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Zuka: Luna, Scout, and Genji
Oct. 12th, 2011 01:05 amFinally ordered the most recent batch of TI Fansubs and watched them over the last few days. Haven't seen any new Zuka in a while and I was definitely going through withdrawl so it was nice. ^^
Luna - Or as Carrie and I kept jokingly calling it, "Seal of Angels/Season of Roses" 'cause it really felt like the plots of Seal of Roses and Season of Angels combined in a way. XD Even though those shows took place years after this one. But anyways, it was a really cute show! I couldn't take anything serious about it though. I laughed a lot, even at moments that weren't meant to be funny just 'cause it was a bit over-the-top with the cheese but I love it for it! Definitely a nice little show that any Zuka fan I think would enjoy if you want something fun and light. Seeing Rika as the villain was interesting too. Wasn't very fond of the hairstyle they gave her as it made her look...not hot. lol Or at least not what I'm used to. And there was one bit where she did this really strange eyebrow...thing and I'm not sure why. XD But also gave me a chance to see Makoto Tsubasa in the lead. I mean she's also the lead in my copy of Ephemeral Love but I wasn't really able to follow that one very well as I still don't know what's going on for the most part (despite knowing some of the history of the actual story). Some day I should really try watching it again and just try to pay more attention. But yeah, I really enjoyed her in this. I wasn't sure if this show as going to be any good or not but it surprised me with how enjoyable it was.
Scout - Oh my goodness. So I didn't know a single thing about this show before I got it. I just seen that a lot of fans have given it very good reviews but I never even bothered to read the plot summary or anything. Just knew it had something to do with a dance group and that the poster looked spiffy. But yeah, now I see why everyone has given it such a good review! This show was amazing! And to be honest, quite different from most Zuka shows I've seen. I mean I guess that's probably because its a Bow Hall show and the only other one I've seen is Hamlet!! and they both do have that kinda unique simplicity going on with the stage and a smaller cast when I'm used to seeing shows with a MUCH larger amount of the troupe. But anyways, the show itself is kinda dark and a little sad but oh man was it well done! Considering the fact that they have very little actual props and no scene set-ups (its the same plain stage the whole time), they do a really impressive job at pretending things are there and you really can believe it the way they do it. Its really creative! And there's a lot of symbolism going on throughout the whole thing that I just ate up like candy. Oh it was superb. And I got a chance to really see Tomu perform since I've only seen her in small roles (and have only seen clips of the Pheonix Wright shows) so gotta say I was impressed by her and I'm REALLY excited to see how she does as the new Phantom so hopefully I'll be able to see that one too at some point (though gotta say its a hard act to follow after Wao and Osa). The only complaint I have about this show is the ending. It was like the show built up to the climax at a very nice pace and THEN suddenly threw the "oh hahahaha you see it was REALLY this all along! Suddenly everything is ok!". Er well ok I have a hard time describing it but its that kinda of Shakespeare ending plot where things get wrapped up all of a sudden and a plot twist is put there just to clear things up but doesn't really clear anything up after all and is kinda like "pfffft what?!". Have to be kinda vague as I don't want to give away the ending but yeah, it really confused me and to be honest didn't make any sense. But I can't say why without giving it away. XD But it did bug me a lot. While I know a lot of plays have endings like that solely because you have a time limit and that often happens and I'm totally ok with it. But this one kinda didn't make sense. lol But regardless I was still able to be like "oh well...whatever...yay happy ending and pretty dancing!" XD 'Cause yeah, in Zuka-dom, it doesn't really have to make sense sometimes. The music was too good not to enjoy it. Just made me a little sad since the rest of the plot was so well established.
Annnnd that one was a little longer than intended. XD But trying to keep these short and spoiler free so I don't need a lj-cut.
The New Tale of Genji (Tsuki, 1981) - I was really surprised when they added this to their list of projects because its so much older than anything else they've done and its a show that I didn't think many Zuka fans would be interested in. But I was pretty excited because 1) I've never seen a show this old (the oldest I was familiar with was an '89 show) and 2) I studied Genji in college and have actually read the entire thing. XD So I do feel like I have a slight advantage over most people who probably got this fansub. And yeah, if you haven't read Genji, you probably will be a bit confused and might not enjoy this show very much. Unless you are coming from a standpoint of wanting to look at it from a historical pov but even then I suggest at least doing some Genji research first. Genji is a very long and complex story with a TOO MANY freaking characters to the point that even when I was spending an entire semester studying it, I still easily got characters mixed up. They even point out in the translator notes that most Japanese read Genji in school and so the show assumes the audience already knows the story well, so there are a number of time skips and a lot of plot points are summed up quickly so you could easily get confused if you're not familiar with it. And for those that aren't, the plot of Genji is simply: "Genji has sex with many women." And that's pretty much it. Its kinda a boring story but I've always been able to appreciate it from a literary viewpoint as it is a remarkable piece of writing. But ok onto the show itself! It was REALLY interesting to see a show this old because it really is a bit of a different revue at the time. I really am interested in seeing one of their "regular" shows from that time period, as in, not in Heian get-up because they of course were very limited in their movements and everyone kinda looks the same. So I'm not sure if my judgement is right 'cause I don't know if they did other shows differently than this. But I did notice how the otokoyaku were a lot more feminine than I'm used to. They didn't really lower their voices that much and I'm used to at least the leads having much more androgynous voices. And the musumeyaku all did that really obnoxious falsetto type voice that always irritates me. Granted it worked in this one because most likely Heian women probably did speak like that but at the same time I do think its part to do with the Zuka time period here 'cause I noticed some Marie Antionettes in the 80s versions do that exact pitch of voice. But that aside, the show was really gorgeous. They did a fabulous job at looking EXACTLY like the paintings from the original story. Especially with the backgrounds they used. And I was in total awe of all the costumes (even if I'm not a huge fan of Heian period clothing). Though I was honestly expecting the music to be more traditional Japanese sounding so the Enka style kinda threw me off a bit at first. XD I guess I should have expected that, being an 80s show and all. lol Especially as even some of the more modern Zuka shows have a tendency to go slightly Enka (not surprisingly considering the majority of the audience tends to be middle aged Japanese women though). And well I wasn't very impressed by the lead's performance to be honest but I rather enjoyed the musume that played Murasaki. I think she did an excellent job at playing (in my opinion) one of the very few actual interesting women Genji is involved with (the other being Rokujo). And the otoko playing both Yugiri and Koremitsu appealed to me more than the one playing Genji. Also was kinda funny seeing the can-can line at the end being done in Heian clothing instead of showgirl attire. XD At least it was children's wear so they could still do the kicks but it did make them all look even younger than they do normally. But not used to not seeing their legs during that. lol Curious to see if all the shows were more modest with that back then or not. Or if this was just 'cause it was Genji. Really want to see one of the more recent Genji shows to compare with now.
Hmm maybe I should have lj-cut that after all. XD Though not like many people will read this anyways but I just felt the need to review them.
~Lyn
Luna - Or as Carrie and I kept jokingly calling it, "Seal of Angels/Season of Roses" 'cause it really felt like the plots of Seal of Roses and Season of Angels combined in a way. XD Even though those shows took place years after this one. But anyways, it was a really cute show! I couldn't take anything serious about it though. I laughed a lot, even at moments that weren't meant to be funny just 'cause it was a bit over-the-top with the cheese but I love it for it! Definitely a nice little show that any Zuka fan I think would enjoy if you want something fun and light. Seeing Rika as the villain was interesting too. Wasn't very fond of the hairstyle they gave her as it made her look...not hot. lol Or at least not what I'm used to. And there was one bit where she did this really strange eyebrow...thing and I'm not sure why. XD But also gave me a chance to see Makoto Tsubasa in the lead. I mean she's also the lead in my copy of Ephemeral Love but I wasn't really able to follow that one very well as I still don't know what's going on for the most part (despite knowing some of the history of the actual story). Some day I should really try watching it again and just try to pay more attention. But yeah, I really enjoyed her in this. I wasn't sure if this show as going to be any good or not but it surprised me with how enjoyable it was.
Scout - Oh my goodness. So I didn't know a single thing about this show before I got it. I just seen that a lot of fans have given it very good reviews but I never even bothered to read the plot summary or anything. Just knew it had something to do with a dance group and that the poster looked spiffy. But yeah, now I see why everyone has given it such a good review! This show was amazing! And to be honest, quite different from most Zuka shows I've seen. I mean I guess that's probably because its a Bow Hall show and the only other one I've seen is Hamlet!! and they both do have that kinda unique simplicity going on with the stage and a smaller cast when I'm used to seeing shows with a MUCH larger amount of the troupe. But anyways, the show itself is kinda dark and a little sad but oh man was it well done! Considering the fact that they have very little actual props and no scene set-ups (its the same plain stage the whole time), they do a really impressive job at pretending things are there and you really can believe it the way they do it. Its really creative! And there's a lot of symbolism going on throughout the whole thing that I just ate up like candy. Oh it was superb. And I got a chance to really see Tomu perform since I've only seen her in small roles (and have only seen clips of the Pheonix Wright shows) so gotta say I was impressed by her and I'm REALLY excited to see how she does as the new Phantom so hopefully I'll be able to see that one too at some point (though gotta say its a hard act to follow after Wao and Osa). The only complaint I have about this show is the ending. It was like the show built up to the climax at a very nice pace and THEN suddenly threw the "oh hahahaha you see it was REALLY this all along! Suddenly everything is ok!". Er well ok I have a hard time describing it but its that kinda of Shakespeare ending plot where things get wrapped up all of a sudden and a plot twist is put there just to clear things up but doesn't really clear anything up after all and is kinda like "pfffft what?!". Have to be kinda vague as I don't want to give away the ending but yeah, it really confused me and to be honest didn't make any sense. But I can't say why without giving it away. XD But it did bug me a lot. While I know a lot of plays have endings like that solely because you have a time limit and that often happens and I'm totally ok with it. But this one kinda didn't make sense. lol But regardless I was still able to be like "oh well...whatever...yay happy ending and pretty dancing!" XD 'Cause yeah, in Zuka-dom, it doesn't really have to make sense sometimes. The music was too good not to enjoy it. Just made me a little sad since the rest of the plot was so well established.
Annnnd that one was a little longer than intended. XD But trying to keep these short and spoiler free so I don't need a lj-cut.
The New Tale of Genji (Tsuki, 1981) - I was really surprised when they added this to their list of projects because its so much older than anything else they've done and its a show that I didn't think many Zuka fans would be interested in. But I was pretty excited because 1) I've never seen a show this old (the oldest I was familiar with was an '89 show) and 2) I studied Genji in college and have actually read the entire thing. XD So I do feel like I have a slight advantage over most people who probably got this fansub. And yeah, if you haven't read Genji, you probably will be a bit confused and might not enjoy this show very much. Unless you are coming from a standpoint of wanting to look at it from a historical pov but even then I suggest at least doing some Genji research first. Genji is a very long and complex story with a TOO MANY freaking characters to the point that even when I was spending an entire semester studying it, I still easily got characters mixed up. They even point out in the translator notes that most Japanese read Genji in school and so the show assumes the audience already knows the story well, so there are a number of time skips and a lot of plot points are summed up quickly so you could easily get confused if you're not familiar with it. And for those that aren't, the plot of Genji is simply: "Genji has sex with many women." And that's pretty much it. Its kinda a boring story but I've always been able to appreciate it from a literary viewpoint as it is a remarkable piece of writing. But ok onto the show itself! It was REALLY interesting to see a show this old because it really is a bit of a different revue at the time. I really am interested in seeing one of their "regular" shows from that time period, as in, not in Heian get-up because they of course were very limited in their movements and everyone kinda looks the same. So I'm not sure if my judgement is right 'cause I don't know if they did other shows differently than this. But I did notice how the otokoyaku were a lot more feminine than I'm used to. They didn't really lower their voices that much and I'm used to at least the leads having much more androgynous voices. And the musumeyaku all did that really obnoxious falsetto type voice that always irritates me. Granted it worked in this one because most likely Heian women probably did speak like that but at the same time I do think its part to do with the Zuka time period here 'cause I noticed some Marie Antionettes in the 80s versions do that exact pitch of voice. But that aside, the show was really gorgeous. They did a fabulous job at looking EXACTLY like the paintings from the original story. Especially with the backgrounds they used. And I was in total awe of all the costumes (even if I'm not a huge fan of Heian period clothing). Though I was honestly expecting the music to be more traditional Japanese sounding so the Enka style kinda threw me off a bit at first. XD I guess I should have expected that, being an 80s show and all. lol Especially as even some of the more modern Zuka shows have a tendency to go slightly Enka (not surprisingly considering the majority of the audience tends to be middle aged Japanese women though). And well I wasn't very impressed by the lead's performance to be honest but I rather enjoyed the musume that played Murasaki. I think she did an excellent job at playing (in my opinion) one of the very few actual interesting women Genji is involved with (the other being Rokujo). And the otoko playing both Yugiri and Koremitsu appealed to me more than the one playing Genji. Also was kinda funny seeing the can-can line at the end being done in Heian clothing instead of showgirl attire. XD At least it was children's wear so they could still do the kicks but it did make them all look even younger than they do normally. But not used to not seeing their legs during that. lol Curious to see if all the shows were more modest with that back then or not. Or if this was just 'cause it was Genji. Really want to see one of the more recent Genji shows to compare with now.
Hmm maybe I should have lj-cut that after all. XD Though not like many people will read this anyways but I just felt the need to review them.
~Lyn
