This is a Q&A session with brand-new Top Star Aran Kei on her arrival in Tokyo for her debut there with Sakura/Secret Hunter. The original transcript was published in ENAK Sumire Style on September 13, 2007. (Archive link here.)
Aran Kei interview: ‘I’ll keep pressing on to the final show’
Aran: Now that the Takarazuka Grand Theatre performance has ended safely, we’ve come to Tokyo. I hope everyone in Tokyo will welcome us warmly once again. I’m going to keep pressing on until the final show, so please treat me well.
Q: What are the highlights of the show?
Aran: In Sakura, it’s the very end, where everyone wears costumes dyed in tsujigahana1 patterns and dances the ‘Sakura Bolero’. I’m not in that scene, so I watch it on the monitor in the wings and I always think “it’s so lovely”. I would love to see it from the audience seats, but that’s impossible, so I’d love for all of you to watch it in my place. In Secret Hunter I think the highlight is probably the twist at the very end. You see, I’m always really frustrated, like, “so it was all a trick up until now?” but I’d like the audience to also have that feeling of ‘wow, they’ve really put one over on us’.
Q: What are your favorite scenes?
Aran: In Sakura it’s the scene with the dolls of May. It’s a really funny scene where they’re getting chased by the mice, so we get to perform it fairly ‘naturally’. In Secret Hunter I like the opening theft scene, and the scene in the fortress chapel where the main character talks about his father.
Q: How do you feel about your Top Star debut?
Aran: During the Grand Theatre run, every day seemed to go by in a flash. It made me so happy to have the audience and all the other performers welcoming me as I came down the stairs. Secret Hunter has a lot of running around so I would be totally wiped out, but when it came time to go down the stairs I’d totally forget I was tired and it was a wonderfully refreshing feeling. I think I’ll feel the same way in the Tokyo run as well, so I’m really delighted.
Q: What do you think about Star Troupe?
Aran: Right now we’re full of energy. During the Grand Theatre run, even though there were 130 people2 there wasn’t a single absence and everyone gave it their all up to the final show. I think the troupe itself is in really good shape. I hope we can keep on with this energy and passion and unite everyone’s energy towards a common goal. The kumichou3 and I will consider any necessary course corrections and do what we can to make it the best troupe possible.
1 – Tsujigahana is a style of shibori dyeing that originated in the Muromachi era.
2 – No troupe ever has that many people, but Sakura/Secret Hunter was accompanied with the debut of the 50-person 93d class.
3 – Most senior member of the troupe.