#watch her perform Bibi in episode 3 and you'll be sold I swear!

[umihoshi]

shameless commercial for this dumb Shoujo anime I’m currently obsessing over

don’t even lie to me, you know this! you know this overly sparkly 90′s style! You just never actually heard what it’s about!

Though I personally enjoyed the 1986 version a lot, I can imagine that for most it will just cause a lot of shit and giggles. (it’s still great, shush!)

So I’m just going to focus on the 2005 version right now, cuz it’s beautiful and I watched the entire 51 episodes 3 times in a row and still can’t get enough! so please come join in my agony!

Many years ago, there was a stage play that pulled full halls, day in day out. it was a performance like nothing people had ever seen. gracefully, intensely. out-worldly.

The illusive Crimson Goddess is, up until this day, the dream of every actress. If you’d get to play that role only once, it would be the greatest honor possible.

But all rights for the role have been given to one actress. An actress who will never return to the stage again after an accident that mutilated her face: Tsukikage Chigusa.

(mother Gothel’s got nothing on this woman) Tsukikage keeps a tight hold on the rights of the play, demanding that only an actress she personally approves of will earn the right to play this legendary role.

decades pass, but the memory of the Crimson Goddess is still whispered about when the story follows Kitajima Maya

Maya is a clumsy mediocre girl who doesn’t really have anything going for her in looks or brains. Whenever she’s out to help the delivery store where her mom works, she’s distracted by seeing a tv-drama somewhere or playing pretend with children. when the daughter of the delivery store tells her she’ll give her a ticket to a famous stage play if she does all 99 deliveries on new years eve alone, nothing can stop Maya to get this chance. She always, always had wanted to see a live performance. With her love for theater, Maya is even willing to jump into the ice cold bay when the ticket flies off into the water.

Tsukikage has been watching Maya’s interest in theater and decides to invite her over, disguised as a delivery job. (imagine this woman eating ramen, lol) When Tsukikage asks if Maya could tell her about the play, she can repeat every word, every pose, every intonation of a 3 hour long play. After having seen it only once.

Touched by Maya’s passion, Tsukikage takes her as an apprentice, even if it means Maya has to run away from home. (tsukikage: I’m your mother now)

But things don’t go as rose-colored as Maya imagined acting would go. Aside from her own struggles in a world she’s only just entered, there are 2 people who cross her thorny path:

1) the perfect wife Himekawa Ayumi. Daughter of a famous actress and a renounced playwright, she seems to have absolutely everything Maya doesn’t: she’s beautiful, smart, talented, wealthy, has supportive parents. Even though they’re the same age, there’s no way Maya could ever be a perfect actress like this acting prodigy. But Ayumi recognizes Maya’s talent before long and becomes a bitter-sweet rival.

2) Atobe Keigo Hayami Masumi. the workaholic vice-precident of a well known entertainment company. his sole goal is to get the rights on producing ‘the Crimson Goddess‘ by any means necessary, going as far as jeopardizing Tsukikage’s theater into closure, causing Tsukikage’s health to decline rapidly. But when this cruel heartless man sees Maya perform for the first time, he is amazed by her passion for acting. as her secret fan, he starts a habit of sending her purple roses after a performance and supports her career from the shadows,

What amazing performances will Maya show? Will it be Maya or Ayumi who will win the role of Crimson Goddess? And how will Maya respond to finding out that the secret admirer she loves more then anyone is actually the man she hates the most?