One of the behind-the-scenes comics from the December 2015 issue of Graph. (The feature it accompanied is not yet translated.) ‘Fuwari’ was a musumeyaku interview feature where the guests for the month go to a cafe and chat, or in Miyu’s case, hunt for fashion tips…
This article about Ayaki Hikari’s performance in the Golden Desert junior performance was published by Daily Sports Online on November 30, 2016. The original article can be found here.
Takarazuka Revue Flower Troupe: Classmates in leading roles – “I felt very much like a beginner…” says Ayaki Hikari
The Takarazuka Revue Flower Troupe’s up-and-coming young star, Ayaki Hikari, had her first solo leading role in the junior performance of Golden Desert, which took place on the 29th at the Takarazuka Grand Theatre in Hyogo Prefecture.
In the last Flower Troupe show, Me and My Girl, she shared the lead role of the junior performance with Yuunami Kei between Act 1 and Act 2, therefore this is her first ‘solo’ junior lead. In this performance, the lead role was written specifically for the Top Star, Asumi Rio: “Of my life and stage experiences, this is among the hardest,” Ayaki reflected.
She said that Asumi advised her “the script should be pinpoint accurate, but other than that the approach is up to Aka [Ayaka’s nickname].” Regarding the shifting sets and quick-changes, Ayaki said firmly “even above getting immersed in the play, it’s important to continue considering safety.” On the other hand, “I felt very much like a beginner, but then when the audience applauded I was like ‘gosh, are they looking at me?’ and I was really moved,” she said, finally smiling.
The heroine was played by Ayaki’s classmate, the musumeyaku star Shiroki Mirei. This show is the retirement performance for Top Musumeyaku Kano Maria, who gave Shiroki vigorous encouragement, telling her “think ‘I don’t care if I die today!’ and perform it like that.” Describing how she had advanced, Shiroki said “thanks to that I was really enheartened. I’m going to do much more with that kind of intensity, not just here but in the future.”
This junior performance served as the reunion for the stars of the Takarazuka Music School Culture Festival1. “Since Shiroki has a lot of experience in the heroine roles I was thinking I could rely on her to prop me up but she helped me stand on my own two feet as an otokoyaku,” Ayaki said gratefully. Shiroki also said with some surprise “she’s come so far…she’s like a senior otokoyaku.”
Since this marks seven years since their debut performance, with this show the 6 members of the 96th class in Flower Troupe will be graduating from junior performances. As representative of the 96th class, Otohane Emi stated, looking back on their progress since debuting, “while this is a more private matter, this is the last junior performance for us 96th class members. While our journey so far has not always been easy, we intend to keep working hard to support Flower Troupe.”
1 – A recital culminating students’ 2 years in the Takarazuka Music School.
The source for this was provided by tumblr user yoz0ra. The issue of TCA press it is from is unidentified.
An invitation talk feature from the September 2017 Graph, where Yuzuka Rei chose to do an interview with former Flower Troupe member Nozomi Fuuto.
Continue readingThis article about Misaki Rion’s press conference for her upcoming retirement was published by Daily Sports Online on August 24, 2016.
Misaki Rion’s retirement press conference: “It went by in a flash”
Cosmos Troupe top musumeyaku Misaki Rion, who has announced that she will be retiring in April of next year, held a press conference on the 24th, at the Takarazuka Revue headquarters in Takarazuka, Hyogo prefecture.
Misaki appeared at the interview wearing Takarazuka’s ‘retirement colors’, a white one-piece dress. “Ever since becoming top musume, I’ve always been aware of [upcoming] retirement,” she said; she was the partner of two successive Top Stars, Ouki Kaname and Asaka Manato.
She seriously began thinking about retirement on opening night of Asaka’s Grand Theatre introductory performance as Top Star, A Song for Kingdoms. “It was a wonderful script, and I had a very large role, and I could feel our power and passion as a unit,” she declared.
After discussing the situation with Asaka, she revealed that “Even in rehearsals and such, I’ve been valuing each and every day still more. If you take it since I entered the Takarazuka Music School, it’s been 10 years. It really went by in a flash,” she said, with tears coming to her eyes as she looked back.
Ouki Kaname’s words, “I want you to be my equal,” had a deep impression on Misaki. Also, she is grateful to Asaka, who “welcomed me with open arms.” Regarding what she will do after retirement, she said with a smile “I’m not thinking of anything about that yet. I want to carry through my life in Takarazuka first.”
Her retirement performance will be Chateau de la Reine/Viva! Festa!, which will run at the Takarazuka Grand Theatre from 2/3/2017-3/6/2017, and at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre from 3/31/2017-4/30/2017.
Conclusion of the Snow Troupe survey feature about Sagiri Seina published in the June 2016 issue of Graph. (Part 1 located here.)
Continue readingIn this Graph feature from 2016, the troupes were surveyed about their Top Stars with the results ranked. Sagiri’s was published in the June issue.
Due to the length, this feature is posted in 2 parts. The second can be found here.
Continue readingIn That’s RanKING!, a multi-year Kageki Top Star Q&A feature, the Top Stars rank each other based on various questions. The 2016 version of the column has questions sent in by readers.
This month’s question: Who knows the most about bugs?
That’s RanKING! – Who’s in first place?
For 2016’s monthly corner, we use questions sent in from readers and ask each Top Star to rank who most matches each month’s theme by sharing their impressions 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: Who knows the most about bugs? (Question from ‘Elmer’)
Snow Troupe – Sagiri Seina
First place is Maa-kun [Asaka]. That’s because she’s from Saga! [Laughs] There are bugs in Saga, right? They’re in Nagasaki too! …I guess I wouldn’t want to have someone say that to me [laughs]. Michiko-san [Hokushou] seems to have a lot of knowledge about stuff, so even though she says she doesn’t like bugs I feel like she knows about them, so she’s in second. I’m fine with bugs but I don’t know that much about them, so guess I might be third. Fourth place is Masao [Ryuu], and fifth place is Mirio-chan [Asumi]. Masao doesn’t mind bugs but I don’t think she’s interested in them either, and I feel like Mirio-chan hates bugs.
Star Troupe – Hokushou Kairi
First place is Ryuu-san, because she seems she’d know a lot about colorful insects. Second place is Chigi [Sagiri], since I think she would have caught bugs when she was little. I see Asaka-san as being in third place. To tell the truth, I actually detest bugs, and I don’t know much about them so I’m last place. I didn’t hate them so much when I was little, but when I was in the Takarazuka Music School I was cleaning a balcony once, and from a cherry tree, a fuzzy caterpillar—… Of course I couldn’t scream, and I twisted to try and shake it off, but I had to keep going… I kept cleaning while I was practically fainting, so after that I was really traumatized [laughs].
Cosmos Troupe – Asaka Manato
Hokushou-san! If you flipped through the pages of her memory, I feel like she would have a whole page full of memories about bugs, all ‘Oh, so bugs…’ kind of things. Chigi-san is from Kyuushu, which has a lot of nature, and I think she definitely caught bugs when she was little! I’m also from Kyuushu so I’ll be third for the same reasons. A long time ago I used to catch cicadas, but now I can’t stand them. I feel like Mirio would be like ‘Mr. Bug, stay away~’ [laughs]. And I see Masao as having very little interest in bugs. ‘Oh, there’s a bug, huh,’ that kind of image.
Flower Troupe – Asumi Rio
First place is Chigi-san, since I think a bug catching net would suit her. I think second place might be Masaki-san [Ryuu]. She has a favorite bug: she said ‘rhinoceros beetles are really spirited’ so I think she’d be like that [laughs]. Third place is Hokushou-san. She seems to know a lot about bugs, and would be able to tell you ‘in this area these bugs are likely to appear’. Since I grew up in the countryside, if I see a bug I generally know what it is, and I’m not scared of them…but I’m not an expert.
Moon Troupe – Ryuu Masaki
Somebody who knows a lot about bugs…? Maybe Maa-kun. Well, I say she knows a lot, but I feel like if you asked her about bugs she would get really into it and research all kinds of things. Second place is Chigi-chan, since she definitely seems like she fits the ‘outdoorsy’ image. Micchan is in third place. Even if she personally doesn’t like bugs, she knows about a lot of different things so I think she’d definitely be able to tell you about bugs. I can’t stand bugs at all. I think Mirio doesn’t like them at all either. But if there was a bug on my clothes or something, I think she’d have the courage to get it off for me…
In this feature from Kageki, siennes look back at their career and pick out roles that had an effect on their growth as a performer. This one was originally published in the November 2015 issue.
Stage Turning Points: Yuzuka Rei (Flower Troupe)
Yuzuka’s Turning Points
April-May 2009: Love, That Is… – debut
May 2012: Chikamatsu: Journey on the Road of Love (Bow Hall) – Tokubei
‘A role where I felt a sense of ‘space’’
In this production, I didn’t play a human, rather the puppet Tokubei, the main character of Love Suicides at Sonnezaki. However, the part sometimes required me to dance as if I had been endowed with human life. It was an abstract role, where I did not speak and only communicated through dancing, so if I was not aware of the mood and ‘space’ around me, I felt as if it wouldn’t work.
Since I had not had many chances to perform traditional dance in Japanese-style productions, when I was onstage the lights and music gave my performance strength. That performance changed my sense of ‘space’ and my onstage presence. It was that kind of role.
February 2013: Ocean’s 11 (junior performance) – Terry Benedict
‘A performance that changed my methods of character-building’
I thought this was a really appealing part, so when I was told I would be able to perform it in the junior performance I was really happy. Up until then, I had always thought ‘I suppose I’ll have to do it this way’ or ‘I guess I’ve got to do it that way’ about my roles, but with Benedict, I thought ‘I’d like to do it like this’ or ‘I want to perform more this way’, so it changed my character-building methods.
This was my first performance in a sharp-cut suit, and while until now I’d had mostly young boys’ roles, the part of Benedict was a strong, manly, grown-up villain. I learned a lot about how to stand and such from Fuuto-san, who played him in the main production.
September 2013: A Song of Love and Revolution: Andre Chenier (junior performance) – Carlo Gerard
Carlo was a part I really liked. I liked Asumi-san’s performance even right after she transfered to Flower Troupe, so being able to play that part made me really happy. I found the various aspects of this role really appealing: he was a boy who became mixed up in something as he went along with his ideals and sense of justice, so he’s a really human, passionate individual.
June-July 2014: Nocturne: Memories of a Long Ago Summer Day (Bow Hall) – Vladimir
‘A part I felt I lived as’
This was my first Bow Hall lead, and Director Harada considered things that only I would be able to do when he put together the script. Even without considering things too hard, I was able to take the stage as Vladimir, and sometimes I felt I was living as him. I enjoyed the show and each day I felt more enjoyment for performing onstage.
August-September 2014: Elisabeth: Rondo of Love and Death – Rudolf (switch role); Der Tod (junior performance)
‘Tons of pressure’
Elisabeth is such a big show, and it’s extremely famous, yet somehow I was able to play Rudolf, as well as Der Tod in the junior performance. This was my second junior lead role, but I felt way more pressure for this part. Of course the songs were really hard, and I struggled with the technical scenes, but the music and the intensity of the performance gave me energy so I felt like that really saved me. When I was in character onstage, I had the sensation that I ruled it all: I had never had an experience like that before with a role. In the main production, I played Rudolf. He’s vulnerable and desperate, kind and honest…I found the character of Rudolf really appealing, and it was a part I liked performing.
July-August 2015: Rose of Versailles: Fersen and Marie Antoinette (Umeda/Taiwan Tour) – Oscar Francois de Jarjayes
‘A performance I felt a lot of power from’
Oscar is the role that represents Takarazuka, and anyone who knows anything about Takarazuka knows about it, so before starting rehearsals I was really worried about how it would turn out. I read the original work and fell in love with Oscar all over again, so even though there was only a short time for rehearsal, I tried to get as close as possible to the original Oscar as I put together the character.
Sometimes I had trouble when things didn’t go as I wanted, but after the Umeda performance ended and the final performance of the Taiwan tour came closer, I was so moved by the final scene at the Bastille that I almost felt as if I had Oscar’s soul. It was a performance I felt a lot of power from: the power of the original work, the power of the music, the power of the script, the power of the characters, and the power of all Oscar’s fans.
In the end…
Looking back on all my roles like this, I’ve realized just how many wonderful characters I’ve encountered. Some of them I would like to try taking on again, but I think all the sensations from when I first performed them would just come over me once more. From now on, I’m sure I will get a lot of roles that I can only perform in that time, so I’m even more determined to give each role my all so I don’t have any regrets afterwards.
One of the behind-the-scenes comics from the December 2015 issue of Graph. (The feature it accompanied is not yet translated.)
