One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Snow Troupe Top Musumeyaku Sakihi Miyu.

Looking Back on 2015: Sakihi Miyu

In Lupin III–Chase the Queen’s Necklace!, which blended Takarazuka with Lupin III, I played Marie Antoinette, who is a frequent character in Takarazuka, but that show looks at her from a very different angle from Rose of Versailles, as a woman with her own human weaknesses, so my impression of Marie Antoinette really changed. In Fancy Guy! every scene had different themes so I was challenged with different songs and dances and learned a lot.

For the part of Tamayuu in the Hakataza production Man of Starlight, the biggest challenge at the beginning was the Kyoto dialect. I played a woman older than Sagiri’s character of Okita Souji, and I had a lot of people teaching me how I should act and the atmosphere I should have. I really gave it my all. While it gave me a lot of trouble, it’s a part I’m very fond of now. Also, I feel like I was more deeply into Fancy Guy!, perhaps because I’d been performing it a long time starting with the Takarazuka Grand Theatre performances. It was wonderful to be able to spend time performing in my beloved Kyuushu.

The character of Sen in One Night of Stars changed the ideas about musumeyaku roles that I held until then. It was a role I had to take on as a new woman. Director Ueda [Kumiko] told me a lot about the things she thought were important while putting the show together. La Esmeralda has a really escapist feeling so it was a show that was very fun to perform.

The national tour performance “Sorrowful Cordoba” that I’m rehearsing for right now is really a struggle. I’m fighting to display burning passion not just on the outside but from my core. La Esmeralda is a complete change from that so I really want to show everyone what a real Takarazuka revue show is like.

For next year’s Rurouni Kenshin we’re working to not just reproduce the visuals of the manga, but to show its deeper aspects in our performance.