Impressions During Music School

Yamato: Kiriya-san was one year ahead of me, and during her time at Music School she was always a class representative.

Kiriya: I was a scary one, eh?

Yamato: Scary, well, I had the impression that you did everything very precisely.

Kiriya: Back then, you know~ More and more and more and more you could see the ragged edges, and now I'm completely tattered (laughs).

Yamato: And then, when rehearsing for the Bunkasai or for a Western Dance Performance, at those times....

Kiriya: Tani (Yamato) was always charged with helping.

Yamato: That's right, I was a helper, and I often watched the honkasei rehearsing. But during those independent rehearsals, Kiriyan would always start acting like a teacher, saying: "Not like that!", "More together here!"

Kiriya: I said those kinds of things?

Yamato: You pulled all your classmates into order, and it was very cool.

Kiriya: But when we were in school, I didn't have any dealings with you, so we almost never spoke. Just greetings, right?

Yamato: Really. Greetings, or when I'd done something to make you angry, that was about it.

Kiriya: You're still the sweet girl you were in Music School, and I thought, "Ah, this girl has a nice feel to her", but nevertheless we didn't have any dealings together, so I don't really have an impression of you. You can probably remember things I've said, or making me angry, though. Anyway, you seem to remember them (laughs).

Yamato: (laughs).

Kiriya: But I don't remember at all. It seems that I don't remember things that make me angry (laughs). I hurt your feelings.

Yamato: Not at all, not at all! Because I thought it was a natural thing for a representative to do...

Kiriya: That's why I went into the Revue without much of an impression of Tani, and until I transferred into Moon Troupe with you, we didn't really talk.

Yamato: That's right.


Memories in Moon Troupe

Kiriya: I entered Moon Troupe with the Tokyo production of "El Dorado", but we didn't really interact in that show; I think our first interaction was during the next show, "West Side Story", as A-Rab and Baby John.

Yamato: They were both roles in the Jets, and in particular they were always together.

Kiriya: And I was the one with the younger role, so I was really at sea. Besides, for me, this was the first time I had done such a young role as an underclassman. Because I'd never done such a complete child role during my time in Flower Troupe.

Yamato: Yes, that's right. You told me back then that your roles had changed between when you were in Flower Troupe, and after coming to Moon.

Kirya: Really, because I had no experience playing such a young role I became deathly earnest about appearing younger than you (laughs).

Yamato: That show was fun, wasn't it!

Kiriya: It was our youth. "West Side Story" really is, after all, a production about young people, both in normal life and in the play.

Yamato: During the rehearsals too, Alan Johnson was very powerful. The "Cool" dance number was really tough, but everyone worked hard, and it really had the feel of: "This is youth!"

Kiriya: That's my one most enjoyable memory. After that, we often interacted both in the regular productions and in the shinjin kouen.

Yamato: Really, without fail.

Kiriya: During the shinko we were often enemies or allies.

Yamato: Yes, yes. Mami-san (Makoto Tsubasa) and Rika-san (Shibuki Jun) had those kinds of parts, didn't they?

Kiriya: I played the villains more often, and you only played a villainous role once.

Yamato: I did, in "Prisoner of Zenda".

Kiriya: That was really well done.

Yamato: At the time, I thought, "villains are really interesting."

Kiriya: In "West Side Story" and in "Luna", it continued that you always had the whiiiiite roles, and I had the daaaark roles, but it seemed that "unexpectedly, this combination is a good one". It was something of a change, and somehow the work was fun.

Yamato: There's always a fighting scene with antagonists and a scuffle, isn't there? For those kinds of times, my opponent was Kiriya-san, always, yes, the moments were really.... easy...

Kiriya: Speak clearly (laughs).

Yamato: (laughs) ... Excuse me, "easy to do"....

Kiriya: No, no, what are you saying (laughs)?

Yamato: I'm always indebted to you.

Kiriya: Ah, now that you mention it, there was a scuffle then too, in "Dark Brown Eyes".

Yamato: Shvabrin and Nicolai.

Kiriya: The shinjin kouen were like that. We didn't have anything to do with each other in "Nova Bossa Nova". Contrary to the shinjin kouen, in the regular performances we were often together in a group. Particularly in "Jazz Mania" where we were the Adlib combination.

Yamato: That's right. The two of us had immensely quick changes, and we were dripping with sweat.

Kiriya: You and I are both people who perspire freely, so the two of us would sweat as if we were seeing how much more we could (laughs).

Yamato: We were *always* next to each other in the quick change locations.

Kiriya: We went together on the tours too, didn't we? The restaging of "Jazz Mania" was a very, very, very popular choice for national tours, and the two of us were promoted to various positions. At that time, the Adlibs became more prominent too (laughs).

Yamato: That happened too, didn't it~?


Memories of "Sarani Kyou Haji"

Yamato: If we're speaking about productions of the two of us, after all is said and done, there is "Sarani Kyou Haji".

Kiriya: The first performance was in Tokyo, and rehearsal time was short. Moreover, it was right after my return from the Berlin performance, so I came in midway and at first I wondered how we were going to pull it off. You are a person of great concentration, but during those two weeks or so you were so amazing that you had everyone wondering what that style of concentration was.

Yamato: I concentrated swiftly.

Kiriya: It was as if you were using up a lifetime's powers of concentration (laughs). Of course the shinjinkouen are while the regular performances are going... Those kinds of things happen I suppose, but for a Bow Hall you're restricted to one, which is a good thing, don't you think? We played brothers, but they were sad brothers, and it was a painful story.

Yamato: It was painful, wasn't it? Particularly the final number, at the end where we received the fans and danced together.

Kiriya: Yes, yes, the scene where you came out as a ghost and we danced together (laughs). It might have been a painful scene, but the dance was difficult (laughs).

Yamato: Yes, it was difficult, and hard.


Schumacher, Formed of Four People

Yamato: After that, right, we formed Schumacher.

Kiriya: Yes, yes, yes, we just took it upon ourselves to put together a unit (laughs).

Yamato: That was a fun time too. Kero-san (Shiomi) and Yuuhi-san (Ozora), the four of us.

Kiriya: Makoto-san was the Top, and she was the type to challenge us with all kinds of things, so with that in mind, I think we were really lucky. We were given all kinds of things to do; experiences that we normally wouldn't have been able to have. Our four personalities were completely different, so instead of competing, we each were able to polish our various personalities, so to speak, and had a lot of valuable experiences.

Yamato: We were able to make lots of appearances with Makoto-san, on TV and such.

Kiriya: You were the most junior of the group, so you were always really attentive to everything. I thought I would have to shoulder the burden for a while, but the two of us both had some imperfections, and we both ended up in situations going, "Ack~" (laughs).

Yamato: Back then, you would pull those spots together perfectly.

Kiriya: No, it wasn't like that (laughs). I didn't pull it together, I didn't pull it together at all.

Yamato: Perhaps I should say, the character pulled it together... (laughs).

Kiriya: A sense that as the character I was forgiven (laughs).

Yamato: Resultingly, a sense of calming down.

Kiriyan: But aren't both of us like that? How should I put it — The truth is we get forgiveness through our characters for the things that really make people angry. I suppose this is something only I think, and I suppose the people around me are just indulging me (laughs).


As Lovers in "Guys & Dolls"

Kiriya: For both of us, "Guys & Dolls" was our first time doing such a big role in the Grand Theater.

Yamato: It felt as if I was constantly fighting against great pressure.

Kiriya: And for you it was an adult role with a mustache, and for me a female role. When I think on it now, didn't it have more communication through the roles? But back then, both of us went beyond our limits.

Yamato: We gave it our best~ truly (laughs).

Kiriya: It really is a great work, so from the moment the performance started it was fun, but the two of us suffered and suffered through rehearsals. On the day of the first performance there were morning rehearsals, but even before that the two of us were there practicing, so early that the rehearsal rooms hadn't even been opened.

Yamato: That's right, we rehearsed from early in the morning.

Kiriya: We were both graduated from shinjin kouen, and we were at the time where we had reached a year when we couldn't be certain of where our own standing was in the regular performances, so there was a feeling of "we got a much bigger role than we imagined we would; what do we do?"

Yamato: But I'm really glad to have had that experience.

Kiriya: Yes, I feel that it's because of that that things are how they are now.

Yamato: Before that, there was once – in the Can-Can scene of "Bravo! Takarazuka" on the China Tour – where we were something like partners, but of course that time was the first that we were paired in a musical.

Kiriya: In the Can-Can too, I was the woman and you were the man.

Yamato: After "Guys & Dolls", in "With a Song in My Heart" again we were a grandfather and a grandmother (laughs). We layered on the clothes, huh~?

Kiriya: There were several types of suitable socks that we had searched out, and we'd say something like "today this one, today this one", nurturing the love (laughs). When I think of it, you haven't played a woman to my man yet.

Yamato: Let's do it sometime (laughs).

Kiriya: Yeah, I'll make doing that someday my dream (laughs).


Transfer to Cosmos Troupe

Kiriya: At the point when it went from Makoto-san to Shibuki-san I thought, "Ah, the times have changed a bit", but the four of us were under Shibuki-san, and made TV appearances, and I thought this would continue, but instead after that you and Kero-san were transferred, in a wave that dissolved Schumacher. To say nothing of this time now, when I heard that Kero-san would be leaving the Revue, and it was like a "complete dissolution". Somehow, it feels as if time has slipped by.

Yamato: Last year at the TCA, my transfer had been announced, but I hadn't joined up with them, and since Cosmos Troupe was performing in Tokyo they didn't appear in the special, so I was the only one to appear as a member of Cosmos Troupe. I appeared for a second in Moon Troupe's Corner (laughs).

Kiriya: Although you hadn't set foot on a Cosmos Troupe stage, you said, "I'm Yamato Yuuga of Cosmos Troupe". Even now I don't really have an image of Tani = Cosmos Troupe.

Yamato: Because this year for more than half the year I made a special appearance in Star Troupe.

Kiriya: But I myself have experienced a transfer, and I think it's a good opportunity to take another look at a lot of things when you change troupes. Yourself too, of course, and coming to see the things around you. With that in mind, I've had a feeling lately that you seem to have grown up a bit more.

Yamato: I've certainly had a feeling that in the experience of changing troupes I've come to be able to see a lot of things clearly.

Kiriya: Aren't there times when you want to "reset" yourself, while keeping all the good bits? Somehow this could be said to be your chance to do that.

Yamato: There have been those times.

Kiriya: I was still in my shinjin kouen era, so my situation when I switched troupes was one of complete "I don't know aaaanything", but to a certain extent you've become an upperclassman, so there'll be a lot of underclassmen and inevitably you'll have to shoulder a responsibility to the young stars of Cosmos Troupe among them, so I think from the outset it won't be just about you.

Yamato: That's true.

Kiriya: When you've come this far, communicating with those around you is essential, so you have to be attentive, whether to upperclassmen or underclassmen. Since you're coming from Moon Troupe, of course you're bringing some good things from Moon Troupe with you, so I hope that you'll make use of them in Cosmos Troupe. Yeah, your great things are yet to come. Whaaaat, I can't say such self-important kinds of things (laughs).

Yamato: After I transferred, when I went to see Moon Troupe I had this strange feeling of "Ahh, I was here." And particularly when I saw Kiriya-san, whom I had always done things together with; there are lots of parts to you I never knew when we appeared together. In time, both of us started going around to the different troupes to make special appearances, and when I saw you with Flower Troupe, again it was a different image than when you were in Moon Troupe. I thought, "depending on the environment around you, how you see someone changes in a lot of ways, huh~?"

Kiriya: I, in this Flower Troupe performance now, I wear a mustache and smoke a cigar, right? When you came to watch me in an instant the memories came and I thought, "Tani's done this", "I was a woman then", and I got a bit embarrassed (laughs).

Yamato: I remembered "Guys & Dolls" too when I watched you (laughs).

Kiriya: In this year's TCA Special, during the parody scene, and the One Phrase number in the finale, when I was lined up with you I was without worries somehow.

Yamato: I understand. I'm really relieved too when I'm next to you.

Kiriya: Although the two of us together make mistakes (laughs). "Hey, hey, like this?" "Ah, ah, I don't know." "I dunno either." ... That happens quite a lot (laughs). The places we miss are often similar, so that's something of a relief (laughs). But it's lonely that those are the only chances we can get together.

Yamato: But once in a while when we meet like this, we're not comrades in arms, but we can return to the sensations of that time naturally.... Something like: "we've come to fight together", right, that kind of feel....

Kiriya: With that kind of meaning, it feels as if we're comrades who've passed together through our first transitional period. Of course I think we applied ourselves diligently during our time together, but I think by separating we had a chance to grow up again independently, so we have to make use of this experience. And I think it would be great if we had another opportunity to do something together again.

Yamato: Yes.

Kiriya: It was so fun to do a job together like this again after so long! Thank you very much.

Yamato: I had fun too. Truly, thank you.

---

Everyone, thank kitsune32 very nicely. She's the one who paid me off to do this with Le Cinqs and GRAPHs, and then she said she'd share. ;)

I apologize for the "character" discussion in the Schumacher section. I ended up pretty confused by it, so I'm not quite sure what they were really going for there.