Review: Bara ni Furu Ame/Amour, sore wa...
I have no idea why the review for "Amour, sore wa..." showed up in front of the "Bara ni Furu Ame" review. I give up on formatting in LJ with cuts -_-;;; I'm just grateful that everything appeared, didn't sneak out from under the cut, and isn't entirely in bold :P
Amour, sore wa...
Not really my thing, but still reasonably enjoyable as I've grown to love these actresses a lot. My complaints are as follows:
1) As a whole it was too sappy and sickeningly sweet for me. The individual pieces aren't so bad, but as a whole it gave me a bit of a toothache. I know this is Takarazuka, but can't we do something else with the theme of love other than profess how wonderful it is?
2) Tani's strength in revues is being cute, youthful and charming. Ume's strength is sexy dancing (I mean this as a compliment). They both get to do these things to a degree, but I never got the sense that this revue was written for them (this is especially bad given that it's their sayonara show). Instead we end up with a lot of your typical French romantic Takarazuka stuff. Frankly I would rather see Tani do things like the New York number in "Dancing For You" or the Brazil number in "Passion" over having her sing chansons.
3) Neither the opening nor the chuzume were particularly catchy.
That being said, there are scenes that I really liked. Right after the opening is "Sparkling", which has Micchan and Tomu singing on the ginkyou and Tomochin, Eriko, Masako, Chii-chan, Mii-chan, and Dai-chan in the background. Soon after is the Spanish number, where Micchan and Tomu do some very sexy things with jackets and the musumeyaku wear heart attack-inducing dresses. Post-chuzume there is "She", Tomu's number with the sign language. The hatsubutaisei look so happy and enthusiastic in their rockette number that you can't help but love them. Oh, and Micchan and Ume have some very sexy dancing at the beginning of the Spanish number.
...okay, so there are actually a decent number of scenes that I liked :P And Micchan got a very healthy amount of stage time, and very often with Tomu <3333333 The show as a whole however is very sappy when you watch it straight through, and I still stand by my other complaints above.
I'd also like to give a shout out to Alice-chan with her solo in the chuzume, Masami's final etoile, and Chiyako (Kazari Jin)'s kagesolo during the pair dance.
I think I came down hard on "Dancing For You" as well. For the record, that one has grown on my since. Maybe this one will too with some repeat viewings. Anyway, I'm still convinced that there isn't a completely unenjoyable revue *shrug*
Bara ni Furu Ame
I actually watched these out of order and by the time I was done with Amour, I was completely ready for some hard-boiled Masatsuka-sensei. I was a little scared of this one going in (as I had been warned that the business plot was hard to understand), but I ended up really liking it. Masatsuka-sensei's typical style worked really well for this show, and I cared about what happened to the main characters. (Also, sometimes it's nice to have a story about two people who have already fallen in love, rather than two people meeting for the first time).
There weren't lot of solo songs, but the short ensemble numbers were really fun. I also really enjoyed both the opening dance (Tani/Ume + many other couples dancing in the past) and the ballroom dance later on in the show. (Obviously Micchan and Ume's duet melted me).
As for the business plot...yeah, it went completely over my head -_-;; Too much financial vocabulary. But it didn't take up nearly as much of the show as I had feared.
On the subject of the infamous dance (where Harukaze Misato and Oomi Ako act out having sex on stage to represent Justin and Yvette's night of passion)...personally, I liked it. I like Mii-chan and Ecchan, and I thought it was nicely choreographed and well, sexy :P It borders on being too much but for me it was still on the side of acceptable. It's an adult show and I thought it fit the tone. But I think everyone is going to have their own opinion.
*vague spoilers* The ending felt like a sayonara show, but in a good way. It was a very appropriate sendoff for Tani and Ume (and given that they got so few happy endings in their time as top stars, I was pleased) *end vague spoilers*
I've heard people complain that Masatsuka-sensei isn't good at writing good roles for many characters, and I have to agree this was the case. This was really Tani and Ume's show. But hey, it's their sayonara show and I didn't think it was a bad thing in this case. (I do wish that Eriko had been given a bigger role, however. This was her sayonara show too :P) But even though the focus was on Tani and Ume, the rest of soragumi was certainly present. As I mentioned before, the background characters were really cute (especially when Tani's staff become concerned that Tomu is taking over the company).
Some thoughts on the actresses...
Yamato Yuuga: I have to admit that I've had a love/hate relationship with Tani for a while. I loved her when I first saw her in A/L, but later I became grumpy about her singing and acting abilities. But at the same time she has a tremendous amount of charisma, can be amusingly eccentric offstage, is a child of my favorite era of tsukigumi, and Micchan loves her. I've wavered back and forth, often feeling guilty since many of my friends (and Micchan!) really like Tani. I felt extremely relieved that her final role was one that I really, really liked. Justin wasn't a typical hero (some of his actions were uh, less than consentual), but you still cheered for him. Nicely done, Tani.
Hizuki Hana: Ah, Ume-chan...you are something else. I get the impression you were ready to leave Takarazuka and I'm okay with that, but you will be missed. I don't know if Yvette would have been nearly as interesting had she not been played by Ume, but she was and therefore it was a great performance. Oh, I should mention that Tani and Ume had sizzling hot chemistry and some really, really good stage kisses.
Ranju Tomu: I'm on a Tomu love feedback loop lately, but her Victor Orange didn't stand out that much in my mind. I think this is because her character was mostly related to the business plot. But hey, it's Tomu, and even if this isn't my favorite performance of hers you can't go wrong ;)
Hokushou Kairi: Micchan's role as Ume's younger brother is a rather small, but she's so sweet and tender and sings so beautifully that I couldn't complain at all. There's a wonderful bit where Tomochin gives Micchan a gold watch as a present, as they're going to be brothers soon. You can see shame and disgust quietly play on her face, even as she's trying to hold it in for the sake of her family. She's such an awesome little brother. Love <333333
Lemme think, who else. Tomochin (Yuumi Hiro) is as always wonderful at playing villains. Masako's character doesn't show up until later and is involved in the confusing business plot, but I loved her scenes. I wish that Eriko (Nanaho Hikaru) had a bigger role given that this was her last show, although she was cute in the "Medetai! Nomitai!" scene. Besides That Dance, Mii-chan (Harukaze Misato) had some really cute bits in the background as a waiter. Susshii-san (Kotobuki Tsukasa) and Ayumi-san (Suzuna Saya) were funny as Ume's parents, but the amount that their characters were played for laughs towards the end took away from the idea that these were the people who were keeping Tani and Ume from being together.
As for the musumeyaku, Masami (Miwa Asahi) got a decently sized role in her last performance. I wish it had been a more complex character (I just watched Phoenix Wright and Masami is capable of doing some really great acting), but Masatsuka-sensei seemed to at least try to give her decent a sayonara role. Karin Moyuru (another taidansha) got a really cute role as Tani's secretary. Poor Alice-chan (Hanakage Arisu) was rather neglected in this show, only showing up in the end to be Micchan's girlfriend returning from study abroad (I approve of being Micchan's arm candy, but...). Now that Masami has retired Alice-chan seems to be the new nibante musumeyaku of soragumi, so hopefully she'll get bigger roles in the future. Tara-chan (Aihana Chisaki) did well as Masako's distressed wife.
So yes, good show, and well worth the wait.