'One Piece' to hit the kabuki stage in winter

Last December, we gave you the scoop on manga and anime smash "One Piece" being adapted into a fully-fledged kabuki play. With the performance dates coming up within a few short months, the official kabuki website Kabukibito has released a Laboon-sized amount of new details.

Although a warning before you click ahead: If you have not read or watched "One Piece," be aware that there are spoilers ahead!

For those unaware, kabuki is a traditional form of Japanese theater that combines drama, dance, elaborate costumes, thick makeup, lavish scenery, and the bizarre. As opposed to “higher class” Japanese noh drama, kabuki is intended for the common man and typically involves a lot of shouting, making "One Piece" the perfect candidate to become a kabuki play of its own.

The time period of the play’s story will be from the rescue of Ace from Impel Down, up until the great war that led up to his execution. It should also be noted that all actors in kabuki are male, which is going to make, uh, certain parts of "One Piece" a lot harder to reenact.

Japanese netizens seemed very excited about the announcement overall:

“OMG seriously? I wonder who is going to play Chopper?” “At any rate, it will be fun to see how the cast handles this challenge.” “I’m really excited about this, but I don’t know anything about kabuki. I’ll have to do some research before I go see the show.”

The show will run from October 7 until November 25 at the Shinbashi Enbujo in Ginza. Tickets for the October shows will be available starting August 20, while tickets for the November shows will be available September 20.

The kabuki world has really been making an effort to reach out to wider audiences recently, and with "One Piece" being adapted into a show, we wonder what they’ll come up with next.

Source: Kabukibito

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