This interview with Sagiri Seina, former Top Star of Snow Troupe, was published by Oricon on October 5th. (Archive link here.) The original article was written by Uehara Kahori, and there are many pictures on the original website, so please click through!

Former Takarazuka Top Star Sagiri Seina reveals her struggles 2 years post-retirement

Sagiri Seina was formerly the otokoyaku Top Star of the Takarazuka Revue’s Snow Troupe, and currently has a career as an actress and TV personality. While in the Revue, she was an otokoyaku beloved of many Takarazuka fans, setting historic records such as ‘5 successive [Grand Theatre] shows selling over 100% capacity’. Now, 2 years after retiring from Takarazuka, she is beginning to increase the breadth of her professional activities, including announcing that she has signed with a talent agency and the publication of her first book. We asked her about aspects of her time in Takarazuka that she can only talk about now, the difference between ideals and reality as regarding the otokoyaku she longed to be, how she spent the first two years after her retirement, and her plans for the future.

2 years post-retirement spent being active and recharging

Oricon: In August of this year, you announced that you had signed to a talent agency. Can you explain your motivations for the timing of this ‘new start’, 2 years after your retirement?

Sagiri: Ever since I was 14, I had been pouring all my passion into my dream of “I want to be an otokoyaku” come true, so I had to deal with the idea of “do I really have passion left to put into anything else?” for a while after retiring. After 2 years, I discovered a new ‘future self’, and I realized that I could go at my own pace without stressing about just ‘passion’, so I started to think that it was fine to just be flexible with what I was doing. A big part of it is that I realized I want to do more different things, and that I should do more things, I think.

Oricon: We heard that in the 2 years after you retired, you tried a lot of different challenging things you weren’t able to do before.

Sagiri: I tried kickboxing and bouldering. I think I want to try learning karate next. I had to avoid skiing while I was in Takarazuka. Therefore, I’d like to try going skiing again sometime. Basically I’ve been enjoying lots of physical activity. Also, while I was a member of Takarazuka, I didn’t have the spiritual composure, or the time, to go and see non-Takarazuka stage productions. After retiring, it made me happy just to sit and watch a movie while eating popcorn, and I also went to watch a lot of musicals and prose plays. Also, I was able to go hang out at Disneyland after holding myself back while I was in Takarazuka!

Oricon: You hadn’t been able to go until then?

Sagiri: While I was a junior actress, I would go as many times as I felt like, but once I was put in a position where I had responsibilities, I started to think that it would be better to take the energy I’d spend on a Disneyland excursion and use it in performance instead (laughs). Now I’m able to put that energy towards other things. I’m relaxing and enjoying myself to the utmost. That’s how I’m spending my time. The 2 years after my retirement were like a recharging period for me.

Oricon: So it took you 2 years to recharge fully, is that it?

Sagiri: Now that I think about it, I did need all of that time. The first year, I whole-heartedly enjoyed just feeling the four seasons change. “Wow, the Japanese summer is so hot!” and “The cherry blossoms are incredibly beautiful,” and “It’s so great to see everyone out enjoying their flower viewing,” I’d think about all of that. It took about a year to regain my identity as a Japanese person and as a human being.

Oricon: How did you spend the second year?

Sagiri: During that time I was trying to regain my original self as a woman. While I was already doing some stage performances and TV appearances right after retiring, I kept thinking “I have to make sure I live in a way that doesn’t disappoint my fans as a former otokoyaku”, so I think I was straining myself a bit. Once I got to the second year, I was able to relax and realize “even without the ‘backbone’ I gained from Takarazuka, I’m still me.”

If I hadn’t become Top Star, I might have stayed in Takarazuka as long as they would let me

Oricon: In any case, it seems that retiring from Takarazuka after 17 years in the company must have been a huge decision.

Sagiri: Retiring from Takarazuka was a huge turning point in my life. In Takarazuka, passing things down to the next generation is very important. That’s something that I felt while I was in Takarazuka as I saw watched various Top Stars and would see them off as their junior, so I feel that as Top, the timing in which I passed that baton on wasn’t merely up to my own desires…

Oricon: If you had been able to choose your own time of retirement…?

Sagiri: If I’d had to choose for myself, I think I would have gone forever without being able to make the decision to quit. Maybe I was only able to retire because as Top Star I had to pass on that baton to the next generation… I felt that Takarazuka was the only place that would let me be the ‘otokoyaku’ I had always admired, so I might still be there forever (laughs).

Being praised on things I felt were my weak points gave me confidence

Oricon: Upon becoming Top Star, you set a record by having 5 successive shows in the Takarazuka Grand Theatre run at over 100% capacity. Due to your making a record like that for the first time in Takarazuka, just hearing the name Sagiri Seina makes me think of your brilliant career, but what do you think looking back on it?

Sagiri: When I was younger, I had an internal concept of the ideal otokoyaku I wanted to perform as. I wanted to be a really dependable, powerful kind of man. But no matter how much effort I put into performing, I realized that I couldn’t play the kind of male characters that I admired. It took me some time to accept that there was a difference between what I wanted to perform, and what I was capable of performing.

Oricon: Did you try things to become closer to your ideal?

Sagiri: In Takarazuka, [otokoyaku] dance wearing 7-cm heels, but since I was so self-conscious about my short height I would add another 1 or 2 centimeters on top of that. I felt like just that wasn’t enough, so during my first couple of years, I would also do my hair so it stood up really high. The more energy I was putting into seeming tall, the higher my bangs would get (laughs). But little by little I realized that this looked really imbalanced and wasn’t doing me any favors. I was putting too much effort into the wrong things while trying to cover for my height.

Oricon: What was it that led to you accepting ‘the difference between ideals and reality’?

Sagiri: When I received praise for attributes that I had considered by shortcomings. When people would tell me “You’re so small, but your dancing is so big!” I thought “I look big even though I’m being compared to really large people!” and gained a lot of confidence. Also, when a hometown friend came to see me, they said “Since you’re little, I can spot where you are right away!” which made me think “Maybe this is actually a lucky thing!?” and start to see what I had such a complex about as an advantage.

I want to show my juniors that you can do well for yourself even after leaving Takarazuka

Oricon: Now that you have retired from Takarazuka, is there someone you see as a goal to emulate?

Sagiri: If you asked me “What kind of person do you want to become”, I actually don’t have anyone I could point to and say “this person”. Of course there are lots of people I think are amazing, and lots of people I admire, but as for my ‘ideal’, since I’ve had so many experiences of failure to achieve an ideal, I think I want to find what only I can do and aim for that.

Oricon: From talking to you today, it sounds like you might demonstrate a new path for life as a Takarazuka graduate.

Sagiri: I want to walk a path that lets all the girls who are currently in Takarazuka look at what I’m doing and think “Even after leaving Takarazuka we’ll be alright.” Since I served as the ‘face’ of Takarazuka for three years, I want to fulfill that responsibility thoroughly.

She dreams of marriage to someone she can walk through life with while mutually encouraging each other

Oricon: Can you tell us about your prospects for the future or things you want to challenge yourself with?

Sagiri: There are still tons of people who have never heard of Sagiri Seina, so I want to take on work that lets me appear where those people can see me. I’m being taken good care of by an agency that seems like they’ll be able to help me achieve that reality, so it’s exciting to think that I’ll have more of those opportunities coming up. I’m determined to do everything I can as an expressive performer, so my current dream is to challenge myself in all kinds of ways and have more people know me.

Oricon: Finally, is there something you want for your private life?

Sagiri: Marriage! (laughs) Before I signed with the agency, I told them “One day, I hope to get married.” I think being married would feel really different compared to my current unmarried state. I want to experience that feeling. I think having someone I could walk through life with, mutually encouraging each other, and personally creating a new group of companions called a ‘family’ with someone would definitely be a joyful experience.