Country Girls in Big One Girls

From BIG ONE GIRLS NO.027 (SCREEN Tokuhenhan)

Country Girls

Cute and upbeat! Whatever it is, they'll do their best with full power!!

With Satoda Mai as their supervisor, the unit name was changed from Country Musume。, 

With Tsugunaga Momoko who was active as a member of Berryz Kobo, 

Yamaki Risa, Inaba Manaka, Morito Chisaki, Shimamura Uta, Ozeki Mai,

These 6 members will start activities as 'Country Girls'.

On the 25th of March, they'll make their major début with their double A single 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne / Koi Dorobo'.

This time, the 5 members in their teens will talk about their enthusiasm about making their début. 

Yamaki Risa

Nickname
Risa-chan, Yamakki

Hobbies, strong points
Piano, horse riding, drawing/painting pictures, reading manga

Favourite food
Milk tea, manjuu, tangerines, udon, chocolate

Favourite colour
Pink

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: Being able to take action while keeping an eye on what's going on.
Weakness: Getting influenced by negative thoughts

Senpai I look up to
Former Morning Musume。 Michishige Sayumi-san.
Because she's beautiful, doesn't slack off, and always takes action with the group in mind

Message
I'm unspeakably happy at the fact that I joined the Hello! Project that I adore, and that our major début has been decided on! We'll be putting in tons of effort, so we beg for your kind support. I'll do my best so that everyone watching Country Girls will break into smiles, just like how watching Hello! Project concerts has moved me and given me smiles!

☃☂☃☂

Inaba Manaka

Nickname
Manaka, Manakan, Inabaccho

Hobbies, strong points
Appreciating movies, dramas, music, and the sky, reading manga, drawing/painting pictures, dancing, tongue-twisters, imitating those familiar to me

Favourite food
Strawberries, ice cream, honey, popcorn, pizza, pasta, sushi

Favourite colour
Pink, red, white, black, pastel colours

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: Getting friendly with anyone. Not being picky about food.
Weakness: Occasionally getting negative. Making weird movements when excited,

Senpai I look up to
Morning Musume。'15's Sayashi Riho-san & Kudo Haruka-san, Juice=Juice's Miyamoto Karin-san, Country Girls' Tsugunaga Momoko-san

Message
It makes me really happy that we're getting a major début this quickly. I want lots of people to know about us from now on, and I'll do my best with everything I've got to become a group that's loved. Everyone, I'm begging for your kind support ♥

Morito Chisaki

Nickname
Chii-chan

Hobbies, strong points
Going to concerts
Reading

Favourite food
Melons, karaage, baked custard

Favourite colour
Red, yellow

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: Positivity.
Weakness: Shy at first, loud voice.

Senpai I look up to
Sayashi Riho-san

Message
From now on I'll be giving my all to singing and dancing, so I'm counting on your kind support!

☃☂☃☂

Shimamura Uta

Nickname
Uta-chan

Hobbies, strong points
My hobbies are gaming, karaoke
My strong point is art

Favourite food
Cheese, omurice, crème brûlée

Favourite colour
White, pink, yellow

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: That I'm careful, and that I'm patient.
Weakness: I often come late...

Senpai I look up to
Berryz Kobo-san's Natsuyaki Miyabi-san.

Message
The 6 of us will be combining our strengths and doing our best from now on, so we beg for your kind support.

Ozeki Mai

Nickname
Ozeki-chan

Hobbies, strong points
Hobbies: Singing and dancing, playing with cats
Strong points: The violin, which I've been practising for 9 years

Favourite food
Ice cream!!!!

Favourite colour
Aqua, blue

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: Being always cheerful and energetic!
Weakness: That I don't really read the atmosphere around me and end up speaking out of line.

Senpai I look up to
℃-ute's Yajima Maimi-san!

Message
2015 is the year where Country Girls makes our major début, so I'd like to do my best!
Everyone, I'm counting on your kind support!

☃☂☃☂

You've deepened your bonds and teamwork before making your début?

Inaba: To the extent that they're too deep, we've deepened them. Yamaki Risa-chan and I came from the H!P Kenshuusei, so the 3 of them used polite language with us at first...

Yamaki: On New Year's, we promised 'Do not use polite language', not even to reply with a 'Yamaki-san' (laughs). From then, we immediately talked freely, and became friends.

With Tsugunaga Momoko-senpai as well?

All: Yes!!

Inaba: She's really quick on her feet, she's a senpai you can respect. Every time we get to work together, we learn a lot of things, so I'm excited to see what sort of things we'll pick up beyond this!

What sort of group is Country Girls?

Inaba: The songs for this début single that we'll be releasing are cute, so we'd like to make it 'The royal road of idols', and I want to talk about it to everyone.

Morito: We'll do our best to make everyone think 'How fresh'. 'Cute and energetic' is what we're aiming for.

Yamaki: 'Full power at anything we do!' is what all of us decided. Also, I think the bonds of friendship come out in the atmosphere of a performance, so I'd like to make that one of our charms.

Please tell us what to listen out for in your début single 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne / Koidorobo'.

Morito: 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne' starts with spoken lines, but I think those are really characterisitc, and the words 'Gomen ne' (Sorry) appears a lot in the lyrics, so I think it might get stuck in the ears of those who listen to it.

Ozeki: The choreography for 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne' is really cute. I'd like you to remember the moves, and have fun dancing together with us at concerts.

Shimamura: The music video for 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne' looks cute too, so I'd like you to watch it.

Yamaki: 'Itooshikutte Gomen ne' has true-to-life lyrics, but 'Koidorobo' has this slightly grown-up? feel to it. The music video is different from how we do it at concerts, our pinkies are raised when we hold the microphones.

Since Momochi-senpai is there?

Yamaki: Yes (laughs). We personally want to highlight that.

Inaba: My impression of 'Koidorobo' is that it's a song that's up-tempo, cheerful, and cute. The shooting for the music video was cute too, so I'd like you to pay attention to it.

Yamaki: Since Country Girls was formed in November, it really was a surprise that we're making our début this early. Changing names from 'Country Musume。' to 'Country Girls', it includes Sato Mai-san's thoughts that 'A group that's acceptable to the world has been formed', so we'll do our best to be able to perform overseas someday. We beg for your kind support from now on.

☃☂☃☂

(Bonus: The magazine also included a question to some of the artistes featured in it, so here's Country Girls' responses. Also, there was a feature on Airi in the magazine, which is why she also appears here.)

Q. Please tell us your favourite phrase, or a phrase that's important to you.

Ozeki Mai: 'Like'
I don't think that you'll make anyone feel dislike by saying 'I like you'. I think it's a sparkling word that can widen dreams through statements like 'I like my friends' or 'I like this person-san's songs', so I like 'like'.

Inaba Manaka: 'One for All, All for One'
In Japanese (the above was written in English), it would be 'One person supports everyone, and everyone supports one person'. It's important to do what you can for your own sake, but I think that doing something for someone else's sake is really amazing. I treasure those words, and I'd like to be the source of high spirits for lots of people.

Suzuki Airi: 'Thank you for letting me give birth to my children'
When I was celebrating my twentieth, my mother made an album for me. At the final page, those words were written, which made me cry. I entered this world [of showbiz] early, so there was a time when she had to see me off and pick me up, and the reality was that she was spending less time with my father and my brother compared to me, so honestly, I think that I caused her the most trouble. Thinking 'Will it be all right...', I received those words, it made me happy, so I'd like to treasure my time with family.

Shimamura Uta: 'Once in a lifetime'
Meeting the members, meeting the people I've worked with so far, I'd like to treasure each and every encounter, so I like this phrase.

Yamaki Risa: 'Do not alternate between joy and sorrow about things in the near future, please do your best and focus on what's in front of you'
I'm the type of person that gets dragged down by a single blunder, so I think I should fix that. But, there are a lot of sad things beyond this, and on the other hand there are a lot of enjoyable things, so I'll take those words to heart, and I'd like to do my best while believing that there are good things once I've surpassed the hardships.

Morito Chisaki: 'Hard work will definitely be rewarded'
I feel like doing my best because I'll be rewarded, but in order not to slack off, I'll tell myself these words and do my best.