#literally no one
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
