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hoshigomi · 4 years

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2019 in Takarazuka!

This was my first year of living full time in Japan, and so I got to see more Takarazuka than I would EVER have anticipated would be possible to me. I feel really lucky. Here are my thoughts on this year- I didn’t limit any category to one answer because I wanted to give my respects to everything that caught my heart this year. It gets a little long, but feel free to give it a read!

Favorite Grand Theater musical: My favorite Grand Theatre Musical was Beside the Foggy Elbe, but it was ALSO God of Stars. These shows could not BE more different. Elbe was my favorite show in the way that Yukigumi’s Gaisenmon was one of my favorite shows last year and in the way that Hoshiai is some people’s favorite show. It’s my favorite show maybe EVER in that I cried during every single one of the [redacted #] performances I got to see. I’m not usually a fan of Heavy Serious Show, but this one may be my top favorite show of all time. (Feel free to read my review here- I can not BEGIN to hash out my feelings for this show in this tiny space!) I have literally never seen a show more perfectly suited for the people performing it than God of Stars was to Hoshigumi. It was stomach-ache funny and heart-ache touching and one of the most respectful, brilliant, plays-to-their-strengths, META taidan shows I have EVER seen- for every taidansha, and the upcoming top combi. God of Stars is overflowing with love and humor, and that’s exactly the kind of show that grabs my heart and refuses to let go. Special honors for 2019 go to Soragumi’s Oceans 11 because I love the hell out of that show and Makaze’s Danny, Susshii’s Saul, Seiko’s Queen Diana, Madoka’s Tess, Moeko’s Livingston, and Kazuki Sora’s Linus were specifically my favorite portrayals of those characters that I have ever seen.

Favorite revue: Hands down, the Grand Theatre run of Estrellas. Estrellas felt more like a rock concert than a revue to me at first, and then I learned to put in words that it felt very Chiegumi in a way that I LOVED. This revue flowed like none other, and I have really special personal ties to it as well, it having been Kai’s last revue in Takarazuka. I wanted to list standout numbers, but is it really a “standout number” if I can list like 12? There was so much CONTRAST and so many OPPORTUNITIES and so much, again, LOVE in the whole thing!! The chuuzume? Playful! The white number? Sincere! I cried every time! The pop star medley? OOF! BACK? INCREDIBLE! Starlight Parade? Beautiful! Estrellas was the best revue of the year and this is a category in which I don’t personally believe there was any competition. That said, I want to give special honors to Eclair Brillant for showing a side of Beni’s Hoshigumi that we never really got to see in revues (plus that bolero, which might be the best standalone NUMBER in Takarazuka this year, and the kuroenbi which again, blended personality with crisp blacks and whites and was a MASTERFUL passing of the torch), and Krung Thep which I loved a lot, despite having to see it with a weird flip flopped cast (F for Reiko :( ) Even though I only saw that one once some moments (the boxing number, Sakura generally just kicking ass, the chuzuume, Miya and Tamaki’s duedan) really stuck with me. Music Revolution used Pachelbel’s’ Canon and Neon Outfits in a way that I would never have thought would work, but did, and also featured an INCREDIBLY beautiful taidan number despite it being like, no one’s taidan.

Favorite small theater musical: HONESTLY, against ALL ODDS, Kamatari. I didn’t expect to even LIKE Kamatari, but between the HAUNTING score, the performances by Beni, Airi, Hanagata Hikaru, Seocchi, Kuracchi, and Mikkii SPECIFICALLY, the BEAUTIFUL set, and the touching and volatile relationships between the characters, I was HOOKED. It didn’t need a complicated plot- the character relationships drove everything, and I thought it was absolutely masterful. This one slid under a lot of people’s radars- please give it a look for yourself if you can! Special honors to Mozart, which I don’t think I have to explain, Diamond as Big as the Ritz for looking fun as HELL though I admit I DIDN’T GET TO SEE IT, On The 20th Century (unfortunately forever lost to time but featuring two of the most professional, brilliant lead performances I have ever seen), and On The Town, for being a faithful, loving take on a classic piece of musical theatre that I would have gladly seen more times than I got to.

Favorite numbers: (In no real order)

L’Operap and Bim Bam Boum from Mozart.

石を割って咲く桜 from Mibugishiden, because those voices give me CHILLS.

The Gift and Bolero, (Eclair Brillant’s sexy, sexy chuuzume and INSANE artsy number, respectively.)

Some Other Time from On the Town.

Pop Star/Hoshi Ni Negaiwo/Starlight Parade/Championne/星サギの歌 in Estrellas.

Beer Matsuri (prologue) in Beside The Foggy Elbe.

The title song from God of Stars.

愛した日々に偽りは無い from Oceans 11

We Need Love and Adventure In The Life from Casanova straight up slaps.

I haven’t seen Aquavitae but boy the theme song is catchy.

Favorite lead otokoyaku role: Beni in Beside The Foggy Elbe. I woulda given her the award for God of Stars but her Karl was TRANSFORMATIVE and HEART wrenching. It’s always nice to see someone break out of their comfort zone (or in Beni’s case, the zone that she really just gets the most credit for THRIVING IN), and do something new. Karl shocked me in all the right ways. Beni playing vulnerable? Oof. Special honor to Coto as Mozart because what the fuck how is anyone that talented, Makaze as Danny Ocean (because duh), Tamaki Ryou as Gabey in On the Town because boy does she nail earnest lovesickness, Daimon as Oscar Jaffee (for MUCH the same reason as I loved Beni as Karl), and Daimon as Yoshimura Kanichirou (which yeah I did have to look up his name but boy THAT was also a TRANSFORMATIVE role!)

Favorite lead musumeyaku role: Before me I have two envelopes and one says “Maaya Kiho as Lily Garland” and the other says “Kisaki Airi as Eileen”, and when I open the envelopes they both say “winner.” Maaya Kiho is probably straight up the most talented person in all of Takarazuka right now and I AM prepared to stand by that claim. Lily is very much the lead role in 20th Century, This was a beyond Broadway caliber performance and I would love nothing more than for her to reprise her role everywhere and anywhere. Airi’s Eileen was maybe one of the best musumeyaku roles I’ve ever seen, and she knocked it out of the park with humor, gravitas, earnesty, vulnerability, and skill that comes with being a musumeyaku with That Much Experience under your belt and That Juicy of a role to work with. Special shoutouts to: also Maaya as Christine in Phantom, if that counts as 2019.

Favorite supporting otokoyaku role: Wow, this one is a three way tie. Shocker. One of my greatest regrets though one I can’t really change is that I never got to see Mikkii as Mercutio in RetJ. The good news is that her performance as Fune no Esaka in Kamatari had EXACTLY the same kind of UNHINGED, POWERFUL, DANGEROUS energy that I love about her Mercutio. If you know me you know I can NOT get enough of Tenju Mitsuki onstage, and this role was a BIG, BIG validation of my obsession. Also a MASSIVE role for her. Asami Jun was DISTRESSINGLY NASTY and impressive as Saitou Hajime in Mibugishiden. If she was onstage, it was HARD if not impossible to look away from her. In 2020 I want nothing more than for Aasa to continue clawing her way up the ladder- she’s one of the ones who’s working to earn everything she’s got, and BOY, does she deserve all of it and more. Tobias, lovingly, lovingly, lovingly brought to life by Nanami Hiroki in her final Takarazuka role was an angel, a (quiet) voice of reason on a stage full of fools in Elbe. She didn’t have much stage time, but she imbued every second she did have with everything that got her where she is today. While he wasn’t an attention grabbing character, the subtle work she did with him was beautiful, stable, and warm. (And what a send off.) I was also impressed by and want to shoutout to: Seo Yuria as Nicholas in God of Stars, Hanagata Hikaru as Soga no Iruka (also Kamatari), AKATSUKI CHISEI as Chip in On the Town, Kazuki Sora as Linus in Oceans 11, and Amato Kanon as Johnny in Elbe, who didn’t do a whole lot besides yell, and still made my shoulders SHAKE with laughter every time she ran on.

Favorite supporting musumeyaku role: Hands down, mother fucking Shirayuki Sachika as Hildy in On The Town. Excuse my language but what a brilliant performance, hooooooly shit. BIG bonus shoutouts to: Junya Chitose as Diana in Oceans 11, Shirotae Natsu as Louise Bollinger in Algiers, and Kozakura Honoka (voice of an ANGEL, does THE MOST character work, BEAUTIFUL NUANCED FULL REALIZED stage presence, IN THE MOMENT ALIVE choices) as Aloysia in Mozart.

Favorite up-and-comer (and/or shinko performance if you saw any):

Amato Kanon

and

Amato Kanon

My favorite shinko performance was the God of Stars shinko, led by: Amato Kanon, and my favorite 2020 shinko performance is the Hoshigumi RetJ shinko that I am assuming will also be led by Amato Kanon as Romeo.

Kanon aside, if you like dancers, I urge you to look at Ruri Hanaka in literally anything. Also, if you see any pictures of Yukigumi 105th Tsukise You, please send them to me.

Best Ensemble: Hoshigumi just like in general. I know I say this all the time, but my love for them came from this. Without fail, this troupe turns out ensemble show after ensemble show, and even the things that AREN’T ensemble shows become them because of how every actress milks their background opportunities for all they’re worth. I could write ESSAYS on the shit I’ve seen go on in the backgrounds of their scenes. I could write NOVELS, and I would be doing it for my own pleasure. No matter how you feel about WHAT they do, I think you’d be hard pressed to deny that they’re a very particular sort of group with a really high, warm, messy but intense type of energy about them. It works for me. They dealt with a lot this year, from their top being VOICELESS on a big taidan raku, to a top combi taidan, to a weather canceled top combi maeraku, and carried themselves through it all with grace and love and smiles and intentional positivity. I adore everything they are and everything they mean to me. This troupe got me through a lot this year, and I consider it such a privilege to be so enamored with every one of them.

Someone you gained a new interest in: This year I kept a planner where I had an entire page dedicated to every day this year and on January 2nd I have a little drawing of Yuunagi Ryou’s background sailor outfit from Elbe and the note “I definitely have a crush on her.” Now, 12 months, 3 reijou, 2 ochakai, and two embarrassing half conversations later, I sometimes look at her and go like “oh that one sure is mine now, huh.” She’s lovely. Watching her onstage is a type of fun and intrigue and ??? that I’ve never had with anyone else. I like her scratchy Showa voice. I like when she dances with her floppy hair. I like that she draws herself as a sheep on all her stuff. I like her half smirk and freckles. I think she’s neat. Thanks, Shimo, for making losing My One True Takarazuka Love a little easier on my heart and eyes. To 2020 and beyond. <3

Someone you did a 360 on: MAISORA HITOMI! I have to admit that I was not only not excited for her to transfer over, but also kind of angry when she was announced as Coto’s partner. And then I saw her in God of Stars. And I still wasn’t SOLD. I appreciated what they did with her and Coto, and that they were given chances (and some SAPPY meta lines about building a new future together), but I didn’t GET it. (Though BOY is she a beautiful dancer.) And then the Mozart rehearsal footage started rolling in, and the interviews started rolling in, and she was having FUN and coming into her own and adjusting beautifully, and what surprised me most, really PLAYING with her new partner and troupe. And then I SAW MOZART and I was sold. I saw shonichi and I was a teary bleary MESS by well before their duet dance, and in their duet dance I saw FRIENDS, and I saw two people who were LOVING working with each other. I saw two people having fun. Long story short, her role as Constanze was INCREDIBLE and compelling and it’s INSANE when you realize how YOUNG she is. I can’t WAIT to see where she goes from here. I’ve realized that I wasn’t fair to her at first. I adore her now. In my house? We love and respect Maisora Hitomi. Oh, also Seo Yuria who I’ve realized over the past 12 months that I would not only die for, but also kill for if the need should arise.

Personal biggest headline: Kai taidanned this year. There’s no possible world in which that WOULDN’T BE my biggest headline. They could swap all the tops and make a TMS kid a top musumeyaku and this would still be my big news.. Kai was the person who caught my heart six days into knowing what Takarazuka was and she was just. So perfect to me and for me. The entire experience of getting to be her fan, even for a short time, was a dream. Nothing about it ever felt hard or scary or stressful, and the people I met through her are some of my favorite people in the world to this day. It was a whirlwind of a run and a taidan experience and though I would do it all again if I could in a heartbeat, what we, and what she has now, is beyond I think any of our wildest dreams. I still feel so lucky about her every single day. Runners up include like Beni losing her voice completely during Estrellas senshuuraku (can’t wait for THAT to air on Skystage) and Hoshigumi losing maeraku for Beni/Airi/Mao/Renta/Riran taidan to Typhoon Hagbis (which also evacuated me from my apartment.) They could not catch a BREAK this year.

Favorite (???) random memory or happening:

Aasa Trending on Twitter just because she’s hot.

I don’t LOVE it but the transfers, from Hitoko to Aichan to SEIRA HITOMI??? to Shidou to Ayaki Hikari were all pretty fuckin’ weird.

Shiiran kissing Kai on Star Talk.

Everything Kai did post-taidan.

The time I saw God of Stars and Beni broke so bad she made Airi almost cry trying to stop herself from laughing and then Coto lost it and they got off track two distinct times before Hanagata Hikaru had to step in and start the scene over.

Getting called back at a certain someone’s ochakai because I was so nervous I walked away without shaking her hand.

Kanon’s first shinko lead (mic issues and restarted show and all) left me with a hope for the future and a warmth in my heart that I have never felt before.

Looking at @zukadiary at intermission of Kamatari and realizing that whatever summary was on Takawiki up until that day for that show was WILDLY off, and having to look it up to figure out what the fuck we actually just watched, because it sure wasn’t what I anticipated.

Most looking forward to: Anastasia, which I spoke into existence, and also Hoshigumi’s Romeo et Juliette which you can NOT convince me isn’t going to be Hoshigumi’s second GT.

#takarazuka #tkz #hoshigumi #ill tag them because theyre uh a LOT of this.

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zuka-themed-username · 4 years

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Impressions: Spreading Golden Wings / Music Revolution! (yukigumi 2019 tour)

This has been a long time coming, apologies! As I didn’t write any notes at intermission this will be a shorter, more generalized opinion of the Monday, Oct. 14th performance in Kawasaki. It was two days after the ‘worst storm in Japan in 60 years’ according English news, and ‘violent typhoon no. 19′ in Japanese, which, they weren’t wrong. It was terrifying and exhausting, and I cannot imagine having to put on a brave face and perform like everything is totally fine just a day later. Both sections of Snow Troupe did however, and I will be forever impressed. It does not however, make me inclined to enjoy Spreading Golden Wings any more than I am able to, though this may be the first time I buy a blu-ray for the revue. More thoughts below the cut!

I’ll be popping back into my bullet point format from here.

This is the Revue’s first performance in カルッツかわさき (Culttz Kawasaki, honestly love the name). It’s beautiful, and reminds me of many new performance spaces - bright woods, streamlined design, open lobby and a ton of stairs. The seat I had is still considered S seki, and was pretty nice, though I’m glad I had my opera glasses.

The program is a nice light blue with just Nozomi Fuuto (Daimon) posing in her primary Music Revolution costume (black & silver w/ huge white gems and metal circles). I wish they had a Maaya Kiho (Kiho) variant or a cover with them together, but that’s totally fine.

I did write some notes on the train ride back to Tokyo, so I’ll be using those as a jumping off point. Note that the day before I had seen Star Troupe’s GOD OF STARS, so many of the notes are phrased comparatively. Spoiler-free until the [s]

Spreading Golden Wings

‘limited set’

It’s a touring show, and frankly I’m glad they don’t have to take a lot with them, as they may run into damaged roads on their tour south, but I was still surprised at the sparseness. It didn’t help that the aesthetic was medieval European, which made it look a bit like a televised Shakespeare production. However! This allowed you to focus on the scene without worrying about missing something. Unlike Grand Theater / Tokyo runs where people see a show several times, I would hope tours are designed to be seen once. Thus I’m glad I didn’t leave thinking, ‘oh next time I’ll look at opposite side of the stage, I missed xyz’.

‘single scenes, no additional side scenes’

This is something that made GOD OF STARS simultaneously amazing and terrible, as there were always 45 people on stage doing something elaborate. Spreading Golden Wings was the complete opposite. It felt old-school, to be sure, but I cannot recall a single scene where something was happening outside of the range of what my opera glasses could see. People could be spaced out across the stage of course, but they were all participating in the same moment. It really highlighted acting choices, especially considering a surprising lack of underscoring allowing you to hear every footstep and breath. The recording of this will flawlessly capture what yukigumi was aiming to project, which will be great to see again.

‘Daimon cackles into and out of a scene’

I will briefly break down the plot and characters in a bit, but there is an early scene where the villainous Vittorio, played by Daimon, enters the room where he is holding Clarice, played by Kiho, captive, and her laugh as she enters was identical to the laugh she gave as she left two minutes later. I thought it was fantastically over the top and well within the aesthetic of the work.

‘Kiho is ... befuddled / confused / flabbergasted -> meta for her character?’

I had a hard time with Clarice in this show, let’s be real. Kiho used her huge eyes to her advantage, looking woefully overwhelmed for the first 80% of the show, and confidently winging it (and therefore vaguely panicked) the last 20%. I would love to hear Kiho’s thoughts on the character, which may be in a Kageki somewhere if someone has the most recent issue.

‘Asami Jun just obsessed w/ Daimon’

I can’t speak for Asami but her character, Falco, gets one of the few solos to solely sing about how everything he does is for Vittorio. If you want to memorize the ‘ために’ grammar pattern do I have the song for you. It felt very St-Just 2.0 but it was still super engaging and later provided some shock value.

‘few interstitial chorus scenes’

I completely forgot this half of yukigumi had ~40 people in it until they would do a dance to establish the scene. The show starts with quite a long prologue, but I still forgot them completely until they would all pop up again to either establish a new location, tone, or event. It is very reminiscent of hoshigumi’s Elbe from earlier this year. This show does not require more than a dozen people for the plot, so when everyone shows up in roles clearly not meant to directly impact the story it was quite a surprise.

‘purposefully better sword work’

There are a few fight scenes / sword training scenes in the show, and the choreography for them becomes increasingly complicated as the show progresses, which was a nice touch.

[s] Kiho especially makes a dramatic improvement as the show progresses, which makes sense thematically, but by the end she’s legitimately holding her own against otokoyaku who have generally had more fight training (unless she did for Mibugishiden, which I have not seen)

[s] ‘clearly a repro of the 85 show’ / ‘tbh can’t tell what has changed’

Alrighty so it’s time to dive into the core of the interest around this production - the fact that it was originally a taidan / tour back in 1985, and that when this show was announced it was immediately followed up with, ‘we’re rewriting some things to make it fresh for modern audiences’. It was not relabeled in the same way as Elbe was with ‘Once Upon a Time in Takarazuka’, but there was a significant amount of notice paid to the fact that some things would be different. My question though as we went into intermission was, what changed? Reading through the plot on takawiki, the beats are the same. Full disclosure, I am not fluent in Japanese. There is a great chance that it is simply a nuance of language that perhaps makes the motivations behind actions more gray, but it does not change the fact that the scenes still play out with the same result. I believe there is an additional love song at the end between Daimon and Kiho because they sound ~amazing~ and can emote ~so well~ but that was perhaps the only thing that felt fresh to me. Everyone that betrays someone still betrays that person, questionable scenes of consent still look quite questionable, the interesting shift from lady to page boy was still fun to see. But I believe they were the same as before, and I don’t consider acting choices within scenes to allow for ambiguity to be rewrites. That’s just the benefit of restaging a production. Perhaps the chorus scenes were fleshed out, but I was expecting shifts in plot, character arcs, or concrete visual differences in motivation. I would love for a full breakdown of this show once the recording is released at the end of January.

[s] ‘some spicy scenes, audience was caught up’ / ‘whip scene? :o’

Here’s a brief breakdown of the core plot after me talking around it for 10 minutes

Daimon plays Vittorio, the lord of an Italian city state of Lago that is always feuding with the nearby city state of Bolzano. He kills the lord of Bolzano, and takes his daughter, Clarice (played by Kiho) prisoner. She of course is not on board with this. When she meets him, however, she is shaken up by his attractiveness, and he declares that she belongs to him now, no questions please. He attempts to force his point, she clumsily whips out a dagger that she loses immediately (sigh), and he is now charmed and attracted, and decides to teach her the basics of sword-fighting which will definitely not be needed later. Meanwhile Vittorio’s old bff/prime minister/secret admirer Falco (Asami Jun) is Not Having It. After clearly demonstrating to the audience his, honestly no other way to phrase it, love of Vittorio, we see that he will do whatever it takes to ensure Vittorio does not become weak in his love for Clarice.

Various plot things happen that put Clarice in danger and Vittorio saving her / demonstrating his passion for her, and eventually the prime minister of Bolzano (Clarice’s father’s old city state) Guillermo (Kujou Asu), catches on. This results in Vittorio and Clarice being captured, with Vittorio chained, whipped (by Falco!) and leaving without an eye.

Sometime later, Clarice, now dressed in disguise as a page boy and seemingly willingly with Vittorio, delivers a message to Guillermo from Vittorio, challenging him to a duel.

Vittorio (+1 sexy eyepatch) and Gulliermo (-1 for losing his cool and planning to use poison to win) duel. It is sanctioned by the Pope, who should be busy doing holy things but here we are. Several people jump into the fray after the attempted poison, Clarice shows off her sword skills like a boss, the Golden Wings of Vittorio’s city state arrive, and all is well. There’s a brief bit at the end where Vittorio and Clarice declare their love for each other, and curtain.

I definitely left out some side plots and characters because I wanted to get to my thoughts on a few main scenes I saw and wish I saw.

bed scene - early on in the show Vittorio forces himself onto Clarice. Daimon being Daimon leaves a bit of space as she looms over Kiho, but Kiho squeaked, there is no other way to describe it, and I wanted to gasp with surprise. Everyone and their mother had stopped breathing and stared through their opera glasses, collectively releasing it when Kiho went for the knife (after quite a hold - it was clear she had the release point on the scene and leaned into it)

whip scene - I was like, ‘oh this is scandy what’s going to happen’. It’s not as dramatic/musicalized as 1789, but I was still surprised. The only thing that pulled me out of it was the lack of cuffs on the wall XD. Daimon just held her arms up, shout out to that arm strength. Anytime someone gets whipped it’s pretty intense, and Daimon is great at pulling out strong emotions from pain. The yells, ooooof.

the scenes between the escape and the duel challenge - I really want to chalk this up to my lack of language, but I wanted more scenes between Vittorio and Clarice after their escape and before the duel, as it’s quite clear Clarice isn’t going anywhere. (Even back to her own home city state that she must not be welcome in anymore) I think that would have been a great place to add some softer moments, not just grand displays of affection due to a traumatic circumstance or misdirected force. Doesn’t have to be a coffee shop scene or even a wound-tending scene, but perhaps Clarice working with Vitorrio to account for his new lack of depth perception? Or another sword-fight training scene? I just wanted more Daimon and Kiho but not at the dramatic extremes of this Shakespearean-esque drama.

All in all, looking back on Spreading Golden Wings I had a better time than I originally thought. I never doubted for a second that yukigumi: top star edition wouldn’t put it’s all into this smaller scale production. Every scene oozed with intention, strong acting choices, and when it allowed for it, beautiful songs and choreography. I only wish the source material was a bit more... nuanced? Though there is charm in it’s clear presentation and design. As I type I waffle back and forth, so I will simply move on to Music Revolution. Once the recording comes out however, I’d love to hear other folk’s thoughts.

Music Revolution

I f*king loved this revue, and I did not see it coming. I had assumed a scaled down GT/TT revue would feel sparse but I was shut right the hell up immediately. First things first my journal’s incredibly vague bullet points.

‘got more and more fun’

This is so basic yet so true. Usually there’s a slump in a revue for me somewhere, a slower ballad or dance section, but I only got more hype as the revue went on. Spreading Golden Wings felt short due to the generally straightforward plot, but if you told me Music Revolution was 2 hours I would say sure, and I loved every minute.

‘’Music is My Life’ is so damn fun’

Thanks for the detail, past me. But truly, hearing crisp English, incredibly strong and beautiful yukigumi voices, sharp choreography... it was a dream. I was charmed to no end by how clearly Daimon loved that song. This feels like it could be a main theme for her moving forward, or one that comes back quite a bit for yukigumi or zuka as a whole. One of my favorite moments.

‘Lots of dancing, Daimon’s voice almost too strong?!’

This no doubt was bolstered by seeing hoshigumi right before (sorry not sorry) but it felt like yukigumi was dancing so hard all the time. Clearly the folks not in Spreading Golden Wings just went twice as hard for the revue as a result. And Daimon was in the thick of it, matching beat for beat to only then belt some amazing notes. After spending the previous week in hoshi taidan sadness / cheer it was so refreshingly perfect. Her couple of solo moments were mesmerizing, and I’m so glad I can sink back into my yuki love while waiting for hoshi to ramp back up.

‘amazing music, classical remixes so fun, trumpet and sax go home’

does the orchestra travel with them?? because if so, the f*king brass section went berserk during the jazz dance section and I nearly had a heart attack. It was so off the walls that they have to had recorded it in advance - it was way too hardcore to repeat every show. I wanted to applaud for the solo like you would in a standard jazz concert but alas.

similarly, this revue has the highest proportion of my favorite thing in revues - classical music remixes. Idk if they are popular but I love hearing the orchestration choices and genres they throw at classical melodies, and what bonkers choreo they toss in there as well.

‘adlib sections were stronger, lots of space’

While there were not extended sections to adlib an entire scene, there were some spots where the troupe or Daimon run into the audience. As it’s a tour, there is a bit of space in the song for the folks to navigate different sized halls. For this performance, Kiho was singing for Daimon as she jogged through the first floor, and as she made it back up to the stage she went to regard the folks in the first row before realizing she didn’t have time. ‘Ah shoot I have to be back up there the song’s almost done’ she remarked with a laugh as she hopped back on stage to regard a smirking Kiho. It was pretty fun, and it was nice to see her not panicked about it. Kiho had the song covered, there was still underscoring for her to make it back, and she had a charming way of commenting on it. Yay adlib improvement! There are some other places during full troupe dances where they can shout out the city / prefecture they are in, which Daimon and co. were quite inclined to do as she is from Yokohama, the capital of the Kanagawa prefecture where the show was happening.

I wish I had more concrete notes for this, like I do GOD OF STARS, but I hope this provides a bit of context when you get a chance to see it for youself. It’s not my favorite yuki show by any stretch, it’s honestly probably near the bottom, but it’s not from lack of effort or enthusiasm. It serves a unique role and no doubt checks off some square on Daimon’s ‘how to conquer Takarazuka’ bingo card so for that I’m glad. The revue on the other hand, is one of my favorites. I’ve never had such a stark contrast in my opinion on two ‘acts’ before, which in and of itself is fun to reflect on. I really like where yuki is at right now, and cannot wait to see Once Upon a Time in America.

Stay tuned for the most overlong and overdue look at GOD OF STARS this side of the Pacific.

#snow troupe #spreading golden wings #yukigumi #Habatake Ougon no Tsubasa yo #Music Revolution!#tour 2019 #Nozomi Fuuto #Daimon #Maaya Kiho #Kiho #Asami Jun

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