5 Episodes is a 2019 Kageki feature for the 105th year of the Takarazuka Revue’s operation. Makaze’s was published in the April issue.

5 Episodes: ‘That time back then…’ (Makaze Suzuho, Cosmos Troupe)

For the 105th anniversary of the Takarazuka Revue, we’re presenting anecdotes of ‘that time back then…’ themed around the number 5!

5 years old

Episode 1
Apparently I played a mouse in my kindergarten play, although I don’t remember it (laughs). When I was looking at some photos I thought ‘What’s this mouse?’ and my mother said, “You played a mouse.” Although, I actually might not yet have been 5 years old then. Maybe I was 4 years old? I’m a bit unsure about that situation… You see, in kindergarten I actually went through the middle year twice. When I enrolled, I ought to have been in the junior class by age, but I threw a tantrum and said that I wanted to be in the same class as an older girl from the neighborhood I was friends with, so I was given special permission to enroll in the middle class. Therefore, I don’t have a clear distinction between when I was 4 or 5 (laughs). I wonder which year that mouse was from…

Episode 2
This is another story from sometime when I was in kindergarten… you know how there are rooms with lots of colored balls all over the floor and you run around and play on them? I was running around in their too vigorously and apparently I broke pinky toe. So I ended up in a cast, at just the age when I wanted to run around the most (laughs). I remember that the cast really got in the way when I was trying to play. Even now, every time I see kids playing around on play equipment like that I’ll think to myself ‘Please be careful…’

5th grade

At the time, everyone was really into shooting rubber bands, and I know I’m the one saying this (laughs), but I think I was really good at it. I’d keep shooting rubber bands whenever we had a break. I was constantly polishing my skills…I had a ‘rubber band life’. Also, once I barely escaped dying after falling off a swing set… After school, all of us were playing around trying to see how far we could get our shoes to fly from the swings, but I got too excited about swinging. Somehow I ended up letting go of the swings. And then I flew straight into the ground… I wasn’t seriously injured, but because of the impact I wasn’t able to breathe for a moment, so I learned from experience ‘I should never let go of the swings!’

Ken-5

At the end of my ken-3 year I had my first shinjin kouen lead, and when I was ken-4 I had Yuzuki (Reon)-san’s shinjin kouen role for her Top Star debut performance, so at that time I was desperately trying to deal with what was right in front of me, so there were a lot of things I wasn’t able to properly sort out within myself. It was just so much… But when I became ken-5, there were a lot of things I was able to pick up on since I’d had those previous experiences from lead roles, even if it was just in shinjin kouens. I feel like it was a time when I was able to think once more about what I wanted to do from now on. Also, around that time I encountered the role of Death in Romeo et Juliette, and I was able to act closely together with Yuzuki-san and other senior actresses, and also experience what it was like to use my body to express myself without speaking, so it gave me an opportunity to think once again about ‘what it means to perform on stage’.

5 years ago

Episode 1
5 years ago was the 100th year of the Takarazuka Revue. I had the opportunity to be in the year’s opening performance. On January 1st, opening day, Todoroki-san and the Top Stars of all 5 troupes came to address the audience. Even though I was so busy before the start of the performance, I remember that I dashed to the wings to watch them. Also, that was when I was in the Sports Festival with all the Star Troupe members from back then! I can’t leave that out. To put it frankly, we won! (laughs). All of us in the troupe practiced like our lives depended on it. We were saying ‘Chie-san (Yuzuki) has to hold that winner’s trophy!’ I was so exhausted after the tug-of-war practice that my hands were shaking (laughs), but our hopes came true… It was so much fun.

Episode 2
This was the year I was able to perform on the stage of the Budokan. It’s not an experience most people have in their lifetime so I’m really grateful, and being on that stage I was able to see the extent of Yuzuki-san’s performance power and her realm of entertainment, so I suppose I can say that I was impacted at how wonderful ‘entertainment’ is. That I was born to be able to do that left a big impression on me… That performance really made me think about what it is, as a stage performer, to ‘make people happy’.

5 weeks ago

That was the first day when we arrived at the Hakata-za. We had the dress rehearsal for Dark Eyes. It was my first time in the Hakata-za since when I was in Romeo et Juliette at ken-5. The next day we had the dress rehearsal for the revue, but it was my first time ever doing a revue show in Hakata-za, so when the curtain opened for that on the first day I thought ‘so this is what it feels like!’ at the audience’s enthusiasm–it was a really fresh feeling. For dress rehearsals, you have the sets there in front of you, and the costumes on, so you have that day to get used to everything and put everything together, which is a really unique atmosphere, and also you have the quick changes and things on top of that, and all the time has to be used thoroughly, so 5 weeks ago was a really tough day for me, I think. I was thinking about what I’d have to do the next day of dress rehearsals to make sure the audience could have the most fun. And I was a little nervous and also excited about the opening day coming up.

5 hours from now

Today is the first day of rehearsals for Ocean’s 11, so 5 hours from now I might be reading the script, or singing the songs. Of course it’s always both nervous and exciting on the first day of working on something new. This time around it’s a show I’ve already performed in, so I’m used to it, but I want to find something new within myself and work together with all the Cosmos Troupe members to make a new Ocean’s 11 from square one, and today is the first day I’ll be able to go through the script with everyone, so I wonder how it will turn out. Of course it’s not like I don’t have any concerns, but I’m also extremely excited. “I want to make sure the audience will love the final result, so I’ll do my best looking forward to the opening day!” I’m sure I’ll be reading my script with something like that in mind 5 hours from now.