Sera Myu Update - June 2010 (3 of 3)

Kenji Urai Appears During Former Takarazuka Star's Concerts!

Kei Aran had an almost 20 year career with Japan's Takarazuka Revue before she retired last year to pursue other interests. She went on to star in Aida, and also performed her own concerts too. Running through the month of June was a new series of personal concerts by Kei, called Kei Aran Live 2010. The show featured her singing songs, dancing, and performing short dramatic pieces in grand costumes, accompanied by actors Shinji Takeda on the Saxophone and Kenji Urai (Tuxedo Kamen from 2001-2002) who sang duets with her. Kenji and Kei wore very classy black outfits and sang a variety of old jazz songs. The last concert was on June 19th.


Mikako Tabe's New Films A Hit!

Mikako Tabe has two new movies in Japan right now. The first one is Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni (A Crowd of Three). It is a movie about two men named Kenta & Jun, who lived at a children's facility and grew up as almost brothers. Now they work as part of a demolition crew but they are not happy with their jobs. They then decide to take a road trip to visit Kenta's brother who is currently in prison. Mikako plays the supporting role of Yumika in this one. This movie had its world premiere at TOKYO FILMeX last November, and was released to theaters in Japan on June 12th. In February, the movie was also shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, to warm reviews. Mikako is also in the upcoming live action adaptation of the popular manga Kimi ni Todoke, starring as the lead character Sawako. The movie's trailers were just released, and the last day of filming was on June 8th. On that day, the stars gave interviews to the press, and Mikako revealed that she was a little nervous about her ability to portray the different emotions of her character. The images that we have seen so far really look like they have bought the manga and the anime to life, and we hope that this one will be as good as it looks!