This photoshoot and talk feature with Flower Troup Tops Ranju Tomu and Ranno Hana was published in the November 2011 issue of GRAPH, and was recorded during the run of their official Top Combi debut show, Phantom.
Harmony: Top Combi Report – Ranju Tomu and Ranno Hana
This about them is cute!
Ranju: The way you smiled at me during the duet dance in Phantom. That was super cute.
Ranno: ……
Ranju: Huh? No response!?
Ranno: That was so cool, I’m blushing (laughs). It wasn’t as if I was conscious of it, I was just thinking ‘Ah, this is so fun~’ while we were dancing…
Ranju: Yeah, you looked like you were really having fun. It seemed like a totally natural smile.
Ranno: But if I overdo it, please tell me. Say “Ranno, you’re having too much fun with this!”…
Ranju: It’s fine (laughs). After all, I think it will come through to the audience too that you’re genuinely enjoying yourself.
Ranno: I see… Oh, as for something I think is cute about Mayu-san (Ranju) is in the forest scene of Phantom, when Eric (Ranju) gives Christine (Ranno) the poetry book, and he’s looking down shyly, like so… I thought that was really cute.
Ranju: (laughs) The more you know.
Ranno: (getting more excited as she remembers) Yes! That’s it!!
Ranju: What’s this all of a sudden (laughs)
Ranno: (laughs) Also, your usual soft smile is really wonderful!
Ranju: It’s kind of spacey (laughs). Often people will say it’s a really distracted smile (laughs)
Costumes they would like to see
Ranno: I love how Mayu-san looks in a uniform!
Ranju: Hmm~ Is there something you saw that in? Come to think, when have I even worn uniforms…
Ranno: When you played Napoleon1 recently, right? But also, I’d like to see you wear a really sharp uniform in a revue scene, not just plays.
Ranju: In a revue! That would be nice, I’d like to do that. As for me, I’d like to see Ran-chan (Ranno) in an outfit that makes you think ‘She’s a real princess!’
Ranno: Really?
Ranju: It seems like you would have done it, but surprisingly you really haven’t, have you?
Ranno: Yes. I’ve never ever worn a crinoline dress. But could I really manage wearing one… More importantly, I fall over a lot onstage. If I was wearing a crinoline dress when I fell, that might turn into a real disaster…
Ranju: That’s true, you do seem to trip a lot, Ran-chan (laughs)
Incidents
Ranju: Since you mentioned falling over (laughs), if we’re talking about onstage incidents, Ran-chan, you fell right over during the Grand Theatre last day performance of Phantom, right. (laughs)
Ranno: I did…
Ranju: Flat on your face (laughs). I’ve only fell over onstage once or twice, at most, but Ran-chan, you fall over a lot, don’t you? And so dramatically, too (laughs).
Ranno: Honestly, I don’t watch my footing well enough, I’m sorry…
Ranju: (laughs) In my case, I really don’t have a lot of incidents. Sometimes I won’t recall the lyrics so I’ll have to make something up, that kind of thing. But they always fit the meter, even so. I’ve never had something not fit (laughs).
Ranno: Amazing… Oh, but speaking of that, in the scene of Phantom where Christine is sleeping and Eric and his father are talking together…
Ranju: Ah! Right, right. I forgot the lines and had to make them up.
Ranno: You said something like ‘Christine is the only one I love’…
Ranju: Maybe it was ‘She’s the one I love most in the world!’ or something. Even though those lines aren’t in the script at all (laughs).
Ranno: That was it! That made me so happy!! Even though I was ‘sleeping’ I ended up grinning to myself.
Ranju: But after that, I couldn’t think of what to say next, so I ended up yelling ‘Get out!!’ and throwing my father out of the room a lot earlier than usual (laughs).
If you exchanged places for a day?
Ranno: If I turned into Mayu-san, I’d like to try out a lot of different roles. I could learn a lot from that. I think I’d like to see what it’s like to see the musumeyaku through an otokoyaku’s eyes.
Ranju: Ah~, the opposite perspective. Then, I’d also like to be a musumeyaku and study ‘this is what makes me happy when an otokoyaku does it to me~’, I think.
Ranno: (laughs)
Ranju: Or, what if I turned into Ran-chan during a day off…but, say, wouldn’t it be way more fun that way!? See, then I could start a fight with your sister Rei-chan (Sumireno Rei), right!? I’ve always been saying I wanted to see the two of you fight.
Ranno: If I tell you we’ve been fighting, you’ll say ‘I want to see!’ (laughs)
Ranju: Forget just watching, being able to participate in the fight myself would be amazing (laughs). Also, if I turned into Ran-chan, I’d like to go around and have everyone saying ‘You’re so cute~’. Since that’s not something that’s ever happened to me (laughs).
Ranno: I’d like to have people tell me ‘You’re so cool!’ too. I’d like to try to dazzle people…a lot…
Ranju: You’d try winking at them? (laughs)
Ranno: And sidelong glances too~! But, if I did try that and they were like ‘Kyaa~’…I’m sure I’d end up giggling…from happiness, or embarrassment… Ufufufu~
Ranju: Ranno has entered her imagination zone~
Ranno: (laughs) Also, I’d like to try dancing something like in Eric’s prologue sequence. If I was able to…oh, but if I was Mayu-san then I really could!
Ranju: Go ahead and use my muscles to dance all you want (laughs). Then, I’d do that 🎵 Melodie, melodie 🎵 scene. I really like your entrance. You skip in from the back, singing 🎵 Lalalalala~ 🎵, right? I’d do that really innocently. It would be so~o cute, I think!! (laughs)
About today’s photoshoot
Ranno: Today’s photoshoot was so fun!!
Ranju: You were really looking forward to this for ages, weren’t you, Ran-chan~
Ranno: Yes!! I was so excited ever since it was first decided on. This was a really major event for me!
Ranju: I’d been thinking ‘I’d like to do a photoshoot on the seaside~’, and that became a reality; that was really nice, wasn’t it!? The seaside. It had a nice atmosphere.
Ranno: It was just wonderful! And then we were also doing that ‘Boss and new hire’ scenario…
Ranju: Right, right (laughs). Since the plan today for us two was that I’d be a boss in the company, and Ran-chan would be a new hire who had a crush on me, that kind of feeling (laughs). I was the one who ended up getting dragged along to the seaside date, though (laughs).
Ranno: Therefore, even during the photoshoot I’d be firing questions at you (laughs). ‘Mr. Department Head, what do you like doing on your days off?’ and such (laughs).
Ranju: I said ‘driving, I guess’ and you said ‘next time, take me along, won’t you!’ (laughs). Then, when I asked you ‘Can you cook?’ and you said you could, I asked ‘What are you good at?’ …Here, tell them what you said (laughs).
Ranno: ‘Yellowtail teriyaki’ (laughs). Because I wanted to play the role of a domestic girl (laughs).
Ranju: And then, since I was properly in character, I responded, see. I said ‘Oh? Here I thought you were a progressive career woman, but you’re really quite domestic’, acting as if that had really made a good impression (laughs).
Ranno: And I made sure I did a ‘Girlfriend Check’, too! Since you said you liked driving, I asked ‘Who do you go with?’ And then when you said ‘I like going alone,’ I was like ‘okay!!’ (laughs). As a new hire, I still didn’t quite understand how things stood, so I asked you things really directly (laughs).
Ranju: And then, the two of us really hit it off, so we went right to a bar afterwards…something like that (laughs).
Ranno: Mayu-san’s expression was so wonderful that my heart really started pounding!!
Ranju: Right, your voice went up by about an octave (laughs).
Ranno: The judgement of heaven will fall on me for being this happy…
Ranju: ‘The judgement of heaven’ (laughs). But since you were feeling like that during the photoshoot, I’m sure they were able to take really good pictures. Today, I was thinking ‘I wonder how mature Ran-chan will be able to feel’, but you really did such an amazing expression.
Ranno: Ufufu~! Ranno victory pose!!
Ranju: (laughs) At this rate, Le Poison2 will be just fine. Since it’s a ‘love potion’, after all (laughs).
Ranno: Yes (laughs). From now on I want to keep bringing these new sides of myself out…
Ranju: Yes, definitely. From now on, I think you should do your best to keep that fresh feeling, but also try to make people think ‘Oh? Doesn’t Ran-chan seem so mature now?’ I think that will really give you more range in roles, too.
Ranno: Yes. I’m really looking forward to Le Poison – Love Potion II, so I’ll do my best.
Ranju: Here, why don’t you put a bit more spirit into it? (laughs)
Ranno: Yes! (laughs) I’ll do my best!
1 – Ranju’s role in the Cosmos Troupe production TRAFALGAR.
2 – Flower Troupe’s then-upcoming national tour revue.