The Essence of 2.5-Dimensional Musicals? Sakura Wars and Theater Adaptations of Anime

Shiro Yoshioka

doi:10.3390/arts7040052

Abstract

This paper examines 2.5-Dimensional musicals, or theater adaptations of anime/manga/videogames. As the genre has been gaining popularity in Japan since around 2007, criticism on the genre began to appear. What they uncritically assume is that the pioneer of the genre was the theater adaptation of Prince of Tennis first produced in 2003, and the unique mise-en-scène that attempts to recreate the “world” of the original, including the characters, setting, and the characters’ extreme skills of tennis, is a hallmark of the genre. However, such a view fails to consider the fact that these are actually merely characteristics of a subgenre of 2.5-Dimensional musicals represented by Prince of Tennis and other similar shows. This paper argues that another show, namely the theater adaptation of the videogame Sakura Wars, first produced in 1997 and continuing to this day, actually presents a number of important questions and viewpoints that are useful and necessary to critically discuss the genre, such as how two-dimensional characters are materialized on stage, which role audiences play in that process, how 2.5-Dimensional musicals can be contextualized within conventional theater genres rather than a part of “media mix” strategies, and tension between the local and global in their production and consumption.

Highlights

One notable characteristic of anime is that it is, more often than not, a part of a larger franchise involving other media formats such as manga, videogames, or novels (Condry 2013; Denison 2015; Kataoka 2011; Steinberg 2012)
The current discourses that uncritically assume Tenimyu as the origin of 2.5-Dimensional musicals obscure how the genre came into existence before the word was coined, and significant issues that could warrant further discussion within theater adaptations, as well as live performance in general based on anime/manga/videogames
He asserts that one significant change in the early history of 2.5-Dimensional musicals is that productions such as Rose of Versailles or Saint Seiya attracted audiences because they came to the theaters, not necessarily because they were fans of the original texts, but because they often wanted to see the Takarazuka actresses/Johnny’s idols; after the theater adaptation of Sailor Moon in 1991, which did not feature any famous actors, most of the spectators were fans of the original and they wanted to see the characters in costume on stage that looked exactly as in the original (Suzuki 2018)

Summary

Introduction

One notable characteristic of anime is that it is, more often than not, a part of a larger franchise involving other media formats such as manga, videogames, or novels (Condry 2013; Denison 2015; Kataoka 2011; Steinberg 2012). The current discourses that uncritically assume Tenimyu as the origin of 2.5-Dimensional musicals obscure how the genre came into existence before the word was coined, and significant issues that could warrant further discussion within theater adaptations, as well as live performance in general based on anime/manga/videogames. Such discourses significantly restrict critical discussion of the genre because they overlook the very simple fact that these shows are a part of cross-media adaptation strategies, but are at the same time theater plays that can be discussed as such, contextualized within appropriate theoretical and historical framework that is specific to the media. This approach will enable us to investigate the genre focusing on its media specificity that separates it from its original “2D” texts, especially physicality represented by the tension between bodies of the actors and 2D characters, stage sets/space, and fictitious world/setting within the original 2D texts, shared experience bound to a specific time and place, and transnational, independent, and/or ad hoc consumption of media texts

Prince of Tennis and Sakura Wars

How Actors “Become” Characters

Findings

Conclusions