Troupe Report is a Kageki feature where an appointed reporter will write about current events in the troupe or ask troupe members for questions to answers sent in by readers. Reporters are generally only replaced on retirement, unlike other backstage features that rotate monthly or quarterly.

Snow Troupe’s Troupe Report has been written by Sahana Mako since 2012. The April 2017 edition focuses on Snow Troupe’s performance of One Night of Stars/Greatest Hits! in Nagoya’s now-closed Chunichi Theatre.

Snow Troupe Troupe Report, April 2017

One day, Mr. Sagiri wore a very chic kimono to the rehearsal room for One Night of Stars.

Your Reporter: “That’s lovely. The design looks like tapirs.”

Sagiri: “Thank you! But I really hate tapirs. They’re scary. And the thing about eating dreams is really weird, too.¹”

We went to the Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, which had all kinds of those fascinating creatures. Here is also where you can find the famous ‘hottie gorilla’, Shabani. Among the Chunichi performance cast members who gathered on their day off, there were several who said ‘If he’s hot, who cares if he’s a gorilla’.

One of this group was Miss Sakihi, who demonstrated a terrible gorilla imitation that would one could never imagine from seeing her proper stage presence the day before.

Your Reporter: “Are you looking forward to seeing Shabani?”

Sakihi: “Ah…n-no~o…”

To Sakihi, who was able to see the ultimate hottie Sagiri up close day and night, a gorilla was just a gorilla, in the end.

After thinking about the animals he wanted to see a little too much, Mr. Souno chose Koala Curry (Editorial Note: There are no koalas in this!) He couldn’t suppress his appetite, so he used his influence as a senior actress to drag everyone to a restaurant before we could enter the park. It was very tasty.

All of us instantly fell in love with Shabani and kept going on about him.

On the other hand, there was Mr. Hoshou, who had insisted on joining even though he had another task he should have been doing. All he wanted to do was see the seals, but he somehow ended up stuck with looking at Your Reporter’s most favorite animal, the aardvarks. In the end, although he wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing the crocodile exhibit was, he ended up leaving without being able to see the seals.

Mr. Ayanagi: “I want to see the bears~”

He’s definitely only seen plush teddy bears before. Real bears are ferocious carnivores—beasts that resemble a demon summoned from Hell. In order to help Mr. Ayanagi see reality, I headed to the bear shed with him, but the only bears there were calm, small species of bears.

Ayanagi: “Ah~! Oh my gosh, they’re so cute~.”

All I can do is pray that if he runs into a brown bear in the woods one day, that he doesn’t immediately try to hug and pet it.

The next day, I reported on the zoo trip to Mr. Sagiri.

Your Reporter: “Those tapirs you hate are actually really cute, you know?”

Sagiri: Huh? But I haven’t talked to you about tapirs, Kyabii? I don’t hate tapirs.”

Apparently the tapirs didn’t just eat her dreams but some of her real memories, as well.

Also, this is what Mr. Sagiri said after carefully examining a photograph of Shabani.

Sagiri: “…Well, he can’t really be called a hottie, can he!! Yeah, he’s totally ordinary. Even if people say he’s cool, he’s just a gorilla anyway!!!”

He looked away from the photograph immediately.

Your Reporter: “Are you…maybe a little jealous?”

Sagiri: “…Well, everyone goes on about how great he is all the time.”

With the appearance of such a dangerous rival, Mr. Sagiri spent an anxious spring with a heart full of disturbance. Meanwhile, Your Reporter has begun earnestly researching the importation and care of aardvarks. Mr. Hoshou is backing away slowly.

1 – In Japanese folklore, there is a tapir-like creature called a ‘Baku’ which consumes dreams – sometimes it is shown as a benign creature that destroys nightmares, but sometimes it is portrayed as more dangerous.