立ち上がれ！

Silly title is silly. It reads tachiagare, which basically is like shouting 'rise up!' and has no significance whatsoever to this entry. Well, actually, it kind of does because I'm going to be talking about Takarazuka again and they shout that a lot in Elisabeth, particularly in the parts that take place in Hungary.

Before I dive into fangirl land again (come on, y'all had to know this was going to happen again at some point), I'm just going to say that I am so glad term's out. I got all my crap turned in on time and I got a B on my Japanese exam, which is acceptable. You can really see what I'm good at if you look at this test: speaking and listening got perfect scores, reading and writing demonstrated high-end mediocrity. I'm not bad at anything, really, even the kanji was okay, but it's so obvious what aspects of this language really click in my brain.

As for my papers, the best one was probably for Shakespeare (Foucauldian bio-power in Measure for Measure), the final philosophy one (critiquing an aspect of History of Sexuality) was the worst because I didn't care anymore by that point and, if it sucks, it'll be dropped out of my grade, anyway.

Now I'm chilling for a couple of weeks, then I'll try finding a job. I really crashed at the end of the semester, or I'd get on the job thing a little quicker. I need a break. So I'll watch things, and read things, and do more cleaning of my room, and it'll work out. I cleaned out my clothes today and have a big bag of things to donate because I will never wear them again. And a slightly smaller bag of things to throw out because they aren't in good enough shape to give away in good conscience. What I really learned from this is that I own a lot of clothes. I felt really good about my closet/dresser after putting together the discard piles... then I put the clothes that I had in Salem away and it filled up again. I think I just hold on to things for way too long and forget about them. But I do feel good about how much I'm giving away. The clothes are still pretty nice and I know other people will be happy to discover them in Good Will (or wherever I decide to take my donation).

Anyway, time for me to be a fangirl again because I've been watching Silver Rose Chronicle. It's a Yukigumi production about vampires/vampire hunters/vampire romance that I'm now kind of in love with. It doesn't have my beloved Mizu Natsuki (it ran in a secondary venue, not the Grand Theatre), but Ouki Kaname (aka Teru) is the vampire Christopher and she's one of my babies. Speaking of which, I'm really unhappy that she's been transferred to Hoshigumi, because I don't follow Hoshigumi at all, but it is a promotion and she deserves the recognition. Takarazuka fandom, for the record, is hella complicated. Everyone, and I'm definitely no exception, has that one troupe that they love and follow. For me it's all about Yukigumi, which is not the most popular troupe among foreign fans, and I was so upset when I found out that, yes, Teru really is being transferred.

I'd share a clip of SRC, but Youtube sucks and doesn't have any of the really good ones. The best they've got are focused on Elliot, which makes sense given that he's the protagonist, but I like Teru better than Ayabuki Mao. Anyway, if you read my blog regularly, you've seen Teru before. She was Rudolf in Elisabeth, so that one video I posted awhile back that has Der Tod dancing with Rudolf, Yami ga Hirogaru? Yeah, that's her.

I am, however, going to post a different Takarazuka-related video. You don't have to watch the whole thing, 'cause it's kinda long and full of talking, just watch the first minute or so. It's a clip from a TV thing (the title reads Takarazuka Kageki Tokushuu, which means Takarazuka Theatre Special) and the first part, after some guy talks, is Mizu Natsuki getting up and winking at a girl on the panel, who is basically a walking Japanese stereotype, as a demonstration of the sexy power of otokoyaku (or... something). I don't know what the real point is, but it's funny because the girl just melts. Which would probably be my reaction to Mizu Natsuki winking at me like that, but it's really funny because she doesn't seem to know what to do with herself.



I'm picking up tips on how to be a sexy, slick drag king from my fangirling Zuka, true fact.