Country Girls no Tadaima Radio Housouchuu!! #49 (2016.03.06)

Yanagawa Nanami and Funaki Musubu start off this broadcast, straight off the heels of AS1422. Funakki asks Yanamin if she’s close to any of the ANGERME members, or if she has any stories to share that involve an ANGERME member.

Yanamin feels close to Kamikokuryo Moe, who joined H!P around the same time that they did. She often sees Musubu and Kamiko-chan talking with one another as well, to which Funakki herself admits that she is quite chummy with Kamiko-chan. They hung out a while back, and even bought matching clothes. Yanamin hopes that the three of them can hang out next time, as she was unable to join them on that day due to a fever.

From her voice, Funakki suspects that the listeners can tell how nervous she is about having to take the lead for the opening of this episode. Yanamin‘s also nervous because it’s just the two of them starting off the radio programme, and while they’re used to working with one another, on radio, they’re only able to convey their thoughts through their voices. But she’d like to do her best.

The two of them had been guests on the show before, but back then, they had their senpai Risa and Ozeki to fall back on. But this time it’s just the two of them, so Funakki’s at maximum nervousness.

The rest of today’s broadcast was actually recorded on the 3rd of March (Thurs) at the special stage of Club 333, in the main observatory of Tokyo Tower, where all seven members made an appearance! But before that, here’s the first number!

♫ Country Girls – Koi ha Magnet ♫

It’s Hinamatsuri, the 3rd of March! But even more than that, it’s been a year since this programme started, so today’s broadcast is a special one! This marks the first time where all seven members of Country Girls will be present on the programme, as well as being the programme’s first public recording at Tokyo Tower! Chairing the show are Yamaki Risa and Inaba Manaka.

The public recording was actually made without any prior announcements, so the girls expect that a lot of people in attendance are probably unfamiliar with both them and the programme itself. After all the girls introduce themselves, Mai briefly describes Country Girls as a group, while Chiitan explains what the programme is about.

And the girls welcome, for first time on this show, Playing Manager Momochi. Momochi wonders why it took them so long to have her on the show – had they forgotten about her, perhaps? The other girls quickly deny it, with Manakan explaining that they want her to listen to the show.

Momochi: I’ve heard that you guys are always so carefree, since Momochi isn’t around.

Flustered, Mai cooks up an explanation that while the show may have just the 4 regulars, the programme is presented with the spirit of the seven members. You’d know that if you listened to the programme.

Well, Momo has heard that the girls have been working hard at the programme. The girls hit on one thing: everything Momochi has been mentioning so far has been hearsay. As their PM, surely she listens to their radio show, right?

Momochi: You know, this show is aired late night Sundays at one in the morning, right? I’ve always got work at that time, every week.

The other girls: No way. You’re lying, right! It’s aired late at night, you know!

Momochi: I’m turning 24, so my work hours don’t really matter, and every week, my manager-san will suddenly slot in some work at about 12.40 midnight. So I can’t listen to this programme even if I wanted to!

Yamaki: Whenever we contact you late night on Sundays, our messages always remain in ‘unread’ status.

Momochi: It’s because I’m focusing on work, you see!!!

And suddenly, Hajimete no Happy Birthday starts playing! The girls have a surprise! As March 6th is Momochi-senpai’s 24th birthday, they present her with a bouquet of flowers.

Manakan: Those flowers suit you!

Momochi: Thank you~ Hana yori dango (literally, ‘dumplings rather than flowers’, a Japanese proverb that states that something functional or useful is more preferable than something decorative)

Yamaki: Huh huh huh huh?

Momochi: I’m happy. Thank you very much, really.

♫ Country Girls – Boogie Woogie Love ♫

With the release of their new single, it’s time for the girls to do some promoting! The girls are split into three teams – Morito x Ozeki, Yanagawa x Funaki, and Momochi-senpai on her own. As their new single will be released on March 9th, each team will pick one song and promote it for 39 seconds. Risa and Manakan will judge which team was the best at promoting the single.

Momochi-senpai starts first, with Boogie Woogie Love.

Momochi: Right, we, Country Girls, became a 7-person group in autumn last year, with 2 new members joining us. So this new song is part of the new members’ introductory single. The lyrics to this song use slightly difficult words from way back, like ‘Tennessee’ and ‘jeep’. Since I was born in the Heisei era, I’m not familiar with them either~ I had to look them up before singing ♥ I think you’ll be able to feel a bit of  Country Girls’ roguishness through this song. This spring, there are lots of fun, life-related events, such as flower viewing and people starting on their new lives. But everyone, listen to this song (*bell rings signalling end of time, and Momochi rushes this last bit*), andBoogieWoogie!

The judges are impressed, though what less would they expect from Momochi-senpai? Momochi‘s on to them though – obviously they’re just being careful around their senpai. Not so, according to Manakan: While Momochi had rushed it a bit after the bell, she had been steady, and the message got across.

Momochi turns this into a lesson: rather than being perfect, slipping-up and making yourself seem helpless is part of an idol’s toolkit to appeal to the audience. It’s more fun for the audience to watch an idol rushing when they’re facing time constraints, rather than pulling things off flawlessly.

Momochi herself found it hard to hear the countdown timer while she was speaking, and 39 seconds in itself is tricky to play with. The next team have a high hurdle to overcome.

Momochi, turning slip-ups into opportunity

Next we have the Morito-Ozeki team taking on Koi ha Magnet. These two seem pretty excited, so time to get the ball rolling:

Morito: Koi ha Magnet is a mature, sexy song. Normally, we have lots of songs where it’s easy to catch the dance through the rhythm. But for this song, we had to catch the rhythm with our bodies, and not let it show outside as we danced. It was difficult, but we did our best, so please keep your eyes out for that!

Ozeki: And, as it’s sexy and mature… We tre… trei… tried to make mature expressions on our faces as we danced. In the music video, um… all of us wear blue dresses, they’re really cute, erm, um, so please give it a listen! We beg for your kindness!

Morito: Please listen~ (*bell rings*)

The judges immediately remark on the fact that Mai-chan had fumbled a lot with her words (Manakan: ‘Normally Chiitan would be the problematic one…‘). Mai-chan defends herself by declaring that she was taking a page from Momochi-senpai’s book, fumbling her words to appear cuter.

Momochi-senpai herself thinks that, as useful a tool as it is, Mai-chan overdid it. Ozeki thanks Momochi-senpai for the good advice. Chiitan, however, is unsatisfied about the fact that Ozeki dragged her down.

Finally we have the Yanagawa x Funaki team team promoting Ran Ra Run ~Anata ni Muchuu~. With these two newbies who don’t really seem to be like newbies at all, Manakan is sure that the listeners are in for a treat.

Funaki: ‘Ran Ra Run ~Anata ni Muchuu~’ is the first time this song has been covered in Japanese. I think that it’s a song that everyone’s heard at least once in their lives. The phrase ‘Ran Ra Run’ itself remains in your ears, so I hope that all of you will sing it as well!

Yanagawa: And we acted in the music video, where our members Morito Chisaki-san, Ozeki Mai-san, Funaki Musubu-chan, as well as myself, Yanagawa Nanami, danced wearing fake moustaches and tuxedos, so please keep an eye out for that.

Yanagawa & Funaki: You’ll be entranced~

Countdown timer: 5 seconds left!

Funaki: Ah, there’s a bit more!?… It’s a cute song! (*bell rings*)

While Manakan thinks that it was a bit of a waste that they didn’t fill up the whole 39 seconds, the way they messed up the time was just nice, befitting of the advice Momochi-senpai had imparted earlier on. (Momochi: ‘Manakan, you’ve got a good pair of eyes on you ♥‘) Yamaki has some words of caution for Manakan, telling her to remain unbiased.

Yamaki: As judges, regardless of whether you’re a senior or junior, we’ll judge seriously.

Momochi: Of course, obviously. That’s the basis.

Manakan: As that’s the basis, rather than being too lenient, slipping up a bit is just nice.

Momochi: That’s right, Manaka~n ♥.

Manakan: Right~ (laughs)

Indeed, you’ll be entranced

Well then, as the judges deliberate over the results, the rest are left to talk. Momochi starts by commenting on the weird voice of the countdown timer. It hadn’t been loud enough either. Maybe they would have got their timing down perfectly had a stopwatch been used instead, Morito-Ozeki team excepted.

Chiitan blames Mai for panicking, and messing up her lines. While they were on the same team, they had planned what they wanted to say separately. Mai continues to claim that she was trying to use Momochi-senpai’s example as a reference.

And the judges come back with the results! The winner of this promotional talk is: (*drum roll*) The Yanagawa-Funaki team!

Momochi: … Huh?~

The judges picked the winner without focusing too much on Momochi-senpai’s ‘appearing helpless’ tactic, and they liked the teamwork shown by the pair when the two of them said ‘You’ll be entranced~’ together at the end. (Momochi: ‘I was on my own, so I couldn’t do anything like that! You can’t harmonise like that with one person!‘) Manakan adds that the results might have appeared impartial if Momochi-senpai had come first.

But with the senpai losing to the new members, it’s a blow to their position. Well, putting Momochi-senpai aside, Yamaki hopes that the other two will work hard in order not to lose to the new members. Chiitan isn’t accepting any of this, trying to put the blame on Mai, but Manakan explains that teamwork was a consideration as well  (Momochi: ‘[Chisaki]’s more desperate than anyone else (laughs)‘)

Anyway, the Yanagawa-Funaki team are the winners, so congratulations to them!