Thanks to Alicia Haddick’s post on Bluesky, we were made aware that Takarazuka was once again doing a video on demand for one of their musical performances, with subtitles. Castlevania: Awakening Under The Moon was performed by the Flower Troupe, starring Sea Towaki as Alucard and Misaki Hoshizora as Maria.

My only experience with Castlevania (other than general knowledge absorbed by osmosis from fandom) were the two Castlevania series on Netflix. The first series, Castlevania, had surprise lesbians so it got a review here on Okazu. The second series, Castlevania Nocturne was mostly just blood and gore, so I stopped watching. 

But! I will never turn down a Takarazuka challenge. My wife and I were discussing some of the shows we’ve watched that were not…great…. A few were unengaging enough that I never reviewed them and at least one – starring a very famous Top Star pair – was horrifying. But, generally I find Takarazuka enjoyable enough, even though I must carry a handkerchief to cover my mouth when I inevitably start laughing uncontrollably at some small absurdity. I tell you all of this in sincerity – I am not a True Fan (TM). I just enjoy the kitschiness. So if you are a True Fan (TM) of either Castlevania or Takarazuka, perhaps skip this review. Thank you for your understanding. 

Castlevania: Awakening Under The Moon follows the adventures of Alucard, Dracula’s prodigal half-human, half-vampire son, some years after he has killed Dracula, who has risen again and is still set on revenge against the humans who killed his human wife, Lisa…despite the fact that her final words were to not hate humans. 

The story takes an interesting turn when the vampires hijack the French Revolution for their own needs. In the meantime, Richter Belmont (Seino Asuka) and Maria are fighting vampires and Alucard is saving people from vampires for his own reasons.  It made sense and really did not make sense, but I liked it.  Why French Revolution when vampires are a Eastern European thing? No idea, roll with it.

My favorite scene is a flashback to an incredibly creepy ass village where gormless villagers are celebrating the return of their beloved dead with a very sticky song that leads to a predictable influx of vampires . The whole scene is absolutely creeptastic in that way that only isolated villagers and their bizarre rituals can be.*

Aside from that one song, none of the other songs were memorable, and “that one song that will be the repetition of the word ‘love’ over and over” is clearly part of the revue portion, which was not included with this VOD performance.

A couple of other notes. Most of the lead otokoyaku costuming gave the main characters long hair, which made Alucard and Richter and others look prettier than the usual Takarazuka “short” cut. And Kizuki Yuuma looked *amazing* as a bearded Dracula. Hot as blazes. I wish the Dracul character had been allowed to be the bad guy….but sadly no, he was turned into a character of pathos. The story inserts a shadow priest-like figure, “Shaft” who is the Zirconia to Dracula’s Queen Nehelenia. I *did* like the Church being full of vampires right from the outset. Yep. Check.

If you have never have had a chance to see a Takarazuka show, this is a fantastic opportunity. The online ticket was only $15.20 USD, a tenth of what a live performance ticket might run you (not including the flight to get to Japan). It’s full of exactly the kind of wonderful staging**, expository songs and over much acting, costuming and dancing that makes Takarazuka a fun experience. You’ll need a Windows browser on a PC or Safari on a Mac to watch the video, but the quality was good, the subtitles worked fine in English and the whole procedure was much more simple than I expected. This video will be available through the end of March.

Whether you’re a fan of Castlevania or Dracula/vampires*** in general, or Japanese all-female musical revues or just want to see what all the fuss is about and get a better grasp of series like Kageki Shoujo, Revue Starlight and the upcoming Scenes From Awajima, grab a ticket to Takarazuka Flower Troupe’s Castlevania: Awakening Under The Moon.

Ratings:

Music – 6 It was kinda stodgy
Story – 9 – All kinds of ridiculous and messy
Characters – 9 Hard to dislike anyone other than the priests, really
Staging – 9 It’s always super fun

Overall – 8

We all know vampires instill fear
But the real horror is Robespierre
Bloodthirsty undead may scare
Of gormless villagers beware
Real monsters are the humans who are near

* I recently read two books for ANN about this very thing, About A Place In The Kinki Region and Divine Incursions, both out from Yen Press, both super good creepy folklore-horror, if you like this kind of thing.

** So there is one weird scene, using the screens in the back of the stage as Alucard and Maria fly to Dracula’s reverse castle, where Maria begins to fall and – quite randomly, I thought – plummets towards her death, but is saved by Alucard, of course. I couldn’t stop laughing because wtf? Why? It was so random.

*** If you like Takarazuka doing vampires I highly recommend Poe no Ichizoku, which I reviewed in 2019. That was swell.