This is kasaii's Takarazuka journal! Please check the userinfo for more information, and feel free to add! ♥

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Second in my series of attempts to use this journal properly! A meme, assigned by palais:

【Rules】
Write the names of the people or characters you've been assigned where it says ○○ and ◇◇ and answer the questions.
When you tag people, assign them people for ○○ and ◇◇.
○○ and ◇◇ cannot be the same person.
Don't delete the rules.

So, let's try!

▼Assigned people
「Sena Jun」and『Kiriya Hiromu』

( my favorite bromance! warning: my answers are.. really silly. )

Last night I finally got around to watching Jazzy Fairies/Revue of Dreams! Well, in the reverse order. I watched Revue of Dreams while on the treadmill and later Jazzy Fairies while cutting out patterns for a sewing project. I hadn't read the description for Revue of Dreams beforehand (not that it really would have lent that much insight) but that allowed me to concoct my own running summary in my head which, you can be assured, included names such as Bluuhi and Seaweed Sararan. It's definitely one of my favorite revues, though! The music is fantastic for exercising to.

Jazzy Fairies.. was hilarious in ways I'm not sure it was supposed to be, but wholly entertaining. Japanese people writing a play about Irish immigrants in NYC in the 1920's can't possibly NOT be funny, I think. It was pretty wacky at times (Zuka Riverdance made me incredibly excited and also sent me into a fit of laughter and oh my god let's talk about THE MOST AWKWARD ENDING EVER) but decently easy to follow, never dull and wonderfully performed, of course.

'05 was a really good time for Tsukigumi. I miss Asako+Mihoko+Kiriyan+Yuuhi days, and with a Sararan and an Ai-chan tossed into Jazzy Faeries as main characters, it made for a pretty perfect cast, as far as I'm concerned. ♥ There was also much Morie+Mirio+Masaki+Micchan+Magee (I LOVE TSUKI M'S ♥♥) spotting. And also Hiromi but she doesn't fit with the M's. 8D;; Did I mention I'd really be okay with Ai-chan as top musumeyaku? Because I really, really would. I love her to bits, and I didn't know I knew how to love musumeyaku.

I'd like to write a review eventually I think, but I'll have to give it another watch first when I'm actually giving it my full attention.

...I'm trying to think of something clever to end this post with, but my mind keeps coming back to FAIRIES + LEUKEMIA jokes that I want to save for my review, hahaha.

edit oh! and a couple nights ago I finally cleaned up my profile which I realized I had left half-sorted when I first started working on it a few weeks ago. I cleaned up language a bit aaand I am really OCD and sorted favorite 'siennes by their debut year. @_@;; Nerddd. Still need to finish seen shows and shows to see, though~

Helloooo, livejournal! It's been ages since I've touched this journal, particularly because I have so much to write about here that I've been too overwhelmed to find a place to start. Go figure.

In the past month (a little more than, actually) I've made it to Takarazuka and back. I met my life goals of seeing Elisabeth performed live and seeing Sena Jun on stage, and I am ridiculously fortunate to have been able to do so. I saw these amazing women in real life, experienced irimachi and demachi, wrote letters to stars I love (with help from my trip-partner palais!) and fell absolutely head-over-heels in love with Takarazuka as a town. I made fantastic new friends who share this passion and have tons to teach me (word up to wao_wao, caithion, arlecchinic, gummical! ♥) Thanks to my Zuka Fairy sumire_no_hana, I got to meet Seijou Kaito in person and have her tease me for my nervousness. I got to learn so much about being a Takarazuka fan that you simply can't until you're there, and I feel that I've evolved as a fan in ways that weren't possible from the time spent (2 years, 7 months, according to my first lj entry mentioning Zuka.. before I was used to choreography XD;;) being a fan in the US. I've learned what it's like to see your star in person, and to come to terms with how they are as people, not just figures on a TV or computer screen. (Admittedly, my experiences regarding Asako had a pretty intense effect on me, [pardon the angsting >_>;] but I've since come to terms with all of it and I feel even more confident in my role as her fan now.)

Even since coming home I've experienced my first real "heartbreaks." First, with Osa's marriage announcement. I wish her all of the happiness in the world, but it's still a difficult thought for one to get used to. I've said my piece in my personal journal (kind of a ways down, sorry) so.. yeah. All I can do is wish her the best and start writing more fic. Either way, I am happy for her. ♥

And today, of course.. the news that we all saw coming. Sena Jun's retirement. Knowing it's coming doesn't necessarily make it easier to deal with, I have learned.

Asako was one of the first stars I fell for, back in the day when my favorite clips included Aishiteiru from Rome at Dawn, the Muffin Song from Ernest in Love and a handful of Elisabeth clips. I fell for her energy, her versatility and her smile. My admiration for her matured when I actually got to see all of these shows in their entirety. When she was announced to be playing Der Tod in February, my reaction was one of initial excitement that grew into one of intense disappointment and sadness, as it meant retirement was on the horizon and my time to see her perform live was running out. It wasn't for another couple of months that a harebrained, pipedream of a plan began to come into reality in the form of a summer trip to Japan with palais, my fairly recent convert. And the rest is.. well, what I'll be writing about eventually when I update this journal with everything that I want to.

Asako has come under a lot of scrutiny in the past year.. in the past several months, especially. Even as somewhat of a "casual" Takarazuka fan (less so lately >_>) it's been hard for me to watch, and I've found myself getting particularly defensive of her and sensitive about criticisms lately, particularly when her performance in Elisabeth is in question. Regardless of personal feelings one may have towards her, she's an undeniably talented woman who's had an incredible run in the company. There's a reason she's been top for as long as she has, even if some feel she's worn out her welcome. Knowing it's "her time" only brings so much comfort, as I can't yet imagine Tsukigumi or Takarazuka without Sena Jun. She's leaving behind some awful big shoes to fill. I share the sentiments of many and hope to see Kiriyan as her successor (Ai-chan by her side would also be great!) and this is, admittedly, one of few comforts.

The biggest comfort I have found lies in the hope that wherever she goes from here, she finds happiness. If Takarazuka has really taken as much out of her as speculated, if she really doesn't enjoy what she's doing anymore like people have said, then.. I just want her to do what will make her happy. I love you always, Asako-san, thank you for bringing me so much happiness. Now it's your turn to be happy. ♥

Sigh. So, that's that. Eventually I have a toooon of Takarazuka photos to post, a meme or two, some videos to share, etc... but this is whatchu get for now.

...Because right now, I'm nostaligiabombing myself a little bit. It's hard to believe I only received and watched Elisabeth all the way through in March '08. My Zukagoods collection has grown, er.. just a bit since then. [sideways glance at shelf housing VHSes, DVDs and ~two dozen photobooks/kageki/otome/graphs/etc. >__>]

Also, watching Elisabeth 2005 with friends last night was probably the trippiest thing ever. I'll always love it, but it doesn't hold a candle to the real thing now. Sigh. I spent much of it yelling, "OH GOD THEY STAGED THIS PART DIFFERENTLY"/"OH MAN I REMEMBER THE WAY X,Y,Z SANG/SAID/DANCED IN THIS PART"/"WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THIS PART IN THE 2009 VERSION."

I would like to go back now, please.

...Finally, a belated HELLO to people I've added who haven't actually seen me post before! In case you haven't clicked any of those previous links, my regular journal is kasaii and if anyone's curious about my Japanposts, they're all over there under the J09 tag (a term stolen from arlecchinic, sorry!)

WOW this is wordy, my apologies! Thank you to anyone who actually reads all of it! XD;; I promise future entries will be more visually stimulating. ♥

I think I'm going to go gather some icons as my selection is far too small right now~

I know I'm not the only OsaAsa supporter whose stomach turns when watching clips from "Marguerite." Osa is, of course, absolutely gorgeous in them! But I am still unspeakably squicked by the sight of her getting kissed/roughed up/generally touched by dudes.

Last night I found myself in the same position regarding Asako. D: In a translated interview, she's asked if there's anyone who resembles her. She answers Kamenashi Kazuya from the band KAT-TUN. I google him out of curiosity and sure enough, he does seriously look like the male version of Asako. XD

BUTTT in my googling.. I also discovered that it was rumored that the two of them dated. :| Which I do not much care for the thought of. The earliest records I found of those rumors are spring 2007, which is when that interview was published.. so maybe that was what spawned them? There was some other rumor about Kame being seen with an unnamed Takarasienne, so maybe that was Asako? fffff I don't even know.

..though dearangelogata did point out the narcissistic implications of the two of them dating, which.. are pretty amusing. "DAMN I'M HOT, I SHOULD PROBABLY GO OUT WITH MYSELF." There was also the expressed hope that neither of them cared for the opposite gender, so maybe their "dating" was a relationship of convenience? XD Yeah. Let's go with that.

TL;DR WAH WAH I DON'T WANT TO SEE MY LADIES WITH DUDES. It is really silly for this to make me.. bristle as much as it does, but I can't seem to help it. Real people slash, what have you done to my brain.

To make myself feel better, I've uploaded the most adorable little Osa/Asa MV from Nicovideo from YouTube to preserve it just in case it gets removed from Nico. It's to Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" which.. isn't even the most fitting song but I DON'T CARE IT'S ADORABLE. I have watched it too many times and it still makes me smile like a loon.



I have a few other future videosharing posts planned (themed; of the adorable, silly nature and the upsettingly hot nature) which I'll get to eventually. 8D; Right now I should really be reading about Vikings.

Okay so, I'm trying to figure out the best way to use this journal. XD My issue is that my flist is basically half other Takarazuka fans who probably know more about everything than I do, and half friends from my flist who might not know a ton whom I want to bestow the sparkly knowledge upon, I guess.

Ssssoooo Zuka fans! If I over-explain really obvious things, it's for the sake of friends who might be less engaged in the fandom.

Aaand not-Zuka friends! If I'm babbling about retirements or shinjinkouen or throwing around nicknames you've never heard, ask me wtf I'm talking about and I'll elaborate. 8D Okay? Okay. (Also, TakaWiki is an incredible resource and will answer pretty much any question you have about 'siennes, shows, Zuka jargon, etc.)

Aaaanyway, I've been meaning to update this for a few days and originally it was going to be:

OMG YUUHI'S THE NEXT SORAGUMI TOP STAR!

Buuut now with all the retirement announcements in Sora, it has turned into:

omg Hankyu what are you doing ;___;

I. Okay. This idea is definitely the result of naishashi (palais's Zuka journal) and me spending way too much time coming up with amusing hypothetical situations involving 'siennes (hypothetical Denny's trips, hypothetical spin the bottle games..) but I find myself picturing poor Yuuhi wandering into a room with a big "WELCOME TO SORAGUMI" banner and party decorations everywhere and just. Finding like, a tiny handful of sad people there, sipping on cups of fruit punch and sighing every so often. And that's it. And she's just like "=__=" because she's Yuuhi. Poor kid.. Oozoragumi excitement did not last very long at all. ; A; It will be interesting to see where Hankyu takes this one, I guess! But bawww Eriko I was just starting to really like you. ;_;

Aaaanyway. The other night, I had an interesting moment where I realized I was far more familiar with this fandom than I ever thought I would be in the beginning. I still have a ton to learn, but the fact that I could recognize a 'sienne that I had no clue ever played a particular role (it was in the shinjinkouen production, as it turned out) when it wasn't even a 'sienne I was particularly familiar with was pretty neat. When I first got into the fandom (over two years ago now, fff) I was like "holy god I'm never going to be able to tell anyone apart, much less remember all these names and nicknames!" And now I'm kind of proud of myself, I guess? NERDDDD.

I found a bunch of wonderful things on Nicovideo recently (...several were adorable little Magee tidbits) only to find they'd been pulled from Nicovideo like, a few hours later. That made me make Yuuhi's upset face:


ahaha don't kill me, palais and I paused Rome at Dawn when she was like this the other night and I.. maybe took a photo of my TV fffff that face ♥

Butttt what can you do. idk my bff Hankyu. :( That's the nature of the obsession, I suppose.

Speaking of obsession, I found myself purchasing these the other day:

I. I don't even care about granola that much. I blame midoriseppen for this one. Kashige ;; A;;~ ♥

THERE ARE A LOT OF WORDS IN THIS POST. Okay, how about a video? I'm sure seasoned Zuka fans have all seen this one, but it's a clip from the 2004 Sports Day video (which I want desperately to see in its entirety.) Basically, Kiriyan + Saeko + Yuuhi in afros. Making silly faces. Being frotokoyaku, if you will.

FARTS embedding is disabled, have a link to FROTOKOYAKU.

Okay. Welll any input on my first legit entry would be appreciated 'cause I'm still trying to get a feel for how I want to run this lj! Friends from kasaii, lemme know what you'd like to see over here! Performance videos, rehearsal videos, random tidbits.. etc. I want to share things that are interesting to you guys too. :D

I would punctuate this post with the video of Yuuhi as a lady in which she says "Adieu! ..ja, nakutte.. GOO'BAI!" but Nicovideo ate it. SOB.

I've been threatening to for a while, but I've finally gone and done it! I've made my own damn Takarazuka journal. Now I can post shit all I want and not feel bad about the 98% of my friends list that doesn't care. :3

I have been reminded that free layouts suck. And also that livejournal hasn't made new mood theme icons in like five years. But I decided to go with stupid ferret faces, in honor of Kashige. (palais and I have assigned animal alter-egos to a bunch of otokoyaku because we're huge gays, I'm sure I'll get to this later.)

In honor of Kashiferret, have Kashige singing "She Bangs!"


When I found this it took a minute to register what it even was. Then she got to the chorus and I was just like "oh my god."

More of substance later, just needed an intro post to throw up here. BYYYYYYE.