Every year in Kageki, each Top Star and Top Musumeyaku publishes a recap of their year in the December issue. While in the actual magazine, the Top Stars and Top Musumeyaku have separate sections, for posting I am combining the two statements for each troupe. (I have also only translated the statements and left off the rather overwrought advertising-style intro blurbs just to save time.)

Note that Moon Troupe’s statement was taken while they were still in rehearsals for the National Tour that played in November.

Looking Back on 2022 – Moon Troupe

Tsukishiro Kanato

I was thankful that we had the chance for a new start as Moon Troupe at the start of the year, and I welcomed the new year with different feelings as well. During the performance [of Tonight at the Romance Theatre], I felt a lot of tension every day since I was worrying about whether I could carry out my duties properly, and if the whole troupe would be able to make it to closing day safely. It was my first time performing in a lead role for a month-long performance, so getting through it successfully gave me some confidence. My character, Kenji, is helped out by everyone around him. So I didn’t want us to lose that freshness day after day. The revue was Moon Troupe’s first work in a while that felt really ‘adult’, so we were all taking it on desperately, and I hope that even the most junior actresses were able to learn the awareness needed to stand on their own feet.

Rain on Neptune was a fun show that had a lot of challenges. The type of acting movements needed for performing in the round are totally different, so I learned a lot.

The Great Gatsby was such a high hurdle… [The question was] how could I fit with the Director’s vision, and once I got past that, how I could make it my own. We hardly were able to perform in the Grand Theatre, but I gained so much from each performance, and I was so focused during the run. For a week after closing, I couldn’t lose the character of Gatsby: this was my first time having an experience like that, and I was so sad the show had to end. I was happy to be challenged with performing in a historic show, and I feel like through this performance, I was able to get closer with everyone [in the cast] through developing the play.

For the National Tour (Black Jack), we are all so excited about going to different places that I think the biggest challenge is probably trying to stay focused. The play is really about life, so there were a lot of lines that I couldn’t say carelessly, and while the content is difficult I don’t want it to become too heavy. The revue is the same one from my Top Star debut, and I’ve been with Umino for a year now, and in rehearsals I’m feeling things now that I didn’t back then, and I think we can each feel how the other has transformed.

This year flew by so fast…in the past I might have wanted to just stop for a bit, but this year I had more goals and things I wanted to challenge myself with, and I felt really fulfilled.

Next year I want to strive to find more different sides of myself while trusting that there are more things I can do.

Umino Mitsuki

Tonight at the Romance Theatre felt so fresh that it was like opening for the first time every day. I played a character who was completely removed from the real world, so I was approaching the role while thinking about how to insert her into the Showa era world everyone else lived in. The jazz revue was a challenge too, and while it was difficult presenting the bright and new Moon Troupe through the the mature vision of the revue, but now that we’re in rehearsals for the revival right now, I really feel that we were blessed with a show that was packed with all the appeal of Moon Troupe. Although everey day was a battle for me, when I saw the way Tsukishiro-san focused on her performance and went on stage and always hoping to make it even better, it made me want to put in all my effort too.

Rain on Neptune was in a round theatre, so it made me widen the way I thought about how I could express myself in a way that everyone in the audience could enjoy. It was a show that let me feel so many things while enjoying [making] entertainment.

For The Great Gatsby, I kept thinking about how I could perform in a way that would convey what a wonderful work it is… Every show I discovered new things, and rather than aiming for one single goal, I think I was trying to perform with new feelings every day.

Iris, my character in the national tour, is in a very different situation to Black Jack, who Tsukishiro-san plays, so I’m really thinking about how they might relate to each other emotionally. For the revue, I’m trying to look at the original run objectively and make up for my shortcomings while also making new discoveries.

This was a year of re-examination for. Rather than just carelessly charging in, I now think about what I can bring to the role and what I’m lacking, and then challenge myself. I want to take that even further, and also, since after all theatre is a live medium, next year I want to relish every every moment of that time and enjoy myself.