Fun video on the internets: Otozuki Kei and Shirahane Yuri share odd things that happen behind the scenes (and 'kiss')
http://www.bilibili.com/video/av3579538/?from=search&seid=16335224439659383521
Otozuki Kei and Shirahane Yuri were former Top Stars of Snow and were interviewed on a variety show in 2014. Otozuki retired in 2012 while Shirahane retired in 2009.
Paraphrase of the interview
Freaky thing that happened to Otozuki: A Musumeyaku saw her naked while she was in the shower.
She explains that in the Takarazuka, romantic love between female co-workers is not allowed, thus they are to treat each other as their assigned role to preserve the illusion of 'male' and female. Since she was assigned an Otokoyaku, she felt obligated to be 'male' and felt bad if someone saw 'the truth' that she's a girl. Otozuki says she's straight and that the Takarazuka is a dream world after all. So after a performance, there's actually a large communal bath area back stage and the Otokoyakus have a separate bath area. Otozuki was scrubbing away in the shower when a Musumeyaku walked in on her, the Musumeyaku apologized profusely, Otozuki was kind of trying to cover her bits with her arms and felt really embarrassed. Then one of the guys asked 'So did you scream 'kya!' or did you say 'Oi' like a guy?' Otozuki just said she looked away and didn't say anything.
Otozuki says in the larger communal bath area, about 20-30 people will all take a shower at the same time, the junior ranks 6-7 will let the seniors shower first. To shower: You're to kneel on the floor, take the pail, fill it with water and splash it on yourself. Everyone on the show is surprised they have to kneel on the floor to shower (for Japanese standards, they sit on a stool at least)
Shirahane says she had to get naked with 15 other girls. One of the guys ask 'so what if one of the juniors isn't careful and showers water on someone else?' She says no they can't use a shower head, they all have to use the pail and be extra careful. And because she was kneeling on the floor, she'd used to get 'tile legs' One of the guys asked 'So if someone's taking too long, does some Senior yell like 'hurry the hell up!' Shirahane says no they don't, everyone is cordial.
Train matters: Shirahane says as the Takarazuka culture goes, the seniors will take the special Hankyu brown trains while the juniors take the train after that. On the day she turned senior, she didn't tell anyone yet but her friend found out this way: one day, her junior friend told her 'hey, do you want to walk to school?' And Shirahane said... 'Erm.. I'm taking the Hankyu train' and that's when her friend realized. The guys reason this won't happen in Tokyo obviously but perhaps juniors will just bow like crazy to their seniors who pass by in the train.
RE: Otozuki and Shirahane on working with each other - Otozuki felt that Shirahane was super cute but Shirahane totally didn't think she was. The guys ask 'Since there's so many of you, did you constantly compare and check out each other since all of you are rather attractive looking?' Of course they denied they do, they're nice to each other. Shirahane felt Otozuki was this epitome of awesome, because Otozuki could pull off really impressive leaps in Ballet class, which is why her nickname is 'monkey'.
One of the guys asked 'So how does it feel like dressing up like a guy?' Otozuki says she used to resent slicking back her hair because she thought she looked gross, Shirahane on the other hand thought Otozuki was kind of hot. The guys tease Shirahane saying something like 'damn girl, I didn't know you're so nasty in there!' Shirahane says on the Musumeyaku side, it was very important to have a small waist, and some girls would have 51 cm waists
Job restrictions: Otozuki says contractually they can't get married or have relationships but at least they were free to color their hair. One day when she was a junior, she was welcoming the others to class and found out her friend colored her hair but it looked really gangsta (a 'Yankee' like the equivalent of a 'bloke/chav')
Freaky thing that happened to Shirahane: She couldn't wear underwear sometimes while performing
This she explains is because she had to wear high slit 'bunny girl' style outfits so the underwear would get in the way. One of the guys (Himura, a rather famous comedian) asks 'so would you worry bout things getting in the way cause it was so close, cause it's like a pizza, ya know, or maybe you know, it's like a cheesecake right?' Shirahane says yeah we were more 'cheesecake' than 'Pizza' obviously. Himura the Comedian guy says 'ohhh. great thanks'
The guys ask Otozuki 'So what kind of guys do you like?' Otozuki says she likes funny guys and so does Shirahane. The guys ask 'what about tubby guys?' Otozuki isn't really a fan of that. Himura says 'hey I'm tubby, least I'm not fat like American guys, but its cool, its cool!' Shirahane says she especially likes tubby guys, then the guy asks 'so do you like Himura (the comedian) then?' and she's like 'Him err.... not my thing sorry' So he gets really pissed 'WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS DOUBLE STANDARD CRAP!'
Otozuki is currently an actress/ podcaster while Shirahane is still performing on stage in other musicals.
How to do the 'kiss': Otozuki and Shirahane demonstrate the on stage 'kiss' one of the guys gets kinda turned on. So the guys try it out and the girls lose their minds, the guys are pretty grossed out obviously. One of the female MCs thinks that was really hot and the other guy yells 'HOW THE HELL COULD YOU SAY THAT!!'
You can follow Otozuki and Shirahane on their Instagrams
Otozuki Kei : https://www.instagram.com/keiotozuki_official/
Shirahane Yuri: https://www.instagram.com/yurishirahane/
Otozuki Kei and Shirahane Yuri were former Top Stars of Snow and were interviewed on a variety show in 2014. Otozuki retired in 2012 while Shirahane retired in 2009.
Paraphrase of the interview
Freaky thing that happened to Otozuki: A Musumeyaku saw her naked while she was in the shower.
She explains that in the Takarazuka, romantic love between female co-workers is not allowed, thus they are to treat each other as their assigned role to preserve the illusion of 'male' and female. Since she was assigned an Otokoyaku, she felt obligated to be 'male' and felt bad if someone saw 'the truth' that she's a girl. Otozuki says she's straight and that the Takarazuka is a dream world after all. So after a performance, there's actually a large communal bath area back stage and the Otokoyakus have a separate bath area. Otozuki was scrubbing away in the shower when a Musumeyaku walked in on her, the Musumeyaku apologized profusely, Otozuki was kind of trying to cover her bits with her arms and felt really embarrassed. Then one of the guys asked 'So did you scream 'kya!' or did you say 'Oi' like a guy?' Otozuki just said she looked away and didn't say anything.
Otozuki says in the larger communal bath area, about 20-30 people will all take a shower at the same time, the junior ranks 6-7 will let the seniors shower first. To shower: You're to kneel on the floor, take the pail, fill it with water and splash it on yourself. Everyone on the show is surprised they have to kneel on the floor to shower (for Japanese standards, they sit on a stool at least)
Shirahane says she had to get naked with 15 other girls. One of the guys ask 'so what if one of the juniors isn't careful and showers water on someone else?' She says no they can't use a shower head, they all have to use the pail and be extra careful. And because she was kneeling on the floor, she'd used to get 'tile legs' One of the guys asked 'So if someone's taking too long, does some Senior yell like 'hurry the hell up!' Shirahane says no they don't, everyone is cordial.
Train matters: Shirahane says as the Takarazuka culture goes, the seniors will take the special Hankyu brown trains while the juniors take the train after that. On the day she turned senior, she didn't tell anyone yet but her friend found out this way: one day, her junior friend told her 'hey, do you want to walk to school?' And Shirahane said... 'Erm.. I'm taking the Hankyu train' and that's when her friend realized. The guys reason this won't happen in Tokyo obviously but perhaps juniors will just bow like crazy to their seniors who pass by in the train.
RE: Otozuki and Shirahane on working with each other - Otozuki felt that Shirahane was super cute but Shirahane totally didn't think she was. The guys ask 'Since there's so many of you, did you constantly compare and check out each other since all of you are rather attractive looking?' Of course they denied they do, they're nice to each other. Shirahane felt Otozuki was this epitome of awesome, because Otozuki could pull off really impressive leaps in Ballet class, which is why her nickname is 'monkey'.
One of the guys asked 'So how does it feel like dressing up like a guy?' Otozuki says she used to resent slicking back her hair because she thought she looked gross, Shirahane on the other hand thought Otozuki was kind of hot. The guys tease Shirahane saying something like 'damn girl, I didn't know you're so nasty in there!' Shirahane says on the Musumeyaku side, it was very important to have a small waist, and some girls would have 51 cm waists
Job restrictions: Otozuki says contractually they can't get married or have relationships but at least they were free to color their hair. One day when she was a junior, she was welcoming the others to class and found out her friend colored her hair but it looked really gangsta (a 'Yankee' like the equivalent of a 'bloke/chav')
Freaky thing that happened to Shirahane: She couldn't wear underwear sometimes while performing
This she explains is because she had to wear high slit 'bunny girl' style outfits so the underwear would get in the way. One of the guys (Himura, a rather famous comedian) asks 'so would you worry bout things getting in the way cause it was so close, cause it's like a pizza, ya know, or maybe you know, it's like a cheesecake right?' Shirahane says yeah we were more 'cheesecake' than 'Pizza' obviously. Himura the Comedian guy says 'ohhh. great thanks'
The guys ask Otozuki 'So what kind of guys do you like?' Otozuki says she likes funny guys and so does Shirahane. The guys ask 'what about tubby guys?' Otozuki isn't really a fan of that. Himura says 'hey I'm tubby, least I'm not fat like American guys, but its cool, its cool!' Shirahane says she especially likes tubby guys, then the guy asks 'so do you like Himura (the comedian) then?' and she's like 'Him err.... not my thing sorry' So he gets really pissed 'WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THIS DOUBLE STANDARD CRAP!'
Otozuki is currently an actress/ podcaster while Shirahane is still performing on stage in other musicals.
How to do the 'kiss': Otozuki and Shirahane demonstrate the on stage 'kiss' one of the guys gets kinda turned on. So the guys try it out and the girls lose their minds, the guys are pretty grossed out obviously. One of the female MCs thinks that was really hot and the other guy yells 'HOW THE HELL COULD YOU SAY THAT!!'
You can follow Otozuki and Shirahane on their Instagrams
Otozuki Kei : https://www.instagram.com/keiotozuki_official/
Shirahane Yuri: https://www.instagram.com/yurishirahane/