This rehearsal roundtable talk was recorded for the May 2015 issue of Kageki.
Besides Director Koike Shuuichiro, 15 performers from Senka and Moon Troupe participated.
Continue readingThis rehearsal roundtable talk was recorded for the May 2015 issue of Kageki.
Besides Director Koike Shuuichiro, 15 performers from Senka and Moon Troupe participated.
Continue readingThis 2008 GRAPH feature had Top Stars answering questions from up-and-coming young stars. The Moon Troupe edition was published in the January issue and featured Sena Jun and Ryuu Masaki.
Please note that the translation was sourced from the reprint in Ryuu’s memorial book, but the feature does not appear abridged.
Continue readingIn That’s RanKING!, the Kageki Top Star Q&A feature that ran from 2015-2017 with some variation, the Top Stars rank each other based on various questions. This month’s question: Who is the most outdoorsy?
I’ve also included an outtake that were printed in the back of the magazine.
Continue readingThis photo feature, which ran in GRAPH through 2016, had subjects selecting photos they had taken with other Takarasiennes. The March installment features Miya Rurika, Sumiki Sayato, Minami Maito, and Kisaki Airi.
Continue readingIn the 2013 Top Star feature for Kageki, the Tops of each troupe took turns submitting questions that they would all answer, as well as predicting the question writer’s own answers.
The questions from June (submitted by Sou Kazuho):
1) Do you like rainy days?
2) What is your favorite color for umbrellas?
This interview with Ryuu Masaki and Asumi Rio was published by Asahi News on Feb 19, 2009. They discuss the upcoming production of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the just-concluded Floating Bridge of Dreams/Apasionado!!, and their relationships with then-Top Sena Jun. The original column was written by Satou Sakura and can be found here. (Archive link here.)
Continue readingThis talk between classmates Masaki Ryuu and Sagiri Seina was published in the September 2009 issue of GRAPH. I was working from the version reprinted in Sagiri’s memorial book so there is a possibility it may have been edited in some fashion.
Continue readingThis article about Ryuu’s upcoming performance in the co-ed production of 1789 was published in Osaka Daily News on Feb 16, 2018 (source link has regrettably been mislaid).
Continue readingThis survey of what all the Moon Troupe members like about their Top Star was published in the July 2016 GRAPH, a couple months before her retirement.
Please note: Ryuu discusses her weight/body image unfavorably in this feature a few times.
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…