#hibiscus translates eto-bun

[yuzukahibiscus]

のせ様’s (No-se-sama) Documented Events (March 2023)

(Note: This was taken from “Eto-Bun” (えと文) section in March Kageki 2023. Eto-Bun is a section written by a particular sienne in each troupe to share some little stories about them or about their troupe every three months. In this cycle of January-March, Ichinose Kouki is the one writing for Flower Troupe.)

A little introduction to Ichinose Kouki for those who are unfamiliar with her.

Ichinose Kouki・一之瀬航季

Entered the Revue in 2014 as the 100th class. Her favourite roles include Oswald Vickers for "A Fairy Tale” newcomers’ performance. She was originally going to have a newcomers’ performance lead for “Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern” in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, she went on Yuzuka Rei’s “Lock-On” Episode as a guest to talk about what she learnt from Rei, being Rei’s first “shinko kid” since she became Top Star. Later on in 2022, she starred in the Bow Workshop “Junjou” (or Complete Devotion) alongside with Mihane Ai as her partner. She also previously joined Minami Maito in her CAST side-A and was one of the members of Flor5. She will be performing with Minami Maito in her “One and Only” dinner show, also the final performance for Minami Maito as a Flower Troupe member before transferring to Senka.

Before you read March Issue, feel free to check the first two of three series in January issue here and the February issue here.

Hi everyone! How is everyone doing!?

Very quickly we’re at our last entry of “のせ様’s Documented Events" this month. It’s hard to say goodbye but at least the underclassmen were finally familiar with calling me “Nose-san!” so Ichinose is very satisfied (check out the January entry for more details)😁 In this month, I’ll document some of the cheerful events as the last entry…✨

Everyone, please have fun reading it!

🌻 The stolen frill pants

Even though this is random, here’s some FYI✨ During the performances, we call the room for changing our clothes as the “Costume Department”, and inside the Costume Department, the room is divided into 4 teams: upperclassmen in Team 1, and middle-classmen are in Teams 2-3 while lowerclassmen use Team 4 and we change in our respective years according to this system.

Then one day…We heard Team 1 people yelling and laughing…! As we’re thinking what’s going on, Kureha-san was standing there wearing short purple and pink frill pants…(LOL).

Why is that! We started becoming concerned and interested with why she looked like that. Mon-san (Maizuki) and Shi-sama (Kazumi) also said, “What the heck~!!🤣” and was erupting into laughter all over again. Shi-sama asked Hito-san (Towaki) close to her and suggested “What if Hitoko (Towaki) also wears it?” Hito-san said, “I’m going to wear it😁✌🏻” (LOL). Then after that Kureha-san removed those frill pants and then again Hito-san wore it, and did various kinds of posing it with it. (LOL)

Then our Kumichou Aoi-san (Mikaze) also asked, “Whose pants are those! LOL” Rinno-san then replied very innocently…”🥺 They took it away frome me~😭” So it turns out this purple and pink frill pants are part of Rinno-san’s rockette costume. “Rinrin (Rinno). It’s no good if you don’t keep (your pants) well. This sight is bad for your eyes!” Aoi-san scolded and with that everyone was bursting into laughter even more. We laughed a little more and the adorable upperclassmen slowly left the scene.

So for our readers. Do take care of your cute costumes because if you don’t, the otokoyaku would be aiming to have them for themselves. Watch out😎

🌻The princess battle

For us Takarasiennes, when we send the graduates off, we have a wonderful culture of “Sending pure white decoration goods to the graduates 10 days before the Senshuuraku and give them a gorgeous goodbye”.

This time, apart from the graduates, there’s also one person leaving Flower Troupe. Her name is Minami Maito-san! It’s hard to say goodbye since she’ll be transferring to Senka, so we thought about creating even at least one or more memories with her! And with that, we assembled the underclassmen and thought about the “D-10 leaving plan”😎Hehehe,

The concept is groundbreaking…

It’s a Battle for the Prince in which “Minami Prince” chooses the “Princesses”💖  (LOL).

D-10. In the morning when we enter the backstage, everyone was getting ready for their fit. Seino (Asuka) was wearing a golden blonde holding a board which wrote “The Prince’s Women”. Tatsuki (Mio) was wearing pizza glasses. Sakino (Mion) did a sexy Showa Regent hair. Itotsuki (Yukiha) not wearing makeup. Natsuki held a board which was “IKEMEN STOP (*Cool guy, stop there)”. Kaito (Asahi) and Reaki (Mira) and Kagami (Seiju) borrowed some offstage musuemyaku skirts, Tsubasa (Anju) and Taou (Shun) and Futaba (Yuyu) wore several red, blue and green Afro hair and somehow also with devil horns.

…Well we’re not princesses anymore.

We’re just a terrorist group (LOL).

Of course for me I wore silver long hair and joined in by holding a board which wrote, “Please wink at me”. (NOTE: EVERYONE: THE TIME NOW IS PAST 8AM. THIS IS REALLY SCARY (LOL.)

Yuzuka-san was also invited to join half-forcingly to wear a tiara, everyone was ready. Everyone waited at the door of the backstage in standby, and the moment when Minami-san entered the backstage, the Battle for the Prince started. We also forcingly asked Minami-san to cosplay as a prince, holding a caned stick and we followed her as she entered into the backstage. Then afterwards, we finished by taking a photo.

As we were dismissed, we princesses asked Minami-san, “Who are you choosing~?😁💓” to which she repsponded…

With just one sentence “I will think about it” (LOL).

The Princesses’ battle is still ongoing. Prince Minami…😁💓 Can I wait for the day when you choose me? (LOL)

🌻 The conclusion

Have you enjoyed “のせ様’s Documented Events”? I’d often be thinking if what I write could make someone happy…and I’ve been very happy for these 3 months.😌☘️

It’s not just about collecting these news stories, but also I felt that this is a section where I could document Flower Troupe in laughter and show you how healing this feels. It’s such a pity that I would have to delete the Stuck Memo in my iPhone. …That’s right!💡 I joked asking “Editor-san! Can I continue writing (Eto-Bun)?” But anyway for the readers who purchase Kageki, please stay tuned for the next month’s issue!

Everyone, in these 3 months…

Thank you very much☘️

From now on, I hope everyone would be filled with this laughter and healing love in this Takarazuka Revue LIFE!

From “Hanako” “Nose-san”

[yuzukahibiscus]

のせ様’s (No-se-sama) Documented Events (February 2023)

(Note: This was taken from “Eto-Bun” (えと文) section in February Kageki 2023. Eto-Bun is a section written by a particular sienne in each troupe to share some little stories about them or about their troupe every three months. In this cycle of January-March, Ichinose Kouki is the one writing for Flower Troupe. And I thought, why not drabble and translate a little to see what Hanako* has for us!) *Hanako is her nickname as mentioned in OTOME, a biography of all siennes in Takarazuka.

A little introduction to Ichinose Kouki for those who are unfamiliar with her.

Ichinose Kouki・一之瀬航季

Entered the Revue in 2014 as the 100th class. Her favourite roles include Oswald Vickers for "A Fairy Tale” newcomers’ performance. She was originally going to have a newcomers’ performance lead for “Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern” in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, she went on Yuzuka Rei’s “Lock-On” Episode as a guest to talk about what she learnt from Rei, being Rei’s first “shinko kid” since she became Top Star. Later on in 2022, she starred in the Bow Workshop “Junjou” (or Complete Devotion) alongside with Mihane Ai as her partner. She also previously joined Minami Maito in her CAST side-A and was one of the members of Flor5. She will be performing with Minami Maito in her “One and Only” dinner show, also the final performance for Minami Maito as a Flower Troupe member before transferring to Senka.

Before you read February Issue, feel free to check the first of three series in January issue here.

Everyone, how are you all doing!?

This month is February. Very quickly, we’re at Valentine’s. Speaking of which I am Ichinose Kouki wearing an apron style fashion, pretending to be a chocolatier for taking the photo♪ In this season, streets are surrounded by heart-shaped objects and sweet smells, and it’s really a heart-fluttering feeling ✨

In this month, I’ll start by talking about Tsubasa Anju-kun who’s responsible for the drawing!

“のせ様’s Documented Events" Please enjoy reading for this month✨

🌻 Strange fish 🐟

“Can you help me with the illustration since I’m going to be working on ‘Eto-Bun’”? The first person I thought of handing this task is to Anju (Tsubasa) who’s a class lower than me (101th class). In Takarazuka Music School times, I received a letter from Anju who was still a primary course student (Yokasei)...The envelope had an illustration of a “very realistic but strange fish” wearing a mushroom T-shirt (She drew a fish with its mouth wide open and had sharp teeth, its lips were plump and its gaze was unusually strange...)

...THE STRANGE (LOL).

At that time, I asked Anju why she drew a fish...and she answered with a flashing smile, “There’s no particular reason~🥺✨” And that ended our little story and from then onwards, I love Anju’s art. This time, the title illustration is about waking up in the morning and immediately drinking red tea. It’s fancy! (LOL) She’s just a loveable underclassman. Anju, thank you for your best drawings. (*Okay somehow that illustration was not in the scanned copy? Haha sorry for those who are interested, here’s another illustration instead.)

🌻 How are you so cute!

And now, now. The next story is about what I didn’t document about in the last month’s issue, and that’s an episode about our Flower Troupe Top Star Yuzuka Rei-san✨ One day during rest time, I told her...

“Yuzuka-san! I’m responsible for writing ‘Eto-Bun’ this time, I’m definitely going to write something about Yuzuka-san!”

“Let me see what kind of story I can tell you 😊” she replied kindly and left but then at that time...! Madoka-chan (Hoshikaze) was close to her and thought of something, “Yuzuka-san!! Hey...the story of your sleep talking...” and whispered to her. Huh, sleep talking!? What is that, I feel like it’s something good to record about! So immediately I went to hear from Yuzuka-san and she was a little embarrassed and said, “Eh~Wanna hear?” and took her iPhone out. Yuzuka-san opened from her iPhone an app and in a tempo of Winnie the Pooh I heard,

Ka..Kawaii~...(Cute)

Kawaii~...

(A short pause)

How are you so cute~ huh~

Isn’t that Yuzuka-san’s voice when she was briefly sleeping! OMG!!

Right. The voice that I heard was Yuzuka-san’s sleep talking! When I asked Yuzuka-san about this more in detail, she said she used a sleeping app that could ensure better sleeping quality✨ Sometimes, there would be some interesting sleep talking recorded 😁

I wonder what she was dreaming about. I’m curious about the other sleep talking moments 🥺✨ Anyway, anyway, this is Ichinose whose lifespan increased because I heard Yuzuka-san’s precious sleep talking. I’m content.

Thank you for doing this...for “Eto-Bun”.

🌻 A perfume bottle full of love✨

And now, now, to our next topic... It’s about the show this time which is “ENCHANTEMENT–A Luxurious Perfume–”✨

There are numerous songs that are so Takarazuka-styled, so gorgeous that just by hearing it you would feel excited. From the start of the rehearsals I already felt that I love this show and this is Ichinose who continues to listen to the show songs even at home😁. Especially, I’ve been infinitely looping the Irish song from the “Sea Salt” scene led by Hito-san (Towaki)!! I want to join in this scene even if I’m going to playing a wood (from the wooden oar) or just a boat (LOL). Okay, maybe not that’s dangerous. There are so many points I like that I hope there wasn’t a word limit! But still I’ll start writing about it!😁

The perfume is the theme of this performance. Everyone, did you all look at the perfume props!? (the front panel at the stage sides) Because if you look closely, those are some cute perfume bottles✨ But it’d probably require a more condensed focus to realise the labels that...What! There’s actually all the names of the staff members and the Flower Troupe members names’ printed😊🌟 Besides, all those designs are only one (and unique to each other)! Isn’t that the greatest thing!? This idea was originally not proposed, but after Noguchi-sensei looked at the stage venue again, he told (the staff), “Later, let’s print all of our names (into perfume bottles).” Love! So much love!!✨ When there were performance suspensions in January, Kido-sensei responsible for stage setup said, “I hope you could take a look at this label and hope you like it!” and with that, they gifted us the design of the labels and we were so touched by it😌💓

It’s a perfume bottle full of love by our senseis. I hope that everyone could at least see a little of those labels.

And now, now, I’ve finished documenting the 3 episodes for this month and we’re at 2 pages. The backstage of Flower Troupe is often so lively and there are plentiful of episodes that I still have yet to document. For example my douki Izumi Maira did a “Mary Vestera-themed skit” and there was a big failure I did in my underclassmen times…there are numerous episodes I have them written in my Stuck Memo (app).

It’s suddenly getting terribly cold and it’s probably more likely to catch a cold in these days, I hope everyone would laugh a lot, and have the greatest fun!!

We will also be in one heart together with this!

Toi toi toi!!

[yuzukahibiscus]

のせ様’s (No-se-sama) Documented Events (January 2023)

(Note: This was taken from “Eto-Bun” (えと文) section in January Kageki 2023. Eto-Bun is a section written by a particular sienne in each troupe to share some little stories about them or about their troupe every three months. In this cycle of January-March, Ichinose Kouki is the one writing for Flower Troupe. And I thought, why not drabble and translate a little to see what Hanako* has for us!) *Hanako is her nickname as mentioned in OTOME, a biography of all siennes in Takarazuka.

A little introduction to Ichinose Kouki for those who are unfamiliar with her.

Ichinose Kouki・一之瀬航季

Entered the Revue in 2014 as the 100th class. Her favourite roles include Oswald Vickers for "A Fairy Tale” newcomers’ performance. She was originally going to have a newcomers’ performance lead for “Haikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern” in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, she went on Yuzuka Rei’s “Lock-On” Episode as a guest to talk about what she learnt from Rei, being Rei’s first “shinko kid” since she became Top Star. Later on in 2022, she starred in the Bow Workshop “Junjou” (or Complete Devotion) alongside with Mihane Ai as her partner. She also previously joined Minami Maito in her CAST side-A and was one of the members of Flor5. She will be performing with Minami Maito in her “One and Only” dinner show, also the final performance for Minami Maito as a Flower Troupe member before transferring to Senka.

Hey everyone! Have you being doing well?

I am Ichinose Kouki who’s here on “Eto-Bun” for the first time! “のせ様’s Documented Events” will be the title of this time’s “Eto-Bun” corner. The parent for titling the name is my douki Honoka (Seino) ✨

Readers like you may think, “Eh!? Isn’t Ichinose’s nickname Hanako”...!

Actually, underclassmen do call me “のせ様”~. Hahaha. In Flower Troupe, we call (OG Marika Yume-san) as “Yume-sama”, (Kazumi-san) as “Shii-sama” and others by adding “-sama” to their nickname... how cool is that✨ I also want to live up cool like that! So when given this opportunity of writing for “Eto-Bun”, I have the strategy to induce the underclassmen to start calling me “のせ様” lol.

In these 3 months, I’ll be updating everyone a lot about the charms and updates of our Flower Troupe friends.

Please look forward ☘️

🌻 Intimidating “KAGEKI”

So now, now. Let’s commemorate this as my first entry!

As I start writing, I researched more about “Eto-Bun”... “Eto-Bun” has been a general corner in “Kageki” from the time of! Showa Year 43 (1968).

“What...half a century ago!?” I was surprised.

For reference, once again I opened up the “KAGEKI”s I have at my home again and when I opened the portrait photo, the thing I immediately saw was...

“Yuzuka-san is so cool! The best!”

“This angle is nice✨“

“Hey! My douki looks great too😍”

And it was so fun reading it that this time I didn’t quite want to turn the next page yet. There’s the roundtable discussion, backstage notes. Sometimes I realised there would be new corners and I familiarised myself in reading several of these (“KAGEKI”) books. And very quickly, time passed. Lol.

Has everyone had such experience before!?

I’d say this is why the charm of “KAGEKI” is intimidating.

🌻 Flower Troupe University・Starts School!

As we’re embracing the New Year in the Grand Theatre, now Flower Troupe’s in the middle of rehearsals, but actually from the start, we were arranged with quite an irregular rehearsal pattern.

To trace back the events, this happened in the next day after meeting day (*shuugobi; the day when rehearsals of performances start). As we entered the rehearsal classroom, it was like entering a school. In front of the large white board, there were long desks and long chairs aside each other. Sensei was in her seat and holding a mic, all was readily prepared...How would this start!? We thought as we stay seated. Then Koyanagi-sensei (*director of “Mayerling”) said this.

"Everyone, have you learned the way of speaking Japanese?😁”

For me, I had Japanese lessons, but was not taught specifically the way of speaking it. Then Koyanagi-sensei continued to say, “even for English, when you are admitted into the overseas drama schools, the first thing is to directly learn about the way of speaking for your mother tongue”.

Oh...! So on that day Koyanagi-sensei prepared for us Flower Troupe members a special “Acting Enhancement Lesson Club”✨! What kind of theatrical troupe is Takarazuka like? What does an actress do? She asked us many of these foundational questions...and then started picking siennes to answer🤣 lol.  Then when it comes to the situational acting class, Aoki Tsukasa was given the role of a rock singer character and Hoshikaze had to play her fan and it was a lot of fun. From the Top-san to the most junior underclassmen we’re all given an opportunity to play this, so it was exciting from start to finish...!

When we Flower Troupe members were having these lessons, it really felt like a framed memory of our school life. In a day of these lessons, (we’d be asked) “What is Takarazuka? What is a musical? What is language/words?” and once again we learnt a lot through this process. It was really interesting knowing all of such things...!!

Koyanagi-sensei said, “Everything is about conveying the “language/words”. That’s why it shouldn’t get too convoluted, but it should be enunciated word by word,” and that’s how Flower Troupe University came to an end☘️

🌻 The healing god appears!

During a weekend in the rehearsal period...

Suddenly, the healing god appeared!!

That week was a challenging time for the underclassmen, having to rehearse for both the musical and the choreography for the show (*Enchantement). Our heads felt like being in a state of sea urchin (*maybe meaning full of spikes, frustrated and headaches...) As I returned home for the week, feeling accomplished like “I’ve done it!”, several people seemed to have discover something...

As I saw the car that passed by, isn’t that Yuzuka-san’s dog Noah! Noah-kun suddenly appeared before us...✨

“Ka...Ka...Kawaii———————♡” (Cute)

Yuzuka-san held Noah-kun’s little hand and stuck its hand out of the car window and started waving it✨ Together with Yuzuka-san’s beautiful hand, we saw Noah-kun’s small hand. What-What-What an angel! As Yuzuka-san and Noah-kun waved their hands, that sent the weariness of the underclassmen away. (Besides, Ichinose is always touched by the beauty of Noah’s fluffy fur and side profile. I want to tell you...more about how touching this is) Yuzuka-san, Noah-kun, thank you for making us healed with happiness♡

I have other Yuzuka-san’s episodes I want to share, but ah~! I’m running out of pages!! Please look forward to the next entry...! This time, I’ve shared fully about the appearance of Noah-kun😁✨

Once again... Everyone, thank you for reading this first entry of my “Eto-Bun” to the end. Since we’re at the start of 2023, I’m so honoured to share with everyone my stories☘️ There’s so much I want to record document about but here I’m up at my 2 pages. From the start of the year, it would be the Flower Troupe performance. I look forward to seeing everyone in the audience.

Everyone, please be happy in 2023!

With love! From “Hanako” “(Ichi)Nose-san”.