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Japan Foundation Hosts Free English-Subtitled Screenings of One Piece Kabuki Play in L.A.
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles has announced that it will host two free screenings of the Kabuki play based on Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga. The organization will host the two Cinema Kabuki: One Piece screenings at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on November 27 at 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Reserved tickets are available on The Japan Foundation's website. The organization said that it can only guarantee guests a seat if they reserve tickets and arrive at least five minutes early. The staff will then allow walk-ins five minutes before the screening starts.
The organization will also host a cosplay corner outside the theater where theatergoers can try on cosplay pieces for One Piece characters, and will host a contest on Twitter for those who post pictures with the outfits on Twitter with a #onepiecekabuki hashtag to win all the cosplay pieces.
The play first ran from October-November 2015 at the Shinbashi Enbujō in Ginza, Tokyo. 100,000 tickets for the Tokyo run all sold out. The play then ran in Osaka from March 1-25, and then in Fukuoka from April 2-26. The play will receive a new run in Tokyo at the Shinbashi Enbujō theater in Ginza in October and November 2017.
Theatrical screenings of the play across Japan premiered on October 22.
The kabuki stage play's full cast is as follows:
- Ichikawa Ennosuke IV as Luffy (seen right), Hancock, Shanks
- Ichikawa Ukon as Whitebeard
- Bandō Minosuke II as Zoro, Bentham, Squard
- Nakamura Hayato as Sanji, Inazuma
- Ichikawa Shunen II as Nami, Sandersonia
- Ichikawa Kōtarō as Hatchan, Sentomaru
- Ichikawa Juen as Avalo Pizarro
- Ichikawa Emisaburō as Nyon
- Ichikawa Enya II as Jinbei, Blackbeard (Teach)
- Ichikawa Emiya II as Nico Robin, Marigold
- Ichikawa Omezō VI as Magellan
- Ichikawa Monnosuke VIII as Tsuru
- Seiji Fukushi as Ace
- Noritoshi Kashima as Brook, "Akainu" Sakazuki
- Kazuyuki Asano as Rayleigh, Ivankov, Sengoku
The play adapts volumes 51-60 of the manga, a portion of the story known as the "Paramount War Saga." In the story, Luffy attempts to find his brother Ace and save him from execution, while a war erupts between the World Government and the Whitebeard Pirates.
