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This is a collection of when Sienne where mistaken for Men. I found this on Twitter and some of these are already known but it’s nice to see them all in one post. This was rough translation so there might be some mistakes :’)

Todoroki Yuu - After an Austrian staff member saw the first performance of Elizebeth they commented saying “I thought it was an all female cast but isn’t a man also here?”

Kouju Tatsuki dog who never barks at women (only at men) barked at Todoroki Yuu.

A Gay French man hit on Todoroki Yuu. She didn’t understand him when he approached but figured she was hitting on her however her friend later explained to her that he mistaked her for a gay man.

This one is a pretty old story (I don’t know which Yuki members were there) but once a group of Yukigumi sienne went to the hot springs and when they entered the older ladies there started yelling thinking they were men.

Matobu Sei -Matobu Sei once accidentally bewildered her grandmother when she called her and was like ‘hello grandma it’s me!’ without identifying herself first; her poor grandmother thought it was a man trying to scam her since her voice was too deep. her mother also took her for her brother once. (Thank you @kittychan-sings-enka )

Kiriya Hiromu - During a drive in Morimoto she was mistaken for a American car driving blond haired cheeky man. (This one I’m a little confused by)

Yuumi Hiro- while buying a accessories for Sumireno Rei at a store she was asked by an employee “Is that’s gift for your girlfriend?”

Hokushou Kairi - One morning her father called her and since she just woken up her voice was pretty deep when she answered. Her father in surprised said “Oh, honey (micchans mom) there’s a man in Michiko’s room!”

Toki Irisu - when she was in the women’s washroom a lady walked in and when she saw her said “Sorry I’ve made a mistake” while flustered.

Hanagata Hikaru - A kyabajyo (cabaret hostesses) trying to get customers approached her.

Saou Kurama - While receiving a delivery at home, the delivery person remarked “Today only the son is at home?”

Houshou Dai - She was hit on by 2 women at a bar.

Makaze Suzuho - while at Disney land someone commented saying “Wow, what hosts have to do have increased”

Minami Maito & Yuzuka Rei - during a Tokyo Disney Land trip with two fellow 95th musumeyaku, Maitii and Rei arrived later but saw that the two musemyaku were being hit on by 2 other guys, however once they approached them one of guys said “What the hell!? You’re with your boyfriends?” Before running off.

Minami Maito - Maitii went to a pancakes shop with Ema Otohane. Maitii left her seat for a moment and the girls sitting at the table came up to Ema and saying “Is that your boyfriend? He’s so handsome!”

Nanami Hiroki - She got hit on by a women but responded saying “Is it alright that I’m a woman?”

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Translated Takarazuka shows

Please read and respect the rules of the translators.

Takarazuka is very strict on copyright, and with the exception of Takarazuka Insanity Project, which provides subtitled shows, all the other links provided here do not include videos.

If you’re new to Takarazuka, and are unable to purchase the official DVD/Blu-Ray releases, there are other fans who stream their shows from time to time (some of which are subtitled). You can look at the Takarazuka Trello, the Takarazuka tag on tumblr, or other Takarazuka accounts to see if anyone is streaming.

Takarazuka Insanity Project They have 38 subtitled shows available. They offer DVD releases of their subtitled shows if you pay for the material charge and shipping.

TakaWiki They have a list of translated scripts/subtitles.

Zukalations (@zukalations) There are many scripts available here, and many more shows that are planned for future translation.

Maka(ze) (Trans)lations (@makalations) - A song for kingdoms - Shakespeare - Château de la Reine

1789: The Lovers of Bastille (@chibimyumi)

A Passage Through the Light ~Maximilien Robespierre, the Revolutionary~ (@raffaelaottanio​ & @berncat​)

Alice’s Lover

Baddy (@berncat & @grunneamore)

Elisabeth 2009 (@chibimyumi)

Napoleon - The Man Who Never Sleeps (@myheart-translations)

I (@adorare)​ also have a few translations which are listed here.

@thamychan​ has some subbed videos of individual songs here.

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『CASANOVA』

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Musical Sailor Moon: Amour Eternal (2016) - Audio commentary footage

The proof that the 5 girls are really the fans of Outer Senshi XDD

(Kaede and RimoRimo are especially a big fans of Uranus)

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Megumi Ogata, original voice actress of Sailor Uranus collaborated with Masako Katsuki, original voice actress of Sailor Neptune to bring us Moon Revenge (2017 version)!

(ugh THOSE FEELS T.T)

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So I made some highly scientific charts of Takarazuka top star types sorted chronologically by troupe. It wasn’t easy to fit everyone into types and I’m sure there will be plenty of disagreement. With top stars who have done a lot of different things I tried to go by what I perceive as the most dominant or important aspect of their image or stage persona.

The musumeyaku classification system is less complex than the otokoyaku one but I think that’s fair - musumeyaku get a lot less space to develop and come in fewer basic types. It was hard though! I don’t have a clear idea of many of them and had to base the classification on very flimsy evidence indeed. (I got to watch some great top musumeyaku clip compilations on Youtube to get a better idea so that was fun.)

What we can learn from these charts…

Top otokoyaku are very generally becoming less mature and manly. The number of men has decreased drastically after 2000, and the number of boys increased. Furthermore, we witness the birth of an entirely new gender in the wake of ChieNene’s popularity: the cartoon.

The fairy gender is too rare to discern any clear trends and fairy otokoyaku are often one of a kind rather than types. Fairy must not be confused with effeminacy, as fairy types can be very butch indeed (see Kaname, Rika, Komu). The fairy aspect captures something otherworldly or inhuman about them that can also transcend gender. It would seem that the cartoon gender has taken over the fairy type otokoyaku’s role as the less classically masculine flavour of tops in the 2010s. Though there’s hope a true fairy may pop up yet!

The cartoon gender is strictly a phenomenon of the  2010s. It’s a type of often more androgynous female masculinity based on animated characters (anime/manga/games/action figures but also visual kei/boy bands) rather than Hollywood movie stars or other more classic role models. Similar to fairies, cartoon character otokoyaku can be perceived as inhuman, though more like  airbrushed models, cgi-ed superheroes or living dolls than like otherworldly beings. The pointy top otokoyaku face which seems to be largely a 21st century phenomenon could be described as an ideal anime or visual kei bishounen face.

As for types, the gentlemen who used to dominate flower, snow and star have decreased in the 21st century. Instead, the other three types have increased. The trickster type appears to have moved firmly into cartoon territory, however. The only fully-fledged mature gentleman top otokoyaku in the 2010s is Tomu, and she makes an excellent cartoon dude too.

If we look at the musumeyaku types, we can discern a similar drastic change over time.

Woman is a type I invented for the rare top musumeyaku who are more of character actresses and don’t automatically look like a princess in disguise when dressed down.

Femme fatale is a rare type among top musumeyaku as this type of role typically goes to onnayaku or otokoyaku. No top musumeyaku gets to be a femme fatale all or even most of the time, but some seem dangerous often enough to warrant the label. If we compare to the otokoyaku chart we can see that the femme fatale is often paired up with a bandit.

The lady is the classic elegant and polished top musumeyaku of the grown-up variety who can be commanding and easily play queens. She’s the closest type to the old Hollywood divas and the musumeyaku equivalent of the adult gentleman top star.

Debutantes and grrls are both youthful types, but the debutante is a young lady who carries herself gracefully and sings in a classical soprano. Like the lady, she’s basically a classic movie star type, though not rarely more of a comedienne.

The grrl is a new type of top musumeyaku that has become completely dominant in the 2010s.  While ladies (see Shirosaki Ai, Reimi Urara) and femme fatales (see Sakura Ichika, Hanano Juria) still exist in Takarazuka, they just don’t seem to become top anymore. The grrl can be a super girly girl in frilly dresses, she can be sassy and a bit of a tomboy, or she can be the nice girl next door. Belters are almost invariably grrls, as belting is not very ladylike. Because grrls are spunky and lack ladylike poise they match the new cartoon top otokoyaku very well. It’s no coincidence that their emergence is simultaneous.

Troupe by troupe:

Flower is as to be expected strongly dominated by gentlemen, as this is the classical elegance troupe. Hesitantly, there is a parallel tendency for bad boys, often as a different aspect of the same top, going back to the parallel reigns of Macchan and Mikkii You don’t see this bad boy streak so clearly in the classifications I settled on, but it’s definitely present in most of these gentlemen, especially Natsume and Tomu.

Moon, the Broadway troupe, has in fact never had a gentleman type top otokoyaku. (Yuri might be a gentleman boy, as she’s too pretty and glamorous for a true next-door type, but the real test is she makes a believable Bill while gentleman Un just seems like a boarding school boy on a class safari…) Instead there’s a preference for trickster and next-door types. Relatedly, there is a more even division between boys and men than in the other troupes. Moon also has the most fairies, though again the fairy sample is too small for any clear conclusions.

Snow, the nihonmono troupe, has always had a spattering of bandit types, but other than that one can see a clear trend from gentlemen towards tricksters, often of the cartoon variety.

Star, the flashy macho troupe, has gone through an abrupt transformation from a long continuity of gentleman rogues and there’s no telling where it’s heading now…

Cosmos, the experimental troupe, has in its short history been dominated by the bandit type or antihero tops. There’s also a slight dominance for boys, related to the more general trend towards youthfulness in the 21st century.

There’s no clear difference between troupes in the distribution of top musumeyaku types. The most surprising trend is that the lady died out early in flower, the classic elegance troupe. However, the elegant tradition is carried on by debutantes, who can often pass for ladies in some roles. Even though moon has no gentlemen top otokoyaku it’s still dominated by ladies and debutantes. Snow has the strongest line of grrls to match the recent trend for trickster top otokoyaku. Star gets grrls to match their new next-door top otokoyaku. Cosmos has perhaps the most variety of types, and the only lady top of the 2010s.

Let’s have a closer look at the current batch of top stars to see where the company might be heading now:

Mirio is most definitely a cartoon type, but the most adult one after Teru, as she doesn’t go for that cute hyper boy kind of thing and instead gets typecast as villains a lot. I really hope Rei will follow as she seems to have the face and poise and presence to give flower a real gentleman top again. I haven’t seen enough of Ayase, but it seems she does her best to fit the grrl mold despite her relative seniority and almost otokoyaku-esque face. She sure sounds like a grrl anyway.

Tamakichi will most likely not have time to mature into something other than a boy, but at least she’s too solid and corporeal for a cartoon despite some cartoony shows. Chapi is the poster girl for the grrls just like Chigi is the poster boy for the cartoons - a perky Broadway belter and dancer who seems a much more obvious fit for Singin’ in the Rain than for Elisabeth. I have no idea who will follow her but I’d bet on yet another grrl.

Daimon is a tricky one - when she’s a man she’s a cartoon and when she’s not a cartoon she’s just a sweet boy. I wonder if she’ll be able to merge her two sides and become a real flesh-and-blood man? Kiho does not quite fit the grrl mold. For one thing, she doesn’t (always) belt. I have high hopes she might mature into something different, perhaps even a woman?

Beni is the most cartooney of cartoons, unlike Chigi who can be a real boy when she wants to. Yet she seems to get a surprising amount of classic style shows and not as much anime crack as Chigigumi. Aachan is another one I haven’t seen enough of. It’s possible she’s more of a debutante, as she seems to have some elegance.

I have faith that Yurika will grow into a bandit man like Mizu. Land of the Gods certainly suggested man but as there’s still something a little whelpish about her I put her as boy for now. I’ve not seen much of Madoka either, but she seems a typical grrl and too young and bubbly to be a good match for the most grown-up out of the current top otokoyaku. I’m a little worried Yurika might develop a more youthful top persona to match her instead of growing up fully.

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Kano Maria’s Farewell Talk with Asumi Rio | February 2017 Graph [ENGLISH TRANSLATION]

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Sagiri Seina ties up sayonara performance together with Sakihi Miyu and their Yukigumi Pose

“Lupin The Third”, “Rurouni Kenshin”, “Roman Holiday”: she has starred in many widely-discussed productions and established a unique Top image. On the 29th, Takarazuka Top Star, Sagiri Seina’s sayonara production had its final day at Hyogo Perfecture’s Takarazuka Grand Theater. Alongside her musumeyaku partner, Sakihi Miyu, with whom they formed a famous combi, they bid farewell to their home ground, and tied everything up at the end with the regular, since Sagiri became Top, “Kizuna!” Yukigumi Pose.

Since her Top inauguration on September 2014, all 5 of her shows which run in the home theater have achieved an audience attendance of over 100% capacity. Hailed as “Takarazuka’s New Century Strongest”, this “Chigimiyu” combi’s sayonara show included consecutive duet scenes. With 6 curtain calls in a row, it ended with the now established Yukigumi custom routine, “Kizuna!”, where everyone pulls in both fists at their waist level.

Immediately after this “Kizuna”, Sagiri and Sakihi appeared together in front of the curtain. When Sagiri threw the ball to Sakihi with a “I’m the only one talking, so say something too”, Sakihi responded “The name of the one I love begins with an S… It’s Sagiri Seina!”. She expressed her love, referencing their final revue’s theme song(*). Sagiri replied “Thank you very mu~ch”, very bashful.

Takarazuka gives otokoyaku absolute priority, yet Sagiri sought equal footing for Sakihi, and Sakihi in her intent to follow Sagiri, kept walking alongside her in all earnesty; thus, the popular combi “Chigimiyu” was born. Fans call the interaction between the two of them “public flirting”, and have been enjoying their top run for around 2 and a half years.

“Sakihi and I have been like this for 3 years. 3 years of her wrapping me around her finger… Even if I said I don’t want her to, she still followed me, and I am full of gratitude for that. Ah, I guess I’ve got an earful coming for this“ Sagiri said, inducing laughter.

Sagiri joined the Revue in 2001. Taking on acting stoically, she distinguished herself for her outstanding acting spirit, and with her excellent athletic abilities, overcame the handicap her petite and slender build posed her as an otokoyaku, making sharp dancing another of her assets. Since she became Top, she took hold of Takarazuka’s 2D adaptations, starring in plays such as “The Count’s Daughter”, “Lupin The Third” and “Rurouni Kenshin”.

Sagiri, Sakihi and co, will be grauating the Revue as of 7/23, the final day of “Bakumatsu”’s Tokyo Takarazuka Theater run, which shall begin on 6/16.

Note: (*) 「私の愛する人のイニシャルはＳ」 is an actual lyric Miyu sings in the Dramatic “S”! theme song.

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Top of Snow Troupe, Sagiri Seina parts from the home base in tears, “grateful” in her hakama

Takarazuka Revue Snow Troupe Top Star Sagiri Seina and Top Musumeyaku Sakihi Miyu, will be graduating the company as of 7/23 with the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater closing day; on the 29th, their sayonara show “Bakumatsu Taiyouden / Dramatic “S”!” reached it’s final day of performances in Hyogo Perfecture’s Takarazuka Grand Theater, and they bid a tearful farewell to their home ground.

 She came down the Grand Staircase for the last time in the official dress: a black, crested kimono, and green hakama. In the past, there have been Top Stars who chose black tailcoats instead, but “someone in the costume staff who was always in charge of me told me “eh, shouldn’t it be a hakama?”. Apparently, I’ve done a lot of nihonmono, and I have this image about me. This made me happy”, and so, she picked the hakama. About the view she saw coming down in that official dress, “there are no words. My hatsubutai, the opening day when I became Top, and today’s Grand Staircase: these 3 sights will remain within my memory the most”, she closes her eyes as if savouring the aftertaste.

On this day “Since I arrived to the theatre in the morning, I got emotional over trivial things and again over silly things. It was a day full of emotion”, Sagiri reflects. During the “Kizuna” scene of the main revue, she shed large drops of tears. “These past 2 weeks more or less, the situation is such that it wouldn’t be weird if tears came up at any moment, but today I couldn’t hold them back” she says, overcome with emotion.

Sagiri poured her everything into being an otokoyaku. “I cannot even think of a life where I haven’t met Takarazuka. There is no other place that can give me such happy feelings”, she goes on speaking of her love for Takarazuka. So much that “I cannot think of myself not being an otokoyaku. These feelings have grown even stronger now”, she shakes her head in denial. Her feelings towards the home ground “cannot be expressed in a few words. I want to go on never forgetting this feeling of gratitude” she stated, wiping tears.

Towards Sakihi who was a combi with her for 3 years also, “You did a great job following someone like me. I understand without you saying a single word, just by looking in your eyes. Even after we graduate, I want to continue our married couple shitck”, she said, expressing her gratitude.

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[eng subs] SMAPXSMAP’s Takarazuka 100 Member Special

Firstly, please note: 

1) The raw for this was a nightmare to sort out so I’ll say what I usually say but with more feeling - Please do not reupload/repost these videos. Feel free to link back/reblog instead.

2) It’s my first time doing Japanese-English translation and also my first time hardsubbing. These subs are far from perfect, so if there are mistakes please let me know! <3

Like I mentioned in this post, I randomly decided to watch a performance in Tokyo and I’m now semi-hooked on Takarazuka - You know when you’re standing at the edge of a blackhole and you’re like, “Should I jump in? Am I already jumping in? I don’t know” ;) 

Anyway I know this is an old episode so I was quite surprised I couldn’t find subs anywhere. So I’d thought I’d try. SMAP is SUPERBLY hilarious and I’m sad all the top stars featured in this episode have since retired. It was a good bit of education in any case! P.S. Shout out to @procrastinatinghetastuck - my first friend in this fandom :) 

Vids under the cut:

Part 1:

Highlights include-

Hi Reon, you make me dizzy (for you). 

Yumesaki Nene dragging Goro THROUGH THE MUD. All while maintaining a cute smile and sweet voice. 

Part 2:

Highlights include -

This dancing genius. In the words of Kimura Takuya: “TENMAAAAA!!”

Part 3:

Highlights include -

Ouki Kaname’s look of disbelief after Kimura does the acting challenge. Hot people calling hot people hot is my aesthetic 8D (No I’m not kidding I replayed this part so many times).

Part 4:

Highlights include -

Goro slayin’ with flying kisses.

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Yuzuka Rei and Kayou Kirari in Nocturne

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Amber Rain + SUPER VOYAGER stream!

Impromptu decided to make this happen while chatting in captainsconsort’s stream earlier! Since my birthday is next week, I’ll be streaming two favorites.

The stream will be on Saturday 31st, at 6pm CEST. I’ve added a card to the trello, so you can check your timezone! I’ll be streaming at cytu.be/r/abstractcactus

If you can’t make it and want me to do a repeat stream, let me know! I’m busy most surrounding days that week, but I could probably put something together the weekend after.

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Takarazuka Top Star, Asumi Rio: Her past struggles with her 'baby face'

As requested, here it is at last! 

This interview with Mirio was published in print magazine Aera along with editorial photos, but the interview was also published online. The original interview, conducted by Kiyono Yuumi, can be found here. Sadly there is only one photo, but I still recommend clicking through to give traffic to the original site! That’s why they write these things after all.

Afficher davantage

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mirio's voice is so beautiful and this song is really good

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Lucifer’s Tears (Snow 2006) is the first Asami Hikaru show I watched and it’s also the first show I found by myself and got super excited about. I was stunned at Asami’s overwhelming beauty. So yeah, I became a fan of hers. And now I also have a thing for ice-cold villains ^_^ (Too bad she turned so soft in the end :/)

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The Top Stars of Cosmos Troupe [x]

Shizuki Asato

Wao Youka

Takashiro Kei

Yamato Yuuga

Oozora Yuuhi

Ouki Kaname

Asaka Manato

Makaze Suzuho