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.

This edition was written by Sahana Mako, and talks about events backstage of The Rose of Versailles: Fersen.

(Sahana consistently refers to otokoyaku with male pronouns and honorifics; this is not a translation error but her personal writing style, as is the various bold text, strikethroughs, etc.)

Snow Troupe Troupe Report, Sahana Mako

I saw Mr. Sou about to head into the corridor of the dressing rooms, so I set his slippers out nicely for him.

Sou: Oh! Thank you so much! I thought you were just going to hurl them at me.

The public image of your reporter is so poor.

Sou: If you did I was going to do this amazing roundhouse kick at you. I pay things back 100 times as a rule.¹

“Sou will pay you back for pranks at least four times,” Mr. Misuzu had told me darkly, but it seems there has been a massive escalation. But, the declaration and her special move gave off the unfortunately unshakeable impression of an elementary school boy.

Our dressing room has been extremely lively, chiefly due to our mischievous Count Fersen. In the large dressing room Mr. Sagiri falls off his dressing table chair with a yell 1 or 2 times a week…but the atmosphere is so mild that we can accept even this unusual scenery with a smile. And while we were all in the midst of this frivolous life our Rose of Versailles special guests arrived.

Our guest from Star Troupe, Mr. Yuzuki, is in a Top Combi Dream Couple with Miss Yumesaki. And [Yumesaki] is the for-real older sister of Miss Manaka.

Your Reporter: So then this makes Yuzuki basically your brother, right, Ayucchi?

Manaka: !? No, no, not a bit.

Your Reporter: But you must feel like, ‘Oh, brother~!’ right?

Manaka: !? Uh, she feels like the Top Star of Star Troupe.

This is too normal to be borne. She could put herself in this priceless little-sister position and instead she’s just like any other person in the world.

On the other hand, when I found a chance to ask Mr. Yuzuki how he felt about things, it was such a trivial question to ask him so suddenly that he stared at me in silence for 4 seconds. Then he answered very clearly.

Yuzuki: Yeah. I think of her as a little sister.

There, Miss Manaka. Come and run into your brother’s arms with an adorable innocent smile!!

Yuzuki: Actually, this would make Sou part of my family too, right.

This is true. A family full of such mystical star power seen from the point of view of a normal family would be so resplendent that they could outstrip even the Bourbon Dynasty. Now I just want to go home.

Yuzuki: Were you so serious about this question?

I give up.

As we were learning many things from our guests, the days passed so quickly that Spring ended before I noticed.

Sou: Today we were talking in the leader’s room about how hot and humid it is and ways to get through it.

They’re thinking of how we can all keep up our health while performing…it’s something to be grateful for.

Sou: We could tell ourselves we’re performing in Indonesia. With durian in our dressing room lunches…

As your reporter watched him almost fall over laughing and imagined the intense scent impact of the Prince of Fruits durian spreading through the boiling dressing room, she began to feel faint. Even though there wasn’t anything smelly anywhere.

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1 – ‘I pay things back 100 times’ is an extremely popular Japanese meme of 2013, from a catchphrase in the business drama Hanzawa Naoki.