Bringing the spirit of sports onto the stage has long fascinated directors around the world. From Woman Basketball Player No. 5 to Match Point, from Leap to F1: The Movie — different sports, different techniques, yet the emotion of competitive athletics is universal.
Shanghai's stage play market is also riding a sports wave. Recently, the stage play Haikyu!! brought a "sports feast" made for Generation Z to Chinese audiences who love youth and passion.
This China tour of the stage play Haikyu!! plays in the six cities of Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Beijing in turn, for a total of 39 performances.
Haikyu!! is a red-hot Japanese anime and manga IP. It tells the story of the Karasuno High School volleyball team — once a fallen powerhouse mocked as "crows that can't fly" — which finally hones itself into the strongest team and returns to the national stage. The inspiring coming-of-age story has moved generation after generation of young people.
The production for this China tour is a newly upgraded version. Chinese audiences will witness the starting point of the "fallen powerhouse" Karasuno taking flight again, and relive the most primal, purest emotion of the original work.
"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. When the "revolving turntable" stage beloved by fans begins to rotate, together with the actors' explosively dynamic, dance-like choreography, the back-and-forth of the match unfolds before your eyes like flowing water. More remarkably, 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, creating the visual effect of a "manga leaping off the page."
The story of Haikyu!! tells us: hunger for victory, hold on to your dreams, chase the future — this is how the young should burn!
