They all pushed me!

Looking at MEM who was a little flustered and apologized to others, Beichuan Liang couldn't help shaking his head, took the initiative to walk over, took a bottle of mineral water prepared by the troupe from the table next to him, and said comfortingly:

"It's okay, it's okay. It's still ten minutes before it starts. Drink some water first."

"Thank you - huh, I almost thought I would miss it."

After MEM drank two sips of water, he took a few deep breaths as if relieved, and then with some difficulty adjusted his breathing rhythm back to normal.

I have to say that the fact that MEM啾 was able to successfully get a supporting role in the end cannot be attributed to Samejima Abiko's care. In a sense, she is the same as Kitagawa Ryo, with an ageless face. Just like Samejima Abiko teased Kitagawa Ryo that he can still pretend to be a high school student, Kitagawa Ryo actually thinks that there is nothing wrong with MEM啾 pretending to be an active JK now. After all, he has seen a lot of high school youth campus films starring actors in their twenties and thirties in his previous life.

Seemingly feeling that being alone with Kitagawa Ryo was a bit irritating under the gazes of people around her, MEM啾 said thank you and immediately ran over to Kitagawa Rumi with the bottle of mineral water. This surprised Kitagawa Ryo and he could only find a corner to sit down.

It’s okay. Another signature actor of the LALALAI troupe, Daiki Himekawa, who refreshes here regularly, is still taking a nap here.

After all the people arrived one after another, there was another round of self-introductions. This was different from the auditions a few days ago because everyone would be colleagues and partners working together for the next three months, including rehearsals and performances, so the introductions this time were much longer.

Finally, the general manager of this project, Sumiaki Raita, raised his hand and made a closing speech:

“Then let us, the members, unite as one and work together to lead the stage play Tokyo BLADE to the greatest success!”

Chapter 4: The only difference between me and Ruby is that (5k)

Following the basic principle that laymen should not guide professionals, a group of production and operation personnel including Sumiaki Raita briefly exchanged pleasantries with the actors and quickly chose to leave, leaving the rest of the time to the experienced industry insider and stage director of this project, Toshiro Kindaichi.

After the production team left, Kindaichi Toshiro made his own arrangements in a swift and decisive manner:

"Although we wanted to get everyone acquainted at the beginning of today, it seems that all the main members are here, so let's start the script reading session directly. It's 7:15 now, and it will officially start at 7:30. During this break, everyone can do whatever they want, whether it's chatting or preparing in advance."

Seemingly worried that the actors might not be able to relax because the operation and production staff were all there, Toshiro Kindaichi kindly gave them another fifteen minutes. After that, he turned around and left the room neatly, leaving the space and time to the actors.

As the undisputed leading actor of this project, Kitagawa Ryo was naturally the most watched one in the room, but he did not stand there stupidly waiting for others to greet him. Instead, he took the initiative to chat with the actors nearby, acting quite easy-going.

In fact, when he came in the morning, Kitagawa Ryo had vaguely sensed the tendency of three small groups in the current cast. This is also the norm on all filming sets. Generally, there are two types of relationships: geographical relationships based on the different agencies to which they belong, and personal relationships related to status, popularity, and private relationships. If the interpersonal relationships between circles are not handled well, they may become hidden dangers.

However, on the set of "Tokyo BLADE" this time, the boundaries between the several circles are not so clear-cut. After all, many artists under his agency have transferred their contracts from the LALALAI troupe, including Akane Kurokawa and Daiki Himekawa, many of whom still have contracts with the troupe and are familiar with the members of the LALALAI troupe. On the contrary, actors like Furilu Shiranui and Kana Arima, who have never been from LALALAI, seem to find it a bit difficult to fit in.

Of course, Kitagawa Ryo also had a way. He just gave his sister a wink, and Rumi understood what he meant and took Arima Kana, Shiranui Fulilu and other artists from the agency to meet people. She was the kind of mascot that was very familiar and popular to both sides. With the help of Kurokawa Akane and others, she soon brought the atmosphere between the two sides closer.

After resolving the issues over there, Kitagawa Ryo also began to deal with the outsourced actors headed by Kamoshida Sakuya. These actors, who were like mercenaries and did not belong to the LALALAI Theater or his personal agency, were actually quite easy to deal with.

Although he has been slacking off at home for the past two years, he still occasionally comes out to take on the 2.5-dimensional projects of the two theater troupes. Many of the people among them are people he has worked with before, and they are quite convinced of his acting skills and character. What's more, the biggest star in the group, Sakuya Kamoshida, is one of his most fanatical fans, so there is no problem with him being the leading actor.

Kitagawa Ryo had just chatted with Kamoshida Sakuya, who then crossed his arms behind his head and said with a sigh:

"I really didn't expect that Kurokawa wouldn't play the role of Shoji in the end. I still can't believe it."

The role he auditioned for and eventually won in this project was [匁] (Japanese kanji, pronounced mo ne mo), who belongs to the same Shibuya Group as [刀鬼] played by Daiki Himekawa, and is a subordinate of Shoji. So from the beginning, people were very concerned about the candidate for the role of Shoji, and the initial prediction was that Akane Kurokawa would definitely get the role.

As a result, he and Daiki Himekawa, who said, "I can't imagine someone other than Kurokawa playing the role of Shoji," ended up in an awkward situation where they were the Jokers in a deck of cards.

"If Ruby did something wrong, you and Himekawa should just point it out directly. You don't have to give me face."

Beichuan Liang just smiled when he heard this, and reached out to pat the other person's shoulder.

He is clear about the character of the man in front of him. Although he has changed girlfriends outside the scene one after another, his attitude on the set is not ambiguous at all. Kitagawa Rumi did show a high degree of compatibility with the BLADE he played during the audition, but in the entire stage play, in addition to the scenes with himself, the opponents of the most scenes of the Shoji played by Kitagawa Rumi are Himekawa Daiki and Kamoshida Sakuya, and the acting skills of these two are also ranked among the top in the entire cast, so the pressure is really not small.

"Even if Beichuan didn't say so, I would do the same. Of course, Himekawa probably has the same mentality. And to be honest, his requirements for partners are much higher than mine. Newcomers may not be able to keep up."

Kamoshida Sakuya was laughing and spreading his hands, looking as if he wanted to say a few more words to Kitagawa Ryo, but when he caught a glimpse of Rumi walking towards him with a smile on her face, he shrugged his shoulders and waved at him casually:

"I'm going to go talk to Himekawa first. See you, Kitakawa."

As soon as he left, Kitagawa Rumi came over seamlessly, approached with interest and asked:

"What is brother talking about with that playboy again?"

"Of course we're talking about Ruby. Ruby knows that he and Himekawa are both your subordinates this time."

Beichuan Liang didn't mean to hide anything. He looked at his sister's face thoughtfully, and didn't say anything else. He just stared at her for a long time, until she blushed and couldn't stand it anymore. She reached out and gently hit his chest, and said in a scolding tone:

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? Just say what you want to say."

"I'm just a little worried that Ruby can't keep up with Himekawa's acting. I'm not worried about Kamoshida. He's a good actor, but not the type who would steal the show. But as for Himekawa... Ruby has been in the LALALAI troupe for the past two years. She should have seen his performance, right?"

"Well, it's completely different from his usual lazy and lazy appearance. It can even be said that it's the opposite of his extremely fiery acting."

Beichuan Liang nodded, patted his sister's head encouragingly, and said softly:

"When Himekawa first officially participated in a TV drama shoot, it was on the set of Tomorrow. At that time, he almost watched and learned the acting skills of every actor, including me, with great care. This is what Ruby needs to do in the rehearsal for one and a half months."

"This is Ruby's second level. There will be no more tricks this time."

-------------------------------------

"Although I knew long ago that they had a good relationship as siblings, it still felt a little weird when I saw it with my own eyes, especially...they are co-starring as a couple this time."

In the circle of the LALALAI troupe, because Kitagawa Rumi left first saying that she was going to discuss and prepare a certain plot between Shoji and BLADE with her brother, the eyes of others naturally looked at each other's backs and followed the intimate interaction between the two. Mita Norio adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and spoke thoughtfully.

He is also one of the outstanding talents that have emerged from the LALALAI troupe in the past two years. After joining Kitagawa Ryo's personal agency, he also began to achieve some results in film and television dramas. This time, it was natural for him to pass the audition for this project and return to the troupe.

"I think it's subtle mainly because of Ruby's age. After all, she's almost 20 years old. But it also shows that she and Kitagawa-senpai have a good relationship. I heard that ten years ago, when Ruby was still a child, she often came to the troupe to watch Kitagawa-senpai's performances."

Another actress, Mei Kanono, who also came from the LALALAI troupe and joined Kitagawa Ryo's personal agency, took over the conversation and turned to Akane Kurokawa, who had been in the troupe since childhood, to confirm:

"Is that true? Chiyin."

"That's true, but I wasn't as diligent as you said. After all, Ruby still had to go to school at that time."

Kurokawa Akane nodded when she heard that, but immediately shook her head. She remembered it quite clearly. At that time, it was because Kitagawa Rumi didn't have so much time to go to the troupe every day, so she took the initiative to make friends with her and entrusted her to help look after Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai who were practicing in the troupe at that time. Now that she suddenly remembered it, she was a little dazed to realize that it was all such a long time ago.

But now if you think about it carefully, Kitagawa Rumi, who seemed to be just an eight or nine-year-old child at that time, was a little too heavy-hearted. She had started planning for the role of Shoji more than ten years in advance.

In fact, although Kurokawa Akane felt a little regretful about losing the audition for the stage play to Kitagawa Rumi, he still felt a little comforted because Magana did not succeed in sneaking in.

However, that night after the audition, Kurokawa Akane still couldn't sleep. He sat at his desk and began to study the specific reasons for the failure seriously. He summarized it over and over again, and finally opened a notebook from a few years ago. After seeing the last sentence he left in his analysis of Kitagawa Rumi's character at that time, "They did it", he finally went back to bed with relief.

Thinking of this, Kurokawa Akane withdrew her gaze from Kitagawa Rumi and secretly glanced at Arima Kana. The other party also met her eyes tacitly, and the two nodded at the same time.

After all, Kitagawa Rumi's existence is like a model that is constantly tempting the two of them, desperately showing a sense of "I have succeeded, why don't you come and try it".

Just like that, they didn't know how to break up and reassemble. Although they said that they would advance and retreat together and at most the three of them would be together, they were thinking about the agreement between themselves and him in their hearts. The two-person alliance, which was fully prepared to start, was formed again in the tacit gaze between Kurokawa Akane and Arima Kana.

Although I feel like I won’t live long enough to see the rehearsal of this stage play finish.

You know what, Arima Kana actually feels that she has a big advantage. Although the character Kengi, played by her, was defeated by Shoji in terms of both role and character creation in the main chapter of the stage play, the difference between her and Akane Kurokawa, who lost the role of Shoji and only got a supporting role with almost no interaction with BLADE, played by Kitagawa Ryo, is like heaven and earth.

What's more, in the current serialized chapters of the original work, Jian Yi's popularity is soaring, and many fans have begun to support her and BLADE's CP.

As we all know, CP fans are the best at tracing back to the source and finding sweet scraps and rations in all kinds of old-fashioned corners, just like when the CP of Kitagawa Ryo and Hoshino Ai was popular, the CP fans of the two could pull out the love variety show in which they both served as commentary guests a few years ago to get some sweets. Under this backward concept of tracing the cause from the effect, as long as she performs better, she might be able to attract a large number of CP fans of BLADE and Jian Yi to start CP trading on the spot.

Just when Akane Kurokawa and Kana Arima were both lost in their wild thoughts to varying degrees, the door of the practice room was pushed open again. The fifteen-minute break and communication time was over, and with the return of stage director Toshiro Kindaichi, it was announced that today's script reading session had officially begun.

Because everyone present was an experienced actor, even Kitagawa Rumi had studied acting in the troupe for two years and had been on stage several times, so she was no stranger to the script reading session. MEM啾, who was participating for the first time, had also studied and prepared seriously beforehand. Coupled with her big heart and thick skin that she had been honed to have, Kitagawa Ryo, who was a little worried about her at the beginning, quickly withdrew his gaze and began to prepare for his part seriously.

However, just as MEM啾's gourd was pressed, the gourd of Rumi, which he had been worried about, surfaced again as expected. In the brief sparring with Himekawa Daiki, Kitagawa Rumi completely lacked the eye-catching spirituality that she had when she acted with him. Although her performance was standard, she was obviously suppressed in terms of momentum. What's more, the characters played by the two are supposed to be in a superior-subordinate relationship.

Considering that it was the first day after all, and Kitagawa Rumi's attitude was quite humble and no one could find any problems, no one said anything for the time being. However, it is foreseeable that if Kitagawa Rumi does not make rapid progress in the future, this doubt will one day completely erupt.

Kitagawa Rumi herself was also aware of this problem, and during lunch break she ran to the rooftop on the fourth floor to practice extra. As a result, when she had just finished reading half of her lines, she heard footsteps behind her. It was Kurokawa Akane.

"I don't know if this is useful, but these are some of the personality traits I summarized about the character of Shao Ji, as well as the details of her actions and expressions that might be manifested as a result..."

As he spoke, Kurokawa Akane handed a thick stack of manuscript paper to Kitagawa Rumi, and smiled to encourage his friend:

"come on--"

"Thank you so much, Xiao Qian."

Kitagawa Rumi was also somewhat surprised by Kurokawa Akane's move. She took the manuscripts as if they were treasures and said as she flipped through them excitedly:

"In fact, I always thought that Xiao Qian's performance as Sheji was also very good. I really learned a lot from your performance."

"It's the same for me. Ruby's Scabbard Princess also gave me a lot of inspiration."

Kurokawa Akane leaned on the railing in front of the window, overlooking the busy streets below, and replied with a smile:

"I will learn from these areas where I am inferior to Ruby and use them as food for my future improvement."

The wind blowing in from the window blew her long hair in a disorderly manner, but Kurokawa Akane had no intention of pulling it back. She just held her cheek with her hand. Her voice was very soft and her tone was very slow, but her tone was very firm as she continued to speak:

"Then... before the live-action movie of Tokyo Blade starts filming, I will become the girl who has the best compatibility with Blade."

Chapter 17: Answers to Questions

When the troupe's rehearsal was almost over in the afternoon, the original author and screenwriter Abiko Samejima finally began to rush to the scene. After all, as a weekly cartoonist, her schedule is also quite tight. She had spent two whole days here for the audition before, which had caused her work to fall behind schedule. Today, she was busy until almost dusk before she squeezed out some free time. After handing the remaining background coloring steps to her assistant Kichijoji Raiko, she hurried to the LALALAI troupe.

After two days of auditions, the selected actors realized that Samejima Abiko was different from the other original authors who had little say on the set. In a sense, she was one of the people with the most say here. So when they heard that she was coming here soon, they all tensed up and worked hard to leave a good impression on her.

In fact, when the rehearsal officially started and all the actors got and read the entire script of the "Tokyo BLADE" stage play, most of them were quite impressed with the script written by the other party as a screenwriter. It was not a shabby work with a lot of imaginary fragments and a layman's tone. Instead, it was a good script that fully understood and utilized the current stage equipment and technology, and at the same time had high hopes for the actors' acting skills and gave them an important responsibility.

To put it simply, a large amount of explanatory text and psychological descriptions in the original work were deleted, giving the actors a fairly wide range of subjective initiative and activities, and throwing all the opportunities for scoring and shining to the actors, allowing them to give full play to their strengths. This also changed the impression of Samejima Abiko that many actors who felt that she was too harsh during the audition stage had on her. After all, in this style of script, if an actor's acting skills are not in harmony with others, the consequences can be said to be disastrous.

Of course, on the other hand, if the actors’ acting skills are good enough to support the script, then “Tokyo BLADE” will be the stage where they have the best chance to achieve a huge surge in popularity.

For the members of the LALALAI troupe, this high-risk, high-reward, high-standard and high-difficulty test can only arouse their competitive spirit. In the eyes of many people, this is also an opportunity to prove to the outside world once again the value of the statement "LALALAI troupe gathers first-class actors".

Although this also caused MEM, who is not very good at acting, to perform quite poorly on the first day. After all, Kitagawa Rumi's acting skills were only slightly unsatisfactory because of the contrast with Himekawa Daiki, it was indeed her first time to perform in a stage play.

MEM啾 is indeed a person with a big heart and thick skin, but what puzzles her is that every time she humbly asks others for advice on specific topics regarding acting, the other actors who were apparently easy to talk to before would act as if they had something to hide. After being frustrated several times in succession, she had no choice but to send out a distress signal to her good friend Kurokawa Akane and ask her questions in this regard.

"Acting? That's definitely not possible. The guidance of acting is usually the responsibility of the stage director on the set. Our set is a little special. Abiko shared some of Mr. Kindaichi's responsibilities in this regard, but generally speaking, this command system must not be messed up."

After hearing MEM啾's question, Kurokawa Akane nodded and responded to her, patiently explaining to her and adding:

"It is more appropriate to only have one person as the person for acting guidance, because if a bunch of people are talking about you and pointing fingers at you, the actor himself will be confused and chaotic, just like the story of the little horse crossing the river. Everyone's understanding of the role and their own performance style are different, and there are even big differences."

"In our troupe, Mr. Kindaichi doesn't like actors to give advice on each other's acting. Usually he asks him, and if he's not there, he asks Senior Liang, and if neither of them is there, he just waits."

This was also the reason why she couldn't openly say "Let me tell you how I play the role of Shoji" after witnessing Kitagawa Rumi's predicament in the morning, and only secretly went up to her during lunch break to give her the information and experience she had compiled.

MEM nodded as he listened, showing an attitude of being willing to learn. Finally, he asked tentatively:

"So I should ask Mr. Kindaichi now?"

As she spoke, she also glanced at Kindaichi Toshiro, who was sitting on the other side of the room, watching the actors rehearse.

"Didn't the notice board just say that Abiko will be here soon? Then MEM can just go up and ask them both at once.

"Yeah, I see. Thank you, Xiao Qian, you really helped me a lot—"

MEM啾 had just breathed a sigh of relief when the door of the practice room was pushed open. Samejima Abiko trotted into the room a little breathlessly. She bent slightly at the door, supporting her knees, and glanced with satisfaction at the actors who were rehearsing enthusiastically. Then she slowly walked to Kindaichi Toshiro and sat down next to the empty chair that had been reserved for her.

She had come here to appreciate up close how the actors performed the scenes and plots of her work "Tokyo BLADE", so she had no intention of disturbing the actors at all. She sat there with her hands supporting her cheeks, and soon she was immersed in the scene of Kitagawa Ryo acting with other actors in front of her. Only after this part was over did she breathe a sigh of relief with contentment and stretch slightly in her chair.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, MEM immediately found the right time to walk over, bowed slightly and said:

"Excuse me, I have a few questions about the script and acting. It would be great if Mr. Kindaichi and Mr. Abiko could give some advice from the perspectives of stage directors and scriptwriters."

Although it is true that she has a very close relationship with Samejima Abiko in private, in a work setting like this, keeping public and private affairs separate is also a rule that everyone needs to abide by.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

Kindaichi Toshiro withdrew his gaze from the side after hearing the voice and replied casually:

"Let's talk and listen."

Although Kindaichi Toshiro, who has been the head of the troupe for many years, has always been majestic and oppressive when facing people other than the Kitagawa siblings, MEM-chu is also experienced and has seen a lot. He spoke in a calm tone about several problems that arose after his first contact with stage performance, and waited for the two's answers in a sincere tone.

"These are some of the more common mistakes that novices make. Don't be too anxious. As long as you practice hard, you will naturally be able to solve them after you become proficient. As for your question about character creation... since Teacher Abizi is here, you can tell us about it."

After saying a few soothing words, Kindaichi Toshiro turned his gaze to Samejima Abiko beside him:

"After all, you are the author of the original work and the scriptwriter for this one."

"Hmm... Regarding this character, wait a moment, I'll look for it."

Samejima Abiko didn't answer immediately, but took out her phone from her pocket, swiped the screen a few times, and nodded as if she had found something:

"It's normal for MEM to feel confused. After all, at first glance, it does seem that the character's personality is quite different in the original work and this stage play. But if you look closely, you'll find that the character's most fundamental core has not changed, which ensures that her basic logic of action will not deviate significantly. MEM just needs to pay attention to this when performing."

"I understand."

After being told so by Samejima Abiko, MEM-chu also understood what she meant. In this chapter of the original work, there were actually nearly ten conflicts of varying sizes between the Shibuya Group where Shoji was and the Shinjuku Group where BLADE was. However, due to the limited length of the stage play, it could only focus on the several key battles between Shoji and BLADE. It just so happened that the role she played, named "Ke", was somewhat different from the two in the original work, but it was obviously unrealistic to complete her plot line in the stage play, so in the end, she could only be cut to the two battle scenes at the beginning and the end.

In fact, the story of this character can be summed up in one simple sentence. At the beginning, as the vanguard of the Shinjuku Group where BLADE was, he had the first conflict with the characters of the Shibuya Group. After being defeated and missing, he returned from training in the penultimate battle, appeared with a broken sword and fought hard to kill the opponent's general "匁". This was also the final highlight of this character in this chapter, and his subsequent appearances would be part of the next chapter.

Of course, this also resulted in the other party not appearing in the same frame with several popular characters almost throughout the entire process. As a result, although the character arc and plot line are very complete, and Samejima Abiko also tried her best to spread her role evenly to adapt to the overall emotional tone of the entire stage play, but how to perform this character growth drama that was specially described in a chapter in the original work but was forced to be reduced and pieced together here has now become a difficult problem for MEM啾.

It must be said that Samejima Abiko now completely believed in Kitagawa Ryo's principle of 'You just write, and leave the rest to the actors'. After saying a few words to MEM啾 that made her a little confused about 'unyielding spirit, belief, friendship, and bond', she felt that the work was done, and immediately gave her an expression that said 'You should have completely understood it'.

Just as MEM啾 was hesitating whether to continue asking, another familiar voice came from behind:

"If you feel like you really don't know where to start, how about trying to start by creating a sense of contrast? Just like the broken sword given in the script."

Kitagawa Ryosho, who had just finished a rehearsal, was wiping the sweat off his face with a dry towel as he walked over here. He smiled heartily at MEM who turned around and continued:

"The drama of growth is actually the drama of change. If you want to show change, contrast is the most common and most effective method. The first thing the audience sees on the stage is the actor's movements and props in his hands. The broken sword is the obvious first image. Following this, MEM can try to study a set of one-handed moves and actions, and then when you first appear on stage, you can show the big and big opening and closing when you use two-handed movements to make it more impressive. This is the second contrasting image."

Although the CP topic has been hotly discussed on the Internet for several years, "Tokyo BLADE" is essentially a youth comic with a passionate fighting theme. In the offline stage play, the characters are naturally required to fight with real swords as much as possible. Therefore, the crew also specially hired relevant action directors and martial arts directors, and props such as wooden swords and hand guards for practice are also fully prepared. Formal practice will start almost tomorrow.