Towards a Historical Be(com)ing into Universal Benevolence: Anastasia and Geopolitical Reconfigurations in Late Modernity

Focusing on two iterations of the Anastasia topos – the 1997 animated musical movie produced and released by Fox Animation Studios and Takarazuka Revue’s Japanese theatrical musical live performance from 2020 –, this article analyzes the significance and impact of historical events and their dialectic renegotiation by means of mass entertainment in crosscultural cross-media perspective. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archive research, the current analysis attempts a realistic diagnosis of future international developments based on live theatrical representations as well as their crucial reformulations of reality resulted from the empathic exchange between performers and audiences. Moreover, Japan’s attempts at reconfiguring geopolitical relations crisscrossing increasingly nationalist discourses in the public sphere during the 2010s are projected on the – likewise increasingly – polarized global narratives juxtaposing individual freedoms, rights, aspirations with collective expectations, pressures, anxieties.