Mana Haruto’s GRAPH column on the 92nd class members ran through 2013. The first installment, featuring Ayanagi Shou, was published in the February issue.
(Mana’s writing style is a little quirky, but I reproduced it the best I could)
92nd Class – Manaharu Market! #1: Ayanagi Shou, Snow Troupe
Hello, GRAPH readers~ 🌟
This is Snow Troupe’s Mana Haruto. Starting this month and lasting the rest of the year, I’ll be hosting a column by and for members of the 92nd class!! I’m going to do my best to present the appeals of the 92nd class members, who are full of unique qualities – I hope you will discover even a little more about them!
The column title? I swiped the title of a TV show and made ‘Manaharu Market’…as you’ve probably guessed already, I really like that show1! Thank you so much to the lady in the editorial department who made this awesome design!
OK! If I don’t write something this will never get started!
So, the guest for this historic first column is…Ayanagi Shou, from my own Snow Troupe ✨ Ya~y 😃 Ya~y 😃 Her nichname is ‘Shou’! Just like her stage name~ Easy to remember!
When it was decided I would be writing this column…
Shou: ‘Hey, make sure you write a lot of good stuff, ‘kay?’
She said that re~ally pushily…I wonder how that turned out!? Hahaha…
As for the photoshoot theme for this column, we got really excited talking about that when we went on a troupe vacation recently. We settled on a parody of a school story – Shou-kun became a delinquent kid, and I’m a shy student. The two of us were so thrilled to have our photos taken in the old-fashioned school uniforms 📸
Both: ‘How about this pose!? Oh! That’s so cool~ ✨’
We kept praising ourselves through the whole photoshoot. Everyone, what do you think of naughty student Shou-kun in her uniform!?
When we were discussing the costume options…
Mana: ‘Since there aren’t many opportunities like this, what would you think of dressing up as Sento-kun2? He’s really popular.’
Shou: ‘No… I don’t think I could pull that off…’
Mana: ’…I guess not 😅’
Sorry about that, Shou-kun.
But, I wanted to show everyone anyway, so I drew it! ✨ Please use your powers of imagination to turn this into reality ✨
The start of Shou-kun’s Takarazuka life
One of her seniors at the ballet troupe she studied with since she was little became a member of Takarazuka, and going to see her in a show was Shou-kun’s initial motivation. She thought ‘I want to join too!’ and so took the entrance exam…and passed!
My first impression of Shou-kun when she joined TMS was ‘a cute Kansai kid with big bright eyes!’ She was actually shorter than she is now, so I thought of her as a petite ‘little sister’ figure 💖 But then she kept growing, and before I knew it she became such a handsome otokoyaku 😲
Shou: ‘I guess I had my growth spurt while I was in TMS 😃’
She wasn’t the type to get in trouble as a yokasei (!?) and what really stands out to me is that one time she made onigiri at home and brought them for everyone to eat 🍙 (Whoa! What a good person!)
As she kept growing (LOL, I said it again), we made it to graduation. Then, we were assigned to Snow Troupe ⛄️ At the beginning, we didn’t end up in many scenes together. Recently we’re finally acting and dancing together 😃
Shou: ‘Since we’re classmates we can get really honest advice from each other, right ✨ ’
Mana: ‘Adlib scenes are so fun~ (!?)’
We always improvise the adlibs off-the-cuff, so they change every time… It’s a nervous feeling but in a good way, and we have tons of fun with it 😃
Shou-kun is basically re~ally diligent at heart. She’s always thinking about her roles, so it seems that her characters are never out of her head…however, normally she speaks in intense Kansai dialect and is quick with banter. This has resulted in some slip-ups…
For example, the Romeo et Juliette shinjin kouen. Shou-kun played Mercutio, of the Montague house. In the scene ‘Duel’ everyone’s emotions are at their highest, and as the title says its a duel scene where Mercutio’s fury against the Capulets boils over 🌋 Shou-kun shouted at Rinjou Kira-kun, who was playing Tybalt.
Shou: ‘Yo, c’mon~!!! (yelling)’
…Huh!? What!? Did she say ‘Yo, c’mon’!? Kansai dialect!? M-m-mercutio!!??
After that, the more we thought about it, the funnier it got, so none of us could forget it ⚡️
Shou: ‘I just shouted without thinking 😅 I was surprised too~’
Whenever us classmates remember that incident we just crack up. Though we know exactly how it all went…we still laugh uproariously. That’s the result of Shou-kun and her character becoming united! (That was our final interpretation~)
Shou: ‘You’d never really get a chance to shout ‘Yo, c’mon!’ on stage (laughs)’ (That’s very true!)
But there’s one thing Shou-kun struggles with…
Blackouts! When the lights go out suddenly for a scene transition, it’s called a blackout. In the stage rehearsals of Beyond the Blaze, she delivered her final lines looking really cool in her white costume – then, blackout!! When the lights went up the next moment, we saw someone in a white costume lying on the stage. Huh!? Shou-kun 😅??
Apparently, she couldn’t tell which way it was to where she had to exit into the wings and tripped. I could hardly believe it was the same person who had been so cool up until just moments ago – I knew I shouldn’t laugh but…I laughed 😃 Then, she burst out laughing too!! To prevent any further accidents, our classmate Momohana Hina-chan would stand in the wings and clap her hands, and Shou-kun would exit to where she heard the sound, holding both hands out in front of her – although it was quite a primitive method, it got her through the whole run of the show without any accidents (look, I wrote it~)
The blackout-challenged Shou-kun has 2 main goals for the future. First is to appear with all her classmates currently in Snow Troupe at the Sports Meet3 ✨ As our careers have gone on, more of our classmates have retired, and with Kira-kun being transferred from Snow Troupe to Cosmos Troupe she’s felt once again how precious one’s classmates are, apparently.
Shou: ‘While it seems only natural to be together with everyone, it’s actually such a valuable thing.’
Exactly!! Wonderful, Shou-kun!!
Her 2nd goal is to break down her own barriers 🔨
Shou: ‘I want to destroy all the unconscious barriers I’ve build up around myself, and take on all sorts of different challenges!’
Oh my gosh!! Her eyes are sparkling 👀 Shou-kun spoke so passionately!
While I’m normally around Shou-kun, I don’t have a lot of chances to hold in-depth conversations with her, so I was really happy to get this chance to talk with her again 😃
Shou-kun is so cool onstage – did you discover any new charms from reading this?
Shou-kun continues to advance, and I have high hopes for her future performances! Please come see her at the theatre! We’ll be waiting 😃
1 – ‘Hanamaru Market’ was a very popular Japanese morning show.
2 – Sento-kun is the character mascot for Nara.
3 – The 2014 centennial sports meet was approaching at the time.