This interview with Asazuki Kiwa was posted by Sports Hochi on August 12, 2021, just before the opening of CITY HUNTER/Fire Fever!. The original article was written by Tsuitsui Masaya [estimated name reading] and can be found here (archived link here).
A grand adventure for midsummer of her 12th year! Takarazuka Snow Troupe’s new Top Musumeyaku Asazuki Kiwa – “I won’t lose focus on what’s ahead”
The Takarazuka Revue Snow Troupe’s new Top Musumeyaku, Asazuki Kiwa, is currently taking on her debut show in Takarazuka’s headquarters, CITY HUNTER – The Stolen XYZ/Fire Fever!. For this heroine role in her twelfth year since entering the company, her expansive career history is her secret weapon. As the partner of new Top Star, Ayakaze Sakina, 3 classes her senior, the two of them are leading the new Snow Troupe together. “I want to stand firmly next to Ayakaze-san as she keeps going straight ahead. I won’t lose focus on what’s ahead.”
The ‘Sakikiwa Combi’ is sweeping a fresh breeze into the Grand Theatre this midsummer. This is their real start after the end of their national tour in June. “There are more things we need to do, and time is moving faster, but amid all that I’m doing each and every thing properly as I always have.” While holding on to her self-possession, she is directly tackling this much-talked-about work, which has attracted intense attention even from outside Takarazuka fandom.
CITY HUNTER is the first stage adaptation of the manga City Hunter, which ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1985-1991. Asazuki plays Makimura Kaori, the partner of Saeba Ryou (Ayakaze) who is a Sweeper, working to ‘clean’ underground society in Shinjuku. “She’s boyish and has a short-tempered side, but she also has feminine qualities that make her charming. I can also sympathize with the way she can’t get her feelings across, as a fellow ‘bundle of awkwardness’.” As she says this, the difference between her gentle aura and the spirited Kaori make her many-layered career history evident.
This spring, as she started her 12th year in the company, she became Top Musumeyaku. This makes her the ‘latest bloomer’ in recent years after Nagisa Aki, who ascended to the position of Top Musumeyaku of Star Troupe in 2001, during her 14th year. She says herself “to be honest, I was extremely surprised” to be selected, but “I hope that what I’ve done and seen working as a musumeyaku over the last 12 years comes through.” She recieved messages saying “Don’t waver and believe in yourself,” from OG members of her 96th class, Kano Maria (Flower Troupe) and Sakihi Miyu (Snow Troupe) who also experienced being Top Musumeyaku1. “They’re comrades and seniors who I respect. Their presence gives me so much strength.”
She grew greatly through her unusual series of transfers, moving Flower Troupe>Snow Troupe>Flower Troupe>Snow Troupe. In Flower Troupe she felt “Fastidiousness about everything” and in Snow Troupe “The optimistic power to take on new challenges.”
“It’s so rare to have this kind of experience. I was able to observe objectively and discover the appeal of the troupe that I wouldn’t have been able to notice while I was in it, and gradually the ‘awareness’ within myself keeps growing.”
And of course this learning process is continuous even now. “Maybe it’s part of my nature, but I think my determination to try anything without giving up, and keep pushing through, is second to none.”
This is her ‘reunion’ with Ayakaze, who was the first performer she experienced being paired up with in Snow Troupe. This time she is in the position of leading all the other troupe members. Ayakaze told her “I don’t want you to follow me, I want to run together with you beside me.” She focused herself: “Everyone else in Snow Troupe is following Ayakaze-san’s back and putting off wonderful energy. I have to define more clearly what I should be doing and keep moving forward.”
She is asking herself once again what it means to exist as a musumeyaku. “I feel so euphoric when I’m dancing with an otokoyaku. I hope the audience can experience the same feelings…I always value those moments like my treasures.” When she was a girl, she saw Takarazuka as she was worrying about what path to take in life, and she was excited by it: “There’s a place where people express themselves like this. I’ll challenge myself here.” Touching hearts is her foundation.
Her stage name is also filled with these thoughts. The given name was decided long before – “Hope [kibou] and Peace [heiwa]. They go together wonderfully. I always wanted to be named Kiwa (laughs),” but ‘Asazuki’ which feels like something out of an epic poem’s description, has deep meaning. “When I was in the Music School, when I would get to the school early in the morning, the moon would still be shining in the autumn sky, you see. I loved that sky. I felt that I want to be a presence that will remain in the hearts of the audience even after a full night has passed, so…”
CITY HUNTER plays in the Takarazuka Grand Theatre, Hyogo, until September 13. It is then scheduled for the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre from October 1-November 14. [Asazuki] will be shining brightly until autumn from center stage.
Lively display of the 100-ton hammer
One of the highlights of CITY HUNTER is Kaori’s famous comeback gag “the 100-ton hammer”. If Ryou starts making a move on one of the female clients…wham! It’s attracting attention from the audience with its exact resemblance to the manga and [Asazuki’s] lively form. “The hammer is the ultimate level of Kaori’s jealousy. When she surpasses the peak of her emotions then it comes out. I want to build up lots of that charge within me as I’m swinging the hammer,” she smiles. “Even in the rehearsals, I’m studying to make sure it doesn’t end up looking like I’m just pounding mochi,” says Asazuki, highlighting her ‘full swing’ performance.
Asazuki Kiwa
Born January 6. She is a native of Tokyo’s Setagaya ward. Her Takarazuka debut was THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL in April 2010, and she is a member of the 96th class. After being assigned to Flower Troupe, she performed 2 junior performance heroine roles, and had her first outside theatre2 heroine role in MY HERO (2017). In August 2017 she was transferred to Snow Troupe. In November 2019 she returned to Flower Troupe, where she performed as the heroine in Masquerade Hotel in 2020, and in November of that same year she moved to Snow Troupe once again. In April of 2021 she ascended to the position of Top Musumeyaku. She is 163cm tall. Her nicknames are ‘Hirame’ and ‘Kiwa’.
1 – They are not the only 96ths to become Top Musumeyaku but it unclear if Asazuki only mentioned them as representatives of the larger group or if they were the only ones who contacted her.
2 – Meaning in a theatre not in the main Takarazuka complex.