The 18th installment in our quest to discover the secret to radiating the “true essence” of a Takarasienne is Flower Troupe’s Minami Maito. She’s stoic, and harder on herself than anyone else. Yet conversely, she’s also awkward and easygoing, and describes herself as “a bit of a ditz.” Never smooth sailing, her journey toward becoming a star has taken a lot of unseen effort.
“Actually, I was tone-deaf when I was a kid. It was so bad that if I sang in the car while driving with my family, my parents would say, ‘Seriously, you need to stop’ (haha). But anyway, I loved to dance,” says Minami, who began learning ballet at age 3, speaking about her childhood. Thanks to the influence of her Takarazuka-loving grandmother, she naturally gained an interest in Takarazuka as well. “In my elementary school essays I would always write ‘I’m going to join Takarazuka.’ Not even ‘I want to join;’ it was always ‘I’m going to join.’ For some reason I believed that and never doubted it. Even though I had absolutely no basis for it…” says Minami, laughing. Nowadays of course, she bewitches so many theatergoers not only with her singing voice but also her dynamic dancing and radiant presence, that her opening statement seems like an extremely unlikely beginning.
“Up until my 5th year of elementary school I was singularly devoted to ballet. But when I competed that year, I didn’t achieve a national ranking, and I was hit with a sharp realization regarding my own abilities. Despite that I still loved to dance, so I resolved even further to set my sights on Takarazuka, where I could still dance on stage. So I started attending Takarazuka Kodomo Atene*, and thanks to their training I gradually overcame my tone-deafness (haha).”
While one might think Minami was born with her talents in singing, dancing, and acting, behind the scenes she really worked hard at them every day. Although she appears to have climbed swiftly and smoothly up the staircase to stardom, she herself describes her path as “full of pitfalls.”
“When I’d just entered music school, my grades in acting class were on the bad side. Even though I was able to memorize dance choreography, I couldn’t memorize my lines. Exposing my inabilities in front of others was so embarrassing, and there was even a time when the teacher ran me out of the classroom. ‘Memorize your lines in the hallway!!'”
Despite this, Minami by nature hates to lose, and by graduation she achieved excellent grades. From the moment she debuted she played one important shinjin kouen** role after another, and was even promoted in the main performances. Among these achievements, her role as Uka in the Theater Drama City production of Canary, which she received in only her third year, garnered a lot of attention.
“It was the first big role I’d landed. But I struggled to memorize my lines, so my voice would always come out timidly, and I’d get yelled at… Thinking I had to figure out how to do this one way or another, I practiced loud vocalization, and as a result my voice would rattle, and I’d get yelled at for that too. It was a vicious cycle of failure.”
“It was like I was strangling myself; I tend to pressure myself into putting in all this fruitless effort, and then fall into my own holes,” she says with a laugh. The same thing happened when her prominent casting in the 2015 production of Stardom attracted attention. “Since Stardom was also directed by Masatsuka Haruhiko, who had generously cast me in Canary, he told me, ‘I want you to show me how much you’ve grown,’ and once again I placed this huge burden on myself. My clumsy and time-consuming line memorization hadn’t changed, and the sheer amount of dialogue and music that loomed before me threw me into a panic. I couldn’t sit still; I’d run out of my house, and there were even times when I’d memorize lines while walking out in the rain. I’d decided in my heart that I wasn’t allowed to go home until the lines were memorized. The upperclassmen got mad at me for that the next day though. ‘That’s dangerous, you better cut it out,’ they said (haha).”
At any rate, her attitude toward performing is quite serious. Even now, with numerous big roles and prominence in the spotlight under her, she says, “My biggest issue is singing. It’s not enough to get the pitch right, or sing how the music score dictates. Getting an emotional reaction from people through your singing is the hard part.” The words that come from her mouth all pertain to “the issues I need to tackle now,” one after another. Never content with the status quo, she’s harder on herself than anyone else, and resolutely continues pushing forward. Because of this, Takarazuka takes up “95%” of her day to day life. Although she’s been so verbose in her talk of theater, when I ask her what takes up that 5% of her private time, “On off days I sleep past noon. I don’t even concern myself with what I’m going to eat. I don’t really have any hobbies… I wonder what I even do normally,” she responds, struggling to come up with something. Finally after some thought she exclaims, “Ah, in addition to sleeping I love baths. Even when we’re at the Tokyo theater I make sure to take my towels and pillow with me from Takarazuka. I love how you can relax and stretch out in the spaciousness of hot springs and public baths. And I love eating ice cream afterwards!”
The sweet girl behind the imposing figure who lavishes the stage with her mature charm has elicited some spontaneous laughs from the theater staff.
“For someone so serious, I seem to get laughed at a lot. Even when I think I have my act together, from others’ perspectives I guess I come across as a bit of a ditz, and I even get underclassmen calling ‘Minami-san!’ to get me to pay attention (haha). People look after me more than I look after them.”
Sitting with this honest and straightforward woman, it’s easy to understand why she’s so loved by the people around her.
“Before, I always tried too hard to work alone and often wound up just spinning my wheels. After I received my first shinjin kouen lead, I learned the importance of borrowing power from those around you.”
Recently, she took up the challenge of playing the extremely colorful character of Thomas in I Love Einstein. “I’m opening drawers within myself that have never been opened, so now is a really enjoyable time for me,” says Minami with a bright smile.
“Although I feel as frantic now as I’ve always been, perhaps I’ve gradually gained a little bit of composure. But even now I still tend to heat up over my capacity. I still have so many moments that make me want to run out of my house (haha). But despite that, my love of the theater gives me the strength to keep going!”
*Takarazuka Kodomo Atane is a TMS-affiliated preparatory school.
** Special performances featuring underclassmen who have been in the revue 7 years or less.