Tag Archives: Feature: Looking Back

Looking Back on 2015: Ryuu Masaki

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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

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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!!.

Looking Back on 2015: Sakihi Miyu

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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.

Looking Back on 2015: Sagiri Seina

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

Looking Back on 2015: Sagiri Seina

To be able to perform on New Years’ with the first show of Takarazuka’s 101st year, as well as have the first Grand Theatre show for new Yukigumi, and have so many people come and enjoy the production of Lupin III/Fancy Guy! is, I think, the best start we could have asked for. Since everyone was so familiar with the original work, pressure was high, but I feel like I was able to adapt to the setting and to the character of Lupin. Everyone in Snow Troupe joined in with ideas to make a show with a strong comedy element.

Fancy Guy! is a really grown-up, dramatic revue. Since this production was Daimon’s [Nozomi’s] first show as a member of Snow Troupe and also my classmate Yumeno Seika’s retirement performance, I thought it was a performance that could only have happened at that time. And during the Hakataza performances, everyone from Kyushu was very happy to see a lead couple who were both from Kyushu.

In Man of Starlight I was able to play the Shinsengumi swordsman, Okita Souji, which I was really happy about, of course. Fancy Guy! was very different as at times it seemed like I was pushed really close to the audience, so I think it had a fresh kind of sensation.

One Night of Stars clearly emphasizes the emotions of the characters, so starting with putting together the character of Haruoki it all felt really difficult. But I think I learned a lot from it. Completely different from the play, La Esmeralda expresses the energy of the performers through song and dance. I feel that having such a difference between the play and revue must have been fun for the audience.

The national tour performance that started in November, Sorrowful Cordoba, had wonderful songs, and I hope Elio was memorable to the audience. La Esmeralda gave all the performers a chance to display their appeal to the audience, and I hope that it will make some of them want to see us in the Grand Theatre.

Next year’s production of Rurouni Kenshin is based on a manga. While I think we will live up to the audience’s expectations for the visuals and the story, I want to surpass that in satisfaction, and I’m giving it my all to not lose to a man* in my performance.

* Potentially a reference to Satoh Takeru, who played Kenshin in the films and at that point was the only man to portray the character.