I got my ticket ballot for the live streaming show on 4 October, 18:00 JST. In fact, I think everyone who applied for this show should have gotten the ballot anyway. We first know about this announcement back at the end of July.
Live streaming
It’s unbelievable to be able to watch SHOCK live from the comforts of our own room. No travelling, no dressing up to do. I was even drinking and have snacks at the same time. It’s a totally different experience, and while I enjoyed myself thoroughly, I still hope for the day I can see the cast in person again.
Summary
The story background is set to be 3 years after Koichi’s death. I was expecting a stage play instead of a musical but they included all the musical elements and did a very smart way of mixing current emotions and situations with flashbacks of the past. There can be some confusion on the timeline, with the time travelling back and forth. However, overall the story plot was easy to follow.
It was a clever use of live performances, superb lighting effects, previous screenplay parts along with essential social distancing.
The total time of the show is around 2 hours without any 30-minute break in between ACT 1 and ACT 2.
Small notices
The rooftop scene with Rika was set in the present, so they deliberately put on a blue/white light on Koichi to show that it’s his “ghost” singing with Rika and the company. Other than that, they had Rika wearing that iconic necklace at the end around “CONTINUE” instead of Koichi.
Even though the part at the end of Act 1 was replaced by the screenplay, it was still an amazing combination of slow-motion battle scene + standstill shots + previous screenplay. I especially love the way they showed us a different angle of Koichi’s expressions when he and Tatsuya were at the final moment of battle at the top of the stairs.
Due to the current COVID-19 situation, they also changed some of the lines to fit more into the current situation. We see this kind of change after 3.11 earthquake and also several other incidents that contributed to the different meanings of “SHOW MUST GO ON”.
Tatsuya’s birthday
Coincidentally, it was Tatsuya Ueda’s 37th birthday on 4 October too, so they did a Happy Birthday song at the curtain call. It’s funny how Tatsuya mentioned that it’s unthinkable how 20 years on, he can actually receive good wishes from Koichi. Back then, Koichi didn’t think good about KAT-TUN because of their attitude issues. LOL!
Conclusion
During the curtain call, Koichi mentioned that there were approximately 80,000 viewers of this live streaming show. I was thinking that’s 80,000 x 4,000 JPY = 320,000,000 JPY!!! OMG!!! The theatre capacity is usually around 1,900 seats and while the ticket price is 12,500 JPY (S seats), 9,000 JPY (A seats). The live streaming show still wins hand down on the ticket sales revenue. AMAZING!!!
THANK YOU SHOCK COMPANY!
Such a precious experience to watch this spinoff show and good luck for the rest of the shows till 12 October!
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