This kind of idol! Three-way discussion
Morning Musume。'19 15th generation members joined in June. Kaga Kaede and Yokoyama Reina, the two members of the 13th generation who have been in their 4th year since joining, have been appointed as mentors of those three unique people. Yokoyama senpai sets an example for the younger kohai by putting herself on the line to answer new three members' questions!
Photography／Hagiwara Text／Takahiro Inoguchi
| _________________ | _________________ |
Sanma-san's musume。who can't stop talking once she started Yokoyama Reina Born on February 22, 2002 Saitama. Blood type O. 13th generation member. |
_________________ | _________________ |
| A water freak who can use water Kitagawa Rio Born on March 16, 2004 Tokyo. Blood type O. 15th generation member. |
____________ | A meat-loving girl with a different dimension style Okamura Homare Born on May 9, 2005 Tokyo. Blood type A. 15th generation member. |
____________ | A native of Hokkaido with a strong love for pandas Yamazaki Mei Born on June 28, 2005 Tokyo. Blood type O. 15th generation member. |
Teaching methods change according to the 15th generation members' individuality.
— Yokoyama-san, how do you feel about being appointed a 15th generation mentor with Kaga Kaede-san?
— What do you think of each members of the 15th generation?
Yokoyama : Well, Mei-chan was a member of Hello Pro Kenshuusei before joining Morning Musume。, so I often met her during concerts, my first thoughts were she was cute and small. She had established a panda lover loud character and, on the other hand, speak calmly and firmly, there's a huge gap between the two. About Kitagawa Rio-chan, she was really quiet when she joined the group, maybe because she was nervous, but this made me think she had the image of a neat and clean "classical idol". Later I found out that she was the most energetic of the three, and I think she was conscious of being because she was the older. But you know, even if the three members of 15th generation would be the same age, I think Rio would still be the loudest (laughs). Then Homa-chan, as you can see, has a great style, a cute and small face... I thought she was a really great newcomer.
BATTLE 1
Who's the member with an artist vibe?
Illustration
Handwritten messages are part of the work of Hello! Project's members. Yokoyama senpai, who looks bitter even before the start, will she be able to show her cool back to the 15th generation members?
Younger members put up a good fight in the illustration showdown, in which their personalities stand out!
From cute to scary, there are four different types of drawings!
— The first contest was a simple illustration contest.
Subject : Something I like
— Members have to guess what each other drew. Yokoyama-san's first.Yokoyama : I'm not good at drawing but... maybe you can guess.
Yamazaki : The shape is kind of distorted...
Okamura : Is it an electric guitar?
Yokoyama : Oh, you're on the right track! The clue is electric guitar.
Yamazaki : Is it a bass guitar?
Yokoyama : Correct! The key point is that it has four strings. I thought I had to draw the characteristic parts to get the message across.
Kitagawa : Your drawing ability smells like mine (laughs).
― Next is Yamazaki-san's please.
Yokoyama : You don't need to look at the picture to know the answer to this one, though (laughs).
Yamazaki : Then I'll show it to the public!
Kitagawa : What is it?
Yokoyama : A dog?
Yamazaki : Eh....?
Yokoyama : That's a lie (laughs). We all know exactly what you did, don't we? One, two...!
Yokoyama, Kitagawa, Okamura : Panda.
Yamazaki : Correct! It's the panda I always draw on signing live photocards, with hearts in the ears and on the nose. His name is "Memechi"!
― Next is Kitagawa-san's please.Okamura : Eh, it's scary...
Yamazaki : Who's it? Is that yourself?
Kitagawa : It's not me (laughs). I don't have a specific model, it's just an illustration that says "I like cute girls".
Yamazaki : Eh?? Didn't thought about that...
Okamura : Ah, I get it! A girl wearing an off-the-shoulder knit and drinking a hot drink on a cold day?
Kitagawa : Correct (claping)!
Yokoyama : The answer is long (laughs)!
Kitagawa : To be precise, this is "a girl with brown hair and curls, wearing an off-the-shoulder knit and drinking a warm café latte in the middle of winter, saying 'I'm cold~'".
― It's very detailed (laughs). Now let's finish with Okamura-san, please.
Okamura : Yup!
Yamazaki : It's meat!
Yokoyama : It's easy to understand because it's drawn in a cartoonish way and the girls' drawings are cute.
Kitagawa : Then the answer is Okamura Homare eating meat?
Okamura : Correct!
― Then, now that everyone's drawings are here, let's grade them on a 100 point scale. It's too hard for everyone to decide, so Yokoyama-san will grade the 15th generation's, then the three of the 15th generation will grade Yokoyama-san's.
Yokoyama : Well, the last of the podium is Kitagawa's.
Kitagawa : No, no! What are you talking about! Of course I'm the first!
Yamazaki : But it's amazing that you drew so much detail in such a short time.
Yokoyama : Indeed! But first place goes to Homa-chan, with 98 points. Second place goes to Mei-chan with 97 points, who has established her character "Panda-san lover". I'm in third place, but that's my self-estimation (laughs).
Kitagawa : Ehhhhh?!
Yokoyama : I always saw Rio-chan's drawings and thought she had a unique style (laughs), but now I realise that she can draw quite well. 78 points!
Kitagawa : Yay! Thank you!
― Now, let's Kitagawa-san decides Yokoyama's score.
Kitagawa : Then~... 79 points.
Yokoyama : Thank you (laughs). You really stand up for your senpai there, don't you?
A great battle of wits that tests your sense of humour.
Talk
Talk skills are required in many situations, such as MC or radio. Yokoyama senpai has great area of expertise, and I thought it would be the most advantageous way to proceed.
— For the talk competition, when we interviewed Yokoyama previously, she said she liked to do comedy, so we started off with a comedy duel.
Subject : I don't want Morning Musume。like this!
— Well first, Yamazaki Mei-san please.
Yamazaki : "No one likes Panda-san more than me!".
Kitagawa : It's still the case isn't it (laughs)? Here's my answer. The circle call (*the group reunion before each concert) changes from "Ganbatte Ikimasshoi!" to "Panda-san Power".
Yokoyama : What's you all things with pandas (laughs)? As expected, Homachan is different, isn't she?
Okamura : ... "All of us are Panda-san cult". We all love Panda-san like Mei-chan does.
Yokoyama : After all, Panda-san power~(laughs)!
— As a senpai, you have to show dignity here (laughs).
Yokoyama : I'm not sure I'm saying this right but, "every members are sisters". It means once you're a Morning Musume。we will always got your back!
— Oh! What an answer.
Yokoyama : I went straight to the point.
Subject : Ikuta Erina-san, who's very good at make-up, wore innovative make-up during a concert. What kind of make-up?
— Please answer with an illustration. Let's go with Yamazaki-san, please do not answer "Panda-san make-up" (laughs).
Yamazaki : Understood (laughs). Here it is! "Draw the eyes and mouth backwards."
Yokoyama : Hmmm, I wonder what Ikuta-san wanted to do (laughs).
— What would Yamazaki-san said if you saw such make-up on Ikuta-san ?
Yamazaki : "Your face is backwards".
Yokoyama : What a serious reply.
Kitagawa : I'm not funny at all but, a "super colourful make-up". Like her contacts are yellow and red, she overdo the eyelash serum and mascara, the eyeshadow is black and white, blush is green and lips are black ... Something like that.
Yokoyama : Look like a clown (laughs).
Okamura : My answer is "mamba make-up", a dare in the age of 2022.
Yokoyama : It goes around and around (laughs). But Ikuta-san would look good in mamba make-up though~.
— Now please, Yokoyama senpai.
Yokoyama : A make-up of a girl who likes to have their eyebrows drawn in, so they use "false eyelashes on eyebrows".
— Hahaha!!! That's what I'm talking about!
Yokoyama : When you get to Ikuta-san, it seems like they actually try it out.
Subject : My most recent super funny mistake.
Too embarrassed to do anything about it, a series of self-sabotage episodes.
— Next, for a change of pace, please give us an anecdote.
Yamazaki : I will go first. I was on the train, an old lady I didn't know approached me and said, "Aren't your clothes inside out?". I checked it over myself and it didn't look reversed, so I said, "It's the right way". But I got worried and rechecked, and found that the tag was actually on the wrong side. But I replied, "This is the way the clothes are" and was unperturbed.
— They pushed it through as a casual design (laughs).
Yamazaki : So I got off the train, ran home and fixed the reverse side.
Yokoyama : Oh, it happened on the way home, not in the morning, lol!
— And you fix it after you get home (laughs). Next, Okamura-san, please.
Okamura : There was a time during the tour when I was alone in a hotel room. I'm not good at getting up in the morning and I often oversleep, so I was nervous before I went to bed that day, but I fell asleep while watching YouTube. I woke up in the morning and it was light outside, so I rushed to get ready, grabbed my carry case and went to the meeting point, but no one was there.
— No...way...?
Okamura : But when I looked at my watch, it was before the meeting time (laughs). Well, it was a bit early. But I overslept and was late.
Yamazaki : Homare and I often end up in the same room, and no matter how many times I wake her up, she goes back to sleep, saying "just a bit more". I think it's too much trouble, so I leave her alone until she wakes up on her own (laughs).
Yokoyama : That's what I thought (laughs).
Kitagawa : Now's my turn. It was when I was out eating with my friends, and I bought some soft ice cream. Then I was approached for the first time in my life by a fan who asked me, "Are you Kitagawa Rio-chan?". After talking to the fan, I overreacted and said to my friend, "I'm so happy!". After that, I looked at the soft-serve ice cream and found that there was only a cone left (laughs).
— You were so happy that I swung it around (laughs).
Yokoyama : Oh no~ Everyone has a good story. I have a story that's more embarrassing than funny... Recently, I've become addicted to leaving home early before work and stopping at a café for an "elegant meal". But during the morning rush hour, the ticket gates are packed with people. So I take my credit card out of my rucksack in advance to make sure everything goes smoothly. But that day I forgot. I managed to get it out before the ticket gate in a hurry, but my earphones got tangled and I couldn't put my rucksack back on.
— What a mess (laughs).
Yokoyama : I had no choice but to force myself to carry my backpack, and this time my earphones broke. Then I panicked and put my credit card in the place where I put my ticket (laughs).
— But you'll soon realise that as the turnstiles close?
Yokoyama : I didn't realized that and tried to put it in again and again. There were a lot of people waiting behind me, and I got impatient and inserted the card as hard as I could, but this time it got stuck (laughs). When I called the station staff, they told me that the credit card isn't inserted here (laughs). I was so embarrassed!
— It was a morning that was far from graceful (laughs). However, I was surprised at how well everyone in the 15th generation talked, not to mention Yokoyama-san. I'm looking forward to the future!
BATTLE 3
The bruised, cute and determined face game.
Photogenic
Being an idol until the end!
The final contest will be "my cutest face"!
It seems that each of them has their own special points......?
Kitagawa Rio found her best angle in 6th grade
— What are the key points of a determined face, please, Yokoyama-san?
Yokoyama : If I show my teeth like crazy and smile with my eyes squinted, the real cuteness doesn't come out in the picture. So I'm conscious of opening my eyes firmly and making sure that one side of my face is properly outlined. On top of that, I prefer my left side.
Yamazaki : I think if I put the lovely panda-san pose with me smiling, it doubles the cuteness. So I'm doing the panda-san pose in a massive amount of cuteness!
Yokoyama : Yeah, that unshakeable feeling is important! Morning Musume has a lot of members, so it's important to make sure that your character comes through. I think it's very good that Mei-chan is communicating her favorite panda in her drawings, statements and photos.
Kitagawa : I definitely try to take photos for my blog from the left. So the key is to shoot from the left anyway.
— When did you discover that it's better to shoot from the left?
Kitagawa : Around the sixth grade. That's about the time I started taking purikura and selfies. So when I take selfies, I basically take them from the left. When taking photos with other people, I would go to the back and make a piece around the outline of the face to create the effect of a smaller face (laughs).
Yokoyama : That's just as I expected (laughs). I have thought since she joined that Rio-chan has studied and knows her best angles and expressions, so I hope she will keep going forward.
Okamura : Compared to the three of us, I'm not so particular, but I also prefer to have my face on the left, so when I'm photographed, I ask to be photographed from the left. I also posed with my chin pulled back and my eyes looking up, because I thought it would look good.
Yokoyama : Homachan is cute no matter what she does, but she's best when she's in good spirits, so I think she's even cuter when she's photographed naturally!
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