Monthly Archives: September 2014

We are Juice=Juice #49 (09.09.2014)

So in the quietest intro the show has ever had, we learn that Yuka is on the brink of losing her voice (which leads to the most pitiful “yay” I have ever heard sprinkled throughout the show) and so we wouldn’t be able to hear her with any other noise happening. She assures us that she feels fine, just can’t really talk. Kanatomo then reveals that because they are celebrating their 1st anniversary of their major debut, they will be having a special radio show this time with all five members.

Kanatomo introduces the first song, saying that out of the two songs in their next single, Senobi is much more of the typical Juice=Juice fare. It’s another in a long line of mature songs and has some lyrics about painful love and growing up, so she think it represents Juice=Juice very well. Sayubee says that at recent performances of the song, the audience members have sung the “woah woah woah” sections for them and it makes her very happy to have the fans involved with the song.

Song: Juice=Juice – Senobi

In celebration of their 1 year anniversary, they want to incorporate all 5 members into the Voice Blog in the next two weeks, as it is the specialty of We are Juice=Juice. This week, we have the three high school members presenting and reflecting on the past year with Juice=Juice. Continue reading →

Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #138 (2014.08.23) (guest: Yajima Maimi)

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Nacky introduces her guest: °C-ute’s leader, Yajima Maimi!

This is Maimi’s first time back on the show since last coming on as a guest back in June, and Nacky says that she already noticed then how reliable Maimi is when it comes to doing radio together since Maimi has her own show, too. Maimi says she still remembers when Nacky started this show and how she had trouble reading aloud the contact information for the show without stumbling over her words. Nacky says she still has trouble with that even now, Maimi says she does, too, and they come to the conclusion that stumbling over one’s words is impossible to fix entirely.

They talk briefly about the events they had over the summer. Starting with OTODAMA, Maimi says she had lots of fun firing off water guns and throwing water balloons at the audience. Nacky says their shows at OTODAMA always leave her with a sore throat since she has so much fun performing there.

As for Mezamashi Live, °C-ute appeared at the event with the band Akai Kouen. Maimi remarks how cool it was seeing a band play live, and how she hoped some of their fans would also become interested in °C-ute as well. Nacky remembers there being lots of young students at this event.

Finally, they appeared at SUMMER STATION, a new event that was held for the first time this summer. Since this event was in the evening, Maimi figured the heat wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but she found herself sopping wet with sweat in no time. Regardless, they were both happy to see that the venue was so packed with people.

Song: °C-ute – Bagel ni Ham & Cheese

°C-ute with Akai Kouen at Mezamashi Live

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Morning Musume ’14 no Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~ #125 (2014.08.23)

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Fuku-chan & Sayashi & Maa-chan: Aloha~!

Fuku-chan explains their opening greeting by saying that the three will be in Hawaii on the day this episode is broadcast. At this point they’re still in Tokyo recording the show though, and Fuku-chan asks the two how they’re doing with their preparations for Hawaii. Sayashi says she hasn’t done a single thing yet — she only just found a carry case at home today. Maa-chan immediately asks Sayashi what color her carry case is, and Sayashi says it’s somewhere between orange and pink. Maa-chan says she hasn’t done anything yet either, and Fuku-chan admits that neither has she. Fuku-chan wonders how many changes of clothes she should bring with her. Sayashi says they’ll probably be mostly wearing outfits provided by the office, so just bringing T-shirts and Relaco should be enough.

Fuku-chan mentions that August 23 is Ukulele Day in Hawaii. She has a DVD where the members of Berryz practice playing “Happy Birthday” for Risako on the ukulele, so when she got the opportunity to play one herself, she remembered that scene on the DVD and tried to see if she could play it, and to her surprise she found that she actually could. Sayashi is surprised to hear this and they hope they get a chance to play some on this trip to Hawaii as well.

Opening Question

The three take turns in answering a question about what they’re generally doing before concerts. Fuku-chan says she applies lip balm given to her by Kenshuusei Yamagishi Riko, Sayashi says she drinks black tea, and Maa-chan says she fixes her hair.

Fuku-chan says this is the first time she’s heard about Sayashi’s tea thing. Sayashi explains that it’s not like she has to drink it every concert, but since hearing other artists saying they drink sweet teas such as herb tea, she’s gotten into the habit of doing so to help herself keep her throat in good condition throughout the concert.

Fuku-chan: As for Maa-chan, you fix your hair, huh?
Maa-chan: No. I double-check the lyrics.
Fuku-chan: …Oh. So you changed your answer.

Fuku-chan mentions how the other day she had her hair done curly for Hello!Con, but the curls got undone and she was talking to her manager about what she should do. Maa-chan suddenly offered to fix Fuku-chan’s hair for her, and she first weaved it and then braided it for her. Even though there was hardly any time to spare, Maa-chan pulled it off in no time and Sayashi says it really suited Fuku-chan. Maa-chan says she wants to change back to her original answer after all.

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SS1422 #86 (2014.09.07)

Marotesque Station

The banner for this radio show is inaccurate today, because it is not S/mileage Station. No, it is Marotesque Station. Kanyon has taken over and as PR Ambassador is going to dedicate the program to Berryz Koubou, so all Berryz wota (since that is still what we’re calling you) should tune in. Also Meimi is here.

Hello!Cons

Kanyon starts of the show by asking Meimi about the summer Hello!Cons, which are coming to an end. Meimi says that something fun about this year’s concerts was that they sang Yume Miru 15, but instead of S/mileage singing it, a group of 15-year-olds sang it. Of course, it isn’t uncommon in H!P to sing songs by another group, far from it. It was strange, though, Meimi says, because she was singing her own group’s song but with people all from different groups. She was also actually the oldest and most senior member out of those singing it, which was another strange feeling, and she says it made her feel just how quickly time has gone by. Kanyon is also startled, saying that she still imagines the 2nd gen members to be new members, but Meimi explains that she’s halfway to the top of the company since she is senior to Juice=Juice and 5 members of Morning Musume.

Kanyon did a song with Tsugunaga Momoko, Fukumura Mizuki, and Kumai Yurina as well, BE HAPPY Koi no yajirobee. She starts talking about how happy she is for Hello!Cons because she can sing with Yurina when Meimi starts giggling. Meimi was in the unit for Loving You Too Much that followed Kanyon’s unit so she got to see them a lot at rehearsals and says that as soon as the song started she began messing up.

Meimi: Even from the back I got secondhand embarrassment, the dance… like, every time you went out, your legs just started getting wonky.
Kanyon: You know, I really could not do that dance. We had the Kenshuusei dance back-up for us, and the teacher still said that I was the worst one. And then I gained weight and never could do it right.
Meimi: I felt bad for you.
Kanyon: Yeah.
Meimi: You looked like a tomato.
Kanyon: Don’t I always?

Now Yurina hates tomatoes so Kanyon now has to figure out how to be less like a tomato and more like something else. That reminds her that she asked the staff members why they chose the members that they did for this song and they said it was because it was two pairs that looked like there was no mutual affection: Kanyon and Yurina, Fukuchan and Momochi. It was a little sad because she thought they had been picked because they were strong performers, aww. However, there are sections of the choreography where they hold hands and their eyes meet, which made her extremely nervous. Meimi thinks that Kanyon asked the choreographers to put more of those parts into the dance for her. Kanyon says she thought about it, but didn’t. She will treasure the DVD release. Continue reading →

Trattoria Buono! #74 (2014.08.30)

♪ Buono! – Blue Sky Blue ♪

Momoko announces that the 30th of August is Happy Sunshine Day, a day for people whose bright smiles are like the sun. She suggests that people who fit that description can think of it as their birthday. Airi points out that it might reduce the excitement for people celebrating their birthday on the day. Momoko counters that it wouldn’t be the case, and that the people celebrating their birthdays would be twice as happy.

Momoko asks the others whether they’d been smiling recently, from the bottom of their hearts. Airi point out that Momoko’s statement sounds like something from out of a commercial. Momoko runs through it again.

Momoko: Have you, recently…

Momoko & Airi: Been smiling from the bottom of your heart? (laughs)

The girls agree they have. Miyabi says that she laughs once a day.

Momoko: Hey, you can laugh more than that! (laughs) Once a day is like just going ‘ha ha ha’.

Miyabi: ‘Ha ha ha’.

Airi: That’s like three laughs.

Miyabi admits that it does make it sound like she leads a sad life. Momoko points out that smiles and laughter have an amazing power, where even just seeing a display of them triggers an energy boost.

In order for the programme to make lots of people smile, Momoko warns the others to take care of their pronunciation this time around. That they can’t just hope to tide it through by being excited. The other two agree excitedly without abandon, clearly disregarding Momoko’s prior warning. Momoko apologises on their behalf, and begs for the listener’s kindness. The other two follow suit.

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Konya mo Usachan Peace #408 (2014.08.18)

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Looking back on the last two weeks on the show with Maa-chan as the guest, Sayu says it was just “amazing” — she says the people who listened to the shows will know what she means by that. She describes Maa-chan as a storm that just swept its way through the show, and says that her antics didn’t stop only at what was broadcasted: she was also on a rampage behind the scenes, too.

First of all, when they were heading towards the studio to record the episodes, Maa-chan told Sayu she was hoping they’d have recorded them in the daytime instead (this was in the evening). When Sayu asked why, Maa-chan said she wasn’t feeling all that energetic. Sayu obviously didn’t like that someone who was coming on her show as a guest wasn’t feeling very excited about it, but she nevertheless told Maa-chan she’d be doing her best to make it exciting so she wanted Maa-chan to do her best, too. Maa-chan just answered with a half-hearted “Yeah, sure… I guess…“

But the second they arrived at the studio, even before the recording started, Maa-chan suddenly got insanely fired-up to the point that Sayu even wondered what on earth she’d meant when she said she “wasn’t feeling very energetic.” Maa-chan was just eating everything in front of her, constantly talking and not making any sense, carefreely calling over staff members just to talk to them… Sayu says Maa-chan was 100% “Sato Masaki” that day.

Maa-chan, too, said she had a lot of fun, and a couple of days later she sent Sayu an email saying “I want to appear on Konusapii again!” However, that email was immediately followed up by another email that said “I forgot to bring my training wear with me today. I’m very sorry to trouble everyone.” Sayu figured Maa-chan was feeling nervous the members would get angry at her for forgetting to bring her gear so she must’ve been trying to butter Sayu up with compliments to hopefully soften the blow.

Sayu hopes to get back to her usual, Maa-chan-less, more relaxed radio show this week.

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We are Juice=Juice #48 (2014.09.02)

Adult

The opening word this time is adult, courtesy of Sayubee. She says that she chose it because she wants to become more of an adult this year, which she says all the time but now she really means it.

Sayubee: I’m 17, so I think now I have to grow up… eventually… like in my makeup and stuff and… Why are you laughing?!

Yuka says that she’s conscious of this, too, and a while ago put forth more of an effort to act more mature. She recommends Sayubee pay more attention to the way she walks, the way she talks, and what she insists on carrying around with her. Sayubee says she’ll try.

Fan Letter

This letter comes from Kasutabe and they’re writing to say how much they enjoyed Uemu’s last voice blog. They thought it was really funny and cute and they would like to hear another one for a different song. Of course, Uemu is not on this broadcast, so they will have to wait until next time to see if she does it. Yuka wasn’t present for that particular recording but she had heard about it from the staff members and eventually had Uemu do it for her, and she thought it was really funny. She says that she and Karin and Uemu have had some practice recently in doing those sorts of introductions at events, but Sayubee had some trouble recently. She was supposed to be an announcer of sorts for a fashion show and she said she had a really difficult time with it. Yuka thinks that perhaps they should all practice like Uemu on the radio show. Sayubee sounds… less enthusiastic.

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BZS1422 #109 (2014.08.17) (guest: Fukuda Kanon)

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Kumai-san and Kanon begin the show just by the two of them and Kumai-san introduces herself as the “caster” of the show — a role that is usually reserved for Tokunaga Chinami.

Kumai-chan starts by asking Kanon about her memories of summer. Kanon talks about how she bought the “3 Natsu Natsu Mini Berryz” mini-album because she wanted to wear the beach sandals that came with its limited edition. When she actually got them, though, she suddenly thought it’d be a waste to use them so she decided to just treasure them without using them.

But the sad part happened when Kanon’s family moved out of that home. They got a moving contractor to do a thorough clean-up of the whole house and they, for some reason, threw Kanon’s beach sandals in the trash. Kumai-san is shocked to hear this and asks why they would just throw them away without asking first. Kanon explains that since her room was so messy, her mother had just told the contractors to throw away everything even resembling trash. Kumai-san wishes she’d have known this just a little bit earlier: she actually gave a pair of these beach sandals away to a fan at an event last summer.

Kumai-san and Kanon introduce their super special guest of the week: Tokunaga Chinami! Chii says she’s kind of getting used to this nonsense about her being referred to as the guest. She quickly reassumes her position as the caster.

Song: S/mileage – Chikyuu wa Kyou mo Ai wo Hagukumu

Mail Corner

Fan letter #1: The listener says he only just recently found out about this show and is already hooked. Chii-chan’s frequent fumbling of her words, Kumai-san’s weird interjections, the peculiar atmosphere on the show… the listener is so hooked on it all, he says he now listens to past episodes when he’s commuting to work, when he’s on his afternoon break, when he’s in the bath and when he’s about to sleep. He tried thinking about why he wasn’t listening to this show before and realized it was because of two reasons, namely Tokunaga Chinami and Kumai Yurina. He says the two don’t promote this show nearly enough and asks that they start doing so more.

Chii says she’s very happy about such praise, but wonders if they’re really not doing enough to promote the show. Chii thinks she actually does her fair share and asks Kanon how much she usually promotes things on her blog. Kanon answers that while she herself doesn’t do much promoting, she’s also the type of person who will look up upcoming events and concerts on her own even without hearing about it somewhere. She just recommends people to check artists’ official sites for that sort of information.

Kanon offers that she can start promoting this radio show for Chii and Kumai-san, and the two sound very pleased with this offer, calling her a simply wonderful kouhai.

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