In search of NI KUWAETE

Yesterday,  I talked about Takarazuka a little, but I didn't really go into it much further than their fans take them very seriously. Well, I should say most fans. I am a fan (even a member of the livejournal community), but I don't think I'll ever be as protective of it as others are. I like it. I've bought a few DVDs, and few GRAPHs, and I own a program for every show I've been too. But I'm not a very good fan. I don't know every actresses name, and I don't pick and choose ones from the graduating class and cheer them on hoping they finally get the vaunted position of Top Star.

Which brings be to the next thing I want to talk about when it comes to Takarazuka. Since it is an all female musical troupe, naturally they are divided into girl and guy parts (musumeyaku and otokoyaku respectively). Once your part is decided there is NO switching. Since the boy parts are more popular, these are the parts that are most sought after, which I think speaks of a very special sort of sexism. Also, if you're chosen to be an otokoyaku, you must dress, act, and speak like a boy for the entire duration of your tenure at Takarazuka.

Do not be fooled into thinking that having an all female troupe is feminist or progressive. It is not in answer to kabuki, the famously all male theatre styling of Japan, but merely a marketing ploy by the owner of the Hankyu Corporation who was trying to get more people to use his trains by making Takarazuka a destination. The entire board is filled with men, and the people who make the decisions are all men. What's worse, females are always portrayed as helpless, whereas the males are always their only hope for whatever they need solving. The first play I saw, I thought "well... it could just be this one play"... the second play I saw, I thought "Well, maybe it could be two in a row." Nope... it was the theme for all of them. Even when they did the famous German musical, Elisabeth, they transformed the strong Elisabeth and her love affair with death, into a frightened woman who threatens suicide and is always crying out for help. Granted, the Takarazuka Elisabeth is a million times stronger than that of other Takarazuka female parts... but still... it irks me.

But that's probably because Elisabeth is my favorite musical of ALL TIME. O_O ALL TIME.

In any case, the goal is to be Top Star, which is reserved for a couple, with the male lead always, always, ALWAYS outshining the female lead. Honestly, I don't remember a single name of a musumeyaku, and that's more than a little sad to me. In any case, when you are the lead couple, you get the lead no matter what, which goes against my very American way of thinking. Sometimes I think the star is great, but there are other times I think that someone else in the cast would have done a far better job. The casting is just so Japanese in its way of thinking, it's a little hard to understand.

Today we are going to talk about Elisabeth because that is what I happen to be watching, and that is which program I happened to be flipping through when I found the grammar point.

I put the German video clip first to give you a comparison. The sexuality of the both of the songs is so present, yet so different in the videos. I'll also say, just for the hell of it, that Death in the German version is far less coercive, and takes part very rarely. He watches, and lets Elisabeth make her own decisions.

I got to see the performance of Elizabeth with the incomparable Sena Jun, and I got the program guide for it. Every guide has a summary of the story, a more detailed account of the scenes, head shots and photoshoots of the cast, and interviews with the people involved. And sometimes, if you're very lucky, they have the summary in English on the last page. The first time I went you could just pick up a piece of paper that told you what was going on. After a few times, I noticed they were no longer there. I wonder if it was their way of trying to sell more programs to have the English there, or if (since they don't all have translations) they just stopped paying a translator. Who knows.

This is an interview with Hiromu Kiriya, who at the time was not yet Top Star and playing Franz Josef. Now she's the lead in Moon Troupe. Goodbye Sena Jun!

• 多くの方がご存知の作品であることに加えて、二度目の挑戦ということでプレッシャーのですが、一つ一つ丁寧に取り組んでいきたいです。
• Ooku no kata ga gozonji no sakuhin de arukoto ni kuwaete, nidome no chousen to iu koto de PURESSHAA no desu ga, hitotsuhitotsu teinei ni torikundeikitaidesu.

I know. I know. It's a lame setence. It's no fun at all, and I obviously only chose it because it meant I could rant about Elisabeth. I get it, that sucks. If I find a more interesting way to use KUWAETE, I will do another post. But for now, this will have to do. I scoured everything, and there was no JLPT II grammar forms! Well, except for KUWAETE.

So, this grammar form is going to be beyond easy, something you will soon realize when I tell you that KUWAETE in dictionary form is KUWARU (加える), and that means "to add".

Yup. You guessed correctly. NI KUWAETE means "in addition to".


Before we get to the translation, I think it's important to talk about what the context is. The gist of the interview is that Hiromu Kiriya had already played a part in Elisabeth (it doesn't say who, but I know it to be Luigi Luchieni, thank you very much TakaWiki), and what sort of character Franz Josef is.

Knowing this ought to make it easier to understand the setence:

• In addition to lots people knowing the play, I have a lot of pressure from the challenge of acting in the same play twice, but little by little I want to tackle it thoroughly (carefully).

Yeah, you know what... even I recognize that this is pretty lame... I will definitely find a better example someday. But for now, dream of little deaths dancing.