The characters Michiru and Haruka as portrayed in the fanfiction under this account are regularly roleplayed at the Moonlocket Sailor Moon roleplaying community at LiveJournal (http:///profile) and all their threads can be found here: http:///tools/memories.bml?user=josei_otokoyaku&keyword=moonlocket&filter=all

Information on Es who plays Haruka, see http://

Name: Es

Location: Denmark

Age: 20

Hobbies: yuri, anime/manga, Sailor Moon, roleplaying, theology, reading, writing, fanfiction, lesbianism, religion.

Likes: her girlfriend, her Michiru-mun, Haruno Sumire, Takarazuka Revue, Japanese culture, Disney, KOTOKO, Ogata Megumi, the musical Elisabeth, sushi, reviews, the colour orange.

Dislikes: flames, wank, not being the centre of attention, intolerance, stupidity, religious fanatics (and all other kinds of fanatics), boredom.

Information on Elle who plays Michiru, see http://

Name: Elle

Location: Australia

Age: Young but legal, which is really the most important bit.

Hobbies: cheerleading, figure ice skating, pretending to be fictional characters on the internet, collecting cosmetics, giving vague information in profiles, being radically different to Es but loving her anyway, being awesome.

Likes: her boyfriend, her Haruka-player (because she considers 'mun' a rather silly word), Haruno Sumire, copying other people's profile information almost word for word, Disney, Katsuki Masako, salad, reviews, the colour coral. And not in that order.

Dislikes: muffins that pretend to be choc-chip but turn out to contain sultanas, cotton candy getting stuck on your cheek, seats on the bus that are still warm from their previous occupant, wilful ignorance, pollution, censorship.

Information on the AU background:

Once upon a time there was a really amazing manga artist, Takeuchi Naoko, who created a couple of fairly awesome characters, Haruka/Uranus and Michiru/Neptune. In the original conception of these characters, they were intended to be involved in the all-female Takarazuka Revue which Takeuchi herself describes as “the maximum level of feminine emancipation. These actress cover all roles of the plays, even the male ones. I was inspired by them to create Haruka.” This idea was not used in any eventual incarnation of the characters, but thankfully that's what alternate universe fanfiction and role play is for.

Note that contrary to the original universe canon, Haruka and Michiru are not a couple in this AU – at least not from the beginning, seeing that lesbianism is frowned upon within the Takarazuka Revue and generally there are very strict rules of conduct for how actresses interact with not only each other but also their fans – see information on the Takarazuka Revue for more detail. Nevertheless, because they are who they are, attraction and sexual tension is bound to develop between them. The question, of course, is then how they’ll act on it under the circumstances they find themselves in.

Information on Haruka (AU canon history)

Haruka made it through the audition for and was accepted into Takarazuka Music School at age 19, choosing to be among those to play male roles after having finished the first year of her education. Directly after graduation she played important (but not leading) otokoyaku roles in the Moon Troupe and quickly gained great popularity in the fandom. When the Moon Troupe decided to do a performance of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Haruka was given the role of Robert Jordan. The show became a gigantic success and made Haruka one of the most famous and loved otokoyaku actresses. She and her co-actress Kaioh Michiru were declared the new golden combi of Takarazuka and as a result allowed to become the star performers and heads of the new troupe, the Rose Troupe. The opening performance of this troupe was an abstract staging of Aida which ended up a tremendous success also outside the Takarazuka fandom and with this success to live up to, Haruka and Michiru have been working on an original project that quickly morphs into a musical production of the yuri manga Pieta. Putting a story of the love between two girls on stage is an outrageous project coming from a company that regularly struggles with their image as an all-female theatre, but due to the liberty of its youth the Rose Troupe is allowed to go through with it.

Haruka hadn't always wanted to become an otokoyaku. From she started racing at age 14 and until her brother, Haruki, died when she was 17, her biggest dream was to become a F1 racer. However, because of an accident at the circuit, her three-year-older brother who also raced was killed when he lost control over his car and from that moment Haruka decided that it wasn't her dream to pursue and instead started focusing her talents on music and dance (both interests she'd had since she was a girl, having played the piano since she was four and danced ballroom since she was ten). It wasn't until her 19th birthday, however, that she decided what to make of these interests, when a girlfriend of hers took her to a Takarazuka performance of Elisabeth. Haruka was struck by the freedom that the otokoyaku actresses experienced on stage, how they were no longer bound by the gender roles of the Japanese society, and decided to join their ranks. When the annual auditions were hosted barely half a year later she attended and was accepted into the Takarazuka School of Music.

Information on Michiru (AU canon history)

At the age of twenty-three, she is the star musumeyaku of the new-found Rose Troupe, after having first performed in the Snow Troupe and then the Moon Troupe. Drawn originally to the traditional elegance of the Snow Troupe, Michiru soon found herself fascinated with the interpretive art of the Moon Troupe, and it was there that she was cast as Maria against Tenoh Haruka's Robert Jordan in "For Whom The Bell Tolls" - a musical that turned out to be a massive success, earning Michiru widespread popularity and a solid fanbase. Declared the golden duo of the company, she and Haruka were allowed to begin, star in and head the new troupe, the Rose Troupe.

Information on Takarazuka Revue

For more information, go to http:///wiki/Takarazuka_Revue.

Notes on Takarazuka Revue musical theatre (from wikipedia's article):

1. Before becoming a member of the troupe, a young woman must train for two years in the Takarazuka Music School, one of the most competitive of its kind in the world. Each year, thousands from all over Japan audition and between 40 and 50 are accepted. They are trained in music, dance, and acting, and are guaranteed seven-year contracts. The school is famous for its strict discipline and for the custom of having first-year students clean the premises each morning.

The first year, all women are trained together, but at the end of the first year, women are divided by the faculty and the current troupe members into otokoyaku and musumeyaku. Those playing otokoyaku take on a more masculine role in the classroom, cut their hair short, and speak in the masculine form from then on.

2. Moon Troupe (Tsukigumi): While it tends to be a home for young performers, the members of Moon Troupe are also strong singers. The term "Musical Research Department" is occasionally used in articles about the troupe, portraying the troupe's focus on music. Their material tends towards drama and modern musicals. They had at least two musicals adopted from classic western novels and overall tend to be more Western and dramatically styled on stage.

Snow Troupe (Yukigumi): Snow Troupe is considered the upholder of traditional dance and opera for the whole company, being the vanguard of traditional Japanese drama in a company that tends towards Western material. They were the first troupe to perform Elisabeth in Japan. The troupe has been moving towards the opera and drama style that Moon and Flower perform in.

3. For a society that has been at least contextually accepting of homosexuality for most of its history, Japan is surprisingly biased against lesbian activity. This bias is apparent in the early history of Takarazuka. After the scandal of women writing love letters to the otokoyaku and the revelation of an actual lesbian relationship between one of the otokoyaku and one of the musumeyaku, Takarazuka was greatly limited in order to do away with this lesbian image. To do this the women began wearing militaristic uniforms. On 19 August 1940, the actresses were even forbidden to answer fan mail and socialize with their admirers.

In the years since this time the regulations have relaxed slightly but not much. It caused another scandal when, for the first time, one of the otokoyaku cut her hair so it was short (previously all of the actresses had their hair long and the otokoyaku simply hid their hair under hats). Despite trends to being more open about things like homosexuality, and trends towards androgyny, lesbianism is still not widely accepted in Japan.

Terms:

Otokoyaku: Male role, male impersonator - the actress who plays the male or masculine roles, often showing this masculinity by using a deep/er voice or more masculine movements.

Musumeyaku: Daughter's role, female role - the actress who plays the female of feminine rules, often showing this femininity by appearing traditionally beautiful, using sweet and feminine voices and moving very delicately/elegantly.

Ryosei: A term used about androgyny, meaning the mixing or blending of genders.

Chusei: A term used about androgyny that means neutral or in between and points to the person being neither man nor woman.

General Disclaimer (goes for all fanfiction written for this AU)

Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and the other characters involved in this alternate universe are all property of Takeuchi Naoko and affiliates. We’re simply borrowing to have a little fun and fulfil the idea that Takeuchi originally had for Uranus and Neptune. No credit made. No offence intended.

Since the Takarazuka Revue is a real, existing company with real, existing actresses and since neither Elle nor Es have ever been to a real life Takarazuka performance or been an active part of the fandom, our knowledge about the actual Revue as it unfolds in today’s Japan is limited. All information we use in our fanfiction builds on what we learn from watching the musicals and backstage footage from the Revue, from reading about it on wikipedia and whatever we can otherwise find of nifty material. Thus, it can be guaranteed that the way we portray the Revue as working through Haruka’s and Michiru’s eyes and the way it works in real life are two different concepts altogether. We intend no harm towards the existing company and encourage everybody to enjoy Takarazuka for what it is and not for what we make it into being in these fanfics. All resemblance to the existing people and company of Takarazuka are not intentional and should be ascribed to the freedom of imagination. Same goes for all obvious differences.