ePrints

The Essence of 2.5 Dimension Musical?: Sakura Wars and Theatre Adaptation of Anime

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Shiro YoshiokaORCiD

Downloads

• Published version [.pdf]

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Yoshioka S

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Arts

Year: 2018

Volume: 7

Issue: 4

Online publication date: 21/09/2018

Acceptance date: 03/09/2018

Date deposited: 08/08/2018

ISSN (electronic): 2076-0752

Publisher: MDPIAG

URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7040052

DOI: 10.3390/arts7040052

Altmetrics

Share