The one for me.

YANAGI KOTARO

ryoma echizen

(2003 ~ 2005)

(don't worry! he's still alive! he's 23 years old, same as Shirota ^^)

Yanagi Kotaro is the actor for Ryoma Echizen for the Musical Prince of Tennis from 2003 - 2005. He is talented in singing and dancing and enjoys participating in musicals. His dream is to become a professonial dancer when he grows up. He did a good job in the first Prince of Tennis Musical. He sang very well! And he dances well too! The video above is from the first Prince of Tennis Musical (I love that song. Its so catchy!) He sings well, and dances well, right?

But in 2004, after a rehearsal for Remarkable 1st Match: Fudomine, less than two weeks before it was due to open, Yanagi was in an accident. He was hit by a car while going home from the rehearsal. He had extensive damage to his body and vocal cords and was unconscious for two weeks. Doctors predicted he would be bedridden for the rest of his life. After waking up, Yanagi weighed around 30 kg and was unable to get up at all.

However, Yanagi was able to make a miraculous recovery and is currently strong enough to act again, although he had difficulty with his dancing and singing. His recovery time prevented him from playing in Remarkable 1st and the next two Prince of Tennis musicals (in which he was replaced by J-Pop singer Kimeru and Yuya Endo, respectively).

He was able to come back for the Side Fudomine musical where he shared the role of Echizen with Endo, but he only acted in stand still scenes while Endo did the dancing and tennis match choreography. He did not appear in the Side Yamabuki musical. After Endo graduated from the musicals after Dream Live 2nd (in which he and Yanagi again shared the role), Yanagi continued playing Echizen for three more shows; although he played the tennis matches, his movements were still slow, and many of the dancing skits he was in had limited choreography so he could keep up with the rest of the cast, and vice versa for them.

Because of his accident, Yanagi wasn't able to join his fellow castmates in the Prince of Tennis live film adaptation. At the same time, the directors wanted to cast someone younger for the role, as Yanagi was 20 years old at the time. Actor Kanata Hongo was cast as the movie's Echizen.

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I decided to post about him, because I watched DreamLive 3rd, which was his and Shirota's batch's graduating show. He practically cried at the end (everyone did). He did a speech (a quaky one, he couldn't speak smoothly), and talked about his accident and he thanked everyone for helping him and letting him come back to play Ryoma.

At that point, I was wondering: Is that why his singing sucked? I thought his singing sucked. Until I watched that video above. He HAD a great voice. But then he had to meet with an accident. Now he can't sing properly. And I cried too. It was pretty sad, but I was glad Yanagi-san made a full recovery.

Good Job! You are a good Ryoma!

And not forgetting Shirota's Semi-solo!!!!!

~ ch