Gyakuten Saiban ~ Yomigaeru Shinjitsu (逆転裁判 −蘇る真実−), aka Phoenix Wright~ Truth Ressurected, starring Ranju Tomu, performed by the Takarazuka Cosmos Troupe was a fun, multi-fandom 3-D romp inside a lot of people’s heads.

I have not played – or indeed seen – any of the Phoenix Wright games. They were quite obviously loads of fun to play, as people on both sides of the ocean went gaga for them. Having never seen them, I can’t tell whether the Takarazuka musical based on them is related in a non-superficial way to the game, but I can say this – it was a lot of fun to watch, even if it wasn’t much “like the game.”

Phoenix, a rising young lawyer, is distraught that someone he knows has been arrested for a murder in California. Ranju Tomu does a very convincing job as a rising young lawyer, despite the suit. In fact, in some scenes I felt complete confidence that she could pass as a young man on the street if she kept up that body language. Gone was the huge, fake swaggering movements of drag kings, and instead actual body language that read “guy” to me. That was pretty much the first time I had seen that in a Takarazuka show. It interests me greatly. Was it her natural inclination? Was it choreographed? Was it self-study or mere chance?

I’m told that the love story was created out of whole cloth for the musical. That’s okay…Phoenix needed to have a love interest for several reasons – one, it’s Takarazuka, duh!, and two, it provides a short, simple, neat motivation for him bothering to care about Leona Clyde, since we don’t really have too much time to develop that backstory.

Unlike most music written originally for Takarazuka shows, the songs were short and only one repeated the word “aisheteru” endlessly until we couldn’t take it seriously anymore. Tomu has a few songs that really worked to the strongest part of her range. Nanaho Hikaru was, I thought, underused as Edgeworth. She’s got a great voice and a great stage presence. I’d like to see her make Top Star.  Miwa Asahi was great as Leona, and an unusually strong female lead.

Interestingly, this show had “opening credits” as part of the show, something I’ve never seen before.

Despite my lack of familiarity with the source material, I was able to grok the key character points with no difficulty and overall, found this to be a very enjoyable afternoon matinée show on my TV. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

While watching the show, I found myself having to explain the game to Bruce, which was challenging, as I know of it rather than know it, and didn’t have a DS to show him. Nonetheless, even with the limited information I was able to provide, it was an easy show to follow. I won’t tell you whodunit, but I did learn the word for New York State Governor. ^_^

You may have at least *heard* of the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly known as the Hays Code. Although I know what the Hays Code is, and know the usual kinds of stories around its implementation, I really had never paid much attention to it.

Having watched the Takarazuka version of a production called The Hays Code, I still couldn’t really tell you what the relation the Code had to the story or, really, what the story of this production was at all, but damn I enjoyed watching it! ^_^

Like Singing in the Rain, you’ve got a Hollywood set-up, a good actress (the real love interest) and a bad actress (the wife/girlfriend?) and a bunch of “guys” striding back and forth and something to do with movie-making. And some mafia types…and an insane priest.

Let me be very clear – the plot is not complex or obscure, Bruce and I were just paying half attention to it as we watched. But what we did see was absolutely delightful. There was tap dancing and Hollywood musical-esque group singing and dancing scenes and everyone lived happily ever after, with a totally non-typical ending, which is to say a big group musical number, rather than the love-love couple rising to heaven on the rising contraption.

This was great. It was light-hearted (except where it wasn’t) and Toono Asuka was cast as a woman with a slightly annoying voice which worked perfectly and the other lead female had a very nice voice and a really bizarre scene where she was hypnotized by the priest…seriously bizarre scene…and did I mention tap dancing? Oh, and it has Aran Kei in a Tux. Approved.

I enjoyed every second of this DVD and as soon as I have a few hours, I’ll watch it again and try to make heads or tails of the story. No blame to the writers, I just need to actually pay attention. ^_^

Rating:

Overall – 8

This DVD totally left Bruce and I grinning, although we basically had no idea why. ^_^

(I wasn’t going to do a review at all today, but what the heck, I’ll do this…)

I first encountered The Scarlet Pimpernel as a child, in Classic Illustrated form. Already familiar with closeted comic book heros, it fit right in with my usual reading habits. I liked it. I later ready the original novel by Baroness Orczy. Of course I watched the Leslie Howard version of the movie and, yes, I’ve seen the Anthony Andrews version (with Jane Seymour and Ian McKellen!). So when they made a Broadway musical of the story, I was sure I was the target audience. My wife, her sister and I went to see it on Broadway. As we walked out of the theater not a single one of us could remember a single note of a single song. It wasn’t bad or anything, just completely forgettable.

A decade later, I’m buying Takarazuka videos in Tokyo and there’s The Scarlet Pimpernel musical again – only this time it has Aran Kei, so there was no question whether I was going to buy it or not. :-)

I gotta tell you – the music is still utterly forgettable.

So much so that I’m rewatching the second half because I can’t think of a single thing to say about this DVD.

Now that I am rewatching it, I am reminded that Percy’s outfits are totally pimpin’. I mean, like white tiger stripes or baby pink with gold waistcoat.

The biggest downer is that I really don’t think Aran and her leading lady Toono Asuka have any energy together. In fact, I kind of think Toono really didn’t live up to her star billing. She just never seemed to be on the notes quite.

Even the Review portion was pretty much like every Review ever, in the same way that this musical was like ever musical ever.

The only character who really had any oomph was Chauvelin, but who wouldn’t like playing a sexy-in-black eye-rolling member of the “Committee of Public Safety, ambassador extraordinaire and plenipotentiary of the French Revolutionary government to the Court of St James?”  To top it off, Reon Yuzuki has a nice voice – she has that burry quality that I like so much.

Other than the clothes, this wasn’t really inspiring in any way. And the clothes weren’t so much inspiring as…amusing.

But have no fear – I have like 4 other DVD to watch (including Phoenix Wright, during which I will undoubtedly miss all the in-jokes, as I’ve never played the game. ^_^) I have no doubt at least one of them will be squee-worthy!

Overall – 6