With the hype train for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba running along smoothly, especially after the announcement and trailer release of a Demon Slayer movie covering the manga’s second arc, it’s no surprise that Demon Slayer will also be getting a stage play adaptation early next year. The play will be written and directed by Kenichi Suemitsu, with music by Shunsuke Wada. The play will run from January 18th—26th at The Galaxy Theater in Tokyo, and at AiiA 2.5 Theater Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture from January 31st—February 2nd. Advance ticket sales for Shonen Jump readers will begin November 11th—17th. More information on the stage play can be found on the official website and Twitter.
While visuals have only been released for Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke so far, the casting and costuming for the stage play adaptation are top-notch. Ryota Kobayashi (My Hero Academia The Ultra Stage) has been cast as Tanjiro, Akari Takaishi (Mr. Osomatsu stage play) as Nezuko, Keisuke Ueda (Mr. Osomatsu stage play) as Zenitsu, and Yugo Sato (My Hero Academia The Ultra Stage) as Insosuke. Check out the key visuals for the characters below:
So far, I definitely love the accuracy of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba stage play’s props, such as Nezuko’s bamboo muzzle and Inosuke’s boar mask, as well as the realism of the costumes. They’ve even managed to recreate Zenitsu’s hairstyle in a more realistic way, and though there’s no telling whether Yugo Sato will have to take off his mask as Inosuke at any point during the play, he certainly manages to pull the whole “feral child raised by wild boars” look off nicely. While it’s a shame that most anime-related stage plays don’t make it to the West, (with the exception of Sailor Moon), the play looks like it’ll be a good way to tide over fans until the release of the movie later next year.
Source: Crunchyroll.com (1), (2)