Monthly Archives: February 2015

Itsudemo! Kannon Smile #10 (2015.02.03)

As most of us know, Kanon got the flu not too long ago. Because of this she wasn’t able to perform in Nagoya for the Hello! Concert. Last time she got the flu before this was when she had just entered Morning Musume in 6th grade. She mentions writing on her blog that she hadn’t been eating while she had a fever. She decides to expand on this by explaining that she does eats while she has a fever, however it takes significantly more effort as Kanon finds it difficult to hold chopsticks while she has one. The other problem is that she gets hungry and wants to eat, but then after she’ll vomit, Kanon laughs. Apparently this would happen every hour sometimes. According to Kanon’s experience this flu is a pretty nasty one that takes a while to recover from, so she hopes everyone will be able to avoid getting it entirely.

Changing the subject to something more pleasant, February 2nd was Makino Maria’s birthday! She has just recently joined the group, but they are both from Aichi and have been able to discuss places and things about Aichi with ease. Kanon thinks that 14-year-old Maria will be a precious member to Kanon from here on out.

Song: Angerme – Taiki Bansei

I, Suzuki Kanon Will Open Up To My True Feelings Message Corner!
Watashi, Suzuki Kanon no Honto no Kimochi ga OPEN ni Nacchau Meseeji Corner!

Message 1: Morning Musume has a song called “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari”, right? It would be great to hear a Kanon version of the song that I have written. Wow! Please sing this version I wrote!

There hasn’t been a new a version of Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari made for the new members since the spring 2012 concert, so she wants to try this version and gives its a go:

“Although I may have a chubby character, don’t misjudge me~ With my Smile Beam, I’ll make everyone smile~”

After singing, Kanon is very happy they were able to come up with a new version for her. Kanon likes the “Kanon Beam” idea the fans have created. Kanon starts to reminisce about her lines in the 2012 concert version, but then the staff suddenly starts up the music and has her sing it:

“I passed the audition with my “parodies” and now I’m a fast companion~ It doesn’t matter if my jokes are good or not, I’m going to do it my own way~”

“Ahh! Its been such a long time!” Kanon exclaims. Its been so long since singing her lines she was nervous she wouldn’t remember it all. It would be great if there was a version for the 13-member line up and maybe it will happen soon, she hopes.

The Full 2012 Version

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Morning Musume ’15 12ki Nikki! #6 (2015.02.08)

Haa-Chel once again graces our ears, with Nonaka leading the way. They vow to be even more energetic than last time, to be more pumped up than anyone else!

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – Egao no Kimi wa Taiyou sa

Lately, it seems like a lot of things have been happening to the 12th Generation. It’s already been three months since 12th Generation was announced, neither of them can believe it. Time has just flown.

Ogata brings up the fact that there are a lot of things that 12th Gen do differently from each other. Specifically, she is thinking of a situation where they had had a choice between using an escalator or an elevator to go down. Of course, they had agreed that the best choice would have probably been for all four of them to ride the elevator together, but when it came down to it, it turned out that the four of them couldn’t ride at the same time. Thus, Ogata and Akane rode the elevator, Maria used the escalator and Nonaka… Ogata can’t actually think of what Nonaka did.

Nonaka takes over and says that on the specific day Ogata is thinking of, Nonaka had suddenly noticed that everyone was gone and… well.. she had taken the stairs down.

Another example is that they’ll all use different ways to get places that they need to all go to. Because they use different methods, they often get to their destination at different times. Actually… everything about how they get to the same place is different.

Ogata: And because the two of us are “commoners”
Nonaka: Ah, yes.
Ogata: We usually go by train.

Yeah! Team Commoner!

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BZS1422 #128 (2014.12.28)

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As it is the last broadcast of 2014, the hosts wish to introduce the kanji characters that best represented the year for them. Kumai-san mentions that the official Kanji of the Year for 2014 — as selected by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society — was “税” (zei, tax), referring to Japan’s consumption tax increase from 5% to 8%. Kumai-san still feels that 8% is huge, and she hates it when some prices are listed only as e.g. “5000 yen plus tax,” wishing that they would just list the full price as-is, tax included.

Kumai-san’s kanji of the year is “瞬” (shun, moment/instant). For her, it felt like the year was over in an instant. Also, after their hiatus announcement, she has been treasuring each and every moment with the group more than before. Chii praises Kumai-san’s kanji as being very deep and agrees with her choice: she can’t believe that it was only earlier this year that they went to France or released “Diet Oukoku” — she says she probably wouldn’t be able to do the choreography right now if asked to.

Chii’s kanji of the year is “思” (omo, think/consider/reminisce). Chii explains that she thought about things a lot, what with their hiatus announcement, their trip to France and such. Plus, she felt that she made lots of memories with the group this year, like going to Disneyland together, sleeping in the same room with everyone, etc. Kumai-san is impressed with Chii’s kanji choice, too.

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BZS1422 #127 (2014.12.21)

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There’s three days until Christmas Eve, and our hosts can now finally reveal that the Berryz gift exchange discussed last week will take place this year as well! The two groan about how difficult it is finding a present that could make all of the other members happy, but somehow they must try.

S/mileage has just announced their name change, and the hosts are impressed it was Kananan who actually came up with the new name. Kumai-san thinks that whereas S/mileage sounded cute and energetic, ANGERME brings to mind an image of grownup women. She thinks this name means they might now mostly have songs that sound more “grownup” as well; Chii, however, points out that their new songs have already been announced and they’re titled “Taiki Bansei” and “Otome no Gyakushuu.” Learning this, Kumai-san is relieved that perhaps not much will change after all.

Recently announced were also the top buzzwords of Japan in 2014. While these were the hot words of 2014 among the general Japanese public, Chii proposes that they in turn announce the buzzwords among the members of Berryz Koubou.

Unsurprisingly, Kumai-san says her buzzword of the year was “enjoy.” “Isn’t that your buzzword for every year?” Chii deservedly asks, but Kumai-san explains that this year the word permeated not only to the fans and the other members more than ever before, but also to her private life: even her friends would use the word around her with no rhyme or reason, leading to frequent curious looks from passersby.

For Chii, she thinks her buzzword was “rap.” On Berryz’ autumn tour, Chii got to sing “Loving you Too much” with Maasa. The song includes a brief rap part; Chii says this made her “awaken” to rap, and she now tries to rap in her private life as well. She wasn’t sure if she should reveal this information on the radio — the staff appear to be looking at Chii quizzically, wondering what on earth she’s going on about — but she swears it’s the truth.

Kumai-san says she has actually noticed improvement in Chii’s rapping. She then gets a great idea: Chii should showcase her skills right now on the show! Chii hesitates, saying she already knows people on Twitter and elsewhere are going to laugh at her, but eventually gives in — she’d been practicing in their dressing room just yesterday, after all. Kumai-san offers to provide her a beat to rap to.

Chii: Wanna eat crab / Wanna eat sea urchin / Wanna eat salmon roe / If that’s the case, HOKKAIDO IN THE HOUSE!

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Itsudemo! Kannon Smile #9 (2015.01.27)

January is already over, Kanon comtemplates. Its been four years now since Kanon joined Morning Musume. At that time, Kanon was in 6th grade and graduated elementary school the following month. She was undergoing intensive lessons at that time and missed out on going to the graduation ceremony. She goes on a tangent explaining how her classroom worked; good marks or performance would get you “plus points” and you could accumulate many over time and get some sort of reward from them. As it was the end of elementary school, her friends decided to give her some of their points because Kanon wasn’t getting very many (from joining Morning Musume and being busy). She felt very loved by her friends and really appreciated their support while she had to travel from her hometown to Tokyo so often, trying to learn as much as she could in school and work.

This first song is actually a request from her father, Kanon laughs.

Song: Morning Musume – Shouganai Yumeoibito

Four-years ago Kanon! Such a cutie!

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Morning Musume ’15 12ki Nikki! #5 (2015.02.01)

Today we have the return of Nonaka and Ogata, who vow to bring some energy to the radio show. They are of course excited to be doing the show together, as Nonaka and Ogata apparently hang out a lot. They are known as Haa-Chel (from their nicknames Haa-chin and Chel(sea)). Akane has even mentioned that there is a lot of Haa-Chel appearing on their blogs lately. Since they are close in age, they get along really well and often get really excited around each other.

Ogata then reminds everyone that tomorrow (2/2) is Maria’s birthday. Happy Birthday Maria! She is now officially only one year younger than the older girls. Of course, when they actually think about it… lthough Maria is technically one year younger, she always seems to be the older one.

Happy Birthday, Maria! From Haa-Chel~

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – What is LOVE?

Ogata repeats last week’s topic of the Hello! Project concerts, so now we can hear stories from the older half of the 12th generation.

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BZS1422 #126 (2014.12.14) (guest: Sudo Maasa)

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Berryz Station 1422 caster, Tokunaga Chinami, and special commentator, Sudo Maasa, warmly greet the listeners. There is excitement in the air this week: they have a super special guest visiting them! Without further ado, their guest introduces herself as Kumai Yurina, the 21-year-old in charge of good looks within Berryz Koubou!

Not long after, she inquires what is going on: it’s usually Chii’s role to be teased by forcibly making her the guest on occasions such as this. Still, even more worrying to her is how Maasa is back on the show so soon since her last visit — she suspects she might be aiming to become a more permanent part of the show. Maasa argues that she’s innocent: this is all decided by the staff. “I’m just trying to do my job,” she says. Chii takes the opportunity to point out why Maasa doesn’t deserve a regular spot on BZS1422: to her and Kumai-san, doing this show doesn’t even feel like work. Maasa laughs at this statement.

Maasa: So what is it then?! Are you saying you’re on your time off right now?! (laughs)
Kumai-san: … We’re just here to have some fun. Right?
Chii: … Yes.
Maasa: To “have fun?” This is work! Work, I tell you!

Chii asks DJ Yurina to introduce the first song of the show. Tragedy ensues.

Song: Berryz Koubou – 1oku 3zenman Sou Diet Oukoku

BZS1422 Dai Bounenkai

It’s time for a special corner: the Great BZS1422 Year-End Party! That’s a fancy name for what Kumai-san points out means simply a free-talk corner. Also, pizza.

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BZS1422 #125 (2014.12.07) (guest: Sudo Maasa)

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2014 is just about over, and Chii inquires about the no. 1 thing Kumai-san was the most into this year. Kumai-san answers that for her, it’d have to have been Ariel the Little Mermaid: she happened to see Chii watching the movie on DVD one time, and she just found the character of Ariel so irresistibly cute. Ever since then the number of her Ariel goods has been seeing a constant increase in number.

For Chii, her no. 1 item of 2014 must’ve been her camera. She was constantly carrying it around this past year, like on Berryz’ bus tours, their trip to Disneyland, and their Paris expedition. But another one of the big things she was into, she claims, was actually her blog: she updated it a lot more often than in 2013. Kumai-san accepts Chii’s answer regarding the camera, but not so much the bit about her blog.

Speaking of blogs: just last week, Kumai-san was proud to announce that she’d been posting on hers every single day for more than two weeks. That streak has now ended.

Chii: So what happened?
Kumai-san: Well, it’s… if I’d kept going, I would’ve only made the fans expect too much of me.
Chii: Ah, yes. That’s no good. You shouldn’t let them have unnecessarily high expectations.
Kumai-san: Yes. So I had to end it at some point and go back to my old self!
Chii: Yes! Right on.
Kumai-san: So I haven’t been blogging. And what’s more is, I have no plans to blog today either!
Chii: Very good.

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