Sohu Entertainment (by Ma Rongling) Recently, the HYPER PROJECTION stage play Haikyu!! held a press event in Shanghai, officially announcing the start of its China tour, which will stage 39 performances across six cities: Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Beijing. Chief director Worry Kinoshita expressed full confidence in the show, giving it a perfect score.
The scale of this Haikyu!! China tour is unprecedented. According to reports, it is not only the stage play series' first tour of the Chinese mainland, but also the largest overseas production ever staged by its publisher, manga giant Shueisha's Weekly Shonen JUMP. Starting August 16, the China tour has officially raised its curtain, playing in the six cities of Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Beijing in turn, for a total of 39 performances.
Since its premiere in 2015, the series has produced 11 productions in Japan, fully telling the inspiring story of the Karasuno High School volleyball club — from a fallen powerhouse mocked as "crows that can't fly" to a finely honed, strongest team returning to the national stage. The production chosen for this China tour is where the series' dream began: a newly upgraded version based on the 2015 premiere and the 2016 revival "The View from the Summit." This means Chinese audiences will witness with their own eyes the starting point where Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama first meet and the "fallen powerhouse" Karasuno takes flight again, reliving the most primal, purest emotion of the original work.
For this momentous China tour, the production team assembled a brand-new cast to breathe fresh life into the classic characters. These youthful faces full of boyish spirit seem to break through the dimensional wall, stepping straight out of Haruichi Furudate's original manga. Raimu Ninomiya, who plays protagonist Shoyo Hinata, and Shoa Hara, who plays Tobio Kageyama, will form the new "KageHina duo" — how they use their bodies and performances to portray the unique chemistry between these "strongest teammates" is a focal point for fans.
Notably, this China tour also invited Worry Kinoshita, chief director of the original stage play series, to direct. At the press event, when a reporter asked Director Kinoshita to score the China tour, the director did not hesitate to give it full marks.
"Like being courtside at a real volleyball match" — this has been the core philosophy of the Haikyu!! stage play series since its inception. To recreate the ever-changing sense of speed and power of a 2D volleyball match on a 3D stage, the creative team developed a unique staging technique called "HYPER PROJECTION" (hyper projection). At its core, the system deeply integrates the actors' live performance with precisely choreographed multimedia projections, lighting and music. Even more stunning, the manga's panel layouts, speed lines, and even onomatopoeia like "BAM!" and "WHOOSH!" appear in real time through HD projections on the backdrop and floor, seamlessly synced with the actors' movements to create the visual spectacle of a "manga leaping off the page." Over the full 150 minutes (including intermission), audiences will take away not only the satisfaction of a faithful "ultimate recreation" of the classic story, but an immersive audiovisual feast that engages every sense.
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