ekusudei: (Mizu Natsuki)
One highly-biased review, coming up! ;)

The Dawn at Solferino / Carnevale: A Sleeping Dream
Snow Troupe 2010
Tokyo Theater, April 11th 11:30 AM

Leads: Mizu Natsuki & Aihara Mika

[ TakaWiki ] [ Sanspo Stage Graph ]

The Dawn at Solferino

Overall I didn't care for the musical show, and I'll tell you why. I enjoy talky productions, but I enjoy them because the dialogue is snappy, and because there is some over-arching mystery or spy drama going on. I don't enjoy talky productions with stale, repetitive dialogue, where the same four characters rehash the same arguments over and over and over. There was no mystery -- there wasn't even really any worry of how the show would end, since we all know Dunant succeeds. I suppose the "growth" of Aihara's character is supposed to be where the dramatic tension is, but I found her annoying, and, again, thanks to typical Ueda-Sensei dialogue, every time she opened her mouth she was just saying the same thing again and again. Not caring at all what happened to her sucks the small seeds of engagement out of the show.

ExpandRead more... )

I think it's a show that will appeal to Yukigumi fans on account of how well Ueda-Sensei was at giving everyone stage time, and giving fair time to Yumiko in her last show.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Carnevale: A Sleeping Dream

LOVED THE REVUE SHOW!!!!

Mizu danced a lot, which made me very, very happy. Hamako sang a lot of hauntingly lovely songs, which made me ecstatic.

In fact, Hamako was on stage nearly the entire time, decorating the apron stages, so I'm afraid I missed a lot of the revue, except out of the corner of my eye. She grinned, she made faces, she passed out and collected hats and capes and, of course (being a Mask Seller), masks♄

ExpandRead more... )

Best of all? I checked the DVD/CD pages -- no music or scene cuts! Inaba-Sensei's first grade for a Grand Theater production = A+

In summary: LOVED it, want Inaba-S for Tsukigumi instead of Nakamura. *pout*
ekusudei: (Rika & Juri-pyon)
Kaze no Nishiki-e / Zorro
Snow Troupe, Tokyo Opening Night 2009

Stars: Mizu Natsuki & Shirahane Yuri

[ TakaWiki ] [ Sanspo Stage Graph ]

Kaze no Nishiki

Okay, so, to be honest, this wasn't the kind of Nihonmono revue that really appeals to me. I love the ones where they do the folk dances and folk songs, and there was some of that in here, but it was on the whole too cracky for me. There are some songs that really shouldn't be mutilated like that. *grin* Some things weren't meant to be jazzy, and I include "Soran" and "Sakura" in that category.

That said, I adored the opening sequence, with mischievous detective Tonami out to get poor, defenseless, manly, thief Mizu. <3 And I stared really hard at Sagiri Seina, trying to see how the chemistry was between herself and Yukigumi this first time she performed with them. Nothing felt awkward.

Not so fond of the Tom, sadly, though the choreography between her and Ugly-Mustache-Wearing-Mizu was interesting. I don't know much about Uesugi Kenshin or Takeda Shingen, but I like choreographed dance-battles.<3

Matsumoto-sensei seemed a bit unlucky. She had a big piece of hair caught in her eyelashes during one number, and then nearly fumbled her faux-towel thing during the other (though she made a very graceful save in the end, and didn't miss a beat).

The monk and cat-girl line dance just freaked me out.

Yep. That's all I'm going to say about the revue, for my own safety. ;)

~*~*~

Zorro

If it had ended with Kaze no Nishiki-e, I would have been safe and content with my decision to only see this show once, but.... Aaaagh. Zorro. Zorro. ...Zorro.

Mizu, Mizu, I'm sorry I haven't paid you much attention since you became top star; I don't care much for top stars. But I'm reminded now of why you and Yuuhi were my co-favorites for three years. SO HOT. And dancing. Dancing Mizu is all I really need to make me happy.

And I got it. Yay for mini-revues before and after the musical. I think I may have stopped breathing a few times when Mizu was dancing around in her Zorro outfit on the staircase. Ngh.

So! Plot! (With many warnings that this is based on one viewing, and my head was kind of muddled, because my brain kept repeating: 'Oh my god, oh my god.' I completely missed the Hamako storyline.)

ExpandSummary: )

What I Thought:

Yes please. Again.

ExpandAll right, in all seriousness. )


So, revue was meh for me, but the musical was a!ma!zing! adventure fun, and I'll count the opening and finale of the musical as my heart's revue. ;)
ekusudei: (Masaki 2007)
I am a weak woman. But then again, the 87th class tends to bring out my worser nature. *grin* And really, mixi emoji weren't going to cover it this time... ^^;

What seems to happen is that at the end of the run of classmate articles every year, there's a "counterattack" article. In it, all the interviewed seito get a chance to talk about the one who did all of their interviews. And since Hinata San is the most adorable and sweet and amusing creature ever, it is with great pleasure that I present:

87th Class: A Miniature Encyclopedia
Counterattack Episode, Hinata San

Graph, December 2007

[ pdf ] (3.4 MB)

With thanks to Lucia, because I still haven't gotten the December issue yet. T_T
ekusudei: (Default)
Space Fantasista!
2007, Cosmos Troupe Revue

Stars: Yamato Yuuga & Hizuki Hana

[ TakaWiki ] [ TCA Shop ] [ ENAK Sumire Style GRAPH ]

[livejournal.com profile] wao_wao came over and brought her DVDs with her this weekend. <3 Operation "Indoctrinate Jen With Soragumi" continues.

We didn't watch "Valencia", just the revue. But it was a good one. Lots of fun numbers. I think the Venus scenes were my favorite, followed by Saturn. Ume was awesome in the Mars number. Micchan's singing was love, and the etoile duet was !!!!! I think I have a new second-favorite etoile now. The dancing was really fun too, and there was all kinds of crazy energy in the group numbers. And Tomu x Tani slash is never a bad thing, even if one's roommate enters the room and one must not squeal too loudly. And there was so much love for Alice, who was right behind Tani in the opening number. <3 And love for Kotobuki Tsukasa just being awesome in general. And Yuumi Hiro continues to be a giant.

Tani is still not top star material to me, I'm afraid. But, gosh, I can't even remember that she's, what, ken-13? She just looks and feels so young. Eheh. And Ume! Oh, god. My eyes were glued to her in a kind of fascinated horror. There's thin, and there's Takarazuka thin, and then there's annorexic thin. :/ It was truly, truly disturbing. I'm super-sensitive about these kinds of things now (someone in my family was hospitalized for almost a month because of annorexia, and is still suffering from it, everyday of the rest of their lives), and I really wish these women weren't worked so hard and under such pressure all the time. It's just not healthy at all.

And, sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant. I really liked this revue. <3
ekusudei: (Default)
A Kiss To The Flames / Neo Voyage
Cosmos Troupe, 2005

Leads: Wao Youka & Hanafusa Mari

[ TakaWiki Page ] [ TCA Shop ]
[ Enak Sumire Style Stage Graph ]

A Kiss to the Flames:

I really liked this show. ....Hey, stop staggering around and clutching at your heart. Cynicism doesn't look well on you. Anyway, I really liked this show. [livejournal.com profile] wao_wao brought her copy over a couple of weekends ago, after patiently suffering through hoards of Tsukigumi shows for months. Both the story and the music were well done, and for a show with such a dark setting, there was something very bright and crisp about it. I think I spent about 15% of this show squealing over the return of villain Hatsukaze Midori. I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again: that woman plays villains better than anyone else I know. Due attention was also paid to the conscripting of musumeyaku into otokoyaku uniforms for large ensemble scenes. Wao Youka's character had two rather awesome wigs. I think I have a weak point for awesome wigs. Also, I think I'm coming to enjoy Wao better these days. Maybe the shock of Fersen is finally wearing off, two years later. Anyway, the costumes and wigs were all great. Even the roomie had to comment on Yamato Yuuga's cool dreds on one of his wanders into the kitchen. (Actually, as an aside, I don't think G has ever sat down and watched a sequence of Takarazuka for so long as he did for this show. It must have been Tani's dreds.) Itsuki Chihiro. Itsuki-san as a female gypsy. I- I didn't even recognize her. So many awesome bonus points to her. *hearts* The shadow effects they played with throughout this show were also incredibly awesome. They definitely had fun with them. I, ah, don't think anything needs to be said about the infamous Hanafusa Mari-in-a-blanket scene, right?

All in all, a really good show. The only problems I had with it were gypsies with forges? And Gaichi's floppy hat. ;) Ah, and perhaps not enough of those adorable gypsy boys. Yes, more gypsy boys is a must. :(

Neo Voyage:

A cool revue show. Anything with pirates has to be cool, of course! Although the Halloween scene was really... creepy. In a not good way. XD There is nothing quite so awesome as the combination of fedora, blues, gangsters, and angst. I'm still debating over the piano scenes. It was definitely pretty. Maybe not quite my style, although Piano Demon Gaichi was... cute. And to finish off this review: There's nothing quite like a Wao and Hana-chan pair dance, is there? I can definitely see why this revue is a favorite of a lot of my Soragumi fan friends!
ekusudei: (Default)
Because I can't share Maggie in TMS without sharing Masao... And they were all so silly. ;) From the ken-6 New Generation talk:

ExpandMemories from Music School )

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