Careful! This talk interview contains spoilers for the show!






Haruno Sumire: This time my character Akechi and Yuu’s (Matobu’s) character Amamiya Junichi were disguised during the show.

Matobu Sei: Yes.

Haruno: I was disguised as the older man at the street stall and the sailor Matsukou, and although with the hat and beard you couldn’t see most of my face, I still felt that some part of the audience was pointing and knew it was me…

Matobu: Really?

Haruno: Yeah. Nevertheless, during the times when the audience had a lot of people who had never seen Takarazuka before, such as on the day of a reserved performance, there was that moment at the end of the scenes where I pulled off the hat and beard and I got a response from them during the performance of “Ahh~ Haha!” (laughs)

Matobu: (laughs) You astonished everyone.

Haruno: That’s right. (laughs) How was it for you during the scene when Jun-chan (Matobu) stole into the Iwase household disguised as a drunk?

Matobu: It was different from Osa-san (Haruno), because I don’t reveal myself to the audience at the end of the scene. I wonder what to do if they think I’m just playing a different part from Junichi, and I’m a little worried. If people are wondering “Who is he?” the links in the story come undone…

Haruno: Really? I think you allow the audience to understand clearly.

Matobu: You think it’s all right?

Haruno: But, you know, I didn’t think that you would have such a drastic transformation, Yuu, and the first time I saw it I was frankly startled.

Matobu: Eeh!? Really?

Haruno: Yeah. Because your hair, and your beard too, were so disheveled. (laughs) It was a deep transformation.

Matobu: (laughs) I think if I’m going to do it I should make it drastic…

Haruno: That’s so. If you’re going to do something you want to follow it through all the way to the end.

Matobu: Yes. But then, after he makes Sanae-san (Nono) faint, he says serious lines like, “Forgive me, Sanae-san. It was on her (The Black Lizard’s) orders…” while still looking like that. Doesn’t that look strange to the audience? (laughs)

Haruno: Not at all. It’s very earnest and has so much behind it… Jun-chan is cute!

Matobu: Cute!?

Haruno: Cute. When he works so innocently to carry out the Black Lizard’s (Sakurano’s) orders, and when he sings the proposal song to Youko-san (Nono) it really pulls the heartstrings.

Matobu: Really? But I think that Amamiya Junichi is certainly a very straightforward young man.

Haruno: Yeah. I think you really express that feeling.

Matobu: I’m really happy to have you say that to me.

Haruno: At any rate, I don’t trade aaaaaany lines with Yuu in this show, do I? (laughs)

Matobu: Definitely not. (laughs) Even though we appear in some of the same scenes, we never had any involvement together at all. We sing together in the “Pursuit” scene, but it’s set up so that we’re riding in different cars.

Haruno: Yes, yes.

Matobu: But actually, during the “Black Lizard’s Hideout” scene, Junichi is giving the sailor Matsukou some one-sided jealous looks. The Black Lizard has her hand around Matsukou’s arm, doesn’t she? That’s too much…… (laughs)

Haruno: During that scene I can really feel Junichi’s jealousy. (laughs) But I think Akechi and Junichi must understand each other. After all, they’re in love with the same woman, the Black Lizard. I think they must have drunk together with drinks in hand. (laughs)

Matobu: That’s true. (laughs)

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Matobu: The black suit you wear near the end of the story is great, isn’t it?

Haruno: (laughs) Although the necktie is a deep pink.

Matobu: That’s right! That pink color is the same as the Black Lizard’s one-piece.

Haruno: That’s true. That’s the suit the Black Lizard provided for Matsukou.

Matobu: In the scene before that she said to Matsukou: “Come here. I’ll give you pretty clothes to wear.”

Haruno: The Black Lizard was calculating in providing a suit that matched her own, hm~ (laughs)

Matobu: (laughs) The suit is great, but I love that scene where Akechi proposes to the Black Lizard in itself. He’s prepared to wait until she finishes her sentence, and the depth of his feelings and his greatness is conveyed… I think how much being on the receiving end of that must have encouraged the Black Lizard.

Haruno: Huh. That’s how it felt to you?

Matobu: Yes. There’s also a scene where Junichi is told that Youko will wait until he finishes his own sentence, but she looks at Akechi-san with the same eyes as the Black Lizard, and I think you can feel that. If I were told that he would even throw away his job as a detective and wait for me, surely those words would make the painful days in prison bearable.

Haruno: That’s the feeling you got from it. Yuu, your impressions are terribly sweet.

Matobu: At the end, there, when you pull the Black Lizard close to your chest, I can feel Akechi’s greatness as I watch.

Haruno: There you can really understand the change going on in the Black Lizard as she listens to Akechi sing “Propose”. When I saw her gradually becoming pure the lyrics became more natural, and I could feel the emotion behind the words “I’ll wait only for you.”

Matobu: I really think Akechi is a great person.

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Matobu: Osa-san, today after you said the line “Suiting that my first date would be like this”, didn’t you scream out something?

Haruno: “A~rgh”? (laughs) I felt like the line alone wasn’t expressing Akechi’s frustration, so I put it into my voice. (laughs)

Matobu: I see. (laughs)

Haruno: Yeah. (laughs) It came out involuntarily. (laughs) By the way, that sofa you lurk inside in order to steal into the Iwase household has a very mysterious pattern.

Matobu: So much so that even the furniture dealer (Mayuzuki) says: “There isn’t another like it…” (laughs)

Haruno: Yuu, you get carried onto the stage in it, don’t you? How are you positioned in there? Can you stretch out your legs?

Matobu: If I don’t burst out onto my feet when the lid is opened, I can’t get out, so I stay in there with my legs bent so that I can rise out. (laughs)

Haruno: Makes sense. (laughs)

Matobu: Recently there was a blackout in part of Takarazuka City. About an hour into the performance, wasn’t it? At the time I was on stage in the sofa, and I had no idea that something was going on outside. I was thinking: “Today it’s taking forever, but Sanae-san’s song (that is my signal to come out of the sofa) isn’t starting~” (laughs) In order to inspect the systems and such, they lowered the stage curtain. It startled me after that when one of the stage crew opened the lid. I couldn’t take in the state of affairs and wondered why he had opened it. (laughs)

Haruno: That’s right. (laughs) We were worried. “Has Jun-chan been able to get out of the sofa?”

Matobu: Thank you. (laughs)

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Matobu: Osa-san, when you’re wearing that completely beaten up costume in the revue show scene “Tailor's Love” you’re very playful.

Haruno: That costume may look all beaten up, but it was made new all for me. (laughs)

Matobu: (laughs) Then after that you change into a tuxedo, and I get to dance together with you to the exact same choreography. To me, that’s a very important scene.

Haruno: I like that scene too. The setup there is that I really like Yuu’s costume. (laughs)

Matobu: That’s right. You see the tuxedo I’m wearing and act out “that one’s good”, but the feeling from me is “really?” (laughs)

Haruno: The dance in that scene – we dance it and it seems to spontaneously fire us up.

Matobu: That’s true. Actually, this is impertinent of me, but being able to dance together as otokoyaku like that with you, Osa-san, was a dream of mine. Someday… I thought.

Haruno: Really? Your dream’s come true then. (laughs)

Matobu: (laughs)

Haruno: Then next time with more tension… (laughs)

Matobu: Sounds good. (laughs)

Haruno: In Takarazuka, the otokoyaku and musumeyaku pair dance is a standard, but occasionally two otokoyaku dance together and the mood of the dance is different from usual. I think it’s good because it makes the audience happy. I’d like to try another style together with you. It would be good to have people thinking: “I want to see more scenes of the two of them together.” Speaking of which, from now on shall we draw the crowds in by being even friendlier together? (laughs)

Matobu: (laughs)

Haruno: Not only that scene, but there were many scenes in the revue show this time that matched Yuu and I together, and I was happy and encouraged.

Matobu: Eeee~!?

Haruno: You can really feel Yuu shining with the confidence of a star, and at the same time I think that you’re “supporting” me and convey that you had fixed your sparkling eyes on me.

Matobu: (laughs)

Haruno: Because I feel that you’re firmly supporting me, I can produce my own power without worry.

Matobu: No, no, that’s too much… But I’m glad.

Haruno: I can feel your emotions perfectly, Yuu.

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Matobu: During the revue show, you sing scat with Shibi-san (Yashiro).

Haruno: I made a big mistake with that song recently. (laughs)

Matobu: Really!?

Haruno: I just made up my own lyrics and sang. (laughs)

Matobu: It’s really rude of me to say this, but Osa-san very casually invented some new lyrics. (laughs)

Haruno: I was very bad, wasn’t I? I reflected deeply that it was the sort of thing I really oughtn’t to do. But, you know what? During rehearsals I was singing my part as best I could, and I wasn’t really listening to Shibi-san’s voice closely, and was instead singing while paying attention to things like what kind of facial expression Shibi-san had been singing with lately. Spontaneously I felt that I had finally reached a place where we could do a give and take. Speaking of which, you never make a mistake in the lyrics, do you, Yuu?

Matobu: If I made a mistake, I would probably stop right there…

Haruno: But you don’t make mistakes, so don’t worry about it so much. (laughs) Actually, on the day when I made my big mistake with Shibi-san, it wasn’t just there, but also during the prologue, and after, that I made up new lyrics…

Matobu: Now that you mention it… (laughs)

Haruno: I’ll pull in my feelings and do my best so that it never happens a second time!