#anna jun

The guests this time were Anna Jun and Nesshi the first day we saw (the second of three days altoghether) and Pei and Zunko on the last day. Anna Jun sang Tango Notturno and Jira Jira, and was beautiful and magnificent as always and a pure joy to listen to. Nesshi sang Tango delle Rose, Cantando and Chiquilin de bachin and it sounded very good, but as usual she was a bit too jaunty to my taste.  Zunko seemed to be in a very good mood, telling some anecdotes about her first encounter with tango (I think) and even singing a little bit of Neko no tango to illustrate. She sang Ah! Pourquoi mens-tu?, Ultima tango de tristeza and Los Pajaros Perdidos, and I think her version of that was better than Mizu's in Gran Tango.

However, the greatest attraction was definitely Pei. It was the first time I ever saw her live, and it was an overwhelming experience. She was super handsome in a flowery silk blouse with wide shoulders tucked into black pants. For the second act she added a red sash around her waist, which wasn't an improvement but still couldn't make a dent in the Great Look overall. Her short dark hair was combed back and she used her hot gaze and deep voice to send sparks along the spine and tickles across the skin of every lucky member of the audience.  She sang Ich kusse ihre hand, Madame and recited Mi Dolor in the first act, and sang  Che Tango Che in the second act. We were so lucky to be there for both shows that day, because the first show made us exhilarated because Pei was so great and then in the second show she turned up the seduction 200% in her Che Tango Che, showing off hip moves and caressing herself and basically not sparing any of her otokoyaku powers. I really, really wish they would have put that on the Alma del Tango DVD, but unfortunately Pei will not be on it at all.

After the first show that day, Pei came out into the theatre lobby, still in her stage outfit, and greeted her fans. She seemed to be in high spirits, talking to bunch of fans in a relatively chaotic way - no demachi-like lining up or blind discipline. Mustering all our courage we approached her to thank her for the show. As we drew closer she noticed us and seemed to recognize us from the post card we had written and handed in before the show (not so difficult to guess who the two foreigners might be then), and waved and smiled. We got to say that it was great and thank her and shake her hand, with shaky knees and a whole legion of butterflies in the stomach. For some reason she was handing out little bags of chocolates to her fans, and she gave us each one too. After the second show she also came out and greeted her fans in the same manner, running around and talking to people and giving them candy.

(More art samples follow at the end of the review.)

This odd little manga is a compilation of four Takarazuka star biographies published in Margaret (the home magazine of Rose of Versailles) in the mid-1970s. The four featured otokoyaku stars are the 'Four Lords of Berubara': Haruna Yuri (whose chapter became the title for the compilation volume), Anna Jun, Ootori Ran, and Migiwa Natsuko. All of them were still current performers when it was published.

The manga was written (to some unclear extent, as he is not listed as 'author' but 'author of original work') by Ueda Shinji, and drawn as well as potentially adapted by Nagumo Keiko, an obscure artist who I unfortunately struggled to find any further information about. Her art is very beautiful and full of detail, but also highly expressive.

Each chapter features various interview and photo features (differing for each person) for several pages, before transitioning into manga stories about how they entered Takarazuka and achieved stardom. Despite all of them being most famous for Rose of Versailles, most of the stories say little about it at all. Generally, the main focus is on their younger days, presumably to make them the most relateable to young girl readers of Margaret.

The four otokoyaku stars are also clearly presented as 'girls' both visually and within the stories. Obviously these biographies are highly fictionalized, but having read first-person accounts from all of the subjects elsewhere, the main points are there, just with heightened drama and romance added to fit the shojo manga aesthetic.

In the interview features Ueda asks more than one of them about whether they plan to get married, although they manage to skillfully sidestep that issue. Ootori Ran's chapter heavily focuses on her having a romance with a man while still in Takarazuka, and eventually deciding to break things off with him since he wants her to retire and marry him. (Knowing she did eventually give in to pressure from her parents and retire to marry, and immediately regret it, makes this chapter rather hard to read in hindsight.)

While obviously the content of this manga can't be considered factually reliable, the stories are told well—something that makes me wonder how much of the script Ueda actually wrote and how much was adapted by Nagumo—and the art is extremely attractive, in a signature 70s style reminiscent of things like Glass Mask (and obviously, Rose of Versailles). The interview features also contain a lot of interesting information.

It's also fascinating in a meta-fictional sense, as here Ueda Shinji, who writes fiction for these actresses to perform, is writing fiction about these actresses...performing fiction he has written for them to perform (to his credit, he doesn't ever portray himself as a character except possibly in one shadowed panel, nor does he unduly emphasize works of his over other performances). This manga came out around 20 years before he wrote an entirely fictionalized play about Takarazuka starring Maya Miki, in somewhat of an inverse of this scenario.

This is a bit of a strange read (especially as it features such shocking things for a modern Takarazuka fan as the entire real names of current performers), but it's a fascinating perspective on how Takarazuka and Takarasiennes were seen and presented to young fans at the time.  

I would recommend it to those who enjoy the meta of the Takarazuka Revue company, fans of Showa era stars and shows, or fans of 1970s shojo manga art.

More art excerpts:

(Haruna Yuri performing in West Side Story)

(Ootori Ran vs. A Man)

(Anna Jun accidentally wearing the wrong shoes for her debut kickline)

(A manga synopsis of the plot of ‘My Love Lies Over the Mountains’)