Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 65: Yajima Maimi x Hagiwara Mai

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.

Yajima Maimi X Hagiwara Mai

The two of them are as close as sisters, but Yajima's not holding the oneesan role, Hagiwara is? Kicking off from that, they look back on their 10 years together.

I think that you've always been close, but recently it seems like Mai-chan's the oneesan, while Maimi-chan's the imouto.

Hagiwara:  Is that how things seem~ (laughs). Maimi-chan's the older one, so I think of her as the oneechan though.

Yajima: You were still completely tiny back then, so I'd dish up meals for you when it was time to eat. I wanted to give you anything you wanted. As the youngest at home, I'd always wanted a younger sibling, so I was glad to become an oneesan. But as we grew up, it's like I'm the one who's slowly getting babied (laughs). Lots of people have told me that I've become more childish after having hit the age of twenty. That's how it is.

Hagiwara: I was really pampered by Maimi-chan in the past (laughs). It was like I could do no wrong, since things would be fine with Maimi-chan by my side. I feel like I brought Maimi-chan along with me even when I went to the washroom (laughs).

Yajima: Hagi would always watch me whenever I put on my make-up.

Hagiwara: I'd often have fights with (Okai) Chisato when we were in the Hello! Project Kids, so I had Maimi-chan bring an end to those fights (laughs).

Yajima: I was asked to look over Hagi as she was the youngest, but I enjoyed looking after her. She really was like a little sister to me. As I had to keep a proper eye on her, we'd always stay together in the same room during overnight stops. I have some pictures from the past in an old mobile phone, and in photos taken during mealtimes, Hagi would definitely be next to me. When we had to stay overnight somewhere, I kind of felt like her mother, and took care of her as if she were my kid. I'd ask her to bathe with me and go to bed with me. Hagi alone is the member that I've gone to the extent of bathing with (laughs). 

I'd get her to even accompany me to the washroom (laughs)  by Mai

What do the girls manage in Kobushi Factory? (Top Yell July 2016)

The roles of each and every one of the eight members!

What does that girl manage in this Factory?

The members themselves determined the roles!

As you might expect from the group who have inherited the DNA of Berryz Kobo, champions of 'diversity in personality', the eight members of Kobushi are exploding with 8 different flavours.

In 2016 at the moment, this is the refinement of the strongest personnel!

Fujii Rio: Factory Manager that Keeps the Time
For a while, it was me and Fujii-chan who were the ones who made sure that the group kept to time. But honestly speaking, I'm the kind of person who's no good at keeping the time. Fujii Rio-chan is the only person who can handle Kobushi's time. (Taguchi)

Hirose Ayaka: Factory Manager for Sexiness
She covers up for the sexiness that I lack, despite me being the oldest. When she sings, you can feel a sexy nuance in her expression and singing. Of course, looks-wise, I think she's the most mature looking among us. (Fujii)

Nomura Minami: Factory Manager for Cooking
She's Kobushi Factory's lunch lady. She's really good at cooking. When I hung out at her house before, she made tomato pasta for me. That was really delicious! Even the way she put together the serving made it look like something that had been dished up by a restaurant. (Taguchi)

Ogawa Rena: Factory Manager that Produces Unique Replies
Every statement of hers is miraculous. Anything and everything she talks about is weird. Like how she mistook for Asano Atsuko-san for for Yosano Akiko-san (sarcastic laugh). Simply put, her biggest charm is her ability to make you want to comprehend her. (Fujii)

Hamaura Ayano: Factory Manager who is the Boss-in-the-shadows
We actually call her the 'Boss-in-the-shadows'. On that note, she's told me, the leader, that I'm unreliable once I step off the stage. When we're backstage, the person who brings together everyone's opinions is Hamaura Ayano-chan (Hirose)

Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 22: Shimizu Saki X Tokunaga Chinami

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.

Shimizu Saki X Tokunaga Chinami

[First things first: Hello Project World has actually done a full translation of this interview. I feel that my meagre notes miss out on the extent of just how sidelined these two girls felt, so I highly recommend you check that out.

That said, here are my notes, for completion's sake. After all, gotta catch 'em all.]

♣♣♣

Just as there are people who are showered by the spotlight, there will also be people supporting them from the shadows. When it comes to the both of you, there have been a lot of times where you've been expected to play the supportive role.

Shimizu: After the joy of being picked for 'ZYX', I went to a sideline position in Berryz Kobo. In a stroke, I tasted sorrow.

♣♣♣

Shimizu: In our case, we'd generally be given solo singing parts in the second verse a lot of the time, but we'd end up not performing our solo lines on TV since we don't sing the second verse on music programmes. That's not the fault of TV stations, as the singing parts are allocated with the balance of the whole song in mind. I just went on and performed as I thought that nothing could be done about it. But as it went on happening, I thought that something was fishy. Was it okay for me to always be in a supporting role? Those thoughts built up and up, and the final point was at that rerecording of 'Otakebi Boy~'

How did you come to terms with your feelings, where circumstances didn't change despite working hard?

Shimizu: Just like Chinami, I thought that the most important thing was to enjoy myself. Being at the sidelines has its own merits, and there are people who don't suit being at the sidelines. If I were to be at the sidelines, then I should take joy from that position. Even if my hard work doesn't bear results, the fans would watch me. They'd tell me 'I was constantly watching you' or 'I'll watch you no matter where you go', which is plenty enough joy for me. And I recognised that I wasn't just stuck in this situation by myself, so I should do my best with what I've got. As there are people under the same circumstances, we'd work hard together.

Hamachan's Day Off (Gravure the Television vol. 46 - July 2016)

On a certain day, Hamachan suddenly

On such a sunny day, it'd be such a waste to go to school---.
Suddenly getting of in the middle of the Yamanote Line, Hamaura Ayano decided to spend her momentary time away as she pleased.
In the streets of Shibuya that she rarely frequents, the first thing she heads to is, what else, ramen!
*This story was completely fictional

I'd like to go around having ramen. I'd like to go to five stores in a day. I think that my tummy will go down as I go searching for the next store (laughs)

♥♥♥

The setting for today's shooting was 'Ramen Daisuki Hamachan's Day Off'.

It was fun! For the ramen store shooting, I had tonkotsu-style miso ramen at the first store, and I ordered miso ramen at the second store as well (laughs). I like miso ramen, so I wanted to compare how they tasted. Both were delicious though ♪

We were surprised that you finished up both of them!

Ahaha! I always get a large serving plus gyoza, and I even eat the members' leftover ramen. I still haven't had gyoza today, so it feels like I still not stuffed.

Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 49: Tokunaga Chinami X Suzuki Airi

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.

Tokunaga Chinami X Suzuki Airi

Both Suzuki and Tokunaga resent our theme 'The 2 who don't meet deadlines'!?
It seems that the both of them have their own excuses and things that they're particular about......

Suzuki: I looked at today's theme and came here today to object! The only thing I'm late with are illustration-related things, right?

Tokunaga: Yeah! It's just that it very much seems like we're the kinds that miss deadlines.... That's probably it (laughs)

Forgive me for that (laughs).

[Omitted: Discussion about doing illustrations, and the pens they use to speed up the process]

Are there things for which you can't manage to to meet the deadlines for in the end?

Suzuki: There are. I'm told that for Shop goods, mine are the only ones that don't appear. At one period of time, I was super busy that I forgot about the existence of the file that had all the things that I needed to illustrate, and I didn't look at it for about a month. When I was asked about it, I really reflected on it, thinking about what the fans would think...

Tokunaga: I've got a story as well! I had handed mine in. But when the final product was made, embarrassingly, I found out that I had written a word wrongly. We fixed it in a rush, but in the end, there were some delays before the corrected version could go on sale. And those products were to be sold at a Shop event, but only my product was unavailable, which surprised people.

I see. It's not that the 2 of you lack enthusiasm, you just want to do things properly when you start on them.

Tokunaga: We're too particular.

Suzuki: And we'll do them when it's time to do them. During the movie 'Ousama Game', I completed about one month's worth of illustrations during the shooting. Since I had a role where I didn't talk with anyone, I'd do the illustrations on my own in my spare moments. When I informed my manager-san about it, my manager-san clapped, impressed with me (laughs).

Three Years of Translating

Happy cake day to me~!

No translation today, unless something really big pops up.

Anyhow, today marks three years since I first posted a translation.

Despite the loss of standouts such as RihoRiho, Manakan, and Konitan, I'd personally count this year as a better year than last. Note that it's not hard to top a year which saw the hiatus of Berryz, especially when we also saw the revival of legendary unit Buono!

Had my first non-solo wota trip, going to Taiwan for a Tokyo Joshiryu concert with some fellow wota.

Gave this site a bit of a facelift at the end of last month. Also set up a Twitter and Facebook page. Credit for the awesome new header and icon goes to Archejoiyo.

Seriously, this new icon is awesome

As always, I'd like to highlight some of the translations I did over the past year.

 Momochi's Spotlight interview - Biased I may be, but if I had to recommend just one translation done over the past year, it'd be this one. While Momochi-as-teacher has been garnering attention throughout her tenure as Playing Manager, I love how the interview really gets into the nitty-gritty of how she applies what she learnt into educating the other members in her role as PM.

Miyamoto Karin: Tsudzuiteiku STORY - This would be my second must-read recommendation. Karin-chan shares the trials and tribulations she underwent to get to where she is now. While her ascent to Juice=Juice centre may have seemed inevitable in hindsight, it was far from the case back when she was a Kenshuusei, stuck in a rut of failing auditions.

Tanaka Reina: Earnestness - I'm not a big Reina fan, but it was a fun read. From the same magazine as the previous Karin-chan interview, it's Reina being Reina. What else do I have to say?

From (#21) UP-FRONT CHANNEL Recommend:

Momochi wat r u teaching the kids lol pic.twitter.com/qQtzRvDLiG

— Skoban (@realskoban) 2015年9月12日

Uemura Akari's Press Release for her second PB 'AKARI II'

Other coverage sources: Oricon coverage, Jijipress coverage

Some notes from Aarii's press release for her second PB, 'Akari II', held on the 25th of July.

♪ She notes that this might be the last PB with her in a school uniform, while she's still a student.

♪ She thinks (i.e. hopes) that her expressions have improved from her first PB that was released half a year ago, like how she closes her eyes and how she uses her mouth.

♪ The members commented that the PB was a good PB that can be enjoyed by both guys and girls.

♪ Aarii's favourite photo. It received high praise from the members, and their usual make-up artist commented that it looked nice:

♪ It was shot in Guam, her first time overseas for a PB. She found it difficult to enumerate the currency (US dollars and cents), so her manager had to help out.

♪ She went to Kmart when she had some time to herself. She bought body cream at a store in Guam, which came in huge sizes. She bought macadamia nuts as a souvenir for the members, which were well received.

♪ Juice=Juice's will be having their Budokan concert in November. She'd like to make use of the experience of having gone around the 47 prefectures and having performed in Hong Kong and Taipei.

♪ She's really happy to be in good health for this press release, as she had been suffering from tonsillitis when they had the press release for the first PB.

♪ For Aarii, the first half of the year went by quickly. H!P has changed in many ways as well, like the addition of Kasahara Momona to ANGERME. She's happy to have come out with a second PB. She'd like to do her best in the second half as well.

♪ She is playing Pokemon GO, and had caught five pokemon on the day itself. Pidgeys were possibly among the ones she caught. She hasn't caught a Pikachu yet. She's still level four, so she can't even go for the gyms. But as they continue on with their tours, the members are looking forward to going around and catching pokemon as they go around.  Yuka's probably the one that's made the most progress - she mentioned that she'd hit level five.

Reporter: What's the Pokemon that you'd like to catch most?
Aarii: 'Definitely Pikachu!'
Reporter: There are apparently some in Shinjuku.
Aarii: Really!? REALLY!!? Well, I've got to go there! (laughs)

Kikkawa You Idol Planet Interview (May 2014)

Some excerpts from a Kikka interview done by Idol Planet. It was published in the middle of 2014, around the release of 'Urahara Temptation/Ii jan'.

👑👑👑

Is your room a horrible mess?

I'm currently at peak messiness (laughs).
Every day, I'm busy from morning to night, I've got no time to clean up.
There's no place for me to tread, it's like a pigsty (laughs).

Bad enough that you'd call it a pigsty (laughs) . 

👑👑👑

Do you have space to sleep?

I've got a bed.
I'll throw whatever I'm wearing on the bed though (laughs).
I'll ensure that there's a proper place for me to sleep.

Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 08: Nakajima Saki x Sugaya Risako

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.

Nakajima Saki X Sugaya Risako

><(((°>

Looking as much as I can from the outside, there doesn't seem to be an easy-to-get common point between the two of you. But unexpectedly, you're good friends?

Nakajima: We had activities together as the unit 'Guardians 4', but didn't we start really talking with one another from the play 'Sengoku Jieitai'!?

Sugaya: Nope, you've got it wrong! It was the movie 'Ousama Game'. That's when we became good friends.

Either way, it's pretty recent. What did you think of one another in the past?

Nakajima: I thought that Risako was on good terms with (Suzuki) Airi. But that's because I'm the type of girl who's unable to get chummy with the girls of Berryz Kobo.

Sugaya: What 'type' is that supposed to be (laughs)!?

><(((°>

Sugaya: I thought that Nacky was really reserved. But when I tried talking to her, it turned out that she does as she pleases (laughs).

><(((°>

Kobushi Factory on the New Artist Award

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The biggest change since the last time you were here was that you were chosen for the 'Japan Record Award New Artist Award', right? How was it when you first heard about the award?

Hirose: We had the day off on the day of the announcement, so we were contacted by e-mail: 'We have something to discuss, so please all gather up tomorrow'. I thought that all of us were going to get a scolding (laughs). We contacted one another, wondering what was up. And then we got another message, and we knew it was about the New Artist Award. In one stroke, the dread gave way to a sense of relief (laughs). But at the same time, the New Artist Award is awarded to artistes that have been active over the past year, so it hadn't really hit us that we would be receiving that award, that we would be standing of the stage of the Japan Record Award on the 30th of December. As we got closer to the day, we slowly started feeling it, and happiness gave way to a desire to win the Best New Artist Award.

Nomura: I was at home as we had the day off, and received a message. I was with my mother, and my phone indicated that I'd got a message. I thought that it was from one of the members or a friend, so I didn't take a look. And then, my mother received a message at the same time as I did. When I was about to check to see if it was something work-related from our manager-san, my mother had already checked the message. With joy on her face, she excitedly called out 'Minami, Minami!' I wondered what was up, and as it turned out, we had received the Japan Record Award New Artist Award. I remember seeing my mother being so happy for the first time, it came as a surprise!

Hamaura: I was at home on that off day as well, but receiving that message made me really happy. Whenever I get any announcements, I always go on my bed.

Uh, what (laughs)?

Hamaura: I get on top of my bed and announce it! And when I announced 'We got the Japan Record Award New Artist Award~!' from atop my bed, my whole family were glad and happy for me!

Wada: When I got the message, I was by myself. There wasn't anyone around me, and I didn't feel it too much. I generally don't get hit by emotions, but after a bit of time had passed, I realised that we'd be standing on that stage on the 30th, which made me happy.

Moreover, you got the Best New Artist Award! Did it lead to a change of mood?

Hamaura: The Best New Artist Award was a huge award, so the eight of us in Kobushi Factory had to give a performance that had to live up to it. We all braced ourselves.

Nomura: Since we had received the Best New Artist Award, I felt that I had to take another look at our usual conduct. Even more than before, I should follow the rules, and take care of my looks.

♣♣♣♣♣

Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 64: Shimizu Saki x Okai Chisato

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.

Shimizu Saki X Okai Chisato

↕↕↕↕↕

The two are you are both the smallest in your groups, aren't you?

Okai: Undoubtedly so (laughs).

Shimizu: I suspect, however, that Momo (Tsugunaga Momoko) might be smaller (laughs) (Tsugunaga Momoko's 'officially announced' height is 149.9 cm).

Were you conscious about your heights from the time that you were in the Hello! Project Kids?

Okai: Since I thought that I'd grow eventually, it didn't weigh on my mind. But when we took photos together in large groups, I started noticing how small I was compared to the rest.

Shimizu: While the other Berryz Kobo members have gradually gotten bigger, I haven't grown at all, and I wondered things were alright. My grandad said that I'd get bigger by drinking milk, so I had milk every day. But I didn't grow bigger at all (laughs).

Are your families on the tall side?

Okai: My sister's close to 160 cm, so I think that there's something there. Mama's small, but my Papa's roughly 170 cm. So I expected that I'd grow (laughs).

Shimizu: Ahaha, that's what you'd expect. My mother is small, and now I'm already taller than her. My father's normal, and my older brother's really tall.

Okai: You drank milk as well, right? Isn't it strange!? The Okai household is strange as well (laughs)!!

So you were in an environment where you could still keep your hopes up on growing a bit more. For the two of you, would you like to have some extra height?

Okai: In general, I do! Ideally, just under 160 cm. The taller girls tell me that it's cuter to be small, but I definitely would like to be borderline 160cm!!

Shimizu: Yup yup yup yup! My thoughts exactly (laughs). About 160 cm would be just right. (Natsuyaki) Miyabi and (Sugaya) Risako are both just about 160 cm, and I think that level would be the best.