Michishige Sayumi x Sayashi Riho "All the important things, we were taught through Morning Musume"

"Even now, Morning Musume is growing!"

Sensational, causing an uproar. Fascinating their fans with their complicated "formation dance", we have Michishige Sayumi, appointed as leader in May of last year, and ace Sayashi Riho. With successive releases of addictive, aggressive songs, their songs have managed to record 3 consecutive first places on the Oricon chart after 11 and a half years.

Even among themselves, it is thought that the charm of the reborn Morning Musume is their formation dance.

"Especially now, I think the fans have been paying attention to the "formation dance." Up to now, Morning Musume hasn't had such complicated dances, so we discuss things like "Do we pass each other there?" due to the complicated changes in standing position" (Michishige)

With all of the 10 members continuously changing in position, one can't recall seeing such a united dance from a bird's eye view. With such a great amount of memorisation required for the dance, what they thought was difficult was.......

"Generally speaking, there's a lot of movement.......The amount we perspired was amazing (bitter smile)" (Sayashi)

"Until now, for Morning Musume, the solo parts formed the basis, yet the dancing was freestyle, but now we'd like to keep performing formation dances. So recently, while practising everyone has been asking "How do we sing while doing such complicated movements?"" (Michishige)

Besides their dancing, when asked if there were any points that differed from the previous Morning Musume, Sayashi answered, "Instead of cute songs, the number of cool songs has increased," while Michishige commented, "In a good way, we've probably become more carefree (laugh)." In particular, leader Michishige has been paying attention to developing the atmosphere within Morning Musume.

"Speaking about Morning Musume, there used to be a strict hierarchical relationship from long ago. Indeed, weren't there a large number of 13-14 year olds entering? If I hadn't been taught through the "senpai-kouhai" relationship, I would have ended up as a kid lacking common knowledge. When Sayumi first entered at the age of 13, she was unable to give proper greetings, she had to be taught by all of Morning Musume (laugh). But having gathered members that are overflowing with youthfulness and sweetness, it would be a waste if all those merits would be erased by being too strict. In order not to let that wither away, I feel that I have to keep this balance in mind."

The continued effort put in by Michishige who became leader in May of last year seems to have steadily borne fruit.Finally, Sayashi had some words to include.

"Morning Musume got to reappear on Music Station (TV Asahi) after 6 years, so I was glad to get a chance to perform there.It was the first appearance for the 9th gen and beyond, which includes myself, and we were extremely moved after the recording ended that everyone ended up crying backstage (laughs)"

Original (Nikkan Spa)