Tag Archives: Article Translation

That’s RanKING! – November 2015

Posted on by
Reply

In That’s RanKING!, a multi-year Kageki Top Star Q&A feature, the Top Stars rank each other based on various questions.

This month’s question: Who do you think is most likely to keep active until late at night?

That’s ranKING! – who’s in first place?

For 2015’s monthly corner, we ask each Top Star to rank who most matches each month’s theme and share images and anecdotes. The votes are calculated with First Place as 10 points, Second Place as 5 points, and Third Place as 3 points. Please enjoy the 5 Top Stars’ variety of answers and stories!

This month’s question: Who do you think is most likely to keep active until late at night?

  • First Place: Sagiri Seina – 31 points
  • Second Place: Asumi Rio – 16 points
  • Second Place: Asaka Manato – 16 points

Sagiri Seina (Snow Troupe)

I really like staying in the rehearsal room until it’s so late at night they’re about to throw me out, so I guess I might be the most nocturnal of us. It’s not that I really have nocturnal habits, but it seems like the darker it gets, the better my body can move (laugh).

Maa-kun [Asaka Manato] seems to keep up the same pace from the time she gets up to the time she goes to bed, so I put her in second place.

In third place is Michiko [Hokushou Kairi] since she’ll decide “This is when I’m going to bed!” and then make all her plans for the day around that.

Masao [Ryuu Masaki] and Mirio-chan [Asumi Rio] seem like the type to do everything at their own pace and just think “I’ll go to sleep when I feel like sleeping.” (laugh)

Asumi Rio (Flower Troupe)

Recently I’ve become way more of a night person, so I think I might be first. My mind is really active from around 11pm to 3am, and even when I return home I’ll end up thinking about my roles for a while and my engine just keeps running (laugh).

I put Masaki-san in second place. When she was doing shinjin kouens, she would always stay up really late rehearsing by herself, so I think she can keep going even at night.

For third place…hmmm, I have an image of her being really passionate, like “I won’t sleep until I do this!” so I think it’s Chigi-san! [Sagiri Seina]

Asaka Manato (Cosmos Troupe)

I think first place is Chigi-san. I feel like she’s always doing everything really efficiently so she would just keep going that way even late at night.

Mirio is in second place. I don’t know if she’s really full of energy, but recently she was saying “even though I have to sleep, I can’t.”

I don’t feel like Ryuu-san or Hokushou-san really stay up that late, so I guess third place has to be me. Even in the middle of the night I’m still pretty energetic. But I can’t handle mornings. Even though I’m called ‘Asaka’1 (laugh).

Hokushou Kairi (Star Troupe)

Ryuu-san is in first place, since I see her as a night person.

Second place is Chigi, I think. She said once that she stayed up watching television and by the time she realized the time it was midnight! (laugh)

I’m in third place: since I have tons of things I need to do, a lot of times I end up staying up until late at night. But since I always wake up early in the morning, I’ll run out of energy at around 11pm, and when I get up I’ll be fighting drowsiness.

Ryuu Masaki (Moon Troupe)

I think first place might be Maa-kun. I always picture her as being energetic even when it’s late.

And then…since Chigi-chan is the type to think “I’ll do what I need to get done” until it ends up getting late, she’s second place.

Since I see Mirio-chan as getting into situations where once it’s night she realizes “Oh, I forgot that!” (laugh) I think she’d definitely end up staying up late a lot, so third place.

I think Hokushou-san would finish everything early, so she probably wouldn’t stay up late very much.

I wouldn’t be able to stay up late, I don’t have enough concentration ability (laugh).

1 – Asaka’s stage name contains the character for ‘morning’ (朝, asa).

Takarazuka Revue Cosmos Troupe’s Top Star, Asaka Manato: the great playwright is “honest and charming”

Posted on by
Reply

This promo article for the Tokyo run of Shakespeare/HOT EYES!! was published in Sankei News on March 5, 2016. The original article was written by Hashimoto Nami and can be found here.

Takarazuka Revue Cosmos Troupe’s Top Star, Asaka Manato: the great playwright is “honest and charming”

Takarazuka Revue Cosmos Troupe’s Top Star, Asaka Manato, is performing until the 27th in the musical Shakespeare: The Sky Filled With Eternal Words, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and the revue show HOT EYES!! at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre. Asaka said “I want to show his honesty and his charming side.”

Shakespeare “has the innocence of a child in adult form,” Asaka declared. “I can understand that, because in this job I want to hold on to my childlike heart and just let myself go sometimes.”

This musical about the Elizabethan playwright who wrote the four great tragedies (such as “Hamlet”) intertwines historical fact and dramatization. The story is about Shakespeare himself, his older wife who was his muse, and his patrons.

At the end of the year before last Asaka went to England for work and visited Leeds. “It somehow has a really natural feeling. Since he was raised in a rural area I wonder if he had that kind of atmosphere too. When I saw a picture of the house he grew up in I ended up getting lost in my imagination,” Asaka said with a laugh. She was also dedicated to her character’s appearance and used her hairstyle to present his wild side. “It’s not a hairstyle I’ve ever done before. It’s because he has tempestuous personality traits that can dominate him.”

On the other hand, the revue show uses the Grand Stairs in every scene for the first time in 33 years. All the performers say it’s like getting a leg workout. “Before we can come down the stairs there’s another staircase [hidden from the audience] with the same number of steps. So naturally we’re growing more muscular.” Cosmos Troupe’s power is increasing.

Looking Back on 2015: Asumi Rio

Posted on by
Reply

One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Flower Troupe Top Star Asumi Rio.

Looking Back on 2015: Asumi Rio

January’s production of Ernest in Love was difficult since it was a comedy, but the whole theatre had a really warm atmosphere and I’m glad we had it as our introductory performance with a new Top Combi.

Embraced by the Seas of Calista was my first original production since I became Top, so I had some concerns, but I took on the challenge with the hope of seizing hold of the audience’s feminine emotions through Ms. Ooishi’s script1. Takarazuka Fantasia was rather hard to perform, but it had the message that the reconstructed Flower Troupe would spread its wings. During the middle of the show when I saw everyone’s smiles as they watched, I was really moved. When we received the annual Group Award for this production2, my emotions were split between tears and happiness.

Since I was performing as Fersen for the second time in the Taiwan production of Rose of Versailles: Fersen and Marie-Antoinette, I figured out some new things and tried to get deeper into the character. During the performance of Takarazuka Fantasia I felt united with the Taiwanese audience members, which made me really happy. I was able to get over my uneasiness about performing in a foreign country since I had all my friends with me, and our bonds deepened as if we were all meant to be together.

The Takarazuka Traditional Japanese Dance Recital was really difficult since I was performing Japanese dance by myself for a long time, but I feel like it was a valuable experience.

Since we had been split into the Taiwan group and the Bow Hall group doing various great things, when we all reunited after a long time for New Tale of Genji the rehearsals were really lively. I was really worried about playing Genji, to the point where I said it was the hardest role I’ve had so far, but I want to work on the performance scene by scene and hopefully by the time the last day comes around I will have a deep understanding of the character. Melodia: A Warm and Lovely Melody has various scenes where everyone gets to shine, even the junior members, and it will be very energetic. Every day we’re working on how to present each scene.

While performing, I make new discoveries about how I consider the stage and how I ought to conduct myself, as well as deepening my connections with the other members of the troupe. I’m really happy that I have such trustworthy friends, and I hope to be someone who can lead them well.

1 – This production was one of two (as of time of posting) written for Takarazuka by Ooishi Shizuka, a non-Hankyu-employed screenwriter who mainly writes for television.

2 – In the Takarazuka Annual Awards, Flower Troupe received the Group Award for scene 10 of Takarazuka Fantasia, “Sakura Fantasia”.

Rose of Versailles Side Story: Alain interview – Matobu Sei

Posted on by
Reply

This interview with Flower Troupe Top Star Matobu Sei took place to promote her upcoming Rose of Versailles Side Story: Alain, and was published in mainstream musical theatre magazine Musical in their September 2008 issue.

Continue reading →

Looking Back on 2015: Hokushou Kairi

Posted on by
Reply

One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Star Troupe Top Star Hokushou Kairi (who had just joined the troupe from Senka midway through the year).

Looking Back on 2015: Hokushou Kairi

Since I’d always wanted to be in a show with a happy ending that had action scenes and a human element to it, Jirokichi of the Wind: Night Flight Over Edo fulfilled all my dreams for years. It had a lot of new challenges, such as fight scenes at a higher level than anything before, so I felt like I was pushing my limits every day (laugh). I’m really glad that I was able to achieve what I did then and have those experiences.

In [Billboard Live]1 there was a lot of pressure since I had to stand on the Billboard stage and put on a performance to match first-class recording artists, but I took on the various challenges with the intention of giving the audience a good time. As a result, it felt like I was performing from a place really close to the audience, and I felt even more than ever that I was able to enjoy the music together with the audience. It was really fun.

And then, in May, I transferred troupes to Star troupe. In the three years before that I had been in Senka, performing with all the different troupes, so I suppose you could say I was gathering a wealth of experience…I’m glad I could go to my new troupe with those assets.

The national tour performance Great Pirates was a show that required a lot of communication between everyone as we were putting it together, so I’m glad I had it for my first production after changing troupes. Amour, That is… fulfilled my dream to show a Takarazuka revue show to the whole nation, so that made me really happy, and I’m really grateful for the new scenes that were put in for this production.

The role of Sky in Guys and Dolls was performed by past Takarazuka stars so I was a bit uneasy about performing it myself, but I decided this was the place to display everything I’d learned until then and fought to perform it well.

In the Takarazuka Traditional Japanese Dance Recital I had the difficult task of performing in “Shooting Star”, a work for 4 dancers. While dealing with that challenge, I understood the real importance of continuous, habitual practice.

I’m going to have a lot of shows giving me new challenges next year, so I’m eager to carry on the traditions of Takarazuka while giving everyone entertainment that isn’t limited by the bounds of Takarazuka.

1 – While she wrote Music Palette (the title of her dinner show in 2014), the details and dates clearly reference her Billboard concert from 2015.

Backstage Journal: Kitori Mariya (The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Posted on by
Reply

Backstage Journal is a short Kageki feature where very young cast members write anecdotes about what’s going on behind the scenes of the productions. They’re not very deep, being full of emojis and more like blog entries than articles, but they are a good way to get to know the newest actresses in each troupe.

This one is by Star Troupe member Kitori Mariya (of the 91 Class), and was published in the August 2008 issue.

Backstage Journal: The Scarlet Pimpernel – Kitori Mariya

Hello everyone! Kitori Maya, writing a Backstage Journal for the second time!
Here I’m going to present some fun episodes from the performance of The Scarlet Pimpernel which started on June 20th.

The too-mischievious Sir Percy ❤️❤️

In this production, Touko-san [Aran] plays an elegant ✨ British gentleman, but every day she would do tons of ad-libs onstage. One of them was a scene where Percy would offer to loan Chauvelin, played by Chie-san [Yuzuki],some of his clothes. Of course!! Touko-san ✨ would do really fun adlibs every day!

One day she said “you should wear a bunny suit~” and hopped towards Chie and Asuka-san [Toono] (who were already on stage) in a bunny pose ❤️❤️ she’s so mischievous 😍
Another time, she said “you should wear a disco ball on your head~” while spinning round and round!!1 Even when she was heading into the wings she kept spinning like a disco ball ❤️
Everyone, make sure you don’t miss out on the rest of Touko-san’s wonderful adlibs!!

M. Grapin is from Kansai!?

In the Miquelon scene in Act 2, there’s a part where Touko-san, who is disguised as Grapin, is kicked away by the captured Marguerite. From opening night, Grapin’s adlibs gradually escalated!
She started out on opening night saying “What are you doing! Hold on to her!” but this changed day by day to things like “What are you doing! That’s scary!” or “If she actually kicked me that would really really hurt, you know!” or “Ahh! Scary!” so they kept becoming more intense. But where would a Belgian spy employed by the French embassy have learned Kansai dialect!? That sort of incongruity is the best! Don’t you think? 😆
Everyone, don’t miss out on seeing Touko-san like this!! Perhaps you’ll end up thinking “Isn’t she like that comedian, ______-chan?”

Everyone’s idol ❤️ Mr. Jessup (Tenju)

I can’t talk about this production without writing about Tenju Mitsuki-san, who played the butler ❤️ One day, Mr. Jessup was working on something really intently in the wings. Then she came near where I was on stage. While we were singing “Tralala~ 🎵 Tralala~” she was raising her hands alternately. After doing that a few times suddenly she had flowers in both hands! That’s right, Mr. Jessup can also perform magic. But she had been working so hard to hide the flowers so her secret wouldn’t slip. It was so adorable ❤️ After that all the junior actresses raced to catch her and made her perform until they were satisfied!!

The Scarlet Pimpernel was so much fun, both onstage and in the wings. Did you all have fun too? Well, now it’s ‘adieu’ until we meet again ✨

1 – This adlib is on one of the recordings.

Looking Back on 2015: Ryuu Masaki

Posted on by
Reply

One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Snow Troupe Top Star Sagiri Seina.

Looking Back on 2015: Ryuu Masaki

My first show of 2015, Gone With the Wind was a restaging of the production from January of last year, so it was the first time I was challenged with taking the same role and starting over from a blank for a restaging. In order to give the show a fresh atmosphere once again, I threw out all the feelings I had absorbed from the first time and worked on creating new ones. It was even harder than making a new role from scratch, but it was a good experience for me as a performer.

Then in April was the opening of 1789: Lovers of the Bastille. Looking back on it now, I feel honored at being able to perform in such a masterpiece, and to be honest I’m glad I did it. But at the time I was working so hard on it that even saying I poured all my energy out on stage wouldn’t cover it. I didn’t have enough left over to even think about anything else. My role of Ronan was rather unusual for a Top Star as he is a commoner, and it seems that a big topic was how I would establish myself among everyone else on stage while handling the challenge of putting together this new kind of role. Another major thing was Director Koike giving me one of the show’s themes as my own song, so I was even more aware than usual of how I was presenting myself while singing.

Dragon Night!!, in September, was my first concert-style performance, and while making sure the audience enjoyed themselves was the main goal, I of course enjoyed myself as well! I let myself run free and enjoyed myself from the bottom of my heart.

The last performance of this year is Manon and Golden Jazz. My role in the play, Charles, has a really complex life, and I feel like it might be the first time I’ve encountered a character like him. It’s the kind of role where I think afterwards I will have grown as a person. Director Inaba wrote the revue show Golden Jazz for me since he said jazz suits me, so I’m really happy about that.

When I think about all the characters and shows I encountered this year, it makes my heart beat fast. It was a year where I confirmed once again how strong the support from the rest of Moon Troupe is. Next year I’ll make sure not to forget to let myself enjoy things, and I hope it will be a year that challenges me even more.

Looking Back on 2015: Asaka Manato

Posted on by
Reply

One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Cosmos Troupe Top Star Asaka Manato.

Looking Back on 2015: Asaka Manato

This year I received a lot of things and I feel a sense of accomplishment. At the beginning of this year was the Tokyo performance of Oath of the Midnight Sun and Phoenix Takarazuka!!. This was Rika’s [Ouki Kaname’s] retirement show, and a lot of other Otokoyaku who were close to my year were retiring, like Oozuki Tooma and Kazehane Reia. It created a really strong feeling in me that I had to take over the Cosmos Troupe that Rika had put together. Despite his limited scenes, my character of Carl feels real, perhaps because his conflict is connected with everything else. It was a long time since we’d had an original revue show, so everyone was really into it. I felt a lot of responsibility as nibante.

In Top Hat there were a lot of things I had to do, especially tap dance, which I was basically a beginner at. It was really hard to get a feeling for it, but somehow I managed in time (laugh). Perhaps because they could tell that while I was enjoying myself I wanted to surpass my own limits, all the troupe members worked hard to put me at ease.

At the pre-event festivities before the opening of A Song for Kingdoms, I felt all the love the OGs had for the work, and once again felt I had to be worthy to take over those feelings. I was really nervous that day, but on opening day I was able to concentrate on performing. While I was performing as Radames I had a really odd feeling, like I wasn’t able to tell any more if I was myself or Radames. While I had some concerns since there were some confusing songs, I felt like everyone else in Cosmos Troupe supported me. I’m really glad that I had this work as my introductory performance.

In September, I appeared in the Takarazuka Japanese Dance Recital, and it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to participate in Japanese dance.

The national tour performance Melancholic Gigolo was another show by Director Masatsuki after a long while, and besides that my character’s relation with Yurika’s [Makaze Suzuho’s] and Misaki’s characters felt really fresh. In Citrus Breeze when we were performing “Energy for Tomorrow” I felt like the intensity and power of everyone backing me up was actually entering me.

Next year we open on New Year’s Day1, and I hope we are able to be a splendid highlight to the start of the year. Since the play is about Shakespeare, it’s a topic that people from many different areas are particularly interested in. For both the play and the revue show, we want to put together a good performance without making any compromises.

1 – This was the 2016 production Shakespeare and HOT EYES!!.

Which Side are you On? (August 2008)

Posted on by
Reply

Kageki’s monthly feature for 2008 asked each Top Star which they would pick of 2 different options. This issue asked about summer fireworks and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Which side are you on? August 2008

Q1: Which do you prefer when enjoying fireworks?
A: Firework displays
B: Handheld fireworks

Q2: How will you experience the Olympics?
A: On TV
B: On location

Matobu Sei (Flower Troupe)

Q1: B (Handheld fireworks)
When I was little, I really liked the fireworks that looked like octopus legs. When I set the one firework stick alight, bam! it would split into tons of different parts. But recently I haven’t really had the time to play with fireworks.

Q2: A (On TV)
I guess I’ll be watching on TV. I feel like we have similar mindsets with athletes. Especially in women’s volleyball, where the players are chasing after their dreams in a world of only women… I think their dedication and lifestyle is really cool. I’m fascinated by how intense the pressure must be since it’s a world where getting medals depends on how the game goes.

Sena Jun (Moon Troupe)

Q1: A (Firework displays)
I want to watch big fireworks being launched from a multi-story building. When I’m in town at the time of the Takarazuka fireworks display, I always watch from a high place. Since I don’t do well in crowds, I find a deserted spot in a multi-story building and have the fireworks all to myself.

Q2: A (On TV)
To be honest I’m really not that interested (laugh) but if I was going to watch it would be on TV. I watch figure skating since it’s pretty (laugh). I like watching TV documentaries about how it’s not just the results of a match, but in what way each person is striving, and the mentality they use to deal with the competition.

Mizu Natsuki (Snow Troupe)

Q1: A (Firework displays)
I want to watch fireworks being launched at a firework display. Recently, of course I really enjoyed the firwork display at the Muko river1. While I was watching it from a dressing room of the theatre, the noise and the synergy were so intense…I was really moved. I also feel like fireworks create a really good atmosphere, where people passing through who have never seen each other before come together to share the excitement over one thing.

Q2: A (On TV)
If I went to the stadium, all I would be able to watch was the soccer matches, so I’d rather watch on TV where I can see the highlight scenes that summarize a variety of events… This year I’ll enjoy myself just watching the good bits of the Beijing Olympics (laugh).

Aran Kei (Star Troupe)

Q1: A (Firework displays)
Handheld fireworks are fun, but of course I want to see big fireworks… When I’m watching fireworks being launched, I don’t care how far away I’m watching from as long as there’s only a few people there (laugh). When I was an upper student2 I went to see a firework display in Yokohama that was really amazing… It’s left the largest impression on me of any firework display I’ve ever seen.

Q2: B (On location)
Since I’ve never been able to watch the Olympics on location, I really want to experience what that feels like. My favorite event is gymnastics. While of course this goes for all the events, it’s something I absolutely couldn’t do, and it seems like for gymnastics the level of physical ability required is especially high… I’m most interested in the women’s floor exercises.

Yamato Yuuga (Cosmos Troupe)

Q1: B (Handheld fireworks)
For ages I’ve loved buying a big set of different kinds of fireworks and have tons of fun with it. When I was in elementary school I went to play with fireworks after a scary test of courage… I really like the kinds of fireworks where you’re not sure what it’s going to turn into and it ends up being something wonderful you couldn’t have predicted.

Q2: A (On TV)
While the idea of cheering from the stadium is appealing, it seems like it would be really time-consuming, and since on TV there are easy-to-understand explanations of what’s going on that would be better. I really like doing sports myself as well as watching them, so I want to gather a whole bunch of people in front of the TV to cheer.

1 – The Muko River runs directly past the Takarazuka Grand Theatre.

2 – Students in their second year at the Takarazuka Music School.

Looking Back on 2015: Sakihi Miyu

Posted on by
Reply

One of the yearly retrospective features from the December 2015 issue of Kageki, featuring Snow Troupe Top Musumeyaku Sakihi Miyu.

Looking Back on 2015: Sakihi Miyu

In Lupin III–Chase the Queen’s Necklace!, which blended Takarazuka with Lupin III, I played Marie Antoinette, who is a frequent character in Takarazuka, but that show looks at her from a very different angle from Rose of Versailles, as a woman with her own human weaknesses, so my impression of Marie Antoinette really changed. In Fancy Guy! every scene had different themes so I was challenged with different songs and dances and learned a lot.

For the part of Tamayuu in the Hakataza production Man of Starlight, the biggest challenge at the beginning was the Kyoto dialect. I played a woman older than Sagiri’s character of Okita Souji, and I had a lot of people teaching me how I should act and the atmosphere I should have. I really gave it my all. While it gave me a lot of trouble, it’s a part I’m very fond of now. Also, I feel like I was more deeply into Fancy Guy!, perhaps because I’d been performing it a long time starting with the Takarazuka Grand Theatre performances. It was wonderful to be able to spend time performing in my beloved Kyuushu.

The character of Sen in One Night of Stars changed the ideas about musumeyaku roles that I held until then. It was a role I had to take on as a new woman. Director Ueda [Kumiko] told me a lot about the things she thought were important while putting the show together. La Esmeralda has a really escapist feeling so it was a show that was very fun to perform.

The national tour performance “Sorrowful Cordoba” that I’m rehearsing for right now is really a struggle. I’m fighting to display burning passion not just on the outside but from my core. La Esmeralda is a complete change from that so I really want to show everyone what a real Takarazuka revue show is like.

For next year’s Rurouni Kenshin we’re working to not just reproduce the visuals of the manga, but to show its deeper aspects in our performance.