Castlevania: Awakening in the Moonlight is a new musical stage adaptation of Konami’s Castlevania series by the Takarazuka Revue, Japan’s renowned all-female theater troupe. While the audience for Takarazuka performances is usually predominantly female, the Castlevania show is reportedly attracting rarely seen crowds of male visitors (source: The Sankei Shimbun).
With an original script based primarily on 1997’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the new stage play ran from June 7 to July 20 in Hyogo, before moving to Tokyo from August 16 to September 28. Looking back on the performances so far, lead actress Sea Towaki, who plays Alucard, commented, “Standing on stage and looking out at the audience, I really felt that there were so many male visitors. I even heard rumors that there were long lines in front of the men’s restrooms…” She goes on to add that, “In the world of Takarazuka, that’s quite rare, and it made me very happy.”
The shift in demographic could be related to the source material having a strong male fanbase. But regardless of gender, the Takarazuka Revue’s interpretation of Castlevania has earned all round praise for its faithful recreation of the original’s gothic setting and vocally challenging OSTs like Lost Paintings.
Castlevania fans who would like to watch Takarazuka’s Castlevania: Awakening in the Moonlight but aren’t in Japan should keep an eye out for the Blu-Ray release, which is scheduled to come out on September 10.
