Which DVDs to get that best showcase a Troupe?? Posted by grimsg on Sun 15 of Jan, 2017 13:12 GMT-0000 posts: 113 ☆ ☆ ☆ Hi all, I'm a new Takarazuka convert. I watched 'Grand Hotel' on first week of Jan 2017 and have become a convert (naturally) So I was told that each Troupe has their own speciality, but I'm not sure which are the DVDs that best showcase tihs. Any recommendations?
Posted by grimsg on Wed 18 of Jan, 2017 14:05 GMT-0000 posts: 113 ☆ ☆ ☆ Hi Zaraphena, Grand Hotel was alright in terms of story, I purposely didn't want to watch the original film to see how much I can understand from the show. Tamaki Ryo's performance was very suave, she did do the 'cool' scoundrel very well and was also the gentle, tender lover when she's with her co-star, Manaki Reika. Manaki's technical prowess as a ballet dancer is very impressive, beautiful fluid movements and she has stage presence as the diva Greta Garbo character, Elizaveta. Miya Rurika as Otto was really great as well, her strengths lie in her acting and her singing. Even though I'm not that well versed in listening to Japanese, the amount of empathy she conveyed in her singing and acting was really great. And Otto is kind of the main character of the ensemble piece so it was a big role for her and she pulled it off very well. Akatsuki Chisei as Elizaveta's attendant did a pretty good singing job. She got the one song but it was conveyed with a lot of emotion and I thought it was heartbreaking. Saotome Wakaba as Flaemmchen was great as the perky naive happy girl looking for stardom. She was very ditsy and very blonde. I think she got the best character arc in the story because she starts out all naive, then gets a rude awakening, and at the end of the show is much wiser. And she can pull a mean Charleston. I kind of got chills listening to veteran performer, Natsumi You as the Colonel Doctor (the Dr eyepatch) because she really did sound like a guy in terms of her vocal quality. It was a bit part, a kind of random lament song but wow, I kind of got goosebumps. The story part of the show was good, but what I found most impressive was Carousel Rondo because by golly, switching up from 1930s Charleston and flapper-ville to full on Brazilian samba, a bit of K-pop moves thrown in, is just so much fun. Sure it doesn't showcase individual talents as much because the revue stuff is more of a whole company team effort extravaganza, but I found Carousel Rondo more fun, light hearted, fluffy and silly fun than Grand Hotel, which was kind of a more brooding, reflective kind of piece. Also they threw in 'Don't Rain On My Parade' which was cool
Posted by zaraphena on Wed 18 of Jan, 2017 08:31 GMT-0000 posts: 9 ☆ ☆ Back in the day it was always said that troupes had specialties, but I think that image has faded quite a bit now. Which may just be the product of diverse top stars, each troupe top 'flavors' what type of shows they get, and in term the entire troupe. If I remember correctly, it was said back in the day that Flower was the classic troupe, Moon Troupe was the western musical troupe, Snow was Japanese shows, Star was ... Oh god, I don't even remember and Cosmos was the new unique group to try different things. It might be easier if you tell me what you liked about Grand Hotel / Carousel Rondo and then I can suggestion similar shows from each troupe that you might like.
Posted by kurohime on Tue 17 of Jan, 2017 16:41 GMT-0000 posts: 63 ☆ ☆ ☆ You are welcome, I'm glad if it can help you. Yes, to me it is always more about the top stars than the troupe itself... Yes, I've got Kenshin DVD, and all the actresses are great, especially Sagiri Seina (one of my personal favorite ha ha) ! She was great as Nijinsky too (as an actress, she isn't a classic dancer more of a swing one). For Todoroki Yuu, I personally love her older performances more than her new ones, but they are sadly hard to find :-( Yuzuki Reon is a good dancer indeed ! She dances a lot in the revues. If you are interested in dancing, here are some other current good dancers (or at least, they stand out to me) : - (Moon) Manaki Reika, Akatsuki Chisei, Uzuki Hayate - (Star) Rei Makoto - (Cosmos) Asaka Manato, Aizuki Hikaru, Kazuki Sora - (Flower) Yuzuka Rei, Seto Kazuya, Minami Maito And there are a lot more people who don't belong to the Takarazuka Revue anymore and were good dancers too.
Posted by grimsg on Tue 17 of Jan, 2017 12:18 GMT-0000 posts: 113 ☆ ☆ ☆ Hi Kurohime, Thanks! These are really helpful! So it's really more dependent on the top star who's in the production rather than the troupe. I watched a clip of Kenshin just to see Sagiri Seina's performance, dang she just IS Kenshin! which is uncanny! I'm also interested to see more of Todoroki Yu's work because I've read that she's kind of the 'Meryl Streep' of Takarazuka so I do want to check that out. Also want to see some of Yuzuki Reon's work because I hear her dancing is mad good. Cool! I'll check those recommendations out! Thanks!
Posted by kurohime on Tue 17 of Jan, 2017 08:33 GMT-0000 posts: 63 ☆ ☆ ☆ Hello grimsg, Glad to welcome a new member in the Community ! I heard about those "specialities" before, but to me they were never really that clear...aside of the fact that Yukigumi (Snow Troupe) is doing more Nihonmono (japanese-style shows) than the other troupes. I would say that the shows produced by each troupe depend more on who the top stars are at the moment. For your question, it's really difficult to give an answer, since I don't really see their specialities. I will try, for each troupe: -Yuki gumi (Snow troupe) => "Shinjuu: Koi no Yamatoji", "Hoshiai hito yo / La Esmeralda", "Elisabeth" (2007 version) -Hoshi gumi (Star troupe) => "die Fledermaus / the entertainer", "Napoléon, l'homme sans sommeil" -Tsuki gumi (Moon troupe) => "1789, les amants de la Bastille", "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (2010) -Hana gumi (Flower troupe) => "Ocean's eleven", "The poem of love and revolution/ mr Swing" -Sora gumi (Cosmos troupe) => "Top hat" Aside of that, shows I really liked but don't consider to be "representative" of a troupe: "Nijinsky" (Snow), "Al Capone" (Snow), "Don Juan" (Snow), "People who have wings" (Cosmos), "Haru yuki (Flower). All of these are "Bow halls", played in a smaller venue than standard performances, with actresses who were not top stars at that time.
