Recently, the topic of "idols" has been quite hot:
The movie "Shanghai Fortress", which was once starred in the idol who created myths with traffic, had a dismal box office; the movie "Suixian I.", which only invested 30 million yuan and had a box office of more than 200 million, was on the hot search again and again because of the idol's acting skills; the idol who had no singing and dancing charm on the stage but made his debut smoothly, the first TV series performance was OK; the once shining group contract period arrived, and they left, in fact, even if they were not disbanded, there was no collective activity for a long time; the creation camp 101 of the male version of the Chinese, Thailand, Korean, and Japanese male version is being held continuously. Limited groups may become a new form of idol groups...
In this context, we have formed a set of idol impressions on the Internet, and there are several keywords: traffic, meteors, capital, and lucky people.
Do idol groups really not live for 10 years?
Do idols value ability or audience popularity? Choose the perfect one or the one to grow?
Idols do not have acting skills, but they have transformed into actors, is this a circle of money?
There is a special idol group in Japan that has existed for more than 100 years, and they have unique experience with the above three problems, including many successful cases.
They are the Century-old Mythic Takarazuka Opera Troupe.
Many well-known Japanese artists who are active in the show business circle are from this troupe, including Yuki Tenkai, Hitomi Kuroki, Tanri, Masayoshi Daichi, Hidemi Zoyoshi, and Miki Maya.
They have pioneered their careers in the film and television industry, and on various occasions, they have thanked the previous "experience" in Takarazuka.
What kind of idol group is this?
01
Whether it is in Japan, Asia, or even the world, Takarazuka is definitely a unique presence, and they will completely subvert your imagination of idol groups.
It is Japan's largest theater troupe of about 400 unmarried women, founded in 1914, and its influence gradually expanded, forming a parallel pattern of five groups: the Flower Group, the Moon Group, the Snow Group, the Star Group, and the Zeus Group. Each group of about 70 people, led by the top Star of each group - starring male servant (playing male role) and starring female servant (playing female role), participates in more than 1400 performances (mainly musicals) of the troupe every year.
The 400-person group, all composed of women, women play male roles, these two points have made this troupe different from other Japanese theater groups, and the Top Star system they implement has a clear idol nature, and the group can even be said to be the origin of the AKB48 detachment system, so the name of the idol ancestor is worthy of the name.
What can reflect the idol nature of this troupe is their unique performance form. The performance is divided into two parts, and there is also a cabaret show after the regular theatrical performance, which is mainly characterized by magnificence and grandeur, led by Top Star, which greatly highlights Top's personal charm.
Even if the audience has cried because of the plot before, they can go home happily under the wash of the song and dance show.
On the one hand, Takarazuka's performances are not only like the cultivation system such as AKB, in addition to singing and dancing, but also give the members charm to the roles; on the other hand, such performances are not too serious, most of them are classic plays, so that the audience can enjoy.
Under this model, Takarazuka exported a large number of high-quality artists to Japan.
Not only the few who are now active as mentioned above, but as early as the 1950s, Takarazuka created a "top idol".
In the 1950s and 1970s, Japanese Chanson Queen Koshiji Fuyuki spent 14 years in Takarazuka, alongside the origins of female idols such as Miku Skylark and Yoshinaga Koyuri; Tsukioka Yumero was Takarazuka's top maid, starring in the movie "New Snow"; and haruko Togo, an actress who worked with Akira Kurosawa many times, was also from the Takarazuka Opera Company. More Chinese familiar with Otowa Nobuko and Yachikusa, one is one of the female protagonists of the classic Japanese drama "Ashin"; the other starred in the movies "Miyamoto Musashi" and "Snow Country", of which 8,000 Kusanagi did not leave Takarazuka until marriage.
Kaoru Yachigusa
Yes, Takarazuka has a rule that you must leave the group after marriage, which is similar to the "forbidden love" of idol groups today during their service.
It sounds like "can't get married" is much more humane than "can't fall in love", but in fact, in Takarazuka's hard, closed training life, students may not have time to fall in love.
02
Takarazuka is not a "cultivation system", but it has a training method of the cultivation system, and it is even more stringent.
To enter the Takarazuka Opera Company, you must first enter the Takarazuka Music School, which is somewhat similar to "trainees". The difference is that takarazuka music school exam elimination rate is extremely high, only about 40 people are selected every year, while takarazuka opera troupe only accepts actors who have graduated from Takarazuka music school. In other words, in order to enter the performance stage, you must go through two years of hard training in the exclusive music school of the troupe.
The 105th graduation ceremony of Takarazuka Music School
The school is militarized, and the curriculum ranges from vocal music, musical instruments, music theory to various dances, ballet, tap, classical, modern, and Latin. After entering this school and graduating, the Takarazuka Opera Troupe is the best of the best, the best of the best.
However, graduation is not the end at all. In Takarazuka, there is a saying that "male service for ten years", many trainees stay in Takarazuka for more than ten years, and most of them who can climb to the top and become Top star male servants have experienced more than ten years of experience.
Students who work hard for the Top position will also attract fans, and when members climb the Top, they are already stars with a huge fan base. In this regard, it also provided a reference for the later idol culture.
The hard training offstage has created a unique love bean on the stage. The starring male servant who shines on the stage has inspired and touched many girls! Even if the training is arduous and it is difficult to reach the top, there are still a large number of girls with dreams who apply for the exam every year. Once, Yu Aoi applied for the Takarazuka Music School because of his infatuation with Takarazuka Top Asami hikaru. In Japan, the Takarazuka Opera Company is known as the "Dream of 900 Million Girls".
Takarazuka entertainers Otome and Yu Aoi
Takarazuka mainly performs musicals, so it not only requires students to sing and dance first-class, but also their acting skills are also their assessment standards.
In 2014, on Takarazuka's centennial anniversary, NHK television filmed a documentary about the rehearsal lives of trainees who were serving as five leading male casts at the time.
As the male servant of the Zeus group, Heosuke wants to star in the male protagonist Oscar in The Rose of Versailles, the classic play of Takarazuka. In order to better portray the Oscar with her own personality, she repeatedly thought about acting, whether it was a rehearsal or a formal performance, she invested a lot of enthusiasm, and each scene could leave sad tears in a sad paragraph.
This is also why many members of the Takarazuka Troupe have become excellent actors after leaving the troupe. Here, there is no such thing as "love beans is no acting skills".
03
Paired with rigorous training is a strict hierarchy. With the starring male servant as the highest peak, the juniors see the seniors, even if they are far apart, they must say hello, and when they see the seniors entering the room, the juniors will take the initiative to open the door for the seniors. The "cleaning system" is passed down from generation to generation – every preparatory student has to thoroughly clean the dance classroom used by his predecessors.
Some students have been in the Takarazuka Opera Company for more than ten years, and still have not become top (in fact, this is also very common), and when they meet members who have become tops at the same time as her, they also have to be respected as seniors.
After all, the location of Top carries too much yearning of the heart.
In 2014, the centennial commemoration, the male servant Lan Shoufu, the main actor of the flower group, announced his retirement from the group and prepared to bid farewell to the performance. It just so happened that another student was about to leave the group at the same time, and the group arranged a double dance for this student and Lan Shoufu.
To be able to perform their last stage with Top is simply a great honor for the students. During the rehearsal, the student was moved to tears and earnestly expressed his gratitude to Lan Shoufu: he graduated at the same time as her and stayed in Takarazuka for all these years without regrets.
Friends told her that this was a "reward" for her efforts (to have the opportunity to dance with Lan Shoufu)
As mentioned above, the students who become top students often already have a large number of fans, and these huge fan groups are deeply influenced by Takarazuka culture, and a set of hierarchical but orderly rice circle rules have been formed.
The first scene of the documentary "100 Years of Fanaticism" is when a large number of fans wait in an orderly manner for the male servant Yu yu Xi Liyin, the star group to "get into waiting" (when they arrive at the theater before the performance starts, fans will seize this opportunity to meet the idol).
Thousands of people waited quietly in the background, and when Yu Xi Liyin appeared, led by one person, "ready" and then shouted the slogan of assistance sentence by sentence. After waiting for two hours, no fans pounced on it excitedly, no camera hit Aidou's face, only chorus chorus in unison. After singing, in order not to delay the preparation of the performance, the fans said to Yu Xiliyin: "Be careful on the road." Yu Xiliyin said softly to everyone, "Then I'll go." In some of the other starring "in and out" scenes, we can also see fans lining up to give gifts to idols.
It is completely different from the fierce fans that we think of when we talk about "idols".
The graduated Zeus group TOP Yamato Yukawa once revealed on a TV show that there are different groups among fans, including a group that specializes in washing clothes and cooking for idols, and even if the idols graduate, they have been cooking and washing clothes for free every day.
The best reward for fans is to be able to attend a birthday party to celebrate their idol's birthday in person. At the birthday celebration, the idol first receives love letters and souvenirs from the fans, followed by several rounds of mutual gifts, and the idols will also prepare to return the gifts to the fans, and then everyone will repeat the love letter recitation session. The whole process is a bit complicated, but the venue is orderly, precisely because there are strict rules among the fans.
In the 21st century, Japanese idol culture is booming, and there are more and more idols that can be supported and chosen by fans, but Takarazuka still has an unshakable position in Japan. This is inseparable from their professionalism and discipline.
More importantly, they are destined for the core of idol culture: "Fanatical fans, not to pursue the ideal love of the starring male servants, but to be fascinated by their attitude to life - to sincerely face the mission they bear, and to transcend." 」 ”
Resources:
1. NHK documentary "The Legend of Takarazuka Starring Male Servants 100 Years of Manhood", 2014
2. Nobuo Morishita. Takarazuka Theater Company's Business Strategy- A Business Experience Spanning 100 Years[M].Fang Yu, trans. Beijing: Houlang Publishing Company | Sichuan People's Publishing House, 2019
3.hikaru.Takarazuka musical talents emerge, and the elegant temperament of students makes girls yearn. Sina.com, 2019
Some of the information is referenced from
Whether it is AKB48, Nogizaka 46, or Creation 101, idol trainees
Here, the ancestor of the phenomenon-level "idol trend" that echoes every echo
Unveil the secret recipe for the operation of the century-old star-making factory for you