This account of the junior performance of The Path of Light was published by Daily Sports Online on November 28th. The original article can be found here; (archive link here) there are a couple photos so I encourage you to click through and give the publishers some traffic!
Snow Troupe: Aya Ouka has first lead role immediately after troupe transfer – ‘There’s no time to be nervous!’
The junior performance of The Path of Light: Revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre took place on the 28th in the Takarazuka Grand Theatre in Hyogo. Aya Ouka, who transferred from Star Troupe in August, had the leading role.
It is the sixth year since her stage debut. In her Star Troupe junior performances she had proved her skill in many roles including 2 successive performances as second level star. Upon transferring to Snow Troupe, she had her long-awaited opportunity for a lead role. When she introduced herself as “Aya Ouka of Snow Troupe,” emphasizing the troupe name, she received great applause from the whole theatre. “Everyone in Snow Troupe received me warmly and [main cast Top Star] Nozomi Fuuto-san instructed me thoroughly,” she said gratefully.
Ms. Nozomi advised her “You have 1 hour and 35 minutes to bring Robespierre to life.” As Ms. Nozomi is one of the best singers in Takarazuka, world class songwriter Frank Wildhorn scored all of the songs. Ms. Aya sang all of those difficult songs; “It was more sheet music than I’d ever seen before,” she said, looking back.
While she said normally “I get nervous easily,” this time was different. It felt like “There’s no time to be nervous!”’ She worked hard with the responsibility of a lead role, and was able to bring a calm, confident performance.
This is also the first heroine role for Jun Hana, who plays Marie-Anne. “I was able to show my love and support for Robespierre on stage, and in the wings, and even during costume changes,” she said with a fresh-faced smile.
This interview with brand new Top Star Tamaki Ryou and Top Musumeyaku Manaki Reika was published in the January 2017 Kageki issue, timed with the opening of their first Grand Theatre show, Grand Hotel/Carousel Rondo.
Since they were in TMS together for a year and spent their entire careers in Moon Troupe there are a lot of cute details about their beginning days!
chemicalperfume kindly helped with translating and editing.
New Moon Troupe Top Combi interview: If we’re all together we’ll do fine!
Tamaki: When Chapi (Manaki) was a Lower Student at TMS, you were just so slender, almost as if you were about to vanish, but all my classmates would say you were super cute.
Manaki: No, no, no (laughs). I don’t remember a thing about that.
Tamaki: Well, I don’t expect anyone would have told you directly. It was just a thing that spread among the Upper Students. Anyway, though Chapi started out as a musumeyaku, you switched to otokoyaku halfway through your Lower Student year, right? When that happened, all my classmates were shocked – one after the other they were like ‘Her hair’s short now!!’ ‘She’s becoming an otokoyaku!!’
Manaki: Gosh, really?
Tamaki: But once you became an otokoyaku, you became really sharp and handsome.
Manaki: No way. At the entrance ceremony I caught sight of Tama-san (Tamaki), so I ended up being a bit aware of you.
Tamaki: No! Seriously?
Manaki: You had your uniform on, and you were like my image of THE Upper Student, with your hair all slicked back (laughs).
Tamaki: Of course (laughs).
Manaki: You were so tall, and I was like ‘that’s what an otokoyaku is~’ I really admired how you looked then.
Tamaki: I see (laughs)
Manaki: And after that, when I was a Lower Student…
Tamaki: The Salad Incident!?
Manaki: Yeah (laughs)
Tamaki: During an orientation session you started feeling really bad. I was like ‘Oh no! She’s gonna collapse!’ so I went right to a convenience store and bought a salad to give you – I was thinking ‘At least she should get some vegetables!’ (laughs)
Manaki: Even though we weren’t at all acquainted or anything before I started at TMS. After that I thought of you as the ‘Salad Onee-san [Older Sister]’ (laughs). I was really grateful to you for helping me back then. And then when everyone’s tasks were assigned, I was chosen to be exempted.
Tamaki: Right, right. There were various different cleaning tasks, so while that was going on after the Upper and Lower Students had returned to the dorm, there was time to hang out and chat, so there were a bunch of you I would talk to including Chapi.
Manaki: I really remember those times.
Tamaki: When we joined the Revue and were junior actresses in Moon Troupe, otokoyaku Chapi was a real go-getter, you were like ‘no matter what, I’ll give 200%!’ I thought you must love the stage and being an otokoyaku. In Last Play you had a little comical scene, and you gave it your all; I thought you did really well (laughs). And of course since you still had a very cute, childish look, a lot of the senior actresses were very fond of you so they’d be like ‘Chapi, Chapi~’
Manaki: Not at all. Actually, I feel like I was too obstinate and went too far sometimes.
Tamaki: In the junior performance of Prince of the Land of Roses you had my role, right? Hummingbird.
Manaki: Yes. I remember following you around through the whole performance run. You hadn’t changed much at all since you were an Upper Student – you were really clever and worked hard.
Tamaki: That’s not right (laughs)
Manaki: You gave me a lot of really clear, precise advice.
Tamaki: Oh?
Manaki: When you were in ‘on mode’. But when you were in ‘off mode’ you were more, I don’t know, gentle? Tender? That kind of feeling (laughs)
Tamaki: (laughs) After you switched to musumeyaku, when we had the Junior Performance of Edward VIII together, Chapi seemed really overloaded.
Manaki: Probably. I don’t have any memories of it.
Tamaki: While of course it’s great to be given such a big role, it was probably too much of a burden for you back then. Since you seemed to be desperately trying to hold out I tried not to make you exhaust your energy. I thought ‘since we’re just one class apart, it’d be good if we can just work together without overthinking things or having to be nervous around each other’.
Manaki: I could really tell that you were trying to look after me, but really, it was just so much that I could hardly manage anything. And besides, the play was really tailored specifically for Kiriya (Hiromu)-san, and Aono (Yuuki)-san.
Tamaki: It was hard! I remember in the second half, there was a scene in a bar or something where we both come a little undone and say what we’re really thinking, a really adult scene – that was really difficult and I remember we had to rehearse it over and over again.
Manaki: Yes. It wasn’t something kids could get (laughs).
Tamaki: Yeah, a ‘would you be my mistress?’ kind of conversation (laughs). It was like ‘what kind of mental state should we be in to deliver these lines when we’re ken-4 and ken-3?’ (laughs) We both grew a lot during that, and we went for the rehearsals wholeheartedly. But when Chapi became Top Musumeyaku, we didn’t interact much any more. When I’d see Chapi I’d be like ‘there’s our Top Musumeyaku!’
Manaki: No way, why~ (laughs)
Tamaki: Last year, for the national tour of Passion: Jose and Carmen and Apasionado!! III, we had a ton to do and very little rehearsal time, so this time it was my turn to have a lot on my plate. But ever since you were a junior actress you’ve been able to act from the heart, so I was always looking forward to see what you would do with comments from Director Sha and how you would change yourself. My role is a really challenging one but I actually formed a vision of how I wanted to do Jose rather quickly, so while I worked on that, as I saw the direction Chapi’s Carmen was taking I would think ‘I should rethink what I’m doing.’ It was really fun.
Manaki: I struggled a fair bit, so it took me over a week and a half (laughs), maybe two weeks, before I finally had a grasp on things and was able to relax somewhat, but then too I felt like Tama-san was being really generous and waiting for me.
Tamaki: In the revue, I really like the sort of drama-like ‘Valentino’ scene where we danced together. For the lions scene, in the first place the distance we could go varied by the theatre we were at (laughs), so that was a struggle.
Manaki: We had to run like animals, didn’t we? Well, they were animal roles in the first place (laughs).
Tamaki: Ever since then I’ve really felt how awesome it is to do the duet dances together, like the exhiliration of the moment where our energies completely synchronize, and the feeling of making the scene together. I really enjoyed the finale duet dance as well; it was like sparks were flying.
Manaki: Me too. I’ve loved duet dances ever since I was a fan, so I’m super fussy about them (laughs). Therefore I’ll go all out no matter what the duet dance is.
Tamaki: Really. During the tour once, when we were on the bus you gave me some sweets, right?
Manaki: I found some sweets that you like so I thought ‘I have to give these to her!’
Tamaki: And then in order to return the favor, I gave you some iron-fortified juice (laughs) I was like ‘should I pick this?’ (laughs)
Manaki: I picked up on the message that I should be getting more iron (laughs).
Tamaki: And then there was that one bit in Legende du Roi Arthur (laughs)
Manaki: Right! (laughs)
Tamaki: We hadn’t had such a ‘stereotypical’ Takarazuka script before, either of us. Lines like ‘Ow! My heart!’ were a bit embarassing at first (laughs)
Manaki: When I saw the dialog for that scene the first time, I was like ‘huh!?’ When I said it I hesitated a tiny bit first.
Tamaki: Neither of us can do affectations like that.
Manaki: That was really hard.
Tamaki: There was kind of a strange atmosphere in rehearsals.
Manaki: We’d be like ‘sorry, can we have a time-out?’
Tamaki: We kept bursting out laughing, and when we couldn’t figure out what kind of feelings we should be putting into the lines, we went to Takarazuka mega-fan Wakaba (Saotome) and she told us what the fans’ point of view would be.
Manaki: We were like ‘so that’s it!’
Tamaki: It was a real struggle, but the fans who came to watch and our classmates from other troupes said it was really adorably romantic, so I think we did manage to get hearts racing there.
Manaki: I wish I could see that scene from the audience. It’s totally impossible though (laughs)
Tamaki: No, I get it (laughs). Right now we’re in rehearsals for the New Years’ show1, and as we were rehearsing the play I came to the bitter, awestruck realization of exactly how wonderful everyone in the first production was2 and I really took that to heart. Though I felt a lot of pressure to get the foundations down or I wouldn’t be in time, I was full of anticipation to be working together with Chapi. Earlier you said something like ‘it’d be nice if we can keep going on and having fun together!’ I also have a lot of hopes and desires for new challenges in the future.
Manaki: here used to be times when I pondered about how I should be in this brand new Moon Troupe, but right now I don’t have time to spend on that, since I’m so busy with the rehearsals. Every day, I can feel how much everyone in the troupe is concentrating on putting the show together and I think it’s a wonderful thing. Just recently, when we were working on the prologue of the revue, the directors said we were all sparkling, and I was so happy to hear that!
Tamaki: I was really happy too.
Manaki: While there are a lot of things we have to do, I’m really excited.
Tamaki: Right. While we struggled a lot together, and sometimes we had nothing but worries…of course it’s not like we don’t have any worries at all even now, but I think if we’re with everyone in Moon Troupe we’ll do fine. They’ve made it so we can keep going without changing. I think a lot about how I can repay the love I’ve received from everyone. I think I want to put myself out there, without decoration, and take on both the troupe and the show – I mean that in a good way. Especially now, I really want to give 120% in every task I’m given and always do my best!
1 – Grand Hotel/Carousel Rondo.
2 – Suzukaze Mayo’s 1993 production of Grand Hotel.
This write up on the fist day of Flower Troupe’s latest show was published by Daily Sports Online on Jan 1. The original article can be found here. (Archive link here.) There are several photos as well so by all means give them some traffic!
Please note that I have not seen the show and am mostly unfamiliar with the source material, so I hope I understood the references properly.
Some mild spoilers ahead!
Opening of ‘The Poe Clan’ in Takarazuka – High praise from original creator Hagio Moto: ‘I could go over and over’
The Takarazuka Revue Flower Troupe’s production of The Poe Clan opened on the 1st in the Takarazuka Grand Theatre in Hyogo prefecture. It is based on the manga of the same name, first published by manga author Hagio Moto in 1972, which has gathered many fans up to the present day. Top Star Asumi Rio plays the immortal Vanpanella boy Edgar, in a world that unfolds as if it was taken straight from the manga.
Due to the great number of fans of the original work, Ms. Asumi has taken great pains with her appearance. ‘His curly hair is very impressive, so I was very particular about the wig and also the blue contacts,’ and as she said she uses blue color contact lenses onstage. ‘For the vampire scenes I want to convey the beauty of the world of Poe and of Takarazuka’, she said, expressing her confidence in the aesthetic scenes created for the show.
Ms. Hagio, who saw the show, was ecstatic. ‘I felt like my head and heart were going to burst. It was all so beautiful it seemed straight out of the manga.’ As lines from the original work were used directly in the dialogue and theme songs, she said ‘It’s a bit embarrassing. I’m very emotional about it,’ seeming to blush as she covered her cheeks with her hands. ‘The last scene where [Edgar and Yuzuka Rei’s character Alan]1 go out through the window gave me goosebumps. The scene where [Edgar and Alan are saying] “I wish…” was amazing. I might end up going over and over just to see those two scenes.’ She is totally in love with the show.
Sakihi Miyu makes her acting debut playing her historic Takarazuka senior, Otowa Nobuko!
It was publicized on the 24th that Sakihi Miyu (26), former Top Musumeyaku of Takarazuka’s Snow Troupe who retired this July, will be making her debut as an actress in the Asahi mid-day drama The Story of Koshiji Fubuki (Mon-Fri 12:30pm airtime), which starts in January of next year.
In the drama, Takimoto Miori (26) plays the famous post-war star Koshiji Fubuki (died 1980, aged 56), a former Takarazuka Top Star1 and singer who was called ‘the Queen of Chanson’, in the story of her life. Koshiji performed as an otokoyaku Top Star in her time in Takarazuka, and after retirement recorded many hit songs, such as ‘Hymne a l’Amour’.
Ms. Sakihi plays Koshiji’s Takarazuka classmate Otowa Nobuko (died 1994, aged 70), who became a famous actress after retirement. As Ms. Sakihi is making her acting debut playing her historic senior, who also performed as Top Musumeyaku in Snow Troupe, she is unusually motivated. Her acting skills have been highly praised since her time in Takarazuka, so she stands out as a performer.
In the storyline of the drama, Ms. Sakihi, who returns to her ‘old haunts’ to play her character from her time as a Takarazuka Music School student, says emotionally “everything’s new to me, but everyone helps me out and I am learning new things every day.” Regarding the responsibility of playing the famous actress Otowa Nobuko, she says “as I watched various materials of hers I started thinking that she was a really alluring person. I’m also explaining to Ms. Takimoto, in my own way, how precious the relationships between otokoyaku and musumeyaku are.” As she has the most personal experience, she is advising Ms. Takimoto, the lead, about Takarazuka.
“I am aiming to become an actress like a Jack-in-the-box, someone who will make people think ‘she’s such an interesting person’,” she says about her future ambitions. As she uses her great talents from Takarazuka to brighten this drama, she is rapidly climbing the stairway to stardom as an actress.
1 – While the article uses the Top Star/Top Musumeyaku terms, and Koshiji and Otowa were leading performers, the terminology is not historically accurate as the Top Star system dates to the 1970s. However, Japanese sources often use this terminology for older stars for ease of comprehension.
To the Future is a small GRAPH interview of junior actresses. This one was published in the June 2017 issue.
To the Future: Karen Yui
Profile Debut: April 2015, 1789, Les Amants de la Bastille Nickname: Yui Birthday: September 6 Hometown: Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture Offstage interests: Watching all sorts of musical films
First Takarazuka show: It was Elisabeth, starring Mizu Natsuki. I loved it and watched the DVD constantly, so much that the cover got all beat up.
School clubs: I didn’t enter any clubs, and every day after school or on days off I went to a dance school. If I hadn’t started dance I don’t think I would be who I am today.
Motivation for taking TMS entrance exam: The first time I saw Elisabeth I fell in love with the gorgeous world of Takarazuka, as well as Mizu Natzuki and Shirahane Yuri’s acting, so I thought ‘There’s nowhere else for me!’
Memories of the debut performance: Since I was given the opportunity to appear in the play as well, I was able to see how amazing the senior actresses were up close. I was moved and surprised every day.
A role that had a deep impression: Frieda Flamme [Flaemschen] (Main cast: Saotome Wakaba/Umino Mitsuki), who I was given the opportunity to play in the shinjin kouen of Grand Hotel. While everything was new to me, I was able to fully experience how fun acting and getting into character is, and I was very happy to live as Flaemschen.
Senior actresses I admire: Maihane Mimi-san and Shirayuki Sachika-san. I respect their way of thinking and behaving as musumeyaku, and I love them for being such bright and wonderful people!
Dreams as a performer: I want to become a stage performer who can perform in such a way that if gives happy feeling to the people who come to see Takarazuka.
This is an talk between Beni and Coto during the run of The Scarlet Pimpernel, published in the June 2017 issue of GRAPH. It’s pretty in-depth and very fun!
chemicalperfume helped with editing and translating! Many thanks as always <3
This is a short article reporting on the October 10th red carpet of Thor: Ragnarok. The original article was published by Sponichi and can be found here (with some photos of Amami meeting various cast members). (Archive link here.)
Please note: there is some discussion of the Las Vegas shooting.
Amami Yuuki meets Oscar-winning actress she admires for the first time in L.A. – “I’m so inspired”
On the 10th (the 11th in Japan Time), actress Amami Yuuki (50) participated in the Los Angeles world premiere of Thor: Ragnarok (dir. Taika Waititi, opens Nov. 3d). In the Japanese dub, she provides the voice for the character played by Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett (48), the ‘goddess of evil’ Hela. Amami, a big fan of Cate, met her for the first time on the red carpet. “I’m really inspired,” she said, bursting with happiness.
She deeply respects Cate’s talent, which has won her two Academy Awards, as a fellow actress. So much so that in January of this year, she flew to New York to see Cate’s first time taking on the challenge of Broadway in The Present. Cate wore a close-fitting gold dress, and as she approached the red carpet Amami said “she’s here, she’s here, she’s in gold,” with sparkling eyes.
Amami said in English “I’m actually your dub voice actress. I’m so honored,” and Cate replied excitedly “Oh my god! You are? I want to go to Japan right away and hear you!” After the premiere, during a question session, she smiled and said “since I’ve worked for so long listening to her voice it’s as if she’s not a stranger at all. I’m so moved that I was able to meet her.”
Due to the effect of the shooting incident in Las Vegas on the 1st, there were metal detectors set up at the authorized participants’ entrance. There was such strict security that someone working on the film said “I don’t remember there ever being this level of security before.” Amami said “the people who were victims – I have no words,” but also stated “part of our job is cheering up people who are down. When I see all the people who came here today, I’m really glad we were able to hold this event.”
There’s a section in Kageki called ‘Words and Pictures’ where one sienne from each troupe is chosen quarterly to write about behind-the-scenes episodes from their troupe. (It’s slightly similar to Troupe Report, but longer and with more turnover.)
Kujou Asu was the Snow Troupe writer for the second quarter of 2017. In this one she talks about events backstage of the rehearsals for Bakumatsu Taiyouden, including Sakihi Miyu’s last Takarazuka birthday party.
Asu’s Snow Troupe Forecast! – May 2017
Hello to everyone reading this May issue of Kageki – nice to see you again.
Once again, it’s time for this month’s edition of ‘Asu’s Snow Troupe Forecast!’ After turning in the manuscript for last month, I thought I could relax and do a leisurely search for material, but before I knew it it was time for the next issue…in any case, here’s this month’s report on our harmonious Snow Troupe~ Enjoy ✨
Happy happy happy Birthday
This happened during rehearsals.
The day was March 16th. And March 16th is…Bingo! Yuumi-chan’s (Sakihi’s) birthday 💖
When rehearsal ended and everyone was taking a break, suddenly all the lights of the studio went out and… An adorable cake made its entrance, accompanied by the Happy Birthday song!! Even though she had started crying from the sudden surprise, she still politely thanked the senior actresses – ‘Even while you were all so busy…Thank you so much… 😭’. Just like our Yuumi-chan.
As Yuumi-chan thanked everyone through her tears and we all warmly congratulated her, Chigi-san (Sagiri) approached. And what was Chigi-san holding but…a bouquet of cute pink roses!!! Yuumi-chan was so happy that she started crying all over again…and then, Chigi-san picked up the delighted Yuumi-chan in a bridal carry 💖 They were such a lovely pair that all the Snow Troupe members totally forgot how tired we were from rehearsals and got teriffically excited, and started taking photos as if our lives depended on it. Yuumi-chan seemed so happy to have Chigi-san there for her for her last birthday of her time in Takarazuka…and all us Snow Troupe members were delighted she shared that happiness with us 💖
Translating [T/N: This as you can guess caused some issues…I mostly went with whatever result kept it funny]
One day, I discovered that Riisha-san (Tooma Kazuki) had been reading aloud from an English-language novelization of Romeo and Juliet that a fan had given to her, translating it into Japanese as she went along. However, it ended up as an adorable jumble of Japanese and English… Momo-san (Momohana) told me about it, laughing all the while, so I thought I’d share a little bit here.
‘Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin’ > ’Romiozu cousin’s Benvolio’ …That just made it more complicated.
‘lightning [sic] candles, putting the finishing’ > ’Kyandoru raitingu, puttingu finisshingu’ …So basically you didn’t translate at all!
‘I want you to marry him’ > ‘Go ahead and marry him, dearie’ …That’s just a mess (laughs)
It’s a shame I can’t show you more than this, but I’ve got a feeling Riisha-san has the potential to give me some really high-level funny material, so I’m keeping a close eye on her from now on 💖
We couldn’t bring ourselves to stop her
This happened while we were learning choreography for the revue…
‘Good morning!’ Anko (Anno Konomi) arrived with a refreshing smile on her face. But when she put her knee to the floor to start her warmup! A small run in her black tights near her knee totally ripped open!!! When she noticed, Anko started simultaneously panicking and laughing at herself. None of us otokoyaku there could help, since otokoyaku don’t wear tights as a rule. ‘Ahaha…they ripped! Ahaha…’ It was as if it had happened to somebody else.
Anko thought desperately…thought and thought and suddenly hit on an immediate solution. And that solution was: to color the part of her leg that showed through the hole with permanent marker!! After that she was like ‘alright!’ and started the rehearsal in good spirits. But, though this seems really obvious…once she started dancing the hole and the colored part didn’t stay lined up… Since the person in question was really dedicated to learning the choreography she didn’t notice herself (laughs). Since I was next to her I would say ‘it’s showing’ and off Anko would go to color her leg again.
Personally, wouldn’t it be just fine to leave the hole alone? Surely it would be a pain to get the pen off afterwards…that’s what I thought, at least, but Anko seemed so happy and satisfied with herself that nobody had the heart to stop her…
In search of material
With the ‘Words and Pictures’ deadline coming up, I randomly asked Ai Sumire, who was next to me, if she knew anything fun I could add. But, I soon realized it was a mistake to ask her… She ignored how diligently I was searching for material and just sang ‘🎵 life itself~ is fun~ 🎵’ Definitely…definitely Ai Sumire is a really fun person. Just hearing that little song, I laughed and forgot I was disappointed.
After that, Anri (Hoshino), who had seen what was going on, came over. ‘Asu-bro, why don’t you use some of my material~’ I would gladly write tons, but…do you, specifically, have any material? When she heard that reply, she turned to some classmates of hers nearby and pleaded ‘Somebody~ do some kind of funny mistake I can use for Words and Pictures material~ 💦’ Come on, what’s the point of that?! But Anri was really cute when she did that so I got her to let me use this anyway 💖
How did you enjoy the second edition of ‘Asu’s Snow Troupe Forecast’? See you next month~ 👋
In this feature from Kageki, several siennes talk about skills they have that they don’t get to show off on stage. The May 2017 issue featured Kozakura Honoka, Suou Mahiro, Hoshibuki Ayato, and Saezuki Runa.
THE Otokoyaku was a Kageki feature from 2016 where Top Stars talked in-depth with up-and-coming otokoyaku stars about their acting styles and behind-the-scenes history. The Snow Troupe edition, published in the May 2016 issue, featured Sagiri Seina and Tsukishiro Kanato (prior to her transfer to Moon Troupe).
