Claudine

*Just after two conferences in Poznań*

(the one about Alice was simply perfect),

but my mind is floating somewhere far.

Now the story that I can not stop thinking about

is the story about Claudine

from Riyoko Ikeda's manga.

Claudine- a man born

with female body.

Absolutely perfect man.

Handome, delicate, clever,

smartly dressed.

Tragic story.

Not because of death,

but of its reason.

Claudine thinking

about himself

as about imperfect man,

because of the body

is the saddest think ever. ..

Claudine was the ideal man.

Perfect man that does not exist in reality.

I am suprised that

there is no Takarazuka version!

Claudine is otokoyaku

from a dream.

Could real man

love that much?

Dreaming for dreaming- day in Takarazuka

I still feel like my heart is on this day.

One of the best day I spent in Japan.

The day in Takarazuka.

I was excited since the morning,

but the moment I entered Hankyu train

I felt with all my being 

that this is really happening.

Takarazuka station welcomed me with this sign.

Then we entered Hana no michi

(Flower road)

which leads to the theater.

Probably I am idealizing it all,

but it really is like a road to your dream world.

Now I have tears in my eyes,

because I do not know 

when I will be able to walk it again.

Lots of statues there

Not yet blooming

Then you reach this posters and sign.

Everybody is taking pictures there.

With my friend who wore loli

to match my ouji outfit

Then we went closer to the theater.

Lots of fans were waiting there

to take pictures of stars.

We saw a few actors entering the theater.

They were wearing cool clothes,

were tall with short hair and sunglasses.

Otokoyaku.

I could finally put my eyes 

on these unusual creatures.

And believe me I was not disappointed.

We waited in a group of fans.

Excitement increased. 

Powder room

Entering a theater was just the beginning

of an adventure.

There was all shopping center inside

with shops connected with Takarazuka

and restaurants.

Takarazuka's songs were heard everywhere.

Our handkerchiefs

and program for

Embraced by seas of Calisto

which we saw.

Finally we entered the theater.

Roses, rose carpet, piano which played by itself

and excitement everywhere.

I was enjoying wearing prince clothes, taking pictures

and getting lots of attention.

Usually I do not care about it so much,

but at this day I felt like wearing kind of cosplay

so it was different.

I liked Takarazuka earlier,

but after seeing it with my own eyes

I am obsessed.

From Flower Road to the performance

I was charmed.

All atmosphere, pathos, colors, stories,

music and light

it is all like a dream.

All this world is unreal,

it does not pretend to be real,

it wants to stay far, far away from having anything

common with reality.

Only emotions and feelings

were truly real.

After the performance we waited outside the theater

for a while.

Fans talking with their fav stars

and their feelings were real.

They adored something that does not exist,

but this simply fact made it more and more worth adoring.

It is not the adoration of a world

in spite of the fact it does not exist,

but just because of it.

All this flamboyant world 

is built from the most delicate 

and ethereal material I have ever seen.

Tezuka Osamu's museum

is the best end of the day spent in Takarazuka.

Princess Knight's origin became all clear and natural.

Dreaming for dreaming.
I would say with a hope that dreams
will never come true.
They are not for coming true.
They are for staying dreams forever.
Too beautiful to be messed with reality by coming true.
Too subtle to stand on the real ground.

Silver Rose, an illusionary girl

Excuse me one Takarazuka post

after another, but after coming back from Japan

all my being is breathing Takarazuka.

I feel that it is one of this interest that will stay with me until death.

It is like I made one more step to find the real me.

It was the same with Japan, then Lolita, VKei,

opera, ballet and now Takarazuka has joined 

this honorable circle.

Today watched performance was Silver Rose Chronicle.

The story about silver-haired vampire siblings.

I am all in this story

turning myself into

銀のばら

幻の少女

myself

losing reality in vague silver dreams.

The performance does not only have interesting story,

but also such a beautiful music and choreography.

What is more, the music and dance always appear 

in a perfect moment

to multiply your emotions.

And Annabelle and Christopher are exactly 

the kind of vampires I love:

beautiful, lonely, all in pain.

Above main characters (sister and her love interest)

I am all in the vampire brother.

Ouki Kaname created a charismatic, ambivalent, 

all charming character to fell in love since 

the first appearance on the stage.

Above everything there is rose.

Flower symbolism is always something

that effects me more than it should.

Silver rose.

Not a red rose which lost all her petals

just after being taken into hand.

But silver one which is eternally in a full bloom.

Just like silver- haired siblings.

Like my love to vampires.

And seems like my love to Takarazuka since now on.

Back on the blog with The Captain's Daughter

So I am back from Japan 

(with a new obsession).

I will not write about Japan

as there is too many things to write.

Maybe when I am in a mood for

reflections about a concrete thing I will,

but generally I continue the blog from now on.

When I said a new obsession

I meant Takarazuka.

I liked it earlier,

but after seeing a performance live I fell for it completely.

Right new I am living the story called Dark Brown Eyes

which was based on the Pushkin's novel The Captain's daughter.

I read the novel and it was very random.

Pushkin was a genius when writing poems but novels...

Well. Nothing outstanding.

But the story itself has a big potential.

Young a little naive boy who is going far from home to a regiment,

an innocent girl who is the daughter of this regiment's captain

and a wild Cossack who is living his crazy ideals and
starts a rebellion against aristocrats.

Of course there is love, but above it there is a strange friendship

between the young boy of aristocrat origin and mentioned Cossack Pugachov.

It is unbelievable how Japanese modern music theater
can make alive a historical character

like Pugachov. And how this interpretation can move you.

Otozuki Kei as Nicolai was perfect.

As in Takarazuka should be she was your dreamed lover

with a smile to kill for.

And I loved how a snow storm

in which Nicolai was lost (and then rescued by Pugachov)

was painted.

One of snow girls he saw there was played by the same actor

who was Nicolai's lover later.

Masha becomes the embodiment of Nicolai's dream lover- snow shoujo.

But it was Pugachov that caught my attention the most.

I thought a lot about him after watching the performance.

In the book Pugachov tells Nicolai 

(well, in fact in the book the character is called Pyotr)

the Kalmyk tale about an eagle and a crow.

An eagle lives 33 years when a crow lives 300,

but he eats only carrion.

Eagle tried to eat carrion to live longer,

but he resigned- it is better to live 33 years, but eat living creatures.

Pugachov believed that starting war and fighting

means to live his live fully, maybe shorter, 

but it is the way of making the most of it.

Nicolai thought that killing is a way of living like a crow.

Pugachov and his delicate friendship with Nicolai shows him as a man

who was not completely bad. He was twisted. 

His idea of life was twisted.

When Nicolai got to know that Pugachov was caught

and is going to be executed he said:

"Eméla, Eméla,"I said to myself, in vexation, 

"why did you not cast yourself on the bayonets, 

or present your heart to the grapeshot. That had been best for you"

I cried when reading it.

Nicolai does not say "Pugachov" or use his titles

he uses his name in a shorter form.

Like referring to a friend.

He knows that death is the only end for

a person like Pugachov (he can not agree with his actions),

but he regrets that Emela, his friend Emela in rabbit's doublet,

can not die quickly, without dishonor, in a fight he enjoyed so much.

Isn't this beautiful and tragic?

Before the execution Pugachov sings the same song

he sang when being alone with Nicolai earlier.

He does not regret his short, but intensive life.

Until the end he believes he was an eagle, not a crow. 

The performance was ended beautifully.

Meeting of Masha and Nicolai.

The love on the background of historical turmoil.

Takarazuka makes you dream.

It makes fantasy from the past.

Here is the ending.

(it is from the older version,

I can not find online 

the part from Snow troupe performance from 2011)