Once again, I found myself standing in the Takarazuka Tokyo Theater gift shop, surrounded by riches of useless excess, and thinking, “I have to get something.” But there’s so much and I so don’t follow any star or troupe, that its often hard to decide! And this was before we saw God of Stars, after which we were motivated to go back and buy stuff.*

Then I saw a title and show that intrigued me. Clan of Poe is a well-known manga by BL pioneer and “Magnificent 49er,” Moto Hagio, that is out now as a deluxe set from Fantagraphics, with translation by Rachel Thorn. And so I ended up returning home with a Takarazuka DVD for this classic BL story as a musical, Poe no Ichizoku (ポーの一族). (It is also available on Blu-ray.)

Edgar Portsnel and his sister Marybell are abandoned by their father, and they are discovered in the woods by Hannah Poe who, Edgar discovers, is a “vampanella.” The story is Edgar’s evolution from naive waif to uncaring alpha vampire. Played by Asumi Rio, Edgar was annoying as fuck as a waif and did a lot of obligatory self-loathing when he and Marybell became vampanellas, but the less he cared about the humans around him, the better a character he was. ^_^ Edgar and Marybell meet Alan Twilight, played extremely well by Yuzuka Rei, who comes to love Marybell, until she is killed and he confronts his family about some whiny stupid thing then runs into Edgar’s hungry waiting arms. After which they both return to the boy’s school they had attended. I very much enjoyed how they looked at the boys around them like I do the menu at a restaurant. ^_^

Okay, so the story is not for me, obviously. I would have preferred to see Marybell run off with John’s wife (a thing she gets close to, which is why he shoots her.)  But as vampire BL goes, this wasn’t bad. It was violent, and the vampires were creepy and manipulative, both physically and emotionally, so you couldn’t really ever like any of them. But Alan and Edgar get a nice pas de deux or two and hold hands during the finale, so I guess that’s what pays the bills. ^_^ My money goes on the manager of the Hotel Blackpool (which I still think ought to have been named Whitby,) Tatsuki Mio, I believe. She was lovely.

I will say that both music and dancing, (despite being set in Europe of the imagination) were less stodgy than older shows, much as I found with God of Stars. So a new generation of composers and choreographers have made a positive impact on me, which is nice.

Ratings:

Music – 8
Story – 9 If you like BL, it was super fun
Characters – 8 Alan was the standout
BL – 6 Vampirey seductive stuff via Takarazuka filter

Overall – 8

What did I think of Poe no Ichizoku?

Edgar was no Allen Poe,
But it’s hard to give it a hard no.
I wasn’t sure what I thought,
but my attention was caught
By the attractive manager in the bow (tie).

*I ended up buying a multi-pack of clear files, some of which will end up in Lucky Boxes and a Suica card case on a retractable cord, which was really helpful. I liked the other deign better, but the one I got was more useful.

Here is a poster of Asumi Rio and Yuzuka Rei as Edgar(in the chair) and Allen (leaning) for you to enjoy. Good smouldering on Edgar’s part.