In That’s RanKING!, the Kageki Top Star Q&A feature, the Top Stars rank each other based on questions from readers. This month’s question: Who would be the best at setting up a practical joke?
I’ve also included some outtakes that were printed in the back of the magazine.
Continue readingIn the 2016 version of That’s RanKING!, the Kageki Top Star Q&A feature, the Top Stars rank each other based on questions from readers. This month’s question: On a drive, who seems like they would be best at navigating for you?
Continue readingThis was a requested translation.
This interview with Mirio was published in print magazine Aera along with editorial photos, but portions of the interview was also published online. The original interview, conducted by Kiyono Yuumi, can be found here. (Archive link here; page 2.)
Continue readingMonthly Question!! was the new Kageki Top Star feature for 2018, taking over from That’s RanKING! It’s somewhat similar to That’s RanKING! in that it asks the Top Stars what they think the others would do in a particular situation, but without the points competition element.
This month’s question: What would you do if you were in the middle of a really scary haunted house and suddenly noticed that the person you came in with was gone?
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 2017 version of the column has questions sent in by readers.
This month’s question: Who would be best at leading a boy or girl scout troop?
Continue readingThis 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.
1 – bracketed sections in original source.
In each Kageki, there is a ‘Troupe Report’ where someone from each troupe collects funny or interesting anecdotes or does Q&A with other members.
The February 2017 Flower Troupe Report was written by Nana Kurara, and has some winter seasonal questions as well as discussion of Golden Desert and the 2016 Takarazuka Special.
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 would be the first to make it out of a giant maze?
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 2017 version of the column has questions sent in by readers.
This month’s question: Who would be best able to deal with aliens if they appeared?
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…