Seo Yuria’s 95th classmate interview series was published in GRAPH through 2016. Her talk with Kizuuki Yuuma was published in the July issue.
(I swear the number of exclamation marks used is directly reproduced from Seocchi’s text)
Sewatch!! 95th Class #7: Kizuki Yuuma
Written by Seo Yuria
How are you, everyone? ✨ Sewatch is half over so quickly 🌞 This month we’re turning the Sewatch on Moon Troupe’s personification of magnanimity, Kizuki Yuuma aka Mayupon! ✨
~About their dress-up theme~
Seo: This time, since I’m with Mayupon, I was thinking it would be good to do something that expressed ‘manly friendship’.
Kizuki: Yeah! We decided since we had the opportunity we should do something su~per manly!
Seo: So we wanted to do something like Umizaru1, and when we told the nice editor lady, amazingly! they had these costumes hand-made for us!!
Both: Thank you so much!!!!!!
Seo: How was it to wear the outfit for real?
Kizuki: Yeah, it was super fun 🎵 Even though we get to wear costumes on stage all the time onstage, this felt totally different!!
Seo: That’s right, these outfits had way more of a ‘real man’ feeling! (laughs) It’d be great if everyone saw new appeal from Mayupon after this!!
~Takarazuka Music School~
Kizuki: Our seating numbers were far apart, so at the beginning of our yokasei year we didn’t interact that much, did we?
Seo: That’s right! It must have started when we were in Popular Music together?
Kizuki: Yeah! That’s it!!!! In the Popular Music class, Kocchan (Rei Makoto), Seocchi (Seo), me, and Usshii (Tsukishiro Kanato) were all in a row together!
Seo: Oh~!! (laughs) I couldn’t read sheet music at all, so I didn’t know where I was supposed to start singing (laughs)
Kizuki: Even though on both sides all three of us would be like ‘Ready – now!’ trying to show you.
Seo: I’d just be like ’??????’ and not even come in at all (laughs)
Both: (laugh)
Kizuki: To be honest, I looked forward to that every time.
Seo: I’m glad you got some fun out of it (laughs). When it comes to Mayupon…I was totally shocked in the yokasei loungeroom to see you stick a straw into a bottle of maple syrup and drink it!! (laughs)
Kizuki: I di~d! (laughs) Important to note it wasn’t honey but maple syrup!
Seo: Do you not do that any more?
Kizuki: Nope! Ah, I kept it up until I was about ken-2. I’d stockpile it in the dressing room fridge!!! (laughs)
Seo: And then there was that ‘Maple Sea’ bread that was filled with an ocean of maple syrup…
Kizuki: I used to love that!!
Seo: Even though it was dripping with maple syrup already you would always order special and say ‘lots of maple syrup!!’… Sorry to say, I don’t really get the maple syrup love!
Both: (laugh)
Seo: It’s like your blood…
Kizuki: It was all maple syrup! (laughs)
~After entering the company~
Seo: We were together the most around the time of our debut!!
Kizuki: Right!! Our houses were close together, so we went to rehearsal together every morning ✨
Seo: I’d go and right the bell at your place… Even though you’d still be sleeping (laughs)
Kizuki: Yeah, I would always oversleep 😓 That’s why I’d have you check I was still with the living (laughs)
Seo: “Ding-dong 🎵 Mayupon, time to go!”
Kizuki: “Sorry 😓 I just got up, you go on ahead~ (laughs)”
Seo: That’s how it went every day, but then one day I overslept (laughs)
Kizuki: Yeah! That one day, you didn’t come and ring my doorbell and I was like “She just left me~ 😭”
Seo: I was asleep, I swear!
Kizuki: I realized that when I got to the theatre 😓 But you somehow made it to the rehearsal just in time!!
Seo: It was an amazing assist play from the rest of the class!!
Kizuki: Oh! Also, I used to go hang out at your place a lot, right? One day we decided to have a takoyaki party.
Seo: I made them!! (laughs)
Kizuki: But then, that takoyaki turned into the fuel for a ton of banter! (laughs)
Seo: When I was putting the flour into the bowl…
Kizuki: “What!? Hold up…isn’t that okonomiyaki flour!!”
Seo: “Yup! You got it!”
Kizuki: “Don’t give me that, you’ve got takoyaki flour!!!! (laughs)”
Seo: As I withstood this barrage of Kansai snark and put the takoyaki – which were now under a lot of expectations – into the pan…
Kizuki: “Wait wait wait!! Huh?! Seocchi, what are you trying to make right now?”
Seo: “Hm? Takoyaki!!”
Kizuki: “Cabbage doesn’t belong in takoyaki!!!!!!!”
Seo: “No way~ I always add it!!”
Kizuki: “That’s not takoyaki!! That’s just…round okonomiyaki with octopus bits!!” was how it went (laughs) But that was a big culture shock for me!! (laughs)
Seo: For me too, having my usual takoyaki contradicted at every turn like that… (laughs) Well, even after entering the company we’d hang out that way a lot~
Kizuki: Both of us adored Tomomi-san (Yumeno Seika) 💕
Seo: That’s right – After I was placed in Star Troupe, I ended up assigned to assist Tomomi-san.
Kizuki: Tomomi-san and Ririko (Nanase Ririko) would go out to eat with us!!
Seo: Whenever the two of us got together, we’d end up talking about Tomomi-san really enthusiastically ✨
Kizuki: That was so fun~ 💕
Seo: Come to think, we’ve hung out more since joining the company than in TMS!
Kizuki: Though with this and that happening, we graduated from shinjin kouens before we even noticed.
Seo: It’s really moving to think about that!
Kizuki: Ah~ I was so moved to see that Seocchi, who used to be totally unable to read music and didn’t even know when to start singing, performing so many songs in shinjin kouens. Of course I’d be emotional…
Seo: You came to see me in the dress rehearsal for the shinjin kouen of Napoleon: The Man Who Does Not Sleep! 😭 And then, when you got the role of the Prince of Verona in Romeo et Juliette I was like, what!? At first I was sure it was your shinjin kouen role.
Kizuki: Actually, I thought it was my shinjin kouen role too! 😓
Seo: Re~ally! (laughs) I was so happy for you though!!! I was able to go see you in a real show and watch you performing so skillfully – it had a big impression on me and made me think I should work harder too!!
Kizuki: It’s really wonderful to see your classmates working hard, right~
Seo: Yeah ✨ Let’s all do our best from no on while polishing our skills~ ✨ Mayupon, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today~ 🌞
1 – Umizaru is a popular Japanese action franchise of the mid-00s about Japanese Coast Guard rescue divers, featuring a manga series as well as a television drama and multiple films. An American remake of the first film, called The Guardian, was released in 2006.