The Cinderella Effect ~ Part 3

As predicted, my copy of the Cinderella DVD did arrive on said Saturday. Needless to say, I was elated. I slotted the disc into the player the first chance I got and sat impatiently through the starting credits. Since I was excited to watch the TakaGaki scenes, I skipped the front chapters after gaining enough satisfaction from seeing Risa's name alongside that of Prince Christopher :D

After repeated viewings of Cinderella and her Oji-sama's dance in addition to being enthralled by the body contact between them, the icing on the cake came in the form of the way they were gazing into each other's eyes (Tee hee hee) I was so over the moon after witnessing the subtle interactions between those two, you could say I was floating ridiculously close to my ceiling XD Over that same weekend, I ran through the musical a total of four times. I know that is scarcely enough tribute to be paid to one of my favorite MM pairings. But I truly had no more opportunities to watch it again. Since I own the actual DVD, there is plenty of time throughout the rest of my life to view it again XDDD Here are my thoughts and opinions of the girls (up till 7th gen) after watching.

Takahashi Ai

I had never doubted Ai’s abilities and unsurprisingly, I was satisfied with her presentation of the main role. Leader is a disciplined young woman and judging by Ribon no Kishi, you know Ai-chan would spare no expense so as to deliver the highest level of perfection. Her amazing dancing skills aside, what made me view her in a whole new light is her crying scene during the duet when Cinderella and the Prince held onto each other. How she managed to tear on cue without the help of those little bottles of eye wash solutions would probably remain one of Earth’s greatest mysteries.

Niigaki Risa

Ahhhh my beloved Gaki-san. What can I say except that I was floored by her portrayal of the Prince? Granted, she didn’t make him out to be a cool or imposing figure as most people would expect. But hey, this was indisputably new and refreshing. Prince Gaki was endearing and charming. Akin to the little boy nephew or neighbor who you would whisk home in a heartbeat to showoff and parade in front of all your family and friends. He is the perfect epitome of cute in that red jacket and white pants. With regards to Mame-chan, the only imperfection came in the form of those scarily tall boots.

Kamei Eri

In the beginning, I didn’t feel her hairdo at all. I mean, an orange/pink wig with loops and a weird bun? Nonetheless, it’s hard to not fall in love with Eri. She could pull off adorable even while playing the bratty younger sister. How many actors given the evil character can do that successfully? Her blatant tossing of those cakes / puffs /? added delight to her acting and appealed to the audience. I felt whatever little time she had with the Prince was done exceptionally well. I don’t know if the hand rubbing at the ball was initiative on her part but it was awesome and really upped the comic factor. One final thing about Portia, the peeks you get of her stomach every now and then due to the design of her costume leaves you craving for more *drools*

Michishige Sayumi

As contrary to popular belief, Sayumi did get lines. They weren’t significant ones but at least she got to speak. I’m not sure if I’m right on this but it did seem that the fairies were on stage rather frequently throughout the musical. It could have been due to the fact that they had to flank the godmother in quite a number of scenes. Nevertheless, the bunny did a great job. She was beautiful in a youthful manner whenever she appeared as a townsfolk and relatively believable as the clad in green fairy. I have to give Sayumi extra credit for agreeing to wear that awful shiny green outfit. Oh and she was breathtakingly stunning in the pink gown. Her dance with Koharu? Mesmerizing.

Tanaka Reina

Reina has always struck me as the kind who would fit right into a cosplay function or as a waitress in a maid café. Hence, I didn’t find her image of Joy too hard to swallow. In my opinion, she didn’t exhibit any astonishing acting chops. Her behavior and actions as Joy is very similar to the usual Tanaka Reina of MM which she portrays repeatedly on screen. Although I probably shouldn’t fault her too much for her lackluster performance as it could have been worse if another person was thrust with the elder sister role.

Kusumi Koharu

With her height, Koharu has no problems playing a guy. Previously, I would have had reservations considering how high pitched and squeaky her voice is. However, she has shown both fans and haters alike that she is capable of pressing her voice low. Her role as the herald while not that substantial did make an impression on me. I cracked up every time she had to recite the Prince’s outrageously long name with a straight face and is still dumbfounded by how she manages to not get tongue tied. Koharu can emote to a decent level so I feel she has potential and can achieve great things if trained properly. Her dancing with Sayumi at the ball was perfectly in synch and I find them a very attractive looking pair. I know I mentioned this already but I just had to say it again :D

The Mini Live

As a fan, I love watching MM sing and dance. Therefore, having a mini concert thrown in works for me. On the other hand, if I were someone who went to the musical for the sake of the Takarazuka actresses, the flesh display in sexy red outfits would in all certainty scare me off. Let’s say I was somewhat impressed with the idol group’s performance and was willing to not condemn them to the lowest point in hell after the graduation of every single member I could effectively connect a name and face. Seeing young nubile girls half my age burst onto the stage shaking their hips and flaunting a size zero figure wouldn’t make me a happy camper. No sir, I think I would be extremely annoyed that my respected Takarazuka actresses were placed on the same level as yet another idol group. By catering to wotas, UFA pretty much blew their chances of easing MM or H!P for that matter back into the mainstream fan base. *Sigh* That was from a sensible fan's POV. Now that I can kick off that goody persona, I can announce my utmost delight and affection for the performance. Seeing Ai, Risa, Eri, Sayumi and Koharu looking so hawt in Cinderella Complex, The Peace, Shabodama and Resonant Blue makes my day :P

The Cinderella Effect ~ Part 2

**WARNING! The following post may contain extremely incoherent and illogical ramblings.

I couldn't hold back anymore. After multiple checkings on the status of my parcel and realizing it's nowhere near my country, I turned to YT for aid. My prayers were answered and someone (who deserve a whole truckload of thanks btw) put up a few clips from the musical!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I thought the first thing I would notice is Risa's unbelievably tall boots but noooooooo, what grabbed me earliest was how funny Gaki-san looked as she stared at the glass slipper she put on the ground XDDD I held my breath during the long silence that followed after she told Ai to come try it on. Ai was all ballerina stance when she slipped her foot inside. I totally cracked up when Risa did the "Ah har..." bit and put her head close to the slipper. I snickered again when she tilted her head gradually up to look at Ai.

While standing up, she placed her right hand on Ai's dress / hip (?). I wondered if she was gonna to rip off Ai's outfit. Now that would be an amazing scene :D I have to give Gaki-san props for pulling off the whole boyish / manly feel. I thought her hand movements were very good in portraying this.

Here comes the climax, the long-awaited hugging scene!! Are there more? I have no idea but this one already made me all giddy and high. I LOVED how Risa's fingers kinda pawed (I apologize for the lack of a better descriptive word) Ai's shoulder. The part where they broke apart slowly? I totally died. And the way Ai looked at Risa? I'm being laid to rest in a cemetery. XD

Their scary eye make-up kinda killed the moment for me but oh heck it, the entire part before was too good and made up for everything. I was going "WTH?" at Risa patting Ai's head :D I get the feeling that wasn't in the original script but Gaki-san forgot and did something she usually did to Ai. I'm sure I've seen her pat Ai's head like that somewhere before.



The singing was awesome!! Gosh, I CANNOT beginning to relate how much I love Risa's low singing voice. I've come to refer to that as the 'Prince-ly' singing voice. Watch out for 54 sec - 57 sec. When Risa slid her hand down Ai's arm before holding her hand? Priceless. I don't know if this was the scene Lolli was talking about but man, the resulting effect was too good. I could totally feel what Risa was feeling for Ai. Did I make any sense at all? LOL.

One thing that left me scratching my head was, how could Risa be chubby with all the stress that came along with the staging of this musical? Her face was like a little round ball especially in this clip :P Oooooh I HEART Risa's acting from 1 min 34 sec - 1 min 39 sec. She channeled the dejected, hopless and forlorn look so well! 1 min 57 sec, when they took each other's hand but had to let go after a while? I don't know why but I'm so fond of that scene. Risa joining in when Ai sang = BEAUTIFUL. I'm left speechless.

I wish I could see the rehearsal where they are dressed in their own clothes. Unfortunately UFA decided to make this a 2 disc instead of 3 disc product. ARGH, why didn't Risa kiss Ai's hand for real at the end? She only faked kissed her *pouts*



I couldn't wait to see C/C Cinderella Complex. I really like this song and was bummed that Risa wasn't in the original line-up. Hence this is one perf I was highly anticipating. When the curtains rose and the girls came up from a trap door (are those called trap doors?) the first person I noticed was Sayumi. Though she didn't evoke any reaction from me :P Next I saw Koharu and my thoughts were, "Wow she looks good with pants. That jacket is really nice on her too."

Finally I hit the jackpot! Risa flashed past. And when I say flashed, I mean flashed. It was a blink and you'll miss moment. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her after I determined her position. I was super engrossed in being captivated by how mesmerizing she was. That was until the appearance of Ai and her shocking hairdo XD

HOLY SHIZZLE GAKI-SAN!!!!!!!!!

Risa danced so well I think I started to get goosebumps at this point. Even if a fire was raging outside my door, I wouldn't leave the monitor till I finished watching her.

Eri looked...cute? It wasn't exactly the image I was hoping for since I like hawt Eri. But still she didn't disappoint. Did Sayumi's dancing improve? She sure had some nice moves. When Risa flicked her head at 1 min 24 sec? My head rolled off together with that move onto the floor. Hmmmm apparently Risa's abs aren't as gorgeous as they usually are nevertheless she's still incredibly hawt. Her Halloween eye liner and shadow didn't seem so bad now :P

*Sigh* I wanna see the talk portion at the end. I heard from a very reliable source (stefy) that when saying their Thank Yous, Eri made a mistake and Risa turned to make fun of her. She even snaked her arm almost around Eri's waist! Stefy even went as far to say that and I quote,"Gaki was like so sweet to her (Eri) and left Ai to one side. Gaki's a play girl!" This comment made me wanna see the musical even more. Hurry up and arrive my greatly beloved DVD, I can't survive another day without seeing you! *Boo Hoo Hoo*

The Cinderella Effect ~ Part 1

Why do I not have decent pictures of Risa in her prince get-up? *looks all over storage gadgets* Nope, natto. The hell?!?!? Pardon the language but I was pretty sure I did have at least a couple. If any kind souls could point me in the direction of where to find some (specifically a Lolli I know XD) that would be great. Better yet, zip it all in a folder so I can dl them (Gosh how can someone be this lazy? XD)

Like I wrote in the title, this is part one as I have not yet seen the actual DVD. Part 2 should be up after I view the DVD countless times. The holy package should arrive on Saturday 6th December 2008. Do I have to be this precise? YES! Cuz I'm gonna be waiting beside the post box for Mr Postie to arrive. In this case however, I'm guessing a van will pull up instead since I did choose express shipping.

While the days drag slowly by from now till then, I can only sustain myself by looking at the pictures I do have. These are mostly from the rehearsal. I don't think I've expressed myself here about my thoughts of Risa during rehearsal. If the word to describe Sayumi is hawt, then for Gaki-san it would definitely have to be droolsome.

I mean look at her!!! *gawks openly at Risa photos* That hair, it's so darn cool and boyish. Which is weird as a pony-tail isn't really supposed to be boyish. Anyway, it is for me and it makes her look so hawt and droolsome. I especially like all the TakaGaki interaction that will be present in the musical. As can be seen from the photos, there's gonna be a fair bit of hand holding. Oh dear god, why the lack of an on-stage kiss??? *Wails sorrowfully* If GAM can do it in a PV I'm sure TakaGaki can pull it off too. We are talking about two very professional entertainers here and Ai-chan did kinda proclaim her love for Risa in one of the MC dialogues from the current tour :D Here it is, see it to believe it.

Quoting SxY, who quoted OnDiet (I edited the language a little)

Morning Musume Resonant Live, 29th November 2008 Osaka (Night)

Topic : Niigaki Risa

Aichan talks about the 8 years being together with Gaki-san. The time they spent together is even more than that with their families and they know each other really well. Many things have happened in these 8 years and there were occasions where they quarreled.

Ai: Its embarassing to say this..but.. because there's Gaki-san, that's why I'm here. (Meaning, I can be here because of Risa's existence)

Apparently Risa took a few steps away from Ai after hearing that declaration as she got shy. But the leader called her sub-leader back and continued talking about how much Risa had helped her when she just became leader.

Awwwwwwww I can just imagine that scene on stage. It's surprising neither of the girls teared knowing how much of a cry baby they can be.

That line, the one Ai-chan uttered? It's amazing how it's almost identical to the line I put at the ending of this OPV. And I made it quite some time ago. Written in the stars, much? Okay, I have no idea what I'm typing at this point. I'm basically rambling now :P

I think 'Cinderella the Musical' will keep these 2 at the top of my fav pairings list for a LONG time.

Prince Christopher: What would you like to do after the dance?

Cinderella: How about we head back to your grand and very costly bedroom?

Prince Christopher: Ehhhhhhhhhhh~~! Nani x 3 ?!?!?

Cinderella: You know you want to.

Prince Christopher: USO!! *blushes madly*

Me: XDDDDDD