Hi everyone! By request, I will be streaming the Takarazuka original performance Dimitri -Purple Flowers Scattering at Daybreak-, followed by the revue Jaguar Beat on Sunday September 10, with English subtitles, at 8:00 pm Amsterdam time!
If you want to participate in this stream, please send me a message. Make sure to check what time the stream will take please in your own timezone. This can easily be done through a Time Zone Converter.
So in short:
Show? Dimitri -Purple Flowers Scattering at Daybreak- & Jaguar Beat
When? Sunday September 10
What time? 8:00 pm Amsterdam time
Where? Send me a PM
To celebrate, I'm going to do 10 streams showcasing 10 of my all time favorite top stars!
(This will be done over, idk, some amount of time, at absolutely not a regular cadence, because unfortunately I live a busy life).
BUT! We're gonna start this week. In no particular order other than I decided to go recent first...
10 years 10 top stars profile #1: Nozomi Fuuto
A few reasons I love Daimon:
My like, very first glimmer of a zuka crush in the infant beginnings of my fandom, before Takawiki existed, when you had to personally know someone on livejournal or in a yahoo group who recorded physical DVDs off TV while they were on JET to watch anything ever, was Minoru Kou. Circa my 2013 re-entry into fandom, I noticed Daimon because I thought she looked like Noru.
The voice, obviously. If you haven't heard it live, put it on your bucket list (and make sure your long awaited exposure isn't in Theater Orb). It hits you in the chest and reverberates in your mitochondria.
The juxtaposition of the raw talent with a relatable combo of crippling perfectionism and general anxiety. Like, really, you can play a Death good enough to resurrect me from clinical depression, but you can't flirt with a musumeyaku in QR without having a meltdown? Terrible (affectionate).
While she mostly comes off as a lowkey, v. profesh, relatively buttoned-up person, she is afflicted by what one of my friends once called "silly o'clock," i.e., she gets funnier, less inhibited, and more human as she approaches exhaustion. This has manifested in two of the most unexpectedly delightful ochakai I've ever been to (watch Yukigumi College—the thing where she's dressed as Beethoven—for a filmed and preserved example).
Top Daimon memories:
On the 20th Century, IMO her Takarazuka peak, sadly lost to the ages (you can read a scene by scene here if you want)
The way her songs in Gaisenmon made her voice float into the corners of the Grand Theater like butterflies on a gentle breeze
The last Daimon ochakai I ever went to, Bakumatsu Taiyouden, which I'm hoping is beyond the statute of limitations now, where she sang a duet with a recording of Gaori's voice and then burst into tears (wasn't supposed to be the last but alas, global pandemic).
ANYWAY,
Choosing a show was hard because, actually, while I am obsessed with Daimon, I am specifically most obsessed with nibante Daimon, and Chigigumi is peak Yukigumi for me. However, every other fave top is getting their top era streamed, and since my all-time fave Daimon show is lost forever...
Stream #1 will be 『fff / Silk Road』 (Snow 2021)
(fff subbed by adorare)
WHEN: Friday, April 7, 9PM EST (that's NY time, join me while I try to stay awake for Stella Voce but maybe fall asleep after the stream anyway lmao)
WHERE: cytu.be/r/pom-pa-lalala
I'll definitely be shaking up the time zones over the course of these streams, so if this doesn't work for you, stay tuned! Next we'll be going back in time...
Recently it seems that a lot of new people have found their way to Takarazuka, which I remember as being kind of overwhelming. So first of all: Hi! Welcome! Hope you enjoy the musicals and like the glitter!
Second of all, I know this fandom can be very different, a little bit (sometimes a lot) confusing, and definitely overwhelming, so I thought it might be helpful to make a bit of an introduction post, for if you’ve mostly seen memes or clips. So with that, here we are!
So You’re New to Takarazuka, what do you need to know?