WEBmikey: Musical Ribbon no Kishi : 4 of 5

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Musical Ribbon no Kishi : 4 of 5
9.20.2007 7:43 AM \| Link	It seems like I'm always writing about Jpop ancient history, but I finally watched the complete Morning Musume musical of Ribbon no Kishi, and it was much better than I expected! For this stage version of Osamu Tezuka's classic manga (also known as Princess Knight), Hello! Project got together with the Takarazuka Revue, a super-popular all-women theater group famous for lavish shows with ladies playing men (based in Tezuka's home town, coincidentally). The story is about Princess Sapphire who has to spend her life as a boy to keep other evil folks from getting the throne, and of course involves romance with Prince Franz, witch's spells, and sword-fight action. Takahashi Ai does a wonderful job as Sapphire, but I have to say that Ishikawa Rika steals the show as Franz, which is amazing since poor Rika-chan is only half the singer that Ai-chan is! Rika pulls it off with sheer confidence in her role, and gives an incredible performance of the main love song Anata ni Aitai in her prison scene, punctuated by amazing tears on stage! This three-DVD set includes two other complete versions of the show with Matsuura Aya and Abe Natsumi as Franz, but I still liked Rika's performance the best. All of the other girls get large and small roles (Yossie is pretty cool as the villain), and the story is really easy to get lost in (even with a couple of Morning Musume jokes thrown in out of character). The music itself is definitely show tunes style, performed by a live band just off-stage, so it's fun to hear the girls sing with something other than pre-recorded tracks for a change. At the end of the show, there's a mini concert of the usual hits, as well as a graduation ceremony for Makoto, since this was her last performance with the group. This musical was definitely better than some of the previous shows I've seen. Of course it's cheesy and sentimental, but I love seeing the girls stretch to perform something just beyond their normal reach! Labels: dvds, jpop, morning musume


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