This book is a memoir of Aran Kei’s time as a member of Takarazuka, as well as her post-Takarazuka career and memories of her childhood. It was published in 2010 to commemorate the 20th year of her stage career. It also features messages from Takarazuka classmates and other colleagues and theatre artists she has worked with.

Some paragraph breaks have been added to make it more readable in English. I have also collected archival images from many sources.

Message From Takeda Shinji – “Ask me anything you want to know about Aran”

Takeda is from Hokkaido. In 1989 he won the Grand Prix of the Junon Super Boy Contest, and he made his debut as an actor the next year. He attracted attention with the drama NIGHT HEAD. In 1995 he made his stage debut with his appearance in Shintoku-maru, directed by Ninagawa Yukio. He won the Japanese Academy Best Supporting Actor Award and Blue Ribbon Supporting Actor Award for the 1999 film Taboo. He works in a wide variety of fields, as well as playing the saxophone and writing music.

When I went to see THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, I had the chance to talk with the audience member next to me. During the intermission, they showed me Aran’s calendar and the program, and even loaned me their opera glasses. There was no feeling that they were trying to monopolize “My Prince Aran” for themselves, and I could feel how much they wanted to share how wonderful Aran’s performance was, so I was moved to think about how such a good relationship between the actors and fans had been constructed.

The most surprising thing to me when I performed with her in ARK 2010 was that, despite her incredible career, she also has a huge desire to learn new things. This was so motivating to me, as someone very new to musical theatre. Now that I think of it, there were also times when she would shake me awake when I fell asleep after lunch.

I’ve never felt any negative atmosphere around Aran, and I think that’s because to her, the entertainment world is her playground, in the best possible meaning. Looking at her, I feel certain that she didn’t get to the top by throwing down others, but by polishing her own skills to make her dreams come true. I think she provided a great example to me of how to live and act.

I had so much fun talking with her at the ARK 2010 event. I think I am eminently qualified to bring out Aran’s charisma (laughs), so I would love to do something like that with her again! The fans might think ‘dammit, not him again’, but please resign yourselves to it (laughs).