Martine's result was modest, in her view. She wondered what her boss, who was a head chef, would think of her cooking!
@Sugar @122 Generation After a productive day making loco mocos, Mallow's welcome bread, haupia, plate lunches and bread pudding with Nanab sauce, you return to the hotel happy and full of new recipes. Tomorrow, you would travel to Konikoni City, and see a live Gekijou play.
@Sugar @122 Generation Miracolore would give the group a briefing of what to expect on the way. It was nothing like a traditional musical, Brock had said, and while the form was enjoying a renaissance of new material, many of the plays were hundreds of years old, and still enjoyed to this day.
A musical from the ancient times. Alyssa would definitely enjoy this one. She wondered how it would go.
Konikoni City. That was a place of culture, wasn't it? Martine could tell just by looking at the architecture.
@Sugar @122 Generation "The show that you guys are going to see is one of the best loved and oft performed ancient Gekijou shows." Brock explained. "The Goddess' Arrow is probably one of the most popular plays in the ancient Gekijou canon." "Without giving too much away, a hunter spares a goddess' life, and she gives him a magical bow, which he then uses in a tournament to win the archery contest. One of the nobles is not happy about this, and asks the king to give our hero some impossible tasks. But our hero always completes them with the help of the magic bow and the clever goddess." "What these are changes from show to show, but the last one is always a quest to save the princess from a Hydreigon." Ash continues. "This involves gathering some divine jewels to power up the magic bow." "In the end, our hero succeeds, marries the princess, and the jealous noble is stripped of his title and banished." Serena concludes
@Sugar @122 Generation "A Gekijou play is not like a Western play at all." Misty cautions. "Music drives the show--it's not unheard of for whole scenes to play out in song."
Again, something Alyssa had not seen before. These were nothing like the plays she saw back home. Perhaps they were even better...
@Sugar @122 Generation "Everything is stylized." Ash agrees. "The movement, the expressions, the dancing, and even the fighting. "The fighting in a Gekijou play is every kung fu quest you've ever watched turned up to 11." Serena grins.
"I think that's more than enough spoilers you're telling. Where will it be performed?" Martine asked.
@Sugar @122 Generation "We'll be seeing the show the night we arrive in Konikoni." Serena replied. "If you want to see more shows, or explore the city afterwards, we will be staying there for a few days before moving on to the next island."
"Well that's all I needed to hear. I need to do a nice look around the city." Whatever she was doing Alyssa had a plan for it.
@Sugar @122 Generation After a few days of traveling, the group arrived in Konikoni City. "Nope, we're not in a kung fu movie--this place is one of the hot spots of traditional Kantonian culture in Alola." Ash explains. "That..." Serena makes a grand gesture to a building that evoked an ancient castle in Kanto. "is where we are going--the Rakuen Theater."
The theater aptly represented the city's culture, right in the center of everything. It looked packed and rightly so. Something was going on inside.