KiriMari, dancing starshine

when one has a lot of things to do, one often ends up doing nothing from the to-do list, but something completely irrelevant. so here it is, the result of my 'whatever but not preparing for the exam'

as always, I use videos with my favourite one and only Top Combi, this time pairing them with a wonderful song which is 33 years old already, but still sounds fresh and unique - 'Dansing Starshine' by Momoe Yamaguchi. I used to love this song until I made a video with it love this song because of its 80s mood (composed in 1980 exactly), vividness and brightness and warmness of the melody, and of course, the wonderful voice of ms Yamaguchi. the lyrics with translation will follow very soon in a separate post, but I can say now that I believe the words and the song title itself suit the two perfectly. they were are like starshine on the stage

my little thoughts on the new Moon Troupe

this is kind of a challenge for me - to accept the new Moon Troupe. I ought to

however I could think of it, the fact that I joined the Zuka world when Kiriya-sama was there is an accident, and probably, every change can seem unbearable at first. maybe, Sena-sama fans were not able to accept Kiriya-sama, too. well, maybe not, but at least, Moon Troupe changed drastically in 2010, didn't it? and it has always been like this. probably...

so, accepting the new Moon is a challenge - not a problem anymore, but a challenge I will gladly cope with. you know what? I can see already the new image of Moon which will sooner or later prevail over the gloomy repetitions that Moon is going to perform

I hope, it will prevail - the shiny Moon that we see on the last photo from the RomiJuri article. I see a great mobility there, I see a combination of classic and modern, but there the energy of Moon remains the same - the gold, the yellow and orange

Let the Flower be delicate, let the Star be sophisticated, let the Snow be affected and Cosmos - original. Let Moon preserve its warmness

the only strange felling I have is that... though obviously I was attracted to Takarazuka due to the fact that women there play male characters (not only by this fact, but 'twas the MAIN point. I doubt there are people who were attracted for purely another reason), now that I think of Moon, I see Manaki-sama first

I mean, of course I love Masao and Mirio, I did and I will, but Reika-chan seems to be an essence of the current Moon. she is the one who will shine brightly and represent the Moon in my eyes. she is the one I feel the closest to - even Ryuu-sama and Asumi-sama seem farther - just a bit

my only prayer is - Manaki-sama, please, become a strong Top. no, become THE strong Top Musumeyaku that Moon is famous for, like spectators of 'Scarlet Pimpernel' said about Aono-sama, which Kiriya-sama mentioned. become a strong Top Musumeyaku that kouhai can rely on and sempai can be proud of. please create a wonderful Triple Combi with Ryuu-sama and Asumi-sama

BTW... will the Top Combi dance be performed with Asumi-sama or Ryuu-sama on the days when Romeo is played by Asumi-sama? I wonder... o___O

KiriMari, my beloved Top Combi

it took me 3 days to make this masterpiece. how did I manage to finish it so fast? I am a magicia~n!

well, actually it took me 3 days to complete the technical part. the first day was dedicated to exploring capacities of Sony Vegas Pro 11.06-something. the second day was dedicated to making the vid itself. and the third day was dedicated to adjusting, and adjusting, and adjusting again

first, there were problems with Vegas-san decoding my avis. therefore, I had already made the whole video but then I had to REmake it because most parts had 'white' frames, which I thought to be simply mistakes of displaying the preview. then I had to RErender the vid because the first version consisted of Takarasquares. erm, I mean, the quality of the vid itself was poor. then I had to RErender it again because I had forgotten to increase the volume of the music. and finally, I discovered that the timing of the vid in Vegas-san was NOT the same as in the resulting vid

finally!

however, creating the vid itself is not a hard thing to do if you have a proper image of it in your head. and I did

it happened on the 25th of April. in the morning I put on my favourite shirt, opened my new lipstick, (the colour of which I chose so that it would be close to that of Kiriya-sama on the cover of the 2012 calendar!) and attached to my neck my lucky (as it turned out) Kiriya-sama pendant. during the first half of my way to the university I already listened to 'all you need is love' and other gorgeous songs from the album 'Grace' by Tamura Naomi-sama. when I got on the bus, 'kirai ni naretara ii' started. while listening to the first half of the song, I simply enjoyed it (well, not simply - I enjoyed it a lot!) - but then I realized WHAT some parts of the song resemble so much... Top Combi duet dance! namely, 'Dance Romanesque' and 'Misty Station' ones, when the stage was covered with artificial mist

therefore, my work was simply to match the vids with the song. well, of course I did not imagine the whole song, and the part of this creation was impromptu...

another point is that, though I usually criticize vids where the visual component has nothing to do with the song and the lyrics, this time I did not make an entirely matching video. the reason is simple - this is not a song that creates a story (like 'ano hi no futari wa mou inai' by Tamura-sama, or See-Saw's 'seijaku...'). this song does not even describe what is going on in the vid. instead, it describes what is going on in the author's soul - and my soul, too - realizing that the person he or she loves so much has been a little estranged, and perhaps is going away, but still he/she loves him/her and while wishing to be able to hate him/her, cannot do this. this is a song that I could sing, not the characters of my vid

but still

my favourite moments - including both moments I did as I wanted and moments I made unintentionally good - are

0-20 - when Aono-sama turns around. I inserted this part because here she appears and approaches Kiriya-sama, but then I noticed how her movements suit 'suki naraba' melody

0-44 - on DE of 'kienaide' is just a lucky moment, but

0-46 - is the best of the best of the best. this moment was perhaps the one I had the first, when I thought like 'oh, this part reminds me of Top Combi dance so much' - so smooth, silent, in a slight darkness and with mist on the floor

1-18, 2-23 and 2-33 - well, when Tamura-sama sings such a 'stringy' note, I could not help inserting something like this

1-24 and 1-31 - are one of the few moments adjusted to the lyrics

3-00 - is simply a moment I adore! and it popped up exactly when I needed something like this. the same goes for

3-05 and 3-17 - somehow, a collection of near-romantic moments? I did not make it intentionally, but the lyrics of those moments are 'suki naraba' and 'itoshisha ni' respectively...

3-27 - the same turning round, which I think to be quite suitable again

3-38 - well, here the drums seemed to be good when Kiriya-sama steps on the floor

3-43 - is simply one of my favourite moments of all the KiriMari duet dances

from 4-14 starts the series of lifts. and lifts are my favourite phenomena in Top Combi duet dances. just. so. IDK... magnificent... beautiful... and just @$!#)*_)!*$#$!!!

well. meseems, I am speaking too much about this humble attempt to make a nice vid. hope fans will enjoy

link. KiriMari dance from 'The Gypsy Baron'

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/mMgtD28g_p0/

oh look, please look at them... how adorable they are........ >______<

oh thank you, the generous person who uploaded this video with such great quality...

oh look at them closely! 

look how they hug each other so many times, how Aono-sama really keeps her fingers on the shoulders or back of Kiriya-sama, and how Kiriya-sama holds her partner like a cherished someone

look on the typical wide movements of Kiriya-sama at 3-35, and Aono-sama's liquid-like body just the next moment

look at their synchronicity at 4-10, their perfect timing which they polished every time they could, that was described in a funny manga in April Graph

look at their moving as if they were not two people, but a solid object at 4-28

look at their swirling at 4-35, with a perfectly straight leg of Aono-sama and the strength of Kiriya-sama who kept turning round and round and round, for quite a long time without any exhaustion

look how they make serious faces at 1-48, and then look how they cannot help smiling at each other at 2-02 or at 3-57. there are smiles that are required, but there are such ones that come naturally. is this not what Kouzuki Ruu-san called the ニコニコ look that made her feel むずむず and was named a もえ～ by the rest of younger siennes who participated in a 'Scarlet Pimpernel' Now on Stage?

oh, everybody has his own obsessions. and this is the obsession of mine. a perfect Top Combi, unforgettable and beautiful

my little thoughts ~ I am not sure myself what this post will end up with

when I watched 'Gunslinger Girl' for the first time in my life (season 1 of course, there was no season 2 at the time, and even no talks whether it would come) it was a highly popular topic - comparison of not only girls, but also their relationships with their 'big brothers'. one person was describing every 'couple' in details giving their relationship a name on world-art

some time ago I saw an opinion poll asking what current Top Combi everybody likes and why

it was then when I though I might try to analyze the image of Top Combis, not actresses separately

needless to say which Top Combi is my favourite, but again - why? in other words, is Kiriya-sama completely responsible for the fact I love Moon Troupe?

the answer is - no. though she is my personal goddess, I should not fail to admit there are other people in the Troupe which made my love for it as solid as a diamond (can I draw such a comparison?)

of course, I love the current ni-san-bantes, I love several other actresses I listed already and spoke of many times. but now I only want to speak of Aono-sama

though for a Top Star 'tis a usual thing to reach the position after at least 10 years of being in Takarazuka, it does not necessarily mean there are no exclusive cases when she is a little younger or much older. on the other hand, strict rules cannot be applied to the process of choosing of Top Musumeyaku, can they? as for now, I can see a trend towards making the Top Girls so very young that I almost doubt their skills - 3 years seem to be too short a time to refine one's acting ability. however, not all of Top Musumeyaky are small children, eh?

what I am trying to say, there can be cases both when the age difference is huge and when Top Star and Top Musumeyaku are almost of the same age. I know 'tis neither polite nor Takarazukish - to speak of age, but I am not trying to measure who is old and who is young in the real life, I am only speaking of experience and generations siennas belong to

what seems important to me is that the minimum and maximum age of entering Takarazuka musical school differ by 4 years, and the real date of birth is not revealed, so for every actress the estimated time of her graduation if from 18 to 22, plus some extraordinary cases (aren't there any?). therefore the calculating error is 8 (as I am speaking of Combi, that is 2 people). of course, in order to write a proper analysis I should have searched for interviews etc. and find out the year when this or that sienna enter the School, and also what time she attempted to do so (BTW, if I remember correctly Kiriya-sama made 2 attempts). however, the difference in the years of debut seems to be sufficient enough to me, as it probably represents the average number

let me start with Flower. the difference in their debut is 10 years, so we can suppose the extreme cases to be from 6 to 14

Moon has the difference of 9 years, so the extremes are 5-13

Star Tops differ by 4 years, so the extremes are 0-8

Snow Tops differ by 8 years, so the extremes are 4-12

Cosmos Tops differ by 12 years, so the extremes are 8-16

however, 'tis not only the actual difference in age influences what my opinion, but also the image of each sienna

basing on my impression of all the actresses (taking into account that some of them are still like while spots for me, as I have never seen even a single performance of them), I would put Flower, Moon and Cosmos together, and Star and Snow together, though the difference in Snow is not far from that of Moon and Flower

the first group are those who seem to have more of a difference in terms of age, and the second one are those who seem to be closer

so, again - going through each troupe

Flower. this is a completely groundless opinion, but RanRan Combi looks like big brother and little sister to me. though Ranno-sama is not too young an actress, she looks really childish, small and cute, while Ranju-sama looks and mostly - sounds like a very caring and responsible person

Star. those two are true lovers, always so completely reveling in and savouring their love that I am almost afraid it might influence their results...

Snow. if I try very hard I can suppress my negative attitude towards Maihane-san. well, not completely, but at least... though she also has a significant difference with Otozuki-sama, they seem to be so very equal and alike that I would name them childhood friends or classmates

Cosmos is a very hard thing to comprehend. though the difference is the biggest one I never thought of it as a problem. on the other hand, the Cosmos Combi does not seem to be a Combi at all for me, as of they were completely alien and strange to each other, only colleagues working together, each seeking his own success and fame

and Moon... my lovely Moon... the very reason why I remembered of 'Gunslinger Girl' in this post is because Moon Combi reminded me of how my favourite couple in the anime was described in the comment - partners. this word sounds a little too cool and may seem to be the same as in the previous paragraph, but for me 'tis not. the principal difference is that colleagues are two people working together without sharing anything or having anything in common, but partners are mutually complementary, necessary, even vital and act as a whole. I should admit they have a significant difference, and Aono-sama is much closer to Masao and Mirio in terms of her age, but whenever I look at Moon Combi together I cannot help admiring how beautiful they look together and what harmony they radiate

I am glad that Aono-sama pronounced the line in her speech during the Grand Theatre farewell performance - 'if I were not beside Kiriya-san, I could not be myself'. though many circumstances and factors influence such phrases, I prefer to believe those words were sincere and her tears were genuine

forever my beloved Top Combi - KiriMari...