Kuroshitsuji The Musical, His Butler: Friendship
Above: Shougo Sakamoto as Ciel Phantomhive (left) and YuYa Matsushita as Sebastian Michaelis (right)
I have finally seen the complete set!
First came musical three, Kuroshituji - The Lycrois That Blazes the Earth
Then came the second installment, Kuroshitsuji 2: The Most Beautiful Death in the World & The Thousand Souls and a Fallen Shinigami
And today I finally got around to watching Kuroshitsuji The Musical, His Butler: Friendship, the original musical inspired by the still growing Kuroshitsuji franchise and the final musical to complete the Black Butler Musical Set. While I may have seen the musicals in reverse order, I am glad to have finally seen all the musicals that have thus far been produced in Japan and review the final one in this amazing trio of shows.
Synopsis:
Welcome to the Phantomhive Manor! Phantomhive servants Baldroy, Mey-Rin, Finny and Tanaka keep watch over the manor and serve Ciel, the young Earl of Phantomhive. But there's another servant who keeps a watchful eye on Ciel, Sebastian Michaelis, who is simply one hell of a butler.
Above: YuYa Matsushita as Sebastian Michaelis
A more than perfect butler never failing at any task, Sebastian is always by Ciel's side and protects Ciel with his very life - even at the cost of his own. As Sebastian, Ciel and the servant busily prepare for a ball that will soon to be held at the manor, three guests from a Japanese toy company arrive and are invited to the ball to show the best of English hospitality. Yuuki, the president of the company, and his older brother Kai reside at the manor with their servant Kirito who anxiously wait to attend the ball.
Above (left to right): Yuya Miyashita as Kirito, Aoyagi Ruito as Yuuki and Daichi Oshino as Kai
When Sebastian makes an unexpected blunder at the ball and requests that Yuuki and Kai to provide entertainment for the guests, Kai suggests that Yuuki play his flute. The reluctant Yuuki agrees, but as he begins playing ghost-like creatures appear and wreak havoc on the balls guests and the manor. In an attempt to save his master, Kirito pulls Yuuki out of the commotion followed by Kai, leaving the servants to fight the creatures and Sebastian along with Ciel in hot pursuit of the strangers.
Above: YuYa Matsushita as Sebastian (left) and Uehara Takuya as Grell Sutcliff (right)
As the servants continue to fight in the manor Sebastian runs into fellow butler Grell Sutcliff, who in actuality is no butler at all. A Shinigami, more commonly known as a Grim Reaper, Grell tries to detain Sebastian as long as he can and professes his love for Sebastian until he is ultimately defeated and lets slip the fact that Kirito is not human. His suspicions now confirmed, Sebastian leaves Grell and runs off after Kirito, Yuuki and Kai.
Having returned to the manor, Kai arrives to find Kirito who has vanquished the creatures and Yuuki passed out on the nearby staircase. Out of fear and panic, Kai kills Kirito only to then be joined by Ciel and Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Aberline. Just as Kai is about the explain what happened, Kirito stands up only to reveal that it was Sebastian in disguise and not Kirito at all. Backed into a corner, Kai unknowingly confesses to others murders committed throughout the city and the fact that Kirito was the one responsible for the death of his and Yuuki's parents. With truths coming out left and right, Kirito is revealed to be a demon known as a Keishan who upon killing Yuuki and Kai's parents ate their eyes as a reward and the flute that Yuuki obtained has the power to call back dead spirits. As Yuuki stands in awe of his brother, Kirito tries to explain that while he is only an accomplice in these murders he does not condone what Kai has done.
Above: Yuya Miyashita as the Keishan Demon, Kirito
Before any further moves can be made, the group runs from the manor that once again has swarmed with the creatures. With Sebastian struggling to decide between orders from Ciel to apprehend Kai and his duty as a butler to protect the manor friends Prince Soma and his faithful butler Agni return to the manor and offer their help in defeating the creatures, allowing Sebastian and Ciel to peruse Kai and Kirito. Kirito finds himself alone recalling the murder of the brothers parents and how he also killed all his fellow demons as instructed by his master Kai. To hide the dark side of Kai, Kirito reveals to Ciel and Sebastian that he had hidden these facts from Yuuki and will stay by his side no matter what. As Kai returns to confront Ciel about his path of revenge, Yuuki returns and suddenly begins to play his flute, once again summoning the spirits. Terrified, Kai attempts to run from the scene where Kirito is finally defeated by the spirits once and for all. With Kirito now dead, Kai is left defenseless against Sebastian who does not waste a single moment in killing himright in front of Yuuki and ending the evenings terror at the manor.
With this night of terror over, Yuuki recounts his attitude towards life and promises Ciel to continue forward before he heads back, alone to his home. To solidify this promise Ciel suggests that Yuuki exchange his cursed flute for Ciel's walking stick, which Yuuki does before departing England for Japan. Alone once more, Ciel and Sebastian revel in the fact that they have confiscated the flute as per the orders of The Queen and that they have succeeded in solving another case. The curtain closes as Sebastian swears his undying loyalty to Ciel until his revenge is accomplished and the two part ways, for eternity.
REVIEW:
After watching this musical, it was very apparent that this was Japans first attempt at any kind of musical adaptation to Kuroshitsuji. While this musical may have been the weakest of the three, its performances and other production values still give it enough edge to be a successfully executed Kuroshitsuji musical.
The Cast:
Sebastian Michaelis - YuYa Matsushita
Ciel Phantomhive - Shougo Sakamoto
Baldroy - Tsuyoshi Koyama
Finnian - Shouta Minami
Mey-Rin - Atsuko Igari
Grell Sutclif - Uehara Takuya
Yuuki - Aoyagi Ruito
Kirito - Yuya Miyashita
Kai - Daichi Oshino
Other roles include The Undertaker, Aberline, Lau, Ran-Mao, Agni, Prince Soma & Tanaka
Performances:
Let's start with Yuya - having seen him in musicals 2 and three I was expecting utter perfection from him in his debut performance as Sebastian, but that ultimately wasn't the case. Matsushita's performance was admirable but it was apparent that this was his first attempt at acting, let alone a musical. Since he is a singer by trade his vocals, which were oddly limited in this first adaption, were wonderful and sounded easy from start to finish. Alongside his vocal performance, his physical abilities to perform stunts, especially in scenes pairing with Uehara Takuya as Grell, was quite impressive. Matsushita's downfall however can be seen in his limited acting abilities, as his first attempts at acting can be seen in various scenes that feel disjointed and somewhat out of place. While this obviously was Matsushita's first acting role and musical experience, his original performance as Sebastian was still very well done and overall a huge achievement and success.
Equally as impressive was Shougo Sakamoto's performance as Ciel Phantomhive, the Queens Guard Dog. As the original Ciel Sakamoto had a lot to live up to, especially from fans of of Kuroshitsuji manga and anime series. On the whole, Sakamoto pulled off Ciel very well, portraying his hard, quasi-evil personality as depicted in the original manga. With Sakamoto's performance I only have two qualms, the first being that Sakamoto was almost too old for the role of Ciel. Ciel is meant to be thirteen years old and after seeing various actors play the role throughout all the musicals I have mixed feelings on the proper age of the actor to play the part. The other aspect that didn't sit well with me was the relationship between Ciel and Sebastian. Had I not read the manga, seen the various anime series or watched the other two musicals, I would have no idea on the concept of Ciel and Sebastians relationship, how that relationship drives both their actions and why Ciel acts and is the way he is. While this fault is not entirely Sakamoto's, his portrayal of Ciel was not enough to show the weakness, strength and complexity of this relationship and it hurt Sakamoto more than it helped.
Alongside the musicals main leads, a few other performances stood out in an obvious and forthcoming way. The first is that of Uehara Takuya as Grell, who as always, never disappoints. In every single musical Takuya's performance has been one of the best and most consistent, never making me question why he was chosen for Grell in the first place. Uehara Takuya IS Grell and his origin performance as Grell was both inspired and so true to the manga and series, it was a little scary. Takuya has literally nailed Grell, from his appearance to his tone of voice and especially his personality, making Takuya one of my favorite Japanese actors of all time. The other set of performances that rang with me were those of the actors playing Inspector Fred Aberline and the Undertaker. Like Takuya, they've been on the Kuroshitsuji musical wagon since the beginning and they continue to give performances that both impress me and always make me laugh, as their characters serve as Kuroshitsuji's comedy relief.
Set, Costumes and Score:
The set for the first Kuroshitsuji musical though quite basic, served its purpose. With how the musical was staged, the set had to be limited to allow the actors a majority of space to move around due to the various stunts and fight scenes it used. Almost too intricate however were the costumes. Each characters costume was almost an exact, live replication of those worn by the originally drawn characters and the characters costumes greatly enhanced the eerie and dark Kuroshitsuji tones. Of all the shows production values, the costumes were this musicals main star. The final, and somewhat most important element of this show, was its score. While most of the musicals score was boring and quite unimpressive, two musical numbers stood out:
Red Or Black (Sebastian & Grell Duet)
This duet was not only well written and catchy, but it also played on Grell's fun personality against Sebastians dark, cold edge. A perfect match of characters and actors!
Recollection By The Window (Ciel & Yuuki Duet)
This song was hands down the best song in the entire musical. So well written, beautifully sung by both actors and incredibly moving with such simplistic music and powerful lyrics made this song the first one I looked up after seeing the whole musical. This song is easily the musicals shining star.
Final Thoughts:
Kuroshitsuji The Musical, His Butler: Friendship was a very, very good first attempt at adapting Kutroshitsuji for the stage. With the mangas original story and amazing characters I wasn't surprised that it was developed into a musical, and honestly, I think it was the best thing to happen with the franchise since developing the manga into two anime television series. All three of the Kuroshitsuji musicals are something incredibly special, creative and wonderful to watch over and over again, and to this day I am so glad and thankful that I stumbled across them. God bless Japan!!
The entirety of Kuroshitsuji The Musical, His Butler: Friendship, as well as the shows songs can be found on YouTube. If you enjoyed this review, please continue following my blog for future reviews and posts or check me out on Twitter @Musicald0rk. Until next time!
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