Utena - Takarazuka

The Takarazuka Revue (Wikipedia) is a musical theater group where all the actors are women. Each actor specializes in either female roles (the actors are musumeyaku) or male roles (otokoyaku). It’s well-known to be a big influence on Utena—I see it mentioned over and over. As I see it, Utena draws on Takarazuka not because Takarazuka is progressive or transgressive, but because it is superficially transgressive. Women play male roles, but it’s all calculated for effect, and behind the scenes the management is rigid and strictly patriarchal. It’s an excellent match for how Utena presents Ohtori Academy.

Performances in recent decades are lavish and utterly dedicated to theatricality. Actors play the female and male roles with stylized stereotypes of female and male speech, poses, gestures, and movement. I see frequent mention of the male mannerisms of the otokoyaku performances, but in watching recordings, that’s not exactly how it comes across to me. The otokoyaku mix in female characteristics depending on the action—they are playing around the edges of their assigned sex roles. They’re teasing the audience with ambiguity in their performances, reminding everyone that they are women underneath. I read it as part of the calculated effect.

Otokoyaku literally means “male role” and comes across as a neutral term. Musume in musumeyaku most literally means “daughter,” though it’s used for girls and young women in general, with the suggestion that they are unmarried and therefore “pure”. The terms were chosen by the Takarazuka organization, and they are part of the patriarchal underpinning and part of the calculated effect. Like I said, it’s superficially transgressive.

Class S. Takarazuka theater has influenced Class S, and probably takes some influence in return.

Boyish and girlish sex roles in Utena are depicted in stylized ways that owe something to Takarazuka.

direct references

White Rose Prince. I like the article A History of Japan’s All-Female Takarazuka Revue (nippon.com). To quote from it:

In the immediate postwar era, the performer Kasugano Yachiyo came to fame playing male characters, establishing the gender-crossing role of the otokoyaku as a key part of the Takarazuka experience. She was dubbed the “White Rose Prince” for her handsome looks.

And there we have the origin of Dios, the Rose Prince, whose color is white. Another site has more on Kasugano Yachiyo (Takawiki).

The Rose of Versailles. The same article mentions that Takarazuka adapted The Rose of Versailles into their musical format in 1974, and it was their greatest hit. Utena borrows a lot from The Rose of Versailles, at least the anime version.

Gubijin. Takarazuka played a show called Gubijin in 1951. It was an earlier hit, and they have reprised it, most recently in 2010. Episode 35 calls back to it. See my discussion of Gu Bijin under flowers - the red poppies.

gender ambiguity

1975 Takarazuka theater program of The Rose of Versailles: Andre and Oscar.
1975

I got this small scan of a 1975 theater program from Takarazuka Forever - 1974-1975. The show was “The Rose of Versailles: Andre and Oscar”. The Japanese text at the top reads “Takarazuka musical • Snow Troupe • Program / August 13 - September 30 / The Rose of Versailles”. At the bottom is the location, Takarazuka Grand Theater. See my discussion of the anime.

Left is Asami Rei playing Andre, a woman playing a man. Right, with a fancier uniform, is Migiwa Natsuko playing Oscar, a woman playing a woman playing a man. Both are otokoyaku specializing in male roles. Oscar is wearing a wig, long hair to depict that she is “actually” a woman. (Photos show that the actor had short hair at the time.) Upper-class Oscar has long, curly orange hair, rather like Juri. Juri and Shiori may take inspiration from Oscar and Andre. (In the manga and anime, Oscar has yellow hair.)

Their makeup is similar. Both actors are made up with red “blushing” cheeks, Oscar with more red because she is a woman. Both have dark eyebrows reaching to their temples, rather like Utena eyebrows (and not like typical shoujo manga eyebrows). Both wear lipstick and have dark outlines around the eyes, Andre above and in the outer corners (common in anime), Oscar almost all around. In Utena the dark outlines are above and below the eye, not all around; even when the eyes are realistically narrow, the corners are not outlined. Andre gets blue shadows around the eyes; Oscar gets darkened eyelids and an extra outline there. The effect is to make Oscar’s eyes look larger, rounder, and more prominent, making her more childlike and stereotypically “feminine”. The unrealistic stylized eye presentation is standard in cartoons east and west; see character designs - eye roundness.

Stage makeup is normally exaggerated. You want the eyes to stand out, and you want expressions to be readable from a distance. But look at Andre—is this how you would make up an actor to appear male? The makeup distinguishes male from female, but it does not take a clear stance. It does not say “see this woman as a man,” but more “see this woman as androgynous.” It exercises stylized gender representations, but not purely so; like the performances, it plays the stereotypical male and female against each other. The false men are to be unthreatening, so they are softened with false femininity. That’s how I see it.

Utena does the same kind of thing, and can be more flexible about it because it is animated. In Utena everyone is part male and part female—even Akio is a princess.

basic male/female body language

There is a lot to it, but I want to show just a couple easy examples of how Utena distinguishes male from female by posture. Movement is part of body language too, but I’m sticking with still pictures. Besides, Utena often has to minimize movement to save animation costs. The crowd catalog is one place to find more examples of these two easy rules about arms and legs. And see the different ways of carrying briefcases.

In the foreground, Juri and Miki discuss Saionji’s expulsion. In the background, a crowd has gathered around the notice announcing it.
Episode 10, Juri and Miki

Juri stands with her legs together, essential for girls and women. Miki sits with his legs however. It doesn’t matter for him. Juri holds her arms in close, proper female resting posture. Utena generally puts resting female arms at the side or in front. It declares passivity and submission. She has even folded her arms; she speaks scornfully, but she may feel threatened by Saionji’s expulsion. Miki rests his arms outward. Keeping the elbows out suggests readiness for action.

But notice: Juri is in front of a male pillar, and Miki is framed by a female arch. Their resting postures and their backgrounds make opposite claims. Juri often takes on male command and combat roles, and Miki is Hermaphroditus.

We see the scene between and through the legs of Nanami’s minions. Nanami points at Mitsuru, “catch him.”
Episode 24, capturing Mitsuru

In this shot, everyone is male. Queen Nanami orders her minions to catch Mitsuru. Giving orders is a male role. Pointing at someone is rude—unless you are a queen, of course. The minions stand with spread legs because they will take fast, violent action. And Mitsuru will try to escape.

Mitsuru is trapped under an arch of legs. But the background offers nuances again. Nanami is also trapped under an arch, a window that stands for a cage.

the Top Star system

The 2004 PhD thesis Gender gymnastics: performers, fans and gender issues in the Takarazuka Revue of contemporary Japan by Leonie Rae Stickland is a good source. It covers more than its title says, though some of its descriptions are out of date 20 years later. I also relied on recent news articles.

The Takarazuka Revue organization is intensely competitive inside. It’s prestigious, and the number of girls applying to their training school each year varies from hundreds to over a thousand. Some take expensive preparatory training to improve their odds. About 40, and not more than 50 are accepted. The training school takes two years, and at the end graduates may join the company. Seniority is central, and each level after the first year is required to supervise the next level down—which can include reprimanding them, ordering them around, and bullying. Descriptions sound to me like hazing. A member deemed promising may be put on track to become a Top Star (otokoyaku) or Top Musumeyaku (a high but lower rank). They are the ones who get the leading roles. Competition for good evaluations at graduation and in later stages promotes overwork and dirty tricks. For all its great success, the organizational culture has toxic aspects. There have been reform attempts, but as I write in July 2024, there is an ongoing scandal of a 25-year old performer allegedly driven to suicide by overwork and power harassment.

Overall, the internal culture comes across to me, from descriptions, as authoritarian and clearly inspired by earlier traditional patriarchal Japanese culture. It is behind the times, actively regressive. The contrast between the public appearance and the reality behind the scenes is much like Akio’s Academy; it is an fitting metaphor for Utena to take in.

Takarazuka performances are beautiful and highly skilled, but toxic aspects of the organizational culture can only hold back achievement. Imagine how much better they could be!

Top Stars and duels. The article A History of Takarazuka Revue Influences in Anime (Anime News Network) draws a straight line from the Takarazuka Top Star system to Utena’s dueling system. They are competitions for power and approval that have patriarchal roots and promote bad behavior.

Aside, the article points out that Utena’s ending reverses a Class S convention. In Class S, a lesbian relationship is a teen phase that the girls grow out of. In Utena, Anthy and Utena grow out of their relationships with Dios and Akio and head toward a lesbian relationship.

Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 28 June 2024
updated 4 November 2024