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Unrequited Love

By Ben Lupton

Most Westerners find that there is something “not quite right” about ‘Takarazuka’ – the world’s only all-female musical revue. But what about the show’s notoriously obsessive fans?

It’s an all-singing, gender-bending extravaganza, dismissed by Britain’s The Guardian newspaper as “a curiously sexless kitsch drag show”. Its stars are so adored that the devotion can push fans over the edge. Welcome to the world of Takarazuka and the even stranger lives of its legions of obsessive female followers. Established in 1914 by the Hankyu Rail Company, the glitzy, often gaudy stage show has been the anchor in the storm for thousands of Japanese women struggling to cope with the harsh realities of life with their ‘oyaji’ husbands.

Mention the word ‘Takarazuka’ to most Japanese people and you’ll probably see a look of mild bemusement flash across their faces. The spectacle, which features an all-female cast (as opposed to the all-male line up for the more culturally celebrated kabuki), consists of lavish rococo musicals that celebrate the discovery of romance, love and sexuality. The shows are normally set in exotic foreign locations and the stories are often torrid retellings of brief encounters a world away from the conformity of Japan. For the majority of the public though, Takarazuka’s bizarre connotations stem not from the production but from the antics of its fanatical devotees.

Misato Akakuma has been a follower of the revue since the age of eight, when her mother first took her to the Grand Theater in Hibiya. “At the time I didn’t believe they were all women,” she reminisces. She says she still manages to find the time to watch Takarazuka – the name comes from the small town near Osaka where the show was first staged – up to six or seven times a month despite the pressures of a full-time sales career. Married for 12 years, the 40-something executive is also a member of an unofficial ‘Junsena’ fan club, a 5,000-strong group of women who follow and support the 33-year-old “top star” whenever she performs in Tokyo or Osaka.

The Takarazuka fan clubs (there are said to be over 70,000 ‘official’ fan club members but most belong to the 300 or so unofficial groups) are the lifeblood of the revue stars, who receive only a fraction of the fees that other actresses can command in more accepted mediums. “It’s a half-professional, half-amateur career. The actresses get very low pay so they normally come from well-off families,” says Akakuma-san.

An actress must rely on her fan club to enable her to enjoy the pleasures to which she has become accustomed, thanks to her fame. “The president of a club has to be very rich. The stars always need money – for example, they need to pay for a car and a driver. They always travel in BMWs or Benzes,” she says. It’s also an imperative that their idols are dressed in the likes of Gucci or Chanel. “Whenever they leave the theater they’re never seen in the same clothes twice. The president pays for all of these luxuries,” she adds.

As with the great majority of ‘otaku’ (obsessive) groups in Japan, the clubs are incredibly well organized and permanently vying with each other for a piece of their heroine’s time and attention. Club members must help with the military-style planning involved to ensure that their idol is doted on, wanting for nothing, during her next visit to the capital. Itineraries are drawn up, schedules fixed and most importantly, funds are raised.

These funds are raised by issuing costumes to the fans. A costume can cost up to ¥8000 and is designed with the current troupe performance in mind. The actresses are divided up into five groups – Flower, Moon, Snow, Star and Cosmos. So if the ‘Snow’ troupe is performing a two-month stint in Tokyo, a large contingent of the hardcore will arrive at the shows dressed in white uniforms.

There is an unusually sparse crowd tarrying at the front of the Grand Theater. “Where is everybody today? It must be because it’s absolutely freezing,” mutters a squat old lady underneath her breath. She’s carrying a backpack that is blanketed with ubiquitous print club photographs. A closer look reveals that her bag has been transformed into a portable shrine – a ‘mikoshi’ in honor of an attractive but androgynous-looking woman, vaguely asexual in nature.

The pensioner surveys a party of middle-aged women with envious eyes. They’re dressed from head to toe in white crushed velvet. The crowd is babbling with anticipation. A human corridor is formed, three bodies deep and about ten meters in length. The front row politely kneels on the floor to give those behind them a glimpse of the action. The same woman seen plastered all over the backpack steps out of a black BMW and strides confidently towards the building. She smiles shyly as she makes her way down the human red carpet, happily accepting letters, lunchboxes and wrapped gifts. Pop diva arrogance is frowned upon here and film star tantrums are unheard of. The relationship between stars and fans is one of mutual dependence.

“A fan’s job is to make sure the top actresses are treated extremely well. Everyday, the fans have to turn up to the theater to make sure the stars arrive and leave safely. This is an obligation,” says Akakuma-san. Clubs assign “guardos” to form a human barricade with the purpose of protecting the performers from the overzealous. A “guardo” is a much-coveted role and is handed out only to the most devoted. “Before you become a guard, you have to have bought a lot of costumes,” she laughs.

Three hours later the audience piles out of the theater and quickly heads for the nearest subway station to escape the bitter winter wind. Shoko and Yuka, both in their late twenties, enjoyed today’s show but strenuously insist that they’re extremely casual fans. “The otaku are sometimes too enthusiastic,” says Shoko. “They’re similar to Bae Yong Jun nuts. Both are obsessed with finding pure, orthodox love,” she adds.

Why are these ladies, ranging from awkward teenagers to affluent old women, the focus of so much derision? “Women who have boyfriends are not interested in Takarazuka,” says Akakuma-san. “There’s a common joke that most fans are not beautiful and that they’re often very fat and they can’t cope with reality. They’re always dreaming.”

Most people agree that there are two types of devotees: housewives who’ve experienced the harsh realities of living with men, and the ‘motennai’ (unpopular) women—those who’ve been overlooked by the notoriously Lolita-obsessed Japanese male. Both come to Takarazuka for a snatch of a dream: a two-hour fantasy tryst with their beau ideal.

The problem arises when the curtain drops and the audience is dumped unceremoniously back into the real world. “Most housewives find it easy to switch back to reality. For the others, Takarazuka is reality,” sighs Akakuma-san. “It’s fake love. The motennai fans get it into their heads that their favorite star is their boyfriend. And when this affection is unrequited, mentally, it can really mess them up.”

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Unrequited Love

Most Westerners find that there is something “not quite right” about ‘Takarazuka’ – the world’s only all-female musical revue. But what about the show’s notoriously obsessive fans?

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