and they end up with lips so close to each other? Ahem, I mean where Naru-chan ends up half dead and Sasu-kun can't bring himself to completely end it there and then.
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| so good |
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| too good |
Aaaaanyway. That is what this performance decided to showcase, and I was honestly quite ): about it. I mean, after reading the manga and watching the anime, and playing a couple of games that cover that arc, I was kind of really hoping N:LS was not going to cover it again. They did skip quite a number of parts though, and generally kept the more emotional ones.
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| omg iruka |
But I digress. Plot aside, the effects and the acting was superb, brilliant, gold star, and all that jazz awards. Amazing. I cried. Really.
I don't know how I'm going to describe everything, seeing as this is already starting to be a super long post. But let's start with the actors. I've already rated all of them as A*, so I'm really just going to pick out Team 7.
Naruto.
Naru-chan's dattebayo was ridiculously accurate and sounded natural as well, like he was saying it all his life. Sadly though, in those few hours, I never once heard him say a "teme". He was super cute, and I really just wanted to hug and squish him. His acting was awesome as well, especially during the sad scenes. All I wanted to do was to pick him up and console him and let him know everything will be alright.
Sasuke.
Sasu-kun is probably where the idea of emo boybands stemmed from. His voice was quite alright, and his "usuratonkachi" made me tear up every time he said it. Oh how the nostalgia hurts my kokoro. When he made his first appearance, you could actually hear the collective sharp intake of breath from the fangirls. He was quite buff looking, though I would blame it on his shirt. It looked rather padded, maybe as a precaution? Since there was quite a bit of rolling around and all. Also, let it be known that the Uchihas are the orginal drama queens.
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| body language!! |
Sakura.
While I dislike Sakura canonically, this actress is amazing. Her voice acting is brilliant, as well as her body language. ALL ON POINT! Really, what captured me the most was her body language. Her hair is really gorgeous as well, so that didn't hurt. Her character is still irritating though, which is what makes her stand out so much.
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| i couldnt find a kakashi on stage shot |
Kakashi.
OH MY KAMI Kakashi just makes me want to cry in tears of happiness because he is as close of a real Kakashi as I can get. He is so ridiculously accurate I swear it felt like Kakashi stepped off the pages of the manga and right into the real world. His hair is amazing (tho it looked hella heavy), and his posture is so so so Kakashi that it hurts my soul. And his voice! So smooth, and it really sounded like Kakashi, no joke. Similar to Sasuke, there was a collective dreamy sigh from the fangirls as he made his appearance. No shame in admitting I was one of them.
Right. I could go on all day about the rest of the actors and those behind the scenes, but I must move on. (Orochi's appearance was heralded by opera singing and that just took all the awards.)
So the lighting and sound effects were really brilliant, and at this rate I'm going I'm going to need a thesaurus. (No photos here, sadly.)
For example, right at the beginning we have the appearance of Naru-chan's KageBunshins, and how was that effect recreated? Glow in the dark Naru outlines! The bunshins also did a little dance that was wayyyyy too cute.
Other effects include the appearance of Kurama's head and 9 tails when Naru-chan briefly went into rage mode when he thought Sasu-kun died at the bridge. Reminded me of the lion dances at cny.
Also the part when Itachi made a quick appearance with his Mangekyo activated, and all the outlines of the props got swirly and headache inducing. Itachi and Sasuke also did this ribbons-hanging-from-ceiling-dance-twirl thing that I don't know the proper name of.
Not to mention the first final battle where Chidori crashed into Rasengan and the whole theatre lit up brighter than a lightning flash. My eyes hurt from that.
They also made very good use of tugging at our heartstrings with perfect music selection. If you didn't cry, you are really strong.
Now moving on to the props.
The props are really amazing, and I have to give special kudos to Gaara.
Gaara's gourd was rather massive, and yet he was still superbly nimble with his jumps and spins, as if there wasn't a huge gourd securely attached on his back. Also the Shukaku arm when he half transformed. How he moves around with the gourd and the massive arm is beyond me, but he made it look effortless. Not to mention he was rather scrawny in the first place.
Zabuza's sword is pretty awesome too! It was massive, as per canon, and yet it was also made light enough that he could swing it around with one arm. Well structured too, there was no flopping on the ends or bending when swung around that much.
My favourite prop definitely has to be the Choji ball. Yknow Choji's Meat Tank? It was replicated by using a big massive bouncy ball! First they came out with quite a large sized one, as tall as a human height, and then they came out with an even larger one!! It was huge!! And painted to look like Choji!! Complete with two hair tuffs!!
That Choji ball was meant to be bounced on the crowds, and here I regrettably have to say that people don't know how to party. The ball was tossed to the central crowd, and instead of bouncing it backwards to the back crowd, the audience actually kept pushing it back on stage! It happened several times, and by several I mean every single time for like 10 over times okay.
The Ino-Shika-Cho trio had to keep repeating to pass the ball backwards, but their words fell on deaf ears. In the end poor Shika had to carry it all the way up to the back and toss it down, and even then it got waved back to the stage in a jiffy. Poor Shika even tripped while trying to transport it up! )':
After that happened, they decided to let the right side have the ball AND I WAS OVERJOYED. However, as my luck will have it, before I managed to touch it, the adult next to me shoved it out of my way as he was taller and touched the ball first. And no points for guessing what happened after that, the ball went right back on the stage.
Pssh. Party poopers.
That is my one life regret. I didn't get to touch floaty Choji ball.
But overall, Naruto: Live Spectacle is amazeballs and there is no other word that can top that. To see my otp in real life and going through the earliest arc of my childhood really does a number on my poor sad heart (cue angry grumbling at Kishi for the stupid Naruto ending).
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| thank you all so much <3 |
Anyway, here's a bunch of photos I managed to dig up while trawling the internet! Once again, credits to the owners and if you would like to be properly credited, let me know!
Of the perf:
Backstage Shenanigans:
I really hope they'll have more live specs coming to Singapore, regardless of fandom. Now excuse me while I fade away to deal with my post N:LS depression.
By the way, do check out the post on N:LS Official Merchandise by Nana.
Written by: ninetylives
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