Takarazuka

[lucathia]

Has anyone heard of Takarazuka? (宝塚歌劇)

Links for those who haven't heard of them:
official site / fansite / wikipedia

All female Japanese performance school. Girls join in the teens and perform for two years or so after they graduate. All girls, so girls have to play guy parts too, and they're called otokoyaku.  Troupes of Hana, Tsuki, Hoshi, Yuki, Senka, and Sora? I'm not sure exactly. I've only watched a glimpse of a documentary during jap class today. But I thought it was pretty fascinating...though strict. I soo want to see one of their musicals! =/  I don't think I can find any of the musicals online can I...?

Comments

[crychicken.livejournal.com]

Wow, sounds interesting. *wants to see their musical for Rose of Versailles now* As in downloads or as in DVDs to buy?

[lucathia]

The girls who play the guy roles are so handsome. When the first clip came on, I was like...woah, that's a girl? Hehe, they have so many fans too, all of them female.

They do mostly western musicals and some anime ones. *sigh* I want to watch at least one. And yeah, Rose of Versailles sounds like a good place to start.

I've searched, but I don't think there are any downloads online. If I want to watch any of the musicals, I'll have to try to find my own copy of it. But they have so many musicals...

[crychicken.livejournal.com]

This kind of reminds me of Kabuki, lol.

Yeah, I read they also did "West Side Story" and "Phantom of the Opera". That'd be interesting to watch too.

Oh, they have an online store at their site. Hm... the prices are okay, I guess but too many musicals to choose from. :D;;

[lucathia]

Hehe, yeah, I think we were shown Takarazuka in class as an opposite of Kabuki. Instead of mostly men donning masks, it's all girls who are playing both parts.

I know...there are so many musicals that I think are interesting...

I've searched my local libraries...and they only have a book about it and that one documentary that I watched part of in class. =X

The prices at the online store are reasonable? I haven't looked...I looked at ebay and saw Rose of Versailles going for $144. >_>

[crychicken.livejournal.com]

Although Kabuki was more theatrical and Takarazuka specializes in musicals?

$144?? For the whole set perhaps? Cuz one DVD costs 3,780 Yen over at their online site, there's one which cost 8,700 Yen though. I didn't read the details but they don't seem to be sold out or anything. :s

[lucathia]

To me...musicals are more interesting than Kabuki. :3

I went to take a look at the online site too...there seems to be a few versions of the same thing? There's one that goes for more than 10,000 yen. I think that's the one that was on ebay. =x I think it's just the same musical performed by a different group...? No idea.

But still, 3,780 Yen as the cheapest one isn't that cheap. D=

[crychicken.livejournal.com]

Lol, yep musicals are more fun.

I thought they might be parts of the whole musical and you have to buy them all to watch the whole thing or something. That'd be weird though.

Compared to the the tenimyus they're cheap? D:

[lucathia]

Eh...that's true...tenimyu DVDs are super expensive too. =X Why is that?

Hehe, tenimyu has made me fall in love with musicals. :DD But so far I've only seen tenimyu, rock bleach myu, and the hunter x hunter musicals.

[crychicken.livejournal.com]

Maybe because they're rather popular? Most of them are sold out and you can't order the older ones anymore. :3

Haha, me too. Although I did see a live musical once which was fabulous too but that's been years already. I need to see HunterxHunter one, I still have not watched it yet. :D;; I wanna see another Bleachmyu~

[ajmeow.livejournal.com]

Forgive me for just dropping in on you but I was doing a search for Takarazuka cosplayers and somehow your lj came up so if you don't think it too intrusive of me, I can answer some quick questions.

On average, Takarazuka dvds cost about $100. The cheaper ones you saw listed are probably the videos of clips of the different actresses that were playing different roles for the last run of Rose of Versailles. (They rotated through the 2nd string of otokoyaku for Andre and Oscar depending on which show it was.) They aren't dvds of the full show.

Site with english info:
http://takarazuka.sugarandspicecosplay.com/

There is an LJ community as well:
http://community.livejournal.com/takarazuka/

Some clips:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=takarazuka&search_type=search_videos

If you like Rose of Versailles, I'd recommend checking out the 2001 on Oscar and Andre version. They always do 2 shows when they run RoV: one concentrates more on Marie and Fersen, and the other on Oscar and Andre.

Anyways, sorry if this seemed rude! I just love sharing Takarazuka with people so thought I'd give you some more info. =)

P.S. I love DGM. Your costume is awesome! ^___^

[lucathia]

Thanks for all the info! I didn't think my questions would get answered. It's not rude at all, just a bit unexpected. ^_^

I'm surprised my lj turned up since I've only ever mentioned Takarazuka in this post, and uh...cosplay a few times. But never together. XD;;

Hm, I should have checked out youtube earlier. Clips will have to satisfy my curiosity for now. :3