Stardom

[glitra]

Summer Holiday's means that DT is off in Bow Hall again. This is the.. third summer I've spent watching her in Bow Hall if I remember correctly. ((I just checked, and it is in fact the third summer in a row. Geeze, no wonder she wanted to go to Taiwan. I too would want to be the one to get to leave sweaty Hyogo in the summer)).

This year's show is of course Stardom starring Houzuki An. This is her first lead, and her second show with hanagumi.

Overall,it wasn't horrible but I didn't find it particularly great either. It was pretty average. I think that in part, may be because I have high expectations for summer bow hall performances. I mean, Forever Gershwin, which shall never see the light of day, even on Sky Stage was,  straight up, a work of art. Nocturne was similiarly stunning, although the sky stage broadcast didn't do the chemistry between Rei-kun and Kirari justice. This one, I found lacking. It wasn't the pit of awful that Sanctuary was, but it wasn't anything to write home about either.

Takawiki Summary:

"A famous TV song contest is losing popularity. As the audience is getting tired and sated and ratings are decreasing, the staff is also losing interest and will to go on. Suddenly, a young talented man called Liam takes part in a preliminary tour and gains success immediately. This brings a new challenge to the show staff and to Liam as well. He aims for victory, but the path lying ahead of him is narrow and thorny..."

Yes, this is a AMERICAN IDOL meets AMERICAN BANDSTAND type of plot. Saezuki Runa, Hanano Juria and Tenma Michiru play the judges on this round of the show. Taso is the former rock star who was drafted into this show, and clomps around in his big boots while looking very attractive. Which, rather supririsingly, totally worked. Her name is Simon. *looks at the camera like I'm on the office* Yes, I said Simon. Did that go over probably 90 percent of the Japanese audiences head, yes. Almost everyone else plays people who work on the sets / or are auditioning / taking part in the tour.

Overall the plot suffered from both lack of plot and too much plot. What was going on half the time? I honestly am not sure. Masatsuka-sensei couldn't make up his mind on what to cover. Did he want a main character to carry the plot, or did he want to give it equally to the ensemble? I'm not sure, mostly because I don't think he was sure. All these characters auditioning/partaking in these shows had backstories. Minami Maito's father is sick, one young man's wife just had a baby, Kiwa's mother is sick and in a wheelchair, a pair of lovers... it just seemed to be never ending. Where any of stories relevant? A handful. Did we need everyone's story? No. We didn't. It made it confusing and rather a struggle to watch.

Soundtrack wise, I'm going to have to give Masatsuka-sensei points for effort. This featured a few original songs and a lot of English rock from the 70-80's. Which, if they would have used the Japanese versions I would have given a pass, but for most of the songs they didn't. They used the English lyrics, meaning you have the cast of hanagumi singing in English. Yes, it is as tragic as it sounds. I have to give major points for Aren Touma and Oto Kurisu whose native English accents were fantastic. I know Aren speaks English fluently, but Kurisu blew me away. Her accent was so close to native, that if she hasn't spent a lot of the time in the US/ gradatued form an international school you will have to color me suprised. The program this time didn't have songs, so I'm not sure what they sang off the top of my head, but it was beautiful. They choose to use a lot of songs as background, so they would be faded in an out when characters came to share their completely unnecessary but none-the-less included backstories. Which is normally a good effect, when you have main characters out. But again, Masatsuka-sensei. Plus the sound guy wasn't particticularly on the ball today, and it there was some harsh transitions.

The costumes were about 50 percent culled from Tomu's Streak of Light Broadway number. Which after the first act made me think of this as Masatsuka's poorly written fanfiction of that scene. It improved my viewing of Act II.

Overall, I found Chinatsu flat and uninteresting in this show. I can't tell how much of that is from her acting, or from the show itself, or just my general response to her. I've never found anything about Chinatsu particularly interesting. She is very much a grey static to me, if that makes sense. Both onstage and offstage. Nothing particular about her stands out, nor resonates with me. Which is wierd for me, normally I can find one thing about everyone to like. Nope, not in this case for some reason. She did a good job for what its worth.

Minami Maito played nibante as the sexy singer. It worked. She worked. For the entire show she wore tight black jeans and a silk shirt and jacket. She sounded better than she has in awhile. She's also getting better at working the stage and working the audience. Which is good, she needs to level up her game.

Aren Touma played the san-bante-ish role. She was key to the plot and blew her acting scene's out of the water. She had a fight with Bei-chan that was the shining moment of Act I. They both played it so perfect, timing the remarks just perfectly with the silence. You know the silence when you are having a fight, the one that seems almost heavy with hurt, and painful words just waiting to be let loose into it. It was, as I hashtagged it on twitter #toorealfortakarazuka.

I say that Aren got San-bante-ish role because Tenma Michiru had a big role, and it was a Good Role. It honestly was the highlight for me. She for once, wasn't cast in a comical role. She was cast in a Real Role. She wasn't comic relief this time. She got to smolder, and swaggert, and it was beautiful. It was honestly, so beautiful to watch. She doesn't get to do that very often, so this was a rare treat. She is being treated like one of the big-boys and I am so so very happy about it. Her, Chinatsu and Maitii sing this one song together, and... I have no words. It was so good. I want to thank SMAPxSMAP for bringing my little tambourine player into the forefront. She's gotten such better oppoptunities since that aired, and I'm delighted to be along for the ride. She got to lead a part of the otokoyaku dance. Which, had you been around to hear me squeal like a little girl in my car after the show was out, you could really appreciate how happy and joyful it made me to see it. She came out to thunderous applause. My thought process went along the line of "Oh.. wait.. that dancer looks like Taso...WAIT A SEC *mouth hangs open* THAT IS TASO *mouth remains open for the entire dance*.

Other cast notes: Rapid-fire style. Saezuki Runa looked exactly like she has at iride since okeiko started. She got a song. Juria was looking fantastic and sounding fantastic. She needs to give lessons on how to move like walking sex to the underclassmen. Or don't, that might be dangerous. Yume got an actual character and was given a chance to eat up the stage like she was born to do. She is really so underappreciated. Naoto Sumizuki was an adorable cowboy, and I just find her face super appealing. Oto Kurisu sings like an angel, is a beautiful dancer, and I'm fairly convicnced, is a real life fairy gracing the Takarazuka stage. Chiyuki Aki is adorable and I don't think is every going to grow out of her baby face.

Everyone else had something to do, and some line to say. The one really good thing about this show, I have to admit, is that it is a show MADE for people who follow babies.

Overall: Watchable, but not particularly great in any one regard.