[dreamcastegirl]

In a flash of strong and elegant good fortune, I discovered F2's translation of TRUMP, and I am absolutely taken aback by the beauty and tragedy of the story it so masterfully tells. This play evokes the kind of feeling we sometimes mistakenly associate with the work of Anne Rice, and it is my genuine opinion that, whilst clearly building on the shoulders of what Rice has contributed to vampire mythos, TRUMP is an encapsulation of those themes of loneliness and distance from others so beautiful in its construction that I haven't been able to stop thinking of it.

Set 3000 years before the main events of LILIUM, the story takes place within the similarly titled Clan, a vast school for young vamps going through the chrysalis. When I was trying to make sense of the later play, I thought that it was set in the year 2500, but it turns out that the events simply begin 2500 years after this one. The Clan here is likewise echoed in the title and objectives of the sanatarium in the latter play, and you could be forgiven for thinking that during the first 30 minutes of so, the one play is simply a retelling of events from the other with different actors and characters expressing the same sentiments. It's not though, and it makes sense as to why Sophie would arrange the events of LILIUM as he does by the time we reach the end of TRUMP.

Our main characters are, once more, Sophie Anderson (Nishii Yukito), and his friend, Ul de Rico (Mitsuya Ryou). Both boys are dhampirs, though, with Sophie the truth is out in the open, yet for Ul, being of a noble family, the secret of such is closely guarded. Through them we are introduced to the world of the play, the teachers who guide the vamps through their chrysalis, the students that roam the halls, competing to be the best at the forthcoming Blood Festival. Amongst the teachers, is the absentminded Krauss (Jinnai Sho), a stumbling and harmless elder vampire constantly losing track of his wayward charge, Allen (Yamada Yuuki). As the story progresses, we learn that the scenes we have been witness to are events that take place 100 years apart; the Allen for which Krauss searches in the present is revealed to be his cat, named after his pupil, Allen, who lost his life in a siege by human villagers of the Clan when it was discovered that he has begun a relationship with a human woman of their village, Maribelle. At the last, as Allen is dying, Krauss reveals himself to be TRUMP, True of Vamp, the first, and now last, of the immortal vampires, the one from whom all others are descended. He tries to make Allen accept eternal life, but the boy refuses and dies in his arms. Learning that Maribelle is pregnant with Allen's child, Krauss promises that he will watch over his bloodline forever.

Thus it is that when Sophie, a direct descendant of Allen and Maribelle, finds himself mortally wounded by the arrogant and irredeemable Angelico Fra (Shison Jun), a member of an elite family that has a historical rivalry with the de Rico family, Sophie is thus rescued by Ga Banli (Tsuchiya Shion), a mysterious transfer student who is later revealed to be a human sent by the Blood Parliament of elder vampires to deal with the potential of a very dangerous situation—a situation that manifests itself as Krauss reveals his identity and destroys those who have harmed Sophie. Desperate to extend his life, to escape the short-lived fate of all dhampir, Ul tries to bargain with the mad Krauss and fails, falling like so many others, as Krauss is fixated solely on Sophie. Against Sophie's wishes, Krauss bestows on him the gift of eternal life.

This moment is tragic and poignant and saddening, and it made think of how a similar situation was handled in The Tale of the Body-Thief by Anne Rice, and it is hard-hitting in its weight and severity, striking the viewer as a moment of genuine sorrow and tragedy in a way that Rice absolutely failed to convey 21 years earlier. The play ends with Sophie talking directly to us, the audience, as he tells us that he has not seen Krauss since the events of those days, and that he will continue to search the world for that other elder vampire, and will one day find a way to convince him to end his life, all of which makes the path he goes down during LILIUM even more tragic and sorrowful.

Staged by the collective, D2, who in turn are a part of the broader D-BOYS group managed by Watanabe Entertainment, TRUMP is quite possibly one of the best vampire stories I've encountered in recent years. You should probably all know by now that I'm quite picky about vampire stories, so I guess this stands as my recommendation by itself, but in case that's not enough, and you need me to tell your directly, then I absolutely believe you should watch this play and I'm sad that you've read through this post and spoiled yourself, but whatever the case, TRUMP is an amazing story and we should all be singing writer and director Suemitsu Kenichi's praises more than we actually do.