Thursday 27 February 2014

FANxTACTICS: MM vs the fans


20140206 ファンタク FAN×TACTICS 道重生田 by dm_526e8a36be26f

Edit: Youtube, if you prefer. I know I do, but it's more likely to get taken down.

It's MoMusu vs their fans!

Introducing the fans:
The walking MoMusu databank, Hasegawa. He has collections of magazines, sorted on his iPad. And he collects their TV appearances - 15 years over 700 DVDs.
MoMusu look-up queen Narusawa. She'll check out their blogs for 3 hours daily. She has confidence with Michishige-related questions.
Then we have Tokyo U graduate, MoMusu master Ueno. Maths teacher at a prep school. He's complied about 600 self-made questions about MoMusu.

Set-up:
The pros will ask trivia questions. The fans have to answer 4 to win, but they lose if they get 4 wrong. But there is also a special rule - there are questions for which there is no correct answer, or the question itself is wrong. In order to get those questions correct, the fans will have to choose to keep silent.

Q1. Up to now, there have been 34 members in Morning Musume. Among all those members, there is one month in which no member celebrates their birthday. Which month is it?
A1. This is actually a Silent question.

The fans note the birthdays of the MM in front of them, commenting that they're born in the summer months.
Ishida is in Jan, Mikitty in Feb, Oda-chan March. Ueno's satisfied face at recalling that last one makes everyone laugh.
They decided to answer 'April'. And get it wrong.
It's pointed out that Yoshizawa Hitomi is the April member. To their credit, April's the only month with only one representative. The fans apologise.

Q2. A brief clip of a concert carried out at the Budokan will be played. Name all of the members who participated in that concert.
The clip is one of Yaguchi going 'Sexy Beam!~' for about 2 seconds.
A2. It's the 2000 Autumn Ichii Sayaka graduation concert, Dancing Love Site, and the 1st concert appearance of the 4th gen. 
Nakazawa, Iida, Abe, Yaguchi, Yasuda, Ichii, Gomaki, Tsuji, Kago, Charmy, Yossie.

Hasegawa narrows it down based on Budokan performances, since there are limited numbers of those.
Yaguchi left in 2005. 1st Budokan was in 2000, there none in 2001 or 2002, and the next one was Ishikawa's grad in 2005, after Yaguchi left, which leaves 2000.
And with that, the girls ask him jokingly to stop his smug smile of satisfaction.
They then choose to answer, giving out the tour name and listing down all 11(!) members participating in that concert.

Eripon suggests trying something beyond MM and venturing into H!P.
Q3. Please name all 7 shuffle units that were on the 2009 album "Champloo 1"
A3. High-King, Zoku Biyuuden, Aa!, ZYX-α, Shin MiniMoni, Pucchimoni V, Tanpopo#
The fans name all 7 without a hitch. Narusawa mentions that she loves Zoku Biyuuden.

Then we have a letter from the man himself, Tsunku!
"This is Tsunku
Are you all doing your best~?
If you lose
100 laps around the grounds
I'll leave it to you"
Host: Do you often run on the grounds?

Sayu chooses a Sayumin-related question.
Q4. Please line up these iPhone cases of mine from which I used first
A4. This is actually a silent question, since the iPhone she was holding in photo C was borrowed (from RihoRiho)

Narusawa can generally line up the other cases with the songs - the B was around Ai no Gundan, the Cinamonroll in D is quite early, and the bears in A - but she doesn't have confidence in C.
They choose to answer, which means that they've got it wrong already. They do get the true ones in correct order though.
Looks like knowing too much doesn't help XD

Q5. We will play 5 MM songs at the same time. Please name them.
A5. It's silent, there's a S/mileage song included

And the fans keep silent, getting their 3rd point.
Iida points out that it's an embarrassment to get to the stage where they're one away from losing.

Q6. Arrange the subleaders in MM's history by how long they've been subleaders, shortest term first
A6. Aichan -> Yossie -> Fukuhime & Harunan -> Yaguchi -> Yasuda -> Mikitty -> Gaki

They miss out Yaguchi and Mikitty, though they do get the ones they mentioned in the correct order

Q7. Listen to the recording. What year (in AD) was this concert held?
"(single voice) Everyone gathered at Yokohama Arena, good evening.  (Everyone) We are Morning Musume!"
A7. 2010's Rival Survival

Host: I have no idea. (snaps head towards fans) Do you guys actually know?
They agree that the voice at the start was Ai-chan's. {Not exactly helpful, longest tenure as leader and all.} And Hasegawa points out that the Yokohama Arena concert was in 2010. Tsuji's already hanging her head. Heck, they don't just get it correct, they throw in the concert title as well.

Iida: With your answers coming out steadily, you guys are really computers

The things that were lost



[Note: Above video was cut to focus on Miya's part. To hear it starting from Momo's part, you can listen here (Sorry, embedding disabled)]

From Trattoria Buono! 16/11/2013

Topic: Up until now, tell us about something you lost that gave you the biggest shock.

For Momo, it was when she had lost her commuter pass.
Realising that she didn't have it, she asked at the station office to check whether it had been used.
When the station looked up the name 'Tsugunaga Momoko', it turned out that there were 20 passes registered under that name. (FYI, Tsugunaga is a pretty rare family name. The unfamiliarity of the 'Tsugu' kanji itself had Momo asking in for suggestions on tips for how to write it in a radio show ages ago. Thankfully 'Momochi' is extremely straightforward).
She suspected that those were made by fans. But the station staff was like, "Did you really lose it?", giving a 'r u srs' stare of disbelief.
Momo> Wait a second, station staff-san. I have a pass, for myself. I'm not making up excuses, but I'm the real thing
And that was the story of Momo's difficulty when she lost her pass.

Miya also lost her commuter pass twice. The first time was pretty embarrassing, while the second time gave her a shock.
The first time was 5 years ago. Momo happened to be with her since they both happened to be heading back in the same direction.
They were looking for Miya's misplaced commuter pass.
When the station staff asked for her name, Miya was all bashful in answering.
It made Momo wonder, since normally saying one's name wouldn't be a problem.
But Miya was having difficulty, and finally stammered out... "It's Na, Na, Nachu-hime" XD
Miya> Like, OMG, right! It was super embarrassing
She had chosen that as it was her nickname at her time, and everyone around was calling her that, so she felt that it was normal when she made her commuter pass. However, it was pretty embarrassing to say it to the station staff.

What's more, the staff was a meanie.
When Miya squeaked out "Na, Nachu-hime" the first time, the staff asked her to repeat it with an, "Eh?"
Miya said it again, louder, but the staff went, "Come again?"
Once Miya had said it again, the staff grinned and told her with a grin that it was on the bench
Station Staff-san> Please take care (in a sarcastic tone, according to Miya)

To avoid being embarrassed like that again, she now writes 'Natsuyaki Miyabi' in the English alphabet.
The situation was super funny to Momo, who was there.

The second situation involved her losing her commuter pass with about 10 000 yen with it. I couldn't get the rest of the conversation, so I'll leave it at that.

After that Airi talked about meeting a fan when she dropped her lip gloss, which I previously covered here.

Monday 24 February 2014

Facing forward and taking it easy



One H!P-related Twitter bot I follow is @Momo_29_bot. It tweets out one piece of 'wisdom' from Momochi every hour.

So here's a recent tweet. I've seen it before, but thought I'd share:
Buono!の『Take It Easy!』のPVで、桃が夕陽に向かって叫んでる言葉は「前向きだー」です。桃も忘れてしまっていて、スタッフさんも誰も覚えてなかったのですが、最終的に、マネージャーさんが、大人の力で問い合わせてくれました。
In Buono!'s 'Take It Easy!' PV, Momoko faced the setting sun and shouted out the following words "Face forward-" (Mae Muki da-). Momoko had forgotten what she had said, and none of the staff-san knew either, so in the end, their Manager-san enquired using his authority as an adult.

Now you know. So you can take it easy too~

Friday 21 February 2014

Achievement unlocked! 500 posts~

I've hit a personal milestone - 500 posts! Yay!
Not at this blog though - not yet ;)

As you may or may not know, I've been translating H!P member blog posts at blog! project for about half a year.
I just noticed that I've gone past 500 posts - with the 500th post being this Airi one.
Well, here's to more channelling of my inner Tsunku♂ and sounding like a teenage girl. XD

With that, I'll leave you a screenshot of one of my favourite Airi performances.

Monday 17 February 2014

Pretty graphs!

So a Japanese fan on Twitter made graphs based on the comments given in the 2013 H!P Maruwakari book.

The names are in kanji, but as a reference:
Red = MM'14
Orange = Berryz
Pink = C-ute
Purple = S/mileage
Blue = JJ

In graphviz's dot language, I tried making the graph for the 'most fashionable' category from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013. Miyabi-chan's strong!

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013. Continuing on, the 'skilled at singing' category. The top 2 are Airi and Risako. There are some odd ones here and there.

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part 3.  The 'skilled at dancing' category. I'd understand if it were Sayashi, Shimizu, Nakajima. Trying to make the graph, Daaishi, who I would've voted for, is somewhat left out.

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part four. The 'good style' category. Kumai, Nakajima, Wada, Tokunaga; among all these tall people, little Daaishi is putting up a fight.

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part five. Favourite face category. Sugaya, Hagiwara, Wada. The favourite voice category was correlated to the singing, but favourite face is based on genuine preferences.

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part six. Mother and father. Though it got jumbled up with all the lines, I can only understand Sudou's overwhelming strength and Maimi's popularity.


Continuing from yesterday. Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part seven. Sisters. Blue line for older sister. Red line for younger sister. For older sister, Natsuyaki, Michishige, Yajima. For little sister, Hagiwara, Sayashi, Satou, Uemura. The arrow from Maachan towards Tanaka made me tear up... (/_;)

Material from H!P Maruwakari Book 2013 part eight. Blue lines are for "If I was a guy, I'd like her as my girlfriend". Red lines are for "If this person was a guy, I'd want him as a boyfriend". Yajima, Hagiwara, Natsuyaki, Okai. Outward appearance + inner aspects = comprehensive strength in the level popularity, I guess it's ok to think that

Momochi on Yonpachi 48 hours


Guest name
Tsugunaga Momoko-san

Profile
Berryz Kobo/ Tsugunaga Momoko-san

Berryz Kobo's double-A single "Otona na no yo!/ 1-oku 3-zen man Sou Diet Oukoku will be released on the 19th of February!

"It's everyone's idol, Momochi!
My idol age is about 12, but I personally will be turning "Nyan Nyan" 22!
For Valentine's, the Berryz Kobo members make sweets and exchange them.
It's become an annually established practice.
I give them to our manager-san, out staff-san, and it's not because I want to change his attitude about me, but I give our producer-san 5, 6 pieces (lol).
For boys~, I really feel like giving them to each and every one, but because I'm everyone's idol, I can't give it to them~ (lol)"

■Latest news
Next week on the 19th, Berryz Kobo's double-A single "Otona na no yo! / 1-oku 3-zenman Sou Diet Oukoku" will be released!

"For detailed information please access Berryz Kobo's Tsugunaga Momoko's official blog!"


Friday 14 February 2014

Speaking of Valentine's



Weekly Shounen Sunday No. 11 26/02/2014
Extract from Morning Musume '14's 4 Musume (Michishige, Fukumura, Sayashi, Kudou) interview

- By the way, as this week's Sunday is the Valentine's issue, what are your memories of Valentine's?
Sayashi: For us, the members mutually exchange chocolates. One time, I made chocolate pie. Despite working hard at making it from the morning, it ended up looking horrible... I cried...
All: Ahahaha
Sayashi: I'll never make it again!
Kudou: Speaking of Valentine's, my younger brother's pretty popular, and since he gets tons, I'm always the one in charge of eating them1 (lol)
Michishige: For Sayumi, when I was in primary 4th, for the sake of exchanging them with the girls2, I brought chocolates to school even though they were prohibited. But, when I was thinking of bringing along the chocolate, I ended up really wanting to have some chocolate, so I quietly ate some. Then, saying that I smelled of chocolate, the sensei discovered it and they were confiscated (cry).
Sayashi: Leader, that's funny
- No stories about guys turned up.
Fukumura: After all, in reality we love nothing but Hello! Pro! That feeling of love is extremely strong (lol)
Michishige: There are other things we like as well!
Fukumura: Ah-, like lift buttons? I LOVE buttons that look round and gothic!
Kudou: I LOVE Komaba Ichirou from "Silver Spoon"!
Michishige: For Sayumi, a person devoted to Sayumi would be great. A person who persists! A person who won't drift to the young ones3  (lol)

1 Slight ambiguity issue - Duu doesn't actually say that it's her, so it's entirely possible that the brother is the person who is 'always the one in charge of eating the chocolates'. In fact, that might be the more prudent translation. However, given that it's a transcript, and I can imagine how it's possible to interpret it that way given that it was originally spoken, I chose the more compelling story.
2 But I thought Sayu's only friends when she was small were pill bugs
3  Sayu's 2012 birthday T-shirt:
In the end, Michishige
I drifted to the young ones, but I came back.
As a bonus, here's my favourite shot from that magazine:


Ref: 2ch Matome

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Momo talks about her graduation thesis



Momo talks about her graduation thesis on her radio show, Momoko no Puri Puri Princess. A rough summary:
First, she talks about her life as a student coming to an end in March.
Title: The world of the heart of a disabled person
Then she comments on her thesis - she's completed it, and handed it in. With 20 000 characters, it went over 50 pages and looked like a contract.
Her thesis was on disabled people, particularly the status of those in a persistent vegetative state - people who have some form of awareness but can no longer move.
She interviewed their families, who were at times in despair, or pointing out things like "Sensei, their leg moved."
She switched out of the heavy topic with a mention that typing it up was extremely difficult. {She has mentioned before that she's the kind that types using a single finger, after all.}
She closes by talking about the 2nd year primary school students whom she had taught during her practical training, now about to enter their 4th year, only 2 years left until their graduation. After exclaiming about them having grown up, she mentions that she'd like to go for their graduation.

Relevant matome: [1][2]

Saturday 8 February 2014

MoMusu。 Sayashi Riho、 vows “Overthrowing・AKB48”! 「Wouldn't it be great to gradually enter a new era」

Morning Musume。'14 showing signs
that they're making another break for themselves
Member of idol group Morning Musume 。'14 Sayashi Riho talked enthusiastically about "Overthrowing・AKB48”.

The group changed its name this year,  and MoMusu。is now making another break for themselves. That MoMusu。 will be adorning the cover of girl's music magazine 『GiRLPOP 2014 SPRING』(M-On! Entertainment), on sale the 7th, and in it, Sayashi responded in the interview, "For me, I think I want to change the history of the idol world. I think it's amazing how currently the age of AKB48 has continued on for quite a number of years, but because I think 'wouldn't it be great to gradually enter a new era', I want to work hard to alter that history," along with the burning ambition to  "recapture the throne", "Since I think that there isn't another idol group who can continue their history while replacing their members, leveraging on that characteristic, I think we want to stir up a new generation of the idol world," she told us of her goal from now on.

Along with the release of their new single 「Egao no Kimi ha Taiyou sa/ Kimi no Kawari ha Iyashinai/What is LOVE?」 on the 29th of last month, which took the first place in the Oricon weekly ranking when it made its chart début, the group achieved their first 4-consecutive first places record. The record held from the time Abe Natsumi, Goto Maki were members was broken, so can the the presence of this MoMusu。, displaying all of their vigour, stand at the summit of the rival-packed idol world, commencing with AKB and MomoClo ――。

Source

{It's the year of battle, and it looks like RihoRiho has declared war}

ManoEri handshake event Twitter updates

I've safely boarded the Shinkansen from Osaka!!!
I'm heading to Nagoya
While listening to music.
Everyone who's coming to the handshake event,
Can you make it for 3 pm?!?! (´・ω・`)
Please take care k >_<


The hand shake event in Nagoya, Hoshino Bookstore Kintetsu Pass'e store has come to an end!
Thank you very much for coming in this weather ^ ^
Everyone, please be careful when going home k (´・Д・)」

The 『Mano Erina Calendar & Photobook 』 event at Nagoya・ Hoshino Bookstore-san、 has come to an end without incident!
Since the début at Hoshino Bookstore-san、 it has been a while since there was an event、 but in the heavy snow、 a lot of came。
Thank you very much‼︎

Thursday 6 February 2014

Call her Momochi!



From Trattoria Buono! 01/02/2014

Momochi: Nicknames are difficult. Even with the Momochi nickname there are people who still call me Momoko, my real name. I want everyone to be united in calling me Momochi.
Miya: Perhaps the fans who call you Momoko are thinking of you as being their girlfriend.
Momochi: Don't need that, don't need that, that sort of mentality isn't needed
Miyabi: Those who see you as an idol will refer to you as Momochi, but those who think of you as a normal girl will call you Momoko
Momochi: That's not needed. It's not that I don't welcome such feelings, and it's not like I'm denying that feeling of 'my Momochi'
Momochi: But if you love Momochi, then you should want to refer to me as Momochi
Miyabi: It might be that the people who call you Momoko think that there are a lot of people who call you Momochi. So they want to refer to you as Momoko, because they think that they'll be the only ones doing that
Momochi: That kind of special feeling isn't need, it's not needed.
Miya: Isn't that right, Airi~n
Momochi: Ah, is sensei there?
Airi-sensei: I'm not Airi~n, call me 'sensei'. What are you saying?
Miya: Well, recently I've become good friends with sensei
Airi-sensei: That's true - we've kinda like become Airi~n and Miya
Momochi: Is that right? It's like all sorts of things have changed since we entered 2014

Airi continues on to talk about 'Zukki', the nickname she used to have until Suzuki Kanon joined the company. See this 910 percent translation for more details.

Relevant Matome

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Maimi and Nacky finally tied the knot!


3rd event from the top
Nakajima Maimi・Nakajima Saki・Hagiwara Mai
Birthday event 2014

I guess they wanted to keep it on the down low, but it's finally out XD

Monday 3 February 2014

What I did over my Chinese New Year break





Prohibitions at handshake events



Examples of actions that are not allowed during handshake events
These are prohibited actions that are not allowed during handshake events, the following are examples of what are prohibited

  • Handshaking with something in hand
    * The act of displaying something is prohibited
  • Having the members hold or touch something
  • Head patting / Touching hair
  • Touching shoulders (touching bodies)
  • Holding or touching the arm
  • Touching the member's clothes, accessories, etc.
  • Shaking hands with your face hidden, a mask, or headgear
  • Shaking hands while squatting or in a sitting position
  • High-fives
  • Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Abusive language/ private discussions, whispering
  • Putting elbows on the table, leaning forward

Snapped at a Berryz handshake event. Now you know what not to try at a handshake event.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Tsunku♂'s comments on 『Otona na no yo!/ 1oku 3zen man sou diet Oukoku』

「Otona na no yo!」

He comments on how Risako, from the lower years of primary school, and the rest of Berryz that he still thought of as children have already grown up.
そんな彼女達はまさに「大人なのよ!」
Those girls are surely 「Otona na no yo!」 {trans: [We're] adults!}
It's a dance-like track which allows for a sexy performance. He mentions that the backing track has a strengthened beat in a minor scale, and that there are many parts where the bass line plays around stylishly and finishes rhythmically.

「1oku 3zenman sou Diet Oukoku」

He talks about the global obsession with losing weight. Yet people still look for reasons to not diet. The theme of the song is about just that.

He says you could call it transformative EDM (note: The term he uses is 'hentai EDM', which amuses this translator). He directed this song with the feeling of 'stuck in a loop of not saying anything'. We all have our likes and disklikes, and he thinks that's good. And that's the kind of thrilling song it is. 
Berryz工房の醍醐味だと思います。I think it's the epitome of Berryz Kobo
He then comments on the girls individually.

Captain
Shimizu: Not just looks-wise、 I think mentally she's also an adult。
It feels like she looks over the members warmly。
From here on、 without restraints、 without tying down Captain
I want her to express herself in an exaggerated way。
At times she seems to act spoilt as if she were the youngest、 she should feel even freer to do so!
Momo
Tsugunaga: I think that there are a lot of times when her schedule is hard in a Momochi-like way、
But I think she worked hard last year without taking many breaks。
This year it doesn't look like the 「Momochi」 character will be given up、
Moreover, I'd like her to intensify as an irritating kid。
Actually she's become a good woman in terms of her age、
And I think it might be good if good woman 「Momochi」 makes appearances at times。
(Note: The previous two were direct translations of Tsunku♂'s comments, most of the rest will be summaries. Apologies for such inconsistency)

Chinami: She's cheerful with short hair. She looks better as a woman rather than as a child, or a boy. The theme for her this year is 'tightening up'. 
もう一度体力を付けて自分に余裕を持ってほしいな。
If we have the flexibility I'd want to have her build her physical strength once more。

Maasa: She's the kind of girl who can stir up a roar of laughter when she's around, as if some god of laughter had descended. But there are times where she doesn't seem motivated. He comments that she gets a smug smile, different to her usual smile, when she gets something she wants. He think that she'll become more individualistic if she laughs defiantly.

Miya: He thinks of her as shy, despite being called scary or a gyaru within H!P. But he doesn't think she'll change for the sake of changing her perspective. He says that her singing has become more stoic [sic] and cooler.

Kumaicho: He talks about the fact that her voice is unique. I'm not really catching the rest of what he's saying, so apologies to Yurina fans.

Risako: (Note: This is another direct translation)
Sugaya: I definitely think she's become an adult。
She's a girl who really  sticks to her guns when it comes to things like hair colour or eyelashes。
I think it's good to let her freely and gradually create her own expression during positive and free times。
But、 at times she takes in 100% of someone's advice
And makes a complete 180 degree change。
I wonder when those times are・・・

Source