The interview was conducted November 12.

Although the main performance scarcely finished the day before, and she is surely tired, she appeared before our concerned self: Ryouga Haruhi of an always wonderful dance with good meaning, and a brilliant and mild expression. She is cheerful, and answered [us] saying, Although it always exhausts me, this time the next performance is close by (laughs). Im not disheartened. For her, it seems that she waits expectantly rather than anxiously for the new play, and effects a feeling of reliability.

Her encounter with Takarazuka is traced back to the traditional Japanese dance she learned in her hometown of Nagoya. I started Japanese dance from age 4. Although while she was alive my grandmother said she wanted me to be taught, and it seems it was her last request so to speak, I started it of my own free will. Actually the teacher of the class where I learned was by chance from Takarazuka. Thinking back now, its a mysterious connection. Inquiring as to how she started life thus steeped in Takarazuka, she replied with just such a rejection of childhood ideas. The truth is Takarazuka was not an interest for me at that time. Moreover, in those days I was getting tall and was always told, Learn mens traditional dancing; I came to hate that, and out of stubbornness fixated on womens dancing (laughs). For a while being tall was an [emotional] complex.
Ryouga Haruhi interview Once charmed by a refreshing performance with fluttering black tailcoats, once shown the depth on stage of a bitter villain. Anyone seeing her would have their heart stolen by the beautiful standing form, the dynamic acting style that is the charm of the otokoyaku, Ryouga Haruhi. Since that seemingly destined day she encountered Takarazuka, she continues walking on the path of an otokoyaku at her own speed. The charm of this unfinished state is, we wait for the time she ascends into the heights of a gradually increasing maturity.

On the vagueness of the time she was first on stage. My second year since I started Japanese dance, I really didnt know how to be in a performance. From the wings I watched my teacher dance, and while watching that I would somehow imitate it. Being five years old, I probably knew the horribleness of the stage (laughs).

That girl woke up to Takarazuka in an abrupt instant. The spring of her first year of high school, she saw the show The Great Gatsby while accompanying her mothers friends. I was

hooked (laughs). It was fun performed together with Lovers Concerto. From then on, I read Kageki and Takarazuka Graph. I watched the tape of Great Gatsby / Lovers Concerto daily. As far as women acting mens roles, in my heart I felt the charm of it. That encounter was like being struck by thunder (laughs).

After that shock of an encounter, she came to think that she wanted to take the test for the Takarazuka Music School. However, it was necessary to advance her skills in ballet and singing. Ryouga, having continued Japanese dance, but with no experience of ballet (a feat of endeavor to the point where she says there is perhaps nothing in my life I had to try so hard at), entered the Takarazuka Music School. Asking about her life in the school, the first thing she replied was, It was fun! It was difficult and all, but I definitely have no recollection of going home to cry. Maybe I was used to painful things because of ballet (laughs). It was to the point where, just as I went home for summer vacation, Id get sick (laughs). I want to go back to Takarazuka right away, Id think.

Ryouga Haruhi graduated from the Music School without incident, and welcomed her debut in Can-Can. However, immediately following her assignment to Moon Troupe, she encountered her first big barrier. The differences between the stage at school and the stage in reality bewildered me. Even there, I was glad if I danced modern dance or ballet, but on the stage I was confused no matter which it was; there was scarcely a way I could do any of them. As for somehow catching up to the upperclassmen, they only had time for rehearsal and did their own private study. It seemed I would never be the dancing type. Still, we were linked together waiting for the dancing roles in succession. As an otokoyaku, as an actor, I was aware for the first time of my own responsibilities; perhaps there was a [proper] time for being called to the starting line.

Contrary to that admirable assertion, she was thought to have style and dynamic motion, and although a newcomer particularly drew attention to herself starting in West Side Story, having been selected for a demanding musical program.

In 2001 she experienced a transfer to Cosmos Troupe. There Ryouga Haruhi played her first lead role as Calaf in the newcomers performance of the show Legend of the Phoenix, based on the opera Turandot. There she encountered the charm of song. It was an unbelievably huge amount of singing. Although I was anxious about standing at the front of the stage, surpassing that was the breadth of my concern for the singing. Since Waosan was playing the same role in the main performance, I remember the times I followed her at a distance. I could not do my best with abandon; I had to change my feelings about it. Although its a small thing, it was a show where I had a big interest in changing how I was aware of my own personality.

Although she had encountered in depth two of the three successive internal components of a musical (dance and song), it naturally followed that she was anxious about the remaining one, the fascination of drama. In a manner of speaking, the turning point came all at once when she performed the lead role in Le Petit Jardin: the role of Alain, a restaurant manager. There was nothing that could compare to this role in displaying ability and range as an adult man, or to apply in full the skills and knowledge I had. I thought thoroughly on how to seem to the audience as an adult man. I think that I was able to perform the role of Alain as something that I could only do as an otokoyaku, and was able to give a range to my own acting and overcome this performance. It was a play that impressed on me the depths of acting.
Debut in Can-Can, 1996. Assigned to Moon Troupe. Drew attention since first enrolled, after she was transferred to Soragumi was tasked with the newcomer performance lead in Legend of the Phoenix, 2002. That same year, 2002, was Castel Mirage, Spring Again in 2003, the role of Alain in Le Petit Jardin: Garden of Happiness etc.; made use of a stylish tall stature and draws attention through a dynamic acting style. Appears on stage as the thirdranked otokoyaku in the Cosmos Troupe performance Never Say Goodbye in 2006, a good performance as the villain Francisco Aguilar. Immediately afterwards transferred to Moon Troupe.In Mahoroba steals the audiences heart with an outstanding impression. A good performance in The Magicians Melancholy as Yanos. Expectations increase for her flourishing from now on.

The performance for which Ryouga Haruhi is widely known and unforgettable was her stage appearance in 2006, Never Say Goodbye. She played Francisco Aguilar, the intense villain wrapped in a pitch-black leather jacket.

It was an isolated role that is attacked alone, making enemies of the whole of Cosmos Troupe. There were a lot of scenes where I stood on the stage by myself, which while fun to act out, I performed in the middle of incredible stress. That intense performance fascinated the audience. Despite closing after only one staging, she displayed presence, and plenty is expected of her from now on.

Immediately following this she once more experienced a transfer to Moon Troupe. In 2007 she broadened the range of her performance with the role of Gerard, the slightly conceited but likable son of a distinguished family in Higher than the Sky of Paris, and the role of the childish actor Yanos in The Magicians Melancholy, [both] roles acted uniquely. We welcome this time of replenishment, and we have our eye on what kind of otokoyaku she might become.

Even just in going to the rehearsal hall for Moon Troupe, there were so many things to do, an environment that I really had to study. Although at any rate the varied roles are now a challenge, I want to broaden the range of my performance. To tell the truth, Im poor at fully realizing a role. But because Im poor at it, the interesting part comes from that difficulty, and realizing my full effort is exhilarating. Its definitely not just in drama either; I study all-out in dance and song also, as I want to become proficient in all of them. Responding to her own remark she laughingly says, Maybe Im greedy, and it seems she keeps to herself a stubborn will to advance steadily and step-by-step, while still doing things at her own pace. After this, she is in preparation for performing in the next show, Hollywood Lover, and [we ask] what kind of role Richard R. Logan might be.

Its a role that competes for the one woman in a love triangle. Although at first glance he seems like a bad person and feels unpleasant, hes really a pitiful character. Theres a certain fascination in that he unwittingly steals into the audiences heart, and that has to be acted in the role. The differences in personality come out with Oozora-sans lead role, and I want to present that depth in the story.

Lastly, we hear about the role as she will try it from now on. Although I havent done a role of this suffocating atmosphere, in acting it, it seems like a sad love story that disappears without a trace in death. I am attracted to the role as something that

demands a subtle atmosphere, even ending in death for the sake of love. Its a comedy if I look like that. Its a tragedy if I do it (laughs).

Even now she is en route on the road of mastering a male role. Ryouga Haruhi has the strength to progress on this path, however difficult. Moreover, that she looks forward to this difficulty more than anything, that she has a straight forward determination in doing these things herself, is her greatest charm. An otokoyaku of tragedy on a grand scale as only she can do, she will surely see advancement in the future.