BaraAme Senshuuraku in Takarazuka
Going backwards and reporting on raku now.
I could go over the early-morning iri and the workings of basho-tori (non-taidansha clubs saving places along the parade line), but precious little of it is actually interesting. Suffice it to say I didn't see the taidansha go in at all.
But gummical did, and she sent me some reports. :)
9:35AM - Ume-chan went in. Off-white sleeveless dress, hair pulled into a tight bun. Club wear was a sleeveless, baggy hooded vest; the vest was obviously white, but the hood was teal. Approximately 35 fans.
9:50AM - Masami went in, wearing "a loose-fitting, off-white, crochet-style dress with really loose sleeves and light brown cowboy boots." Club wear was a white sweatshirt. On the left breast was a circle of text: "Cosmos" over the top in blue, "Miwa Asahi" along the bottom in yellow, "85" in the middle in red. On the back at the bottom was "1999 MASAMI 2009" in red. 25~30 fans.
10:05AM - Risa in a white suit, dark brown heels, and a cream stole. Club wear was a white button-up shirt with her name at the back bottom in blue, and maybe her nickname on the left pocket. 40-ish fans.
10:10AM - Yucchi-san in a white dress with black polka dots, a white cardigan, and a white stole (probably her wear, which had her name at one end). Maybe 25 fans.
Around 10:30AM the Tani club antics began. Small, pink heart-shaped balloons on sticks were distributed. The blinged-out car arrived, with the top down until Tani came out of it. Apparently her club sang "Hitomi no Naka no Houseki" (the 'aishiteiru' song) with recorded music in the background.
And this is third-hand information (Tegan didn't see it either), but "Tomu, Micchan and Tomochin all came out and pushed her around in a fake car while they sang to her. Tani was wearing a tiara. The song went 'aishiteiru aishiteiru, something something, Yamato Yuuga, etc'".
Around 11:00AM the 88th clubs were released from basho-tori duty. I went around scoping out the other clubs' taidan wear (among other things).
Eriko (actually I had seen this on maeraku) - a white button-up shirt with a big "85" in silver on the back, and "Nanaho Hikaru" going through it slant-ways. Of note, most Masako club staff were wearing this and/or Masami's taidan wear.
Asu - a white sweatshirt with "Karin ♥ Moyuru" in pink along the back bottom, and "M♥yuru" on the left breast.
Kanachin - a white button-up shirt with "N / K" in pink on the back, where the slash was actually a wing motif. Her name on the front left breast.
Rabi-chan - a white sweatshirt with "Riria ◯ Moeno" in black on the back bottom.
Sakkun - a white button-up shirt with "Sakkun" in a splotch of orange on the back, "TS" on the left breast pocket.
And since I didn't mention before, Tani's taidan wear was a cardigan that looked the same as the previous one -- with a pink heart on the left breast -- only in white this time. Underneath, a white T-shirt with what appeared to be all of her top performances and role names written on it in pink cursive.
Skipping to the show now.
On maeraku I saw Ayuse Mito in the theater. Wearing a mask, but I still recognized her.
For raku I was in row 10, seat 62 (these are Alice club seats? I had sat in that same area at least three times before). Fukuda-san to my left, Mrs. Urakawa to my right.
Most people I talk to seem to agree that Masatsuka-sensei productions don't lend themselves well to adlibs, and/or that any adlibs need the director's approval. So there weren't many. But I was keeping a keen eye out for anything special from the company workers, and...
I have a feeling that the rest of the people in that scene had organized to surprise all of the taidansha. They're usually just doing their missing persons research with black binders, but on raku when Risa-chan, Kanachin and Sakkun opened the binders they'd been given... I saw their faces light up, and they read what was written inside with more than the usual care. The papers had black-and-white pictures of people instead of the normal yellowed papers. My theory is Otome photos with messages from batchmates.
Batchmate love in general; instead of wandering around the office the 89ths mostly stayed together and talked (Kai-chan, Seiko, Kanachin and Rabi-chan). When Asu-chan was freaking out because she thought Tani was leaving the company, Risa-chan hugged her and patted her back to make her calm down. And randomly, Tomoe tapped Sakkun with her pen. ^^;;
(From maeraku: Tomoe and Risa-chan scolding Asu-chan for spreading rumors and bonking her on the head with their binders. Tomoe and Kanachin hiding behind their binders and then peeking out, as if playing peekaboo with an unseeing Tani.)
Tomu did two adlibs, and we clapped for both of them. After she finishes practicing her report in front of Asu-chan, Tomoe comes in and says there's a phone call from Tani, and Asu-chan says to Tomu "gambatte!" On raku Tomu replied, "kimi mo gambare!"
The other one was when she dances "with" (read: around) OldLady!Yucchi-san. At the end of the dance she pulled a rosebud out of her pocket and gave it to Yucchi-san.
During her big scene with Ume-chan, Micchan has a talk with her "sister" about whether marrying for money is really the right thing to do or not. Ume-chan's perspective is "instead of hating it, all I can do is find a way to accept it somehow."
Micchan says something like "you're just telling yourself that..." And then you could see tears run down her cheeks, on both maeraku and raku.
And maybe my eyes were deceiving me, but I think Masako got too caught up in the emotion of Tani shouting at her and possibly let one tear fall as well.
I always found it horribly ironic that Risa-chan, Kanachin and Sakkun are three of the four other passengers getting ready to sail away on the boat with Tani at the end. BonBon is the fourth one, and she shook hands with all of them.
Non-taidansha bit: I noticed that instead of letting Waiter!Mitsuki go after bringing their drinks, Dai-chan kept her around and pulled her into the conversation with Kuu-chan briefly. Thanks for that bit of randomness, Dai-chan. ^^;;;
Also, it may be my imagination but I think the ring Tomochin gave Ume-chan changed two or three times during the run. After being a clear stone for most of the run, it was a blood-red color on raku, and I remembered it being black or a very dark red on shonichi...
...After saying there weren't many adlibs, it looks like I still had a lot of notes. ^^;; At intermission, Tani club staff went around telling people how to work their glow sticks. Everyone in the theater -- even those in standing seats -- got glow sticks. With printed instructions to wave them during "Singin' in the Rain, "Life" and "Kono Michi, Kono Ai".
In Amour, none of the taidansha were marked until the chuuzume. Then they all had orange flowers attached to their costumes -- well, I guess Ume, Yucchi-san & Sakkun's were more yellow, and Tani had red roses.
Then for "She", Masami and Eriko had white fluffy feathery things.
In "Yume Amor", everyone had white flowers except Tani, who had red roses and a feathery thing.
Tani had red roses again for the pair dance, and Ume-chan had white roses.
Everyone had lavender / purple flowers or feathery things for the finale except, again, Tani with the red.
Backing up to the rockettes, a lot of them looked like they were about to cry after finishing their final line dance together. Yuuma-chan especially was having a hard time... so she smiled even wider to keep herself together. Sweet thing. ♥
So, the sayonara show.
This time kumichou read stage history for both Tani and Ume-chan. I've never seen this done before, but a silent video montage played on the curtain as she spoke.
Tani says her favorite roles were Cyd from "Cinderella Rock" (kind of represented herself at the time), Nathan from "Guys & Dolls", Cosmo and Don from AmeUta, Andre (great to be in a BeruBara at least once), etc. Ume-chan said all of them; each character she got to know was important to her and helped her grow. Her message was about idolizing the world of dreams, making it her goal, entering that world and facing a new dream... She talked about how she had been welcomed by everyone in Soragumi, and welcomed back after she had caused trouble for them by being out with injury... And also that she was honored to have been partnered with a 素敵な方 like Tani.
I'll repeat the sayonara show set list and add any new notes.
"Sora Fantasista!!" - Tani got the lyrics and tempo right this time. For "aisuru hito, you you you!", Masako and Ecchan pointed at Eriko.
"Cinderella Rock" - On maeraku, Masako mimed a kiss at Eriko.
"Ai no Bolero" - Tani wasn't quite as overzealous with her tie on raku. ;)
"Innocent Love"
"Hitomi no Naka no Houseki"
"Butai" - I think Eriko's costume was actually the blue suit from Never Sleep.
"Good Morning" - "Your lucky day (歴史的な日) isn't the 17th, it's the 18th!"
"Singin' in the Rain"
"Life" - Tani cried again. A black curtain with her signature in lights showed behind her for part of the number.
"A/L" - There was no costume change for Tani, which is what had me confused before. The gold costume was when she came back out for the otokoyaku dance.
"Fantasy"
"Bara no Kaori"
"Kono Michi, Kono Ai"
Before speeches, it's kumichou's job to give them time to change into hakama by reading messages from the taidansha. Again, video montages played in the background for each one of them. I was really touched. They also had messages and mentions of favorite roles, but I think I'll just mix those in with the speeches, because with 10 people it's hard to remember what everyone said.
Sakkun: batchmate flowers from BonBon; troupe flowers from Mii-chan. Some of her favorite roles were her very first stage, Susano-o, Pedro from the NSG shinko, the shopkeep boy in Junjou, etc.
Rabi-chan: batchmate flowers from Tamami-chan; troupe flowers from Alice-chan. One half was a sphere of pink and white flowers(?); the other half attached at the bottom with strings of flowers dangling down. She said some of her favorite parts were her child role in NSG, Jeanie Papin from A/L, and the geisha from Junjou.
Kanachin: batchmate flowers from Seiko; troupe flowers from Chiya-nee. Seiko was sniffling from this point on. Some of Kanachin's favorite roles were the NSG honkouen & shinko, the 2006 Encourage Concert, and Chunichi BeruBara.
Risa-chan: troupe flowers from Micchan. With Risa and Asu-chan -- the two remaining Sora 87ths -- both retiring, their batchmate flowers had to come from outside persons. Risa-chan got hers from... a retired Soragumi batchmate... Sakian ♥ ♥ ♥ Her flowers were blue and white. She said some of her favorite roles were Claude from Le Petit Jardin, Young Raoul from A/L and Melchior from BeruBara.
Asu-chan: troupe flowers from Tomoe. Also got her batchmate flowers from retired Soragumi batchmate... Tacchin ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Some of her favorite roles were Lina from Le Petit Jardin and Ascargot from Sora Fantasista. Before her speech, a man called out, "Asu-chaaaannn!!" and she smiled. She said in her speech, "my feelings are just like this bouquet in my hands -- a big pink heart".
Also of note, we seemed to be sitting behind Asu-chan supporters, so she kept looking our direction, and I had been strong up until that point but I started crying during her speech.
Eriko.
When kumichou called her name it was like a punch in the gut, and I looked at Alice-chan and her chin was trembling, and she was crying and I was crying and...
Troupe flowers from Tomochin; batchmate flowers from Ecchan. Sparkling white lilies. Favorite roles Alec (Understudy), Miles Goodwin (Never Sleep), Miles Edgeworth (Phoenix Wright). She said in her speech "all of my time in Takarazuka has been precious. I have no regrets, but parting from everyone is painful."
Masami: troupe flowers from Tamatama; batchmate flowers from Masako. Yellow lilies. Favorite roles Cecile (Le Petit Jardin), Brigid (Never Sleep), Leona (Phoenix Wright). I don't really remember her speech, just that she was beautiful and I was still crying.
Yucchi-san: troupe flowers from Aoi-san. Yucchi-san, of the 78th class, only has three batchmates left in Takarazuka -- and two of them are on tour, so her flowers came from... Sena Jun ☆☆ White roses. Asako said something that made her chuckle. Her favorite roles were Stephanie from Utakata no Koi, Euphemia from Never Sleep, and Shige from Junjou.
Ume-chan: troupe flowers from Ayumi-san. Batchmate flowers from... Ayami Haya ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ White, star-like flowers. I started crying again when she said "it's thanks to everyone that I'm standing here -- everyone--" and she turned around and looked at everyone in Soragumi.
Tani: Following the example of her sempai Wao-san, she came down the stairs in a sparkly tux, not hakama. Troupe flowers from Tomu, batchmate flowers from Hanase Mizuka. Two armfuls of red roses. I don't remember her speech, but you can always count on Tani to be a ham and make everyone laugh.
They sang "Takarazuka Forever" across the ginkyou.
At the first and second curtain calls, Tani said stupid sappy lines from the play like "you're all my rose" and "I'll love you until I die", etc. On the second or third curtain call a man yelled, "Yuuga-chaaannn!!" Someone else called out "aishiteru" and Tani replied "boku mo aishiteru".
There were five or six curtain calls all told. We were standing up by the fourth or fifth one, I guess. Tani kept saying "come see us in Tokyo" and blowing kisses and stuff. Eriko was fiddling with her flowers at some point. At the last curtain call Tani came in front of the curtain and walked across the ginkyou alone. And blew kisses, and was a ham, etc.
Demachi. We were given a "now or never" ultimatum by the club -- line up for demachi now or you won't be allowed to join the line.
Fukuda-san chose to line up. I chose to watch the taidansha.
Not that I could really see much, since it was so crowded and I didn't have a very good spot. But I found O'young in the same place (how do we always find each other?!) and she stretched her arm to angle her video camera over the gate and film everything, so I kind of watched through her viewfinder. ^^;;;
The show finished at 5:40PM; Sakkun came out at about 6:55PM and Tani was gone by 7:50PM. Everyone had white cars except, bizarrely, Yucchi-san (a red car)... and obviously Tani. Lots of people had trouble fitting themselves and their flowers in the cars; Masami and Ume-chan in particular took an absurdly long time before driving off.
I suppose I should explain the call that Tani got from her fans.
In BaraAme, in one of Tani and Ume-chan's scenes in the past, they have a conversation that goes like this:
Ume: 「私の事ずっと好きでいて」 (Love me for always.)
Tani: 「うん」 (Uh-huh.)
Ume: 「ずっとよ」 (*Always.*)
Tani: 「ああ」 (Yeah.)
Ume: 「本当にずうっと」 (Really, aaaaaaalways!)
Tani: 「死ぬまで好きだよ、ずうっと」 (I'll love you until I die, aaaaaaalways.)
Ume: 「絶対よ」 (Absolutely always.)
Tani: 「ああ」 (Yeah.)
Ume: 「ああ、また暗くなっちゃう」 (Aah, it's getting dark again...)
Tani: 「明日も会えるよ。まだ夏は終わらない」 (We can meet again tomorrow. The summer isn't over yet.)
Ume: 「キスして」 (Kiss me.)
The call from Tani's fans at the very least included "Love us aaaalways" and Tani responded with a really long "I'll love you until I die, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalways!!!" And they said "kiss us!!" and she blew them kisses for the millionth time, etc.
Oh, and even though she came down the stairs in a tux she came out of the theater in hakama.
...I think... I'm done. Dictation time 5-ish hours, allowing time for proofreading and a lot of pausing and being unable to find the words and/or sniffling and such.
I could go over the early-morning iri and the workings of basho-tori (non-taidansha clubs saving places along the parade line), but precious little of it is actually interesting. Suffice it to say I didn't see the taidansha go in at all.
But gummical did, and she sent me some reports. :)
9:35AM - Ume-chan went in. Off-white sleeveless dress, hair pulled into a tight bun. Club wear was a sleeveless, baggy hooded vest; the vest was obviously white, but the hood was teal. Approximately 35 fans.
9:50AM - Masami went in, wearing "a loose-fitting, off-white, crochet-style dress with really loose sleeves and light brown cowboy boots." Club wear was a white sweatshirt. On the left breast was a circle of text: "Cosmos" over the top in blue, "Miwa Asahi" along the bottom in yellow, "85" in the middle in red. On the back at the bottom was "1999 MASAMI 2009" in red. 25~30 fans.
10:05AM - Risa in a white suit, dark brown heels, and a cream stole. Club wear was a white button-up shirt with her name at the back bottom in blue, and maybe her nickname on the left pocket. 40-ish fans.
10:10AM - Yucchi-san in a white dress with black polka dots, a white cardigan, and a white stole (probably her wear, which had her name at one end). Maybe 25 fans.
Around 10:30AM the Tani club antics began. Small, pink heart-shaped balloons on sticks were distributed. The blinged-out car arrived, with the top down until Tani came out of it. Apparently her club sang "Hitomi no Naka no Houseki" (the 'aishiteiru' song) with recorded music in the background.
And this is third-hand information (Tegan didn't see it either), but "Tomu, Micchan and Tomochin all came out and pushed her around in a fake car while they sang to her. Tani was wearing a tiara. The song went 'aishiteiru aishiteiru, something something, Yamato Yuuga, etc'".
Around 11:00AM the 88th clubs were released from basho-tori duty. I went around scoping out the other clubs' taidan wear (among other things).
Eriko (actually I had seen this on maeraku) - a white button-up shirt with a big "85" in silver on the back, and "Nanaho Hikaru" going through it slant-ways. Of note, most Masako club staff were wearing this and/or Masami's taidan wear.
Asu - a white sweatshirt with "Karin ♥ Moyuru" in pink along the back bottom, and "M♥yuru" on the left breast.
Kanachin - a white button-up shirt with "N / K" in pink on the back, where the slash was actually a wing motif. Her name on the front left breast.
Rabi-chan - a white sweatshirt with "Riria ◯ Moeno" in black on the back bottom.
Sakkun - a white button-up shirt with "Sakkun" in a splotch of orange on the back, "TS" on the left breast pocket.
And since I didn't mention before, Tani's taidan wear was a cardigan that looked the same as the previous one -- with a pink heart on the left breast -- only in white this time. Underneath, a white T-shirt with what appeared to be all of her top performances and role names written on it in pink cursive.
Skipping to the show now.
On maeraku I saw Ayuse Mito in the theater. Wearing a mask, but I still recognized her.
For raku I was in row 10, seat 62 (these are Alice club seats? I had sat in that same area at least three times before). Fukuda-san to my left, Mrs. Urakawa to my right.
Most people I talk to seem to agree that Masatsuka-sensei productions don't lend themselves well to adlibs, and/or that any adlibs need the director's approval. So there weren't many. But I was keeping a keen eye out for anything special from the company workers, and...
I have a feeling that the rest of the people in that scene had organized to surprise all of the taidansha. They're usually just doing their missing persons research with black binders, but on raku when Risa-chan, Kanachin and Sakkun opened the binders they'd been given... I saw their faces light up, and they read what was written inside with more than the usual care. The papers had black-and-white pictures of people instead of the normal yellowed papers. My theory is Otome photos with messages from batchmates.
Batchmate love in general; instead of wandering around the office the 89ths mostly stayed together and talked (Kai-chan, Seiko, Kanachin and Rabi-chan). When Asu-chan was freaking out because she thought Tani was leaving the company, Risa-chan hugged her and patted her back to make her calm down. And randomly, Tomoe tapped Sakkun with her pen. ^^;;
(From maeraku: Tomoe and Risa-chan scolding Asu-chan for spreading rumors and bonking her on the head with their binders. Tomoe and Kanachin hiding behind their binders and then peeking out, as if playing peekaboo with an unseeing Tani.)
Tomu did two adlibs, and we clapped for both of them. After she finishes practicing her report in front of Asu-chan, Tomoe comes in and says there's a phone call from Tani, and Asu-chan says to Tomu "gambatte!" On raku Tomu replied, "kimi mo gambare!"
The other one was when she dances "with" (read: around) OldLady!Yucchi-san. At the end of the dance she pulled a rosebud out of her pocket and gave it to Yucchi-san.
During her big scene with Ume-chan, Micchan has a talk with her "sister" about whether marrying for money is really the right thing to do or not. Ume-chan's perspective is "instead of hating it, all I can do is find a way to accept it somehow."
Micchan says something like "you're just telling yourself that..." And then you could see tears run down her cheeks, on both maeraku and raku.
And maybe my eyes were deceiving me, but I think Masako got too caught up in the emotion of Tani shouting at her and possibly let one tear fall as well.
I always found it horribly ironic that Risa-chan, Kanachin and Sakkun are three of the four other passengers getting ready to sail away on the boat with Tani at the end. BonBon is the fourth one, and she shook hands with all of them.
Non-taidansha bit: I noticed that instead of letting Waiter!Mitsuki go after bringing their drinks, Dai-chan kept her around and pulled her into the conversation with Kuu-chan briefly. Thanks for that bit of randomness, Dai-chan. ^^;;;
Also, it may be my imagination but I think the ring Tomochin gave Ume-chan changed two or three times during the run. After being a clear stone for most of the run, it was a blood-red color on raku, and I remembered it being black or a very dark red on shonichi...
...After saying there weren't many adlibs, it looks like I still had a lot of notes. ^^;; At intermission, Tani club staff went around telling people how to work their glow sticks. Everyone in the theater -- even those in standing seats -- got glow sticks. With printed instructions to wave them during "Singin' in the Rain, "Life" and "Kono Michi, Kono Ai".
In Amour, none of the taidansha were marked until the chuuzume. Then they all had orange flowers attached to their costumes -- well, I guess Ume, Yucchi-san & Sakkun's were more yellow, and Tani had red roses.
Then for "She", Masami and Eriko had white fluffy feathery things.
In "Yume Amor", everyone had white flowers except Tani, who had red roses and a feathery thing.
Tani had red roses again for the pair dance, and Ume-chan had white roses.
Everyone had lavender / purple flowers or feathery things for the finale except, again, Tani with the red.
Backing up to the rockettes, a lot of them looked like they were about to cry after finishing their final line dance together. Yuuma-chan especially was having a hard time... so she smiled even wider to keep herself together. Sweet thing. ♥
So, the sayonara show.
This time kumichou read stage history for both Tani and Ume-chan. I've never seen this done before, but a silent video montage played on the curtain as she spoke.
Tani says her favorite roles were Cyd from "Cinderella Rock" (kind of represented herself at the time), Nathan from "Guys & Dolls", Cosmo and Don from AmeUta, Andre (great to be in a BeruBara at least once), etc. Ume-chan said all of them; each character she got to know was important to her and helped her grow. Her message was about idolizing the world of dreams, making it her goal, entering that world and facing a new dream... She talked about how she had been welcomed by everyone in Soragumi, and welcomed back after she had caused trouble for them by being out with injury... And also that she was honored to have been partnered with a 素敵な方 like Tani.
I'll repeat the sayonara show set list and add any new notes.
"Sora Fantasista!!" - Tani got the lyrics and tempo right this time. For "aisuru hito, you you you!", Masako and Ecchan pointed at Eriko.
"Cinderella Rock" - On maeraku, Masako mimed a kiss at Eriko.
"Ai no Bolero" - Tani wasn't quite as overzealous with her tie on raku. ;)
"Innocent Love"
"Hitomi no Naka no Houseki"
"Butai" - I think Eriko's costume was actually the blue suit from Never Sleep.
"Good Morning" - "Your lucky day (歴史的な日) isn't the 17th, it's the 18th!"
"Singin' in the Rain"
"Life" - Tani cried again. A black curtain with her signature in lights showed behind her for part of the number.
"A/L" - There was no costume change for Tani, which is what had me confused before. The gold costume was when she came back out for the otokoyaku dance.
"Fantasy"
"Bara no Kaori"
"Kono Michi, Kono Ai"
Before speeches, it's kumichou's job to give them time to change into hakama by reading messages from the taidansha. Again, video montages played in the background for each one of them. I was really touched. They also had messages and mentions of favorite roles, but I think I'll just mix those in with the speeches, because with 10 people it's hard to remember what everyone said.
Sakkun: batchmate flowers from BonBon; troupe flowers from Mii-chan. Some of her favorite roles were her very first stage, Susano-o, Pedro from the NSG shinko, the shopkeep boy in Junjou, etc.
Rabi-chan: batchmate flowers from Tamami-chan; troupe flowers from Alice-chan. One half was a sphere of pink and white flowers(?); the other half attached at the bottom with strings of flowers dangling down. She said some of her favorite parts were her child role in NSG, Jeanie Papin from A/L, and the geisha from Junjou.
Kanachin: batchmate flowers from Seiko; troupe flowers from Chiya-nee. Seiko was sniffling from this point on. Some of Kanachin's favorite roles were the NSG honkouen & shinko, the 2006 Encourage Concert, and Chunichi BeruBara.
Risa-chan: troupe flowers from Micchan. With Risa and Asu-chan -- the two remaining Sora 87ths -- both retiring, their batchmate flowers had to come from outside persons. Risa-chan got hers from... a retired Soragumi batchmate... Sakian ♥ ♥ ♥ Her flowers were blue and white. She said some of her favorite roles were Claude from Le Petit Jardin, Young Raoul from A/L and Melchior from BeruBara.
Asu-chan: troupe flowers from Tomoe. Also got her batchmate flowers from retired Soragumi batchmate... Tacchin ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Some of her favorite roles were Lina from Le Petit Jardin and Ascargot from Sora Fantasista. Before her speech, a man called out, "Asu-chaaaannn!!" and she smiled. She said in her speech, "my feelings are just like this bouquet in my hands -- a big pink heart".
Also of note, we seemed to be sitting behind Asu-chan supporters, so she kept looking our direction, and I had been strong up until that point but I started crying during her speech.
Eriko.
When kumichou called her name it was like a punch in the gut, and I looked at Alice-chan and her chin was trembling, and she was crying and I was crying and...
Troupe flowers from Tomochin; batchmate flowers from Ecchan. Sparkling white lilies. Favorite roles Alec (Understudy), Miles Goodwin (Never Sleep), Miles Edgeworth (Phoenix Wright). She said in her speech "all of my time in Takarazuka has been precious. I have no regrets, but parting from everyone is painful."
Masami: troupe flowers from Tamatama; batchmate flowers from Masako. Yellow lilies. Favorite roles Cecile (Le Petit Jardin), Brigid (Never Sleep), Leona (Phoenix Wright). I don't really remember her speech, just that she was beautiful and I was still crying.
Yucchi-san: troupe flowers from Aoi-san. Yucchi-san, of the 78th class, only has three batchmates left in Takarazuka -- and two of them are on tour, so her flowers came from... Sena Jun ☆☆ White roses. Asako said something that made her chuckle. Her favorite roles were Stephanie from Utakata no Koi, Euphemia from Never Sleep, and Shige from Junjou.
Ume-chan: troupe flowers from Ayumi-san. Batchmate flowers from... Ayami Haya ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ White, star-like flowers. I started crying again when she said "it's thanks to everyone that I'm standing here -- everyone--" and she turned around and looked at everyone in Soragumi.
Tani: Following the example of her sempai Wao-san, she came down the stairs in a sparkly tux, not hakama. Troupe flowers from Tomu, batchmate flowers from Hanase Mizuka. Two armfuls of red roses. I don't remember her speech, but you can always count on Tani to be a ham and make everyone laugh.
They sang "Takarazuka Forever" across the ginkyou.
At the first and second curtain calls, Tani said stupid sappy lines from the play like "you're all my rose" and "I'll love you until I die", etc. On the second or third curtain call a man yelled, "Yuuga-chaaannn!!" Someone else called out "aishiteru" and Tani replied "boku mo aishiteru".
There were five or six curtain calls all told. We were standing up by the fourth or fifth one, I guess. Tani kept saying "come see us in Tokyo" and blowing kisses and stuff. Eriko was fiddling with her flowers at some point. At the last curtain call Tani came in front of the curtain and walked across the ginkyou alone. And blew kisses, and was a ham, etc.
Demachi. We were given a "now or never" ultimatum by the club -- line up for demachi now or you won't be allowed to join the line.
Fukuda-san chose to line up. I chose to watch the taidansha.
Not that I could really see much, since it was so crowded and I didn't have a very good spot. But I found O'young in the same place (how do we always find each other?!) and she stretched her arm to angle her video camera over the gate and film everything, so I kind of watched through her viewfinder. ^^;;;
The show finished at 5:40PM; Sakkun came out at about 6:55PM and Tani was gone by 7:50PM. Everyone had white cars except, bizarrely, Yucchi-san (a red car)... and obviously Tani. Lots of people had trouble fitting themselves and their flowers in the cars; Masami and Ume-chan in particular took an absurdly long time before driving off.
I suppose I should explain the call that Tani got from her fans.
In BaraAme, in one of Tani and Ume-chan's scenes in the past, they have a conversation that goes like this:
Ume: 「私の事ずっと好きでいて」 (Love me for always.)
Tani: 「うん」 (Uh-huh.)
Ume: 「ずっとよ」 (*Always.*)
Tani: 「ああ」 (Yeah.)
Ume: 「本当にずうっと」 (Really, aaaaaaalways!)
Tani: 「死ぬまで好きだよ、ずうっと」 (I'll love you until I die, aaaaaaalways.)
Ume: 「絶対よ」 (Absolutely always.)
Tani: 「ああ」 (Yeah.)
Ume: 「ああ、また暗くなっちゃう」 (Aah, it's getting dark again...)
Tani: 「明日も会えるよ。まだ夏は終わらない」 (We can meet again tomorrow. The summer isn't over yet.)
Ume: 「キスして」 (Kiss me.)
The call from Tani's fans at the very least included "Love us aaaalways" and Tani responded with a really long "I'll love you until I die, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalways!!!" And they said "kiss us!!" and she blew them kisses for the millionth time, etc.
Oh, and even though she came down the stairs in a tux she came out of the theater in hakama.
...I think... I'm done. Dictation time 5-ish hours, allowing time for proofreading and a lot of pausing and being unable to find the words and/or sniffling and such.