Takarazuka Kagekidan Karei Naru 100 Nen (宝塚歌劇 華麗なる100年)  is a 100th anniversary book about the famed all-female Takarazuka musical revue.

The book is full of color and B&W images of early Takarazuka newspaper articles, photos, promotional pieces…even reproductions of early tickets. Starting from it’s physical location, and images from back to 1910, the book traces the official history of the school, the theaters and the earliest troupes that graduated and performed. The books has ton of images from productions and newspaper articles about historical Top Stars.

Sprinkled throughout the book are interviews with Top Stars, past and present, including a few Tops Star pairs. I was particularly charmed by the interviews with current or recent Top Stars shown in their street dress,  with no more makeup than one would would expect for a photo shoot. Looking so natural, we can really appreciate their appeal. I particularly liked this when they interviewed some of the older Top Stars,. (And my goodness, Aran Kei is a lovely woman; far away from her otokoyaku look, she just has a gorgeous poise and is quite feminine.)

The end of the book includes several montage pages of dozens of mid-20th century otokoyaku and musumeyaku.  All quite squee-worthy.

For a Takarazuka completist, or someone who is just fascinated by the longevity of the Revue, this book is a real treasure.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

I was glad to see so many names even I recognized, so I imagine that any Takarazuka fan would really enjoy checking this book out.