Oath of the Midnight Sun / PHOENIX Takarazuka!! | November 2014
I keep trying to remember to states this at the beginning of every review, but I keep forgetting. Sorry.
I am not a casual fan. If you want, "it was all rainbows and sunshine and sparkles" you may want to look at another review. I moved past that phase a long time ago and this review is filled with a lot of opinions, and you may not like all of them.
I’ve seen Oath of the Midnight Sun twice now. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I also didn’t understand a good portion of it. I was doing really good until about 45 minutes in and my brains started leaking out of my ears. But generally, it was good. It was very much a sayounara play. Like, Kaname and Kitarou are the leads, obviously. Which, I understand. They both are leaving, and this show was literally written for them. I don’t begrudge them that. The fans are happy; they get to see their actress doing the things that they are really good at. I don’t begrudge them that. I appreciated Tomu’s taidan show on a level that I don’t think anyone else can understand. Gustav though, it’s not so great for everyone else.
Aesthetically I loved it. It’s clear it’s a Harada-sensei work because he obviously has a heavy touch in the sets and costume design. It’s stunning, as ALL of the Harada-sensei shows I have gotten my hand on. Also I want to kiss whoever decided to put a round bulstrolde on the round center rotating lift. Fucking finally. I was drooling at the effect as they swung it into view. Yes.
Okay, so the wiki and in turn the official hankyu site has a pretty good breakdown of the plot itself so I’m not going to touch that. As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m not so great with clean and concise plot breakdowns. I’m going to leave it to the wiki this time. Instead I’m going to give impressions on characters based on actresses.
Kaname: Kaname was Kaname. I’ve long lost any sparkly feelings I’ve had towards her Ginga, but she did a decent job. She gets to wear pretty outfits and prance around the stage. It will no doubt be a winner for any Kaname fans. My friend said the one day she watched it Kaname had no fucks to give vocally, but both times I saw it she was solid. I’m not a huge fan, but she did what she did best, look pretty and stand around.
Kitarou: Kitarou’s final role is that of the best buddy, of course. I know people get the impression I don’t like Kitarou, and that’s not the case. I do like Kitarou. Honestly, I do. I mean, aside from not finding her face particularly attractive, she’s really talented. The thing I don’t enjoy is what she did to the ranking in soragumi, and that she was robbed of becoming something in her own right. I don’t enjoy what she did to the ranking in soragumi, and I don’t like that Kaname took her from growing into her a talented actress in her own right. She’s going to go down in history as Kaname’s bro-bante, but she deserves so much more than that. Teffy and I used to talk about an alternative universe where Kitarou didn’t get transferred. She owned this role, right down to the super emotional finale scene. Kaname and her have fantastic chemistry, and it really showed in this show. The finale scene is just… heartbreaking.
Mirion: Eugh. Mirion got so shafted again. Like, in many ways this role was emblematic of her entire top career with Kaname. She's a pretty political wife, who doesn't have a lot to do, but at the same time is there and willing to do what needs to be done. She is kind and patient, and in love with him (?) and is willing to stick it out, despite him being "NO.". She inspires him to be a better person, and dream bigger for sweden. But at the same time he has no interest in her. Literally, "the woman he loves” is Urara, and he tells his wife this. .. wait… does this make Kitarou the wife in soragumi? Oh god. I’ve taken this too far.
Maa-kun: Maa-kun guys, Maa-kun. Woman is a fantastic actress and by god if she isn’t getting better. The emotion that was clear to see as she struggled with her role as a spy was fantastic. Plus she looks really good in a military uniform and with long hair. I am excited for the DVD to get a really good close up of her acting.
Kai-chan: Eugh. Kai-chan has upped her game. To where she is legitimately a sexy thing. She has that like perfect face, but she also super feminine. I wondered if she was going to really grab onto the sexy and go with it. But I'd say since WMW, Kai-chan has grabbed onto sexy. She's owned the "You want to do naughty things to me" vibe. Plus she was totally channeling Haya from El Halcon. Like, wig, makeup, scar. It was all there. And as anyone who as ever watched El Halcon with me knows, I think Haya in that show is the sexiest thing ever. It worked. I do wish she had more faith in her voice. She appears to have those low notes, but not faith. So she always comes out sounding weak. I wish she would just trust in it and push it. She could sound as fantastic as Yurika does in those low notes. But she played the poor abused farmer in the woods, who then gets roped in by Gustav to play a part in the revolution. So you get two sides of the coins, lovable rag-tag peasant Kai-chan, and then the cleaned up military uniform Kai-chan. I like both of these things.
Urara: She was the love interest. They gave her songs in her range. She had beautiful dresses. I wish she had more of that x-factor that made her more interesting to watch onstage. Her and Kaname don’t have a lot of chemistry, which is okay, because while she’s the “woman he loves”, they don’t have a lot of stage time together thus it’s believable.
The show didn’t have a lot of other roles of note. It had a lot of good ensemble scenes, but not a lot of named characters. The ensemble scenes were really good though
Although, honestly soragumi isn't my best troupe at the moment. It's been four year since I kumi-gaed with Tomu. Which, for all you folks that have been around long enough to see it happen, means that troupes change a lot in that period of time. Especially when it comes to underclassmen. Underclassmen who weren't on the radar when I was a fan have suddenly come into their own. So I'm struggling to keep up with that. Either way nobody else stood out to me in the play.
PHEONIX TAKARAZUKA~!
Okay, so I’m going to put it out there that I had a really good seat for this, and thus am super biased
I somehow *cough* ended up in the second row for this, and it was fantastic. I had a friend of mine sitting right next to me, who while she had kangeki-ed with gaijin before, She had never seen a show with one who was familiar with soragumi, and had been to a seito’s ochakai. So after Kitarou, Mirion and Maa-kun open the show walking across the ginkyo in the giant Moo-Moo’s that are disguised as Not Moo-Moo’s and kaname has her grand entrance on the grand staircase. ((side note to point out that they used my favorite stair effect, which is to cover the entire thing in fabric so it looks like the top star is floating. Kaname then had a giant swag of fabric from the top to her shoulder, and from her shoulder down to the bottom. And it had a feather design. It is of course removed in a Grand Moment of FWAH)). After that show really starts, meaning everyone dances out in their matching costumes to sing the theme. My friend was not prepared for reaction to me. I am speechless at being super close, and was not mentally prepared for the sparkle and glee in seito’s eyes. You do prep for it. Like, “Okay. Today I’m going to be 4 feet from the Ginkyo. I will not die from the looks, I will not die from being that close to Mirion’s fantastic abs and Maa-kun’s obnoxiously large head, I will survive.” I had none of that prep. I’m sitting there like O.O And my friend is utterly delighted by my state of terror and anticipation. Between the small child sitting in front of me, and my obvious gaijin-ness, we got a lot of attention. My friend is laughing during the opening number, and leans over and is like “I think they are looking at you”.. .and that’s about the time I look directly in front of me and make eye contact with Kazuki-motherfucking-Sora. The feisty underclassman who is taking the world by storm. She obviously recognizes me and spends the entire number torturing me. She WINKS at me as my friend waves her hand in front of my face, because she was worried I wasn’t blinking *dies* I am utterly embarrassed by this and Sora was so delighted. SO delighted that as she runs out onto the ginkyo for another 5 person ‘changing the background’ solo she takes three steps back to blow me a kiss. Clearly Me. She wanted to give me a heart attack. It worked. I’m under your spell you little vixen. I hope you are prepared for me at your ochakai this time.
(these costumes. I'm dead).
Anyway, the show was really good. It had a fantastic cheesy, funny but not really funny number. Which is where the Kaname in the peacock dress pictures come from. She’s a master thief. She runs around switching costumes as everyone does the very stereotypical Takarazuka shimmy and dance inbetween. Very classic. Kitarou is the detective, so of course one of the costumes is “detective Kitarou”. It was a fun good number.
The next number is probably my favorite from the revue, it’s a dance number. It’s a Maa-kun lead dance number with an Indian theme and music. I’ve been thinking about why I love this dance number for days no. Maa-kun reminds me of Tomu. Not physically, not in the way she moves either. It’s just something about it. I think it’s because she reminds me of Tomu because it’s obvious she loves to dance. It’s clear in every movement and every smirk that she’s enjoying dancing. Tomu was the same. I think I fell for Tomu for her dancing. Her voice was passable, her acting was passable, but when she danced… oh dear. She loved it, and it showed. Maa-kun loves to dance like Tomu loves to dance. Everyone in the number obviously puts 110 percent in, and it just shone. The costumes, the music, the dance move. It’s stunning. Maa-kun, I am so excited for your top-stardom. You don’t even understand.
Another honorable mention go to the standard good versus evil number, which starts with Ai-chan and Riku facing off on the ginkyo. The first time I saw I think I laughed quietly to myself, because it’s douki’s battling it out for the star-track~! Ai-chan was of course the good dancer, and Riku was of course, the evil dancer. And we all know good always wins. *laughs* But yeah, the number has some really fantastic dancing in it, and Mirion and Maa-kun are paired up together, and in this one scene they have more chemistry than the entire of the show/play between Kaname and Mirion. It’s impressive how much their ability to work together as partner’s blows Kaname out of the water.
But yeah, the rest features the horrible ruffly costumes that I want to hate, but kinda really enjoy… and a lot of feathers. Mirion has fantastic abs and a stick on belly ring. Maa-kun winked at me. It was fantastic and sparkly, but nothing stands out now. I do have to say that the Kazahane Reia has a FANTASTIC voice, and she put Kitarou to shame in one of her many solo bits. I’m sad to see her go. Also the baby faced 95th who is everywhere this show ;_; I guess somebody had to go with Kaname besides Kitarou.
But yeah, it wasn’t anything special until the end and the typical taidan gut-punch of an otokoyaku dance/solo/pairdance. Less of a sucker-punch for me, but again, Kaname fans will be sad.
I /may/ try and swing seeing it again, but the timing is sucky. And yeah, this review is kinda sucky. Sorry, real life and lack of motivation got in the way… but I needed to get it out before I go for shinko tomorrow. Because that’s the next thing I’m going to be writing up.
I am not a casual fan. If you want, "it was all rainbows and sunshine and sparkles" you may want to look at another review. I moved past that phase a long time ago and this review is filled with a lot of opinions, and you may not like all of them.
I’ve seen Oath of the Midnight Sun twice now. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I also didn’t understand a good portion of it. I was doing really good until about 45 minutes in and my brains started leaking out of my ears. But generally, it was good. It was very much a sayounara play. Like, Kaname and Kitarou are the leads, obviously. Which, I understand. They both are leaving, and this show was literally written for them. I don’t begrudge them that. The fans are happy; they get to see their actress doing the things that they are really good at. I don’t begrudge them that. I appreciated Tomu’s taidan show on a level that I don’t think anyone else can understand. Gustav though, it’s not so great for everyone else.
Aesthetically I loved it. It’s clear it’s a Harada-sensei work because he obviously has a heavy touch in the sets and costume design. It’s stunning, as ALL of the Harada-sensei shows I have gotten my hand on. Also I want to kiss whoever decided to put a round bulstrolde on the round center rotating lift. Fucking finally. I was drooling at the effect as they swung it into view. Yes.
Okay, so the wiki and in turn the official hankyu site has a pretty good breakdown of the plot itself so I’m not going to touch that. As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m not so great with clean and concise plot breakdowns. I’m going to leave it to the wiki this time. Instead I’m going to give impressions on characters based on actresses.
Kaname: Kaname was Kaname. I’ve long lost any sparkly feelings I’ve had towards her Ginga, but she did a decent job. She gets to wear pretty outfits and prance around the stage. It will no doubt be a winner for any Kaname fans. My friend said the one day she watched it Kaname had no fucks to give vocally, but both times I saw it she was solid. I’m not a huge fan, but she did what she did best, look pretty and stand around.
Kitarou: Kitarou’s final role is that of the best buddy, of course. I know people get the impression I don’t like Kitarou, and that’s not the case. I do like Kitarou. Honestly, I do. I mean, aside from not finding her face particularly attractive, she’s really talented. The thing I don’t enjoy is what she did to the ranking in soragumi, and that she was robbed of becoming something in her own right. I don’t enjoy what she did to the ranking in soragumi, and I don’t like that Kaname took her from growing into her a talented actress in her own right. She’s going to go down in history as Kaname’s bro-bante, but she deserves so much more than that. Teffy and I used to talk about an alternative universe where Kitarou didn’t get transferred. She owned this role, right down to the super emotional finale scene. Kaname and her have fantastic chemistry, and it really showed in this show. The finale scene is just… heartbreaking.
Mirion: Eugh. Mirion got so shafted again. Like, in many ways this role was emblematic of her entire top career with Kaname. She's a pretty political wife, who doesn't have a lot to do, but at the same time is there and willing to do what needs to be done. She is kind and patient, and in love with him (?) and is willing to stick it out, despite him being "NO.". She inspires him to be a better person, and dream bigger for sweden. But at the same time he has no interest in her. Literally, "the woman he loves” is Urara, and he tells his wife this. .. wait… does this make Kitarou the wife in soragumi? Oh god. I’ve taken this too far.
Maa-kun: Maa-kun guys, Maa-kun. Woman is a fantastic actress and by god if she isn’t getting better. The emotion that was clear to see as she struggled with her role as a spy was fantastic. Plus she looks really good in a military uniform and with long hair. I am excited for the DVD to get a really good close up of her acting.
Kai-chan: Eugh. Kai-chan has upped her game. To where she is legitimately a sexy thing. She has that like perfect face, but she also super feminine. I wondered if she was going to really grab onto the sexy and go with it. But I'd say since WMW, Kai-chan has grabbed onto sexy. She's owned the "You want to do naughty things to me" vibe. Plus she was totally channeling Haya from El Halcon. Like, wig, makeup, scar. It was all there. And as anyone who as ever watched El Halcon with me knows, I think Haya in that show is the sexiest thing ever. It worked. I do wish she had more faith in her voice. She appears to have those low notes, but not faith. So she always comes out sounding weak. I wish she would just trust in it and push it. She could sound as fantastic as Yurika does in those low notes. But she played the poor abused farmer in the woods, who then gets roped in by Gustav to play a part in the revolution. So you get two sides of the coins, lovable rag-tag peasant Kai-chan, and then the cleaned up military uniform Kai-chan. I like both of these things.
Urara: She was the love interest. They gave her songs in her range. She had beautiful dresses. I wish she had more of that x-factor that made her more interesting to watch onstage. Her and Kaname don’t have a lot of chemistry, which is okay, because while she’s the “woman he loves”, they don’t have a lot of stage time together thus it’s believable.
The show didn’t have a lot of other roles of note. It had a lot of good ensemble scenes, but not a lot of named characters. The ensemble scenes were really good though
Although, honestly soragumi isn't my best troupe at the moment. It's been four year since I kumi-gaed with Tomu. Which, for all you folks that have been around long enough to see it happen, means that troupes change a lot in that period of time. Especially when it comes to underclassmen. Underclassmen who weren't on the radar when I was a fan have suddenly come into their own. So I'm struggling to keep up with that. Either way nobody else stood out to me in the play.
PHEONIX TAKARAZUKA~!
Okay, so I’m going to put it out there that I had a really good seat for this, and thus am super biased
I somehow *cough* ended up in the second row for this, and it was fantastic. I had a friend of mine sitting right next to me, who while she had kangeki-ed with gaijin before, She had never seen a show with one who was familiar with soragumi, and had been to a seito’s ochakai. So after Kitarou, Mirion and Maa-kun open the show walking across the ginkyo in the giant Moo-Moo’s that are disguised as Not Moo-Moo’s and kaname has her grand entrance on the grand staircase. ((side note to point out that they used my favorite stair effect, which is to cover the entire thing in fabric so it looks like the top star is floating. Kaname then had a giant swag of fabric from the top to her shoulder, and from her shoulder down to the bottom. And it had a feather design. It is of course removed in a Grand Moment of FWAH)). After that show really starts, meaning everyone dances out in their matching costumes to sing the theme. My friend was not prepared for reaction to me. I am speechless at being super close, and was not mentally prepared for the sparkle and glee in seito’s eyes. You do prep for it. Like, “Okay. Today I’m going to be 4 feet from the Ginkyo. I will not die from the looks, I will not die from being that close to Mirion’s fantastic abs and Maa-kun’s obnoxiously large head, I will survive.” I had none of that prep. I’m sitting there like O.O And my friend is utterly delighted by my state of terror and anticipation. Between the small child sitting in front of me, and my obvious gaijin-ness, we got a lot of attention. My friend is laughing during the opening number, and leans over and is like “I think they are looking at you”.. .and that’s about the time I look directly in front of me and make eye contact with Kazuki-motherfucking-Sora. The feisty underclassman who is taking the world by storm. She obviously recognizes me and spends the entire number torturing me. She WINKS at me as my friend waves her hand in front of my face, because she was worried I wasn’t blinking *dies* I am utterly embarrassed by this and Sora was so delighted. SO delighted that as she runs out onto the ginkyo for another 5 person ‘changing the background’ solo she takes three steps back to blow me a kiss. Clearly Me. She wanted to give me a heart attack. It worked. I’m under your spell you little vixen. I hope you are prepared for me at your ochakai this time.
(these costumes. I'm dead).
Anyway, the show was really good. It had a fantastic cheesy, funny but not really funny number. Which is where the Kaname in the peacock dress pictures come from. She’s a master thief. She runs around switching costumes as everyone does the very stereotypical Takarazuka shimmy and dance inbetween. Very classic. Kitarou is the detective, so of course one of the costumes is “detective Kitarou”. It was a fun good number.
The next number is probably my favorite from the revue, it’s a dance number. It’s a Maa-kun lead dance number with an Indian theme and music. I’ve been thinking about why I love this dance number for days no. Maa-kun reminds me of Tomu. Not physically, not in the way she moves either. It’s just something about it. I think it’s because she reminds me of Tomu because it’s obvious she loves to dance. It’s clear in every movement and every smirk that she’s enjoying dancing. Tomu was the same. I think I fell for Tomu for her dancing. Her voice was passable, her acting was passable, but when she danced… oh dear. She loved it, and it showed. Maa-kun loves to dance like Tomu loves to dance. Everyone in the number obviously puts 110 percent in, and it just shone. The costumes, the music, the dance move. It’s stunning. Maa-kun, I am so excited for your top-stardom. You don’t even understand.
Another honorable mention go to the standard good versus evil number, which starts with Ai-chan and Riku facing off on the ginkyo. The first time I saw I think I laughed quietly to myself, because it’s douki’s battling it out for the star-track~! Ai-chan was of course the good dancer, and Riku was of course, the evil dancer. And we all know good always wins. *laughs* But yeah, the number has some really fantastic dancing in it, and Mirion and Maa-kun are paired up together, and in this one scene they have more chemistry than the entire of the show/play between Kaname and Mirion. It’s impressive how much their ability to work together as partner’s blows Kaname out of the water.
But yeah, the rest features the horrible ruffly costumes that I want to hate, but kinda really enjoy… and a lot of feathers. Mirion has fantastic abs and a stick on belly ring. Maa-kun winked at me. It was fantastic and sparkly, but nothing stands out now. I do have to say that the Kazahane Reia has a FANTASTIC voice, and she put Kitarou to shame in one of her many solo bits. I’m sad to see her go. Also the baby faced 95th who is everywhere this show ;_; I guess somebody had to go with Kaname besides Kitarou.
But yeah, it wasn’t anything special until the end and the typical taidan gut-punch of an otokoyaku dance/solo/pairdance. Less of a sucker-punch for me, but again, Kaname fans will be sad.
I /may/ try and swing seeing it again, but the timing is sucky. And yeah, this review is kinda sucky. Sorry, real life and lack of motivation got in the way… but I needed to get it out before I go for shinko tomorrow. Because that’s the next thing I’m going to be writing up.