Author Archives: Henkka

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

By | August 31, 2014
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bzs1422

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.

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LoVendoЯ no Love-On! #59 (2014.08.16) (guests: Nakanishi Kana & Takeuchi Akari)

By | August 30, 2014
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Henkka: This summary was contributed by Krv who may or may not also do episode #60 — do leave a comment to pressure and shame this good man into translating more of this show for us.

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It’s Damn Hot!

Reina asks the others what they do to stop themselves from feeling the heat. Yuki says that she just eats ice cream or stands by the cooler, whereas Marina goes outside simply because it is hot. She goes fishing, watching baseball, and racks up a pretty impressive tan. Yuki points out that if Marina and Reina stood next to each other they’d provide a nice contrast.

Marina wonders how evenly spread her tan should be, because her legs and face aren’t tanned at all. She asks Reina if she has any advice. She doesn’t.

S/mileage Members Introductions

Takeuchi Akari and Nakanishi Kana are guests on the show. It’s the first time Marina has met Kana. She already calls Akari Takechan, but wants to know what she should call Kana. Kana tells her to call her Kananan.

S/mileage promote their new single

Kana: Susukino is about a town in Hokkaido. It’s called Susukino. It’s really sad. Lyrically it’s a new kind of song for S/mileage.
Reina: The lyrics are sad too?
Takechan: Indeed, there’s a fight between lovers and the girlfriend jumps off to Susukino kind of thing.
Everyone: Eh? Jumps off?
Kana: They were supposed to go together…
Reina: Jumping off? Like diving?
Marina: What kind of situation is that?
Reina: I’m gonna jump! BAM!

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Nakajima Saki no °C-ute na Jikan #136 (2014.08.09)

By | August 29, 2014
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cutenajikan

Answering Kudo Haruka’s question posed at the end of Morning Jogakuin #123, she says that no, she has no immediate plans to cut her hair short. Her life plan does include doing so at one point however, and that’s just before she gives birth. This is because she’s heard several models talking about how after giving birth, you care less about your looks and so forth. Nacky’s the type who can’t go to sleep before drying her hair, and having short hair would make that easier. But for as long as she remains in H!P, she says, she is going to keep her hair long. “Sorry, Oda-chan!“

Talking about the ongoing Hello! Concerts, she says she has a habit of dancing harder than usual at them to try and appeal to the audience more since she doesn’t get to be on stage as much as at °C-ute’s concerts. But especially after seeing herself overdoing it a bit in the H!P Countdown concert footage, she’s decided on this tour to try and dance just how she normally would. She says that the KOREZO pattern has a segment in it where she gets to do lots of energetic dancing in succession anyhow, whereas the YAPPARI pattern lets her have lots of eye contact with her juniors which she’s also happy about — she’s previously talked about how she’s very bad at getting to know her juniors.

Commenting on the topic of Berryz Koubou announcing their indefinite hiatus, Nacky says she heard the news from Berryz themselves on the day of the concert when they came into °C-ute’s dressing room and announced it to them.

Nacky says she just went speechless at first as she could’ve never even imagined it, but now that some time has passed, she says that while she does feel lonely, she also felt how mature they all are and wishes them all to do their best to be happy as they move on to their various paths in life.

Even though they only very rarely cry, seeing the members of Berryz all in tears when making the announcement on stage made Nacky think they must’ve really thought it through amongst themselves before arriving at their decision. But on the very next day, she could hear Berryz in the dressing room next to theirs, being back to their usual lively selves. This made her glad, and she thinks Berryz are going to treasure each day even more than usual now as they head towards their hiatus.

She hopes the two groups will continue being a motivation to each other until next Spring, and after their paths separate, she says she’s going to keep supporting the members of Berryz Koubou and hopes that the fans will, too.

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Morning Musume ’14 no Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~ #123 (2014.08.09)

By | August 28, 2014
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jogakuin

Suzuki, Kudo and Oda kick off the show by talking about August 9th which is Hug Day in Japan.

Kudo says that she’s often the one on the receiving end of hugs, whereas Oda and Suzuki are the ones who like doing the hugging. Suzuki says she specifically enjoys hugging Mizuki, but unfortunately doesn’t go into further detail as to why that may be. Oda says that hugging people is supposed to remove 60% of one’s stress, but then realizes that it must instead be a pretty stressful day for the people who don’t like being hugged. “It’d be like the person hugging them is just passing their 60% of stress right on to them,” Oda laughs. Kudo points out that it must suck if that person’s stress level was already at 100% to begin with — a 160% stress level can’t be pleasant.

Next, they talk about how August 10th is their senior Abe Natsumi’s birthday. Kudo remembers singing Abe-san’s “Tomorokoshi to Sora to Kaze” at Hawaii once, whereas Oda has sung “Iki wo Kasanemashou,” “Sweet Holic” and “Senkou Hanabi” at her solo events. While Suzuki hasn’t sung any of her songs yet, she was really happy recently when they were appearing on a music program together and Abe-san waved at her in the dressing room and went “Suzuki~!” while blowing her a kiss.

Speaking on her first impression of Abe-san, Oda recalls how during the 11th gen auditions the auditionees were doing training together at the office building, and Abe-san just suddenly stepped out of an elevator near where they were filming Oda. Oda was caught off guard, just thinking to herself “It’s Nacchi! I met Nacchi!“

Moving on to the topic of summer homework assignments. Last year, Kudo did independent research regarding 100% orange juice. She bought lots of orange juice from different makers, compared their taste, detailed the differences in their ingredients, etc. Oda likes doing a diary/schedule type thing of her daily activities, but since joining Morning Musume, it’s now just filled with days like “woke up, put on make-up, performed concert, returned home.” Suzuki doesn’t want to be so detailed so she just writes “woke up, went to work, returned home.“

Song: Morning Musume – One Two Three

…But before the song begins playing, Kudo and Oda suddenly start singing “Happy Birthday” and the staff brings in a cake to the studio — Suzuki just turned 16 some days prior to the broadcast of the show. Suzuki, after she gets over the surprise, is asked by Kudo about things she’d like to achieve or do on her 16th year. While Suzuki says it’s nothing terribly interesting, she says she’d like to become a better singer. Kudo and Oda both agree that it’s a great thing to strive for.

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SS1422 #81 (2014.08.03)

By | August 28, 2014
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ss1422

Like their seniors on BZS1422, Meimei and Kananan begin the show with everyone’s favorite topic this time of the year: summer fatigue.

Meimei says that she does tend to get hit with a bad case of summer fatigue at least once a year, especially when S/mileage are doing outdoor events. Kananan admits to the summer having an effect of sapping her energy to the point where she can be just walking outside when she’ll be suddenly hit with a brooding feeling of “…what am I even doing…?” Meimei says that happens to her around May — this is known in Japan as the May Disease.

Meimei mentions that their leader Wada-san just had her birthday on August 1st and asks Kananan for a comment on this. Wada-san turned 20 which, in Kananan’s mind, makes her cool because she can now legally drink alcohol — though according to Wada herself, she isn’t going to pick up on that habit. Kananan’s image of Wada-san prior to her joining S/mileage was that she had a really childlike image and way of speaking, but now she’s completely different and is very adult-like. “People sure do change,” says Kananan.

Their senior Kumai-san is also celebrating her birthday on August 3rd. Kananan, commenting on that:

Kananan: When Kumai-san was born on August 3rd, she was obviously just a baby…
Meimei: (laughs)
Kananan: And back then she was probably really tiny…
Meimei: Right.
Kananan: But now she’s gotten so tall, no one could’ve predicted it.

Following this astute observation, Kananan adds that she’s always watching Kumai-san and her great figure at H!P concerts and so, marveling at how pretty she is. She says she really admires Kumai-san and says she can understand why Fukuda-san is such a big fan of hers. Apparently Fukuda-san and Kumai-san even met up the other day in their private time. Kumai-san will often come to S/mileage’s dressing room to hang out, too, and she became good friends with S/mileage during Lilium.

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BZS1422 #107 (2014.08.03)

By | August 27, 2014
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bzs1422

Since it’s summer and all, Chii asks if Kumai-san is suffering from summer fatigue who replies that she actually slightly is. The two start talking about why everyone always gets so fatigued during the summer — everyone loses their appetite and doesn’t feel like doing anything because it’s simply too hot. Kumai-san inquires if Chii is suffering from summer fatigue herself. Chii says she isn’t and says it’s all psychological: when you think about how it’s summer and how you might start feeling fatigued, it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Sickness and health start with the mind,” as Kumai-san notes, and Chii says that’s exactly it and that 30% of all Japanese people are definitely suffering from this. Chii starts getting more and more fired up talking about this subject:

Chii: The thing about summer fatigue is… sure, you might not feel motivated to do anything. But think about it: do you feel motivated to do anything in the winter either?!
Kumai-san: (laughs)
Chii: The fact of the matter is, you’re actually unmotivated the whole year round, but since it just happens to be summer, you start blaming it on a convenient word like “summer fatigue” even though that’s not what it really is!

Kumai-san agrees that it might indeed be partly psychological. In any case, Kumai-chan suggests that eating lots and lots of ice cream is a good way of fighting off summer fatigue. Chii says she isn’t so sure if that’s really a good option for your body either, but agrees that everyone should be careful of summer fatigue. But, as she reminds us, just remember that it might be psychological — you might not really be suffering from it, even if you think you are. (Do note that I don’t think Up-Front will take any responsibility in case of possible death or injury resulting from trusting Chii’s self-diagnosing advice.)

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RIHO-DELI #175 (2014.08.03)

By | August 26, 2014
7 comments

rihodeli

“August is here!”, as Sayashi quite helpfully reminds us. She asks us listeners if we’re having a good summer so far, and strongly suggests that we ought to make the best of it by going to the beach, to the mountains, to summer festivals, and more!

Song: Morning Musume ’14 – Password is 0

Speaking on the topic of midsummer and the H!P concerts that come with it, Sayashi tells a recent story of when she was staying at a hotel due to them having a concert far away from Tokyo. Usually when the group is staying in a hotel they sleep either in single or double rooms, but this time it just so happened that Sayashi was given a room with three other members: Fukumura, Ikuta and Kudo.

Sayashi says she’s often called “untidy” whereas the other three staying with her were members who are generally thought of as quite neat and cleanly. Thus, while she was looking forward to hanging out with the three of them, she was also worried she might get called out by them on her filthy messiness. But unexpectedly for Sayashi, it was actually the other three who were just kind of lazing around and leaving things messy, to the point where she even started telling them to clean up after themselves.

Sayashi was actually really happy she got to be in that role for a change, and afterwards she even boasted about it to her manager. Her manager expressed doubt, saying Sayashi’s the type of person who’ll definitely screw something up because it was an unusual situation for her, suggesting that she probably forgot something in her room or something similar. Sayashi replied she was sure she had all her stuff, but when they checked out and arrived at the concert venue, she realized she didn’t have the juice she’d bought while they were staying at the hotel — she’d forgotten it in the refrigerator.

It reaffirmed Sayashi’s previously held opinion that she will never be perfect when it comes to this kind of thing. Deli-kun (the show’s pet/co-host) says that while he wouldn’t have expected anything less from Sayashi, he still would’ve preferred the story to have a happy ending. Sayashi claims that her fans would probably be really worried if Sayashi suddenly became all neat and cleanly. Deli-kun disagrees.

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Konya mo Usachan Peace #406 (2014.08.04) (guest: Sato Masaki)

By | August 26, 2014
26 comments

konya

Sayu flubs her greeting to the listeners as she tries (and fails) to hold back her laughter, presumably because of something stupid her guest was doing. Sayu’s guest introduces herself as the recently-turned-15 Sato Masaki — Sayu asks her if she’s absolutely sure about that as previous to the show starting, she had replied she was actually 16 years old when prompted her age by the staff.

Sayu: So after thinking about it some more, you can now with confidence say you’re 15, right?
Maa-chan: Yes. I can now say I’m exactly 15 years old. After looking it up.
Sayu: …You looked it up?!
Maa-chan: I did! I really couldn’t remember.
Sayu: Wait, so you used the internet to look up your own age?
Maa-chan: Yes!
Sayu: You seriously forgot how long you’ve been alive?
Maa-chan: No, I didn’t.
Sayu: …You just told me you did.
Maa-chan: (laughs happily)

Sayu then blames Maa-chan for talking too much from the get-go, for talking on top of her, and for making her botch up her opening. Maa-chan responds to these accusations with laughter.

They talk about how she’s the last member from the current group to come as a guest on Sayu’s radio. Sayu says she’s really worried about tonight’s show and that she’s never had a guest on that’s made her this anxious. Maa-chan giggles and doesn’t understand why Sayu would be worried.

Sayu goes “Oh well, I’m sure it’ll be fun anyways. Let’s enjoy ourselves, yeah?!” and offers Maa-chan a high-five… which goes ignored. Sayu calls Maa-chan awful.

Sayu: Konya mo…
Sayu & Maa-chan: Usa-chan peace!

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