I went to see Yabu's musical, Haru, on April 23rd! It was my first time attending a Johnny's play/musical and I really enjoyed it! Both his acting and singing were amazing! His singing voice is absolutely gorgeous. He's really suited for musicals.
I doubt there will be a DVD, so Idk if there's any point in putting a spoiler warning, but...
Warning: This plot summary contains spoilers. Lol
Also, this summary isn't 100% because I couldn't understand everything they were saying.
So, the story is about a boy named Haru, who lives in a small, quiet town. When Haru was young, he had to have a heart transplant. His family couldn't afford the surgery, so they started raising funds to cover it. It was just after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and some people in town judged them for raising money for themselves rather than disaster relief. Some even questioned whether Haru deserved the heart when a donor was found. Eventually they raised the money and Haru's surgery was a success. However, he was ostracized at school and became depressed. He ended up quitting the soccer team and shutting people out.
His mother has him periodically write letters to the parents of the person whose heart he received. After hearing what the townspeople are saying about him he starts to doubt whether he deserved the heart too. He lies in his letters and pretends to be really smart, talented, and successful in hopes that the parents will consider him deserving of their child's heart. He even lies to his family, pretending he's happy and that everything is fine. However, in reality things are far from fine. He's so depressed that he feels like maybe his real self died along with his heart and now the one living is not him, but just the donated heart and the more he lies in his letters the more his real self dies. At one point he even says that he wishes the roles had been reversed, that he'd died and donated his heart to someone instead.
One day, his sole friend, Shuichi, invites him to come watch a meteor shower with he and his friends, but Haru becomes so uncomfortable that he ends up leaving early. The next day he meets a girl, Mayu, who's new to town. She asks him if there's a gym where she can practice boxing and invites him to try it too. After losing interesting in everything since his depression set in, Haru finally finds something that makes him happy again. He becomes engrossed in boxing.
One of the local business owners decides to organize a small, town Olympics to try and liven things up and makes Haru's first boxing match the main event. Unfortunately, this causes Haru to become even more ostracized. The townspeople assume it was Haru's idea because he wants to be the center of attention again.
I didn't really understand the parts of the story about his father and Shuichi and I don't think it's really that important, but I'll try to explain as much as I can. Several years ago they tried to build some sort of spa or resort or something to boost the economy... or something. Haru's dad was working on the project and he ended up dying of overwork... I think. The project was cancelled and the site turned into a dump. For some reason Haru, Shuichi, and the other kids go to the dump and are attacked by ghosts or something? And Mayu was on the ghosts' side? It was weird. Somehow that leads to Haru getting into a fight with Shuichi and telling him he doesn't have to pity him anymore and that he can stop pretending to be his friend. Shuichi says something about him being scared that he would get sick and end up like Haru too, but then they make up and Shuichi comes to support Haru at his match? Idek.
Anyway, Haru ends up losing his match, but Mayu gives him a pep talk before revealing that she's the ghost of the girl whose heart he has. In life, she also became ostracized by her friends and boxing cheered her up so she came to help him. Then she disappears. Haru goes to visit her parents and admits that he'd been lying to them. They get upset, but he apologizes and they forgive him. They listen to their daughter's heart beating in his chest and are glad that a piece of her lives on in him. The end.
Now I understand why Hikaru said he wanted to see it twice. The plot twist at the end made me want to see it again too! Now that I think about it, even though she was on stage with a bunch of different characters, I don't think Mayu ever interacted with anyone besides Haru!
As a side note, one of my favorite parts was when Haru's mother tried to convince him to go back to soccer and he said he didn't want to. Yabu LOVES soccer. I wonder if it was a coincidence or if the writers specifically chose that sport because of him. Lol
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