Chapters have been split in two to make them more readable without too much scrolling to reach the explanatory footnotes. Some paragraph breaks have also been added for ease of reading in English. I have also included some images printed in the book as well as sourcing many other archival images to illustrate the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Installments will be posted every two weeks, with some breaks if the next chapter is not complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Haruna Yuri<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1945<\/em> – Born August 5 in Hyogo prefecture Other notable works:<\/em> Post-retirement activities: Make sure you appear as \u2018Haruna Yuri\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShou-chan, this is just the perfect manga for Takarazuka to adapt!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first time I heard of The Rose of Versailles<\/em> was hearing this from a fan. I read it when fans brought me copies of \u2018Weekly Margaret\u2019 telling me \u201cread it, read it!\u201d so that\u2019s when I first understood what it was about. At that time everyone from little kids to adults read manga, but it had a very grown-up feeling to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t really know how exactly how the company ended up producing Berubara<\/em>4<\/sup>, but at the time, Takarazuka hadn\u2019t done very many Rococo-era plays. So, I think the idea that it would look splendid on the Grand Theatre stage must have been a factor in the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we knew it this atmosphere of \u2018We\u2019re doing it, we\u2019re doing it,\u2019 began to brew, and even within the company we were all flustered. \u201cShou-chan, if you were in it what role would you like to play?\u201d \u201cWell, I think\u2026\u201d We were all talking about our favorite characters. Fersen, Bernard, Giroudelle\u2026they were all wonderful men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a theatre-comic, so everyone\u2019s so cool, right? So handsome, and legs soooo long (laughs). Every one of them is an ideal sort of man where you would think \u201cOh, if only someone like him really existed.\u201d And it\u2019s all playing out against the setting of the French Revolution, where, in the end, Marie Antoinette perishes on the guillotine. So, it\u2019s based in real history and makes such a grand spectacle. Also, I think one of the most amazing points about this theatre-comic is that Ikeda Riyoko was able to take the characters who didn\u2019t actually exist and insert them into the history so skillfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for me, personally, I really wanted to play Andre. From the first time I read it, it was Andre for me! He\u2019s so cool, and manly. But then I realized what a commotion was brewing outside concerning who was going to play whom. And as one of the people involved in that, my feelings changed to \u201cI\u2019m good with whatever\u201d (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, everyone agreed that I should play Oscar. Apparently, this petite face and these delicate features fit Oscar\u2019s aura (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things moved along and the roles were decided, and it ended up that after one Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre show, before the final curtain went down, we would go out onstage and announce who we would play. In street clothes, too. I was horribly nervous. The moment I said \u201cI am Haruna Yuri. I will be playing Oscar,\u201d there was a huge reaction from the audience, \u201cWa~\u201d from the first to the third floor. It gave me goosebumps. And also, for the first time I realized the weight of playing the role of Oscar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018This is going to be a big problem\u2026\u2019 I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there were some people saying I should play Oscar, the company also received piles of letters in opposition. They would say stuff like: \u201cA living human could never do it. Don\u2019t destroy the image from the theatre-comic.\u201d I can see why, too. After all, my legs aren\u2019t that long, and I can\u2019t make little stars dance in my eyes (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, this made me start to feel a lot of fear and pressure\u2014what if I ruined everyone\u2019s mental picture? What if, as soon as the curtain opened on the first day, everyone started throwing the seat cushions at me? \u201cGet off the stage, you hack!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rehearsals started in the midst of all this, but right away creating Oscar\u2019s outer appearance turned out to be a struggle. First, there was a photoshoot at a studio in Shuueisha headquarters, so that they could publish photos in \u2018Monthly Margaret\u2019. It was decided that I would do my makeup and get the costume on at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre dressing rooms, and then go to the shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I had to do the makeup myself, I got the biggest closeup drawing of Oscar I could and placed it right in front of me so I could draw everything just as it was in the picture, from where her eyebrows started and ended to the angles. After all, Director Hasegawa Kazuo5<\/sup> had told me \u201cAt least you have to make it look like the source material,\u201d and \u201cPut stars in your eyes!\u201d. \u201cHow the heck am I supposed to do that!?\u201d I kept saying to myself (laughs), but I really tried my best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had worked so hard on the wig as well; it was a specially dyed gold wig that was starched and curled into ringlets, and I tried to make the bangs look just like Oscar\u2019s. Since the most important thing was to make a human being look as close to the theatre-comic as possible, everything had to be constructed from scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After putting on the whole uniform costume and getting everything perfect, I got in a taxi and headed to Shuueisha. But, on the way there, I completely forgot what I looked like, and since I was looking out the windows, some people who saw me from outside were really shocked (laughs). And I would think, \u2018Oh, right, I have a wig on\u2019 (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I got to Shuueisha, Director Ueda Shinji and many other people involved with the production were waiting for me. I only heard this story later, but apparently, the moment they saw me as Oscar, everyone thought at once \u2018It\u2019s really going to work!\u2019, so they were all overcome with excitement. I was pushing myself so much that I don\u2019t really remember what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the appearance was settled, next was Director Hasegawa\u2019s exhaustive acting instruction. Here was a whole new challenge! \u201cDo this, do that\u201d, putting me in poses that made my neck hurt, and then, on top of that, \u201cLook this way!\u201d until it felt like I was going to tear a muscle doing these exhausting positions. I started to worry I\u2019d put a knot in my intestines (laughs). This is what is called \u2018kata<\/em>\u20196<\/sup> in the theatre world, to make sure you look beautiful on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d never performed as a woman in a play before, so I thought I might struggle with it, but when I actually tried doing it, it was fun. Director Hasegawa said \u201cyou have the uniform on, and you look up as you try to withstand the sadness, but then, look down and let the tears fall on your bosom. Then, as you wipe away the tears you\u2019ll look very feminine.\u201d When I did that, gosh, it was so cute! (laughs) That was just how we did the acting direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if we just left it at that, I\u2019d only be a marionette, so, at the very end, I had to put my own \u2018heart\u2019 into her. I didn\u2019t want it to seem too much like a performance, though, so I tried to act naturally. I would think I was sad at sad times, and I feel like I was able to change naturally between feminine emotions, and manly feelings when wearing the splendid uniforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Director Hasegawa told me \u201cWhen you first come on stage, come out as \u2018Haruna Yuri\u2019.\u201d Rather than as Oscar, he said that I should enter just as Haruna Yuri, with a sense that \u201cHaruna Yuri has arrived!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the very beginning, I was completely the dashing otokoyaku Haruna Yuri\u2014\u201cI am Oscar Francois du Jarjayes!\u201d \u201cPlease withdraw!\u201d, I\u2019d do it very sharply and gallantly. The idea was that as things went on, my emotions would gradually become more feminine. So my personal focus was to do it very frankly, very \u2018straight\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My favorite of Oscar\u2019s scenes was \u201cWe mustn\u2019t waste everyone\u2019s sacrifices!7<\/sup> Advance, citoyens!<\/em>\u201d and then that final battle scene. It was the most amazing feeling to do that scene. And then I get shot. \u201cAndre\u2026are you really gone?\u201d \u201cVive la France<\/em>\u2026\u201d and then dying, it was awesome! Performing that was the ultimate happiness. And it was the most emotionally moving part for me, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, in the scene where Oscar and Andre join the battle, one time, I took my sword out in a really cool way, \u2018Swoosh!\u2019, and I stabbed it into the floor and couldn\u2019t get it out. The stage had a linoleum floor, so the sword was wobbling back and forth, and I was desperately tugging at it, but it wouldn\u2019t come out. Meanwhile, the enemy soldiers were gradually approaching and I was thinking \u2018What on earth am I supposed to do!?\u2019 If that was in real life, we would have been slaughtered in an instant (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happily for me, I also got to play Andre. I love Andre as a human being. There\u2019s that garden scene where Andre says \u2018The stars are so beautiful\u2019 \u2018like Castor and Pollux, I\u2019ll keep protecting you\u2019! I love that scene in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And also, I couldn\u2019t get enough of that poisoning scene. He gives Oscar the poison\u2014\u2018Forgive me!\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m glad I lived until this day!\u2019\u2014Andre\u2019s personality is strongest in that scene where he finally confesses his real feelings. It\u2019s the high point of the show for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think Andre\u2019s biggest appeal is his manly generosity. If he doesn\u2019t have that sexiness from generosity, or kindness, he won\u2019t be appealing as a person. My skills as an actor might not have been the best. But, I thought it would work out if I could just convey power, or passion, to the audience, so that was what I wanted to get across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the kata <\/em>were important and I took care to do them properly, but with just that, the audience won\u2019t feel anything, right? You don\u2019t have to do an incredibly good job, it doesn\u2019t matter if you mess it up or whatever, I feel like if you get that pulse, that stirring in the blood, once you can feel that \u2018heart\u2019, then the people watching will catch that feeling. So, I played Oscar and Andre wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 – The exact dating of Haruna\u2019s Top Star ascension is arguable, as the Top Star system wasn\u2019t clearly delineated until later (and Haruna did not spend this entire period in Moon Troupe). Dai Takiko also claims to have been Top Star during part of this time and appears in many lists (sometimes she and Haruna are listed as ‘Double Top’).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 – In The Rose of Versailles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 – in Gone with the Wind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 – Fan abbreviation for Rose of Versailles, from the Japanese title, Beru<\/strong>saiyu no Bara<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5 – Ueda Shinji was not the main director of the very first Rose of Versailles<\/em> productions; while he wrote the script, the original director was film and kabuki actor\/director Hasegawa Kazuo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6 – A kabuki term for stylized, abstract poses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7 – Not a translation error; she is either misremembering the line slightly or it changed prior to the first recordings in 1974. (The actual line is “We mustn’t forget his [Andre’s] sacrifice!”) All quotations are translated exactly as related by the interviewee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This book, which is something of an \u2018oral history\u2019 of Takarazuka\u2019s Rose of Versailles adaptations, was published by Ascom in late 2005, and features chronological accounts from otokoyaku who had performed in the franchise from its first origins through the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/haruna-1.png\")
1963 <\/em>– Debuted in Takarazuka with Flower Poems<\/em>
1974 <\/em>– Became Top Star of Moon Troupe with Pale Dawn<\/em>1<\/sup>
1974 <\/em>– First performer to play Oscar2<\/sup> (playing Andre the following year)
1977 <\/em>– First performer to play Rhett Butler3<\/sup>
1988 <\/em>– Retired from Takarazuka with War and Peace<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New Tale of Genji, Eternal Tale, Love Blooms Out On the Murasakino,<\/em> etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>Aside from stage performances (such as: Scrooge, Cinderella, Stepping Out, Professor Corczak, Sakura Fubuki Tanuki-Goten<\/em>, etc.), television appearances, and dinner shows, she also teaches in universities as a visiting scholar, lecturing on theatre studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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