#this flowery love letter and then
er, well, if no one else is going to translate this? (let’s be real, we all know why i am.) full entry under the cut.
Shiota Kouhei Official Blog THE SUPREME SPOT
Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu!! ~Hajimari no Kyojin~ Afterword
Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu ~Hajimari no Kyojin~
A sincere thank you for your support and attendance for all 43 performances.
I’d like to write an afterword.
My afterword posts always get long so thanks for understanding haha.
This was the first show where the next show had already been announced, and with our graduation decided, the end was in sight throughout.
So even now that all forty-three performances are over, that “it’s over!!” feeling isn’t really coming.
Like, even though my body is tired my heart is looking ahead, mentally I’m really facing forward.
Although up til now I’ve always spent the next few days after I’ve finished a project totally zoning out, like I have burnout or something lol.
I think it’s because we were able to come up with the best possible way to conclude things and face the next match. (^^)
Thank you for your encouragement every day.
I’m grateful.
And the MVP of this show was unmistakably Kawahara Kazuma.
I think it’s no exaggeration to say this show was forKazuma.
At the least, Kazuma put his heart and soul into Haikyuu, and there was a time when he really struggled over having to shoulder a different role than his character so much.
But he didn’t let it bring him down, and at the sight of him on stage carrying the narrative, as the linchpin of this story, my heart shook.
The pressure must have been enormous.
I mean Kazuma gets twice as nervous as anyone else, lol.
Having your inner weak points dragged to light, trapped in a corner, forced to realize your own weakness all over again, pouring all your feelings out… what a tough role.
I’m exhausted just imagining it.
Every show, there on the same stage, my heart shook.
He made it shake.
I always listened backstage to the final scene in the toilets, where he vents everything.
I cried just the same.
I thought, what an incredible actor.
During this Haikyuu, I realized the joy of acting all over again.
And the one who made me realize it was Kazuma.
No matter what words I threw at him, he’d accept them all and have an answer for me.
Often even though my lines were the same the meaning was different,
but he took in my daily experimentation and responded to everything I did.
Such happiness as an actor is rare.
Truly, thank you.
Anyway, this time no matter what, no matter when, I tried to play my part in a way that would highlight Kazuma’s Ennoshita.
The Shiota Kouhei and Kawahara Kazuma who’d been together for three years were absolutely part of that.
We didn’t just face each other as actors, we faced other as individuals.
It was an incredibly rich experience.
I want to try more types of performances and face my acting with an enriched spirit so that I can experience this again.
It felt great being with Yuuto’s Nishinoya, too.
The three of us talked a lot, reexamining the second years’ relationship, and I’m sure everyone’s had their own opinions, but the result is that the three of us now are connected by a really strong bond.
I’m truly looking forward to the next match.
I really think we get each other even through little things like casual touches or cheers from the bench, I’m excited already.
Then there’s the members of Johzenji and Wakutani.
I think Engeki Haikyuu rose another level thanks to their powerful performance and their passion.
A performance that no one ever gets tired of is valuable in and of itself, and then adding drama and passion on top of that performance sparked a chemical reaction, and Karasuno would also work hard, like, “We can’t lose.”
It was a wonderful relationship!
I’m happy we could perform together.
Thank you.
Kenta goes without saying – he’d step back when Ennoshita stood out, and he really made a deep impression on me this time as a troupe leader who moves the story forward.
He’s an amazing leader.
It feels like each time Kenta is the one who conveys to the new members what Engeki Haikyuu truly is, and pulls them up with us.
Thank you, as always.
And then during this run of Engeki Haikyuu, the original cast members reached our 200th performance.
This was precisely because we had the support of the fans, and the power of all the staff.
They’re the unsung heroes. (lit., “ennoshita no chikara mochi”)
I’m very grateful.
I’m going to store the confidence I’ve gotten from the last 200 performances deep in my heart, and throw myself into the next match, the new production, with a new attitude, so please support us all the way.
This year, I’m going to fight to the last with all my might.
Please sear the image of Tanaka Ryunosuke as played by Shiota Kouhei into your memory.
This has gotten long, so I’ll wrap it up here.
Thank you for reading this far.
Now, on to the next.
(tr. note: “my heart shook” = literally, 心が震える。no, it is not the most natural english phrase in the world, but imo “i was rly moved” does not fully convey the overwrought emotion shiota-san wishes to express here so. XD)
