I had a dream last night that I was invited (along with my family) to dinner at the house of a family friend.  A whole bunch of people were there, including...Rika.  

I was both incredibly excited and incredibly nervous.  Originally I was going to be sitting several seats down from her, and then somehow it was arranged so that I would be sitting next to her o_O

I'm afraid the only part of the conversation I remember was that she asked me a question, and I apologized and said 緊張しています (I'm nervous).  Only I couldn't even get that part out (this is probably because in actuality I was asleep, making it hard to talk :/)

I was a bit disappointed to wake up and discover that I actually hadn't been at the dinner table with Shibuki Jun :/

It's been interesting reading the opinions on potential tsukigumi Elisabeth casting.  Some people are really excited about the idea of someone they like being cast as Franz, and some dread the idea.  The same goes for Lucheni.[Poll #1338015]

Why didn't anyone tell me that Mami's ESP! is awesome?  It's been a while since I sat down and watched something that wasn't an interview/production notes/etc.  As much as I love off-stage stuff, I think I need to start working through my backlog of revues if ESP was any indication of really sparkly things that I didn't realize I had.

There was Rika singing "Born to Be Wild."  Vampire!Mami.  Kiriyan, Yuuhi, and Tani in drag.  Mami and Rika having a pair dance-esque moment before Mami dances with Dan-chan.  Kiriyan singing the etoile (I somehow didn't know that she had ever done an etoile).  But most of all, the entire thing was suffused with Mami Crack.

It also makes me feel a little sad to see how many wonderful people have left tsukigumi since 2001, but I suppose that's the nature of Takarazuka.

By the way, what was the reason for tsukigumi being so out of synch in 2001?  I think it was first "Ai no Sonata/Ima Sumire Hana ga Saku" in Tokyo, then "Practical Joke" (a Theater Drama City show), then "Ai no Sonata/ESP" in Takarazuka as Mami's sayonara show, and then "Great Pirates" as Rika's debut show, but Tokyo only.  The whole thing makes my head hurt a bit...

Translations take me forever to do, so comments are nice.  Please do not repost or retranslate without permission.  I’m also light years away from an expert translator, so I apologize for any mistakes.  For those of you who with Japanese skills, feedback is greatly appreciated.

Many, many thanks to

caithion, wao_wao, and sumirepanther for their help!  Not to mention the teachers at Satte West Junior High School ^^;;

Okay, so Mami and Rika were very sexy, but what exactly happened in that show?  I would feel bad about not understanding except for that words like "exorcist" just were never covered in my years of studying Japanese -_-;

On an up note, I love villainous Rika roles.  I may have to pop in Luna now.

(sorry for the post spam, but there's a typhoon going on outside and I have nothing else to do.  If any of you feel like signing online and entertaining me, it would be appreciated ^_^)