BZS1422 #108 (2014.08.10) (guest: Fukuda Kanon)

The two begin the show by repeating their hiatus announcement.

Chii asks Kumai-san how it was announcing the news live in front of their fans. Kumai-san says that above all, she just felt very restless before the announcement. Since it was the first time in her life experiencing something like it, she didn’t know what to feel. She apologizes for surprising their fans but says that she hopes to do her very best until their hiatus.

Chii says that she’d never felt anything quite like the venue that day — normally when someone would say “we have an announcement regarding Berryz Koubou,” people would just go “eeeeh?!” or something, but this time it felt like everything just went dead quiet. Chii notes that there is still time until next spring and she hopes to make lots of fun memories with their fans until then.

The two of them ask once more for everyone’s support.

FUKUDA KANON FANGIRLING OVER KUMAI YURINA AND BERRYZ KOUBOU BEGINS

Chii introduces their guest this week as “probably the world’s number one most eager person to be a guest on this show.” Perhaps mirroring the lyrics to “Futsuu, Idol 10nen Yatterannai Desho!?”, Kanon introduces herself as someone who “devoted her entire youth to Berryz Koubou” — looking back, she explains she’s been a fan of Berryz Koubou ever since her early teens. Chii points out that their guest’s face is all red with embarrassment. Kumai-san calling Kanon cute for this probably doesn’t help in making it any less red, and Kanon asks her not to look.

Chii asks Kanon how it is to finally have made it as a guest on the show. She talks about how last time when Wada-chan and Takeuchi-chan came on as guests on the show, she herself was actually busy doing an event where she was talking about Berryz Koubou in front of fans, so she’s happy she could make it on the show this time. Kumai-san says she actually received a message on LINE from Kanon that day, apologizing that she couldn’t come.

Chii talks about how, working as the “Berryz PR Ambassador,” Kanon did an episode of SS1422 on March 2nd where she spent 30 minutes just talking about Berryz Koubou. Kumai-san and  Chii wonder if there’s even that much to talk about Berryz to begin with, but Kanon assures them that 30 minutes isn’t even nearly enough. Kumai-san says she couldn’t possibly talk about Berryz for 30 minutes straight, but more than that she finds it funny that Kanon would talk solely about Berryz on a S/mileage radio show.

Chii asks what it was that originally made Kanon like Berryz. She says she knew about them ever since their H!P Kids days, but started paying more attention especially when the formation of Berryz was announced. Early on, she was amazed by how Sugaya Risako was the same age as her — “there’s someone the same age as me who’s already an idol!?“, she remembers thinking. She saw them dancing “Go Girl ~Koi no Victory~” at the very first event where they were appearing and that’s when she decided to start buying their CD’s and stuff because they were so cute. Chii and Kumai-san are surprised to hear Kanon was interested in them since their very beginnings.

Since Kanon has been a fan of Berryz for 10 full years, Chii asks if her interest in them hasn’t waned at any point. Kanon joined the H!P Eggs right after she’d become their fan when she was nine years old, so she quickly went from being just a fan to being their kouhai. Thus, Kanon says, she kept watching their music videos and listening to their CD’s for the sake of learning, and then she kept getting to appear in more and more concerts with them which led to her getting to like them more and more. She doesn’t remember her interest in them fading at any point.

Next, Chii cuts to the chase and just asks Kanon flat-out what it is that she so likes about Kumai-san. (She also points out that even though Kanon and Kumai-san are sitting next to each other, Kanon is hardly making any eye contact with Kumai-san at all.) Kanon says she likes how she’s so tall, how even though she’s so cool looks-wise, her talks are really cute, and says that she also loves her singing voice. The last one surprises Kumai-san the most. Kanon explains that she especially likes when she’s singing high notes that lead into lower notes — Chii asks Kanon to name an example, and while she can’t think of anything off the top of her head that has what she just talked about, she mentions that she likes, for example, Kumai-san’s “ad balloon” line in “Waracchaou yo BOYFRIEND.”

Chii says that Kanon’s face is just burning red at this point and notes that she keeps stealing glances at Kumai-san through the corners of her eyes as they’re talking. The two call her adorable, but Kanon is quick to deny this. Chii says that even at Hello! Concerts, Kanon refrains from being with Kumai-san all the time and that she still seems nervous around her. “Even after ten years knowing her it’s like you’re still keeping your distance from her,” Chii says. Chii inquires as to why this is, and Kanon explains that just like how the average fan can’t get to come hang out with their favorite members backstage, she worries that if she spends too much time with Kumai-san, people are going to start saying she’s abusing her power as a member of H!P. Besides, she says, when she does get the courage to approach Kumai-san, all the 2nd gen S/mileage members will be there jeering at her in no time. Kumai-san says that while they have recently gotten closer, she feels embarrassed talking to Kanon, too, and that’s probably why the sense of distance between them still exists.

Chii says she hopes Kanon will try and enjoy Kumai-san to the fullest today.

FUKUDA KANON FANGIRLING OVER KUMAI YURINA AND BERRYZ KOUBOU ENDS

Song: S/mileage – Aa Susukino

Moya Moya Tokkuma
Listeners try and answer questions posed
by the hosts and other listeners

The first problem the listeners try to tackle tonight is something that has been bothering Chii lately: “why does the difference between a room air-conditioned down to 27°C versus the same room air-conditioned down to 26°C feel so large?“

Fan answer: For most people, the most comfortable room temperature is somewhere between 26°C and 28°C. Thus, the listener says, if Tokunaga feels that big a difference between 26°C and 27°C, it probably means that her body temperature is about one degree higher or lower than the average. “So the next time you’re about to have a fight with Momochi over the air conditioner settings,” the listener says, “just lend her a sweater.“

While the answer does make sense to the hosts to some degree, complicating matters is the fact that Chii’s body temperature is 36°C (which is average), and that recently she says she’s also experiencing a large difference between 27°C and 28°C. They talk about how while 28°C is generally considered the optimal room temperature (environmentally and so forth), they all agree that 28°C is just too hot. Ultimately, Chii accepts that her body temperature must have something to do with it and promises to play around with the settings of her air conditioner some more.

The next problem is something that has been on Kumai-san’s mind: “why are there more escalators that go downwards than there are ones that go upwards?“

Fan answer: For the elderly, injured people and pregnant women, descending stairs is a lot more difficult than ascending them. But while there seems to have been an increase in downwards escalators lately (mainly for the sake of disabled people and also because statistically there are more accidents resulting from descending stairs), the listener definitely thinks there are still much more upwards escalators than there are downwards ones. Thus, the listener thought about why Kumai-san would then feel the opposite way, and came to the conclusion that it must be because of episodic memory. He explains what it is and suggests that this is perhaps why Kumai-san feels the way she does.

Chii and Kumai-san both talk about how this answer made a lot of sense… up until the episodic memory part, after which Chii said she no longer understood what the listener was talking about at all. They both laugh and Kumai-san says that she now has a new question: “what’s episodic memory?” (the brief explanation provided by the listener, she says, wasn’t enough.) Still, Kumai-san says that the listener’s answer did make sense to her, although Chii, judging by the tone of Kumai-san’s voice, expresses doubt as to whether that’s really true. Ultimately, Chii and Kumai-san say they could both understand the explanation — prior to all the stuff about episodic memory, that is.

Chii has a sudden realization:

Chii: You know, I was thinking… the questions we ask on this corner, this is all stuff we could easily look up ourselves somewhere.
Kumai-san: True.
Kanon: (laughs)

Since the listeners are going to answer even the silliest of questions, Chii asks if Kanon has any she wants to ask them. She does.

At the very first Hina Festival concert, Berryz performed “Baka ni Shinaide.” Kanon, saying it’s a song that any self-respecting Berryz wota would get pumped up about when hearing, couldn’t understand why the 2nd gen S/mileage members watching the show with her couldn’t see what was so special about it. Kanon says that years later even to this day the question still bothers her.

Kumai-san suggests that “Baka ni Shinaide” is the kind of song that’s good partly because they perform it live so rarely. Kanon says that is exactly right, and that’s why she was doubly excited when they were actually performing it at Hina Festival — and yet, none of the 2nd gen members could understand why she was getting so fired up about it.

Chii wonders how much the 2nd gen members actually even know about other Hello! Project artists. Kumai says she feels like they don’t know that much about Berryz, at least. When they’re talking about other non-H!P artists, Kanon says she often finds herself telling them “why are you talking about other artists when you have such great ones right here in front of you?!” Kanon says this makes her sad. Chii and Kumai-san laugh, and Chii suggests that they just reword the question as “Why won’t the 2nd gen members of S/mileage get the greatness of Berryz Koubou? How do we make them understand?“

Song: Berryz Koubou – Semi (introduced by Kanon as her summer theme song)

Chii’s parting words to S/mileage at SS1422:

Chii: Meimei, I like it when you have your hair set so that your forehead is visible.