After 2 years, Live Spectacle NARUTO is back in Singapore. Song of the Akatsuki is a continuation from the first live spectacle with Naruto's journey to find Sasuke and Sasuke's journey to have his revenge towards Itachi. This second live spectacle ends with Sasuke learning Itachi's past and vowing to destroy Konohagakure.
The first live spectacle is spectacular enough to make me want to watch this second one without thinking twice (though not spectacular enough to hook me to Naruto anime or manga :p haha). Thus I am still not familiar with the story and characters. However, I think I enjoy the first live spectacle better which is more lighthearted, has nicer displays of various characters' ability, and has better plot and character development. In Song of the Akatsuki, there are 3 camps: Naruto's side, Sasuke's side, and Itachi's side (the Akatsuki). There is not enough stage time for each camp and hence the character development for each person is lacking. That makes it not so easy for people who are not familiar with the anime/manga to follow the story, unlike the first live spectacle. The plot is also darker and more serious which makes the various songs rather similar and boring. There are more songs so this feels more like a musical than the first live spectacle which feels more like a live stage to tell the story. The special effects are not too remarkable. In fact, there is only 1 that is considered extraordinary: the giant inflatable Deidara when he is about to do his explosion.
The part that I missed the most is the interactions with audience. There were only 2: 1 at the beginning of each half, when a few characters entered from front doors and then went up on stage. The layout of Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre is rather sucky too as compared to Resorts World Sentosa with the absence of central aisle. When I saw the seating plan during booking, I thought there would be a central aisle between rows W and AA and hence I chose AA although it would get me a middle seat in the middle of that row. I was so disappointed when it was not the case. I remembered that at the first live spectacle, usually there would be activities at the aisle. If the seating plan was drawn better, I would rather choose an aisle seat although the row is slightly further back. However, similar to the first live spectacle, it was not a full house, perhaps because it was a 1pm show on a Saturday. It was a blessing for me as I could move to row GG to get an aisle seat. Staff asked for my tickets and luckily she allowed me to sit there since it was empty. Anyway, it is still in the same price category as my AA seat.
Similar to the first live spectacle, the cast sang Hikari Oikakete live. I am surprised that it is still the same theme song! Anyway no complaint about that since it is quite a nice and catchy song. Some of the cast ran across the aisle to high 5 with the audience and lucky for me to switch seats and I get to high 5 with Kakashi (Yuki Kimisawa), Sakura (Yui Ito), and Sasuke (Ryuji Sato)!! Okay I missed Sasuke's palm so I only managed to grab his thumb lol. Naruto was too busy with the VIPs on the first row.
It was unfortunate that I knew about this live action only 2 weeks ago when I went to Kinokuniya website as there was a banner to promote 10% off of ticket price for Kino members. By then, all the good seats were already taken. Next time I would not mind getting the first row to be able to see the cast facial expression better. But for today, it was $101.20 (including $4 booking fee and after 10% Kinokuniya discount) well spent.
In terms of merchandise, I bought the programme booklet ($30) and the photo set ($80). Lol I was complaining about the photo set last time but I am just a sucker for this kind of thing lah. The price is actually reasonable as according to the official website http://naruto-stage.jp/ the original price is 2300 JPY (~ SGD 28+)for the programme booklet and 350 JPY for the photo of a character.(~$4+). The complete photo set contains all 16 characters (and each character as 2 photos). Buying the photo set entitles a free special photo but I can only choose 1 out of 4 (Team Konoha, Team Hebi, Team Akatsuki, and Orochimaru & Kabuto).
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| No special 'gift' of this which contains all the characters |
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