This weekend, I went to a limited-time performance of the musical “Attack on Titan.” I can only hope that more anime musicals follow in its footsteps.
Broadway has long struggled to attract young people to its theaters. Theater audiences are a little younger and more diverse, and apparently Gen Z is very interested in Broadway productions, but these changes are happening gradually. According to the Broadway League, the average age of a Broadway audience is 40.4 years old. In contrast, when I entered a theater in New York City Center, I was immediately struck by how young everyone around me was. My mother-in-law loves theater, so I’ve been lucky enough to see a few Broadway shows, but I’ve never seen so many 20- and 30-somethings in the audience. It was. I say “lucky” because Broadway is also very expensive, with many tickets starting at close to $100 for the worst seats and only going up from there. By comparison, “Attack on Titan: The Musical” cost just $45.
(Technically, New York City Center is at number 55, making this an off-Broadway show.)
“Attack on Titan THE MUSICAL” belongs to the “2.5-dimensional” musical genre, which transforms two-dimensional anime into live theater. This is a relatively common practice if the show is popular enough. There are also animated works such as “NARUTO”, “Yowamushi Pedal”, and “Haikyu”. Go Ueki, director of the musical “Attack on Titan,” has also directed other 2.5-dimensional musicals, including an adaptation of the classic manga “Cyborg 009.” He is joined by a cast of veteran 2.5D players and dancers he met through theater. Breakdance background. This is the first time a 2.5D show will be performed in the United States. In 2019, three performances of “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” were performed at the PlayStation Theater. All three performances were sold out.
The “Attack on Titan” musical appears to be following in that footsteps, with performances sold out as well. That’s not surprising considering the popularity of the original. While not as complex as some Broadway shows I’ve seen, the production is sparse and primarily utilizes projections and moving platforms alongside puppets and balloons to depict the giants, the level of performance is impressive. It was spot on. The dancing was especially cool to watch, with the core dancers doing backflips on each other and one guy spinning his head for about a minute straight.
“Some of the dancers I worked with for about a month at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so I handpicked them," Go Ueki said through an interpreter. “I met some of them through dance battles, and I really liked them. …I’m also an actor, so I ended up appearing in ‘Grease,’ ‘The Music Man,’ and ‘High School Musical.’ So it was really fun working with some of the actors and actresses that I co-starred with in those musicals.” Ueki has a background in breakdancing and has performed and competed internationally.
Western countries have always had a somewhat fetishistic relationship with Japan (see also The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha), but the culture exported from Japan was imported wholesale, and our pop This is the first time I’ve seen it embraced by the culture. The TV show “Shogun,” starring Japanese actors, swept the Emmy Awards. The best baseball player in the world is Japan’s Shohei Otani of the Dodgers. Megan Thee Stallion has a mega-hit song with Mamushi featuring iconic Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, and she even brought Yuki Chiba on stage during her performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. .
For Ueki, bringing Attack on Titan: The Musical to American audiences means respect, something he learned from his first encounter with hip-hop culture in fifth grade. Breakdancing and hip-hop have allowed him to travel around the world and learn about different types of people.
“I traveled to England, but also America and Germany. Everywhere I went there was complete respect and everyone respected each other,” he said. “I also love rap, and Public Enemy taught me a lot. Their music taught me respect and really connected me to other people. Dance If it’s a battle, it doesn’t matter what country it is, you’ll shake hands when it’s over, right?
At a press event before the show’s opening, Ueki and the rest of the cast said it was their first time coming to New York, so it was only natural that the show’s first overseas premiere would be held there.
“New York has Broadway. Anyone in the theater business would want to be on Broadway,” he said. “We are very proud of the Japanese culture of manga and anime, and we are really happy to be able to connect with our viewers.”
The audience was certainly excited before the show even started. Anthony, one of the fans I met while waiting in line to buy merchandise, said he had been a fan of Attack on Titan since the first episode and bought tickets to the musical not knowing what to expect. From head to toe, he was cosplayed as the Survey Corps, the elite unit that main character Eren Jaeger joins in the show. Another fan, Chris Bogi, co-founder of a social group for anime fans in the tri-state area, said this was his first musical, anime or otherwise. After seeing this work, I said that I definitely want to go back to 2.5D works.
“I think it’s important how we put this story together into a musical,” Gbogi said. “We know what the long story is, but they really deliver that important beat and we can enjoy the music as well. …When they put it down to a musical style, we We were all holding our breath together.”
Although most of the visitors had already watched the anime, Ueki said that he made sure to make it easy to read even for first-timers.
Musical “Attack on Titan”
Ueki says, “We were very careful to incorporate everything that was in the original work, including the emotions, shock, and surprise that were in the original work.” “We made sure that anyone who came to this work for the first time could experience that.”
I have no idea if this 2.5D production appeals to Broadway’s core audience of 40-year-olds and stepmothers. These are adaptations of works that are very well known among avid niche audiences, so they are often aimed at appealing to an established fan base rather than trying to get everyone in the room. The purpose is That said, there was an established fan base and they were very hungry for this show. When I tried to buy commemorative T-shirts, I was told that they were sold out on the opening night of the previous day.
Mr. Ueki said he hopes to bring more 2.5D works to the United States.
“2.5D is unique to Japan, but now it’s here and everyone seems to love it,” he said. “I hope to be able to come back again, and I would be happy if we could connect again through this 2.5-dimensional musical.”
After the show, as I was gathering myself and watching the theatergoers taking pictures of each other and getting excited about the play, an older woman came up next to me. She had a slightly stunned look on her face. She told me she had never seen anime before and bought tickets to the show blind.
“It was incredible,” she said as she put on her coat. “I cried.”
