GACKT x CLAMP Moon Saga

The first thing one will notice is that Gackt never ages, and I have become convinced that he secretly wants to be an anime character, if one just looks at his latest projects and the style of his recent PVs.  His latest in this is the Moon Saga series, designed by famous manga team CLAMP.  If rumors and gossip are to be believed, there is to be at least two performances, if not three in this set which tells the (HIGHLY STYLIZED) story of legendary bordering on mythical Japanese hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

The utilization of the video screen and curtain was impressive; it gave the performance an element of anime or video game-ness and helped keep the (very) limited stage exciting.  It seemed they only had a set of moveable staircases and a raised platform to work with.  The costumes were very striking, as to be expected from CLAMP designs.

My major critique, however, would have to be that following the plot of this play depended heavily (perhaps too much so) on the audience having previous knowledge of the history behind the period if not the historical figures themselves.  At the very least in the context of pop culture.  Much of the emotional scenes being able to affect the audience relied on this.

Even so, Gackt really is flawless.  He pulls off the character of Yoshitsune as a naive youth with very little backbone but a strong heart, and contrasts it skillfully with his breakout of the oni devil during the climactic fight with Yoshinaka.  One would never think that Gackt is almost 40 years old based on how he is able to pull off this teenaged-maybe-early-twenties young Yoshitsune role.  This has largely to do with Gackt’s great range of emotions, from playfulness and insecurity to fear and anger and then from crazed joy to anguish.  His mastery of his voice also allows him to transform himself into so many roles, in this case from the boyish Yoshitsune to the bloodthirsty oni.  The effect of his changing his voice made the transformation all the more striking, to the extent that I almost didn’t recognize him.  Gackt is also quite excellent at kicking ass.  His fighting style as the oni is very well-crafted and easy to distinguish from Yoshitsune’s original style, as well as every other fighting character’s technique.  I am very much looking forward to seeing more scenes with this style in the continuation.

I also loved the tribute paid to Saotome Taichi, letting him do some of his now quite trademark “shadow fighting” (See an excellent example of his performing HERE), even though he unfortunately was not able to perform it himself when I went to see this performance, his younger brother, Saotome Yuuki, definitely did step up to the plate and the scene was easily the most interesting and exciting, second to the climax.

The character Yoritomo, however, as he is often in other renditions of this historical story, is heavily shafted.  Half of the time you forget he is there or why… except, of course, for those who have intimate knowledge of this history.

I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t go further with the story than they did, but I’m not surprised.  If my wallet permits, I will most likely go see “Part 2” when it comes out, if for no other reason but to see more evil Gackt ^_^;