Hi! You can call me Bee (they/them), I started this blog to do reviews and recommendations 🐝
Things you’ll find on this blog:
anime and manga (especially shoujo and josei series)
video games
2.5D stage plays
anything that interests me, really!
Notes:
Some content on this blog may be 18+, and I will indicate clearly when that is the case. I will also do my best to give basic trigger warnings, but cannot guarantee that I’ll be able to cover every single one
I occasionally post content with affiliate links, such as to the website CDJapan. I guarantee that I’ll only promote products or services that I actually believe in, and use myself! This blog is for talking about fandom content that I like, not just making money!
I am a very honest person. I do not mince words when I dislike something, nor will I ever hesitate to praise something that I liked
Subject matter like incest and ships with very large age gaps tend to make me uncomfortable; while I don’t care if you like them, I ask you to respect my boundaries on these topics
I like all genres of romance, including straight ships, BL (yaoi) and GL (yuri)
Hope you enjoy my blog, and always feel free to give me recommendations if you think I would like them! 🌸
The AkuNeko stage play’s sequel, Butlers’ kageki “Akuma Shitsuji to Kuroi Neko” ~tenshi ga ki tari shi inishie no tō-hen~ (something like Butlers' Opera "The Demon Butler and the Black Cat” ~The Ancient Tower Where Angels Came~?) has been announced! The main cast has not changed, however Yuhan Shinonome and Teddy Brown have been announced to be appearing, played by Yuri Takahashi and Yukito Fujita respectively!
I wasn’t expecting Teddy to appear in the sequel, what a pleasant surprise!
Hello blog owner Bee, just read your akustage review and decided to leave an ask saying that i am a person interested in seeing your thoughts on the devil's harvest. (esp on the singing since kajita fennesz is in it. his dance solo though takes up lots of space in my mind, found it real enjoyable (but that could also be because i simply really like fennesz lol)
Ahh I’m glad to hear that someone is interested! I’ll definitely start working on the review, then.
Yesss, I was a HUGE fan of Fennesz’s dance solo as well!! Easily one of the highlights of the performance, it was sooo stunning. I also have many, many thoughts on his vocals, don’t worry LMAO why did they make that poor man cover Haures’s parts
REVIEW — Butlers’ Opera “Devil Butler with Black Cat” ~The Rose-scented Ball Arc~ (stage play)
This review is SPOILER-FREE
AkuNeko’s stage play adaptation nails the game’s gothic vibe perfectly with beautiful costuming and dramatic vocal direction, though the term ‘opera’ in the title is a bit misleading.
(Credit to @midnightparsley for the English subtitles! Thank you so much!)
Butlers’ Opera “Devil Butler with Black Cat” ~The Rose-scented Ball Arc~ was first performed on June 7th, 2024, and was released on December 20, 2024 on Blu-ray
With such a big cast of thirteen main actors, all of whom I thought did quite a good job, it’s hard to talk about every single one, so I’ll just mention my personal favourites. Ryujiro Izaki is a perfect Lato Bacca. He’s so unhinged and dangerous-seeming and chaotic in some scenes, while also nailing the gentle, almost delicate vibe that I always pictured Lato having in the game in others, he was such a delight every time he came on stage. His interactions with the other basement butlers were super heartwarming as well. Hiroki Kajita was also a very likeable Fennesz Oswald, as well as a fabulous dancer. He was wildly endearing in nearly every scene, including when interacting with Yunosuke Matsushima’s Haures, and I think he conveyed Fennesz’s bizarre negative self-talk very well. He’s an absolutely horrible singer, of course, but I have to forgive him because of the sheer charm he has. I’m really starting to become a fan of Kajita’s recently. Hiroki Ishibashi doesn’t… do much as Lamli Bennett, and I think at least 75% of his dialogue was just Lucas’s name, but it’s hard to care when he delivers the non-Lucas-based lines so well, and he’s such terrifyingly accurate visual casting for Lamli and Lamli is my favourite boy so I’m biased. Yuto Ando (whose performance I also enjoyed as Suo in Wind Breaker) as Lono Fontaine, the aforementioned Yunosuke Matsushima as Haures Clifford, and Yuu Miyazaki as Ammon Lead also stood out to me.
It’s worth mentioning that the vocal direction was… interesting, to say the least. If you’ve ever seen any other play or musical that Matsushima has been in, such as Musical Touken Ranbu or Gravekeepers or even any of the ACTORS LEAGUE games, you’ll know that that man is loud. He has the most powerful belt I think I’ve ever heard, and his voice is very, very distinctive. There’s actually a part in a song, One World!, (which I’ll talk about later), where I actually thought initially that the entire cast was singing, but it was actually just him and two others, because he’s so loud. As jarring as his technique can be in some plays, this works amazingly for a faux-opera performance like this, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the other actors were likely told to attempt to match his tone. Does this work for many of them? No, it really doesn’t, especially not poor Kajita. But by god, do they all try.
(Oh, yeah, this play is not an opera. It’s not even close. Not only does it not meet the simple criteria for an opera (aka, the story has to be told entirely through song, no dialogue), most of the songs just… aren’t particularly operatic. That’s fine, of course, it just feels a little silly to call it an opera when it’s not.)
The songs are good for the most part, though. I’ll list my favourites in bullet point form, in the order that they appear in the play:
Welcome to the Butlers’ World (A big, theatrical ‘main theme’ of sorts, which briefly introduces each character, and everyone has a small solo line very small, in Fennesz’s case. Super fun and spooky, and serves as a great introduction of sorts, even if it’s not actually the first song. I love the choreography, especially the arm movements where you can just tell that they were conceptualized with Lamli’s poofy sleeves in mind. Lucas’s line in particular really impacted me for some reason, Teruma’s delivery was very memorable.)
Second Story, the second floor’s group song (This number is completely corny in a very charming way. It’s so chaotic and silly, especially with Miyazaki’s body language frankly reminding me of a wriggling worm, and Fennesz roasting Haures with such a lovely smile on his face had me giggling so hard. The group’s vocal blend is very pleasant as well.)
Like a Fairy Godmother, Flure’s solo (This song is so cute!! I loved the inclusion of ballet in the choreography, and the backup dancers being dressed up like sentient clothing is so creative.)
One World! (This is the song that I previously mentioned, where Matsushima is so loud that he makes it sound like the entire cast is singing. In reality, this song starts off with just Haures, Fennesz and Nac, who actually sound quite nice together, before the entire cast joins in later. Shin Nikaido has such a lovely singing voice. The step-touch makes me laugh a bit since it reminds me of my grade school choir days, but it’s a fun song regardless. The way Haures, Fennesz, Nac, Lono and Lamli posed at the end also kind of made them look like an anime idol group because of their perfect rainbow hair which I thought was funny.)
Frantic Overture, Lato’s solo (LATO IS SO SCARY I love him so much. His frantic (lol) giggling in between lines gives me actual chills every time I hear it. I also have no idea how they did the fire thing and I want it to stay a mystery.)
Overall, while I of course had my criticisms, I thought this was a great adaptation of AkuNeko’s game, and I would love to see it get more installments someday. Hanamaru, in particular, I think could be a really fun character to see in live-action. What do you guys think??
(Would anyone be interested in a review of the Devil’s Harvest dinner show? I actually enjoyed it even more than the main play, lol.)
We're releasing a full English translation of the AkuNeko stageplay! The first link is a safe link that will lead you to a folder containing the translated script both as a PDF for reading and a subtitle file.
But for a limited time, until December 4th 2025 23:59 JST, there are two extra surprises in the folder! The surprises will only be available during this short period and will not be publicly available afterwards. We understand that it is a very short window, but please understand that we wish to honour 2.5D fan etiquette while making the stage play as accessible as possible.
Thank you for joining us on this very long journey, and please enjoy the show!
Touken Ranbu's Banryu Hito musical is finally up for preorder, for both DVD and Blu-ray!! I'll definitely be doing a review when it comes out in January <3
