randompasserby wrote:Sayu and Reina's interview from Ure Pia SPRING magazine (now on sale) excerpt was uploaded to their website
http://ure.pia.co.jp/articles/-/13177
cmiiw as always
Spoiler: show
―― This year will be exactly ten years since the two of you joined the group as part of Morning Musume's 6th generation members. First of all, I'd like you to look back on the early years and tell us your impression
Reina : I don't really have that much recollection of the past (lol) . It was a long time ago and not only that new memories keep piling up on top of it. But looking back now I can definitely tell you that during the time period immediately following our debut, everyday was brutal. I didn't even have time to take a look at my surroundings to get some bearings. It was hard for you too, right Sayu ?
Sayu : There were so many things to do right in front of us, it was really hard. Everything about it was just hard and painful, those were the feelings that dominated our lives back then. In the first place I was never aiming to be a celebrity and I wasn't even particularly interested in idols in general. Just that 「I absolutely want to be a part of Morning Musume。 !」 has always been my dream. At some point after joining I realized that, Morning Musume were always smiling in every appearance but behind the scenes they have it hard too... but it is exactly because they overcome those hardships that they can smile. With that mindset I also decided to do my best.
Tanaka : I was finally able to honestly think that the work is fun sometimes in my 3rd-4th year. I've grown accustomed to the set and start noticing things that I enjoyed doing, like during Morning Musume's Otomegumi I realized that 「I like doing live performances!」. I think the time Reina sparkled the most as an Idol was around the time of the mini album 「7.5 Winter Morning Musume Mini!」 in '06 but I really only start to realize how much I loved singing when I turned 20
Sayu : For Sayumi even after overcoming the initial hardships after joining, there was another painful period. I was already familiar with the work back then and in my own way I was able to complete most of it without any problems. I am always never very good at singing or dancing although not so bad that people would scold me over it, having said that, I can't find a place for me there either. It basically changed from a beginner's 「I have to learn a lot of things!」 hardship into a painful 「I've learned a lot but I still can't find a way to appeal myself more」 lost feeling around my 4th-5th year in the group.
It was at that time that I was given some work variety shows and I thought 「This has to be it!」. If I didn't do it right there, I'll never find a place where I belonged and so I desperately tried my best. I looked up everything about the show diligently, I studied a lot of other talks shows 「Ok if the talk flows this way, I'll say that」 to decide on everything I would have the chance to say beforehand, and even the fact that I'm bad at singing which up until that time I always thought about negatively, I just went ahead and turned into a joke material since it's also one part of me (lol). Thinking about it know, I'm really glad that I did all that and opened the way to what I am now
――Morning Musume as a group has been through many peaks and lows, I'm sure. During these past 10 years, even with the various activities you constantly do, the degree of attention the group get must've changed in different periods of time. Now that your 52nd single 『Help me!!』 has topped the Oricon weekly ranking it'll be a very exiting time again for Morning Musume, how do you two perceive this development?
Reina : To put it simply, the internet's power is amazing, I guess. Recently there has been a lot of people that took videos of themselves, uploaded it online saying 「I sang Morning Musume's song」 from around the world and many people are starting to take notice of us because of that too. I think even in our previous peaks and/or lows, we have never been popular to this degree online.
Sayu : That's right. Other than that, this past 2-3years there's this Idol Boom breaking out thanks to AKB48-san. From Sayumi's perspective it's very lucky for us too. Especially for Morning Musume, since we have a lot of new members whenever there's an special feature for new idol groups our 9ki 10ki was always included. Sayumi and Reina will be celebrating our 10th anniversary in the group this year, yet we also have many new members. That breadth is also part of Morning Musume's charm, I think. Like it's always fresh! or something (lol)
――For that reason there are also many difficult parts though, right?
Reina : (glancing at Sayu)……that too (lol)
Sayu : There's definitely a lot (lol). Also we've had many surprise announcements lately, sometimes my feelings just can't catch up. Even though when a new member joined I'll be like 「Okay~」 and accepts it readily, later on I'll be wondering how I should interact with her and thought about many other difficult things that would follow.
Reina : There are of course the members but the staffs are the same too, always changing to new ones. Probably the only one who's been with me since the beginning is just Sayu. Between the two of us, there are things that we can understand about each other without actually talking even though it can't quite be conveyed to everyone else. After working hard for 10 years sometimes we also make a suggestion/proposal that we've thought about very seriously to the upper levels, although it might just be seen as a selfishness (lol)
Sayu : This is the first time we've talked about this (lol). Maybe it does seem a bit like we're just complaining but it's not out of our own selfishness and we definitely weren't thinking about just taking it easy for ourselves. When it comes down to it we'll always do everything perfectly.
Reina : Right. Even when she's feeling down and negative when the calls of 「The performance is starting!」 went out Sayu will be Sayu again
Sayu : And Reina will always be Reina. It's weird saying this ourselves but aren't our pro-consciousness really high? (lol)
Reina : Absolutely (lol). Even when we're unhappy about something, on stage we'll just forget all about it and talked in the MC with a smile. We're very good at switching between our on/off mode. Especially since Sayu becomes the leader, we're not even aware that we're switching between anything anymore, right?
Sayu : Besides, we can always use it as a joke material like this (lol). We definitely have our on/off modes and yet both sides are not so different, it's one of 6kies strong point I think. Well, that or it's just a matter of our own personalities.
――Hereafter, how would your relationship change? Would you still be continuing your friendship as it is right now, or are you just going to provide stimulus(as a rival) to each to other as individual artists ?
Reina : In the beginning we never really talked much but having been able to get along splendidly like this in our 10th year, I would really like to continue our friendship like this in the future too, now that we've come this far. So whenever we meet, Reina will talk about interesting things from Reina's band activities and Sayu can talk about Morning Musume's present condition, good or bad. I want Sayu to prepare as much as she would before going to a variety show, thinking hard while grumbling and pouting all the while, to bring up a lot of interesting topics before meeting Reina (lol).
Sayu : I'll practice very hard then (lol). Reina too has said that she'll come watch Morning Musume's lives so I'd be really happy if she really comes, please do. Standing on the stage without Reina is a bit embarrassing but that part will also encourage me to always do my best. I want to keep getting along with her to trade stories about our respective current circumstances and also to keep giving each other motivations in a good way. Sayumi will definitely go to LovendeЯ's lives too.
Reina : Are you really going to come.... ?
Sayu : I will of course ! (lol)
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Young Jump preview from their website
http://youngjump.jp/gravure/morningmusume/photo/
Rokkies best gen forever
