Sparkling TIME is a long-running Kageki talk feature which includes a photoshoot (designed by the participants) and talk between performers, usually classmates. Akatsuki, Amahana, and Rukaze’s was published in the October 2017 issue.

Sparkling TIME: Akatsuki Chisei, Amahana Ema, Rukaze Hikaru

Akatsuki: I’ve hardly ever had a chance to be photographed with my classmates, so this was a really new experience!

Amahana, Rukaze: It was so much fun!

Amahana: At the beginning, we hadn’t decided at all what kind of outfits we would wear, but then we happened to run into Miho (Arisa Hitomi) in the rehearsal room, and she said ‘Why don’t you try using your troupe colors?’ which was a really good suggestion. And then Moeko (Rukaze) went and bought these handkerchiefs.

Rukaze: Right, right. I went shopping, and they just happened to have these 3 perfect colors, so I thought ‘OMG!!’ and bought them on the spot.

Amahana: I’ll use it all the time.

Rukaze: Yeah. When we were in the Music School, in the Lower Student year Pii (Amahana) and Ari (Akatsuki) were roommates, right? And I’d go to your room to hang out all the time.

Amahana: Right, we were together all the time. And when we were Upper Students, Moeko and Ari had a room together.

Akatsuki: Once when we were on break Pii and I went to buy souvenirs and ended up giving them to each other. ‘Here, I bought this bread so you can have one’, we said (laughs).

Amahana: Right! But Ari wouldn’t get up in the mornings…

Rukaze: Yeah, yeah! She wouldn’t get up when she was an Upper Student, either!

Akatsuki: (laughs)

Amahana: Every day I’d have to say ‘Ari, wake up~’ over and over about 10 times.

Akatsuki: Hmm~ (laughs)

Amahana: That! You were just like that! ‘Hmm~? Wha~?’ Like that!

Akatsuki: But Moeko was scarier (laughs). She’d be like ‘Ari, wake up. Ari, wake up,’ while patting my face (laughs).

Rukaze: I had to be Spartan or you’d never wake up.

Amahana: But once in a while you’d wake up early and bake bread with RunRun. And then you’d always end up dropping it (laughs).

Rukaze: You do drop things a lot (laughs).

Amahana: Also, at the start, since Ari was the youngest, you’d always use respectful language with us (laughs).

Rukaze: That’s right!

Amahana: (mimicking) ‘Sorry~, if you don’t mind my asking, what should i do with my bag~?’ (laughs)

All three: (burst out laughing)

Akatsuki: It’s because I was really shy.

Rukaze: Pii and I never shared a room, but we really understand each other when it comes to Ari.

Amahana: Yeah.

Akatsuki: (laughs)

Amahana: We were all together in the school’s private recital, right.

Akatsuki: In The Man from Algiers, I played the young Julien, Pii was the grown-up Julien, and Moeko was Jacques.

Rukaze: That’s so nostalgic!  

Akatsuki: In the rehearsals, when Julien and Jacque had a fight scene, it ended up being at a time when Moeko and I were actually fighting.

Rukaze: You would remember that, wouldn’t you (laughs). Even though it was a rehearsal, it ended up almost being a real fight (laughs).

Akatsuki: I hardly ever fight, but there was one time with Moeko.

Amahana: Also, at the Culture Festival, the three of us and Nanaki Kaoru were dancing wearing tutus (laughs).

Akatsuki: Right! When we were Lower Students, we had thought the costumes the class ahead of us had were so cool and were longing for something like that, but then it had to end up being tutus (laughs).

Amahana: In rehearsals, when we first were dancing wearing the tutus, it felt like everyone was whispering to each other (laughs).

Rukaze: And when we were trying on the tutus it was sort of embarrassing. ‘Ah…I can’t really get in…’ (laughs).

Amahana: When we were debuting, for some reason we got together to make the shanshan sticks we were going to use in the rehearsals¹.

Rukaze: We all got along really well. When we were rehearsing the rockette dance, you two really helped everyone improve. Pii has always had it all together, and while Ari-chan struggled some…

Akatsuki: Struggled! (laughs)

Rukaze: I mean to say, I know you worked really hard.

Akatsuki: Ah, thank you (laughs).

Rukaze: No problem.

Amahana: (laughs)

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Amahana: We go to see each other’s shows all the time, don’t we.

Rukaze: Yeah. When Ari-chan had her very first junior lead we went to see it like ‘I wonder if she’s going to be okay!’ and it was a really parental feeling.

Amahana: For sure. We were like ‘Is she going to be able to change properly and make her entrance…Oh, here she comes, here she comes!’ (laughs).

Akatsuki: (laughs) When Pii had the junior lead of The Scarlet Pimpernel, you looked comfortable even doing the adlibs, so we were like ‘Well, she’s definitely from Kansai’. Percy was really perfect for you, Pii.

Amahana: No way~! But when you two came to the dress rehearsal, I ended up crying in the green room.

Rukaze: You did. It was when I said ‘You don’t have to push yourself so hard.’

Amahana: It made me feel a lot better. Say, we all ended up performing junior leads paired with our classmates, right?

Akatsuki: Oh, that’s right. It was really fun to see classmates performing together like that.

Amahana: Miho was totally blushing when we started doing the kiss scene. So much so that I was like ‘Are you ok? Are you still alive!?’ (laughs)

Akatsuki: Was it really like that!? Moeko has always been masculine, but when I go to see her performances now, it feels like her masculinity has increased a lot. But her traits in using her hands and such haven’t changed at all, so I’m like ‘Ah, yup, that’s Moeko’ (laughs)

Rukaze: (laughs) I often talked to Ari-chan about what to do when I had to address the audience.

Amahana: Me too, me too.

Akatsuki: Even though you were so worried about me, you still came asking for help (laughs).

Amahana: Knowing you have a friend you can consult with or share things with like that is really reassuring.

Rukaze: And since you’re in a different troupe you’re able to give even better advice.

Akatsuki: When I see my classmates performing in junior performances, it makes me remember the junior performances I saw when I was an Upper Student, and it’s sort of an odd feeling to think that now my classmates are doing that too.

Amahana: It’s really moving, isn’t it. It makes me happy to see my classmates doing well, and it makes me think I should work hard too.

Rukaze: Yes. Next year, we’ll be graduating from junior performances, and of course we need to take responsibility for our own roles, but recently I’ve also been thinking that I’d like to get to the point where I can look after the junior actresses as well.

Amahana: When I first experienced doing a lead role in a junior performance, it really made me feel how important the strength of everyone supporting me is. Therefore, I don’t want to put all my energy into myself, but I want to grow so that I can support the senior actresses and lead on the junior actresses.

Akatsuki: In the Music School, we spend 2 years together all the time, so it felt like all of my classmates were like my siblings, but now that we’ve entered the company and I can see them working, it’s really made me feel once again that we’re all working towards the same dream, somehow…it’s made me think ‘oh, they were all Takarasiennes’.

Amahana, Rukaze: (laugh)

Akatsuki: When I see my classmates doing something I struggle with it’s really impressive to me, so I keep being so affected by everyone, and it makes me want to work hard so they don’t beat me.

Rukaze: Yeah!

Amahana: You sound so grown up!

Akatsuki: Yay!

1 – shanshans are the props used during parades, usually a medallion with a ribbon but fans and jingle sticks are also sometimes used. The stage props aren’t used during rehearsals so the performers make or bring substitutes.