Comments | sumirepanther: Maihime - A live performance review

sumirepanther

Maihime - A live performance review

Mar 27, 2008 13:04

Maihime -Dancing Girl -
performed by Hanagumi starring Aine Harei & Nono Sumika
in Nihon Seinenkan, Tokyo, 　March 2008

First I meant to summarize the storyline in a few sentences. But taking the complexity of historical & cultural backgrounds of this drama into account, I’d rather put out certain details that are missing from the plot summary in ( Read more... )

nono sumika, hanagata hikaru, hoshihara misao, misuzu aki, ueda keiko, kou akemi, rika masumi, review-live performance, hanazuki yuma, nihon seinenkan, aine harei, hinata san

Comments 2

muffin_song March 27 2008, 10:06:30 UTC

I agree with most of what you wrote. Personally I liked Hollywood Lover better, but Maihime was still very, very good.

Was the Wednesday that I (and apparently you as well) ended up at the performance Miwacchi's kaisouken? The audience was extremely enthusiastic, and I wasn't sure if they were a general audience that just happened to be very moved or if it was a special night for someone's fan club.

I guess I had two problems with the show. First, Elis was such a weak character that I became bothered (Not weak as in badly written or badly played, mind you. Sumika-chan gave a lovely performance). When I watch Takarazuka, I usually try not to think of things from my usual feminist standpoint. I just wouldn't enjoy anything otherwise. But...the idea of the heroine going insane in the way that Elis did...somehow it rubbed me the wrong way ( ... )

sumirepanther March 27 2008, 15:19:01 UTC

The audience was extremely enthusiastic, and I wasn't sure if they were a general audience that just happened to be very moved
The local audience's enthusiasm over this show was just amazing. You won't believe this, but I happened to see the shonichi performance, and there were bravos yelled out plus a feverish standing ovation at the curtain call. I've never seen something like this happened in any other Takarazuka performances so far. I would assume Toyo's life and his angst must have felt as a part of the identify of those modern Japanese.

"duty to his country" drove him to angst.I believe that strong "お国のために for the country" patriotic mentality was commonly prevailed among the young Japanese generation of early Meiji. In Toyo's case especially, with his samurai-family background (he was born during the Edo period), he should have been implanted with a famous feudal saying "主従の契りは三世、親子の契りは一世 Lord-subject relationship goes for 3 generations while parent-child relationship lasts only one generation" (In his case the lord is Meiji ( ... )