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nightless_castle
Summary: A fairytale castle from long ago, far away mysteriously rises in the heart of modern day Manhattan. This kingdom which hailed from across the starry skies has come to the shining city of New York for a holiday, in honor of the King and Queen’s (Kuze Seika and Kazahana Mai) anniversary. The people of the castle hold endless celebrations, and are soon joined by the residents of the city of New York themselves. What will happen when a castle that never sleeps and a city that never sleeps come together for one night?
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I’ve subbed a behind the scenes clip of the making of Nightless Castle in Manhattan that you can watch here. It's really cool and insightful, and you get a glimpse of what a gentle soul Kuze Seika is and her own views on being a top star. 
As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, Nightless Castle in Manhattan is the after show/revue of CAN-CAN (which I've also subbed before), so this was Kuze Seika and Kazahana Mai’s top star debut revue. As I’ve also mentioned on my blog before, I did say I wanted to release these subs only if I had an HD copy of this show, but alas I don’t think that day is coming anytime soon, so I’m going to release it anyway with the highest quality of the show I could find. Also, from now on I’m going to include two subtitle tracks for revues, one that has the Takarasienne’s names and their roles on screen and one that doesn’t, so feel free to choose between the two.
So before I talk about anything else, here's some context regarding the name of this show. The title of it in Japanese is 'Manhattan Fuyajou' (マンハッタン不夜城). ‘Fuyajou’ (不夜城) is a word that means a place or establishment that is always active at night, the English equivalent being “a place that never sleeps”. So normally you would translate the title as “Sleepless Manhattan”. Literally however, the word ‘fuyajou’ (不夜城) is made up of characters that mean “no night castle” or “nightless castle”. This wordplay(?) is basically the idea that Kusano Akira built the story of the revue around, a literal castle that never sleeps in a city that never sleeps. “Nightless Castle in Manhattan” is the official English title of the show so that is what I use, but since ‘fuyajou’ essentially has two meanings in this show, you will see that I sometimes translate it as “nightless castle” or “(something) that never sleeps” depending. It’s a very pretty and poetic concept.
Another theme tied to this show is the Japanese holiday “Golden Week”, which is when the show was performed in theaters. Golden week is a week from 29 April to early May containing multiple Japanese holidays. It’s also known as 'Ōgata Renkyū' (大型連休, Long holiday series). In the show, the kingdom celebrates a “golden holiday” in honor of the King and Queen’s wedding anniversary. I really love the costumes in this show and I especially love how King Luna and Queen Estrella’s iconic costumes are a dazzling gold from head to toe to symbolize Golden Week. Speaking of costumes, you will probably recognize a lot of the costumes from other Takarazuka shows. It's quite common for Takarazuka to recycle and reuse past costumes. A notable example is this costume of King Luna’s, which is the same main costume as King Odin from Legend of the Midnight Sun (another top star debut show which featured many gorgeous costumes). Although they didn’t end up using this in the actual show, it was still featured in the promotional photos, and you can see Kuze wearing it in the rehearsal video.
King Luna (left) and Odin from “Legend of The Midnight Sun” (right)
Prince Planet also wears at least two of Odin’s costumes. At this point I’m going to start making a headcanon universe in my head where King Luna and King Odin are relatives.
It’s common for a lot of money to go into a top star’s debut show to make it as grand as possible and that's definitely the case for this show. It’s mentioned in the behind the scenes clip, but one of their biggest expenses on this show was the use of flying wire, a historical first for the theater. They had Robert Foy, who famously designed the flying wire for Broadway's Peter Pan, working on the production. I think having Prince Planet fly across the stage really makes the magic of this show.
Excerpt from Robert Longbottom from the CAN-CAN/Nightless Castle program
They also had renowned Broadway choreographer Robert Longbottom as the show’s choreographer. This show was inspired by the director Kusano Akira’s own experience in Broadway so it was probably important to him to have actual people who worked on Broadway help make this show. And the choreography is indeed quite stellar! Watching him and Tom Kosis instruct the Takarazuka girls with an interpreter in the BTS clip sure was something. I always found it interesting how Tom Kosis was encouraging the “women” aka the musumeyaku to move “sharper and stronger”. I guess musumeyaku training really does make them naturally try to move in more softer ways.
The line dance they choreographed which was performed by the debuting 82nd class in this show is one of my favorites. I mean they’ve got SWORDS for crying out loud.
Speaking of swords, I do like how so many musumeyaku take up swords in this show (a rare sight in Takarazuka). In fact, I recently just realized that all the knights of Rainbow Castle are female knights! It’s very easy to miss unless you pay attention to what’s going on in the background, but in one particular scene where the castle is being attacked by the villain, the men take out swords as if they’re about to fight him off but then they quickly scurry behind the women in fear and pass the swords onto them instead LMAO. King Luna does the exact same thing and hides behind queen Estrella who takes up a rifle (no joke) and knocks the villain tf out…. The characters in this show are so whacky and charming.
Kuze Seika plays the regal and kind-hearted King Luna and I really couldn’t ask for anything more for her top star debut. Having played the second man to Amami Yuuki and Suzukaze Mayo for quite a while, you've probably seen her in many villain roles, the stoic evil man being what people usually associate Kuze Seika with. And indeed she’s very good at those roles but I find that my favorite Kuze roles are when she’s playing someone relentlessly kind. I guess that's why I love George from Hard-boiled Egg so much, he’s a bit of both. I suppose it’s because Kuze is a very gentle and soft spoken person off stage that when she plays characters who are like her that it really stands out to me, it’s a very natural look on her. And though King Luna is a very kind and loving character, he (Kuze) still gets to show off a lot of different colors in this show. There’s a part where King Luna gets to be intimidating. There’s a part where the King plays a rather dark character. There’s a part where he gets to be a little silly and acts frightened (and hides behind his #slay #girlboss wife who protects him).
But of course my absolute favorite scene in this show is Scene 8: The King’s Love, which tells the story of how King Luna and Queen Estrella met, and Kuze exudes such a gentle and kind aura in this scene IT HURTS.
There's a lyric in the finale song I really like which I think encapsulates King Luna's loving character and the entire show very well:
The prospect of the entire show happening because King Luna did it all for Queen Estrella really gets me. Get yourself a man who invented Golden Week for you!!! Get yourself a man who would move the entire kingdom to a city of dreams for your wedding anniversary!!
By the way, I am once again reminding everyone that they performed this show right after CAN-CAN. Remember, the show where they kick their legs a hundred times and Kazahana Mai carries the entire show by dancing like crazy? Well Kazahana Mai continues to dance like crazy in this revue by doing a “possessed by the red shoes” number. My goodness, what a woman.
Shizuki Asato also has significantly more stage time than she did as Borris in CAN-CAN, even more so than Makoto Tsubasa (who played Jussac) does. She was wonderful as always, and she got to play a lot of silly roles in this show while still being able to show off her amazing powerful voice. My favorite is Deimos, a funny old man who serves the kingdom’s ministry.
I’m really fascinated by the characters in this show and how they really feel like they’re from another planet, be it the mysterious vagabonds in Manhattan who are acquainted with Kings, or the ministers of Rainbow Castle whose entire life purpose is to hold “round table conferences”. I also really like how Deimos magically becomes young again when he’s talking about love and romance. It’s these magical little details that I really love.
And of course we must talk about the wonderful Shiokaze Kou (Prince Planet), who spent the most time on the flying wire. She really is such a princely person, she was just perfect in this show. I also love Prince Planet’s attendants, Europa (Kuni Natsuki) and the clown Io (a very young future top star Yamato Yuuga) who follow him around. Prince Planet is also usually alongside Princess Rainbow (Sen Hosachi, future top star of Flower Troupe) and I’ve always been fascinated by her character’s existence. At first I assumed she was King Luna and Queen Estrella’s daughter, but she refers to Prince Planet as “My Prince” instead of “Brother” in a scene where she’s asking him how Luna and Estrella met, a story you’d think she’d already know. I wonder who she really is. Again, it’s another thing I love about this show. The amount of wonder in it.
Makoto Tsubasa plays a New Yorker, a great comical antagonist who calls himself the “Castle Jacker”. He’s a gangster who’s sick and tired of the soulless city and wants to seize the castle of dreams for himself. 
On the theme of contrast between the Eastern and the Western, I really like how they built a show set in Manhattan around a concept that is very specifically Japanese (Golden Week). And that isn’t the only specifically Japanese thing in this show. There is a part where King Luna and Queen Estrella put on a play, an opera elegie, and they do so on a Japanese theater stage. Suddenly the instruments being used are distinctly Japanese and Prince Planet is speaking in archaic Japanese and doing kabuki poses. The people of Rainbow Castle are bowing and chanting, all while wearing Western inspired fantasy clothes.
In the finale, we have a sudden change of atmosphere yet again with the carnival scene. We even get a Latin inspired dance and tango-esque arrangement of the main theme song which slaps. The fact that the Rainbow Castle isn’t only Western/European inspired makes a lot of sense to me, as it’s implied that Manhattan isn’t the only place on Earth they’ve stopped on and so their kingdom probably absorbed influences from cultures all over the world. I also quite like the parade part where the people of the kingdom are just marching across the stage, scrolling by like an endless medieval parade (which then goes into the classic Takarazuka parade with the stairs!). It really does feel like a celebration. Which it is (it’s Kuze and Kazahana’s top star debut). I just think it’s fantastic.
Anyway… I think that’s enough of my ramblings. I know I talked about all these characters as if they were fully fleshed characters, but this is a revue. They mostly sing songs and barely have any speaking lines, the characterization is very subtle. They only feel that way to me because I’ve watched this revue hundreds of times and it’s a very personal show to me that I like to (over)analyze. The actual show itself is a lot more vague and whimsical in its storytelling so there are a lot of new things you realize about the show upon rewatch. I have my own interpretation of the story but each person may see it differently, which I think is the beauty of it really.
If you’ve managed to get this far through all my rambling, thank you very much for reading! I really do love this show and I hope you enjoy watching it!
Prince Planet also wears at least two of Odin’s costumes. At this point I’m going to start making a headcanon universe in my head where King Luna and King Odin are relatives.
Odin from “Legend of The Midnight Sun” (left) and Prince Planet (right)
It’s common for a lot of money to go into a top star’s debut show to make it as grand as possible and that's definitely the case for this show. It’s mentioned in the behind the scenes clip, but one of their biggest expenses on this show was the use of flying wire, a historical first for the theater. They had Robert Foy, who famously designed the flying wire for Broadway's Peter Pan, working on the production. I think having Prince Planet fly across the stage really makes the magic of this show.
Excerpt from Robert Longbottom from the CAN-CAN/Nightless Castle program
They also had renowned Broadway choreographer Robert Longbottom as the show’s choreographer. This show was inspired by the director Kusano Akira’s own experience in Broadway so it was probably important to him to have actual people who worked on Broadway help make this show. And the choreography is indeed quite stellar! Watching him and Tom Kosis instruct the Takarazuka girls with an interpreter in the BTS clip sure was something. I always found it interesting how Tom Kosis was encouraging the “women” aka the musumeyaku to move “sharper and stronger”. I guess musumeyaku training really does make them naturally try to move in more softer ways.
The line dance they choreographed which was performed by the debuting 82nd class in this show is one of my favorites. I mean they’ve got SWORDS for crying out loud.
Speaking of swords, I do like how so many musumeyaku take up swords in this show (a rare sight in Takarazuka). In fact, I recently just realized that all the knights of Rainbow Castle are female knights! It’s very easy to miss unless you pay attention to what’s going on in the background, but in one particular scene where the castle is being attacked by the villain, the men take out swords as if they’re about to fight him off but then they quickly scurry behind the women in fear and pass the swords onto them instead LMAO. King Luna does the exact same thing and hides behind queen Estrella who takes up a rifle (no joke) and knocks the villain tf out…. The characters in this show are so whacky and charming.
Kuze Seika plays the regal and kind-hearted King Luna and I really couldn’t ask for anything more for her top star debut. Having played the second man to Amami Yuuki and Suzukaze Mayo for quite a while, you've probably seen her in many villain roles, the stoic evil man being what people usually associate Kuze Seika with. And indeed she’s very good at those roles but I find that my favorite Kuze roles are when she’s playing someone relentlessly kind. I guess that's why I love George from Hard-boiled Egg so much, he’s a bit of both. I suppose it’s because Kuze is a very gentle and soft spoken person off stage that when she plays characters who are like her that it really stands out to me, it’s a very natural look on her. And though King Luna is a very kind and loving character, he (Kuze) still gets to show off a lot of different colors in this show. There’s a part where King Luna gets to be intimidating. There’s a part where the King plays a rather dark character. There’s a part where he gets to be a little silly and acts frightened (and hides behind his #slay #girlboss wife who protects him).
But of course my absolute favorite scene in this show is Scene 8: The King’s Love, which tells the story of how King Luna and Queen Estrella met, and Kuze exudes such a gentle and kind aura in this scene IT HURTS.
There's a lyric in the finale song I really like which I think encapsulates King Luna's loving character and the entire show very well:
"When the King loves, Spring is a holiday, Summer is a holiday, Winter is a holiday"
The prospect of the entire show happening because King Luna did it all for Queen Estrella really gets me. Get yourself a man who invented Golden Week for you!!! Get yourself a man who would move the entire kingdom to a city of dreams for your wedding anniversary!!
By the way, I am once again reminding everyone that they performed this show right after CAN-CAN. Remember, the show where they kick their legs a hundred times and Kazahana Mai carries the entire show by dancing like crazy? Well Kazahana Mai continues to dance like crazy in this revue by doing a “possessed by the red shoes” number. My goodness, what a woman.
Kazahana Mai doesn’t do a lot of singing at all in this revue, which is compensated for by her dancing. Though considering what she did after CAN-CAN I’m glad most of the first half of this show is just her standing around prettily and resting. During the finale however, Kazahana does sing, and it takes you by pleasant surprise. It’s like they were saving it for the end, and what a good choice that was. She and Kuze have such lovely voices. Now that I think about it, it does almost seem to me like CAN-CAN was made to spotlight Kazahana Mai’s top star debut while Nightless Castle in Manhattan was made to spotlight Kuze Seika.
Shizuki Asato also has significantly more stage time than she did as Borris in CAN-CAN, even more so than Makoto Tsubasa (who played Jussac) does. She was wonderful as always, and she got to play a lot of silly roles in this show while still being able to show off her amazing powerful voice. My favorite is Deimos, a funny old man who serves the kingdom’s ministry.
I’m really fascinated by the characters in this show and how they really feel like they’re from another planet, be it the mysterious vagabonds in Manhattan who are acquainted with Kings, or the ministers of Rainbow Castle whose entire life purpose is to hold “round table conferences”. I also really like how Deimos magically becomes young again when he’s talking about love and romance. It’s these magical little details that I really love.
And of course we must talk about the wonderful Shiokaze Kou (Prince Planet), who spent the most time on the flying wire. She really is such a princely person, she was just perfect in this show. I also love Prince Planet’s attendants, Europa (Kuni Natsuki) and the clown Io (a very young future top star Yamato Yuuga) who follow him around. Prince Planet is also usually alongside Princess Rainbow (Sen Hosachi, future top star of Flower Troupe) and I’ve always been fascinated by her character’s existence. At first I assumed she was King Luna and Queen Estrella’s daughter, but she refers to Prince Planet as “My Prince” instead of “Brother” in a scene where she’s asking him how Luna and Estrella met, a story you’d think she’d already know. I wonder who she really is. Again, it’s another thing I love about this show. The amount of wonder in it.
Makoto Tsubasa plays a New Yorker, a great comical antagonist who calls himself the “Castle Jacker”. He’s a gangster who’s sick and tired of the soulless city and wants to seize the castle of dreams for himself.
Another thing I love about this show is the theme of contrast. The contrast between reality and fantasy. The castle and the city. The Eastern and the Western.
When the castle first descends upon Manhattan, King Luna sings a lyric that goes
“This city is overflowing with lights, just like the city in our dreams”.
The fact that the people of Rainbow Castle compare the shining city lights to stars in the sky… it's so much to think about. Though King Luna views the foreign Manhattan as a fairytale city of wonder and dreams, the Castle Jacker contrasts this as a man whose dreams have been shattered by the relentlessly cold city of New York. His idea of a place of dreams is King Luna’s castle. Quite an interesting thing especially when you remember the fact that Kusano Akira has been to Broadway to study theater. He's mentioned in an interview that he’s always looked up to New York like it was a faraway land of dreams but was also met with hardships when he finally reached it. Nightless Castle in Manhattan was his personal attempt at conveying the idea of a “land of dreams” at its purest. And as we know, a "land of dreams" is Takarazuka's whole thing. I just feel like there's something more personal, more nuanced in this show's take on it. To add to this, Kuze Seika has said in the BTS interview that one of the reasons she decided to join Takarazuka was because she watched one of Kusano Akira’s shows “Classical Menu” and was so fascinated by this world that she decided to join the theater. So for Kusano Akira to be the one creating her “land of dreams” is really something.
One more thing on the contrast between reality and fantasy, or between what’s “real” and what’s “fake”, the New Yorkers' names being misspelled like Rockenfellow (ロッケンフェロー) instead of Rockenfeller and Lincane (リンケーン) instead of Lincoln aren’t mistakes. I think that was deliberate. The people of Manhattan all have “made up” names that don’t sound quite right while everyone from the kingdom have actual proper names from mythology/names from a real language like “Io” and “Deimos”.
One more thing on the contrast between reality and fantasy, or between what’s “real” and what’s “fake”, the New Yorkers' names being misspelled like Rockenfellow (ロッケンフェロー) instead of Rockenfeller and Lincane (リンケーン) instead of Lincoln aren’t mistakes. I think that was deliberate. The people of Manhattan all have “made up” names that don’t sound quite right while everyone from the kingdom have actual proper names from mythology/names from a real language like “Io” and “Deimos”.
On the theme of contrast between the Eastern and the Western, I really like how they built a show set in Manhattan around a concept that is very specifically Japanese (Golden Week). And that isn’t the only specifically Japanese thing in this show. There is a part where King Luna and Queen Estrella put on a play, an opera elegie, and they do so on a Japanese theater stage. Suddenly the instruments being used are distinctly Japanese and Prince Planet is speaking in archaic Japanese and doing kabuki poses. The people of Rainbow Castle are bowing and chanting, all while wearing Western inspired fantasy clothes.
In the finale, we have a sudden change of atmosphere yet again with the carnival scene. We even get a Latin inspired dance and tango-esque arrangement of the main theme song which slaps. The fact that the Rainbow Castle isn’t only Western/European inspired makes a lot of sense to me, as it’s implied that Manhattan isn’t the only place on Earth they’ve stopped on and so their kingdom probably absorbed influences from cultures all over the world. I also quite like the parade part where the people of the kingdom are just marching across the stage, scrolling by like an endless medieval parade (which then goes into the classic Takarazuka parade with the stairs!). It really does feel like a celebration. Which it is (it’s Kuze and Kazahana’s top star debut). I just think it’s fantastic.
Anyway… I think that’s enough of my ramblings. I know I talked about all these characters as if they were fully fleshed characters, but this is a revue. They mostly sing songs and barely have any speaking lines, the characterization is very subtle. They only feel that way to me because I’ve watched this revue hundreds of times and it’s a very personal show to me that I like to (over)analyze. The actual show itself is a lot more vague and whimsical in its storytelling so there are a lot of new things you realize about the show upon rewatch. I have my own interpretation of the story but each person may see it differently, which I think is the beauty of it really.
If you’ve managed to get this far through all my rambling, thank you very much for reading! I really do love this show and I hope you enjoy watching it!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 03:49 pm (UTC)As you mentioned, The King's Love is such a wonderful, wonderful moment, although I also have to say I loved the vagrants who, like some old ascetics pursuing inner knowledge, cast off their hoariness and revealed their true identities and rushed away to celebrate with the King. That moment just made me smile ear to ear.
There's so much going on here, and all of it is so wonderful. Thank you again for subbing this!!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 10:51 am (UTC)This seems to be quite the obscure zuka show so I was a little nervous about having to oversell this to readers lol, so I'm really glad to hear that the magic was not lost on people and they actually enjoy this show as much as I do!
The scene with the vagrants was so simple yet so effectively magical! Definitely a stand-out. And I suppose one of the reasons I really like the King's Love Scene is because I'm a romantic who can't get enough of the "Person A is possessed and Person B is trying to wake them up" trope... it never fails to get me every time.
The song during the epilogue with that endless parade marching across the stage really makes me feel what you said about the show reawakening childhood memories, of reading fairy tales as a kid. Gosh, I looove fairy tales. I really do think there's so much beauty in it. Its magic is so nostalgic and personal, they're meant to be reinterpreted till the end of time~
Thanks as always for your engaging comments, I always love to hear what you think!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 04:57 pm (UTC)Oh yes totally, same! The "haunted slippers" is a common motif, I think, but it never fails to get a reaction from me. Nothing gets me onboard quicker than a hero who will risk personal harm at the hands of his beloved in order to bring them back from the brink, it's just... it's a really human sort of story.
I keep thinking about the framework of this story, the idea of a magical castle just appearing one day in the normal world, in a crowded city. If you see me steal that plot later, please don't tell anyone. :p
Thank you for entertaining my overenthusiasm and for sharing these gems with us!!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-02 05:09 pm (UTC)Happy watching~!
no subject
Date: 2022-11-07 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-07 09:37 pm (UTC)