Yall I Was Gonna Say Maybe Midorikawa Hikaru Could Be A Good Contender For Kusuriuri. Then I Remembered

Y’all I was gonna say maybe Midorikawa Hikaru could be a good contender for Kusuriuri. Then I remembered he literally voiced The Man in the Fox Mask.

The lore deepens

Accurate description

I know the Love Square is changing a lot right now and some people are confused so I made an up to date diagram to help explain it

Hope it helps! 🥰

Takarazuka’s Elisabeth is like if somebody took 1984 and made it all about how Winston and Julia fell in love like it was all a fairytale.

Takarazuka’s theme song for Rose of Versailles is so cheap and cheesy, it overshadows the subtle poetics of Ikeda Riyoko’s words. (Also the ending of RoV’s anime slaps harder than any song the Revue can write)

The only good Takarazuka show I’ve seen so far is El Halcon because Aoike Yasuko is such a good action writer that even when her material is heavily watered down and compressed, it’s still, at the very least, fun to watch. Heard Haikara-san ga Tooru is good too but haven’t tried.

ive gotten into takarazuka when i found out they did elisabeth! do you have a fav takarazuka tod perhaps? i think ayaki nao was a quite seductive tod (though takarazuka ofc have their own interpretation of tod!)

I’m going to be brutally honest here - I do not care for the Takarazuka productions of Elisabeth. Part of it is getting to know some of the fan culture surrounding the Takarazuka productions in general, and their fetishistic nature towards the actors, but most of it is that I just do not vibe with the direction it takes. I don’t like how it romanticizes the story, I don’t like how Elisabeth’s role is reduced, I don’t like how spineless they make her. I absolutely know that this is how Takarazuka does this and that many fans enjoy it, and that’s fine! There’s room for lots of interpretations of the story, and I am fine with this one’s existence (plus it releases lots of proshots and has gorgeous costumes). But it is really not my thing.

All of which is a really long way of saying that I do not have a favorite Takarazuka Tod, because I do not watch it enough to have one, and when I do,  I focus almost entirely on Elisabeth. Because if they are going to reduce Elisabeth to a secondary role in her own musical, then I, spiteful contrarian that I am, will focus on her and her alone, just to show them. So there.

(Though I guess I did like Asumi Rio as Tod, but I think that’s less a sign of her quality and more because I watch the 2014 cast the most, because I find Ranno Hanna to be a cutie patoot.)

I agree with everything you said and I demand more.

One additional thought. The Takarazuka Revue didn’t choose to cast all female, they chose to adapt this musical into their all-female cast company. But to me the problem isn’t in the cast, it’s in the way the writers REWROTE AND DESTROYED ONE OF THE BEST MUSICALS OF ALL TIME. No internal consistency, characters are bland, Death is the protagonist now btw, and worst of all, they made the show KITSCHY.

2005 Vienne is the most intense and spectacular imo

rating elisabeth productions i’ve seen because why not!

1992 in Wien: fae king is concerned how into it random girl in the woods is after repeatedly telling him her name. blue! it’s so blue and the little pause at her wedding is the greatest bit. pia’s dress!!!! oh goodness, she radiates sisi for me, both story wise and history wise. she brings such respect to a woman i love and hopefully is resting in peace. also uwe and pia are literally bffs it’s beautiful i have never seen a gay man kiss a woman with as much love and respect as i do when these two play death and sisi. like even in concerts he *still* does the final act bridal carry. only downside is i need more physicality! 

2002 in Essen: pia’s last performance of sisi and i just-it’s bittersweet but the way she brings everything to the role. the literal screams and cheers of the audience with her final note in ich gehör nur mir gives me chills every single time. i wish they kept in the blocking with her and rudolf when he comes to her in the garden (the poor boy, or rather, young man at this point buries his face into her stomach and i literally cannot-) and the heartbreak of her saying “i never beg. i won’t even do it for you.” like it hurts so bad but so good. she also does a cartwheel. barefoot. petticoats and all! (also pia did a revival in i think…2018? in concert. she’s 60 something and she can still hit the g5 at the end of ich gehör nur mir. i literally teared up when i saw the clip. she will always embody sisi for me. forever. 

2005 in Wien: two feral idiots have an argument for two hours.literally the greatest of all time, i will be taking no other thoughts. was the first production i watched and i fell head over heels in love. went to school the next day, screaming about it to my friends (who didn’t care) and the promptly went to scream about it my history teacher (who did care). mate and maya are the most psychological and historical for me. the interwoven bliss of the tumbling, complicated relationship between death and sisi directly contrasted with the fall of the haspburg empire, the choice between yourself or what you have to do in this life, everything about it. serkan kaya is literally the greatest lucheni and i want to simultaneously wring his neck for killing sisi but also lowkey adopt him for his freaking runs and literally hitting the same note of a freaking trumpet. the physicality between mate and maya makes me melt, because it’s rough and feral and then soft and longing. the almost nose brush! the complete amusement from death followed by confusion and then fascination and then all of that is literally mirrored in the slowed down moment at her wedding when they circle each other cate please i’m going to combust- 

takarazuka: it’s a no for me. japan has beautiful sets and costumes, but the choice to make the entire cast female was terrible. i’m watching bad performances of women pretending to be men and singing parts way too low for their ranges. also death is just…weird? it’s unsettling. also the show doesn’t sound good in japanese compared to other languages like german, dutch, and korean. 

2012: kill it with fire. no, don’t even do that. wait until it’s coming off of a boat and then stab it repeatedly with a file. this is the worst adaptation my eyes have ever had the misfortune to see. the soundtrack itself isn’t terrible, and if anything mark siebert is probably my favorite when it comes to his version of die schatten werden länger [akt 2]. but the production set is legit just….it’s nothing. there’s nothing but a ramp. it’s so ugly. and GOD, death isn’t…he’s not some macho goth man? and then having actresses who play sisi entirely as timid, white, 20 somethings completely takes me out of the character and the story. there’s no strength. there’s no passion. i’m just watching pretty young women who have the worst, high school production old age makeup i have ever seen. i hate it so much. not a production but: there were some choices made to have elisabeth be played by two different actresses and that legitimately made me so upset, i had to go and do something else. it completely strips away sisi as a person and a character and i despise this take. 

2020: maya is too old to play sis but did i cry when she came out in THE dress? yes. everything else is awful. that fucking SWING I’M GONNA MURDER SOMEONE- please get rid of mark as death i’m so tired-

What is Dorian saying to Klaus? Wrong answers only

For the past 2 days, the Mononoke team’s decision to recast the Medicine Seller has been living rent free in my head. And today I come to offer another perspective.

Because of the way animation in general does not allow for much appearance of the creators, much of the public credit and acknowledgement go to the only slither of humanity that can be seen or rather … heard. People equate their favorite characters with the providers of their voices. Kaji Yuki is literally Eren Jaeger. Dante Basco is literally Zuko. And Sakurai Takahiro is literally Shirokuma, Osomatsu, Makishima, Rohan, Kusuriuri, etc. Except this is a very reductive view because in truth, the voice actor does not, at all, play any part in the actual creation of a character or vision. They are the missing piece of a puzzle, but the other 99 pieces, the base, the frame, they’re the works of the writers, the designers, artists, animators, and directors. The voice actor simply HELPS bring that vision to life per directed, they are not creators.

In light of the recast decision, I have seen outcries saying that without Sakurai Takahiro, the Medicine Seller is no longer the Medicine Seller, which is a sentiment I can understand. I, too, have deep attachments to the characters voiced by him, and thus, indirectly, to his voice. But while his voice is perfect for such calm, mysterious, almost mystical character, consider this. Would you want a main character of a story that intentionally explores the lived reality of women in history (both pain and gain) through a humanizing lens, whose affiliation is neutral but with subtle acknowledgement and empathy for the victims of each crime (who are mostly women), to be voiced by a man who has, for a very long time, deceived and taken advantage of the women in his life? The compatibility between Sakurai Takahiro and the Medicine Seller is purely superficial, they stand for complete opposite things. And the team, while fully know the risks they are taking, sided with their creation.

With that decision, their creative interest is fully protected. By recasting the Medicine Seller, they are asserting their rightful claim to the credits of creating both the character, AND the series. THEY are the mysterious lines spoken in several intakes of breath, THEY are the glamorous kimono, THEY are the cheeky and mischievous actions that also imply a sense of misanthropy. The Medicine Seller is NOT, and never has been, Sakurai Takahiro. Secondly, with such cruel actions as his reputation, it is difficult for any production to continue working with Sakurai Takahiro, especially in a lead role where he would no doubt be involved in many promotional materials and inevitably be linked with its name. Hence, it is likely that, without any drastic action, upon finishing this movie, the Mononoke team, too, might close its door and try to move on. But by detaching him from the name, they are now able to look forward into the future and continue to conceptualize the universe that we all love and crave, without the weight of such an impactful and disrespectful scandal, that directly contradicts their stance, on their mind.

In all, with the single brave decision to recast one of the most recognizable traits of their central character, the Mononoke team has protected their character, their work, their creation. It is truly commendable.