Tuesday 20 September 2016

Berryz Kobo x ℃-ute Cross Talk 24: Tsugunaga Momoko X Natsuyaki Miyabi

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hello! Project Kids in 2012, a book entitled Rival - 12 shoujo no 10-nen monogatari - (The 10-year legend of the 12 girls) was released. The book contains 2-page discussions between various pairings of the girls, covering all 66 possible combinations. In the process of reading this book, I'll be putting up some highlights as I read through the interviews.


Special Crosstalk Book "RIVAL 12 shoujyo no 10 nen monogatari (10 years stories of 12 girls)" / Berrz Kobo / Cute

Tsugunaga Momoko X Natsuyaki Miyabi

Tsugunaga-san is a woman of many mysteries, one can't even begin to fathom how she is in her normal life. Honestly, what sort of person is she?
We get Natsuyaki-san, who has worked together with her the most, to talk about her frankly!

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The person herself insists that 'I've always been like this', but how is the normal Momochi like? It's an eternal conundrum. It's like she doesn't really have a private life, so we would like to ask the person who has spent the most time working with her.

Tsugunaga: That is true, I'm together with Miya in both Berryz Kobo and Buono!, so when we start with our concerts, like in the summer, it's like we're together every day. But am I really that full of mystery?

Natsuyaki: I don't find anything to be out of the ordinary when we talk to one another. In that sense, Kumai-chan is the one that I can't read, so she might be the mystery instead (laughs). Other people might wonder 'What's up with that girl?' when they watch her on the telly. But since I've seen her when she's not like that, I find it normal.

On the contrary, how do you see the Momochi on TV?

Natsuyaki: I think that's she's working hard, or that she's going in a direction that only she could pull off. In Berryz Kobo, she's the sole person with that character, and she heads towards areas where she's most preeminent.


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What was the first impression that you had when you first met one another?

Tsugunaga: I established this way later, but there were about thirty thousand people at the first stage of the 'Hello! Project Kids Audition'. Amongst those thirty thousand people, I bumped into someone, and apologised to her. That person turned out to be Miya. At the time, she was like a model, complete with a sunvisor. But with her blonde hair, I felt scared of her.

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Natsuyaki: Momo wasn't like this at first, what I felt from her was that she was a girl who was all lovey-lovey and spoke her mind.

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What do you think has changed about the other?

Tsugunaga: At the time of our debut, I remember Miya getting scolded at dance lessons, but now she's turned into an example for the rest. When the kouhai are being taught Berryz Kobo songs at rehearsals for things such as H!P concerts, it's often like 'Natsuyaki and Shimizu, come forward and teach them'. Though I can't accept that my name doesn't get called, for some reason (laughs).

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Miyabi-chan, you mentioned that you've seen her when she's not like how she is on the telly, so you think that it's normal, but specifically, how is she like?

Natsuyaki: Momo's always had that character, sorry, I mean that she's always had these merits that she was born with, so we never experience a drop in energy when we're performing. But during breaks, the energy goes down a little. She's all cute and charged up on-stage, but when she's backstage, I think that she's just like any other normal twenty year old. That's one aspect that I think is different from when she's on-stage.

Tsugunaga: That's true. If you were to ask me what I do after a performance, I'd silently think about what to talk about for our next MC, or I'd earnestly do some writing for work (laughs). As the years pile on, live performances really eat up my energy, so rather than just talking throughout the breaks, I've recently been hiding away and taking naps (laughs). Even if I feel like it, most of the time, my body can't follow through.

Natsuyaki: When we were small, we never felt tired~ (laughs).

Tsugunaga: We really didn't feel it at all. In primary school, I'd wake up early and go to school, and go to work immediately after school ended, and I'd do my homework when I got back at night, so I think my body did well. My current twenty year old self would like to applaud her. I liked chocolate balls though, so much that I felt like rewarding myself by buying them every day.

Natsuyaki: For me, in the past, I'd often go for karaoke after concerts.

Tsugunaga: After you're done with concerts!? That'd be impossible for me!

Natsuyaki: I pushed myself to go. Now I immediately go back and go to sleep, but back then I wanted to spend time hanging out outside as well.

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Well, when you have breaks between work, do you flip your switches to off?

Tsugunaga: I don't have a switch. I'm always on, but my batteries get drained much quicker than before. Back then, my batteries were constantly full, but now, when I perform live, the remaining charge goes to one or two bars, so that's when I get a charger (laughs). So I'm never turned off. Like mobile phones, once you've used them for a long number of years, their charges run out much faster, right?

Miyabi-chan, have you seen her when she's in the midst of charging?

Natsuyaki: Definitely. She doesn't talk. And when she wants to be alone, if it's noisy or something in the dressing room, then she'll be gone from the dressing room.

Tsugunaga: In between live performances, I often eat my bento on the rooftop, basking in the sun. Ah, that's when I'm recharging. Via solar power. The eco-idol, who's gentle to the earth!

Natsuyaki: I do have an on-off switch. I definitely put my spirit when I perform live, so others might feel that I'd continue to be energetic, but backstage, I just laze around. I'd get massages from (Sugaya) Risako, or I'd relax by getting Captain (Shimizu Saki) to let me listen to some music, I'd make sure that my mind remains blank until the performance starts. In the past, whenever we had free time, I'd make some noise, I'd go get gifts, go play around, but now, even when I have a meal, I'll eat without talking, I'll really be in off-mode.

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