Author Archives: Lurkette

AS1422 #103 (2014.01.04)

By Lurkette | January 23, 2015

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ANGERME Station 1422

With the new year comes a new name, not just for the group, but for the radio show, as well. In case you don’t remember what their name means, Kananan and Rinapuu drew a picture last time to represent their new name.

Tears of a backwards bumblebee

Ironically, when Takechan starts the show by asking Meimi how the new year is going, she says, “EVERYONE IS ANGRY!” Not over the new name, though. It turns out that recently a group text went around between the 2nd gen members about a certain problem member who did this:

Yes, Meimi took up half the page they were given to draw on for their blog for the 100th episode of the show. Rinapuu saw this and sent it around to everyone complaining about it, but Meimi distinctly recalls being the last member to write on it, not the first, and so she was merely filling in the empty space left by the others instead hogging it all for herself. Takechan does not remember this at all, but Meimi feels relieved nonetheless to speak her peace and reclaim her good name.

Meimi: Now, if only the other members would start writing more meaningful messages like I do.
Takechan: That’s not happening.
Meimi: It’s funny you say that, because you actually took up the most space out of the three of you. Rinapuu used the least, but she only drew a face.
Takechan: What was mine? “100 times waay?”
Meimi: “100 times waay.”
Takechan: …I really don’t remember writing it.
Meimi: Really?
Takechan: What does that even mean? “100 times waay?”

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We are Juice=Juice #60 (2014.12.02)

By Lurkette | January 23, 2015

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“Karin-chan, happy birthday!”

No perplexing opening message this time, it’s the day after Karin’s birthday and so the phrase is appropriate and perfectly understandable. Although Yuka points out that Tomo got all 5 members of Juice into the studio for her birthday, Karin only gets Yuka. Karin sounds slightly disappointed when Yuka feels the need to bring this up, but it’s okay because they have a birthday message from a fan sent to the studio to read, yay. It’s from Pink-chan, who writes in to say that they’re going to attend her birthday event and write comments on her blog in addition to this happy birthday letter for the radio station. Karin says that she’s nervous about the birthday event because it’s in a much bigger venue, due to her sharing it with Uemu, but she hopes she can make it fun, regardless.

Ultimately Karin gets shown up by Uemu’s hair at their birthday event

Then they surprise her with a cake. Except it’s not a surprise because they told us it was happening on the blog last time. That’s okay, it still sounds tasty. Although Karin has to share her birthday with Uemu, because she is not here at present, she gets to eat the chocolate on top all by herself, because not having all of the members present means more cake for her. She also gets to choose the first song, but I’m not so sure she had much of a choice because it’s still a Juice song, like every show.

Song: Juice=Juice – Romance no tochuu

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SS1422 #102 (2014.12.28)

By Lurkette | January 22, 2015

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The radio year in review

The show today is opened by Kananan losing it over the way “ah~” is written in her script. After attempting to regain her composure, she asks Rinapuu about the past year, since this will be the last show of 2014. Rinapuu says that at least within the radio show nothing big happened. With everything that happened to them outside of the show, she was really glad to have some sense of stability by having this show continue as it was with no major changes. She also realized this year how noisy it gets in the studio with all 4 members, since they had quite a few shows with all of 2nd gen present, and how nice it was to have guests every so often. She would describe the show this year as “ordinary,” but in the best possible way since everything else this year was anything but.

Kananan is also very grateful that nothing in the show changed. As she and the other members have said before, they didn’t really feel as though they had much of a voice or a way to promote themselves prior to this show. They had the 2nd gen blog, but Kananan felt like she was so distant from everyone and she wasn’t getting a chance to say what she really wanted to say, so she was overjoyed to get the show and then have it increase to a half-hour program. She was afraid at times this year about the show getting cancelled or about it becoming a S/mileage-general show when Maro and Ayacho made more frequent appearances, but in the end everything has stayed the same and she’s very glad that it did.

Rina-grets

Moving past the radio show and on to the year at large, Kananan asks if Rinapuu has any regrets, or Rina-grets, as Kananan calls them. Rinapuu’s first thing is not so much a regret, but an “oh well.” They were so busy this past year doing shows in live houses everywhere that she felt like there wasn’t any time to completely absorb everything. Every time she would start to think upon and appreciate what she was doing, it was already time to move on to the next thing. Her biggest regret otherwise would be that she wishes she had cherished the time she had with 6-member S/mileage just a little more. They were so surprised by the announcement that they were getting new members and it all happened so quickly that there wasn’t much time to reflect or react positively or negatively, so she would have liked to have had a bit more time with just the 6 of them and being able to bask in everything that they had accomplished together. Also, they had really never gone out together as 6, so she didn’t feel like she had enough time to process and plan something for all of them before they became 9. In any case, she’ll try to cherish this next year with 9 and make some nice memories.

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We are Juice=Juice #59 (2014.11.25)

By Lurkette | January 21, 2015

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“Muscle Training”

As unlikely as this word seems coming from the MiyaMiya duo, Karin has taken up regular exercises to build her strength in her abs, back, and arms. She wants her arms to be more toned, especially, but she likes seeing the progress she’s making in general strength, as well. Yuka admits to never really doing any exercise, but Karin asks her, regardless, what muscles she has most confidence in. Yuka laughs, as her arms can’t compare to Karin’s, but she does say that she has kind of a six-pack. Well, you can see the outline of her abdominal muscles, at least, even though she can’t remember the last time she did a sit-up. She also says that while Karin does tend to be a more muscular and toned member of the group, Tomo has the most powerful image of being ripped. Karin acknowledges this to be true, even though she doesn’t think she’s ever seen her do any exercising. That’s the power of Rose Quartz.

Koisuru Hello Kitty

This show was also recorded following the opening performance of Koisuru Hello Kitty! The first one is out of the way, now everything should be easy, hopefully. Karin, the star of the show, was quite nervous before going on and said she was squeezing Yuka backstage before and after the show. That’s the only part she remembers because she has completely blanked on what happened on stage. Of course, she received a tape of the performance to go over and adjust things the next time, but that’s the only way she would have known. She has a lot of improvements to make, she says, but Yuka says her performance was fine. All she could see when she looked at Karin was Hello Kitty, and that’s the most important part, after all.

Same person?
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We are Juice=Juice #58 (2014.11.18)

By Lurkette | January 20, 2015

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“Makeup routine”

These opening words are brought to you by Uemu, who recently has taken to putting on red lip gloss as part of her regular makeup. She has always been quite fond of lip gloss and she collects different kinds to use, but she has just bought colored lip gloss for the first time. She decided to buy a red and has started using it regularly in the hopes that it will become a standard for her makeup and she’ll be able to use it during concerts and such.

Apparently the gloss didn’t last for long because this is the only picture I can seem to find of her in it

Juice’s stage play, Koi Suru Hello Kitty, also begins this week. Tomo is pretty nervous, but Uemu is just a bundle of emotions as she screams throughout the duration of Tomo’s description of the play. She also screams when Tomo mentions that her birthday event is coming up. It’s very hard for her to believe that this is her second time having a birthday event, but she hopes that everyone can come and enjoy themselves with her again this year. She’s quite nervous about it. Tomo says she’d like to come, and Uemu demands it.

Tomo: It would be nice if I could go, but–
Uemu: You have to, stay until the very end, watch me, you have to!
Tomo: I’ll try.

Song: Juice=Juice – Date ja nai yo, uchi no jinsei wa

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SS1422 #101 (2014.12.21)

By Lurkette | January 20, 2015

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Christmas Break

So, two holidays, six family trips, and one repaired computer later, I’m back from the dead and ready to hop right back in to what is still, for the time being, S/mileage Station 1422. The group has at the point in time of this show already changed their name to ANGERME, and the show name will later change to AS1422 accordingly, but I will probably refer to the group as Ange should it ever need to be said, lest I cause myself and others undue feelings of fury and rage. I will attempt to only refer to the group as S/mileage whenever the members do, which they seem to do when they are referring to events in the past that happened prior to the name change. Anyway, on with the show.

Since it’s so close to Christmas, Rinapuu opens the show by asking Kananan what she wants for Christmas. After several moments of contemplating and drawing out her answer, Kananan says that she wants some books or some DVDs or something. Rinapuu thinks that that is lame and tells Kananan as such, but she really wants some clothes, not that she needs any more, she just wants them. And maybe a DVD or two (Kananan: “Hey!”). They’ll be waiting for your presents to them. Or, Santa’s presents to them. Whichever comes first.

However, the impending holiday signals another important milestone: the end of the seemingly never-ending Smile Charge Tour. While Smile Charge has been a collective of a few different tours, they performed an incredible amount of shows in every single prefecture in Japan over the course of the year and it feels almost surreal to them that it might actually be over. It has been fun, though, getting to go to every single prefecture in Japan and occasionally getting the opportunity to sightsee and experience differences in the various regions of Japan. Kananan points out that she is indeed Japanese (to which Rinapuu replies, “Oh, really?”), but she didn’t realize how little she had seen of Japan until this tour, so even though it was very long and tiring to go around the country like this, she is grateful for the opportunity.

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SS1422 #100 (2014.12.14)

By Lurkette | December 16, 2014

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Special Guests?

Meimi got her wish last week, and this week, Kananan is getting her wish of two very special guests joining them in the studio for their 100th broadcast.

Kananan: I’m pretty cute, but these two surpass even me in cuteness, and while it is honestly killing me inside, I will greet them with a smile as best I can.

Japan’s top 3 beauties

Of course, she’s referring to the other two of the three top beauties in Japan, Takechan and Rinapuu, who introduce themselves in their most adorable voices. Meimi starts to speak in the same adorable voice but then she remembers that she is not one of the three top beauties and goes back to normal. Takechan interrupts with a high-pitched, “Wait a minute!” but Meimi tells her to speak up because she can’t understand her. Takechan just yells louder in the same pitch and we get nowhere.

Meimi: But wait, what’s wrong?
Kananan: What?
Rinapuu: What?
Takechan: What?
Meimi: Wait, I’m not talking to all of you. Takeuchi Akari-chan, why did you say, “wait a minute”?
Takechan: Oh, yeah, well, it’s just a fun show.

Meimi begins to get frustrated as the the three top beauties ramble on about nothing and asks them to speak so that the listeners can actually understand what’s going on, what is wrong with you guys. Takechan sees no problem here. Kananan says that the only thing wrong so far has been her thinking that she was the cutest in the group when in reality it’s Rinapuu, obviously. Meimi says she’s starting to feel like a babysitter, which only makes the other three get louder. Rinapuu points out that before they promised that they’d come on really strong this show and they’re doing just that. Meimi pleads that the promise is less important than showing some unity and cohesiveness with the script, instead of the weird insanity that the show is currently, but the others argue that the charm of 2nd gen is their weird insanity. They urge Meimi to play along and have fun but she is too concerned about the state of the show to let loose. Ugh, this is why you will never be a top beauty, Meimi.

Song: S/mileage – Aa Susukino

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SS1422 #99 (2014.12.07)

By Lurkette | December 15, 2014

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There is a very brief introduction to the show by Meimi and we immediately go right into a song because we have things to do today! Out of all the requests that the 2nd gen members have been supplying to the radio station staff, one of them got her wish! But first, music.

Song: S/mileage – Eighteen Emotion

Tamura Theater: The Lion King Special
Gekidan Tamura, in which Tamura Meimi acts out scripts sent in by the listeners and covers her favorite theater topics

Meimi starts us out with some facts about The Lion King, the musical. I’m sure most of you could guess that it is based on the 1994 Disney film of the same name, but the musical has been in production since 1997, it is the fourth-longest running Broadway show in history and still running, and it is the highest grossing Broadway production of all time. The Japanese adaption has been running since 1998 by Gekidanshiki, Meimi’s beloved theater company. Meimi first saw the musical on a field trip and was impressed by how packed it was even having run so long, and, as a special treat, Meimi got to sit down and talk with the current actor in the role of Simba, Minami Akito! Woo! If The Lion King inside a radio broadcast booth with a Japanese pop idol sounds familiar, there’s a reason.

Anyway, cut to Meimi and Mr. Minami. Meimi takes a minute to fangirl and thank the staff and the actor and Gekidanshiki for letting her sit down and speak with him. She reveals that she has seen The Lion King musical at least 4 times and has seen over 20 different Gekidanshiki productions, to which Minami responds with: “Wow.”

Wow

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