Archive for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour Category


100 Years of Yuri: Takarazuka God of Stars /  Éclair Brillant

September 27th, 2019

Getting tickets to a live Takarazuka performance is one of the great gambles of the universe. It could be breathtakingly fabulous, as was my first experience, Elizabeth, or it could be dire, or anywhere in between. But regardless of whether the show is itself good, the spectacle is always entertaining. It was for the spectacle I wanted a Takarazuka show to be part of the 100 Years of Yuri Tour.

We had been informed that tickets for this show were incredibly difficult to get. Ultimately, we learned that both lead otokoyaku, Kurenai Yuzu was retiring after this performance, and this was one of the last performances for the top musumeyaku, Kisaraki Airi, as well. As a result, it was a miracle we got tickets at all. It was so worth it. God of Stars / Éclair Brillant  was an amazing show, good enough that I’ll totally get it when it comes out on disc.

To begin with the story was ridiculous and fun. We meet a celestial being Red Boy, the God of Stars, who is beloved in heaven in an opening number extravaganza.

Then, suddenly, we’re in Singapore in the present, watching an Iron Chef-like show, the star of which is obviously a reincarnated Red Boy. Hong Xing-Xing is the masterchef of the show, with a grand plan to uproot the small restaurants of a dockside area. He’s attacked on the set by Eileen Chow, a tomboy who loves cooking, but can’t herself cook. Hong storms off and the sponsor decides that he’s a liability, so sets him up for a fall, by implicating him in a crime. Hong finds himself bankrupt and alone in Eileen’s section of town. Together they decide to rehabilitate Hong’s reputation with a cooking contest between Hong and the new master chef Dragon Lee.

And then the story gets weird. ^_^

Both Hong and Eileen have absentee parents. With help, Eileen tracks down her mother, who has become a famous architect in Shanghai, and Hong, while studying Buddhist vegetarian cuisine at a mountain temple (with the name 小林寺, Kobayashidera, for a fabulous visual pun on Shaolin Temple’s name,) discovers Eileen’s father. Hong’s own celestial parents arrive to watch the final contest with Lee. And we all live happily ever after. Of course.

I cannot express how fantastic the show was. Funny in all the right places, the excess of Takarazuka really worked to this show’s advantage. Kurenai Yuzu and Kisaraki Airi had good energy, but were not particularly sexy together. Makoto Rei was STUNNING as Dragon Lee and we all enjoyed the heck out of Maisora Hitomi as Christine Chang, the top Hong Kong singer.

There was a surprising variety of musical numbers, from boy band hysteria and Christine’s HK idol song, to larger more ebullient full-stage numbers, like God Of Stars, and the inevitable love duet between Hong and Eileen. They were all good numbers, a few of them incredibly catchy.

This was followed by the revue portion of the show, Éclair Brillant, with its typical glittery fabulousness. It apparently “portrays a young man who floats down from space to earth, and sings and dances across the globe.” I did not get that from the revue itself, but can certainly understand that that’s what I saw, now that I read it. ^_^

The final song was the usual repetition of the word “love” 7000 times and was so sticky, I ended up singing it for a week, so that was pleasantly irritating. ^_^

Ratings:

Music – 8 Really good
Story – 10 It was so over the top
Characters – 10 Every character was perfect
Yuri – 1 Yes, Hong and Eileen get together, but the actresses had no real sexual tension. Nonetheless, they were so wonderful as their roles, I really can’t ding them.

Overall – 9

An incredible show, with stellar performances, and fantastic contemporary musical numbers and a classic Takarazuka revue portion. I recommend it highly.

After the show was over, and although we were all ravenously hungry, we stuck around to watch the actresses come out and address their fan clubs. It was really quite sweet.

 

 

 

This one I’m sharing because of the general fabulousness of the presentation.

 





100 Years of Yuri Tour: Sailor Moon Restaurant, Shining Moon Tokyo

September 22nd, 2019

One of the several exciting events associated with our 100 Years of Yuri Tour was a visit to the Sailor Moon Restaurant, Shining Moon Tokyo. We included this, in part because Sailor Moon is foundational to a whole generation of not only Yuri fans, but also Yuri creators. (I recall a story in one of Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei’s early doujinshi on how she met her partner/assistant Makise Ren at a video rental store, as they both reached for a Sailor Moon S tape.) Also in part because I thought it sounded awesome and wanted to include it.

Shining Moon Tokyo was awesome, and I’m really glad we went. ^_^

To begin with, we were met at the door by a person who confirmed our reservation and took our dinner orders before we had set foot in the place. We then proceeded down stairs into a basement wonderland. Well…a relatively low-budget wonderland, anyway.

 

 

 

 

The tables and chairs were white resin, very 1960s. The stage was small, with stair up each side to a catwalk across the top and the smallest proscenium I had ever seen, not even a meter square. There was a screen across the stage, welcoming us to Shining Moon Tokyo.

 

 

 

The ceiling was hung with the planets…two of which became part of the show, in a rhythmic gymnastics kind of way.

 

 

Costumes in one section of the restaurant were the only decorative items. In most other ways the space felt like a cave or a basement theater…or a kind of modern Mithraeum, where a ritual enactment was about to take place. ^_^

 

 

 

The screen kept telling us that the show would start shortly, but first, we were served dinner. The choices were limited, so between us, we had all three options. I had the sushi platter, with little planetoid sushi.

 

 

There was the moon somen plater.

 

 

And the moon bunny curry.

 

 

Drinks were Senshi-themed. We split between the Sailor Moon (peach), the Venus (mango and green jello)  and the Mars (shiso and some kind of berry.)

 

 

For dessert I think we all got the Silver Millennium cake.

 

 

The food was pretty good as far as it went, which is as far as microwaved platters can go. ^_^ They were served on planet symbol-themed wax paper over special Shining Moon Tokyo plates, which were a gift – after the dinner, we were handed boxes to take them home with us. We joked that if we came back a few times, we’d have enough for a service.

Just as the screen told us the show would begin shortly, I noted that the screen has English subtitles. Huh, how about that.

Then the show began. Not surprisingly, no pictures were allowed of the show, but we were encouraged to take pictures of the revue portion.

The show was the entire first season boiled down into a half-hour, with key points -including the death of the Senshi – kept intact. The individual fight scenes were pretty amazingly well-done. The screen functioned as some of the special effects, so Ami’s and Makoto’s attacks were shown on screen. Rei’s fight was exceptionally well done, using a large puppet for a nine-tailed kitsune and she twirled some kind of effect bar that showed up as flames – we all really liked that effect.

Even Tuxedo Mask had a decent fight scene that included lasers and smoke. “He” was still brainwashed for a bit there, but visually, the whole scene was cool.

Which brings me to Minako. We saw Abe Nanami as Minako/Sailor Venus, and we all commented that she leaned into her role hard. She was fantastic. Her fight was the most abstract, with nice use of light and shadow – and she made good use of the scenario. She also managed to dominate any scene she was in, in a good way. Additionally, as the performance wrapped up, I swore I saw a little byplay between her and Taguchi Mika, who played Mars. It was just a moment of interaction in which I was positive Rei was acting jealous. ^_^

 

 

 

I also want to shout out to the deathlings, played by the other set of actresses that switch off with the team we saw. My god, they were athletic. Even beyond flips and dance-fighting kicks and stuff, they did rhythmic, acrobatic, and aerial gymnastics.  These 12 young woman work really hard for this show and I want to thank them all.

 

 

And then the actresses came out to greet those of us in the audience and my suspicions about Minako were totally confirmed. ^_^ I wasn’t filming, but I did capture photos of Venus throwing a kiss at my wife, and Mars reacting with jealousy, then Venus holding on to Mars for the rest of the greet. ^_^

Here’s the photos in a time lapse video.

 

 

Of course by then, we were all ready to spend money at the shop. Belatedly, I noticed we had nothing Mercury themed. Had I realized, I would have ordered a blue drink. Poor Ami.

 

 

It was a wonderful time and we all enjoyed the heck out of it.I recommend it highly if you’re already a fan of the series or are looking for a themed cafe and show.

After watching Minako in this little scenario, I’m more than ever convinced that it’s way past time for a 21st century update of Sailor Moon, in which the full range of gender and sexuality in the characters is openly acknowledged. Haruka as genderfluid, Minako as pansexual, the Starlights as trans…I think it would be swell. ^_^





100 Years of Yuri, Part 5

September 17th, 2019

Well….wow. I mean, really. The final full day of the tour was a veritable feast of Yuri. 

We started the day with breakfast at a famous fruit parlor for breakfast, because ice cream and fruit is definitely breakfast of champions.

From there, we all made our way out to the Girls Love Festival, where predictably, I bought more doujinshi than I planned on buying. ^_^ We all picked up Doropanda Tours’ ShizNat 14 years later doujinshi, because hell yes we did. Two of our party had Morishima Akiko sign some English language goods, which made everyone happy.

 

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GLFest had something I had never seen before… Comic Zin had brought a bunch of Yuri doujinshi and books, so there was a little Yuri bookstore to buy from.

On the way out, my wife realizing we were on the back end of the Sensoji, and she wanted to take everyone down the Nakamisedori.

Because we didn’t have enough Yuri, we then trekked to Akihabara. First up was Shosen Book Tower, which has a brilliant Yuri section.

Then a quick hit at Melonbooks, where I had a mission to find Hayashiya Shizuru’s newest original doujinshi…which I did! It was pretty much exactly where I hoped to find it…a small miracle in and of itself. Victory! Last stop was Comic Zin where, amazingly, I found more Yuri to buy. ^_^

Part of the tour had already headed back to the hotel. Two headed off for a dinner of monjayaki. When we all got back together, it was time for something extra special…the Sailor Moon Shining Moon Tokyo restaurant! 

 

 

I will do a full review when I get home, but let me just say…it was fantastic. Really, genuinely a load of fun for all. 

 

 

We all shipped Minako and Rei hard. The actress playing Venus really leaned into her role. ^_^

 

My review of Shining Moon Tokyo is now posted!

With that, the 100 Years of Yuri Tour officially came to a close. I want to thank everyone who joined us on our adventure. It was a blast!

My wife and I are here a couple of extra days, so expect a few more days of stuff. We’re heading out to Pokewalk a bit right now, but tune in next time for more fun!





100 Years of Yuri, Part 4

September 15th, 2019

Saturday was one of the most physically demanding days of my entire life. And I didn’t *do* anything! 

We started the day at the Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku, where I waxed poetic about Hana no Askua-gumi and the girl-gang aesthetic of the 1980s-1990s. 


We then headed out to Nakano, where we got together with Kat Callahan, who is always ready to talk anime. ^_^

I don’t know what it is about Nakano, but a few hours there and I am flattened. So a couple of us headed over to the cafe which was decorated with Go Nagai images and selling goods. ^_ There is a Go Nagai exihibit in town, as well. (Thanks, Richmond, for letting me know!) that I’ll try to catch this week. 

 

 

From Nakano we dumped our purchases and headed back out to Hikawa shrine for the festival that hadn’t been there the night before. Folks who arrived early said they saw a Hino Rei cosplayer in her school uniform. I can not confirm, but that would be cool. ^_^

 

 

This was accompanied by, of course, eating food, and watching dancing. By the time we crawled home late that night, we were flattened. It was a terrific day.

Sunday was our “free” day. We started it by heading in different directions. Half of us went off to explore Ikebukuro quickly, with visits to Book-Off, Tokyu Hands, and a quick walk-through of Animate. I stopped and had a “Pink” – baked apple flavored Starbuck shake. I found this at Animate and scooped it up.

 

 

We continued the theme of junk food for the mind and body with lunch- pizza-  at Mister Donut, complete with plastic-flavored Halloween donut.

 

 

Alice had headed out to a national park from some hiking, my wife went shopping and the rest of us went to Takarazuka Theater for God of Stars, which was amazing. Think Son Goku as an Iron Chef in Singapore, who falls for a tomboy who can’t cook. It was brilliant. The revue portion, Eclair Brilliant was equally as wonderful in its revue-y way. 

We hung out, waiting for the stars to do the walk-by. Both of the lead otokoyaku Kurenai Yuzu and Makoto Rei, the two leads, were so kind to their fans, that we liked them even more. 

Dinner was a sumptuous feast at a local duck and soba place that is now on my always-go list. (Thanks Chris for introducing us to Takadaya.)

One last crazy day for us on the tour to go!

 





100 Years of Yuri, Part 3

September 13th, 2019

It’s been a busy couple of days here for the tour and part of it was on the road. Having got all comfy in our hotel, we packed up and headed for Kamakura, where we visited locations that featured in Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers. We had lunch in the cafe that was the basis for the one that Fumi and A-chan ate in, and where Fumi came out. 


We were supposed to have headed to Yoshiya Nobuko’s house, but due to unexpected (and at this point, inexplicable) circumstances, we were unable to do so. Not going to lie, we were all disappointed, but lunch helped. We then headed out to Enoshima, the site of many a day trip and date in dozens of anime.

Enoshima is a volcanic island which, according to local lore, rose out of the ocean, to allow the goddess Benzaiten to alight in order to face a dragon that was terrorizing the locals. There is a shrine on the island. Several, in fact, because that’s how things work.

The onsen resort we stayed in also had a shrine to Benzaiten in the cave hot springs, which was hot as blazes. The “roman” (i.e., Victorian) bath was easier to manage and very beautiful. 

Dinner was sumptuous, and almost killed us. This was the first course of five.

 

The view from my room. We’ve had pretty  cloudy weather, but aside from a few hot days when we arrived, its been nice.

Breakfast the next morning was lovely. I forgot to get a picture. Woops! But we did get try Enoshima’s specialty, whitebait. It was pretty great over rice, with some pickles. Honestly, that was one of my favorite things we ate.

When I say that it’s Enoshima’s specialty….I mean you can get it in a zillion ways. On burgers, raw, cooked, dried, fresh, on mochi, as crackers. etc…. Including as ice cream.

On the way back to Tokyo, we stopped at the Library of Literature in Kamakura, which was the inspiration for the design of Fujigaya girls’ school in Aoi Hana.

It was fantastic. The exhibit while we were there was honoring Kandono Eiko, creator of Majou no Takyuubin (魔女の宅急便), which we know as Kiki’s Flying Delivery Service. She is a prolific children’s author and was recently awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

It was a delightful exhibit, in a beautiful location- well worth the visit!

With that, we headed back for something we were all looking forward to…a Halloween Tea at our hotel. ^_^ It looked so cute on the poster we just had to.

 

 

The expression on the ghosts was brilliantly apt, as they were delicious. ^_^

 

After the third too-large meal in a row, we needed a long walk, so we headed out to the Akasaka Hikawa Shrine, the shrine that is the inspiration for Rei’s shrine in Sailor Moon. The festival we expected hadn’t opened yet, and so we all blamed Rei’s grandfather, but we did catch up with the parade of the mikoshi.

 

 

Today we’ve got a full schedule, with a visit to Shinjuku, Nakano and we’re hoping to get back to Akasaka to see the festival.

More to come!