My mouth hurts from grinning and my throat hurts from squeeing. ;-D
Alright, let's see how much I can squee about Ryoma-den / I Love Chopin. ^_____^
On Ryoma-den:
Kashi and Rui were really cute together. Kashi's Ryoma was kind of goofy sometimes, and Rui's Oryo was rather shallow, but the few moments they had together (*cough* three scenes total) were very sweet. And actually there was a lot of comedy in this show, and the funny bits were good. ^__^
Susshii-san had a weird accent that kept me from appreciating her as much as usual. :-( But she had a megaphone, and that was awesome. XD
Ayumi-san and Yucchi-san were so very wrong as court nobles with white makeup and facial hair, acting like children. I could only recognize them because of their voices and Yucchi's somewhat distinctive jawline.
Tani was generally hot all over the place. ^___^
Tomu got a fair amount of air time, but I didn't think her character of Tokugawa was very interesting. ^^;; And actually Tomochin's part wasn't that great either; she ended up committing harakiri, in fact. ;____;
Even Ritsu-san and Marietta-san were kind of just "there"... although Marietta-san did get in a couple of jokes. :-D What was that she called Chigi... a "visual kei swordsman"? XDDD
Chigi played Okita Souji, and Chihiro and Nagi were her Shinsengumi underlings who got drunk and hit on Rui and Miki-chan. Just... oh, oh, I squee'd.
Chiyako got not-one-but-two! solos and I'm so happy for her. :-D
Machami hit on everyone AND tried to kill Kashi and it was all very hot. ;-)
Eriko had a fairly substantial part that amounted to following Kashi around a lot, and she was among the lucky ones to be molested by Machami. XD
Miki-chan played Micchan's lover, but neither of them got very interesting scenes in my opinion. :-(
Tacchin had a sword and a crush on Kashi and it was sweet. But when she tried to impersonate a man and wore a moustache, it was not so sweet. ;____;
My baby was a geisha and Masako's lover and got five whole lines. Yes, of course I counted. ;-) And I also spotted her as a Western woman in another scene. ^___^
Now that I've covered all the important people... ;-P The story itself was very disjointed; I suppose that's why they called it "Sketches in the Life of Ryoma Sakamoto". Not to mention that I couldn't really follow all of those boring politics of the bakufu and various domains, which is mostly what Ryoma's life was focused on. ^^;;
This was not a good show for romance; as I said Kashi and Rui only got three scenes together and while those were sweet, mostly they spent their time apart from each other. :-P
And (here comes the big spoiler) just when Rui was looking all beautiful in her white Japanese wedding attire, Kashi and Tani had to go and get themselves assassinated. D: I mean there was absolutely no build-up at all. Although I just realized it wasn't really Kashi who got killed; she showed up in the beginning of the scene, then went down some stairs and Sumiki Sayato came up to take her place. (So that's why her character name was "Ryoma's shadow"! ^_^;) Kashi's few remaining lines were recordings; Akkii wasn't even moving her mouth to follow them (assumedly because most of the audience wouldn't have been able to tell who was behind that screen anyway. :-P). And it looks like Chami was the one who got to kill them. ^^;; A ken-2 baby killing off the top star and nibante... somehow I find that amusing. ;-P Although I shouldn't, you know; deaths in 'Zuka shows are usually very sad. But this was basically out of nowhere. Of course anyone who knew the history would already be expecting Ryoma to die, but I mean, you can expect Marie-Antoinette to die and still bawl your eyes out when it happens.
But who cares, right? It wasn't even Kashi who died! :-P She was obviously too busy changing into her Trademark Ryoma Outfit, complete with sword and rose. The show rounded out with a Japanese dance number, then Kashi danced with Rui and sang a solo. The end. :-\
As for I Love Chopin...
The opening number with Tomu, Tomochin, Micchan, Masako and Eriko in red military jackets over jeans would have been a lot better if they didn't all have outrageously bad wigs. T__T;; Micchan won the Worst Hair Contest with her curly mowhawk-ish thing. Just... whoa. D:
Then... you know, typical revue theme song, we all love Chopin, Kashi got two different costumes, etc. :-P
Tani's number with the "poppies"... musumeyaku and otokoyaku all in orange dresses with flowers on their heads... It was almost amusing for Marietta-san in a dress hitting on Tani. But god, the costumes were such awful colors.
Then there was a great number that featured Chigi and Nagi as boyhood friends, dancing rather gaily together. XDD; Then they grew up to be Kashi and Tomu, but oh noes, they became enemies! And Kashi had her lackeys in red leather fight with Tomu's in blue, and they danced with swords and such. (Actually, as caithion correctly pointed out, some of the lackeys were musumeyaku. :-D) And then for a moment Chigi and Nagi came back as Kashi and Tomu remembered their childhood days, and they almost made up, but then one of Tomu's lackeys (I think it was Micchan) stabbed Kashi in the back. D: Awww.
And... hmm, let's see, what else...
MY BABY DANCING WITH MICCHAN, OF COURSE. And they not only danced, they sang, and Alice-chan's voice is only getting better and I love her so very very much. <3 <3 But she didn't get to dance nearly as long as I would have liked, and then she left and Micchan got to stick around while the line dance went on behind her. :-P
Rui as an old lady with Old Men Tomochin, Masako and Eriko trying to win her love was pretty funny. XD
Tani was so gorgeous in her George Sand x Frederic Chopin dance with Kashi. And Tomu got to lounge around on a piano being hot and eventually seduced Kashi away from Tani. :-P What is it with Tani and pianos, anyway? XD;;
Rui and a bunch of girls pranced around on the ginkyou in short skirts, and my baby had the good fortune of being just to the right of the top musumeyaku so it was easy for me to spot her. ;-P
The otokoyaku dance was hawt. :3 And the pair dance wasn't too bad either. And at the end, Tacchin got the etoile. (She also had a solo earlier, I think in the number with Kashi in glasses where everyone was getting drunk.)
And... I dunno, there may have been other numbers involving Kashi singing, but I don't care for that so much. And she wore a lot of bright lipstick, and I didn't care for that much either. I think I liked her better in Ryoma than in the revue.
I guess that's all I have to say. ^_^; Love! Love for my troupe, and at least a little love for the top stars who came and went so quickly.
Tomorrow there will probably be clips and screencaps, and I'll try not to get too carried away. ;-)
On Ryoma-den:
Kashi and Rui were really cute together. Kashi's Ryoma was kind of goofy sometimes, and Rui's Oryo was rather shallow, but the few moments they had together (*cough* three scenes total) were very sweet. And actually there was a lot of comedy in this show, and the funny bits were good. ^__^
Susshii-san had a weird accent that kept me from appreciating her as much as usual. :-( But she had a megaphone, and that was awesome. XD
Ayumi-san and Yucchi-san were so very wrong as court nobles with white makeup and facial hair, acting like children. I could only recognize them because of their voices and Yucchi's somewhat distinctive jawline.
Tani was generally hot all over the place. ^___^
Tomu got a fair amount of air time, but I didn't think her character of Tokugawa was very interesting. ^^;; And actually Tomochin's part wasn't that great either; she ended up committing harakiri, in fact. ;____;
Even Ritsu-san and Marietta-san were kind of just "there"... although Marietta-san did get in a couple of jokes. :-D What was that she called Chigi... a "visual kei swordsman"? XDDD
Chigi played Okita Souji, and Chihiro and Nagi were her Shinsengumi underlings who got drunk and hit on Rui and Miki-chan. Just... oh, oh, I squee'd.
Chiyako got not-one-but-two! solos and I'm so happy for her. :-D
Machami hit on everyone AND tried to kill Kashi and it was all very hot. ;-)
Eriko had a fairly substantial part that amounted to following Kashi around a lot, and she was among the lucky ones to be molested by Machami. XD
Miki-chan played Micchan's lover, but neither of them got very interesting scenes in my opinion. :-(
Tacchin had a sword and a crush on Kashi and it was sweet. But when she tried to impersonate a man and wore a moustache, it was not so sweet. ;____;
My baby was a geisha and Masako's lover and got five whole lines. Yes, of course I counted. ;-) And I also spotted her as a Western woman in another scene. ^___^
Now that I've covered all the important people... ;-P The story itself was very disjointed; I suppose that's why they called it "Sketches in the Life of Ryoma Sakamoto". Not to mention that I couldn't really follow all of those boring politics of the bakufu and various domains, which is mostly what Ryoma's life was focused on. ^^;;
This was not a good show for romance; as I said Kashi and Rui only got three scenes together and while those were sweet, mostly they spent their time apart from each other. :-P
And (here comes the big spoiler) just when Rui was looking all beautiful in her white Japanese wedding attire, Kashi and Tani had to go and get themselves assassinated. D: I mean there was absolutely no build-up at all. Although I just realized it wasn't really Kashi who got killed; she showed up in the beginning of the scene, then went down some stairs and Sumiki Sayato came up to take her place. (So that's why her character name was "Ryoma's shadow"! ^_^;) Kashi's few remaining lines were recordings; Akkii wasn't even moving her mouth to follow them (assumedly because most of the audience wouldn't have been able to tell who was behind that screen anyway. :-P). And it looks like Chami was the one who got to kill them. ^^;; A ken-2 baby killing off the top star and nibante... somehow I find that amusing. ;-P Although I shouldn't, you know; deaths in 'Zuka shows are usually very sad. But this was basically out of nowhere. Of course anyone who knew the history would already be expecting Ryoma to die, but I mean, you can expect Marie-Antoinette to die and still bawl your eyes out when it happens.
But who cares, right? It wasn't even Kashi who died! :-P She was obviously too busy changing into her Trademark Ryoma Outfit, complete with sword and rose. The show rounded out with a Japanese dance number, then Kashi danced with Rui and sang a solo. The end. :-\
As for I Love Chopin...
The opening number with Tomu, Tomochin, Micchan, Masako and Eriko in red military jackets over jeans would have been a lot better if they didn't all have outrageously bad wigs. T__T;; Micchan won the Worst Hair Contest with her curly mowhawk-ish thing. Just... whoa. D:
Then... you know, typical revue theme song, we all love Chopin, Kashi got two different costumes, etc. :-P
Tani's number with the "poppies"... musumeyaku and otokoyaku all in orange dresses with flowers on their heads... It was almost amusing for Marietta-san in a dress hitting on Tani. But god, the costumes were such awful colors.
Then there was a great number that featured Chigi and Nagi as boyhood friends, dancing rather gaily together. XDD; Then they grew up to be Kashi and Tomu, but oh noes, they became enemies! And Kashi had her lackeys in red leather fight with Tomu's in blue, and they danced with swords and such. (Actually, as caithion correctly pointed out, some of the lackeys were musumeyaku. :-D) And then for a moment Chigi and Nagi came back as Kashi and Tomu remembered their childhood days, and they almost made up, but then one of Tomu's lackeys (I think it was Micchan) stabbed Kashi in the back. D: Awww.
And... hmm, let's see, what else...
MY BABY DANCING WITH MICCHAN, OF COURSE. And they not only danced, they sang, and Alice-chan's voice is only getting better and I love her so very very much. <3 <3 But she didn't get to dance nearly as long as I would have liked, and then she left and Micchan got to stick around while the line dance went on behind her. :-P
Rui as an old lady with Old Men Tomochin, Masako and Eriko trying to win her love was pretty funny. XD
Tani was so gorgeous in her George Sand x Frederic Chopin dance with Kashi. And Tomu got to lounge around on a piano being hot and eventually seduced Kashi away from Tani. :-P What is it with Tani and pianos, anyway? XD;;
Rui and a bunch of girls pranced around on the ginkyou in short skirts, and my baby had the good fortune of being just to the right of the top musumeyaku so it was easy for me to spot her. ;-P
The otokoyaku dance was hawt. :3 And the pair dance wasn't too bad either. And at the end, Tacchin got the etoile. (She also had a solo earlier, I think in the number with Kashi in glasses where everyone was getting drunk.)
And... I dunno, there may have been other numbers involving Kashi singing, but I don't care for that so much. And she wore a lot of bright lipstick, and I didn't care for that much either. I think I liked her better in Ryoma than in the revue.
I guess that's all I have to say. ^_^; Love! Love for my troupe, and at least a little love for the top stars who came and went so quickly.
Tomorrow there will probably be clips and screencaps, and I'll try not to get too carried away. ;-)