#event report

(sorry for the delay! i moved home from japan to the states the day after… technically the day of posting the last report so obviously it’s been. Busy. last one tho!! ♥)

previously:
day 1 (shoen)
day 2 (itadaki no keshiki)
day 3 (karasuno, fukkatsu!!)
day 4 (shousha to haisha)
day 5 part 1 (shinka no natsu)

guests: kenta, keita, funaki masahide, yanagihara rin

Hoo Boy this was by the most outright emotional of all the screenings so far. like, shousha to haisha was intense, but the content was intimately familiar by now. the impact of this was fresh – and we all knew it was the end, you know? the end of our happy little week, obviously, but also the beginning of the end for karasuno. over the week all those showings had built up this tidal wave of Feelings it then unleashed here, aha. so that the cheering was right on the edge of desperate, like there were real results on the line. self extremely included. this was our last chance, in all kinds of ways.

(i, aware that i would be leaving the country in two days, was perhaps a little more desperate! but it sure as hell wasn’t just me. cheering along at the top of our lungs to the opening/closing karasuno jog i described here… it was. a lot.)

of course the reaction to certain parts were as you’d expect. there was dead silence for ennoshita’s big scene(s). the cheers for his receives were like nothing else. when ennoshita tells yamaguchi “let’s fight together” kenta reeled backward like he’d taken a physical hit. (my son, i love you.) and of course kenta and kt were emoting all over the place for that whole storyline – kt was wiping his eyes after daichi had to leave the court, and then they both teared up over “thank you for coming back” and “captain ni tsunagenakya!”

and of course when it came to rin and funaki they had their own moments – rin obviously got misty-eyed when all of wakutani started losing their shit, lol, and funaki surprised me by wiping his eyes after misaki’s goodbye to johzenji. (my guess from daisenshuuraku was right, btw, momo was crying irl during that scene. awww.)

OK BUT BACK TO THE BEGINNING sorry.

once again kt was tricked into dashing out before everyone else. XD
kt: um this is not how rehearsal went.
kenta: what are you talking about? :(
funaki: this is just like we practiced.
rin: (nods furiously)
kenta: isn’t it?
kt: ………yes. fine.

so they accidentally grabbed the afternoon’s MC script, whoops. which i’m sure kenta noticed as soon as he glanced at it, but didn’t turn a hair until it was time for their self-introductions. “playing kageyama tobio, i’m kageyama tatsuya—”
kt: playing nishinoya yuu i’m fuchino yuuto ^_^
funaki: hahahaha PLAYING KUROO TETSUROU IM KONDOU SHOURI
audience: (CHEERS)
rin: (squints at script) playing konoha akinori im… (mutters) ….azuma… takumi…?
kenta: ….you were IN A PLAY WITH HIM
rin: is that wrong
kenta: what have you been calling him all this time
rin: …………azuma…..kun……….
kenta: and what did he say to that
rin: …"yes?“
funaki: well he does seem like he’d just roll with that
kenta: IT’S HIGASHI HIS NAME IS HIGASHI

kenta: i was the MC for the shoen screening, but earlier this week, rather than do it twice himself, ryoutarou turned it over to yamagiwa kaito-kun–
audience: (bursts into giggles)
kenta: …yeah so i thought maybe tonight i’d give someone else a cha–
funaki: ME I WANT TO
kenta: –ok here you go
funaki: wait what
kenta: you looked like you really wanted to so
funaki: I SUPER DO :D
funaki: so uh (flips pages) next uh –
kenta: r u srs

i was SOOO fond of funaki omg what a friendly bro ahhh. so cheery and good-natured. :D (can u tell i like em dumb and smiley, apparently.) whereas rin-kun was… endearingly ditzy. XD (is he an ex-johnny’s? he kind of had that air. it was like looking at ueda tatsuya circa 2005. in no small part because of the wakunan towel tucked into his waistband, which draped to the floor.)

funaki: don’t forget to call the player’s names during the starting order, like "terushima!” or “terushii!” or “yuuji!”

funaki: so next we’ll practice cheers! i, the MC – yeah yeah yeah (rapper pose) –
kenta: masakki!
kt: masakki!
(like. funaki + masahide = masakki? apparently? i was unfamiliar with this nickname.)
funaki: ok now yanagihara-kun’s gonna lead the cheer practice
rin: nice to meet you i’m MC rin ^_^
rin: where were we again?
kenta:
rin: wait right. this is. a cheer screening. so we want you to cheer!
kenta: they know that.
rin:
kenta:
rin: wait ok i remembered!!
audience: GANBARE
rin: :D;;

it took SEVERAL MORE FALSE STARTS before we actually got to the cheer practice. poor rin-kun. XD but he wasn’t like, shy or embarrassed like takumi-kun he just. was kind of a ditz. “NO WAIT :D lemme try again :D wait where are we? :D”

kt: ARE YOU FIRED UP
audience: WHOO
funaki: ARE YOU READY TO GO
audience: WHOOOO
kenta: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD
audience: tamago kake gohan!!

the screening: abovementioned emotions aside, plenty of dancing and choreo as you would espect, especially from funaki. rin apparently was young terushima in the flashbacks! so he and funaki did all the double terushima scenes together. and rin did all of his white coat dance choreo as well.

during the opening, kenta joined rin so he wouldn’t have to do the wakunan choreo alone. XD and funaki and rin played kiyoko-san and yachi ahahaha. then when hinata and ushiwaka begin to turn on the revolving stage, kenta started scuttling around stage trying to “revolve” himself with limited success.

yamaguchi: (snubs shimada’s high five)
kenta: don’t mind!!

despite kenta’s gleeful delight in audience comebacks, there were understandably few of them from either him or us because it was everyone’s first time watching the show since daisenshuuraku! the demon elementary school children did get this massive cheer that made kenta almost fall out of his chair laughing. ditto akaashi’s “michi wo tsukurimasu no de” – that was one of the most full-throated mass “KYAA"s i’ve ever heard (again… self… included…) and kenta thought it was HILARIOUS.

i myself was reminded all over again what a great show this was, ugh. blah blah I Love Kawahara Kazuma digression aside, please take it as read, IN ADDITION i know i briefly talked about the, like, emotional sensitivity kouhei brought to playing tanaka but fjkdlajfd the close ups on his face made it so much worse, ffffffff. GOD. dude’s emotions were A Lot. just. please. gimme the dvd already.

i was also so caught up in nekoma vs fukurodani the first time i watched that i didn’t notice how well kuroo and kenma’s final scenes onstage functioned as a goodbye for takato and shouri. when you’ve been in four consecutive shows, you deserve to go out on a meaningful note. (yes ofc we don’t know what the future holds etc etc but.) shouri’s delivery of "you’re our brain, and our spine, and our heartbeat.” fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff murder me.

ahem ok. the aftertalk:

funaki said that he was used to watching videos of himself on stage to review and practice with, but it was the first time watching from a normal spectator’s perspective. “oh, THAT’S how that came across.” and that the effect made him cry.

rin had a really nice thing to say about how watching really impressed on him how haikyuu stage in particular is a work that is dependent on everyone’s contributions combined – i.e. it’s not just the lead characters, it’s the combined effect of the characters in the spotlight and the characters in the background and the white coat ensemble and the technical staff that make haikyuu stage the unique production it is. (this was hard for rin to express in japanese, tbh, so idk how well i’m getting it across in english but his point was that when he says “it’s a show we all create together” he’s not referring to ideas or feelings but quite literally saying that everyone’s contributions on stage are necessary to make haikyuu stage what it is.)

and kenta talked about how (attending every single screening as he did, lol) it was great preparation for saikyou no team to have had the chance to look back on each different production – especially to look back on the schools and characters that appeared in just one show and carry their feelings forward to the next play.

…then they discussed how quickly rin’s hair had grown back since daisenshuuraku. XD
rin: tbh… i was emotionally moved when i first looked in the mirror and saw myself with hair.

then as soon as keita prompted them for backstage stories kenta was like GOKU. DEFINITELY GOKU. apparently at daisenshuuraku he started crying before wakunan even huddled up for their pre-show cheer. “I CAN’T HANDLE IT, IT’S TOO MUCH.”
kenta: i was watching this like R U KIDDING ME WE HAVEN’T EVEN STARTED YET
rin: ahaha during the show as well, idk if this is good or bad, but he was always crying, like – there’s a bit where hanayama calls “takeru!” as he makes a toss
rin: and goku was always like “(sobs) TAKERU!!”
kenta: ONE TIME HE CRIED SO MUCH HE SHORTED OUT HIS MIC
audience: EHHHHH?
kenta: how did that many tears even GET there
funaki: probably the sweat plus the crying
rin: incredible.
kenta: that’s haikyuu stage. so much sweat and tears we destroy our mics.

rin also told us about the wakunan red bull rule. they did a lot of team practice on their own, and people were chronically “just barely” late – i.e., never more than a few minutes, but it was enough to throw off practice. so they instituted a rule that whoever was “just barely” late had to buy the rest of the team red bulls. to this day, as they’re preparing for their august 25 event… whoever’s late has to buy everyone else red bulls.
rin: we also took a lot of purikura together
kenta: yeah they had such a reputation that whenever they were late karasuno would be like YOU WERE TAKING PURIKURA AGAIN WEREN’T YOU

then for johzenji funaki told the story of “The Take Two Incident”, in which during johzenji’s ad libs he fucked up his lines two shows in a row – and the second time was so bad he thought “what would terushima do???”, straight up yelled “TAKE TWO” and started over. after which kenta collared him backstage like “did you seriously fuckin do that???”
funaki: i reflected deeply on my actions.

johzenji also had iizaka, who’s a pretty reticent and quiet character. but he had to do something on stage when johzenji was… being johzenji. so karasuno came up with a quirk for him: every time johzenji successfully scored or blocked he would pump his fists and happily yell “MAAA.” (5 foot nothing suga kenta reenacting this was delightful, fyi.)
kenta: he played the nakashima household’s father too. nakashima masayoshi. nakashima… MAA… sayoshi…

THEN, UGH, keita talked about how he gave the post-curtain call greeting for maeraku (i.e. the second-to-last show, the one before senshuuraku). and of course in the greeting he talked about leaving and coming back – and as he did, suga kenta appeared on stage behind him with exactly the same staging/lighting/sound that daichi does during the play, and said daichi’s line, “tanaka keita, thank you for coming back.” at which point (in the greeting) keita broke down in tears. he somehow managed to relate this story to us without more than a suspiciously husky voice, haha.

(PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD INCLUDE THIS ON THE DVD)

final messages:

rin started off by talking about what a warm atmosphere haikyuu stage has – not only is the production itself good, the people involved in the production are good. this is particularly notable because of the number of people involved. productions with this many people are usually difficult in all kinds of ways – and in his opinion this production is as welcoming and smoothly run as it is thanks to suga kenta.
rin: i mean, we’re the same age, so as a goal – well he’s not my goalbut—
kenta: excuse u??
rin: WAIT NO
kenta: U COMPLIMENTED ME AND THEN
rin: no that’s not what i meant!!
kenta: WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME HUH (mock flounces off stage)
rin: PLEASE LET ME DO IT ONE MORE TIME

(takeru’s line, “mou ikkai yarasete kure yo” XD)

he then nicely cleaned it up into what he meant to say about how much he respects kenta and how grateful he was to be part of haikyuu stage.

funaki: WELP JOHZENJI LOST so. that’s. my first and last appearance in haikyuu stage. but. tbh. watching this. i really. want to be in it again. i want. to go back. BUT I CAN’T. but all of us in johzenji will do our best in our different venues so maybe we’ll meet again. thanks for loving our play so much.

keita: (deep breath)
lone audience member: okaeri <3
keita: tadaima :)
keita managed to get through his without tearing up… i think. (i love him!!!!) he talked about how of course during a normal show one gets energized and encouraged by the audience’s applause, but the energy from these screenings were different and even more direct. “it was like we were all a team.” ;___;

and kenta talked about how enjoyable it was to share the emotions of a match directly with everyone, and that looking back on all the productions so far, he was reminded of all the friends and companions that got them this far, including of course the audience. :)

and that’s a wrap for the summer week screenings! as i said before, i’ll write up a little report about the haikyuu day event – they did an aftertalk after the livestream ended just for the theater – but it should be relatively short compared to these monsters. thanks for tuning in, everyone! ♥♥♥

previously:
day 1 (shoen)
day 2 (itadaki no keshiki)
day 3 (karasuno, fukkatsu!!)
day 4 (shousha to haisha)

guests: kagechan, fucchi, shouri, takumi

(…the haikyuu day event sure did wipe everything else from my brain, wow. but. i’ll do my best…!)

so when the cast first ran out, shouri wasn’t there – he just hung back without telling anyone because kagechan kept looking back at the wings and cracking up and takumi looked like he wanted to die. this was, of course, so that after kagechan welcomed the audience to haikyuu summer week, shouri could stroll out dramatically and say “HEY, YOUR SENPAI IS HERE. your senpai in this event. and in haikyuu. your senpai.” ok shouri.

kagechan was nominally the MC and he did an impressive job fighting the black hole of attention that is kondou-kun for control. XD but…
shouri: who’s the MC anyway
kagechan: it’s me?? it’s obviously me?
fucchi: i mean, we don’t know yet.
shouri: i was the MC for karasuno fukkatsu so i’ll kindly let one of you first-timers do it – takumi, you want to MC right?
takumi: ………yeah………sure……….
shouri: he does. i can see it in his face.

then they did janken and fucchi won so he briefly took over, just long enough to skip to the end of the script – “how did you all enjoy the screening today??”
kagechan: this is as far as we rehearsed.

during cheer practice we did shouri’s dumb high school cheer again. for him. not kuroo. XD

when we practiced the “volleyball, haikyuu” bit they briefly mentioned how strong the impact of adding “ue wo miageru” was – i think it was shouri maybe? who said that when first reading the script it jumped right out at him and made him like, reflexively want to look at the ceiling. …and that the returning cast kept messing up in rehearsal, for a while there would always be several people who forgot to say “ue wo miageru” and went straight to “kyuugi de aru”, lol.

and shouri ALMOST got us to do his “nyan nyanya nyan nyan nyan” cheer for nekoma, he got all the way through explaining it to everyone else, and telling us that he’d gotten whistled off for it the other day, and asking the ref for permission, and through one round of tobe tobe karasuno / hey hey fukuro / ike ike nekoma nya nya– …and got whistled off. XD

meanwhile, takumi kept sliding off toward the edge of the stage and shouri would be like “GET BACK HERE” and pull him into the middle. and then get distracted harassing someone and takumi would slide away again. much like with naoki, he got pulled into doing a lot more choreo than he would have otherwise simply by virtue of being in proximity to shouri, lol. (i heard the girls behind me at hajimari no kyojin that night laughing about “poor higashi-kun”, haha.) only whereas naoki played the straight man aloud, takumi just silently, like, grinned and bore it.

having said that, during the screening shouri was obviously Peak Shouri, but hilariously enough he TIRED HIMSELF OUT by running around so much so i actually don’t think it was as over the top as karasuno fukkatsu.

specifically, it was the scenes at coach ukai’s that killed him, he and takumi came out as the elementary school kids bouncing around and acting super dumb and then shouri started running around doing every one of the tempos and eventually he had to like, wipe his face and lean over and brace himself he was breathing so hard. shouri u noodle.

takumi also made shouri act out bokuto’s part so he could be konoha. it was cute, the way they were careful to respect that it was kouki on screen but that takumi took over the role later without making it seem awkward or unnatural. like during the bit where bokuto yells “the moment you think you can hit a strong spike, that’s your chance” – “kyouretsu na ippatsu ga uteru to omotta shunkan ga…kouki!” – shouri jumped up and yelled “KOUKI!!!!” along with him and jabbed his finger excitedly at the screen. he brought it up in the aftertalk too. “HAHA IT WAS SO FUNNY TO SEE KOUKI YELLING HIS OWN NAME. :D”

ok back to the beginning tho. unsurprisingly, they had a lot of fun with the hamlet scene – kagechan’s timing for running out, lifting his hand slowly, and reciting “SOSHITE, YOKUASA” was BEAT perfect, it got a massive laugh from the audience.

for the opening, they all did their own parts of course – fucchi running out to yell “KIYOKO-SAN” was a joy to behold – but shouri also did sarukui, hips and all, which was sure Something.

when takechan came out to explain the “school rules”, shouri literally just galloped across the stage and disappeared into the wings opposite, it was like he couldn’t bear to be off stage. XD at first fucchi was as bouncy as shouri, doing all the choreo and super star rolling thunder etc, but eventually he calmed down and sat there watching the screening super seriously, sometimes he was the only one out there.

meanwhile, the ladies made their first appearance! let me tell you, you have never seen such a group of fangirls over saeko/kiyoko-san, i thought everyone in the audience was gonna literally swoon at saeko’s first appearnce. self included, obvs. (ofc everyone loved yacchan but that was more of a “you’re adorable” and less of a “please wreck me” vibe.) it was also extremely satisfying to yell “akaaaAAAAshi” in one’s best bokuto voice along with one thousand other people. and during the exam prep, “norio” also got his own round of character cheers. XD

when yachi yells “murabito b mo tatakaemasu!!” shouri ran out with a cardboard sign that read “MURABITO B”, held it up proudly to cheers, then spent several minutes trying to get it to stay upright on one of the chairs. (“nice fight!” someone in the audience called.) murabito b remained on stage in support for the rest of the screening.

for “kageyama’s not breathing!” kagechan flopped dramatically to the stage…. and then takumi ran out to do cpr! only it was such like, soft, gentle cpr that kagechan sat up and burst into laughter. in the car with saeko-neesan, kagechan pretended to fall asleep, and then acted out waking up, putting in eyedrops, etc. “ohayou,” fucchi told him solemnly.

kagechan and fucchi did a great job with the synchro attack and then with all of karasuno’s ending match/group number choreo. hilariously, all four of them started to do the final choreo that includes a bit of each school’s signature moves and shouri forgot to do nekoma’s. XD “it wasn’t that long ago, idk why it’s so hard to remember!” he said later, and having witnessed him reenact practically the entirety of karasuno fukkatsu i too wondered the same thing.

oh oh! when karasuno are doing the wheelbarrel walks, kagechan “wheeled” fucchi out all the way across the stage – then when they reached the wings, fucchi held himself up with one arm for several seconds while gesturing at kagechan and without taking a break they reversed course and “walked” back across the stage. from which i conclude that kid has amazing arm strength!

AND THEN.

during the last practice match against fukurodani, as kageyama debates whether to try out the new quick with hinata…

…suga kenta ran on stage, said “yannai no?” and ran off.

IT’S NOT LIKE WE DIDN’T ALL KNOW HE WAS THERE but oh my god the screeching, holy shit. again, self very much included. knowing how much kenta loves that line, i should have known that would be too much for him to resist. and yet. dies. it was incredible.

hilariously, the cast, who were pointing and laughing in shock just like everyone else, didn’t acknowledge this surprise until the very end of the aftertalk. “ah yes, someone who… resembled… that orange-haired person on stage… appeared earlier, huh. briefly.”

speaking of the aftertalk!

takumi talked about how this play was his stage debut:
shouri: he cried ALL THE TIME. he cried at our first cast meeting. he cried on opening night… our takumi’s grown so much! :’)
takumi: ……..….thanks.
takumi: i was too nervous to enjoy anything until the play opened tbh.
shouri: dude you’re nervous right now.
takumi: ……..yeah.

apparently during rehearsal takumi was repeatedly told to speak up more during fukurodani’s group scenes – no one could hear him contribute to “hey hey hey” etc. but once the show actually opened and they could hear the audience reactions to fukurodani and everything he got less nervous and it became a lot more fun.

shouri: yeah, you had sarukui and everything, lol… i heard the audience calling “kawaii!!” when he appeared earlier and honestly if that’s what you call cute…
audience: KAWAII
kagechan: seriously, i need a dictionary for this.

then shouri pointed out that although in the source material the characters don’t use first names that much, in the last barbecue scene ken-chan alone would come on super strong and go around addressing all the characters by their first name. “OI, TETSUROU. TETSUROU. HAVE SOME MORE MEAT.” so even though they weren’t miked he was so loud that during these serious conversations you can hear him in the background going “TETSUROU. TETSUROU.”

OH fucchi told us that “super star rolling thunder” was originallly “stardust rolling thunder"… because fucchi’s agency is stardust promotions. XD
fucchi: and in that scene i’m with ino hiroki-kun and nagao shizune-chan
fucchi: and, you know, they sparkle
fucchi: like stardust

apparently he got the go-ahead from worry-san, but not from the higher ups, precisely because of stardust promotions. XD
shouri: then why don’t you do it now? stardust rolling thunder.
fucchi: i, wai–
fucchi:
fucchi:
fucchi: :|
shouri: ^___^
fucchi: i knew it.

from which i conclude fucchi had tried to get out of doing it during their MC planning or something. XD

fucchi: you have to be the sparkles
shouri: but i’m watanabe
fucchi: -_-
shouri: get takumi too
fucchi: takumi, what’s your agency?
takumi: beaco–
fucchi: it’s fine, it’s fine, over there please

final messages: takumi’s was very polite and respectful as he thanked the audience, it was cute. shouri said that watching shinka no natsu made him fondly remember all the work the different schools did to grow as a team and learn to communicate with each other during that summer – it was their irl summer of evolution. fucchi pointed out that he and kagechan will reach their hundredth haikyuu show during the saikyou no team! and kagechan said that he was here sitting in audience – "right around there” – watching for the shoen dress rehearsal so it was really special to be here in aiia as a proper part of engeki haikyuu. :)

hajimari no kyojin next, then some off-camera stories from event night! THE GOAL LINE IS IN SIGHT. thanks so much for the nice comments, i really appreciate them, and i’ve been enjoying reading your capslocky tags. :D

previously:
day 1 (shoen)
day 2 (itadaki no keshiki)
day 3 (karasuno, fukkatsu!!)

guests: ryoutarou, kairi, allen, kaito

will i get this out before i have to leave for shinka no natsu? let’s find out!

this was the most serious and quiet of all the screenings so far. which is no surprise, look at the content. the cast got super caught up in just plain watching the play and compared to previous days they spent the most time out on stage – i think there were maybe five minutes total all four of them weren’t out there. as ryoutarou said afterwards, “they told us we could come and go on and off stage as we liked but, i mean, how could we!”

so ryoutarou started off as MC but that didn’t last long–
ryoutarou: after i failed during itadaki no keshiki i thought i might get dropped but i somehow managed to hold on to the position – but honestly having the same person do the MC a second time would be boring right? so i’m gonna pick one of these three to do it.
kairi: (eyes slide suspiciously in his direction)
ryoutarou: kai– (starts to turn toward kairi)
ryoutarou: (whips around) –to.
kairi: ….whew.
kaito: :DDDDDD

in case you haven’t guessed yamagiwa kaito is SUCH A GOOFBALL omg. his delivery made even the most mundane lines funny. for cheering practice, they acted out a whole play on stage – yamaguchi service, iwa-chan receive, yahaba set, iwa-chan spike, tsukki block.
kaito: i want to receive!
allen: um THEN THERE WON’T BE ANYONE TO SET
allen: i mean, oikawa’s not here

allen: and like for the starting order, all four of us–
kairi: uh. some of us aren’t in the starting order.
kaito: YEAH
allen: but there’s that part, you like come out to the middle right–
kairi: no, that’s a different scene. :|
allen: ……………….(bows) im sorry my mistake.

they also went to a lot of trouble to get us to practice the “volleyball, haikyuu” chorus because in shousha to haisha it’s in call-and-response form at first – this is relevant later, haha, so please remember.

screening time! at the first closeup on kageyama, a group of fans in the back yelled “tatsunari arigatou!!” and i felt things. ._.

for the opening, the cast did fewer roles than yesterday but it was still cute – ryoutarou took over daichi’s trombone with extreme enthusiasm, kairi did suga, then when kageyama comes out to play the marimba sitting on tsukki’s back both kairi and allen had the same idea and ran out to take over tatsunari’s part so poor ryoutarou had two dudes sitting on him back to back. XD as for seijou, kaito and allen did their parts properly, then kaito ran out to take over oikawa’s conducting upon which allen delivered a roundhouse kick and dragged him off center stage.

i would say ryoutarou and kairi spent the majority of the first two acts whispering and giggling to each other, lol. guys. while on the other side of the stage, allen was using kaito as a punching bag, any time iwa-chan started in on oikawa allen would take it out on kaito instead. XD kaito was SO into the matches especially the second set, hee, it was super cute. plus at first he couldn’t get over the atmosphere and kept looking around the audience like :DDD, so of course then the people sitting up front would wave their thundersticks at him and he’d wave his excitedly back. then leaving the stage after the first act he caught sight of someone with the same seijou towel he had and got REALLY excited and held it up and waved it at them, until allen pushed him off stage. (are you sensing a theme.)

allen looked so unimpressed every time karasuno scored a point… and so embarrassed by the ah-un no kokyuu scene, heehee. DON’T BE SHY, ALLEN-KUN. he made up for it by making kaito go to center stage for yahaba’s little monologue on how great oikawa is and instead of trying to reenact yahaba’s movement kaito turned to the screen and stood there with his hands clasped looking starrily up at senpai. relatedly, for the iwaoikage junior high flashbacks, apparently kaito was the voice going “kyaa, oikawa-san!!” XD

and speaking of fangirls, everyone, cast and fans alike, HOWLED with laughter at what i have always noticed was one of the most unfortunate pieces of camera work of all of engeki haikyuu, the clip where tanaka is having his super serious emotional reflection on the importance of keeping it together… and in the background there’s shouri in braids and a skirt sitting there playing with his hair lfjdkalf;df. i thought kaito was going to hurt himself and/or cry.

OH BUT, for someone basking in the spotlight of ridiculousness, kaito was SO EMBARRASSED by his own ad libs, dyingggg. he was just slumped in his chair covering his face and grinning while allen smacked his shoulder and laughed.

but by the end the antics were over and it was super serious. surprising no one, the emotions got all four of them. after suga switches out for kageyama, both ryoutarou and kairi had to wipe away tears and then after yamaguchi’s failed jump floater they were both sitting there making the (unintentionally) funniest faces in an attempt not to tear up lol. and then starting with suga and kageyama’s last “uchi no renchuu wa?” “chanto minna tsuyoi” onward it was all over for all four of them, lol, i saw allen wiping his eyes multiple times (usually at karasuno-related scenes, which was cute), and kaito too – the post-match meal got him good.

THEN, that volleyball chorus they’d gone to so much trouble to get us to practice, they all totally forgot to recite. XD kairi had to tug at ryoutarou’s arm multiple times before he got what was happening and i think allen had to remind kaito as well (or vice versa?), but then like, the audience were all crying too so it was much quiter than usual and cast and audience ended up just all kind of smiling in watery fondness/embarrassment at each other.

the aftertalk started out with all four of them just emotionally wiped out, haha, like “…welp, we ended up just watching along like fans.” “sure did forget those lines we were going to say.” “literally all four of us.”

but then MC Kaito asked about behind the scenes stories and allen elaborated on the time he was hit – excuse me, “received a volleyball with his face”. (possibly he’s told this story before?) it’s when oikawa’s serving during the junior high flashback scenes – “a scene you DEFINITELY can’t laugh during, right??” – and as allen put it, “i was like, strong hit, wow, that’s coming really close today, wow, it’s coming closer and closer–” and then it smacked him full in the face, bounced off his forehead into the audience, and tatsunari just LOST IT fldjafkd.

kaito: any stories from the dressing room?
kairi: yeah, how you and kunimi and kindaichi were always practicing your ad libs, lol
kaito: ah yes, Yahaba Theater
kaito: …..did u like it :D
kaito: wanna see more :D

then he turned to the sound booth and yelled “just give me a few minutes ok? OK HUDDLE UP EVERYONE” and as ryoutarou kairi and allen looked at each other like “wait is this for real” pulled everyone in for a mini-rehearsal. they got whistled once but still stayed huddled up whispering, and this long stretch of dead space more than anything else convinced me this was not practiced. XD

kaito: presenting: the Yahaba Theater Spin-Off Series!

ryoutarou: you know, yahaba-san seems to have pretty bad eyesight
kaito: (stumbles into ryoutarou)
kaito: oh, a tree
allen & kairi: wakaru, wakaru!

kaito: iwaizumi-san, doesn’t tsukishima seem to have really bad eyesight?
ryoutarou: (stumbles into allen)
ryoutarou: …oh, a gorilla
allen & kairi: wakaru, wakaru!

kaito: um, iwaizumi-san’s cell phone case is really lame
ryoutarou: ring, ring, ring
allen: (holds a banana up to his ear) hello?

KAITO LITERALLY BROUGHT OUT A BANANA CONCEALED IN HIS POCKET IN CASE HE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE EVERYONE DO HIS DUMB SKITS, crying.

kaito: after every skit i’d get a Tatsunari-Kun Check, right, during the second intermission i’d ask him how today’s skit was and he’d be like (tatsunari voice) oi, kaito, I CAN’T ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ATTEMPT TODAY.
kaito: and then takato would come along and be like “actually he was laughing the hardest.”

then kaito mentioned the yell shouhei always did to warm up karasuno.
ryoutarou: oh yeah… i think kairi should demonstrate it for us
kairi: ????????
ryoutarou: (mischievous little grin)

kairi wasn’t 100% sure what they were talking about at first though so ryoutarou kept grabbing his arm and whispering in his ear… i was into it.

(you can see shouhei’s actual version in the dvd backstage, i cannot reproduce those sounds in text. XD)

kaito: the haikyuu day event will be livestreamed worldwide so check out the URL in the lobby and be sure to subscribe to the channel… wow, i sound like a youtuber. :O

final messages: first allen said that he was really grateful to have the chance to return to haikyuu and that he thought the matches in saikyou no team were going to have a lot of feelings (no kidding, dude) so they’d do their best not to let everyone down. then ryoutarou talked about how watching shousha to haisha made the feelings for saikyou no team even more intense, like watching kairi’s failed jump floater – and he said kairi, not yamaguchi (kairi: i’ve grown!!!) – and that the upcoming show was going to be a time for them both to shine. (it was cute, he said “for the first years” but obviously kagehina are first years too… i think it just shows that ryoutarou’s always thought of kenta and tatsunari as his senpai. XD) kairi said that not only does shousha to haisha lay the groundwork for saikyou no team, but in each show between then and now he’s been continuing that groundwork, building up to what’s coming in the next show, and that he’s really grateful that in his last appearance as yamaguchi he’ll be able to show the climax of that arc. then he pointed out that saikyou no team opens on his birthday!

kaito mentioned the new character, “kyouken-chan :D”, and then was like “and for my character, yahaba, there’s a very important development… he’ll meet… THE KARASUNO MANAGERS. i’ve never met them on stage or in real life! will this be yahaba shigeru’s chance at love??”
kairi: DON’T BE A CREEP

then he said “seijou’s kohatsu allen” would wrap it up and allen started laughing like “so, funny story–”
kaito: NO WAIT
allen: –kaito messed up the order, it was supposed to be him, kairi, ryoutarou, me–
kaito: DON’T TELL EVERYONE
allen: no, it’s funny, so i’m gonna

MC Kaito intially covered so smoothly i didn’t even notice though, i just thought it was kind of a weird order, until senpai exposed him. XD

WHEW i made it in time! two shows today, plus tomorrow i’m going to takarazuka boys in the morning before the haikyuu day event in the evening so idk how the report situation is going to work out, but! i’ll do my best!

previously:
day 1 (shoen)
day 2 (itadaki no keshiki)

guests: shouri, naoki, shou, acchan

it’s been really interesting to see how each screening has a different flavor depending on the show and the guests. for example, the first two shows were very much influenced by the interaction between the audience and the screened content, while the first act of this event was not so much a screening of “karasuno, fukkatsu!” as it was a live-action show of “kondou shouri, fukkatsu!” like. oh my god. I THOUGHT KENTA WAS BAD ABOUT REENACTING CHOREO at least he stayed seated half the time, shouri was straight up diving and rolling across the stage for every single one of nekoma’s matches plus some of his white coat scenes as well. because if you put him in front of an audience this is just what happens.

BUT I DIGRESS. let us begin at the beginning.

first let me apologize for the fact that the first act will be light on shou and acchan because i was way up front, meaning i could only watch one half of the stage at a time, and it was real hard to watch anything other than The Kondou Shouri Hour. but more about them in the second act and aftertalk!!! …also, i’m not gonna lie, i did not absorb a lot of the first five minutes or so because i was like, entranced by naoki’s face. good lord that man has cheekbones. ANYWAY.

shouri: tbh this is the first time i’ve had a script to MC an event… honestly, who needs it. (tosses the clipboard over his shoulder)

he also mentioned he was at the screening the night before to figure out how this whole cheering thing worked, WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN THE PART WHERE RYOUTAROU AND JUSTIN WERE CLEARLY LAUGHING AT SOMEONE IN THE WINGS fldajfkldjf i thought at the time it was juudai and sonde, or maybe that kenta was there again (…i mean, he was, lol), but i bet it was shouri.

so then it was time for cheering practice. nice kill, nice receive, jump serve…
shouri: oh and then when someone gets a point, cheer for them. you know like, I-I ZO, KU-RO-O, O-TO-KO-MA-E
(roughly “NICE, KUROO, YOU’RE THE MAN”)
naoki: LOL WASN’T THAT YOUR CHEER IN HIGH SCHOOL
shouri: yes :D
shouri: ii zo, shouri, otokomae!!
naoki: oh my god
shouri: …let’s do it now :D
naoki: WE REALLY DON’T HAVE TO
shouri: (already backing up for a run up)
naoki: ok. cheer for kuroo, ok.
shouri: no, for shouri :D
naoki: …………….
shouri: (runs up and does a massive jump spike)
audience: I-I ZO, SHO-U-RI, O-TO-KO-MA-E!!
sound tech: (WHISTLE BLOWS)

to explain the whistle thing – so each night when the cast got too far off track or were going too long, a ref’s whistle would sound. the previous two nights, it happened once or twice. how many times did shouri get whistled off? A LOT.

of course we practiced the datekou cheers as well!
shouri: datekou, please show them how to do it
acchan: but i mean, in the actual show, nekoma-san did this part, right
shouri: right!! we did!! in the white coats
acchan: so we’d like to leave it to you now ok thank you :)
shouri: …wait

(in the end they both did it.)

they then cued up the next screen… which was the entire datekou vs karasuno rap. XD
shou: look. the rap is long and complicated, it’s tiring, i’m sure it would be tough to do the whole thing. but even if you can’t. everyone just please be sure to do sakunami’s line. “funk it block.”
naoki: and yamaguchi’s. shoubu no wakareMEEEE.

then shouri started explaining the special cheers/moves he thought up that he wanted us to do flfjaf;djkfdf. when nekoma sway back back and forth to their theme he wanted us to wave our thundersticks in time. “I THOUGHT THIS UP A MONTH AGO,” he said proudly. “I WAS REALLY EXCITED FOR THIS EVENT!!!”

shouri: and here’s another one i thought up a month ago
shouri: in the manga there’s a cheer that goes ike ike nekoma, right. so this is what i want us to do –
shouri: ike ike nekoma, nyan nyanya nyanyanyan! (waves cat paws)
sound tech: (WHISTLE)

as before we ended by chanting ose ose nekoma / go go datekou except this time after about two seconds shouri and shou were like, yelling out at the top of their lungs running around the stage while naoki maded increasingly desperate whistling motions toward the sound booth.
shouri: let’s do it again!
naoki: ISN’T THIS ENOUGH
shouri: IM THE MC I MAKE THE RULES
naoki: kansai people are terrifying.
shouri: (super thick kansaiben) I’LL DO ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH

(and that, incidentally, is the difference between what shouri and kenta were doing w/r/t choreo – you get the impression that this is probably how kenta watches these shows at home whereas put shouri in front of an audience, even if that audience is two people, and he can’t help but perform. his and takato’s consistently over the top ad libs suddenly make so much sense…)

all this, and the actual screening hadn’t even started. deep breaths.

tonight the audience started calling out “furudate haruichi!” “worry-san!” “nakayashiki-kun!” when their names appeared on screen just like they were some of the players, it was cute. XD also even though kiyoko wasn’t yet physically present, every time she “appeared” off stage the audience swooned “KIYOKO-SAAAAN”.

so for the opening, of course they came out and did their own parts (props to acchan and shou for how well synced they were with the screen, their timing was super impressive) but then they all took turns doing not just a little bit of the rest but EVERYONE else’s. iirc shouri was oikawa, naoki was iwa-chan, shouri was daichi, naoki was suga, shou was asahi, acchan was tanaka and ennoshita (the timing broke down a little bit here XD), naoki was takechan, shouri was ukai, naoki was kageyama, and shouri was hinata.

it was funny because like, when they first start doing other characters naoki was like, laughing at himself, still a little self-conscious but by the time he ran out to do kageyama’s jump he was super into it and getting huge amounts of air lol. that was sort of the pattern of the night, naoki was clearly enjoying himself and excited in a normal person way but then kept getting dragged into increasingly weird shit by shouri and by the end would be like FINE LET’S GO LET’S DO IT.

as previously mentioned this resulted in them reenacting the vast majority of nekoma’s choreo in full, in the center of the stage. flips and rolls and dives and all. shouri also kept forgetting this was not, like, a concert or something and would literally be bouncing up and down waving his thundersticks when he wasn’t actively dancing. but then he got all embarrassed during kuroo’s “that sparkling stage…!” speech and walked off stage… but BARELY, he was hovering so close in the wings that i could still see him ahaha. the closest he could physically force himself to actually leaving the spotlight. XD in contrast, naoki was so embarrassed during his first couple lines/closeup that he tied his nekoma towel around his face, walked off stage, and didn’t come back for a full minute. hee.

shouri also made naoki leave the stage with him so that they could walk back on for nekoma’s pre-match entrance, this time with shouri wearing his jacket specifically so he could reenact the dramatic toss and catch, which he then intentionally dropped a la the DVD blooper roll, as naoki took hinata’s role of pointing at it in shock.

naoki was also apparently the “voice” of kiyoko behind the “tobe!” flag, shouri was very excited to make sure we knew that. OH for the first scene between kuroo and kenma, SHOU came out as kenma with shouri trailing after him measuring the height difference between the two of them and making exaggerated confused faces. and after nekoma waved goodbye and left the stage after the practice match was over, naoki also waved goodbye and walked off but shouri was so caught up in watching that he didn’t notice naoki was gone for at least a minute and then did a huge doubletake at the empty chair. XD

last but not least, for the kurotsukki fans out there, i know you’re reading this, during the practice montage at the end of act 1 shouri acted out tsukki’s bit standing there tossing a volleyball with one hand like :|, and his attempt at a bored tsukki expression was hilarious, shouri’s face just doesn’t do that naturally. XD

so while the first act was like a show on stage we were watching, the second act was, of all the screenings so far, the most like an actual proper call-and-response cheering event. first was the tokonami match, of course, and honestly the biggest compliment to how well and effectively this match was staged is that there was zero snark – instead, i heard several people sniffling – and the applause after ikejiri walked off stage went on for a long, long time.

but then the datekou match had so much for the audience to do! there was a LOT of cheering and chanting to take part in, and of course acchan and shou acted out big scenes like aone and futakuchi’s “lock ON”, the big blocks, “TEPPEKI DA” etc. by the end acchan was just on his feet making frustrated faces when he got blocked out ahaha. but this is the part that felt closest to actually being part of the student cheering squad at a volleyball game… if part of the cheers were a rap.

(at some point shouri and naoki came back on stage as well, and to be fair to them, for a split second when they came out again i was like OH NO LET THE DATEKOU KIDS HAVE THEIR CHANCE TO SHINE but while shouri did get very into reenacting their choreo he stayed off to the side and didn’t distract from the main characters. thanks kondou-kun. XD

daichi: like [iwaizumi] said, datekou are really strong
acchan: ^__^ (nod)
suga: three months ago their iron wall totally destroyed us
acchan: ^____^ (nodnod)
suga: to be honest, we still haven’t wiped out the fear from that time
acchan: ^________^ (nodnodnod)

my favorite part about datekou, though, was at the end, when we got our first real emotional casualties of summer week. so first, aone’s handshake with hinata also got a really, really long ovation, and shou started to look super emotional. then the datekou third years’ retirement scene happened. because i know kimura atsushi, i was locked on (heh) to him from the moment it began, and was therefore able to watch in real time as his mouth slowly turned down and his face crumpled and his eyes glinted with tears. then when moniwa started talking about how next year’s iron wall would be even stronger, he suddenly stood up and just nodded emphatically at every line but couldn’t even smile. acchan i love u.

another sweet thing was that during that scene, the final “we played… we played volleyball!” scene with the losers, shou just took a long, slow look around the audience with this really gentle expression and later in the aftertalk he said he could see people crying and that he was really touched and grateful.

so, speaking of the aftertalk!

shouri and naoki also talked about aiia closing and how it felt kind of destined that it was where they had both their haikyuu debut and now their last haikyuu event.
naoki: appearing as members of the cheering squad.
shouri: as the ensemble cast.
naoki: shouri, you were definitely the loudest person here.
shouri: because i’m the MC!

they dragged-slash-complimented shou for his scary aone face. “yeah, i’m kind of scared by myself when i see the recording tbh because it’s not like i could SEE myself when i was made up on stage.”
acchan: but off stage he’s really nice!!
naoki: yeah, you always gave off this kind of sweet idiotic air in the dressing room.
shou: …actually… something like that happened today…

and then he explained how during the scene when aone is blocked out by hinata and lands with a thump back on stage, he reenacted it today… and when he landed in a crouch, his pants tore. XDD CUE EVERYONE DUCKING BEHIND HIM AND LIFTING UP THE SHIRT TIED AROUND HIS WAIST TO CHECK OUT THE TEAR AND FALL AROUND LAUGHING like literally naoki was lying on the stage paralyzed with laughter. shouri kindly demonstrated to us exactly where and how large the tear was, thanks shouri. “lucky i wore a shirt around my waist today!” shou said.

acchan also explained how he and shou did different variations on the “lock ON” on asahi, so of course shouri made them demonstrate – and they did one in which futakuchi tries to push aone’s arm down, it pops back up, and futakuchi then walks his fingers cutesily up aone’s arm as he says “yamenasai!”

then naoki told us about how during the scene when hinata spikes with his eyes open, one day takeru came up to him and said super seriously, “what’s the deal with hinata closing his eyes? don’t you normally spike with your eyes open?” naoki explained there was a line about how he hits with his eyes closed earlier, to which takeru replied, “i didn’t hear anything about that, idk what you’re talking about” and that was when naoki realized he was speaking as yaku. “i get staying in character but he WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO ASK ME ABOUT IT.”

speaking of, shouri also said that the show was just around the time the volume with the nekoma third years’ backstory came out so that if you watch the full stage recording you’ll see kuroo and yaku squabbling and kai trying to break them up in the background and such.

then, another takeru story, for one particular scene when the nekoma cast was holding up the iron wall it was always incredibly hot, because they’d already worked themselves into a sweat during their actual match as nekoma, then they’d have to put on these long white coats, so it was unbearable… and then on top of that, takeru would come over and like. squish up next to him. and it would be even MORE hot. so naoki would be like, “pssst get away from me” and takeru would just sit crouch there dead still staring straight ahead. “i got SO MAD AT HIM.”

so that’s why today takeru was tweeting “…what did shouri and naoki say about me.” XD

finally, their final messages! that’s when shou said the bit i mentioned earlier about how moving it was to see the fans’ reaction, and added “I’M DEFINITELY COMING BACK i mean i don’t know if that’s actually possible BUT I DEFINITELY WELL.” acchan fell all over his own words and then was like I CAN’T PUT HOW GRATEFUL I AM INTO WORDS i love haikyuu bye. naoki said how how grateful he is that his first and last experiences at aiia were both, specifically, “karasuno, fukkatsu.” and shouri just talked about how WOW HAIKYUU’S AMAZING WORRY KINOSHITA IS AMAZING. (naoki: just pretend he’s an alien or something, ok guys?) and then, also, that he owes his career to the show basically and is super grateful and proud to have been involved.

OH, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST – the sound tech got the last laugh on shouri. they thanked us for coming and bowed… and then the credits music didn’t start like it did for everyone else, they had to start singing it themselves – “da da DAH da da da DAH da da da DAH da da da dah” while shouri yelled at the sound booth “HEY, DON’T PUNISH ME” until the tech took pity on them and cued up the music. then shouri purposely “tripped” and fell going off stage, naoki held back shou and acchan from going back to help him, and they got whistled off one last time. XD

…the end. jesus that was a lot, how the hell are we going to get through shinka no natsu as led by shouri, we’re all gonna die.

tonight: shousha to haisha………………. pray 4 me. see you tomorrow!!

previously:day 1 (shoen) report

guests: ryoutarou, justin, juudai, sonde

ryoutarou was the MC and he tried so hard bless his heart heehee but juudai and sonde, real life matsuhana, were ALLLL over him. they were giggling as he earnestly read from his script so he broke off–
ryoutarou: what?? I PRACTICED THIS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
sonde/juudai: he’s trying really hard, please cheer for him.
juudai: yesterday ryoutarou’s master (shishou) got everyone REALLY excited, we heard.
justin: that’s right. kenta-kun.
ryouotarou: today i will overcome him!!
juudai: that bar’s pretty high lol.
sonde: don’t worry. with me, you’re invincible. (ore ga ireba omae wa saikyou da.)

so then although of course ryoutarou did a great job overall, they jumped all over the little misses, like extra long pauses or flubbed lines. (ryoutarou: yesterday’s screening was shoen… how was it? justin: um, i wasn’t there???) to the point that sonde ran over, ducked down, hugged ryoutarou around the waist and yelled LET ME DO THE MC. they did the same cheering explanation/practice, only when they got to cheering for characters by name ryoutarou flubbed again–
ryoutarou: you cheer like if makki—makihara—
audience: AHAHAHA
sonde: (slinks toward him singing) ♫ tatoeba kimi ga iru dake de kokoro ga… ♫

(for the record “kimi ga iru dake de” is not in fact a makihara noriyuki song but it was immediately clear what sonde was going for, i think he got it mixed up with “donna toki mo”. XD)

then when they did a practice play on stage for us to try out our cheers on, sonde spiked on juudai’s head instead of the ball at first. (this is after he’d come running out at the beginning Extremely High Tension and spiked first on juudai then on ryoutarou, i assume he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach justin. XD)

ryoutarou: ok but let’s practice everyone’s names for real come on
sonde: makki
audience: MAKKI
juudai: mattsun
audience: MATTSUN
ryoutarou: tsukki
audienec: TSUKKI
justin: (pause)
sonde/juudai/ryoutarou: JUS
(fall about cackling pleased with themselves)
audience: jus! jus!
justin: my character has a name.
sonde/juudai/ryoutarou: asahi, yeah, asahi
justin: well, the cheering is up to you, so whatever you feel like–
audience: JUS!
justin: please stop.

last but not least, tobe tobe karasuno/ose ose seijou, but while yesterday the cheers led into the beginning of the screaming, today juudai specially asked to end with ennoshita’s don don-don-don clapping rhythem, and it turned out this was because he and sonde had practiced a pose ending with their hands on each other’s shoulders making dramatic faces at the audience. (aka the フォーリンラブ/fall in love pose if you are familiar with comedy. XD) like i said, real life matsuhana.

FINALLY, THE ACTUAL SCREENING sorry. XD during the opening, everyone got up and acted out their choreo – ryoutarou couldn’t wait for his own entrance, though, and got up and did oikawa’s part first, right down to the cutesy double v-sign. then for his own scene he held his thundersticks up to his ears as oversized headphones, ahahaha, and then started doing both tsukki and yamaguchi’s parts.

the cheering/whispering division was even worse than last night, juudai and sonde spent a solid half of their time their whispering to each other and cackling at their seijou teammates, they’re terrible. (i love them.) thanks to the screening last night, this time EVERYONE was yelling “don’t mind!!!” at kageyama failing to get into shiratorizawa and “nice catch!!!” at hinata picking up the ball. (and “nice receive!!” when kindaichi casually tossed the ball to kunimi. XD) juudai and sonde could not get over the calls for kindaichi, they were like, falling out of their chairs laughing. meanwhile, ryoutarou and justin got very into the MST3K aspect and were calling out their own oneliners on the regular. also since asahi doesn’t appear much in the first half, every time justin appeared in the background holding up the net etc he would jump up and run up to the screen and point himself out. then he got really into his own match and got up to yell (ofc) “SUGAAAA” and “uchikitte koso—”
audience: ACE!

it was fun to see who got different reactions at saien vs shoen – a BIG suga-san/ino hiroki crowd tonight, while other characters got squeals or name calls, at the loving closeups on suga the audience literally dissolved into dreamy sighs/whimpers of “KAWAII”. which, i mean, they’re not wrong. big seijou crowd as well, juudai and sonde looked so unimpressed with the screams for oikawa ahahaha.

the aftertalk: as i remember it, mainly embarrassing seijou stories from juudai. he explained that when seijou was the Seijou Chorus in white coats, naturally they’d take a breath before reciting their lines, then exposed the fact that arisawa shoutarou was so earnest and serious about being in unison that he would specially practice taking the breath and settling his shoulders, and as a result you can pick him out super easy in the background because when he takes a breath the movement goes from the top of his head all the way down his spine.

furthermore worry-san held auditions for the rap bit and the one most enthusiastic was kaito, all I’LL DO IT, I’LL DO IT. and then when he did…
juudai: the rap was me, sonde-san, kenshin.
sonde: i remember it super well.
juudai: we were lined up like this
sonde: and yamagiwa kaito-kun was?
juudai: not there.

when hinata gets hit in the face during the neighborhood association match, kindaichi runs out with the ball – sakamoto kouta also volunteered for this role. (“in shoen it was masa-san – wada masanari –” “BUT NOT KAITO.”) but he always had to hurry to get his coat zipped up and hood down in time. during one show, he was too rushed and just had to run out with his coat thrown on but not zipped or hooded – so instead of a faceless ensemble person it just looked like kindaichi was really cold and threw on a coat before running out to smack hinata in the face.

then ryoutarou said, “this is just between us here, but when were out on tour everyone got pretty close, right, and juudai and i were always sharing a room–
juudai: um what do you mean JUST BETWEEN US, that’s not a secret?? you’re making it sound like it’s a different kind of relationship–
justin/sonde: (nod nod nod) ahh, i see, i see how it is.

oh, and of course ryoutarou and justin dragged ken-chan for his very unique interpretation of the choreo. XDD

ryoutarou: so, after today, are there any of the other screenings you want to join?
juudai/sonde: …shousha to haisha.
sonde: obviously.
juudai: it’s the only other one we’re in.

then ryoutarou and justin started talking about – was it hajimari no kyojin? and it just KEPT GOING so eventually juudai and sonde turned toward each other and started a faux-conversation like, "what are you doing tomorrow?” “nothing much just mumble mumble” “oh yeah cool sounds fun” until karasuno noticed. “oh, no, go ahead, we’re talking, it’s fine.”

oh yeah and ryoutarou mentioned that HE would be back for shousha to haisha.
ryoutarou: i’m supposed to be the MC but… that might change after tonight.
ryoutarou: what if we make kairi the MC
audience: (screams)
ryoutarou: I WON’T GIVE UP TIL I OVERCOME MY MASTER
sonde: …then why did you ask.

finally, they also each said a few words about “saikyou no team” – not as heavy as the shoen quartet, iirc, but nice! juudai talked about joining in from saien, sonde talked about how watching saien made him look forward to rejoining the production for their last show, justin talked about all the changes in and how they planned to do their best on behalf of the cast members who’d left as well, and i can’t even remember what ryoutarou said because i, along with the rest of the audience and guests, was hanging on the edge of my seat to see if he’d get through it without tearing up. XDD IT WAS CLOSE BUT HE MANAGED, justin and juudai both had these evil grins like they knew exactly what was going on ahahaha.

tonight, fukkatsu with shouri, naoki, arai sho, and kimura atsushi! i’ll check in again tomorrow!

guests: kenta, keita, kouhei, kazuma

ok like – so much happened. i’m sure i’ve already forgotten a ton of stuff.

so i thought we’d just watch the screening and then the cast guests would come out for a talk portion afterwards, but no, they were on stage watching and cheering with us for the majority of the screening. first they came out at the very beginning – to be specific, keita dashed out way before everyone else was ready and just stood there laughing his daichi laugh all by himself while the audience melted down. once they were all gathered, they oohed and ahhed over the nifty thundersticks everyone received and talked us through the guidelines for how and when to cheer (ONLY THEN THEY IMMEDIATELY BROKE THEIR OWN RULES but we’ll get back to that), tried and failed to do a little rhythmic thunderstick performance because tanaka “haha the truth is during shoen i couldn’t count rhythm at all” keita started it off three times faster than they’d practiced, and practiced some cheering ideas with us. from volleyball, haikyuu. kooto chuuou no netto wo hasande ni chiimu de– etc. (kenta: ……..wow, you're…. perfect…), to the standard tobe tobe karasuno/ose ose seijou, to the jump serve drumroll of “ohhhh… oi!”, to:

kenta: and cheer for good plays too! like, “nice serve”, “nice receive”–
kouhei: “nice toss!”
kazuma: “nice bench.”

so according to the guidelines, the cheering was supposed to be limited to the opening and the matches, and not distract from the quieter scenes. it took all of fifteen seconds for THAT to go right out the window, starting with the cast themselves. exactly as one might have predicted, suga kenta was incapable of staying still and/or seated for about five seconds at a time and ended up reenacting i would say about 75% of the choreo from his seat. XD (keita and kenta were on one side of the stage, and kazuma and kouhei on the other – i would say the former two did more choreography flail, and the latter two more whispering and pointing and laughing, but each pair did PLENTY of both. hi i love them.) so with that kind of encouragement the audience got really funny and clever and the cast themselves were cracking up at some of the snark, it was so delightful.

kageyama: there’s a powerhouse school here… but i didn’t get in.
audience: don’t mind!!!
hinata: (picks up the ball rolling to his feet)
audience: nice catch!!
suga kenta: (BURSTS INTO LAUGHTER)

each actor of course encouraged the audience to cheer the most for his character. well, i say each, but mostly it was kenta and kouhei, keita encouraged everyone to cheer for everything, like a good captain, and kazuma was like – because ennoshita had relatively little to do compared to hinata, daichi, and tanaka, the audience cheered for basically every tiny thing he did on screen and kazuma was clearly dying inside. XD during the scene where he’s trailing suga around in the middle of the 3-on-3, ennoshita got a cheer basically every time he imitated another one of suga’s movements until kazuma slid out of the chair and was just kneeling on the stage in embarrassment ahahaha, culminating in his one line – “suga-san, faito!!” – which brought the house down.

biggest audience squeals for tsukki, seijou in general (makki was surprisingly popular, i was so delighted for sonde-san!) and of course kageyamanari. everyone lost their shit at kageyama’s first king of the court appearance INCLUDING KENTA istg he’s tatsunari’s biggest fan. he kept cheering for him too, it was so cute.

kageyama: motto hayaku…!
kenta: don’t mind!!!
kageyama: i tossed and no one was there…! (stage crumbles around him)
kenta: (JUMPS TO HIS FEET AND STANDS THERE QUIVERING while on the other side of the court kouhei and kazuma point and laugh)
tatsunari: (takes his final bow)
kenta: (dashes up to the screen and reenacts his special tatsunari jazz hands

as a matter of fact, all four of them reenacted their curtain call choreo, which was especially cute for keita/kouhei/kazuma.

other cute/hilarious screening moments:

• when seijou appear at the end of act one, and again for their scene at the end of act two, our loyal karasuno cast literally just stood up and walked off the stage.

• during oikawa’s intro kenta played along to the dramatic string beats on an imaginary violin made from his thunderstick. he looked like a fiddling gnome.

• speaking of the music, my fave KazumaWatch™ moment was how he kept playing around with the beats as everyone clapped their thundersticks – obviously the audience couldn’t really get more complicated than a simple four count or whatever, but kazuma would go for patterns and syncopation on top of that, sasuga DJ Kazuma.

i know there’s so much i’m forgetting, if there’s a scene you’re thinking “wow i bet their reactions to that must have been hilarious” please ask and maybe that will jog my memory fjdafkldsjfk.

the aftertalk: i definitely am getting this out of order but. kenta said was that after watching it, he wants to restage it again! everyone else agreed – it’s such good material, as a show, that they watch it now and think, we could do so much more with that now, we could make that scene so much deeper, etc. especially… because some parts are seriously embarrassing now. XD

kenta: like what did you notice that was bad?
kouhei: RYOUTAROU’S SHITTY BLOCKS

they dragged poor ryoutarou extensively (and lovingly). then kouhei called out kazuma having to wobble on his tiptoes during the final wing choreo because he was surrounded by tall people. “heehee it was cute.” kazuma: (giggles in embarrassment while everyone else screeches “CUTE”)

kouhei: and kenta… well, nothing really to say there
kazuma: he was good
keita: he’s good at volleyball
kenta: haha, no, no… ^___^

and

kenta: yeah we went backstage and everyone else was like “haha this is so fun, this is great” and kazuma’s first words were EVERYONE’S FACES LOOKED SO WEIRDLY DIFFERENT
kazuma: THEY DO THO

kenta also talked about how aiia will be closing down this fall, so he’s really grateful they have a chance to do a big event here where it all began. :’) and then–

kenta: it would be really nice to do a proper show here again before it closes down
keita/kazuma/kouhei: ohhh LET’S DO IT done
kouhei: organized by the suga kenta production committee.
kenta: uhhhh
kouhei: you should do your own show.
kenta: my—
kouhei: sugamyu.
kenta: LOL, A MUSICAL, RIGHT
kouhei: hyper projection engeki sugamyu.
all: (fall over laughing)

at the end they each said a few words about “hajimari no kyojin” and it was surprisingly, like, deep and emotional! keita went first, kenta told him not to cry, which i thought was a joke AND THEN HIS VOICE STARTED WOBBLING as he talked about leaving and coming back while kenta and kazuma like doubled over with laughter in the background. kazuma talked some more about the growth of ennoshita’s role, especially looking back at this first show when his character was kinda all over the place, and that now that he’s gotten the chance to properly show ennoshita’s story he’s going to do his best to support everyone, because he’s really grateful to do this show with these people.

i really liked what kouhei had to say, which was that it takes longer to make really good friends as you get older – kids become best friends instantly, but the older you get the longer it takes. but gekidan haikyuu have been together for three years now, so they’ve had a really special opportunity to become true, close friends – kouhei himself went through his three years of junior high without making any friends like the ones he’s made here. (cut to me, in the audience, a roiling mass of emotions.) then he said that honestly the atmosphere here felt like watching it at home with his family or something, like, laughing at your own dumb facial expressions and everything.

and kenta talked about how interesting and fun it was – for himself and hopefully for us, the audience – to rewatch shoen in light of “hajimari no kyojin”. he noticed the audience’s appreciative reaction at some of the lines and scenes that were referenced in later shows and he loved that we get excited at the same things he does as an actor.

ffff there was definitely more in kenta’s greetings and it’s just not coming to me. IM SORRY i’ll try better tonight. one down, five to go, plus haikyuu no hi… GANBARIMASU.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST as referenced here and also on cast twitter, the audience all received super cute thundersticks to cheer with – by the end of this week i will have like six sets of these things and as much fun as it would be to start my own gekidan haikyuu cheering squad, i’m planning to give away the extras so stay tuned! :D