ベルばら展覧会- La Rose de Versailles 40th anniversary

Hello dear readers!

Today's post continues the 18th century theme. I know for sure that some of my readers are Riyoko Ikeda fans, so I think you'll enjoy what follows!

Versailles no Bara (Berubara for short) is one of the best loved comics in Japan, and I love it too! Who wants to see my Oscar cosplay from five years ago?

My make-up was not at all great, but perhaps my hair was all right? It's my real (bleached) hair, by the way!

Over the years, the story has been adapted into an anime and into several Takarazuka musicals, and the manga has been translated into many different languages such as Indonesian, Italian, Thai, French, Korean and Chinese. No English though, I'm afraid!

This year, the series celebrated it's 40th anniversary. As part of the anniversary celebrations an exhibition was held at Matsuya department store in Ginza.

Photos were not permitted inside the exhibition, so I'll have to describe it to you. Firstly, it was terribly crowded! The vast majority of visitors were women, but they all varied greatly in age. I imagine that some of them might have read the manga when it was first published in the 1970s, and even now remember it with great fondness. Berubara means a lot to many different people!

The exhibition featured the original manga drawings, with the dialogue pasted on and mistakes tippex-ed out. It was quite amazing to see! I suppose these days comic layouts are done in Illustrator or something, but it was lovely to see how carefully each page was set out and inked by hand. And so many hundreds, even thousands of pages, each one so beautiful!

I should never have complained about doing portfolio layouts at Uni....

Of course, most of the pages were in black and white, but there were also some gorgeous coloured pages on display. It was nice to be able to appreciate them in an exhibition setting, since I think when it comes to artworks one cannot get the full effect from seeing them printed in a book and of course, with comics, often that is the only way one will ever see them!

There were also costumes, replica (and some real I think) sets, posters, props, and also set and costume designs from Takarazuka productions. 

These costumes were placed outside the exhibiton hall for visitors to take photos of.

Everything was so sparkly and gorgeous! If you have been lucky enough to attend the Takarazuka revue, you'll know how sparkly the actresses look even when you sit in the back row. So just imagine how they look up close!

I was really excited to see a Berubara shan-shan and also Oscar's violin! It was also interesting to see posters dating from the first productions of the 1970s up to the recent ones in the 2000s, noting the evolution of the actress's hair and make-up styles. On a more practical note, my companion that day could not get over the increase in ticket prices!

Again, outside the exhibition hall. My jumperskirt is Jane Marple and my blouse is vintage.

The next part of the exhibition was cels from the anime series.  Watching the anime was my first experience of Berubara, and in fact it was one of the things that made me fall in love with Japanese culture. I think at that time I didn't know much about anime aside from Pokemon and Yugioh, so discovering this beautiful historical story with such a strong and fascinating heroine made a deep impression on me. The other wonderful thing about The Rose of Versailles is how it brings history to life so vividly. Riyoko Ikeda did a great deal of research on her subject, and though of course it is partly fictional you can still learn a lot about the Revolution through reading or watching Berubara.  More than that, you will appreciate historical figures as real people, and because of that the whole thing becomes more interesting.  

The following room had illustrations from the Berubara Kids series, and also editions of the manga from around the world. I wonder how French people feel reading this manga? I think they must approve, since Riyoko Ikeda was awarded a special order by the French government, which was on display in the final room. This room also contained 20 different artist's impressions of Oscar. These were pretty interesting! Some of them stuck closely to the Ikeda's original, others interpreted her in their own style but still kept her recognisable, some were crazily absract and some appeared to be of an entirely different character. I did like Chiho Saito's version, that was either Oscar as Utena or Utena as Oscar, open to interpretation I suppose!

Finally there were some lovely drawings that were used as covers for Margaret (the magazine that Berubara first appeared in). Then it was the gift shop!

On the left is my ticket and poster. Next to the ticket is a bookmark, it's a really lovely leather one. At the top is the famous Oscar eyeliner (I've used this one since my second trip to Japan in 2008, shame I didn't have it when I cosplayed Oscar!). On the right is a clear file with one of my favourite pictures of Oscar and Antoinette. There were a million things I would have liked to buy, but these are all useful things that I can enjoy every day.

I hope you enjoyed the post! I wish I could have brought everyone to see this lovely exhibition.

Tokyo Metropolis

Hello dear readers, hello from Tokyo!

Today I'll tell you about the Versailles special anniversary live, Tokyo Metropolis.

Remember my 'rock kei' outfit from a little while ago? I went for the same sort of look with a more elegant atmosphere. I used the same hairstyle. I wore my bisque doll onepiece from Juliette, though in this photo the print is sadly washed out. 

~Rundown~

Onpiece: Juliette et Justine

Tights: Vivienne Westwood

Others: Offbrand/Handmade

The live was in Liquid Room in Ebisu. I got a bit lost and couldn't find who I was supposed to meet, so I just followed some people who looked like they were going to a concert and sure enough I got there, and, thank goodness,  met my friend too. 

D were the first to play, wearing their Dying Message costumes. My friend later observed "Wow, you really changed when you saw your drummer...." Haha, yes I'll confess I'm a big fan of D and particularly HIROKI.  I feel like he's a very reassuring sort of person, so with his presence and knowing their songs and furi quite well, I suppose the result was a complete evaporation of my natural shyness. I hope I didn't look too mad, but anyway I had an amazing time! 

Moi dix Mois were next. There was an almighty audience reshuffle of fans getting into their desired places (ie in front of Mana). I was very excited but a bit apprehensive too. I've spent so many years admiring Mana, what would he really be like? Well, the answer is he's beautiful and just as I thought he would be, but with the added bonus of a guitar with a light-up cross that flashed blue and red. He looked into the audience most of the time, giving us lots of opportunity to admire his lovely face! I really do want to see Moi dix Mois many, many times more and get to know them better. So, I'm very very very glad to have a ticket for Deep Sanctuary III in September!

Me and the lovely Angelica! She's a long-time fan of Mana. 

Her straw hat is soooo cute!

Versailles were last, and it was obvious that the majority of the audience were there for them. I loved Kamijo and LAREINE for a long time, so I always want to be more of a Versailles fan, but few of their songs really capture me. Even so, I enjoyed their set. It was a huge contrast to their live in London last year when they were obviously rather tired; tonight I think they were at their best. Kamijo was wonderfully flamboyant and Teru and Hizaki were really cute! Something about Teru's face makes me want to laugh.... it's a good thing though! 

During the MC, the bands all expressed their friendship and admiration for each other, and Kamijo talked about his time as a Malice Mizer roadie. Sadly I could only understand bits and pieces, but it seemed very heartfelt and I feel so glad to have been there on such a special occasion. It would have been nice if all three bands had been on stage together at the end, and I did expect it, but it didn't happen. Perhaps it would have been a bit of a squish with all those hairstyles and costumes.

I'm also really happy to have found some new friends! Everyone I've met has been so kind and friendly. Tomorrow I'm going to a lolita meet up, so I'm sure I'll find even more good friends there!

Thanks for reading,

Sapphira

xxxx

Versailles!

Hello! 

I'm taking an interval from posting about Singapore to write about the Versailles live last week.

My camera is out of action at the moment, so unfortunately I couldn't get a coord snap. I wore my Metamorphose Antique Bouquet onepiece with an Innocent World necklace.

I really enjoyed the live! Hello to the lovely girl I met there, was it Sarah? My ears were ringing a bit still, so I'm not sure if I heard your name correctly. Please excuse my deafness, I was glad to meet you! I'm sad to have missed Emilie and Cordelia though :( I was looking out for you two!

Well well, so now I've seen Kamijo. And I've been smiling a lot since then! 

I thouroughly enjoyed myself. Although the band seemed a little tired, and could perhaps have been a bit  livelier, their appearance and performance was certainly gorgeous. Versailles' "twirls" were one of the highlights for me. Everyone's costume was engineered for maximum twirlability, whether it was a cape, a big skirt, long coat tails, or, in the case of Teru, a fabulous net curtain(!)

 Kamijo's movements were so.... Kamijo-y! Flamboyant and graceful, perfect. So much that it's bit hard to believe he's flesh and blood! Hizaki also conducted himself very elegantly and daintily, even when leaping bodily into the crowd- that part scared me a bit! He looks so softly pretty in real life, more convincingly feminine than I expected.

Yuki looked very handsome and his drumming was cool, but both he and Masashi seemed to me a bit subdued. However, Teru was certainly entertaining in his glittering lace cape; he probably had the most energy, and his very very wide smile was infectious. My friend and I admired his gilt-trimmed pumpkin pants- they had just the right amount of pouf! 

Sadly both my friends and I couldn't go to the meet and greet afterwards, we wouldn't have been able to get home otherwise. I do wish they had started earlier, they didn't play for that long and it would have been so nice to meet them! Did any readers get to go to the meet and greet? Please tell me your experiences!

Meeting Lolitas in Singapore

I miss these girls!

Before I went on holiday I made arrangements to meet up with a group of Singaporean Lolitas. I managed to meet up with most people twice, but I wish it could have been more! 

For the first meet-up we went to a very nice restaurant called TWG, which has the most amazing selection of teas (as well as the menu, there is a seperate tea book), plus delicious sweets! I had the "Dancing Tea", which is supposed to remind you of Victorian tea dances. The restaurant itself is a very pleasant setting for drinking tea (I stole this picture from the beautiful and elegant Karmen, hope she doesn't mind!).

The TWG we went to was the one in ION, a huge, shiny shopping mall in Orchard Road which also contains a Daiso! Well, there are also many more interesting shops, but I do love Daiso. I got these cute and useful laces and some eyelashes. We continued shopping at Far East Plaza, and then went to Bugis Street where I was tempted by some pretty vintage dresses. I think the shop staff there were quite impressed with our group! There was another shop selling cute jewellery, and I think it was three of us who ended up buying exactly the same pair of earrings. Earring triplets! We took purikura together too, as you can see. The eye-enlargening effect was quite amusing in some pictures!

I loved the tea and the shopping, but I enjoyed the company most of all. Although I'm a bit shy, the Singapore girls were so friendly and kind and welcoming that I really had a great time with them. I'm glad I made an effort to contact them, and I'm grateful that they came to meet me! I feel very lucky indeed to have got to know so many nice people from all over the world through this fashion. 

By the way, I'm going to see Versailles play in London on Sunday! Kamijo was my idol when I was in sixth form; I would spend my free periods in the library looking at LAREINE pictures, and even used to write his name on my school books. Looking back, I think a sixth-former perhaps should have been more mature, but oh well, I loved him!

I even half-destroyed my hair with bleach in sympathy with him! Him and Oscar de Jarjayes....

 Seeing D was my first live, and I loved it. Maybe I prefer D's music to Versailles', but still, I'm very excited. I'll be in the same room as Kamijo! What's more, I'm looking forward to seeing my lovely friends again. Are any of my readers going? Hope to see you there too!