jayskittles wrote:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hiHlGLzG95A

I present to you, humbly, Miki's hypno butt.

Is it underining that this reminds me more of Power Rangers than anything else? Especially the ending part...

I would propose tacking excerpts from this onto the viewing schedule at RoseCon, y'know, FOR TEH LULZ, but I'm afraid I'll get out-voted.  Or smacked upside the head.

Guess I wasn't the only one who thought about that when I saw Miki

BTW, according to wikipedia, I read that there are two other musicals of Utena. Anyone familiar with those? I've heard the second one has Anthy holding a machine gun, but I'm not sure.

Whitout having seen it yet, allow me to say:

The story simply looses a large chunk of it's enjoyment factor if everybody is a girl!

P.D.M. wrote:

Whitout having seen it yet, allow me to say:

The story simply looses a large chunk of it's enjoyment factor if everybody is a girl!

Am I the only one thinking that the enjoyment factor only rises by a gazillion points when every guy is played by a girl?

IceQueenChigusa wrote:

DeepSubmerge wrote:

P.D.M. wrote:

Whitout having seen it yet, allow me to say:

The story simply looses a large chunk of it's enjoyment factor if everybody is a girl!

Am I the only one thinking that the enjoyment factor only rises by a gazillion points when every guy is played by a girl?

I agree with you!!

Same here! I'm a Takarazuka fan after all.

allegoriest wrote:

SeiSei, you seem to be a fan, but I've never understood this. Is it a style of play? Or a giant series of groups? Or what? I never really got that, but I do enjoy it alot.

The Takarazuka Musical Revue is a specific performance company based out of Takarazuka, a city in Hyogo Prefecture (It was originally founded by the Hangkyu company when they built a train line leading to the town, as a way of drumming up more tourist traffic), though they also tour and maintain a theater in Tokyo. These days it's a pretty big organization, with 5+ large performance troupes, and a small school (which is extremely hard to get into) devoted specifically to training girls as Takarasiennes. Back in the day, they had a few emulators who tried to compete with them, but I think they pretty much dominate the their genre of musical performance these days.

So the Utena musical isn't a Takarazuka performance, merely inspired. It's still very important to be familiar with Takarazuka as a shoujo fan, though, because they were a direct inspiration for the roots of the shoujo genre (and especially the branch that Utena descends from). The "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka grew up in Takarazuka, and enjoyed the Revue very much: the first "cross-dressing Princess" manga, Princess Knight, was to some extent a homage. Later, of course, shoujo manga fed back into Takarazuka: for instance, their most popular and famous show is still Rose of Versailles, adapted from the manga of the same name.

The sexual politics behind the group are less progressive than they might initially appear, but it's still good stuff if you like high-budget, high-charisma, highly-skilled, all-female musicals and musical revues. And who doesn't? Unfortunately, DVDs cost an arm and a leg (which in US currency is around a hundred dollars) and are not available for purchase outside of Japan. And although they have been known to do international tours, they don't do them very often.

hollow_rose wrote:

Dallbun wrote:

[
The Takarazuka Musical Revue is a specific performance company based out of Takarazuka, a city in Hyogo Prefecture (It was originally founded by the Hangkyu company when they built a train line leading to the town, as a way of drumming up more tourist traffic), though they also tour and maintain a theater in Tokyo. These days it's a pretty big organization, with 5+ large performance troupes, and a small school (which is extremely hard to get into) devoted specifically to training girls as Takarasiennes. Back in the day, they had a few emulators who tried to compete with them, but I think they pretty much dominate the their genre of musical performance these days.

(

Do you have some websites or such you can recommend for more information on this? I don't know much about this and I'd like to learn more. Please someplace better than Wiki? With pictures?

http://www.takarazuka-revue.info/tiki-index.php

There is also a Live journal community if you have an LJ
http://community.livejournal.com/takarazuka/

Hiraku wrote:

Guess I wasn't the only one who thought about that when I saw Miki

BTW, according to wikipedia, I read that there are two other musicals of Utena. Anyone familiar with those? I've heard the second one has Anthy holding a machine gun, but I'm not sure.

Here I go, reviving ancient-ness... I can't help feeling like the keeper of the later musicals, though. More research on them forthcoming, BTW.

Yes, the 2nd musical has Anthy + automatic weapon (= awesome). I put together some info about the 2nd musical (and a little about the 3rd) in this thread:

http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=832

In a related note, women performing as men in musicals is hawt. I wish I could go see the Gyakuten Saiban Takarazuka show. IGI ARI!!!

Miss Bluesky wrote:

DeepSubmerge wrote:

P.D.M. wrote:

Whitout having seen it yet, allow me to say:

The story simply looses a large chunk of it's enjoyment factor if everybody is a girl!

Am I the only one thinking that the enjoyment factor only rises by a gazillion points when every guy is played by a girl?

No. No you are not. Awesome username BTW. And on that note...
Anyone see any of the Sailor Moon musicals? I hear those are quite popular, so what happened to the Utena one? I get that SKU isn't as big of a series, but still....

I know. Even when I meet an Utena fan and I mention the musical they're like "buh?" Right now I keep a digital copy on my laptop just so I can torment friends with it. And have it on hand for its cheesy goodness.

liarakon wrote:

Hello guys
I was wondering if somebody could refresh the musical download files?
The message I get when I try to download any of the three parts Mazoboom uploaded to sendspace.com is along the lines of:

'Sorry, the file you requested is not available.
Possible reasons include:

- File date limit has expired.
- File was not successfully uploaded.'

If somebody could reupload it somewhere I would be eternally gratefull! ^o^

Uploading to Megaupload as we speak. I'll post a link once it's up!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DDZVWXA0

Here ya go. Let me know if anything's wrong with it. Hopefully this is what you were thinking of, as it's all one file.

Last edited by Baka Kakumei Reanna (01-13-2009 08:12:33 PM)

As my second post in here I'm going to revive the dead
I ADORE THE MUSICALS~!!!!!!!

And I see in this thread there are even some zuka-ota's !!

As many have said before the all female cast is inspired by the Revue, and it is very common practice in japanese musical theatre in general (especially when they are adapting from anime/manga).
What is not mentioned though is that 3 main characters on the first run (the one available in the DVD box) Utena (Daiki Yuu), Saionji (Katsuragi Nanaho) and Akio/Dios(Gou Mayuka) were former members of the Revue, all Otokoyaku from classes: 70, 73, and 64 respectively.

The first time I saw the musical I was so taken back by the low voices of Saionji and Akio/Dios that it got me into the Revue.

if you have niconico account you can watch this video http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15831085 Gou Mayuka is the second guy that sings, she was a star in her troupe.
Katsuragi has been a voice actress ever since, and she even has given her voice to Setsuka from Soul Calibur game!
Funny fact, I tweeted her a picture of her as Saionji and she replied me like: "EEEEK   this is so nostalgic! where did you find that picture" 
Daiki has played Oscar as well in 1981 while a member of the Revue.

Of course Saito Rei and Kimura Sanae are my most fav Pluto and Uranus in the SM musicals and they played their roles perfectly, Kanna is also incredible amazing voice and she actually looked like Anthy

I basically loved how they did the musical

as for the mentioned lipstic of Akio/Dios
LOL
it is stage makeup guys everyone wears it, if they dont wear makeup the audience can not see their facial expressions.
Akio/Dios makeup
and since I'm posting them here a very cool Saionji with Anthy (yes he is a jerk but he is a cool jerk when played by Katsuragi )

PS: the Robertson book that was recommended earlier is not the best thing to read if you want to learn about the Revue v_v Robertson goes just around some conspiracy theory based on war propaganda, and sexual stuff based on tabloids and ignores completely that it's an art form, therefore sexual orientation of members, stuff or fans has nothing to do with it, not to mention that it is forbidden to talk about the performers personal life...     

As a good informative read about the Revue I would suggest the Stickland's thesisofficially free and downloadable read as well