matataku_hoshi | A Reimei no Kaze/Passion review (Reply)

Reimei no Kaze

Hmm. This one wasn't really my cup of tea. I should give a disclaimer. First of all, if you haven't figured it out already, my Japanese is spotty. I can usually follow something light without a lot of hard vocabulary (ie. Kimi wo Aishiteru) If you start throwing in a lot of political words, however, my comprehension goes sharply down. It's very possible I may have enjoyed Reimei no Kaze more if I understood some things better. Secondly...I'm not Japanese. (Duh). The idea of Japanese nationalism just doesn't mean the same thing to me that it does to the rest of the audience. Who knows, maybe I'm missing something.

Reimei no Kaze was written and directed by Ishidea Masaya, who also wrote and directed Sketches From the Life of Sakamoto Ryoma. Honestly, I think the two of them share a lot of the same weaknesses, mainly that biographies don't necessarily make good Takarazuka shows. The events in a real person's life, even when edited, don't necessarily make a good narrative. In my opinion at least, Reimei tried to squeeze in too many events as it covered Jiro's life and the whole thing didn't feel focused.

My other problem was a lack of interesting non-central characters. So many wonderful Takarasiennes were pushed to the side. Yes, I know that whenever Tom comes in everyone gets pushed down a rank, but Tomu and particularly Micchan had very, very little to do. Micchan didn't even get any solo singing, which is truly a shame. (Gee, I'm not biased).

Moreover, Tacchin didn't get to do much either in her role as Masako. Obviously what happened to Ume-chan was horrible, but at the same time I can't help but feel that she didn't miss much. There's some cute stuff at the beginning when Masako and Jiro first meet, but after that she's mostly in the background. I don't think she and Jiro even kissed during the show. All of this is a shame given that Tacchin is a very talented actress.

On an up note, I loved Tom. Even for a Takarazuka top star she's extremely charismatic and amuses me endlessly with her Tom-ness. She had a solo number about a third of the way through with some interesting choreography that was a highlight of the show for me. Oh, and her jeans were deadly.

Also, I continue to love Micchan, even when she doesn't get a big part. Her smile is so goofy and yet it lights up the entire stage. The fact that her character and Tomu's were friends wasn't explored nearly enough. I want to write slash for them... (Okay, not really, because I don't want to write slash, but you get the idea -_-;;;) If Micchan had to have a bland role, at least she got to represent the good parts of the America/Japan relationship.

wao_wao, Arisu played a reporter. It turns out that she and Masako were friends back in high school. She didn't show up until about two thirds of the way through, but once she did she had more dialogue than I was expecting.

Tani didn't make much of an impression on me either way, but she was mostly in the same scenes as Micchan and I was Distracted.

Natori Rei got a pretty big part, although most of it was Boring Political Stuff. Still, it makes me feel better knowing that Mii-chan (who played her role in the shinko) got a decent-sized part. I had been worried.

Who knows, maybe I'll like Reimei better when I go to see it a second time (I have tickets for the beginning of May), but it didn't really hold my interest this time.

Passion

A pretty standard Takarazuka review. It's not on my list of Favorite Revues Ever, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Or maybe my bar is just set really high after the highly awesome Miroirs. In any case, it was really nice to see some singing and dancing after how dry Reimei no Kaze was.

My biggest problem was that...well, Tom and Tani have many virtues, but neither is a great vocalist. This becomes noticeable in revues -_-;;; However, Passion had more Micchan Singing, and this is a Good Thing. In any case, some rambly thoughts:

-When I saw clips of Scene 10: Passion - Burning Rhythm, I didn't realize that Tani, Tomu, and Micchan were singing...Mambo Number 5 ^^;;;; (At least I think that's what it is. If not, it sounds a lot like it). I was extremely amused.

-The pair dance with Tom and Tani starts out with Tani dressed as a woman. (For the record, that dress looks a lot better in the actual performance than it does in photos). After a while Tani runs away, and Tom looks sad. When she returns to the stage she's dressed as an otokoyaku again, and she and Tom share a Look. I approved ^^

-I really liked the Arabian scene. The choreography was really cool and I'm sure

wao_wao will die at the sight of Kacha. However, it was missing something, which brings me to my next point.

-Because the role of Masako was so small, I didn't notice Ume-chan's absence so much in Reimei no Kaze. In Passion, however, I really missed Ume and her spunky charm. In particular, the musumeyaku role in the Arabian scene you could tell was written for her. Ume-chan, please get well soon T________T

Eeep, didn't mean to come across so negatively. Sora is a very talented troupe, and I think they did their best with the material they were given.