September 22, 2009

All-female theater company?

Peter writes about Takarazuka, a theater company in Japan consisting only of women which dates back to 1914. It's sort of the mirror image of Kabuki, in which all parts, nominally male or female, are played by men. In Takarazuka, all parts are played by women.

As I was reading about it, what it reminded me of was the Imperial Opera Troupe in Sakura Wars. And about the way that Kana and Maria tended to play male characters in it.

I wonder if the real-life Takarazuka was one of the inspirations for the game, and the anime derived from it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 09:54 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Short answer, yes. Vice versa, too, Takarazuka has done several Sakura Taisen shows.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 22, 2009 10:23 PM (vGfoR)

2 Now we need an anime about a small group of bloggers who moonlight as omiyoji and fight evil spirits. Well, maybe by 2109...

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at September 22, 2009 10:37 PM (/ppBw)

3

What, Pete, you mean you don't?

Avatar, that's really amazing in an eerie sort of way.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 22, 2009 10:51 PM (+rSRq)

4 Of course we don't, Steven. Everybody knows that Western hermetic systems are more effective than onmyou when it comes to the exorcism of spirits.

Fear the power of Ohayo Ohayo Bonjour live! (original non-live version)

More seriously, there were a lot of jokes around the original production, which used the original voice actresses (Sakura Taisen being, after all, a franchise that lives and dies by its VAs). Iris's VA is taller than Kanna's, if I'm not mistaken...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 22, 2009 11:13 PM (vGfoR)

5 I've got a number of the Sakura Taisen live shows on DVD (not the Takarazuka stuff, but some of the dozens with the games voice cast), and pretty much everyone was taller than Kanna's VA. Probably blogged about it at some point three years or so ago, but they are absolutely hilarious, and only partially for the right reasons.

Posted by: DiGiKerot at September 23, 2009 09:11 AM (RzYJk)

6

I'd love to see one of those. It sounds like fun.

I don't really care how tall Tanaka is. I still respect her enormously. And I think she's kind of unsung in terms of how successful she's been in the industry. I bet she's recorded more half hour shows than even Koyasu. She's done about nine hundred just as Krillin and Luffy.

How many seiyuu have been as continuously employed for as long as she has? More than twenty years, folks. (DB started in 1986.) No one gets that much work without being damned good at what she does. And she is, too; she's one hell of an actress.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that she's the all-time champ for total episodes worked.

Right now, between the DBK re-recording and her ongoing work on One Piece, she's busy as hell. Two eps a week most weeks, and in One Piece she's the starring role.

But I do see how it would be funny to watch the cast of Sakura Wars.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 23, 2009 11:50 AM (+rSRq)

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