Seo Yuria’s 95th class interview series was published in GRAPH through 2016. Her talk with Minami Maito was published in the June issue.

(Yes, she does use that many exclamation points in the original)

If you have read the Seo Yuria/Minami Maito Sparkling Time, some of the anecdotes they discuss may look familiar. The two features were originally published around a year apart.

Sewatch!! #5 – Minami Maito

Thank you so much for reading Sewatch every issue, everyone. For this 5th column, we have Flower Troupe’s otokoyaku, Minami Maito 🌸 It’s Minami~!! Time to turn the Sewatch on this startlingly ripped Takarasienne!!!

~About their dress-up theme~

Seo: The first thing that comes to mind for Minami is muscles!! So I thought of maybe Kinnikuman¹ or Superman, and then we had a discussion about it (laughs)

Minami: I was like, huh!? That’s the image you have of me? (laughs)

Seo: No, you were really thin when I first met you!! But then when you returned from summer break for the start of our Lower Student year I was totally shocked (laughs)

Minami: Right, right, when I came back my uniform was straining (laughs).

Seo: I remember everyone was in an uproar like ‘what the heck happened to Minami on summer break!!!!!!’ (laughs) That image was so strong with me, so with this opportunity I told you ‘You’ve got to be Superman!’, right?

Minami: But I was so startled when I actually saw the costume!!! (laughs) ‘Aren’t these too genuine!! The feel of these muscles!!!!!!’ (laughs)

Seo: How was it to wear?

Minami: It felt so real that I ended up in character right away (laughs). Just putting it on it was like a switch flipped!!

Seo: (laughs) That’s great!!

Minami: Somehow I thought ‘I’m a hero!’ (laughs)

Seo: You know, if you wanted to you could put it on under your rehearsal clothes, and then if something came up you could take off your clothes and turn into Superman!! That would be so cool!! (laughs)

Minami: You’re right!! I’ll contact you if I think I might need it! Thank you!!

Both: (burst out laughing)

Seo: And then I’m the pre-transformation version, so I just have a T-shirt (laughs).

Minami: And you were able to provide that yourself, right? (laughs)

Seo: Yeah. This Superman shirt is really precious to me, since I received it from Makaze Suzuho in Cosmos Troupe!! The lady from the editing department asked ‘should we acquire that for you?’ and I replied ‘I’m fine, I already have one!’ (laughs)

~Takarazuka Music School~

Seo: You’re the 3rd member of ‘A-group 5’² to appear in this column already!

Minami: What I really remember is in class when they’d tell us the instructions, starting with the A-group and then the rest, I wouldn’t listen properly so then I’d do it wrong and the teachers would get so upset.

Seo: And that wasn’t once or twice, right (laughs). It was basically every time that because of the A-group everyone would get scolded so we’d all apologize.

Minami: We really didn’t learn anything (laughs)

Seo: Besides that, if we’re talking about our Lower Student year, we used to walk together a lot, but even though Lower Students are forbidden to laugh, Minami would start giggling as we were walking and we’d get caught by an Upper Student right away.

Minami: I can’t help that I laugh easily (laughs). And since we were walking together, Seocchi (Seo) wouuld get in trouble too…

Seo: ‘Were you two laughing as you were walking just now!?’ That was always so scary, right!? 😭

Minami: Ah~ This really takes me back (laughs). But it was also fun somehow, wasn’t it?

Seo: No, I was in a state of terror all the time! All thanks to you!!!! (laughs)

Minami: But remember, sometimes we would have to walk through the halls when nobody was there and all the Upper Students were in class?

Seo: Ah~ Then we could really have fun (laughs). The thrill of it was that you never knew when an Upper Student might come out of a classroom!!

Minami: Even dumb things like winking at each other when we passed became so funny since the circumstances forbid us from laughing (laughs).

Seo: Yeah (laughs). Since it was forbidden, along with the thrill of it everything became so funny we just couldn’t handle it (laughs).

Minami: Our time as Lower Students was really full of the essence of youth every day. Another thing I remember was when we went on our field trip to Huis Ten Bosch, Kocchan (Rei Makoto), Seo, and I were all together in a hotel room. As soon as we arrived, we were so tired from the trip that we just dove into bed and ended up going straight to sleep!

Seo: Ah~ I remember~

Minami: When we woke up it was pitch dark out and when we dashed outside all we could see was the night landscape (laughs).

Seo: Even though we had been so looking forward to the chocolate fountain and everything!!

Minami: The three of us just crashed (laughs).

Seo: (laughs) We all had tons of fun together when we became honkasei.

Minami: Yeah, it wasn’t as if certain people were always hanging out together, but we really all had fun together with everyone else. Therefore there really wasn’t any feeling of rivalry when we were in TMS.

Seo: If there were things we needed to know for an exam, we would all coach each other so that even the girls who weren’t able to do it would be able to get there by the time of the exam, remember?

Minami: Because of that, we would always have around the same grade levels, so the teachers would say ‘there’s no point of making comparisons in this class, none of you are outstanding at all.’

Seo: So that’s it~ We were like ‘Oh, we can’t do anything right~’ (laughs)

Minami: But didn’t they say our class was good at choral singing? (laughs) So we said ‘We’re the choral class!!!’ (laughs)

Seo: There were girls who were good at conducting, or piano and such, so they pulled the rest of us along somehow.

Minami: Chorus was the only thing where we had confidence (laughs)

~After being assigned to troupes~

Seo: In our troupes we’ve already reached what they call the ‘middle barrier’ by graduating from junior performances, but…

Minami: It’s amazing we’ve come this far (laughs). Even though we just goofed off in TMS.

Seo: Our class is only serious onstage, right.

Minami: It’s moving but also sort of funny.

Seo: That also has a really strong impact… Now that we’ve graduated from junior performances I feel like I have to become even more capable.

Minami: Right, I have to improve and get myselves together as an otokoyaku, I think.

Seo: Let’s both do our best!! Thanks for taking time out of your busy day for this, Superman!!

1 – Kinnikuman is a Japanese superhero manga that basically translates to ‘Muscle Man’

2 – ‘A-group 5′ means that in Japanese phonetic order they would have been the first in the class roll in TMS, under ‘A’.