This article covering Todoroki Yuu’s retirement press conference was published by Kobe News Next. The original article was written by Kataoka Tatsumi [estimated reading] and was originally published here on March 18. (Archive link here.)
Takarazuka Revue – Torodoki Yuu’s retirement press conference: as herself to the end
Todoroki Yuu, Takarazuka Revue special advisor and Senka member, held a press conference in Osaka on the 18th, after announcing her retirement on October 1 of this year. With an open expression as if everything was as usual she said “As I have until now, I want to keep enjoying myself onstage to the end while working together with my fellow performers.”
Todoroki was born in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture. She discovered Takarazuka when she saw it on television, though it seemed so distant that she even thought “it was a bunch of foreign men acting in fluent Japanese”. However, her fire of longing to join that dazzling world would not be extinguished, and when she entered middle school she decided to enter Takarazuka.
Todoroki said that she asked her middle school music teacher to play the sheet music of the repertory songs included with the application papers for the Takarazuka Music School, so she could figure out what the melodies were like. She was sure she failed the exam, but as she was in a taxi back to the airport, she told the driver “I’ll just go and see for memory’s sake,” and went to the results announcement. She said she was shocked when she found her own test number. “That driver was the first one to tell me ‘Congratulations!’ so I still remember that even now”
She debuted in March of 1985 with the Moon Troupe production If There’s Love I’ll Live Forever. In 1988 she transfered to Snow Troupe, becoming Top Star in 1997, and in 2002 she transferred to Senka as the successor to Kasugano Yachiyo, who has been described as ‘the greatest pride of otokoyaku’. As Senka star, she appeared in many productions, leading her juniors along. She excells in singing, dance, and acting, and the overwhelming presence she exudes on stage captured the hearts of many fans.
“35 years is really too long, so it’s hard to pick shows that stand out in my memory,” she said, but looking back she said that roles such as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, which has been called her masterpiece, and Reverend King in JFK, are “memorable roles” for her.
She decided on her retirement around September of last year. There was no particular inciting incident: “I realized in my heart that the time had come,” she said. “I’m grateful to Chairman Ogawa Tomotsugu, and everyone else who respected my wishes. She has no plans to continue as an actress, and what she will do post retirement is undecided.
In July, she will star in the Star Troupe performance ‘Gesaku’: Heir of Basara, which will be produced in the Umeda Arts Theatre Drama City and Tokyo Arts Theatre Playhouse. In the play, written and directed by Ueda Shinji, she will play a man full of a sense of justice, living in the Edo era. After that, the end of her career will be decorated with hotel dinner shows held first in Osaka in August and then in Tokyo in September. This is because of her desire to “say farewell to the fans properly from close up”.
When she moved to Takarazuka, “I thought that I wouldn’t have a farewell recital or a descent down the Grand Stairs,” said Todoroki. “I want to be myself to the end and welcome the last moments.”
Finally, when the reporters asked “Do you have marriage plans?”, she said jokingly “Well, actually, it’s a non-celebrity, so as for the name, I can’t really…that’s as far as I thought that one through1…I’m taking applications.” The hall was filled with laughter.
1 – Todoroki is riffing on the obligatory ‘marriage question’ of retirement interviews here, rather than expressing any earnest plan to marry.