#kabuki

[kimono-and-geisha-and-stuff]

kabuki rilakkuma and friends

[love1kimono]

"Scène de Kabuki" d'Utagawa Toyokuni

Nikki Danjo fait une mudra et tient dans sa bouche un rouleau (Scène d'une pièce de Kabuki)

Œuvre d'Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825)

1813, époque d'Edo (1603-1868)

Diptyque d'estampes, impression polychrome (nishiki-e)

[arg-enby]

Got called a performative male for reading Kabuki: Metamorphosis at the amusement park today but IT'S SO FREAKING GOOD.

The art style changes, but it usually looks like watercolors and it's sooo pretty! And dare I say wlw representation? I personally ship Kabuki and Akemi because they kissed twice and said they loved each other, but I think my favorite character ended up being M.C. Square.

I got it from a used book sale on Columbus Day, so I didn't actually read the first four comics (oops) but Akemi isn't even in them and I thought Metamorphosis worked well alone. They explain everything anyway, I thought it was a stand-alone. There's a whole series after Metamorphosis, though, and Akemi's supposed to have a bigger role, so I might read those. I don't want to read backwards for this series, I think it would be unsatisfying.

[kimono-and-geisha-and-stuff]

Bando Tamasaburo stuns in new selfie

[kimono-and-geisha-and-stuff]

[dreamdustwonderlust]

[theblacksun36]

A ninja mansion calls for a Kabuki Star

[voluptuarian]

The "but how do the bad guys not attack her?" "why is time standing still?" thing with Magical Girl transformations was always annoying (its a mark of the genre, like That Lighting in noir, and soliloquies in Shakespeare, just deal) but I think understanding how mie poses work in Kabuki theater really gives those scenes such an extra dimension

Like even if transformation scenes (and other "glamour shot" moments in mech shows and general action series, as well as the similar dramatic "freeze frames") aren't directly drawing on mie (which i feel like they Must be, honestly) then they at least function in the same way, employing the same rules and motivations to bend the fictional "reality" for dramatic effect. (Especially looking at how the costumes are involved here, you can even imagine the magical girl transformation as a mie in which the costumes– which in this case are the actual embodiment of the heroine role being taken on—have superseded all other elements of the pose.) The magical girl is invulnerable for the same reason the Kabuki hero is, because their star power overwhelms their medium for a moment, and allows them an instant outside the standard flow of time and space and exterior reaction for them to deliver the ultimate emotional or dramatic Attitude in. Because they're just that epic, in every sense of the word.