Welp, prepare yourselves for a wall of feels, because I watched Desperate Checkmate and now I'm consumed by them. Holy shit. As always, enstage knocked it out of the fucking park and I'll be thinking about this for awhile.

Anyway. Lemme start by saying that I am not a KnightsP and mostly just love Leo, so I'm a fake fan who hadn't read Checkmate before watching the play. I'd seen the web anime like a year ago, but that's it. However, Desperate Checkmate was so fucking good that I immediately started reading shivalries's translation of Checkmate as soon as the play ended (which was around 3 am) and just. Okay. I'm starting to see the Knights appeal and even give Izumi fucking Sena rights, so...let's fuckin goooooooooooo!!!!

I'm not doing a scene by scene analysis because my understanding of Japanese is shaky, especially for long monologues and Leo's manic energy/breakdowns. So we're going by a lot of vibes + knowing the vague story beats from the anime, which means it comes down to the stage actors to get things across...and holy shit, they did. Sena's the POV character for most of the play and it opens with him alone on stage- before we cut to Leo in his throne.


Leo on the throne is sooooo good and ominous at first...

( click click for more of the opening shots )

And then we have the opening theme, Desperate Checkmate, which is honestly quite catchy and I'm looking forward to getting the soundtrack for this play whenever it comes out. Because like. Look. Some of the enstage-only music is really good, actually!!! And I need it.

We have a new Eichi for this place, which is like...fine? This is number three??? He honestly does a really good job, but he's noticeably shorter than Tsumugi (which makes for some creative staging to try to hide that). Kinda makes me wonder what they're gonna do next time fine is in a play, because I think the new Eichi is around the same height as Tori...

ANYWAY. Little John was a puppet, which was honestly such a good choice since she had to move around the stage. But holy shittttt. The scene with Leo rescuing her and getting the shit beat out of him was so fucking intense, thx to the really good lighting.


like HELLO!!!!!!!!! sir you are in peril

( more from this scene!!!! )

I liked the cuts between present day (Sena and Eichi playing chess/mind games) and the past (Leo being dragged to the hospital and meeting Eichi)...idk I'm not smart enough to describe it properly, but it's like...well executed. The set changes were all really solid; I always love the stairs/levels in Japanese stage plays, and Desperate Checkmate made great use of them.

Honestly, fuck going in order the whole time, I have ADHD- lemme talk about the staging choices. The set looked perfect: it was just like the Checkmate stage but had enough moving parts that it could be seamlessly changed for different settings/scenes/etc. And the fucking lighting in this one fucking killed me over and over.

Example 1:

when Eichi is talking about the Eccentrics and they're all represented by lights in their colors... *chef's kiss*

Example 2:

Madara's stage play actor had a scheduling conflict - he's in the Blue Lock stage play that's running at the same time - so this was the solution. One of the ensemble cast played him while his regular actor recorded his lines, and they used intense lighting to obscure the details of his face & such to make it seem like it's still our regular Madara. But god, while working within the limitations, it made him so much more menacing in every scene he was in. Fucking stellar, 10/10 solution, honestly drove home what a dangerous and sketchy dude he is SO WELL, I love it.


like- even if this guy is bringing you good(ish) news, he's clearly someone who's frequently up to no good. FANTASTIC. I love him *w*

WHICH IS ALL SO FUCKING COOL. Just. There's clearly a lot of love and care put into adapting the stories for the stage, and it shines through. But getting back to those stairs...Leo enters a scene through a central arch and gets into a conversation with Eichi. This conversation fairly quickly turns into emotional warfare - thx Eichi - and Leo tries to escape- only to find that his exit has been blocked by the stairs.


LIKE!!!!!!!! THESE WEREN'T HERE BEFORE!!!!! THE SYMBOLISM OF HOW BLOCKED IN HE IS JUST SENDS ME SOMEWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And then later on there's a part where the IzuLeo divorce/love confession is happening and they're back to back on the stairs and I want to chew fucking glass over these idiots. Eichi and Tsumugi were in top form, which is to say Tsumugi had an obvious and desperate crush while Eichi missed all the parts where he was supposed to reciprocate it in a healthy way. So like. Very good XD And Sena and Leo were......codependent and shitty at communicating and Leo kept saying "I love you" and it kills me. EXPRESS YOURSELF BETTER, SENAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

sorry not sorry about how long this is I can't contain myself

Leo's breakdown at the climax killed me. It killed me in the anime and Leo's actor is so fucking incredible at capturing the angst, the desperation, the mania, the everything that makes Leo Leo. And it was everything in this. Crying and laughing at the same time about how everyone loves his music, not him, broke my fucking heart again; when will this not destroy me???? The part where he blames Sena for all of it is not in the anime, so I got to have my heart ripped out again for these fuckers ;w;

It took over a year, but I think I've finally been worn down: Izumi Sena does in fact have more depth and worth than I've given him, and he can tentatively join the characters that I care about the most. The stage play + reading Checkmate in full gave me an appreciation for his dynamic with Leo, but also him on his own and how he interacts with the rest of Knights. Cannot believe I've ended up here, since I did NOT originally click with Knights.......

Ritsu is still canceled for gacha crimes tho

So, this had sorta the same problem/conundrum as Meteor Lights in that it's a serious story without a lot of room for inserting musical numbers - save for We'll be "Knights" - so...the last half hour or so was just a Knights Live XD Probably to fill time + make use of Tsukasa, since they had him there for the small bit of plot he was in...but literally the story wraps up and then it cuts to Knights backstage announcing that they're doing a Live next and they hope we'll all stay!

OKAY THEN XD

But part of the way through the Live, Knights has to do a costume change, so someone else has to sing to fill that time...and it's none other than these fuckers:


nothing could have prepared me for the EiMugi duet called Never Over of all fucking things. who did this. Liz and I screamed so fucking loudly we couldn't believe it!!!!!!

( I have so many screencaps of this song specifically... )

Also, for a lot of the Live, Tsukasa was equally if not more central in the blocking. Since this is a !-era story, which technically takes place before Leo has returned to school, he's still the newbie of Knights. But since it's a play being performed in 2025, we know that he eventually takes over as leader, and it's a nice bit of foreshadowing~

OH GOD ALSO THE BEST PART!!!! It seemed like there was a new ending song for enstage, which like....okay Checkmate and Human Comedy are more serious stories, I guess Singin'☆Shine! isn't the best closing song, you know, for the mood...but it was still disappointing. Liz and I had resigned ourselves to no more Singin'☆Shine!, but then.......

EVERYONE CAME BACK ON FOR IT AND IT WAS SO GOOD AND WE SCREAMED SO LOUDLY THAT LUMOS HAD TO LEAVE XD Lumos watched the entire stage play with us because she loves Leo, but our excitement over Singin'☆Shine! was too much for her XD

I swear I could say a million more things and I probably will later, but I'm hungry and thirsty and I have to walk away before I go insane~

also I do have a download of the stream but I don't want HappyEle to nuke me so just PM me if you want it thx!!!

uhhhhhhhhhhhh my brain is mush because I've been in the enstars mines all day (playing the jp tour) but I have many thoughts about the whole two (2) chapters of story I read XD I usually read the whole thing at once, but I couldn't help but jump ahead to the bit that's Crazy:B + Madara because...okay, because I'm a simple man, I'm always hoping for kohamada crumbs.


the boys were also here for Kohaku + Madara interactions, clearly
AND IT FUCKING DELIVERED!!!!!!! Yeah, it was only two chapters, but they had a ton of back and forth, cute snarky bits, etc etc etc ;w; Rinne now has a nickname for Madara - Mikeneko-chan - and it's so fucking cute!!! I'm so glad someone finally called him a calico cat in text, it's important to me *w* And then Niki said that Kohaku and Madara looked like cats together, which was so fucking precious. Like. Yes, please compare my faves to kitty cats, my day is made.

ALSO!!!!!!! Rinne told Madara that he has to prove his worth before he can have Kohaku back - which for the record isn't even why Madara was there, he just showed up and that was the first thing Rinne said to him XD - and it very much had the vibe of "you broke my friend's heart and I'm not gonna let you do it again" so like. VERY GOOD SHIP CRUMBS FOR MEEEEEEEE. This was followed by Kohaku being like "I can do whatever I want" which, again, gay????? SO GOOD.

HiMERU very clearly did not like that Madara was there and wanted him to leave. Which make sense with how dismissive he was of Double Face during Ephemeral Festival, but I like that Rinne was not and instead acknowledged that Madara is an important part of Kohaku's life...he's just a shit who needs to make up for wronging Kohaku.

gaaaaaaaaaaaaay ♥

And another thing!!!!! It opened with Madara pondering on Nice Arneb Thunder and thinking that him + everything regarding 4piece and his quick acceptance into ES is really sketchy. Which is 1) accurate and 2) hahahaaa I fucking called it, I just knew Madara wouldn't trust this dude!!!!!!!! I said this during the first 4piece tour last year and tbh Madara is one of (the only????) character who hasn't been immediately taken in by Nice's cult of personality charisma. Kohaku also seemed concerned about him after Madara showed up to question Rinne about his past, so like......there's still time for my crack theory to win!!!!! Double Face could still take Nice Arneb Thunder out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry not sorry I'm just having a nice time uwu


I ground through the tour quite quickly so I could get Madara's 4* ♥
Honestly, the tour setlist has been really solid so far!!! I just finished up stop 10 and it's been less than 24 hours, which is a lot faster than I've played any recent tours tbh. idk I'm just having a nice time? It's nice to enjoy things ;w;

I mean also Madara is in the event so there's a lot of MaM and Double Face songs, so I am delighted by that ;D

( more enstars-related screencaps in here )

Oh, right. I do have one complaint about the event. Two complaints, I guess? But they're related, so I'll complain about them together. There's no event song and no MV outfits ;w; I know that tours don't usually have either of those, but the year end tours usually do. I guess because it's the prologue to the next chunk of main story it doesn't? BUT I'M STILL FUSSY.

Just another reason to be mad at Nice Arneb Thunder XD

Liz thinks that the outfits are gonna be the 10th anniversary MV outfits that everyone gets, which, like...okay. That's nice and all, but I wanted year end tour outfits ;w;

AT LEAST I HAVE ALTERED AND MY FOUR COPIES OF TSUMUGI


and here's a Lumos for sticking around for this whole longass post!

I should have known Aira would come through for me. I had four copies of his rate up 5* during last year's big end of the year tour, and he definitely showed up this time!!!!!!!!! I had enough dia left to do another 10 scout, and......


TWO MORE COPIES, one right after the other, holy shit I did not expect that!!!!!!
Also I'm up to 2 copies of Rei in engstars and I should be getting a second copy of Eichi today :D Gotta stay on top of it if I wanna max them out~

Also I'm recording a bunch of MVs with Aira's new outfit so I can make more icons of him ♥ I'm just delighted to have him ;w; And the JP game will be down for 4 hours before the event starts, so I gotta prepare!!!


Aira looks like he's the girlfriend of some important yakuza guy (Kohaku) who's supporting his dreams ♥

ALTERED IS HERE!!!!!!!

And it started with my phone crashing in the middle of one of the event songs, because apparently it hadn't charged last night? So that sucked XD I managed to get another chance to play it, but it was very stressful and also it made me feel stupid.

After I managed to get that sorted out, we went out for some errands! I accidentally made me and Pat crave &pizza, so we got that for lunch :D And then went to Michaels, because I want to make cute bows to put on the Double Face nuis (thx to some cute ones I saw on twitter the other day).

However, Michaels ended up stressing me out because??? bad brain day?????? fussy they didn't have any active coupons??????????????????? idk I just got really overwhelmed ;w; I did end up getting some cute ribbons and shit, but it was an oddly harrowing experience.

BUT I DID TAKE SOME CUTE PICS OF THE NUIS WHILE WE WERE OUT!!!! Here's one~


saw this tree outside &pizza and I just had to put the boys in it~ they look so cute ;w;
And then I got home and continued to have bad brain times for no fucking reason??? I tried working on crafting but just got frustrated, so I tried working on icons and that also left me frustrated D: So I gave up on being "productive" and played a bunch of Crisis Core, and that helped :D

Also, it gave me something to do while my phone was running a billion autoplay loops of the engstars event XD

IN THE MIDST OF THAT THOUGH!!!! I FINALLY GOT NATSUME TO RANK A!!!! Because I managed to pull his rate up 5*, he's getting fans in basically every song, soooooo it helped push him the last little bit of the way to 75k ♥ So, he's almost forgiven for gacha crimes (betraying me during the Halloween MaM event in jp and cn).


sobs it's been such a long journey...cannot believe I have four different idols to rank A now...
Other than that...I've gotta log into jp and cn even once today...I've been neglecting them in favor of eng, because I've been looking forward to this event for over a year. Also my head hurts ;w;