ESPECIAL TIME was a long-running invitation talk feature in GRAPH, where one sienne is given the opportunity to invite someone else.

Aine Harei’s feature, where she invited Koto Marie, was published in the February 2010 issue.

Some of the outtake photos from the back of the magazine are also included.

ESPECIAL TIME: As you like it – Aine Harei and Koto Marie

Aine: Since my classmate Yuuko (Koto) is retiring, I wanted to take this last chance to have a deep conversation, so I picked her as my guest. Welcome (laughs).

Koto: Thank you so much (laughs). I’m so happy~!

Aine: We’re both always so busy with rehearsals and performances and all, so we don’t really get any opportunities to talk.

Koto: Being in different troupes we can’t meet up at all. The best we can do is chat when we pass each other in the hallways.

Aine: Yeah. And at yearly events, things like that.

Koto: We’ve gone out to eat together [at those times].

Aine: You and I are both the only members of our class left in our troupes, so we have to take our chances when we get them… During the 2008 Takarazuka Special we were together basically the whole time, right.

Koto: We were the only two of our classmates appearing, right. So we were together the whole time (laughs).

Aine: Right, right. Even after the show started, we’d be together in the wings the whole time.

Koto: Even when we were watching the dress rehearsals from the audience we were together (laughs).

Aine: Yuu-san (Matobu Sei) told us ‘Are you two people in one?’. It was so fun~

Koto: So fun~. After the dress rehearsals ended, we went out to eat and talked until late in the night.

Aine: That was such a nice time. Somehow I was just so happy, being able to talk comfortably with a classmate. Though I don’t remember any of what we talked about.

Koto: Yeah. But we sure talked a lot.

Aine: We were just focused on talking. Normally, when I see someone with a classmate I’ll think ‘Oh, that’s nice’, so when I’m able to talk with a classmate like this I’ll think so strongly ‘Oh, it’s so nice to have classmates’. We say that to each other all the time, don’t we (laughs).

Koto: Yeah (laughs). The other day, we even ended up having an intense conversation about classmates in the theatre cafeteria.

Aina: ‘Classmates are like…’. But it was such basic things.

Koto: But seriously, classmates are something to be thankful for, and there are a lot of things you notice when they’re gone. Although in reverse, after all my classmates are gone, I started to sense the warmth from everyone else around me so much more. For example, if you have classmates, you’ll rely on them, and during breaks in rehearsals you’ll silently all come to the same decision and go out to eat together. But once all your classmates are gone, people will come up to you and say ‘Where are you eating?’ or ‘Mind if I join you?’, things like that.

Aine: Since it doesn’t feel like you’re butting in any more.

Koto: The first time I ended up all by myself, everybody from the girls above me to the girls below me came to talk to me, and I felt such kindness from the way they looked out for me.

Aine: That’s right.

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Aine: We didn’t really interact much in the Music School, though…

Koto: I was in the dorms, and Miwacchi (Aine) was commuting. The dorm girls all live together so I had all kinds of things going on (laughs).

Aine: The dorm students all seemed to think ‘Oh, it must be nice to live outside the dorms~ you can go home right away~’ (laughs). I think commuter students have their own troubles but after all living in the dorms is really tough, so I often felt a bit guilty, and in the Lower Student lounge I’d be thinking ‘Sorry about this…’, and making myself smaller (laghs).

Koto: (laughs) But Miwacchi is such a hard worker…

Aine: Not at all.

Koto: You’d do independent practice morning and night.

Aine: That takes me back~ (laughs). I remember in an internal ballet recital we danced together.

Koto: We did~. It was some serious choreography wearing toe shoes.

Aine: That’s right. You were a real ballerina, Yuuko.

Koto: Oh, no (laughs).

Aine: My main memory from our debut is Choreographer Kita Hiroshi’s rockette. We were the last class to have Kita do our choreography, and he was so strict, but also so full of love… I really experienced ‘youth’ at that time, and I felt like I had to do my best so I didn’t disappoint the rockette guide girls¹.

Koto: Yeah. Our whole class was healthy and energetic. Even in the main run, we never had anyone miss a show…

Aine: Yeah, yeah. Although there was that one issue…is it okay if I say this? The legendary 83rd class (laughs).

Koto: (laughs) There were so many laid-back girls…

Aine: During the run-through rehearsal, basically all of us were late since we couldn’t get changed in time (laughs).

Koto: Miwacchi, where were you when they started playing the rockette intro? (laughs)

Aine: Probably dashing along the back curtain (laughs).

Koto: Same (laughs).

Aine: Even though 40 people can’t possibly get changed at the same time, we didn’t understand how the timing worked, so everyone was just sitting around in the dressing room until the last moment. And then, “Huh? Wait, aren’t we on after this song?”, and we all went to get changed at once. But that song was only about a minute long, so it was like, are we supposed to do a quick change? (laughs)

Koto: I got my right and left shoes mixed up.

Aine: (laughs). There were girls who didn’t even get their shoes on, and girls missing their stockings and gloves.

Koto: But thinking about it how, why did none of us realise ‘Oh, it’s about time for us to get dressed’?

Aine: For nobody to realize out of 40 people is a scary thought, right. And because of that, the moment the revue started [in the main run], we all went to get changed (laughs).

Koto: Right, right (laughs).

Aine: I think that was really rude to Choreographer Kita on our parts.

Koto: Just awful.

Aine: I guess we can’t laugh about this story just yet.

Koto: We can’t… After we were assigned to our troupes, we went on the Berlin tour at ken-4, right.

Aine: That takes me back! That was so much fun. All I can say is “I had so much fun!”

Koto: Me too! (laughs)

Aine: In our dressing room we were with all the girls from the classes below us.

Koto: They were so funny.

Aine: We were all excitedly chattering.

Koto: We had 1 show per day at 8 PM, so we just played around until then.

Aine: Back then we definitely didn’t have any fear of the stage or awareness of our responsibilities.

Koto: We just singlemindedly felt ‘This is fun!’. Back then we were able to have fun without thinking about anything. And now…

Aine: We have more things we’re considering, huh. That just seems normal now, but I think back then might have been when we were enjoying ourselves the most both on and off stage.

Koto: Now, we wouldn’t be able to be so noisy. We’re being careful about our throat and body condition.

Aine: We weren’t thinking about our health at all (laughs). Well, we were young so it worked out, I guess.

Koto: We were fine even if we barely slept. It was like, who would ever oversleep! (laughs)

Aine: Why should we waste time sleeping! we thought (laughs).

Koto: It was so much fun. Also, this wasn’t so long ago, so we can’t forget: the Japanese Dance Recital from 2007!

Aine: Oh~, gosh, that wiped me out so much, I was doing all I could just to survive (laughs).

Koto: You were in the middle of a Grand Theatre show so you had such a hard time.

Aine: But you in Star Troupe were in the middle of rehearsals too, right? Whenever we ran into each other we’d say ‘It’s going to be tough but let’s do our best!’. For one thing, we couldn’t remember the choreography at all.

Koto: Right. The ‘space’ was so unique, so I’d be thinking, but when is the next 🎵jingle🎵?

Aine: The choreographers got angry with us all the time.

Koto: And of course they would. It wasn’t even a question if we could dance it well, we couldn’t even learn the choreography.

Aine: But thinking of it afterward, it was really fun.

Koto: The real show was so fun.

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Aine: Right now, you’re in rehearsals for your last Grand Theatre performance. How do you feel?

Koto: I don’t feel like anything’s different. I feel so deeply grateful for these 13 years… Sometimes I was just trying to survive so I missed what was happening, and then when I noticed, it had been 13 years (laughs).

Aine: I get it. When we were junior actresses, the ken-13 seniors seemed so far above, but once we reached that level ourselves, it was as if we got there just a few steps from when we started running.

Koto: Right, right. It’s not just these 13 years we stumbled through somehow but our lives, maybe…

Aine: We really have put it all on the line here.

Koto: Right, and that’s why it seemed to go by so fast. I think up until now so many things have happened that would be reasons to retire, but in the end I didn’t want to leave behind any regrets. I love Takarazuka too much, so I feel like if I left any regrets behind I’d never be able to come see a show again… Because of that, the timing of when to retire is so important to me, and up until now I wasn’t able to make that decision, but now I don’t have any regrets. If I don’t fulfill my time in my beloved Takarazuka, I don’t think I’ll be able to be happy in my next life either. So right now, I’m enjoying myself, rather than feeling sad.

Aine: Everyone retiring says that, don’t they. Everyone seems to have this ‘happiness aura’ coming off of them. Like they’re satisfied and fulfilled and now they’re graduating… It’s sad to be always seeing people off, but everyone graduating is always so dazzling, so I’m sure they’ll be so happy in Act 2 of their lives.

Koto: What I want to say to everyone who is still here is to make sure you’re fulfilled… I think if you feel like you might have the slightest regrets remaining, you shouldn’t quit yet. Also, when I look at the junior actresses in rehearsals now, they’re so cute I can’t stand it. When I see them just recklessly trying their best, I think, ah~ I was like that once too~. There are all kinds of ups and downs, right? There were times when I would be given a junior performance lead role, and then in the next production I would get a named role or lines or anything. At those times of course the shock would get me really down emotionally, but there were so many people who helped me even then. So I think it would be really nice if something I said could help them pick themselves up and keep trying. This might be kind of preachy, though (laughs). But I think you naturally start thinking that way when you get to be a senior actress.

Aine: Yeah. But it’s hard to figure out the timing of when to reach out to someone and that sort of thing. Everyone’s different, after all. There are things you can’t understand if you haven’t been in the same position.

Koto: And people thing about things in different ways, too.

Aine: But along with things like that, Takarazuka is full of people who will help you grow, or quietly watch over you, it really is such a warm place. It almost makes you want to cry when you notice.

Koto: It’s so warm. This is such a nice place~

Aine: Yeah~ I really feel that (laughs).

Koto: I’m really looking forward to going to see the shows after this.

Aine: I’ll be waiting.

Koto: I think I’ll come all the time.

Aine: Please do (laughs). Also, make sure you come to the class reunions.

Koto: Yeah! Miwacchi, thank you for being such a good friend and classmate.

Aine: The same to you. Yuuko, make sure you look after yourself right up to the end, and make sure you enjoy yourself without any regrets.

Koto: Yes. I was so happy you invited me today.

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1 – Usually a few young members of the troupe the new class debuts with will assist with rockette rehearsals.