MAG!C☆PRINCE RUSH~ Kitto, Itsuka Review

 

Hmm.. I’m a bit lazy to do my translation right now so.. I guess I might as well review this to distract myself.

RUSH ~ Kitto, itsuka is a short movie collaboration with Kitkat, released in two part at 9 and 10 January 2017. Actually not only movie, they also collaborated in making a Kitkat packages that consist of Kitkats that have messages from Magipri members on it. The purpose of this movie and the packages is to encourage highschool students who was about to facing their final exam soon (maybe about 2 weeks after the movie is released, I forgot), so the main theme is about “cheering” them. Hence explaining the cheerleading thing.

Furuhata Nao, a SKE 48 member is also guesting in this movie as the club manager.

If you haven’t know about Magipri then please read this

The movie is released for free in youtube so you can watch it here

.

.

Onto the story.

The movie was started with Taishin, Kaoru, Hikaru, Shuhei and Kengo handing out flyers to the school’s student in their own way. If you know MajiDora, they wear the same uniform again, which in real life is a real uniform for Watanabe High School, a school made by Watanabe Entertainment for their idols. Fyi, the members of the famous vocal group Little Glee Monsters are also studying in that school.

This is the legendary scene which made all the fans teases Kaoru so much after watching the movie, the kabedon (wall-slam) scene lol

 

Apparently the flyers was to invite them all to come see the cheerleading club practice after school. In the practice session, they performed their cheerleading and made a human pyramid, accompanied by their new song, RUSH (the same title with the movie).

Tbh I’ve watched one episode of HonkiPri about them learning cheerleading from a real cheerleader club, so I laughed myself when I see this since they use the exact same routine like they learned in HonkiPri. But on the bright side, the random skill they got in one opisode can benefit them in making this movie, since they didn’t have to learn cheerleading from scratch again. Though, if you have watched a real cheerleading performance you must’ve known that they did a really simple performance. Thank god Taishin can do acrobats to cover it a little.

The uniform is nice tho, and the club’s name is RUSHERS

(the short pants hshshhs)

.

So after the performance, though there are many spectators, no one still wants to join the cheerleading club, and only the five of magipuri members are left in the club. The members began to joke if it was because Taishin did to many acrobats and that scared off the people who wants to join, which Taishin retorted with “it’s because Kaoru did the Kabedon thing” lol. They all laughed, except for Kengo.

Hikaru noticed Kengo’s face was pale, and asked him if he gets any sleep recently. Kengo said he sleep but since his piano competition is coming up, he spends his night practicing piano. Taishin commented that their exam was also near so he shouldn’t overdo it. Yeah, they are already in their senior years and about to face their final exam soon. Their conversation was stopped because Nao called them to continue their practice.

.

When they’re not practicing their cheerleading, they studied together in the classroom. Shuhei kept muttering about how hard the problem is, disturbing the others. Hikaru then realized Kengo was not there and asked Kaoru where Kengo went. Kaoru answered that Kengo got a perfect score so he can skip studying with them and practice his piano instead. Hikaru was amazed with the fact, and wondered when did Kengo even study to get that score, since he did cheerleading after school and practicing piano in the night.

Kengo actually can really play piano, though he rarely show it. He said he practiced hard for this piano scene

.

.

In the way home, the boys are doing some fun Q&A study session about their English vocab. So Kengo would throw them an english word and they will guess what it means in Japanese. In this scene Shuhei was highlighted the most since he did many answering, though wrong, or protesting when Kaoru was the one who answered before him. Though he finally answered one right. Then Taishin encouraged Kengo to work hard on his piano competition, and kengo commented that they should also work hard in their study.

This one is a legendary scene which all the members confessed was Shuhei’s pure adlib, and they didn’t really expected that it would get into the movie. I believe Shuhei did many other adlib in this movie though lol since he was very natural as a supporting character.

.

So the next day they were doing their practice as usual, but Kengo fell off. The others offered to take a break but Kengo insisted on keep going on. And then the worst happened, Kengo fell again, now unconcious which make the others panicked.

And this became the cliffhanger of the first part. Now onto part 2 of the movie! ^^

The other members were very down about the incident. Kaoru was blaming himself to not realize Kengo’s condition. Shuhei said he wouldn’t know if it would be a sickness. Taishin tried to calm them down by saying everything would be alright. He also said that they should do what they can do. Kaoru get irked by the statement and commented how can Taishin said that so easily. Taishin got angry, because of course it’s not easy for him too. He pounced at Kaoru.

This scene was Taishin’s and Kaoru’s most favorite scene in the movie since it was hard for them to acted out the scene, while they hardly get fight in real life

The fight was stopped by Nao, who screamed at them. She then told them that Kengo contacted her, asking about the other members, whether they are fighting, or practicing, he was worried about them. “You guys are cheerleaders right!?” her scolding made magipri members realized what they could do for Kengo. They then left in a rush. Nao smiled watching them off.

Honestly Nao is so cute. She was really calm and refreshing, though at first I thought she wouldn’t play an important role like this.

So they went to do their cheerleading. They cheered Kengo from afar, when apparently Kengo’s sickness was really bad he needs to do an operation. Anyway, I really love how this cheering scene is portrayed! I mean, they were two different scene, Kengo who was about to get operated and the others who were doing cheerleading but they were all connected into a beautiful scene aaaahh. The RUSH song was somehow also really good to make it more dramatic hshshs. (Fyi RUSH was made the coupling song for Magipri’s newest single, UPDATE, so if you like the song you should buy it! ^^)

 Like when Kengo step down with his feet and the next picture will go to the members also stepping their feet.

 Or when Kengo closed his eyes, and the then it connects with taishin who opened his eyes.

It was really aesthetic! The director did a great job! ^o^

So anyway, they did the same routine like in the first movie, just now without Kengo, and now they are cheering on Kengo.

This scene was short but also really shows their despair, I love it

.

.

So the operation turned out to be a success. Kengo woke up to find a box beside his hospital bed. It was a Kitkat box filled with Kitkats that have messages behind them, written by other members. Shuhei write “Without you, school is boring”. Hikaru wrote “Your sleeping face is cute. I’ll come again”. I can’t read Taishin’s and Kaoru’s though, because they weren’t shown clearly. Kengo immediately went crying (altough smiling) while reading his friend’s messages. I think this scene is cute. Because in real life, your best friend wouldn’t just say “get well soon” like normal, but they would say it in their own cheering word, and I would appreciate it more than the casual gws.

The boys are back to their studying session, when Nao suddenly appeared and giving them Kitkats. The boys thanked her but she said it was not from her. When they saw it, it was actually from Kengo, who wrote his messages in the back too! He wrote “Cheer up” to them.

Kaoru was laughing, since Kengo’s situation was more difficult than them , yet he still tried to cheer them up. They all stared at their Kitkats.

They were then shown to be doing their own things separately, like Shuhei who went to a temple to pray, Kaoru who was waiting for his bus, hikaru who spaced out at a stair, and Taishin who walked home. They all received a video message from Kengo on their phone.

Kengo then cheered them one by one, like telling how Taishin to start the test with the easiest problem first, or so Hikaru wouldn’t get too worried, he should rap a new song. The video was made even when Kengo still in hospital. They all smiled watching the video. By the way, the background music here is “SAKURA my friends”, also their new song. Too bad it didn’t get into a single yet. The song is nice. But if you like them it seems like it was available for payable download in i-tunes and amazon.

Isn’t it nice getting cheered on by a cute kid like Kengo?

I also really love this scene, how they looks like they finally found their resolve in their own expression. Like Taishin and Hikaru who was smiling, or for Kaoru, his bus was coming for him.

.

But!!!! My most favorite scene of the movie is definitely this!!

Shuhei walking in the temple!!

The scene is really pretty and Shuhei’s smile is also pretty and the song fits perfectly with the scene!  It’s a very light scene but also strong! Hnghh!

.

.

Ahem anyway, in the end they finally graduated. They are walking beside the river while looking at their graduation certificate. Taishin was caught staring at his Kitkat from Kengo, which he hadn’t eaten yet.

And surprisingly, Kengo was infront of them, waiting for them there without his uniform. Looks like he was finally discharged from the hospital and healthy again. He said that he would try the competition again next year, since his dream is to cheer all the people in the world with his piano. Hikaru and Taishin quickly answered that he definitely can do it. Kengo smiled and asked them to cheer for him. Kaoru picked Kengo up onto his shoulder, and they ran happily to their future.

(Watch the credits! The pics are sooo cute!)

.

Comment:

Okay, honestly I had a mixed feeling when I watched this the first time it was released. Because at that time, even though in the movie it was Kengo who fell sick, in the real time it was Shuhei who fell sick after performing their 3rd concert (This movie was released right after the concert). He went hiatus for a whole week, missing the 111 album release events. The fans were really worried about him. And when magipri members were doing Line Live to comment about this movie, Shuhei wasn’t there so they talked about Shuhei’s part too and tried to lighten up the live which is not as noisy without Shuhei. But Kengo who never talk much, actually tried his best doing many talking here, and I was really proud for him about this, since it shows he really changed now. Though, Shuhei complained later that the others were not contacting him at all when he was sick because they were very busy with the release event lol.

Ah, back to the topic. This movie was really good. I won’t comment about the story since it was so simple, but the scene, they were delivered very neatly and beautifully, I must really praise the director and the cameraman for this! The director was the one who also made Imoto no Wifi CM where Magipri members are also in it.

Magipri member’s acting also improved in this, especially Kengo who did the crying scene. And I must praise Shuhei for being the best side character there. He didn’t do anything major, but he felt natural standing there. And when I know that they were all adlib, I become more proud of him.

The only thing I don’t like is maybe the dramatic parts of this movie..like when Kengo fell or Taishin and Kaoru got into a fight.. maybe because I’m not into dramatic things. At least they’re still tolerable.

Oh almost forgot. Did you know that the title is some kind of pun? lol

The RUSH is from the new song RUSH, but the Kitto, Itsuka is resounding with KitKat (in Japan Kitkat was read as kitokato”. Kitto with kitokato lol. “Kitto, itsuka” itself means “Someday, for sure”.

Anyway, I hope you exam students feel at least a bit cheered up after watching this movie. Anything can happen, but we must face them in our own way, together with our friends.. I think it was the message that this movie was trying to deliver.

Well, I’m looking forward for the next acting from Magipri! ^^

Thanks for reading!