Bakumatsu Prince (幕末☆PRINCE) or usually called Bakupuri Bakupuri is a drama where all Magipri members acted as shinsengumi members. Kengo as Okita Souji, Taishin as Isami Kondo, Shuhei as Saito Hajime, Kaoru as Hijikata Toushiro, and Hikaru as Yamanami Keisuke. The five shinsengumi members time-traveled 150 years to the future and then learn to live as a modern person, as they also teach the viewers about history.
The drama was aired in September 2016 at Nagoya TV, while the DVD was out at February 2017. The drama only has 12 episodes, each is 8 minutes long. The opening song is their Over the Rainbow, and the ending song is Glory World. Each episodes usually consists of 2 skits, separated by a segment of sweet words from one member to the viewer. One episodes also contains many quotes from famous people that also connects to the story.
By the way, there are also many Watanabe Entertainment (WE) actors coming to the drama as guest and acted as other bakumatsu era’s character:
Tanaka Takushi as Sakamoto Ryoma
Ikeoka Ryosuke as Ito Shunsuke
Maeyama Takahisa as Yamagata Aritomo
K DUBSHINE as Serizawa Kamo
Mikami Masashi as Takasugi Shinsaku
Barbie as Atsu Hime
Araki Hirofumi as Okada Izo
Katou Ayumu as the manager of KachiKachi Yama store
Abareru-kun as Saigo Takamori
Chan Kawai as the self-proclaimed reincarnation of Yamanami
.
This time the drama focuses on comedy and it was really funny! ^^
But to be honest, it would be kinda hard to understand if you don’t know anything about Japanese history….and it happens to me orz
I only know a bit about shinsengumi so there are many times I don’t quite understand the joke or the relationship is about.. I have to google them.. but fortunately the characters are all developed with magipri member’s traits so you can also enjoy them as they are without too much thinking about history. Yeah, you can enjoy Okita Souji playing with camera, or Yamanami doing rap here. And the joke is really hilarious! Especially since I was always a fans of WE actors/D-Boys’ jokes all this time, the type of joke really match my laughing box lmao
(in case you didn’t know, WE is famous for their comedians)
Though each episode is only 8 minutes, they felt quite long.. and seriously I need more episodes of this bakupuri thing! I wish it was longer… oh anyway, they did a butai (stageplay) of bakupuri combined with live performance in Honda Theatre this April.. I hope they’re going to release a DVD of it since I want more of bakupuri but I can’t attend it…
More importantly, all of magipri’s member’s acting has really improved A LOT!!
They’re still awkward but their acting was really good! If i have to score it, Taishin and Kengo would be the number one member who improved most! Well actually Kengo’s acting was crappy when he does the usual trying to be cute scene but all the yandere/battle/bitchy acting was really superb and I hope he would get scouted to become a villain in other Japanese drama because he is so evil! lol
(Btw, Kengo get to act in a new drama “Boku wa Mari-chan no Naka”, acting as a little brother.. tho i didn’t read the manga so I don’t know about the story and Kengo’s character)
Taishin’s acting felt the most natural, somehow he really looks like an old man inside ^^
Oh and Kaoru is, as always, doing many fun expressions and overdramatizing his scene..if it was a serious drama I would get irked but since this is comedy drama, I will praise him since his expressions are really hilarious! taishin and Kaoru got the most funny expressions here! lol
Shuhei and Hikaru also improved, but as usual their character is more of a supporting character. Shuhei’s character of always being ignored is priceless tho lol. And I always laugh whenever Hikaru rapped while Taishin didn’t understand what his friend’s doing.
Anyway this time I won’t review the drama too detailed like my majidora post.. since there are also parts I don’t understand and since it was comedy, spoiling the story would take away the fun of the jokes before you watch it yourselves.. so sorry if this post is a bit short. But if there’s something that caught your interest, just comment and I’ll give you a more detailed info about it!
By the way, just for your information, my favorite skit is the swordfight between Shuhei and Kengo ^^
The shinsengumis found themselves time-slipping into the future and arrived at a neat sharehouse to live in. Yes, the scene would 70% take place in this room. Somehow, someone prepared the comfy house for them to live in, though we don’t have to think hard about it since this is just comedy.
It was filled with so many random things, and the house also has a kitchen, also a rooftop where the shinsengumis practice their sword up there.
They met Sakamoto Ryoma, their vowed enemy, who also time-slipped into this period since three years ago. This Sakamoto Ryoma always gave them a bad feeling, like a drunken old man lol. He works as a freeter (a person who is doing many part time jobs) and one of them is pizza delivery boy. Oh, and he also carries his infamous handgun pistol everywhere. Unlike other guests, Sakamoto Ryoma appears in a few episode, while the others usually only appear in one episode. He likes to hang out in shinsengumi’s sharehouse.
Btw, since I don’t know about history, I wonder why is only Saito Hajime (Shuhei) doesn’t know Sakamoto Ryoma. I thought all of Shinsengumi always fight with Ryoma?
And when I see Ryoma I felt that I’ve seen him somewhere else… turns out Tanaka Takushi acted as Ohsugi-sensei in Kamen Rider Fourze back then! Lol he’s really a funny man! ^^
Kondou Isami is the leader of shinsengumi. But Taishin’s Isami is a naive, not-used-to-modern-thing man lol. He would always get confused on what the others are doing, not knowing how to open a bottle, mistaking a soap bottle with a juice bottle, or fearing his soul would get taken if Kengo’s Okita photograph him. He’s carefree, but also like to scold other. For me, his reaction and naiveness is the highlight of this drama lol.
Okita Souji, a far as I know, is called a genius samurai and the strongest in shinsengumi. Kengo’s Okita is a pretty, cute man, like to take picture of things. His personality would change whenever he get hold of a weapon (like knife), he would become scary and want to cut things. But in battle he prefer to use food as his weapon (potato and france bread). He can also moves 10x faster than normal people. In this drama he is not sick like he’s famous with, rather a too strong character.
In this drama, Kaoru’s Hijikata is..like, the usual goofy Kaoru. I thought Hijikata’s nickname is some kind of demon commander? Well, Hijikata here is just like Kaoru in majidora, kinda paired and has a crush on Kengo (Okita). Maybe because the first scene of him was him accidentally reading a weird fantasy novel of shinsengumi where Okita was set to be actually a girl and falls in love with Hijikata. In the later episodes, Hijikata and Okita would often seen always together. Hijikata also push himself to drink a shoyo sauce for soba (he mistook it for cola) since Okita wants him to try it and hijikata doesn’t want Okita to be sad if he refuse the weird tasting drink, to the point he faints after finishing it.
There is a scene where Hijikata is working in a cabaret club called Ikedaya, which is a joke of Kaoru’s drama ‘OL desuga, kyabajo Hajimemashita’ where he was working as a waiter in a cabaret, while the Ikedaya is the famous inn name in the shinsengumi history.
Yamanami Keisuke.. I only know that he’s the vice commander of Shinsengumi? So this fits well with Hikaru who takes care of other members together with taishin. He mostly doing rap or commenting about modern things with Kondo. He also has a guy who claims that he is Yamanami’s reincarnation in this era, which makes the real Yamanami confused. Seriously Hikaru lacked screentime and jokes here.
Shuhei’s character is what I don’t understand the most.. he plays as Saito Hajime. Well, from what I know he was often said to be a mysterious person. In this drama his character would so often being forgotten and ignored, just like Shuhei in majidora.. He seems to not know many people while the others know, but there are also times when he is the only one who recognize them, like when he know about the shogun. His highlight is also that he has a laser sword that can cut through and burn everything, to the point that when it cut through food they will be cooked instantly.
Btw interesting trivia here is.. in the history, Saito Hajime was the same age with Okita Souji, this somehow coincidental with Shuhei and Kengo who are also the same age and even share the same birthday ^^
And another interesting trivia.. Saito Hajime is said to admire Hijikata very much and was very loyal to him. This reminds me of Shuhei who really like and admire Kaoru so much in the real life lol.
Takasugi Shinsaku.. I don’t know anything about him at all, but his character here is portrayed to be a prankster who likes to surprise and tease the shinsengumi. He is so random and free that we could not understand what he thinks about. Anyway, I heard that Mikami Masashi is doing so many adlibs here, like the guitar.. and he praised magipri members that they can keep up with his adlib joke. Well if you know his real personality then his appearance will felt funnier, like how he was a gardener so he would admire a bonsai and call it with “–sama”. Too bad Mikami graduated from D-boys now..
Mae-chan and Ikepi! If you are familiar with D-Boys you must have known them already. Or maybe you know Mae-chan from when he was playing Gremlin in Kamen Rider Wizard, or Ikepi when he was acting as Kaidoh in Prince of Tennis Musical. The joke is, Mae-chan is acting as a shogun with Ikepi, while he himself is a real richboy in real life.
Arayan! I was surprised that he played a serious character here, since I was too used to his goofiness in his other roles.
The others are WE comedians…sorry that I don’t comment on them since I barely know them orz
But please enjoy some screenshots of them below!
Plus point: Super funny joke, Shinsengumi for shinsengumi fetish fangirl, Kengo with a dress, the video’s saturation was better than majidora
Minus point: Confusing for Japanese history newbs like me, the episodes are too short, the love message are kinda cringey, too free-adapted that could maybe irked shinsengumi diehard fangirls
Overall, I really love this, and once again.. I want more! Even if it’s not about shinsengumi anymore, I want them to do this kind of comedy drama! ^^
If you can, please support them by buying this DVD! It’s really worth it and funny and interesting that you can’t stop replaying them! XD
You can buy the DVD here
Rainbow Pudding 
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