General updates + My top 5 otokoyaku so far

It's been such a long time since I last wrote here!

I feel so sorry about abandoning my beloved blog for so long, but it's been a very complicated period for me, so full of life changing events.

I am really glad to see that some of you have visited the blog all the same, despite my absence, and I hope to be able to count on your support in the future as well.

While away from Takarazuka Pills I have kept on watching shows and reading news, so hopefully I will be inspired to write as frequently as I used to - there are so many topics I could write about!

So, even though my life is becoming busier, I truly hope to keep it up :)

Today I have decided to show my favourite 5 otokoyakus at the moment (ranking might change in the future!)

To be honest, it is hard to pick my favourite 5, but what is harder is to actually decide how to rank them

At any rate, here I go, starting from the 5th!

5. Suzukaze Mayo

The only reason why I ranked her 5th is that I have not watched enough stuff with her in order to rank her higher. As a matter of fact, I have only watched The Rose of Versialles 91 with her so far, but it was good enough for me to include her in my top 5.

And why is that?

Well, on top of being gorgeous, she has an incredible voice. Her singing is really good, listening to her I have realised how much singing standards have been dropping in Zuka lately.

Curious fact that makes me love her even more: her nickname is Kaname - yes, same name as my belove Ouki Kaname!

Here is an extract from The Rose of Versailles - Oscar '91. In this video you will also see Amami Yuki as André.

4. Sena Jun

Deciding between whether to rank her 4th or 3rd was really hard! Because I really like her a lot. But then I guess that the one I placed in 3rd position has something she doesn't.

At any rate, let's talk about Asa (Sena Jun)!

She acts well and she has good charisma. Her voice is easily recognisable and pleasant. I especially like her in funny, perky roles: her Bill in Me & My Girl was beyond awesome!

So here is an extract from it. Enjoy!

3. Shibuki Jun

I have only watched one show and one TCA Special with her so far... and yet, she's up in 3rd position!

That's because...: she has a lot of charisma, her voice is one of my favourites overall (probably equaled only by Wao Youka), she dances amasingly well and her acting is extremely moving.

On the other hand, she's not one of the best looking otokoyakus. I usually call her "the ugly but pretty one"... and that's an endearment. Why? Well, because if you look at her pictures, she usually doesn't look good. If you really take in her features... well, she's not that pretty. But when she acts she changes completely, she becomes so beautiful! And I think that that's one of the things which make a great actress.

The show I have seen her in is Seal of Roses, and it made me fall in love with her.

So here is an extract, I hope you'll love it as much as I did!

2. Ouki Kaname

Oh God, how it hurts me not to put Kaname first!

I had to think about it for a while, but then I realised that I could not give her the gold medal after all - just for a tenth of a point, though ;)

As those who are familiar with this blog already know, I basically worship her :P

Kaname is one of the most beautiful otokoyakus I have seen so far and on top of that she has some top notch acting skills. Her eyes are killers, her smile as well. She truly seems to be a natural. Another thing about her is her stage presence: she stands out so much! And that's really important for a top star, I believe.

The only not so positive thing about her I could say is that, though she sings well, her voice is not one of the best. To be honest, I like it the way it is, I think it has personality and feeling, but I realise that technically it's far from perfect.

I found out about her when watching Star troupe's Romeo & Juliet. Since then I have watched tons of shows with her, including The Legend of Galactic Heroes and Montecristo live.

She's made me cry, she's made me laugh and I love her unconditionally!

Here's a digest from Montecristo.

AND THE FIRST PLACE GOES TO...

1. Wao Youka

After careful consideration, I decided that I really should assign the first place to the otokoyaku who made me fall in love with Takarazuka to begin with. I am not sure if I would be so much into Zuka if I had not seen Wao's Phantom as my first full show.

Honestly? I see no faults in her, at least none that is relevant. She is beautiful (maybe not as perfectly beautiful as Kaname, but still), she's a great actress, she has charisma and her voice is out of this world.

I have seen most of her shows and I liked 99% of what I have seen. There's something about her that simply caught my heart.

Maybe if I had to describe her with just one adjective, that would be POWERFUL. Powerful voice, powerful acting, powerful stage presence and powerful personality. Hanafusa Mari and her were the golden combi, such a perfect combi that I wonder when we shall see one like that again.

So here's the first scene from the first full show I ever watched, the show which made me fall for Zuka and to which I owe the fact that I am here, writing on this blog at night even though I have work tomorrow and I am dead tired XD ... I hope you appreciate!

When otokoyaku play female roles... Part I: Ouki Kaname

Sooner or later, all otokoyaku end up playing a female role, whether it be a big or a small role, just for one dance or for a whole play (well, maybe not all otokoyaku, but many :P ).

Opinions on otokoyaku playing musumeyaku roles are varied.

I must say that most of the times I get a weird feeling when I see an otokoyaku playing a female role. I can't really explain why, but I suppose that it might be because I'm so used to seeing them as men that it's weird to see them playing women... even though they are women!

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have a look at what otokoyaku playing musumeyaku look like, and I decided to start from my beloved Ouki Kaname - my favourite top star at the moment, as you probably already know ;)

Kaname has played various female roles, though mainly short ones. She has probably played more female roles than I know of, but here are four roles I know about, in chronological order, from the oldest to the newest!

1. Queen of the night

Takarazuka's dream kingdom, 2005, Snow troupe

It's a short video, but I think that Kaname looks fabulous. In this dance both Kaname and Ozuki Toma play the queens of the night... sexy! ;)

Here's the video!

2. Cinderella

Miroirs, 2008, Snow troupe

This is a video I never get tired of! Kaname looks fabulous in her Cinderella dress, and I love the fact that in the end her otokoyaku side clearly comes out... :P

Click here for the video!

3. In the desert...

Luna Rossa, 2011, Cosmos troupe

In this dance Kaname is soooo sexy! I honestly think she looks fabulous... though I must say, it's so easy to tell she actually is an otokoyaku ;) But, compared to some other otokoyakus, she is still feminine enough :P

Unfortunately I couldn't find a video for this scene, but here are some screen caps I have taken from the DVD ;)

4. Pineapple Queen

Amour de 99!!, 2013, Cosmos troupe

Over the top but extremely pretty, welcome this year's Pineapple Queen!

It's an unforgettable performance, trust me ;)

Unfortunately there is no DVD yet, so I couldn't take any screen shots, but here's a couple of photos of the Pineapple Queen :D

AQUA5

What would you call a band made of five otokoyaku? A boysband? A girlsband? ... a "Takaband"?

At any rate, call it what you may, it exists! ...or at least, it used to exist, since they have disbanded now.

But you can still find their music and videoclips, and that's what matters!

AQUA5 was a J-Pop group made of five otokoyaku who were in the snow troupe: Mizu Natsuki (top star at that time), Otozuki Kei (current snow troupe top star), Ouki Kaname (next cosmos troupe top star), Ayabuki Mao and Ayana Oto.

They were active from 2007 to 2010, when the lead Mizu Natsuki retired from Takarazuka.

They only released three singles and one album, and they had one live concert in Tokyo.

They also participated in the popular Japanese TV program "Tokyo Friend Park II" - go watch it if you can, you can find the video on tudou.com, it's really funny!

Honestly, I am not really into J-Pop (I prefer rock), but hearing these five great Takarasiennes singing together is still nice.

If you haven't listened to their music yet, then you should give it a go. Takarasiennes are really good singers after all, and it's nice to see them in a different kind of context.

Here are the links to the videoclips for their three singles:

Time to love (absolutely love their look here!)

Aqua Feel, Aqua Soul

Shirayuki (I think it's a really pretty PV)

Hope you'll enjoy this :)

Welcome to the world of Takarazuka!

宝塚の世界へようこそ！

Whether you are a "veteran" fan of Takarazuka, a new adept or even if you know nothing about this colourful world, I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts and reviews!

There are so many different aspects to Takarazuka ("Zuka" in short) that one just never knows enough about it, and it is very difficult to decide where to start from when explaining what it is.

Honestly, when I start talking about my passion for Zuka to people, they don't really get what I find so fascinating about it and they sort of freak out.

I guess that to understand the charm of this world you need to watch some of its shows first.

Maybe you also need to have some kind of natural inclination towards androgen characters, kitsch costumes, grand atmospheres and aesthetics that don't belong to your own culture (as far as my knowledge goes, the aesthetics of Takarazuka do not really fit into Japanese aesthetics either, so it could be considered "foreign" even to them).

But first things first: what is Takarazuka?

Takarazuka is a Japanese type of theater that features musicals played only by female actresses.

Having only male actors is something that most people have heard of (think of Kabuki or even of European theater up to the XVII century), but having only female actresses is a lot more rare.

So in Takarazuka you have women playing both female (musumeyaku) and male (otokoyaku) roles.

The actresses attend a special school during two years in which they have dancing, singing and acting classes.

During that period, the stage sex of the actresses is decided according to their physical appearance, skills and (though it is not as important a factor as the others) personal preference.

Once their stage sex is decided, they will stick to it (even when they are not on stage) until they leave their troupe.

It is rather rare to have actresses play both female and male roles, but it is not unprecedented.

There are five Takarazuka troupes:

花組 - Flower troupe

雪組 - Snow troupe

星組 - Star troupe

月組 - Moon troupe

宙組 - Cosmos troupe

Actresses often switch from one troupe to another at some point, they sometimes switch between several of them during their career.

Each troupe has its own top stars: one otokoyaku and one musumeyaku.

The top stars play the lead roles in the shows of their troupe with few exceptions.

The "real" top star is only one, though: the otokoyaku top star. The otokoyaku have a higher status compared to the musumeyaku and they usually have a wider fan-base as well.

The musicals played in Takarazuka are often set abroad, mainly in Europe, and the genre is predominantly romance.

Some of them are based on famous manga (such as "The Rose of Versailles"), others on existing musicals (such as "Elisabeth" or "Romeo and Juliette") and some are original Takarazuka productions (e.g. "Never say goodbye").

The costumes are stunning, sometimes getting to a pitch of kitsch-ness that is almost unbelievable. They love sequins, rhinestones and feathers.

You might wonder now about what is there to Takarazuka that fascinates me so much.

1. The actresses are incredibly skilled. Of course, some are "better" than others and I do have my favourites and my, let's say, "not-so-favourites", but overall the level is amasingly high.

I am not a singing, dancing or acting expert, so I cannot go in detail, but my impression is that they do extremely well in all these fields.

2. The otokoyaku. Their mere existance is one good reason to watch Takarazuka. Some of them are so good at what they do that I can't get myself to think of them as women - given that their purpose is precisely to enact men, isn't that a wonderful thing?

I must say, their "male" performance is strongly stereotyped (and so is the musumeyaku's "female" performance) but still, there is some kind of "magic" to it that is difficult to put into words.

The musumeyaku are not one of the reasons I like Takarazuka, though for some people they are. Don't misunderstand me: I believe them to be excellent at what they do, but somehow I am not as impressed with them as I am with the otokoyaku.

3. I love musicals. I guess that, if I didn't, I probably could not stand Takarazuka. But, given that I am absolutely a huge fan of musicals, I really appreciate the variety of their shows: they go from comedy to drama, from sci-fi to traditional stories. Besides, they perform about 3 shows per troupe every year! One can just never get bored.

4. I loooove romance, and I like it the "old-way". Yes, even when it's cheesy.

Of course, everyone has their own reasons to like Takarazuka and I don't mean to say that your reasons for liking it should be the same as mine.

I simply hope that, if you were not sure whether to plunge into the world of Takarazuka or not, I have motivated you to go for it!

Last but not least, if you want to learn more about Takarazuka, I suggest you to visit the TakaWiki. You'll find loads of interesting information there!

P.S. The picture I have uploaded for this post is of Wao Youka, my absolute favourite otokoyaku, in the show "Phantom" (2004).