i'm still in the other side of the world, but yes i was in japan for a week and got to fulfill some dreams of mine!!
back when i first wrote rumor has it (in 2019!!), i thought it'd be nice to take my hifugen mochis to sakuragaokacho like in the chapter i wrote, and i finally got to make that come true!! it's been a scene from my imagination for so long, but now it's a reality 🥹
and my biggest reason for going last week was to see hypstage!! i really wanted to go april 1st since it was gentaro and ibuki's birthdays, and it was so worth it, i'm so thankful that i was able to make it 😭 i've been a fan of the stage plays ever since they were first announced, and i can't believe i finally got to watch it in person with my own two eyes! it really is such a different experience
with fpmtr on stage 2: electric boogaloo coming up, i've been revisiting older stage plays and i wanted to write down my thoughts on the haiyuu of mtr and fp! i've been meaning to do this for a while actually, but i think now is a better time since gen 2 has had more time to flesh out their roles. this isn't meant to say one is actor is better than the other, i'm just expressing what i love about each portrayal and how they highlight different parts of the characters 😊
jakurai
i was unfamiliar with taiyou-san when mtr's initial cast was revealed, but i had high hopes for him based on vibes alone and i'm pleased to say he went above and beyond my expectations! he truly embodies the warmth of jakurai while keeping in mind jakurai's inner struggles. i'm particularly thankful for track 5 for giving taiyou-san the chance to show off jakurai's guilt about his past as an assassin, i think this made his kindness as the present jakurai all the more poignant. he is the jakurai who is learning that he, too, is human. not a sinner, not a saint--just a man who tries to do good by others because he believes in the inherent value of humanity. when i see taiyou-san's jakurai, i feel safe and like everything will be all right 🥺
i will admit that taiyou-san's graduation is one of the most that hurt, but i've since become so endeared to allen-san's jakurai! i think what really gets me about allen's portrayal of jakurai is that he feels like the early characterization of jakurai (~2018-2019), where he's a good and kind man, yes, but still distant. as if he's standing upon the pedestal that people place him on. i feel like you can actively see his heart defrosting in new encounter as he chooses to believe in hifumi and doppo--and believe that they are the key to opening his heart. i like that he's loosened up a little in jam tour, that he's slowly lowering the walls he's built up after experiencing so much hurt--that he doesn't not have to isolate himself in penance. he may seem intimidating at first, but when i see allen!jakurai, i know i can trust him 😊
hifumi
my dearest arayan, whom i was so shook to see cast as hifumi because i'd only known him for his edgy antagonistic roles until then WKJGFDJK like seriously, i grew up with this as my main image of him fjdkfjkh 😭 but that said, i really adore his hifumi! he exudes the mature air of gigolo while maintaining the high energy of hifumin. he makes me think "oh so THIS is how a 29 year old with the personality of a 15 year old gyaru would be like in real life" FKJSDKJFS and i mean that in a positive way! his portrayal of hifumi is grounded in that sense, that this is a fully grown man who's suffered through so much but still manages to bring joy and happiness to the world
if you know me, you'll have seen me stumble and fall headfirst for andyfumi as soon as i saw him action WKJFDKJH 😭 i don't consider myself a hifumi girlie despite my years of writing hifugen (and trust me, writing hifugen has made me realize hifumi would lowkey be an ideal partner lmao), but man. andy really makes me reconsider WKJGDFJK
at first i thought he was rather young to be playing hifumi (he was only 22 when he was initially cast) but he radiates so much charisma, i really think he is a wonderful fit for hifumi! in a way, his youth really works to his advantage when playing hifumi because hifumi is a youthful soul. while andy certainly brings out hifumi's charms in his moves, he also embodies hifumin so well. not only is he cheerful and bubbly, he is unwaveringly kind. andyfumi, i think, really highlights that hifumi is the heart of matenrou. also i just want to re-iterate that his moves are killer, like i really think this is how gigolo would dance FKJDSKJ
doppo
so many wonderful doppos!! i will start with kodai-san, another actor i knew before. honestly i was so excited when he was cast because he played one of my faves on ochanomizu rock, and his character there (inui) is such a pathetic boyfailure KFJSDFJKS so i had no doubt he would be a great doppo, and he really was!! something i really appreciate about his doppo is how he brings out the more depressed side of him, the doppo that's spiraling downwards in a loop of his own negativity. but at the same time, he shows how doppo is so earnest and always trying his best! i think, at least back then, his doppo really matched the demeanor of doppo in my head
if kodai-san emphasized doppo's depression, idetaku highlighted that doppo is a high strung ball of anxiety--and i loved every second of it!! i would describe idetaku's doppo like "if a weird girl was also a sopping wet dog," and i mean that as high praise KJFSDKJ honestly idetaku had me at first parkour stunt. his mannerisms were just so expressive and suited doppo so well, i never got tired of watching him on stage. i really adored his doppo and wish we had more time with him TwT i also think him being around doppo's age helped give him a more mature air. him and arayan played off each other very well because of this i think. him and taiyou-san too, but i mention arayan specifically because these two together i think really made hifudo feel like my fellow late 20s who are kinda just fucking around through life FKJDJSKF
nakapon is around the same age as andy, so i had the same concern, but i really do love his doppo. the minute i first heard his doppo scream, i knew he was gonna be a good one FJKDSKJ i feel like he leans more and more into unhinged doppo with every appearance, which is excellent. we all need more unhinged doppo in our lives. his facial expressions are seriously so good, i was so shook at the latest round of hypstage fancams of him fkjdfjk but he has range too. his doppo is very meek when he's not in berserker mode, which i think is important for doppo 🙂↕️
ramuda
i'm revealing my hypster age when i say this LMFAO, but when i got into hypmic, ramuda genuinely felt like he could've become a villain and one of things i love about sekoryo's ramuda is that he brought that vibe (track 4, i love you especially for this). his portrayal of ramuda's struggles was gripping, and he could be downright devious because of his desperation to survive. tbh i think he really endeared me to ramuda. i also just want to mention he left hypstage so he could play stacy on zenkaiger and i think his time as ramuda really prepared him for that KJFSDKJF (i love you stacy zenkaiger, one of the most characters ever)
yasui-san's ramuda is so much fun!! to me, he feels like the ramuda who's finally found his forever posse. there is a genuine happiness in him, i think, and he really takes to being fp's leader. he also does an excellent job at portraying ramuda's doubts and insecurities, which really moved me. with track 5 (set in tdd era) being his first appearance as ramuda, i think he gave ramuda a certain innocence that makes the subsequent falling out all the more tragic... like i think he made a really strong first impression as he showed ramuda questioning his place and what it means to be human and make genuine connections
in my notes for this post, i wrote down "ramuda mitsui bad bitch" KJFSDFJKDSK and like, i think it's true. he has a lot of sass, but he's also so cute! "impish" is the word that comes to mind, which i think is apt. but even if he does have that impish streak, he does a lovely job at showing how much ramuda cares. his ramuda is certainly a ramuda who's come to connect with his posse, but i think he also drops (pun unintended) peeks into ramuda's inner turmoil, which i hope we will see in full force in fmod 🙂↕️ there's a lot of things i want to see in fmod, but i'm curious about ramuda's role in particular since something about the way his hood is up feels significant
gentaro
i want to preface this by saying i feel absolutely nothing romantic towards gentaro, like absolutely zero. he is one of my blorbos i put through the meat grinder and lowkey maybe sometimes i project onto him, that's it. but then sakata ryuichiro got cast FKSJDFSDKJKSFH 😭 when i think back on sakacharo, i honestly can't pinpoint the exact moment that made me fall for him. maybe it's how he can be both graceful and silly so seamlessly, or maybe it's how he demonstrated just how kind gentaro is underneath all his layers. gentaro, in my head, can be very cold, but his gentaro feels so warm. honestly, i think he fits the image of "yumeno gentaro, the older brother" very well and i genuinely would love to see him come back as gentaro's brother. mr ueki go, if you are out there listening to me--
that said, my very first impression of shuntytaro was "oh my god, he's beautiful" whfghgfhf 😭 i absolutely adore sakacharo, as you can tell from what i've just written above WKJFDK, but if anything i thought that shunty made for a very fitting gentaro appearance-wise. he really matches the image of gentaro in my head, so in that regard i was happy with his casting. fortunately, he plays gentaro well too! it might help that he was the same age as gentaro when he was first cast, but for me, he feels like "yumeno gentaro, the younger brother." even though he cares, he won't show it without some (read: a lot of) sass and teasing lol. i also think he does mysterious pretty well, "the truth behind yumeno gentaro" really stuck with me
(again, mr ueki go, i would love to see sakacharo and shuntytaro on the same stage--)
i debated on whether or not to include maeyama takahisa on here, but ultimately i decided not to because of what he did to kanda sayaka. i will just say it's disappointing because i'd been excited he was cast as gentaro since i liked him on kamen rider wizard and ochanomizu rock, but i'd rather not give him any more attention. i hope sayaka-san is resting in peace
dice
takiryo i think really embodied dice as fling posse's pathetic dog DSKLHGKSH again, i mean this in a positive way. his comedic timing was so on point, and he was so good at keeping up the hype! i never got bored watching him, you can tell he had a lot of fun as dice, plus he's an amazing dancer. and like i say all this, but i think he did a wonderful job at showing dice's serious side as well. he really demonstrated how much dice cares for his posse and would do anything for them; when push comes to shove, he always shows up for fp
i'm not really sure how to phrase this, but taiyu's dice feels bright to me?? like in my head he has a big smile wghjdjhdh. he's a dice who's at home with his posse, and that's a dice who's genuinely happy imo. he's very carefree and go with the flow, which is fun! he's also pretty good at hyping up the crowd, he brings a lot of enthusiasm into the role. i'm excited to see how he'll portray a more serious side of dice considering ameyume find out he's otome's son in fmod (according to the synopsis), but i have faith he'll do the part justice
overall i think all the actors were cast pretty well and i love the dynamics among each iteration of the team. i'm kind of all worded out right now, but shout out to mtr with idetaku because i think they really captured mtr's image of mature adults with stable jobs LMFAO and i think gen 2 fp captures fp's youthful energy very well... i saw a jpn tweet that said something along the lines of "fp didn't really get to have proper childhoods, but it's like they get to have that childhood they didn't have when they're together" and i feel like they embody that well :')
anyhow, very excited for the fmod especially since it gives gen 2 fpmtr that chance to bring out the drama!! there's a lot i've been wanting to see with them (and ob and d4), so i'm really looking forward to it!!
just my two cents, it's not like i have anything to add to the conversation, but no matter what i'm going to keep doing what i've always been doing which is doing what i love 😊
i think you're allowed to feel what you feel, which includes leaving something behind, but having lived through so many bad corporation decisions, i know that the corporation is not the staff and cast and fans who put so much care and effort into the work, so it's extremely disappointing to see their efforts sullied by corporate greed, and these corps should be held responsible
hpmi has pushed me creatively so much over the past 7+ years, and i know it has done the same for others as well, so i want to keep supporting the humans behind these creations!! now more than ever i think we have to lift up the human creative spirit
my camera and scanner didn't capture it well, but the gold watercolor background is very shimmery!! doing mixed media pieces is fun because even though i have an idea of what i want the end result will be, the pieces really do dictate how it ends up hehe
i don't think i ever shared these here so let me change that!
these are my walls!! over the years i've collected quite a few merch, so i wanted to display them nicely 😊 they've gone through a bit of re-organization as i got a few more things, but i'm happy with how they came out!
i also fell into the stage bromide collecting rabbit hole a while back, but i didn't know what to do with them until it hit me to scrapbook them! i only just recently placed them, i haven't started decorating the pages yet, but i'm happy to have them in there to begin with lol
i have other bromides too because quite a few of them came from my hypstage pre-orders, but these pages in particular are kind of like the reasons i wanted to collect bromides in the first place haha
i said i was going to try to be more active on my other socials as the state of socmed goes down the shitter, but having a locked main for the past 10 years or so really stunts your ability to be public so i don't really know how to be more "active," but i figured maybe i'll start by posting my exploding charos
(more under the cut bc this is like a landmine wHJJHDH 😭)
this is actually the second version of this piece because i finished the first one and thought it'd be better to do it from this angle... i'm glad i did because i think this looks better, but i nearly used up my tube of red paint wKJFDSKJ
i'm glad i got a lot of feathers though, i didn't think i'd use so many. it was nice to do something traditional again 😊 especially when i had this concept in my head for a while, i'm glad i finally had the time to do it
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