This book is a memoir of Aran Kei’s time as a member of Takarazuka, as well as her post-Takarazuka career and memories of her childhood. It was published in 2010 to commemorate the 20th year of her stage career. It also features messages from Takarazuka classmates and other colleagues and theatre artists she has worked with.
Some paragraph breaks have been added to make it more readable in English.
Message from Ohwada Miho – “When I was watching her, I was her fan, and, when I performed with her, I became an even bigger fan”
Ohwada is a native of Tokyo. She made her debut with the 2003 musical PURE LOVE. Since then, she has concentrated on the stage, but also made a wide variety of appearances, including television dramas, variety programs, films, and commercials. Her recent appearances include the stage productions Final Take, Bocchama, Wadai Hakkenden, Wonderful Town, Glass Mask, Yume No Namida, and The Woman in White, the television drama Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, and others.
In my family, my mother and I were huge Takarazuka fans, so we would always watch Touko-san’s shows. Therefore, I was delighted when I heard I would be able to perform with her in Wonderful Town, playing sisters! Although when I was a child I was able to eat with her once, I felt so comfortable upon my first time meeting her as a fellow actress that I came to like her so much immediately.
Touko-san had so much influence on me in rehearsal as well. When I would mess up my tone a little she would kindly say ‘you’re doing fine!’ even though her vocal skill is so high, or, if she saw that I had some trouble with the direction or choreography, she would try it herself first before giving me her advice. Seeing her doing things like that time after time, I feel like the whole cast naturally resolved ‘let’s follow along after Touko-san!’
Even though she must have been dealing with so much since she was playing the lead herself, the one who would always encourage us all when we were tired and say ‘Okay! Let’s do our best!’ was Touko-san. And although it might have seemed like sympathy for her unpopular older sister character, we all knew how much thoughtfulness there was inside that older sister, so we would tell her in real life she’d be really popular.
In our ‘girly talk’ during meals we’d talk about our ideal partners and things like that. Seeing her a little bit tipsy, walking along holding her umbrella in one hand and singing, was so cute. A younger sister can’t be happy if her older sister isn’t married off first, so I hope she’ll do something about that (laughs). Please always be my ideal older sister and my ideal actress, Touko-san.